I dragged a hand down my face. As I stood there screaming inside with shame and self-loathing, Vasily, impeccably dressed in a suit, walked toward me with steady steps.
He stopped with the ice wall between us and asked,
“Getting off work?”
“Can’t you tell?”
“Perfect. There’s somewhere we need to go together.”
“I refuse.”
Vasily wasn’t the kind of guy who’d kindly drive me home for free. He obviously had some scheme.
“You’re refusing without even hearing where?”
“It’s not my home, is it.”
“Smart…”
Was that a jab…?
I glared at him through narrowed eyes.
Vasily reached out and touched the ice wall. Tap. The moment he lightly laid his hand on it, the ice bars surrounding me collapsed with a crash. I tried to bolt, but his hand closed on my arm a little faster. He dragged me straight toward his car.
“Let me go! Ugh…!”
He shoved me into the passenger seat by force. I resisted to the end, but Vasily clicked the seatbelt into place and the door shut.
This was my chance. I hurried to unbuckle and run, but under my fingers I felt cold ice instead of hard plastic. Glancing down, I saw the buckle of the seatbelt frozen solid.
Clack.
Vasily returned wearing an infuriatingly relaxed expression and slid into the driver’s seat.
“We’re leaving.”
“I refuse.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
The car pulled out just like that.
I’d been kidnapped on my commute home. Trapped in the passenger seat, my fists trembled. I’d been waiting and waiting for this moment to clock out… and it was Friday, too.
So much for acting tame—he finally showed his true colors. Gritting my teeth, I asked,
“Am I allowed to report this to the labor office?”
Vasily slipped a hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. What was he taking out? I flinched, tense—but what came out of his jacket was just an ordinary smartphone.
He tossed the phone into my lap.
“Type in your account number.”
What? I shot him a suspicious look, but I entered my account number for now and handed the phone back. He tapped the screen a few times and said,
“Check it.”
“What the…”
— Bzzzt.
Just then, my own phone vibrated in my pocket. What did he do? Frowning uneasily, I took it out, and an out-of-the-blue deposit notification popped up.
I tapped the alert; the banking app opened, and the transfer history came up first. The most recent deposit had Vasily’s name on it… and when I saw the amount, my eyes nearly popped out.
Two hundred million?
“T-that doesn’t mean I’ll…”
“Not enough? Then I’ll send more.”
My phone buzzed again. At the same time, the exact same amount was deposited once more.
Two hundred million plus two hundred million… that’s a total of four hundred million.
“…”
In a single minute, I’d made several years’ salary, and my thoughts started to churn.
With this money, I wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of the pills until he found a Guide. Not just the pills. I could even quit guiding, get the suppression chip removed, spend a few years doing nothing, and only return to work once I heard Vasily had a Guide.
Ahem… Well, I could at least hear where he wanted to go.
“So, where are we going?”
“A Gate.”
“…”
Silence fell for a moment.
Clack-clack. I kept trying to undo the belt that wouldn’t release.
“I—I have no intention of entering a Gate. Let me out… Let me out!”
“When did I say you’d be going in? I’ll clear it quickly and come out; you wait outside. When I’m done, just give me a little guiding.”
“…Really?”
“Would I lie about that?”
“…”
I stared at him, unconvinced.
“You don’t look like you trust me.”
“Isn’t that obvious? There’s been a lot of Guide kidnapping cases lately…”
“You think I’d kidnap Guide Kwon Gidam?”
Know your place, C-class—that’s what he meant. I shut my mouth, understanding his intent.
It stung my pride, but I couldn’t argue. To an S-class Esper like Vasily, a mere C-class Guide was just a way to pass the time. Which only made it more puzzling. After a month, his interest should’ve been fading—so why was he still following me?
I rolled my eyes around the car. There wasn’t even a navigation screen showing the destination. I racked my brain to recall the latest news I’d seen, one by one, but none of it mentioned Vasily heading to a Gate today.
“So which area’s Gate are we going to?”
“Don’t worry. It’s close.”
That was all he said, then he fell silent. No telling where he was taking me. He didn’t seem inclined to explain, so I didn’t ask further.
Roads in Seoul were jammed with rush-hour traffic, but once we got into a less populated area, the congestion eased.
Before long, I spotted barricade tape that suggested we’d arrived. We got out and approached the open Gate together.
A minimal number of personnel were guarding the area near the Gate. I recalled the place name from the last road sign I’d seen and gauged our location. As he’d said, it wasn’t all that far…
Association employees spotted Vasily and greeted him with respect. Then they noticed me at his side and stared with puzzled eyes.
“Wait here a bit. I’ll be out in under thirty minutes.”
“If you’re not out by then, can I head back first?”
“Well then, I’d better not be late.”
He answered with a laugh, as if I’d been joking. I grabbed him as he started toward the Gate.
“Where are you going? Leave the car key.”
“Huh?”
“You expect me to walk home?”
I brazenly held out my palm, and Vasily looked at me with a rare, surprised expression. Then he let out a short amused laugh and pulled the key from his pocket.
I snorted, snatched the key from his hand, and stuffed it in my pocket.
If he was even a second late, I’d leave first. And of course I planned to claim that expensive car as spoils. Vasily wouldn’t care if he lost one car—so his foreign import would become mine.
“If you don’t want me walking home, you’d better hurry back.”
“Preferably take your time. It’s fine if you’re late.”
“Leave you to go home alone? I can’t allow that.”
Even with his key taken, he just kept grinning like it was all very funny.
He never wiped the smile off his face as he went into the Gate alone. He really wasn’t taking me inside. I sat down on a chair with a quiet sigh of relief.
“Thirty minutes, huh…”
It was an awkward amount of time—too short to nap.
I glanced around idly, wondering how to kill time while waiting for Vasily.
A handful of Espers stood guard at the Gate, and one Association employee from the management team had been dispatched. It was a bare-bones lineup—you could tell at a glance. Must’ve been a small Gate that had just opened. Boring enough to make me yawn.
Come to think of it, there was that time I went into an E-class Gate alone with him and ended up handling all the monsters myself. I’d expected a little help, but even while I was locked in a desperate fight with the final boss, Vasily didn’t lift a finger.
And when I finally took the boss down, the sense of achievement… yeah, right. I collapsed the moment we came out and got carried to the hospital. An experience I never wanted to repeat.
“Haa.”
How did it come to this. I’d thought that after regressing, I’d never have to see the unlucky bastard’s face again.
Anyway, where should I guide him when he comes back from the clear?
Vasily didn’t like receiving guiding where others could see. We’d have to change locations; the Association was probably best.
I should file the report and pocket some overtime while I’m at it. I’d recently learned the higher the target’s rank, the higher the pay. Since Vasily was S-class, the amount was pretty nice.
Between the bonus and the several years’ salary he’d tossed me, I was licking my lips thinking about my future retirement fund when I saw him coming out of the Gate.
“Already done?”
“Yeah. Didn’t take thirty minutes, did it?”
“It took you twenty-six minutes.”
“Cutting it close.”
Tch, too bad. I really had planned to leave him.
“Where do you want to receive guiding?”
“Mm… How about my place?”
“No.”
I cut off the nonsense fast. The best place to disappear without a trace was Vasily’s home. He might plan to imprison me so I couldn’t run and make me guide him.
There’d even been a time I’d tried to escape and ended up confined in his house for about half a year. A shiver went through me at the memory.
“Shame. Then my private room. You know the way from last time, right?”
“Yeah, well… Let’s head back to the Association first.”
A private room was within the expected range. I’d finish the guiding and go home to rest. Tomorrow was the weekend; all I wanted was to hurry back and sleep. With my account plumped up, I could even look into real estate.
I got back into Vasily’s car.
“If you’re sleepy, you can sleep.”
“No.”
Maybe five straight days of work had worn me out, because my eyes kept drifting shut all the way to the Association. Seeing my long yawn, Vasily said I could sleep, but I shook my head.
Falling asleep next to Vasily. Without a shred of tension… Once, that would’ve been unthinkable, but after so long not serving as his Guide, I must have relaxed a lot.
In the end, when we stopped briefly at a light, I closed my eyes quietly. I didn’t want to fall asleep beside the driver—but he was the one who’d kidnapped me without warning on a Friday after work. That was on him.