Ah, damn it. I need a cigarette.
Hee-young sat in silence alongside Tae-seong on the bench, both of them facing forward. Hee-young bounced one leg up and down restlessly.
Ah, did I stick my nose into something annoying for no reason? I probably could’ve just left and walked away….
Come to think of it, wasn’t it because he’d witnessed this guy and the teacher kissing intensely that this whole mess started? And that same bastard has a separate girl he likes? Kids these days…. What good would his common sense do in this depraved world anyway. Should’ve just left…. Hee-young regretted being such a busybody.
This was the problem with getting older. When you saw a young man sitting right in front of you, lost in his troubles, the urge to say something would itch at your lips — it was practically encoded in the DNA of middle-aged men. That’s how everyone slowly turns into a nag. Hee-young made a wistful face.
Even as Hee-young fidgeted and made a fuss beside him, Tae-seong didn’t shake his gloomy expression. Hee-young stole a glance at him and forced a smile as he spoke.
“Hey, what’s your deal. What’s your name, anyway. Either way, stop making that face like you’re half-dead and talk to me. A good-looking guy like you — why is your love life going so badly?”
“Ha…. My name is Jang Tae-seong.”
Satisfied with Tae-seong’s polite response, Hee-young gave a nod of approval. It was a far sight better than some punk out there who’d talk to elders without a shred of respect.
“Yeah, alright. Tae-seong. Talk to me. What’s your mouth there for? If you’re not going to say anything, I’m leaving.”
Thinking now’s his chance, Hee-young sprang to his feet. Tae-seong, who hadn’t even been looking at the suddenly brightened, cheerfully grinning face, opened his mouth.
“Well, there’s a Guide I want as my pair….”
“Oh, you’re talking right away? Oh… kid, no backbone at all.”
Hee-young plopped back down onto the bench with a thoroughly soured expression.
But wait, wasn’t he already paired with the teacher? Ah, so they’re paired but he likes someone else better? Well, the teacher is a man. Could make sense that he’d prefer a woman. But this bastard, after all that, was kissing someone in broad daylight in a building and then got into a whole brawl with me? What the hell is this guy even doing? Are all esper bastards seriously out of their minds?
Hee-young narrowed his eyes and stared at Tae-seong with a look of utter exasperation.
“That person….”
“They don’t like you back?”
“No, that’s not it!”
Tae-seong shot to his feet and shouted. His face had flushed completely red — apparently quite worked up by Hee-young’s words.
“No, if it’s not that then it’s not that, what are you talking about…. Ah, fine. Then what’s the problem?”
“That person doesn’t dislike me. It’s just their own principles…!”
“Their principles are that they won’t date? Sounds like an excuse to me.”
“It’s not!”
Tae-seong shouted even louder, his anger flaring. Watching Tae-seong’s furious face, Hee-young said flatly, okay, okay. You’re going to blow out Ajeossi’s ears. Sit down. Tae-seong stared into Hee-young’s fish-blank eyes and trembled with humiliation — but by nature he had no one he could open up to and talk through his worries with, and he didn’t want to waste this invaluable opportunity.
Even if this person seemed to have no talent other than constantly bringing up ajeossi and getting on people’s nerves….
Tae-seong was desperate. It had already been over four years since Ha-ram had turned him down. He was on the verge of dying of thirst from his years-long unrequited love. Even if the rope dangling in front of him looked frayed and rotten, he had no choice but to grab it. He knew the other person was a Guide — and even the matched Guide of that insane Han Shin-yul — but Tae-seong couldn’t help it. Even if it wasn’t his type, judging by Hee-young’s appearance, his claim of having a lot of dating experience rang true, and a perspective from a Guide who had already paired with an S-rank Esper was extremely rare.
Tae-seong looked at Hee-young with anxious eyes and spoke again.
“That person doesn’t dislike me — they dislike the idea of having a Pair. That person’s Guide Wavelength is highly accommodating, so their Matching Rate with most Espers tends to be quite high. Because of that, they want to remain a Center Guide. Even though the gap has narrowed, Guides are still rarer than Espers, and not every Esper has a Pair. Please don’t slander that person’s good-hearted nature.”
“Ah…. Is that so? Admirable. Then respect that.”
“I… I want to, but as you know, an Esper’s possessiveness isn’t something that bends to my will….”
Tae-seong rambled on, seemingly embarrassed by his own inability to respect Ha-ram’s wishes. If they became Pairs, he could treat them even better; the workload would decrease; and in the first place, if there’s an Esper with a high Matching Rate, it’s generally expected for them to become a Pair rather than a Center Guide…. But no matter how you looked at it, it was nothing but excuses for his own selfish heart.
Okay, okay, Hee-young replied, looking thoroughly worn out. Tae-seong abruptly stopped talking, and his face turned red — apparently embarrassed by himself. Hee-young let out a sigh.
“Hey, you don’t have to be so pathetic about it. What even is love? It’s the purest distillation of pathetic, selfish feelings, isn’t it. Hm? Kid, shoulders back! Did you think love was something noble and beautiful? Young people always have that kind of illusion. There’s nothing dirtier and uglier than that.”
Hee-young sang it out like a trot song, pitching his voice up at the end of each phrase the way middle-aged men do. Those careless, offhand words were somehow comforting — which only quietly wounded Tae-seong’s pride.
“Then just tell them you don’t want to be Pairs, but you want to date.”
“Pardon?”
What kind of bizarre thing was that to say. A Pair is a form of relationship. Ever since the government recognized the Esper-Guide Pair relationship as a form of legal guardianship, there had been an ongoing debate in the subtext about whether or not a Pair should be considered a form of marriage. Some praised them as loves ordained by fate, while others criticized it as no different from an animal mating system — and as the controversy refused to die down, the government issued an irresponsible and half-hearted conclusion that a Pair should simply be accepted as a Pair. After that, “Pair” was newly registered among the many forms of relationships in the world.
Knowing none of this, Hee-young’s words left Tae-seong staring at him in utter shock — and Hee-young, ah, damn it. What’s wrong now, with this world, furrowed his brow in irritation and shot to his feet. Then he shouted at Tae-seong, hey, hey. Just say it’s fine! Tae-seong looked back and forth between Hee-young and the space behind him, then went pale as a sheet.
“Uh, over there….”
“And you already have a Pair Esper. The other time — what was it — you were kissing Ha-ram, weren’t you. Aren’t the two of you Pairs? That’s what all this ridiculous fuss is about…. It’s not like that woman is the only one who can Guide you, so why are you clinging to someone who said no?”
As Hee-young berated him, Tae-seong’s anxious expression went blank with confusion.
“Pardon? My unrequited love is Ha-ram?”
“What?”
“What?”
“What do you mean, what? Hey? What did you just say?”
“Seriously, what’s going on?”
“Aaaaah!”
Just then, Shin-yul’s voice came from behind him, and Hee-young startled and leapt into the air. Shin-yul caught Hee-young’s airborne body and pulled him straight into his arms.
Hee-young, without realizing it, went limp in the familiar embrace and leaned into him comfortably.
Ah, damn…. You scared me…. Nearly gave me a heart attack.
As Hee-young pressed both hands over his racing heart, Shin-yul looked at him with concern and gently bumped his forehead against Hee-young’s.
“Oh my…. Were you scared?”
“Of course I was! Ugh…. Can’t you just appear normally! Just once!”
“That’s the princess’s fault…. What are you two doing? I don’t accept things like esper-friends or guide-friends.”
The warm, smiling face Shin-yul had shown Hee-young instantly shifted as he turned cold eyes toward Tae-seong. Tae-seong was pale-faced and sweating profusely.
The truth was, Tae-seong had spotted Shin-yul walking over from far away and had been on edge ever since. The moment he met Shin-yul’s cold, burning gaze, Tae-seong had wanted to jump up and get away from there — but knowing that would make the situation look even worse, he’d been trying to calmly explain things when he heard Hee-young say something strange.
“Esper-friends…. What is that even. Hey, wait, hold on — put me down for a second. Who is it that this guy likes?”
“Hmm?”
“He likes the teacher? But then what was all that advice-giving about? The two of them were kissing!”
Then what on earth is the problem? Hee-young cried out. Shin-yul, seemingly displeased that Hee-young was still fixating on Tae-seong even now that he’d arrived, tightened his hold on Hee-young’s struggling body and rubbed his cheek against Hee-young’s neck, whining.
“Princess, I’m here now, and you’re still on about that?”
“You! You’re about to make me waste my entire time for nothing!”
As Hee-young wailed in indignation, Shin-yul clicked his tongue. Clearly not about to let it go, Shin-yul readjusted his hold on Hee-young and answered.
“Mm, that trash’s person of interest is apparently the princess’s teacher.”
“Trash?!”
“If you’re sneaking around meeting a Guide behind your Pair Esper’s back, you’re trash.”
Hearing Shin-yul’s icy words, Tae-seong fell silent. He had mentally prepared himself from the start — but what he’d gained compared to what he’d steeled himself for was pitifully little, and Tae-seong was close to losing his mind from the injustice of it.
“Hey, hold on…. The two of them were kissing. Weren’t they Guiding? Right?”
“…Yes, we were Guiding.”
“But you’re not Pairs?”
“Ah…….”
Only then did Tae-seong realize what he had been overlooking. He hadn’t known that what this Guide called a “mental issue” was actually a matter of basic social knowledge. Tae-seong let out a groan.
Shin-yul chuckled softly, charmed by Hee-young’s wide eyes and his bewildered questions.
“No. Guides without a Pair are called Center Guides — they mainly take on Espers who don’t have Pairs and provide Guiding for them.”
“Didn’t you say that if your Matching Rate is high, you become a Pair Guide?”
“Usually, yes?”
“But even though the teacher has a high Matching Rate, they’re a Center Guide and not a Pair Guide?”
What on earth does this Center even run on? Hee-young genuinely could not understand. Before Hee-young could finish, Tae-seong answered first.
“The Center prioritizes the Guide’s wishes. If a Guide doesn’t want to become a Pair, or wants to become the Pair Guide of an Esper other than the one with the highest Matching Rate, the Center respects the Guide’s decision — so even with a high Matching Rate, they may not become a Pair.”
“Ah, damn it, then what about me?”
Why is it that I have no such choice, and I’m mortgaged to a lunatic?
