The man watched him for a few seconds before walking into the room, seemingly without a care.
His room was quite humble for him, actually. The man knew Le An usually spent most of his time in this house, but he had five more residences in the capital. As he discovered them all since he started following him, he had seen them all—ordinary, empty, soulless places, as if no one had ever truly lived in them. He also had several houses outside the city.
Le An's room was quite large, but he didn't have much furniture. The room had a soothing stillness to it; it wasn't boastful with wealth, just quietness. One entire corner was taken over by greenery: tall ferns, delicate hanging ivies, small flowering pots, even a few rare species tucked between ordinary ones. A large leather sofa faced with a sleek hologram TV; stacks of old movies and books filled the shelves beside it. Though sparsely furnished, everything seemed to be in its best place. Among his other residences, this was the only space that seemed lived in.
He opened one of the cabinets, which was where Le An kept all kinds of gifts from fans. When he opened the second cabinet, he saw that there were many documents inside and many more files piled up together... He picked up the top sheet of paper, slightly wrinkled at the edges.
"Uh..." a small voice came from behind him. Le An was now burying his face between his knees. He was still sleeping.
The man took a few more papers, scanned them with his watch for reading later, and closed the cabinet. His shadow on the cabinet door caught his eye, it was darker than usual. He had spent too much energy in today's dungeon and was already on edge, yet, since it was his normal, he kept the surging dark emotions in check.
There was a bathroom inside and another door leading to another room. But this door stood out no matter how he looked at it. It was made of solid metal, heavy and cold to the touch, clearly reinforced and encrypted, meant to keep whatever was inside completely sealed off from the rest of the world.. What could be inside there? Since no shadow could pass there, there was no way for him to get inside without making noise.
Now he had to finish his work and return to the dungeon. He looked at his watch, 7 minutes past midnight. Just as he was about to somehow wake Le An up, his steps suddenly stopped when he smelled a faint smell coming from the bathroom door. He opened it.
A brown jacket was on the floor in front of the bathtub. He knelt next to the jacket. There were multiple alpha pheromones on it. And hidden in the collar of the jacket was a barely detectable omega pheromone mixed with sweat. However, it was so faint that he could barely register its presence, just enough to confirm it was there. He couldn't differentiate the smell, as if it were suppressed deep within.
He turned back into the room. Then, he created shadow strings for his face, and now his face was covered. He pulled another string, whirled it around his fingers, and sent it to Le An's face. The string tapped his left cheek, enough to wake him up. "Hey, wake up."
Le An woke up with a start, his eyes bloodshot. For a moment, he stared absently, but right away, he sprang to his feet, taking off his watch and turning his back awkwardly. "You are smarter each day." The man said.
Le An stopped for a moment and asked out of the blue. "Do you… have any motives other than this?"
He felt a stare on his back. "I don't have any motive that I could consider sharing with you. What now, since I didn't throw you to the wall right away, you consider us friends or something?"
Le An kept silent. His head was dizzy, and he didn't even know why he asked such a thing himself. The man reached his neck and arms, capturing him. He commanded. "Start."
After 5 minutes, Le An was panting again. How could someone need this much guiding every day? The man was, although Le An was guiding him hard now for the third time, on the brink of it. He was in worse shape than some of the espers Le An had guided in the emergency room. But he was fine, nonetheless, standing still and exerting a great power over Le An's guide flow. "I... can't." Le An puffed. "Let me have a break or..."
"No way." He cut his words. Le An had already stolen his time sleeping peacefully at the worst time. "Do your job."
The hands he captured were trembling, in cold sweat. "5 more minutes. Or..." He added, "You know you can always speed it up."
Right after that, the man's breath hitched. A chilly feeling filled his lungs, muscles, and whole body. His heart palpitated, his whole shadow wavered, now a better shade of black. Better than ever for the first time in months. The strength of the flow, the power this man in front of him holds, sent a shiver down his spine. He wanted to retreat immediately, but his body and soul wanted to linger in this feeling for a longer time. This was dangerous.
Right as he withdrew his hands, Le An fell to the ground. He was breathing even harder, couldn't even look up or form a word. "Go..." he uttered afterwards. Why was he still here?
"I'm going to, I'm..." He stood up, going over to his nightstand and showing him the button on the side of it. "I'll call for help. Leave, please."
"Are you threatening me?" the man asked, his voice tightening.
Le An shook his head. "No… I don't intend anything. Just leave."
"You know what will happen once you have ideas or intentions towards me." The man reminded him of his threats, once again. Le An looked at him and nodded, he was too tired to listen to him. "Yes."
The man left an angry sound as if he was also out of breath. And soon dissipated into the shadows. Le An looked at the buttons; there were three buttons, and the first one was for light requests only. The second button sends a notification only to Theo. The last one was for a great emergency.
As his stare lost its focus, he ended up not pressing any of them, just waiting till his breath turned to normal. But as if it were impossible, his face turned even paler. "I'm okay." He muttered to himself. That will pass, no need to call anybody…
He lost consciousness like a feather settling on silk—soft, slow, and silent. He looked as if he had simply fallen into a deep sleep.
In the shadows, the man was still watching him. After that, he left.