That was Kwon Jae-jin’s first goal.
Whether he dated Seo Ui-woo or not didn’t matter as long as he could achieve his purpose.
‘After all, we’ve agreed on moving out, and as soon as I leave this house, I’ll automatically avoid the gate… I won’t die.’
As you can see, on his second time around, Kwon Jae-jin had already achieved his goal.
Survival.
‘And as a bonus, I have free access to Seo Ui-woo’s assets. It’s fair to say I’ve achieved everything I wanted to.’
In the midst of this, was there a need to soothe and console Seo Ui-woo alone, enduring all this pain? For whose sake? For Seo Ui-woo’s sake?
Such foolishness… There’s no need to bother with that.
‘Right, as Seo Ui-woo said, it’s not a bad idea to cleanly forget about the past and start a second life anew.’
There was no need to become lovers with Seo Ui-woo. Just cleanly and simply. Settling anew as a guide and an esper.
That would be enough to secure the necessary cooperation, and in the long run, it might be more stable than being in a relationship.
‘Maybe we will become business partners. Like company colleagues.’
After all, Seo Ui-woo didn’t seem to have any romantic feelings right now. Seo Ui-woo’s mind was entirely filled with guiding. He would occasionally spout out-of-it remarks about happiness and pleasure, but those emotions were craving for guidance, not affection for Kwon Jae-jin as an individual.
As proof, despite having noticed Kwon Jae-jin’s anomaly long ago, Seo Ui-woo didn’t dig deeper and left it alone. The nature of their relationship and how Kwon Jae-jin knew Seo Ui-woo were not so important to Seo Ui-woo.
‘As long as he gets his guidance from me, the rest doesn’t matter to him.’
If Kwon Jae-jin’s relationship with Seo Ui-woo genuinely intrigued him, he would have been persistent and relentless in his pursuit of the truth. But Seo Ui-woo had chosen to gain Kwon Jae-jin’s favor, setting aside any suspicious queries, in order to receive guidance.
‘So… Seo Ui-woo doesn’t really care about me either, then there’s no need for me to bother with… that guy, even a little.’
Kwon Jae-jin turned off the tablet and picked up the remote. After increasing the TV volume, he flipped through the channels; news channels were followed by home shopping networks and then doc*mentary channels. Ordinary dramas and movies portraying everyday life did not broadcast in the special residential district.
Just then, a space doc*mentary was airing. Although he didn’t quite understand the content, he naturally stopped at that channel. The universe, composed only of shades of black and white, seemed disconnected from reality. A drained black space where the white Milky Way sparkled.
It was a vast and majestic upper world. A world without espers or guides. A world unrelated to gate impacts, creatures, or the wars of humanity. In comparison to that universe, Kwon Jae-jin’s problems seemed as trivial as dust.
Jae-jin listened absentmindedly to the fact that Saturn is made up of hydrogen and helium, with its 82 moons. Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, Dione, Iapetus, Tethys, Hyperion, Epimetheus… The escalating list of moon names sounded so complex and surreal.
“What are you watching? Is it interesting?”
While he was immersing himself in the universe to escape reality, Seo Ui-woo appeared, towel-drying his wet hair. Glancing up, Kwon Jae-jin saw Seo Ui-woo in his half-naked state. He had just finished showering, as evidenced by the fresh shampoo scent coming from him. He was only loosely wearing gray sweatpants with no shirt on.
“A doc*mentary…? Do you like this kind of stuff, Jae-jin?”
His leisurely approach was particularly eye-catching.
The way he lazily stretched his long legs looked as comfortable as a well-fed lion, and his symmetrically sculpted abdominal and pectoral muscles were as beautiful as Michelangelo’s David. Added to that was his youthful face with a gentle smile, pale and with curved, pure and innocent eyes. His black hair, dampened and no longer curly, looked sensual as it fell disorderally.
“Not particularly. It’s just on.”
“Is that so? You seemed quite engrossed though.”
Seo Ui-woo, with his eyes softly curved in a smile, naturally took the seat next to Kwon Jae-jin. He reached out his arm, encircled Jae-jin’s waist, and pulled him to lean against his chest.
Kwon Jae-jin leaned on Seo Ui-woo and looked up at him. Even from a low angle, there was not a trace of fat along the sharp jawline.
Jae-jin wondered what Seo Ui-woo’s body fat percentage might be. Maybe around 5 or 6 percent, he guessed. As he casually stroked his abs—the rectus abdominis, external oblique, intercostal muscles, pectoralis major—he inwardly clicked his tongue and then turned his gaze back to the TV screen.
He had been focusing on Saturn to escape the reality, but as soon as Seo Ui-woo showed up, his attention faltered.
‘I’m not sure about regrets… but now it seems necessary to start detaching any lingering affection I have towards Seo Ui-woo.’
✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧ 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓋𝒾𝓉𝓎𝓃𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓈 ✧˚·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥·̩̩̥͙✧·̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥˚·̩̩̥͙✧
