Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: "What a Shitty Life!"
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"What a shitty life!"
Dodging chunks of concrete flying from all directions, I lunged forward and grabbed his shoulder as he ducked his head at an angle, arm stretched out as far as it would go.
I immediately cupped both his cheeks with my hands. And then I unleashed the maximum amount of Guiding I could muster right now.
I poured every bit of Guiding from my palms. It felt like more than I'd ever released before. And yet, it still wasn't enough.
I really should have practiced Guiding properly in my downtime.
Not that I'd done much of it—only ever on Yang Hyun-woo, and he was always in a state where Guiding was more than sufficient anyway.
Even that was months ago.
'What do I do? How should I handle this?'
It was like trying to fill a dried-up lake with a tiny coffee cup.
My trembling hands felt numb against his cheeks. The deafening roar of the crumbling ground left my ears ringing, and winds sharp as blades sliced across my skin.
Crunch.
A ferocious monster from the darkness seemed to close in right behind me, sending chills down my spine.
I'm going to die. If this keeps up, I'm really going to die.
In that instant, mucous membrane Guiding flashed through my mind.
Guiding usually worked best with larger contact areas, but I'd vaguely heard that mucous membrane Guiding was more effective for unleashing a massive burst of power at once or boosting efficiency.
It was fuzzy information I could barely recall, but I was in a situation where I had to try anything.
"Hey, Ju Yeon-woo."
I tightened my grip on his cheeks. Once I'd lifted his gaze to meet mine, I whispered into his mouth like I was seducing him.
"Open your mouth."
His soft lips pressed under my cold thumb. I firmly pushed down on his lower lip to force his mouth open, then tilted his head at an angle and sealed our lips together.
As our tongues tangled awkwardly, I repeated to myself in my head over and over.
'This is a life-saving measure. Artificial respiration...'
Sure, CPR doesn't involve tongues, but isn't it similar since it's about saving a life?
I claimed my pointless mental victory and glanced around.
The red glow that had been rapidly expanding began to recede bit by bit. The fierce winds battering us like we were in the eye of a storm started to die down.
Mucosal Guiding really did seem more efficient than regular contact—pouring it out felt easier now.
As floating debris crashed back to the ground and relief washed over me, I was about to switch back to contact Guiding.
Our eyes met.
A fierce golden glint swirled in his hazy pupils. The moment I widened my eyes in shock, a large hand cupped my cheek.
His still tongue swept over my teeth. It glided softly across the roof of my mouth, then plunged deep to the base of my tongue, matching my rhythm in a way that sent shivers down my spine.
"W-Wait."
"Just a little more. Yeah? Just a bit..."
His hand cradled the back of my head, stroking gently through my hair like he was soothing me.
The pleasure was fleeting—like a desert traveler finding an oasis, his desperate kisses left no room to breathe.
Suffocation! At this rate, I'll suffocate to death!
Sensing death looming for an entirely different reason now, I fumbled desperately in my outer pocket.
And with the first hard object I grabbed, I smashed it down on the man's head with all my strength.
Thwack!!
When your life is on the line, people unleash strengths they never knew they had.
"Hah... hah..."
What happened to be in my hand was my phone.
The one made of some fancy aerospace material that was supposedly super durable—I'd bought it on a whim, and it had held up fine even when I used it as a hammer in place of a mallet one day.
Now it had a crack.
"...Ah, guess the phone was already in bad shape."
In that moment, I spotted something red smeared on the corner of the phone.
Drip, drip. Thick red liquid trailed along the edge, one drop, two drops falling to the ground.
'I... I hurt someone...'
I stared back and forth between the man now collapsed on the ground, blood trickling from his head, and the devastated, cracked street.
And then, as if on cue, a torrent of heavy rain began to pour down. I lifted both hands to cover my face in a daze.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Pouring—
The rain was so loud it echoed even inside the building. The wind howled so fiercely it knocked over metal street signs.
With rain forecast from night through dawn, it was no wonder people might mistake the chaos for just a storm.
Was this fortunate, or unfortunate?
"Huff, heave. I'm dying."
I tossed the person I was carrying onto the bed and roughly swept back my drenched hair—sweat or rainwater, I couldn't tell.
"Yeah... it couldn't be helped. Leaving him out in a stormy winter night like that would've given him a cold at least..."
Long story short, I was now in Ju Yeon-woo's apartment.
After the hassle of waking his delirious self every so often to confirm directions.
These fancy officetels these days open with fingerprints, huh.
About thirty minutes ago.
I'd been standing in the winter rain. The street looked like an earthquake had ravaged it, concrete chipped away everywhere.
On the ground lay a corpse... no, a person I'd injured.
My phone was busted. Should I call the Center? The police? Honestly, I didn't want to deal with either.
After days of nonstop work, my body was exhausted. The cold weather and rain had me freezing to death already—I had zero interest in dealing with an investigation. And I was seriously worried about the survival status of the guy I'd walloped with all my might.
Back when I was Amelia, it was a chaotic era with people to handle the cleanup, so no issues. But now? No backup, no bail money.
I'd heard Espers were tougher than civilians, but even so—this was a low-rank Esper in full rampage mode.
Hitting someone who already looked half-dead? Big trouble. I wasn't in my right mind, honestly.
Watching the blood wash away in the rain, I thought with unfocused eyes.
I couldn't just abandon the person I'd saved—and hurt—on the rainy roadside. Taking him to my reserved motel felt off too.
And that led to this.
I collapsed onto the floor of Ju Yeon-woo's room, letting out a deep sigh.
"...I'll figure it out tomorrow. Save him first, worry later. I accidentally clocked him, but he didn't die—and I did save his life, right?"
My fatigued brain gave up on complicated thoughts.
That's when a groan came from the bed. Ju Yeon-woo's face, buried face-down on the sheets, was flushed red.
I pressed a hand to his forehead. His body, which had been ice-cold moments ago, was now burning up.
I hurriedly stripped off his soaked coat. Thankfully, the inside was mostly dry thanks to it.
I left his relatively intact shirt alone and just unwound the scarf, tossing it into the laundry room. Then I ransacked the place for a first-aid kit.
When I finally found the box marked with a red cross and opened it, I wondered if I'd grabbed the wrong thing.
It was stuffed with all sorts of syringes, painkillers of every type, and vials of unidentified drugs.
Is he a junkie or something? Come to think of it, Vivian used to be one too... Wonder if she kicked it.
Nostalgia for an old comrade aside, this wasn't the time. I hurriedly put everything back without disturbing it and resumed my search for a fever reducer.
"Ju Yeon-woo, think you can swallow some medicine?"
He nodded blankly as I propped him halfway up, fed him the antipyretic, and laid him back down.
Maybe because he was in a haze, he followed my instructions without a word.
I found two usable cloths. Used one to wipe his wet hair and cold sweat, soaked the other in cool water, and placed it on his forehead.
The head wound that had me worried? Visually, it was just a shallow skin tear.
Looked like it'd scraped against my phone case. How no bump though? Esper skulls must be tough.
I applied ointment to the wound and, just in case, added some extra Guiding while stroking his forehead and hair.
Once everything was done, a nagging sense of caution I'd forgotten crept back in.
"...What if he wakes up before I do?"
Even a low-rank Esper—leaving him be felt risky. Probably need some basic security.
Drawing on old experience tying up prisoners with sturdy rope, I started binding his wrists.
I realized something was off only after I'd tied him up tight.
"Uh, um."
Is this... not right?
His ragged breathing, skin moist from fever, eyes heated and glassy.
For a moment, an inexplicable sense of taboo made me swallow hard. But then drowsiness blurred my vision.
Time had slipped past 2 a.m. I barely managed to haul my limp body upright.
'Gotta go to my part-time gig tomorrow—can't afford to catch a cold...'
I shed my soggy outer layers and rummaged through his closet for something to wear.
With our size difference, tops would work somehow, but pants were a no-go. Luckily, any random sweatshirt fit like a loose dress.
Drip, drip.
Mud-mixed rainwater puddled across the pristine closet floor—like a dog coming back from a walk and tracking dirt everywhere.
For a second, I wondered if I should clean up or if raiding his clothes was okay. But exhaustion sparked sudden irritation.
"After all this hassle, he's not gonna quibble over one outfit, right? How much could it cost anyway."
I grabbed a warm-looking coat as a blanket substitute and headed to the living room. The sofa there was spacious and plush enough for several people.
Unlike my friend's drafty studio that felt like an icebox without the heater, this place had a cozy warmth.
Having poured out so much Guiding for the first time, my already weary body dragged me to sleep the moment my eyes closed.
I pulled the borrowed coat up to my neck.
I wouldn't find out until afternoon that the coat I'd grabbed without a second thought cost well over ten million won.