AAGULT Ch 80

Chapter 80

“Yes, …pardon?”

“No matter how well he takes care of his health and how good-natured he seems, he’s still a 48-year-old man. You’re going to choose me, right, Jaeha?”

“…”

At that moment, regardless of the guiding that lifted him up, he couldn’t help but part his lips slightly in surprise at seeing Aiden, who had never badmouthed anyone before, speaking like this. He wondered if he had misunderstood something, but that attitude was strange no matter how he looked at it.

“I’m prettier than him, I guide better, I’m younger, and I’m kinder.”

“…”

“Why aren’t you answering?”

…Was this jealousy?

When he gave no answer, Aiden pressed him further. He didn’t seem to be aware of it himself, but as Jaeha rolled his eyes downward, he saw Aiden shaking his leg in frustration. Somehow, even though he already knew Aiden wasn’t just kind and sweet, that side of him felt a little cute.

So instead of quickly reassuring him with words, Jaeha cautiously asked in return.

“…What if I don’t choose you?”

At that, the man’s trembling leg suddenly stopped. Folding his arms slowly, the man gave a crooked smile and replied,

“Even so, it can’t be helped. You have to be my pair, Jaeha.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to be your perfect Guide.”

Even though he was boldly speaking arrogant words, it didn’t feel like an exaggeration at all. He adjusted his posture. Suddenly, the type of guiding energy entering Jaeha’s body changed entirely.

“Jaeha, look at the screen in front of you.”

Jaeha, still dazed, did as he was told. Instead of looking at Aiden’s face through the glass, he looked at the screen displayed on the wall.

He saw Aiden’s profile photo, and below it was Aiden’s guiding graph. But… it was quite different from the graphs of the other Guides who had guided him before. The basic layout of the graph existed, but there was no line. Just a blank graph sat beneath his profile.

‘What does that mean…?’

His gaze shifted again to the graph showing the current guiding status. It was the same there—Jaeha’s erratic and extreme waves crackled and wavered. Aiden’s wave wasn’t visible. It was strange. Aiden was clearly guiding him even now. The absence of a guiding line had to be either a malfunction or an issue with the device.

“Um—”

He was about to call someone outside the matching chamber, but just then, he noticed a change in the graph and focused his gaze back on it. Aiden’s guiding line started to appear on the screen.

However, while the waves of other Guides had previously risen slowly from the bottom to the top…

“When I used to take that shitty matching rate test, you know—”

“What is this…?”

The line representing Aiden’s wave was descending slowly from the top to the bottom. As if to say, ‘I’ll match you.’

“I always got an error as the result.”

Even if one had never taken a matching rate test before or didn’t know much about this field due to never having been guided, it was easy to understand.

He was currently reshaping the intrinsic pattern of the wave that Guides and Espers inherently possess into whatever shape he wanted. He was lowering himself—one layer, then another—for Jaeha. He was adjusting his wave so that even a machine that couldn’t possibly measure it before could now detect it.

“…”

Jaeha’s graph showed a chaotic mess, with the middle part plunging all the way down and the right part shooting to the very top, but the enormous wave that had been almost a straight line was now slowly moving and starting to squiggle like Jaeha’s. The middle part bent slowly, dropping drastically, and the right side lifted again.

With each adjustment, Jaeha instinctively felt it as an Esper receiving guiding. Whereas before, Aiden’s guiding had felt so immense and extraordinary that Jaeha could only look up at him as someone far beyond his reach, now it felt like a personalized guiding meant only for him. It was guiding that grabbed the Esper by the collar and provoked, ‘Will you still not be greedy for this?’

“Ugh…!”

Stunned, Jaeha floundered for a moment, overwhelmed by a strange sensation.

“Wa, wait a moment…”

Even as he muttered weakly, Aiden didn’t seem to be listening. It felt like that strange puzzle piece, which he had thought he would never find in his lifetime, had finally and perfectly settled into place. He wanted to run out of the matching device immediately. It felt so perfectly his that it triggered a sense of rejection. It scared him. As an Esper who had long suffered from chronic guiding deficiency, this was an overwhelming threat.

Jaeha faced a horrifying fear. No matter how much he loved the person in front of him, shouldn’t the premise remain that the other was still human? But the man before him now felt like something that had crossed that line. As if he had transcended humanity. How could someone freely manipulate waves that even they themselves weren’t fully conscious of?

Can anyone predict when and where the black, red, green, white, and yellow pixels on a glitching TV error screen will appear or disappear? Can anyone foresee what color the thousands of pixels crackling in chaos right now will turn into next?

What Aiden was doing was exactly that. He had begun matching each and every one of Jaeha’s erratic, tangled waves in real time. It felt like witnessing a god disguised as destiny, manipulating fate in order to change it. Watching him become a Guide for one single Esper gave Jaeha goosebumps.

“Haha, this is my first time adjusting like this.”

Regardless, Aiden looked quite amused, like a child playing a puzzle game. The line representing his guiding on the screen twisted further, bent here and there.

“Hah…!”

Finally, the guiding perfectly mirrored the crackling, error-ridden pattern of Jaeha’s wave in real time, and Aiden smiled with a faint blush on his face.

“Ah, it’s done…”

Just as he declared the completion of his guiding craftsmanship, a light chime came from the matching device.

“You can stop guiding now, i-it’s alright…!”

Even someone outside, sounding surprised, shouted urgently. At that moment, Aiden immediately ceased his guiding.

“N-no…”

Jaeha, who had just experienced that specially sculpted guiding made solely for him, felt a boiling frustration when it was abruptly cut off. It was like drifting forever on the ocean and finally grabbing hold of a lifeline—only to have it snatched away again.

“Just, a little more… c-can’t you?”

Yes, this was what scared Jaeha. The guiding was so good that he feared he’d start taking Aiden’s generosity for granted, beyond his station. Though Aiden might be someone so extraordinary as to be considered the hope of humanity, Jaeha worried he’d end up clinging to him in obsession, dragging him down by the ankle…

Unconsciously, he had pleaded with Aiden, and belatedly realized it. But ironically, when Aiden simply rose from his seat without saying much, Jaeha grew anxious.

His heart was torn between not wanting to hold him back and the urge to grab his pants and beg for just a bit more guiding. In this conflicted state, he could neither speak nor stay silent, and all that came out was a breath that resembled a groan. Feeling pathetic, Jaeha shut his eyes tightly.

But then—

Clack.

Aiden, who had exited the matching device, suddenly opened the door on Jaeha’s side.

“…!”

Startled, Jaeha opened his eyes wide and looked up at Aiden stepping into his chamber. Aiden was standing with the fluorescent lights directly behind him, casting a strong backlight and deep shadows across his face. He reached out his hand.

“Why are you crying?”

“…I didn’t even know I was crying.”

He gently wiped the faint tear at the corner of Jaeha’s eye with his thumb. Jaeha instinctively tilted his head into Aiden’s touch and nuzzled him like a cat. It was behavior he had been thoroughly trained in—only now the target had changed. The guiding trickled in gently, and Jaeha felt sorrow well up.

“I thought everything would be solved once you joined the Association.”

“…”

“But you’re much harder than I expected, Jaeha.”

“Are you… really allowed to say that to me so bluntly?”

“Good point.”

Since he had declared so boldly that he’d pursue Jaeha, maybe such a comment should’ve been seen as a minus. But somehow, it struck Jaeha as funny, and he let out a hollow laugh. It reminded him of that time they were curled up together in the wardrobe.

“Jaeha. Do you dislike me?”

“No.”

“Then do you like me?”

“…”

Aiden, backlit just moments ago, now knelt before Jaeha. Jaeha’s slightly raised gaze slowly dropped. Aiden was now fully illuminated, the soft light tracing the beautiful curves of his face.

As Jaeha stared at him, entranced, Aiden narrowed his eyes and smiled crookedly.

“Want me to guess what you’re really thinking?”

“…”

Aiden reached out and took Jaeha’s hand. He began to play with it lightly, and then brought it to his face, resting against it. Jaeha felt the warmth. His skin was soft and smooth. But the moment he tried to move his hand, the callused, slightly rough texture made him worry it might scratch Aiden’s skin, so he tensed his hand.

“Do you feel like I’m too incredible, that it’s wrong for you to even think of liking me?”

“…”

Jaeha’s honest body flinched slightly.