“Is that even possible? Rainbows aren’t supposed to have physical form. They’re a phenomenon of light reflecting off water droplets.”
“It’s possible because we corrected and maintained that phenomenon with a drawing.”
“This is totally cheating…?!”
While they were having a conversation I couldn’t even hear from below, I was struggling like hell to turn off the faucet.
“Please, please! Close! Please!”
I didn’t know there would be a variable like this. It was because the faucet was drawn larger than my body. When I finally succeeded in closing the faucet by squeezing out even the strength in my toes, there was no strength left in my body at all.
Really, I had even drawn out the strength from when I was breastfeeding.
I didn’t even have the confidence to climb back down the rope, and the rainbow was fading.
At this rate, it’s death by falling.
Then…
I pushed off with my toes with the last remaining strength.
Then my body began to slide along the round curve of the rainbow.
“Deobuk!!”
It would be nice if there were gold and silver treasures at the end of the rainbow like the art student Esper said, but I’d have to survive first to claim that.
The acceleration kept increasing. There were no gold and silver treasures at the end of the rainbow. There was only water that had stripped the grime off the city and become thoroughly filthy.
*Splash!*
I crashed into it at a very fast speed. I crashed so fast that I couldn’t properly register where I crashed from, where I was hurt, or even whether I was breathing right now.
[The rainbow has been killed]
[Reward: Yongsan-gu recapture success]
I seemed to have glimpsed such a notification window. As the water that had risen drained away in an instant, my thoroughly soaked body was lying sprawled on the rooftop of a residential-commercial complex villa.
“…Fucking hurts.”
My whole body hurt so much I couldn’t move. My insides churned, and my eyes opened with great difficulty. The sky that had been trapped in the rainbow was clearing.
“Deobuk!! Lee Deobuk!!”
Just as my consciousness was about to fade again, a desperate voice caught at my ears.
“I said it’s Lee Yesol, you bastard…”
Trembling hands stroked my sternocleidomastoid muscle. A shadow seemed to block the bright sunlight, then a sensation that was both warm and cool *whoosh* pushed in between my lips. It was like an umbilical cord connecting a lifeline.
I realized it was Kim Seohyeon’s lips the next moment. But my misfiring instinct was busy devouring the current fruit.
Everything else didn’t matter. As if it would run away, I grabbed the back of his neck tight and swallowed as much as I could. Our breaths mixed hotly. It was a cool and pleasant taste.
“Wow, he’s really sucking it deliciously…”
The art-type Esper’s exclamation laid out like background.
My eyes, which had been drowsily closed as if floating on cotton candy, opened.
Only then did my real senses begin to return.
The hand gripping the pounding carotid artery, and Kim Seohyeon’s eyelids. The bangs that fell down tickling my cheek, and my lower body swelling achingly stiff… the most vivid stimuli.
Each other’s wetness was messily intertwined.
“Sto— Mmph!”
Having come to my senses, I tried to push him away by patting Kim Seohyeon’s shoulder, but this bastard was sucking my lower lip until it swelled as if he was an Esper or something.
This… strangely overlaps with right before the regression.
“I’m okay now…”
I struggled hard with my body pinned under Kim Seohyeon.
Only then did Kim Seohyeon open his eyes that had been closed the whole time and looked down at me.
They were eyes that had gone slack as if he’d performed some passionate deed.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I said I’m okay. I survived thanks to you.”
This guy seems as out of it as me.
“…Ah.”
“……”
“Thank goodness.”
The air was still hot. Kim Seohyeon, who had been exhaling a sigh of relief, pulled my head into an embrace just like that.
Under the exhausted guy, I too kept breathing out.
I’d heard before that Guides consume a lot of energy sucking out yin energy so they take all kinds of nutritional supplements… I resolved that if I got a scholarship this time, I should buy some nutritional supplements for Kim Seohyeon, then lost consciousness.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, it was a hospital room.
And many things had changed.
A pale green ceiling, and a new humidifier shaped like a water bottle. A neat peach-puff solid-colored sofa and letters and flowers decorating the table.
It was a single-occupancy hospital room I’d only seen in dramas where I’d appeared as an extra.
“What the…”
My whole body was wrapped tightly in bandages, and something like a traction device was attached to my neck, making it hard to even lift my head.
“Oh my! My proud son!”
Mother entering the hospital room had plump cheeks. Her complexion was also very good, and I could see golden Gongjindan shells fluttering in the wind from the air purifier that had just been turned on.
‘She’s been taking those…’
“Son, son. Are you coming to a bit?”
Her voice was cheerful even though her son had nearly died. Normally at times like this, wouldn’t you urgently call for a doctor first?
Ah… wait.
“Mom, how long has it been since I woke up?”
I asked, quickly raising my croaking neck.
“What’s today’s date?”
I couldn’t even see my phone.
“You woke up after two days. You got nutritional supplements yesterday and slept deeply.”
“Ah, two days?”
The heat that had shot up to the tips of my hair cooled and strength left my body.
Thank goodness.
If something like ‘passed out and when I opened my eyes it was ten days later’ had happened… my life would have been ruined this time too.
“Mom, give me my phone.”
I checked the date just to be sure.
Only then did relief wash over me.
Yongsan-gu was in chaos. People who had become flood victims in an instant held torch rallies in front of the National Assembly, but those were scenes I’d see tiringly for the next few months.
I quickly skimmed through a cross-section of the noisy news.
The second Territory Game held simultaneously worldwide. In this battle, there were more countries that failed than succeeded. And the end of failure was one thing.
Evaporation of land.
Land that people failed to protect would just hollow out like a bald spot in exactly that area.
No matter how much soil you poured in, the land wouldn’t fill up. Investigation vehicles were sucked in like black holes. Land lost forever, a bottomless pit with no end in sight.
Those places would become famous suicide, crime, and tourist spots in the near future.
[Only 39 countries didn’t lose land]
This time too, the place with the most survivors was Korea. One Esper’s brilliance saves territory.
[Lee Yesol Esper video clip compilation]
[Kim Seohyeon x Lee Yesol x Oh Haemi x Bang Seolhyeok, the main players of Yongsan]
[‘Esper Lee Yesol told us to bet everything’ Rainbow-colored charmer! Oh Haemi full interview!]
[‘Wanted to become an idol’ Esper Lee Yesol full story!]
[Why don’t we have a ‘Lee Yesol’! Japanese archipelago enraged protests]
“Ah, wait.”
Even without going into ‘Planet Trainee Gallery’, my name was blooming everywhere. It was the society section of the news.
My video of closing the rainbow faucet uploaded to ChickTube had already surpassed 50 million views. A wrecker who had been isolated on a rooftop had filmed and uploaded me.
I played the video.
The video started as the blurry camera came into focus.
Between the sound of flowing water, the wrecker’s on-the-spot voice laid out.
—Over there, a woman is drawing something? What is she doing? There are a thousand people who need to be rescued but she’s just drawing now… huh…
It captured Oh Haemi on a lifeboat drawing a rainbow in a sketchbook.
But when that drawing manifested on the real rainbow, the wrecker couldn’t hide his surprise.
—Wow… Is this really possible? Now, do you see the faucet on the rainbow, everyone? It seems she drew that. If it’s real, it’s too ingenious. I was complaining about why they weren’t rescuing me… huh… I’m sorry.
—That rope also seems to have been created by drawing. It looks like Esper Lee Yesol is about to climb the rope now.
The camera followed me precariously climbing up the rope.
—Isn’t that too dangerous? If he’s going to do that, why not draw a ladder? I don’t understand. Let’s watch for now…
The screen that briefly switched downward showed three people on the lifeboat each exerting their strength.
—Whoa whoa whoa! Dangerous, dangerous!
The camera hastily switched back to me. After slipping greatly once, I didn’t give up and worked hard to climb the rope.
—Ah, really working so hard.
When turning the faucet, they got my one-shot.
—Do you see how red his face has turned now? He’s been doing that for 20 minutes… I’d like to hand him some water.
My face, flushed red and blue, was magnified on camera.
—Wow, but he’s really cute-looking. Doesn’t he look like a squirrel?
The wrecker filled in audio intermittently with a subdued voice.
—That, he absolutely has to succeed. Only then will this video go up too… and I think I’ll be able to survive. Do you see the water level rising? Our floor seems like it’ll be submerged soon too…
And finally.
—Uwooooooooo! He did it! I survived.
—But crazy! I think we need to rescue Lee Yesol quickly? The rainbow is fading right now. We need to rescue him quickly. He’s not visible on screen right now, but whether Esper Lee Yesol slipped or what… he disappeared over to the other side… I really hope he’s safe.
The video ended with the wrecker’s monologue.
I couldn’t understand the best comments page because they were all in English…
There happened to be a derivative video like this.
[Compilation of overseas reactions to Lee Yesol killing the rainbow!]
I quickly clicked on it.
└A very creative guy… both his actions and his face!
└He really looks like a K-pop idol! Son Heungman, Park BTS… Bong Junho… Why does Korea pour out such talents?
└He was actually a trainee at Planet Entertainment where the group ‘Pangpang’ is!
└He’s an idol trainee for real!
└Really ingenious
└Amazing that he did that in such a short time
└I can feel his love for his country. My country lost land while pushing it onto each other ;( I’m envious
└What kind of ability does that person have to prepare all that?
└└They say detection!
└└They say it’s a rare ability~
└Naturalize him to China immediately!
