Honey-Coated S-Rank Guide — Chapter 1
A stiff tension hung in the small room. The silence stretched on, making it hard to believe a job interview was taking place.
“So…”
The man, handsome enough to pass for a celebrity, narrowed his eyes.
“You’re applying to our guild?”
His gaze was far too suspicious for someone interviewing a job applicant, but the man across from him simply nodded.
“Yes.”
“An S-rank guide?”
“Yes.”
“To a guild that only has C-rank espers?”
“…Are you going to keep asking?”
“Until I can believe it.”
Ahn Dante, the leader of the C-rank guild Noapi, propped his chin on his hand and stared at the applicant. His fingertips tapped the résumé the man had brought—right on the words S-rank guide.
“Why?”
Despite having an S-rank guide show up to join his C-rank guild, Ahn Dante looked suspicious rather than welcoming him with open arms.
“An S-rank could aim for the National Security Bureau, the very top guild. Why ours?”
It was a perfectly reasonable question. This was like someone scoring in the highest bracket in every subject on the college entrance exam, then interviewing for a two-year college out in the provinces. Jin Hyoseop hadn’t exactly been unprepared for this reaction.
“There’s one condition I have.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“I’d prefer not to do anything beyond contact guiding.”
Ahn Dante’s eyes narrowed slightly. He looked Jin Hyoseop over, his expression saying, So that’s what this is about.
His scrutiny had been rude from the very beginning, but Jin Hyoseop didn’t budge. Unbelievable as it might seem to anyone else, this interview mattered to him. He absolutely did not want to fail it.
“So that condition is why you’re applying to a C-rank guild despite being S-rank?”
“Yes.”
“Aha… Well, I suppose that makes sense.”
Even an S-rank guide would have trouble finding a guild willing to accept a firm limit on how far their guiding could go. It was plausible enough. Still, Ahn Dante seemed unconvinced.
“But why our guild in particular? I don’t know if you’re aware, but while we call ourselves a guild, we don’t really do guild work. Our most recent assignment was… right, finding a cat.”
A distant look crossed his face as he remarked on how vicious that cat had been.
“You’d be better off thinking of us as handymen than a guild.”
“Yes. I’m aware.”
“Then you must also know there won’t be much for you to do here.”
“But you’re still recruiting a guide.”
“Even without any danger involved, using our abilities causes toxins to build up in our bodies.”
“In that case, I should be able to provide enough guiding just by holding hands.”
“Well, I’m sure you could. You are S-rank, after all.”
Ahn Dante sounded utterly indifferent. He showed no desire whatsoever to seize the stroke of luck that had just landed in his guild’s lap. Jin Hyoseop couldn’t help growing anxious.
“But you understand, right? We can’t pay you an S-rank salary. Our guild is barely scraping by.”
“That’s fine.”
“Still, you must have some figure in mind. Go ahead. Don’t be shy.”
Don’t be shy. Right.
Jin Hyoseop swallowed, trying to read the man across from him. Between those disinterested eyes and that faint, halfhearted smile, he couldn’t tell what Ahn Dante was thinking.
“I think four million won a month would be good.”
For a moment, Ahn Dante’s smile froze. He looked incredulous, a slight crease forming between his brows.
…Was that too much?
“Or how about three and a half million?”
Ahn Dante still said nothing. At some point, even the smile had disappeared from his face.
Three and a half is too much, too.
“…Three point one.”
That was the minimum he’d privately set for himself. Well, technically, he’d cautiously added another hundred thousand won. In any case, he couldn’t work for less than three million. He had rent going out every month and a loan to repay. Anything under three million simply wouldn’t cover a reasonably comfortable life.
And yet this guild leader still wouldn’t give him the go-ahead.
Is three point one too much, too?
Well, all he’d be doing was holding hands, hugging, and, at most, kissing. Maybe asking for 3.1 million won really was a bit much.
Should he lower it again? Or should he make it clear that this was his absolute minimum?
As Jin Hyoseop wrestled with those thoughts, Ahn Dante gave an incredulous laugh.
“Ha. Three point one million.”
“…Yes.”
“What a remarkably reasonable figure.”
Now Ahn Dante was looking at him with amusement.
“All right. Start tomorrow.”
“Really?”
Jin Hyoseop’s cheeks flushed as he asked. His delight was so obvious that Ahn Dante could only let out a disbelieving chuckle.
An S-rank guide, thrilled to have gotten into a C-rank guild. Unbelievable.
“We’ll draw up the contract right now. I’ll introduce you to our espers when you come in tomorrow.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Have you already chosen a bondage partner?”
“A bondage partner?”
“An esper to protect you.”
He added that most guides belonging to guilds designated an esper as their partner to keep them safe.
“Oh…”
That’s a thing?
He hadn’t known, but Jin Hyoseop nodded as though he had. His experience living here had taught him all too well that letting people see how little he knew would make him an easy mark.
Not that pretending to know things he didn’t was particularly easy.
“I haven’t chosen anyone in particular.”
“Then just pick someone. Any of them will do. None of our espers have an exclusive guide, and none of them have imprinted on anyone. If you asked to be their partner, they’d probably welcome you with open arms, contact-guiding limit or otherwise.”
Ahn Dante continued speaking as he rummaged through a messy stack of papers.
“I’ll give you our members’ profiles. You can look them over and choose.”
After a moment’s thought, Jin Hyoseop shook his head.
“No, that’s all right.”
“All right? What is?”
“You don’t need to give me those. I don’t think I need a bondage partner.”
The hand sorting through the papers stopped.
Ahn Dante slowly turned to look at Jin Hyoseop, like a video playing at reduced speed.
“You don’t need one?”
“That’s right. I don’t think I’ll need anyone to protect me.”
“…You don’t need protection?”
Ahn Dante’s expression hardened almost imperceptibly. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he said nothing more.
Silence settled between them.
His muted eyes remained fixed on Jin Hyoseop, sharp and searching, as though trying to work out what he really meant.
Under the sudden silence and prickling tension, Jin Hyoseop’s eyes darted around.
Had he done something wrong? Judging by the atmosphere, apparently so. But no matter how he reconsidered his words, he couldn’t figure out what it was.
This was a C-rank guild of handymen who went around finding cats. All he’d meant was that he didn’t think he needed a bodyguard in a place like this.
But looking at the guild leader’s expression, he started wondering whether he’d been mistaken…
Maybe he should have just picked someone.
Just as that regret began to surface, Ahn Dante let out a quiet “Ha,” something close to a scoff.
“Well, that’s a new one. What a jaded attitude.”
For a moment, Jin Hyoseop was speechless.
“…Pardon?”
“Well, never mind. We’ll do it your way, Mr. Jin Hyoseop, our guild’s new guide.”
Wearing the same smile he’d had at the start, Ahn Dante held out his hand.
“Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Ahn Dante, leader of the C-rank guild Noapi. I look forward to working with you.”
“Yes…”
The interview had ended on a strangely sour note, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
Jaded? Worn down? What am I, the heel of an old shoe?
What exactly was a bondage partner, anyway, for refusing one to earn him a remark like that?
It certainly wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear, nor something he could easily brush aside. Still, Jin Hyoseop forced himself to ignore it.
He was the one who needed this job.
If I’m going to pretend I know what I’m doing, I’ll just have to let it slide… Right. At least I’m employed now.
With this, the money problems that had been dogging him would be settled for the time being.
Jin Hyoseop clasped his hands together and lowered his gaze. With the most pressing crisis dealt with, a sigh of relief escaped him.
“All right. This is Jin Hyoseop, the S-rank guide I told you about yesterday.”
Ahn Dante introduced him plainly, without embellishment.
“He officially became our guild’s guide yesterday, so treat him well.”
Six guild members stood before him. Including their leader, Ahn Dante, Noapi was a small guild of just seven people.
If anything stood out about them, it was that every single one was good-looking.
Jin Hyoseop bowed deeply.
“I look forward to working with you.”
His polite greeting drew all their eyes to him. One man, visibly more excited than the others, sprang to his feet and shouted.
“No way. What you told us was actually true, boss?”
“I told you it was.”
“Come on, you can’t blame us for thinking it was impossible. An S-rank guide? In our guild?”
The man with bright red hair was in front of Jin Hyoseop in an instant.
Golden eyes stared at him through tousled hair with an intensity that made him uncomfortable.
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