Dawn breaks with a grayish light. Driving on the empty road, Hyeseong blinked his stiff eyes. Clearing gates all night and heading home or to the Security Bureau around sunrise was something familiar to him.
Repeatedly confirming until the very end whether there were citizens trapped at the accident site, checking that controlled streets or buildings were perfectly cleared, buying his hardworking team members at least one warm meal.
He had become familiar enough with the work he’d been doing for years that inertia had formed, but the fatigue gained from confronting noisy, rampaging creatures for hours had accumulated steadily in his body. The byproducts of long-accumulated waves were also burrowing deep into his organs and bones, eating away at his body. It had already been three years since he’d endured without a dedicated guide.
The pressure from the higher-ups about this was considerable. Especially the Director, who called him in about once a month to try to persuade him.
All matters related to the unit, training, and actual combat were entrusted to him, so there was no interference at all, but when it came to Hyeseong’s guiding, it was different. Well, it wasn’t that he couldn’t understand the feelings of a superior who had cared for him for nearly 10 years.
And then an A-rank guide rolled into R1, so how much more so. Thinking of the matching rate test scheduled for this morning, Hyeseong let out a sigh. I feel like I’m discouraging the kid who’s all excited with motivation.
From when I was first commissioned, I conducted matching rate tests with numerous guides under the Director’s orders, but the only case that exceeded 50% so far was Guide Park Yeonwoo, my previous pair guide, at 60%.
Anyway, the matching rate didn’t really matter. Even if the matching rate with Yeoul was measured below 50%, he was planning to designate Kim Yeoul as his pair guide. Because the purpose itself wasn’t to receive guiding from the kid, but to protect him.
He had absolutely no intention of making the kid, whose body was already weak, take matching rate tests with other espers. This was because several A-rank espers with rough speech who subtly looked down on guides or treated them shabbily immediately came to his mind.
‘Hyung, is your condition okay? Are you… receiving guiding well?’
However, why was Kim Yeoul’s motivation so overflowing? Even when he tried to casually brush it off, true to being the kid who had been smart and clever since childhood, he tried to preach about the dangers of insufficient guiding in a thorough manner.
The Director, who must have investigated his relationship with the kid, wouldn’t just let that point slide. Sitting him and Yeoul down in front of her, his superior who subtly stimulated Yeoul’s sympathy and burdened him seemed like a cunning snake that day.
And when the matching rate test ended.
85%.
The moment that number appeared, it felt like the flow of air in the room stopped. He had never recorded such a matching rate with anyone before.
A thrill ran through him. The waves in his body crashed like a majestic wave, and his blood flow quickened. The fact that he matched well with the child he had cherished and treasured brought Hyeseong a joy that even he found hard to explain.
It wasn’t because of expectations for guiding. He had no expectations in that direction to begin with. He had absolutely no intention of using the child’s delicate body to purify the impurity-like power piled up layer upon layer in his body.
It was just good that the person he cherished most had good compatibility with him. The fact that he matched well with Yeoul, whom he cared for as a younger sibling, even as ability user to ability user.
‘Strike while the iron is hot, let’s guide right now. The Director said hyung’s accumulated a lot during this time. Ah, I had this. Should I measure hyung’s wave levels first?’
And, naturally, the high matching rate ignited Yeoul’s motivation.
After barely calming down the child who was frantically trying to stick a patch on the back of his neck right away, Hyeseong left the office and gulped down potions one after another.
He didn’t think drinking these potions with no significant effect would change anything, but still, to prevent Yeoul from being shocked and collapsing when he checked his wave levels, he needed to lower the wave levels by even 0.1%.
‘Team Leader, I think you need guiding right now. Give me your hand.’
And the moment Kim Yeoul confidently extended his hand at the first site they went to together, Hyeseong was at a loss for words.
It felt like his heart had dropped all the way down. The realization that his young child had truly become his guide.
‘Did you think I wouldn’t know? After using your ability to that extent, a guiding potion? That doesn’t make sense.’
‘I don’t care what hyung says. I became hyung’s dedicated guide, so I’m going to guide you.’
The child he had seen as delicate and gentle was thorough and flawless as a guide. Not satisfied with designating a location and calling him to the guiding room, he demanded to receive guiding, even taking issue with trying to manage waves with potions.
What if it puts strain on Yeoul’s heart?
It was natural to worry first. Having watched the child undergo surgery, recover, and go through the hospital process for over 10 years, he naturally became obsessed with the kid’s health. All the more so with guiding, which puts direct strain on the heart.
However, Yeoul showed no signs of backing down easily. It was difficult to refuse guiding to the end against a child who was determined not to give up this time.
The child demanding guiding confidently in front of him had clearly awakened as an ability user and had officially become his guide through training and the contract process.
The guiding he reluctantly received like that was.
‘……’
Yeoul. The meaning contained in the child’s name naturally came to mind. A clear and refreshing wave of purification penetrated and finally melted the energy that had been firmly frozen so no one could break through. Like a flowing stream, it poured out gently and soon drenched him completely, making it hard for Hyeseong to maintain his reason.
By the time he came to his senses, the wave levels had dropped by several percent. Hyeseong was greatly surprised by the efficiency he had never seen or heard of before.
Really, it was too good. So good that goosebumps rose and he felt almost reverent… There were no other words to describe Yeoul’s guiding except to express it that way.
Was it because the kid as his guide was bewilderingly fresh, rather than the cute neighbor he’d seen all his life? Or was it because he couldn’t think straight from the guiding of someone who recorded a shockingly high matching rate of 85%? Not controlling the situation toward a safer side.
‘Yeoul! Kim Yeoul!’
The child getting excited with motivation and taking off his gloves to grab his bare hands… was hard to see as simply an accidental incident. It was 100% his own oversight.
No matter how much Kim Yeoul said he was okay, he should have examined him more closely. He should have warned him more firmly that he absolutely must not take off the gloves.
Seeing Yeoul unconscious with a pale face and nosebleed, his heart beat like crazy. His vision went dark, and he couldn’t breathe as if someone was choking him. The hand that felt the child’s face and shook his shoulders trembled severely.
In the midst of deep self-loathing, a buried memory suddenly came to mind.
In the year Yeoul turned nine, so about two years after they met, the child underwent his last scheduled heart surgery.
When he came out of the recovery room, went through the intensive care unit, and finally returned to the hospital room, Hyeseong felt an emotion he was experiencing for the first time while looking at the child sleeping like he was dead.
According to his mother, at that time he didn’t eat well or sleep well like someone whose soul had left. He just sat blankly in the hospital room where Yeoul was admitted. Until the child woke up safely.
His memory of what he was like then was hazy, but Yeoul’s face lying on the hospital bed was firmly embedded in Hyeseong’s chest and would never be erased.
Why isn’t he opening his eyes?
What if he doesn’t wake up like this?
That can’t be. Hyeseong tried to compose himself by taking quiet deep breaths. He had rarely been swayed by emotions or swept up in impulses in his life. Having lived being told he was always rational and cold-headed, the anxiety rampaging in his chest was bound to be unfamiliar.
Through that process, Hyeseong realized. The fact that Kim Yeoul had already deeply infiltrated his daily life to simply dismiss him as just the kid next door. Also the fact that when someone asked what their relationship was, he had always answered without hesitation that he was his younger sibling.
‘Hyung, I missed you.’
And the admirable little kid overcame the surgery, which even adults would find hard to endure, very bravely. Easily melting away his glacier-like anxiety.
‘I… dreamed of you the whole time I was sleeping.’
How could he not call a child who said that while smiling brightly his younger sibling? When this small child had such a major surgery, how could he not feel pain as if his own flesh had been torn away?
The anxiety he experienced at that time manifested completely in that moment. That’s why Hyeseong was even more out of his mind.
He frightened the child who had regained consciousness with harsh words and acted more like a soldier than ever. Not as a soldier who protects citizens and dedicates his life to the country, but as a senior who demands thorough and absolute obedience and sometimes suppresses subordinates.
Naturally, Yeoul looked very shocked. Even so, there was no other way. If he didn’t give this much shock now, Kim Yeoul would attempt such a thing again. Because as much as he cherished the kid, Kim Yeoul also followed him blindly. He would attempt such dangerous acts again to guide him.
That’s why, even while looking at those rabbit-like eyes filled with shock, he had no choice but to speak so coldly to the child.
