“I have to work.”
Gyujin took a small step backward, avoiding Kwon Dajung.
A brief silence passed between them. Dajung was the first to speak.
“Right. Of course. You have to work. I heard they’re repairing the Guide Center, so I guess you’ll be reporting to the Esper Bureau for a while?”
Kwon Dajung smiled and held out his hand.
Before his fingertips could reach him, however, Gyujin hurriedly stepped away.
“Looks like it.”
Despite the distant response, Dajung followed him all the way.
During the elevator ride, a heavy silence settled between them. Gyujin tried as hard as possible not to acknowledge him, staring fixedly at the floor numbers above the doors.
With a chime, the elevator opened on the eleventh floor.
Gyujin stopped Dajung before he could follow.
“This is Guide Center business, so you don’t need to come with me. I’ll talk to Palsik and call you afterward.”
Kwon Dajung stared at Gyujin without saying anything, then eventually sighed.
The chill in his gaze made Gyujin’s heart ache.
Dajung still looked like he had something to say, but Gyujin didn’t wait.
He just wanted to get away.
As he stepped out of the elevator and walked down the corridor, he could feel Dajung’s piercing stare against his back.
One thing was certain: neither Gyujin nor Dajung liked the situation they were in.
Gyujin knew perfectly well that he was behaving childishly.
It wasn’t a particularly mature way to deal with things, nor did it solve anything. All he had to do was admit honestly that Dajung’s words yesterday had hurt him. Dajung would apologize, they would clear up the misunderstanding, and things would return to normal.
Instead of taking that easy path, Gyujin deliberately turned toward the harder one.
Was I really that shocked by him saying he’d kill the baby?
But Gyujin himself had already decided to terminate the pregnancy, so there was hardly anyone else he could blame.
With a bitter smile, he pushed open the door marked LARGE CONFERENCE ROOM.
True to its name, the room was enormous, and quite a few people had already gathered inside.
Those who recognized Gyujin greeted him warmly. He returned their greetings with a nod as he looked around.
While wondering where he should sit, he spotted Yoon Palsik and headed straight for him.
“Palsik.”
Yoon Palsik was on the phone and merely waved in acknowledgment. He wrapped up the conversation quickly and slipped his phone into his pocket.
“Gyujin. Good, you’re here.”
He glanced around, then jerked his chin toward the door.
Gyujin obediently followed him out.
They walked quite a way down the corridor before Yoon Palsik, who was leading, abruptly stopped in front of a door.
There wasn’t even a sign on it, making it impossible to guess what the room was for.
Palsik pushed the door open and looked back at Gyujin.
“No one comes in here, so don’t worry.”
The door swung wide, revealing a dim space.
Rather than having any particular purpose, it looked more like a storage room filled with spare equipment and miscellaneous supplies.
Yoon Palsik strode into the dusty room. After feeling along the wall and turning on the light, he grabbed a chair and held it out to Gyujin.
Gyujin, who had been looking curiously around at the clutter, turned toward him.
Dust scattered every time Palsik flapped his hand.
“Sit down first. You’re carrying a baby. Don’t just stand around like that.”
At his consideration, Gyujin awkwardly sat down.
Palsik had already dragged over another chair for himself. He dropped into it and scrubbed both hands over his face.
Every movement radiated exhaustion and distress.
“What’s wrong? Is it because of the Center?”
“That too…… No, actually, it is because of that. Gyujin, about the fire. They confirmed it was Dawn. We also got some intelligence, so your team and the counterterrorism unit will probably receive deployment orders soon.”
“Palsik, but I……”
“I know. You can’t guide for the time being. That’s why I tried to have them assign another team instead, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Everyone’s lost their damn minds because apparently, if this operation succeeds, we can hit Dawn’s funding network.”
Special Operations Team 1 might have been a nightmare when it came to following orders, but in raw combat power they were arguably the strongest team currently active.
Kwon Dajung alone was worth a hundred ordinary fighters, and the abilities of Choi Sunwoo, Moon Guk, and Song Youngju complemented each other extremely well.
That was why they remained active despite constantly being called rejects.
But that only worked when Gyujin was with them.
Put another Guide in his place, and they immediately turned into a disorganized mess.
Yoon Palsik knew that too, which was precisely why he looked so troubled.
“I heard Kwon Dajung went on another fucking rampage during the exercise? There weren’t many people willing to serve as your replacement to begin with, but after that story got around, everyone started openly avoiding the job. I doubt anyone will volunteer at all. But sending those idiots out by themselves makes me nervous, and taking you along with them is…… God, my head.”
Yoon Palsik groaned and rubbed his forehead.
Gyujin could practically feel the weight of his frustration.
After thinking for a moment, Gyujin cautiously spoke.
“When is the operation? If I can have the procedure before then, I’ll do that. Then once I recover, I can deploy with them—”
“What? You’re going through with the procedure? You’ve completely made up your mind?”
Palsik shot to his feet, eyes wide.
He had spent all this time trying to persuade Gyujin, only for Gyujin to repeatedly dodge the subject. Apparently hearing Gyujin bring up the procedure himself had caught him completely off guard.
Gyujin simply said that things had worked out that way and continued calmly.
“Like you said, it feels like both Dajung and I are being held back by this. If there’s no baby, I can work the way I normally do. Then neither of us has to keep struggling over problems like this.”
“Well, that’s true, but……”
“At first, I thought it was something I could handle on my own. But after the past few days, I don’t think that’s really true. I don’t like causing trouble for everyone around me because of my personal situation either.”
“Did you tell Kwon Dajung? Did the two of you actually talk about it?”
Gyujin abruptly pressed his lips shut.
Yoon Palsik immediately understood and let out a deep sigh.
“So you thought it all through and made the decision by yourself again. You’re surprisingly stubborn, Gyujin.”
Clicking his tongue, Palsik folded his arms.
Yoon Gyujin might look endlessly softhearted, but he could be unexpectedly unilateral.
He had a deeply ingrained belief that his own problems were his responsibility to solve, so he rarely relied on anyone else.
Palsik had suspected this situation would be no different.
“Well, fine. What you want matters most. Kwon Dajung is the problem here, not you. What did you do wrong? That bastard should’ve behaved like someone you could actually trust in the first place instead of forcing you to make decisions like this on your own! That thickheaded little shit!”
The more he talked, the angrier Yoon Palsik became.
He went on cursing Kwon Dajung for quite some time, muttering about how he didn’t deserve to be a father and had no fucking manners whatsoever.
Gyujin was only half listening when a pile of stored supplies suddenly came crashing down.
Both men jumped and immediately turned their heads.
There was movement behind one of the partitions.
Someone else was in the room with them.
Gyujin’s face went white.
The conversation they had just had flashed through his mind like his life passing before his eyes.
They had openly said Kwon Dajung’s name.
They had openly talked about a baby.
Someone might have heard everything.
Gyujin’s heart dropped at the thought that a secret he hadn’t even been able to tell Kwon Dajung had just been exposed.
“Who’s there?!”
Yoon Palsik charged over in a fury.
With a loud crash, the partition toppled over.
Gyujin’s eyes widened when he saw the person hiding behind it.
“……Youngju?”
Song Youngju was just as deathly pale as Gyujin.
“Hic.”
He started hiccupping.
He pointed shakily between Gyujin and Yoon Palsik. His voice trembled just as violently as his hand.
“……W-what, what was that just now? A baby? A procedure……? Carrying a baby……?”
His hands were shaking so badly that even the phone he had been clutching like a lifeline slipped from his grasp.
Still in a complete panic, Song Youngju scrambled toward them.
He rushed all the way up to Gyujin, only to find himself completely at a loss, hands flailing uselessly through the air.
His tearful voice called out to Gyujin in desperation.
“Team Leader, no way. Team Leader, you can’t possibly……! No, right? I misunderstood, didn’t I? I mean, come on! I don’t understand any of this—no, no, no, Team Leader, you’re a man! That’s impossible! How—how could you possibly be pregnant?!”
After rambling and repeating himself over and over, he suddenly dropped to his knees.
Apparently, saying it aloud had only shocked him even more.
Watching from the side, Yoon Palsik clutched his head.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
At this point, Youngju had already heard everything. Trying to make excuses now wasn’t going to accomplish much.
Gyujin let out a sigh deep enough to sink the floor and took hold of Song Youngju’s wrist.
“Youngju.”
Youngju looked up at him with desperate, pleading eyes that practically screamed, Please tell me it’s not true. Tell me you were joking. Tell me I misunderstood.
Gyujin patted the back of his hand and calmly confessed the truth.
“What you heard is right. Apparently, I’m pregnant. Seven weeks now…… No, I guess it’s almost eight weeks.”
It might have been hard to believe, but what could he do?
It was true.
And now that the secret was already out, Gyujin simply told him everything.
“That’s why I kept falling asleep, and why I threw up, and why I couldn’t guide you guys. They told me not to do any guiding this early in the pregnancy…… Youngju?”
Gyujin gave him a small shake.
Song Youngju didn’t respond.
Yoon Palsik, who had been watching solemnly from beside them, murmured in resignation.
“He fainted with his eyes open.”