Zero Point

#019

“Take your hand off right now.”

Lee Eunseok warned through gritted teeth, and Choi Hanseo obediently withdrew his finger that had been caressing his lips. It was fortunate. If he hadn’t removed his hand, Eunseok was ready to throw a punch.

“I believe I have the right to decide the level of guiding.”

“Of course. However, I’d like to suggest being a bit more flexible depending on the situation. Like right now, for instance.”

Choi Hanseo spoke in a leisurely tone and glanced at his watch again. There were about 15 minutes left. And Choi Hanseo’s watch still showed yellow.

Images of the gate and Choi Hanseo’s irritating face flashed alternately in Eunseok’s mind. He had no desire whatsoever to fall for this man’s tricks. But the problem was that the bait Choi Hanseo was dangling was too tempting. No wonder he was called an adrenaline junkie.

“I’ve initially set it as C-rank for experience. The entire 1st Attack Team is planning to enter together to practice coordination. But with my numbers like this…”

“Let’s take them off.”

When Eunseok spoke with clenched teeth, Choi Hanseo stopped talking. Eunseok glared once at Choi Hanseo, who slightly raised his eyebrows, and separated their deeply intertwined arms. Then he crossed his arms and swiftly took off his short-sleeved shirt.

“We don’t have much time, so hurry up and take it off.”

As Eunseok, who had removed his top, urged him, Choi Hanseo tilted his head slightly to the side.

“Are you saying you’d rather strip naked and rub bodies than do mucous membrane guiding?”

“I’ve had my fill of rolling around with half-naked men during training. Why? Are you shy about undressing, Guild Master?”

“Of course not.”

Choi Hanseo said with a smile, pulling up the corners of his mouth, and immediately began to remove his top.

The suit jacket that had always covered his body impeccably, whether in visual media or in person, came off. A stark white dress shirt was revealed. With the dark-colored jacket gone, just as Eunseok had expected, a large, broad frame and the muscular body that perfectly covered that frame were fully exposed.

The sight of him loosening his tie reminded one of a beast removing its collar. After throwing aside the loosened tie, Choi Hanseo began to unbutton his dress shirt. His movements were neither slow nor fast. With each button undone, an impressive muscular upper body was revealed.

Instead of averting his eyes, Eunseok openly admired Choi Hanseo’s increasingly exposed body. The muscles tightly wrapping his entire body were completely different from the type bulked up for show. Like his flawless exterior, Choi Hanseo’s upper body was clean without a single scar.

For a man who had been dealing with mutants and strange creatures for at least 8 years, a body without scars was quite unexpected. Was it thanks to the help of healing hunters, or did it mean he was strong enough to never be injured by any creature? Eunseok couldn’t tell yet.

In any case, Choi Hanseo’s muscular body, now completely shirtless, was impressive enough to draw admiration even from another man. It was a body trained to near perfection. Eunseok felt his spirits lift at the sight of the muscular body that exuded extreme toughness even at a glance.

Could I win if we fought?

He tried to simulate it in his head, but he couldn’t imagine being able to subdue this man. This was true even without considering his S-rank ability.

Choi Hanseo, his upper body now fully exposed, spread his arms towards Lee Eunseok. Then he slightly tilted his head as if to say ‘come here’.

The thought of pressing bodies instead of disgustingly kissing another man immediately scattered. This felt completely different from pressing bare bodies with colleagues during various training sessions.

“We don’t have much time left.”

Choi Hanseo urged with his arms spread.

Damn it.

Eunseok inwardly cursed, considering whether to switch to mucous membrane guiding even now. But having provoked him to undress first, he didn’t want to suggest changing methods at this point.

His pride flaring up, Eunseok sat down close to Choi Hanseo with a nonchalant face. Then, inwardly muttering ‘this is just work, just guiding’, he spread his arms and embraced Choi Hanseo’s body.

Ha-….

The moment he hugged Choi Hanseo and their skin pressed tightly together, Eunseok almost let out a sigh mixed with exclamation. As if static electricity was sparking under the skin, the touching skin… no, his entire body tingled. The intense energy raging inside the muscular body he embraced felt like it was sucking in both Eunseok’s body and mind at once. Truly, this strange sensation caused a kind of pleasure that made the back of his head tingle.

‘During guiding by a highly compatible guide, most espers and guides experience mental and physical pleasure. In many cases, this leads to sexual pleasure.’

The passage he had read in a book now made sense. He also understood Moon Bora’s reaction, showing pleasure and ecstasy.

Eunseok tried to calm his involuntarily quickening breath. And he focused on the guiding, which was incomparably more efficient than when they had overlapped forearms.

Eunseok himself was the owner of a fairly good body with lean, practical muscles on his not small 181cm frame. But Choi Hanseo’s body that he embraced was as hard and heavy as steel, enough to make Eunseok feel defeated. Adding the fierce and intense energy raging inside, the idea that Choi Hanseo was a human weapon and a monster gained more weight.

Fortunately, Eunseok soon became absorbed in the guiding as if entranced.

He could clearly feel Choi Hanseo’s strongly beating heart through their touching bodies, and in sync with it, their energies intertwined tightly as if weaving warp and weft. It was completely different in nature from the wide-area guiding that created a net to filter and purify the other’s turbid energy.

The completely different energies of the two people were strongly intertwined, blending and communicating with each other. As it deepened, Eunseok’s stiff body unknowingly relaxed softly.

“Huu-…”

Choi Hanseo’s chest, which Eunseok was embracing, heaved slowly and deeply, and a languid sigh spilled into his ear.

Before they knew it, their hearts were beating in unison as if synchronized. Eunseok bit his lower lip hard to avoid falling into this strange sense of unity he had never experienced before. He kept getting distracted by the warm, soft breath falling on his nape. The phrase that during deep guiding, both espers and guides are physically and mentally influenced, making it easy for deep emotions to sprout, kept flashing through his mind like a warning.

Beep beep beep-. Beep beep beep-. Beep beep beep-.

The alarm signaling the end of the time slot rang loudly, breaking the peace of the quiet space where only the faint sounds of their breathing and heartbeats had been heard. Eunseok, who had barely been holding onto his senses, hurriedly separated himself as if escaping.

Perhaps due to the influence of the deep guiding he had experienced for the first time, his hands were trembling very slightly. A tingling sensation ran wild under the skin that had been pressed against Choi Hanseo. To hide his physical reaction, Eunseok quickly grabbed the shirt he had taken off and pulled it over his head.

After putting on his shirt, Eunseok opened a water bottle on the table and took a few sips to overcome the sudden awkwardness. When he turned his gaze, Choi Hanseo was slowly running his hand through his hair with his head comfortably leaned back. The sight had a sensual aspect even to another man.

With his eyes gently closed, he seemed intoxicated by a kind of languor. Somehow, it felt like he shouldn’t be disturbed.

Eunseok deliberately opened the water bottle in front of Choi Hanseo with a sound and put it down with a thud. At that sound, Choi Hanseo slowly lifted his closed eyelids. His black pupils, which had moved from the water bottle to Eunseok, gradually narrowed.

“Are you alright now?”

Eunseok asked in a gruff tone, directing his gaze to Choi Hanseo’s wrist. His watch finally showed a deep green color.

So even this isn’t enough for blue, huh.

Eunseok grumbled inwardly. As expected, S-rank was S-rank, it wasn’t easy at all.

Choi Hanseo raised his wrist to check his watch. One of his eyebrows twitched slightly as he confirmed the numbers that had turned deep green.

“It’s still not enough, but… well, let’s leave it at this for today.”

Choi Hanseo spoke as if he was letting it slide this time. Instead of replying, Eunseok stood up from the sofa.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After a brief greeting, Eunseok turned and left the guiding room with quick, large strides.

Bang-.

The door of the guiding room closed behind him.

“…Shit.”

Eunseok roughly ran his hand through his hair and cursed, feeling inexplicably troubled. He had a strong premonition that life as a guide would involve more challenges than he had anticipated.