SOG Ch 88

Woo-jin lowered his head as the wind calmed. He rested his chin on Jae-chan’s shoulder and looked at him with hollow eyes, unable to understand him unless he was guiding. Not knowing that Jae-chan was trying to hide his pounding heartbeat, Woo-jin’s worries deepened.

*

“Sunbae, congratulations on receiving the medal!”

The next day, Seon Jae-chan returned to the Guide Team 2 office and was congratulated by Team 2 apprentices around lunchtime. It wasn’t particularly significant because he had previously gotten congratulations bouquets within the team, but he smiled warmly as he felt attached to the apprentices.

“Where did one go?”

“Hae-sol was sent on an errand by the team leader. I told her to come to the guiding room when it’s over.”

Song Sae-in, who was the most talkative during training, quickly answered.

One senior and three apprentices soon headed toward the Guide Center. Even as they followed along, the apprentices seemed to have many questions. For example, why didn’t he move to 1 team, which was the dream of all Guides.

He pretended not to notice the whispering and had the apprentices take care of the guiding machine. Jae-chan, who opened the nearest guide room door with a ‘vacant’ sign, soon encountered an awkward scene.

An Esper and a Guide were sharing a passionate kiss.

The two hurriedly stopped their movements. Blushing and pushing the Esper aside, the Guide, whose eyes widened as he neatly arranged his hair, murmured an excuse.

“I forgot to lock the door. We imprinted yesterday, it was urgent….”

Then, the imprinted Esper and guide exchanged passionate glances as if proving their true love. It seemed like they would rush towards each other and kiss again at any moment.

The trainees stepped back with very shocked expressions, and Seon Jae-chan replied, “Ah, that’s cool.” He closed the door with a brief exclamation. He didn’t forget to change the door latch sign to ‘in use.’

It’s a good time.

It was awkward but not unpleasant. Imprinting. It was once a source of regret that he couldn’t do with Woo-jin. Although he discarded that lingering regret just before his death, seeing a pair that had just imprinted made him unavoidably envy them.

Around the time he was practicing guiding machines in another guiding room, Nam Hae-sol arrived.

“Sunbae, I’m glad you stayed on the team!”

Hae-sol greeted him with a nod and said that with a bright smile. The other trainees also added a word or two.

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Why did you really stay?”

The reason Jae-chan stayed in 2 teams was a sense of responsibility. Jae-chan sought to shift his gaze away from Hae-sol as he answered the apprentices’ questions.

Jae-chan wondered how surprised Hae-sol must have been when she later heard the story of him coming to the scene where Han Roy was kidnapped. Although it was an inevitable situation, it felt as if he had taken away her chance to guide Han Roy and become an official guide herself. Furthermore, the fact that she had guided him added to his guilt. He expected Kim Geun-won or Jeong Noah, who knew he was a multi-Guide, would have guided him, but he never thought Hae-sol would guide him.

“Enough chitchat. Let’s put the electrodes back on. There are only a few months left until the promotion evaluation.”

If he unintentionally deprived Namhaesol of the opportunity to become an official guide, Jae-chan could just make her an official Guide. If necessary, he was determined to even request a favor from Han Tae-hoon. …He also intended to return her past lover as quickly as possible.

Jae-chan still couldn’t decide who to choose between Go Woo-jin and Han Tae-hoon.

He had been working since early in the morning until noon. After spending his personal time looking after the trainees, Jae-chan departed the facility at about 4 p.m. while massaging his slightly tired shoulders. Jae-chan’s thoughts continued as he took a taxi to his aunt’s house.

In the past, Han Tae-hoon took over at this moment in place of Yoon Seo-mi, who had temporarily stepped down due to the Mentosa Island incident. At first, Han Tae-hoon didn’t have any sexual interest in him.

The relationship between Jae-chan and Han Tae-hoon didn’t develop until quite some time later. It happened when he coincidentally met Han Tae-hoon coming out of a hotel after spending the night with a man. It was the same hotel where seminars hosted by the center were often held. At that time, Han Tae-hoon, who was the guide director, seemed to have had a meeting.

Three or four months later.

The two ended up in bed. They spent time together in that hotel they accidentally met.

In the beginning, Jae-chan regretted sleeping with Han Tae-hoon. There was no process such as penetration, as was always the case with men, but Han Tae-hoon did not end it with only one ejaculation. He didn’t even attempt to ejaculate on his own. Seon Jae-chan, who does not respond to the male body at all, was asked to ejaculate the same number of times, which made him so exhausted that it was really annoying.

While leaning against the car window and reminiscing about the unpleasant moments, Jae-chan let out a brief sigh.

Until last year, Jae-chan thought he could control Han Tae-hoon, who was tired in bed, but… Perhaps because his desire for Go Woo-jin had become stronger than before. Whenever he assumed he had chosen Han Tae-hoon, he unconsciously found and emphasized the bad aspects of that scenario. Even his brain highlighted them as if with a fluorescent marker.

Soon, the taxi arrived at the residential area of 71st Street in the eastern District.

Jae-chan grabbed the red ginseng set he bought as a gift and glanced at the rearview mirror. The tail that had attached to him recently hadn’t revealed itself yet. He was being very careful, so he probably still parked his car beyond that alley.

“Why did you buy all this?”

Gu Ji-eun muttered indifferently and patted the back of her niece who was giving her red ginseng. She seemed to be cooking, as the delicious smell already filled the room. Perhaps seafood stew. Although Jae-chan’s heart was filled with excitement as he recalled his aunt’s cooking skills, he did not let down his guard against those following him outside the gate.

The follower appeared about 10 minutes after Jae-chan helped his aunt trim the bean sprouts.

When he checked outside through the intercom lens, he noticed a motorcycle sneaking into the alley.

It was definitely not a stalker. A stalker-type criminal always did their best to reveal their presence to the victim. It was correct to assume that that type of follower was employed by someone.

There were two reasons for just ignoring the pursuer. For starters, Jae-chan didn’t have a specific purpose for the time being, thus it didn’t matter if he was followed. Secondly, he didn’t want to catch the pursuer and make the employer behind them vigilant.

For dinner, it was a spicy monkfish stew with plenty of bean sprouts.

Gu Ji-eun asked a question as she filled her mouth with soft fish meat soaked in spicy seasoning on the bean sprouts that her nephew had trimmed.

“What about Esper Go? Why didn’t he come with you?”

Seon Jae-chan also answered while putting plenty of seasoning on the shiny rice and bean sprouts in his mouth.

“He said he’s busy.”

It was a lie. If he extended the time he spent meeting with Woo-jin, he would undoubtedly accept the proposal. So, he didn’t even ask.

“I heard there’s a fuss about Esper Go Woo-jin becoming more handsome these days. How did he become more and more handsome?”

Did he start dating or something? Jae-chan sighed, understanding it wasn’t just in his eyes as he watched his aunt joking with a happy expression. Even though he sought the portal, the response to Woo-jin was more enthusiastic than before. Originally, his face perfectly matched the beauty standard, but Jae-chan remembered Woo-jin’s deepening eyes and quietly blooming red lips, which occasionally gave off a manly impression. Then Jae-chan suddenly began to eat his meal aggressively.

‘Then it shouldn’t be. Your nephew might just swallow him up.’

Jae-chan only answered in his mind as he chewed the meal.

After finishing the meal, he faced the purpose of coming here today.

“How are the health check results?”

It was because of his aunt’s contact asking to see the results together, saying it was scary to look at them alone.

His aunt brought out an envelope. Despite saying that she couldn’t see it alone, the seal was already broken.

Gu Ji-eun had her thin chin tightly clamped before he knew it. Jae-chan’s heart sank as he saw the stern expression. His aunt sighed heavily and held out an envelope as she gazed at the floor.

The result sheet rustled in Jae-chan’s hand.

‘… What.’

Normal. …Normal, normal, normal, normal….

His aunt’s esper wave scan results were all normal without exception.

“Did you get fooled?”

Even while looking at his aunt who was smiling lightly, he couldn’t believe it. Was this a matter of tricking people? Well, it was something she could joke about in the future because she didn’t know how sick she was or how worried Jae-chan was.

However… Seon Jae-chan looked at the stiff test paper again in bewilderment.

Why is it normal?

Of course, his aunt’s normal results were something to be grateful for, but Jae-chan grew confused as he remembered previous diagnoses made by doctors and researchers. Why did they suggest it would have been okay if they had discovered it earlier if the test results were clean?

“Don’t worry, I’m healthy enough to chew a rock. And I’ve put the money in the American Union.”

The American Union’s District D, which officially recognizes shell companies, was nothing short of a money laundering haven. Jae-chan, who wanted to object, thought that his aunt would take care of it and left the test results for now.

That was the end of the still slightly awkward dinner between aunt and nephew. Even though Jae-chan tried to dissuade her, Gu Ji-eun gave him a generous amount of tea leaves that she had hand-roasted in an airtight container. After seeing him off at the front door, Gu Ji-eun suddenly realized that there was news she had not delivered.