The convenience store that Kang Onyul operated was a very small space.
Although it was located near the imposing institution called the ‘Republic of Korea Ability User Management Bureau’, Espers and Guides belonging to the Management Bureau rarely visited the convenience store. Even if they did, they mostly went to the larger convenience store nearby.
Since it wasn’t work meant to make money anyway, he didn’t particularly care. Rather, in this ‘life gained anew’, he wanted to live quietly.
However, not long after waking up in a different body, everything changed.
“Manager, could you just hold my hand once?”
“……Manager, you’re really not a Guide, right?”
“If you’re a Guide and don’t get tested and registered, you could be subject to a fine.”
“Manager, are you super strong?”
A bunch of Espers came flocking, making a fuss asking him to hold their hands, asking if he was a Guide.
Excuse me, I’ve just become an ordinary person now and I have no intention of becoming a Guide……!
“If you’re not buying anything, everyone get out!”
If it weren’t for the penalty fee, I would have quit this damn convenience store ages ago.
The person who bothered Onyul the most was especially this man.
A handsome man in a jet-black suit with an expressionless face.
“……Hand.”
The man extended his own hand, demanding a hand as if it were natural. It was a white, pretty hand with long fingers.
If another Esper had demanded it, he would have shouted at them to get out, but he couldn’t do that to this man alone.
“……Haah.”
He just let out a habitual sigh and held his hand.
The man’s name was Gu Baekyoung. He was an Esper that Onyul had occasionally helped in his previous life.
Should he say he helped him out of pity because he couldn’t find a compatible Guide and was always suffering from a lack of Guiding?
He held his hand out of consideration for old times’ sake, but he couldn’t understand why an S-rank Esper would visit an innocent convenience store instead of going to the Guide Center.
What’s more, the current Onyul was an ordinary person, not even an Esper, let alone a Guide.
“Excuse me. But you know I’m not a Guide, right? No more hands.”
Gu Baekyoung tilted his head as if asking what the problem was, then opened his lips as if he’d thought of a solution.
“Then at least your foot……”
This crazy bastard, really!
No, you need to receive proper Guiding from another Guideeeee…….
The words he couldn’t bring himself to say mixed with his sigh and flowed out.
***
Six months ago, the worst accident in history occurred where several Espers were sacrificed after being caught up in a Gate rampage.
Most of the dispatched Espers met their demise, and among them was Kang Onyul, a non-combat type.
He was a healing-type Esper who mainly treated internal injuries. So he would enter Gates together with others to heal injured Espers.
That day was no different.
The rampaging Gate was C-rank. It was a low rank where problems rarely occurred, so entering the Gate without much worry was the root of the disaster.
Onyul was caught up in that rampage and died helplessly.
Yes, he definitely thought he had died.
But he opened his eyes again in a different body. As ‘Kang Ian’, the owner of a small convenience store right next to the Ability User Management Bureau.
At first, it was agonizing. Because his last memory was the horrific deaths of the colleagues who had entered the Gate with him.
Memories so painful that even recalling them came flooding in, and for a while he couldn’t do anything.
But after several days passed, when even the memories of Kang Ian, the body’s owner, came flooding in, he felt like he could at least live. Because he could cover the mind that had been dominated by horrific memories with Kang Ian’s memories.
Of course, he hadn’t read all of Kang Ian’s memories. Strangely, there were no childhood memories at all in his head.
What he could read clearly were only scenes of Kang Ian saving money to have a convenience store. After giving up on university and only working, he eventually opened a small convenience store next to the Management Bureau.
The reason he chose the spot next to the Management Bureau among numerous locations was simple.
<I want to become an ability user too. They’re so cool!>
For that foolish reason, he chose a place where he could see ability users up close.
However, as a result of working without hiring almost any part-timers and not resting properly, he died of overwork at a young age. It seemed that Onyul had taken over the body whose soul had left like that.
Tsk, poor bastard.
While he felt sorry for his untimely death, on the other hand he was also envious that he met death while asleep. At least he wouldn’t have felt the pain of his body being torn to shreds.
Onyul thought that since things had turned out this way, he might as well try living as Kang Ian.
He had awakened at an early age and worked like a dog as an Esper for nearly 10 years. There were many times when it felt horrific to be among Espers where life and death coexisted.
Perhaps it was harder to endure because his personality was weak. For that reason, Onyul had occasionally wished to live as an ordinary person.
That wish had become reality, so there was no reason not to enjoy it.
But that didn’t mean he wanted to be a convenience store owner. Especially since this convenience store was damn near the Ability User Management Bureau.
In this life, he didn’t want to encounter ability users.
Should I try being a university student while I’m at it?
Becoming an ordinary university student, going to university, making ordinary friends, going on MT trips…… It was a life he had dreamed of at least once. Onyul wanted to live like that.
However, unfortunately, he couldn’t quit the convenience store right away. Because if he didn’t fulfill the contract period, he would have to pay a penalty fee!
What’s more, Kang Ian seemed to have spent his entire fortune opening the convenience store, as he didn’t even have a home.
He was staying in a small side room attached to the convenience store. In a small space where only one person could lie down.
If only I could use the money in my account……
He had saved up the monthly salaries he received while working as an Esper in his bank account bit by bit. If he could quit being an Esper someday, he had planned to use it for other work.
But apparently after he died, his aunt took all the money he had saved. She was someone who didn’t even contact him normally…… Damn it.
It was a fact he learned from seeing an article about his aunt shedding fake tears while missing her nephew who died young.
Onyul, who had become penniless in an instant, had no choice. He had no option but to operate the convenience store during the contract period and save money.
Fortunately, the convenience store contract period was only 3 years.
Let’s just endure for 3 years……! I’ll live peacefully.
And so Onyul opened the convenience store.
There weren’t many customers. There seemed to be a larger and more spacious convenience store nearby that attracted most people. The occasional customers were all Management Bureau employees unrelated to ability users.
After working for several days without encountering ability users, he thought it was quite manageable.
All he had to do was say hello, goodbye, it’s this much…… That was all, so there was no need to continue useless conversations.
Onyul recalled the Espers from his previous life who had bothered him whenever they saw him.
<Onyul-ssi, aren’t you actually a Guide?>
<I like receiving therapy from Onyul-ssi more than from my pair Guide. I wonder why……. >
Even Guides came to him and made advances.
<I heard you don’t have a pair Guide, Esper-nim…… Could you do it with me? I can do everything, not just Guiding.>
Going even further, there were those who seductively tempted him, which was torturous.
He didn’t want to be closely involved with Espers, nor did he want to make a pair Guide.
No, to be more precise, there was no need.
Because Onyul was a healing-type Esper who could do not only external treatment but also mental therapy.
Onyul’s therapy, which gave emotional stability, relaxed the body comfortably, and even relieved stress, was popular within the Management Bureau.
It was because it gave a feeling similar to Guiding yet distinctly different from Guiding.
What’s more, it had even greater rarity since Onyul was the only one with that ability.
Not only was he popular with Espers, but even Guides benefited from that ability, so he was popular even with Guides.
Some Espers even went crazy enough to ask if he would pair up despite being the same Esper.
Among the Espers looking for Onyul, there were quite a few high-rank ones.
Among them, there was also a very troublesome and pitiful bastard…….
“Manager, do you happen to have more chocolate milk?”
At the voice of the neat man looking for chocolate milk, Onyul, who had been briefly lost in thought, answered.
“Just a moment.”
He came out from the register and walked to the milk display.
“Haha, sorry to trouble you. I went to the big convenience store right next door but there wasn’t a single one.”
The face of the man with a good-natured smile looked familiar. Onyul pretended not to know while staring at the last chocolate milk the man was holding.
“Can you give it to me for a moment? So I can scan the barcode.”
There were plastic boxes shoved behind the beverage refrigerator. He also seemed to remember that there was some chocolate milk stock left among them…….
Although he had decided to take care of the convenience store for the time being, he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, so Onyul’s inventory management wasn’t meticulous.
At the moment he received the item, he unintentionally touched fingertips with the man.
Onyul walked to the register without much feeling, but the man’s face became peculiar.
“Hmm……?”
The man lightly clenched and opened the hand that had touched Onyul’s, tilting his head.
Strange. My tingling fingertips became cool…… Guiding?
The man’s puzzled gaze didn’t leave Onyul.
