Taming the Obsessive Attachment

Seo Eui-woo urgently reached out and pulled Kwon Jae-jin into his embrace as he floated in the air.

Once he confirmed that Jae-jin was safely secured in his arms, he no longer held back. As if unleashing an explosion of immense power all at once, he released his energy without restraint.

The bright, intense force, like the radiance of the sun, consumed everything in pure white.

Nothing in the forest could remain standing on the ground anymore.

The densely packed trees all collapsed. Even the oldest of them were uprooted, and the undergrowth vanished as if neatly mowed down.

Rocks crumbled, and the squad members caught in the storm were blown away like fallen leaves, rendered unconscious as they were flung into the distance.

By the time the raging tempest subsided and silence returned, even the air itself had been left utterly empty.

***

After teleporting back to the villa, Seo Eui-woo held onto Kwon Jae-jin, unable to gather his thoughts for a while.

His gray eyes were completely unfocused, his breath uneven and shallow as he gasped with unsettling desperation.

“Ah, ah…”

Overwhelmed by severe anxiety that surpassed his limits, he could do nothing but clutch Jae-jin tightly in his arms.

Only after a long while did Seo Eui-woo finally lift his head. His fingertips trembled as he hesitantly reached out and touched Jae-jin. Carefully, he cupped his cheek, tracing his features to reassure himself of his presence and warmth.

Jae-jin was in a miserable state.

His body, covered in dirt and wounds, was a mess. His tattered clothes barely clung to him, leaving his chest completely exposed. Even his shoes were gone, leaving him barefoot.

In the middle of winter, he wore nothing but indoor clothes. It was obvious without needing to say—his entire body was as cold as ice.

“Jae-jin, Jae-jin, are… are you okay?”

Seo Eui-woo asked frantically, his voice unsteady. He looked like someone whose heart was being crushed by sheer desperation, as if he were on the verge of falling apart.

“…Seo Eui-woo.”

Jae-jin’s cracked lips barely moved. He tried to say something, but the words never came out.

Despite everything Jae-jin had endured, it was Seo Eui-woo who seemed more shocked, more shaken—on the brink of collapsing altogether.

If Jae-jin were to say anything now, he had the ominous feeling that Eui-woo might completely break down.

“I-I’ll use the healing factor now. Just wait a second. I—ah, I’ll clean you up. Just hold on.”

Seo Eui-woo fumbled as he endlessly caressed Kwon Jae-jin, his touch wandering without direction.

His mind seemed completely blank—so much so that he fumbled several times while trying to retrieve the healing factor from his chest pocket. No matter how much he lost his composure, he had never looked this shattered before. There was really nothing Jae-jin could say about it.

With difficulty, Seo Eui-woo tore open the cap of the healing factor and injected it into Jae-jin’s neck. The wound on his abdomen—where the wolf-type creature had torn into him—began to close as fresh skin regenerated.

“When I came home… there was a creature’s corpse in the living room… and you were completely gone… I-I was so scared.”

Seo Eui-woo tried to take Jae-jin to the bathroom, but his body refused to cooperate. His legs seemed to give out, and he staggered several times while holding onto Jae-jin. He was so out of it that he could barely function.

“…I see. You must have been shocked.”

Watching him, Jae-jin let out a bitter sigh.

God, he wanted to hate this guy, but it was impossible.

“I thought you might already be… d-dead. That I might not find you. I—ah, God… It must have hurt so much, right? You hate being in pain. Ugh…”

Seo Eui-woo rambled incoherently, crushing Jae-jin in a tight embrace and burying his face deep into his nape. It seemed like he had abandoned the idea of getting Jae-jin to the bathroom altogether. Before anything else, he needed to make sure Jae-jin was alive—only then could he breathe.

“…Yeah, it hurt. Quite a bit.”

Jae-jin struggled to lift his arms and ran his fingers through Seo Eui-woo’s hair. The belt Lieutenant Mateo had used to tie his wrists was still wrapped around them, forcing him to move both hands together.

“Right? Of course, it did. My Jae-jin… You’re so weak… so fragile, like a baby. God, what do I do? I was so scared.”

“I am not a baby. I understand that you were scared, though.”

“I really, really hate this. How could this happen? Hah… I feel like crying.”

Seo Eui-woo rubbed his cheek against Jae-jin’s dirt-streaked nape, clinging to him desperately, as if the grime didn’t bother him at all.

Jae-jin continued stroking his hair, soothing him. And strangely, as he comforted Seo Eui-woo, he felt his own heart gradually settle, a calm washing over him.

Seo Eui-woo was big, heavy, and warm.

He felt like a living security blanket.

“…I’m glad you arrived in time, Seo Eui-woo. I was waiting.”

“Really? You were? I wasn’t too late, right?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t really know what was supposed to happen.”

Jae-jin patted Seo Eui-woo’s shoulder with the back of his hand. He wanted to pull him into a proper embrace, but the restraints on his wrists got in the way.

“Could you untie this for me first?”

“…What the hell?”

Seo Eui-woo slowly lifted his head.

Seeing Jae-jin’s bound arms, his thick brows furrowed slightly.

His expression made it clear—he couldn’t comprehend why Jae-jin was tied up.

“Jae-jin, what is this?”

Seo Eui-woo’s gray eyes darkened, sinking into an abyss. His gaze, which had been unsteady before, now trembled with fury in a completely different way.

In his desperate search for Kwon Jae-jin, Seo Eui-woo had been blind to everything else. He hadn’t noticed the situation Jae-jin had been in just moments ago.

He had seen nothing but Jae-jin—had cared about nothing but finding him alive.

Even though dozens of awakened individuals had been swept away by the power he unleashed, he hadn’t spared a single thought for them. At that moment, even if the world had ended, he wouldn’t have realized it.

All that had mattered was Kwon Jae-jin—just him, just one person. Whether he was alive, where he was… nothing else.

“Who did this? Were you captured…? Who was it?”

Seo Eui-woo’s voice was chilling, his tone murderously sharp. He was still frantic and restless, but now he looked like he was on the verge of unleashing a massacre.

If Jae-jin were to tell him it was Major Mateo of the 7th Special Task Force, he’d surely turn back immediately to kill him.

Though Mateo had already fallen between the rocks, his fate unknown—perhaps he had survived if he used a healing factor, but there was no certainty.

“…Just untie me first. We’ll talk about it later. My arms are tied, and it’s uncomfortable.”

“Jae-jin, you’re going to hide things from me again, aren’t you?”

“No. But like this, I can’t hold you. I want to hold you, so please, untie me.”

“…”

“I was scared too. I was in pain. I’m exhausted. Let’s calm down first… and then I’ll tell you everything.”

Jae-jin raised his eyebrows slightly and extended his hands again. Everything about him—the way he looked, the way he spoke—was unmistakably that of a victim, someone pitiful and worn down.

Seo Eui-woo couldn’t even vent his boiling rage. Instead, he swallowed it down, forcing himself to suppress the seething fury in his chest before he finally gave a strained reply.

“…Give me your hands.”

His voice burned, filled with fury that had nowhere to go.

Slowly, Seo Eui-woo untied the restraints.

Mateo had tied Jae-jin’s wrists so tightly that, despite the healing factor, faint red bruises remained on his skin.

“Eui-woo.”

Jae-jin pulled Seo Eui-woo into an embrace.

Seo Eui-woo held him back just as tightly.

They sat there on the floor of the hallway, their bodies tangled together, breathing heavily as if their exhaustion had finally caught up to them.

At last, it felt like everything was over.

Seo Eui-woo needed Jae-jin.

Jae-jin needed Seo Eui-woo.

They wanted each other. Desperately.

“What do I do now? I… I can’t…”

“What do you mean?”

“How am I supposed to leave you behind now? I’ll be too worried… How can I?”

“…You’re just shaken up right now, Seo Eui-woo. You’ll be fine.”

“No, I won’t be fine. I really don’t think I can take a single step away from you.”

“Seo Eui-woo, don’t exaggerate.”

“I got careless for a moment. The fact that you’re a mutant… that means you’re always in danger. I knew that, but I ignored it.”

“…”

“This place is surrounded by enemies. We’re in the heart of enemy territory.”

Seo Eui-woo’s eyes flashed sharply.

The moment Jae-jin met his gaze—those gray eyes burning with unrest—he felt an overwhelming weight press against his chest, suffocating.

He wished Eui-woo could find peace of mind, but that was impossible.

As long as Kwon Jae-jin was a mutant Guide, Seo Eui-woo had no choice but to become a criminal. He would have to live the rest of his life as a fugitive.

Jae-jin pitied him.

As for himself… well, he had lamented his fate plenty already. There was no point in dwelling on it further. But Seo Eui-woo—Seo Eui-woo was another story.

Emotions were truly strange things.

Just a moment ago, Eui-woo had seemed like a bastard, someone to resent. But now, he just looked pitiful.

And meeting him again… felt so unbelievably good.

Too good.

So good that he didn’t know what to do next.

Jae-jin sifted through the thoughts swirling in his mind, searching for the right words. In the end, he simply let out a weary laugh and said,

“Well… um, how about we start with a bath? You said you’d wash me, remember?”

Seo Eui-woo nodded.

He nodded again and again, but he still couldn’t bring himself to let Jae-jin go. Instead, he pulled him in even tighter, as if afraid he’d disappear the moment he loosened his grip.

“Alright. I’ll do it. Whatever you need, I’ll do it all for you.”

“For now, just a bath will do.”

“Just… please, never disappear again. Now that I’ve been through it… it’s unbearable.”

“I don’t have any intention of going anywhere. Just take good care of me, Seo Eui-woo.”

“I will. Haah… I will. I’ll protect you.”