“Where did you hear that this time? There hasn’t even been an official announcement yet.”
“I just… heard it. So—who got hurt?”
The place Rion headed toward was the office where the general staff worked. Since it was also where mass notifications were sent out, it was safe to say information circulated there the fastest.
He’d been on his way to the Center Director’s office, but realizing at the last second that if an accident had happened, the busiest person would be the Center Director himself, he turned on his heel instead.
“Did you… hear about it from the Center Director?”
“If you mean the new Gate that’s about to open, then yes.”
“Since you already know, Rion, it should be okay to tell you. We’re in an emergency because of that right now. The roster probably has to be completely redone… the Center Director is having a really hard time with it.”
Thud. It felt like his heart dropped straight down. If they had to remake the roster, that meant something had happened to someone on it—something serious enough that they couldn’t enter the Gate.
“It’s a big problem. No one should ever get hurt, but they’re S-rank, and Gates just keep appearing nonstop… Even if they recover quickly, they’ve gone into surgery, so it’ll be hard for them to return for a while.”
From that point on, Rion’s heartbeat grew so loud it drowned out the staff member’s voice, his mind going hazy to the point he could barely understand what was being said.
S-rank. Roster. Surgery.
Only those few words clawed around inside his head.
“Rion?”
“…Yes?”
Rion finally snapped out of it at the call, lifting his head with a pale face. The staff member looked slightly startled when they saw his expression.
“Are you okay? You look really shocked. Well… you were seriously injured not that long ago yourself, and you went into that Gate together, so I guess it’s understandable.”
“……”
“If it comes to this, the only S-rank Espers from the Center who can be deployed immediately would be you and Hyobin. So how the roster gets rearranged…”
“…What? Espers?”
Frozen in place, Rion blurted out the word in confusion. Espers? Then that meant Yu-won wasn’t the one who got hurt?
“Huh?”
“Ah—sorry. I just… I only heard that someone got hurt, so I rushed over.”
“Oh, right. That’s true.”
The staff member, who had mistakenly assumed Rion already knew everything about the Busan Gate, realized their mistake and flustered.
“So you’d only heard about the new Gate from the Center Director. I thought you’d already been briefed on the Busan Gate situation too.”
Rion had asked who was hurt the moment he arrived. It was a little frustrating, but that wasn’t what mattered right now. What he needed to know was exactly who was injured—and how badly.
“Hyeon-seo was seriously injured. Of all days, Min-hyeon was dispatched elsewhere today, so he couldn’t even treat him right away… They transferred him straight to the hospital, but we haven’t heard yet that the surgery is over.”
“Hyeon-seo… sunbae.”
You weren’t supposed to feel relieved when someone got hurt. And it wasn’t like Rion disliked Hyeon-seo—if anything, he respected him as a senior. Yet despite all that, relief washed through him.
The sense of guilt—Is it really okay to feel relieved about this?—was weaker than the overwhelming relief that the injured person wasn’t Yu-won. For a moment, the corners of Rion’s mouth nearly lifted.
“How badly was he hurt?”
“They said it was a penetrating wound to the side… The location’s bad, and the distance was too far. Even if Min-hyeon or one of the new recruits rushed over immediately, the treatment they could provide would’ve been limited.”
The staff member explained the situation at the Busan Gate. Hyeon-seo had been gravely injured while fighting the boss. Thankfully, the remaining personnel managed to subdue it, but it took some time to get everyone out, which complicated things.
In the rush to evacuate Hyeon-seo, the other team members were delayed as well, leaving the situation pretty chaotic.
“Everyone else has minor injuries, but Hyeon-seo’s the only one who was seriously hurt.”
“Haaah……”
The strength drained from Rion’s legs, and he slumped down, grabbing onto the wall. Only after hearing that Yu-won definitely wasn’t seriously injured did his heart finally start beating at a normal pace again.
“I was frustrated because I couldn’t get in touch.”
Feeling a bit embarrassed about his intense reaction, Rion offered a timid excuse. Fortunately, the staff member didn’t make much of it and explained instead.
“Oh, yeah. They probably couldn’t answer their phones until just now. With someone seriously injured and others hurt too, it looked like they went straight to the hospital before anything else.”
“When did the Gate close?”
“Hmm… about an hour ago. Factoring in examinations and everything, you should probably hear back within the hour.”
Rion staggered to his feet, bowed politely to the staff member, and left the office. For now, he’d confirmed that things were okay—next, all he could do was quietly wait for contact.
“Hyeon-seo sunbae… you’ll be okay, right…?”
Only after the wave of relief faded did concern for Hyeon-seo come rushing in. Rion fiddled with his phone as he thought.
If it had been either one of them, I’d have felt just as unsettled. They both went into the same Gate with me—both comrades. And they’re both people who have to enter another S-rank Gate as soon as next week. Sure, Yu-won’s my matching Guide, so I worried a little more about him. But after some time passes… I would’ve worried the same way, no matter who got hurt.
Rion sorted through his actions in his head, trying to organize the situation. Now that he’d calmed down, he could finally reflect on his behavior properly.
It’s not like I was relieved because it was Hyeon-seo sunbae who got hurt. He’s a really good person. There’s no way. It’s just… because he’s my matching Guide, and I was panicking about guiding, that’s all.
His already-confused heart felt like it was running wild on its own. Lately, everything related to Yu-won had been nothing but confusing, but today was especially strange.
What was even more ridiculous was the certainty that this suffocating, head-splitting feeling would calm down the moment he saw Yu-won.
This is stupid. I’m tying myself in knots because of him, but when I actually need to get my head straight, I need him to be there.
Rion let out a self-mocking laugh and fiddled with his phone again. He was thinking that he just wanted Yu-won to contact him as soon as possible when the phone suddenly buzzed, snapping him out of his daze.
[Asshole: We’re out of the Gate. I’ll head up right away.] 6:37 PM
Even though the raid team had apparently been thrown into chaos, the person involved sent the message in the same calm tone as always.
After taking a deep breath, Rion typed with trembling fingers.
[You’re out? You’re not hurt anywhere?] 6:39 PM
They said everyone had minor injuries, so he probably wasn’t completely unscathed either. That was what Rion thought as he asked.
[Asshole: I’m fine. Hyeon-seo sunbae was seriously injured, so it looks like the other team members won’t be able to return until tomorrow.] 6:40 PM
[Then why are you coming back right away?] 6:41 PM
[Asshole: You haven’t had proper guiding for days. Since it’s hard for you to get decent guiding from another Guide, hyung, I should come back right away.] 6:41 PM
[Asshole: Jin-ha’s probably still inside a Gate too, right?] 6:41 PM
He was right. It had already been several days since Rion had spent time without both Yu-won and Jin-ha. Aside from those two, there was no one who could provide meaningful guiding, so even when he did receive guiding, it felt completely different from when Yu-won was there.
It wasn’t like he was exerting himself as much as when he was inside a Gate, and during times without cooperation requests, he’d been leisurely receiving drop-by-drop guiding. It wasn’t to the point where he could say it was physically exhausting.
It wasn’t unbearable. Compared to when people joked that he might die of overwork, he was practically bursting with energy.
But right now, Rion was exhausted.
A lack of guiding and physical pain were different things. He didn’t know exactly what the difference was, but one thing was clear—there was something vitally missing inside him right now.
And to fill that void, he needed Yu-won. Absolutely.
[What time are you leaving?] 6:43 PM
[Asshole: I think I’ll catch the 7:20 train. If I take a taxi home, I should arrive around 10:30.] 6:45 PM
About three hours left, then. First, when Yu-won got back, they’d talk about the S-rank Gate, and then…
“…It’d be ridiculous to bring up the pair thing now, wouldn’t it.”
After a moment of consideration, Rion let out a small laugh. He’d been the one who’d made such a fuss about hating it, about hating it, and canceled the application—coming back now and offering the paperwork himself would be absurd.
“Let’s take it step by step. Slowly.”
First, he needed to understand what was causing all this confusion. Then he’d ask how it had been, entering a Gate for the first time without him. The pair discussion could wait until after that.
[Center Director: I know you’ve got nothing to do, so get up to my office.] 7:00 PM
He didn’t have much time to sink into his thoughts. Rion turned off his phone screen and headed up to the Center Director’s office.
