***
Yoon Minoh was running around poking his nose into everything like a hunting dog off its leash. He was huffing and puffing around the playground, imagining an invisible soccer ball.
If he was going to act like this, there was absolutely no point in bothering to wear that mask. He was so intensely active and boisterous that it made a mockery of any intention to avoid drawing attention.
“That’s why he looks like he’s twenty.”
But Yeo Dowoon was watching Yoon Minoh’s antics with amused eyes. There was probably a faint smile spreading beneath his mask-covered mouth as well.
He sat on a playground bench, soaking in the school atmosphere. There was a youthful warmth blooming from this place where young people cried and laughed. It was an excitement he himself had never experienced.
“Hyung!”
Yoon Minoh swung his leg as if passing a ball. The angle of his hip twist showed the skills of someone who’d played quite a bit of soccer back in the day. Since he was wearing a mask anyway, Yeo Dowoon didn’t bother holding back and burst out laughing.
After stirring up dust for roughly an hour, Yoon Minoh finally showed off a heading motion before staggering back to the bench.
As if he’d completely exhausted his stamina, he plopped down with a thud and dropped his head onto Yeo Dowoon’s knee.
“Putting on a one-man show is fucking exhausting…”
“Better late than never to realize that.”
Yeo Dowoon pulled off the beanie that had been precariously hanging on and answered while brushing off the dust. He even thoroughly shook out the beanie in his kindness, which made Yoon Minoh blink as if it were unfamiliar.
“Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?”
When he conveyed the thought that popped into his head without filtering it, Yeo Dowoon coughed awkwardly.
Yoon Minoh squinted his eyes with a “hmm,” but soon stopped caring and rubbed his hair around. Yeo Dowoon quickly pulled his leg away from the straw-like texture he felt on his thigh.
“If you’re going to wipe your sweat, wipe it on your own clothes.”
“Hehe… You caught me.”
“Did you finish saying your goodbyes?”
“Huh?”
When Yeo Dowoon pointed at his wristwatch as if it was time to leave, Yoon Minoh laughed weakly.
“I came back to school for the first time in years, and you want me to just play the fool on the playground and leave?”
“You’re a fucking ridiculous bastard… Who told you to do that?”
“Ah, you crazy! Hyung!”
Yoon Minoh even seemed more curious about Yeo Dowoon’s expensive-looking wristwatch than the urging directed at him.
Gripping his pale wrist, he turned it this way and that as he pleased and asked.
“How much did you pay for this?”
At the nonsensical question unrelated to the situation, Yeo Dowoon sighed as if frustrated and answered.
“I don’t look at the price when I buy.”
If he saw something and liked it, he bought it. But he wasn’t the type to indulge in luxuries compared to his economic power either. He bought things because he could afford them.
When Yoon Minoh displayed rare concentration examining his wrist, Yeo Dowoon removed the watch and coaxed him.
“You want the watch?”
“……”
“I’ll give it to you?”
Yoon Minoh’s head shot up like lightning.
“…Really?”
“Yeah. I hate lying.”
“Give it to me. I’ll take it. Wow, you crazy. You’re giving me this?”
“Yeah. Then let’s go to the car now.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll give it to you in the car.”
Yeo Dowoon pulled up Yoon Minoh’s mask that had slipped down to his chin back up to his nose and stood up first.
Watching Yoon Minoh’s talent show wasn’t too bad, but wandering around outside without a mission made him constantly feel uncomfortable. To put it simply, he felt uneasy.
“It’s time to go.”
Yeo Dowoon emphasized again, pressing Yoon Minoh.
But you have to consider your audience when rushing someone—instead, Yoon Minoh drove Yeo Dowoon crazy by flopping down face-first. His neatly worn hoodie got covered in rough sand.
If he was going to lie down, he should lie on the bench—what kind of outrageous behavior was this?
“I don’t want to! It hasn’t even been an hour since we got here. Let’s stay just a little longer.”
“It’s already been an hour, you bastard. Can’t you tell time?”
But Yoon Minoh threw a tantrum like a five-year-old begging their parents in the toy section at a mart.
“I haven’t finished saying goodbye yet… Hiiing, I want to stay longer.”
“What kind of amazing goodbye do you want to say that you’re dragging this out so much? Go wave at them and come back.”
“You’re so cold it’s offensive, seriously. Hyung, is your heart made of tin or something? Do you have some disease where you’ll suffocate if you wait more than an hour? If that’s the case, I could understand…”
Yeo Dowoon turned away without hesitation at Yoon Minoh’s nonsense that went on without knowing appropriate limits. He didn’t forget to throw the watch before leaving. Thwack! The watch struck Yoon Minoh’s head.
“Ah shit, hyung!”
Yoon Minoh caught the watch sliding across the ground with good reflexes and urgently chased after him.
Anyway, he could at least pretend to be accommodating—Yeo Dowoon was particularly inflexible and stubborn only in unhelpful ways. Yoon Minoh, panting heavily as he ran up, cut in front of him.
“Huff… haa… Can’t you, can’t you at least listen to what I have to say?”
The breathing sounds mixing together because he couldn’t control his breath were excessively crude. He desperately grabbed Yeo Dowoon’s collar. The way he blinked his eyes open and closed looked extremely suspicious.
“There’s someone I need to meet before I go.”
Moreover, as he constantly twisted his body, Yeo Dowoon’s discomfort only deepened endlessly. For Yoon Minoh, it was a struggle to somehow stimulate his protective instincts.
“Someone I absolutely have to meet, and I think it’d be better to visit around when the kids finish morning study hall and head to the cafeteria…”
“I’ll wait in the car, so you can meet them alone and come back.”
“Noooo, that won’t work. It’s someone hyung needs to meet too…”
When he displayed nauseating aegyo, Yeo Dowoon answered as if aggrieved.
“Knock it off! Every time you act like that, I feel like my lifespan is shortening.”
Maybe it had already shortened a lot. But Yoon Minoh fought back with an innocent face.
“Your lifespan isn’t shortening because of me though?”
When an incomprehensible question came with it, Yeo Dowoon stopped holding back his dry heaving and looked at him. Yoon Minoh was excited like someone attending a lively party.
He wasn’t usually calm-tempered, but today was excessive.
“Even if hyung doesn’t live long, it’s not my fault. Really.”
Their gazes tangled densely with each other.
Even in a situation where he seemed suspicious of him, Yoon Minoh brazenly narrowed his eyes. It was clearly a nuance of enjoying the tension. Because he was grinning, his voice cracked pathetically too.
“You’re going to come see them with me, right?”
“……”
“I said it’s someone hyung needs to see too.”
For a moment, Yeo Dowoon’s eyes became inscrutable. But soon they relaxed as if it were no big deal. Haa. He sighed and bent then straightened his fingers as he spoke.
“I told you I hate lying.”
He wanted to avoid using his ability on a kid as much as possible, but even this wouldn’t cooperate with him, making him feel gloomy.
“You really came here to say goodbye?”
Then Yoon Minoh tossed Yeo Dowoon’s wristwatch at his feet and retorted.
“Something like that.”
“……”
“Because I came to say a farewell goodbye to hyung.”
Even at the absurd declaration, Yeo Dowoon didn’t panic. A farewell goodbye—it wasn’t something a rookie whose ink on the contract hadn’t even dried should be casually mentioning.
“If you’re going to do it, pick just one.”
Yeo Dowoon glanced down at the watch rolling around near his feet and snapped as if frustrated.
“I have to meet someone with you, accept your farewell goodbye—am I the only one suffering here?”
When he started stepping toward him, Yoon Minoh stepped back to maintain distance.
“Can’t help it. Whether you like it or not, it’s a problem hyung is involved in.”
“If it’s my problem, I feel like I should know about it too, but right now it seems like you’re the only one who knows and is having fun with it.”
“Once I finish the farewell goodbye, you’ll find out everything even if you don’t want to… There’s no reason for me to go out of my way to babble about it, right?”
Yoon Minoh didn’t miss the moment he moved his hand to draw out an ice blade. Time to flee.
Espers confined to the base generally feared commotion more than necessary, so if he ran into the school grounds, even the most capable Esper wouldn’t be able to display their skills as well as in a prepared environment.
“Ah, you crazy…! This is a school! A school!”
But he had to quickly retract that thought. Damn it. He’d been foolish.
“Save me! Aaaaah…!”
Yeo Dowoon was Yeo Dowoon under any conditions.
***
The way the guild ‘Demeter’ trained Espers was mainly through hunting.
They didn’t simply want the Espers’ force to become stronger.
If discovering outstanding Espers had been their goal, they would have pretended to be an educational institution and wouldn’t have engaged in illegal mining work selling off dungeon materials.
‘You’ve come to the right place. Your name is Yeo Dowoon, right?’
Nevertheless, Yeo Dowoon received treatment like a windfall. His innate abilities alone easily surpassed Demeter’s founding members, so the Guild Leader devoted himself to reeducating him.
In his eyes, Yeo Dowoon appeared like an uncut gemstone awaiting polishing. Ready to shine in various ways depending on how he was refined and corrected.
‘True power is knowing how to hide. Just thrashing about like idiots is merely showing off.’
The power Yeo Dowoon possessed was explosive but not precise. Because at the guild he’d belonged to before Demeter, he’d been taught day in and day out only methods of recklessly releasing his ability to intimidate opponents.
Demeter’s leader manipulated Yeo Dowoon’s solidifying habits to his liking.
‘Engrave this, Dowoon. You must grow as prey, not as a hunter. Since you’ve decided to live as an unregistered Esper, you’ll be in a position of being chased for life. Your ability isn’t a means to protect you but a means to expose you. Learn how to hold your breath.’
Twelve. That was the age when Yeo Dowoon found Demeter and began learning a different way of life from before.
Yeo Dowoon was chased by Espers belonging to Demeter and received training to erase his presence. Even when situations arose that required response, he had to be able to attack soundlessly and tracelessly.
They collectively called this process ‘hunting.’ Those who passed could dive into work and become official members, but those who didn’t pass were expelled from the guild and lost their lodging.
“What are you going to do if the kids come out, hyung!”
