The intense gaze of the man, carrying the coolness of the night air, landed on her cheeks and nape. She felt an urge to cover the spots where his eyes lingered with her hands.

“The medicine?”

“How did you get here?”

Two questions intersected. Cheon Geon-young lightly furrowed his brows first, as if suspicious. Her head began to throb with heat again.

“I sent you a text. With the password.”

Lev.

Yoon Tae-ha instinctively picked out the culprit. However, she couldn’t say something like, ‘My cat friend sent that text without permission,’ in front of him. Even less could she say that the cat was the Black Lion. She unconsciously tightened her grip on the blanket she was wrapped in.

“Right. I was sick, out of it.”

She truly was out of it. Because she was out of it, she had let Cheon Geon-young into her house, a place where she had never allowed a guide before.

She hesitantly led him in. Leaning against the kitchen table with a slight sense of self-loathing and confusion, she said,

“I don’t have anything to offer a guest at home.”

Instead of answering, Cheon Geon-young asked if he could look in the refrigerator. She nodded and perched on a chair.

“Do I look like someone who comes to a sick person’s house on a Sunday night to get a meal?”

Yoon Tae-ha was relieved to see that his hands were empty. No handcuffs. And she was surprised at herself for being so relieved.

“I’ll make you some porridge. Eat and get some guiding.”

She hadn’t even told him where things were, but he was already preparing to cook. His damp hands looked clean.

She quickly checked the content of the text Lev had sent without permission, before the conversation could go further astray.

[Need guiding! Also hungry!]

That damn cat. He sent a text to this man in this tone?

Reading the short text drained the strength from her body. She felt dizzy. Cheon Geon-young, who had turned to wash the ingredients, noticed her drooping figure.

“Lie down in bed.”

“I want to watch. I feel like I lose more energy if I lie down.”

He looked doubtful, but he generously granted the request of a sick person. Anyway, now that Cheon Geon-young was in, lying down comfortably was out of the question. It felt better to keep him in her sight.

Intruder. An intruder I let in myself.

She decided to define Cheon Geon-young as such today. It was quite inconsistent, but there wasn’t a word that fit better.

Oblivious to her feelings, he moved as if he had been waiting for a day like this. A warm, fuzzy feeling began to fill the desolate house. Only the light in the kitchen where the two were was brightly lit. Yoon Tae-ha watched the large hands moving diligently without blinking. Veins stood out under his neatly rolled-up shirt sleeves.

It wasn’t the first time she had seen him cook. But the change in location made it feel somehow new. It could be because she was seeing the real him, changing her impressions.

Instead, the training officer’s words came to mind: espers sometimes show leniency at crucial moments.

Ordinary people always fight expecting to die. That’s why they don’t tolerate even small mistakes or show any compassion. Remember clearly that ordinary people without any psychic abilities are still the top predators of Earth. They are paradoxically stronger because they know their weaknesses... That’s what he had said.

Her expression was bitter as she lowered her head. Her whole body ached. There wouldn’t be a more perfect example that completely fit the description than the man she had witnessed last night.

Sitting on the school bleachers, listening to her complain about how hard it was to study for exams. Sitting across from each other in the library, holding books with content they already knew, twirling pens. Was it all an act?

You too, me too.

She didn’t know what he thought. But she, at least, hadn’t said things she didn’t want to say. There hadn’t been any actions she didn’t want.

It was fun.

She wasn’t such an insensitive human being as to deny that. It was definitely fun. It’s just that maybe it was too much. Had she thought ‘this much should be okay’ too often?

The long-delayed sense of reality washed over her. Her thought was to endure with a smile as much as possible, since there wasn’t much time left anyway.

Should she have acted differently in front of this man?

Behind the man who had rushed over upon receiving her text that she was sick and was now making porridge for her, she was lost in all sorts of thoughts.

Such a difficult partner.

Biting her lip, she quickly composed her expression as Cheon Geon-young, having finished the porridge to some extent, turned around.

There weren’t many ingredients in the refrigerator. After pondering, he took out a package of fish cakes and asked the patient about her preference.

“Should I slice the fish cakes thinly?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you want the seasoning? Soy sauce or spicy?”

“Soy sauce. Make it strong.”

That didn’t seem to be a problem at all. The sweet and savory smell of the seasoning spread through the air.

The seemingly savory porridge was placed in a bowl first. Cheon Geon-young picked up a stir-fried fish cake from the pan with a fork and offered it to her. She received it solemnly and put it in her mouth.

“It’s really delicious.”

She couldn’t taste it as well as usual. But it was definitely delicious. The slightly cooled porridge, ready to eat, and the stir-fried fish cakes in a small side dish bowl were placed on the table.

“Call me when you’re done eating.”

“Where, where are you going? You can’t just wander around the house.”

He asked back with an expression that seemed to casually probe.

“Did you hide some secret weapon?”

Yoon Tae-ha glared at him, having become sensitive to the word ‘secret’, and Cheon Geon-young brought a stool. He placed it next to her, not across from her. However, he sat facing the opposite direction.

She faced the kitchen wall, he faced the living room. It was a comfortable distance, within sight but without the need to make eye contact.

Yoon Tae-ha moved her spoon energetically. Whether it was a verbal fight or a real fight, she couldn’t do anything on an empty stomach. Having starved herself to the brink of death in a dungeon before, she slowly ate the porridge without looking rushed.

“What did you do on the weekend?”

Until she had emptied about half of her bowl, Cheon Geon-young had been silently staring at the uninteresting living room. At her question, he gave a commonplace answer.

“I rested at home. Took care of some overdue housework.”

“Hmm.”

So that’s how it is. Overdue housework is beating up illegal guilds and those called anti-government forces? Thinking this, Yoon Tae-ha accidentally bit her tongue and cleared her throat to hide the pain.

“How did you spend your time?”

“I was home too. The weather wasn’t good, and I took out my autumn clothes and organized the closet.”

“You had a good weekend.”

“I had a fulfilling one.”

They exchanged smooth conversation. Having cleanly finished her porridge, she got up to clean up. However, Cheon Geon-young, with a determined face, stopped her.

“I don’t want to make a sick person do chores. Go rest.”

A little while later, Yoon Tae-ha, having checked the time, took out the medicine she needed to take. Two types: painkillers and the suppressor she took daily. When gathered, it was quite a lot.

Cheon Geon-young, who had quickly finished washing the dishes and turned around, discovered the pile of pills in her palm. His lips tightened firmly. Yoon Tae-ha turned away to avoid eye contact and swallowed the pills. It took an unusually long time to swallow.

“Let’s go for a walk.”

A walk? Surely he wasn’t trying to take such a sick esper outside? She immediately frowned, and he took her hand to help her up.

“The house is big anyway. We can walk around here.”

“I want to lie down.”

“Why ask when you know I’m going to say no? Or do you want to hear me say no? If so, I’ll say it as much as you want right now.”

In the end, she got up. She lost again.

Held by his hand, she began to walk around the house. They agreed to walk from the kitchen, through the living room, and to the hallway connecting the rooms.

It was an unusual walking course. A house walk under the moonlight. And with a man who might become her enemy in the near future.

Unable to bear the awkwardness, Yoon Tae-ha turned on the radio. A DJ’s sentimental voice filled the air. Every song was a mellow tune, as if regretting the departed summer. Unable to bear it, she kept changing channels one after another.

It took five trials and errors to find a radio show with two DJs proceeding in a lively tone. Cheon Geon-young watched her radio tour with interest, wondering when it would end. She said apologetically,

“I don’t listen to the radio much.”

“I’ve never really listened to it properly either. I had to listen to the school broadcast radio because there was no way to avoid it.”

As a bouncy song came on, Yoon Tae-ha’s expression brightened.

Watching that, Cheon Geon-young felt relieved.

He didn’t know what state of mind he had been in when he rushed here as soon as he received the text. He had been that desperate.

She wasn’t someone who expressed herself so honestly. Even when she was sweating and unable to speak properly due to a high fever, all she did was wait in front of the dorm room door.

Having been flustered by the text, Cheon Geon-young almost took the subway here again, passing up the option of a faster and more accurate taxi.

“Do you get suddenly sick often?”

“Hmm. Usually there are signs. When I wake up in the morning, my vision is a bit blurry. My movements become sluggish, like there’s wax in my joints.”

Strength entered Cheon Geon-young’s hand that covered her palm. And he lightly attempted guiding. As soon as he tried, Yoon Tae-ha looked at him and nodded slightly.

“It’s okay.”

As Yoon Tae-ha fidgeted like someone whose fingertips were numb, he gently stroked the back of her dry hand with his thumb. “Thank you.” Her voice was calm. She seemed used to saying these words. He was very unfamiliar with it.

Did he deserve to hear such words?

His hands had always been powerless. He had lost his parents, and he hadn’t been able to get anything from his grandfather. So it was true that he had doubts about guiding.

Could he alleviate Yoon Tae-ha’s pain? And her answer had always been consistent. It was fully revealed in her expression. Her tightly closed eyes would relax, and her rough breathing would return to normal.

His powerless hands were helpful. Astonishingly so. Now, his hands could give someone something other than disappointment.

“It’s working well. The probability seems to have increased lately.”

“I feel that way too.”

“Guides usually can’t really feel whether guiding is happening or not. You notice it better than I thought?”

“Seeing you do it makes me feel relieved.”

She shook her hand once, quite forcefully. She seemed to want to protest.

“That’s why I sent you a text. Asking you to come.”

“You did well.”

Thanks to the large house, the walk wasn’t boring. Even excluding the bedroom, which was a restricted area, there was enough space to walk. The two inserted conversation between the DJ’s hearty laughter. And they would automatically fall silent when a song they liked came on.

Without even keeping track of time, the first part of the radio show ended surprisingly quickly. Advertisements that seemed like they would completely wake up the listeners followed.

Yoon Tae-ha slowly pulled her hand out of his grasp.