# Chapter 11
For several days, Dohyun had been secretly lifting Jaehee onto the bed after he fell asleep, and in the morning, putting him back on the floor before Jaehee woke up.
All this troublesome effort was because of Jaehee’s stubbornness.
‘You’re so stubborn, Lee Jaehee.’
When Dohyun first brought Jaehee to the dormitory, perhaps because Jaehee wasn’t in his right mind, he would quietly sleep on the bed when placed there.
And Dohyun would naturally sleep on the floor. It felt awkward for two grown men to share a bed.
But from a certain day, as Jaehee gradually regained his senses, he would spread out a blanket on the floor and lie down as if it was the most natural thing to do.
Dohyun found it quite absurd. So he asked Jaehee.
‘What are you doing?’
And the answer that came back was,
‘I’m going to sleep here.’
As if asking about the obvious.
‘Hey, which Esper lets their Guide sleep on the floor? With that frail body. Don’t complain about getting sick from sleeping on the floor and just go over there.’
How was it back then? At those words, Jaehee’s face burned red like a tomato, and narrowing his eyes, he said,
‘You think you’re the only ones who train? We all go through training too! Everyone treats Guides like we’ll break at the slightest touch, but we’re not that weak! And if sleeping on the floor makes someone sick… is that, is that normal?!’
And then he just went ahead and lay down on the floor.
Jaehee had a point.
But that was only for Espers who had completed physical enhancement.
Their bodies, which had grown and hardened incomparably more than ordinary people, made Jaehee, who was no different from a regular person, look far too weak in comparison.
Moreover, since Dohyun had inflicted a wound on Jaehee when they were young, Jaehee seemed even more fragile to him.
So Dohyun ignored Jaehee’s words and tried to pick him up and throw him on the bed. But.
‘It’s your bed, you use it! Otherwise, I’ll… I’ll go back to my own quarters!’
Ha, how could he break that stubborn will? And since he couldn’t leave the guy who wasn’t fully recovered alone, Dohyun had declared defeat.
This was the result. In the end, Dohyun was secretly moving Jaehee between the bed and the floor every day.
‘Such a small guy with such strong stubbornness. Fortunately, he’s at least a heavy sleeper.’
Dohyun let out a small sigh at the recurring argument with Jaehee. Yet, there was still a smile on Dohyun’s lips. Dohyun liked it. Being able to bicker with Jaehee like this again. The way Jaehee would flare up and come at him in response to his words.
Dohyun recalled the past few days.
It had been a while since the Center staff had visited. They no longer came around, nor did they subtly demand that Dohyun hand over Jaehee. Even the monitors who had persistently followed Jaehee had disappeared long ago, as if they had lost interest in him.
In that tranquility, Jaehee was gradually getting better. He still had seizures every night and continued pretending to be fine, but life was returning to his eyes. It was clear he was trying to regain his strength.
‘Is it all thanks to Choi Geonwoo?’
From what he’d heard, Geonwoo had finally given in. They said he couldn’t endure the terrible pain any longer and was now receiving guiding from other Guides.
‘I knew he would.’
Dohyun knew well, having briefly experienced that terrible pain himself. That pain wasn’t something anyone could endure.
‘Still, he held out for quite a long time.’
Nevertheless, unlike other Espers, Geonwoo had endured for a considerable period. The pain must have been several times more intense than for other Espers, yet he had persisted stubbornly.
‘Well, since things are working out thanks to that guy giving up, maybe I should praise him.’
Jaehee had changed after hearing that news. The guy who had been busy secretly crying every day was trying to stand on his own.
The cause of his pain was Geonwoo. The reason his wounds were healing was also Geonwoo. Though Dohyun didn’t like that everything revolved around Geonwoo, the results were satisfactory. The tangled threads were unraveling one by one. Everything was finding its proper place.
So, this level of inconvenience didn’t matter. For Jaehee, he could do anything. Because it was Jaehee, not anyone else.
To Dohyun, Jaehee was his only family.
Never having had a family since birth, Dohyun poured onto Jaehee the pure affection he couldn’t give to anyone else, an affection that made him feel fulfilled just by giving. For Dohyun, Jaehee was the only one he could give it to, and the only one who could receive it.
‘I wonder if you know how much trouble I’m going through for you.’
Dohyun looked at the peacefully sleeping Jaehee with a slight smile.
Just then, zing- zing- his phone vibrated. Worried that the faint vibration might wake Jaehee, Dohyun quickly reached out and grabbed his phone. Fortunately, Jaehee didn’t wake up.
But Dohyun’s face contorted when he looked at the screen. There was a message. An emergency alert. And what he saw was,
‘Ah, why at a time like this…’
A Gate dispatch mission. And it was to clear multiple Gates that had appeared in a provincial area. Being an emergency, he needed to pack and leave immediately.
Dohyun nervously ran his hands through his hair as he looked at Jaehee.
‘What should I do…’
Should he take Jaehee along? Or should he leave him here?
Dohyun was caught in a dilemma.
Going to the provinces often meant sharing quarters with others. He couldn’t take Jaehee, who was having seizures, to such a place.
Jaehee didn’t even know he was having seizures, so they couldn’t let others see that.
Besides, if Jaehee’s wounds became a common topic of conversation among others. And if he witnessed that…
The answer was already set.
‘I’d probably overturn everything.’
The unit would be in chaos.
‘I guess I should leave him behind.’
But that didn’t sit well with him either.
Right now, under the pretext that Jaehee was guiding him, Jaehee didn’t have to go to the Guiding Room, but if Dohyun wasn’t around, Jaehee would have to return to the Guiding Room to fulfill his quota.
That wasn’t a problem in itself. As a Guide affiliated with the Center, performing guiding duties was expected.
The problem was Geonwoo.
The Center was reportedly quiet, and Geonwoo was receiving guiding from other Guides.
But whether the bond had been broken was unknown.
It would probably break soon since he had started receiving guiding from other Guides, but if the bond hadn’t broken yet, the hunting instinct would still remain.
In that state, Dohyun worried about Jaehee encountering Geonwoo while going back and forth to the Guiding Room. After all, undeveloped Espers sometimes visited the Guiding Room too.
‘Ah, making trouble till the end.’
Dohyun ground his teeth thinking about Geonwoo.
But his deliberation wasn’t long. There wasn’t enough time for that either.
Dohyun picked up Jaehee, who was lying quietly on the bed, and carefully placed him on the floor. After checking that Jaehee was sleeping well and had no discomfort, he spread the blanket a little more and left the room.
It was quite a while after that when Jaehee, who had been soundly asleep, woke up, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
***
Awakening from sleep, Jaehee looked at the bed in confusion.
‘Huh?’
The person who should have been there wasn’t. Instead of Dohyun, only a thin blanket lay there.
“…Seems like he got up early?”
Jaehee mumbled in a slightly surprised voice.
Well, Dohyun always woke up later than him. Despite being an Esper who felt fatigue much less than ordinary people, Dohyun was particularly fond of sleeping in. Even though they had fallen asleep at the same time.
“Was he like this before?”
No. I don’t think he was.
Jaehee tilted his head.
“Did he have trouble sleeping at night?”
Jaehee got up with a bit of concern. As he habitually organized the blankets on the floor and opened the door,
“Huh?”
Dohyun wasn’t there. Actually, he wasn’t anywhere in the quarters.
Since Dohyun had been the type who didn’t want to be apart even for a moment, Jaehee found the current situation without Dohyun by his side very awkward.
‘Where did he go?’
As he was looking around vaguely thinking this, his phone rang. The name that appeared on the screen was the very person Jaehee was looking for. Jaehee immediately pressed the call button. Then, before Jaehee could even respond, a familiar voice came through the phone.
-Are you up now?
“Huh? Yeah. But where are you right now?”
-I’m heading to the provinces for a mission.
At Dohyun’s words, Jaehee’s eyes widened.
“Pro…vinces…?”
The repeated question was tinged with bewilderment.
Suddenly going to the provinces? No, more importantly.
‘Did Dohyun have any reason to go to the provinces during this period?’
Clearly… he didn’t.
After Geonwoo’s appearance, the main stage had always been Seoul. Perhaps because the main character of the story was firmly situated at the Center in Seoul, apart from minor low-level Gates, everything happened only in Seoul.
But suddenly the provinces?
And a Gate that required an A-class Esper?
‘That means it’s at least a mid-to-high-level Gate, but no… There was definitely never one…’
Is my memory wrong? But that part was clear. He remembered distinctly because after Geonwoo appeared, neither Dohyun nor himself had any reason to leave Seoul.
He even remembered feeling strange about Gates constantly focusing on Seoul and then, after realizing he had been reincarnated into a novel, absurdly understanding it as ‘Ah! I guess that’s the author’s preference.’
Therefore, Jaehee couldn’t understand the current situation. His mind became a tangled mess.
-Hey, Lee Jaehee! Are you listening?
But all those thoughts were abruptly cut off by the loud voice coming from the phone.
-Someone’s coming to the house later.
“…Who?”
-An Esper you’ll look after while I’m gone.
“Huh?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
