Honey-Coated S-Class Guide — Chapter 5
I’m bored…
He was terribly bored.
Before, Czerny had been around to chat about this and that, so it hadn’t been quite this bad. Unfortunately, today he was alone in the office.
Despite his resolve never to volunteer to clean again, Jin Hyoseop began tidying the office. It was a decent way to kill time.
About two hours later, just as he finished cleaning, three men entered together.
“Ugh…”
Looking haggard, Czerny threw himself onto the bed the moment he came in. Exhaustion seemed to cling to every inch of him.
Ahn Dante followed with a smile.
“Good morning, Mr. Jin Hyoseop.”
“Yes. Good morning.”
Last came Coda, neatly dressed as always. As usual, he silently inclined his head.
Jin Hyoseop nodded back. Since they had never exchanged a word, he had wondered whether Coda disliked him, but the fact that he never failed to acknowledge him suggested otherwise.
Just then, Czerny groaned nearby.
“Ah… I’m seriously dying…”
Jin Hyoseop naturally turned toward him.
“Are you all right?”
“No. I’m not. I’m so exhausted I could die, hyung.”
Czerny stuck out his lower lip. His already youthful face looked even more childlike.
Was this because of yesterday’s search for the cat?
“Are you having a hard time?”
“Yes. Comfort me a little, hyung.”
He looked at Jin Hyoseop pitifully.
After carefully considering the word comfort, Jin Hyoseop ventured a suggestion.
“Would you like me to guide you?”
It had only been a search for a cat, but surely Czerny had used his abilities. Some fatigue must have accumulated, so guiding would make him feel much better.
Jin Hyoseop assumed that was what Czerny had meant when he asked for comfort.
Apparently, he was right. Czerny broke into a broad smile and sprang up from the bed.
“Yes! Please d—”
“No.”
Ahn Dante cut him off firmly.
Normally, he always sat in front of his computer, but for some reason, today he had settled beside Jin Hyoseop on the sofa.
“You don’t need guiding just for finding a cat. Deal with it.”
“Seriously, boss, don’t you think you’re being a little too much? You worked me until this morning, and now you have the nerve to—”
“Speaking of which, there’s something I need picked up from the post office. Go get it, Czerny.”
“…You want me to go?”
“Yes.”
“You’re seriously telling me to go right now?”
“Off you go.”
When Ahn Dante smiled sweetly, Czerny’s face flushed with anger. Any redder and it would have matched his hair.
“Wow. Seriously, boss. Wow! Argh!”
He stomped toward the door with heavy, pounding footsteps, then turned and shouted.
“I’m quitting this damn guild!”
Slam!
The door shut with a crash that sounded as though it might break. Ahn Dante clicked his tongue.
“No wonder the door keeps breaking. Should I have someone replace it with a steel one?”
Oh, but then he might break the wall.
Ahn Dante continued pondering the matter seriously. Czerny and his declaration that he was quitting already seemed forgotten.
With an uneasy expression, Jin Hyoseop asked, “Why did you do that?”
“Hmm? Do what?”
Ahn Dante’s expression remained utterly innocent.
“Didn’t you hire a guide because you needed guiding?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why…”
“Because he doesn’t need it. Why would he need guiding just for finding a cat?”
“But if a guide is available, is there any reason for him to endure the discomfort?”
“It’s better to leave a little toxin buildup. If you’re always perfectly comfortable, your body gets too accustomed to an easy life.”
“Pardon…?”
His words were as difficult to understand as a riddle.
As far as Jin Hyoseop could see, Noapi had grown accustomed to an easy life long ago. He couldn’t understand why they would deliberately make things harder.
Jin Hyoseop knew that his lack of knowledge compared with ordinary people sometimes made it difficult for him to understand things. Even allowing for that, however, the man’s words were baffling.
Ahn Dante tilted his head slightly and met his eyes.
“Why? Are you that desperate to do some guiding?”
“That isn’t what I said. I simply thought it was strange to endure the discomfort when there’s a guide here. At this rate… there’s nothing for me to do, either.”
“Don’t worry about that. Soon enough, you’ll be doing so much you’ll be sick of it.”
With a languid smile, Ahn Dante pointed to a neatly arranged section of the table.
“Anyway, did you come in early and clean? The office looks nice.”
“I didn’t come in early. I arrived at exactly eight fifty, sat down, and started cleaning an hour later.”
“Did you?”
Resting his elbow on the back of the sofa, Ahn Dante lightly rubbed the back of Jin Hyoseop’s head.
“You must like cleaning. I did think your apartment was remarkably tidy.”
Jin Hyoseop was about to explain that it wasn’t particularly something he enjoyed when Coda, seated across from them, stopped turning a page and looked up.
The way his gaze moved between Jin Hyoseop and Ahn Dante seemed oddly significant.
Was it because Ahn Dante had mentioned visiting his home?
Once Coda settled on the sofa and opened a book, he normally didn’t react no matter what anyone said. Seeing him stare like that made Jin Hyoseop feel as though there had been a strange misunderstanding.
Suddenly, he remembered Ahn Dante’s words.
To an esper who’s lost his head, a guide is nothing more than a delicious piece of prey. Letting someone in carelessly could get you into serious trouble.
Jin Hyoseop, a guide, had invited Ahn Dante, an esper, into his home.
Taken at face value, it was certainly something Coda could misunderstand. A delicious piece of prey and a beast that coveted it had been alone in the same apartment. That left plenty of room for misinterpretation.
Not that he meant Ahn Dante was an esper who had lost his head, of course.
“Um… Nothing happened.”
Coda continued to stare at him without a word. With his lips pressed into a straight line and his immaculate appearance, he resembled a monk, making Jin Hyoseop feel as though he ought to confess his sins.
“Haha. Why are you suddenly explaining that to Coda? Anyone would think you two were dating.”
Ahn Dante laughed in amusement.
“I’m sure he already knows. If something had happened between us yesterday, you wouldn’t be able to walk around like this. Right, Coda?”
“…”
At last, Coda lowered his eyes to his book again. It was impossible to tell whether that meant agreement or disagreement.
“Anyway, Mr. Jin Hyoseop, it’s almost noon. Time for lunch.”
“Oh, yes.”
With lunchtime arriving just three hours into his workday, Jin Hyoseop retrieved his bag. After rummaging around, he pulled out a sky-blue lunch box.
As soon as it appeared, Ahn Dante smiled and asked, “What did you bring today?”
“Some stir-fried sausages and rice balls.”
Just as he said, plain rice shaped into balls and sausages with little cuts scored into them were neatly arranged inside.
Ahn Dante stared at the lunch box with unusual intensity.
It looked so much as though he wanted some that Jin Hyoseop cautiously held out a rice ball.
“Would you like one?”
“You ask me every time, even though I always say no.”
“You keep looking.”
“Don’t mind me.”
That only made Jin Hyoseop more conscious of him, but he didn’t ask him to stop staring.
He had been in the guild for ten days. That was long enough to realize that once the guild leader wanted to do something, he invariably did it.
“Time to eat.”
Jin Hyoseop carefully peeled the plastic wrap off the rice ball he had offered and began eating, chewing thoroughly.
What was so pleasing about a large man taking small bites from a little rice ball? Whatever it was, Ahn Dante watched him intently, the corners of his mouth lifted.
“You have a small mouth.”
“Pardon? Oh, yes. I suppose I do.”
As he answered quietly around his food, Ahn Dante slowly looked him over and gave an ambiguous smile.
“It might be difficult to fit the whole thing in.”
“What would?”
“A sausage.”
Jin Hyoseop looked down at the sausages in his lunch box. They weren’t particularly large.
“I can manage one this size.”
“Really? That’s a relief, then.”
Ahn Dante chuckled to himself. There was something distinctly lecherous about the sound.
“But Mr. Jin Hyoseop, won’t you be hungry if that’s all you eat?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“It doesn’t look very nutritious, though. If I remember correctly, you brought four different side dishes on your first day. Strangely enough, there seem to be fewer and fewer.”
Jin Hyoseop’s chopsticks stopped just before picking up a sausage.
He had thought the man had done nothing but stare at his computer since his first day. When had he found the time to notice that?
“…I couldn’t be bothered to prepare more.”
It was an unconvincing lie, but Ahn Dante simply smiled and nodded.
“True. Getting up and packing lunch every morning is no small task.”
Then he abruptly held out a card to Coda, who was sitting quietly.
“Coda, go buy a few meat dishes. We can’t have our guide becoming malnourished.”
Coda glanced at Jin Hyoseop, then rose without a word. He was the complete opposite of the talkative Czerny.
The moment Coda left, Ahn Dante asked, as though he had been waiting for the opportunity, “Are you short on money for living expenses?”
“Ah… Well…”
Jin Hyoseop’s face reddened slightly.
So he deliberately sent Esper Coda out so he could ask me that.
It was a little embarrassing to realize how obvious his lie had been.
