Churu for the Angry Guide

18

“Baby, why are your eyes moist? Are you crying?”

Sweat had gathered in Siwoo’s round eyes. It was actually tears, but Siwoo wouldn’t admit it. His trembling made him feel ashamed, causing his eyes to become even more moist.

Of all things, a fox beastkin.

Siwoo strongly disliked foxes. It was closer to fear, but he stubbornly insisted it was just dislike. Not fear, but dislike.

Whenever he got involved with foxes, situations always took a turn for the worse. In school, he was severely bullied by a fox beastkin classmate, and when working part-time jobs, fox beastkins would particularly pick on Siwoo.

There were various reasons for the bullying.

They didn’t like how his appearance stood out. They often picked on his unusually white hair. None of it was Siwoo’s fault.

What could he do? He was born this way.

“Wow, you’re really pretty. You could be a cat model.”

This guy is also making a fuss about appearances.

Siwoo curled up tightly, avoiding the guide’s hand trying to grab his tail. He hadn’t expected him to come after him under the bed.

Hiss, hiiiss!

Siwoo panicked again upon seeing the guide transform into a fox. The moment he saw the fox’s large ears and pointed mouth, his heart shrank. He felt like the cat food he was still digesting might spill out. His stomach churned.

“Oh, you’re hissing too. Looks like you’ve got quite a temper.”

When Siwoo barely managed to bare his teeth, the guide chuckled and stretched his arm out further. He seemed about to grab Siwoo by the scruff of the neck. Siwoo couldn’t even resist and just covered his face with his front paws.

I’m going to tell the fool everything! Ridiculously, that thought crossed his mind. Even though that guy might not care at all.

Just then, the hand reaching for Siwoo suddenly retreated.

The guide, pulled back helplessly, looked up at Seojun who had grabbed his ankle, with a surprised expression.

“You might get bitten doing that.”

Seojun released the guide’s ankle, smiling calmly. He hadn’t gripped it very hard, but he hadn’t been gentle either.

The guide rubbed his ankle and nodded towards under the bed.

“If it bites, we should punish it. Seeing how it hisses, it seems to have a bad temper.”

“Who punishes a cat?”

Seojun let out a soft laugh, rounding his eyes.

“You need to be able to communicate to scold or warn them.”

“You can punish them with this. Then they’ll understand everything.”

The guide stood up and mimed flicking something in the air. He said this was faster than using words.

Seojun didn’t reply and gestured towards the door, suggesting they leave. However, the guide ignored Seojun and plopped down on the bed.

“I came to work, so I should work.”

He patted the bed sheet, saying he’d do a proper job since he came late. He nodded at Seojun, telling him to sit down.

“This is Geonho hyung’s room.”

“He’s not here now, is he?”

The guide shrugged as if asking what the problem was, and pulled on Seojun’s wrist. As expected, the large body was pulled along obediently. It was just as he had heard.

“I heard the dedicated guides here change quite often.”

The guide sat Seojun down right next to him. He seemed to be enjoying the docile Esper’s reactions, who was acting like a toothless beast.

He had never seen an Esper as gentle as Seojun. After always dealing with aggressive Espers, he was excited to meet a young, obedient Esper.

“The leader is a famous mental type so his matching rate is the worst, and the SS-grade has a strong aversion to guiding, right? Ah, he absorbs guiding well but avoids people, is that it?”

“Something like that.”

Seojun seemed used to the guide’s arbitrary behavior. He calmly accepted the rude actions of holding his hand without consent and starting guiding.

“I heard another Esper isn’t very enthusiastic about guiding either.”

“Jihan hyung should be okay.”

“Right, Yoo Jihan. I’ve memorized all the names at least. There are quite a few interesting rumors about him too.”

“They’re just rumors.”

A deep boredom flashed across Seojun’s smiling face. Even as he absorbed the high-level guiding transmitted through his palm, he didn’t feel refreshed. He only felt more nauseous.

“The maknae must have a hard time because of his hyungs. When you’re so nice.”

The guide’s greasy gaze scanned Seojun’s body. The fox beastkin’s scarlet eyes gleamed.

“If you were in another guild, you could have received guiding from one guide consistently, but it must be tough changing every time.”

Seojun just smiled. How could it not be tough? Having to deal with this nonsense every time.

“It’s fine.”

“No way. You must be having a hard time.”

The guide licked his lips and pulled Seojun closer. He tried to kiss him, wrapping his arms around Seojun’s broad shoulders.

“Guide-nim.”

Seojun rejected him before that could happen. He leaned his upper body back and pointed outside the door.

“Please leave for today.”

“What?”

The guide tilted his head, then frowned at Seojun’s next words.

“You smell, Guide-nim.”

“W-what?”

“I feel like I might throw up, so please leave.”

Seojun’s patience had reached its limit.

He had tried to endure as much as possible. This wasn’t the first guide like this.

Even in the Baekya Guild, not all guides who came in were good. If it were an ordinary top-tier guild, that might have been the case, but the Baekya Guild was in desperate need of guides. They had no choice but to accept anyone with a high matching rate as a dedicated guide.

Knowing this, some ill-intentioned guides deliberately tested the boundaries. As if to see how much they could get away with, they would be late to appointments or arbitrarily adjust the level of guiding, targeting the seemingly easiest maknae.

They believed their high matching rate would protect them. Seojun had reinforced their belief. He never made an issue of how these bad guides treated him.

It was because he wanted the guild to last long. For that, they needed dedicated guides.

Until now, Seojun had tried his best to humor the guides. He faced all guides with a smile, hoping they would somehow stay with the guild for a long time. Pretending to like something he didn’t was very easy for Seojun.

“Did you just say I smell?!”

But this guide had gone too far.

“Did you think you wouldn’t?”

Seojun pointed at the guide’s lips with his eyes as he spoke. Whether he had drunk heavily until late at night, even strong perfume couldn’t mask the smell of alcohol on his breath.

“Go home and rest. I’ll pay you for today’s work.”

“Ha, for today? So you’re telling me not to come back from tomorrow?”

The guide raised his voice, saying he had come all the way from America to join this guild. He even shoved Seojun’s shoulder.

Of course, Seojun didn’t budge. No matter how well-built the guide was, he was still just a guide. There was no way he could match an Esper in strength.

Perhaps feeling humiliated by this, the agitated guide suddenly tried to force a kiss. Unable to overpower him physically, he was trying to dominate through guiding.

“You need guiding. Just receive it and say thank you.”

“I don’t need it.”

Seojun calmly turned his head and stood up from the bed. Knowing that pushing him away might escalate the situation, he simply avoided it.

At this, the guide tried to seduce Seojun by emitting radiant guiding. An Esper’s instincts couldn’t help but be drawn to guiding.

The guide grabbed Seojun, whose steps had become heavy, and seized him by the collar. He was the type who wanted to keep the Esper under his heel somehow.

“What’s the point of being the Baekya Guild if you can’t even properly secure one dedicated guide?”

“I said I don’t need it.”

“What! What are you going to do about it! Hit me or something!”

The guide butted his face against Seojun’s chest, picking a fight. With alcohol still in his system, he seemed to fear nothing. It was rare to find a guide who provoked an Esper to this extent.

He persistently emitted radiant guiding and made Seojun sit on the bed again. The smell of alcohol from the guide seemed to grow stronger.

Seojun bit his lower lip, chuckling as if spitting out a curse. A real lunatic had come in.

There are still many interesting people in the world, Seojun thought idly as he closed his eyes to the guiding seeping into his body.

“You creatures who’ll die without guiding! Without us, you’re just waste! You know that?!”

Seeing Seojun snicker, the guide, even more enraged, hurled cliched insults. Is that all he’s got? Seojun was unfazed, having heard these words to the point of boredom.

But Siwoo wasn’t.

Haaaargh―!

Siwoo, who had been perking up his ears under the bed, lunged at the guide.

‘You crazy bastard, that’s enough!’

He kicked the guide’s abdomen with his hind legs, separating him from Seojun.

Even after hearing it with his own ears, the shock hadn’t subsided. How could he say such things in front of an Esper?

Calling people waste. As a fellow guide, he couldn’t understand it at all.

Haaark!

Siwoo sat on Seojun’s knee, threatening the guide. He bared his sharp claws, ready to scratch if approached, and hissed as if about to spit blood.

The guide stumbled back, dumbfounded at the sight of Siwoo. Only then did he sober up a bit.

‘Who do you think you are! Why are you harassing someone who doesn’t want to do it!’

Siwoo yelled at the top of his lungs and puffed up his body until the guide left. When the guide tried to say something, Siwoo even spat, screeching “Hiyak! Hiark!” like a possessed beast.

‘Get out! Get out―!’

The whites of his eyes were visible in his wide, round eyes. He certainly didn’t look sane. The guide quickly fled, fearing he might get bitten by that cat.

“…Calm down.”

Even Seojun couldn’t easily touch the cat and only tried to soothe it verbally. The cat was trembling so violently that it seemed like it might burst if touched.

‘Never, never come back!’

Siwoo couldn’t calm down immediately even after the guide had left.

He coughed and choked, his throat sore from shouting for so long. As he staggered and rested his face against the firm stomach, he suddenly realized it wasn’t the fool’s body and snapped back to his senses.

This guy would surely toss him aside like a rag. Siwoo didn’t want to be treated like that.

Just as he was about to get down on his own, a large hand pressed on his back. With very gentle pressure.

Siwoo raised his head, in an awkward posture from the pressure on his body. He was neither sitting nor standing, in an ambiguous position.

Seojun stared down at Siwoo without saying anything. Siwoo also looked back at him silently. Since he wouldn’t understand cat language anyway, Siwoo just locked eyes with him intently.

He wanted to tell him not to mind such words. If he were human right now, he would have definitely said it. That they were not waste or anything like that.