Chapter 48: Crossing the Line

Sung Yohan was truly strange.
Even on days when he didn’t do gate simulations or training, his guiding level continued to drop.
He didn’t seem to have side effects like Hyun Taewoon, but he would use his abilities somewhere and then shamelessly come to me and demand guiding.

Today, as always, a guiding request came from him.
I was going to refuse, but thinking that I had to give him a piece of my mind this time, I moved to the guiding room.
He had already arrived at the guiding room and was waiting for me.

“Shinui-ssi, you’re here?”

I immediately gave him a small reprimand.

“Aren’t you calling me too often these days?”

“My body must miss you. My guiding level keeps dropping.”

“You know this is the fifth time we’ve met this week, right?”

From Monday to Friday today, I thought it was too much.
At this rate, he was likely to call me even on my days off.

“I need time to rest too.”

“I need guiding.”

A sigh escaped me at his words, which never yielded.
He, who was watching me, took off his uniform jacket and said.

“It’s because you only ever do first-level contact guiding. If we go up to the third level, we can finish faster than now.”

“I told you I won’t do more than second-level unless it’s a field gate.”

At my words, he quickly came to my side and touched my hair.

“You’re doing this because you want to be with me longer, right?”

“I told you that’s not it.”

I immediately swatted his hand away, but he grabbed my wrist and sat me down on the bed.

“The more I see you, the more cute corners you have.”

“Don’t call a grown adult cute. It just sounds like you’re mocking me.”

“It’s true.”

He said, and then pressed himself against me as if to ask me to believe him.
His touch was still uncomfortable, so I said before he could get any closer.

“Don’t come too close.”

“I don’t want to.”

I tried to move far away from him, but before I knew it, he had his arm around my waist.

Feeling him getting closer, I pushed his shoulder with my hand, but he held my hand firmly with one of his and faced me.

I felt a sense of unease at his different-from-usual appearance.
However, before I could take the next action, his lips touched my cheek.

“What are you doing!”

As soon as his lips touched me, I felt his tongue, and goosebumps rose on the nape of my neck.
When his lips came close to mine, I pushed him away with my hand and barely managed to get my face away.

“Sung Yohan-ssi, are you crazy?”

“Stay still. We’re going to do third-level contact guiding today.”

I had a feeling, but as expected, his intention was to go up to the third level.
At his words, which felt obsessive, I bit my lip hard and struggled.
Then he smiled and held the back of my head firmly.

I couldn’t win by force, so I opened my mouth to tell him to stop, but as if he had been waiting, he kissed my open lips.

“St-stop!”

Despite my words to stop, he sucked on my lips.
Even though we were both men, I couldn’t overcome his strength.
Even if I pushed with all my might, his body was unmoving.
Since strength didn’t work, a sense of fear came first.

In the end, I bit his lip, but he also playfully bit my lip hard.
Blood welled up on my tingling lips, and I quickly tasted iron on the tip of my tongue.

“Ugh.”

At my short groan, he smiled and licked his own lips, which were bleeding.
I kicked and swung at him with my feet and hands, struggling to get away, but nothing changed.

His gaze, which was craving affection, was suffocating.
As if to let out my frustration, I repeatedly told him to stop.

“Sung Yohan-ssi, I said stop! Please, get a grip.”

Even at my words, he had no intention of stopping.
The moment I felt his hand slip inside my clothes and closed my eyes tightly, I thought of the emergency button on my Guiding Watch.

I twisted my wrist, which was held by him, and pressed the guiding emergency button with my finger.
An emergency alert must have gone to Jinseok and the Center.

Still feeling his blatant touch, I prayed for someone to come.
Fortunately, in less than 5 minutes, Jinseok came into the guiding room.

“Esper-nim, what are you doing!”

He shouted at him, who was on top of me, and pulled him off me.

Unlike when I had refused, he meekly backed down.
It seemed he knew that now that Jinseok was here, he wouldn’t be able to have his way anymore.

“Shinui-ssi, this is what I want.”

He stared at me, and then, unlike me who was panting, he left the guiding room in a neat state.

My startled heart pounded violently, and my body trembled.
If it had gone all the way, I might have been imprinted with him.

“Guide-nim, are you okay?”

I couldn’t say anything and could only hug my body with both hands and tremble.
He looked at my disheveled clothes and hurriedly straightened them and brought me a bottle of water.

Feeling my parched mouth, I drank the water.
Just having him there began to calm my trembling body.

“Manager-nim.”

“Yes, Guide-nim.”

“This incident is grounds for resignation, right?”

“…That’s right.”

“I will go to the Association right now.”

I had made up my mind with today’s incident.
I didn’t want to stay at the Center anymore, in a situation where I didn’t know when I might be assaulted by him.

Jinseok also seemed to have felt the danger and moved to the Association with me.
The Association President was in his office at the time.

I showed the President the video of the incident from a little while ago in the guiding room and stated my intention to resign.
It was a mortifying thing to show someone the scene of me almost being forcibly imprinted by him, but I hoped that with this, the Association would also acknowledge my reason for resignation.
However, the President’s answer was similar to when I had dealt with Hyun Taewoon.

“We will issue a warning to Esper Sung Yohan. From the video, it looks like you were doing contact guiding.”

The President showed me a video of an Esper and a guide doing contact guiding on a tablet PC.
They were pressed against each other and caressing each other’s bodies, just like him and I a little while ago.
But they were doing it with consent.
My case was different.

“I was almost forced.”

“I understand your words well, Guide Shinui. But it is difficult to resign over this issue.”

“Why?”

“As I said a moment ago, physical contact is a frequently used guiding method. If you wish, we will prevent Esper Sung Yohan from contacting you for the time being.”

I was dumbfounded at the President’s words.
In the end, it was a ‘no’ to my resignation.

I stood up from my seat and left without a word of goodbye.
Since the Association didn’t respect me, I had no intention of respecting them either.

Jinseok, who was waiting outside, asked if I had talked to him well.
I shook my head and told him to take me home.

On the way home, the clause about disciplinary action and dismissal in the contract came to mind.
As soon as I got home, I hurriedly opened the electronic contract and looked for the list of dismissals and disciplinary actions.

1. One who has been absent without leave for three or more days without a valid reason.

2. One who has caused damage to the Association through dereliction of duty or poor performance due to intent or gross negligence.

3. One who has violated instructions, work orders, or personnel orders.

4. One who has left without permission for matters other than work during working hours.

5. One who has leaked the Association’s information and confidential matters.

6. One who has engaged in illegal union activities, illegal collective actions, or disputes.

7. One who has caused damage to the Association through acts such as embezzlement, breach of trust, theft, or serious accidents.

There were a total of seven clauses that were grounds for dismissal.
It seemed I could be dismissed if I used these.
But one thing bothered me: the fact that I was an S-Class Guide.
According to those clauses, Hyun Taewoon, who should have been dismissed long ago, had not received any particular sanctions, probably because he was also an S-Class.
Still, it seemed I had to at least try.

I will be absent from the Center for three days starting tomorrow.
Then I would have met the grounds for unexcused absence.

And so, I was absent without leave for three days.
I also ignored their calls, but the Association was not affected.
Instead, they treated it as a vacation.
Hearing that news made me even more determined.
To try to cover it up with a mere vacation.
Now that it had come to this, I planned to carry out all seven items of the grounds for dismissal.

To resign, I now acted without regard to means and methods.

Wonjae was worried that I might be dismissed for my behavior.
But that was exactly what I wanted.
I was looking forward to the Association’s reaction after I had carried out all the clauses of the grounds for dismissal.