# Chapter 79
Jo Wooyeon had also been active in the field once. Since Jiwon entered the center before Songi, the two generally moved together.
His dedicated Esper was Choi Young, a B-class Esper. The memory of how he always silently did his best remained vivid.
‘I don’t think you’ll do something stupid like I did. But I can’t help but worry.’
Jiwon understood why Jo Wooyeon worried about him, why he was trying so hard to bring him into the Association.
It was because the memory of that day long ago, engulfed in despair, was still fresh.
Choi Young the Esper and Jo Wooyeon the Guide.
It was already common knowledge that the relationship between the two went beyond that of just Esper and Guide.
Only Jo Wooyeon had guided Choi Young. And Choi Young only wanted Jo Wooyeon’s guiding. Since their matching rate was quite high, it seemed fine.
The problem erupted on the day Choi Young returned from an A-class dungeon, pushed to the brink of going berserk.
‘Kuhak…!’
‘Guide-nim!’
‘It’s okay, huk, I can do it. I can, cough!’
Choi Young was groaning in pain. Jo Wooyeon continued guiding him even while coughing up blood.
Jiwon could only watch the two with anxious eyes. At that time, Jiwon was just a child who had awakened as a Guide not long ago, so he couldn’t dare to step in.
‘Are you okay? Ugh, are you coming to your senses?’
‘Why, so much blood….’
Thanks to Jo Wooyeon’s desperate efforts, Choi Young’s wavelength fortunately stabilized.
However, the problem occurred with Jo Wooyeon. As a result of enduring an excessive level of guiding alone, his body was damaged.
After that day, Jo Wooyeon became a Guide who could no longer perform guiding.
The dedicated contract was naturally terminated. It was an inevitable result since he couldn’t guide anymore.
Jo Wooyeon said he was fine with a face that was not fine at all. And despite losing his ability, he always stayed by Choi Young’s side. As if seeking comfort in that way.
‘Kuhk, ugh…!’
‘Huh, Esper-nim! Try to regain your senses! Why, ugh, is the guiding…!’
But the problems didn’t end there.
It was the day Choi Young came out after entering a dungeon for the first time since the accident. His wavelength state was somewhat unstable, but not at a dangerous level. At that moment, when another Guide reached out to guide Choi Young for the first time, an unexpected problem occurred.
‘Why, why is this happening? Why is the stability level dropping? Are you sure you’re guiding properly?’
‘Urgh, the guiding, isn’t working, huk, the Esper-nim is… kuk, rejecting the guiding…!’
‘Huuh, huk, kuk…!’
Despite being in the midst of guiding, Choi Young’s stability suddenly plummeted.
Guides nearby all rushed to Choi Young as his stability dropped to an unmanageable level. Jiwon was no exception.
‘Uuuu, aaagh!’
But it backfired. Choi Young’s stability dropped even more rapidly.
Eventually, Choi Young roared and lost his mind.
‘He’s going berserk! Everyone get away!’
‘No, that’s not right, no! Wait…!’
‘You can’t go near him!’
‘I need to guide him, no, Esper-nim!’
The Guides moved away from Choi Young as he began to go berserk. Jo Wooyeon desperately clung to him, but was blocked by other Espers.
Choi Young’s agonizing screams echoed all around. Recalling that desperate voice that still felt so vivid, Jiwon clenched and unclenched his hands.
‘Guiding rejection reaction.’
He remembered it more clearly because he had briefly guided him directly. Choi Young’s body that seemed somehow blocked, not accepting the guiding.
Displaying symptoms befitting the term “rejection,” he finally went berserk.
“Haa….”
No clear cause has been identified for the guiding rejection reaction. There are other cases like Choi Young’s, but they are very few, and they go berserk before there’s a chance to properly research them.
‘I shouldn’t have loved him.’
Jo Wooyeon mumbled that with a vacant expression at Choi Young’s funeral. And after that day, Jo Wooyeon changed slightly.
He became rigid, pedantic, resolute, and cold. Jiwon realized that he was trying not to give his heart to either work or people.
‘Don’t act like me. Understand?’
But he didn’t push Jiwon away. Even with his painful heart, he wasn’t cruel enough to let go of the hand of Jiwon, who had nowhere else to turn.
‘Jiwon. I… if I could, I’d want to forcibly separate the two of you right now.’
‘……’
‘That’s how anxious I feel.’
That Jo Wooyeon told him he was anxious. That he was worried about him.
Jo Wooyeon firmly believed that the guiding rejection reaction stemmed from emotions. He was convinced that feelings between an Esper and a Guide were close to harmful.
That’s why, as soon as he noticed Jiwon’s feelings, he urged the termination of the dedicated contract.
In fact, the reason Jiwon had started to stick to holding hands only for guiding was because Jo Wooyeon had insisted on it.
He wanted Guides to treat guiding as just a business matter.
The higher the degree of physical contact, the much easier guiding becomes. However, human hearts tend to waver more easily as bodies get closer.
Jo Wooyeon, believing that feelings should not develop between an Esper and a Guide, could only conclude it was something that shouldn’t be done.
‘To say that rejection reactions occur just because of feelings seems questionable, given how common it is for people to fall in love with each other…’
In fact, it’s not uncommon for Espers and Guides to connect emotionally. However, not all of them experienced the same accident as Jo Wooyeon.
Still, the reason he listened to him without any resistance might have been because of the miserable face he had at that time, which was etched in his mind.
‘I must look anxious.’
Love is warm and gentle like spring, but also harsh and sharp like winter.
While focusing on one person and trying to do anything for them, it can also make you so absorbed in your emotions that you fail to recognize when your efforts are misguided.
Jo Wooyeon loved Esper Choi Young, and because of that, he damaged his own body, and Choi Young went berserk.
And Jiwon was following in Jo Wooyeon’s footsteps. He couldn’t just think lightly that he had simply come to like Suhyun.
Because while striving to protect Suhyun, he also didn’t want him to be guided by other Guides. This was no different from wishing for Suhyun to experience a rejection reaction.
‘If you’re not going to end the dedicated contract, at least let other Guides guide Esper Suhyun. …You know what I mean?’
How could he not know?
Jiwon swallowed a sigh and collected himself. Even if it’s an uncertain, ungrounded theory, he should be careful. That must be what Jo Wooyeon wanted and warned about.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Huh?”
Jiwon, who had been pressing down on his head, jumbled with painful memories he wanted to forget and things he needed to accomplish, was startled by Suhyun’s sudden voice and looked up.
Suhyun was leaning against the doorway of his room, looking at him.
“I knocked several times.”
“Ah, did you?”
Jiwon smiled awkwardly but quickly hardened his expression.
It was unlike Suhyun to open the door and enter without permission when he usually just walked away if there was no answer to his knock.
“Is something wrong?”
Jiwon, assuming something was wrong, asked as he got up from the bed where he had been sitting.
“It seems the Guide-nim is the one with something wrong.”
However, Suhyun shook his head as he answered. Jiwon replied with a puzzled face.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, nothing’s wrong.”
“Weren’t you so lost in your thoughts that you couldn’t even hear the knocking?”
Suhyun immediately questioned as if asking where the lie was coming from. Jiwon, feeling awkward, jokingly replied.
“Did you come because you were worried about me?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t expect such a straightforward agreement.
Momentarily flustered, Jiwon fidgeted with his face.
Suhyun was worried about him. They had somehow become that close. It should be something to be happy about, but given the thoughts he’d just been having, he couldn’t smile.
“…I just had some things to think about.”
He couldn’t blindly believe Jo Wooyeon’s assumption was correct.
But just as Jo Wooyeon loved Choi Young, the feeling was mutual. And Choi Young unconsciously rejected guiding from Guides other than Jo Wooyeon.
He didn’t want to go through that situation again. Especially not with Suhyun. He couldn’t take Jo Wooyeon’s warning lightly.
“Is it related to Director Jo Wooyeon’s talk about terminating the dedicated contract?”
Just then, Suhyun asked unhesitatingly. His tone suggested he was already certain of the answer.
