The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]
Chapter 135: Surprise!

Chapter 135: Surprise!

Lane yawned, slouching on the plastic airport chair, looking at the arrival board. The plane bound for country K from the Capital was supposed to have arrived by now, but it was delayed.

"Still not here?" he muttered under his nose with annoyance, before turning his gaze back to the game he’d been playing on his phone.

It’s been five hours already since he had arrived at the airport in country K. Five hours he had spent stuck on the uncomfortable plastic chair. Five hours that he could have spent at the summit instead!

Except that he couldn’t. While Damien wasn’t aware Lane was about to arrive today, if he were to check the flights later, he would have noticed that Lane’s timing didn’t quite add up...

And so, Lane had no choice but to wait. Such were the inconveniences of leading a double life.

He cleared a few more levels, and looked up again.

Finally!

The plane he was waiting for arrived. Lane stuffed his phone back in his pocket, dragged himself off the chair, and slowly made his way to the coffee shop - he still needed to create a bit more delay, since if he were on that plane, he’d have to get on and so on... It might have seemed excessive, but with how sharp Damien was, no amount of caution could be considered too much.

Arlo was already waiting for him outside when Lane got off the cab in front of the Perellel Hotel, where the good chunk of the summit was held. He waved at Lane with a smile. "Hi! How was your flight?"

"Delayed," Lane sighed. "Did you get my pass?"

"Yeah, there you go," Arlo handed Lane his electronic ID pass, which allowed him to access the venue. "I had to steal it from Team Leader’s bag... If he gets angry at me later, you have to back me up!"

"Sure, sure. He doesn’t know anything yet then?"

"Of course not, I just told him I needed to step out to make a call. But, why did you want to keep your arrival a secret?" Arlo glanced at Lane with curiosity, as they stepped into the hotel.

"Oh, you know," Lane shrugged his shoulders, a playful smile tugging on the corners of his lips. "I just thought it would be a fun surprise."

"Is that so?"

They walked through the elegant hallways in silence, even their steps muffled by the soft, dark red carpet covering the floor. Arlo was constantly glancing at Lane though, hesitating for a long time, before he finally decided to ask, "By the way, if you don’t mind me asking. Are you and Team Leader..."

"Hmm?" Lane lifted his brows, suppressing a smirk.

"Well... I mean... Are the two of you... Well..."

It was funny to watch Arlo scramble for words, as he didn’t know how to word it out - even though he was the one who started the topic in the first place - but Lane didn’t leave the man struggling for to long, as he answered in a casual tone, "Are we dating? Well, yeah."

"Ah."

"Don’t tell anyone about it though, alright? I personally don’t mind, but Damien, I mean Team Leader... He’s quite a shy type, you know?"

A weird look appeared on Arlo’s face. A shy type? Team Leader Damien Lennox? If Lane said he was strict and serious, or that he cared a lot about his reputation and wanted to maintain a sense of decorum in public, that he’d understand, but shy? Really?

It brought some weird images into his mind, so he shook his head energetically, trying to shake them off.

"But Xavier... Everyone already kind of knows," he pointed out. "You’re not exactly... discreet about your affair, you know?"

Lane couldn’t help but burst out laughing. "Hahah, is that so?"

Well, he didn’t mind. But... Poor Damien. His image of a proper and serious Team Leader was probably already long gone.

Oh well.

"Anyway, what’s happening right now?" Lane shifted the topic back to the summit.

"Not much. It’s only the second day, so not all the guests have arrived. We are just attending some small conferences and lectures... Right now, we are in the middle of a lecture about Manaforming of the environment post dungeon break given by scientists from country E... Pretty boring, if you ask me, but Team Leader forced us to attend... Oh." Arlo paused, as one of the doors down the hallway opened, and people started walking out. "It seems it’s over now."

They stood on the side as not to block the way, waiting for their team to leave the lecture hall - or, well, one of the Hotel’s theater scenes temporarily transformed into a lecture hall. Lane was observing all the people flooding out, seemingly casually, without much interest, just letting his eyes wander around, but in truth scanning all the faces, taking note of any important people present. Some of them he recognized from his reports and searches online, while the others he had met in person before, even though they had no idea of that.

All of a sudden, his shoulders tensed up, and his eyes narrowed, as his gaze fell on one of the men passing him by.

’Wait, is that...’ He couldn’t help but pause.

He would have almost followed the man, but just as he was about to throw Arlo some random excuse to leave for a while, Damien stepped out of the hall, his green eyes widening as he spotted Lane.

And so, Lane had no choice but to abandon the thought. It would have been easy to leave Arlo with just some flimsy excuse, but Damien, not so much. He only took a mental note to check the man out later, and approached Damien.

"Surprise!" He grinned widely, spreading his arms. Then, he leaned closer, and lowered his voice to a whisper, "Did you miss me... boyfriend?"

A few people around them gave them odd glances. In particular those who knew who Damien was. After all, while Lane might have lowered his voice... They were surrounded by Espers, who could still hear it all!

Damien closed his eyes, furrowing his brows as he held back a sigh. But the tips of his ears still flushed.