# Chapter 16
At that moment, the examiner who had been setting up the machine turned around. He found it strange that Jaehee wasn’t approaching. And then he saw him—Jaehee trembling, breathing roughly.
Surprised at the sight, the examiner hurriedly approached Jaehee. The others did the same. Everyone rushed toward Jaehee in great confusion.
As they gathered around Jaehee, Geonwoo’s figure was completely revealed. Jaehee’s eyes took in Geonwoo. An unbelievable sight. As if rejecting what he saw, Jaehee’s head shook from side to side. His eyes gradually widened, clearly revealing pupils filled with distress.
‘…Geonwoo…’
Shock filled Jaehee’s eyes. The ringing in his head that had dominated his thoughts suddenly quieted. Jaehee couldn’t believe the reality unfolding before him.
To Jaehee, Geonwoo was special. The same was true for the 20-year-old Geonwoo he faced again after regressing.
He was such a beautiful person. Perhaps because he was the main character, but he was someone who shone on his own. Everything about him was lovable and cool. The kind of person who deserved all the complimentary adjectives and more. Even the baby fat that still remained at just 20 years old was incredibly cute.
But the Geonwoo before his eyes… that appearance was gone. Obscured in darkness.
His body, which should have been gradually strengthening while enduring the manifestation pain, was withered. His eyes were weakly closed, and his lips were dry and cracked white.
It was strange. Not that much time had passed since the regression… The 20-year-old Geonwoo who had been so special… had disappeared.
‘No. No. No!’
Tears fell freely from Jaehee’s eyes. His face, filled with shock, couldn’t even deny the reality, instead absorbing the pain completely.
But there was no time for that.
Jaehee moved his body. The trembling and heaviness remained, but supported by others, clutching their arms, he approached Geonwoo.
Geonwoo’s painful moans that had been stimulating Jaehee’s pain were swallowed up by Geonwoo’s fragile appearance. Geonwoo was more important than trauma, more important than his own wellbeing. That was what made Jaehee move. A greater emotional pain overwhelmed his physical pain.
So he approached. Regardless of whether his body feared it or rejected it. And as he did, Jaehee thought his own behavior was terrible. He hated himself. The current state where he couldn’t even take a proper step, absorbed in his own pain despite having resolved to protect Geonwoo, was utterly pathetic.
Saying he loved him.
Saying he would protect him in this life.
After saying all that.
He almost collapsed. He almost failed to approach when so close. He almost repeated the future while hiding in pain.
Jaehee bit his lower lip until it bled.
And endlessly told himself:
‘Hypocrite.’
‘Selfish hypocrite.’
Self-blame, disappointment, and a sad situation of pain pressing down on him were unfolding for Jaehee.
‘Move! Move!’
What right do you have to be in pain?
‘You don’t even have the right to be in pain, Lee Jaehee.’
Jaehee continuously whipped himself like that. Continuing until he reached Geonwoo with people’s support.
Finally, Jaehee arrived before Geonwoo. Geonwoo lay on the white bed as if dead. Jaehee’s gaze, looking at such a Geonwoo, trembled pitifully. Geonwoo looked in pain everywhere, so Jaehee didn’t know where to rest his eyes.
Just then, as if something had occurred to him, Jaehee sharply turned his head to the side. There was something he needed to check. Where Jaehee shifted his gaze was a machine measuring the Esper’s wavelength values. Jaehee checked the numbers displayed there. Soon, an expression of disbelief bloomed across Jaehee’s face. And his gaze became firmly tied to that spot.
The numbers currently displayed were not normal.
Jaehee could tell because he had received education about Espers. What those values meant. How much pain Geonwoo was in right now. From those numbers, he could tell that Geonwoo was experiencing pain so severe that one might think death would be better.
Jaehee couldn’t breathe. It felt like someone was squeezing his heart, about to burst it.
With his face covered in tears, Jaehee looked at the examiner. He opened his trembling lips.
“…C-can I… start… guiding?”
A voice heavy with moisture burst out.
The examiner, surprised by Jaehee’s appearance, tried to stop him. But even with tears hanging heavily, Jaehee only repeated that he wanted confirmation quickly. That desperate request, filled with earnestness, could no longer be refused.
Eventually, the examiner reluctantly approached the machine. After manipulating a few things and hesitating for a moment while examining Jaehee’s complexion, he soon seemed to make up his mind and told Jaehee he could begin.
As soon as those words fell, Jaehee released his guiding energy. Very gradually, slowly. With extreme tension, he controlled the amount. He carefully released his guiding energy so that it could mix with the other guiding energy.
Not long after, the examination room was silent except for a single sound.
Geonwoo lying as if dead.
Jaehee looking like he might collapse at any moment.
People tense from the serious situation.
The wavelength values signaling warnings.
Geonwoo’s painful moans breaking through occasionally.
In that heavy atmosphere,
“…Hup…!”
The sound of someone taking a deep breath was heard. At the same time, Geonwoo’s heavily covered eyes opened with difficulty. Having opened his eyes, Geonwoo repeatedly squinted and relaxed his eyes for a while, as if unable to see clearly. After several minutes, as focus gradually returned, Geonwoo turned his gaze to examine his surroundings.
Geonwoo’s eyes had lost their vitality and were sunk in darkness. But they were also eyes with deep urgency. Like someone desperately searching for something, Geonwoo’s gaze wandered around the room. It was enough to make observers feel anxious too.
After wandering for a long time, Geonwoo’s gaze stopped.
Where people were gathered.
More precisely, on Jaehee who looked like he might collapse at any moment.
Geonwoo took in Jaehee for a long time. As if checking something, as if gaining certainty. His lifeless gaze was forcibly gathering strength. The eyes that stared fixedly without even the smallest blink, to the point of seeming blind with devotion, soon widened as if realizing something. A small gleam appeared in the dull, sunken eyes.
In an instant, the expressions of those watching Geonwoo changed. Geonwoo’s face was gradually relaxing. The pain that had been twisting his face until just a moment ago was gradually being erased.
Jaehee looked at such a Geonwoo. Meeting that gaze, Geonwoo began to move his lips. The cracked, painful-looking lips moved slightly and slowly as if wanting to say something.
But his voice didn’t come out, perhaps because his throat was closed. Nevertheless, Geonwoo didn’t give up. He diligently moved his stiff lips. Repeatedly.
Looking at such a Geonwoo, taking in his lips with his eyes, Jaehee mimicked him. He moved his lips as Geonwoo moved his.
Letter by letter, Geonwoo’s lips and Jaehee’s lips moved together. A time focused solely on each other. As those moments accumulated, Geonwoo’s words were completed.
Jaehee’s lips gradually stiffened. The lips that had been moving along with Geonwoo suddenly stopped. He had figured out what Geonwoo wanted to say.
‘Guide-nim.’
Geonwoo was calling Jaehee. Multiple times. Until Jaehee understood his words.
And the unspoken words piled up inside Geonwoo.
‘I missed you.’
‘My guide.’
Geonwoo looked at Jaehee and gave a faint smile.
***
At the age of 20, just having become an adult, a sudden pain came to Geonwoo. A type of pain he had never felt before in his life. It was the manifestation pain of becoming an Esper.
Geonwoo entered the Center to subdue the intermittent pain and underwent various examinations every day.
That day was no different. As usual, he was guided to the examination room by a Center staff member and fell asleep under the influence of medication. But that day was a bit different. He felt a gentle energy enveloping his body.
‘Mmm… what is this?’
A warm energy. A strange feeling of the pain in his body disappearing in an instant.
Geonwoo surrendered himself to that tranquility. It didn’t take long to instinctively realize what it was.
‘Guiding. This is… guiding.’
Recognizing that, Geonwoo was curious about the situation before him. He wanted to know who the owner of this warm energy was, and he wanted to see their face. That was why he forcibly pulled out his consciousness, which was drowsy from the medication.
But Geonwoo was soon disappointed after opening his eyes. A blurry world was spread out before him. His drugged body, as if saying it wasn’t time to wake up yet, didn’t show Geonwoo a clear world.
‘I wanted to see…’
Though disappointment rose, Geonwoo tried hard to suppress it. He comforted himself, saying that even if he couldn’t see, he could still feel.
But then, plop, plop.
Small droplets of water touched Geonwoo’s face.
Huh? Why? Guide-nim…
“…Why are you… crying…?”
But was it a question he shouldn’t have asked? An even greater amount of sobbing poured down over Geonwoo.
Geonwoo wondered.
