# Chapter 3
It was a dream. It had to be a dream. I laughed hollowly as I neatly covered myself with the blanket and closed my eyes again.
“Excuse me, Guide Park Garam…?”
“I understand completely. You’ve worked very hard.”
I gave a victory salute while lying down, then closed my eyes again. I needed to sleep. No, I needed to escape from the world of sleep and return to the real world. Fortunately, my tired body was gradually drifting off.
“I need to sleep and wake up quickly. If I’m late, I’ll be fined.”
“Excuse me?”
“Having such a weird dream. That novel must have really pissed me off. Researcher Lim Seoyeon, don’t read that novel.”
Because you’ll have weird dreams like me. I couldn’t finish my last words as I was drawn into a deep sleep. Researcher Lim Seoyeon was saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear her. I didn’t think it was necessary to listen to everything.
Because it was a dream. Everything was just a dream. I probably wouldn’t remember even half of it after waking up anyway.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the ceiling. But it wasn’t the checkered pattern of my studio apartment. It was the white tiled ceiling of a hospital. Why the hell wouldn’t this dream end? Am I perhaps unconscious or suffering from overwork? While thinking this, I heard someone’s voice.
“Are you awake?”
A deep, thick voice, and the strangely cold atmosphere of the hospital room made me turn my head to look beside me. Kim Haewon was sitting in a makeshift chair, looking at me.
His mere presence emitted dangerous wavelengths wildly. How long had it been since he received guiding? Enduring that state must have been a form of torture. It was embarrassing that I was the one lying in the hospital bed instead of Kim Haewon.
Kim Haewon was looking at me with inscrutable eyes. Due to his water attribute, his eyes had a mysterious color that was neither gray nor blue.
However, despite their beauty, there was a threatening feeling that if I kept staring, he would absorb me into that mysterious world and kill me. I hurriedly broke the eye contact. Then I placed my hand on his wrist.
Since it was just a dream anyway, I felt less afraid. Perhaps if I did a good deed even in a dream, I might be forgiven for writing that hate comment and return to reality faster.
“What are you doing?”
His voice was coolness itself. Loveless and sharp like a voice made of ice. I was a bit scared to answer, so I just showed him through my actions.
Even though it was a dream, my experienced skills hadn’t rusted. I quickly organized his wavelengths.
But no matter how much I organized them, their sharpness didn’t dull at all, as if they had been accumulating for so long. My head began to throb. It was an energy wavelength I had never experienced before.
So cold it made me shiver, and painful like an electric shock. When I judged that I could no longer approach his energy, I removed my hand. Then I steadied my breathing. It was painfully shocking, almost too much for a dream.
But all I could think was how deeply I must have immersed myself in that novel. How angry must I have been to have such a vivid dream? My consciousness began to fade again. In my dazed state, I casually spoke to Kim Haewon.
“You, really.”
“You?”
“Life must have been tough for you.”
“Tough?”
Kim Haewon was dumbfounded by these unfamiliar expressions. My consciousness was gradually fading, so I moved my mouth freely. Although he was intimidating, thinking that this was a dream made me feel more pity for him. After all, he was still a person.
“You should get some sleep too. With those wavelengths, you probably haven’t slept well.”
Actually, the dream was getting a bit annoying as it dragged on. It was nice to speak casually to Kim Haewon and to be in a nice hospital room. But it was all a dream. Reality was a life of moving from one stinking barracks to another next to gates.
If I’m going to dream, at least give me a sweet one. Having to work even in my dreams… I felt drowsy and completely closed my eyes. I could feel a long, persistent gaze on my face, but I didn’t open my eyes. If I met that gaze, it felt like I might never be able to sleep again.
* * *
“What the fuck!”
Again, again, again, it was a hospital room. Sleep, sleep again, and sleep more, it was still the same hospital room. I hadn’t woken from the dream. I wasn’t even sleepy anymore. No, rather, my head hurt from sleeping too much.
The IV was completely finished, and I was classified as a Guide who slept a lot. Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. I opened my phone.
There were no messages. Normally, there should have been numerous alerts from the Guide Bureau piled up. I wiped the screen of my old phone and clicked on the Center application.
My photo and electronic ID card appeared on the main screen.
Park Garam (30, Male)
– Affiliation: Guide Bureau 1
– Classification: S-rank
– Pair Status: O (Kim Haewon/SS-rank/Matching rate 98%)
– Changes: Personnel reassignment due to emergency rank adjustment. Guide Bureau 17 → Guide Bureau 1
I grabbed my forehead. Park Garam was my name, and Guide Bureau 17 was where I belonged. But the rest of the information was all lies.
How could I possibly be in Guide Bureau 1, which only S-rank Guides could join?
I put on slippers and got up from the bed. The hospital room was still unfamiliar. Everything was white, and there were machines I didn’t recognize. No matter how many times I closed and reopened the application, it showed the same information.
As if I had really become S-rank overnight.
As if I had really become Kim Haewon’s pair Guide.
I sat quietly on the bed for a while, staring at the white wall. If sleeping didn’t work, let’s try shock therapy. I closed my eyes tightly and rushed toward the wall.
“Argh!”
My head hurt terribly, and after that, I remembered nothing.
* * *
“Fortunately, it’s just a mild concussion.”
“Could it be related to the memory loss?”
“Well, it’s difficult to say, but if these impulsive actions continue, a comprehensive examination might be necessary.”
My head hurt. It felt like a large bell was ringing — ding! I felt continuous vibrations, nausea, and dizziness. People’s voices were mixed together.
“Could it be a side effect of the SS-rank Esper and S-rank Guide’s wavelengths becoming rapidly entangled? After the first guiding, Esper Kim Haewon also experienced an EM situation, and Guide Park Garam’s memory disappeared around that time too.”
“S-rank research results are so inconsistent, it’s hard to jump to conclusions.”
“Oh? It seems he’s regaining consciousness. Guide Park Garam, Guide Park Garam, can you hear me?”
I nodded. Then my head rang again. When I frowned, several nurses moved busily.
“Is there any possibility that a telekinesis-type Esper infiltrated the hospital room?”
The low, slow voice belonged to Kim Haewon. It seemed Kim Haewon believed I wasn’t crazy enough to bash my head against the wall by myself.
“No, Esper-nim. As you requested, we’ve analyzed the CCTV footage, and there was nothing.”
The person answering was clearly an older doctor, but his voice sounded like that of a private who was standing at attention. He probably froze naturally due to the coldness emitted by Kim Haewon.
“Do you think he might be falling asleep again? Guide Park Garam, you’ve been sleeping so much.”
“That might also be a kind of side effect…”
“For the time being… observe… field duty is…”
“S-rank… Esper Kim Haewon… telekinesis…”
People’s words started breaking up. Was I finally escaping from this dream? I smiled while trying to hold onto my fading consciousness. I was finally waking up from this dream.
“Hehe.”
“Guide Park Garam is smiling?”
“This is truly a serious side effect.”
Their voices started to sound clear again. But it didn’t matter. I was in the process of escaping from the dream. I felt dazed.
Silly fools. I’m leaving. To the real world. Live well in this dream.
* * *
At this point, maybe the real me is just dead.
As soon as I regained consciousness and saw the tiled ceiling, I was overcome with a strong desire to smash it. It was that damn hospital room again, and nothing had changed. What kind of bizarre situation was this?
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
I raised my middle finger toward the white ceiling while lying down. The only difference was that there were security personnel inside and outside the hospital room. Time was passing, and the situation was changing.
It was time to recognize that this wasn’t a dream. What happened? What on earth happened to me? I wanted to grab someone and ask, but right now, I was a man who had been sleeping a lot and suddenly ran into a wall, giving myself a concussion.
Who would listen to my absurd story?
I postponed taking any further action and picked up my phone. There were still no alerts. It seemed external communications had been blocked. I could tell because there were no messages from my colleagues at Bureau 17 or my friends.
The security system of Guide Bureau 1 had been applied. Bureau 1 was often involved in cases related to national security, so they lived in complete isolation. It was common not to be able to contact acquaintances, let alone family.
When I heard about this, I thought they were pitiful bastards. Not knowing that I would become one of them. Suddenly, I remembered my unsolicited concern for Kim Haewon. These memories didn’t fade well.
[You, really.]
[You?]
[Life must have been tough for you.]
[…..]
[You should get some sleep too. With those wavelengths, you probably haven’t slept well.]
I remembered how I had talked back to Kim Haewon. If, just if, this was reality, how would I face Kim Haewon… and how would I be his pair Guide…
“Haaa…”
In a situation where I couldn’t help but sigh, suddenly that novel came to mind. The novel with the exact same situation I was experiencing now.
But hadn’t that author deleted their work and disappeared? I connected to the internet and went to the novel site. Fortunately, this site wasn’t caught in the security.
As soon as I logged in, I saw an ‘N’ mark on my library. NEW. It meant something new had been uploaded.
