“What! What, what, what?! What did you say?! What did you just say?!”
Yoon Palsik, Director of the Guide Center, shrieked at the top of his lungs. He seized the Center employee who had come running to report the situation by the collar. Pale enough to look as though he had seen a ghost, the employee rattled off the explanation like a rapper possessed.
“Team Leader Yoon was guiding Esper Kwon Dajung when he suddenly passed out, and Esper Kwon Dajung panicked and carried Team Leader Yoon straight to the hospital, where he was admitted and examined, and then just a little while ago! Esper Kwon Dajung! Left the hospital alone! And we just got word that he’s on his way here!!”
His voice rose steadily until the final words cracked into a shrill squeak.
Before the employee had even finished explaining, Yoon Palsik grabbed his phone and wallet. He kicked open the door to the director’s office and bolted.
His eyes shook wildly as he fled without once looking back.
Of course he was worried about Yoon Gyujin’s health after hearing that he had suddenly collapsed, but first things first—Yoon Palsik needed to save his own ass.
Why else would Kwon Dajung leave a sick Yoon Gyujin behind and come all the way here?
Yoon Palsik could have spun around in circles upside down and still gotten the answer right.
He was probably coming to make sure Yoon Gyujin got a roommate in the hospital.
That bastard was more than capable of it.
As it happened, Yoon Palsik had rejected both the resignation and the leave-of-absence request Gyujin had submitted earlier. A few hours ago, he had also contacted the doctor to discuss Gyujin’s problem, and while he was at it, he had rearranged Gyujin’s work schedule.
Considering the storm of events that had come crashing down one after another, Yoon Palsik could think of at least five separate reasons Kwon Dajung would be fucking furious.
And now, on top of everything else, Yoon Gyujin had passed out.
Of course that lunatic was going to lose his mind.
Cold sweat kept running down Yoon Palsik’s face.
Just run for now. Run first, then figure out what the hell happened.
As he headed for the elevator, the emergency stairwell caught his eye.
Yoon Palsik abruptly changed direction.
Compared to a sealed box like an elevator, the stairs—where he at least had the option of fleeing either up or down—suddenly looked like a far better choice.
The instant he pushed open the door, footsteps sounded from the stairwell.
He knew instinctively.
It was Kwon Dajung.
Yoon Palsik went deathly pale and backed away. The Center employee who had somehow ended up accompanying him let out a strangled hic and started hiccupping.
Both men had exactly the same thought at exactly the same time.
We’re fucked.
Without either needing to say a word, they sprinted for the elevator.
With trembling hands, they repeatedly slammed the call button.
The elevator rose from the floor below and its doors slid wide open.
Both men brightened and lunged forward.
But before either of their feet could properly cross the threshold, their bodies locked solid as stone.
Everything stopped while they were still fully conscious.
Unable even to blink, they stood rigidly frozen as leisurely footsteps approached from behind.
“Where are you two rushing off to?”
A gentle voice politely inquired after them.
But that soft tone was nothing more than a disguise.
Yoon Palsik had been through far too much to fall for that kind of bullshit.
All at once, the force holding his body vanished.
His legs gave out and he collapsed with a thud.
Even inside the Guide Center, where the use of abilities was prohibited as a rule, Kwon Dajung used his without the slightest hesitation.
He approached with a pretty smile.
“Or is this supposed to be my welcome?”
“E-Esper Kwon Dajung! Wh-what brings you here?!”
His voice cracked spectacularly on what.
Yoon Palsik cleared his throat several times and awkwardly forced the corners of his mouth upward.
“I-I was actually on my way somewhere because something urgent came up. Ahem. So, what did you need me for?”
He feigned complete ignorance, though his eyes trembled uncontrollably.
Kwon Dajung was smiling beautifully, as always.
He took another leisurely step forward.
“What’s wrong with Yoon Gyujin?”
“Hm……? Wh-what do you mean, what’s wrong with Gyujin? I’m not really sure what you’re talking about…….”
“Don’t play dumb. Is Yoon Gyujin sick? Is that why he started talking about quitting and all that?”
His instincts were terrifyingly sharp.
Before anyone had told him anything, Kwon Dajung had already gotten remarkably close to the heart of the matter.
Fundamentally, his guess wasn’t even wrong.
Yoon Gyujin had become pregnant because of guiding dependency syndrome, so naturally guiding made him ill.
Of course, the doctor had given Yoon Palsik a considerably more complicated explanation than that, but this was hardly the time to split hairs over medical details.
“W-well, I don’t know anything about—”
“You know exactly what’s wrong with him, don’t you, Director? What is it? Why is he like that? How fucking sick does someone have to be to suddenly pass out?”
Madness gradually crept into his eyes.
And the more it did, the sweatier Yoon Palsik’s palms became.
“E-Esper Kwon Dajung, just calm down a little—”
“Yoon Gyujin is sick. How the fuck am I supposed to calm down? You know exactly what’s wrong with him, don’t you? You’ve got a mouth, so fucking use it. Stop pissing me off.”
The vulgarity was coming faster now.
As Kwon Dajung’s language grew increasingly vicious, Yoon Palsik pleaded with him to calm down.
“G-Gyujin, you see, guiding dependency syndrome! It’s because of that. But listen! It’s not severe or anything, he just has some symptoms that made them suspect it, okay? So they said he shouldn’t do any guiding for a while. I went to the hospital with Gyujin not long ago and we had him checked— Aagh!”
The perfectly intact lights and corridor walls warped in an instant.
Fragments of building material tore free and scattered through the air like a blizzard, as though some invisible giant had gone berserk.
Without so much as twitching a finger, Kwon Dajung wrecked the entire corridor.
Then he gave a short laugh.
“Guiding dependency syndrome?”
Crouching down beside the violently trembling Center employee, Yoon Palsik screamed.
One stray chunk of concrete to the skull and he would die on the spot.
Not because of a gate.
Not during an operation.
If Kwon Dajung killed him at work, would that still count as an occupational accident?
“Esper Kwon Dajung, please! Words! Let’s use words, okay?!”
“Yoon Gyujin has guiding dependency syndrome?”
Kwon Dajung was already gone.
There was no focus in his eyes.
Concrete fragments whipped viciously through the air in accordance with his will.
Guiding dependency syndrome was both the most common occupational illness among Guides and the worst—a kind of overuse syndrome.
It was considered an incurable disease known to occur after guiding for prolonged periods, or after repeatedly guiding Espers whose ranks were incompatible with the Guide’s own.
There was no particular treatment for guiding dependency syndrome other than stopping guiding altogether.
Once symptoms appeared, they were difficult to improve, and because the Guide suffered pain every time they guided, those who developed the condition inevitably ended up retiring, whether by choice or by necessity.
And it did not always stop at simple pain.
Guides frequently lost consciousness, and in severe cases, some even died of shock.
If they wanted to live, quitting was their only option.
Looked at in that context, both Yoon Gyujin passing out while guiding and his abrupt announcement that he intended to quit made perfect sense.
Yoon Gyujin had guiding dependency syndrome.
And even so, he had not refused when Kwon Dajung asked him for guiding.
“Fuuuck……”
The curse boiled up from somewhere deep in his gut.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Why the fuck would he keep his mouth shut and fucking guide me anyway? That fucking lunatic.”
Yoon Gyujin truly had an extraordinary talent for driving a person insane.
How else could he possibly behave like this?
The concrete debris that had been whirling madly through the air suddenly stopped.
The pieces clattered to the floor in a shower, throwing up clouds of dust.
Kwon Dajung twisted his lips irritably.
“Yoon Gyujin is on medical leave for a while. Don’t bother him.”
He announced it as if he were Yoon Gyujin’s boss himself, then turned sharply away.
“That personality-disordered bastard……”
So he gets to wreck the place and just leave?
Yoon Palsik looked around at the utterly destroyed Center building, tears welling in his eyes.
“God, what kind of cursed life is this……!”
***
“I fucking hate kids.”
Kwon Dajung abruptly declared this while sitting in the living room and watching a parenting show on television.
Judging from the expression on his face as he chewed his popcorn, he really did fucking hate them.
“They whine, they’re loud, they think the whole world revolves around them, they’re selfish, and they’ve got no manners.”
As Kwon Dajung went on and on listing every reason he hated kids, Gyujin half listened while sipping his cola.
After a moment of silence, he tilted his head.
“Are you describing yourself?”
“Do you want to die?”
Kwon Dajung grabbed a handful of popcorn and sprinkled it over Gyujin like salt, glaring viciously at him.
Gyujin picked up some of the popcorn that had fallen around him and popped it into his mouth.
“I mean, you are. Whiny, loud, self-centered, selfish.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Gyujin. You’re tearing me apart without even using a single actual insult.”
“Sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
“It doesn’t mean anything when you only apologize with your mouth. Your face is screaming that you’re not sorry at all.”
How did he know?
Gyujin smacked his lips.
Kwon Dajung slowly edged closer, then stretched out with his head resting on Gyujin’s thigh.
As the sound of children laughing drifted from the television, he grumbled.
“……But I’ve gotten nicer lately. You know perfectly well I listen to what you say now, and you still treat me like that.”
“That’s true. Dajung, you really did turn into a person.”
Even two years ago, Gyujin could never have imagined sitting around like this with Kwon Dajung.
No matter what Gyujin said, Kwon Dajung would twist it into the worst possible interpretation.
If Gyujin pointed at the moon, instead of looking at the moon, Kwon Dajung would threaten to break the finger pointing at it.
Compared to back then, he was practically docile now.
Without taking his eyes off the television, Gyujin stroked Dajung’s hair.
Kwon Dajung quietly enjoyed the touch for a while before lightly catching Gyujin by the wrist.
“Gyujin, then… since I listen to you now and I’ve turned into a decent person……”
Kwon Dajung drew out the final words and subtly arranged his features into his prettiest expression.
Unable to resist the shameless display of cuteness, Gyujin burst out laughing.
“Are you asking for a kiss, or are you asking me to guide you?”