Chapter 1: A Dream of Our First Meeting

For the first time in a very long while, I had an old dream.

It was a dream of when I first met Hyung.

In the dream, I still had the baby fat on my cheeks, and Hyung looked much younger too.

Even though it was a memory from almost ten years ago, it was as vivid as if I’d seen it yesterday.

‘Guide Seo Yeong-u?’

Hyung approached me as I sat alone on an outdoor bench, wearing a Guide trainee uniform.

When I didn’t answer, my head bowed low, Hyung asked again, “Guide Seo Yeong-u?”

‘That’s not me.’

‘Ah, it’s not you, I see.’

Despite my blunt reply, Hyung treated me with endless kindness.

‘Then what does that say?’

Wondering what he meant, I slowly raised my head in confusion.

My gaze, which had been fixed on the ground, traveled further and further up.

I’d wondered why the sunlight was blocked, and it turned out some huge person was eclipsing the sun.

My first impression of Hyung was that he was a freaking big Esper.

A huge Esper, dripping with a gentle aura.

His handsome face, overshadowed by his intimidating build, came into view a beat later.

As our eyes met, Hyung, who was smiling with his flawless features, reached out his arm.

His long finger pointed to the name tag on my left chest.

I belatedly covered the name tag, which was clearly engraved with ‘Seo Yeong-u’, and my face flushed red.

I have no idea what I was thinking, adding a lie that wouldn’t fool anyone.

‘I-It’s my friend’s.’

‘Ah, your friend.’

In complete contrast to me, fidgeting my hands and acting foolishly, my first impression of Hyung was that of a true adult.

Unlike me, who had just entered the Center and couldn’t adapt to the unfamiliar environment, Hyung was the youngest team leader of the Barrier Team.

At just twenty-five years old.

What was I doing back then?

‘I have some business with that friend of yours. Would it be difficult to meet him?’

‘…What business?’

I examined Hyung more carefully, raising a vague wall of caution.

No matter how I looked at him, I only felt a kind aura, as if the words ‘Good Person’ were written on his forehead.

And all he did was smile.

‘There’s something I’d like to ask.’

‘Me?’

‘To the owner of that name tag.’

Gesturing to my left chest with his eyes again, Hyung smiled softly once more.

He was completely different from the intimidating Espers who tried to crush my spirit from the very beginning.

Hyung was a person who was very far removed from anything rough or coercive.

‘May I sit next to you for a moment?’

As I hesitated and nodded, Hyung sat down next to me, leaving some space between us.

Besides Hyung and me on the bench, there was no one around, so it was very quiet.

It was a bench where I, who always sought out secluded places, often lingered.

‘How did you get hurt here?’

Hyung asked, looking at the split wound on my lip.

The distance between us remained, but because of Hyung’s gentle aura, it felt like we were sitting face to face.

‘Did you get in a fight?’

To his repeated question, I belatedly opened my mouth and said yes.

‘With whom?’

Hyung’s gentle brown eyes sparkled.

After meeting his gaze as if mesmerized, I avoided his eyes and spoke in an irritated voice.

My personality was very twisted and famously rotten.

‘I am Seo Yeong-u, so just state your business.’

As I moved my feet, ready to leave at any moment, Hyung held me there with a relaxed smile.

Seeing Hyung leaning languidly against the bench, I felt like we were about to have a long conversation.

My leg, which had been trembling unconsciously, gradually stilled.

‘I’m the team leader of Barrier Team 3.’

After briefly introducing himself, Hyung brought up a topic I had never expected.

‘I’d like to recruit you, Guide Seo Yeong-u, as our dedicated Guide.’

‘…Why?’

The words delivered in his calm voice were completely out of the blue.

I thought his ‘business’ would just be a request for a one-time guiding session.

There were plenty of Espers like that, after all.

‘Well, it’s because our matching rate is high, I suppose.’

Flustered by Hyung’s perfectly logical answer, I cleared my throat.

The data updated through the regular physical examinations provided by the Center was frequently used for matching rate tests with high-ranking teams.

I’d heard that if the matching rate was high with all team members, the Esper side would be the first to request a dedicated Guide.

Or be forcibly assigned.

I just didn’t think it would be me.

‘Our Barrier division is famous for being easy to work in. Compared to the Attack division, it won’t be hard at all.’

Hyung continued the conversation, maintaining a bright smile.

He had the look of someone who knew his smile was effective.

He felt like a completely different species from me, who lived by either glaring with slanted eyes or staring at the floor.

Even when I tried to intentionally glare at his bright smile that kept drawing my gaze, the strength in my eyes kept draining away.

As if closing my eyes against the bright sun.

‘It’s okay to just try it out for a month provisionally. We don’t just drag people in like the Attack division. Absolutely not.’

His deep, soft voice, hard to forget once heard, seemed to melt right through me.

My wariness was already melting.

Perking up my ears at his gentle tone, my heart already leaning towards ‘yes’, I moved my lips.

‘…Even just for a month?’

In response to my timid question, Hyung gave a smile that threw wide open the doors of my heart, which had just begun to crack open.

‘If you can, will you do it?’

As his handsome eyes curved into crescents, my heart pounded wildly as if it were bending along with them.

It was strange how he could be so quick to smile, yet his presence felt so profound.

I had fallen for Hyung in just three minutes.

He was someone you couldn’t help but fall for.

‘Think about it slowly. It’s okay to refuse.’

Refuse? As if.

Having already completed the imprinting process with Hyung in my imagination, I answered immediately.

In a very loud voice, so as to drown out the sound of my pounding heart.

“O-Okay!”

“Who is?”

Hyung shook me awake as I shouted in my sleep, my hand even shooting up.

At that same moment, the dream fled.

I squeezed my eyes shut and mumbled, trying to fall back asleep.

I was reluctant to let go of that precious moment of my first meeting with Hyung just like that.

I wanted to feel the fresh, youthful flutter of excitement, which could only be felt back then, for just a little longer.

“Ah, just a little… more, more….”

“Yeong-u, I’m right here. Right next to you.”

But because of Hyung, who woke me up by prying my eyelids open, I couldn’t continue the dream.

It was such a sweet dream.

It was such a waste that my brow furrowed the moment I opened my eyes.

I couldn’t even smile at the touch of Hyung’s fingertips gently rubbing my creased eyebrows.

Shying away from Hyung’s hand, I covered my face with the blanket and turned onto my side.

I felt gloomy, as if I’d been robbed of the chance to have a budding romance with the younger Hyung.

“Don’t.”

Hyung, who of course had no way of knowing my thoughts, followed me under the covers and started bothering me.

“What was so good?”

As I tried to hide my face in the pillow to escape the barrage of kisses from Hyung, he threw the pillow far away.

Smack! I hit the shoulder of Hyung, who was being annoying so early in the morning, and scowled deeply.

But it wasn’t long before I burst out laughing.

Because Hyung had started tickling my waist.

“What did you dream about? Hurry up and tell me.”

Pecking at my lips like a bird and giving me no time to speak, Hyung kept pressing for an answer.

When I deliberately kept my mouth shut and didn’t respond, his hands kneading my waist became even more persistent.

“Ah, don’t—I told you to stop!”

“Why are you making such lewd noises in the morning? You’re making your Hyung’s heart flutter.”

Hyung, who tormented me by knowing my sensitive spots like a psychic, nibbled on the shell of my ear.

He laughed, asking me to make those sounds louder as if they were something pleasant to hear in broad daylight.

Anyway, he really loves that kind of thing.

“Babe, you know I even get jealous of your dreams, right?”

“I don’t know that.”

“Wow, that hurts.”

At my sullen response, Hyung said he was hurt and trapped me in his broad embrace.

Among regular men, not Espers, I was on the larger side, but whenever I was held snugly in Hyung’s arms, my own frame felt small.

“Ah, seriously! Stop it!”

I scolded Hyung, smacking his shoulders repeatedly as he nudged my lips with his, waiting for me to kiss him.

I wondered where the mature Hyung from my dream had gone.

Though, of course, I like this side of him too.

Even after getting his fill of my smacks, Hyung grinned and swiftly turned my body to face him.

With his face, which I never tired of seeing, right in front of me, the corners of my mouth twitched on their own.

Hyung was as handsome as ever today.

“Do you like me that much?”

As I was admiring his face to my heart’s content and about to kiss him, Hyung teased me with a smiling-eyed grin.

I glared and said something I didn’t mean, pretending I didn’t like it.

At that, Hyung started pecking at my mouth again and mumbled with our lips pressed together.

“But I do.”

He’s really making my heart flutter this early in the morning.

It was a confession I’d been hearing for eight years now, but it was still just as wonderful to hear.

Unable to resist kissing him, I parted my lips in invitation, and Hyung grinned before tilting his head.

“I like me too, Yeong-u.”

“Get lost.”

Despite telling him to get lost, I clung to his shoulders and pressed my lips against his.

I’d long since grown used to the ever-playful Hyung, so I completely ignored most of his wordplay.

“Yeong-u, Hyung’s hungry.”

“Let’s eat then.”

“No, not for food.”

Hyung’s leg, full of vigor whenever he looked at me, pushed its way between my knees.

Spreading my knees wider, I made the sounds that Hyung liked and buried my face in his firm shoulder.

Kissing my cheek, Hyung moved closer to my ear and whispered something naughty.

This was something I was crazy about.

[TL Note: Hyung – A Korean word meaning “older brother” that a younger male uses to address an older male sibling or close male friend. It’s not just about age—it also expresses closeness, respect, and affection. In many Korean stories (especially BL or slice-of-life), “Hyung” is often used by a younger male character to refer to someone he’s emotionally close to, even if they’re not blood-related.]