“Let’s start the meeting right away. Esper Woo Minkyung, please brief us on today’s accident scene.”
Director Ha said to Minkyung. Ilkyung stared at his noona. The noona who put a fatigue bear on his shoulders from the crack of dawn today. Seeing her completely fine without a scratch, it seemed no additional accidents had occurred, which was fortunate at least.
“I’ll report. At the scene of the explosion accident that occurred on the highway at 5:30 today, there was a tanker truck just like at the previous bridge explosion accident scene, and it was reported that the car exploded after a contact accident. However, after examining the scene and reviewing the CCTV, we estimate that the tanker exploded first just before that car had a contact accident. We need to analyze it a bit more carefully to know for sure, but it appears to be the same as the previous bridge incident.”
She said the scene was exactly the same as last time. There was a tanker truck and it looked like it exploded after a contact accident, but in fact it was just cleverly disguised.
“Were there no traces of anti-government forces nearby? Were there no traces of suspicious people or anything like that?”
Director Ha asked.
“By the time we already arrived, the accident had occurred and was somewhat suppressed. There were barricades around so people couldn’t approach.”
At Minkyung’s answer, Director Ha nodded.
“We’ll need to investigate a bit more, but what appears to be the same incident is now the second one. There’s a high probability the same incident will occur going forward. Can the Esper team continue as is? If you need more, please speak up now.”
The fact that another incident occurred meant that unless they tracked down the culprits, there was a high probability it would happen consecutively. It would be fortunate if the incident simply ended as a protest by anti-government forces, but the problem was that it harmed ordinary people.
Last time they said there were no casualties, but this dawn was different. Because the accident happened on the highway, cars that weren’t discovered in time collided with each other and several people were taken to the hospital. It was on a different level from last time when it ended with just scratches at most. If they dismissed this incident as a simple accident, next time there would be even more injured people.
“We need teleportation Espers. To get there faster when an incident suddenly breaks out like today, we need the ability to teleport instantly. And we need more telekinesis types too. Until now the scale was small so it was resolved with the personnel here, but if the incident grows, the current personnel won’t be enough.”
The Field Support Team took good notes of Minkyung’s story. In the end, deploying Espers and matching corresponding Guides was the Field Support Team’s job.
“The Center still has some leeway with spatial teleportation Espers, so it would be good if the Field Support Team could add about three more.”
At Director Ha’s words, Team Leader Park nodded.
“But Director, as you know, there are no more telekinesis Espers who can join this project.”
“I wish we had even one more.”
At Team Leader Park’s words, Minkyung muttered with a regretful face.
“Team Leader Park, please check if there are any Espers from regional Centers who could provide support.”
“Yes, understood.”
Team Leader Park nodded. Since there were Centers everywhere in the provinces, filtering through the list and making contact would be work the entire Field Support Team would have to tackle together. Ilkyung just hoped this incident wouldn’t keep growing.
Protests were always happening, but that didn’t mean they could compromise. No matter how much it was an era of free competition, it couldn’t be done with ability users. If someone had an evil mind and started pursuing profit, uncontrollable chaos would arise.
The pretext would be that if ability users competed with each other and developed further, it would help everyone, but you never know about human hearts. That could cause conflict and become the seed of war.
“If it really doesn’t work out, bring them in from overseas.”
Director Ha said.
Espers were overflowing compared to Guides, but due to recent sudden personnel changes, quite a few Espers had moved from Seoul to the provinces. Last year and this year, there were particularly many ability users who got married or became pairs and applied for transfers to the provinces.
“For now, I hope the Field Support Team submits a personnel supplement request. And how is the Guide matching?”
Director Ha looked at Ilkyung and asked.
“Assistant Manager Woo. …Assistant Manager Ilkyung.”
Section Chief Kang, sitting next to Ilkyung who was sitting blankly, tapped him with his elbow. Ilkyung, who had his head down, raised it sharply in surprise.
“Yes?”
“Assistant Manager Woo Ilkyung, do you know how the situation is unfolding right now? You weren’t thinking about something else during the meeting just now, were you?”
Right. He was thinking about something else.
“Guides are always in short supply.”
Ilkyung said hesitantly for now. Guides are always in short supply, so what was he going to do about it? Even after spitting out those words, Ilkyung found it absurd. So what? Telling Director Ha Daehoon to take care of everything?
In fact, Ilkyung’s head was complicated because of Director Ha Daehoon who kept rummaging through his mind. At first, he really disliked him, so he hoped to quickly fill just one month and part ways without looking back at each other. And naturally he thought that would be possible.
But Director Ha Daehoon was more affectionate and mature than expected. Looking like he wouldn’t even glance at a drunk person and would leave them on the street, he meticulously took care of him, took him in, and worried about him. Even when Ilkyung grumbled, tattled, and was upset because of his family atmosphere where ability users were taken for granted, Director Ha unexpectedly spoke his opinion maturely and held him in his arms.
He hadn’t wanted that. He just hoped Director Ha would be cold like his first impression. He hoped he’d be very, very unlucky.
When people heard that a family had ability users for generations, they envied them without question. They had no interest in Ilkyung who was dropped alone like a duck egg in the Nakdong River among them. That’s why he was even more confused. Director Ha kept interfering with his daily life. He created ripples in the calm pond. And those ripples had already become waves, not ripples made by a single pebble. Waves creating white foam, that is.
“How about having Guides who haven’t formed pairs yet form pairs and always accompany this project? For efficiency, it would also be fine for higher-level Guides to take charge of multiple Espers.”
In midair, Daehoon and Ilkyung’s gazes met. Right now, Ilkyung was precisely pointing at Director Ha Daehoon.
Ilkyung wanted to sever his relationship with him even if it meant attaching other people to Director Ha. He hoped Ha Daehoon would become extremely busy and time would pass without properly meeting him, and the contract relationship would end like that. Because he felt like he couldn’t endure Ha Daehoon shaking him up anymore.
What use was it to think and decide that he should stop showing ugly sides in front of Director Ha Daehoon now? Now he’d reached the level of thinking about him even when he wasn’t there.
Rather, if he did guiding with other Espers and ran around frantically here and there, it seemed he could get him out of his head. Director Ha had only just stepped one foot in the entrance of his mind, so driving him out would be quick.
“No matter how much of an S-rank Guide, you can’t be in charge of five Espers. Aren’t you overestimating S-rank Guides too much?”
Director Ha said, narrowing his brow. The peaceful atmosphere suddenly became cold. Minkyung glanced around wondering why her younger brother was being like that again. She woke him up at dawn for nothing and the kid still seemed to not have come to his senses… Minkyung wondered if she should step in if necessary.
Lately she’d been relieved thinking Ilkyung didn’t seem to clash with Director Ha, but she was just worried wondering if it was flaring up again. Her younger brother was raised preciously by the family members protecting him, like a delicate flower in a greenhouse. What she learned while being at the same Center was that Ilkyung handled work quite quickly but was somewhat hot-blooded and didn’t hold back what he had to say.
“I’m not saying to single someone out to handle it alone, just that we should be efficient.”
At Ilkyung’s words, Daehoon smirked. He was calling that a roundabout way of speaking. Even the neighborhood mutt would know that it was clearly a targeted remark at him sitting here.
“And let’s hold off on forming pairs. If this incident doesn’t get any bigger and concludes here, I don’t think there’s a need to form pairs.”
