TDG Ch 15

I grinned and gave his arm a light tap.

“Did you wait long for Hyung?”

“Yeah.”

Oh no. Even his sulky grumbling sounds cute.

“Then should your hyung buy you a coffee as an apology?”

Hand in hand, we headed to the café located inside the dorm building. After placing our order, while we were waiting for the drinks, Jihyuk asked, “You got called in because of me, didn’t you?”

How did he know? Did someone tell him?

“No, I just went to report the situation to the higher-ups.”

I tried to play it off casually, but he didn’t fall for it.

“You told me not to, but I went ahead and did it anyway. I’m sorry for acting on my own.”

“Ah, come on. I told you, I didn’t get scolded. Why don’t you trust your hyung?”

“……”

Jihyuk’s frown didn’t ease. Clearly, he didn’t believe me at all. In that case, I had no choice but to change my approach.

“Ahem, okay, I did get a little talking-to. But it’s nothing to worry about. I disobeyed a superior’s order, so they can’t just let it slide. It was a formal process, that’s all. The higher-ups were just doing their job.”

“The reason I’m not allowed to use my power is because I haven’t received national qualification certification yet, right?”

“…Y-yeah, that’s right.”

That’s how it works in Korea, at least. It’d be different abroad. Korea is extremely strict system-wise. But thanks to that, public safety is as stable as it is now, so I guess I can’t really complain.

“Then what happens if I pass the Suitability Evaluation? You won’t be called in anymore?”

“Exactly. Once you’re certified, you’re free to do as you please. At that point, interfering would be overstepping boundaries.”

Well, to be honest, interference wouldn’t even be possible anymore. Jihyuk lowered his gaze and gave a silent nod, as if he understood. He hadn’t exactly been proactive about the Suitability Evaluation until now. I wonder if this whole situation gave him some clarity.

Just then, the buzzer went off at the perfect timing. “I’ll go grab the drinks.” I patted Jihyuk on the shoulder and stood up.

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I woke up with a jolt at the sound of the alarm. The room was dimly lit with the early morning light creeping in. What time is it…?

Yawning loudly, I fumbled toward the headboard and froze in shock when I felt a massive shape lying next to me.

“……”

Looking closely, it was Han Jihyuk, fast asleep.

Swimming through a sea of question marks in my head, it took me a while to recall that I’d fallen asleep in Jihyuk’s room last night. When I opened my eyes and saw something so big right next to me, I almost had a heart attack.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to retrace what happened last night. Not that there was much to recall.

We hung out until the evening, and as we parted with a “See you tomorrow,” he asked me to stay just a little longer. He whined about it, too. I figured I’d stay until he calmed down. And then—

I fell asleep.

Really slept hard, too.

Seo Juwon, are you seriously out of your mind?

You slept all day yesterday and then again at night?

I’ve got several incident reports to submit by this morning, and I’m just out here losing it. Acting like I own the place…

What’s worse, I didn’t even realize when I fell asleep. That’s what’s really weird. Does this guy emit some kind of sleeping agent? Why do I completely pass out when I hold him?

While suspiciously studying Jihyuk, I happened to notice the watch strapped to his wrist. His body temperature read 37.6°C, slightly high but not a fever. Elevated baseline body temperature is a common trait among fire-type Espers. On the flip side, ice-type Espers tend to run about one degree cooler on average.

Seeing his body temperature, I could guess the reason. He’s warmer than average, so no wonder I kept falling asleep so easily.

Somewhere in my mind, I recalled reading that babies have higher body temperatures than adults, and that made me chuckle to myself. Well, he’s only twenty. He is still a kid, technically. Just doesn’t look like one, with that size.

“…Mm.”

He must’ve woken up from all the tossing and turning. Jihyuk cracked his eyes open.

“You awake?”

Jihyuk raised an arm over his forehead and let out a quiet chuckle.

“I heard you laughing…”

Even his rough, just-woken-up voice carried a mellow, atmospheric tone. You really are always perfectly put together, no matter when or where.

It’s like carrying a tumbler full of coffee around; I’d love to bottle the “half-asleep Han Jihyuk voice” and carry it with me. You can only hear it at moments like this, so there’s a kind of rarity to it.

“Where are you going?”

Jihyuk grabbed me as I tried to get up and pulled me right back onto the bed.

“Where do you think? The bathroom. I’m awake, so I should wash up.”

“No. Do it later.”

There it is. Whining again. He knows I always give in when he acts spoiled, so he’s gotten into a bad habit.

But not this time.

I reached back and firmly pushed away Jihyuk’s face, which was clinging to the back of my neck.

“‘Later’? What do you mean, ‘later,’ Mr. Han Jihyuk? It’s already past seven. I need to get going.”

Even with one cheek squished, the annoyingly handsome protagonist pouted in dissatisfaction before reluctantly pulling away from me, though his fingers, still interlocked around my waist, didn’t come undone.

“Why were you laughing earlier?”

You caught that? I didn’t even laugh out loud. Your hearing really is something else. Well, considering you can even pick up on my heartbeat, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

I brought my index finger to my lips and whispered, meaningfully, “Se-cret.”

“……”

Jihyuk narrowed his eyes. A moment later, his hand snuck under my arm.

So you’re resorting to cheap tricks now, Han Jihyuk? Do you think this body of mine will submit to a bit of tickling?

“Ugh, w-wait, kuh… hahah! S-stop…! Huff, haah!”

“I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!”

Only after I practically screamed, teetering between laughter and tears, did the merciless tickle attack finally come to an end.

When I tried to escape, I couldn’t budge; he pinned me down as if to say ‘as if you could’, climbed on top of me, and went wild with tickling.

Jihyuk might not look like he’s overly muscular on the outside, but if he wanted to, he could probably crush a plane with his bare hands.

Even lower-ranked Espers are stronger and more powerful than ordinary people, so imagine how it is for an S-rank.

Honestly, Jihyuk probably handles me like a newborn chick every time he touches me, just to avoid breaking my bones. And even then, I can’t move an inch.

After learning that I had laughed because of the connection between his body temperature and a child’s, Jihyuk looked visibly disappointed, as if asking, ‘That’s it?’

I honestly don’t know what kind of answer he was expecting. Lately, I really can’t tell what’s going on in his head.

While I was left breathless from the aftermath of his fierce tickle attack, Jihyuk got up first and headed for the bathroom.

Thanks to that, the bed felt much spacious. I rolled around to my heart’s content before sprawling out flat and reaching for my glasses.

They say the perfect outfit is completed by the face, and that exceptional beauty can turn even the most ordinary actions into art.

Through the small lenses of my glasses, a whole otherworldly world of art unfolded before me.

His lean, elongated muscles, sculpted in perfect proportion without excess or lack, gleamed like white marble. The contours of his body, alive with vibrant energy, were crafted by the interplay of light and shadow—my eyes were drawn to them without even realizing.

The way Han Jihyuk’s long, graceful legs moved in rhythm, how his deep brown hair melted so gently into the sunlight, and even the simple act of lifting his shirt over his head made me stare, completely spellbound.

Jihyuk, who had been walking ahead, suddenly came to a stop and turned to look at me, as if he knew I’d been watching him all along. Our eyes met naturally, like it had been choreographed.

His dark irises curved softly, like a crescent moon. The corners of his lips lifted, carving dimples into his cheeks, sharp and striking.

…?

The bathroom door closed behind him with a click, and my face grew warm for reasons I could not understand.

What… was that just now?

* * *

“Then we will begin the rehearsal for the Suitability Evaluation. The official name of this test is Anti-Terror Response Training. It is a simulation to neutralize terrorists positioned across four floors.”

The Suitability Evaluation is divided into two categories:

Monster Elimination Simulation and Terror Suppression Simulation.

Which one you get is determined at random. Han Jihyuk had been assigned the latter.

The head assistant acting as test proctor was also a ranked Esper, as were the others whose abilities were specifically suited to monitoring examinees and preventing any form of cheating.

“On each floor, a number of terrorists, ranging from several to over a dozen, are holding hostages and resisting arrest. Some of them are Espers. Each floor has a different strategic formation, so this test evaluates your adaptability and your ability to make quick decisions in a crisis. The ultimate goal is to eliminate all terrorists and rescue all hostages unharmed.”

At first, the Suitability Evaluation had only one category: monster elimination.

One day, strange gates began appearing all over the world, and from them came monsters—beasts that killed and devoured humans. Countless lives were lost, and the world fell into a hellish chaos.

Amid humanity’s brush with extinction, a handful of people underwent rapid evolution. These were the Espers and the Guides.

At first, monsters seemed like something out of a nightmare. But as time passed, they gradually became part of our everyday reality.

Nowadays, anyone who wants to can simply consult the Monster Encyclopedia to see exactly what kind of creature appeared in the news, along with its traits, habits, and attack patterns.

As this normalization progressed, the number of Espers dying while fighting other Espers or terrorists began to surpass those dying in monster battles.

“Terror Suppression” was designed in response to that trend: to reduce the number of Espers lost in human-on-human combat, and to improve their ability to respond to high-risk situations involving other people.