Chapter 17: Because I’m Addicted to You

The cheap tray that had only contained tofu stew, spinach, and seaweed soup was suddenly topped with luxury side dishes made from expensive ingredients.

Saliva flooded Lee Chae’s mouth.

And his pride cracked.

He glared up at Haejin with murder in his eyes.

Haejin just smiled sweetly and silently ate his own rice.

Infuriating, but Lee Chae pretended to be unaffected.

This had to be another “drive him crazy with frustration until he reacts” tactic.

The best counter: no reaction.

Don’t feed the lunatic.

He swallowed the rising anger, forced the gritty rice down his throat like sand.

His chest felt blocked—he might choke.

Still, out of pure spite, he finished every single side dish Haejin had given him.

Haejin narrowed his eyes, alternating between the empty tray and Lee Chae’s face.

You’re frustrated too now that I ate it all and gave zero reaction, right? Good. Taste your own medicine.

Victory tasted sweet.

Haejin stood with his tray.

A moment later he returned with a new one and started refilling Lee Chae’s tray again, grinning.

“You eat like a hamster. So f*cking cute. I’ve lost my mind.”

A fangirl staring at her ultimate bias—Lee Chae was speechless.

He wasn’t trying to frustrate me… he’s just actually insane?

Seeing Haejin lick his lips while staring at him, not the food, with genuine adoration, Lee Chae’s brain went blank.

He had spent the whole day trying not to fall into traps—every effort had been pointless shoveling.

The shock was indescribable.

The next day, the day after, and every day after that—Cha Haejin’s “Make Jung Lee Chae explode” operation ran perfectly.

He endured frustrating, ridiculous situations far better than expected.

Maybe because he was an esper numb to pain, or maybe he was just too dumb to realize he was suffering—either way, his persistence was monstrous.

Every morning at the exact same time he camped in front of Lee Chae’s house.

Followed all 21 credits of useless classes.

Rode the shitty public transport together.

Practically lived in the library despite never studying.

Wiped desks and library seats with wet wipes like a maniac.

If Lee Chae skipped a meal, Haejin skipped too.

Waited stubbornly outside the cleanup crew entrance (never inside, respecting the one boundary) and walked him home.

Is this really worth this much effort?

Lee Chae found him annoying, incomprehensible, and the frustration was killing him.

Another separate hell of frustration.

Today, as usual, Haejin claimed the seat beside him.

Lee Chae glared at the guy drooling over new weapon catalogs.

Long legs half-folded, one foot wiggling, eyes sparkling—he looked every inch the weapon-obsessed esper.

Just looking at him felt like those eyes could murder people.

Lee Chae suppressed the urge to slap his cheek and reviewed today’s notes, then stood.

Haejin followed like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Not glued to his side like before, no nonsense talk.

Ha… doesn’t he ever get tired?

This can’t continue.

Lee Chae stopped abruptly and turned.

Haejin stopped too, looking at him.

Lee Chae beckoned—come here.

Haejin instantly stood right in front of him.

“How long are you going to keep this up?”

“…Keep what?”

“This pointless war of attrition.”

“War of attrition…? Babe, why do you say it so hurtfully? This isn’t attrition or a war.”

“Then what is it?”

Haejin suddenly blushed and winked.

Terror struck first—what was coming?

“Love.”

Fck, fck, FCK!*

Lee Chae wasn’t the type to curse easily, but it burst out.

He crumpled his face like he’d heard something unhearable and turned away.

Love? There’s sht people should and shouldn’t say!*

Unbelievable.

What had they even done together for him to say “love”?

He’d been consistently cold because he didn’t want to accept him—was this result even sane?

Unless the guy was a real pervert, even the purest one-sided love should stop when the other person reacts like this.

Lee Chae prided himself on rejecting Haejin perfectly clearly.

He’d done the practical only because he had no choice, kept saying he hated it, wiped his lips three times in front of him after the kiss, shoved his shoulder on the way out.

He’d failed to escape, but he never responded to anything, tried not to get angry at perverted remarks.

So what the hell was the problem?

Wait… is he actually a pervert? The type that gets more excited the more he’s rejected…?

It was common knowledge that many espers were perverts—instinct-driven, bodies always burning.

Then… if I pretend to like him back…

He shook his head violently.

Almost none of his guesses about this guy had ever been right.

If he pretended to like him and was wrong again, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Haejin, who had been quietly following, spoke first for once.

“I really am doing this because I like you. What lunatic would do all this for someone he doesn’t care about? This is a first for me. Hamst— no, Lee Chae-ya.”

“I’ve said it a hundred times—I have zero interest in you. So can you please stop now?”

Dead serious.

Even though Haejin had never left his side once, no interest had grown.

He knew Haejin looked scary from afar but up close had shining eyes and a beauty-like face, knew he was smarter than professors despite never listening in class, knew he was surprisingly easygoing for a rich kid—he really, truly, not even a little bit cared.

“There’s no way you have zero interest in me…”

He was about to ignore it, but the sentence was impossible to ignore.

Lee Chae stopped again.

“Delusional much? Based on what—”

The playful grin vanished.

The mischievous eyes turned dead serious.

“Fine, call it delusion. Whether you’re interested in me or not doesn’t even matter.”

“…So the lunatic finally shows his true colors? You’ll just do whatever you want regardless of my feelings? That makes you complete trash.”

Words bypassed his brain.

All the anger he’d bottled up exploded.

But as always, Haejin wasn’t hurt in the slightest.

“If Jung Lee Chae truly had zero interest in me, then yeah, I’d be trash. But what can I do? I can’t function without you…”

His dark brown eyes trembled slightly.

Lee Chae, who had been about to hurl more insults, froze.

He wasn’t used to Haejin being serious.

Looking at the man with his head slightly bowed, Lee Chae finally had a rational suspicion.

An S-class esper living in constant combat, with an abysmal matching rate, never properly guided—always thirsty.

Then he finds a D-class guide who, against all odds, matches him perfectly.

Regardless of romantic feelings, the guiding hunger would be inevitable.

Lee Chae tested it immediately.

“It’s because of the guiding, right? You ‘can’t function without me’ because of guiding. If I give you regular guiding sessions, will you stop all this crazy sh*t?”

Haejin looked dumbfounded, then burst out laughing.

“That’s hilarious. You really think I’m doing all this just for guiding…? You’re even cuter than I thought.”

The tone was joking, but the face was dead serious—impossible to tell truth from lie.

Lee Chae assumed truth and asked what he really wanted to know.

“If it’s not because of guiding, then why the hell are you acting like a stalker beyond all common sense?”

Haejin pressed his temples like his head hurt.

“I’ve told you multiple times. I said I like you, you didn’t seem to get it so I said ‘love’ in English, you seemed grossed out by direct words so I switched to ‘interest.’”

He understood the words perfectly.

What he wanted was the root cause—why those feelings existed at all.

“So why—unless you’re a pervert—why stalk someone who clearly hates it? I’m not asking about your feelings, I’m asking why you even have them.”

“Ah, you mean why I keep chasing? That kind of thing?”

Not exactly, but close enough—Lee Chae nodded.

Haejin looked up at the sky for a moment, then locked eyes with him and said,

“Because the moment I’m not chasing you, I’ll want to die.”