Taming the Obsessive Attachment

“I won’t guide anymore. As of today, I will no longer guide Seo Eui-woo.”

“What did you just say?”

Seo Eui-woo lifted his head silently. The glare he shot was terrifyingly intense.

“Guiding is a guide’s duty, isn’t it? Until you restore my memories completely and take full responsibility, I have no intention of fulfilling that duty either. I can’t do it. After all, the only reason you’re so desperate to keep me alive is for that fucking guiding, isn’t it? All you ever want is guiding.”

“……What did you just say? Jae-jin, do you want to see me angry? Is that why you’re doing this?”

“Tell me I’m wrong. You’ve just been ignoring it until now. If Kwon Jae-jin wasn’t your guide—if he wasn’t some mutant guide but just an ordinary civilian—do you think you would’ve even spared me a glance? What would the great S-class Esper Seo Eui-woo have thought of Kwon Jae-jin if he weren’t a guide? Would you have even cared if I lived or died? No. My life would’ve meant less than a scrap of paper to you.”

“Ha…… Stop it. I’m warning you. I’m really about to get angry.”

Seo Eui-woo wiped the blood from his lower lip with an impatient motion. As he rubbed it away with the back of his hand, a smear of bright red blood streaked across the corner of his mouth.

Kwon Jae-jin knew Seo Eui-woo’s warning was genuine.

Even so, he didn’t stop provoking him.

“The only reason you’re keeping me alive is because you need guiding.”

Guiding, no matter what. Guiding.

From start to finish, it was always about guiding.

The words sounded nice enough—how he couldn’t kill Kwon Jae-jin, how he was trying to keep him alive—but in the end, wasn’t the real purpose just to exploit his guiding?

“Even if I swear never to guide you again, would you still find my life so precious? I swear, from this moment on, I will never willingly comply with guiding again.”

“Enough, just…… I told you to stop…!”

The desk lamp flickered uneasily before the bulb burst with a sharp pop. Seo Eui-woo’s unchecked power overflowed, rampaging wildly.

More violent and fierce than usual. It surged in all directions like a beast lashed into a frenzy.

The energy billowed like smoke, shaking the mansion and even extending deep into the ground beneath it. Seo Eui-woo gritted his teeth, trying to restrain himself, but his emotions had already boiled past the point of control.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem? Even if I don’t consent, you can just force me down and make it happen, can’t you? With that omnipotent power of yours. You can shackle me. Gag me. Shove a catheter down my dick while you’re at it! Just treat me like a tool, a machine for extracting guiding, isn’t that what you want?!”

“I—I don’t want that. Ugh… I hate it too, I’m fucking sick of it.”

Seo Eui-woo furrowed his thick brows, struggling to rein in his power. His gleaming gray eyes burned with intensity.

“I never wanted to live as an Esper. Who the hell… Who would ever want this? I never asked for any of it—S-class or whatever. But then you, Jae-jin, Kwon Jae-jin, you appeared in front of me, and I… You gave me everything.”

His eyes trembled as he spoke, his face swollen and bloodied.

“You made me want you. You made me live as an Esper. You made me realize how good guiding is—how much I crave it. You changed everything! And now, just when I finally feel like I can live… You’re telling me you’re going to leave me and die? You’re telling me to deal with that?!”

“Then, fuck, if guiding is so damn good—either restore my memories or tie me up and do whatever the fuck you want! Shit, sure. Erase my memories again, why don’t you? This time, don’t half-ass it—scrape my fucking brain clean. Open up another big hole in my head or whatever the fuck it takes. Turn me into a mindless idiot, a convenient guiding slave. Chain me up like livestock, as your personal guide, forever! Use me however the fuck you want!!”

CRACK!

Despite Seo Eui-woo’s attempts at restraint, the mansion’s framework groaned and warped with a deafening noise. A wall split in two, cement dust crumbling down from the widening crack. The bed trembled precariously, but Kwon Jae-jin didn’t so much as flinch.

What did a man unafraid of death have to fear?

“I won’t—I will never, ever, under any circumstances, agree to guiding until you restore my family. Keep that in mind.”

“…….”

“Think it through. I’ll be waiting for your answer.”

***

The night was particularly cold and merciless.

Kwon Jae-jin had locked himself in his bedroom after throwing Seo Eui-woo out, while Seo Eui-woo had deliberately left, fearing that his unstable powers might harm Jae-jin if he lost control.

Maybe because they were in the mountains, the distant hoot of an owl echoed through the air. On a moonless, clouded night like this, the eerie sound made the already somber atmosphere even heavier.

Midnight had long since passed, but Kwon Jae-jin, of course, wasn’t sleeping. He had been sprawled motionless on the bed for hours, as still as a corpse, occasionally shifting just to prove he was alive. He was doing nothing at all, yet strangely, the longer time passed, the harder everything became.

Was it because he had said that to Seo Eui-woo?

“I’m an adult, and I still can’t act my age.”

Of course, not every word he had spat out was entirely sincere.

Telling Seo Eui-woo to make him a guiding slave, to treat him like livestock—he had said it in anger, knowing Seo Eui-woo wouldn’t actually do such a thing so easily. He had an idea of what Seo Eui-woo wanted from him, even if the bastard never said it outright.

“The kid’s being cruel, but that doesn’t mean I had to be just as cruel… But if I don’t do this, I might never get my memories back.”

He had lost his temper and lashed out too hard, but even after thinking it over repeatedly, this wasn’t something he could just let slide.

This time, he wasn’t going to give in to Seo Eui-woo’s wishes. He wasn’t going to feign reluctance and go along with it.

Because that would be too pitiful.

At the very least, Kwon Jae-jin had the right to be angry.

He was the victim—his own flesh and blood had been stolen from him. There was no way he could simply let it go. It was too unfair. Too infuriating. It made him sick to his stomach.

Kwon Jae-jin hadn’t lost just anything—he had lost his family.

His entire life, his roots, his childhood experiences and background had been ripped away from him. Seo Eui-woo was no different from the enemy who had killed his parents. And yet, was he supposed to endure it? Was he supposed to accept Seo Eui-woo again, as if nothing had happened, and try to understand him?

Because the Seo Eui-woo of this second life hadn’t personally done anything? Because this Seo Eui-woo was innocent? Was that how he was supposed to think…?

“Fuck…”

He didn’t know.

He truly didn’t know. Every thought ended with fuck. No matter what he contemplated, the conclusion was fuck, and no matter what he reflected on, the answer was fuck.

Everything was fuck. This fucking bastard. This fucking world. This fucking goddamn guiding and this fucking psychic ability bullshit.

Let it all burn.

Let it all be consumed in flames. Let the whole world crumble and everyone in it perish in utter ruin.

If, in this moment, Kwon Jae-jin had been Seo Eui-woo—if he had been an S-class Esper—he would not have held back. He would have detonated his abilities, willingly choosing the catastrophic, tragic ending of an unrestrained rampage.

Jae-jin ran a rough hand through his hair, frustrated, then buried his face deep into his pillow.

There was no way he was getting any sleep tonight.

He would undoubtedly stay awake until morning, staring into the darkness with open eyes. His anger ran too hot to allow for rest, and he wasn’t even hungry. He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since yesterday evening, yet he didn’t feel the slightest bit of hunger.

Just then, a knock came from outside his closed bedroom door.

“Jae-jin. Can I come in?”

Seo Eui-woo. He had been quiet for a while, but it seemed he had come to stir things up again.

Kwon Jae-jin didn’t respond. Even so, Seo Eui-woo opened the door without permission and stepped inside carefully, without making a sound.

“Were you sleeping? I didn’t wake you, did I?”

Jae-jin felt him approaching, but he ignored him, refusing to even glance in his direction.

Seo Eui-woo, undeterred, sat down at the head of the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight, pressing in heavily. With his muscular build, he weighed a lot.

“I know you told me to get out, that you didn’t want to see me for a while… But I was worried. I was afraid you might do something reckless again.”

What, was he worried Jae-jin would harm himself?

That he might bite off his own tongue?

Jae-jin let out a hollow breath, half scoff, half sigh, finding the thought ridiculous.

Seo Eui-woo stared at him intently, his expression darkening unconsciously.

Kwon Jae-jin looked terrible. The shadows under his eyes were sunken, his face drawn and pale. His lips, cracked and parched from dehydration, had gone completely dry. His bloodshot eyes were still inflamed, glaringly red. No one would look at him and call him fine.

“Jae-jin…”

Seo Eui-woo reached out.

It was a hand extended out of concern, out of sorrow. A touch meant to comfort him, to soothe him with kindness.

But Kwon Jae-jin mercilessly, coldly, rejected the gesture.

“What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to guide with me?”