# Chapter 58
As the day darkened and the number of people in the building decreased, Taeyun visited the examination room. In his hand was a Guiding ability control device.
“Guide Lee Jaehee.”
At the sound of someone calling him, Jaehee turned around. Taeyun made eye contact with Jaehee and narrowed the distance one step at a time. Unlike usual, his face showed no trace of a smile. No, to be precise, his mouth was smiling, but his eyes were not.
“I was waiting, wondering when you’d come.”
Jaehee said this and looked up at Taeyun who had approached him. Taeyun lowered his gaze to look at Jaehee. Jaehee was sitting in a chair next to the bed, firmly holding the hand of Geonwoo, who was forcibly asleep after receiving a sedative. Taeyun’s gaze fixed on Jaehee’s hand. Soon, Taeyun’s face held a sardonic smile.
“How dedicated. Constantly caring like this.”
After saying that much, Taeyun glanced at Geonwoo with a somewhat cold gaze, then turned his attention back to Jaehee. And he asked,
“Is an Esper with top-tier potential that desirable to you?”
The question Taeyun threw out was extremely casual. But Taeyun’s inner thoughts weren’t. The higher-ups and everyone else were intensely obsessed with Espers with top-tier potential. From the perspective of Taeyun, an A-class Esper, this left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“Would you have accepted Esper Choi Geonwoo like this if his class was lower?”
Taeyun was an A-class Esper, but before manifestation, he had been assessed as mid-tier. The reason he had been abandoned by the Guide who had formed a one-sided Mark with him was because of that—because his expected class was low.
At Taeyun’s question, Jaehee briefly looked at Geonwoo and then spoke softly.
“If he wasn’t top-tier, it wouldn’t be the same as now.”
At Jaehee’s words, a mocking smile crossed Taeyun’s face. Before he could even think, his true feelings spilled from his lips.
“Guides are so selfish.”
But Taeyun didn’t care. He took off the mask of pleasantness he usually wore and revealed his bare face. An unpleasant smile occupied his lips.
“Ah, right. This.”
Then, as if suddenly remembering the bracelet in his hand, Taeyun threw the Guiding ability control device toward the bed where Jaehee’s hand was resting. Jaehee’s gaze fell on the bracelet that landed with a thud in front of him.
“Put it on.”
Taeyun conveyed his intention in a clear and concise manner, as if not wanting to say much. At that, Jaehee picked up the Guiding control device. Then he looked up at Taeyun. But that gaze was strange. Jaehee’s face, looking up at Taeyun, didn’t seem particularly surprised. It was simply emotionless.
He should have felt to some extent that the current atmosphere was different from usual, but no trace of agitation could be found on Jaehee’s face.
“I brought it for you to wear.”
With that, Taeyun, wiping the smile from his face, repeated himself. And he added,
“Esper Choi Geonwoo is not a vessel worthy of Guide Lee Jaehee to possess.”
The manifestation of abilities, the growth rate, physical enhancement—all of these far exceeded the levels of typical unmanifested Espers. S-class. Choi Geonwoo, right before his eyes, could become an existence that had never appeared even once until now.
At those words, Jaehee’s eyes changed slightly.
‘Now he finally realizes that something is different from usual.’
Taeyun thought Jaehee would be confused by this situation. After all, he wouldn’t act like this normally. But.
“Then who should possess him?”
Jaehee paid no attention to Taeyun’s attitude. He just asked like that while looking at Taeyun. At that, Taeyun let out a small, scoffing laugh.
“Whoever it is, it won’t be Guide Lee Jaehee.”
Taeyun said that and then gestured with his chin toward the Guiding ability control device in Jaehee’s hand.
“Before I force it on you, quickly put that on. I’m not in the mood to smile as usual and put it on you myself.”
Since Taeyun no longer needed to wear a mask while dealing with Jaehee from today onward, he revealed his true colors without hiding them.
Ignoring Taeyun’s words, Jaehee called out to him.
“Esper Cheon Taeyun.”
At that, Taeyun looked at Jaehee with an expression that seemed to say it was bothersome.
“I heard that when you first entered the Center, you formed a one-sided Mark with a Guide who entered at the same time.”
Suddenly Jaehee started talking about something else. At those words, Taeyun’s expression crumpled.
“But that Guide eventually gave up, right? Because your expected class was low.”
“I don’t know where you heard such a story, but—”
Taeyun, as if annoyed, ran his hands through his hair trying to cut off Jaehee’s words. But instead, Jaehee ignored Taeyun’s words and continued speaking.
“But not long after that Guide abandoned Esper Cheon Taeyun, they were killed. By Cheon Taeyun’s rampage just as he was about to manifest.”
At those words, Taeyun’s expression hardened, and a chill spread around him. Whether those words had touched a nerve with Taeyun, rough wave energy scattered around the emotionally agitated Taeyun.
Simultaneously, the wave measurement machine displayed that Geonwoo’s wave levels were rising. It was reacting to Taeyun’s waves. But since he was forcibly asleep after receiving a sedative, there was no way Geonwoo would wake up.
So Taeyun focused only on Jaehee. But Jaehee was strange.
As an S-class Guide with senses superior to others, he must have been fully feeling that wave energy, yet Jaehee showed not the slightest bit of agitation. He just continued saying what he had to say.
“It was buried as a tragic accident. An unavoidable accident. That’s what the records showed. That he was not in his right mind due to lack of Guiding while in a one-sided Mark state, so he did that to the Guide. That he killed them at once without any chance to stop him.”
Taeyun took one step closer to Jaehee, physically expressing that he had no intention of listening to the rest.
“But there’s something everyone misunderstands. When a one-sided Mark is formed, you can’t do that. Somehow you’d keep them alive to receive Guiding, you couldn’t kill them so mercilessly.”
Just as Jaehee and Dohyun had been.
“What are you trying to say?”
Taeyun gritted his teeth and spoke fiercely.
“I wondered. Maybe, like Esper Kang Dohyun or Esper Choi Geonwoo, you didn’t want it, but a one-sided Mark was forcibly overlaid.”
At those words, Taeyun’s expression changed. He knows something. Those words meant that Jaehee already knew something about him, about what the higher-ups had done. That surprised Taeyun. But that was as far as it went.
“I don’t know how much you know, but let’s stop this useless conjecture.”
Taeyun looked down at Jaehee with a cold gaze and said.
“Isn’t this what you wanted to hear?”
Taeyun brought his face close to Jaehee’s and whispered softly.
“I killed that Guide. I knew they were going to overlay a Mark and just let it happen.”
After whispering that, Taeyun moved his body back. With a sardonic smile, he lowered his gaze to look at Jaehee. Then he saw a cold gaze looking up at him. Just as that gaze was about to elicit a scoffing laugh from him,
“…!”
Suddenly, strength left his body. Just like that day, when Jaehee had removed his Guiding ability control device saying he would accept Geonwoo, his body wouldn’t move.
The startled Taeyun lowered his gaze again. And met that gaze once more. But it was different from before. An inexplicable pressure dominated his entire body. A creepy sensation gripped his whole body.
“…Th-This…!”
Taeyun was greatly shocked. In the examination room, there were only Jaehee, Geonwoo, and Taeyun. There was no way Geonwoo, who hadn’t even fully manifested, could do this. Then was it Lee Jaehee? A mere Guide? His pride was cracking.
“L-Lee…!”
Taeyun tried to shout, but no voice came out. His hands trembled.
It was then. The sound of the door opening was heard from behind, and someone entered. Jaehee’s gaze fell on the person who had just entered.
“What are you doing? I told you to finish preparations.”
The one entering was the Deputy Center Director. His cold gaze landed on Taeyun. The pressure to finish the job quickly was directed at Taeyun.
Then, as if coming to his senses, Taeyun bound Jaehee’s hands and gripped his neck to prevent him from moving. Seeing this, the Deputy Center Director approached Jaehee with a gentle smile.
“We meet again so soon, Guide Lee Jaehee.”
The Deputy Center Director looked at Jaehee with a welcoming expression. Then he approached Geonwoo. The Deputy Center Director’s face brightened.
“I didn’t want to meet like this, it’s a shame. If you just hadn’t said you would accept Choi Geonwoo, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
The Deputy Center Director walked slowly and stood in front of Jaehee. He looked emotionlessly at Taeyun, who was holding Jaehee’s neck, and then swatted Taeyun’s hand with his own. With that, Taeyun’s hand gripping Jaehee’s neck was released.
The Deputy Center Director turned his gaze back to Jaehee and said,
“You must be shocked, wondering why I’m doing this.”
The Deputy Center Director said this with a light laugh.
“It’s all because I’m concerned for Guide Lee Jaehee. One-sided Marks are dangerous. I can’t just stand by and watch.”
The Deputy Center Director approached the Guiding machine. And he inserted what he had brought into it.
“So from now on, I plan to erase Esper Choi Geonwoo’s Mark. With me, Esper Cheon Taeyun, and Guide Lee Jaehee working together.”
At those words, one corner of Jaehee’s mouth lifted.
“How well you package the term ‘overlaying a Mark’.”
At those words, the Deputy Center Director’s expression changed.
