Heewoo belatedly came to his senses. Before his eyes, Heichi was holding up the woman as if he would strike her down at any moment.
Heewoo, who got up from the ground as if rolling, approached Heichi and then firmly grasped one of his arms. In doing so, their bare skin touched each other.
“D-don’t do that… She’s, she’s my mother.”
Heewoo was extremely embarrassed to call the woman his mother. But if he didn’t, this man with an emotionless face seemed like he would mercilessly assault her. On top of that, the broken hand he’d seen this morning also played a part.
Oh, come to think of it, his hand was injured… Glance. Heewoo’s gaze landed on Heichi’s right hand, which had become fine.
“…”
Heichi was strangely silent. But his burning eyes were directed at Heewoo. That appearance—an expressionless face holding unknown emotions in his eyes—made Heewoo feel an inexplicable anxiety.
Heichi, who seemed to be pressing and chewing the inside of his mouth, finally spoke.
“Let, go.”
“Ah. Aah. S-sorry. I… was in a hurry.”
Heewoo, who had been almost embracing Heichi’s arm, was startled by his restraint and pulled away. Heichi, who had barely regained freedom of his arm, silently looked down at the hand that had touched Heewoo. He seemed to have something on his mind.
But since he had to deal with the woman before him right now, setting everything else aside, Heichi asked Heewoo,
“What should I do?”
“…What?”
“This.”
Heichi lightly displayed the woman who had been held in his hand until then as if shaking a piece of paper. The woman was shedding tears, apparently quite shocked at being grabbed by the collar by a man twice her size. Heewoo, faced with his aged and shabby mother crying, closed his lips.
“Let… let her go.”
“Are you sure that’s alright?”
“Yes, she’ll have gotten the message by now…”
Heichi slowly lowered the woman he was holding to the ground as Heewoo wished. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she turned around and ran away. Even so, she still clutched the three one-thousand-won bills Heewoo had given her earlier in her hand.
Heewoo didn’t really care whether the woman ran away or not. It had been less than three years since Heewoo had learned about his mother. And since learning about her, there hadn’t been a single good memory.
However, what bothered Heewoo was Heichi’s reaction just now. Usually… wouldn’t you hesitate even a little in a situation like that?
No matter how much she tormented Heewoo by thinking of him not as her son but as a source of money, making them worse than strangers, that only applied to Heewoo.
The woman was weak. An old woman, a woman, and a mother. People with common sense would find it difficult to treat someone who belonged to all three of those categories carelessly.
But Heichi, as if it didn’t matter at all, seemed ready to grab the woman by the collar and slam her into the wall if Heewoo just asked. Or strike her down with that pot-lid-sized hand. Either way, the woman wouldn’t have been able to endure it.
“Will you go to the hospital?”
“The… hospital?”
Heewoo hesitated at Heichi’s readily offered suggestion. What hospital? His hair had been grabbed and he’d rolled on the ground, getting scraped here and there, but it was ridiculous to go to the hospital for this. Heewoo, who couldn’t afford the cost, had never been to a hospital in his life except for the nurse’s office.
“I’m fi—”
Heewoo suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Wasn’t it Heichi, not Heewoo, who should go to the hospital? Having thought that far, Heewoo recalled the thought he’d had earlier.
Heichi had definitely had his hand terribly broken until this morning. It was severe enough that he’d suffer for at least several months, no matter how fast it healed.
But it had already healed. Suddenly, Heewoo recalled what Heichi had said to him today.
‘It will heal soon. Don’t worry.’
That… wasn’t just something he said?
Even though Heewoo, who didn’t have a smartphone, was slow to get news, modern medicine couldn’t have advanced enough to heal such a severe injury in half a day. Something that could never be accomplished by the common sense of an ordinary person. Having thought that far, Heewoo unknowingly opened his mouth.
“Are you an Esper?”
To think that after only hearing the question “Are you a Guide?” until now, the question “Are you an Esper?” would come from his own mouth. Even after throwing out the question, Heewoo felt his heart pounding as if he’d already heard the answer.
Heichi’s reaction to hearing the question was calmer than expected. He glanced at Heewoo, then nodded briefly.
“Yes.”
Ah…
Then it felt like the doubts he’d had about Heichi until now were being resolved. Handing him the smartphone upside down, learning to use chopsticks overnight, acting strangely different from common sense—it all seemed to be because he was an Esper.
“Heewoo-ssi.”
“Yes… Yes?”
“Let’s go to the hospital.”
Taking advantage of Heewoo being lost in other thoughts, Heichi seemed to have made his own decision. He gestured toward the main street as if to go quickly.
Even so, when Heewoo didn’t move, this time he reached his hand toward Heewoo’s shoulder covered in an old padded coat. He intended to lead him in a way that didn’t touch bare skin. But as soon as he did, Heewoo stepped back three paces.
“N-no… I’m fine. It’s not bad enough to go to the hospital.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes, just, some ointment will be enough…”
“Then I’ll apply it for you.”
At the words that he wouldn’t go to the hospital, Heichi had an unsatisfied expression, but he couldn’t force him to go. So he intended to buy that thing called “ointment” that Heewoo mentioned and apply it for him. But then Heewoo suddenly reached toward the gate and said,
“I-I’m fine. I can apply it myself.”
“Still, just in case…”
“Um.”
Creak.
Heewoo began to pull closed the gate that had been wide open because of the woman. Heichi stood on the outside of the gate, Heewoo on the inside.
“Could you please leave for today…”
Having blatantly uttered words that seemed to reject him, Heewoo’s heart actually raced with anxiety. The man before him was an Esper. An Esper who could handle extraordinary supernatural powers only seen in movies or novels. He didn’t know exactly what abilities he had, but he was scared for now.
Honestly, he didn’t know if pushing him away and closing the gate like this would be of any use. But he felt he should at least express that he was feeling rejection toward him.
Heewoo suspected he was probably a Guide, or something close to it. If Heichi was an Esper, that would be why he’d approached him. Thinking that there was an ulterior motive behind all his kindness made Heewoo somehow anxious.
“Thank you for helping me… Then… goodbye.”
Creak, thud.
Heewoo, who had pushed the man away with unusually harsh words, finally completely closed the gate. Heewoo turned and headed toward his semi-basement home, but he could still feel a presence beyond the gate. It remained so until Heewoo opened the door with his old key and entered the house.
Heewoo, who stood after closing the front door, took a deep breath.
“So he was an Esper.”
No wonder, that’s why.
Only that thought circled in his head. And he looked down at the paper bag still clutched in his hand. It had gotten a bit dusty from being pushed by the woman, but it was an ordinary lunch box.
“I should be careful…”
He knew that Espers went around looking for Guides, and that it might somehow be money. But actually facing a real Esper, Heewoo couldn’t even remember the story about “a car” he’d heard that day. He was just, simply scared.
Heewoo, who had been standing still in the ice-cold room for a while, belatedly moved to turn on the electric blanket and prepare dinner. It felt uncomfortable to eat the lunch box Heichi had bought, but since there was nothing else to eat right now, he sat in front of the low table with the cold lunch box.
Clank, clang…
Heewoo diligently filled his belly with the old utensils and cold lunch box. But strangely, his empty stomach didn’t fill up easily.
—
YOU KNOW ESPERS HAVE RANKS TOO RIGHT???
They’re also divided into teams like some company lmao
And each team is also divided into ranks. There are a total of 8 teams from Mercury to Pluto. Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto, so why 8? Earth doesn’t exist. Don’t know why ㅇㅇ
Think of it as the teams getting stronger as you go toward Pluto. But as an exception, each team’s captain is also a top-grade Esper lol
But what if it’s not a team but just an unaffiliated Esper? = Low-grade Esper. Well, even low-grades all have superpowers~
‣Recommended (48) │ Comments (4)
Anonymous1: Alien society is also ranked by grades fuck ㅠ
Anonymous2: Pluto was removed a long time ago though? Guess aliens don’t update to the latest info either lol
⤷Anonymous3: Maybe their planet classification standards are just different from ours
Anonymous4: Thanks, from today my dream is to be a Pluto team Esper
—
BUT DON’T YOU THINK ESPERS ARE KIND OF CUTE?
80% of their planet’s population are Espers but Espers are a species that dies without Guides lol
So the fact that they wander all over the universe looking for their pair (Guide) is somehow really cute
The fact that guiding is only done through physical contact is also somehow fascinating and exciting lololol
Ah, isn’t there a cute female Esper totally my type somewhere…
‣Recommended (2) │ Comments (5)
Anonymous1: Are you a Guide? lololol
Anonymous2: Reality: 195cm tall Esper with arms and thighs like tree trunks
⤷Anonymous4: Ah fuck, that shattered my fantasy
Anonymous3: What’s cute… They can just destroy a country with their superpowers fuck
Anonymous5: There’s always one person like this with their head in the clouds lololololol
—
MY MOM IS A GUIDE……..
Ha, I’m really so disturbed
A few days ago some handsome young man has been standing in front of our house, so I was like no way.
But Mom’s reaction seeing him is unusual. I’m her only son but she’s looking at him like a second son tq
Turns out he’s an Esper and has a high matching rate with Mom so that’s why he waits like that every day
Good thing my dad passed away a long time ago, if he knew about this he would’ve jumped out of his grave
Anyway, as an unemployed son, I feel really threatened… That guy seems to have a lot of money…
‣Recommended (9) │ Comments (4)
Anonymous1: 왠X 웬O [grammar correction]
Anonymous2: ㄷㄷㄷㄷ Is this real? Wow, so Guides really don’t care about age or gender at all
Anonymous3: Support your mother’s remarriage, a young and firm Esper is a total win
⤷Anonymous (OP): My mom is turning 70 soon, you little shit…..
