Hee-young suddenly asked something along the lines of — so if someone takes medicine, a sick person gets better? — as a comparison. What the hell are we supposed to say to that? Deputy Seong and Deputy Shin looked at each other again, mouthing wordlessly. He told them to think about it logically, but the question was so fundamentally logical that it was hard to answer.
“Hey, kids. Are you dreaming? You’ve got a man with a hole in his stomach sitting here and you’re suddenly spouting nonsense — why?”
“It’s, it’s not just any two people — it’s a Guide who has manifested like Hee-young, and an Esper whose wavelength matches—”
“No, right. So two people messing around together makes someone better? Then why is there a doctor here?”
“Pardon? No, wavelengths and Guiding levels aren’t in a doctor’s domain….”
“So now some Esper-whatever is sick? And touching them makes it better?”
“When Guiding levels drop, an Esper’s daily functioning becomes difficult. Guiding levels drop faster the more abilities are used, and—”
“No, you said they die.”
“If they enter a Rampage state, yes. That’s why Guide Yoo Hee-young’s help is desperately needed—”
“Why do two people have to mess around instead of going to a doctor?”
“No… hah……”
Even at the employee’s sigh, Hee-young just tilted his pale face, muttered I’ve heard it all now, you’re all giving me a headache — everyone out! and raised his voice.
At Hee-young’s shout, the two employees stamped their feet anxiously, glancing at each other, unsure what to do. Not knowing how to handle someone with absolutely zero knowledge of Espers and Guides — and no intention of listening — they floundered, until the doctor watching from behind quietly interjected:
“You would become a government employee. If you enter the Center as a Guide.”
“So what?”
“Housing will be provided as well. I hear the salary is quite high.”
“I said, so what.”
Hee-young snapped irritably. His already-torn abdomen hurt enough without shouting on top of it.
What, a government employee…. Did they not hear him say he was a gangster? And money, housing on top of that…. He had risen quite high in the organization doing every dirty and sordid task they had for him — what would he have to envy about any of that? He had more than enough money, and it wasn’t just a house — he had a villa too. The incident that put him in this state had even happened while he was enjoying a stay at that villa, a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky.
“You won’t have to go back home.”
“Why would I? It’s not that I have nowhere to go — I can’t go because my gut’s been ripped open.”
The doctor let out a breath and roughly flipped through the chart. Doesn’t seem like an act, the identity confusion is still there, and he lacks even basic common knowledge. He deliberately called the name several times but the subject continued to show persistent rejection and maintained an aggressive disposition throughout — he wrote that down in order.
The doctor was about to suggest they leave before provoking him further, when he noticed a faint reflection of a figure in the glossy phone case of the employee who was holding up their phone to contact the Center. He made a puzzled expression.
The pretty face in the mirror-like surface made the same puzzled expression. He tilted his head in curiosity, and the young man in the reflection tilted his head too.
Wait — what the hell, hold on. What is that….
“Hey, give me that.”
“Pardon?”
“Your phone — give it here.”
“I’m in the middle of a call, contacting—”
“Oh for — you not gonna hand it over?”
At the scowling, petulant expression on that delicate face, the employee held out the phone as if under a spell. He really was absurdly, obnoxiously pretty….
“Wait — no, just a moment!”
The doctor tried to reach out and take it back, but Hee-young had already used the wide surface of the phone as a mirror to see his own face — and went deathly pale. Before the doctor could snatch it away, Hee-young had already thrown himself upright.
The wound screamed with pain, but the mental shock was far greater — Hee-young bit down hard and endured it, then broke into a run straight for the door. The IV stand crashed and toppled behind him, and Hee-young tore off the tape and needle from his hand as he ran. He needed a mirror — a big mirror.
Simply thinking about it, a private room would naturally have a bathroom, and a bathroom would naturally have a mirror, but Hee-young was too shocked to think straight and simply sprinted down the corridor in front of him.
Bare feet slapping rapidly against the cold floor, Hee-young ran, and the employees and doctors ran after him.
It was a bolt from the blue on an otherwise ordinary afternoon.
Grab him! Grab him! — the shouts echoed behind him and drew stares from everyone around.
Ah, so that’s why psychiatric wards have forced isolation facilities…. the employees thought as they ran as fast as they could, but they couldn’t catch Hee-young, who had in an instant bolted out of the inpatient ward and into the main hospital building that handled outpatient care too.
They were even calling in the hospital security guards, launching a full-on chase. Even in the chaos, Hee-young ran gasping, searching for a mirror. There were too many people and not a bathroom in sight.
“Damn…. Feels like my gut’s splitting open….”
He pressed down hard on his aching side and staggered, and people murmured and stared at him. Ah, I should’ve just asked them to show me a mirror…. Panicked and bolted like an idiot…. He thought, then looked around for someone — anyone — he could grab and ask to take him to a bathroom.
A few people asked if he was alright, but the pain had built up too much to even answer. Still, even if I collapse here, at least I’m inside a hospital…. Even if it’s full of quacks…. He was thinking that when he noticed a large figure approaching him.
No matter how much he was hunched over from the pain in his torn side, the man standing before him was simply too tall. His own height was over 180 centimeters, yet he had to look up this far — the man might well be over two meters. Hee-young didn’t register that the reflection he’d briefly glimpsed was not himself but a young man, and gauged the height against what he thought was his own.
Extraordinary build, enormous height — and the decisive thing was the moment he met the golden eyes looking down at him, Hee-young muttered: Of all things, a foreigner. And I can’t speak English.
“Oh hell…. I’m done for, damn it….”
He crumpled and collapsed, and the man caught the falling body effortlessly. Overwhelmed by the powerful surge of Guiding energy emanating strongly even through clothing, the man let out a languid breath and buried his nose into the exposed white neck. The moment bare skin made contact, the Guiding that came flooding through was dream-sweetly intoxicating.
“Told you…. You’re done for now….”
The fullness that pressed tight inside his chest — he pulled the limp body even more firmly against himself. Smiling with an enraptured expression, he slipped his hand inside the loosely fluttering hospital gown to make contact with as much bare skin as possible, and rubbed along the slender back.
The outpatients who had witnessed the whole thing looked on in alarm. To someone who just collapsed — and right in the middle of the hospital, no less….
“Mom…. Is that man a pervert?”
“Shh, shh….”
While people averted their eyes with uncomfortable expressions, the security guards who came rushing over took up defensive positions to protect Hee-young.
But the man, not wanting his long-awaited reunion with his Guide to be interrupted, flashed his golden eyes and moved to use his ability — when a desperate voice rang out from far away:
“Esper! He’s an Esper! That Guide’s matched Esper!”
“Shin-yul! If you cause a scene right now, you won’t see the Guide for three weeks!”
The shouts boomed through the hospital lobby, and people relaxed with an ah, well of course. The love quarrels between Espers and Guides were famously intense and dramatic. The public, who got far more riled up over Esper news than celebrity news, found their love lives the most interesting of all.
The employees who had barely managed to chase them down came over dripping with sweat.
“No, Shin-yul. How did you even get here…! You were told to wait at the Center! Guide Yoo Hee-young is currently having a bit of an issue—”
“Her name is Hee-young? That’s pretty….”
Unable to hear the scolding, Shin-yul smiled sweetly and pressed his cheek against the soft one beside his, rubbing them together. Looking at the prettily curved eyes, he was clearly not in his right mind.
“Damn it…. Who was the one that told this guy a Guide with a high matching rate had manifested. We will be proceeding with their execution.”
“That was the team leader.”
“No exceptions. The team leader will be replaced.”
Under normal circumstances this might have been manageable, but right now — at this exact moment when Guide Yoo Hee-young had a bit of an issue… no, a bit of a massively enormous issue — the two of them meeting was extremely inconvenient.
Now that the Center’s certified disaster, Han Shin-yul, had received Guiding from a Guide — and not just any Guide, but one with a 95% matching rate, an absurdly high figure even by Center standards — there was nothing left that could stop him.
The employees looked on with composed expressions at the tall figure standing there, holding the limp Hee-young’s body protectively, and turned to the doctors who came panting up behind them:
“Is there perhaps a doctor here who could tell us that the Guide’s condition is actually not a big deal…? Something hopeful like that?”
“……”
There wasn’t.
***
Ten minutes after the escape show, everyone returned to the room and collapsed against the walls or sprawled across the small sofa, completely drained.
Among them, the surgical attending looked at Shin-yul, who still had his arms around Hee-young and refused to set him down on the bed, and said hesitantly:
“Um, I need to check the patient’s wound, so could you put him down? Also, holding him like that puts pressure on the wound, which isn’t good….”
“What? You want to look at his stomach? Some other man?”
“Pardon?”
The doctor looked utterly baffled, and the two employees who had practically been lying on the floor shot upright and started smacking Shin-yul on the back.
“Are you insane? Hey? Are you crazy? Apologize to the doctor!”
“A Guide is just as vulnerable as any regular person! Without treatment, it could be serious! Use your head!”
Knowing that no matter how hard they hit, it wouldn’t hurt him, Shin-yul looked irritably at the employees noisily slapping his back — but at the words that Hee-young could be in serious danger, he carefully lowered the slender body he had been holding so dearly.
The doctor flinched and lifted the hospital gown to examine the wound, but every time he did, those sharpening golden eyes made the back of his neck go cold.
Just as expected, the wound had torn open. The thick gauze was soaked through and the hospital gown stained with blood — Shin-yul furrowed his brow as though he himself were in more pain, and stroked the grimacing face with a pitying tenderness. Of course, the moment his hand made contact and Guiding came surging up through it, he let out a deeply satisfied breath — that went without saying.
The employees watched Shin-yul with incredulous, baffled expressions, and unable to bring themselves to stop him, could only sigh.
Shin-yul, who had manifested as an S-rank Esper from birth as an in-utero manifestation, had an unusually poor compatibility with Guides, and had never once received proper Guiding in his life — getting by entirely on Guiding medication. To him, Guiding was pain, and a life without Guiding was emptiness.
Espers who cannot receive Guiding live in suffering in their incomplete state, always longing for the Guide who will breathe life into them. No matter how advanced Guiding medication becomes, it cannot resolve that fundamental deprivation. On top of that, once a Rampage begins, Guiding medication becomes useless. The only thing that can save an Esper who has entered a Rampage state is a Guide’s Guiding.
And so, how carefully Han Shin-yul had lived. Being S-rank, he took on countless dungeons, yet lived a razor-thin, hollow life where not a single mistake could be afforded — no one was unaware of that. Everyone at the Center would know. That was likely why, no matter how much of a disaster Han Shin-yul made of himself, they let it slide at least once.
These two were no different in that regard — they couldn’t bring themselves to be truly angry at Shin-yul, who had defied the standby order and somehow found his way to the hospital.
But seriously though — how did he even find out?
“Han Shin-yul, how did you know to come to this hospital.”
“Hah…. He’s pretty even when he’s sleeping. Like a princess….”
“You absolute lunatic. It was a classified document — how did you find out?”
“His voice was pretty too….”
“Oh my god, this insane—”
