HG | Chapter 23

Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of longing, Hakyung blinked his eyes open and shut. Whatever Han Hee-gyeom interpreted from his expression, he shook Hakyung by the collar.

“Hey. I’m asking you. Did you have fun screwing with your dad?”

Every sentence ending with ‘dad, dad’… What a disrespectful brat.

Hakyung sharpened his gaze. He had been biting his tongue to hold back, but not anymore. Even if it meant a report would be sent home, or even if he got expelled, he had to say what he needed to say. This was also because he was certain that no matter what happened, his dad would be on his side.

“Han Hee-gyeom.”

“What? What are you gonna do, glaring at me like that? You little slut who sucks his dad’s cock.”

“Did you see?”

Hakyung spoke each word deliberately, not avoiding his gaze.

“Did you see it yourself? Who I’m sleeping with.”

“Huh! …Hey. Are you crazy?”

“You didn’t see it. And you didn’t have the guts to come to my house. You said you knew I had an overload. Then you must have known where I was, right? If it were you.”

Han Hee-gyeom’s parents were also awakeners, but they weren’t as famous as Cheonghyeon. However, with his father and mother holding high positions in politics and the Awakener Association, if he wanted to, he could easily find out Hakyung’s location. There’s always a way around things.

“…Wow, this. Seems like having your pussy pierced had quite an effect, huh? You used to just stay still when I touched your tits.”

The fact that the kid who used to just take it was talking back so clearly must have been unsettling for him. He already had a dirty mouth, and now it was like he had a knife in it.

“So, what? Even if I didn’t see it, it’s obvious. They say when you overload, you don’t recognize your parents, so how pretty must our Hakyung have been, drooling pussy juice with glazed eyes.”

“……”

“Hey, Im Hakyung. Logically, if even one of the espers here had found you that day, do you think your hole would be intact? It’s only because your dad was the one who took you that you can walk around on two legs. He’s getting old, so he wouldn’t have fucked as many times as there are heads here.”

‘He did.’

He did it way more.

Han Hee-gyeom kept probing if Hakyung had slept with his dad, but he didn’t actually know anything.

He really didn’t know anything…. Hakyung was just dumbfounded.

“……”

“Look at that, damn. Look at those wide eyes. You have nothing to say because I hit the nail on the head, right?”

Han Hee-gyeom roughly let go of his collar. Then, lowering his voice threateningly, he tapped Hakyung’s shoulder.

“So, how was it? Was your dad’s cock tasty? Huh? Speak with that smart mouth of yours. Let me hear your cock review. How was your dad’s cock, you little shit who came back from sucking it?”

With a face devoid of shame, as if the emotion of embarrassment had been castrated.

Hakyung compressed the emotions boiling inside him into one.

“You really are… trash.”

Disgust.

In his judgment, the creature in front of him was something so transformed and twisted that it was hard to believe it was the same species. It was just wearing a human shell, but it couldn’t possibly be the same species. Otherwise, it was an incomprehensible malice.

He decided to listen to how far the trash wearing a human mask would go. As a result, Hakyung took a step back from Han Hee-gyeom, feeling deeply regretful.

He had always treated him like dirty filth, but now even being close to him was repulsive. Honestly, he had lost the will to even exchange words. He just wanted to express the feelings he had bottled up in his chest while enduring his filth.

“Wherever you do your trashy deeds, whether you really live as trash, that’s none of my business. Don’t speak of my dad so carelessly. Is my dad your friend? Do you know my dad? Who are you to demean and insult him like that?”

“What? Hey! Im Ha-”

“You’re the one who’s a nobody as an esper.”

Stop.

Han Hee-gyeom’s eyes widened at Hakyung’s provocation. He never expected his abilities to be questioned. Hakyung found even that amusing.

“What have you done as an esper to help the world? At best, all you do is curse, say dirty things, insult, and act like trash?”

“……”

“I’m an F-rank with no abilities, but what about you? If you become an S-rank, can you do what ‘Im Cheonghyeon the Esper’ does? Are you confident you can protect this country, this land, and all your friends here with your life? Are you, of course, confident you can become the representative esper that comes to mind when people think of ‘Korea’?”

In the end, it’s thanks to my biological parents and Cheonghyeon risking their lives to protect this land that you’re living without a care.

The more he expressed his feelings, the more unjust Hakyung felt. Did Cheonghyeon save people knowing this would happen? Did he foresee a future where he’d be insulted by a young junior?

At first, he was angry at Han Hee-gyeom’s childish antics. Now, he just felt complicated.

“I haven’t said it before, but… you’re a really strange kid. You’ve been touching my body carelessly since forever, causing all sorts of trouble saying you want to sleep with me… but you don’t have the courage to properly ask me out on a date? Was sticking random words together your best effort?”

‘That must be the essence of you as a human.’

Don’t speak of my dad. You irredeemable trash, how dare you.

“Hoo…”

Anyway, he said everything he wanted to say. Even though he was Im Cheonghyeon’s child, he wondered if he might get beaten up to the point of risking his life, but he had been prepared to have a few bones broken.

“…Huh, haha.”

But Han Hee-gyeom’s reaction was unexpected. He suddenly let out a hollow laugh and just stared blankly at Hakyung.

“…Wow. Im Hakyung’s gone crazy.”

With a voice that sounded almost like admiration, the atmosphere in the classroom changed. The kids who had been holding their breath started whispering among themselves, quickly becoming noisy.

“I thought it was just a rumor, but family… esper….”

“How can you guide with family… dirty….”

“Still, I’m a bit jealous… found a partner esper….”

Whisper, whisper. Murmur, murmur.

The ones talking were mostly the classmates from the Guide Department. The espers were mixed in, whispering too, but the guides were overwhelmingly more numerous.

Meanwhile, Hakyung stood at the back of the classroom, enduring the burdensome atmosphere and lost in thought.

‘Should I just leave….’

There was plenty of time to escape since attendance hadn’t been checked yet. Since guiding wouldn’t work anyway, maybe it would be better to come back later.

And the gazes directed at Hakyung weren’t particularly kind.

‘Who does he think he is, acting so composed? He’s the one who caused this commotion.’

If Hakyung had heard the conversations floating around him, it would have been difficult to maintain his composure. But compared to other classmates, he had ordinary hearing, so he couldn’t properly catch the conversations of the relatively higher-ranked awakeners.

By a coincidental stroke of luck, his quiet, silent demeanor ended up provoking many people.

His uniquely calm attitude amidst the chaos. His beautifully lowered eyelids as he pondered. The expression that seemed to observe others in a strangely detached way paradoxically stirred others’ emotions. Whether it was admiration or inferiority.

Without Hakyung knowing, the current classroom opinion was divided into two categories.

One was the reaction that guiding with family was dirty, impure, and pitiful.

The other was the reaction of envy for finding a rare partner esper, especially since that esper was ‘Im Cheonghyeon.’

Hakyung had never openly declared, ‘My dad is my esper,’ but most of his classmates had naturally pegged Cheonghyeon as Hakyung’s esper. If he had overloaded, it meant he had a lot of accumulated energy, and no one other than Cheonghyeon was identified as the esper who calmed it. Moreover, the fact that Hakyung was in such good condition also contributed to the speculation.

The complete disappearance of accumulated energy in one go. This was only possible through guiding with a partner esper.

The problem was the unique taboo phenomenon in Korean society. While same-sex relationships were naturally accepted, guiding with family or having family as partners was openly frowned upon. The lower the rank, the more likely it was to end up having to have sex with family if they formed a pair.

After it became a fact that Hakyung’s esper was Im Cheonghyeon, Han Hee-gyeom’s treatment of Hakyung as a slut was strongly influenced by that perception.

It was then.

“Good morning.”

While Hakyung was hesitating, the professor entered the room. He appeared to be in his mid to late 40s, a bald man.

The professor scanned the classroom, which seemed to have been in an uproar, and pointed to a spot, asking,

“Who broke the desk?”

“…I did.”

Han Hee-gyeom answered, breaking the silence for the first time in a while. Maybe he was affected by Hakyung’s words, as he uncharacteristically kept his lips shut for a while.

“Ah, Hee-gyeom again? How many times have I told you not to damage property? Later, take the broken desk to the disposal area and bring a new one. You know where it is, right?”

“…Yes.”

What is this? There’s no way Han Hee-gyeom would be this compliant.

Hakyung didn’t let his guard down. The professor, who was activating the attendance pad, noticed Hakyung belatedly.

“Oh, Hakyung’s here? You said you were sick, are you okay?”

“…Yes, professor.”

Even when combining two classes, the number of students was about the size of a single class in a regular school. Occasionally, the professor was specially invited to support practical training at the high school Hakyung attended, so he tended to treat students like middle and high schoolers. That’s why he remembered all the students’ names.

“Alright, good to see you. Take care of your health. …Now, I’ve turned on the attendance pad, so feel free to check in. I’ll assign partners, so go into the booths and try the guiding practice. If there’s anything difficult or troublesome, let me know. Got it?”

The Guiding Practice course was literally centered around guiding practice. The professor paired one esper with one guide for each class and had them guide. It was the time when Hakyung became a borrowed barley sack.

“…Jang Yuseong, Im Hakyung. Booth 16.”

Eventually, Hakyung’s name was called. He glanced at the esper who would be his temporary partner and frowned.

‘Today’s really not my day.’

Jang Yuseong was one of the idiots in Han Hee-gyeom’s group. As if he was also looking at Hakyung, he grinned when their eyes met. It was a smile that made him feel uneasy.

‘If anything happens, I’ll run.’

Resolutely making up his mind, he headed to Booth 16. Unlike a regular classroom, the guiding practice room was a square plaza with countless small individual booths set up for pairs to enter. The desks and chairs were gathered in the center of the plaza, but since it was a practice-oriented class, they didn’t spend much time sitting there.

Even aside from the presence of Jang Yuseong, Hakyung felt his insides tighten with tension as the time for practice approached.

‘Will the skill work on other espers?’

To be more specific, the target of Hakyung’s skill activation at the time was contaminated land. It meant it hadn’t been verified what effect it would have on an esper.

The reluctance to use a skill he hadn’t even properly used on Cheonghyeon on someone else first, and the unnecessary worry about what if it worked, occupied his mind.

“Hey. Why are you dawdling?”

Jang Yuseong, who had approached in the meantime, urged from behind Hakyung’s head.

“Sorry it’s not your dad?”

“Sigh…”

It’s so disheartening.

Of course. Birds of a feather flock together. Crayfish are friends with crabs.

The guys who had always looked down on and belittled Hakyung wouldn’t change just because they heard a few words.

What kind of luxury was I expecting by returning to school….

‘I was being arrogant because I was well-fed and warm.’

Hakyung regretted again and entered the assigned booth. The rectangular space, about 2 square meters, contained a desk attached to the wall, two chairs facing each other, and a balance controller on the desk. That was all.

The practitioners would sit facing each other, holding each end of the balance controller, and release energy.

“…Hold it.”

Hakyung sat in the inner chair and grabbed the balance controller. When he pulled off the pointed cap, a thin needle appeared. To draw out the effect of the balance controller, he had to inject the drug by sticking the needle into his arm like a syringe.

Jang Yuseong sat across from him without complaint. Then, with familiar hand movements, he pierced the needle into the back of his hand. Since there was no need to find a vein for injection, he could stick it anywhere, but seeing the muscular guy casually pierce the back of his hand was visually intimidating.

Hakyung hurriedly stuck the needle into his wrist as well.

“Mm…”

The sensation of the drug entering the body felt strange no matter how many times he experienced it. It was like suddenly feeling his blood vessels expand and blood circulate.

Others often said that when they took this drug, it felt like they were high, like they were on drugs. They said it relaxed their tension while intensifying the desire to release energy.

Thump thump… thump… thump thump thump.

‘My heart feels… strange.’

Hakyung was bothered by his heart beating differently than usual, so he unconsciously pressed his chest with his fist.

“Why. Does it feel like your milk is flowing because it’s been a while since you took the drug?”

The guy, who had already removed the needle, sneered slyly. His eyes seemed a bit glazed.

Before long, Hakyung also removed the needle. His delicate brow furrowed noticeably.

‘This doesn’t feel right.’

Whatever Jang Yuseong was saying didn’t even reach his ears, bouncing off instead.

Thump thump thump thump thump!

The speed of his heartbeat noticeably increased. His heart felt incredibly heavy. Hakyung forcibly suppressed the burden, as if holding back nausea, and grabbed one end of the controller.

“You… hold it too.”

“Hoo… Hey, but do you… wear perfume? What’s that smell…”

Whether it was a joke or not, the guy pressed the back of his hand under his nose.

“I don’t.”

He couldn’t even guess what smell the guy was talking about, and Hakyung was preoccupied with the unfamiliar state of his body, making his demeanor even stiffer.

It was when Jang Yuseong, with a suspicious expression, grabbed the balance controller.

※Status Abnormality※

An abnormal phenomenon is detected around the caster, activating the <Regeneration: Recovery> skill. To which target would you like to apply the skill?

▶Jang Yuseong

“Jang… Yuseong?”

A system message appeared on his retina, offering a choice. Although there was only one option, Hakyung was closer to being too surprised to choose the system’s option than actually selecting it.

The system keenly caught even his small mumble.

Removing all status abnormalities from the target, ‘Jang Yuseong,’ for 5 seconds.

Shortly after the brief message appeared and disappeared.

“Ugh…!”

Jang Yuseong, with a flushed face, began to groan.

Hakyung was so startled that he let go of the controller and stood up.

“This, this is.”

Esper energy!

“How, how did this happen…”

Esper energy, which shouldn’t have been felt, was wrapped around his fingers like threads. And the wavelength of a B-rank esper was vividly drawn, as if he could grasp it…!

Although much higher ranked than Hakyung, it was true that B-rank espers had a narrower range of wavelengths compared to S-rank and A-rank. Since Hakyung had almost no wavelength, he guessed that only an esper with a wide wavelength range, at least A-rank or higher, might have a chance of matching wavelengths.

“Damn… Hey. What are you?”

Clatter!

Finally, Jang Yuseong jumped up from his seat. His skin, which had turned red, was now sweating profusely. It was evidence of being over-guided.

Hakyung tried to run for the door.

“Ugh!”

He might have succeeded if the esper hadn’t quickly grabbed his waist.

Hakyung froze like a frightened animal. Jang Yuseong tried to bury his nose in Hakyung’s skin, pulling him into his arms. The groin that brushed against him was bulging.

For the first time, Hakyung felt the crisis that he might be raped.

He didn’t even have time to be surprised or impressed by the fact that he had guided someone other than his partner.

“G-get away!”

“Damn, just stay still, damn it! You slut, I’m just trying to smell you! I’m not even trying to eat you!”

Smack, the hand trying to restrain the struggling Hakyung slipped and slapped his face. It was an accident that happened as Hakyung instinctively pulled back to avoid his touch.

It hurts.

“G-get away!”

It hurts so much….

Hakyung held back the tears that were about to burst. Tears that came so easily in front of Cheonghyeon, but he didn’t want to show them here. Instead, he clenched his fist and hit the esper.

“Argh!”

Unfortunately, he didn’t even make a speck of dust.

Instead, a terrifying sound, like his fingers breaking, echoed.

“What on earth is going on, kids!”

Finally, it seemed the screams reached outside. The professor burst through the door. Beyond the wide-open door, dozens of eyes looked down at the tangled pair.

Facing the multitude of gazes, his vision suddenly spun.

‘Dad….’

And then, it went dark.