The Esper Grand Duke Wishes For Purity - Chapter 5
What did I ever do so wrong.
“Isn’t he really just a bastard?”
“Heejae, huu…”
It had always been an uneventful, smooth relationship.
Ha Sehyeon had been by Heejae’s side since the days he was still in diapers. He started out as the neighbor lady’s son, then, as Heejae grew a little older, became the cool hyung next door, and as Heejae grew older still, he was the Esper hyung Heejae secretly loved.
So, as soon as Heejae manifested as a Guide and became an adult, he ran straight to him.
Seon Heejae was a Guide who, as people said, seemed born just for him. Thanks to their long relationship and Heejae’s sunflower-like, pure one-sided love, they even boasted the highest matching rate.
From the moment they were paired, their performance was dazzling. With Seon Heejae as his wings, Ha Sehyeon’s power grew stronger by the day, setting all kinds of records—fastestGate clears, minimum personnel deployment—soaring ever higher.
Was it because everything went so smoothly?
This year, exactly five years since he became his Guide, the kind hyung next door changed. He coldly shook off the hand Heejae was always fiddling with. His voice was filled with chilling indifference.
He avoided Heejae’s guiding and took medicine that didn’t even suit his body. Heejae had caught him many times secretly clutching the toilet and vomiting in the middle of the night, but Sehyeon stubbornly refused to let Heejae near him.
“Heejae… you and I only stayed together out of necessity, right? Aren’t you tired of me?”
“How could I be tired of you, hyung? Hyung, your wavelengths are a mess. Please, just let me guide you once before you go.”
In just a few months, their relationship rapidly headed for disaster.
Like a couple who had hit a rut, their hearts grew dry, and their matching rate continued to plummet. They couldn’t confide in anyone for fear of people’s judgment. Everyone had such high expectations for them.
Heejae, who had his face buried in his hands, suddenly recalled the last guiding he had begged and pleaded to give just a few days before Sehyeon disappeared.
A kiss no different from the days when they used to whisper love, caresses so tender they brought tears, passionate s*x. But when it was all over, Heejae suffered from a mysterious stomachache, and Ha Sehyeon vomited until he had nothing left.
What was that?
Should he have honestly asked for help from those around him back then?
Heejae roughly rubbed his tired face, dragging his hands over it.
Now, after all this time.
Now, what was he supposed to do.
If Sehyeon hated him that much, he could have broken the bond, no matter what it took. Not… just disappear like this.
“Sehyeon hyung must have really hated me. He must have hated me so much he made me into public enemy number one. Even all of hyung’s one hundred million followers probably hate me too.”
“…”
The Guide Bureau Director anxiously clicked the end of his pen. It seemed he couldn’t find anything to say.
On the black desk in the interrogation room lay a pile of documents, and right on top was, of all things, a DQ magazine from two years ago. The cover shone with a bright wedding concept pictorial he had shot with Sehyeon.
It was a stark contrast to the video Heejae had open in the corner of his laptop screen. The video played a provocative headline in red: ‘Who drove the hero to his death?’
Subtitles below included phrases like “The effects of chronic Guide shortage on Espers’ mental health” and “Supernatural suicides on the rise.” The name Seon Heejae appeared constantly in the flood of comments rising crazily beneath.
A rare and precious national treasure. A living weapon whose value could not be measured, able to save thousands or tens of thousands of lives in a single day. Someone had to take responsibility for the death of SSS-class Esper Ha Sehyeon—resentment and accusations filled every corner.
Was I really the one who drove him over the edge, like they say?
Heejae glared again at the document with the blinking cursor.
Yes, the reason Ha Sehyeon—my Esper—left, it must have been nothing else but because I was an inadequate Guide.
“Director. Please give me a cigarette.”
After hours, Seon Heejae looked up with clear eyes, and the Director’s eyes brightened in response, as if hoping this exhausting standoff was finally coming to an end. But Heejae just flicked his fingers, impatient for the cigarette.
A strong cigarette and a metal Zippo lighter were handed to Heejae.
The moment he stepped to the window and tried to open it, the Director made a gesture to stop him, but it was already too late. As Heejae opened the darkly tinted window, he saw the line of reporters crowded outside the Alliance of Abilities.
