After arriving at the main house, he ignored the butler and employees who came to greet him and went straight up to the second floor. Then he flung open the study door without even knocking.
“Dad! What’s so important that you called me this early in the morn— Ack!”
Choi Hyerin screamed as she was hit by a thick book that flew at her as soon as she opened the door.
“Dad!!!”
“What on earth have you been doing?”
Her father, Choi Taekyung, glared at Choi Hyerin with a coldly hardened face.
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?! Are you crazy?”
Looking at Choi Hyerin throwing a full tantrum, Choi Taekyung continued speaking while barely suppressing his rising anger.
“Do you have anything to say about Esper Seo Gangwoo?”
“What is there to say? You already know everything. Seo Gangwoo will contact me soon asking for guiding! His endurance must be at its limit by now, it’s obvious.”
Choi Taekyung let out a hollow breath and pressed his forehead with his hand.
“Haa, to trust something like this and do what I did…”
He wondered if she perhaps knew and was hiding it, but seeing Choi Hyerin’s expression, it was clear she had no idea.
“Seo Gangwoo got approval for a pair contract with another Guide. And that was two whole days ago!”
“Ha! What are you talking about?”
“You don’t even properly check on Seo Gangwoo’s surroundings, what have you been doing? Going to gatherings all the time, losing your mind shopping, you don’t know what’s more important?!”
“How could Seo Gangwoo pair with another Guide besides me? Say something that makes sense!”
Choi Taekyung looked at Choi Hyerin, who still didn’t believe it and was in denial, with pathetic eyes.
“It’s an A+ rank Guide who just manifested not long ago. And it just had to be someone affiliated with Center 1.”
At the sight of her father sighing and pressing his throbbing head with his hand, Choi Hyerin’s pupils finally began to tremble as reality started to sink in.
“The… the matching rate! What’s the matching rate? Can an S-rank Esper pair happen that easily? It must definitely be lower than mine, would headquarters approve that?”
“96%.”
“…What?”
“The matching rate between Esper Seo Gangwoo and that Guide is 96%. To be exact, it’s 95.8%. It doesn’t even compare to yours which is barely in the early 40% range.”
“That’s impossible. You believe that?”
At the matching rate she absolutely couldn’t believe, Choi Hyerin’s mind became hazy.
“This isn’t the time for nonsense. How are you going to clean up this situation?!”
“…What about Grandfather?!”
“He went into headquarters early.”
“Headquarters?”
Choi Hyerin asked with a brightened expression.
“Grandfather went to resolve it, right? Just cancel that pair approval and reverse my pair contract termination.”
At Choi Hyerin speaking so casually while clapping her hands, Choi Taekyung, whose blood pressure shot up, picked up another book from the desk and threw it.
Eventually, he grabbed the back of his neck with his right hand.
“Do you know how much money I spent to shut up the people complaining about secretly pushing through the pair contract termination? If we can’t clean up this matter, not just you but me and your grandfather won’t be safe either! You said you had Seo Gangwoo firmly in your grasp, that he was in the palm of your hand, and this is all the result amounts to?”
“……”
Choi Hyerin couldn’t understand why the situation had turned out like this.
Where did it go wrong?
At first, she thought if she terminated the pair contract, Seo Gangwoo would immediately come clinging to her. When that expectation was broken and there was a quiet response without even a single text, she had been waiting to see how long it would last, but before she knew it, two months had passed.
Choi Hyerin really couldn’t believe why a Guide with a high matching rate that couldn’t be found even searching the entire world had to appear at this exact timing when she had terminated the pair contract with Seo Gangwoo.
Bang!
Choi Taekyung pounded the desk with his fist and vented his anger.
“I shouldn’t have made such a risky move just trusting your stupid words. If this goes wrong, you take all the responsibility!”
At her father’s words putting all the responsibility on her alone, Choi Hyerin’s eyes narrowed.
“Did I do this for my benefit alone? And Dad, you’re the one who just let the pair contract get approved! If something like that happened, you should have blocked the approval. Why are you only blaming me for your own incompetence?!”
At the words that seemed to try to pin all the fault on her, Choi Hyerin shouted angrily.
It was Choi Taekyung who had actively agreed to Choi Hyerin’s plan, thinking that if she firmly held Seo Gangwoo in her hands, he could push his eldest son and cousin who had just entered politics and gain plenty of benefits for himself.
“What?! Who are you blaming right now!”
Choi Taekyung, who stood up abruptly with a flushed face, clenched his teeth.
“Go to Esper Seo Gangwoo and beg if you have to, tell him you want to pair again. Reverse it somehow.”
“Beg for what? And say something that makes sense, would that even work?!”
“Who doesn’t know? You have to try whatever means possible. If you had done things properly from the start, this situation wouldn’t have happened!”
Choi Hyerin chewed her lips roughly. If only Grandfather would just pull some strings at headquarters, why make it complicated?
“If the other Guide just manifested, they must still be a clueless rookie, so persuade them well and get their consent. If we get the consent of the parties involved, we can at least attempt to clean this up somehow. There’s no time, if we can’t clean this up before it explodes, we’re really ruined!”
However, at the words that seemed to dump everything on her, Choi Hyerin just gave up. After leaving the main house and getting in the car, she sent a text to Seo Gangwoo. She waited anxiously, but as expected, there was no reply at all.
She didn’t like that she now had to cling to Seo Gangwoo, but if they could just reverse the pair contract, everything would come back.
* * *
Jiwon was trying to adapt, though the huge house that felt like it was on a deserted island even though it was inland felt too quiet and scary.
He took walks in the yard outside the house which was nothing but an empty field, and also picked books he liked from the study to read while lying on the living room sofa.
With Seo Gangwoo’s consent, he looked for furniture to fill the interior of the house, and also ordered dishes, kitchen tools, and groceries.
And in the end, they decided not to fill the empty room Jiwon was going to use. Since they didn’t know when Seo Gangwoo’s unstable energy might surge again, they decided to stay in the same room.
Jiwon firmly thought to himself that it was absolutely not because he didn’t have the confidence to sleep alone in this huge house.
A routine repeated of eating three meals a day properly with Seo Gangwoo, then resting after guiding until his energy was almost depleted.
Today was the day Seo Gangwoo, who had been given leave until his gauge stabilized to some extent, was going to the center for the first time in a while. It was his detailed examination day. Jiwon, who still lacked the inner strength to be left alone in the big house he was adapting to, also prepared to go out together.
Jiwon, wearing a white t-shirt with light sky-blue jeans and a thick blue cardigan that came down to his thighs, slung a book bag over his shoulder and left the entrance together with Seo Gangwoo.
Seo Gangwoo, standing tall next to Jiwon, wore all black from top to bottom with a black jumper. Both of them had good fashion sense and looked well-matched.
They got into the black car they had first arrived in from the garage and headed to the center.
Jiwon’s eyes took in the distant scenery he couldn’t see when coming because it was dark. The streets with no buildings and no people felt empty yet the wide-open road was refreshing.
Jiwon, who had been breathing in the cold air with the window halfway down, closed it back up and arranged his wind-blown hair.
“Do taxis come all the way to the house?”
“I’ve never tried coming by taxi so I don’t know. If you need to go out, I can take you, and when I’m not available, you can call for a car from the center.”
“Ah… there’s also requesting from the center. Still, I should get my driver’s license!”
Due to the location, there was no public transportation, so going out from the residence was impossible without a car.
Even though he could request a car from the center, it was a hassle, so Jiwon thought he should take this opportunity to get his driver’s license.
“Once you get your license, you can use the remaining cars in the garage.”
“The cars in the garage?”
“I don’t use them all anyway. They all have ability enhancements done with artifacts, so they’ll be safe.”
Three of the vehicles in the garage were some of the cars he had received as sponsorships. Though he had made them into artifacts, he only used the cars he always drove, so they were just sitting there.
To ordinary people, ability users felt even more mysterious than celebrities and were admired and popular to that extent.
Although legally it was prohibited to follow ability users around or engage in approaches and actions that could be threatening, especially to Guides, people were rather more curious because of that and were enthusiastic about their specialness.
In the case of ability users who had high ranks, flashy abilities, or physical attractiveness, large-scale fan clubs were sometimes formed among ordinary people.
Because of that, various companies sent items to popular ability users asking them to use them, and they would promote products or do pictorials while wearing them.
Though Seo Gangwoo himself didn’t care, he was one of only two S-rank Espers in the country and had a perfect face and physique, so naturally his popularity was at the top.
In Seo Gangwoo’s case, since he didn’t go out, photos and videos were even rarer.
There were only photos taken by chance during conquests, or photos taken in the brief timing before entering a dungeon gate or after a conquest. Still, fans could console their disappointment because Seo Gangwoo’s combat scenes were always included in videos and magazines produced by headquarters for ability user promotion.
If they could capture even a single shot of Seo Gangwoo using their products, that brand and company would gain tremendous promotional effects and profits would follow.
