Gate rampage. Just hearing about it was a heart-stopping situation.
But the bombshell declaration that shocked Onyul even more was something else.
“Arti… ficial?”
“It wasn’t a natural rampage. If it had been, I would have noticed in the first place. Who am I? I’m the best esper in South Korea.”
“…”
“It was too sudden and violently unnatural. And I briefly felt the presence of the culprit who caused the rampage. Even so, I could have dismantled the rampage and caught that bastard.”
When he said that much, the traffic light changed.
Gu Baekyoung bit his lower lip while looking ahead again. It seemed like the anger he’d suppressed and suppressed was being expressed a little.
“…I thought about the hyung I liked getting caught up in a rampage… I couldn’t be in my right mind.”
The hyung he liked. He could tell who it was without asking.
Onyul realized that Gu Baekyoung was talking about him.
“Do you… think the gate rampage where that hyung died was also artificial?”
“I didn’t suspect it from the beginning either. But after experiencing it myself yesterday, I understood.”
“…”
“Perhaps the gate rampage that hyung got caught up in might have also happened at someone’s instigation.”
That’s absurd.
He’d never heard of an ability user who could cause rampages, nor had he ever seen a case of artificially causing a rampage.
“I’ll have the gate where hyung died investigated again. If only I hadn’t been far away then…”
From Gu Baekyoung, who trailed off, uncontained emotions flowed out.
As far as Onyul knew, the rampage gate he’d been caught up in in the past was closed by a different team, not Alpha Team. At the time, Alpha Team had been inside a giant gate that appeared in Jeju Island.
The gate that stopped the gate rampage and recovered the bodies of the dead, including Onyul, was immediately closed.
In other words, all that remained were the reports of the espers who had been dispatched at the time.
Gu Baekyoung was thinking of making contact with them.
Meanwhile, Onyul, who had heard the shocking story from Gu Baekyoung, was frozen stiff.
It was because the fact that the gate that had driven him to death had been artificially manipulated by someone came as a shock.
But Gu Baekyoung’s words didn’t seem like nonsense. He wasn’t the type to carelessly spit out groundless talk.
That it wasn’t an accident…
Gu Baekyoung’s hand covered Onyul’s frozen hand.
As soon as the warmth touched him, the slight trembling stopped. Without Onyul even realizing it, his whole body had been shaking.
“Don’t be scared.”
Gu Baekyoung produced a gentle voice that reassured Onyul. It was completely different from his appearance of being unable to contain his anger just moments ago.
He’d only thought of him as a younger guy who needed care… but when he spoke quite seriously, he strangely became someone to rely on.
Gu Baekyoung, whom he looked at, seemed particularly large today.
“I have an idea whose doing it is. I’ll find them and get revenge several times over.”
The words Gu Baekyoung spat out were words to Kang Onyul, not Kang Ian.
But Onyul just thought he wanted to believe him, forgetting even to deny it.
“…Whose doing do you think it is?”
Gu Baekyoung murmured in an all-too-warm voice.
“Anti-Management Bureau.”
As the name of the bastards he sincerely didn’t want to get entangled with flowed out, Onyul sighed.
“Honey doesn’t need to do anything.”
Gu Baekyoung spoke as if reassuring Onyul, who seemed frightened somehow.
“I absolutely… won’t lose you twice.”
The murmur he uttered as if making a pledge to himself was drowned out by the sound of a horn that happened to be heard at that moment.
Onyul, also absorbed in thoughts of the Anti-Management Bureau, hadn’t heard that sound either.
“Well, there’s something to repay them for too.”
Gu Baekyoung’s voice, which he spoke next, contained deep love-hate.
***
“Wh-what is all that?”
As soon as Gu Baekyoung’s car quietly stopped behind the convenience store, Onyul was horrified. It was because the scene visible in the distance was unusual.
In front of the Ability User Management Bureau, people swarmed like ants. Various media outlets, famous influencers, YouTubers… All sorts of people seemed to be waiting for someone.
Onyul was certain that person was Gu Baekyoung. The very person who had caught the cat helmet that was still being reported on!
“This won’t do, you go to the Management Bureau. I’ll go to the convenience store. Let’s move separately.”
If someone saw Gu Baekyoung going in and out of the convenience store, people might swarm to this small convenience store.
And then the fact that the cat helmet’s identity was the owner of a small convenience store inside the Management Bureau might even be exposed.
As soon as he imagined what might happen, sweat flowed down his spine.
Onyul didn’t really enjoy people’s attention. In his previous life, he’d even refused when the offer to join Alpha Team came.
The reason was simple. The attention that Alpha Team, which only contained the best espers in the country including Gu Baekyoung, received was too burdensome!
But he happened to get entangled with Gu Baekyoung again and felt like he’d been swept into a vortex of attention.
I don’t know about other things, but the fact that I’m the person who saved Gu Baekyoung must absolutely not be exposed.
If that happened, his dream of a new life—to operate the convenience store moderately and do other work once the contract period ended—could be shattered.
Onyul just wanted to help Gu Baekyoung and other pitiful espers, not to become famous.
“You want to part like this?”
“Then what do we do? If you’re at the convenience store and get caught, the reporters will come this way.”
“Hmm…”
Onyul got out of the passenger seat, leaving the sulking Gu Baekyoung behind. He might have held him back at least once, but Gu Baekyoung just stared blankly.
I guess the situation isn’t that serious?
“See you later.”
Onyul opened the convenience store door before Gu Baekyoung could change his mind. Fortunately, Gu Baekyoung didn’t follow.
Right, it’s definitely fortunate, so why do I feel uneasy?
It might be because he knew Gu Baekyoung wasn’t someone who would give in so easily.
I hope he doesn’t cause any trouble. A short sigh leaked through Onyul’s teeth.
He’d only not opened the convenience store for half a day, so why was there so much to do? Inventory management, cleaning…
Onyul had to be trapped in the refrigerator, which he was reluctant to enter even normally, for about 30 minutes. Fortunately, there were no customers thanks to the large convenience store nearby being open.
Only after the inventory management was roughly finished could he straighten his back. Onyul sat behind the register, caught his breath, and looked around toward the Management Bureau through the glass window.
It’s absolutely not that I’m looking for Gu Baekyoung… this is just reconnaissance, reconnaissance!
“I don’t see him?”
He’d been restless as if he’d always be stuck by his side, but maybe it wasn’t completely sincere.
Onyul pouted his lips, feeling regret for some unknown reason.
Then he belatedly noticed that the area near the Center had become too quiet.
As if it were a lie that people had been teeming until just 30 minutes ago, there wasn’t even a single ant in front of the Center.
Where did they all go? They weren’t people who would disappear so easily.
Onyul, seized by strange anxiety, hastily looked for his phone.
As soon as he typed the name ‘Gu Baekyoung’ in the search bar, his press conference that was being broadcast live came up.
What press conference?
Only then did Onyul seem to understand the reason why the reporters in front of the Management Bureau had disappeared. Gu Baekyoung had definitely used the press conference as bait to drag them all away.
Amidst the growing anxiety, Onyul hastily played the video.
On the screen, Gu Baekyoung, dressed in black clothes as usual, was being broadcast. He wasn’t wearing work clothes like he usually wore, but a suit that he’d only wear on important days.
He was even revealing his pale face without wearing a mask.
It was unbelievable behavior for someone who detested revealing his face.
“He really is handsome though…”
Onyul, who unknowingly murmured his honest impression, concentrated on the sound. Fortunately, the press conference seemed to have just started.
Gu Baekyoung on the screen was looking impassively at the reporters pouring out questions, unbelievably different from the person who had prepared breakfast for him.
[“Who is the cat helmet?”
“Does the cat helmet really have no connection to the Anti-Management Bureau?”
“Does this mean the appearance of a new guide?”
“Where is the cat helmet who disappeared with you now?”]
What on earth was he trying to do, standing in front of all those people?
Of course, Gu Baekyoung wouldn’t have stood on the platform to expose his identity. He had contracted with him on the condition that he wouldn’t have to receive a guide examination.
He knew Onyul’s wish to live like an ordinary person!
Indeed, amidst wondering how he would handle the situation, his lips, which hadn’t fallen despite the barrage of numerous questions, finally opened.
[“I will tell you the identity of the cat helmet.”]
He began matter-of-factly.
…But what? He’ll tell them the identity?
That absolutely can’t happen, man!
Sweat began to form on Onyul’s two hands gripping the phone.
[“The cat helmet is not affiliated with the Anti-Management Bureau, much less a suspicious person. His identity is…”]
Gulp. The moment Onyul swallowed his dry saliva, the chime bell rang.
The person who entered by opening the convenience store door was another man who knew his identity besides Gu Baekyoung.
“Team Leader Na Geonwoo?”
As Onyul uttered the man’s name, Gu Baekyoung made a shocking confession.
[“…My lover.”]
“What?”
[“I was able to overcome the rampage through the power of love. That’s all.”]
“…”
A cold silence lingered.
Not a single one of the reporters who had swarmed like ants could open their lips. It was because Gu Baekyoung’s confession was too absurd.
The same was true for Onyul, who had been observing the situation outside the screen.
Onyul looked up at Na Geonwoo with a dazed face.
“Is this a dream right now?”
