‘I should tell him that it’s his delusion that Esper Do Ganghyun would react if he approached me……’
My mouth absolutely wouldn’t open. In the end, after catching my breath for a while, I belatedly continued speaking.
“Rather, he dislikes me. So even if you’re with me like this, you won’t get the reaction you want.”
“Puhaha!”
“……Why are you laughing?”
However, it didn’t work at all. No, I was even ridiculed. He said he’d been living overseas, so does he have no clue at all about what Do Ganghyun thinks of me?
“You don’t know anything. Why would I bother coming all the way here making a fuss like advertising to every neighborhood?”
“……”
“You see, creatures called Espers aren’t the type to tolerate their Guide sticking with others.”
‘Just watch.’ Having said that, he hummed and fidgeted his feet. When I shook my hand in sync with his fidgeting, my hand that was guiding also shook along.
‘We’re not communicating at all.’
When I glanced at his wavelength measurement device, I saw the guiding level had already reached 92%. There was no red glowing emergency code, and the wavelength swirling in the room also circled around lightly.
Looking at the atmosphere, he also didn’t seem to have any intention of making a scene in the common guiding room anymore, and I’d gone along with him enough.
“Your wavelength seems stable too, so I’ll be going now. If you want to mess with Esper Do Ganghyun, meet him directly and have a conversation…”
That was when it happened.
Kwaagwang—!
A sound of something breaking was heard from far away. The impact was so great that the shockwave was transmitted all the way into this room located on the inside.
Unable to control my swaying body, I fell forward onto the bed. Hyun Yoonseo, in the position he was lying in, stably caught and held me.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t mention it~.”
As I apologized with embarrassment, his reaction was strange. Not satisfied with wearing an inexplicable smile, he put more strength into the arm holding me. Was that all? His gaze wasn’t fixed on me, his conversation partner, but beyond the tightly closed door where nothing could be seen.
I didn’t know what was happening, but it seemed I should go out. As I pushed him with both arms to escape from his embrace—
Thud, crack, crrrack……
The door was torn off with a loud roar. Soon, along with a familiar wavelength, someone I never expected to see appeared standing there.
“…Esper-nim?”
I blankly took in my pair Esper, Do Ganghyun, with my eyes. Since I thought I would absolutely never see this face here, it wasn’t easy to find words to say. Especially seeing him appear while crumpling the door like paper.
Of course, Esper Hyun Yoonseo had made a flashy entrance. Since he looked for ‘Myeong Eunha’ with an ‘Emergency’ code in the common guiding room where people gathered, it wouldn’t be strange if word spread quickly throughout the Center.
However, all of that and Do Ganghyun were completely separate issues.
If it were a normal Esper, they could immediately rush over upon hearing that their Guide got caught up in some guy’s rampage. Perhaps that might even be natural. But Do Ganghyun was not like that. He always wanted people to perceive him and ‘C-rank’ me as separate, and after the assault incident, he had even stopped the show-window pair act he used to display outwardly. With his mood having been continuously uncomfortable recently due to the declining matching rate problem, I absolutely couldn’t understand him showing up like this.
‘If I were to look for a reason—’
I glanced at Esper Hyun Yoonseo lying beneath me.
Just as this side had bad feelings toward Do Ganghyun, Do Ganghyun might have looked for him for a similar reason.
Or perhaps he came here to discipline my conduct for being entangled with him.
“See, I told you I was right.”
At that moment, a carefree sound suddenly came from below. There was no need to check who spoke. The only one currently beneath me was Esper Hyun Yoonseo.
Come to think of it, I remembered his attitude of not caring at all about my words that it would be useless. His appearance of calmly looking at the door even with a shockwave strong enough to shake the building. He seemed to be waiting for Do Ganghyun with some kind of certainty.
‘He said Espers aren’t the type to tolerate their Guide sticking with others, right?’
I recalled the claim Hyun Yoonseo had put forth as the basis for his certainty.
Indeed, thinking of the various incidents between Espers and Guides so far, it was difficult to deny that statement as wrong. However, this situation alone didn’t match his claim. As I explained earlier, Do Ganghyun was completely different from normal cases.
So it needed to be corrected. Because my pair Esper, Do Ganghyun, who hated this kind of misunderstanding more than anyone, was watching.
“Don’t say useless things.”
I tapped Hyun Yoonseo’s body and threw a light rebuke.
“And let me down now.”
“Why? This is perfect.”
Hyun Yoonseo pointed at Do Ganghyun with his eyes. It meant the intended purpose of ‘provocation’ had been achieved. Praising the contribution of Myeong Eunha—me—who couldn’t possibly have been helpful at all.
“Look, I told you it’s not like that. And anyway, you must be done with your business with me now, so you can let me go…”
It’s just a coincidence, the moment I opened my mouth again while steeling my resolve.
“Ha, did you two have some fun?”
Do Ganghyun muttered ominously. With his voice sinking low, it seemed the current situation displeased him quite a bit.
“You think it was just ‘some’?”
And Hyun Yoonseo countered with nonsense. He even went so far as to raise the hand wearing the measurement device to show the guiding level.
92%.
If you didn’t know the inside story, it was a level that could be mistaken for mucous membrane guiding. There was no way simple contact guiding could show such a high guiding level in such a short time from ‘Emergency.’ Moreover, since Hyun Yoonseo was holding my waist, it seemed there would be more misunderstanding, not less.
‘……That’s not it though.’
As I realized how I must look, my shoulders naturally shrank.
While wanting to correct the misunderstanding, I wondered what to say to him who would have no interest in me whatsoever.
You probably aren’t interested, but if I must explain, it was a fake emergency due to device manipulation and I only held hands with Esper Hyun Yoonseo? The more I explained, the less funny it became.
The mistake of harboring hope by misreading his heart was enough with that one time I was slammed into the barricade in front of everyone.
‘Anyway, Do Ganghyun probably came because he has business with Esper Hyun Yoonseo, not me.’
What was it about Espers’ temperament? If Do Ganghyun came here unable to control his temperament, it wouldn’t be because someone touched his Guide, but rather a reaction to Hyun Yoonseo daring to throw down a challenge to him. Perhaps it was simple competitiveness. Whatever it was, it was clearly far from what Hyun Yoonseo said.
‘Rather, might I be playing the role of a foreign substance in this situation?’
The moment I thought that.
Bang!
Suddenly, a loud roar was heard, then my body was lifted once and gently set down on the bed. And in an instant, Hyun Yoonseo who had existed between the bed and me disappeared without a trace. Wondering what was happening, I quickly raised my head—
“Kheuk…!”
Far away, I saw Hyun Yoonseo clutching his throat in midair, gasping for breath.
It wasn’t difficult to know who had caused this. It was an ability I’d watched from afar for the past 10 years, and recently, as I became paired with him, I’d experienced directly with my body for over a year and a half. So I acutely felt just how dizzying this situation was.
“Esper-nim, stop!”
I cried out, pale as a sheet. Without even properly finishing my words, I came down from the bed as if rolling off. I had no awareness that I was jumping into the middle of two Espers competing in strength, no awareness of danger. Only the fact that Hyun Yoonseo’s breath was slipping away no differently from my past self entered my eyes. And that the one realizing all of this was my pair Esper.
However, it was a delusion.
Hyun Yoonseo, who I thought was in great distress and facing a crisis, suddenly smiled ferociously. No laughter was heard since his throat was being choked, but rather a bizarre sound like air deflating echoed, drawing attention.
The next moment, Hyun Yoonseo reached his hand toward Do Ganghyun.
Fwoosh—.
Since there was distance between the two, there was no actual contact. However, as if a flare had gone off, Do Ganghyun’s left arm caught fire.
“Tsk.”
Do Ganghyun clicked his tongue and swung his burning arm forcefully. Then, following it, Hyun Yoonseo flew across the air and slammed into the wall. Simultaneously, the fire that had been splendidly climbing up Do Ganghyun’s arm died down.
“……”
I silently watched all those moments. Before I could even react, it had happened in an instant. As a Guide who was no different from an ordinary person, I couldn’t dare intervene.
Even looking at the current situation showed that. In the room thick with smoke, I couldn’t properly grasp what had happened and was just standing awkwardly by Do Ganghyun’s side. Hyun Yoonseo and I had been different from the beginning. Not knowing that, I had presumptuously overlapped him with myself.
“I expected it, but you still rush in too recklessly without thinking.”
‘I’m still S-rank, you know.’ Hyun Yoonseo dusted off his clothes and stood up. It was an attitude showing no discouragement despite experiencing all of this.
