“3, 2, 1.”
With Lee Haneul’s signal, all noise was cut off once again. Park Shinui’s arm twitched for a moment. Through the sensor attached to his arm, an artificial yet strangely familiar energy flowed in.
“Can you tell me the emotions you’re feeling right now in order?”
“The first is anger, the second is anxiety, the third is pain.”
“Good job. And the next ones?”
“The first is similar to before but closer to hatred, and the second feels like pain. Not from a physical injury, but more like… regret for not being able to do something.”
“……”
“Did I get it right?”
“……Can you also guess who the owner of these emotions is?”
“Yes, it’s Kang Taejun-ssi.”
As Park Shinui answered nonchalantly, the white space that had been covering his eyes lifted and the scenery of reality returned.
“Park Shinui-ssi.”
Lee Haneul called his name in a serious voice. As if she had been watching throughout the entire training, her persistent gaze was fixed on Park Shinui’s face.
“Why, why?”
Why is she looking at me with those eyes? Park Shinui subtly averted his gaze.
“How was the training just now?”
“What about it?”
“Wasn’t it difficult?”
“No.”
“It really wasn’t difficult?”
“No, not at all.”
Did I say something wrong? Lee Haneul’s eyes began to waver strangely. The fierce, blazing eyes were a bit frightening, like a predator that had discovered delicious prey.
“How could this training be easy? Usually when doing wave interference identification, people experience extreme emotional disturbance or fall into fatigue syndrome due to the reverse transfer phenomenon.”
“……”
“Ah, I should have explained this in advance too…… No, but you passed perfectly anyway, so in the end there’s no prob……lem.”
“……”
Park Shinui looked at Lee Haneul wordlessly.
“I’m sorry.”
When Park Shinui showed signs of displeasure, Lee Haneul obediently bowed her head. From what he’d heard, all the things she’d been “forgetting” since earlier were dangerous side effects of the training. However, even if he’d known in advance, the result wouldn’t have been different. For Park Shinui, this training was far too simple and easy—merely the process of reading out obvious answers.
“But…… was the training really not difficult at all?”
Lee Haneul paced back and forth as if she couldn’t believe it, then asked seriously.
“No.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“I mean, how could the training not be difficult?”
“Well…… because it really wasn’t difficult.”
For Park Shinui, this training felt like a treasure hunt where you’re told the answer beforehand. The waves were so clear he could see them, so he just followed them, and the emotions were so certain he could grasp them, so he just answered. In fact, it was so easy that it felt boring.
“That’s impossible.”
Lee Haneul, covering her mouth with both hands, smiled brightly. It wasn’t a teasing laugh or a mocking laugh, but an expression that came from genuine joy.
“Why…… why.”
Why is she smiling like that? Park Shinui slowly backed away. Seeing her smile like that made him feel an inexplicable sense of unease. A premonition that something huge was about to happen. Lee Haneul’s gaze remained fixed on him and wouldn’t easily let go.
“Park Shinui-ssi, shall we try some other training too?”
Lee Haneul suddenly grabbed Park Shinui’s wrist.
“Uh, um…… excuse me, teacher?”
“Ohoho! What do you mean teacher? At this point we’ve introduced ourselves, so you can call me noona. From now on, call me noona. Haneul noona.”
At Lee Haneul’s gentle voice suddenly changing the form of address, Park Shinui felt cold sweat running down his back.
Excuse me, we just met for the first time.
But Lee Haneul didn’t wait for an answer. Despite being a small woman, her strength was incredible, and Park Shinui was dragged out of his chair and toward the door without even a chance to resist.
***
“Shinui-ya, your training results are unbelievable! All the numbers hit their peak. At this level, you might even be able to do non-contact guiding or remote stabilization. How is this possible? Just who are you? I knew you were S-rank, but how can this be?”
In just 30 minutes of being dragged around by Lee Haneul, Park Shinui went from “Shinui-ssi” to “Shinui.” It was informal speech he’d never permitted, but Lee Haneul exploded with her characteristic affability and arbitrarily closed the distance.
Park Shinui found her a bit burdensome, but on the other hand, he was secretly pleased. The gazes of those he’d met here were mostly full of prejudice or contained blatant hostility, so the pure goodwill someone was sending him was in itself a great comfort.
Even while dismissing it as a dream that would end whenever it broke, he must have actually been quite anxious. Judging by how just gaining someone’s support made one corner of his heart feel secure.
“So…… you’re saying that I didn’t forget how to do guiding, but rather I have too much of it and can’t control it? That’s why just touching Kang Taejun-ssi……”
“Right. The uncontrolled guiding flows in as it pleases. Should I say that with just the simplest contact, Esper Kang Taejun is experiencing an ecstasy he’s never felt before.”
“Ec, ecstasy?”
“On top of that, you two even formed a pair bond. Beyond a fantastic feeling, I’d say he’s probably already tasting heaven, don’t you think?”
Park Shinui was speechless for a moment. The reactions Kang Taejun had shown on the night of the pair bonding ceremony suddenly came to mind. Even though his contamination level had risen to the point of losing his reason, he’d so persistently demanded guiding, and with just one contact, his contamination level had dropped drastically. Was it all because of this?
When Lee Haneul smiled mischievously and tapped his shoulder, Park Shinui’s body swayed helplessly and greatly.
“Ah, sorry! I forgot your body was like a sheet of paper.”
“……I’m not weak.”
“Okay, got it. For now, let’s say you’re ‘in a state that needs a bit of training.’ Okay?”
“Yes.”
Lee Haneul brushed off the answer cheekily and returned to the main topic.
“Anyway, the conclusion is that your guiding ability is overflowing so much it’s a problem. The story is that you need to expend that energy to some extent before you can finally control it at will.”
“How do I…… expend it?”
“How else? The method is obvious. Frequently and deeply contact Esper Kang Taejun.”
Lee Haneul’s face was full of mischief as she winked while lowering her voice suggestively. Park Shinui pretended not to understand the implicit meaning in those words and threw his gaze into the air unnecessarily.
“Then…… even just holding hands……”
“When the contamination level exceeds 50%, something like holding hands won’t even come close. There must be deep contact where mucous membranes touch for recovery to be possible. But Shinui-ya, do you know what Esper Kang Taejun’s average contamination level is?”
Kang Taejun’s contamination level. In the book, it was always described as exceeding 50%. That was also the reason he had to live with a rampage suppression device attached to his ear.
“I know it’s over 50%.”
“85%.”
“……What?”
Park Shinui repeated the number. 85. Was that even a possible figure?
If so, the fact that he’d endured until now was itself close to a miracle. Park Shinui recalled the scenes from the novel where Kang Taejun was isolated alone in a bunker after battles. Back then he’d just read it as part of the story, but now those scenes felt completely different.
“Every time a battle ends, he’s administered strong drugs or isolated in a bunker. Even searching the entire world, Esper Kang Taejun is the only esper who exceeds 50%.”
“Ah……”
Park Shinui’s complexion turned pale. Lee Haneul continued with sharp eyes.
“So, here’s one curious point. You two have a miraculous matching rate and have even formed a pair bond. But why is Esper Kang Taejun’s level still remaining in the 80% range?”
“……”
“Did you two fight? Or has there been no progress at all?”
“No. That’s not……”
“Of course it is. Looking at your expression, it seems exactly like that.”
Fight? What fight? Kang Taejun is just unilaterally loathing him. Given that he even stayed out last night, he might be blatantly avoiding him. Lee Haneul smiled and tapped his shoulder once more. Park Shinui’s body, lost in thought, swayed greatly to the side defenseless.
“Oh my, from what I see. Shinui, you need to do something about this frail body before the guiding.”
Lee Haneul, startled, quickly grabbed Park Shinui’s flailing arm and made an apologetic expression.
“What?”
“Even though you didn’t use your ability, you can’t keep your balance like this, so what would happen in front of a high-ranking esper? If they wanted to, they could manipulate you at will with just one finger.”
“……”
Kang Taejun already immobilized me with one finger. Damn it. Even though he didn’t go to the military, he’d been confident in his health with not a single illness, but he didn’t know how many times he’d been called frail since coming here.
