Chapter Text
When your parents die, and only you are there to look after your uncontrollably powerful little brother, what do you do?
In Han Yoojin’s case, the only possible answer is to drop out of school and use your newfound guiding abilities to spend all of your time dedicated to getting money for your precious little brother’s homeschooling and guiding him with whatever time you have left. All for him to grow up to be a happy young man, and for them to live together in peace.
Until, of course, said little brother, whom you have taken care of most of his life, chooses to abandon you as soon as he becomes successful.
—
The small cafe Han Yoojin ran on the outskirts had few but loyal customers. One went by the name of Bak Yerim, a 15-year-old girl who was in the middle of a lawsuit against her uncle for his embezzlement of her deceased parents’ money and was currently going through an awakening as an esper. Han Yoojin was the only one who knew about this, catching her in the middle of a psychic breakdown and guiding her through it.
“Ahjussi!* I’m here!” she declared as the bell on the door went off, alerting the quiet shopkeeper of her presence.
“Ah, Yerim. The usual?” he asked, getting ready to add the three extra pumps of sugar to her freezing ice cream milkshake.
“No, uh… I might actually need some, y’know…” she hinted at something only the two of them knew—guiding.
Yoojin could tell she was going to be a powerful esper. Even in these developmental stages, the similarities in power to when he guided Han Yohyun were notable.
It was important to get it done now, early in the morning before school, because rampages were absolutely unpredictable—Yoojin would know.
As they sat down in their designated seats in the back room of the cafe, Yerim held her hand out, and Yoojin held it. In any other scenario, holding hands with a high schooler would be weird, but this was literally life or death—Bak Yerim didn’t have the funds to afford a registered guide, especially not one on Yoojin’s level.
Yoojin let the familiar feeling flow through him. The negative energy from Yerim to himself was neither a displeasing nor pleasant experience, but it was definitely rewarding to see the glow on the esper's face after the guiding, which only left him a little drained. It reminded him a bit of Yoohyun.
No, no! Do not think of that jerk's name! He’d made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with you, so just stop. If Han Yoojin knew what he did wrong, he would apologize in a heartbeat. He actually has, multiple times, but a few meaningless apologies weren’t enough to repair what Yoohyun had severed.
The guiding had finished, and Yoojin saw the familiar glow of an esper’s face in front of him, feeling rejuvenated himself. Yet, the glow from her face vanished almost instantly.
“Oh… Oh no!” she exclaimed, a terrified expression written on her face.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Yoojin asked worriedly. If anything had happened with the guiding, then—
“I left some important documents for the court case this afternoon at a cafe yesterday! How could I only remember now?” Her head fell to her knees in regret. “Nooooo… And we were soooo close to winning! Ugh!” Uh-oh, better calm her now before she goes on a rampage. Intense emotions cause the buildup of negative energy inside espers way quicker, especially developing ones - it’s a bit like puberty in that sense.
“Yerim, I’ll get them.” He could use a break from the store, even with as little money as he’s scraping by with now.
“A-Ahjussi! Really??” A relieved tear was brought to her eye. “Thank you!!!! Wait, but what about the store?”
“I could do with a break every now and again, plus you can pay me back when you’re a rich and famous esper,” he said half-jokingly. Part of Yoojin wanted to believe that she would even remember him when she was successful, but the same thing that happened with Yoohyun was sure to happen again. Plus, he wasn’t doing it to be rewarded anyway. “You could also stop calling me ahjussi now; I mean, I’m not that old.”
“Ah, well, anyways, ahjussi.” Sneaky brat. “What’s that on your desk?”
Han Yoojin looked back at his desk and saw the "Men's Top 100 Looks" magazine with powerful and handsome S-class esper Sung Hyunjae on the front cover, looking dashing in his designer suit. He got up in a scramble and swiftly threw the magazine in the bin, with a cold sweat running down his neck.
“Uh—uh, what? What was on my desk? T-there’s nothing there, see? Haha.” Damn, he really needed to improve his acting skills.
“Ahjussi, I already saw it. Didn’t you say you were over him?” she asked suspiciously.
“Of course I am! I was just… uh… looking for some nice new suits to wear at my next business party!” Phew, that excuse was definitely believable.
“Sure you did, on your salary?” She did not believe it. “Anyways, I’m off! Thanks for the guiding and for getting the documents! I’ll be back this afternoon, and I’ll pay you back tenfold when I’m rich and famous! Bye!” As she exited the store, Yoojin really hoped her words were true and did some general cleaning before closing the shop and heading to the city.
The cafe directions she gave… no. They were right next to Haseong Guild, the guild his little brother runs, and one that Yoojin did not want to be reminded of. Thankfully, according to esper news outlets, Han Yoohyun was currently on a dungeon raid, so he didn’t have to worry about running into him here.
Then, suddenly, a loud boom and a flash of light took his attention to the distance, where loudspeakers suddenly went off, saying:
“S-class esper currently on rampage, evacuate immediately,” on repeat.
A flush of people ran in the opposite direction, and Han Yoojin had one of two choices.
One was to rush to the cafe where the documents were, pick them up, and run away with everyone else, or the other option: go to the rampaging esper as the only one able to stop them and prevent potential casualties.
One option definitely sounded more appealing, but that was definitely not what this reckless guide was going to do.
To the confused looks of others, he started running toward the location of the blast, but no normal person was about to stop in their tracks to pull a crazy man with them, so he kept running. As he made it to the site, a group of powerful espers surrounded the building, which, despite being slightly destroyed and crumbling a little, showed no signs of activity inside. He weaved his way through to a destroyed wall, an entrance to where the esper would be while simultaneously evading the eyes of on-guard espers, only possible because their sole focus was on what was happening inside of that building.
Now, espers who were going on a rampage either had clouded vision or completely heightened senses, and Yoojin prayed it was the former. He took a step in. Thank God. If it were the latter, he would be dead right then and there.
Quietly stepping around the rubble, behind a corner, what looked like the reception room was there, and a handsome, golden-haired esper sat on a desk silently in the middle.
No. Way.
Han Yoojin hid back behind the corner in disbelief. There sat his long-term and secret celebrity crush, Sung Hyunjae.
His heart almost pounded out of his chest—the first time he’d seen him in person, and he was on a rampage. A rampage on Yoojin could solve at the moment.
Yoojin looked back, and Sung Hyunjae’s eyes pierced into the wall in front of him, his large hands covering his face in the triangle position as if contemplating something, and most importantly, not focusing on Han Yoojin.
But Yoojin wasn’t stupid enough to think he could just sneak up on an esper without being noticed. Clouded vision or not, he was still an S-rank.
He took a deep breath and decided sacrificing his phone, the only object he had on hand for the greater good, was understandable. And if he succeeded, surely the rich Jupiter Guild would buy him another one, right?
Another deep breath, and the plan was go time.
Running up as quietly as he could, he threw his phone to the other side of the room, which successfully caught the esper's attention. Yoojin said goodbye with a tear as it got pummeled to oblivion with beautiful golden chains Yoojin had only seen in videos, and he started to run full speed towards the esper, hoping to make it before his attention had drifted off of the phone.Yoojin had debated doing this or not, but as he got to the esper, he hugged around his neck then leaned in and kissed him. The bright red eyes of the esper widened in surprise, then rage, then the calm of all his negative energy being drained out.
This was the most effective way of guiding anyway. It wasn’t his fault! Consensual or not, it was life or death!
...
Plus, what other scenario would permit his first kiss being his celebrity crush?