Chapter 7: Sharing Divine Essence

Just then, Jichan quickly shoved Hanseong away and removed the hand covering his eyes.

He had hit him hard enough to make a thwack, but the fact that Hanseong seemed to have withdrawn willingly rather than because he had been pushed back by force only made Jichan feel worse.

“What the hell was that?!”

“I was going to share my vital essence with you.”

Hanseong shrugged, wearing that same inscrutable smile, and let out a small sigh.

‘Who would have thought that handling my mate would be this difficult?’

“What exactly do you mean by sharing vital essence?
Do you have to cover my eyes?
Why does it have to be like you’re about to do something…?”

“Like I’m about to do something?”

“No, it’s just the feeling I got.”

“Then what exactly are you talking about?”

Jichan shut his mouth.

How could he possibly say aloud that Hanseong had been acting as though he was about to kiss him?

Of course, there was no doubt that this damn tiger could see straight through his innermost thoughts.

Was he a god or wasn’t he?

Jichan felt as though he were constantly teetering between those two possibilities.

The man who called himself a god drove a foreign luxury car and claimed that they had to arrive at the most famous hotel in the city to share their vital essence.

In his thirty-two years of life, Jichan had never even spent a single night in a hotel, let alone owned a foreign luxury car.

Honestly, Hanseong gave off the unmistakable impression of a cult leader.

Anyone would have thought the same.

However, despite all that, it was difficult for Jichan to dismiss everything he had experienced as nothing more than an elaborate dream.

Perhaps, despite weighing the pros and cons and letting his imagination run wild with all sorts of possibilities, he had ultimately acknowledged Hanseong as a god.

That had to be why he had followed him all the way here.

“Let’s get out.”

Leaving Jichan lost in thought, Hanseong stepped out of the car.

Jichan stared at him with eyes full of confusion before following him out.

Watching Hanseong’s back as he silently headed toward the elevator, Jichan scratched his head.

Even now, a small seed of doubt remained in his mind about whether it was really all right to follow Hanseong into the hotel.

Watching Hanseong press the elevator button and wait for it to arrive, Jichan could not help letting out a sigh.

The saying, If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it, suddenly came to mind.

‘But is this really something I can’t avoid?
All I’ve ever done is try my best to live my life.’

Although, if he was being honest, he had been living not so much for himself as for the family members who had passed away before him.

Deciding that he might as well face it head-on, Jichan stepped up beside Hanseong.

When the elevator arrived, he stepped inside and simply watched as Hanseong pressed the button for the thirty-fourth floor.

An awkward silence settled between them.

Hanseong also looked unmistakably nervous in his own way, though his poker face remained unchanged.

“When we reach the thirty-fourth floor, you won’t be able to get out.
You might experience that pain that pressed down on your entire body last time.
That’s what the divine realm is like.
Back then, it was the divine power of only one of them, Jujak.
But everyone is gathered here now.
The power here will be far too much for a human like you to withstand.
And I…”

Hanseong had been quietly watching the numbers rise.

Now, he slowly turned around and looked at Jichan.

“I’m going to kiss you and share my vital essence with you.”

Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four.

Ding.

The elevator doors opened with a chime announcing their arrival at the thirty-fourth floor.

And Jichan had no choice but to collapse to his knees.

“Ugh!”

The moment the doors opened, an overwhelming pressure and a wave of dizziness swept over him.

He could not remain standing.

It felt as though an immense gravitational force was crushing his entire body, making it difficult even to lift his head.

The hand that had barely managed to grip the elevator’s safety rail was forced away as well.

All he could see were Hanseong’s shoes standing in front of him.

It was an unfamiliar, bizarre sensation that made it difficult even to breathe.

He could not open his mouth or produce a sound.

Once again, that instinctive fear from before surged up from the depths of Jichan’s being.

Just then, the elevator doors slid shut again, and the breath that had been trapped in his lungs burst free all at once.

“Hah, haaah…”

Even sitting on the floor, he could not muster the strength to move.

Instead, his limp hand, resting weakly against the floor, trembled faintly.

“I don’t want to hurt you.
But the divine realm is more dangerous than any other place.
For that reason, you have to trust me.
I will cherish and protect you as my mate.
That will never change.
But if you don’t trust me, I won’t be able to protect you.”

For the first time, Hanseong’s firm voice pierced his ears.

Jichan could not understand why those words—I will protect you—kept sounding so desperate.

Slowly, he raised his head to look up.

Hanseong knelt down on one knee in front of him.

“Humans are truly strong.
Or perhaps you’re the strong one.”

After uttering those incomprehensible words, Hanseong raised one hand and lifted Jichan’s chin.

“I’m only sharing my vital essence with you.
So I hope you won’t feel too uncomfortable about it.”

His voice was different from before.

It was gentle, yet carried a strange, inexplicable quality.

Then Hanseong’s lips slowly descended and rested lightly against Jichan’s.

He sucked on Jichan’s lower lip before slipping his hot tongue between his lips.

Jichan hesitated at first, but when he did not push Hanseong away and parted his lips slightly, Hanseong’s soft tongue slipped inside.

It brushed over Jichan’s teeth before Hanseong tilted his head slightly and began exploring deeper, leaving no space untouched.

Meanwhile, Jichan felt something hot travel down his throat.

He raised his hand and clutched Hanseong’s shirt collar.

Within the small, tightly enclosed space of the elevator, the sticky sounds of their lips meeting filled the air.

A hazy sensation suddenly washed over him, and he furrowed his brows with his eyes closed.

His breathing grew ragged, and a sharp tingling throbbed at the base of his skull.

Hanseong had said they were only sharing vital essence, but at that moment, Jichan could not care less about vital essence or anything else.

He had completely forgotten that the person kissing him possessed a man’s body.

Releasing his grip on Hanseong’s shirt, he wrapped his arms around Hanseong’s neck instead.

Hanseong released Jichan’s chin and gently stroked his cheek, then began teasing the area around his ear.

With his other hand gripping the elevator’s safety rail, he enclosed Jichan in his arms and continued moving his lips against his.

His tongue swept through Jichan’s mouth until he found Jichan’s tongue.

Their hot, soft tongues tangled together, and Jichan gradually began to respond.

Hanseong caught Jichan’s tongue between his own, sucked on it with his lips before releasing it, then plunged deeper again, licking and drawing it into his mouth.

The wet, smacking sounds made the already heated air grow even hotter.

Jichan’s chest rose and fell heavily.

When Hanseong lightly stroked the line of his neck, Jichan shuddered.

“Ah… Ngh.”

Hanseong briefly parted their lips and tilted his head in the opposite direction.

The breath and moan Jichan had been holding back escaped his mouth.

Unable even to think about opening his eyes after hearing the breath he had let out unconsciously, Jichan bit his lower lip.

The fingers that had been stroking his neck slid down to the buttons of his shirt.

When Hanseong lightly traced his collarbone, Jichan’s head tilted upward slightly.

“Hng!”

As Jichan’s eyes slowly began to open, Hanseong lifted the hand that had been teasing him and covered his eyes again.

“…What… are you… doing?”

For a moment, only their ragged breathing could be heard.

When Hanseong remained silent with his hand covering Jichan’s eyes, Jichan spoke once more.

“Hanseong…”

Hanseong lifted the hand that had been gripping the safety rail and covered his own mouth as he turned his head away.

There was no way he could let Jichan see the expression on his face right now.

He did not know why, but some wicked emotion kept surging up from deep inside him, making his vision blur.

Watching Jichan respond to his touch with his eyes closed had stirred something resembling a long-suppressed desire.

He was certain that his gaze must have been filled with lust and possessiveness.

He had promised himself that he would take things slowly.

Yet a single kiss to share vital essence had been enough to awaken the possessiveness he had barely managed to conceal and suppress.

And then there was the fact that Jichan had called his name for the first time.

The first time his mate had ever spoken his name.

He wanted to hear it again.

He wanted Jichan to call him by name a little more.

He wanted to savor his lips a little longer and caress his skin a little more.

Once he held him in his arms, he wanted to kiss him.

Once he kissed him, he wanted to do even more.

Everyone’s attachment to their mate was strong.

But Hanseong was someone who could not help feeling deeply attached to everything within his own territory, so the intensity of his feelings was on an entirely different level.

And the person in question was Jichan.

That was why he wanted to give his mate, whose life was but a fleeting instant compared to his own, enough time before bringing him into his world.

Of course, there was nothing left in his mate’s life that he would be reluctant to leave behind.

Hanseong knew that.

Even so, he wanted to take things just a little more slowly.

“I asked you what you’re doing.
Is this some kind of ritual, too?”

Jichan’s low, husky voice reached Hanseong once more.

‘Damn it.
This wasn’t why I’d held myself back while watching him all this time.’

Muttering under his breath, Hanseong removed the hand covering both his and Jichan’s faces.

Jichan opened his eyes and blinked several times, trying to bring his vision into focus.

The hazy, dreamlike feeling still lingered.

He did not feel disgusted about kissing a man, either.

Was it because Hanseong was his mate?

If anything, he might have enjoyed it even more.

Jichan quickly shook his head, trying to erase the thought.

There was no telling whether that sly tiger was listening to his thoughts again.

However, Hanseong seemed lost in his own thoughts and did not notice even that small gesture.

“…I was being considerate because I thought you might feel embarrassed.”

After a brief pause, Hanseong spoke while looking at Jichan with that inscrutable smile of his, as though nothing had happened.

“Embarrassed?
What’s there to be embarrassed about?
It’s a ritual for sharing vital essence!
That’s what it is, isn’t it?”

Jichan raised his voice in a fluster, afraid Hanseong might notice how his ears were still burning.

Perhaps there was some strange drug mixed into that damn vital essence.

He still felt dazed and languid, and he staggered.

Hanseong quickly caught him and leaned in until their faces were mere inches apart.

“Then shall we do it one more time?”

“Oh, seriously!”

Jichan’s face turned red in an instant, and he struck Hanseong in the stomach.

He had shoved out his hand purely on instinct, but it seemed that even this time, he had barely done any damage.

“Ugh, that hurts.”

Hanseong’s delayed reaction made Jichan scoff.

‘Does he think I’m an idiot?’

Boxing had only ever been a hobby, but when he had taken lessons, people had told him that his punches packed quite a sting.

Was it because Hanseong was a god?

Or because he was a tiger?

Whatever the reason, he barely seemed to feel the impact, which only irritated Jichan.

“If your stomach hurts so much, how about sharing some of your vital essence with me…?”

“You damn tiger!”

“My, my.
My dear mate is rather violent.”

Hanseong straightened up from the slight hunch he had adopted to pretend he was in pain and raised a hand toward Jichan’s face.

Jichan flinched in surprise, but the moment he felt Hanseong’s finger brush across his lips, he widened his eyes.

Hanseong’s slightly curved eyes looked amused.

My dear mate.

My dear mate.

For some reason, the words tickled Jichan’s ears.

“Your lips are glistening, so I can’t help looking at them.”

Realizing what Hanseong meant, Jichan’s ears flushed red once more.

Apparently, some of the saliva he had not managed to swallow remained on his lips after that sticky act that was written as sharing vital essence but read as kissing.

Hanseong looked perfectly fine, while Jichan seemed to be the only one falling apart.

It made him feel strangely queasy.

He forced himself to think that it was probably just because they were in the divine realm.

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