# Chapter 23
Kim Haewon must have judged my condition to be quite serious, as I was immediately sent for another examination that day.
I felt wronged, but I understood it could be like that from Kim Haewon’s perspective and went through with the examination. The result was “No abnormalities.” However, due to Kim Haewon’s strong insistence, my hospital stay was extended a bit longer.
What baffled me most was that when I was alone in the hospital room, the novel application opened just fine.
“Damn it! Why wouldn’t it open before!”
I was dumbfounded seeing the application running smoothly without any loading time. But this incident made me realize something. The novel application wouldn’t work when someone else was around. It was the same when a nurse came, or when an administrator from Management visited.
The novel application only opened when I was completely alone. This was also explained in the newly uploaded Chapter 9.
*After experiencing a bout of pain, Garam finally realized that only he could read this novel. He couldn’t show this novel to anyone around him. Garam finally understood that he was the true protagonist of this story.*
What protagonist! I kicked the blanket in frustration. Embarrassment was a secondary concern. More importantly, only I could read this story.
Come to think of it, it was the same on the plane to Chicago. The novel was only readable when I was alone. I should have sensed it then, but since my goal was to tell Kim Haewon about this story to resolve it, I couldn’t have thought so meticulously.
The problem was what would happen going forward. Now both the Esper Department and the Guide Department thought I was sick. Being judged as mentally and physically weak, it was highly likely that whatever strategic words I spoke from now on wouldn’t be believed.
Jeon Jinhyeok and Oh Guhyeon, the guides who used the same floor, advised me that it could be a temporary phenomenon and told me not to be too hard on myself before they left. They didn’t seem to think I was normal either.
Especially Guide Jeon Jinhyeok claimed it was all aftereffects from the Chicago gate incident. He muttered in a not-so-small voice, “Espers who disrespect guides should die,” which gave me chills.
The Association determined that although I was suffering from unexplained amnesia, delusions, and other conditions, my guiding ability itself wasn’t compromised. In other words, regardless of my mental state, I should guide Esper Kim Haewon.
I was perfectly normal, but the Association’s judgment wasn’t welcome. It was because they would make the same judgment even if another guide was genuinely mentally impacted or struggling.
But I had no power to oppose the Association. The one consideration I received was Kim Haewon coming to my hospital room. Since that day, Kim Haewon would look at me with an ominous expression, but I consistently ignored it.
“How’s your condition?”
“Not great. I’ll start guiding now.”
I didn’t try to talk at length. It was obvious that everything I said to Kim Haewon would be reported to the higher-ups. Because of this guy, my hospitalization had been extended indefinitely. I was at the point where I might forget what my small studio apartment looked like.
Of course, the hospital food was still delicious, and all hospitalization costs were covered by the Association, but a hospital was still a hospital. It was a place with an atmosphere that made you feel like you could get sick even if you weren’t.
With an impassive expression, I examined Kim Haewon’s interior. It was a place that felt new every time I guided. My guiding energy was still clearing the entrance to the source of his energy. Despite doing this for days, there wasn’t much visible progress. I gripped both hands tightly and tried to go a little further inside the entrance.
“Kuh.”
Whenever I did that, not only I but Kim Haewon also had to struggle. Having significantly less experience with proper guiding, Kim Haewon had a guiding rejection reaction. When trying to clean up his accumulated and festering energy residue, his body would reflexively push the guide away.
But perhaps because he had seen me coughing up blood last time, Kim Haewon gripped my wrist and tried not to let go. Anyway, as long as the contact wasn’t broken, I could continue guiding.
Every time I guided Kim Haewon, I felt like a janitor cleaning a swamp. Today, I felt like I had stepped about one step further inside the entrance. The wavelengths of energy were tangled upon tangled, layered in strata.
Repeatedly scraping, cutting, and pulling out something like thick tree roots made sweat flow all over my body. It was the same for both Kim Haewon and me. After doing about one corner like that, I had to finish the guiding.
“Phew.”
As soon as I finished guiding, I flopped onto the bed. Kim Haewon wiped his face with the towel he had placed beside the chair.
“I heard you said something strange to Director Cha.”
“What do you mean?”
“That he should find another guide.”
I hadn’t thought he would keep it secret, but the news traveled too quickly. I didn’t think Director Cha was that type, but his mouth was floating on water. Although it wasn’t something I shouldn’t have said to Kim Haewon, I realized that Cha Hyeonseok wasn’t tight-lipped, so it seemed important to be more selective with my words in the future.
With that in mind, I continued without denying his words.
“We’re not exactly on good terms, so how long can we remain pairs? Besides, I suddenly went from C-class to S-class, so I might go back to C-class at any time. So we need to find a contingency plan.”
The guiding between Kim Haewon and me was an unavoidable contact. There was no matching rate as high as ours. However, the trust between us was low. We didn’t hesitate to say hurtful words and didn’t even exchange apologies. We just unavoidably held hands for two to three hours a day.
“You have no sense of belonging.”
Kim Haewon said coldly. I turned my head to look at him. This was the aspect of Kim Haewon I disliked the most among his many facets. The fact that he thought when a pair is formed, one guide becomes subordinate to one esper. He seemed angry at the fact that I didn’t try to belong to him. It was a pointless obsession.
“A guide only needs to belong to the Guide Department. We can’t belong to every esper.”
“You’re my pair guide.”
“What’s so special about being a pair? Pairs can be replaced overnight if someone with a higher matching rate appears.”
“It’s quite a talent to make me repeat the same words every time.”
“That’s what I want to say.”
Kim Haewon and I were always in a volatile situation. Since we both had strong dissatisfactions with each other, our conversations didn’t last long.
Fortunately, Chief Secretary Hwang Changho was waiting outside and would come in to defuse the situation when our voices rose. Today was no exception.
“Good work. Good work, Esper-nim, it’s almost time for the team meeting. Let’s stop by your residence so you can change clothes.”
When Hwang Changho spoke, Kim Haewon would get up, glare at me with all his might, and leave the hospital room. He had never once said things like “good work” or “I’m leaving.”
“That, that ill-mannered brat.”
“Guide-nim, then I’ll see you tomorrow!”
Hwang Changho placed a vitamin drink on the nightstand and rushed out. Then I had to spend time alone again.
My body was just in the hospital, but what I was doing was no different from going to work at the Guide Department. Documents were delivered every morning by an administrative employee from the Guide Department.
At first, I thought everyone handled that much paperwork, but Oh Guhyeon, who came for a brief visit, tipped me off that I seemed to be on Director Ham’s bad side, so all the paperwork was being dumped on me. After hearing that, I was even more reluctant to do it, but resisting would only deepen Director Ham’s dislike.
“Petty bastard.”
That’s why all his hair is running away too. I clicked my tongue and turned on my laptop. The Association’s system was unnecessarily meticulous and provided video lectures about the world of S-class that I didn’t know as a C-class guide.
The topics included ⸏⸏⸏, ⸏⸏⸏, <White Box: Maximum Efficiency Utilization Method>, and so on.
I tried to ask the Management Department if they could excuse me from watching these since I was sick, but it didn’t work at all. They said how could Kim Haewon’s pair guide not have completed even the basic education courses.
Kim Haewon, Kim Haewon, Kim Haewon!
That Kim Haewon was the problem. As the education continued, I could realize more deeply how great a person he was. It was because they explained through statistics and historical materials how much stronger the country could become just by having one SS-class esper, and how much South Korea had developed in terms of military and diplomacy.
The updates were also well maintained, even mentioning the recent Chicago gate incident. Of course, my name wasn’t there.
“That’s why the ending of that novel was such hyperrealism.”
I thought about HatefulCat, the source of all this trouble. In some ways, maybe the author was clever. In reality, people aren’t curious about guides.
“Maybe the title itself was nonsensical?”
I thought about this and laughed self-deprecatingly. At that moment, my phone vibrated once.
[Notification] <I’ve Been Possessed by a Real-Time Serial Novel> Chapter 10 has been uploaded.
It was news about the upload of Chapter 10, which I had been waiting for for several days. I looked around and immediately pressed the banner notification button.
