A fellow actor on set asked, “Gwanyeong, the guide who came with you last time, the tall one… Aren’t they coming anymore?” Fearing that giving a long explanation might result in a disjointed response, I just gave a vague smile instead of answering.

Of course, inside, I was stunned and questioned myself.
“Bringing a guide to the filming set?”
Even though it was known that I was an Esper, was I really thinking of displaying my weaknesses in a place full of people eager to pry into every detail? No matter how hard I tried to understand, I couldn’t convince myself that this was something I would have done.

“I’ll come at 7:30 tomorrow morning.”
“Alright. Go on in.”

Ji Gwanyeong briefly waved at his manager as he got out of the van. After all the disputes among relatives, this mansion, left behind by his parents, was almost the only proper inheritance. This place was Gwanyeong’s small world.

Even the manager had never set foot inside the gate. Only a select few had access to this home. The elderly gardener, who had managed the place for many years, his son, and a few other long-time employees who took care of the house, were allowed to come and go cautiously.

There was even one rule for them.
“Never come face to face with the owner of this mansion, Ji Gwanyeong.”

This was the highest rule set by Ji Gwanyeong, who paid them far more than others. Gwanyeong massaged the back of his neck, which felt slightly stiff, and sighed softly. After being on high alert all day, even he felt a bit tired. As an Esper, he planned to shower and go straight to bed after entering through the front door.

But, with a slightly drowsy expression, he stopped just a few steps after entering the house. Passing through the long hallway leading from the entrance to the spacious living room, Ji Gwanyeong’s eyes began to widen.

He couldn’t help muttering to himself.
“…What is this?”

It was the monster’s hideout, a place where no one had ever been allowed to enter.

Though he had no material or possessive desires, the one thing Ji Gwanyeong obsessed over more than anything else was here. This space, surrounded by an impenetrable barrier, was filled with things related to one man he could still clearly remember.

Unable to hide his surprise, Ji Gwanyeong scanned what looked like a massive map of information. From the living room wall, all the connected hallways were organized in a spider-web-like pattern, arranged by time. The other rooms, unseen, likely resembled this. His gaze landed on the living room wall, where it all began.

The handwriting, slightly hurried, was unmistakably his own. A small laugh escaped Ji Gwanyeong’s lips.

Eight months. The eight months he couldn’t remember were all here.

* * *

He had thought there would never be a second time.

No matter how extraordinary the experience, once was enough.

But now, Choi Taehun had returned of his own accord to this place. It was the filming set for Ji Gwanyeong’s drama, and it looked busier than ever with the series nearing its end. The guide pressed his hat lower, as if trying to keep writing down notes.

“Alright, let’s get back to filming. Ji Gwanyeong, are you ready?”
“Yes.”

The slightly lowered voice of Ji Gwanyeong carried a resonance that Choi Taehun adored. The guide, though a bit tense, couldn’t take his eyes off his lover from across the room.

In the beginning, Choi Taehun had planned to go straight to Ji Gwanyeong’s house, not wanting to waste even a single day. But it was the Esper researchers, whose lives depended on the success of this experiment, who persuaded him otherwise.

They were genuinely concerned for Taehun’s safety. No joke — with the pair now severed, given Ji Gwanyeong’s current state, it was very possible that provoking him could lead to real danger. Ultimately, Taehun spent that precious first day nervously wasting time with cigarettes and deep thoughts.

He needed to find a way to close the distance with Ji Gwanyeong. Even aside from the emotional distance, if the physical distance wasn’t shortened, this desperate 30-day period — now 29 — would pass in vain.

After much contemplation, one solution finally came to mind.

Choi Taehun called Ji Gwanyeong’s manager. Boldly, he contacted them as Ji Gwanyeong’s lover. The manager seemed a little surprised when asked if it was alright for him to stay near Ji Gwanyeong without disturbing him, but for some reason, he granted permission without hesitation.

From the manager’s attitude, Taehun was certain of one thing: Ji Gwanyeong had not told anyone that he had lost eight months of memories.

Ji Gwanyeong was the type of person who considered opening up about personal matters a weakness and tended to distance himself from others. With his meticulous personality and overflowing pride, he would never admit to the kind of deficiency he had experienced.

Even now, despite seeing Taehun, he would pretend to remember him, never admitting that he had forgotten the past. Ji Gwanyeong was the type who would never utter such a thing.

Taehun hid in a corner of the set, observing his Esper. Strangely, he stood out more than anyone else there. The man facing Ji Gwanyeong, who was considered a fairly popular actor, didn’t even come close to matching Ji Gwanyeong’s presence.

Ji Gwanyeong was the epitome of power and excellence, both in terms of his Esper abilities and as a man. There had been a time when Taehun felt inferior, harboring a sense of insecurity and jealousy towards him, especially when they had once been partners. But that was a time when he had felt embarrassed by the idea of being close to another man.

When had he started to admire Ji Gwanyeong purely out of admiration?

Lost in thought, Taehun snapped back to reality when a staff member called out, clearly startled. He tried to remain inconspicuous, but no one could miss the famous “Ji Gwanyeong guide.”

Taehun bowed his head, bringing his finger to his lips. “Hello… I’m really sorry, I came in secretly.”

“Oh! I see! Got it!” the staff member replied, somewhat flustered.

Taehun smiled awkwardly at the staff member’s excited voice. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he quietly moved to the outskirts of the set, away from Ji Gwanyeong.

As he noticed people beginning to avoid eye contact with him, Taehun grew worried that his sensitive lover might have noticed him.

Hidden behind a clothing rack, he bent low, casting a furtive glance. Ji Gwanyeong, fortunately, was drinking water and reviewing his script, unaware of Taehun’s presence. Taehun exhaled a deep sigh, pressing his hand against his pounding heart.

‘…I’m happy to see his face, but how should I talk to him?’

The biggest problem on his mind was how to approach him. When it was announced that he would come here, some of the center’s researchers were in an uproar. Oh Yeon insisted on bringing his younger sibling along, while Miyeon volunteered to accompany him if he was uncomfortable with Oh Jinwoo.

But Taehun knew that couldn’t happen. Ji Gwanyeong was someone who would immediately sense if an Esper was in his “range.”

Taehun, still hidden, stole another glance at Ji Gwanyeong’s back as he resumed filming. The name etched between his shoulder blades and lower back seemed to have been left there as a permanent mark, something Taehun had seen many times before, but now it had a new meaning.

‘Name.’

The only trace left between Taehun and his Esper now was that powerless name. Taehun unknowingly suppressed a sigh. But he wasn’t the only one who was disturbed by the memory of the name.

‘Damn name!’

In the past couple of days, that single name had filled not only his home but also his mind. He couldn’t deny that he himself had caused it. It was maddening to think about how he had meticulously turned the entire mansion into a space solely for one man.

No matter where he went, everything seemed to revolve around “him.” Taehun had initially thought about having someone remove a particularly arrogant note next to a map that led to his bedroom, but the thought was fleeting.

No matter how irritated he got, he couldn’t act on it.

The reason was simple: all of it had been done by himself, during the eight months of memory loss that he couldn’t remember. He simply couldn’t understand any of it.

Above all, the fact that I had so willingly participated in that crazy experiment a few days ago didn’t make sense to me. To the current version of me, ‘experiment’ was something I could never accept unless I were out of my mind. “To become a pair with the man who was my guide after forgetting all 8 months of memories?” Where on earth could such nonsense even exist?

Whether another guide dies or not is their own business. I didn’t have to perform some act where I willingly went along with memory manipulation. But the version of me who had 8 more months of memories clearly took that insane suggestion seriously. There was no clearer evidence than the fact that I had filled this mansion with things related to that one guide, things I would never casually touch. I even contacted the staff and gave instructions to “not touch anything in the mansion.” It was a sign that the situation wasn’t just serious—it was critical.

The version of me with 8 more months of memories was either completely insane, completely sincere, or perhaps both. Honestly, the power of a ‘pair guide’ was superior to anything I had ever known about guiding. When the guide, smiling arrogantly, touched my hand, everything in front of me was instantly and perfectly redefined, to the point that I forgot to breathe for a few seconds. But the idea that I had such thoughts during the contact with Han Sol made Ji Gwanyeong feel immense discomfort.

‘My Esper.’ For him, the idea that he could control me simply because he was my guide felt like a form of rudeness and insult. It would have been better for me to rampage around without any regard for distinctions rather than bowing my head to that kind of thing.

Ji Gwanyeong, sitting loosely on the sofa in the living room, scanned the meticulously organized materials with obsessive precision. Wherever he looked, there was only one name. Choi Taehun, Choi Taehun, Choi Taehun!

The Esper knew that name well. Those three characters had been loosely scattered somewhere in his head for quite a while. They were so large and oblivious behind my back that I couldn’t possibly ignore them. Ji Gwanyeong remembered the neat face of the man who had been my guide for 8 months, sitting calmly and trying to act like it was nothing. He had thought he was just a researcher or staff member, but that pale-faced man had been my guide.

Ultimately, the ‘now’ version of Ji Gwanyeong decided to change his mind. He thought it would be much more satisfying to know exactly why I, the future and the past, had done such insane things. Once he started thinking this way, the first ridiculous thing to come to his mind was this: Ji Gwanyeong looked at the screen of my phone with a glance of irritation. On the small screen, someone’s name was saved.

[Boyfriend] The idea that I, myself, had input such a crazy word made my neck ache. The conversation history with that damn ‘boyfriend’ was also out of my mind. ‘Choi Taehun, where are you?’, ‘Choi Taehun, are you eating?’, ‘Choi Taehun, I’ll come pick you up from the center.’ That was it.

In this situation, I was in some sort of… relationship with that pair guide. I really, truly didn’t want to believe it, but it was true. The number of people saved on my phone had increased. All with the same surname, Choi, these unfamiliar yet forcibly familiar names belonged to the family members of the man who had been my guide. Ji Gwanyeong read the information about them that I had left behind.

Choi Taehun has five younger siblings. He graduated from ○○ University, and his grades were pretty good. His relationships with peers were also solid, and he had even served as class president. He manifested as a guide at the age of five, but had never been matched with any Esper until now…

“…Damn.” As Ji Gwanyeong traced the information like a spiderweb he had placed in this mansion, he suddenly realized what he was doing and muttered a small curse. He felt like he was being completely played.

The man who couldn’t stand anyone peering into his mind was none other than Ji Gwanyeong himself. The monster barely escaped from the swamp of information that had almost taken over my mind all day long and arrived at the filming set. It was truly surprising that the set, not the mansion, now felt like the most peaceful place.

So, when Ji Gwanyeong, the Esper, discovered Choi Taehun, his guide, on the drama set, he almost doubted he had seen a hallucination. Considering how chaotic his house had been, it wasn’t surprising—he seriously thought so.

“Ji Gwanyeong?” “No, what did you say?”