So Won looked at Tae Woo’s hand and recalled the terrible eight years he had spent with him.
‘While Guiding, my hand might break. And if it does not just break but gets crushed? What if that disgusting Curse transfers to me?’
The thoughts he had had before holding Tae Woo’s hand in the past flashed by.
‘Tae Woo, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… Don’t die.’
The sensation of the cold, hard, blood-soaked hand he had held in the operating room seemed vividly present.
“You don’t have to push yourself.”
Tae Woo’s calm voice woke So Won from his panic.
So Won found himself trembling pitifully before he knew it.
His hands had turned white. He could tell what his face looked like now without even looking in a mirror.
So Won looked at Tae Woo. Tae Woo, who had been looking at So Won, turned his head and avoided his gaze when their eyes met.
Perhaps the sharp Guide’s Wavelength even pierced his heart, because his chest stung and ached.
The resolve he had made the day he fainted in the operating room and woke in the emergency room felt meaningless.
No sooner had he said he would take responsibility for his death than he feared even the slightest touch and looked at him like a monster again.
If Tae Woo, whose life had gone out in the operating room, could see his filthy mind now—a mind uglier than the dark red Curse covering his entire body—what would he think?
So Won reflected on his endlessly shameful self and moved his hand.
So Won’s hand lightly settled over the back of Tae Woo’s hand, which rested quietly on the armrest.
Along with a warm heat, a prickling Guide’s Wavelength was felt as if strong static electricity were rising.
A sharp energy climbed strongly through his hand and upward.
Tae Woo’s Guide’s Wavelength thrashed roughly and rummaged through So Won.
So Won’s body, having swallowed the fierce Guide’s Wavelength, tingled as if paralyzed in an instant.
Guiding with him was still painful. But once their hands actually touched, the warm heat and the strongly felt Guide’s Wavelength seemed precious.
It was nothing, not even that difficult a task, so why had he thought of Guiding as so difficult until the day Tae Woo died?
When he recalled Tae Woo’s final moment, when he had closed his eyes alone, his heart grew heavy again.
So Won suddenly wondered what expression Tae Woo was making.
Was he surprised by receiving Guiding for the first time? He might be pleased.
But since Tae Woo had shown no change in expression even at the moment of death, neither image came easily to mind.
So Won’s gaze, fixed on their touching hands, moved.
Breaking all expectations, Tae Woo was quietly closing his eyes and slowly collapsing.
“Tae, Tae Woo!”
So Won was startled and, without realizing it, rose from his seat and caught Tae Woo’s upper body as it was about to fall forward.
The touching area tingled even more sharply, but because the heavy body leaned in as if trying to drag So Won down with it, he had no time to pay attention.
The researchers watching the situation were also startled and hurriedly entered the test room.
So Won and the researchers worked together to lay Tae Woo on the emergency cot, and the attending physician checked Tae Woo’s condition.
So Won saw Tae Woo lying with his eyes closed as if dead and his face turned pale.
Tae Woo lying on the cot overlapped with the image of Tae Woo soaked in blood in the operating room.
It felt as if someone were choking him, and he could barely breathe.
Sensation left his whole body, and his stomach churned.
Then, as if waking from a dream, his vision began to shake.
His ears grew increasingly muffled, and then he heard tinnitus.
“Guide Lee So Won?”
The attending physician, who had just finished the examination, was about to say that Tae Woo had merely fainted, but paused when he saw So Won’s condition.
So Won was staring at Tae Woo like someone whose soul had left him.
When the attending physician called So Won, life returned to his blank eyes as if his departed soul had come back.
So Won slightly turned his head and looked at the attending physician.
His complexion was more gaunt than when he had first arrived at the Guiding Test Room.
“It seems Esper Kang Tae Woo fainted briefly because it was his first time receiving Guiding. It was only a short sleep, so he will probably wake soon.”
The attending physician thought So Won had been frightened by seeing Tae Woo faint in such a terrible state.
The attending physician explained Tae Woo’s condition in a voice that somehow seemed to soothe So Won.
Thanks to the attending physician, So Won barely regained his senses and looked over Tae Woo again.
Indeed, there was more color in his face than on the day he died.
So Won reached his arm toward Tae Woo. Having done Guiding once, touching him again was easy.
So Won’s white fingers carefully wrapped around Tae Woo’s hand.
A warm heat that was neither cold nor hard came out to greet So Won.
Even after checking Tae Woo’s condition and hearing the doctor say he was fine, So Won worried that Tae Woo might die.
Had Tae Woo’s body been this unwell around this time?
But no matter how bad his condition was, Tae Woo had never fainted after receiving Guiding.
So Won’s worry deepened further.
Hoping it might make his body a little better, So Won did not let go of Tae Woo’s hand, even though half of Tae Woo’s leg was sticking out because the cot was small.
“The Guiding Test can continue. You briefly embraced just now, but… a longer period of contact is needed. Please get on the bed and hold the Esper for a while.”
It seemed the test would continue even though Tae Woo had collapsed.
Hold Tae Woo…? So Won’s eyes wavered; he had thought it would end once they held hands.
Of course, it was something he would have to do someday for Guiding, but he had not known it would happen so suddenly without any mental preparation.
<I’ll start again.>
A voice echoed through the speaker. So Won made eye contact with the researchers observing him beyond the glass.
They quickly avoided So Won’s gaze, but only after So Won had already seen ‘Will he really do that?’ written on their faces.
The fortunate thing was that Tae Woo had not yet regained consciousness.
If he had to hold Tae Woo while Tae Woo’s black eyes were staring at him, So Won might have given up on Guiding this time for sure.
So Won, imagining that situation, thought he had to finish quickly before Tae Woo woke up.
Tae Woo’s large body took up the entire cot, leaving almost no space.
After hesitating, So Won had no choice but to lie almost on top of Tae Woo, as if overlapping him.
Creak—the cot made a sound as if burdened when the two of them got on.
So Won carefully lay down in the narrow space remaining beside Tae Woo.
He placed his hand on Tae Woo’s chest and gently rested his face beside it.
Feeling the firm yet soft chest, the tense So Won stiffened.
Tae Woo did not wake, as if So Won’s weight did not bother him.
Every time Tae Woo exhaled evenly, his chest rose and fell, and So Won on top of him moved up and down in time.
Tae Woo’s Guide’s Wavelength was felt throughout his whole body.
A familiar scent came from Tae Woo’s body. He had not known before the Regression, but only now did So Won realize.
The faint scent in Tae Woo’s empty house was Tae Woo’s body odor.
Tae Woo rarely came in, but So Won newly realized that that place had been Tae Woo’s home.
So Won was quietly surprised. Because that hellish place briefly felt nostalgic.
It was strange. When he should have grown more and more nervous, instead his tension unraveled strand by strand.
The warm heat at his fingertips and the slow heartbeat in his ears put his mind at ease.
Who would have known that So Won, who used to turn pale and tremble just from seeing Tae Woo from afar, would find stability in Tae Woo?
So Won closed his eyes and listened more closely to the steady heartbeat.
It was only the same sound coming slowly, but he wanted to keep hearing it.
Suddenly So Won realized he was leaning too much of his body against Tae Woo.
If this continued, Tae Woo might feel So Won’s weight and open his eyes.
But he did not want to pull away. Just a moment, just a little longer.
He wanted to feel that Tae Woo was alive.
The attending physician, watching the soaring numbers and graph along with that sight, almost burst into tears.
It had already been seventeen years since he became Tae Woo’s attending physician.
The hardships of enduring Kang Tae Woo’s worsening condition day by day and his increasingly ferocious eyes seemed to fly away.
This happiness was thanks to one Guide who had suddenly appeared a few days ago.
At first, when another researcher came to him with the Matching test results, he could not believe the numbers on the paper. 100%.
And the other party was even Kang Tae Woo. He could not even believe it was 100%, and the other party was Kang Tae Woo?
Though he scolded his junior colleague, saying that as a researcher of the Esper Association he should not believe strange results, the test he conducted himself had the same result.
What was even more surprising was that it was a Designated Matching.
The attending physician fell into confusion as he looked at the young man in the photo.
To apply for a Designated Matching with Kang Tae Woo as soon as he awakened as a Guide.
Despite his kind-looking face, something was clearly wrong with his head.
But the more tests he ran, the more the results excited the attending physician. 100%.
The Matching Rate was definitely 100%. This was a worldwide discovery.
When an Esper-Guide pair with a 93% Matching Rate appeared in the United States, how envious had the researchers in Korea, including himself, been?
But beyond that, 100%! It was clear these two were connected by something greater than fate.
If he studied this, every country would reach out to him.
The attending physician imagined his name becoming known throughout the world.
Just thinking about it, he could loudly hear the sound of his value soaring.
His only worry was one thing.
That this Guide, who had pretended to be crazy and applied for a Designated Matching, would be frightened by Kang Tae Woo’s fierce appearance and run away.
It was likely to happen, but contrary to his thoughts, the Guide was not crazy. He was simply an angel.
As proof, So Won was holding Kang Tae Woo, who had fainted in a terrible state, on the bed no less, even with their bodies overlapping.
The attending physician felt the illusion that tears were flowing and brushed under his eyes with his fingers.
The graph on the monitor repeatedly hit its highest point.
The line soaring as if to pierce the monitor was enough to make the researchers feel moved that they were sharing a historic moment.
Look, are not the researchers who used to tremble at the sight of Kang Tae Woo now watching them with faces as if they would worship them?
Guide Lee So Won, he became a ray of light for the Korea Esper Association.