As I stepped out of the hospital and trudged along, I saw a man standing still in the distance.

“Seunghyuk...”

“Hyung, what are you doing here?”

“Huh?”

Joo Seunghyuk asked the question I wanted to ask first. I’d been meaning to say, what are you doing here?, but his gaze was so vicious that it made a casual reply feel impossible.

“Um, my lecture ended early so I had a long break... I came to visit Kim Jun...”

My voice trailed off, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“Why?”

“I heard he was still hospitalized, so I was worried...”

Joo Seunghyuk had lied that Kim Jun had been discharged, and I was indirectly pointing that out. But even though he’d been caught, Seunghyuk looked completely unfazed. In fact, his gaze flared even more dangerously.

“That bastard’s faking it. He’s not sick—he’s hiding in the hospital because he’s scared. Why the hell are you worried about a half-wit like that?”

He must really be furious with Kim Jun.

As a fellow Guide, I could understand that Kim Jun had made a mistake. But regardless of the circumstances, his faulty guiding had nearly cost Seunghyuk his life.

It was only natural for him to be enraged.

“Jun said he feels really sorry toward you.”

“Why would that bastard?”

“Well, because of the guiding mistake, the berserk—”

“That dumbass doesn’t even know his place. It wasn’t because of some guiding mistake. His very existence disgusted me. I should’ve killed him the moment he came at me trying to guide. I was too damn nice.”

Did the dictionary definition of “nice” change while I was unconscious? That didn’t sound like the right usage at all.

Anyway, it seemed like Seunghyuk wasn’t holding a grudge over the guiding mistake itself. He simply loathed Kim Jun as a person.

Kim Jun was drifting far, far away from the position of the main bottom. Before I could even start worrying about the tangled original storyline, Seunghyuk grabbed my collar as if he were grabbing me by the throat.

“Why is this part wet?”

He pointed to the tear-stained mark on my jacket.

“Oh, Kim Jun cried...”

“So that bastard cried and buried his face in Lee Yeonsu’s chest?”

The murderous look in his eyes was impossible to miss.

The yandere mode that had somewhat calmed after the mock combat incident had fully reactivated.

This kind of scene had been in the original novel too.

When Park Geonwoo failed a mission and was depressed, Kim Jun hugged him to comfort him. When Seunghyuk found out, he tore Kim Jun’s clothes to shreds in a rage. And then, outdoors...

No! Not outdoors, anything but that!

I hurriedly took off my jacket and handed it to Seunghyuk.

“What are you doing?”

“Burn it.”

Joo Seunghyuk was a flame-type Esper. His sub-attribute was darkness, so his mana had a black hue, but his main attribute was fire. This polyester crap would be gone in a flash.

“Why?”

“Kim Jun seemed really worried about me. Said he didn’t even know I’d regained consciousness. Cried a lot when he saw me. I think the tears got on my clothes when I tried to comfort him. I’m sorry. I should’ve been more careful—he’s a Guide, so ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) I didn’t think you’d be bothered by it as a fellow Guide.”

In the original, Kim Jun had argued that comforting someone wasn’t a crime, and ended up getting assaulted outdoors.

So I decided to do the opposite—explain the situation in excessive detail and apologize.

“You want me to burn it for that?”

“Yeah.”

“Isn’t this your favorite jacket?”

It wasn’t anything special. I’d bought it because it was cheap and the design was decent, and I wore it often for the same reasons.

I’d worn it nearly every day during last year’s spring and fall. But this was the first time I wore it this year—how did Seunghyuk even know about it?

Either way, it was a hundred times better to sacrifice a jacket than get it ripped to shreds on the street.

“I mean, yeah, but you’d be upset otherwise.”

“......”

“I was wearing the jacket, so nothing got on the rest. Look. I even washed my hands before leaving the hospital.”

I opened my chest and showed him the shirt. Not a single drop had seeped past the jacket.

So please, don’t tear anything here.

Seunghyuk looked down at me for a moment, then took off his own jacket and draped it over my shoulders.

“It’s cold today. A patient should stay warm.”

“I’m okay now.”

“Say you’re a patient. If you weren’t, I would’ve torn all your clothes to shreds right here.”

“...Ah, I think I’m still sick! Cough cough!”

You psycho, so you really were going to rip them! I quickly pretended to cough.

Though I wasn’t unwell, my body still lacked strength after being unconscious for so long.

“This is the last time I’ll go easy on you for being sick.”

Seunghyuk took my hand as he said this. His fingers slowly grazed my scar.

I could feel it—this was his final warning. If something like this happened again, the obsessive yandere wouldn’t let me off so easily.

I nodded without hesitation.

“Yeah. Got it.”

“Get in.”

“Okay.”

I quickly climbed into Seunghyuk’s car, parked nearby.

But Seunghyuk remained outside, staring at my jacket.

Is he thinking of returning it to me?

Maybe after hearing my explanation, he decided it wasn’t worth burning after all.

Just as I was starting to think he had some common sense, the dark gray jacket suddenly caught fire.

The polyester fabric went up in flames and vanished without a trace.

He got into the car with a frosty expression.

“I thought maybe I could wash it and return it, but... I’d feel like shit every time I saw you wearing it.”

“R-right. Good job.”

“Good job?”

“Yeah.”

Considering what Kim Jun suffered in the original, losing one jacket was getting off cheap.

“I mean, I noticed a button was missing when I pulled it out again, and there were loose threads around the pocket. I was thinking about throwing it out anyway.”

That part wasn’t a lie. The finishing was always bad, and it really was in rough shape when I tried it on after a long time.

“Hyung.”

Seunghyuk’s voice rumbled low in the car.

“Yeah?”

“Kim Jun... does that bastard really bother you that much?”

“No, it’s not like that. We were just in the same group. If it had been anyone else in his situation, I still would’ve visited. And the only person I’m worried about right now is you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Just you.”

I’d been thinking about him all day. Wondering how to escape from this obsessive yandere’s grasp—it was all I ever thought about.

Seunghyuk gazed at me in silence.

“I remember what you said, hyung.”

“What...?”

“When I almost went berserk. When the mana was swallowing me and I couldn’t think of anything, your voice was the only thing I could hear clearly. You told me not to worry, that you wouldn’t run away, that you wouldn’t leave me—that’s what you said.”

“Yeah... I did.”

...That was something I said. Just to calm him down during a near-berserk state. I figured he wouldn’t remember it afterward.

But he had heard it after all...

“I don’t need to worry, right?”

“What?”

“You’re not going to run away, are you? You’re not going to leave?”

His eyes were wild. But underneath that, there was a desperation in his voice that made it oddly not frightening.

Still, just because it wasn’t scary didn’t mean I could speak my real feelings. If I did, I’d end up in some torture porn scenario before I knew it.

“Yeah...”

“Promise me.”

I nodded. My right hand was still in Seunghyuk’s grip, so I held out the pinky on my left hand.

“What are you doing?”

“You said promise...”

Seunghyuk blinked slowly. His gem-like eyes trembled hard. He actually looked a little flustered—which was so unlike him.

Wait, does he not know what this is...?

I grabbed his hand. The fingers that had been gripping my right hand relaxed. I curled his hand into a fist and lifted just his pinky. Then I hooked mine around it.

“There. Promise.”

“This is a promise?”

“Yeah. Pinky promise.”

“...Ah, so this is that thing. I’ve seen it in books, but it’s my first time doing it.”

Seunghyuk smiled brightly. It was a pure, childlike smile—and for some reason, it made something stir deep in my chest.

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“This promise... you can’t break it. Ever.”

“......”

I realized he was talking about what happened seven years ago.

***

Seven years ago, Seunghyuk and I took the one-on-one matching rate test. Our result was 48%.

Even for an S-Class, you needed at least 50% compatibility to be a dedicated Guide. I was just barely below the cutoff.

I’d proudly told Seunghyuk that I was going to be his Guide, only to end up losing face.

Before I left the hospital, I wanted to at least say goodbye. But the moment our eyes met, Seunghyuk turned his head and ran away.

I trudged home. I figured the contract was obviously void.

But a few hours later, Seonghan contacted me.

Chairman Joo Wanchan said 2% was within the margin of error and ordered the contract to proceed.

They didn’t want to lose the first S-Class Guide to appear in over a decade.

The next day, I got in the car Seonghan had sent and headed to Seunghyuk’s house.

Beyond the grand front gate stood a house straight out of a drama.

So I’m going to live here now?

Suddenly, I got nervous.

Could I do this? Would something as ordinary as eating a burger make me look ridiculous to these people? I felt my confidence drain away.

But the car kept going, deeper inside the estate—until it stopped in front of a much smaller building.

“You’ll be staying here from now on,” Secretary Ahn explained stiffly.

I was stunned.

It wasn’t just the size that was different.

This place—it felt like the servant’s quarters compared to the main house in a historical drama. The building was old, and looked like it hadn’t been maintained at all.

Are they looking down on me because I’m from an ordinary family and not some elite bloodline?

“I thought I’d be living with Joo Seunghyuk?”

I’d clearly heard that I’d be staying with him. No one ever said I’d be isolated in some shabby annex. When I brought up the contract terms, the secretary’s expression stiffened slightly.

“Yes. Young master Seunghyuk resides here.”

Wait. The youngest son—who’s only in sixth grade—lives out here alone?