Chapter 33

“Uh, hello?”

-We need to set a schedule for training.

“…Are you serious?”

Yugeon doubted his ears. He was so surprised that he even jumped up from the worn-out, melted sofa. His emotions that had been filled with irritation melted away as if they were a lie.

Of course, he had talked about training with Park Haon. And Park Haon had said he would contact him. But he didn’t know he would really contact him.

And so quickly at that.

-Well, we have to start sooner or later. When are you available?

“I am… No, I need to take a look at my schedule, just a moment.”

Yugeon, who was about to say he was available from today, bought some time thanks to the last bit of his rationality.

He wanted to start training from today, but remembering Park Haon smiling slyly during the day made him too proud to say let’s start right away. People might mock him for being childish, but what did it matter? No one would know, and even if they did, they couldn’t do anything anyway.

But saying tomorrow seemed not right either. Although he didn’t have any special plans, it seemed not bad to appear busy.

“The day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow would be fine.”

-The day after tomorrow? Then, are you okay during the day?

“Yeah, I’m fine with that.”

Yugeon replied nonchalantly to Haon’s question. In truth, he felt an inexplicable excitement, but he pretended as if it was nothing. He didn’t know why he felt excited.

-Where should we train… The training room is a bit far, how about we just do it in the dorms?

“In the dorms…?”

-Yeah, it’s a bit… you know.

Yugeon had to struggle to suppress a spreading smile at Haon’s slightly embarrassed voice. Even though Park Haon couldn’t see his expression over the phone, but he was nervous for some reason.

“Okay, then see you at the dorm. You know where my dorm is, right?”

-What do you mean? It’s right next door. What do you take me for? I’ll come after lunch. No, should we set a specific time?

“I just said it just in case. I think that day I will be quite free. We don’t have to set a specific time.”

-That’s good then.

In fact, Yugeon was as free today as he would be tomorrow, but he pretended to be busy. Actually, Haon didn’t know whether he was busy or not.

-Then I’ll hang up.

“Yes… Okay.”

Click.

The call ended abruptly after Yugeon’s reply.

Yugeon looked at his watch with a feeling of regret. Talking to Park Haon felt like a dream. It didn’t feel like something that had actually happened, so he even checked the call log.

<Park Haon 01:04>

The call lasted just over a minute, but why the lingering feeling lasted so long was a mystery. Yugeon, who had been so angry before, forgot all about it and curled his lips into a satisfied smile.

Why his mood was fluctuating so much?

Yugeon was enchanted by something, to the point he didn’t even realize how strange it was.

* * *

“Mission complete…”

As soon as Haon hung up the call, he murmured with a voice reminiscent of a line from a dying character in a movie. In reality, although he had calmly made the call pretending nothing was wrong, making the call to Cha Yugeon to schedule the training was almost like a life-changing mission for Haon, requiring deep contemplation.

He was well aware of the necessity of the training and knew it had to be done. However, when it came to actually calling Cha Yugeon, his fingers hesitated to move. He even felt his mind went blank, so he wrote down what he wanted to say on paper and read it several times.

Not knowing what Cha Yugeon would say, he wrote down possible responses along with Plan A, Plan B, and even Plan C. Only after meticulously planning did he finally make the call.

Although his negative feelings towards Cha Yugeon had diminished, a new problem arose. Haon didn’t know how to deal with Cha Yugeon.

In the past, he had dealt with Yugeon in a sharp manner, responding to his provocations harshly, but now that things were different, his attitude towards Yugeon had to change as well.

However, it wasn’t easy for Haon. They had spent almost years practically as enemies, so suddenly trying to interact normally felt so awkward.

Haon himself felt strange about it, and he wondered how Yugeon, who was so perceptive, would react. He would surely realize that something was off. He was so worried that it would be an embarrassing situation for both of them.

Fortunately, scripting the conversation and making the call paid off. It seemed that Yugeon hadn’t noticed that Haon was acting oddly. So, they casually set the training appointment for two days later.

“But how much skin ship should there be…”

Haon muttered to himself with a sigh, sprawling on the sofa. According to a Director Han, to increase instantaneous resonance, physical contact was necessary.

Usually, when guiding, they would hold hands or the guide would place their hands on the esper’s body to infuse their guide power. But it was said that for training to increase instantaneous resonance, deeper physical contact was needed.

“Hugging…?”

The first thing that came to mind regarding physical contact was hugging. It was a higher level of skin ship than holding hands, and the area of contact was definitely wider than holding hands.

“Hugging Cha Yugeon… I must’ve gone crazy, really.”

Of course, during their last mission at Dangsan Station, Haon had hugged Yugeon to stop his rampage. So, hugging wasn’t an entirely new concept to them.

However, at that time, it was such an urgent situation that he hugged him without really thinking. He just thought he needed to stop his rampage.

But the training in two days was very different from that situation. It wasn’t a tense situation, and the location was Cha Yugeon’s dorm.

“No, seriously, what should I do…?”

Reality hit him. Imagining having physical contact with Cha Yugeon at his dorm made him feel suffocated as if something was stuck in his throat.

“What’s physical contact… what is it… ultimately, it’s just skin ship.”

He knew that it was packaging it nicely as physical contact, but ultimately, it was skin ship. However, the moment he tried to articulate the term ‘skin ship’, he became so embarrassed that he couldn’t bear it. Even though there were still two days until the training, he already felt like he was dying of embarrassment.

Haon cooled his flushed cheeks with the back of his hand and took a deep breath. But instead of calming down, his vision darkens as he imagined himself hugging Cha Yu-geon.

“…Hugging should be enough, right? Surely, I don’t have to go as far as… Nooo, what am I saying!”

Haon was so startled by his own words that he slapped his own mouth with his palm. And to make matters worse, he wrapped his head with his hands and let out a scream. He had no clue how this had come to be.

He had thought that he and Yugeon would continue to growl at each other like two animals until one of them died, but he suddenly becoming his dedicated partner and now having to engage in skin ship… He couldn’t believe it.

In fact, there was quite a deep level of skin ship exchanged between espers and their guides. Due to a lack of highly compatible guides and Haon’s dislike of skin ship, he hadn’t engaged in skin ship with any guides so far. But other espers and guides often engaged in skin ship during guiding.

Even his friend Siyun had gone as far as to sleep with some of the espers he liked. Skin ship between espers and guides was not uncommon.

But even though others might be doing it, Haon didn’t want to. Siyun had teased him for being conservative, but at least he only wanted to engage in skin ship with someone he liked.

But instead with some he like, he was now supposed to engage in skin ship with Cha Yugeon, someone who had just barely moved up from being disliked by him.

Even thinking about it made his head spin. It was all because of that damn VR training. Before that, although he was aware of the necessity of training with Cha Yugeon, he didn’t really want to do it.

But after experiencing training where Cha Yugeon could die due to his lack of skill, he felt that he had to do something, whether he liked it or not.

So, after having dinner with Baek Chan-Kyung, and returning to his dorm, Haon thought he should call Cha Yugeon and schedule the training.

Although it took some time to execute due to a few preparatory steps.

“I really don’t know, what to do. How did this happen…?”

Haon muttered, nervously messing up his hair. He knew there was no answer no matter how much he asked, but he had to ask.

Even amidst such confusion, time passed quickly, and finally, the promised day arrived.