- Unfamiliar Daily Routine
Sijun persistently clung to the address of “hyung.” It was a much better form of address than being called Team Leader Yoon, but in its own way, it was embarrassing and felt rejecting.
Kihyun sat on the edge of the bed and thought for a moment. What would be good for him to be called by Sijun?
How about Guide Yoon?
Jung Sijun Ah what’s that That’s fucking weird
No matter how much he thought about it, no form of address came to mind. At best, it would be “Yoon-ssi,” but that wasn’t great either—it wasn’t like calling a construction site laborer, but the sound of it was a bit like that.
Wasn’t just calling him by name the most common? He couldn’t understand why Sijun was clinging to forms of address like that.
No more words to send in reply to Sijun’s trivial message came to mind, so Kihyun just closed the message window. And to soothe his troubled heart, he checked his bank account balance.
His heart felt relieved at the balance that had jumped up significantly from the last time he checked. This month’s loan repayment and credit card payment were no problem. Moreover, the balance still remained beautiful enough to look at.
He’d used most of the money Sijun had sent calling it a settlement payment to partially repay his loans. It felt like the noose that had been tightly strangling his neck had loosened just a little bit.
Kihyun pointlessly stroked his own neck and took out a bottle of water from the refrigerator to drink. After showering and lying in bed, sleep poured over him like a ghost.
‘It worked out somehow, though.’
Actually, when he checked Sijun’s wavelength at the café and proposed to guide him first, he’d been a little scared. He’d thought, what if I can’t guide well?
The shitty disease that only afflicted guides was just at the stage of starting treatment. Moreover, the last time he’d guided was entirely on the day he resigned, so his sense might have deteriorated considerably.
‘But it didn’t hurt more than before when guiding.’
It was a vague impression, but it seemed like things would work out somehow. It was a formless and vague hope, but he wondered how long it had been since he’d felt even this pale hope.
‘Let’s live diligently starting tomorrow.’
Kihyun fell into a deep sleep. Strangely, today had felt too long.
***
The Awakened Management Center headquarters was in an uproar over one topic for the first time in a while. Every break room where the capsule coffee machines ran non-stop was abuzz with talk about one person.
Guides who had gathered in groups of three to five in the guide break room, drooping from recently accumulated overwork, chattered with slightly excited looks.
“What happened with the story about Team Leader Yoon? Is he coming back to the Center?”
“I heard about it too…”
“Hurry up and tell me.”
“I heard he registered as Team Leader Jung’s personal guide?”
As soon as the guide who’d heard the rumor finished speaking, one senior guide’s eyes widened. Because there was only one Esper at the Center called Team Leader Jung.
“Are you shitting me?”
“…Deputy-nim, lower your voice a bit.”
“Oh, okay. Right. So Team Leader Yoon registered as Team Leader Jung Sijun’s personal guide?”
“Yes. Why, a few days ago when Team Leader Jung left that personal guide employment contract with the legal team for review, that was probably Team Leader Yoon’s.”
“Wow, those two?”
It was an utterly unbelievable combination.
And for good reason—weren’t their personalities too incompatible?
“Suddenly? Why did he go there? No, wasn’t there no one who could contact Team Leader Yoon in the first place?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. I unluckily got on the same elevator with the Headquarters Director this morning, and it seemed like he was planning to cajole Team Leader Yoon if he ran into him at the Center to bring him back…”
“Geez, after that bastard pulled that shit. Did he sell off all his sense of shame?”
While the guides’ faces showed both gladness and interest coexisting, the Esper waiting room was noisy. However, there was also a waiting room that was strangely calmer than other places. The Esper Special Team 1 waiting room was like that.
A man sitting in the center of the waiting room that seemed somehow gentle and relaxed, resembling the team leader’s personality, subtly propped his chin. Following the movement, light brown hair flowed down softly.
“Registered as Team Leader Jung’s personal guide?”
“Yes, Team Leader-nim.”
The content that one team member chattered about, saying he’d heard an interesting story earlier, was quite intriguing.
The man called team leader recalled Kihyun’s face instead of paying attention to the topic that had shifted to the Guide Headquarters Director’s shabby recruitment offer.
He was someone whose guiding and face he’d quite liked.
“Team Leader Yoon’s guiding was good.”
When Esper Special Team 1 Team Leader Seo Igyeong murmured quietly, the team members sitting around him chimed in.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“I wonder how much Team Leader Jung offered to bring him over, Team Leader-nim.”
When there were no Gates, Espers generally did physical training or gathered like this to have trivial small talk. The class hierarchy wasn’t particularly clear, but it wasn’t absent either.
Unlike Sijun, who belonged to the late side in terms of Center employment but seized the team leader position with that outstanding ability, Seo Igyeong was the type who had both Center employment seniority and ability. Not to mention the presence of being one of the few S-rank Espers at the Center.
“Right. If it’s not a big amount, should I pay the penalty fee and snatch Team Leader Yoon away?”
At the half-joking remark, the team members giggled and laughed. The man who became the center of the particularly harmonious atmosphere smiled gently and fell into thought.
Thinking that it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
***
Rumors at the Awakened Management Center were very fast. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t know the news of Kihyun’s return to the Center that spread from someone’s mouth.
“I was right, you bastard. The person they said they saw when we went to the B-rank Gate was definitely Yoon Kihyun.”
“Then did that crazy bastard seduce him then?”
The Espers spouting off in vulgar tones giggled while munching on snacks. It was one of the few peaceful times when they could rest comfortably while the team leaders were caught up in meetings.
“Wow, I wonder how much money he got to agree to be a personal guide?”
“Probably offered more than the Center salary.”
“That’s obvious, you idiot.”
“Only that crazy bastard lucked out. Using his thug disposition to quickly become a team leader, and now he somehow brought Yoon Kihyun as a personal guide.”
“But if he’s coming as a personal guide, doesn’t that mean we can’t get guiding from that public resource?”
Personal guides, unlike Center-affiliated guides, couldn’t be given work instructions by the Center. Because they were the exclusive guides of those they contracted with.
“Probably.”
“So fucking jealous, shit.”
They were spouting off vulgarly as usual, when the complexion of the guy sitting across from them turned sickly pale. Did he eat something wrong? Why’s he like that?
“What’s wrong?”
It was when he asked with a quite serious face. From behind, the sound of teeth grinding could be heard.
“Hey.”
So much murderous intent can be contained in a single syllable. The Esper who realized who the owner of the voice was slowly turned his head like a broken machine stripped of oil.
A large-framed man with his back to the fluorescent lights of the break room was visible. The gaze looking down at him was ominous, as if trouble would break out at any moment.
The owner of the blood type patch and Esper rank insignia attached to the sleeve of the jet-black combat uniform looked ready to tear him apart at any second.
“Which team?”
Sijun didn’t even ask at length. Even though he knew this was the Esper Special Team 4 break room, he asked on purpose. Just in case it might be a bastard from another team who’d come over to hang out and shoot the shit.
“Sp-Special Team 4. Team Leader-nim.”
The Esper, overwhelmed by the momentum, stammered. Probably after this situation passed, the friend in front of him would tease him while doing impressions, but he didn’t care about that. The disaster that had appeared before his eyes was too massive.
‘Did I not close the door? Fuck, I didn’t. Shit!’
While cold sweat dripped, Sijun slowly looked around the break room. As if trying to remember all the faces of the bastards here, his gaze lingered slightly on faces and name tags.
It was a sudden raid by another team’s team leader. All the Espers in the break room stopped what they were doing and started burying their heads.
That’s what the hierarchy among men was like. One-dimensional creatures who constantly tried to gain the upper hand, and if someone looked weak, mercilessly crushed them to show off their superiority—such types swarmed in the Esper break rooms.
‘Looking at this kind of thing, I wonder what’s different between thugs and Espers.’
Sijun’s refined and well-raised mother had been very happy when he said he’d be working at the Awakened Center.
How pleased she’d been that he’d become a respectable member of society from a household detached from common sense—her brightly smiling face was still vivid in his eyes.
The poor woman seemed to think the Awakened Center was a society with a completely different atmosphere from their household, but unfortunately, Sijun had nested in a place not much different from where he was born and raised. And surprisingly, life here suited his disposition.
“Does Team Leader Kang Haemun manage his team members like shit?”
Sijun muttered ominously. Creepy murderous intent flickered in his eyes. He looked ready to grab the Espers by the neck and smash their heads at any moment.
