After taking only enough time short enough not to be suspected, he leaned back in the chair as if bored and stared out the window.
‘He couldn’t have known I’d been to a Gate in this vicinity before.’
That’s why he made him drive all the way here. Because outwardly they were just meaningless locations and Moon Woo-shin hadn’t done anything particularly suspicious either. He must have thought he wouldn’t get caught. While also separating him from other organization members at the same time.
It was fortuitous luck.
Hae-il, who naturally turned his head again, obliquely stared at Moon Woo-shin through the rearview mirror.
“When are we eating?”
“Wait.”
“No, what exactly are you doing? If you’re just going to be in the car anyway, what’s the point of constantly changing locations?”
He deliberately complained a bit while pretending not to have noticed anything.
Only then did Moon Woo-shin, who took his eyes off the tablet screen, make eye contact through the rearview mirror.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“…Making me practice driving?”
Something like a sneer or a scoff returned.
Looking at that transparent face, I wanted to sneer asking if he really thought I answered like that because I didn’t know, but Hae-il held back firmly.
‘Let’s see who wins in the end later.’
While sharpening knives only inside, he continued pretending not to know outwardly.
Instead, he expressed his dissatisfaction in a small way by suddenly flinging open the car door.
“I’m going to eat and come back, so Director can stay stuck here and keep working.”
“If you turn just one alley to the right, there’s a restaurant, so wrap it up there.”
Moon Woo-shin instructed with his gaze stuck on the tablet in his hand again.
“You want me to eat in the car too?”
“Yeah, go buy it. 15 minutes.”
This time, the appearance of not even giving a glance while notifying even the time required was very irritating.
Hae-il calmly settled his insides that were about to get prickly again and pushed the car door shut hard.
Wondering if he was planning to do something in the meantime, he observed for a moment while keeping a distance, and even after wrapping up a few rolls of kimbap and watching his movements from afar, Moon Woo-shin didn’t move from inside the car.
After roughly finishing lunch, they moved to a fourth location. Hae-il engraved that address and the surrounding scenery well in his head.
***
The next day too, the day began similarly.
Hae-il, who woke up at dawn and sat at the steering wheel, hesitated as soon as he touched the navigation.
‘…It’s all been erased.’
All four addresses that had been at the top of the search history had disappeared. They’d been fine until he got out of the car yesterday.
Moreover, after entering the house, he’d never even seen Moon Woo-shin lingering near the car, let alone going outside the house.
Did he move while I was sleeping? Does that guy not even sleep? Or did some other organization member come by without me knowing?
Before his thoughts could get more complicated, the back seat door opened.
“Enter the address.”
Moon Woo-shin, who notified as soon as he got in the car, gave a new address.
Looking at him acting exactly the same as yesterday, it didn’t seem he’d noticed yet that Hae-il had caught the small clue.
Hae-il, who immediately memorized it while entering the address into the navigation, pretended to quietly focus only on driving like yesterday.
The point that the place they arrived at was an empty lot with nothing was similar to yesterday, but today was a bit different.
“Try using your ability.”
“…Here?”
“Yeah.”
“…What should I do?”
“Anything.”
Moon Woo-shin, who made him get out of the car, demanded something out of the blue.
Hae-il, who’d been looking at him suspiciously, soon raised his hand forward.
It was the first time using his ability in front of Moon Woo-shin since the first day they met again.
Water soon spurted from the tip of his straightened index finger. A stream of water thinner than his finger made a trickling sound and fell powerlessly to the ground.
“……”
“……”
Moon Woo-shin’s expression crumpling as if absurd was pleasant to see. Hae-il smiled slightly inside.
“What’s this?”
“What do you mean? You said to do anything.”
“Not that. What did you do to your wavelength?”
It seemed he’d keenly noticed the wavelength that felt about D-rank because of the ring.
Hae-il tilted his head calmly.
“Didn’t you hear the report from Cheol-hyeon hyung? I’m a D-rank Esper.”
Moon Woo-shin, who let out a short hollow laugh, stared intently as if trying to dig out the truth, but there was no way he could figure it out. Of course, he naturally had no intention of obediently teaching him either.
After that too, Moon Woo-shin demanded he use his ability several more times. Under suspicious eyes, Hae-il brazenly displayed D-rank level abilities to his heart’s content.
“So why are you making me do this anyway?”
“Use it this way.”
Moon Woo-shin, who ignored the question itself, pointed to the opposite side. His gaze was persistently attached to Hae-il’s fingertips.
When Hae-il obediently turned around, the gaze that stuck again climbed smoothly from his fingertips along his arm to around his cheek.
Hae-il, who lightly ignored it, naturally turned his gaze while checking the surroundings.
Nothing changed or noticeably transformed from using his ability as Moon Woo-shin instructed.
Though he felt uncomfortable not knowing the intention, his mood wasn’t too bad.
“Do it properly.”
“I am doing it properly.”
“Try using it at your original power level.”
“This is my original power level.”
The situation where Moon Woo-shin didn’t know something and kept persistently clinging to find out was rare, and most of all, he felt subtle pleasure in the fact that he knew that.
Because it feels like we’ve become similar positions now when we’re both trying to dig information out of each other.
Hae-il continued pretending to be D-rank while feigning ignorance.
The regions they toured today were three places total. Hae-il, who finally arrived home late in the evening, got out of the car leading his body that felt heavy.
‘Is it because it’s been a while?’
Fatigue rushed in after using even D-rank level abilities several times for quite a long time. The guiding index he secretly checked was only 34%.
Normally, if he was receiving guiding from a proper Guide, he wouldn’t feel fatigue from using abilities this much, but when using guiding medicine as the main guiding method, the index sometimes fluctuated like this.
Hae-il, who trudged up to the second floor without hiding his exhaustion, first grabbed a pill and threw it into his mouth with water.
Moon Woo-shin’s gaze stabbed painfully into the back of his head, but instead of reacting, he calmly asked.
“You don’t have more work for me today, right?”
Moon Woo-shin, who’d been quietly looking down, nodded once.
“Then I’m sleeping early.”
Hae-il went straight into the bathroom to wash, and buried his tired body on the bed. He closed his eyes with just the blanket draped over his body.
And several hours later.
Hae-il, who’d been lying as if fallen into deep sleep, only lifted his eyelids smoothly.
The inside of the house at a time that felt like 2 or 3 AM was quiet and dim everywhere.
After staring only at the ceiling for a few minutes, he carefully lowered his gaze down.
The door left wide open fully revealed this room, but at the same time, that room could also be seen clearly without obstruction.
Hae-il, who first confirmed the situation only with his eyes, very slowly escaped from inside the blanket while minimizing movement.
With skilled body movements without even making small footstep sounds, he left the room and hid his body in the pillar right next to Moon Woo-shin’s door.
Using the gap of the open door, he observed Moon Woo-shin on the bed with his eyes.
‘…So he does sleep.’
Moon Woo-shin fallen in sleep was very unfamiliar and strange. If his memory was correct, it was the first sight throughout their college days.
The hair he always neatly swept back came down softly to cover his forehead, and his eyelids and the long eyelashes beneath sat obediently, hiding the sharp black eyes. That appearance created a somehow gentle atmosphere completely opposite to Moon Woo-shin’s usual self.
His body lying in proper posture looking exactly at the ceiling rose and fell very slightly in rhythm with the quiet breathing regularly exhaled.
Hae-il, who stopped for a moment to observe, moved very slowly as if assimilating with the air.
‘For today, just house investigation.’
It had already been two weeks of being stuck with him all day under Moon Woo-shin’s surveillance. Since he’d pretended to obediently move only within his sight during that time, by now it was time to let his guard down at least during sleeping hours.
Still, he wasn’t planning to leave the house until he was certain of safety.
