After days of swirling snow, the sky finally cleared to a deep blue, and sunlight poured through the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
It was a rare day off, matched with unusually mild weather.
Sitting on the sofa, Seunghyun stared at the closed bedroom door.
Out of habit, he tapped the tracker on his wrist, and the green light marking Yeonsu’s location showed she was nearby.
“I suppose… we should have breakfast.”
His unplanned cohabitation with Cha Yeonsu had already passed the one-week mark.
Contrary to his worries, life with her around had been surprisingly peaceful.
Since he was practically living at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Yeonsu had barely spent any time at his place either.
More importantly, whenever she was home, she never came out of the guest room.
All he had told her was not to touch his things; he had never told her to hole up in her room.
“Ms.
Cha.”
He walked up to her door and knocked.
“Come out.
Let’s have breakfast.”
He had never been the type to live on a regular schedule.
He worked around the clock on investigations, slept when he could, and ate when he had the chance.
The day after he brought Yeonsu home, he had gone about his routine as usual and only remembered her belatedly.
When he checked, feeling a jolt of alarm, he found her sitting all alone in the guest room.
What she said then had been absurd.
“…What is it?”
“That’s what I should be asking you.
Do you know what time it is?
And you’re still…”
“Still what?
You told me to stay put, so I stayed put.”
Cha Yeonsu had sounded genuinely baffled as to what she had done wrong.
Even for someone who’d never taken care of anyone, this was ridiculous.
Half a day had passed, and she hadn’t even said she was hungry.
He couldn’t just leave her like that, so after taking care of her for a day or two, it had somehow turned into a week.
There was a rustling sound from inside, then the door opened.
Beyond it, her wary face appeared.
She looked, he thought, exactly like a stray cat.
“It’s a bit late, but let’s at least have some toast.
How does that sound?”
“Anything is fine.”
Soundlessly, Yeonsu slipped past him.
Sitting primly at the dining table, she kept her gaze fixed on the tabletop.
He couldn’t understand why she acted like a criminal in his home.
Where had that brazen Cha Yeonsu gone?
He felt like some wicked stepmother.
“…Thank you for the food.”
“That’s all you’re going to eat?
Don’t you like bread?”
Looking at her plate, it was the same as always.
She had cut the toast into four equal pieces and eaten exactly one.
The bacon was the same.
Every time they ate together, she divided everything into four and ate only one portion.
At first, he had assumed she just had no appetite, but when the pattern continued, it started to look strange.
“No, no.
It’s not that.”
“Then why do you divide it like this and only eat a quarter of it?”
She hadn’t realized he was watching her that closely, and flustered, she answered, “It’s just… a habit.”
“So your habit is to cut up food someone worked hard to make and then just leave it?”
Realizing she had slipped up, Yeonsu flushed and bit her lip.
Seeing her eyes waver, Seunghyun sensed there was a reason and held her gaze.
“It’s just…”
“Tell me.
Is there a reason?”
“…Back when I was at the orphanage.”
He had already seen her records, so he knew she had spent her childhood there.
With some effort, Yeonsu continued.
“It’s a habit I picked up back then.”
“So you were this picky from a young age?”
“It’s not being picky.”
She started to protest, then clamped her lips shut and muttered, “…I was saving it.”
“Pardon?”
“I had to make it last.”
“Make it last… What do you mean?”
“…All the food you’ve given me has been really delicious.
That’s the truth.”
As soon as she finished, Yeonsu hurried back to her room.
Turning her words over in his mind, Seunghyun let out a belated, “Ah.”
“Damn…”
The orphanage she had been in wasn’t one of the facilities that took in only children who had manifested as Espers.
In an ordinary orphanage, a little user would not have been treated well.
“Huh.
She really has a knack for making people feel guilty…”
“I had to make it last.”
He remembered the group photo from the orphanage that had been attached to the file summarizing Cha Yeonsu’s personal details.
The small child standing off to the side in the very back had always left some of her food, just in case there came a day she might go without.
How long must she have lived like that for the habit to surface unconsciously even as an adult?
For some reason, a directionless anger rose in him.
Meanwhile, Yeonsu, who had practically fled into her room, was just as unsettled.
“Ugh… what was I thinking?”
She had no idea why she had told him that.
She should have just said she had no appetite; she regretted it.
But the moment he started to say something about the way she ate, something had surged up in her chest, and she hadn’t been able to hold the words back.
On the first day, riding in his car, she had been worrying about where she was supposed to sleep.
The living room?
Or maybe on the floor of his bedroom?
The only places she had ever lived were a care facility and the old one-room place with a tiny living room that Seokjoong had gotten for her, so her imagination didn’t stretch any further than that.
But his home had been nothing like what she imagined.
The elevator carrying the two of them had passed the thirtieth floor and gone up six more before it finally stopped.
“What are you doing?
Aren’t you getting off?”
His place was so big it was hard to believe he lived there alone.
The luxurious interior and furniture, like something out of a drama set she had seen on TV, made her suddenly self-conscious of her shabby, worn-out clothes.
She had hesitated, then carefully stepped inside.
The marble floor, already warm even though she had just come in, gleamed so much she worried she might leave marks.
She thought of her own home.
A small, old apartment that was drafty instead of warm, always filled with a chill.
The ancient boiler broke down all the time.
Compared to that, his place was several times larger and filled with generous warmth.
“Oh…”
Through the large windows of the spacious living room, the outside view spread out before her.
In the distance, the long line of car headlights and the building lights flickering on one by one looked like scattered stars.
To be able to see a view like this from home… Entranced, Yeonsu’s gaze was stolen by the nightscape.
“Here.
You can use this room.”
Snapping back to herself, she had followed his voice.
The room she stepped into, hesitantly, was bigger than her living room and bedroom combined.
It even had its own bathroom.
“No one really comes to my place, so this room hasn’t been used.
Make yourself at home.”
She was too stunned to speak back then.
It felt strange as if she had stepped into the wrong place, somewhere she didn’t belong.
Her body was incomparably more comfortable, but her heart was anything but.
Over the past week, she had started to regret her reckless bravado in insisting she would stay at his place.
Not that she had any real choice; it wasn’t like she could have gone back to a holding cell or a detention facility.
“…This is uncomfortable.”
Even that one piece of toast she had managed to eat felt like it was sitting heavily in her stomach.
She missed her old, small, shabby place—her bunker—so badly it hurt.
The next morning, after getting ready for work, Seunghyun headed for the front door and knocked on her room as he passed.
He put on his shoes first and waited; a moment later, Yeonsu came out.
When their eyes met, the conversation from the day before flashed through both their minds, but neither of them brought it up.
Silence filled the car.
If he didn’t deliberately keep his mind blank, his gaze kept wanting to slide sideways, so he forced himself to recall his conversation with Injeong.
Of course, even that was not entirely unrelated to Yeonsu.
He hadn’t fully manifested as a guide yet, but now that he was living under the same roof as Cha Yeonsu, he needed to understand proper guiding if he wanted to avoid being dragged under by her.
“…You think guiding is easy?
You have to know the physiology of Espers inside and out.
You don’t just guide people on a whim.
The only reason Ms.
Cha has held up so far is because she has such a strong ability.
If someone like you had tried to guide recklessly, you could have blown away the ability itself instead of purifying it.”
“Blown it away?
Wouldn’t that mean they go back to normal?”
At his offhand reply, Injeong had let out a deep sigh.
“Blowing away an ability can cause severe mental and physical damage.
Remember this.
When you guide, you have to be careful and keep a close eye on the person’s condition.
Sometimes they’re already in a rampage state from overusing their ability, or have lost their reason.
Guiding is something the Guide has to take the lead on.”