Yeoul opened the examination room door with a tense face and entered inside. The examiner, who had changed gloves, grinned and pointed to an empty bed with his hand.
“Now, Trainee Kim Yeoul. Please lie down here comfortably and relax.”
“Yes.”
He quickly climbed onto the bed and lay down. Similar to the full-body examination, the examiner attached electrodes to his head, hands and feet, and heart. Watching him busily operate the computer, Yeoul took a deep breath. Slowly, breathe in and breathe out…
‘Support team work will be fun too. I hope I can be on the same team as Jihu and Woojin there. Then we can eat lunch together every day.’
With that thought, his tension gradually eased and he felt happy. Even during training, on weekends the three of them would order delicious food. They would walk together to the guard post and bring back delivered tteokbokki and chicken. He was so fortunate to have met compatible colleagues here.
‘…I hope Kang Hyeseong will come visit the support team sometimes too.’
Would it be difficult since he’s always busy and out in the field? …But come to think of it, who is Kang Hyeseong receiving guiding from? It’s treated like such a secret that he doesn’t really know.
It was when he was lost in the stream of consciousness for a while.
“Huh?”
The examiner’s bewildered voice broke the silence that had filled the room. Yeoul, awakened from his thoughts, glanced at him. The examiner clicked the mouse rapidly with wide eyes.
“…Really?”
The typing hands became urgent. Yeoul asked with a bewildered face.
“Examiner, is something… wrong?”
“It’s not that…”
The examiner pointed at the monitor with an unbelieving face. In the darkness, his fingertips, tinged bluish from the light emanating from the computer, were trembling.
Yeoul’s gaze, filled with questions, turned toward the monitor the examiner was pointing at. Soon Yeoul’s eyes slowly widened and his mouth fell open.
A.
……A?
“Uh…? No, Examiner. Is what I’m seeing really correct…”
“Trainee Kim Yeoul! Congratulations.”
The examiner jumped up from his seat with an excited face, turned on the lights in the dim room, and clapped his hands while smiling brightly.
“A-grade, my goodness…! Congratulations so much! Not an Esper but a Guide, my goodness! How long has it been since I’ve seen an A-grade…!”
Yeoul alternately looked at the monitor and the examiner’s face with disbelieving eyes, then received the examination paper handed to him in a daze. On the printed paper, the letter ‘A’ was written in clear, bold letters.
A-grade, me…?
Before Yeoul could answer anything, suddenly the examination room door burst open and three Esper captains who had been waiting outside rushed in all at once.
“Trainee Kim Yeoul! No, our R2 Team Guide! Please come to our proud elite unit.”
“What nonsense. Our Guide will be taken by R3. Right, Second Lieutenant Kim Yeoul? Our R3 Team’s benefits are amazing. We’re also the most comfortable among the elite teams…”
“Ah, wait a minute. The elite teams have many B-grade Guides too. We’re completely in a Guide drought. Let our R4 also welcome a precious Guide. Please?”
“…Peace! Trainee Kim Yeoul, G312-A…!”
With three people suddenly bursting in at once and pouring out words, he couldn’t think straight at all. Since only the basic information remained that when a superior touches your body, you state your rank and name, Yeoul was busy saluting one by one toward the Esper captains who put their arms around his shoulders and pressed close without hesitation.
Then the tallest and most fierce-looking person among the three stepped forward and shouted at the other two.
“Really, stop fooling around. Huh? Humanly speaking, you know or don’t you know that our R2 goes on the most dangerous missions? We all work risking our lives! Suffering from chronic guiding shortages!”
“The team that goes on the most dangerous missions is R1. You know well that everything below that is all similar…”
“What, you bastard?”
“Oh my. If you two are going to fight, go outside and fight. Don’t make the atmosphere hostile. Our precious Guide is completely terrified.”
It was true. The already scary-looking superiors… suddenly bursting in and having a hostile conversation with him sandwiched between them was extremely uncomfortable and frightening for Yeoul. He felt like a single shrimp caught between sharks.
‘What is this, it’s scary…’
Yeoul was crying inside while desperately trying to show a dignified attitude befitting a trainee. He had no idea what was going on.
So, he understood that he came out as A-grade… but Kang Hyeseong absolutely told him not to apply to a rescue team, so in any case, he had to join a support team.
But why are rescue team Esper captains swarming around doing this…? Should he say that Kang Hyeseong absolutely told him not to apply to a rescue team? But how, and at what timing…?
At that moment, the expressions of the Espers surrounding Yeoul changed instantly. They all turned around, looked at the entrance, and saluted in a rigid posture.
“Peace!”
Yeoul’s gaze turned to the doorway last. Upon discovering the person standing in front of the examination room, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes. First, without thinking about anything else, he immediately raised his hand and saluted.
“Peace! Trainee Kim Yeoul, G312-A.”
Kang Hyeseong’s gaze, looking at the Espers with an expressionless face, finally stopped on Yeoul. He lightly nodded his head and only received Yeoul’s salute, then turned his head toward the examiner.
“Examiner. Is Trainee Kim Yeoul confirmed as A-grade?”
“Yes, confirmed as A-grade.”
The examiner added that he had even run a retest and both times A-grade appeared. Kang Hyeseong, who confirmed even the examination papers held side by side in the examiner’s and Yeoul’s hands, was silent. He was just looking down at the examination paper with calm eyes whose depth could not be known.
“……”
“……”
At Kang Hyeseong’s silence, everyone froze with bewildered expressions. Even the Esper captains who had been loudly arguing until just moments ago were silent with tense appearances. Yeoul also held his breath and only looked at Kang Hyeseong.
How much time passed? Finally, he opened his lips.
“Guide Kim Yeoul will be taken by R1.”
“……!”
Everyone showed signs of bewilderment. Especially the most burly Esper called the R2 Captain was shaken the most. His face looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn’t object and just moved his mouth.
Whether they had just engaged in fierce dispute over Yeoul or not, Kang Hyeseong left the room with an indifferent expression. Then he called the Guide captain standing outside and gave instructions.
“Lieutenant Colonel Lee Haejin.”
“Peace! Lieutenant Colonel Lee Haejin.”
“Register Guide Kim Yeoul as an R1 team member.”
“Yes, understood.”
After completing the instructions flawlessly, he finally turned toward Yeoul. The moment their eyes met, the radio plugged into Kang Hyeseong’s shoulder strap began ringing loudly.
―Code Orange. Code Orange. Seoul Yongsan-gu XX-dong, B-grade gate occurrence. Coordinates 294, 189.
Upon hearing the radio transmission, Kang Hyeseong immediately turned around. Watching the back of him nimbly running down to the first floor, Yeoul stood there with a blank face.
R1 Team…?
I’m… joining the Republic of Korea’s frontline unit?
And the team that Kang Hyeseong leads?
He couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t this a reality more dreamlike than a dream?
Kang Hyeseong had said so firmly that he would block him from joining a rescue team even if he had to abuse his authority.
But that same Kang Hyeseong had directly assigned him to a rescue team. To that very team that was the object of countless ability users’ admiration and longing, but operated with only a small elite befitting the Republic of Korea’s best team, making entry more difficult than passing through the eye of a needle.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t worried first. Whether he could keep up well with his weak body in that team said to have the most workload in the Security Bureau, whether he would be a nuisance to the team members and Kang Hyeseong by not being able to handle even his own body… Thinking about that, he felt like he could understand why Kang Hyeseong had so tried to stop him at the Chinese restaurant.
However, the fact that he was on the same team as Kang Hyeseong, and furthermore that he had trusted and chosen him, overwhelmingly surpassed all those fears. So happy and excited that he felt overwhelmed, Yeoul had to press his chest firmly with his palm to calm his pounding heart.
“Haaa… The Major General is really too much. Wow… really one-sided.”
Around the time Kang Hyeseong’s back completely disappeared, the R2 Captain groaned as if squeezing it out while covering his face with his palm. The other Esper captains also smacked their lips.
“I thought we’d recruit a Guide this time for sure…”
“I know. I’m going crazy. I bragged loudly to our kids that I’d definitely bring back a Guide.”
They grumbled while taking out cigarette packs. As they moved away toward the smoking room saying they’d go smoke one, the Guide trainees who had been watching their backs rushed toward Yeoul as if they’d been waiting.
“Yeoul! Kim Yeoul! Congratulations! A-grade, isn’t that really crazy?!”
“Hyung, this is really amazing. I got total goosebumps. Hyung, congratulations!”
Of course, the most excited among them were Jihu and Woojin. His heart swelled watching his former roommates congratulating him as if it were their own business. Yeoul smiled at them with a flushed face.
“Thanks. …I don’t know what all this is about.”
“You originally wanted to go to a rescue team! This worked out so well, Yeoul!”
“I know! And it’s R1. The Republic of Korea’s frontline unit! Really freaking cool, hyung!”
“Yeoul, even if you go there, you can’t forget us, okay?”
“What are you saying… How could I forget you guys. You guys better not forget me just because I went to a rescue team.”
The three trainees linked arms and jumped up and down on the spot. It felt exactly like a dream. He had a premonition that he would never be able to forget today.
