Chapter 134: Side Story – Monday Blues Have Disappeared (4)

Because he liked him.

Bodam, who recalled the skinship with Tae Hwan that was so natural he hadn’t even been conscious of it, easily came to a conclusion.

He had already realized it.

It had been a long time since Bodam had started to like Tae Hwan.

He had even made up his mind to form an imprint while hugging Tae Hwan, who had been showing signs of a rampage.

Yes, an imprint.

“Ahem.”

Bodam, whose face had flushed at the thought of an imprint, cleared his perfectly fine throat.

It was a topic he had only decided on in his own mind and had never discussed directly with Tae Hwan.

After the Crow’s death, Tae Hwan, who was putting all his effort into just eliminating gates as usual, didn’t particularly need guiding beyond a kiss.

Even the kisses were always done with all their clothes on.

Though they did… touch each other a little.

Wham!

Bodam, who had gotten heated at the embarrassing thought, punched the pillow.

The truth was, he had been so busy playing that he had never seriously thought about his relationship with Tae Hwan.

Even when Min Ji Oh kept asking what was between them and Jo Yeon teased him, he had just replied that they were friends.

And next to me, who was insisting on it, Lee Tae Hwan had just nodded without saying anything.

‘Who in the world kisses as often as they eat with a friend?’ Without even having to think about it for long, he and Lee Tae Hwan were definitely not friends.

Then what were they.

“Bodam. Are you in your room?”

Bodam, who was deep in serious thought, closed his eyes at Tae Hwan’s voice echoing from the hallway.

Even as he called for him, “Bodam, Bodam,” he didn’t answer and pretended to be asleep.

The unresolved questions made it awkward to face him right away.

“Bodam-.”

Tae Hwan, who had flung the door open and entered, quieted his voice at the sight of the bulging blanket.

He wasn’t surprised that Bodam was asleep in his room, where the owner wasn’t even present.

It was just cute.

Tae Hwan turned off the light in the room and carefully approached the bed, making sure not to make a sound.

He, who rarely used his psychokinesis in front of Bodam, even held his breath and very quietly lifted the blanket and lay down next to him.

The sturdy mattress supported the Esper’s weight, which was filled only with muscle, without a sound.

Tae Hwan pressed his body close to the back of Bodam, who was lying on his side with his face buried in the pillow.

He hugged him from behind, which had become a daily routine, and rubbed his lips on the soft crown of Bodam’s head.

He lovingly embraced the cute body that fit perfectly in his arms, with his arm wrapped around his thin side, which was never enough no matter how much he fattened him up.

Even while holding him, he wanted to hold him more.

Tighter.

So tightly that they couldn’t be apart for a single moment.

“Why are you pretending to be asleep.”

He whispered, his lips touching Bodam’s ear as he lowered his head.

He could tell whether he was asleep or not just by listening to his breathing.

He had been planning to keep pretending not to know, but he spoke up because he wanted to talk to Bodam, whom he was meeting after five days.

‘I thought I would die of missing him.’ Tae Hwan found waiting for Bodam, who returned to his family home every weekend, the most torturous.

The time without Bodam felt as long as decades, to the point where he wished weekends would disappear.

He lived from Friday night, waiting only for Monday.

“…I just woke up.”

“Did I wake you?”

Tae Hwan’s cheekbones ascended as he hugged the head-shaking Bodam even more fiercely.

Even him pecking his arm with his chin, saying it was suffocating, was maddeningly lovely.

“Did you have a good time?”

“Did you shower?”

The two questions, which came out at the same time, coincided.

Bodam sniffed at the smell of shampoo coming from Tae Hwan and turned around to face him.

Unless he had rolled around a lot at a site, Tae Hwan always showered in the waiting room.

“You-.”

Bodam was about to ask if his work today was hard, but he lost his voice for a moment with his mouth open.

Tae Hwan’s room, where he lived with the blackout curtains drawn, was dim because the lights were off.

As his vision was blocked, Bodam’s other senses became clearer, and he moved his lips, grabbing Tae Hwan’s collar a beat later.

“Did you get guiding?”

Bodam, who had detected a strange guide’s wavelength, asked.

The scent of a guide, which couldn’t be covered by the faint smell of shampoo, was mixed in with Lee Tae Hwan’s wavelength.

A trace of a guide other than me.

“From whom?”

Bodam’s voice, who was holding Tae Hwan’s collar, grew a little louder.

‘When there’s a perfectly good exclusive guide here, glaring with both eyes.’ Of course, he had just come back from playing in Hawaii.

“I just held his hand, just his hand.”

“You really got it?”

Bodam wore a dazed expression, unable to believe it even after hearing it directly from Tae Hwan’s mouth.

Since it was the first time, he didn’t know how to react, and it seemed his reaction was a bit over the top.

First of all, he was not in a good mood.

No, he was in a bad mood.

Wham!

‘It’s not like he doesn’t have enough medicine or the money to get a good guiding machine.’

Wham!

‘Even if I was eating and playing in a faraway country.’

Wham!

“Y-Yoon Bodam. Just hit me…”

Tae Hwan stuttered, flustered at the sight of Bodam repeatedly slamming his fists not on his own body but on the bed.

Ignoring him, Bodam just kept hitting the bed.

He was angry but it was ambiguous to get angry, so he vented his anger with his fists.

Because Tae Hwan was apologizing unconditionally, he seemed to have really done something wrong, which made him even more furious.

Even though he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

“You should have at least contacted me. Even if I wasn’t at the Center, you should have told me.”

‘If you needed contact guiding, you should have at least had Min Ji Oh bring me. The thought of Lee Tae Hwan holding another guide’s hand and receiving guiding made his fists stronger.’

“You’ll hurt your hand. Stop it.”

“Why would it hurt when it’s so fluffy!”

He was just trying not to take his anger out on the innocent Tae Hwan by hitting the poor bed.

When Tae Hwan tried to stop him from even doing that, he yelled.

Bodam, who was surprised by his own loud voice, was confused.

He knew it wasn’t something to get so angry about, but he was angry.

“I’ll be sure to contact you next time. I’m sorry. I was thoughtless.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. You should get it if you need it. There are plenty of guides around.”

Bodam, who had let out a sarcastic remark, wanted to slap his own mouth.

‘Why am I like this.’ It was common for Espers with exclusive guides to get help from other guides depending on the situation on site.

Especially in an emergency, it couldn’t be helped-.

Wait a minute. An emergency?

“Lee Tae Hwan, are you hurt?”

Come to think of it, Lee Tae Hwan was not the type of Esper to seek out another guide for no reason.

He had a strong obsession and sense of possession towards guides, and as such, he didn’t even glance at other guides besides Bodam.

“Turn on the light.”

“No. I just got it because I couldn’t get my medicine. There was a guide on standby nearby.”

“Turn on the light.”

Click.

Tae Hwan, who was completely intimidated by Bodam’s low tone, which he rarely used, quickly turned on the light with his psychokinesis.

A dry gulp went down his throat as Bodam furrowed his brow at the brightened vision.

‘Ah, I should have just let him sleep today.’

“You’re not hurt?”

“Well… not a lot.”

“Not hurt a lot?”

“Compared to when I was really hurt…?”

Bodam, who had covered Tae Hwan’s mouth, did not take his eyes off his face.

He couldn’t even tell if the pounding heartbeat was his own surprised one or the scared Lee Tae Hwan’s.

“Lee Tae Hwan, you really.”

Bodam, who couldn’t continue his words, bit his lip tightly.

From where his left eye had been grazed to under his chin, the flesh was shallowly gouged.

Because he was closing his left eye, he couldn’t see what the condition was inside.

The wound that had grazed his eye was still reddish, and new flesh was already growing on his neck.

Even so, it was by no means a light injury.

His heart felt like it was sinking at Tae Hwan’s unexpected injury.

Tae Hwan, who was even more flustered at the sight of Bodam who couldn’t even get angry and just bit his lip, said it was nothing.

That it would all heal by tomorrow.

“Really. I got guiding because there was a lot of bleeding, and it didn’t even hurt. I was moving just fine even when I was hurt.”

This was the problem with Lee Tae Hwan.

That he didn’t value his own body.

That guy excessively trusted his S-class physical abilities and took all his injuries lightly.

When he found out that he deliberately didn’t even take painkillers to promote his healing ability, he was so dumbfounded that he even teared up.

‘Even the team leader, who is a higher rank than him, looks for painkillers first when he’s sick.’

“You should just return your rank. What kind of S-class are you. It’s rare to see an Esper get hurt as much as you. Look at the team leader!

He even gets check-ups on his own now without being told! What are you, not even getting treated! What do you think you are?!”

Bodam, who rarely compared others, made an exception this time.

He was already getting hurt frequently, and if he couldn’t fix this habit even when he got older, his body would surely be ruined.

He was young now, but no matter how much of an Esper they were, their bodies were not infinite.

They would start to creak at some point, and when that time came, Lee Tae Hwan would.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Tae Hwan, who had helped the tearful Bodam sit up, knelt.

He muttered apologies like a chant and didn’t know what to do.

‘If only I had waited one more day, the wound would have been all healed.’ He was sorry for startling Bodam, who had become even more sensitive to injuries since the Crow incident.

“But it really heals quickly. It’ll all be back by tomorrow.”

Tae Hwan, who had closed his mouth at the glare from Bodam’s reddened eyes, just patted his thin back.

Even though it looked like a major injury, because the situation on site hadn’t been serious, he truly thought it was a light injury.

It wasn’t a dangerous creature either, just an embarrassing wound he had gotten from being careless.

Late last night, Tae Hwan couldn’t sleep, so he had been loitering around a gate, planning to hunt creatures to his heart’s content.

Since Bodam would be coming tomorrow anyway, he had deliberately gathered creatures because he wanted to receive guiding for a longer time.

And then a text had come from Bodam, who had thought he would be resting.

“But why did you get hurt. Was it that dangerous of a gate?”

‘No, not at all.’ It was a gate of a level that could be easily defeated, with just a lot of creatures because the size was large.

It was full of creatures so easy that even that Jeon Jo Yeon bastard, whom Bodam was crazy about, could have handled it without a problem.

“Are the others okay?”

The only one who was hurt was Tae Hwan.

The upper-level Espers who were around had been dumbfounded at the sight of Tae Hwan being beaten by a creature.

They had even forgotten to help, wondering what Tae Hwan was doing, not even avoiding the creature and concentrating on his phone.

“I was just careless, alone. I was lost in thought.”

“What thought?”

Tae Hwan froze at Bodam’s question.

It was a story he could never tell.

“What was it. Tell me.”

‘That I got my ass kicked by a creature because I was staring at your text, where you sent a topless picture saying your tan was a failure.’

“Was it something serious?”

‘Absolutely not. Never.’