# Chapter 46
Crash!
Objects near the bed fell to the floor with a loud noise. Things scattered in all directions. Among them were broken glass fragments.
“…Gu-Guide-nim…”
Geonwoo touched the broken glass fragments. He needed to find Jaehee. He needed to wake up from sleep. So Geonwoo gripped the glass shard he had picked up.
“Blood, there’s blood!”
The examiner shouted in surprise.
Simultaneously, Geonwoo felt the pain of his flesh being cut, and a sticky liquid flowed down his hand.
“Esper Choi Geonwoo-nim! P-put that down right now!”
The examiner shouted urgently.
But Geonwoo acted as if he couldn’t hear those words. As his vision became slightly clearer from the pain, Geonwoo merely glanced at the examiner once, then turned his gaze to scan the room.
The only person Geonwoo was looking for was Jaehee. But no matter how much he looked around, Jaehee wasn’t there.
“Where is… Guide-nim…?”
His sleep-dazed voice sounded eerily low.
“He… he just went to have a conversation! He’ll be back soon!”
The examiner fumbled for words before making up an excuse. How could they tell him that Jaehee had collapsed and been taken to the emergency room?
This situation had erupted not long after Jaehee collapsed. Such terrible luck.
‘They clearly said he’d have difficulty waking up after using so much healing power…’
The examiner felt like their brain was about to explode trying to figure out how to resolve this situation.
“First of all! Put that down…!”
The examiner shouted anxiously.
Blood was continuously dripping from Geonwoo’s hand.
“…Where is… Guide-nim…?”
But Geonwoo, not satisfied with that, squeezed the glass shard in his hand even harder. He needed the pain of his flesh being cut to keep himself from falling asleep again.
Geonwoo kept repeating the same words in that state.
Where is Jaehee?
Give Jaehee back to him.
Don’t erase their bond.
Don’t heal his body.
The examiner gradually approached to try to stop Geonwoo. But the closer they got, the harder Geonwoo squeezed the glass shard in his hand. Seeing this, the examiner couldn’t approach any further.
The room was soon filled with the scent of blood.
Only after quite a lot of blood had flowed was Geonwoo able to drive away the sleep with difficulty. Only then could he properly see his own body. Some of the many wounds had disappeared. The scars inside his body had also faded slightly.
Geonwoo’s eyes twisted in anguish.
‘I said I didn’t want it so badly…’
‘I said I didn’t want to be healed. I begged them not to force me to sleep. I pleaded…’
Once again, they had forced him to sleep and proceeded with healing against his will.
Geonwoo hopelessly took in the wounds on his body. If he falls asleep like this tomorrow, the day after, every day, and receives treatment… eventually all his wounds will heal. When all the deep scars inside his body are erased like that…
‘…When I’m completely healed… will I be abandoned…?’
If Jaehee’s concern for him was made up solely of responsibility and guilt, then as this pain disappeared, the reason for Jaehee to stay by his side would also disappear.
‘…Is that why you’re trying to heal me like this? Ignoring everything I say when I refuse…?’
Just as blood flowed down his wrist, a pain like spitting blood was flowing down from Geonwoo’s eyes.
Geonwoo wanted to ask Jaehee. He wanted to ask everyone. Why they were healing him to this extent. If they were doing all this just to erase the bond. If those words promising not to erase the bond were only valid until his body healed.
He desperately hoped his thoughts were just paranoia, that Jaehee felt the same way as him… but how could Jaehee feel the same? After all, he alone had formed the one-sided bond. After all, Jaehee had completely denied all these yearning feelings toward him.
Geonwoo began to pile up doubts about Jaehee’s promise not to erase the bond. He kept adding anxiety upon anxiety.
That’s why this body was even more necessary for Geonwoo. This painful body, the only thing that made Jaehee respond to him, was crucial to Geonwoo. And everyone, Jaehee… they were all trying to take that away from him.
“Won’t erase the bond… Won’t leave it like that…”
Geonwoo muttered repeatedly. He opened his hand and picked up the glass shard with his other hand. Geonwoo brought it to his body. He had to recreate what was taken away. Geonwoo was in such an anxious state that he couldn’t think rationally.
The examiner was horrified as they watched the glass shard gradually move toward Geonwoo’s body.
“Guide Lee Jaehee-nim said he wouldn’t erase the bond!”
All the anxiety Geonwoo had been feeling was about the bond being erased. Since the examiner had heard what Geonwoo was saying, they brought up Jaehee in an attempt to somehow soothe him.
“He said… he won’t erase it…?”
For the first time, Geonwoo, who hadn’t responded to anything else, answered the examiner’s words. The examiner, not wanting to miss this opportunity, hurriedly continued.
“Yes! Guide Lee Jaehee-nim himself said he wouldn’t erase the bond! So why are you worrying like this?”
“When this body is completely healed… is that when you’ll try to erase it? Or… once it’s slightly better, will you just abandon me…?”
At Geonwoo’s words, the examiner’s pupils trembled slightly. Everyone had already hoped for that. Everyone had suggested putting some distance between them while pretending not to notice after adequately treating the wounds. But looking at the current situation,
Taeyun’s words, ‘If we do that, he’ll die immediately,’ were right. Even before dying from surging wavelengths, he feared a major incident would happen first due to something like today’s events.
“There’s no way! If he was planning to erase it, he would have done so then!”
Therefore, the examiner needed to soothe Geonwoo more now. That’s what they had to do to help Jaehee. How could they let that body, which had been treated with such effort, get injured again after only being healed a little?
But the examiner’s strategy didn’t work well.
“Then why… does he push me away…?”
Geonwoo said sadly.
Geonwoo couldn’t forget Jaehee’s words. The words saying he did it because he didn’t want to be entangled by the bond kept circling in his head. Geonwoo wanted Jaehee to give him a different reason. That he wasn’t pushing him away, that he had no choice. That’s what he wanted to hear.
But instead, he only heard the answer he didn’t want.
“Why… is he so cold only to me…?”
So Geonwoo couldn’t believe it. How could he believe the words about not erasing the bond when Jaehee was pushing him away like that? How could he feel reassured that there wouldn’t be a second time when Jaehee had already tried to erase it once?
The hand holding the glass shard moved toward Geonwoo’s body again. The sharp glass touched Geonwoo’s skin.
The examiner, seeing this, shouted with eyes wide like a startled rabbit.
“There’s a reason for that!”
First, they had to stop Geonwoo.
“He’s not pushing you away because he dislikes Esper Choi Geonwoo!”
Whatever it took, they needed to make Geonwoo put that down first.
“And he’s not pushing you away to erase the bond either!”
With the alarm constantly sounding due to abnormal wavelength readings, the examiner didn’t have the capacity to think about and articulate a proper response.
“It’s because Guide Lee Jaehee-nim was badly hurt before due to a one-sided bond!”
So the examiner spat out words like rapid fire.
“…Guide-nim gets… hurt?”
At those words, Geonwoo’s eyes widened. Geonwoo’s hand stopped.
For a moment, the examiner regretted thinking, ‘Why did I bring this up?’ but seeing Geonwoo’s reaction, they thought, this is it! So to make Geonwoo focus more on their words, the examiner dug into their memory.
“There was an unmanifested Esper who formed a one-sided bond with Guide Lee Jaehee-nim when he was young! It was when he was only 13 years old, and Guide Lee Jaehee-nim suffered greatly at the hands of that Esper who formed the one-sided bond! So how frightening must an Esper who forms a one-sided bond be?”
At those words, Geonwoo’s arm lowered slightly. The glass shard moved away from Geonwoo’s body by that much.
“That’s why! Because of those memories, reflexively! Instinctively! He’s afraid of Espers who form one-sided bonds!”
Seeing Geonwoo’s reaction, the examiner emphasized certain points while speaking to capture Geonwoo’s attention. They needed to buy time until the guides arrived with people.
“It was absolute chaos back then! It was very serious! Guide Lee Jaehee-nim nearly died then!”
As the examiner’s words continued, the strength in Geonwoo’s hand drained. The examiner felt inwardly relieved seeing this. They kept their gaze fixed on Geonwoo’s hand as they spoke.
“That day! Didn’t it seem strange when you first met Guide Lee Jaehee-nim? As you saw then, wasn’t Guide Lee Jaehee-nim’s condition somehow odd? Trembling badly, even crying.”
The examiner spoke passionately. To explain how fearfully Jaehee remembered that incident from his childhood, they even brought up the day when they tried to erase Geonwoo’s bond. The examiner didn’t know what they were saying. They were just busy stringing words together while concentrating on Geonwoo’s hand.
“At that time, he probably saw Esper Choi Geonwoo-nim who had formed the one-sided bond and remembered that Esper…”
Geonwoo interrupted the examiner’s words.
“…Who is it?”
“Well… what?”
At the sudden question, the examiner lifted their gaze from Geonwoo’s hand and looked at his face. And then they closed their mouth.
The examiner finally realized their mistake.
