# Chapter 2
The Center wasn’t far from my studio apartment. Because of the dangers posed by espers constantly coming and going, rent in the neighborhood was cheap, and C-class guides like me typically lived in this area.
On the lobby’s front screen, stories about SS-class esper Kim Haewon were playing nonstop. While I was struggling with a C-class esper yesterday, Kim Haewon had been in Japan.
“That’s insane. They say it was an orange-level disaster.”
“Wow, shit. I could have died yesterday? If it had been in Japan… It would have affected Korea too.”
“Was that earthquake yesterday because of it?”
“Could be. But did Kim Haewon handle it all by himself? That’s crazy, seriously.”
Everyone gathered around the screen was singing his praises. Orange corresponded to the highest disaster levels, “A” or “B.” It meant it was a gate that only S-class or higher espers could subdue.
“He’s a monster,” I muttered to myself.
Kim Haewon was called a monster esper. He was one of the highest-ranked SS-class espers, only mobilized for transnational crises.
The SS-class he belonged to had only ten members worldwide. I looked at his expressionless face. Just seeing it sent chills down my spine.
One way or another, he was someone I’d never have to deal with in my lifetime. How fortunate that was…
I hung the ID card from my pocket around my neck. When I checked in at the attendance machine, the research wing door opened. Unless a specific schedule was set, my daily job was to fill in for no-shows like this every morning.
But as the automatic door opened, the EM (Emergency) warning light turned on. It meant an emergency situation.
“Ah, I’m screwed.”
Despite my 20 years as a guide, EMs were always irritating. They only sounded during true emergency situations.
I quickly threw my bag in the locker room and headed to the front. Since I’d already checked in, there was no way to escape anyway.
As soon as I reached the front, I held out my ID card and spoke.
“Guide Park Garam from Department 17. Please check available espers for me.”
“Guide Park Garam?”
Someone heard my name and grabbed my wrist. I frowned. An EM at the Center was no joke. It was full of troublesome espers, and it was better to be deployed as quickly as possible. A-class guides were terribly slow, so it was most urgent for C-class guides like me to buy time, like plugging a broken dam.
“Please prepare for guiding right away.”
“Yes, give me the chart.”
Researchers who knew me always did this. They would push me into guiding regardless of matching rates. However, I wasn’t in particularly good condition, so A-class would be too much. I should probably stick with B or C-class…
Thinking this, I reached out to the researcher. He handed over the chart with a tense expression. Why is he so nervous? Is he a rookie experiencing an EM for the first time? I thought this as I opened the chart. Then I closed my eyes and opened them again. It was still that name when I looked again.
“Excuse me, I think you brought the wrong chart.”
“Esper Kim Haewon.”
“Yes, I know. Who doesn’t know him? But why are you giving him to me?”
I’m busy as hell, and I get stuck with some idiot… I returned the chart. It didn’t make sense for an SS-class to be at this Center in the first place. They used the VIP Center located downtown.
Telling a C-class like me to guide an SS-class? Even a passing dog would laugh.
Of course, there was exactly one time it had happened. The Association had once forced all guides across the country to guide Kim Haewon. But not a single person had managed proper guiding.
That was the second reason he was called a monster esper. Kim Haewon had never been properly guided since birth. It was because of his low matching rate.
Even I, a universal backup key, was the same. It was simply impossible because the class difference was too great.
“Please give me urgent B or C-class espers. A-class is difficult for me. At best, it would be a temporary fix.”
In an EM situation, even a moment’s luxury was wasteful. I quickly spoke and turned around. He caught my wrist again, like a scene from those K-dramas my mother often watched.
“This is no time for jokes.”
His voice was serious. But I was getting annoyed now.
“Who doesn’t know that? I can see the EM alert too, you know? But what am I supposed to do with Kim Haewon? No one matches him. And who’s making this abnormal decision to pair an SS-class with a C-class?”
It was exactly like something out of that novel I read yesterday. I gestured for him to move aside because I was busy, but he looked at me like I was even more frustrating.
“Haa, what are you talking about!”
“Ah, why are you shouting!”
“You keep joking around. Guide Park Garam has a 98% matching rate with Esper Kim Haewon, doesn’t he? Are you abandoning your duty as a paired guide?”
“Huh? What on earth are you saying…”
“Even if it was decided just the day before yesterday, please follow the Center’s regulations. And right now, Guide Park Garam is the only S-class guide who can resolve the EM situation at the Center.”
98% matching rate, paired guide…?
Phrases I’d seen somewhere but definitely weren’t about me came pouring out. He dragged me by the hand, plodding along, and shoved me into an isolation room. As if he was very angry.
“Wait, excuse me. Excuse…”
I couldn’t continue speaking. It was because of the wave behind me that felt like hundreds of sharp thorns piercing me.
The esper in this isolation room is SS-class. Without turning around, I knew who it was. In South Korea, only one person could produce such a wave.
Kim Haewon. Kim Haewon is behind me. Just that fact made cold sweat run down my back. If I tried to guide this guy now, my life could be in danger.
Maybe I would end up tattered and die silently, just like the protagonist in that novel I read yesterday. My limbs felt chilly and trembled.
“Hey! Help me! Save me! I’m a C-class! Some crazy bastard! Hey, you read the same novel as me, right? Hey!”
“…”
“You otaku bastard! I’m begging you! This would be death even for an A-class! Hey! Hey!”
No matter how much I pounded on the door, it was useless. I swallowed hard. The wave was so sharp that my chest naturally pushed forward. As if someone was pushing me hard from behind.
I barely managed to turn around. Looking back, Kim Haewon was staring near me with a completely crazed expression. You couldn’t tell where an esper on the verge of going berserk was looking.
I realized that this isolation room was excessively cold. Kim Haewon was a water-type esper. He could handle anything that contained moisture. He could heat it up or freeze it. Generally, since the human body is 70% water, it meant he could kill people by freezing or boiling them.
Dying from boiling from within, or freezing.
Kim Haewon was someone who accomplished such impossible feats. I remembered his cold hand that I had held when I guided him. He always seemed like someone living in winter.
I approached him while making a calming gesture with both hands.
“Um, K-Kim Haewon esper. Can you see me? I’m C-class guide Park Garam. There seems to be some mistake… I’m supposed to guide you now?”
“…”
“But… I think I might die. If you could give me 10 minutes, I’ll somehow find a B-class guide…”
Before I could finish, Kim Haewon approached right up to my face. I felt like I was completely swallowed by his shadow cast over me.
Even though I’m over 180cm tall, I couldn’t even square my shoulders in front of the large-framed Kim Haewon. He suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace. I was completely buried in the giant’s arms.
I expected to faint as soon as he hugged me. It was because the contact area was too large. A C-class would barely manage even after fainting with a nosebleed. But contrary to my expectations, Kim Haewon’s body temperature began to rise rapidly.
I thought water would melt and feel damp, but it felt fluffy like well-dried laundry instead. A feeling like each strand of down was fluttering. I could even feel the confusion and waves inside the esper in front of me being organized at once, as if being combed through.
And then he collapsed immediately. Not me, but Kim Haewon. I wiggled my fingers while pinned under his large frame.
“Help… help me…”
The unconscious Kim Haewon was heavy. My nose was buried in his chest as I wiggled my fingers. I too had no strength, but I still had a faint consciousness.
It was the minimal instinct that I had to survive somehow rather than die from being crushed.
As soon as Kim Haewon collapsed, the door that had shown no reaction to my screams opened instantly.
‘These bastards… When I was begging for help, they didn’t even care…’
It was true that espers ranked above guides, but this kind of mistreatment never became familiar. Just as I was about to curse them out, Kim Haewon was lifted. Eight strong men lifted him together.
Then I too was carried by someone and moved to a bed. Normally, a C-class guide would be left to dust themselves off and get up on their own.
The current situation was abnormal. People were treating me as if I were an S-class guide. They spread my eyes and shined a light to check, then hurriedly lifted my hoodie and attached several examination devices. Among those hands was the researcher who had brought me here.
As my whole body grew languid, I gestured toward him. Come closer, come closer, I beckoned.
The researcher approached me without a moment’s hesitation. I grabbed his hair with all the strength I could muster.
“You bastard! I almost died!”
“Aah!”
“You crazy otaku freak!”
“Guide, Guide Park Garam, please calm down. Your vitals are rising,” another female researcher tried to pull me away.
It seemed I really had guided an SS-class, as there was no strength left in my body. My consciousness was fading.
“You bas… bastard… I’ll… once I… wake up…”
I’ll kill you when I wake up. With that thought, I closed my eyes. My mind grew distant. It was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
* * *
I woke up about two hours later. I found myself in the guide recovery room within the VIP Center. Unlike other ranks, from S-class upwards, they used private rooms. The problem was that I wasn’t S-class.
It was nice to be lying on such a luxurious bed rather than in some barracks due to the Center’s incorrect information. It seemed disadvantageous for me to insist, “I’m a C-class so I’ll leave right now.” I looked at the IV fluids and various nutrients entering my arm.
They’ve hung up quite a lot.
Have S-classes always received this kind of treatment? It’s ridiculous. Yesterday, when I barely got by with a cold boxed meal and rushed around urgently, seemed like a lie now.
“Guide Park Garam, are you conscious? I’m Senior Researcher Lim Seoyeon.”
“Yes.”
“We met the day before yesterday, didn’t we?”
“No. This is our first meeting…”
“So you really don’t remember anything, as Researcher Han Joowon said?”
“I don’t know who Researcher Han Joowon is…”
“The researcher whose hair Guide Park Garam grabbed while calling him a ‘crazy otaku freak.'”
A flash of memory returned. As soon as I came out of the isolation room where I was locked with Kim Haewon, I grabbed that guy’s hair. He was no different from a murderer who almost killed me.
When I immediately frowned, Researcher Lim Seoyeon’s expression also turned serious as she observed my face.
“Guide Park Garam, listen carefully. You are no longer a C-class guide.”
“What?”
“In the Center’s regular checkup the day before yesterday, you were confirmed as S-class. The cause is unknown, but your matching rate with other espers is too low. The only esper who matches with Guide Park Garam is Esper Kim Haewon.”
It was something I’d heard before. No. Something I’d read before. A C-class guide who always had enthusiasm but wasn’t much help, who one day like lightning could guide an S-class, but whose abilities remained at C-class and repeatedly faced frustration—that guide from the novel.
“By any chance, is my matching rate with Esper Kim Haewon…”
“98%. You’re soulmates.”
Researcher Lim Seoyeon smiled brightly. I nodded while smiling along. This is insane. I must still be dreaming. I was probably having this dream because I was so frustrated after reading that novel.
