One hour before Jeong Sanghyeop arrived, Nam Ihyeon popped out from the ceiling. It was a secret passage that only a few S-class espers knew about. Unaware of this fact, I had been peacefully eating lunch and brushing my teeth. I looked at Nam Ihyeon, who had suddenly appeared through the broken ceiling, with an expression like I was about to faint from shock.
He was wearing the black uniform that espers wore. His hair was also neatly styled, and despite having come through the ceiling passage, nothing was disheveled.
When I couldn’t close my gaping mouth, Nam Ihyeon looked at me and laughed. Then he pointed at my chin with his finger. It seemed some toothpaste water had dribbled down.
“What’s on your chin?”
“Ah, I’m in the middle of brushing.”
I spoke with garbled pronunciation and quickly rinsed my mouth before coming out.
“No. Why is your chin injured?”
“I don’t know. When I woke up, it was torn.”
“You don’t know the reason? The security is killing it. I keep telling you to upgrade your hospital room grade. Does Kim Haewon not have money? Should I upgrade it for you?”
“What are you talking about. Why would Esper Kim Haewon pay for my hospital room? It’s not to the extent that I’d upgrade it while spending my own money. There wasn’t even anyone who broke in, it was just torn. It’s not even torn that much, the gauze is just big.”
I spat out words quickly, making rough excuses. I judged it was still premature to tell Nam Ihyeon about the dream.
At least before telling someone, I needed to have more facts that I knew and be certain. What I had right now were only fragmentary images and words.
It would become clearer when I met Jeong Sanghyeop today.
“Hmm, how do I look?”
“What?”
“This is your first time seeing me in uniform.”
“So what.”
“So what?”
Nam Ihyeon’s eyebrows shot up. His expression was full of dissatisfaction. I snorted as if finding it absurd.
“It might be the first time you’re showing me, Nam Ihyeon-ssi, but I’ve really seen it a lot. I’ve seen it on the news and commercials and such. You appear a lot on the electronic billboards in the Association building too.”
“That’s different from seeing the real thing!”
“It’s similar though?”
“Hey! Everyone loses their minds when I show up dressed like this, you know?”
“Shh. You did sneak in secretly, right? If you yell like that, even Jeong Sanghyeop-ssi who’s on his way will turn around and leave.”
I wiped my mouth with a towel and looked at Nam Ihyeon’s outfit again. The Ability User Association uniform was a black uniform with clean lines. There was no difference by grade, only the color of the band on the shoulder was different. S-class was white.
“You know the color for C-class is yellow, right? It looks like bird poop fell on it.”
“Doesn’t it look like gold and nice?”
“It’s not this kind of good-quality fabric. But can you really get away with sneaking out?”
“I only told the Director.”
“What did he say?”
“He said I might as well go out and die.”
Nam Ihyeon spoke as if it was no big deal. But Director Cha Hyeonseok of Esper Department 1 was someone who felt frightening no matter how kind he was. He was the only person close to being able to command all those disobedient S-classes. Even Kim Haewon listened to his words, so other people just obeyed without even having to be told.
Guides didn’t particularly need to follow the Esper Department’s orders, but if it was Cha Hyeonseok, the story was a bit different. It was because his power was overwhelmingly stronger than the director of one’s own department.
‘Director Ham really hates him. Says the young punk is cocky.’
It was a famous story from way back that Esper Department 1 and Guide Department 1 didn’t get along.
From Director Cha Hyeonseok’s perspective too, it must have been exasperating when Nam Ihyeon, whom the Association was still paying attention to, notified him in the middle of an event that he was leaving because of one guide. Still, he didn’t seem to be the style like Director Ham who tormented people by finding fault for all sorts of reasons.
“Be grateful the Director isn’t a petty person. Guide Department 1, ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Still, they say Director Ham is quite fond of you?”
“Like hell. If it weren’t for Esper Kim Haewon, I would’ve been fired right away.”
I didn’t even want to receive Director Ham’s love or anything. It would probably be the very first thing I sincerely wanted to reject. Seeing my expression, Nam Ihyeon cackled and went to sit by the window.
“You really like the window.”
“I have a lot of body heat. I’m always hot.”
At his cheesy expression, I almost flipped him off, but I barely held back. I put in the artificial tears that Kim Haewon had brought me and put my lenses back in.
“I almost pulled my eyeball out trying to take these off yesterday.”
“Your eyesight is good, right?”
“Yes. Ugh. I hope I never have to wear them again. Though I feel bad for the person who got them for me.”
I put in the lenses more skillfully than yesterday and immediately rubbed my eyes roughly with a towel. It was because I remembered the sight that Kim Haewon hated to see.
‘Getting all disgusted just because some tears welled up. What a weird person.’
Still, I thought I should definitely express gratitude for him taking care of it. Because it meant he believed me. I put on the coat that had been on the bed. Nam Ihyeon was sitting straddled while feeling the breeze.
“Won’t you be visible from outside?”
“You have no sense of direction. This side is a wall.”
“There’s a wall?”
Looking down, there really was a wall. Moreover, it was a very narrow wall so a person couldn’t be in between. Beyond that was immediately the mountain-shaped research institute. The top covering was shaped like a mountain, but below, the Association’s research building was hidden. In other words, that mountain couldn’t be climbed.
“You seem really smart sometimes, but other times you seem like a total fool and idiot.”
“That’s what I should be saying to Esper Nam Ihyeon. And stop with the casual speech. People who see will think we’re really close.”
“We’re this close. How much closer do you want to get?”
Nam Ihyeon spoke like a sly snake whenever given the chance. I gave up on responding and put away the lens case. Then I roughly tidied the hospital room.
“Will tidying that a bit make it clean?”
“The nurse said this is on the nice side, you know?”
“You’re using it alone but it feels like a 6-person room. The hospital room is somehow bustling.”
“It’s all because of that junk over there.”
‘That you sent.’ I erased those words and pointed, but Nam Ihyeon just shrugged his shoulders. Shameless bastard. The delinquent Santa had stopped delivering gifts, but there was no time to clean up what had already come. With office supplies and daily necessities increasing on top of that, this place was practically no different from a studio apartment.
I hoped Jeong Sanghyeop would let his guard down a bit seeing this warm scenery, but thinking of his wounds and anger, it was hard to run such a hopeful circuit.
At least there shouldn’t be any misunderstandings or distortions about his older sister’s death… I was thinking that when Nam Ihyeon suddenly went over behind the window. He just disappeared as if falling.
“Whoa!”
I tried to grab him, but he drew a V-sign above the window as if he was fine. He seemed to be hanging somewhere.
In that time, quite a bit of time had passed. In about 20 minutes, Jeong Sanghyeop would arrive. I lay down comfortably on the bed. I didn’t forget to turn on the camera Nam Ihyeon had brought.
The micro camera was placed on top of a book on the nightstand like a bookmark. A nurse came in to change the IV fluid and left. Not long after that, I heard a knock-knock sound. I tried to erase signs of tension and continued speaking.
“Yes, who is it?”
“This is Jeong Sanghyeop. I’m the D-class esper who contacted the Management Department. I came to greet you.”
It was a tense, good-natured voice. I blinked my contact lens-wearing eyes several times, then took a deep breath. Then I spoke.
“Please come in.”
“Hello, Guide Park Garam. It’s my first time meeting you.”
Jeong Sanghyeop looked neater than when I saw him in front of the gate. His hair was cut short enough to be close to his scalp, and his skin was shiny as if he had just applied lotion.
“Yes, hello. You didn’t need to come greet me separately, but you must have worked hard coming all the way here.”
“No. Two guides got swept up because of me. I’m D-class so I couldn’t even take care of my own body and only showed disgrace.”
Jeong Sanghyeop acted like someone with humility ingrained in them. I continued speaking without letting my guard down.
“Is it your fault the gate didn’t match your grade? You just need to do well where it fits.”
“……”
“I was C-class until recently too, so I know. People of our grade have to live constantly hitting our limits.”
“Is that so?”
Jeong Sanghyeop’s head gradually lifted. What had been stretched out and lowered like a turtle neck to look naive straightened, and the rigid posture of a trained soldier gradually began to emerge. Jeong Sanghyeop put down the flowers he was holding on the nightstand and continued speaking. The flowers were sunflowers.
“But you’re S-class now, right? Someone who can do anything.”
“Do you really think so?”
I deliberately made eye contact with Jeong Sanghyeop. Jeong Sanghyeop, as if thinking this was the moment, began chanting something. It was an incantation where his mouth barely moved. It seemed he was trying to use hypnotic ability.
“Park Garam, you now obey my words. You can only hear my voice. From now on, you hit yourself. You must hit yourself until you can’t hit anymore. You must hit yourself to death. You obey my words. You start hitting yourself right now.”
I looked at Jeong Sanghyeop without saying anything. Faint smoke came out of his mouth. It was to the extent that it wouldn’t be visible unless you were very close. Because it disappeared into a transparent color right away. I felt those things make my vision hazy. Jeong Sanghyeop approached me a bit closer.
“Park Garam, you now obey my words… Urk!”
But he was simultaneously subdued. Nam Ihyeon appeared and grabbed him from behind. He quickly bound Jeong Sanghyeop’s hands and feet with restraining tools through which electric shocks flowed. Jeong Sanghyeop was immediately slammed to the floor and cursed viciously.
“Fuck!”
Nam Ihyeon kicked Jeong Sanghyeop’s abdomen as he spat out curses savagely. As Jeong Sanghyeop curled his body with a groan, Nam Ihyeon put an eyepatch over his eyes. But I didn’t feel even a little bit like we had accomplished something. Rather, feeling frustrated, I clenched my fists. I couldn’t do anything.
