“Ah, right! Assistant Manager Woo.”
“Yes?”
“Just a moment ago, since you were trapped in the elevator and probably didn’t hear the news…”
“What is it?”
Ilkyung looked at Section Chief Kang, wondering what had happened. Section Chief Kang lowered his voice a bit and said.
“That Esper Do Yunseong and Guide Kim Ian who caused all that commotion last week…”
“What about them?”
“They ended up breaking up.”
“What? Why?”
Ilkyung asked with his eyes wide. What, they wrecked the fountain and then broke up? Why? Ilkyung couldn’t understand. That day they acted like they were going to have a thousand-year love!
“This morning, Guide Kim Ian was also at that accident scene.”
“Then Esper Do must have been there too?”
At Ilkyung’s question, Section Chief Kang slowly shook his head.
“Huh? Why not?”
“Because of all that commotion he caused, Esper Do is temporarily on a business trip as disciplinary action.”
“So?”
“Guide Kim Ian actually doesn’t match that well with Esper Do, and she’s been continuously worrying about what to do. But Director Ha called Guide Kim Ian who was heading there to work this morning. Told her to come and guide an A-rank Esper.”
“What?”
Why does Director Ha appear here? He’s absolutely everywhere. Ilkyung frowned.
“But they’re dating each other.”
“Even so, Guide Kim Ian can’t only guide Esper Do. Not when their matching rate is that low. It’s a complicated issue.”
Whenever Ilkyung saw things like this, he couldn’t understand.
“By any chance, Section Chief.”
Ilkyung quietly called Section Chief Kang. Something he was curious about suddenly came to mind.
“Hmm? Is there something you’re curious about?”
“Can that Guide Kim Ian do guiding just by sitting next to someone without any physical contact?”
At Ilkyung’s question, Section Chief Kang made an expression that said it was absurd.
“Is that even possible? What Guide can do guiding without physical contact? Usually, for minor injuries or fatigue, holding hands is possible, but in the end, it’s kissing, and if it goes further, they have relations.”
“Right?”
Ilkyung said with a sigh. Even Ha Daehoon, about whom such rumors circulated, lightly held hands or hugged, didn’t he?
“Ability users are really complicated. Their job involves receiving physical contact for guiding, but in cases where they have a lover, the lover might not like it. Is that why pairs date each other?”
“That’s probably it.”
“Is it hard for ability users and ordinary people to date?”
“If the ordinary person partner can understand, it wouldn’t matter.”
Ilkyung nodded.
“Is it like actors?”
“In a way, it could be. If you consider guiding a type of acting.”
Ilkyung felt somewhat sorry toward his noona. If it’s that hard to meet an ability user partner, he should have just let her go on a blind date with Director Ha, an S-rank. He worried he might have ruined things by interfering and making the arranged meeting fall through.
“What’s the point of us thinking about it all day. We’re not ability users. Let’s just work.”
At Section Chief Kang’s words, Ilkyung nodded.
Right, truthfully speaking, he tried to concentrate. But he couldn’t focus because of keywords like Director Ha and physical contact, the relationship between Guides and Espers, and so on, spinning around in his head.
What exactly was Director Ha thinking? Why did he call that Guide whose mind was already complicated to that accident scene? To break the two of them up? Why?
Or did he call her because it was work? As an A-rank Guide for an A-rank Esper? Then if Director Ha considers guiding duties for Espers Yoon Bomi and Lee Seonju as just work, why did he get serious and angry about that? Did he remember what I said about not mixing personal feelings because it’s work? Ilkyung’s head became complicated again with one curiosity leading to another.
Anyway, he thought Director Ha Daehoon was full of contradictions. Being bi yet specifically choosing him, a hetero, as a contract relationship partner. And then what about that physical contact he does so nonchalantly?
Because of Director Ha who wouldn’t leave his head, Ilkyung’s head was throbbing.
“Is it because I didn’t take medicine?”
Come to think of it, he was so distracted that he still hadn’t taken his lunch medicine. Thinking of it, Ilkyung decided he should take his medicine and headed to the break room with it. As he was getting water from the water purifier, his phone vibrated with a text message.
*Did you take your lunch medicine? I saw earlier that you looked pale. If you forgot, make sure to take your medicine properly.*
It was a text from Director Ha.
“Speak of the devil.”
Ilkyung stared blankly at the medicine packet in his hand.
* * *
They were friends he was meeting after a long time. They were friends he’d been close with in high school and also neighborhood friends. Including Ilkyung, there were four of them, and since they went to a coed school, two were girls and two were boys. So while they were in school, they received many misunderstandings that they were dating each other, but these four were ball friends.
But how does this make sense? Ilkyung looked at the envelope placed before his eyes now and could only let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“So, Ha! Really. I’m so flabbergasted I can’t even speak. The two of you are getting married?”
When did ball friends become lovers? No matter how busy Ilkyung had been during that time, how could they give him something like this now when he was meeting them for the first time in nearly a year?
“Did you two have an accident by any chance?”
“Are you crazy?”
At his friend’s serious voice, Ilkyung cleared his throat with a “hmm.”
“Sorry. But I’m too dumbfounded?”
“We’re sorry about that too. But that’s how it happened.”
“Fine, let’s say that’s true. Then let me hear the story of how it happened. How can friends become lovers overnight? And you already had someone you were seeing.”
Seonhwa, who was to become a bride, originally had a boyfriend too. It was only a year ago that they were going back and forth about whether to marry that person or not. But what on earth had happened during this one year when Ilkyung couldn’t meet his friends?
“That person manifested.”
“What? Manifested? What do you mean manifested?”
“As an Esper.”
“What?”
At Seonhwa’s answer, Ilkyung asked in surprise. What was this about? He had occasionally heard about her ex-boyfriend from Seonhwa, and that person was truly delicate and gentle.
“Suddenly as an Esper? Didn’t you say his parents were ordinary people?”
“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”
The story of Seonhwa and Kyungmin that began like that went like this.
Seonhwa had been planning to marry her boyfriend who was three years younger than her, when one day her boyfriend started telling Seonhwa that his body felt a bit strange. They went to the hospital together but no matter what tests they did, nothing came up as the problem, and it wasn’t like he could pinpoint any specific part of his body as bad, but it also wasn’t the same carefree feeling as before, so her boyfriend just kept saying something felt strange. As a result, he became oddly sharp and sensitive in some ways.
Seonhwa had been troubled by her boyfriend who was showing a different side than before, and would seek out Kyungmin to vent about those troubles. Originally Seonhwa was closer to Ilkyung than Kyungmin, but since Ilkyung had been too busy at the Center for the past year to even meet, let alone have proper phone conversations, Seonhwa naturally sought out Kyungmin more than Ilkyung.
“So he manifested as an Esper? But why don’t I know about it? Is it because I don’t know his face?”
Most Espers wanted to work at the central facility. And if someone became an Esper and entered the Central Center, there was no way Ilkyung wouldn’t know. While Espers and Guides didn’t particularly pay attention to other people, the Field Support Team was different. They had to know everything about the Espers and Guides.
The Field Support Team had to know who the Espers and Guides were, starting with their identities and including what their levels were. Excluding pairs, they had to know what the matching rates were between the rest, and what their relationships were like. After all, skinship was involved in guiding.
No matter how well two people got along, if their matching rate was bad and guiding had no effect on the Esper even when performed, the two people couldn’t be connected as partners. Also, cases where the matching rate was good but the relationship was bad were issues that needed to be considered. The representative example of that was Director Ha Daehoon, and the exceptional case was also Director Ha Daehoon.
Anyway, for all these various reasons, there wasn’t an Esper or Guide that Ilkyung didn’t know. But why didn’t he have any memory of seeing Seonhwa’s ex-boyfriend?
