Unrelieved backlash made it impossible to control an ability properly.
Because she never knew when or where her power might activate, Yeonsu had never been able to go anywhere crowded.
Even now, she kept glancing around to make sure she didn’t brush against anyone, while at the same time looking everywhere with bright, sparkling eyes.
Watching her, Seunghyun sighed inwardly.
‘In twenty-three years of life, how many things has this woman actually gotten to do properly?’
Without meaning to, he opened his mouth.
“We’ll come again from time to time.
If you need anything, tell me then.
Same for anything you want to eat.”
“…Okay.”
Her expression at his words was like someone checking how much interest had accrued on their debt.
She didn’t dislike the idea of coming again, but she had no idea how she was supposed to repay something like this.
She had offered up her ability as payment in a deal that used Seokjoong as leverage.
But for this kind of personal debt, she had no idea what she was supposed to put on the table.
Taking the bags from her hands, he said, “It’s not free.
The fact that you’re living off government money means we plan to make full use of your ability, so don’t get too emotional about it.”
“Government money?”
“This is official business too, so of course I’ll expense it.”
It was, of course, a lie.
He didn’t know why those words had come out of his mouth.
Still, when he saw how her face visibly brightened at the phrase “government money,” he decided it wasn’t such a bad lie.
“…All of this really comes out of government money?”
He was loading their purchases into the trunk of his car in the mall parking lot.
He wouldn’t lie with such a serious face, so for the moment it seemed real enough, and she felt dazed.
“Just how much are they planning to use me…?”
Muttering to herself, she still couldn’t calm down.
Picking things out like any ordinary person made her feel no different from the people brushing past her.
If a life she had never even tried to imagine, let alone attempt, was being given to her as payment, then maybe the deal she had made with that detective wasn’t entirely bad.
“Miss…”
Just then, she felt a small tug at her clothes and looked down.
A little girl with her hair in two neat braids was staring up at her with teary eyes.
She froze for a moment at the unexpected contact, then quickly spoke to the child.
“W-what’s wrong?”
“I lost my mom…
I don’t know where she is.
Hng.”
The girl seemed to have gotten lost in the maze-like parking lot where everything looked the same.
Flustered, Yeonsu looked around.
There was no one nearby who looked like the child’s parent.
Having finished loading the trunk, Seunghyun met her eyes from where he stood, wondering why she wasn’t coming over.
At his expression, which clearly asked why she was just standing there, Yeonsu hesitated for a moment.
“…Should I help you find her?”
She asked the girl, as if making up her mind.
The child’s face brightened at once.
“Yes, yes!”
“Okay.
Then why don’t you hold my hand, and we’ll go look?”
“Okay!”
“Ms.
Cha, why aren’t you—”
Sensing something was off, Seunghyun strode toward her.
At that moment, his watch chimed.
When he checked it, the green light had turned orange.
It meant she was using her ability.
When Yeonsu opened her closed eyes, golden shards began to shimmer in her previously dark irises.
The little girl looked up at her in awe.
“Wow, your eyes are all sparkly!”
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Seunghyun shouted.
In that instant, Seunghyun felt, down to his bones, how much he had let his guard down.
Had her quiet behavior all this time just been an act?
He cursed inwardly.
It was a clear mistake on his part that his wariness toward Cha Yeonsu had recently begun to fade.
“She said she was lost.
Just a moment.”
Her voice was hazy.
She was standing right in front of him, but she wasn’t looking at him.
Seeing that familiar, dreamlike gaze, he ground his teeth, blaming himself for his complacency.
“What are you talking about?
Stop it and get in the car.
Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to restrain you.”
Seeing the clear signs of ability in use, he tensed and reached for the special cuffs for users at his waist.
“I’m warning you.”
“Who are you, mister?”
Only then did he notice the child holding Yeonsu’s hand.
He had no idea what business she could possibly have with such a small kid that she would suddenly use her ability.
He could only look back and forth between Yeonsu, whose eyes still seemed to be wandering some unseen space, and the girl.
“She said she’d help me find my mom.”
The answer came from the child.
Seunghyun slid the cuffs back into place, bent his knees, and met the girl’s eyes.
“Hey, kiddo, are you lost?”
She nodded at his question.
“Yes, the pretty lady said she’d hold my hand and help me find my mom.” Listening to her chatter, he couldn’t decide whether he should drag Cha Yeonsu away or not.
“Detective.
The child came from D-35.”
Letting go of the girl’s hand, Yeonsu spoke.
Having lost the hand she had been holding, the child began to look anxiously between the two adults.
“You traced the child’s memories backward?”
Looking a bit tired, Yeonsu nodded.
He checked the backlash level.
It had risen a little, but not enough to be concerning.
“I’ll go sit quietly in your car.
If you could just take her back…”
“And leave you alone in my car?
When you use your ability without permission?”
At his firm tone, she looked troubled.
“I want to go with you too, but my eyes are like this.
If I go, it’ll cause a scene, so please, Detective, go with the child.
Her mom has long curly hair, late thirties—”
“I want to go with her…
That man is too scary.” The girl found Yeonsu’s hand again and gripped it, whispering in a frightened little voice.
A big man with a serious expression would naturally look scary to a child that small.
Yeonsu couldn’t bring herself to shake off the small warmth filling her hand.
“Then let’s do this.”
Seunghyun took her other hand.
A faint heat seeped from her soft palm.
“At this level, I can guide you just by holding your hand.
We’ll all go together.”
Yeonsu’s eyes trembled.
Two hands of different sizes, each with its own warmth, were wrapped around hers.
Feeling as if something might burst out of her chest, she bit her lip.
The small hand, apparently delighted by his words, swung hers back and forth.
Walking in front, Seunghyun tightened his grip on her hand.
Before long, the cool energy of his guiding began to flow into her.
Strangely, even though she could feel the guiding energy coming from him, the warmth from both hands kept spreading through her entire body.
It’s because of the backlash, she told herself.
It had to be.
Otherwise, it made no sense.
On the watch strapped to the hand holding hers, she could see the backlash level slowly dropping.
Even so, she insisted to herself that it was because of the backlash.
She wanted to believe that.
After safely returning the girl to her mother, Yeonsu and Seunghyun got back in the car.
For a while, neither of them said a word.
He was the one who finally broke the silence.
“I told you so many times not to use your ability.
Are you going to keep using it however you please like this?”
“…But the child came to me first.
And the cars in the parking lot were so dangerous.
So…”
“In that case, you should have told me first and then used your ability.
And as I said before, it’s better not to use it for things that don’t require it.”
“Still, if I can solve something right away with my ability, why go through all that trouble…!”
For Yeonsu, using her ability was as natural as breathing.
She had used it to peek into people’s memories for money and as a convenient way to immediately resolve anything she was curious about.
With Seunghyun constantly placing restrictions on that, she felt stifled.
It wasn’t like she had used it for anything bad, so she couldn’t understand why he was so adamant.
“Abilities make things more convenient, but the more people get used to relying on yours, the harder things will become for you.
People always lean toward the easier option.”
It was the same point he had made earlier when he lectured Sejin at the office.
“Can you handle all those demands by yourself, Ms.
Cha?
There’s already a truckload of people just in our team who want to profit off your ability without putting in any effort.”
She had no answer to that.
She had taken money to read what people wanted with her ability.
She had never cared what consequences that might bring.
It was as if the money they paid her canceled out any guilt she might have felt, and she had grown used to living that way.
She had simply assumed that was how her ability was meant to be used, but Tae Seunghyun was saying something entirely different.
“If you can’t handle all those people, then conserve it as much as you can.
Your ability.
And only use it where it’s truly needed.”
No one had ever told her to conserve her ability.
It was another first.
And this from the man who had once said guiding her was a hassle.
In a slightly trembling voice, she asked, “Then…
was helping that child earlier one of those truly needed times you were talking about?”
“That’s for the owner of the ability to decide, Ms.
Cha.
How was it for you?
Was it worth using your power without my orders?”
As he started the engine, his low voice calmed her.
She thought back to the moment the child’s mother thanked her, and to the innocent words of the little girl who had said her eyes were pretty.
It was only the second time anyone had said that to her.
Her expression alone was enough to answer his question.