# Chapter 11
Raon got up from the desk and walked slowly toward Jaehwi and Hyukjin. Looking at the two men sitting on opposite sofas with the table between them, Raon sat next to Hyukjin, not Jaehwi.
Jaehwi lightly turned his neck as he watched Hyukjin and Raon sitting side by side. He hadn’t expected to hear this at all. Inside the dungeon, Raon had fallen into his arms first, and in front of the training room, had grabbed his hand and led him, and until just moments ago, they were discussing contract terms. But now he was sitting next to another man with most of his face hidden.
His insides twisted.
It was Raon who had made it possible for him to endure the past decade. He had endured countless pains by imagining the moment he could proudly appear before him as the person Raon wanted him to be. He hadn’t expected him to side with someone who doubted him.
“Have you been with NCSC all this time?”
It was Hyukjin leading the conversation. The room felt filled with tension, like a tightly stretched thread that could snap at any moment.
The atmosphere in the office had completely changed the moment Jaehwi leaned back on the sofa and assumed an arrogant posture. Now he was tilting his head back with his eyes closed, not looking at either of them.
“Yes.”
“S-class?”
Jaehwi straightened his head and stared at Raon, slightly raising one corner of his mouth. Then he answered, “Yes.”
“I heard you don’t have a Guide. Is this also correct?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Ah… that. It’s because I can’t accept guiding?”
Silence fell at Jaehwi’s response as he picked up his coffee cup. He was too nonchalant for someone speaking in front of the person who had fainted because of guiding and the one who had struggled with the aftermath.
Raon also sighed briefly, took a sip from his coffee cup, and put it down.
“You’re not Min Jaehwi. Our Hwi doesn’t twist his words like that!”
Hyukjin stared at Raon with his mouth involuntarily open. What was this childish statement? One person was leaning back on the sofa, leisurely drinking coffee, while the other was restlessly shaking his loafers with his toes again.
“Are you really Kang Raon? Hyung couldn’t possibly not recognize me.”
“How could I not recognize you!”
The space that had been on edge, where one wrong move could cost a neck, was now overflowing with ease as if the tension had never existed. And at the center of this sudden shift in atmosphere was Jaehwi.
“If you know me, why are you just sitting there while he’s testing me?”
Jaehwi didn’t avoid Raon’s gaze, who was staring at him with large eyes as if to bore holes through him. He needed to find an irrefutable answer to the look that seemed to demand he prove he was Jaehwi. Jaehwi couldn’t readily speak as he had forgotten too much. Then something Raon couldn’t deny came to mind.
A subtle smile slowly bloomed on Jaehwi’s expressionless face. The firmly closed corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and his indifferent, dark eyes slowly brightened.
“Hyung. You have a mole on your right shoulder, and two more under your left rib.”
As Jaehwi spoke, his gaze slowly moved from Raon’s shoulder to his ribs. Though he didn’t continue speaking, his final gaze rested on Raon’s right thigh.
Instead of answering, Raon stopped his fidgeting feet.
“What nonsense. Raon has moles on his shoulder?”
At Hyukjin’s response rather than Raon’s, Jaehwi merely shrugged. Instead, Hyukjin next to him pulled at Raon’s clothes. As his cardigan and medical gown were pulled away together, a small, cute mole was revealed on his right shoulder.
“Hey!”
Raon, who disliked being touched by anyone, shouted and yanked his displaced clothes back. Hyukjin, who had prided himself on being close to Raon all this time, had lowered his gaze from Raon’s shoulder to his thigh.
“Eyes elsewhere, please.”
Following Raon’s sharp voice came Jaehwi’s stiff tone, which made Hyukjin unconsciously snap his gaze away.
They only knew each other briefly ten years ago? Memory was such a fickle thing. If someone asked him to recall what happened ten years ago, he would only remember struggling with college entrance exams.
But remembering the location of moles on someone’s body didn’t seem like a normal situation.
“Should I say more?”
Raon found Jaehwi’s gaze on him burdensome. If he were still small and pretty like before, Raon would have hugged him and cooed, “My beautiful child.” But Jaehwi had grown too big now. The fragile, weak child who needed protection in his memories was gone.
The awkward silence was broken by a knock from outside.
“Team A field deployment request, sir.”
Though the conversation with Jaehwi was important, the frequent incidents couldn’t be ignored. If he were on vacation or at home, it could have been handled arbitrarily, but he couldn’t delay the report while in the office.
Slight wrinkles appeared between Raon’s eyebrows as he skimmed through the field deployment request.
Dungeons that suddenly appeared simultaneously one day had changed the world. Disasters at levels difficult for humanity to handle continued, and habitable areas gradually decreased.
With the appearance of dungeons came Espers with various abilities. They were considered heroes for their excellent physical abilities and unique powers that prevented disasters or quickly suppressed them. But these so-called heroes became unstable and went berserk. Subsequently, Guides who could stabilize them were discovered.
Incidents too difficult for humans to withstand, Espers who could efficiently defend against them, and Guides who could manage these Espers had become the center of the world.
The government began managing Espers and Guides. Only after many sacrifices was a strange balance struck between the irregularly seething earth and humanity.
“Form teams with A1 and B1. Check if other centers can provide support personnel. If it seems insufficient, I’ll deploy B2 as well. Officially, only A1 will be deployed.”
Raon was safety-oriented. He always provided more than the necessary personnel and emphasized the balance between Espers and Guides.
“Team A1 should be sufficient. NCSC will also be deployed to assess the situation.”
Raon hardened his expression and tapped the pad with his fingertips.
Jaehwi was staring at him now. For a moment, Raon could read his thoughts. He was implying that he would go, that there was no need for many people to move.
“E1101S. You’re not an official team member. And since you’re not with NCSC now, field deployment is not possible.”
“Why?”
“You said you don’t have a Guide, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then stay quiet.”
Cutting off Jaehwi, who seemed to have more to say, Raon quickly signed and passed the pad.
“My stability levels are fine now, so I can quietly go alone.”
Did this child always have such stubbornness? Raon brushed his hair back and stared at Jaehwi. Just 24 hours ago, he had been in a dungeon. And at that time, his level had been 15%. Although Raon had guided him, he didn’t know his current level.
Above all, something in Jaehwi’s words bothered him. The phrase “quietly alone” stuck in his mind.
“E1101S. Min Jaehwi. At MK Center, there are no solo deployments. We always move as a team, with Guide accompaniment. Combat Guides aside, others standby at the field camp. Unstable Espers are not allowed on field deployment – that’s a basic rule, so if you want to work together, check the contract clauses carefully.”
Jaehwi was difficult to see clearly through the sunglasses. Raon’s mind was a jumbled mess.
The person in front of him now was Esper Nox. Between them lay ten years of accumulated time that neither knew about.
The office, which had been briefly noisy due to the field deployment issue, quieted down again, leaving the three of them—Jaehwi, Hyukjin, and Raon. Under the gaze of both men, Raon removed his sunglasses and pressed between his eyes. Suddenly, fatigue washed over him. Being at the center in such an unacceptable mess, having Jaehwi in front of him—it all felt overwhelming.
The Jaehwi in his imagination and the real one were so different. He had wanted to hug him, pat him, and ask how he’d been when they met.
When he was disoriented, he hadn’t realized it, but now he couldn’t easily reach out to the person sitting on the sofa staring at him. He sighed at the conflict of wanting to escape his gaze yet wanting to stay.
Is this how it would feel if the small, soft, fragile black kitten that used to fit in his arms suddenly appeared as a wild black panther with an unapproachable aura, larger than himself?
“Min Jaehwi.”
Raon called him softly while leaning forward.
“Yes.”
“How did you really grow so big?”
“You told me to grow tall, Hyung.”
That’s right. I told you to not get sick and grow healthy and tall.
“Raon, stop staying here like this and go home. Take three days off. Nox… Mr. Jaehwi, will you continue staying at the dormitory?”
With a couple of claps to gather attention, Hyukjin briefly summarized the current situation. It seemed like both Raon, who looked pale as if bearing all the world’s fatigue, and Nox, who kept staring only at Raon, needed time.
