GP | Chapter 2.4

“…What is this?”

Looking more closely, he saw scratches and crushed spots all over, along with blackened marks. He stepped back a little and took in the whole wall at a glance. What he saw was a wall that had been entirely wrinkled and ruined, with not a single intact spot. And then, belatedly, the smell of blood reached him.

Seoh covered his mouth and swallowed the groan rising in his throat.

This place…

It was a word he could not bring himself to say out loud. His hands trembled violently. Just from the traces alone, he could tell how violent it had been. No, he could feel how painful it must have been.

A place to confine rampaging Espers.

It existed right here in the basement of this mansion, out in the open.

“…”

Come to think of it, every room in the mansion except the one Song Taejoon occupied was strange. The windows and doors all looked newly fitted. There were no bathrooms or toilets. And the kitchen and pantry were so clean it was hard to believe any human hand had touched them. It was as if the whole house had been renovated from scratch.

“Ugh.”

As the scattered pieces of the puzzle clicked together, nausea rolled through him. Seoh rubbed his chest downward to calm the rising urge to vomit. He had never expected to see the traces of a rampaging Esper so directly.

It looked too desperate, too painful.

Maybe the reason Song Taejoon had been given this mansion as a single-occupancy lodging was…

Because he was an Esper with the risk of rampage.

Once he realized the hidden truth, his mind tangled itself into knots. The situation he had only vaguely sensed around Song Taejoon was now striking him with full reality.

An Esper who did not receive guiding. An Esper who hated Guides.

Song Taejoon was an Esper who endured every time until just before rampage, then finally lost his mind and received guiding at the very end. For someone standing so close to death, this place was no different from a prepared grave.

Why did he refuse guiding even knowing he might die?

Ordinary Espers could not resist the Guide Center’s tyranny much. Since survival was on the line, they had no choice but to bend a little. Otherwise, life could become even harsher than it already was. But even knowing that, Song Taejoon did not hide his hostility. Toward everything connected to Guides.

No matter how he thought about it, this was an area he could not touch, and should not touch. His past self, who had thought he needed to guide him, looked unbelievably foolish now. If he had tried to get closer to him and acted even less sensitively than he already had, he would not even be able to lift his head.

Seoh shook his head and barely managed to steady himself. He did not want to stay in this space any longer.

As Seoh hurried back outside, the opened door shut automatically behind him. He stared at the steel door as if it were something terrifying, then climbed the stairs with quick steps. The basement had been deeper than he expected, so by the time he came out into the living room he was gasping for breath.

By now, the sky outside had darkened with the early evening, and Seoh ran to the bathroom, intending to throw up the nausea churning in his stomach. But there had been nothing inside him, so only stomach acid and water came pouring out.

After a few rounds of that, he lost strength and slumped to the floor.

He wiped away the tears that had come out from sheer physiology and calmed the aching in his throat. Even so, his body was shaking. The basement where rampaging Espers had made their final struggle was right beneath his feet.

The many rooms in the mansion were probably places where Espers had been confined briefly before going down into the basement. There would have been no windows, and the doors would have been made of steel like the basement door.

This place was an Esper-only prison.

“…Ha-ha.”

Seoh let out a hollow laugh, curled in on himself and dragging a hand over his face. Did Song Taejoon feel comfortable here? A place that ordinary Espers would hate.

Then, all at once, he remembered Taejoon looking at the fish tank in the living room. Beneath that blank face was a longing for silence. Did he perhaps want to die? Maybe he thought it would be better to let go of life than to keep living in a world like this.

Seoh staggered to his feet, rinsed his mouth, and went quietly out the back door. For now, he could not stand being inside the house. He could not bear how it kept making him face his own foolishness.

He curled up on a chair in the garden. Even though the wind was cold and the renewed guiding energy was making his pain worse, he simply shut his eyes tight.

He had no face left to see Song Taejoon if he could not even endure something like this. The version of himself who had once thought his situation and an Esper’s were the same was gone now. He had realized reality was far colder than that, and that there were always people suffering more than “me.”

Silently repeating that to himself, Seoh curled in a little tighter. So that the cold would not seep in further, so that no more of the warmth he had left would be stolen.

But as if mocking him, the sharp wind prowled around him.

His body was slowly freezing over.

✿ • ✿ • ✿

He did not know when he had fallen asleep. It felt like he had lost consciousness as if fainting, to the point that he could no longer feel the cold or the pain.

Then, all at once, he felt energy surging violently. The mind that had sunk to the bottom shot up to the surface in an instant. Along with the energy slipping away, an enormous pain flared in his shoulder.

“Hah, ahk!”

The moment his eyes flew open, he saw something huge pressing down on him. Black hair with waves in it, ears flushed blue, the back of a neck standing out with veins. The one biting savagely at his shoulder was Song Taejoon, the same man who had not been seen for days.

But the force of the bite was so strong it felt like the flesh was being ripped away. Seoh thrashed with all his might. But he could not outmatch Taejoon’s strength.

“Ah, it hurts! Wai… hngh!”

Whether Taejoon heard the plea or not, he stopped biting and instead stuck out his tongue to lick. He rubbed at the clustered beads of blood and sucked on the wound, taking it fully into his mouth. His sucking was just as powerful as his biting, so Seoh shrank his shoulder back.

“Hngh, uh… hngh, sob.”

The pain was so sharp that tears burst out, but he did not know how to cry properly and bit his lip instead. The tears spilling out and the sorrow sliding down his throat became timid and crushed. Then a hand that felt scorching hot shoved under his shirt and began to rake over his body indiscriminately.

It slid over his waist, rubbed at his side, then moved upward to press at his chest and small buds. When he reflexively shrank back, Taejoon caught the half-raised nipple and began twisting it.

“Uh, uhn. Hngh…”

There was nothing gentle in that strong grip. One side was being relentlessly pressed, pulled, and twisted, and before long it began to swell. Even then the hand kept going, and beneath his broken cries, more misery piled up.

Too much… it hurts.

Even so, he clenched his teeth and swallowed his moans. Taejoon was on the verge of rampage and did not seem to be in his right mind.

He had known this day would come someday, but it was too sudden. His bitten shoulder hurt, his trapped chest hurt, and every place that had slammed into the chair hurt. Now Taejoon was even using his weight to pin him down, and he could barely breathe.

“S- Song Taejoon, E- Esper.”

“…”

“J- just a moment… hngh, just a moment.”

The pain in his body was easing little by little as the guiding energy drained away, but in exchange Taejoon’s rough touch filled the space.

At least Taejoon seemed to retain some awareness that Seoh was a Guide , so he must have unconsciously loosened his strength. But even that was too much for him. From the way the remaining hand was anxiously raking over his body, it looked like he wanted even more guiding, but this was not going to satisfy him.

He needed to get some of that power out of his hands first.

Seoh reached up with both hands and held Song Taejoon’s face where it was buried against his neck. Taejoon flinched. His body stiffened in surprise at the guiding energy flowing in from the small hands on his cheeks. But only for a moment, because Taejoon lifted his head and started rubbing his face against Seoh’s hands, kissing them.

The wet kissing sounds, the soft lips, the feeling of moist flesh licking at him made Seoh swallow dryly.

It was a relief that the hand tormenting his chest loosened, but Taejoon’s expression was still a little flustered.

His pupils were blown wide, his eyes drooped sweetly, his expression anxious and desperate, and the instinct of an Esper who wanted guiding was spilling out against his owner’s will.

What did Taejoon think of him, needing to lose his mind like this just to accept guiding? He was surely angry. Irritated too. He probably hated the reality that could not be rejected by will alone.

Seoh blinked several times, trying to shake loose the tears pooling in his eyes. As the tears slid down his cheeks, Taejoon’s blue eyes tracked them. Seeing that, Seoh looked more closely at Taejoon.

His skin and veins were flushed red, his tendons and muscles bulged hard and swollen, his eyes still looked blank and out of his mind, and the whites were reddened with bursting blood vessels. Song Taejoon was holding on to the brink of rampage with a persistence that bordered on stubborn.

When he thought about it, the world really was unkind to both of them.

Seoh smiled faintly and pulled Taejoon’s face closer. Half-lowering his eyes, he pressed his lips to Taejoon’s.

“…”

Unable to look at those pained eyes anymore, he covered Taejoon’s eyes with a hand. Feeling the flutter of eyelashes and the opening and closing of eyelids, he stuck out his tongue and licked Taejoon’s lips. Then Taejoon’s closed mouth parted a little. Seoh slowly slipped inside and met the flesh that had already come out to greet him.

Unlike before, the energy drained away sharply. The more intimate and deep the contact, the more efficient the guiding became. So no matter how much skin he touched, Taejoon would not be satisfied.

Once the floodgate opened, Taejoon became even more aggressive. Seoh gently wrapped the invading tongue and opened his mouth wider, and Taejoon ravaged the inside like he meant to swallow him whole. The palate, beneath the tongue, the gums, and the hard teeth. Even that was not enough, as though he wanted to invade the throat too.

Seoh pulled Taejoon close, trying to accept him as much as he could while Taejoon dug inward.

Wet, sloshing friction shook his skull and eardrums. Half the saliva pooled in his mouth spilled out, and the rest soaked the inside of his mouth. It did not go down his throat because Taejoon’s tongue did not allow it.

“Mph, mm…”

He followed his pace as best he could, breathing through his nose as much as possible. The lips pressed tightly together without space were hot, as if exhaling heat.