Seo Gangwoo, who had no way of knowing that Jiwon was internally struggling, slowly lowered his closed eyes. Then he carefully grasped the slender wrist and examined Jiwon’s hand in detail.
A size that fit perfectly in one hand with a white and soft texture, pretty and cute pale pink nails positioned at the ends of long, slender fingers.
How could a person’s hand be this beautiful?
He tried to recall if other Guides’ hands were like that too, but couldn’t remember.
Jiwon’s soft and fair hand was fascinating. He felt like he could do nothing but admire it all day if told to.
As Seo Gangwoo stroked each finger, he recalled what Jiwon had said.
Gangwoo also knew about the content being exchanged in coordination with the Center regarding matters related to Guide Choi Hyerin. Because Jiwon was telling him about it each time.
Whenever that happened, when he tried to step forward worried that harm might come to Jiwon, he had firmly stopped him saying it wasn’t allowed. Saying that he himself was only keeping track of the progress and wasn’t doing anything particular, and even if there was, the Center was taking care of everything.
That was actually the case, and with this recording file too, Jiwon hadn’t done anything else besides informing the Center and sending a report.
If Gangwoo, an Esper, stepped forward, Guide Choi Hyerin might catch some pointless fault and cling to it, so handling it this way was right.
It was fine to actively step forward for other matters, but when Jiwon said to please stay still just this once, Gangwoo nodded and agreed.
Above all, he couldn’t possibly refuse Jiwon’s eyes looking at him earnestly with both hands clasped together.
Still, if a dangerous situation came to Jiwon, he would step forward immediately, but for now he decided to watch. The Center was handling things better than expected too.
He fully understood why Jiwon told him not to step forward.
But he couldn’t help feeling heavy-hearted.
If he hadn’t become paired with him, Jiwon would be living comfortably at the Center receiving treatment as a high-grade Guide without being exposed to various rumors, but now he was concerned about former pair Guide Choi Hyerin and considering even his external situation.
At a time when a newly manifested rookie Guide would be busy adapting, being caught up in such a not-small whirlwind made Gangwoo just feel sorry.
In fact, it would have been fine even if Jiwon had just done Guiding without becoming a pair. Or they could have paired after taking time and cleanly settling things with previous pair Choi Hyerin.
But Jiwon, who without much hesitation said let’s pair right away despite knowing the situation he was in, chose to truly break through head-on from the moment he made that decision.
For now, there was almost nothing he himself could do besides returning his physical condition to normal.
No, even his non-normal body was being maintained by Jiwon’s Guiding.
Though there might be differences in degree, helplessness was something that couldn’t be separated from his life like a companion. Because of that, this time too, the situation became not what his heart wanted.
His heart felt more suffocated than it ever had.
If he was enduring alone, it would just be a matter of him persevering and bearing it. That was also what he did best. But the fact that Jiwon was experiencing this kind of thing because of being a pair made him so worried and sorry.
However, so selfishly.
He felt anxious yet happy because it felt like he was being protected by someone for the first time.
He felt pathetic and absurd for being happy in this situation, but Jiwon was such an excessive person for him…
These days he was expending more mental energy on hiding his anxiety so Jiwon wouldn’t notice it than on calming the uncontrollable wavelengths.
He let out a long languid sigh and leaned his face against the small hand again. Gangwoo just hoped he wouldn’t become a big burden to Jiwon, who was already doing so much.
* * *
Since the matter had already blown up, Ability User Headquarters conducted the audit with the mindset of pulling out the roots of what went wrong.
And they could only lament at the results that came out one by one.
Because the chronically corrupt situation was being clearly revealed more than expected.
But they couldn’t just sigh in pessimism. Gates didn’t appear while watching such situations.
Even though each jurisdictional Center managed them, the role Ability User Headquarters took on was also not small, so if a vacuum occurred, holes could form in the entire nation’s safety net.
The executives who had been targeting the Choi Taehyeon line didn’t miss the timing, and filled the vacancies with personnel who had ability but had been pushed out for joining the wrong side, moving day and night to normalize operations.
Because of such a situation, verdicts were also made faster than ever based on evidence emerging from investigations.
As a result, three employees and one superior who had been involved in the pair contract termination were detained on charges of internal document manipulation, abuse of authority, and breach of trust, and executives who knew about the situation but let it pass or received bribes also received dishonorable discharge as well as fines and detention according to their level of involvement.
Choi Taekyung, Choi Hyerin’s father who had been serving as Center 8 Director through his family’s power, was summarily arrested for obstruction of official duties and bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, and during the investigation process, another illegal embezzlement charge came out and additional investigation was being conducted, making it a situation where it was hard to avoid high imprisonment.
Lastly, the person involved, Choi Hyerin, had her workplace changed to Center 25 where the Guide shortage was serious.
She had to spit out not doing work properly, obtaining unjust profits, and though Gangwoo’s side didn’t charge separate penalty fees, the 20% profit she had taken from her pair Esper.
Choi Hyerin’s family, who had cut off the tail, had no intention of paying that amount for her, and in the end it was decided to seize everything from her future salary except living expenses until it was all paid back.
In addition to that, her own penalty for pair termination and Gangwoo’s pair termination penalty, the penalty for not fulfilling mandatory performance during the two months they were in a terminated state, plus the penalty that replaced detention were added up, so she would unavoidably do Guiding work diligently without rest for at least 20 years.
Also, she couldn’t leave District 25 without permission, was excluded from various benefits the nation gives to Guides, and was forbidden from pair contracts.
It could be called the worst result for Choi Hyerin.
It was practically the same as becoming a legal Guiding slave.
* * *
After Ability User Headquarters’ official position was announced, Choi Hyerin holed up at home.
She was now tired of throwing all kinds of objects around in anger, and she turned off her cell phone that kept ringing with contacts from here and there trying to verify the facts.
If she waited, her family would take some measures.
She believed only that, but even after time passed there was no news, so when she contacted her family members, no one answered her calls.
Frustrated, she visited the main house directly, but the huge and heavy gate wouldn’t open. The registered password and fingerprint weren’t recognized, whether they’d been changed, and she knocked on the unyielding door but only hurt her own hand.
Returning without any gain, Choi Hyerin received a call that evening from the main house butler, not even family. Without saying they were looking for solutions or resolving things, it was just content telling her to exercise restraint.
She couldn’t understand what on earth was going on.
“No! At the very least, shouldn’t they tell me the progress of the situation?!”
Her sharp voice echoed emptily in the wide living room with no one to answer.
Even in this situation, Choi Hyerin didn’t have the slightest suspicion that her family would cut off the tail.
Who was she?
She was none other than a precious Guide. Moreover, excluding the one and only S-rank Guide in Korea, she was an A-rank Guide, the highest grade—that was herself.
Also, the Guide with the highest recognition and popularity both domestically and internationally was none other than herself.
S-rank Guide Do Yura was a symbol of being the one and only S-rank, but since she had no interest in activities other than Guide work, Choi Hyerin was more familiar and popular with the public. On top of that, she had the premium of being an S-rank Esper pair, so that influence was not small.
Therefore, family members who went into business and politics also took the image Choi Hyerin had with the public as is and promoted it with a friendly yet luxurious aristocratic image, benefiting from it.
Before Choi Hyerin manifested as a Guide and became active, the corporate image had such a strong stiff and strict chaebol family feeling that while it had luxury, it was actually lacking in public image.
But Choi Hyerin took luxury brand pictorials, participated in talk shows, TV commercials, various fashion shows, and such, becoming known and approaching the public in a friendly way. On top of that, with high-grade Guide, S-rank Esper pair, and wealthy family background, she established herself as a Guide the public admired and wanted to be like.
Choi Hyerin hadn’t intentionally done such activities for her family. She was just lucky, and the family business companies packaged things well on their own.
Though it was purely self-satisfaction, she knew well what kind of help her such activities were providing to the family business and relatives.
