“Is there any reason I’d need to remember something like that?”
Since it had come to this, he decided to brazen it out. He wasn’t keen on pretending to be Yujin Langford, but if he aroused unnecessary suspicion, the other man might start prying with more questions and make things troublesome.
“Hmm.”
At that, Min Jaeha’s expression lost its amusement as his gaze swept over Yujin’s face. A moment later, the corners of his lips curved upward.
“Interesting.”
“……”
Only then did Yujin feel a prickle of alarm. He was smiling, just like before — and yet something was subtly different. Looking more closely, he could see that Min Jaeha’s eyes, with their irises lighter than most people’s, were not smiling at all. It was a cold, penetrating gaze, as though carefully observing a subject under scrutiny.
He’s been watching this whole time without letting anything show.
When someone they knew started acting differently than before, most people would usually let their surprise or confusion slip. But Min Jaeha hadn’t done that at all. He’d approached casually, struck up a conversation, and quietly observed the reactions. It wasn’t something an ordinary person would do.
This guy has a bit of a sinister streak.
He had met plenty of Espers with unusual personalities back in his old world. The higher-ranked they were, the more pronounced it tended to be. High-ranked Espers with particularly distinctive wavelengths had a hard time finding compatible Guides, which meant they were always suffering from a shortage of Guiding. It was only natural that even the most grounded person would start to crack under those conditions.
Baek Dohun, the Team Leader of Alpha Team 1, seemed to have trained himself through military life to at least keep his personality from showing on the surface. Though when provoked enough to lose his temper, his true nature seemed to come out.
Kang Taejun, on the other hand, had a rotten disposition to begin with, and with few checks on his behavior, his temper was something else entirely. The only person who could reprimand an S-rank Esper was probably Baek Dohun — also S-rank and his superior. But being Team Leader was a rank in name only; S-ranks with that kind of power were ultimately beyond anyone’s control.
Still, Kang Taejun was at least simple in his temperament, which made him easy enough to manage. All you had to do was read his reactions and adjust accordingly.
But Min Jaeha was different from either of them. He wasn’t forcibly suppressing or concealing some twisted nature — it was closer to acting. That initial friendly demeanor had no doubt been performed, too.
“Speaking of which, I heard you Guided the other team members yesterday?”
The subject shifted quickly. It seemed that this was the real point Min Jaeha had been working toward. Yujin decided to keep mimicking Yujin Langford’s arrogant manner for the time being.
“So? It’s just Guiding.”
“No, I mean… you’ve never properly done it before.”
“You’re complaining even though I did it?”
Yujin frowned as though displeased. He could feel Min Jaeha’s gaze moving persistently over his face. A bead of sweat traced a slow line down his back.
I wish he’d just come straight at me like some people do. Min Jaeha seemed to be the suspicious type. He had the feeling things were going to get troublesome from here on out.
“So will you be Guiding me today as well?”
Min Jaeha asked in the same bright, lively tone as before. The way he kept flipping his demeanor like a switch was baffling.
“If I feel like it.”
Yujin answered deliberately in a cold tone. He was obviously going to Guide him because of the quest, but saying yes right away would probably make Min Jaeha suspicious again. He recalled those eyes of his narrowing in an instant, snake-like, and hardened his expression further.
“If you feel like it?”
“That’s right.”
“So it’s not a flat-out no, at least.”
Min Jaeha smiled with a smug, pleased look on his face. The soft curve of his eyes made him look younger than his age. He was the oldest among the team members after Team Leader Baek Dohun, if years alone were counted — and yet the more you looked at him, the younger his face seemed.
“Guess I’ll have to be on my best behavior if I want to get Guided.”
“……”
And on top of it all, he said something like that with a grin. Yujin momentarily forgot what he was about to say.
Best behavior, my ass. This guy’s a complete lunatic. Yujin muttered to himself, cursing inwardly.
“See you later then, Team Leader.”
Min Jaeha said cheerfully and left first. He’d been rattling away nonstop the entire time, yet somehow managed to finish his entire meal. Yujin watched his retreating figure for a moment, then got to his feet.
No more slip-ups from here. He would need to be more careful when dealing with the other Espers going forward as well. With that resolution, Yujin walked out of the cafeteria.
* * *
“T-Team Leader? Are you… are you actually at work?”
When he arrived at the office, Hayeong looked as though he’d seen a ghost. Yujin glanced at his wide eyes and gave a vague nod.
“Yeah. You said an audit was coming.”
“It’s not yet, though…”
“Can’t know the exact date, can you.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Yujin ignored Hayeong’s dazed expression and sat down at his desk.
Should’ve made a show of dragging my feet before coming out. He’d come out early because he was hungry, and now Hayeong was having a minor meltdown. Then again, Yujin Langford had probably gleefully ignored every plea for him to please just show up to work.
Today I’ll Guide the remaining two…
Yujin took the pad Hayeong handed him and checked his schedule for the day. Yesterday he had Guided Baek Dohun and Kang Taejun, which left Min Jaeha and Lee Siyun. He thought briefly of Min Jaeha from their encounter in the cafeteria and wrinkled his nose.
“W-Would the schedule be too tight? Should we drop one?”
“…No, it’s fine.”
He adjusted his expression, softening it — the way Hayeong kept anxiously reading the room was getting to him. Yujin continued scanning the pad screen.
Park Roun was on overseas deployment.
There were currently four Alpha Team 1 Espers at the center. The fifth was away on an overseas mission. So once he met with Lee Siyun today and Guided him, he would have seen all the Espers currently under his care.
Maybe he found a compatible Guide abroad. His numbers are the most stable by far.
Park Roun, who possessed the ability of invisibility, was perfectly suited for infiltration work. Though he belonged to Alpha Team 1, the missions he actually carried out were terrorist organization infiltration and espionage. This time, too, he’d apparently gone to investigate an organization made up of unregistered Awakened individuals operating overseas, whose trail had finally been picked up.
Unlike the other Espers, Park Roun’s Contamination level was markedly lower. He’d probably found a Guide with a compatible wavelength at his deployment site. Yujin had worried that if Park Roun came back late without enough Guiding it might interfere with the quest, but it looked like that was one less thing to stress about.
“Um, Team Leader…”
“Yeah?”
Yujin had been going through the pad making various plans when he looked up absentmindedly at Hayeong’s call. Hayeong was still watching him with a troubled expression.
“Do you have something else to report?”
“No, it’s just… well…”
“…?”
Did the Center Director say something about me Guiding the Espers yesterday?
Yujin tilted his head, picturing the Center Director’s timid-looking face. Even if Kang Taejun was a different story, he had at least Guided Baek Dohun properly. And compared to how negligent Yujin Langford had been all this time, shouldn’t this be worth some praise? Yujin grumbled inwardly and kept his eyes on Hayeong, who was still hemming and hawing.
“I noticed you haven’t been using the banquet hall since yesterday… where have you been eating?”
“What?”
Did I mishear that. Banquet hall?
Yujin, who had been doubting his own ears, realized Hayeong wasn’t joking. The face with its drooping corners looked timid, but it didn’t come across as a joke. Yujin frowned, then lifted a hand and rubbed the corner of his eye.
“Did I used to eat in this banquet hall?”
“Pardon? Yes…”
“Alone?”
“Yes, of course…”
“……”
With Hayeong’s words, Yujin belatedly came to understand how Yujin Langford had been taking his meals here all this time. He should have caught on when everyone in the cafeteria had looked so shocked.
He’d thought at most Yujin Langford would have had room service sent to his quarters — but clearly, Yujin Langford was a level of madness that defied imagination.
In the original novel’s world, Yujin Langford had lived in an aristocratic estate. The grounds were immense, with hundreds of attendants among the household staff. The space where meals were taken in that estate was referred to as a “dining room” or “banquet hall.”
And he had one of those built here, too. He’d had a mahogany desk brought into his room as well — he must have been desperate to live as extravagantly as he had back in his original world. He also recalled the Center Director mentioning expensive black tea on his first day back.
“…Get rid of that banquet hall.”
“Pardon?”
Hayeong reeled and repeated the question loudly at Yujin’s firm instruction. He spoke immediately.
“But you said you wouldn’t eat unless every meal was European-style with wine to accompany it…”
“……”
Damn Yujin Langford. He really had done it all, hadn’t he. Yujin ground his teeth, picturing Yujin Langford brazenly issuing orders to prepare a banquet hall and elaborate meals just for himself, using his body. If the man had been standing in front of him right now, he would have torn him to pieces.
“I, uh… after three years of eating like that… I got a bit tired of it.”
“Shall we change the menu then?”
“Never mind that. From now on I’ll eat at the center cafeteria.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Hayeong, who didn’t know Yujin had already been to the center cafeteria that morning, was appalled. His expression said it all — how on earth could someone with that kind of personality eat elbow-to-elbow with other people? The look left Yujin briefly at a loss for words.
“If you understood, you can go now. I need to finish reviewing the materials.”
“Oh — yes, understood…”
He waved his hand dismissively, and Hayeong nodded and slowly turned to leave. The way he kept sneaking glances back to check if Yujin was really alright was something to behold. Once he’d gone, Yujin let out a long breath he’d been holding in.
