Thud, as the door closed, Ilkyung finally realized his hands were trembling violently. What could this be? Ilkyung couldn’t collect his thoughts. His heart was racing wildly and his chest was pounding. He felt like he might pass out first at this rate. It was like that state when you suddenly encounter something frightening or scary—nothing comes to mind and your whole body just trembles. He even wondered if he was breathing properly.
“Are you okay?”
Daehoon got in the car and turned his body completely toward Ilkyung and asked. Normally he would answer that he was fine, but those words wouldn’t come out of Ilkyung. Ilkyung shook his head.
“The Espers are here. Fortunately, we got in contact right away.”
“Then, I need to go in and distribute the guiding…”
“You don’t have to. You know now isn’t the time for that, Ilkyung-ssi.”
Ilkyung looked at Daehoon. That’s right—by now the Center should have called him multiple times, but his phone was quiet.
“I’ll go to the Center. You’re completely out of it, right?”
Daehoon took Ilkyung’s hand and let his energy flow into him.
“Huh?”
“That’s right. I’m guiding you right now.”
“Um, Director, I…”
“It’s exactly what you’re thinking. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s okay. I’ll go with you.”
Ilkyung didn’t understand anything right now. No, he couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t believe even what he was seeing—why he had been able to block the fireball, what on earth was suddenly happening.
“This is guiding. You’ll calm down a bit.”
His trembling fingertips stopped shaking. He could feel his heart rate, which had seemed ready to burst out of his mouth, finding its own pace again, and his chest, which had been pounding so loudly he thought he could hear it, seemed to settle down a little. Even so, his mind was just complicated. Ilkyung wanted to say something, but his lips only moved slightly without being able to reply at all.
“It’s okay. Take it easy. We’ll go to the Center and do some tests.”
Ilkyung already knew the whole process. This was his fifth year working at the Center. How could Ilkyung not know what newly manifested ability users did first when they came to the Center?
“Can we leave? Do you need anything else?”
Ilkyung was too confused. He understood what the situation was, but it didn’t sink in easily.
“Should I guide you more?”
“I-I’m okay.”
“Can we go? Or should I hug you?”
Only the word “why?” floated around in Ilkyung’s head. He had been an ordinary person just a few hours ago, and suddenly he became an Esper? Was that even possible? He didn’t even know how to use his ability, yet just by raising his arm, he could block a flying fireball? And what about the guiding? The feeling when his rapidly beating heart found its pace and his unstable breathing became calm was too unfamiliar.
“I’m okay. I’m fine now.”
“Alright. Let’s hurry and go.”
Daehoon took Ilkyung in his car and drove back the way they came, leaving behind the hellscape engulfed in flames.
Lying on the bed with wires connected all over his body, Ilkyung found this situation absurd. The research team was in charge of confirming whether he was really an ability user and what level he was. The research team studied how Espers and Guides manifested, whether it was due to genetic factors or had nothing to do with such things.
The research team had a somewhat businesslike aspect, perhaps because they literally only studied and researched, and knowing this, Daehoon couldn’t leave Ilkyung’s side during the examination. It was the first time he had seen Woo Ilkyung, who was always barking and running around, so frozen and filled with such frightened eyes.
Daehoon had thought Ilkyung had no fear, perhaps because he had a powerful family backing him. The Center was large-scale with many people, but Woo Ilkyung walked around confidently inside such a Center as if roaming his own house.
But the Woo Ilkyung from a moment ago wasn’t like that. He trembled like a puppy that had lost its territory. Ha Daehoon absolutely couldn’t leave his seat with something like a homeless puppy there.
Before he knew it, the examination must have been finished, as the researchers removed the wires connected to Ilkyung’s body. Ilkyung awkwardly pulled down his lifted clothes and lowered his feet below the bed with a bewildered face. His ankles somehow looked even more gaunt. Daehoon quickly went inside.
“Is the examination finished?”
Daehoon asked the researcher who was organizing the wires.
“Ah, yes, Director. Would you like to hear the examination results together? If you go into the room next door, the doctor and the research team leader will explain.”
“Assistant Manager Woo, do you want to hear it alone?”
Before he knew it, Ilkyung was holding onto Daehoon’s sleeve like a lost child. Daehoon didn’t shake off that touch. If it were up to him, he wanted to at least hold Ilkyung’s hand as he trembled with anxiety, but there were too many eyes watching, so he couldn’t.
“Together, I want to go together.”
Usually like a barking puppy, now with his ears and tail drooping, completely dejected, he was pitiful beyond words. Daehoon felt like putting him in his arms and licking him clean all night. When he cried, the area around his eyes turned red, and he wanted to see that sight too. It was Woo Ilkyung who made him want to act kind on the outside while tormenting him.
“Alright, then.”
Throughout the ride to the Center earlier, Ilkyung had been holding Daehoon’s hand. Unable to quite grasp the hand placed on the gear shift and fidgeting, when Daehoon showed his palm, Ilkyung quickly placed his hand on top of that palm. Daehoon held the puppy-like small hand and drove. Although he didn’t particularly guide, Ilkyung seemed to feel stability just from the warm energy transmitted through the hand.
“I didn’t expect to see Ilkyung here.”
That was the doctor’s first words. The doctor had worked at this Center for quite a long time. Naturally, he knew Ilkyung’s parents and all his noonas too. The only ordinary person in the Woo family, Woo Ilkyung. He knew that the youngest of that family had entered the Center not as an ability user but joined as an ordinary person and ran here and there in the Field Support Team, but he hadn’t expected him to manifest late and visit this place.
“But how did you come together with Director Ha?”
“We were together during the commute.”
Ilkyung’s voice trembled a little.
“Why are you so nervous? It’s more strange that only one person in the Woo family was ordinary. Manifestation came a bit late, but it’s not like there’s no precedent at all.”
Ilkyung nodded his head. A friend Seonhwa’s ex-boyfriend whom he had met recently also became an ability user recently, so manifestation at an older age wasn’t completely unheard of. Still, wasn’t twenty-seven years old a bit too much?
“As you know, you’re a telekinesis-type Esper.”
“Then am I also A-rank like my noona?”
Ilkyung asked cautiously.
“Ah, Minkyung is also telekinesis-type, right?”
At the doctor’s question, Ilkyung nodded his head. Listening to the conversation from the side, Daehoon thought that the twins’ mother must be an amazing person. Was it possible because she was an S-rank Esper? Although the manifestation of ability users hadn’t been clearly revealed genetically yet, statistically speaking, when there were ability users in the family, there were numerous cases of their children continuing the lineage. There were still no cases to be found where someone manifested as if dropped from the sky when there were no ability users at all in the family.
“My goodness, the Woo family really is amazing. Everyone is an ability user, and wait, how many S-ranks are there? Four children and two of them are S-rank.”
“What? How can there be two…”
“Esper Woo Ilkyung has been determined to be S-rank telekinesis-type.”
It was the research team leader beside them who spoke.
“That’s ridiculous.”
At those words, Ilkyung muttered. Ilkyung looked at Daehoon with a truly absurd expression.
The research team leader tried to explain more here, but Daehoon stopped him for now. Right now, Woo Ilkyung was already too shocked by his manifestation as an Esper, and on top of that, being S-rank, he truly seemed to have no composure at all. Holding onto such a kid and explaining what an Esper should do and how, what preparations were needed to do so, and all that crap would be completely useless.
“Let’s take a break.”
“What?”
The research team leader looked dismayed. He had no choice. It was already long past the 6 o’clock quitting time.
Procedurally, Woo Ilkyung should have visited the Center tomorrow morning to receive the examination. However, Director Ha had detained the doctor and research team leader who were trying to leave work and brought Ilkyung to receive the examination. The kid was trembling with shock, and he couldn’t just stick such a kid at home and tell him to come take the examination tomorrow morning.
