But in one moment, he couldn’t be certain of anything. Not only the future of becoming an Esper affiliated with the Special Abilities Agency, but even graduating from school right away.
This morning, which had no big worries except slight tension about the first Gate practicum, felt like a distant past.
While standing only glaring at the door handle for no reason, the door that had no presence or movement suddenly opened wide.
Startled, Hae-il instinctively stepped back a couple steps.
What appeared from inside the door was Moon Woo-shin.
“What are you doing? Come in.”
It was an attitude as if they’d made a promise to meet here.
He, who nodded casually as if nothing happened, turned around and entered inside the training ground first.
Hae-il, who had been frozen for a moment, slowly followed behind him. It was natural for his gaze to go to Moon Woo-shin standing in front.
His right arm was wrapped quite thickly in bandages. He remembered at least that it was a trace of being injured by a monster while trying to protect him.
Uncomfortable emotions stemming from guilt crept in.
The two people, who silently reached the rest room prepared on one side of the training ground, sat facing each other. Unlike Hae-il, who pulled the chair close and sat in an upright posture, Moon Woo-shin pulled the chair far out and sat leaning back somewhat crookedly. He, who was about to cross his long legs and habitually fold his arms, glanced at his uncomfortable arm and then just let it hang to the side.
Hae-il, who had been watching that appearance from the front, opened his mouth first.
“I’m sorry.”
“At least you know?”
Moon Woo-shin, who snickered, sneered in a soft voice.
“Acting alone, acting rashly, disobeying—this is the first bastard to do all three things you’re told not to do at once, so you should be sorry.”
…Does he count even being in a mentally weak state as one of those?
Actually it was an apology about the arm injured instead of him, but Hae-il tactfully shut his mouth instead of adding an explanation.
“So. The result?”
Though the words cut off front and back, it was obvious he was asking what the examination results from the hospital were like.
Hae-il, who hesitated for a moment, slowly opened his mouth and honestly spilled it.
“…I have, experience being trapped in a Gate before… when I was young.”
“Just the conclusion.”
I thought I’d explain the circumstances at length to buy some sympathy and time, but not even a needle-hole’s worth of soft gap is visible.
To avoid offending him more for no reason, Hae-il explained the situation in one phrase.
“They say it’s PTSD.”
His gaze naturally headed downward. Moon Woo-shin’s arm sitting without moving entered his eyes again. Hae-il, who had been staring at the end of the bandage with his lips tightly closed, quickly raised his head at the end of the brief silence when he saw Moon Woo-shin was about to stand up.
“You won’t be able to enter Gates from now on.”
He, who simply concluded, stood up from his seat just like that. Though it was an expected answer, he didn’t know he’d leave his seat right away like this.
Flustered, Hae-il hurriedly stood up too.
“I can enter. If I get treatment…!”
“Get treatment on your own, and from the next Gate onward I’ll say participation is impossible….”
“No, wait a moment, senior.”
“What. Will you tell them yourself?”
Hae-il, who barely blocked in front of him, met indifferent eyes. The gaze looking down at Hae-il from slightly above felt neither malicious nor favorable.
Those eyes that seem to have no interest at all feel even more cold.
However, Hae-il had to persuade him. He couldn’t fall behind like this and blow an entire semester.
If I fall behind one semester, my scholarship will be cut first, and then I’ll have to earn tuition, so graduation will be delayed by that period again.
Since he was closer to an intern than a student in the first place anyway, the standard and normal route was to join the Special Abilities Agency after graduating on time without leave of absence.
The more graduation is delayed deviating from the normal path, the more disadvantageous it becomes for employment, and it’s obvious I’ll be at a loss for even making a living, let alone paying off the family debt.
“I can do it. I’ll work hard so there won’t be days like today.”
“Did you faint today because you didn’t work hard?”
Moon Woo-shin, who lightly dismissed the desperate words, looked down at Hae-il in a crookedly leaning posture.
“You shouldn’t be mistaken that you’re called a student just because you’re attending school. If you can’t keep your wits about you in the Gate again, then it won’t be just my arm but other team members’ lives that could be in danger—will you take responsibility for that? If the strategy fails because of you alone, all the monsters will burst out—can you handle all that cleanup too?”
“If I practice….”
“What practice will you do and how? You had no symptoms at all during mock training.”
“I had no symptoms until the midpoint today too. I just need to find what the trigger is and prepare for it.”
“We have to enter a Gate again in just 2 weeks—is perfect preparation possible by then?”
He tried hard to refute, but Hae-il himself knew well too.
Continuing practicum before finding a definite solution is just selfishness using desperation as a shield.
Still, he couldn’t be driven out like this right away without even trying.
“I’ll make it possible.”
Moon Woo-shin, who looked over Hae-il with a resolute expression, coldly spat out.
“Don’t cling to what won’t work and find another path early. An Esper who can’t enter Gates isn’t needed here.”
…But what’s with saying it to that extent? Is he calling that advice right now?
The words that seemed to arbitrarily cut and evaluate even very distant future matters felt dirty. Hae-il, who chewed the inside flesh of his mouth, muttered self-deprecatingly.
“I can’t do anything but this.”
“Handle your circumstances yourself. Move aside, now.”
Even if we haven’t gotten close yet, I thought at least some camaraderie as teammates was forming.
The cold attitude seemed to show that it was all a misunderstanding.
‘Really… so irritating.’
The positive emotions he’d built up unilaterally so far crumbled down all at once. Even if it’s connections or a future superior, there should be a limit.
Hae-il looked up at Moon Woo-shin with a hardened expression.
When standing facing each other properly, I have to raise my gaze about half a span more to meet his eyes.
It was the moment their gazes met precisely with the black pupils.
“Uh….”
His body started moving on its own.
He had absolutely no intention of obediently moving aside even though he was told to, but his body moved on its own completely unrelated to Hae-il’s will. As if being dragged by someone invisible.
Hae-il, who made a flustered sound, looked back and forth between his body that had moved far to the side and Moon Woo-shin.
The feeling of my body, which should naturally be under my control, escaping control on its own. The feeling of being manipulated by someone.
This sensation wasn’t the first time. Just a few hours ago, it matched exactly with what he’d felt right before losing consciousness in the Gate.
Of course, I thought it was just an abnormal illusion created by an anxious mental state.
Instead of his body that had lost control, his head turned quickly.
A sealed training room, only Seo Hae-il and Moon Woo-shin in this space. Since I didn’t do anything, it’s reasonable to see that Moon Woo-shin did something. Looking back, when he’d felt this sensation inside the Gate, Moon Woo-shin had also told him to stay still. Right after that, he couldn’t move his body.
It could only be explained that Moon Woo-shin had used an ability.
‘But Moon Woo-shin is a Guide.’
At the same time as thinking that far, content he’d only learned in theory until now suddenly came to mind.
‘The fact that mental-type abilities like manipulating other entities’ bodies or mind-reading often manifest in Guides of A-rank or higher….’
Could it be that thing I’ve only heard about? A Guide with mental-type abilities.
An already rare S-rank Guide having such an ability too. It’s at a level where the Special Abilities Agency can’t not court him.
Having quickly reached a conclusion, he became a bit more irritated. That person must have no worries at all.
It was faint jealousy and inferiority.
“……”
“……”
But the face of Moon Woo-shin he met was a bit strange. A flustered look he’d never seen once since getting to know him was clearly hovering there.
Moreover, unlike someone who had forcibly made him move aside, he stood still for several seconds without leaving his spot.
