“No, I’m saying I never intended to go on a blind date in the first place?”
Ilkyung returned to square one. S-rank or whatever, that’s not what’s important—he’s saying he has no interest in this blind date itself.
“And you know that matching rate is more important than level, don’t you? Ah, maybe you don’t know…”
At Ilkyung’s words, Daehoon chuckled.
“True, there’s no reason to waste S-rank Guide personnel on an A-rank Esper. That’s unfortunate. Then I’ll tell my grandfather that Miss Woo Minkyung refused. Well then.”
This person also had the arrogance that only S-ranks possess. In his tone, and in the words he spoke.
Daehoon abruptly stood up from his seat. Startled, Ilkyung stood up as well. No, that’s not it.
“What did you hear when I spoke to you earlier? I’m saying I had no choice but to come to this meeting. You can’t go back and tell your family that. Could you please say that Ha Daehoon-ssi broke it off?”
Ilkyung was desperate. He needed to break off this meeting, but that didn’t mean Daehoon could go home and say straight out that Woo Minkyung rejected him first. The day that reached his mother’s ears, all hell would break loose. If I don’t properly complete my mission, I might have to return the sports car to Noona.
Ilkyung unconsciously grabbed Daehoon’s cuff. Daehoon only lowered his gaze to look at that hand.
“Ah! I didn’t mean to…”
“Why should I say that?”
“No, I’m asking you as a favor.”
“Is this how you ask for favors?”
Ilkyung narrowed his brow. My feet hurt! I’m saying it’s hard to even stand like this! Ilkyung’s mind was gradually leaving Earth.
“We’re not going to see each other anyway, so can’t you just do this for me?”
Ilkyung decided to be shameless. Daehoon chuckled.
“Let’s do that. Since we won’t see each other anyway.”
“Assistant Manager Woo, good morning!”
“Good morning, Team Leader-nim! Good morning, Section Chief-nim!”
“Our Assistant Manager Woo is in a good mood today too. Is coming to work that fun?”
“Of course!”
Ilkyung greeted people here and there as he opened the office door and entered. The Field Support Team members adored Ilkyung, who always greeted them with a bright face.
“Assistant Manager Woo, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
As soon as Ilkyung put his bag down at his seat, Section Chief Kang Juyoung, who sat next to him, stood up and stuck his head over the partition to ask. When Ilkyung looked at him with eyes full of curiosity, Section Chief Kang began speaking excitedly.
“A new director is coming today.”
“A director? Isn’t a director an executive? Why would an executive suddenly come?”
If an executive was coming, there should have been rumors beforehand, but he hadn’t heard anything at all.
“Last week, Section Chief Kim from the Guide Team got married and went down to the provinces.”
Ilkyung stared blankly with wide eyes. What was the correlation between Guide Section Chief Kim going down to the provinces and a new director being appointed? As if noticing that look, Section Chief Kang continued.
“That director is an S-rank Guide.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, an S-rank Guide who’s also an executive? Where did they say he came from?”
An S-rank Guide who’s an executive? He’d never heard of such a thing.
“They said he’s been in England all this time and just came back now.”
Ilkyung’s mouth dropped open in surprise. An A-rank Guide left and an S-rank Guide came! They should roll out a red carpet for his arrival.
“I’ll serve him well.”
Ilkyung said playfully. And that was when it happened.
“Now, everyone say hello. This is our new Director Ha Daehoon.”
Through the open door, a tall man walked in with heavy steps. People’s gazes went way up and their mouths fell open. From somewhere came an exclamation of “Wow.”
“Hello, I’m Ha Daehoon.”
“Huh? Uh…”
Ilkyung raised his finger all the way up, then hastily lowered it and covered his mouth before he could scream. Get it together! Right now he was Woo Ilkyung, not Woo Minkyung.
Ilkyung’s vision went dark. A gloomy future was unfolding before him.
* * *
“Haven’t I told you several times? Does Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung not understand words the first time?”
“No, I mean, Director-nim. There are so many Espers who need guiding right now, what do you expect me to do about it?”
Director Ha Daehoon put his hand on his hip, turned his head to the side, and sighed. The look that glanced at him clearly showed he thought Ilkyung was pathetic, making Ilkyung choke up. Then what am I supposed to do? Does he think I want to be called to the Center during Golden Week and do this? Ilkyung had also canceled his vacation and pension reservation and been out at the Center since two days ago, equally frazzled and pissed off.
During the May Golden Week holiday, a tanker truck exploded in the middle of the inner ring road where cars were lined up bumper to bumper. Originally, such a simple accident should be handled by the fire department and police, but given the timing and the scale of the accident, the Center sent support.
The Center doesn’t get involved in ordinary accidents. The ability users at the Center get involved in things like armed demonstrations by anti-government forces, terrorist incidents where every second counts, and accidents caused by unregistered ability users. But occasionally, like this, Espers would quickly deal with and restore accident scenes for citizens’ safety.
If it had been any other time, the explosion incident would have been wrapped up with just one tanker truck and a few cars around it, but the timing was bad. Because of the holiday, cars were packed in both directions, unable to move, when the tanker truck exploded and the fire spread rapidly. The fire department contacted the Center, and immediately teleportation Espers headed to the accident scene with other Espers. At the same time, Guides who had been resting at home were also called to the Center, and the same went for the Field Support Team.
The Center didn’t only have Espers and Guides. Regular people could also be hired.
Because Ilkyung was a regular person, he could have gone to other companies, but since childhood he thought it was natural that he should enter the Center too. All his family members worked at the Center and still work there now.
Ilkyung’s family had five members. Dad was a Guide, Mom was an Esper, and an S-rank at that. All three noonas were also Espers, and currently two noonas had gotten married and gone down to work at provincial Centers, leaving only Ilkyung and his youngest noona Minkyung at the Central Center. This was because their parents had retired last year.
Because the noonas manifested as ability users early on, they became active as Espers as soon as they became adults. And Ilkyung, as soon as he graduated early from university, was the first to submit his application to the Center. Because the Center was under the government, the competition was fierce, but Ilkyung passed with flying colors. It had already been five years since he joined, and he had just become an assistant manager.
But even if it was a company he entered thinking it was natural, he had fantasies and expectations about the company. He had imagined so many things about his future work life, but… he’d never imagined a scene like this, you viper bastard!
“No, Director-nim. To guide efficiently right now…”
“Do I look like some guiding machine to Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung? Do you know how many people I’ve done already?”
“That’s not it, Director-nim doesn’t currently have a pair, so…”
“And didn’t I clearly tell you not to assign me to guiding with Espers who were my previous pairs?”
“No, that’s not…”
“Can Assistant Manager Woo only say ‘No, that’s not…’?”
The hands hidden behind his back were now clenched into fists. So you bastard, listen to what I’m saying!
Fortunately, Director Ha didn’t realize that Ilkyung was Minkyung who had gone to that matchmaking. It wasn’t that he lacked discernment, but rather he just seemed to have no interest in other people. Ilkyung thought he was lucky not to be recognized, but life isn’t that easy! He and Director Ha really didn’t get along at work at all.
Today too, as the two of them were raising each other’s blood pressure, someone’s urgent footsteps could be heard from over there.
“Director-nim. I’m sorry I’m late. Please speak with me. Assistant Manager Woo, hurry and go finish what you were doing.”
Park Eunji, the team leader of the Field Support Team, ran from far away and spat out her words all at once without even catching her breath. While doing so, she subtly grabbed Ilkyung’s sleeve and hid him behind her. Even doing that, Ilkyung was bigger than Team Leader Park so he wouldn’t be hidden, but Team Leader Park did her best to protect her precious employee.
