As Joo-hyun stealthily opened his eyes, he saw Cha In-ho standing there, drenched in sweat, with a smile on his face. His hair was dishevelled, and his face was as red as a plum, but his beauty remained undiminished.
Joo-hyun, who had been momentarily lost in thought, turned his head silently as if nothing had happened.
"There's no one following us, so you can relax," Cha In-ho said.
"Weren't you working?" Joo-hyun asked.
"I was, but it's alright. The other actor was late, so filming got delayed. Consider it my way of getting back at them."
"What about the staff? What did they do wrong?"
Cha In-ho shrugged and sat down on the bench, leaving just enough space for a child to sit beside him. He smiled, clearly pleased with himself.
"I was prepared for people to think Cha In-ho is a diva on set. Got nothing to say?"
His sweat-soaked face moved closer. Even though the streetlight was off, Cha In-ho's eyes were shining, as were the beads of sweat on his forehead. The slight swelling on his cheek was quite evident. Joo-hyun noticed the red mark left behind and turned his face forward.
"I didn't ask you to come," he said. His words came out more petulantly than he intended, and he felt his neck heat up.
Cha In-ho leaned back against the bench, releasing a gentle, pleasant laugh. A subtle mix of perfume and faint sweat wafted from him. It wasn't a bad scent. The anxiety that had gripped Joo-hyun began to subside, likely due to the guiding effects emanating from Cha In-ho.
Guiding had a way of calming not just the wavelengths but also the psychological aspects. As Joo-hyun mused on this, Cha In-ho adjusted his collar and exhaled deeply, as if to catch his breath.
Joo-hyun suddenly wondered why Cha In-ho had run enough to sweat. Why had he come looking for him in a place like this?
"Be careful," Ga-ram's voice echoed in his mind again. Once a tower starts to shake, it doesn't stop until it collapses.
Is an obsession with guides a common trait among all espers? Joo-hyun brushed the pistol in his pocket. What would Cha In-ho think if he knew that he had just ended someone's life less than an hour ago?
Oddly enough, he didn't want to know. He would rather never know.
"Did you come here to see me?"
"No, I just happened to be nearby and..."
"I thought runaways couldn't roam around freely."
Cha In-ho's tone wasn't mocking or probing, but it wasn't entirely free of curiosity either, making Joo-hyun answer with some awkwardness.
"You're right, we can't. If we get caught like this, a bomb will go off."
If someone from Block C checked the tracker and found out they were missing, they wouldn't hesitate to press the switch.
"Bomb?"
Joo-hyun lowered his collar, revealing the thick choker around his neck. Usually hidden by a scarf, it was the first time he had shown Cha In-ho the mechanical device.
"Even if it goes off, only my head will be blown off, so you don't need to worry."
His clothes might get a bit dirty, but Joo-hyun swallowed the unnecessary comment and lightly shook his leg.
He wanted to smoke, but he remembered Cha In-ho had once said that he didn't want the smell of smoke on him. Not now, especially during filming. Cameras can't capture smells, but still.
'Now that I think about it... I used to go out of my way to irritate him.' Joo-hyun thought and immediately wondered when did he start to act like a docile dog, just to avoid upsetting Cha In-ho?
Ga-ram's warning, the red-dried stains on Cha In-ho's watch—they alternated in his mind, making his head spin. Unable to solve the issue, Joo-hyun decided to put it aside for now.
He expected Cha In-ho to react with fear or relief, but he did neither. Instead, he quietly looked at the choker around Joo-hyun's neck with an unreadable expression. With no fear, anger, or even curiosity in his gaze, Joo-hyun hurriedly covered the choker with his shirt. Only then did Cha In-ho's dark eyes move to meet Joo-hyun's face.
"There's a scar here."
Cha In-ho's warm hand brushed Joo-hyun's cheek. The scratch from Beom-gyu a few days ago healed almost instantly.
"Is your arm fully healed?"
"Yes, thanks to you."
Cha In-ho moved closer, gently squeezing Joo-hyun's bandaged arm. Though the wound had scarred, there were no other lingering effects, thanks to Cha In-ho's guiding.
At Joo-hyun's reply, Cha In-ho smiled genuinely, as if truly relieved. His refreshing smile narrowed Joo-hyun's eyes. Despite the bomb, Cha In-ho moved closer rather than away, making Joo-hyun suspicious.
"Are you coming back from a mission?"
"Yes."
"Then you must be tired."
Today, it seemed Cha In-ho was opting for a more inviting approach.
Holding Joo-hyun's hand, he looked up at the night sky. The spot they were in was dark, making the moon visible more clearly than from other benches.
"Aren't you afraid?"
Joo-hyun, startled by his own question, stubbornly kept his mouth shut. He could see bugs flying around a distant streetlight.
"Of the bomb going off?"
His question was neither loud nor soft, but Joo-hyun instinctively tightened his grip on Cha In-ho's hand before quickly loosening it, realising their connection.
"How could I be scared in front of someone with a bomb around their neck?"
Joo-hyun inadvertently turned to look at Cha In-ho. His thick lashes fluttered lightly. He was still gazing at the night sky.
With nothing to say, Joo-hyun also tilted his head up. The sky wasn't particularly pretty, but it was more breathable than the bright blue sky of the day.
The warmth of their clasped hands spread. The fatigue he had felt earlier had entirely disappeared, though Joo-hyun didn't tell Cha In-ho. Perhaps it was selfish. They said guides were drained of energy after guiding. Cha In-ho still had more scenes to shoot and would be exhausted, inconveniencing many people.
But Joo-hyun was a runaway esper, a dangerous monster. Monsters in films were typically selfish, weren't they?
When Joo-hyun wiggled his fingers, Cha In-ho tightened his grip slightly. A lone star twinkled in the dark sky.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Cha In-ho suddenly let out a small laugh.
"That scene earlier was supposed to be incredibly sad."
His still slightly swollen cheek lifted in a joyful expression. He must have been talking about the moment he had been slapped by the co-star, right before discovering Joo-hyun. The distance had prevented Joo-hyun from hearing the lines, but the expression on his face had indeed seemed sorrowful.
"I remembered the lines, but my emotional line broke, and I couldn't act. I was supposed to feel sadness and pain, but instead, I felt the complete opposite."
Typically, the opposite of sadness was joy. So, had Cha In-ho felt joy upon seeing Joo-hyun?
Joo-hyun quickly discarded that thought. There was no reason for Cha In-ho to feel joy at seeing him.
"When I saw your face among the trees, I first thought I was seeing things."
"Things like a ghost?"
"Actually, that thought did cross my mind."
Cha In-ho's tone was hard to discern between jest and sincerity. Joo-hyun decided not to try and distinguish and nodded for him to continue.
"But then, realising it was truly you made me forget I was in the middle of filming and just smile."
Not knowing how to respond, Joo-hyun pretended not to hear and tapped the ground lightly with his toe.
"I never thought I would run into you outside."
It was indeed a series of coincidences that had led to this meeting. If Beom-gyu hadn't expressed a wish to see his parents, if Joo-hyun had refused that wish, or if they hadn't come to this park, they wouldn't have met. Not that it would make much difference, since they would meet again in Block C in a few days.
"How did the mission go today?"
"It was fairly ordinary. I went with another colleague, and we finished sooner than expected."
"That's good to hear."
They were in a secluded spot, far from the filming location, with no one else around. The rustling sound of the wind sweeping through the trees added to the atmosphere, similar yet fundamentally different from Block C, surrounded by woods.
Joo-hyun scanned the open park. It felt odd to be idly passing time in a place without electrified fences.
A literal ticking time bomb, a dangerous individual—a true murderer. The people in the park were unaware of the monster in their midst.
The unauthorised departure of a runaway esper was considered an act of terrorism. In other words, everyone nearby was under a life-threatening risk. Despite this knowledge, Cha In-ho smiled at him as if he were just another person.
Joo-hyun had never been ordinary, not for the past eleven years, not for a single moment.