The little kid grew more lovable as he grew up. His bright smile didn’t dilute even as his baby teeth all fell out and his second teeth came in, or as his height that had been just over a meter shot up—rather, it became even clearer.
‘What’s this?’
‘What does it look like?’
One day, he excitedly handed something to Hyeseong, saying he’d drawn a picture at school. Hyeseong, who had been taking off his combat uniform soaked with sweat and changing clothes, forgot his fatigue and tilted his head in puzzlement.
‘Let’s see. What is this? Superman? Iron Man?’
‘Wrong. It’s you, hyung!’
Kim Yeoul protested while bouncing around. The way the tiny thing hopped around looked just like a rabbit or a frog.
‘Today, at school, we drew heroes. You look the coolest to me, so I drew you, hyung!’
With those short, chubby fingers, he pointed here and there as he explained. This is hyung flying in the sky, this is the ice pillar hyung created, this is a frozen monster life form…
In Yeoul’s drawing, he was wearing a cool combat uniform (looking at it now, the combat uniform was depicted quite meticulously, but the reason he couldn’t recognize it at once was because it had a cape) and was in the process of saving numerous citizens. At the very bottom was written the theme “Drawing My Hero.”
‘Our Yeoul drew hyung looking really cool. Sorry I didn’t recognize it.’
When he stroked the little kid’s hair and praised him, he laughed, hehe. Whenever he saw such a smile, it felt like a light sparkled in one corner of his heart. A small, precious light like a firefly.
Kim Yeoul, whom he had only considered an annoying kid from next door, gradually began to carry different weight within Hyeseong.
When he happened to go to a department store or mart, it was common for Kim Yeoul to come to mind first. The amount of allowance and salary received as an S-grade Esper was high enough to exceed the average person’s imagination. In the monotonous daily life of repeating only training and studies, the only places where he could feel the joy of spending money were his family and Yeoul.
Kim Yeoul going to school carrying the bag he bought, wearing the clothes he bought, and running around the playground wearing the sneakers he bought. Whenever he did something for him, the child grew up wearing loveliness.
It wasn’t just outward cuteness. The child’s dreams, which grew differently day by day, changed in various ways. Doctor, pilot, soldier… They were various occupations, but the underlying wish was the same every time.
‘I’m going to be a smart doctor. That way I can treat hyung’s injuries.’
‘I’m going to be a pilot. That way I can follow hyung on business trips! Hehe. I’ll safely transport you whenever you go to other countries.’
‘I’m going to be a cool soldier like hyung.’
Like this, the child’s small heart was full of nothing but Kang Hyeseong. A child like a sunflower who knew only him. The tough field missions, the burden of having to lead a team at a young age, the Esper work that came with desolate loneliness and pain—all of it was bearable if it meant continuing to see this bright smile.
Until ‘that incident’ happened, such a peaceful state continued.
He has no memory after finishing ‘that incident’ he experienced at age seventeen—that is, his father’s death and funeral. As if someone had taken scissors and recklessly cut out chunks.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the ceiling of the examination room. When he lowered his head, his body dressed in a restraint suit came into view. He also saw the Director with a pale white face, as well as Espers and Guides with faces that were half worry and half fear.
After the rampage subsided, Hyeseong received a week’s leave. And only after coming home did he learn. That due to the rampage he’d caused, all of downtown Seoul had almost frozen solid.
The public opinion resulting from that was said to be half sympathy saying “How could he not, having lost family,” and half criticism saying “Even at this very moment there are many people sacrificed to gates, this is unbecoming of a soldier who saves citizens.”
However, afterward, the criticism gradually subsided. Instead, public attention shifted to whether Hyeseong could wake up safely. Not to the human Kang Hyeseong, but to Korea’s only S-grade Esper.
……
Hyeseong heard such words from his mother with an insensitive expression like someone who felt nothing. His shortly trimmed nails dug roughly into his palm.
He himself had had to hastily hold his father’s funeral like someone being chased and immediately return to the Security Bureau to carry out missions. Even though he had safely rescued all citizens except his father from the terrible accident scene, Hyeseong had to be put on a harsh judgment stand for the reason that he had struggled in anguish in his unconscious.
Anger and bitterness pooled over the deep wound that hadn’t fully healed. Everything felt futile and vain. For Hyeseong, who had silently carried out missions for three years since awakening and saved countless lives, this was an emotion he was experiencing for the first time.
What is all this… even.
Do I only have value as an S-grade weapon.
Just then, the front door opened with a crash!
‘Hyung…!’
Leaving behind Yeoul’s mother and Hyeseong’s mother who had hurriedly followed, the little kid ran over with fierce momentum. Before Hyeseong could even open his mouth to say anything, Yeoul jumped into his arms with all his might and began sobbing loudly.
‘Hic, sniff, I, I thought hyung couldn’t wake up…’
He cried so pitifully that not just his small chest but his entire body shook violently with intense hiccups. It was worrying to watch.
A thread of warmth began to seep into Hyeseong’s face that had been empty with no expression. He wiped the child’s messy face with his sleeve and gently soothed him.
‘…Did our Yeoul worry a lot about hyung?’
‘Of course, hic, I worried a lot. Without hyung, I didn’t want snacks or games, I hated everything… Without hyung, sniff, I don’t need any of it.’
I see. Hyeseong muttered in a hoarse voice and quietly stroked the child’s sweat-soaked hair.
Wiping Yeoul’s tear-stained cheeks, he felt the heavy emotions he’d wanted to put down gradually flowing away. Things like his duty as a soldier, the rampage that had torn through his consciousness, the responsibility of an S-grade Esper. It felt like impurities were being washed away and in the remaining space, breathing holes were finally being created little by little.
‘Now, sniff, hyung, don’t do Esper stuff anymore.’
It was a firm tone unbefitting a ten-year-old kid.
‘Don’t do that crap, hic. I… I… really hate it.’
‘Yeoul-ah. What is this child saying… Hyung is already having a hard time as it is.’
Unable to watch any longer, Yeoul’s mother subtly tried to pull the child away from Hyeseong’s embrace, but Yeoul was firm. With just his tiny hands, he gripped Hyeseong’s clothes tightly and shook his head vigorously.
‘I don’t want to. I said I don’t want it, hyung being in danger… So don’t do it anymore. Don’t go to the Security Bureau. You don’t have to be a hero or anything, don’t be an Esper…’
Our hyung is a national hero, the strongest hero in the world. Hyeseong knew well how proudly Yeoul regarded him as an ability user.
And yet Yeoul was saying firmly. You don’t have to be a hero or anything, don’t do that crap anymore. That he hated hyung being in danger.
Soothing the child who was crying until his clothes were soaked, Hyeseong quietly and firmly steeled his resolve. It was ironic. The embers that had been darkly dying out before those who looked at him only as an S-grade Esper were instead revived before the child who was crying his heart out, begging him not to do Esper stuff anymore.
It was a primal desire. Similar to the elation he’d felt when he’d saved hundreds of citizens in his first mission. That he wanted to protect his precious one until the end. That he didn’t want to let this child lose something precious, someone they loved, and be left crying.
Time passed slowly but steadily. Hyeseong no longer rampaged in ways that harmed others. He carried out training and missions flawlessly, and moved forward steadfastly without being swept up in emotional aspects. The young greenhorn officer gradually became closer to an ideal and perfect soldier.
During that time, the small and cute child completely shed being a child and became an adolescent. But even after becoming a middle schooler and a high schooler, Kim Yeoul didn’t lose that characteristic loveliness. He was mature yet polite, and yet lively. He was a child with a pure and clear nature.
In Hyeseong’s eyes, no matter how much Yeoul grew, he was always a baby. The cutie who had insisted he wasn’t a baby because he was in the older kids’ class even with his front teeth completely missing. The existence who had clung to him and cried until he fainted, telling him not to be an Esper, who had somehow become one of Hyeseong’s few reasons for living.
Deployment, gate clearing, deployment again, frequent business trips and dispatches… Amid the dry and blood-splattered harsh daily life, Yeoul was the only person who made Hyeseong laugh.
That’s why he kept heading home instead of his quarters when he got off work. Yeoul, who was left alone guarding the house after school, would be happy like an excited puppy when he came. It was nice to see him diligently eating the tteokbokki, fried rice, and risotto he made. He also helped with Yeoul’s homework and gave him advice on his worries.
Hyeseong wanted to cast a broad shade over Yeoul like a giant tree, and wanted to become a sturdy pillar to lean on and rest against.
Like that, he expanded the areas where he intervened in the child’s life. Kang Hyeseong takes care of Kim Yeoul, and Kim Yeoul relies on Kang Hyeseong. That fact became an all too natural proposition.
He’d wanted to cheer him on during the college entrance exam too. They should have naturally taken the high school graduation photo together, and when entering university, there were so many things he’d wanted to give him in person while seeing his face. There were so many things he couldn’t do due to the long-term dispatch, and it was such a shame.
The deep regret didn’t fade easily. The occasional phone calls with Yeoul weren’t enough, but there was nothing he could do. Just picturing the time he’d spend with the child a year later—that alone was the small pleasure he could feel while enduring in Lebanon.
However, the day he returned to Korea and met Yeoul.
The child he’d raised so preciously had awakened as a Guide.
