Honey-Coated S-Class Guide — Chapter 3
“Boss, our guide says he’s bored. Shouldn’t you do something about it?”
“W-wait. You don’t have to.”
A little flustered, Jin Hyoseop tugged on Czerny’s arm. This wasn’t why he had said he was bored. Was this the workplace bullying he’d read about online?
“Oh dear.”
Ahn Dante, who had been staring at his monitor, turned with a gentle smile.
“Are you that bored, Mr. Jin Hyoseop? We can’t have our precious guide getting bored.”
“…No. I’ll just sit quietly.”
He had only started cleaning because there was nothing to do, but somehow things had taken a strange turn. When Jin Hyoseop quietly sat down, Ahn Dante chuckled.
“As it happens, a job just came in. Would you like to come along, Mr. Jin Hyoseop?”
“A job?”
“Yes. Since you said you were bored.”
Jin Hyoseop nodded without hesitation. He would feel much better going home after accomplishing something.
“I’ll help.”
“Then get your things. We’ll leave right away.”
“Yes.”
Since he hadn’t done anything, there was nothing to pack up. He slung his bag over his shoulder and stood as though he’d been waiting for this all along. Ahn Dante watched him with an amused, almost fond smile.
Then, just as he was about to head out of the office, he stopped and addressed Czerny, apparently remembering something.
“Oh, right. Czerny. That cat you found recently—you’ll have to go find it again.”
“What?! Why? I found it just fine last time!”
“Apparently, there was a gap in the wire fence. It escaped again.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Ahn Dante shrugged at Czerny’s horrified reaction.
“What can you do? Its owner’s incompetent.”
“Can’t you send someone else? There’s another guy sitting around right over there.”
Czerny pointed at the other guild member reading on the sofa.
“I’ve already given Coda another assignment, so just do it. You’re perfect for that sort of thing.”
“I’m allergic to cats, you know.”
“Then take some medicine. Anyway, we’re off. Have fun.”
Smiling pleasantly, Ahn Dante led Jin Hyoseop away. Czerny’s irritated swearing continued inside the office, but Ahn Dante paid it no mind.
Jin Hyoseop glanced at him and cautiously asked, “Will that be all right?”
“What will?”
“Esper Czerny seems to really dislike cats…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. Cats like him.”
“Pardon?”
“That makes him perfect for finding them, doesn’t it?”
Ahn Dante smiled and told him there was no need to worry about Czerny.
“He does it all the time. It’s nothing difficult. Anyway, we should get to work too.”
He tipped his chin toward a sleek car.
“Get in.”
“This car?”
“Yes. Why? Don’t you like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it… Never mind.”
Swallowing the explanation that he was surprised by how expensive it looked, Jin Hyoseop climbed in. He had never ridden in such a luxurious car before. As he looked around the interior, Ahn Dante got into the driver’s seat.
“Off we go.”
“Yes. By the way, where are we going?”
“A kindergarten.”
…A kindergarten?
Was this what it felt like to be utterly bewildered?
Jin Hyoseop stood awkwardly, unsure whether to laugh or cry. The scene before him hardly felt real. Unable to bear watching him stand there so stiffly, Ahn Dante gave him a direct instruction.
“Hyoseop, shake them more.”
“…I am shaking them.”
“Get a firmer grip and shake harder.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
Jin Hyoseop did as he was told and shook the objects in his hands more vigorously.
Rattle! Rattle-rattle!
The two toys rattled loudly. A child who looked a little too young for kindergarten stared at Jin Hyoseop with wide eyes.
Click.
“Ah, got it. That’s perfect.”
Ahn Dante lowered the camera with a satisfied smile. He turned to the teacher tending to the children beside him.
“That was the last one, right?”
“Yes, that’s everyone. Thank you so much for helping again.”
“Not at all.”
Ahn Dante packed the camera into his bag and walked over to Jin Hyoseop.
“We’re finished. Thanks for your hard work.”
“…It was nothing.”
“You’re good at shaking things. You look like you’ve had plenty of practice.”
He loosely curled his hand and made a rather obscene motion.
Startled, Jin Hyoseop looked around and hurriedly stopped him. The toys in both his hands rattled.
“Wh-what are you doing in a kindergarten?”
“It’s just a joke. What’s the problem?”
“The children can see you.”
“They wouldn’t understand anyway.”
“Even so, you shouldn’t.”
Ahn Dante chuckled at Jin Hyoseop’s firm response. His face was full of mischief, but fortunately, he didn’t do anything else inappropriate.
Jin Hyoseop had thought this before, but neither Czerny nor this man seemed to have any sense of decency. Were these particular people strange, or were all espers like this?
“Anyway, we’re leaving now. Are you going to keep holding those rattles?”
“Rattles…? Oh.”
Jin Hyoseop put down the toys—the so-called rattles—still clutched in his hands.
“You can take them if you want. I’ll ask the teacher for you.”
“I don’t want them.”
“What a shame. You looked great shaking them.”
“…”
As Ahn Dante amused himself with remarks Jin Hyoseop couldn’t tell were serious or teasing, the youngest-looking of the female teachers approached him.
“Are you leaving already?”
“Yes. We’re all finished here.”
“You came all this way. At least stay for a meal. The food here is actually quite good.”
The teacher tentatively took hold of Ahn Dante’s arm. Her cheeks were flushed, and her attraction to him was obvious.
“Thank you for the offer, but I already have plans.”
As though making a point, Ahn Dante pulled Jin Hyoseop toward him. Jin Hyoseop stumbled at the sudden force, but fortunately didn’t fall.
His cheek merely landed against Ahn Dante’s firm chest.
“He’s our guild’s new guide. I was just about to take him on a date to celebrate.”
“A guide?”
A surprised gaze shifted to Jin Hyoseop.
“Oh, I see. I assumed he was another esper…”
Espers generally moved around a lot, giving them strong, well-built bodies, while guides worked indoors and tended to be pale and slender. When an esper and a guide walked together, it was usually obvious which was which.
Jin Hyoseop, however, didn’t fit that usual mold, so ordinary people often mistook him for an esper.
The teacher’s surprise soon turned to envy. Whether she envied him for being a guide or for going on a date with Ahn Dante was unclear.
“I’ll email you the photos by tomorrow, then. We’ll be on our way.”
Ahn Dante led Jin Hyoseop away, even humming to himself.
Jin Hyoseop glanced at his arm, caught in the man’s one-handed grip. His own arm was sturdy enough by any measure, yet Ahn Dante had easily wrapped a hand around it.
His hands are enormous.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, Ahn Dante spoke.
“Where should we go?”
“Pardon?”
Jin Hyoseop belatedly looked up to find Ahn Dante gazing down at him with a cheerful expression.
“For our date. I’d like to get something good to eat. Any favorite foods?”
“You mean dinner?”
Jin Hyoseop glanced at his watch, then answered firmly.
“I’ll just eat at home.”
“Why? If we eat together before you go home, you won’t have to worry about making anything. Isn’t that easier?”
“I’ve already prepared something for dinner, so that’s all right.”
Ahn Dante’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Is someone waiting to eat with you at home?”
“No. I eat alone.”
“Hmm. Then why are you shutting me out so firmly?”
“…Pardon?”
Jin Hyoseop blinked, looking genuinely confused. Ahn Dante studied him for a moment, then gave a soft sigh and lowered his eyes. His exceptionally long eyelashes cast shadows on his pale cheeks, and a trace of sadness entered his light-colored eyes.
“The truth is, I’ve been eating alone for a long time. Having dinner by myself at home every day has started to get a little lonely.”
“Uh… But you have the other guild members.”
“They don’t particularly like eating with me. I’m still their guild leader, after all. It probably makes them uncomfortable.”
Was that it?
After thinking it over, Jin Hyoseop nodded.
“I can see how that might be.”
“So I eat alone every day… It’s rather depressing and lonely. Oh, apparently people who eat dinner alone are more likely to develop depression, too.”
“R-really?”
“Yes.”
Sympathy filled Jin Hyoseop’s eyes.
“Is there no one you can eat with apart from the guild members?”
“No. I’m not from around here. And I’m not very good at making friends.”
Ahn Dante gave a forlorn smile. Perhaps it was his pale hair and light-colored eyes, but there was something about him that suggested a sorrowful past.
Seeing such a delicately beautiful man looking so dejected made Jin Hyoseop feel as though he had done something wrong.
As if sensing his conflicted feelings, Ahn Dante forced a bitter smile and waved a hand.
“Oh, don’t worry about it, Mr. Jin Hyoseop. Thinking about it, that was terribly inconsiderate of me. Your boss asking you to dinner when we’ve only just met—you must have felt uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”
“What? N-no. There’s nothing for you to apologize…”
Flustered, Jin Hyoseop waved his arms.
“I only refused because I remembered I’d already prepared dinner. Um… If eating alone feels lonely…”
He scratched the back of his head and added, “Would you like to have dinner together?”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Jin Hyoseop readily nodded. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do. Besides, hearing that Ahn Dante had come from somewhere else had made him feel a little kinship with the man.
“Let’s have dinner together.”
As Jin Hyoseop repeated the offer to make it clear, Ahn Dante gave him a radiant smile.
He looked so happy that Jin Hyoseop felt pleased with his decision too.
ravanerk-nxqod 