IDSEGI Chapter 111

Chapter 111

‘Why?’

Guiding shouldn’t have been possible with Lim Juho. There had definitely been a rejection reaction. Why was it different from the last life?

‘No. It’s not that it’s different.’

Something had changed in him during the period when he had been imprinted with Ihan. If the imprint wasn’t the cause, then what was?

But there wasn’t enough information to figure it out right now. He couldn’t for the life of him see why things were different between then and now.

Seeing Yeoul lost in thought right in front of him, Lim Juho tilted Yeoul’s chin upward.

“Hm. Not bad, except for the whole C-Class thing. Your looks are just my type too.”

Lim Juho hadn’t come here to admire Yeoul’s face. What he’d wanted to know was why he had been summoned to Zone 1. But it turned out Yeoul’s looks were far more to his liking than he’d expected. It stirred a different kind of curiosity—what sort of reaction would he show if Lim Juho pinned him down?

And this indifferent attitude… it only made him salivate more. Lim Juho lazily traced Yeoul’s jawline with his index finger and whispered.

“Does Yoo Ihan treat you well? If he doesn’t, call me. I’m pretty good at it. I’m not aiming for the main spot. Second’s fine. Even third’s fine with me.”

He had meant it, in his own way, but Yeoul didn’t even scoff.

“You really live however you please, huh.”

The disdain in Yeoul’s eyes only fed his sadistic urges. Ever since he’d come to Zone 1, his sex life had been lukewarm, and he’d been pent-up. Back in Zone 2, he could have all the sadistic sex he wanted, but in Zone 1, that was impossible—because of Ihan’s warning that if he laid a hand on a Guide, he’d cut his dick off. And that bastard had seemed dead serious, so he’d held himself back.

But looking at Yeoul now, he couldn’t hold back anymore. The harder something was to get, the greater the thrill when you finally had it. Taking Yoo Ihan’s lover would be a pleasure like no other.

Lim Juho smirked and lightly tapped Yeoul’s cheek.

“Yeah. I’m super pissed that someone dragged me out of my comfortable life in Zone 2. Even if I die at Yoo Ihan’s hands, I’m gonna let off some steam first.”

Yeoul’s eyes were dry as he looked at him. Lim Juho’s shamelessness was unchanged. The reason he had sent him to Zone 1 in the last life had been to keep him from killing some innocent person and getting exiled. Since Yeoul had owed him back then, he’d wanted to help set his life straight, even just a little. But now he truly understood the saying that people don’t change. This guy wasn’t going to.

“You really haven’t changed.”

Yeoul muttered quietly, and even though Lim Juho heard it clearly, he pretended not to.

“Huh? What’d you just say?”

“Watch your back.”

No sooner had Yeoul spoken than a hand came from behind and grabbed Lim Juho’s head.

“Yeoul, why are you wasting words on trash like this?”

Ihan’s grip on his head was so tight it seemed he might crush it any second. A groan escaped Lim Juho’s mouth. Yeoul sighed, walked past Ihan, and opened the door.

“I’m going. Don’t go too far.”

Normally, he would have stopped Ihan, but his head was already full and he figured this could fix some of Lim Juho’s bad habits. Since he’d told Ihan not to go too far, he would probably stop at a reasonable point. Probably.

Ihan smiled brightly and waved at Yeoul.

“Yeah. I’ll just have a little talk with him before I go.”

“Urgh, let me go, will you?”

As soon as Yeoul left, Ihan’s expression turned ice-cold. He yanked both of Lim Juho’s struggling arms into one hand.

“Yeah, relax your arms. Or the bones will twist.”

With ease, Ihan snapped his arm. Lim Juho couldn’t even scream, just rolled on the floor. Ihan crouched in front of his fallen face and tapped his head with a finger.

“Act out one more time and you won’t ever be able to use that thing again.”

“Ugh…”

“I hear you played dirty in Zone 2, but get rid of the idea you can do that here in Zone 1. In any place I’m in, the most important rules are—second, cleanliness, third, integrity.”

As he stood, Ihan grabbed Lim Juho’s hand and crushed it under his foot. Only after shattering the finger bones did he lift his foot.

“And for the record, the first is closure. Let’s settle the past, you bastard.”

Summoned to the lab by Eunha, Yeoul lowered his head in thought.

‘My efficiency didn’t go up with Geon, but guiding that didn’t work with Lim Juho suddenly did.’

Maybe the problem that happens two years later isn’t with Ihan, but with me. If I die, maybe everything will be resolved.

But it was too soon to jump to conclusions—it was a matter tied to Ihan’s life. Not yet. When more solid evidence comes out, then…

“Han Yeoul!”

“Yes?”

Yeoul only lifted his head after Eunha called his name loudly. Frowning, Eunha tapped the papers in his hand several times with his pen, telling him to focus.

“Stop spacing out. Did you hear what I just said?”

“Ah, sorry. What did you say?”

“Tell me every single thing that’s changed since the imprint, even the tiniest detail. So small you might think ‘does this even count?’—even that’s fine.”

Even though Eunha still doubted Yeoul’s claim of turning back time and probably wouldn’t believe him, Yeoul cautiously shared what he had been thinking.

“My match rate with Geon dropped, but efficiency went up. And there’s an electric-type Esper named Lim Juho—before, I used to have a guiding rejection reaction with him. But now I don’t.”

“…Are you still running with that time regression story?”

“I don’t expect you to believe me, but please just assume that’s the case.”

“God… I don’t know if I should take you to a psychiatrist or go myself. Fine. And what else?”

No matter how hard he thought, nothing else came to mind, but since Eunha said even trivial things were fine, he spoke carefully.

“Hmm… in spring or autumn? Around then, I think I got static shocks a lot.”

Eunha groaned in exasperation.

“Hey, that’s obvious.”

“You said to say even the small things… Besides that, nothing else really comes to mind.”

Eunha scratched his head with his pen, letting out a grunt.

“Like you said, if there were some kind of change it’d be different, but with nothing at all changing, there’s nothing to study.”

When Yeoul visibly looked disappointed, Eunha awkwardly changed the subject.

“By the way, I heard the Jamsil Gate disappeared. Think that’s connected?”

“I saw it on the news too.”

Not long ago, there had been a breaking news report that the Jamsil Gate had vanished. According to Ihan, it disappeared around the time Yeoul returned to the past.

Upon hearing that, Yeoul had gone to Jamsil in person, even visiting the spot where the cave had been. But the place was nothing but a clear sky and a grassy field, as if a gate had never existed there.

‘It must have disappeared because the one-eyed thing died.’

When the one-eyed being died, the Jamsil Gate disappeared, and that was probably why gates had become rare in Korea lately. But he still felt uneasy. When a massive gate disappears, what comes next? Will nothing really happen?

Unless it was a major event, he couldn’t remember when or where gates appeared. But he could tell that the occurrence rate had dropped compared to before. And if it was a major event, he remembered it.

‘It’s about time for a large gate to appear.’

The day would come when Ihan lost three comrades. Whether a gate would actually appear or not, it was best to be prepared.

When Yeoul told Ihan about this, he reassured him and gave a light kiss on the cheek.

“Just trust me, Yeoul.”

It was only in the fourth life that Yeoul learned about Ihan’s other side, but he still didn’t fully know just how much of a lunatic Yoo Ihan was.

* * *

Late at night, summoned by Ihan, Yushin suddenly received the order to sneak into a large shopping mall.

“What’s this about?”

“I’ll check the underground parking lot, so you check the ground floors. There can’t be a single person inside. Check thoroughly.”

It was frustrating that Ihan wouldn’t explain why, but when he gave orders, you followed them—there was no choice. Yushin searched every floor of the building like Ihan asked. There wasn’t a single person in the dark building.

When he reported back, Ihan suspiciously asked several times.

“You’re sure there’s absolutely no one?”

“I checked over and over! Not even an ant. But what’s this all about?”

Ihan just shrugged and leapt into the air. Something felt wrong. Yushin had the uneasy sense that this bastard was about to cause a major incident, so he followed him up.

“What the hell are you thinking? What are you planning to do?”

From the air, Ihan looked down at the dark shopping mall and smirked.

“Yushin, do you know what the most entertaining sight in the world is?”

Before Yushin could answer, Ihan hurled a massive flame toward the mall.

“It’s watching a fire from across the river.”

Yushin stared blankly at the giant shopping mall now blazing in flames.

“You—you, what the hell!”

“Yeoul asked me to.”

Yushin could only gape at Ihan’s calm tone.

For love, here was a man who wouldn’t just burn down his own thatched cottage—he’d burn down an entire shopping mall.