“I mean, rather than this kind of training, more practical things like Lee Suchan-seonsaengnim……”
“First, let’s answer why you call Esper Lee Suchan ‘seonsaengnim.'”
“Well, he’s someone who teaches me, so I call him seonsaengnim. What else would I call him?”
Kang Taejun’s expressionless face that he glanced at was coldly hardened. These days, he could roughly read his mood even without direct contact, and that expression was definitely the one that came out when his temper was twisted. What exactly was the problem with calling Lee Suchan seonsaengnim?
“Is it because Lee Suchan trained Park Shinui-ssi?”
“That’s right?”
Then, what else would I call someone who personally invests time for me and teaches me while even feeding me expensive Mendorin?
“It’s only been four days at most, hasn’t it? And the result is only a mere 3.8 seconds increase.”
“Well, that’s true but……”
It wasn’t wrong, but having it confirmed again through Kang Taejun’s mouth brought a wave of shame. He wanted to argue that even a 4-second increase was something, and that wasn’t he only making him run right now, but he didn’t have the courage.
If the growth is so slow, you could just teach me properly.
Park Shinui pouted his lips and grumbled only inwardly.
“Then it would be fair to call me seonsaengnim too.”
“What?”
“Good. Call me seonsaengnim.”
“Kang Taejun-ssi, right now what’s important isn’t the title but how we’re going to conduct the training……”
“I’ve given permission for you to call me seonsaengnim.”
No, why is that damn title important right now! Park Shinui was flabbergasted.
Could Kang Taejun perhaps have some kind of obsession with the word ‘seonsaengnim’? Why was he so fixated on it?
“Um… Kang Taejun-ssi.”
Park Shinui pressed his lips shut, feeling his limbs trembling and sweat flowing down his back. It’s not like he couldn’t call him that, but seeing Kang Taejun’s face quietly waiting to hear that word, his lips just wouldn’t part.
“Kang Taejun-ssi.”
Park Shinui raised his voice to call him once more, but Kang Taejun didn’t even turn his head. He was clearly pretending not to hear on purpose.
Park Shinui couldn’t bear his tingling limbs anymore and tried to release his collapsed posture.
“Ah shit.”
But his body wouldn’t budge at all. It seemed he’d used his ability to fix him in place again. What kind of ridiculous childish behavior was this? Park Shinui glared at Kang Taejun with a dumbfounded expression.
He knew that whenever Kang Taejun worked him around under the pretext of training, he would use his ability once to help him, but this wasn’t it.
Park Shinui tried to move his limbs that had stiffened on their own and gritted his teeth. He didn’t know how much he wanted to hear ‘seonsaengnim,’ but to use his ability in such a petty way to bind a person.
He resented Kang Taejun, who had no dignity as an Esper and didn’t hesitate to do such childish things. It was frustrating to be caught in such an obvious trap, but that brazen expression leisurely waiting for a reaction made him even more irritated.
“Kang Taejun…… seonsaengnim.”
But his body didn’t follow to endure with stubbornness, and there was nothing he couldn’t do when the other wanted it so much.
“Yes.”
Facing Kang Taejun who answered as if it was nothing, an unexpected sense of shame rushed over him. He thought it would be nothing, but what was this—his entire body was hot with embarrassment.
Park Shinui whirled his head away to hide his awkwardness and grumbled.
“Release the ability. My limbs feel like they’re going to break off.”
“Let’s do that. Let’s end today’s training here.”
As Kang Taejun lightly waved his hand, the invisible force that had been binding his body finally disappeared. Park Shinui sat down on the floor with a thud. It was also at that moment when a cool breeze brushed past his forehead soaked with sweat.
What is this, giving disease and then medicine.
Park Shinui turned his head to glare at Kang Taejun creating wind with his fingertips.
Before his eyes, the man obsessed with the title ‘seonsaengnim’ was smiling with the corners of his mouth subtly raised. Smiling? Was the great Kang Taejun smiling now because teasing someone was fun?
“Ah shit……”
Park Shinui averted his gaze and tilted his head back as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have. The other’s emotions transmitted even though he didn’t want to know contained a strangely pleasant wavelength, so he couldn’t argue any further.
Thump, thump. He couldn’t even tell if the uncomfortably racing sound of his heart was because of the exercise or because of Kang Taejun’s smile.
Damn, come to think of it, he didn’t even get to argue about the actually important training method. Park Shinui narrowed his eyes at the wind brushing his cheeks.
This isn’t the time for this. He needed to return to reality as soon as possible and handle the mountain of work piled up……
Never mind. Right now, it seems like it doesn’t matter. He’ll say it later. Anyway, they’ll train tomorrow too, and they’ll spend time together again.
Beep- Beep-!
Just then, a sharp alarm sound cut through the silence and echoed throughout the entire training room. Following that, a dry announcement mixed with mechanical sounds flowed from the ceiling speaker.
― Emergency response protocol execution. Currently an A-grade gate has occurred in the southeastern metropolitan area. All B-grade and above Espers located in the jurisdiction please immediately move to the operations conference room. Emergency code R-4 response standby time 3 minutes.
“Uh…… this is.”
Did a gate open again? Park Shinui reflexively turned his head to look at Kang Taejun in surprise. And in that moment, he swallowed his breath at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
Kang Taejun, who had just been blowing wind at him and smiling mischievously, was bizarrely rippling in the air. His silhouette wavered as if space itself was twisting, and soon, leaving only a short burst of sound—swoosh—he disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
“……”
Park Shinui froze in place and lost his words. The fact that the person who had been before his eyes had evaporated and disappeared didn’t feel real at all.
The place where Kang Taejun had been standing was quiet as if no one had been there from the beginning. No sound, no afterimage, not even his body heat that had been felt just moments ago remained.
Was what just happened really reality? His senses couldn’t keep up with the situation and his mind flashed white. It was a scene he’d read countless times as sentences in the novel and even seen in dreams, but he’d never once felt it so vividly that it reached his skin like this.
“Really…… he disappeared before my eyes.”
For a human to evaporate into space without leaving even a trace. Even though he’d seen it countless times in the novel and in dreams, the shock of feeling it directly with his skin was on a different dimension.
“If I get to see him actually fighting monsters, will I see scenes even more surreal than this?”
He didn’t know when that day would be. But he suddenly thought it would be nice if, at that time, instead of being left alone desolately like today, he could stand beside Kang Taejun and go to the battlefield together.
“Still though. How can he just leave without saying anything, so heartlessly.”
Park Shinui looked once more at the place where Kang Taejun had disappeared and let out a long sigh. Even though some time had passed, nothing had changed.
His physical grade was still a miserable F-grade, and his daily routine was only mechanically going back and forth between the Ability Center and Kang Taejun’s house. The only consolation was the fact that the time spent with Kang Taejun had increased, but the problem was that was all there was to it.
In this story that revolves around Kang Taejun, how much is my share right now?
Probably a very minimal level, like a passing supporting character. What’s the use of having the best guiding ability limited to Kang Taejun, when he was in a situation where he couldn’t even manage his own body and couldn’t even go near a gate?
Exactly how could he become close enough to know what worries he had, what matters he focused on, and what he paid attention to? He’d believed that the way to end the story was only to sweep through the battlefield together with him and be active, but frustration rushed over him wondering if there was perhaps another way besides that.
Park Shinui swept around the training room that felt particularly empty today once, then got up. Guiding training still remained, and in the afternoon, he was planning to stop by the house where ‘Park Shinui’ used to live.
“I don’t know why he didn’t dispose of his old house even while living with Kang Taejun, but…… for now, there’s nothing else but to find out even one more thing about Park Shinui. It’s actually good, what can I say.”
Park Shinui let out a groan and stretched his stiff body, then moved his steps. There was a strange determination in the back view of him heading toward the guiding training room with his back to the emptied training ground.
