NOVEL NEXT #8
#8
In response to Ho-woo’s attitude of asking him to say anything, Oh-yul gently took his hand. As the large hand with warm warmth enveloped his, the familiar tingling sensation was felt through the touching skin. Someone’s heartbeat, pulsing strongly, made the tingling hand throb heavily.
“Then, excuse me for a moment.”
“Huh?!”
As soon as they left the subway entrance, Oh-yul instantly pulled Ho-woo into his arms. Wrapping an arm around his back and placing another under his knees, Oh-yul lifted Ho-woo up and leapt off the ground before Ho-woo could make an accurate judgment.
“Aaah!!!”
Buried in Oh-yul’s firm chest and warm body temperature, Ho-woo turned pale at the sight of the ground rapidly distancing. Although he usually enjoyed rides, this was different. As his body, which had jumped high, quickly fell towards the ground, Ho-woo swallowed his scream beyond his throat and desperately wrapped his arms around Oh-yul’s neck.
“Ugh…!”
“It’s alright. I will never let go of you, Ho-woo.”
Despite the gentle voice pouring over his head, Ho-woo kept his eyes tightly shut. After the first long fall that followed the high ascent, Oh-yul’s embrace only shook slightly, like running on solid ground.
Encouraged by this, Ho-woo gently opened his eyes and let out a short exclamation. A deep red sunset, like strong tea, was mixed with the dark blue sky that had just settled.
“Beautiful…”
Oh-yul used the water gathering in the air as support and leapt forward greatly. For something crossing the sky as if flying, he was holding Ho-woo quite stably without much shaking.
Ho-woo wrapped his arms more tightly around Oh-yul’s neck, straightened his upper body, and whispered softly near Oh-yul’s ear.
“This is certainly a better method, but…”
The sunset was beautiful, and he might never have this experience again.
“Still, next time I’ll take the subway.”
Oh-yul laughed lowly, his throat rumbling at that whisper.
“Next time, you say?”
“—!”
“Then next time, I’ll escort you more politely.”
N-Next time?! I said it without thinking, but he’s grabbing onto that!
Today was just a chance encounter, so this kind of thing happened, but in reality, Oh-yul and his own living spheres were too different. It was already surprising to meet like this every day since he moved in. Ho-woo, still tightly hugging Oh-yul’s neck, muttered softly.
“It’s amazing.”
It wasn’t a mutter expecting a response from the other person. It was a voice so small and faint that it would be barely audible even right next to him. It probably wasn’t heard by Oh-yul over the strong wind noise.
Since this Esper moved in next door, the past few days felt like a long dream. He felt excited, as if new paint had been mixed into his always-the-same routine.
The man with a firm entire body smelled like fresh grass just after rain. The skin that tingled strangely when bare skin touched was also very unique. It wasn’t painful, but it gave a feeling that was hard to explain in words.
Ho-woo, watching for a chance, pretended to hold on tighter and raised his hand to gently touch Oh-yul’s exposed nape.
Ah… So it’s like this when skin touches, not just hands…
The skin in direct contact felt tingly and numb, as if hit by an electric shock.
I don’t know about other Espers since I’ve never touched them, but do they all feel like this?
Out of curiosity, Ho-woo rolled his eyes to glance at the man’s profile. Oh-yul, who had been looking ahead, seemed to feel the gaze and rolled his eyes to meet Ho-woo’s gaze. Startled by this, Ho-woo suddenly loosened his arms around Oh-yul’s neck, but when his body shook, he hurriedly grabbed Oh-yul’s shoulders again.
“Whoa, I thought I was going to die.”
“You can touch as much as you want if you’re curious.”
“What?”
Ho-woo, feeling flustered, moved his upper body slightly away from Oh-yul. He had touched out of curiosity, but to say he could touch as much as he wanted. What a perverse thing to say!
“I mean it.”
There was no need for that to be true.
Still, given permission to touch, Ho-woo carefully placed both hands on Oh-yul’s nape. This strange sensation tingling through his palms was odd but not unpleasant.
At the same time, Oh-yul let out a low, deep breath. The small sound, like a sigh, clearly tickled Ho-woo’s ear through the biting wind.
…Isn’t this a bit strange?
Ho-woo furrowed his brow quite seriously, but couldn’t find an answer. This was because when they arrived home that day, Oh-yul put Ho-woo down, said he had to go, and disappeared with eyes that seemed slightly wet or shiny.
It’s strange…
Left alone, Ho-woo tightly clenched his fist, the sensation still clinging to his palm as if stuck there.
***
On a weekend, precious to office workers, Ho-woo sat on the sofa wearing a T-shirt with a stretched-out neck, seriously looking at the small screen of his phone. His eyes, strained from reading the small text, began to sting, so Ho-woo threw the phone onto the sofa and curled up.
The day after his incredibly unrealistic aerial commute with Oh-yul in the rain, Ho-woo had subtly hinted at Seong-jo.
When Ho-woo’s usually kind attitude became a bit cold, Seong-jo finally confessed during lunch that his rudeness towards Oh-yul the previous day was due to unavoidable fear.
He even showed Ho-woo information he found on the internet about how ordinary people perceive the energy waves emitted by Espers as intimidating, and about the eye color change.
He also added an apology, asking Ho-woo to convey that he was sorry and that it would be difficult for him to see that Esper again.
It would be better if he apologized directly, but Ho-woo didn’t want to make Oh-yul make that expression again. If Seong-jo were to face Oh-yul, he would likely be terrified and make an insincere apology.
The rookie employee, sensing Ho-woo’s mood had improved a bit, was rather curious about Ho-woo. When he cautiously asked, ‘Weren’t you scared at all, Mr. Lee?’, Ho-woo firmly replied that Oh-yul was a very good person.
Seong-jo marveled at Ho-woo’s calm reaction, and Ho-woo thought it was probably because his first encounter with Oh-yul hadn’t been ordinary.
He had anticipated death and hoped for instant death to avoid too much pain, his fear and despair already at their peak. So how could he fear the Esper who suddenly appeared and saved his life?
Rather, the sense of relief he felt when meeting Oh-yul’s slightly blue-tinged eyes would be unforgettable even after a lifetime.
He was his savior.
Ho-woo picked up the phone he had thrown aside and lazily scrolled through the screen.
Esper… Esper. And Guide.
Perhaps the reason Oh-yul had disappeared so urgently on the day they commuted together was to receive Guiding. Even to Ho-woo, his eyes had been a perfect blue.
But that Guiding…
He didn’t know it was done through contact.
Maybe that’s why. Oh-yul readily allowed Ho-woo to hold his hand, embraced him, and even let him touch his nape.
Having already engaged in countless intimate contacts with others, and with even close-contact Guiding existing, he might not be uncomfortable with physical contact. So that languid sigh-like moan might not have much significance.
Ho-woo decided not to attach much meaning to Oh-yul’s actions. He was a life savior, but also a hero who had saved countless people besides Ho-woo. And he was also his quiet neighbor.
He’ll probably move out soon anyway, so let’s not get too deeply involved.
Even now, his neighbor was so quiet that it was hard to tell if he was home or away. The day they first met by chance when he moved in was probably just that – a chance.
He threw his phone aside again, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. If he lay still doing nothing and listened carefully, he could hear various sounds due to the poor soundproofing of this old apartment.
Having been more sensitive than others since childhood, Ho-woo preferred quiet over busy or noisy environments.
The heavy footsteps heard from the floor above, the faint singing sounds traveling through the pipes were some of the things that filled his quiet weekend. When he first moved here, they bothered him, but now it felt a bit lonely without them.
The neighbor who lived next door 4 months ago wasn’t such a quiet neighbor, and was even noisier on weekends.
Ho-woo came to know the games that noisy neighbor played and the songs they often listened to, even though he didn’t want to. At first, it was a bit annoying. But they say humans are animals of adaptation.
Just when he thought he had gotten used to that noise, the next-door neighbor moved out, and the apartment had been empty for 4 months.
And the new occupant was a neighbor who made no sound, as if a mouse had died. He liked it, but also didn’t like it.
Even Ho-woo himself thought this double-minded feeling was strange, but for some reason, he was concerned about Oh-yul. He was also truly curious about why Oh-yul made that strange sound when he touched his neck. Despite only seeing his face for three days, the man was full of questions.