The morning at the guide quarters was similar to a company dormitory.
Guides without pairs or fixed partners mostly commuted to the association. That said, they didn’t immediately make guides who had been abandoned by their partners go to work.
“Look over there. That’s Han Seoha, isn’t it?”
“Ah, that C-rank? He’s incredibly beautiful.”
“Guess you can’t beat rank after all. Poor thing.”
The guides waiting for the commute shuttle discovered Han Seoha and murmured amongst themselves. Most of it was sympathy and empathy toward the guide who had been suddenly kicked out.
“The association is too much. Making him go to work right away.”
“B-rank espers are making a fuss submitting matching requests because of him.”
“Wow, that might be a bit enviable.”
“Enviable, my ass. If there are many applicants, they’ll make him do third-stage guiding multiple times under the guise of testing.”
As Han Seoha gradually lowered his head, Lee Yeongjin, who spotted him from afar, approached with a hardened face.
“Guide Han Seoha, don’t tell me you’re lining up to go to work right now?”
“Manager-nim, hello.”
When Lee Yeongjin stood beside him, faint vitality returned to Han Seoha’s lifeless face.
“It’s good that you’re polite, but why didn’t you go to the infirmary yesterday?”
Irritation he couldn’t hide seeped into Lee Yeongjin’s indifferent tone.
There had been several guides who had returned to the quarters before after their pairs or partnerships broke. Most received long vacations or medical support citing mental shock. The psychological shock guides experienced was considerable enough that the center recommended up to a month of leave.
Above all, Han Seoha had even gone through the crisis of being forced into guiding by an esper last night. For such a person to be mixed in among the guides going to work made Lee Yeongjin feel like he would explode. Han Seoha himself was only calm as if it were a natural thing.
“Manager-nim, I’m really okay.”
“An esper tried to assault you at the guide quarters and you want to just let that go?”
It wasn’t something to easily mention in a place with other guides. Even at the reproachful question, Han Seoha only smiled, and eventually Lee Yeongjin’s voice grew louder.
“It’s not all okay just because you say you’re okay. If we don’t make a record, there’s no report filed.”
“A report?”
At Han Seoha’s bewildered reaction, Lee Yeongjin was so flabbergasted that not even a sigh came out. He was naive to the point of stupidity, not recognizing that forced guiding was a crime.
Even a first-year who had just become a guide wouldn’t be like this. Despite having received education, to take it so lightly brought one assumption to mind.
“Guide Han Seoha. Did Esper Ryu Jaegeon normally act that way too?”
At Lee Yeongjin’s question asked with certainty, Han Seoha, who had been hesitating, deliberately blurred his answer.
“I hope you don’t misunderstand. Jaegeon always lacked guiding because of me.”
“Ha… An A-rank really sucked a C-rank completely dry. So something like yesterday is nothing?”
“No. Jaegeon did nothing wrong.”
As Han Seoha smiled hazily and took Ryu Jaegeon’s side to the end, Lee Yeongjin’s insides burned. The murmuring of guides who heard the two’s conversation continued here and there.
Lee Yeongjin had deliberately spread what Han Seoha had experienced last night in a place with many guides. So that they wouldn’t ostracize Han Seoha, who had partner experience, out of needless misunderstanding or jealousy. It was his intention to gain sympathy from the free guides, but the truth revealed during the conversation was dismal.
“I don’t even know where to start pointing this out.”
“Really. Jaegeon was always good to me.”
Even though the shuttle had arrived, the guides listened in while moving sluggishly. Lee Yeongjin sighed and let Han Seoha go.
“Stop by the infirmary before going to work. Otherwise, I’ll chase after you.”
“Yes, I will.”
Only after finally hearing a positive answer from Han Seoha did Lee Yeongjin turn around. The guides who had been walking slowly hurriedly got on the shuttle bus.
“Tsk, should I file a formal complaint about Esper Ryu Jaegeon?”
Due to Han Seoha, who remained calm even after experiencing the crisis of being assaulted last night, Lee Yeongjin’s sighs didn’t cease. Just from that dull reaction, it was obvious how much the overly gentle C-rank guide had been exploited by the A-rank esper.
Lee Yeongjin’s schedule as the quarters supervisor was endless to interfere with matters outside the quarters as well. For now, he pushed what he’d just heard to the back of his mind and continued with his work.
The guides who got on the same shuttle as Han Seoha were abuzz with news that would pickle the boredom of commute time in dopamine.
“What the manager just said, is it what I’m thinking?”
“They said he only did first-stage guiding because he’s C-rank, but of course that couldn’t be true.”
Close-contact guiding between partners with rank differences was regarded as no different from exploitation among guides. It was enough information to overturn the preconception toward Han Seoha, who had been said to be treated preciously by an A-rank esper.
“Didn’t you badmouth Han Seoha before?”
“Can’t do that anymore. Wow, it’s already up in the group chat.”
Mixed with the story they’d just heard and yesterday’s incident, rumors spread in real-time beyond control.
From an esper with top-tier character who cherished and cared for a C-rank guide to a trash esper who exploited a guide. On top of that, the sight of the victim guide covering for the perpetrator esper deepened the misunderstanding even more with frustration and pity toward Han Seoha.
Han Seoha himself maintained his posture while blankly staring out the window, not missing any of the talk.
* * *
Ryu Jaegeon visited the matching department as soon as morning came.
It was because the pair with the A-rank guide he’d obtained like a miracle hadn’t been approved.
“What’s going on with this? Why is my pair still on hold?”
Even at Ryu Jaegeon’s attitude of not holding back his anger the moment he saw the test team preparing for work, they were only calm as if accustomed to it.
“What are you doing throwing a tantrum when you should know better?”
“A tantrum? I gave up even my partner and grabbed this opportunity, and it’s about to go to waste—you call that a tantrum?”
“Did you think a precious A-rank guide would get pair approval without even trying matching with an S-rank esper?”
Right, who told you to hastily terminate your partnership first?
Though Ryu Jaegeon didn’t miss the small muttering that flowed from one side, he pretended not to notice. Knowing that having a partner would be an obstacle to the pair application, he had terminated it first without hesitation.
“Guide Yu Haneul and I went up to third-stage guiding. Now you’re saying to test with another esper?”
“That’s why we excluded all other A-rank espers and only scheduled tests with S-rank espers. This is already a big concession on our part.”
Ryu Jaegeon ground his teeth while recalling Yu Haneul, whom he’d held in his arms until dawn. He’d had relations under the guise of guiding until Yu Haneul collapsed from exhaustion. He’d loved him enough to not even think of other espers, satisfied to the point of excess, yet to have a matching test with an S-rank esper made his vision flip.
“Jaegeon hyung, stop it.”
“Haneul, you…….”
The A-rank guide who had followed the angry Ryu Jaegeon inside, Yu Haneul, interlaced his fingers with his and naturally let guiding flow in. When Ryu Jaegeon’s frowning face relaxed, Yu Haneul also acted affectionately.
“Everyone knows you and I match well, hyung. But it’s good to test with various espers in the early stages of manifestation.”
Finding out one’s limits through various matching tests in the early stages of manifestation was also important. This was both an opportunity and a duty.
At Yu Haneul’s persuasion, Ryu Jaegeon recalled Han Seoha. When Ryu Jaegeon had offered a partnership with just first-stage guiding, Han Seoha had accepted it and rejected all remaining matching tests.
At that time, Han Seoha was also a rookie guide who hadn’t met many espers. With many B-rank espers on standby, if he’d continued testing, it would have been an opportunity to expand the C-rank Han Seoha’s guiding range, but he had focused on just one person.
Well, there wouldn’t be a better option than an A-rank esper, so that would be why, but recalling the consistent Han Seoha, Ryu Jaegeon swallowed the regretful words that were about to slip out. Above all, his body moved at the guiding that flowed faintly from Yu Haneul, who was linking arms beside him and grumbling that his waist hurt.
“Test moderately. Don’t hurt yourself. You’re going to pair with me anyway.”
“Hyung, are you jealous? How childish.”
“Jealous, what. They said the S-rank hasn’t arrived yet, so let’s go eat out.”
“Guide Yu Haneul, don’t go far. You have to test in the afternoon.”
“So strict.”
Even at the staff’s reasonable guidance, Ryu Jaegeon showed his displeasure.
“Hyung, let’s eat something sweet and lift our mood.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
At Yu Haneul’s aegyo, Ryu Jaegeon’s sullen heart lightened a bit.
Anyway, among S-rank espers, there were few without dedicated guides. Even among those, most had entered long-term gates, making it difficult to participate in this matching test.
‘If it’s an immediately available S-rank, there’s probably about one.’
S-rank Gatekeeper Baek Uihyeon. Instead of having a pair, he had A-rank guides assigned with top priority, so there was no way he’d lack guiding. Rather, he wouldn’t refuse the luxury of legitimately rolling around with various people, so he wouldn’t bother pairing with just one person.
Having thought this far, Ryu Jaegeon’s anxiety subsided. He was confident that Yu Haneul would also settle on him once he learned reality.
Today’s Testers
At Yu Haneul’s urging, Ryu Jaegeon was about to leave the matching test room when he discovered a familiar name on the list displayed on the monitor.
Han Seoha
Yu Haneul
Ironically, both the morning and afternoon matching test subjects were people connected to Ryu Jaegeon. Because they’d spent a long time together, the three characters of the name caught his eye, but there was no other meaning.
To Ryu Jaegeon, Han Seoha was now just discomfort.
The C-rank guide he had once mistakenly kept by his side was a past that needed to be shaken off.
