Beyond The Control

Chapter 46

The next day, my condition was better than expected. Although there was pain in an unspeakable place, it wasn’t unbearable. I tried not to dwell on it, considering it a belated fate as a guide.

A few days later, I visited the hospital. Not because I was injured, but to check if my ankle bone had healed well. The doctor, looking at the X-ray, gave me the clear answer I wanted to hear.

“It’s healed cleanly. Still, don’t overdo it for a while.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

I felt so light just from the absence of the bandage. I wanted to jog all the way to the guild office. Of course, in reality, I quietly waited at the bus stop and boarded the approaching bus.

As soon as I returned to the guild, I headed to the fitness room. I planned to slowly make up for the leg exercises I couldn’t do until now. Just as I came out of the locker room, I ran into the trainer. Sensitive to the guild members’ physical conditions, he immediately noticed my change.

“Oh, you got your cast off?”

“Yes. I just came from the hospital.”

“You came to exercise right after getting it off?”

“Yes.”

The trainer made a face that said “you’re something else,” then said the same thing as the doctor. I responded that I understood his warning not to overdo it, then entered the fitness room.

After a light warm-up, I started with barbell squats. The heavy sensation felt throughout my body after so long gave me a thrill.

‘Yes. This is it.’

I wondered how I had lived without this good feeling all this time. Of course, I had been working hard on my upper body.

After finishing just two sets with changed weights, I looked for my next prey, I mean, next equipment. Similarly, I worked my lower body for about 30 minutes at an appropriate level, then chose the treadmill for the finish.

“Huff- huff-.”

As the speed increased, my breathing became faster. As I ran, zoning out, the device on the phone holder beeped softly. The name on the screen was Kim Young-joo.

I wondered, ‘What’s this about?’ We had been in the office together all morning, and we’d meet again later, so why the call?

If it was a mistake, she would have hung up immediately, but the device kept ringing. After catching my breath briefly, I answered the call.

“Yeah?”

As soon as I answered, I heard an urgent voice asking as if demanding an answer.

“Su-hyeon! Your house is in XX-dong, right?”

“Yeah, it is…”

“Near XX High School?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

I was even more puzzled by the sudden confirmation of my residence. But with Kim Young-joo’s next words, I froze in place.

“Shit, we’re in trouble. Breaking news just came out, apparently an A-rank suspected BK dungeon appeared right next to the school. Where are you now?”

“In the fitness room…”

Even to my own ears, my response sounded dazed. Kim Young-joo told me to come to the office quickly to check, then hung up.

I barely gathered my wits and turned around. Drenched in sweat, I didn’t even think about showering and rushed out, running down the stairs.

“You’re here?”

As soon as I entered the office, I met Kim Young-joo’s eyes, as if she had been staring at the door. I quickly approached her desk.

“Is it true?”

“Yeah. Look at this.”

On the monitor, a news article was displayed. Both the title with the word [Breaking News] and the hastily attached photo without content confirmed it was indeed my neighborhood.

The difference from usual was the dark aura-rippling dungeon gate visible next to the high school Kim Young-joo had just mentioned. I hoped it was a poor photoshop job, but sadly, that possibility was zero.

“This isn’t our jurisdiction, right?”

“Yeah…”

“What should we do?”

Kim Young-joo stomped her feet, looking distressed. Unable to say anything, I just moistened my lips with my tongue, then said I’d go to my seat and moved.

As soon as I sat down, I typed “XX-dong dungeon” into the search engine, and dozens of breaking news results appeared. The headlines all featured the name of my neighborhood or the school.

I found and clicked on a live video. Just like in the photo I saw earlier, an eerie aura was rippling from the dungeon gate, and soon after, several people presumed to be association staff were seen entering the control zone.

The live video broadcast ended there. I habitually clicked the refresh button, but only the phrase ‘No more video available’ appeared on the black screen.

I sighed heavily and cradled my head in my hands. My heart was pounding furiously.

Just this morning, I had gone to work as usual without incident, and I had seen several kids walking to school in their uniforms. It was unbelievable that such a thing could happen in just a few hours.

Frustratingly, there was nothing I could do directly in this situation. All I could do was hope that the awakened ones from other guilds deployed for suppression would somehow minimize the damage while taking down the boss mob.

As I sat there dumbfounded, Kim Young-joo messaged me. Glancing over, I saw her seat was empty, probably having gone for guiding.

[Are you okay? Don’t you need to go home?]

I sighed weakly and replied.

[It’s useless to go. I’ll have to wait until they contact us saying it’s been resolved.]

I felt stifled anew. It was true that going would be useless. As I said, it wasn’t our jurisdiction, and it was unlikely that an official request for support would be sent so soon after the dungeon’s appearance. Even if I tried to help personally, with my abilities, I’d be lucky not to get in the way.

I shifted my gaze back to the computer monitor. Although the video was blocked, information about the dungeon and comments kept updating.

[Is this finally going to blow up?]

[Watch your mouth, that’s my neighborhood]

[It’s my school, early dismissal is awesome lol]

[It’s creepy every time I see it.. it’s bigger than last time, right?]

[Yeah]

The reactions were mostly similar. It hadn’t been long since our guild had stepped up, and now another suspected A-rank BK dungeon? Although it rarely goes to Break these days, I couldn’t help but be on edge since it was in my neighborhood. Moreover, it was a big deal that I couldn’t go home starting today because the entire one-room housing area was included in the restricted access zone.

‘…This is driving me crazy, really.’

Why did I have such a bad feeling about this? I tried to shake off my anxiety with a dry face wash and stood up from my seat. It seemed I needed to explain this sudden disaster to the team leader and discuss whether we could receive guild support.

***

As our lips parted, a long strand of saliva inevitably connected us. In my right hand was Song Ji-hyeok’s condom-covered member.

“You finished, right?”

“Yes.”

My own member was also covered with a condom. We hadn’t gone all the way; this was a method we came up with for convenient cleanup since clothes often get dirty even with just petting.

At first, Song Ji-hyeok grumbled about just fooling around, but after trying it once, he seemed satisfied. As I said, it’s easy to clean up, and the unique slippery sensation of the condom gave a different kind of thrill compared to touching directly.

While rubbing against each other in various ways, the guiding also ended smoothly. I heard that today Song Ji-hyeok didn’t go out to the field but only did skill training indoors and sparred with a few Espers. I could guess this without being told, just by flowing my energy. But when he came to the guiding room, he unclasped my belt as if it were natural while pressing his lips against mine.

Since that day, that is, since we first mixed bodies for guiding, at least petting became the norm whenever Song Ji-hyeok visited. In fact, he seemed to want insertion, but the physical burden was greater than expected, so we agreed to just use hands on days when he didn’t go to the field.

Anyway, today we finished guiding without any problems, and I gently removed the condom that had done its job. After doing this a few times, I had developed a knack for it, considering it a physical task. I finished by zipping up my pants and habitually reached for the chocolate bar basket.

On the other hand, Song Ji-hyeok was carefree as always. He cleaned up a beat later, then comfortably leaned back on the sofa and asked an unexpected question.

“Did something happen?”

“Huh?”

“Your face looks gloomy.”

“…Me?”

“Who else? You seemed distracted today.”

It wasn’t just a wild guess. Just as a guide can immediately grasp an Esper’s physical condition through guiding, an Esper can also sense the guide’s energy flowing into their body. However, they often can’t distinguish subtle differences, but it seemed he had become sensitive to my energy after continuously receiving excessive guiding recently.

I handed a chocolate bar to Song Ji-hyeok and tried to speak nonchalantly. It was only a matter of time before the rumors spread anyway. Maybe they had already spread.

“A BK dungeon appeared near my house.”

It hurt much more than a couple of hours ago. After meeting with the team leader and then the person in charge of the support department, the seriousness of my situation had become a harsh reality.

Song Ji-hyeok’s reaction to the news was simple.

“Really? That’s a big problem.”

His eyes remained unchanged, and his mouth didn’t twitch. I actually expected him to burst into laughter, but there was no sign of him holding back a smile anywhere.