Chapter 92: Sit Up

Ji Oh, who had joined the scene much later, went to the location where the gate had appeared.

An ominous energy flowed out from the gate, which was a dark violet vortex.

Team leader-class Barrier Espers were gathered and monitoring the gate, preparing for a situation where a creature could pop out at any moment.

“Yeah. I’ll go right after this is over.”

Team Leader Kim, who had stepped away from the group of Barrier Espers for a call, ran into Ji Oh.

It was a call from his partner, telling him to come get some guiding.

He quickly ended the call and, since he’d run into Ji Oh, struck up a conversation.

Seeing the guy’s face sour the moment he saw him, a mischievous urge stirred.

“Why are you so full of energy? Are you out here to play?”

The other Espers looked like they had showered in a pile of dust, but Ji Oh alone was pristine.

His already handsome appearance stood out even more.

It was a stark contrast to the disheveled appearances of the Teleport Espers who had been moving people here and there.

Gathering the creature carcasses and sending them to the Center was also the Teleport Espers’ job, so they all looked like a mess.

“Why haven’t you gotten rid of that thing yet.”

Ji Oh ignored the sweat-drenched Team Leader Kim’s words and asked while glaring at the gate.

‘If Lee Tae Hwan had come, a gate of that size would have been eliminated long ago.’

“Didn’t you see what happened earlier?”

Team Leader Kim put an electronic cigarette in his mouth and scanned Ji Oh’s dust-free combat suit from top to bottom.

‘Did he really just come here to play?’

“What was it, explain.”

Tae Hwan, unable to completely kill a tenacious creature, had shoved it into the gate alive.

Unlike the Lee Tae Hwan who always finished things in one go, he had postponed the cleanup and disappeared somewhere.

‘What could possibly be more urgent than eliminating the gate right now.’

“I said, explain!”

Ignoring Ji Oh, Team Leader Kim just puffed on his cigarette and looked at his phone.

It was full of messages that had piled up while he was focused on the gate.

“……”

He exhaled the smoke he had deeply inhaled, then sucked it back in, his expression hardening as he scanned his missed calls.

There were four missed calls from Guide Yoon.

“Gyu-tae! Come here.”

A Barrier Esper who had been patrolling with a Teleport Esper in the distance heard Team Leader Kim’s call and ran over.

“Were there any guides among the injured?”

“No, sir. They were all civilians.”

“Check again. See if Guide Yoon Bodam is there.”

“Yes, sir.”

While giving the order, he called Bodam.

As the ringing tone dragged on, Team Leader Kim’s expression grew darker and darker.

Thanks to having developed an immunity, Ji Oh’s loud voice asking if Bodam was here was easily ignored.

“Kyaaak!”

When a sudden scream erupted, the heads of both Team Leader Kim, who was focused on the ringing, and Ji Oh, who was trying to snatch the phone, snapped in the same direction.

“Shit,”

As Team Leader Kim reflexively ran toward the scream, Ji Oh also spat out a curse and jumped in after him.

An Esper, his black pupils rolled back, was having a seizure while holding a guide.

Instantly teleporting in front of the guide, Ji Oh grabbed the Esper who was foaming at the mouth and threw him.

“Gyak!”

Because Ji Oh swung his arm too widely, the guide behind him was also hit by his elbow and sent flying.

Thanks to Team Leader Kim enveloping the guide’s body with a barrier, injury was avoided.

Paying no mind to the guide’s scream, Ji Oh focused only on the Esper who was showing preliminary signs of a rampage.

“Ugh! Heu…! Aaargh!”

The Esper, rolling on the ground and vomiting blood, writhed in agony.

Ji Oh drew the knife from his hip, intending to plunge it into the face covered in sticky blood.

The bloodshot whites of the eyes sensed Ji Oh’s presence, and the eyelashes trembled.

Ji Oh lifted his foot, covering the eyes that were shedding tears of blood, and readjusted his grip on the knife.

In that fleeting moment, a burst of flames erupted with a wave of energy and engulfed the Esper’s entire body.

“Ugh.”

Just before the fire could spread to Ji Oh’s body, Team Leader Kim grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, pulled him away, and erected a reinforced wall.

Sensing the energy of a rampage, the Barrier Espers quickly began to gather.

“N-no! He was fine, I swear!”

Behind the group reinforcing the barrier, the cries of a panicking guide could be heard.

The sobbing voice, claiming that the wavelength readings were the same as usual, was muffled by the growing barrier.

‘f*ck. If I had just stabbed him right away, I could have prevented the rampage.’

Watching the Esper surrounded by the reinforced wall, Ji Oh gnashed his teeth.

The expected rampage radius of the Esper, who was large even for an A-class, was enough to swallow the street.

The Esper, his flesh melted away, had now lost his human form, with only a skeleton remaining.

The fate of disappearing without even leaving behind bone fragments for a funeral was approaching.

“Open it.”

Just then, Tae Hwan appeared and knocked on the reinforced wall.

Bang, bang. The Barrier Espers, who staggered even from the force of him flicking the back of his hand as if knocking, stared at Team Leader Kim.

“I said, open it.”

Receiving the signal from Team Leader Kim, who was maintaining the widest barrier, they began to take down the reinforced wall one by one.

As the barrier disappeared, a fierce wind spread, strong enough to send crushed concrete and mangled car frames flying.

It was the wind caused by the rampage.

Tae Hwan seized the wind with his psychokinesis and thrust his bare hand into the pillar of fire that had begun to soar toward the sky.

“Sh-should I help you?”

The Barrier Esper asked Bodam, whose face had become like a dumpling about to explode as it was crushed by Seung Ho’s forehead.

Bodam, who was mulling over Seung Ho’s words, didn’t respond.

He was worried the guide’s chubby cheeks might actually burst.

The Barrier Esper tried to first loosen Team Leader Han’s arm, which was wrapped around the guide’s shoulder.

Thump. The Barrier Esper, who had approached the bed, hit a transparent wall and was thrown back.

“Wh-what….”

His bewilderment at the barrier that had appeared in what was clearly empty space was brief; he immediately got up and shouted.

“Team Leader Han! Take down the barrier!”

Being able to erect a shield of this level meant he was well enough to live.

Seeing the seemingly severe amount of bleeding and his complexion, it seemed he had worried for nothing.

To think he’d even put up a barrier while hugging a guide.

That unstable appearance was not like Team Leader Han at all.

“Ngh.”

Bodam, feeling the danger of his cheekbones caving in from the pressure on his cheeks, pushed Seung Ho away.

Han Seung Ho, who of course didn’t budge, wrapped his body around Bodam even tighter the more he struggled.

‘If my cheeks were less chubby than others, they would have cracked long ago.’

“Hn… Tm Ldr….”

Bodam, who called out to Seung Ho while flailing his arms, couldn’t bear the Esper’s weight and fell backward.

Seeing the guide, crushed under Team Leader Han, collapse onto the bed, the Barrier Esper shouted at the top of his lungs, requesting backup.

It was a sound that couldn’t be heard from inside Seung Ho’s barrier.

“Ah! That hurts! Seriously!”

Finally able to speak properly, Bodam cooled his stinging cheek against the blanket and snapped in irritation.

The heavy weight pressing on his chest to the point of making it hard to breathe brought with it the fear of being crushed to death.

‘I’ve never heard a story about a guide dying by being crushed by an Esper.’

‘It felt like I was about to become the first.’

“Don’t, go.”

Bodam, who had been pecking at Seung Ho’s Adam’s apple with his sharp chin in order to survive, froze.

His small front teeth, bared as if to bite his ear, hesitated and disappeared beneath his lips.

“Please.”

‘Is this really.’

“Yoon Bodam.”

‘Han Seung Ho?’

The lips that had been lingering by Bodam’s ear touched his jawline.

Unstable breaths passed between the lips that moved, brushing against his soft skin.

As Han Seung Ho’s ragged breath tried to enter his mouth, Bodam quickly turned his head away.

He was afraid his crushed chest would burst.

‘If we do mucous membrane guiding like this…’

“I, I can’t breathe….”

He struggled with his pinned arms, trying to get free.

Because of the proximity, so close he could count every eyelash, he couldn’t escape the intense gaze.

The pupils, trembling as if they would devour him at any moment, were hot.

A heat as if dipped in fire was transmitted from the man who was usually surrounded only by a cold chill.

“Don’t, do it!”

He shouted at Seung Ho, who was approaching the head he had turned to avoid him.

A hand that had lost its reason slipped through the gap in his clothes.

Bodam, having barely freed an arm, roughly grabbed whatever his hand could find.

He called his name with all his might, willing him to come to his senses.

“Han Seung Ho!”

Seung Ho, his sideburns grabbed by Bodam, finally closed his lips.

“Take your hand out, you bastard! Out! Out!”

Bodam, who flapped about so hard the bed shook, could finally breathe thanks to Seung Ho’s gradually lessening weight.

He still didn’t seem to be in his right mind, but it looked like he could understand words.

Catching his breath, which had quickened from the violent struggle, he called out to Han Seung Ho.

“Haa, look at me. Properly.”

Letting go of the sideburns, Bodam pushed Seung Ho’s shoulders with both hands and spoke clearly.

He had to keep talking to an Esper on the verge of losing consciousness.

“You know who I am, right?”

Perhaps because he was pushing his shoulders with all his might, the distance with Seung Ho gradually widened.

“…Yoon Bodam.”

“Your wavelength is stabilizing now. Don’t lose consciousness.”

“Yoon Bodam.”

Caught by the unfamiliar gaze, Bodam was at a loss for words.

Overwhelmed by the voice desperately seeking him, right in front of his eyes, he could only swallow.

“Yoon Bodam.”

This wasn’t the Han Seung Ho he had known until now.

The Han Seung Ho imprinted in Bodam’s mind was a man who would never call someone so desperately.

“Don’t go.”

‘Han Seung Ho, making a sound like that. This is definitely.’

“Y-you… didn’t take your medicine, did you…?”

He grabbed Seung Ho’s chin and asked, worried he might try to smash their lips together again.

There were often cases where an Esper who regularly took guiding medication would show temporary abnormal symptoms if they stopped.

“…Yeah.”

‘As I thought.’ Han Seung Ho, who even gave a slow nod, looked perfectly sick.

Bodam could feel that he was pouring all his focus solely on his voice.

Bodam maintained the guiding at a steady intensity and attempted to converse.

He made eye contact to keep Seung Ho’s consciousness from fading.

“You need to heal.”

Blood was still seeping from the soaked bandages.

He instilled strength in him so he could draw out his own healing ability.

“I’m guiding you, so try to focus.”

‘You can do it, right?’ He emphasized the words with his eyes and controlled the flow of guiding.

Feeling the energy that sought his touch, Bodam placed his palm on Seung Ho’s cheek, down which a cold sweat was running.

“Stop the bleeding first.”

“…Yeah.”

Seung Ho, leaning his face against the small palm, answered again.

It was a response that was hard to believe even hearing it from right in front of him.

Seung Ho’s eyes, glimpsed in the darkness, never left him for a moment.

‘What kind of expression is he looking at me with? I can’t even imagine.’

“Can you keep going?”

The blood was no longer beading.

Since he had no way of knowing how a Healing Esper’s ability worked, he asked if he could heal more on his own.

As expected, the answer came back quickly.

‘Yeah.’ He felt as if his own three-syllable name was attached to the end of that short reply.

“Then sit up.”

At the words to do it sitting up, Seung Ho slowly pulled back, moving according to Bodam’s words.

He focused all his nerves on every one of Bodam’s shallow breaths and his firm expression.