***
Having no reason to visit the research lab or report to the communal guiding room, I naturally spent a lot of time at Do Ganghyun’s house.
After he arranged a caregiver for Grandmother, I drastically reduced the number of visits and also spent less time in the hospital room. It was a judgment that for someone who had received a terminal diagnosis and lay as if dead every day, the professional care of a caregiver would be better than my clumsy touch.
Of course, that didn’t mean I didn’t go to the Guide ward, but in a situation where the caregiver did everything, there was a limit to just looking at Grandmother’s face and spending time.
“Team Guide?”
So when Do Ganghyun brought up this proposal after two weeks, I was even secretly pleased.
“Yeah.”
“But I’m C-rank.”
I gave the realistic reason why I couldn’t work as a team Guide within the Center. An SS-rank Esper’s support team’s Guide at that. Even if he pushed for it, there would be tremendous backlash from those around. Especially from the Espers on that team.
SS-rank Do Ganghyun often handled Gate raid schedules alone, but befitting his rank and position, there existed a team that supported him.
As Gates evolved and variables occurred such as entry conditions being generated, the necessity of teams was emerging. Because of that, flexible-form teams were created that repeatedly gathered and disbanded according to situations. The form was such that even while each handled their own Gate schedules, if there was a Gate with entry conditions, or if the measured Gate interior space was above a certain size level, they would gather into their respective teams according to raid priority and such.
And naturally, the members of his team with SS-rank Esper Do Ganghyun as captain were all A-rank. There was no way they would accept me, who was already struggling and panting just from Do Ganghyun alone.
“Who told you to do mucous membrane guiding or anything?”
Do Ganghyun raised his voice as if genuinely displeased. I was confused whether that appearance was because of possessiveness toward his Guide, or to protect his team members’ pride.
“Then?”
However, there was a problem. How was I, a C-rank, supposed to manage all those Espers without mucous membrane guiding? However, the concern was resolved not long after.
“Anyway, the kids all have their own Guides. Among them are some who’ve imprinted too. They’ll receive guiding on their own, so you just need to hold your position.”
“…My position?”
“Yeah. Most of them won’t be going around in a state of guiding shortage. Just take care of guys who don’t have time to find a Guide due to schedules, so there’s strain on the next raid schedule, and just supplement the guiding that dropped during training—that’s enough.”
Do Ganghyun said so while slightly shaking the frying pan to check if the egg was sticking.
I looked blankly at him, who had settled into the kitchen quite skillfully in just a few days, then nodded. However, soon realizing his gaze wasn’t directed at me, I answered quietly with a “Yes.”
“Don’t step forward like at the communal guiding room trying to work hard. Radiation guiding, even if more is needed, only up to hands.”
As if my answer was completely unsatisfactory, Do Ganghyun turned around with fierce eyes. This time, I nodded firmly.
“Today we’re just going to say hello. Since we finished one big thing, we’ll just be training at the Center all week.”
Having said that, Do Ganghyun placed before me a fried egg with the yolk gorgeously intact. It was a tone that showed he was quite confident.
I poked the egg yolk with my spoon to burst it, then scooped up a mouthful of the scattered yolk.
‘He didn’t add salt.’
And then, as usual, I evaluated the taste inwardly and said the same thing I’d said for the past two weeks.
“It’s delicious.”
This time it was sincere. However, instead of believing my words, Do Ganghyun closely examined my expression.
Starting with the beef radish soup, he’d gone beyond doenjang-jjigae and seaweed soup to even challenge Western food like pasta, and after presenting various shocking results, he changed his approach to attempting simple foods like ramyeon, perhaps thinking he should challenge easy things first. He’d been cooking with telekinesis, but now he was using both hands, saying he’d get the feel for it.
I didn’t know why he’d become so serious about food, but as always, I put aside useless questions and adapted to the given situation.
And Do Ganghyun, through that arduous process, didn’t trust me, who evaluated it as delicious every time and stuffed bizarre food into my stomach.
‘Compared to the food I ate before, a fried egg without salt is nothing.’
Thinking that, I nodded several times with sincerity. Do Ganghyun watched me silently until then before backing off, saying he understood.
“Eat and get ready right away. I only have time in the morning.”
“Got it.”
And from this day when his food reached a level fit for human consumption, strangely, things like upset stomach or abdominal pain started to occur.
‘Did I force myself to eat too much until now?’
Thinking of the state of the food I’d tasted bite by bite until now and Do Ganghyun always uncomfortably staring at me right before my eyes, it was entirely possible. That’s what I thought. Until this point.
***
“I’m Team Leader Hwangbo Hyun.”
In the team dormitory within the Center that I visited following Do Ganghyun from morning, only an Esper called Team Leader Hwangbo Hyun was holding down the fort.
There was word that the others had gone to training and would soon return to eat lunch, but somehow I had a hunch that meeting them would be quite a while later. Because even this person called Team Leader right before my eyes didn’t seem to welcome me much.
“Team Leader?”
Rather, his title bothered me. The use of the title Team Leader when Do Ganghyun was right there. I wondered if there was a system among them that I didn’t know about.
In the first place, forming teams at the Center was something done with A-rank or higher Espers at the forefront, and even then, A-ranks had to have recommendation letters from at least three or more high-ranking executives and achievements to match.
In such a situation, even within the Center, they only knew of the team’s existence, and unless they were high-rank Guides or Espers, they didn’t know exactly how the system worked. Especially for someone completely removed like me, even more so.
“Yes, since our team is a team that supports Esper Do Ganghyun, I’m the Team Leader. We usually call Esper-nim Captain, but it’s easier to understand if you think of it as a separate concept from us.”
Team Leader Hwangbo Hyun noticed my question and quickly explained.
“If it were A-rank maybe, but from S-rank on, there are more individual schedules than team ones, especially most cases take this form. We have to be mindful of the media too.”
“I see.”
“Why are you explaining everything one by one? Tell the kids to assemble. There’s no time, so let’s get faces familiar first.”
Do Ganghyun interjected between me and Team Leader Hwang and stepped inside the dormitory. Team Leader Hwang also seemed to have no intention of explaining further and said he understood before leaving the dormitory. Along with the addition that there probably wouldn’t be anyone who’d get the call since they were training.
I murmured “Excuse me” toward where Team Leader Hwang had already disappeared, then stepped inside. While thinking about what to do with this awkward atmosphere.
“Team Guide?!”
“We haven’t heard anything about this!”
“Only you two don’t know, only you two!”
However, such worries didn’t last long. Because five or six Espers who returned to the dormitory noisily started shouting right away. And that too, in front of the person concerned.
***
The relationship between Esper Do Ganghyun and the team Espers could be defined in just one word.
Indifference.
They were thoroughly indifferent to each other.
That was partly due to the gap coming from Do Ganghyun’s absolute rank of SS-rank, but largely because there had been remarkably few occasions to proceed with raids together as a team until now.
Even in the recent S-rank Gate raid, due to the Gate’s characteristics, the raid party formation was newly reorganized, so the participants ended with Team Leader Hwangbo Hyun, who was a physical type, and the youngest, Seo Yuseok. With strong individual personalities gathered together like this and playing separately from each other, it was natural that their relationship was distant.
On top of that, because of Do Ganghyun, who always suffered from guiding depletion, the team members not only became subject to gossip but were also constantly assigned arduous duties like overseas dispatches in Do Ganghyun’s place. However, the rank difference between Do Ganghyun and themselves was enormous to voice all those complaints, and it would be insubordination, so there had been nothing said until now.
Then would their attitude toward his Guide be any different?
The answer was “no.” In the end, all of this happened because his Guide was C-rank. Nowhere near enough to fill the huge gap that was SS-rank.
How big that gap was, they as fellow Espers knew even better. The higher the rank of the Esper, the more desperately they cling to and hang onto Guides. Because the more sensitive the senses, the more clearly they feel the effect that guiding gives.
That’s why they couldn’t not know what the state was like when guiding was insufficient, what kind of feeling a Guide who didn’t match brought. They couldn’t even imagine turning away from their own Guide.
So naturally, this kind of thought came to mind.
‘How much must it be.’
How much must it be that Esper Do Ganghyun would distance himself from his Guide. Even while harboring that terrible sensation of insufficient guiding.
