Chapter 84: Playing with Fire

The hasty sound of heels from behind told me Hyun Taewoon was chasing me, but to show that I was ignoring him, I walked forward without reacting.

“Lee Shinui! I have something to say.”

Before I could get far, he hurriedly grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.
I swatted his hand off with my shoulder and glared at him with a displeased face.

“What.”

“Why are you asking about the anti-Awakened?”

“Didn’t you hear me earlier? I said I was curious.”

“There’s no way you’d be curious for no reason.”

As he said, I wasn’t just curious for no reason.
I wanted to find the time-traveling Esper who might be in the anti-Awakened group before the devil’s gate opened.

“I have a strange feeling. It’s not like you received an offer to join from the anti-Awakened group, is it?”

I was surprised by his sharp question, but come to think of it, it was a situation that anyone could have predicted.

Not wanting to answer his question meekly, I kept my mouth shut.
Seeing me like that, he continued with an anxious face.

“Actually, I think the intruder this time was a member of the anti-Awakened.”

“So?”

Since I had already met the leader who had approached me, I already knew the intruder’s identity.
But for now, I pretended not to know and waited for his next words.

“I’m worried because I think they came looking for you.”

“It’s not your place to worry. Even I, the person involved, am not worried.”

“How can you not be worried? You’re not really thinking of going over to their side, are you?”

“I said I have no intention of going!”

At his unexpectedly persistent words, I ended up raising my voice.
He didn’t seem to realize that his concern was not coming across as a favor to me.

“It’s been on my mind ever since you were kidnapped last time.”

The image of his desperate face as he searched for me in the anti-Awakened hideout came to mind.
Just like then, he had an anxious face, as if he were afraid of losing me.

“…If you do go, tell me.”

“Why? Are you going to follow me or something?”

“Yeah. I’ll follow you.”

A laugh escaped me at his words that he would follow me.
Did he not know that the reason I had been trying to leave the Association was because of him?
Even if that wasn’t the case, I had no intention of going with him.

“I clearly said I have no intention of going. I don’t want to talk to you, so let’s stop.”

I said firmly and moved towards the elevator again.
He still followed behind me with a worried face.
I said without even looking at him.

“Don’t follow me.”

“The Association knows. That the anti-Awakened came to your exclusive room.”

At those words, my legs froze on their own.
His words now… meant that both the Association and he had been pretending not to know that the anti-Awakened had come to my exclusive room.
I forced my stiffened body to turn and look at him.

“You knew and you were testing me?”

“I couldn’t help it. Because I don’t know your heart.”

“Don’t make a fool of people like this. And why is the Association pretending not to know?”

More than him, I was puzzled as to why the Association was pretending not to know.
If they had known that I had been in contact with the anti-Awakened, they should have stopped me from even wandering around like this.

“You think they’re pretending not to know? You’re already being watched.”

At the words that I was already being watched, my mind froze for a moment, and it was hard to think.

I hadn’t noticed at all.
Even though I had been tricked by the Association’s sinister schemes several times…
If it hadn’t been for his words, I would have been tricked again this time without knowing.

“I can keep blocking the Association, but you could be suddenly kidnapped like last time. So please, don’t get interested in the anti-Awakened group.”

“I can take care of myself. You don’t have to worry.”

With those words, I ran to the elevator that was just opening and got on.
Fortunately, he did not follow me into the elevator.
In the elevator, a curse towards the Association and him escaped my lips.

I knew I was a person of interest to the Association, but it was unsettling to be secretly watched.

Even after I came down to the exclusive room in the basement, the unpleasant feeling followed.
Before closing the door of the exclusive room, I saw his teleported figure, but I closed the door as if to reject him.

Contrary to his words, I couldn’t feel the Association’s surveillance.
It was possible that I just hadn’t noticed, so I cautiously looked around, but I couldn’t feel the blatant wavelength of an Esper.

“Hyung, I think I’ll be at the Center late today.”

At Wonjae’s words, who was moving to the individual training room with me, I came to my senses and looked at him.

“Is it because of the Esper awakening training?”

“…Yes.”

To be honest, I wasn’t happy to hear that he was receiving Esper awakening training.
I knew that there would be a price for not following the laws of nature, so I didn’t want him to get hurt.

“Can’t you quit? To be honest, I’m worried.”

“I’ll try a little more. But I’ll definitely be home.”

I repeatedly told him to quit, but he didn’t easily bend his will, as if he had made up his mind in his own way.
In the end, he got off at the A-Class training floor, and I moved to the S-Class training floor.

As I was heading to the training room with a worried heart, I felt the wavelength of Sung Yohan, who had always hidden his wavelength.

It was as if he wanted to tell me that he was there.
As expected, I saw him leaning against the door of my training room.

“Shinui-ssi, you’re here?”

“Why are you here?”

“I thought you were getting along well with Taewoon, so I tried to follow his example. I want to be friends with you too.”

“I’m not getting along well with him. What’s your business here?”

He wouldn’t have come to see me for no reason.
What kind of scheme did he have in mind this time?

“I wanted to apologize to you.”

At the word ‘apology’, suspicion arose.
I stared at his face to find out his true intentions.
He looked down at me with a face that had never apologized in his life.

“An apology?”

“Yes. I think I’ve been pushing you too hard lately.”

The words ‘Was that something that could be passed off as just pushing?’ came up to my throat, but I held them back and asked.

“Suddenly? Why did you suddenly think that?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. Since I’ve always done contact guiding with my pairs, I thought it would be okay to do that with you too. I’m sorry.”

To be honest, whenever he blatantly demanded guiding, I could somewhat predict what kind of guiding he had been doing with guides until now.
But whatever guiding he had been doing, he couldn’t treat me as he wished.

“You’re not trying to end it with just an apology after forcibly attacking someone, are you?”

“I also regret trying to force an imprinting. Sincerely. I won’t just end it with a verbal apology.”

His face was one of apology, but I couldn’t accept it meekly.
He must have had some ulterior motive.

“I’ll try to become a person you want. Please trust me.”

I was a little flustered at his submissive attitude, which was a change from his usual coercive self.

I could understand why he had changed his attitude.
Who else could provide such stable guiding to an Esper as an S-Class guide with a high matching rate?
He was clinging to me like this because he needed my guiding.

If I continued to be affiliated with the Association, I wouldn’t be able to avoid his guiding forever.
And there would surely be times when I would need him too.
That’s why, for now, it seemed better to put his apology on hold rather than rejecting it.
And it had also been a problem when he had approached me so recklessly.

“I don’t want to be disliked by you.”

“I can’t accept your apology right now. I’ll think about it and give you an answer.”

“Really?”

He came to my side at some point and held my hand tightly.
I swatted his hand away and asked him about a part that had been bothering me for a while.

“By the way, why haven’t you been coming home lately?”

“Did you miss me? Then I’ll start coming back from today.”

Hearing my words, he acted as if he would come home right away.
To correct his misunderstanding, I said hurriedly.

“I didn’t miss you. To be honest, it’s more comfortable without you. So, why haven’t you been coming?”

The reason I had asked this was because the time when he had stopped coming home was after his conversation with him.

“It’s a secret.”

“It makes me more curious because you say it’s a secret. If you want to be friends with me, shouldn’t there be no secrets?”

“Even if I want to tell you, I can’t do this one.”

“Isn’t it because of him?”

For a moment, his expression changed subtly.
As expected, it was related to him.

“Why do you think so?”

“You haven’t been coming since you talked to him on the day of the photo shoot.”

“Half of that is right and half is wrong. You have a better intuition than I thought, Shinui-ssi.”

I knew he would never tell me, but I asked for the reason again.
But as expected, he didn’t answer and changed the subject.

“Don’t try to know too deeply. Nothing good will come from knowing.”

He looked at me with the dry eyes he had occasionally shown and said.
The moment I saw those eyes, I became nervous without realizing it.

“The words I said about changing for you are true. Please think positively about my apology.”

He said and then disappeared.
Only after he was gone did I realize that my body had been stiff with tension.
For some reason, my body became unusually tense and rigid when I was with him.

I looked at the spot where Sung Yohan had been again.
The most dangerous person here might be him.