The front door, unlocked in advance for security, was kicked open. The sound of the intruder’s boots stomping in was raucous. The situation where an eviction team made up of espers was rushing in like a show of force just to kick out a single powerless guide was almost laughable.
Thanks to that, it was perfect for creating a tragic scene.
Han Seoha didn’t budge at the sound of the eviction team he’d been waiting for rushing in. He waited quietly, having arranged the appearance that those famous for being merciless would see first.
“Guide Han Seoha! Comply with the eviction obediently…….”
As expected, the eviction team leader’s voice, which had roughly opened the door and hurled out a warning without preamble, faded. Even as they opened the door, Han Seoha was sitting beside Ryu Jaegeon’s bed with only his head barely leaning against it.
What the eviction team saw was the sadness of someone unable to bring himself to climb onto the esper’s bed, desperately trying to feel even a trace of the one he longed for. It was pitiful enough to make the espers who should have immediately dragged the guide out hesitate.
Only then did Han Seoha stand up from his spot as if just noticing their presence and bowed at the waist.
“I’m sorry. I should have left first.”
“……We’ll escort you outside.”
[Drag him out right now. Guides, I swear.]
At the polite voice saying different words from before, Han Seoha forced a struggling smile onto his face.
“Yes, thank you for waiting.”
“Huh…….”
The greeter’s throat was choked up, making them guess how much he had cried. With his reddened eyes still filled with sorrow, even his faint smile looked painful. As he showed only desolation without resentment even at being kicked out, even the watching eviction team espers let out sympathy.
Despite the limited reaction from those who were merciless to guides being evicted, Han Seoha hurried to pull his suitcase. One of the eviction team espers standing nearby took the suitcase from his hands. Han Seoha looked up in surprise, but the esper pretended not to notice and went ahead.
“Oh, he’s coming out.”
“It’s quieter than I thought?”
“Last time they knocked someone out and carried them out.”
When he exited through the wide-open front door, the gathered crowd murmured. The gazes filled with curiosity bordering on malice were exactly what Han Seoha had expected.
The previous Han Seoha hadn’t been able to accept Ryu Jaegeon’s change of heart. After crying in the quarters, he’d been seized by the eviction team and thrown out along with the expensive gifts Ryu Jaegeon had given him. The people who witnessed the scene looked at the tearful Han Seoha not with sympathy but with jealousy. The rumors that spread afterward were also not of pity but of ‘serves him right.’
But what about now? All that dwelt in everyone’s eyes was pity. Han Seoha didn’t forget to greet them as well.
“Thank you for everything. Take care.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Um, what can I say, stay strong.”
Those who had been awkwardly responding were flustered when they saw Han Seoha’s suitcase. It was surprising enough that an eviction team esper was carrying it for him, but for a guide who had been in charge of one esper for a whole year, the luggage was far too shabby.
They had naturally expected him to pack up moving boxes full of stuff or to throw a fit claiming it was his home. From Han Seoha’s pitiful luggage, they began to realize that the good-natured appearance he’d shown all along had been genuine.
Unlike other guides who were interested in the perks, he had only stayed here for his esper.
“Thank you for escorting me.”
Han Seoha, who had arrived at the guide quarters, gave his thanks several times to the esper who had followed him like a guard carrying his luggage.
“We’ve really arrived now. Please give me my luggage.”
“I’ll carry it to your quarters.”
By the rules, the eviction team’s job had already been finished long ago.
Once they moved the guide whose partnership had been terminated out of the esper quarters, their work was done. When Han Seoha obediently got into the vehicle heading to the guide quarters, the eviction team’s job was already finished.
However, even when everyone else returned, the eviction team esper who had been carrying the suitcase stuck around. Even though Han Seoha refused several times saying it was fine, he followed all the way to the end and finally set foot in the guide quarters.
At the esper’s attitude showing no signs of leaving, Han Seoha showed an awkward smile.
“Um, should I offer you something to drink?”
“Thank you.”
Watching the esper enter with his boots on as if he’d been waiting for this, Han Seoha slipped a slipper into the door gap to prevent it from closing completely.
“There’s bottled juice in the refrigerator, but I can’t see any cups… Is it okay if I give it to you as is?”
“Yes.”
He took out two bottles of juice and brought them to the small table. Watching the esper already sitting in the opposite chair, he felt the flow was similar to when guiding.
“Ah, if you need guiding, could you please submit a matching request?”
The eviction team esper was dumbfounded at what this naive guide was saying. That a guide abandoned by his esper was being particular about matching requests showed just how preciously he’d been treated.
“You haven’t been registered as a free guide yet.”
“Ah… The system must be running late.”
The esper, faced with a sorrowfully beautiful guide, felt his thirst that hadn’t subsided for a while now intensifying. Even though Han Seoha was C-rank, he was a guide who had handled an A-rank esper alone. No esper could leave such a guide’s hand lying defenseless on the table.
Before Han Seoha could notice, the esper’s fingers intertwined with his and their palms pressed together.
“Esper-nim?”
“Let’s start guiding.”
“Um, you need to submit a request first…….”
“Think of it as a temporary test.”
You have to find a new esper anyway, don’t you?
At the eviction team esper’s urging, Han Seoha slowly nodded. He added his other hand that hadn’t been caught to cover even the esper’s knuckles. The sight of him firmly grasping the large esper’s hands with both hands and beginning to guide like a prayer looked almost reverent.
Could he really be this naive? Any other guide would have thrown a fit about being disrespected.
“Ha…….”
The faint wave that started from their intertwined fingers continued to his broad palm, gently unraveling the esper’s tangled energy. He’d anticipated it since their hands brushed when he brought the suitcase, but it felt as sweet as he looked.
“Haah… This is C-rank?”
The esper threw off the mask covering half his face without hesitation. Swallowing the appetizing guide before his eyes was instantaneous.
* * *
An external visitor alarm rang in the quiet quarters management office.
At the visit later than scheduled, the manager who had been slouched lifted his head. Pushing up his large glasses, he checked the esper and Han Seoha, who would be moving in today, reflected on the front gate monitor.
“What? Why did he bring an esper to the guide quarters?”
While thinking that he had good skills to catch a new esper as soon as he was dumped by an A-rank esper, this meant he couldn’t do his job half-heartedly.
“If he’s going to come, he should come during the day. This is annoyingly troublesome.”
Lee Yeongjin, the quarters supervisor and manager, slowly got up. He did move because he couldn’t let an esper loiter around the guide quarters, but since the esper had followed carrying luggage to make a good impression on the guide anyway, there were no danger factors.
Lee Yeongjin’s footsteps passing through the corridor were endlessly slow. However, as he got off the elevator and approached Han Seoha’s quarters, his steps quickened at the suspicious sounds he heard.
The sound of something breaking, desperate cries to stop—Lee Yeongjin pressed the emergency call button at his waist. At the same time, he drew the taser gun for subduing espers and rushed into the quarters.
“Freeze, if you move…….”
“Ah, perfect timing.”
The esper who recognized Lee Yeongjin smacked his lips and showed his hands. Han Seoha, who had been sobbing while pinned under the esper, crawled out of the bed trembling.
“What the hell is all this, you esper bastard?”
“Your words are harsh. As you can see, we were in the middle of guiding.”
“You guys always have the same excuse. Should I make you spend a month without guiding so you’ll come to your senses?”
At Lee Yeongjin’s warning, the esper’s waves became noticeably rougher. At this, Han Seoha urgently squeezed between the two.
“I, the partner termination hasn’t been processed in the system yet… So Esper-nim must have misunderstood.”
“So he tried to rape you?”
“No, there was some miscommunication…….”
“What kind of fucking idiotic communication results in an esper tearing off all your clothes?”
With his swollen lips torn, trembling and desperately smiling saying it was okay—it was clumsy. Staring at such a Han Seoha, Lee Yeongjin didn’t lower the taser gun aimed at the esper.
“Manager-nim, what’s the matter?”
“If it’s another test, please give us good scores… Huh?”
“That crazy son of a bitch!”
The response team that had been leisurely entering the quarters subdued the eviction team esper along with curses at the actual situation. Only then did Lee Yeongjin, putting away the taser gun, cover Han Seoha with a blanket.
Even in the midst of this, to Han Seoha who was forcibly smiling and saying thank you, Lee Yeongjin was so flabbergasted that his words didn’t come out nicely.
“Guide Han Seoha, are you a pushover? Are you an idiot? Covering for an esper? And not even your partner or pair at that.”
“Well, his waves were very rough… When that happens, espers are in a lot of pain.”
“That’s why we run 24-hour matching. Do you think we made the system for nothing? We manage day and night to prevent things like this.”
“I’m sorry.”
Watching Han Seoha’s hands still trembling as he bowed his head and apologized, Lee Yeongjin lowered the voice that had been about to rise.
“Get a grip. You came here because you were abandoned by that great esper of yours. If you’re going to be weak and get dragged around, go to a private center instead of here. You’ll be super popular.”
It was telling him to leave the guide quarters if he liked selling his body. It was harsh words, but it was meant to make this overly kind guide face reality.
“I’ll keep it in mind. Thank you, Manager-nim.”
“……The medical office is open 24 hours, so make sure to stop by. Don’t try to be considerate and go tomorrow. I’ll be checking.”
Seeing Han Seoha smile hazily, it was clear he was planning not to go, worried about being a nuisance. Lee Yeongjin sighed, seeing clearly that this rarely seen overly kind guide would cause him frustration in the future.
After Lee Yeongjin left, Han Seoha, left alone in the tidied room, immediately went into the bathroom and spat. With a fierce face he hadn’t shown in front of Lee Yeongjin or the suppression team, he rinsed his mouth over and over.
“Ha… Haha…….”
Despite the unpleasantness, amusement kept slipping through, and he pressed down with his hand to hide the corners of his mouth that were trying to rise in the mirror’s reflection.
‘It’s just like I saw. He really is a kind Chihuahua after all.’
He was certain he’d buttoned the first button well with Lee Yeongjin’s sense of responsibility and affection, caring with all his attention even for a guide he’d just met.
[Guides are such an embarrassment.]
[If you’re going to be like that, just go to a civilian private center and sell your body.]
“You’ve become much gentler than before.”
The harsh words filled with concern instead of malice were quite satisfying. If he maintained it just like this, he would continue to be a reliable ally.
In the face of the weak Han Seoha reflected in the mirror, firm resolve settled.
