“Before that, I’m going to the office to say hello. I need to do the handover too.”
Daehoon, who had been watching Ilkyung’s expression, asked.
“Are you sad?”
“The Field Support Team was my first everything. It’s only been 5 years, but still, it’s the place where I learned work and grew attached during those 5 years.”
Yesterday, becoming an Esper was just bewildering and surprising, but now that he was actually at work, he felt sad and regretful.
“Then we need to go to the 7th floor.”
Daehoon naturally pressed the button for the 7th floor. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even pressed an elevator button. He only realized it now. Since yesterday, Ilkyung had really been out of it.
“Go and say hello properly without crying, and do the handover well too.”
“I won’t cry.”
“Your nose is already red, what are you talking about? Just think of it as a personnel transfer.”
“That’s not easy.”
Ilkyung was muttering and talking back about everything. Daehoon looked at him with an expression of disbelief and flicked Ilkyung’s nose tip with his finger.
“You look like you’re going to cry your eyes out.”
“I’m not.”
He thought it was a disaster because his heart was wavering. He was already getting choked up. He didn’t know if he’d cry while saying goodbye.
Ding— The door opened with a sound.
“Go say hello properly. You’re not resigning.”
Daehoon said while holding the open button. Ilkyung nodded.
“You know from experience, right? Ability users interact with Field Support Team people more than any other team. Just think about you and me. We clashed a lot.”
Ilkyung stuck out his lips and nodded.
“If you really feel sorry, at least have a dinner gathering. Today, don’t go down to the research team, just greet the Field Support Team people and do the handover.”
“Shouldn’t I go see the research team leader? He waited so much yesterday too.”
“I’ll take care of that, so don’t worry about it.”
“Can I really do that?”
Ilkyung asked with a face full of suspicion.
“Right now you have a face that looks like you’ll sit down and cry your eyes out if I tell you to go to the research team immediately, whether you’re an Esper or whatever, so how could I do that? And once you go to the research team, do you know how hard it’ll get from now on? Until today, I’ll help you, Ilkyung-ssi.”
Ilkyung bowed his head deeply.
“Thank you.”
“It’s not free, so don’t think whatever you want.”
At Daehoon’s words, Ilkyung quickly raised his head that he had lowered. His drooping eye corners shot up sharply. How could everything show on his face like this?
“What are you going to make me do again?”
Because Ha Daehoon made him do such unpredictable things, Ilkyung made a sulky face.
“That’s for later.”
“Tell me now. Don’t say something weird later again.”
“I’m trying to accumulate mileage.”
“What chaebol knows about mileage! Chaebols don’t need such things.”
Daehoon shrugged his shoulders. Then, releasing the open button he had been holding down the whole time, he pushed Ilkyung’s back and sent him out of the elevator. Before Ilkyung could say anything, the door closed behind him. Ilkyung turned around and made an absurd expression.
Ding— a sound rang out and the employee elevator door opened, not the executive elevator.
“Oh, Assistant Manager Woo!”
“Section Chief Kang.”
The moment he saw Section Chief Kang’s face, Ilkyung’s face became pitiful again like a puppy caught in the rain.
How many days had it been since manifesting as an Esper? Due to the same daily routine, Ilkyung didn’t even properly recognize the days passing.
“Esper Woo Ilkyung. You can’t sit down already. Stand up. It’s not time yet.”
Yes, every day he was starting his daily routine at the Center with this voice and the same comment.
Ilkyung, whose face was completely wet with either sweat or tears, looked at the research team leader with eyes full of resentment. Whether he did or not, the research team leader didn’t care and urged Ilkyung on.
“Hurry and stand up. Hurry.”
“I really feel like I’m going to die.”
“I haven’t seen an Esper die from exercise.”
“No, I think I’ll be the first.”
“Hurry and stand up.”
Ilkyung felt like lying face down on the floor and crying. No, he might have already cried. What was dripping down like this right now was surely tears, not sweat. His legs gave out and he couldn’t possibly stand up, yet telling him to stand up—he should say something that makes sense.
“Esper Woo Minkyung went through all this too.”
“Noona is noona. I was an ordinary person just a few days ago.”
“Now you’re an Esper, so naturally you have to do this. Stop talking and hurry up. You’ve rested enough.”
It probably hadn’t even been a minute since he sat down. What do you mean I’ve rested enough? Ilkyung forced his trembling legs to stand.
When he came to work at the Center, he came to the physical training room and only exercised for two full hours. There was no way Ilkyung, who usually didn’t exercise except for breathing, could exercise for two hours just because he became an Esper. He somehow forced himself through about an hour, but after that, he practically crawled on the floor. The research team leader looked at such Ilkyung with pathetic eyes. Whether he did or not, Ilkyung didn’t care. First of all, he was dying here.
“For telekinesis-type Espers, stamina is combat power.”
“I know. That’s already the 100th time you’ve said that.”
“Isn’t the problem that I’ve said it 100 times but Esper Woo Ilkyung isn’t listening at all?”
So even if I want to listen, my body won’t follow! If stamina you didn’t have could appear overnight, everyone would be an Esper! He wanted to say this, but the words wouldn’t come out. Huff, huff, only rough breathing sounds came out.
“You need to run more. Other Espers exercise for 3 hours, but right now only Esper Woo Ilkyung is falling behind.”
Why didn’t his noonas tell him any of these stories? He only saw them deploying and solving problems, so why didn’t they say there were these dog-like things behind it? If he had known, he wouldn’t have even dreamed of becoming an Esper.
“Heok, huk. I think I’m going to throw up.”
“No Esper has ever thrown up from this much exercise.”
“So, heok, so I think I’ll be the first, huff huff.”
Watching Woo Ilkyung running on the treadmill with a pale face, the research team leader shook his head. Director Ha Daehoon seemed to want to quickly raise Woo Ilkyung into a proper S-rank Esper and throw him into major cases, but from the research team leader’s perspective, that seemed very, very far off.
“With such weak stamina, when will you ever go out to the field? If you’ve become an Esper, you need to fulfill an Esper’s duty.”
With the continuing nagging and evaluation, Ilkyung’s mouth corners and eye corners were gradually drooping more and more.
“Esper Woo Ilkyung’s noonas all had good stamina.”
At those words, Ilkyung made a sulky face. He had no choice. Because his noonas manifested when they were young. His noonas manifested early, and their mother gave early education starting from their student days so that such noonas could properly function as Espers as soon as they became adults. She made them exercise as soon as they manifested, saying that Espers needed stamina whether they were telekinesis-type, mental-type, or teleportation-type. Then what did Woo Ilkyung do?
Ilkyung had grown up preciously as the youngest of the family since childhood. Until puberty, Ilkyung grew up hearing people ask if he was the youngest daughter of the Woo family. When he was very, very young, he thought he was a girl like his noonas. When his noonas took his hair, tied it with rubber bands, and blow-dried it, Ilkyung just stayed still. He grew up thinking it was natural to do so.
Throughout middle and high school, he grew up like a bookworm. When his eldest noona and second noona were solving incidents and accidents under the scorching sun, gradually showing off their tanned and elastic skin, Woo Ilkyung grew up like a sickly beautiful boy with pale skin that looked like it had never received sunlight.
Even when his twin noona Minkyung exercised and built muscle strength, Ilkyung held a pen and studied or read books. Because Ilkyung showed no signs of manifesting as an Esper, let alone a Guide. He thought studying was the only way for him, an ordinary person, to survive. So Ilkyung concentrated on studying the whole time. He wanted to graduate as quickly as possible and get a job at the Center. He wanted to be recognized as a member of the Woo family even by doing that.
Comparing such Woo Ilkyung with his noonas would only hurt his feelings. Ilkyung walked on the treadmill trudging along with a face full of dissatisfaction. He felt like crawling, but he still had his pride.
