That was when Joo Seunghyuk burrowed into my arms.

“Trying to sleep?”

“No. I’m marking you with my pheromones.”

“......”

Was that really something to say so boldly?

I take it back—there’s no such thing as “comfortable” when you’re with a yandere. Not for a second can you let your guard down.

“R-right. I see.”

“Do you not like it?”

“No, I just wondered if doing that really helps the pheromones stick better.”

Seunghyuk was rubbing his head against my chest.

“No. The position doesn’t matter.”

“Then why...?”

“Because I like being like this with you.”

He smiled softly. The moment I saw that pure, innocent smile, my heart thudded.

Right now, Joo Seunghyuk was pretending to be innocent and sly. I knew that—and yet, for some reason, my heart softened.

“And I think it’s especially important to mark my territory today.”

“Huh?”

Seunghyuk’s face came closer. Don’t tell me—in the bus?! I recoiled in surprise. In that moment, his gaze turned cold.

I’d just rejected the yandere without thinking.

Lately, Seunghyuk had been relatively gentle. But that was only because I’d been obedient.

I’d never once disobeyed his words, never said “no.”

“S-Seunghyuk!”

I hurried to explain, but the bus stopped. We had arrived at a rest area.

“There will be a 20-minute break at the rest stop. Please return to the bus by 30 minutes past the hour. For every minute you’re late, 1 point will be deducted.”

The teaching assistant delivered the instructions, and students began getting off one by one. Seunghyuk stood up as well.

“Let’s go.”

“Okay.”

I was relieved to hear he was still using polite speech, and quickly got to my feet.

Since it was a weekday afternoon, the rest stop was quiet. After I came back from the restroom, we had 12 minutes left.

“We’ve got awkward timing, huh?”

“Yeah.” 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He replied in a short answer. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just being his usual self—he wasn’t a big talker to begin with.

“Wanna get something to eat?”

“Are you hungry?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Me too.”

Short replies kept coming.

“Then should we get a drink? My treat.”

“You’re buying for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because I messed up earlier.”

“What did you mess up?”

“Sorry. I didn’t avoid you on purpose. I was just embarrassed.”

Seunghyuk pressed down on my head and messed up my hair.

“You made a mistake, so you’d better buy something expensive.”

“Yeah! Let’s get something expensive!”

How generous—letting it go with just a drink after I upset the yandere.

I was about to head into the café next door, but Seunghyuk turned away and walked into the convenience store instead.

“Seunghyuk, we can go to the café if you want....”

“I like it here.”

He strode over to the drink fridge and, without hesitation, picked one out.

When I saw the drink in Seunghyuk’s hand, I was momentarily at a loss for words. It was the exact same grapefruit juice I’d bought him four years ago. The label still advertised it as “100% cold-pressed juice.”

“...That one?”

“Yeah.”

Seunghyuk headed to the checkout. I quickly grabbed the same grapefruit juice and followed behind. Naturally, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) I paid with my own card.

It wasn’t the account Seunghyuk knew about—it was linked to a different bank card. The 110 million won he’d deposited still sat untouched in its account.

We came out of the convenience store and sat side by side on a nearby bench.

“This is nice.”

I looked around. One corner of the rest stop had been landscaped like a small garden, with green leaves and little flowers mingling together to create a peaceful, forest-like atmosphere.

“It is.”

Seunghyuk drank the grapefruit juice. The sight of the pale coral liquid paired with a yandere was disturbingly out of place.

“...Seunghyuk, do you like juice?”

“Only this one. I used to hate juice, but this one was pretty good when I tried it.”

So he did drink the juice I gave him back then... I thought for sure he’d tossed it straight in the trash.

“But hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“Why grapefruit?”

“......”

His voice was casual, like tossing a pebble into a still pond—but it caused ripples deep in my chest.

Seunghyuk was bringing up the past. He’d made offhand comments before, but this was the first time he mentioned it so directly.

We had an unspoken rule never to talk about anything before our first time. But now, Seunghyuk was trying to break that rule.

And if he wanted to, I had no choice but to accept it.

“It seemed classier than the others...”

At least it wouldn’t make him mad and ask, ‘What kind of trash is this to give me?’

I swallowed the rest of the sentence. There was no need to say all that.

“......”

Seunghyuk said nothing for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t the answer he wanted. But I couldn’t lie, either.

I sipped the grapefruit juice and looked at the flowers blooming on the tree. A faint floral scent floated in on the breeze.

It was about time to head back.

“Shall we go?”

I stood up to leave—only for the back of my neck to be grabbed and his lips pressed against mine. As his tongue entwined with mine, the bitter taste of grapefruit spread through my mouth.

***

After getting off the bus and walking toward the gate, I saw Aaron.

I thought he’d stormed off in anger, but apparently, he’d driven his own car and arrived ahead of us.

Aaron was with Professor Oh.

“Guides these days are weak and selfish! Guides must participate in gate raids! Sitting safely and just holding hands earns them massive amounts of money that regular laborers couldn’t even dream of! This doesn’t happen in the U.S.!”

As usual, Professor Oh was putting on a show in front of the reporters. He was always like that. Spouting plausible criticisms of ability users, then milking public sympathy to boost his own prestige.

It wasn’t like he was actually pointing out structural problems in the ability user world. He just said whatever empty, flashy words he thought the public would like—purely for his own benefit.

Things like “This wouldn’t happen overseas,” or “Even a D-rank can surpass an S-rank with enough effort!”—utter nonsense.

Plenty of students had enrolled at the Academy believing in Professor Oh’s words, only to fall into despair when faced with reality. And when those students dared speak about the hopelessness they experienced, his followers would say:

‘You just didn’t work hard enough. Professor Oh Seokgwang said everything can be overcome with effort. Rank is just an excuse.’

A vicious cycle. A few years ago, a student even attempted suicide because of this. Thankfully, they survived—but ended up dropping out just before graduation.

“The Academy of Ability Users is also part of the problem! Instead of criticizing and educating selfish behavior in Guides, they just cater to S-rank Guides!”

Right now, the only S-rank Guide at the Academy was me. Professor Oh was clearly attacking me.

And now he was doing it outside the school too.

This wasn’t just aimed at me—it was lumping in all the Academy’s professors.

What the hell was he doing? Was he planning to burn bridges with the Academy? Was he really joining the Center?

But the Department of Ability Users, the Center, and the Academy were all government-affiliated bodies. They were basically the same organization.

There was no reason to openly antagonize the Academy faculty...

Today, his rhetoric was unusually intense. Something felt off.

In the middle of his grandstanding, Professor Oh suddenly softened his expression and looked at Aaron with warm eyes.

“In times like this, it’s truly a relief to have an excellent Guide like Han Minho with us.”

As he praised him, Aaron gave a modest smile. What a perfect team. This wasn’t just about helping Aaron get into the Academy—something deeper was going on here....

“Oh! Joo Seunghyuk and Lee Yeonsu!”

A reporter shouted, and everyone turned to look. They forgot all about Professor Oh and swarmed us instead.

“There was a report that you two are dating—can you confirm that?”

“Rumor says you gave Guide Lee Yeonsu an extremely valuable treasure. Is that true?”

“Are you really in a relationship?”

As the reporters crowded in, my body instinctively tensed. I’d been the center of attention plenty of times as an S-rank, but I never got used to this kind of scrutiny.

And I was scared. What if Seunghyuk blurted out something irreversible like marriage?

I cautiously glanced at him. Seunghyuk wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulders.

“We’re about to raid a live gate. Refrain from asking irrelevant questions.”

His tone was frigid, and the reporters immediately fell silent. As always, his words carried an undeniable authority.

Not even Professor Oh or Aaron dared to speak carelessly around him.

In the tense silence, Kang Inho calmly addressed the teaching assistant.

“TA, time for equipment checks.”

“Ah—right. We’ll proceed with equipment inspection now. Espers to the navy tent on the right, Guides to the guiding tent on the left.”

The students moved accordingly. But Seunghyuk still had his arm around me.

“Seunghyuk, I’ll go now.”

I spoke gently, and he slowly released his hold on my shoulder.

“See you later.”

It was just an equipment check, but his voice sounded unnecessarily tender. I matched the mood and gave him a wistful smile.

“Yeah. See you later, Seunghyuk.”

“Okay.”

He took my hand and let it go slowly. Once I finally slipped away and headed toward the guiding tent, Jihee noona sidled up beside me and whispered,

“Ah, young love.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Oh please. I’m jealous. Totally jealous. Spring is in the air~”

Jealous? The man’s a full-blown yandere! It’s not spring—he’s the Siberian tundra on two legs!

But I couldn’t say that to Jihee noona.

We lined up and began equipment inspection one by one.

The checks for Espers and Guides were completely different. Espers were thoroughly examined for weapons, armor, accessories, weapon grade and condition, and whether the equipment matched their specialties.

For Guides, they mostly just checked whether you brought a weapon at all.

In live training, Guides rarely entered the gate itself. Even if they did, it was always under an Esper’s protection. So there was rarely any need to use a weapon.

Still, since it was a school training exercise, they at least went through the motions. If this were a guild raid, it probably would’ve been skipped entirely.

My briefcase currently held two pistols: the standard school-issued one, and the Horaritron pistol Seunghyuk had given me.

I didn’t want anyone to see the ring’s power, so I’d removed it earlier at the rest stop.

Technically, any treasure acquired through gate raids was supposed to be reported to the government. Naturally, those things also became known to the public. But I’d never once heard mention of this ring.

He must’ve kept it completely secret. And gave it to me.

Of course, he never explicitly told me to keep it a secret. But I wanted to be cautious so no one would find out.

If you didn’t know its special function, it just looked like an expensive accessory.

“Guide Lee Yeonsu.”

“Yes.”

The line moved quickly, and now it was my turn.

Between the school-issued pistol and the Horaritron pistol... which one should I hand over?