“When a new Guide comes to the Center, rumors spread like wildfire among the Espers. It’s not something that happens often. Especially an A+ rank Guide.”
“I see…. Hehe. Esper-nim, you’re the first customer on my first day of work!”
“It’s an honor to be your lucky first customer.”
Jiwon laughed at the sight of Esper Lee Minhyeok playfully bowing with exaggerated movements.
“Then would you like to be first for the matching rate test too? Looking at how your gauge is dropping, I think the matching rate will be pretty good. I’m a newbie so I need to fill my matching test performance quota.”
Matching tests were included in a Guide’s mandatory performance metrics. It was to check the matching with new Espers, and also because matching rates sometimes changed, so periodic testing was required.
For new Guides, they needed to build up data, and from a Guide’s perspective, it was more efficient to guide Espers with high matching rates, so it was good to test in advance.
“Of course I’d be happy to.”
“Are you free tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’m free.”
“I have morning shift tomorrow too. When you come to the Center, send me a message to my room number.”
“Got it. If there are no problems with gates, I’ll come in the morning.”
At the mention of coming in the morning, Jiwon nodded and focused on guiding again.
Not all Espers were the same, but usually they started feeling uncomfortable once they exceeded 50% on their gauge. So he had to lower it below that level.
“By the way, Guide-nim, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
Jiwon continued guiding as he answered.
“How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I’m 22.”
“What?! Didn’t you just manifest recently?”
Esper Lee Minhyeok’s eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
“That’s right. I was surprised too. Apparently manifestation can occur late. It’s not common, but there are cases overseas.”
“Wow…. That’s amazing. Since you just manifested and you look really young for your age, I thought you’d be even younger. So what were you doing before manifestation? Were you a university student?”
“Yes. I’m a second-year Business Administration major at Hankuk University. I’ve been physically weak since I was young, so I’m a year behind.”
“Wow. It must be a shame since you got into Hankuk University.”
Esper Lee Minhyeok made an expression showing he felt it was more of a waste. Jiwon answered with a slight smile.
“I don’t really feel it’s a waste. I worked it out with the school so I can get my degree through video lectures and assignments, but I don’t even want to do that much. I did want to experience more of school life, but it can’t be helped!”
“Guide-nim, you’re very positive. I think you’ll adapt to this work really quickly.”
The warm encouragement from Esper Lee Minhyeok made him feel a sense of familiarity. Taking advantage of the moment, Jiwon decided to ask about things he was curious about.
“Hehe…. Thank you. Then can I ask you something I’m curious about too?”
“Of course. What are you curious about?”
“I saw today that your guiding request had a wait time of over 70 hours. So where are you during the waiting time?”
“Ahh…. So that’s what you were curious about.”
“Yes.”
Minhyeok smiled weakly with a sighing expression.
“Most of the time I’m in Building C. I wait while training at the training grounds, and the Esper team offices are also over there. Or there are rooms from the 1st basement floor to the 3rd floor here where we can wait and rest. They’re specially treated so they’re soundproof and there’s nothing bothersome, so it’s comfortable.”
“I see. Thanks, that clears up my curiosity.”
“But in my case, if I have some leeway with my gauge, I come directly from home. Since I have spatial abilities, I can just rest and when the alarm comes, I can move right over.”
“Oh! Really? But how is it when you do spatial movement and stuff? Does it make you dizzy?”
Jiwon, who had been nodding at Minhyeok’s answer, asked with sparkling eyes.
Jiwon usually didn’t like using public transportation when moving around. Being in a cramped space surrounded by many people made his chest feel stuffy.
Whenever that happened, he would imagine how nice it would be to have spatial movement abilities. But now the actual person with that ability was right in front of him. He couldn’t help but be interested.
“No, it doesn’t make you dizzy or anything.”
“Awesome!”
Esper Lee Minhyeok chuckled at Jiwon’s excited reaction with flushed cheeks.
“Want to try experiencing it once?”
“Me? You can move other people too?”
“Depending on the distance, the number of people I can move together varies.”
“Whoa!”
Jiwon looked with an expectant expression of surprise. Esper Lee Minhyeok stood up without letting go of the hand he was holding. As Jiwon stood up with him and blinked, in an instant they were spatially moved to the corridor and then came back into the private room.
Wow! Whoa, it really works.
As the incredibly excited Jiwon showed his amazement by shaking their clasped hands, Esper Lee Minhyeok laughed out loud. Jiwon, regardless, bounced up and down in place, thrilled at the thought of bragging about this amazing experience to Hojun and his family.
Jiwon, who had barely calmed his excitement, sat back down and continued the guiding he had paused.
After a while, Esper Lee Minhyeok’s gauge dropped to 28%. This was a stable level.
“Guiding’s done!”
“Thank you. I’ll contact you tomorrow.”
“I had fun too. See you tomorrow~.”
Since he had guided an A-rank Esper from the start, it seemed to have drained some of his energy, so Jiwon took a short break before approving the next Esper.
After that, he guided one more A-rank Esper, 6 B-rank Espers, and finished with 9 C-rank Espers. Although there were differences depending on matching rates, the lower the rank, the faster it ended, so he could move on right away.
And so Jiwon safely finished his first shift.
* * *
After finishing work yesterday, he stayed up late at the dorm bragging about his spatial movement experience to his family and Hojun, so it was hard to wake up in the morning.
Still, now that he was a working person, he had to hurry and prepare to go to work. It was only his second day and he was already somewhat understanding his noona’s Monday blues hysteria.
Being a working adult…. Jiwon, who was pretending to rest his chin and sigh, felt like he had really become an adult.
He left the dorm, took the shuttle bus to enter the Center, and came into private room 705. Then he turned on the tablet and ordered breakfast.
After changing completely into his work uniform, he heard a ding-dong sound, so he went out to find a sandwich and green grape juice he had ordered on top of a wheeled tray placed in front of the door.
“Spatial movement Espers are the best, really.”
Jiwon muttered as he pulled the tray inside.
The food prepared in the Center’s cafeteria was really diverse and delicious, but the even better part was that D~E rank spatial Espers moved it to designated spaces within the Center.
The country and the Center also conducted a supplementary delivery business through these spatial movement Espers. The usage price was high so ordinary people didn’t use it much, but there was still quite a demand layer so it was profitable.
After eating everything cleanly, he put the tray back where it came from and requested collection, and it disappeared in an instant. Jiwon went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth refreshingly, and sat at his work desk. Today too, a full list of guiding request waiters appeared.
Since Esper Lee Minhyeok, who he had promised a matching test with yesterday, might come in the morning, he approved C and D-rank Espers whose guiding speed was fast.
While guiding his 5th person, a message came from Esper Lee Minhyeok saying he was at the Center, so he sent a reply saying he would finish the current guiding and go in front of the Research Building.
Shortly after, Jiwon ran through the lobby and quickly exited Building A. As he got closer to the Research Building, he saw Esper Lee Minhyeok sitting at the cafe near the entrance and ran over waving his hand.
“Esper Lee Minhyeok-nim! Huff… huff….”
Jiwon, who had weak stamina, became out of breath and stood with his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“Why did you run over? You could have come slowly. Breathe comfortably.”
After catching his breath, they went up together to the matching test room on the 3rd floor of the Research Building. After filling out the application form and following the researcher’s guidance into the inner examination room, there were two large machines placed side by side.
“Guide-nim, please enter on the left, and Esper-nim on the right.”
Following the researcher’s instructions to help Jiwon who was taking a matching test for the first time, he leaned comfortably against the machine and placed his hands in the designated positions. Compared to Jiwon whose preparation was simply finished, Esper Lee Minhyeok sitting on the other side was taking off his top and attaching devices connected to the machine to his body.
After finishing preparations, the researcher’s voice who had gone outside the examination room was heard through the speaker.
“Guide Kim Jiwon-nim, when you start guiding, a blue light will turn on in the machine you’re touching. You just need to maintain that state.”
When he tried guiding slightly, a blue light turned on in the machine and then went out. Jiwon concentrated more and increased the amount of guiding. As he maintained the state with the blue light continuously on for about 10 minutes, a voice came through the speaker saying the test was over and he could come out.
He got up from leaning against it and exited the machine. Looking to the side, Esper Lee Minhyeok had also quickly removed all the attachments and was putting on his top. They exited the examination room and sat on the sofa to wait for the test results.
“How does it feel when you have those attached? Does it tingle?”
“No. It’s the same as receiving guiding. It analyzes how my energy wavelength reacts to Guide Kim Jiwon’s guiding energy.”
He had wondered if the test might hurt since there were so many machine attachments stuck all over the body, but fortunately that wasn’t the case.
“The test results are out. You two have a matching rate of 82%, which is a high number.”
As expected. He had anticipated it seeing how yesterday’s considerably high gauge had dropped quickly.
