“Uh, Heichi… ssi.”
Before Heewoo’s call even finished. The bench he was sitting on shook with a thud. The wooden bench designed to be firmly attached to the ground for the beautiful city landscaping—it shook.
Of course, it wasn’t something Heewoo had done. The suspect was the red-haired Esper Orin, who had been sitting a little away to hold Heewoo’s hand. The bench floated up about 5cm from the ground toward the air with a whoosh.
At the same time, Orin sprang up like some kind of spring and stood up abruptly. Facing Heichi, he opened his mouth wide and showed a clearly shocked expression, then even trembled his lower lip. His reaction was frighteningly honest.
“C-C-Cap…”
“Pluto Team 1 Member Orin.”
“Yes, Pluto Team 1 Orin!”
Orin, who had barely been able to speak properly and could only move his lips, snapped to attention with one low call from Heichi, tensing his body with discipline.
To Heewoo’s eyes, that appearance reminded him of the old days when harsh treatment in the military was severe, literally when discipline was well-maintained. Of course, Heewoo, who turned twenty this year, had never been to the military, let alone similar retreats because he had no money. It was just a scene he occasionally saw in the media.
“Indiscriminate use of abilities on other planets is strictly punished. Do you know that?”
“Yes, I know. I will correct it.”
As soon as Orin repeated, the bench fell to the ground with a thud. Because of that, Heewoo, who had been sitting on the bench, was also startled. He’d thought maybe, just maybe, but it really seemed Orin had lifted this heavy bench.
Meanwhile, perhaps because Heewoo was too startled, both people’s gazes turned toward him simultaneously. When red eyes and golden eyes turned toward him at the same time, Heewoo hunched his shoulders. Seeing the Espers’ superpowers he’d only encountered through the news with his own eyes, it was natural to feel intimidated.
“Oh dear. Sorry, were you startled? This is, well, my awakened ability ‘telekinesis,’ and just now because of the killing intent, it activated without me realizing, so…”
Orin, who until just now had been answering stiffly like a well-trained soldier, instantly changed his attitude and apologized to Heewoo. Accepting the apology, Heewoo had the idle thought that at the mention of telekinesis, so that’s why Orin’s hands earlier had been smooth without a single callus.
When he didn’t respond, this time Heichi spoke to him instead of Orin.
“Are you alright?”
“What? Yes.”
“What were you doing here?”
At the consecutive questions, Heewoo hesitated about what to answer. In the meantime, Orin slipped into the conversation.
“This person seems to lack information about Espers and Guides, so I was informing them. Cap…”
“Did I ask Member Orin right now?”
“…”
The tone was definitely emotionless. However, in the golden eyes looking at Orin, even a hint of menace circulated for a moment. Orin, who belatedly caught on, closed his mouth.
Meanwhile, Heewoo, who hadn’t noticed the subtle tension between Heichi and Orin, fell silent for a moment, then stuttered over his words several times before finally speaking.
“Then, um… then what grade Guide am I…?”
“What grade?”
“Yes… Um, Orin-ssi said that Guides are also divided into grades…”
When hearing that something, whatever it may be, is divided into grades, it’s natural for a human to be curious about their own position. Of course, Heewoo was no different. Though knowing wouldn’t particularly change anything.
“You’re curious about that?”
“Yes…”
“From here on, I’ll inform you.”
“Whaaat?”
The last frivolous “Whaaat?” sound burst out not from Heewoo but from Orin. Creak. Heichi’s head, which had been facing Heewoo, turned toward Orin again. Orin, who suddenly had to fully bear his gaze, hurriedly bowed his head deeply.
“I-I apologize.”
“…”
“Ah, um, I have something urgent…”
“Huh. You’re not going to hold my hand…?”
As Orin acted like he was about to leave immediately, Heewoo, puzzled, verbally stopped him. Because until just a moment ago, they seemed to have decided to hold hands in a rather friendly atmosphere, but Orin was trying to abandon everything and run away.
When he even tried to slink backward, Heewoo slightly reached out his hand to try to grab Orin’s collar. He couldn’t, because Heichi, who had been standing behind the bench, lightly crossed over the bench and squeezed between the two. Thanks to that, Heewoo’s outstretched hand ended up blocked by bumping into Heichi’s coat.
“You can hold hands with me instead.”
At Heichi’s low words, Orin’s face, which had been retreating one step, two steps, filled with shock and eventually even turned pale. Then he turned around and quickly left. In the end, Heewoo couldn’t catch Orin and just had to let him go.
“What are you curious about?”
“…I understand that I’m a Guide, but I don’t know what level of Guide I am…”
“Guide grades are just arbitrarily distinguished within Epsilon. In reality, Guides can be felt differently by each Esper depending on the matching rate. So grades are meaningless.”
Heewoo stared at Heichi’s face as he answered. If Orin from a moment ago was like the Knowledge iN human from Naver that was actively used until a few years ago, Heichi was like Google’s AI bot. Meaning he lacked humanity.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Heichi’s words. So he wanted to say that compared to Espers, a Guide’s grade wasn’t particularly important, wasn’t that it? It seemed like a decision made so that Heewoo, who was a Guide, might not be offended.
“Still, I want to know… Um, just, if you could call Orin-ssi back earlier…”
“Since this isn’t Epsilon, an accurate estimate right now is difficult, but if you still wish to gauge it, a Guide’s grade can only be known by holding hands.”
Heichi acted as if Heewoo’s request to call Orin back was out of the question. It seemed a bit shameless to completely ignore it and only say what he wanted to say.
“Then, um, with me… would you like to hold hands?”
Saying that, Heewoo surreptitiously held out his hand. His fingertips were visibly trembling. It was because he was nervous.
Instead of grabbing his hand eagerly as if he’d been waiting, Heichi only lowered his eyes to look at Heewoo’s hand. He had just witnessed and stopped Heewoo from holding out his hand to Orin without any hesitation.
“Heewoo-ssi.”
“…Yes?”
“Guides must not carelessly offer their hands to Espers.”
“…”
“No, not just hands, but you must not allow any contact whatsoever.”
At the calm but firm tone, Heewoo wanted to ask, “Why?” He couldn’t, because Heichi lifted his hand that had been lowered and slowly, very slowly clasped hands with him.
His thick fingers grasped each of Heewoo’s fingers that had been held out inadvertently, strand by strand. Long fingers with thick, dark skin wrapped around the unsightly fingers that were so thin only bones remained. Looking at them clasped together like this, the size difference between the two people’s hands was stark.
It was an extremely slow and cautious contact.
“Epsilon’s Espers are generally obsessive, compulsive, and also…”
“Ngh.”
“Greedy toward their Guides. And that phenomenon becomes more prominent the higher-ranking the Esper.”
The entwined fingers were caught in an instant. For Heewoo, there was no way to express it other than being “caught.” From the moment their fingertips touched, Heichi slowly crept in like a snake and wrapped around each finger, and that touch slowly climbed up to reach his wrist. Moreover, because his hand was so large, when looking from above, Heewoo’s thin, scarred hand looked like it was being devoured.
“If they make contact with a Guide and it turns out that Guide is their Guide.”
“Ah, it hurts. Let go…”
Heichi paid no heed to Heewoo’s words to let go. Rather, this time he tried to climb past his wrist to his elbow.
“No Esper will let that Guide go.”
Now looking at Heichi’s hand that had covered even his own hand and wrist, Heewoo somehow became anxious. No strength had gone into the clasped hands, but for some reason he couldn’t pull it out.
“So, in Epsilon, frequent battles occur over a single Guide. It’s because the number of Guides is significantly insufficient compared to Espers.”
“B-battles? With… superpowers?”
“Yes. We call it ‘awakened ability combat.'”
Fighting with superpowers?
Heewoo, who had once seen mixed martial arts on television by chance, thought about how dangerous it would be to fight with superpowers when fighting with bare bodies was already so dangerous. It seemed like there would often be deaths.
“In the process, Espers who die from unavoidable accidents occasionally occur.”
“Huk.”
At Heichi, who seemed to have read his mind, Heewoo briefly wondered if his superpower might be mind reading. But looking at that indifferent expression, it didn’t seem to be that after all.
“However, there are no Espers who fear that death.”
“Th… there aren’t? Why…?”
If it were me, I’d just give up. The moment he thought that, Heichi slowly lowered his head. Heichi’s breath touched the backs of their clasped hands.
“Because it’s better to die than to have my Guide taken away.”
“…”
“We are such a voracious species.”
