Chapter 13: The Contaminated First Kiss

Ethan’s new task involved meticulously comparing physical books with their digital counterparts available online, then compiling a separate list of any discrepancies. This was truly an eye-straining endeavor, yet it was precisely the kind of work robots couldn’t accomplish.

“Comparing physical books and e-books? When we have all the documents, how am I even supposed to find anything?” he grumbled.

He picked up a stack of books, prioritizing them for his work, and settled down at a spacious desk equipped with a monitor. Once he started, he found himself more engrossed than anticipated.

Less than an hour into his work, a knock echoed at the door. Only Bliss had the habit of appearing suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. Therefore, Ethan assumed it was either Dale, knocking politely, or perhaps Philip.

“Come in!” he called out, only to instantly regret it.

“Dale was standing at the door with cookies, so I told him I’d bring them in myself,” Enoch said, entering with a casual air.

Ethan snapped the book he was reading shut with a resounding ‘thwack.’

“Did Scott go to see his parents again?” he asked, his voice edged with an unusual sharpness.

Despite the pointed tone, Enoch maintained a relaxed expression. He leaned against Ethan’s desk and poured tea into a cup.

“No, Scott will find it hard to move today.”

“Why?”

The moment Ethan asked, a look of realization crossed his face. Enoch smiled meaningfully, his eyes crinkling.

“He had quite a hot night yesterday.”

Ethan felt a flush creep up his face, yet he tried to respond as if unaffected. “They’ve only just been matched, though. He should still be by Scott’s side…”

“He’s fast asleep. He barely got any sleep until this morning.”

Ethan, unaccustomed to such brazen remarks, felt his face burn even hotter. Fearing that continuing the conversation would only lead to more explicit details assaulting his ears, he eventually sighed in resignation.

“Do you have something specific to tell me?” Ethan asked.

“Not necessarily,” Enoch replied, his tone deceptively casual. “But it felt as though two people were within the radius of my power when I had that seizure at the testing center.”

“I was told your ability was electricity-based,” Ethan said, feigning surprise. “I didn’t realize you could manifest powers like clairvoyance or detection.”

“I don’t possess clairvoyance or detection abilities. However, an Esper of A-rank or higher can sense if there are other living beings within their field. And surely, there weren’t any animals in a testing center filled solely with humans?”

Today, Ethan found himself remarkably tongue-tied. With every soft, measured statement Enoch delivered, cloaked in a relaxed smile, a sharp probe pierced through Ethan like an ice pick. Ethan mentally counted to calm himself, then widened his eyes as if to ask what the problem was.

“It’s only natural that I was there,” Ethan asserted. “As I told you yesterday, I was shouting at Scott to come out, but eventually, I turned to head toward the shelter. I don’t know the exact size of your field, Lord Enoch, but I imagine an A-rank Esper would possess quite a broad one. If not, then I was certainly near Scott and joined the evacuating people, so I would have been within your field.”

“You seem to know quite a lot about Espers.”

“…Because I’m Scott’s friend,” Ethan offered.

Enoch recalled Scott, an Esper-Guide enthusiast, and chuckled softly, as if in understanding. Just as Ethan began to relax, thinking the subject had passed, Enoch spoke again.

“Then, who was the Guide who calmed my seizure?”

“!!!”

Suddenly, Enoch’s face was alarmingly close. Before Ethan, who was frozen with wide eyes, Enoch’s perfectly balanced lips whispered, maintaining a precarious distance.

“Do you think a Guide with a 30% matching rate could reach over 50% in an emergency?”

A Guide capable of instantly calming a seizure typically required a matching rate of 50% or higher. Yet, Scott and Enoch shared only a 30% matching rate.

Although Ethan had lived the life of an ordinary actor, entirely unrelated to Espers and Guides, Enoch, having grown up in a family whose business was an Esper-Guide pharmaceutical company, was already remarkably well-versed in such matters.

Trying to pull away, Ethan leaned back so far he was almost lying in his chair, rigid and forgetting to breathe. It was the moment Enoch, his eyes narrowed in a smile, was about to touch Ethan’s lips when a cool, calm voice spoke from behind them.

“It’s not entirely without precedent.”

“!!!”

Enoch’s face instantly recoiled.

“There’s a precedent?”

“In our records. There was a case during the war. It’s rare, but not unheard of. It’s information accessible to researchers of Cloud Corporation, so you can verify it if you wish.”

Bliss’s blue and gray odd eyes cast a gaze that was chillingly calm. It was Enoch who turned his head away first.

“What a shame. It was a chance to kiss a beauty.”

Bliss clicked his tongue lowly, looking at the still-frozen Ethan, then placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Breathe.”

‘Hah.’ Ethan, who had been stiff like a broken doll, startled violently and sprang to his feet.

“Aargh! My first kiss! My first kiss has been contaminated! How could this happen?!”

Enoch and Bliss’s gazes simultaneously fixed on Ethan.

“Your first kiss?!”

Regardless of their surprise, Ethan, whose heart was pounding like a drum, saw nothing but his own distress.

“What are you going to do?! It’s contaminated! You’ve poured polluted water all over the precious memory of my first kiss!”

“Ah, no, contaminated? I didn’t even touch you.”

Enoch, pushed back by Ethan’s furious accusations, steadily retreated. The positions seemed to have reversed from moments ago, and the sticky atmosphere vanished, replaced by words beyond imagination.

“It is contaminated! Now, at the most important moment of my life, when I’m about to have my first kiss, I’ll remember Enoch Cloud breathing on my lips with the very same lips that bit, sucked, and licked my best friend’s butt just last night! What am I supposed to do?! Are you trying to do a Guide test with your tongue?! It’s fine if you just use your tongue, Lord Enoch, but leave my tongue out of it!”

Bliss’s usually expressionless face involuntarily twisted as he listened to Ethan’s outburst. Enoch, for his part, found himself wondering if he had truly done something so filthy.

“Uh… I… I’m sorry?”

“Aargh! For my first kiss, I always wanted a fluffy, dream-like kiss with someone I truly loved! Now, my first kiss is beyond fluffy! I’m going crazy! They say Enoch Cloud’s heavenly beauty ensnares people and devours them, and I almost became one of his victims!”

Ethan, in a panic, frantically rubbed his untouched lips and dashed out. A hint of tears seemed to glisten in the corners of his eyes. Outside the door he had burst through, Dale and Philip stood, their expressions silently chastising Enoch. Their faces seemed to say:

‘Lord Enoch is trash.’

“Did I… devour… No, is that really my reputation?” Enoch stammered, turning to Bliss.

Bliss, too, wore a rare, dazed expression.

“……”

****

‘Damn it, damn it!’

Ethan rushed through the garden, arriving at the lake, and furiously wiped his crimson face. He was glad to have created enough distance to escape further suspicion, but he deeply regretted blurting out that embarrassing story about his first kiss.

A ‘fluffy’ first kiss, indeed. Even if he had only learned about kissing from books and videos, he knew kisses weren’t fluffy. And that wasn’t the only problem.

[That was utterly mortifying.]

Yuwol, the child spirit, giggled, teasing him relentlessly.

“Quiet!” Ethan snapped.

[What’s there to be proud of, not even having your first kiss by the age of twenty-three?]

“I was being careful,” Ethan retorted.

[I’ve never seen a girl confess to you. Boys, yes, but not girls.]

“You say one more word, and you’ll regret it.”

Despite the warning, the delighted spirit couldn’t resist continuing his taunts.

[Who would confess to you? The boys are prettier than the girls who confess. Ah, the old days were good. Back in my time, people got married at thirteen or fourteen.]

Ethan’s lips curled into a smirk. “Yuwol, I don’t know if it’s because you’ve been dead for so long, but you certainly don’t look thirteen or fourteen. You’ll never have a first kiss, kid. And you’ll be a eunuch forever.”

[…You’re too much!]

“Eighty percent of my quick wit was honed because of you,” Ethan said, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

‘Ugh-oh!’

Having successfully made the child spirit cry, Ethan felt a strange sense of relief. Feeling somewhat better after bickering with Yuwol, he sprawled out in the grass by the lakeside.

‘Still, I ended up getting help from Lord Bliss.’

It was something he could have simply ignored. Even if the information’s access level was relatively low, Ethan knew he had nothing that would compel Bliss to go out of his way to mention it.

‘No, unofficially, there is one thing.’

Lost in thought, Ethan called out to the loan shark who had recently taken five silk handkerchiefs from him in an unfair deal.

“Chilbok.”