The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 297: Apologies

"...What are you apologizing for?" Lane furrowed his brows, confused.

Damien lowered his head. This time, he was the one to avoid Lane’s gaze, as he said, "I know I shouldn’t have done that."

"Wait, wait, hold on." Lane lifted his hand, pressing the other against his furrowed forehead. "Explain once again, from the top. What was it that you shouldn’t have done?"

"I shouldn’t have chased after you for so long, even though I knew you weren’t interested. I even asked the training instructors to let me help with the Basic Guide Training just so that I could find you, when you clearly wanted to be left alone..."

Well, now that Damien had mentioned it... He had caused Lane a lot of nerves and headaches. He had already forgotten all about it, not to mention that he had assumed it was at least partially done because Damien had been suspicious of his identity and ability... But if it had all been just because Damien had feelings for him... Then it indeed could be seen as a bit too much. Chasing after your almost-lover, who was no longer interested... Honestly, it would be far more reasonable to cut your losses and move on.

Not that Lane had been entirely disinterested. He had still been attracted to Damien back then, and the only reason why he was so adamant on trying to escape was to protect his secret.

But it was also true that he had always been rather transparent about his intentions when it came to his flings. He didn’t have the habit of leading people on... Of course, there were still people who just wouldn’t get it, so Lane previously just thought that Damien was a bit dense in that aspect...

It seems that it wasn’t the case, though. The man was sharp, whether it came to seeing through Lane’s lies, as well as understanding his intentions.

"Ah, well," Lane tousled his hair. "Then I should also apologize to you, if we’re at it... I must have caused you quite a lot of grief with some of the things I did..."

"That..." Damien started, but then he closed his mouth again.

Lane indeed had done a lot of... questionable things, to put it lightly. Many of them had hurt Damien a lot - such as DYING in front of his eyes, although that perhaps wasn’t necessarily intentional - and even ignoring that, they were simply morally wrong. So, even if Damien could dismiss his feelings, he felt that he shouldn’t wave off Lane’s apology.

Although said apology would be better directed at someone else, such as the victims of Lane’s possession spree... But he didn’t point it out loud now. He didn’t want to go from apologizing straight into criticizing Lane.

"So... You’re alright with it?" he only asked.

Lane shrugged his shoulders, letting out a short chuckle. "Yeah, well. I guess it all worked out well? So I’m kind of glad now that you had been so relentlessly chasing me, haha..."

A great feeling of relief passed through Damien. He took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled, all the anxiety he had felt just a moment ago, as he had been revealing his side of his story, had finally left him.

It was good to finally talk about it.

"As for my attitude toward dating..." Lane said hesitantly, returning to the starting point of their discussion. "Well, I mean..."

"We’re in a relationship now, aren’t we?"

"Yes," Lane’s lips curved into a smile as he heard Damien’s calm, confident tone. "We are."

"This is all I need to know," Damien nodded his head, satisfied. Whatever Lane’s sexual and romantic past was, the two of them were now romantically involved.

And that was all that mattered.

The rest of the evening passed in a slightly awkward, but not unpleasant atmosphere. Damien was on his laptop, as he brought some work home - he didn’t get much done earlier in the day, due to the unexpected new team member - while Lane was buried in the notes, pretending to study, while having his secret organization account opened in another tab. The reports had accumulated over the last four weeks, and as the (currently somewhat reluctant) Boss, he had to at least skim through them all, after all!

It was only much later, when they were already getting ready for bed, that Damien brought up the earlier events again.

"By the way, that Ethan Wagner... Is that the same Ethan you told me about before? The one who worked as your Guide when you were fifteen."

"Ah, yes," Lane scowled, tossing his phone aside and throwing himself on the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. "That’s the guy."

"Is that so..."

"But we haven’t really seen each other in years," Lane rushed to explain. "Aside from bumping into each other in some club a few times... But even then, we didn’t talk at all, not even a simple ’hi’. It’s just like I’ve told you, we got paired up by the Association since we were both minors, and neither of us had other options at the time... But we were never close, aside for, ahem, a few things done during our guiding sessions to increase efficiency..."

’Increasing efficiency’ wasn’t actually a thing back then yet. It was something that the Espers came up with two or three years later... And got officially debunked not long after. And Damien knew that it was just an excuse...

Still, it just said better to frame it like that, rather than to say that ’we had to release all those teenage hormones somehow’.

Besides, it wasn’t a lie to say they were not close. Even though they used to see each other so often back then, they hardly knew anything about each other... They hadn’t talked much, only using their tongues in a very different way.

And now Lane regretted it. Perhaps not physical intimacy - it was what it was, there was no need to dwell on it, just as you wouldn’t care what you had for dinner years ago or what clothes you used to wear. But if they had actually spent more time talking, then now Lane would at least understand Ethan a little bit better... A lot of time had passed, yes, but it might give Lane an idea.

But they hadn’t, and Lane knew nothing about Ethan as a person. All he had were a few dry facts from his spies in the Allen Guild. Hardly enough to figure out how to handle this nuisance of a man...