ALL NOVEL #021
#021
As I stared at the word “Love Coin,” an explanation window suddenly popped up.
*What are Love Coins?*
Espers and Guides perform guiding through close physical contact. Therefore, it’s necessary to get used to physical contact!
– Light touch for more than 1 minute: 1-15 coins
(See details for coin rates by body part)
– Peck: 5-20 coins
(See details for coin rates by body part)
– Kiss: 10 coins
What… the…
I stared at the explanation window with my mouth agape. So, to escape this situation by strengthening Shin Haejun, I eventually have to engage in close physical contact?
‘This is insane…’
I glared at the explanation window in shock.
Shin Haejun, thinking I was glaring at him, continued to caress my cheek with his slender eyes.
“What… did you put on? Why is it so…!”
Shin Haejun’s jaw tightened. And before I could push him away, his face filled my vision.
“Hee, heek…!”
Something moist and firm touched my cheek. It was Shin Haejun’s tongue.
In an instant, Shin Haejun licked my cheek lengthwise, and his gaze intensified. His jewel-like eyes shone brighter as they wandered across my face.
‘This is bad. Someone save me!’
This guy has lost his mind. Seeing his eyes, which had gone from spinning to sinking into darkness, sent chills down my spine. It was fortunate to know that my danger-sensing ability wasn’t malfunctioning, but the thought of not knowing what would happen next wasn’t comforting at all.
“Ugh, hnnng… uugh, unng…!”
For a moment, my thoughts stopped. Shin Haejun easily restrained my struggling and pressed his lips against mine. The firm tongue that had licked my cheek now pushed between my lips, pulling at my tongue.
The sound of smacking lips mixed with my muffled groans as I struggled to breathe. When I tried to push his chest away with my hands, Shin Haejun’s eyes twitched in annoyance, and he pulled my wrists behind me, firmly securing them in his grip.
“No, hnng…!”
This is strange. Was kissing always this pleasurable?
The more we touched, the more heat seemed to rise from the points of contact. Shin Haejun’s saliva, which should have felt unpleasant, tasted sweet. I could feel my body becoming languid, leaning entirely on Shin Haejun.
“Shit…”
Shin Haejun strongly pulled at the base of my tongue one last time before separating our lips and muttering a curse.
It felt like I had been hit hard on the head. I suddenly realized that my tongue had been reaching out, as if begging Shin Haejun. Like a cat that had forgotten to retract its tongue.
“Ah, ugh…”
With my head spinning, I noticed that 12 Love Coins had accumulated, and I quickly tried to attempt mercenary strengthening.
“A bit more.”
However, Shin Haejun pulled me into his arms first, placing me on his lap and grabbing the back of my head. I saw that the “Mercenary Rest” menu had naturally activated.
In the end, I was only able to strengthen Shin Haejun after being held, lying down, and thoroughly kissed for another 30 minutes.
***
‘It’s because of guiding, it’s because of guiding.’
I saw it in the guide book. It said that feeling sexual desire during guiding is a natural response.
Thinking about why it was different from last time with Hyun Dowoon, I thought it might be due to the difference in mercenary registration status.
‘Or is Hyun Dowoon just better at hiding it? Or is it the influence of the matching rate?’
For now, it was impossible to know.
Exhausted and fatigued, I watched Shin Haejun eliminate enemies by radiating an ice storm in front of him, and I was reminded of the fucking mercenary strengthening system.
Strengthening is usually the ultimate pay-to-win system in games. Of course, it wasn’t guaranteed to succeed every time.
It would be fine if they asked for gold. My inventory was overflowing with money. The problem was with the Love Coins. To remove Shin Haejun’s abnormal status, I had to attempt strengthening countless times, and each time it failed, I had to keep touching and kissing him to earn more coins.
Mercenary strengthening failed.
I can’t express how happy I was when I finally saw the success message after seeing this damn message so many times.
Mercenary strengthening successful.
Active skill ‘Frost Storm’ skill level increased by 1!
All abnormal statuses removed.
To see this one message, how many times did I have to kiss…
‘Ugh…!’
Suddenly, my face turned bright red. I had pressed my lips against Shin Haejun’s so many times. Shin Haejun, who was hesitant at first, became much more skilled by the third kiss.
‘Ah, ah, it’s nothing. This is nothing!’
Although it was my first kiss….
I looked at Shin Haejun’s back with a grimace as he walked away, eliminating monsters.
As soon as he was freed from the abnormal status, Shin Haejun was speechless for a moment, then muttered, “Some guide you are…” while glaring at me. As if he couldn’t understand why he had been so desperate for me.
If he had just said he regretted it, I would have thought, “Fuck you!” But seeing his attitude, I felt even more detached. He started it first!
‘If I do it twice, I’m a dog.’
That bastard is the one who took my first kiss. This must never happen again with him. I stared daggers at Shin Haejun’s back as I made this resolution.
“It’s over there.”
Shin Haejun muttered, looking at a twinkling light in the distance. Finally, we could rejoin the team.
As I walked a bit faster to dispel the awkward atmosphere with Shin Haejun, I suddenly bumped into something solid.
“Ouch…!”
“Oh my, are you alright?”
The soft voice I heard was Hyun Dowoon’s.
‘He must have teleported when he found us!’
I looked up at Hyun Dowoon while gently rubbing my nose where I had bumped it. Hyun Dowoon’s face, which was always relaxed and gentle, was now slightly hardened.
“Center Director…”
“I’m glad you’re safe. Everyone was surprised when you suddenly disappeared.”
My heart, which had been pounding when Shin Haejun held me, now beat lightly with relief in Hyun Dowoon’s arms. When my legs suddenly wobbled and I almost slid down, Hyun Dowoon lightly lifted me up.
As I nestled into Hyun Dowoon’s arms, Shin Haejun, who had crumpled his expression, looked in our direction and tried to say something.
“Is it really necessary to hold them like that?”
“What’s it to you if I take care of my own guide?”
I don’t know what upset him again, but Shin Haejun had the same cold, expressionless face as he did in the conference room. There was such an intimidating pressure that it made my body tremble slightly, but Hyun Dowoon, perhaps because he was also S-class, simply adjusted his hold on me without seeming affected.
“Ah, Shin Haejun-ssi, please take care of your own guide.”
Just as Hyun Dowoon’s blue eyes flashed, wondering if he could teleport others besides himself, Kim Sehyun appeared right in front of Shin Haejun.
“Haejun! Are you okay?”
Kim Sehyun, who had been passive until now, must have been very worried about Shin Haejun as he immediately grabbed Shin Haejun’s arm. Then, with a flushed face, he looked at Hyun Dowoon and whispered,
“Thank you so much, Center Director.”
“It’s nothing. Let’s go back and reconsider our strategy.”
When we returned to the team in Hyun Dowoon’s arms, there were small tents set up here and there, as if they had made a temporary base camp while waiting for us.
People awkwardly came out, having noticed Hyun Dowoon’s disappearance, and started making a fuss about how relieved they were when we returned. Of course, the fuss was directed at Shin Haejun. It seemed that not many people were worried about me.
I was used to this treatment and didn’t think much of it, but while Hyun Dowoon put me down and went to discuss something with someone else, Kim Sehyun approached me.
“Jaeha, are you okay? We were really worried when you suddenly disappeared.”
“…Really?”
I thought he was annoying, but after what I did with Shin Haejun, it was hard to look at Kim Sehyun’s face. I felt even more flushed because Shin Haejun had been glaring in this direction since earlier.
‘Of course, he’s probably looking at Kim Sehyun, but…’
Trying to ignore the piercing gaze that felt like it might stab me, I answered Kim Sehyun.
“I was fine. What about the monsters that were here?”
“Over there. They ignore us if we don’t attack first.”
“What happened to Shin Haejun-ssi and me?”
“Right after Haejun-ssi attacked, something like a black hole appeared and pulled you and Haejun-ssi in.”
From the way he spoke, it seemed that Kim Sehyun didn’t know why it happened either.
It was fortunate that the monster separated from Shin Haejun was one for which a strategy already existed.
“We didn’t know what would happen, so we left it in that state for now. We couldn’t move easily because of the fog, so we were waiting here for Haejun-ssi to return.”
The monsters that had thrown us far away were floating around, stretching and shrinking like rice cakes.
‘The map seems quite large too.’
The map was much larger than lower-grade dungeons, and there was a higher possibility of discovering unknown monsters like this time. This must be why Hyun Dowoon said that clearing this dungeon wouldn’t be possible in just a day or two.
“…Nothing happened, right?”
Kim Sehyun asked me in a careful voice, as if probing. The “nothing” suddenly came to mind, and I turned my body abruptly, muttering, “What do you mean, nothing.” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded weak.
Fortunately, Kim Sehyun didn’t seem to detect anything from me and whispered with a smile, “I’m glad nothing happened!” before disappearing to where Shin Haejun was.
‘I want to get out of this dungeon quickly.’
I didn’t want to keep being conscious of Shin Haejun and Kim Sehyun, nor did I want to fall into another strange place. And I definitely didn’t want to do… that… again.
Just as I was thinking about how to get out of the dungeon quickly, I heard the beep of a quest notification.
: *Let’s form a pair*
Quest Grade: C
Danger is approaching in the dungeon! To escape this danger, you absolutely need the help of an Esper! Let’s become an Esper’s pair and try guiding.
Reward: ???
Has the time really come to form a pair?
‘No, the word “danger” is even scarier…’
My heart suddenly started racing because it was the first time Nine had explicitly written about danger. I reflexively looked at Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon standing at a distance.
‘It won’t be Shin Haejun. Is it Hyun Dowoon after all?’
Since he had asked to form a pair first, he was the most suitable candidate to complete the quest smoothly.
Still, at the thought of going to Hyun Dowoon and asking to form a pair, my hands started to sweat.