# Chapter 104
Jiwon, who had been continuously tapping the desk, let out a deep sigh.
“Haah…”
After sending Suhyun away, his concentration had left home and wasn’t coming back at all.
If it was going to be like this, he should have just followed him to the dungeon.
“…What nonsense.”
Jiwon laughed dryly and shook his head.
What wrong had the guide who needed to guide Suhyun done? If he stood there observing, it would be burdensome and might prevent them from doing well.
Well, Suhyun would be uncomfortable too.
“Oh my…”
Jiwon rubbed his face while making a wailing sound. Really now. He wasn’t a puppy with separation anxiety, yet he couldn’t do anything just because he couldn’t see Suhyun for a while.
His face stiffened with self-loathing and a sense of pathetic inadequacy.
“Ah.”
It was then that his previously silent phone vibrated. Setting aside his self-blame, Jiwon quickly answered the call.
“Hello, Director.”
The caller was Jo Wooyeon.
“Hey, are you busy?”
“No. I’m not busy.”
He had worried something might have happened since Wooyeon wasn’t one to make casual calls, but fortunately, his voice sounded fine.
“Where are you?”
“Where else? I’m in your office. Thanks to you, I’m here alone playing around after sending Esper Suhyun away.”
In response to Jiwon’s playful words, Wooyeon laughed softly, though not for long.
“…Esper Choi Young.”
As soon as Wooyeon mentioned Choi Young’s name, the smile disappeared from Jiwon’s face as well.
“How could he have brought the gemstone out?”
At this questioning statement, Jiwon frowned and asked.
“…What do you mean?”
“It’s been bothering me. How could he have brought out that dark red gemstone, supposedly the source of Riska’s power?”
Wasn’t it the condensed result of Choi Young’s wavelength? If so, the fact that he had it was to some extent…
“I’ve been investigating all along, and no one else has come out holding a dark red gemstone except him. There must have been more than one victim.”
“…Not even one person?”
“That’s right. Not a single one.”
Feeling somewhat confused, Jiwon clenched and unclenched his fist to calm himself.
As Wooyeon said, it was strange. Some of the other victims should have come out holding that gemstone too.
That would make sense if they were condensed wavelengths that had fallen as crystals.
“Then I suddenly thought of something…”
“What is it?”
Jiwon asked, openly showing his urgency. The feeling that they were close to finding a clue about Riska but kept missing it made him naturally impatient.
“I thought it was nothing at the time, but thinking about it now, it seems strange.”
“…Which part?”
“…A wound.”
“A wound?”
“On his body, there was a small wound…”
***
The dark, musty space resembled an endless underground passage. The dungeon’s structure involved monsters occasionally flying out from the end of the passage.
“Hmm…”
A B-class dungeon where bat-like monsters swarmed in groups now and then.
Suhyun was walking steadily through it with Won Jungyeom.
“It’s nice getting this easy reward legally.”
There wasn’t a hint of tension between the two. That was understandable, as it was such a simple dungeon that it seemed questionable whether they’d even manage to lower their stability levels.
“You didn’t have to come along.”
In response to Suhyun’s words, Jungyeom shrugged and replied.
“That wouldn’t be polite.”
It was a statement Suhyun couldn’t relate to at all.
“By the way, it feels strange that you two finally started dating.”
It seemed like he had just come along to make small talk like this.
“I feel a bit… unsettled.”
Jungyeom dramatically placed his hand over his heart as if it hurt, and Suhyun only gave him a fleeting glance. Honestly, it was hard to understand why he felt that way.
“I’ve been taking care of Guide Jiwon for 7 years now. I first saw him when he was 19.”
Perhaps his thoughts were evident, as Jungyeom started emphasizing his time with Jiwon in an aggrieved tone.
“You don’t know this, Esper Suhyun? Jiwon suddenly shot up in height at 19. When I first met him, he was small and skinny, but later I was surprised to see him grow taller every time we met.”
It was a story he already knew. Jiwon had told him before, and out of curiosity, Suhyun had also looked up old photos of Jiwon.
There were quite a few, and he had saved them carefully on his phone.
But the strange thing about human hearts is that even if he already knew the story, if it was about Jiwon, he wanted to hear it again. As much as possible, as often as possible.
“…And then?”
“Huh?”
“What was Guide Jiwon like back then?”
Since the dungeon posed no threat anyway, this much idle conversation didn’t matter.
Suhyun rationalized this way as he looked at Jungyeom with bright eyes.
“Hahaha.”
Seeing that gleam in his eyes, Jungyeom finally burst into laughter. His loud laugh echoed throughout the dungeon.
“Back then… actually, he wasn’t much different from now. He laughed easily, was kind, and handled everything well enough not to need help from others.”
“…”
“I was rather worried because he was too mature for his age.”
“…”
“Oh, and I was also concerned because there were so many guys after him.”
Suhyun’s brow furrowed. There was a face that naturally came to mind at his mention of “guys after him.”
‘What victim would welcome an attempted rapist? It makes me sick, so get lost.’
B-class Esper Park Minwoo.
Just recalling the name made his teeth grind.
Come to think of it, was Park Minwoo still alive with all limbs intact? As if nothing had happened?
“Haah…”
Back then, he had struggled to suppress his overflowing anger, telling himself it wasn’t his place to step in. But now that the situation had changed, the anger he had suppressed then threatened to erupt again.
“Why are you suddenly like this, Esper Suhyun? No, why are your hands shaking like that…”
His aura must have been quite menacing, as Jungyeom examined Suhyun with a bewildered expression.
“…It’s nothing.”
Suhyun slowly shook his head. However, his repressed anger was clearly felt in his voice.
‘Is he angry because I mentioned there were many guys after him?’
If that was the case, Jungyeom would need to reassess Suhyun in several ways. And he should probably tell Jiwon that Suhyun was extremely jealous and needed to be restrained…
“Shh.”
Just as his meddlesome tendencies were about to activate again.
Suhyun, who had been glaring with fiery anger until just now, suddenly suppressed his presence and gestured toward Jungyeom.
His sharp gaze moved as if searching the surroundings. Reflexively, Jungyeom quickly concealed his presence as well.
“…”
What had he sensed? This was just a B-class dungeon after all.
To shake off the uneasy premonition, Jungyeom also focused on the surrounding presences. But no matter how much he concentrated, he couldn’t feel anything.
‘What was it?’
While Jungyeom decided to just focus on suppressing his presence, judging that Suhyun, as an S-class Esper, would have sensed it more keenly, Suhyun let out a brief sigh.
It was because he realized that the strange chill he had momentarily felt had disappeared without a trace.
‘…This is weird.’
How could it vanish like this? It couldn’t have been a monster. Then what had he sensed?
“What is it?”
As Suhyun straightened up, Jungyeom asked as if he had been waiting. Suhyun shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
“…Really?”
At his somewhat unsettling response, Jungyeom’s eyebrows twitched. Suhyun scanned the long dungeon once more.
Something that had vanished as if it had never been there was creating an uneasy feeling.
“We should finish quickly and get out.”
Suhyun nodded. The previously leisurely pace of the two suddenly quickened.
As they moved forward, monsters appeared more frequently and in greater numbers, but they posed no problem for the two men.
Thanks to dealing with the monsters without a moment’s rest, they soon reached the end of the dungeon.
Suhyun raised his hand to sweep away the last monster.
“…!”
But at that moment.
A sudden rush of chilling energy made Suhyun quickly step back.
In Suhyun’s eyes, something thin and slender had shot up from the spot where he had been standing.
It was not even high enough to reach his ankle. Something that would have been missed if not concentrating vanished in an instant.
Just like before.
It had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
“Esper Suhyun!”
Though he tried to trace its presence, there was nothing to be found. Suhyun bit his lower lip and raised his hand toward the monster rapidly charging at him.
Simultaneously, the monster that had been approaching with momentum was torn apart and disappeared in mid-air. Suhyun’s gaze turned toward the monster only after that.
“…I worried unnecessarily.”
Jungyeom, who had shouted fearing Suhyun might be attacked when he seemed momentarily distracted, laughed awkwardly.
“There’s something here.”
Suhyun murmured in a low voice to Jungyeom.
“There was something targeting only me.”
There was something whose intentions were unclear, but definitely aimed at him. He could be certain because he had seen it with his own eyes.
