180
The center headquarters was chaotic for a while. Not long, just about two weeks.
After two weeks, everyone reached a state of calm. People were no longer anxious, and beastkin espers gradually prepared to return to the site.
After the Baekya Guild escaped from the gate, all the strangely shaped plants that had been scattered around disappeared. They completely vanished without leaving even a single leaf, as if they had never existed.
Though this made dealing with monsters difficult, this problem too was resolved. It was thanks to the Baekya Guild’s return.
Their presence alone boosted the morale of espers. With beings there to protect them, they could focus solely on moving forward.
There were no fatalities. There were many injured, but all were espers who recovered quickly. Many more returned to the site the next day.
The gate site had been relatively peaceful for the past two weeks. No abnormal phenomena occurred, and the number of gates and monsters gradually decreased.
“Esper Yoo Jihan.”
Everything was returning to normal. With one exception—the Baekya Guild.
“Um… Esper Yoo Jihan?”
Jihan, who had been standing in a daze, turned his head at the sound of someone calling him. They had called him more than five times, but he hadn’t heard at all. He was so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed the gazes around him.
“Ah, I’m sorry. Please go ahead.”
Jihan smiled gently as he belatedly recognized the numerous stares fixed on him. He was standing not at a gate site but inside a convenience store.
Jihan, who had stopped at the snack section of the convenience store, made way for the people gathering around him.
But the people stopped alongside Jihan and only sent interested glances. They seemed shocked to directly encounter Yoo Jihan of the Baekya Guild, whom they rarely saw.
It was understandable. They had met him at a convenience store, not a gate site. Their surprise was not unreasonable.
“It must be very difficult for you…?”
Someone in the crowd gathered courage and spoke up. Following that person, others began to offer words of comfort to Jihan.
“We’re all supporting the Baekya Guild. Esper Yoo Jihan, stay strong.”
People worried that he looked very tired. Someone even openly reddened their eyes.
“Yes, thank you.”
Jihan gave them a final smile before leaving the convenience store. Just as when he entered, his hands were empty.
He had thought about buying cigarettes but refrained. For the guide’s sake.
Zzing.
After leaving the convenience store and walking for a while looking at the sky, Jihan took out his phone. It was a call from the secretary.
Instead of answering immediately, he stopped walking. Zzing, the small vibration seemed particularly loud.
Jihan, rubbing his eyebrows, looked very tired as people had said. It was because he hadn’t been able to sleep properly for the past two weeks.
The Baekya Guild had been helping with gate removal throughout all sectors. Jihan, Seojun, and Geonho took turns handling dangerous gates in each sector.
“Yes, Secretary.”
Jihan answered the call just before the vibration ended. Even then, he didn’t put the phone to his ear but held it at a distance. His reluctance to talk was evident.
— Where are you?
“Just walking.”
Omitting “why do you ask,” he looked up at the sky again. Since leaving the gate, he had developed a habit of looking at the sky.
— You’re on your way to the guide’s hospital room, right?
Jihan nodded and belatedly answered, “Yes.” He had forgotten he was on a call. These days, he often became absent-minded like this.
Perhaps due to lack of sleep. Or maybe because his heart felt empty.
— Then don’t come to the site until tomorrow and get some rest.
“I’m fine. I’m perfectly okay.”
— I’m calling you after checking your stress levels. Attach the guiding machine instead of taking medication and get a good night’s sleep.
The secretary issued a firm ban on entering the site.
— I’m ordering this on behalf of the leader. Understood? No work until tomorrow.
He hung up before Jihan could answer. Rather than becoming sharper, it seemed he was deliberately putting on an edge.
The secretary was doing his best to lead the guild members. He gave instructions to the guild members in place of Taebeom and managed their wavelength values in place of Siwoo.
“How scary.”
Jihan began walking again, muttering jokingly. Though his fatigued body was craving rest, he didn’t want to sleep.
He wanted to stay awake for a while. So he could rush over at any moment.
Jihan’s bloodshot brown eyes scanned the blue sky.
The weather was a bit chilly. Autumn was already ending. It felt like just yesterday when he first met the guide in summer.
Sometimes it seemed time was moving quickly, but when he remembered only two weeks had passed since the gate incident, it felt slow again.
“I wonder what the guide would think.”
A thin, long sigh rose into the sky. Jihan put his empty hands in his pockets and regretted.
I should have bought something after all. The guide might wake up to the smell of snacks.
Though it would be useless for the leader.
* * *
Seojun lay on the bed with a serious expression. He ended up in an awkward position as he tried not to disturb the thin IV line.
The long IV line connected to the fluid pack was inserted into Siwoo.
The IV line stuck in the paw of a cat rather than a human looked particularly thinner. Seojun tried his best not to disturb the IV line.
“What are you doing?”
Jihan, who arrived at the hospital room via teleportation, asked Seojun.
Startled by his sudden presence, Seojun’s body jerked significantly. It could have been a disaster.
“Ah, hyung. Please use the door.”
Seojun openly expressed irritation as he raised a pet nail clipper. He was trimming Siwoo’s claws.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Jihan approached the bed, rubbing his palms together. He pulled up a chair and sat near Siwoo’s head.
Both seemed very familiar with the hospital room. Having visited every day for two weeks, they couldn’t help but be familiar.
“Do you know how to trim them?”
“No, it’s my first time.”
He had been holding one paw for a full 30 minutes. He had only slightly cut the tips, so it hardly looked trimmed at all.
“Let’s just have Geonho do it.”
“You haven’t done it either, hyung?”
Jihan nodded, confirming. How could he have? Unlike Geonho, they weren’t particularly interested in animals. They would only briefly glance when a stray cat passed by.
“Let me try.”
Jihan sat down, pulling the chair closer, and took the nail clipper. As he leaned his upper body on the bed, the white body lying on the pillow tilted slightly.
Jihan grinned while appreciating Siwoo up close, who had his eyes closed and mouth open.
Somehow he looked especially pretty today. Yesterday too.
“Can you cut it? You shouldn’t cut the blood vessel.”
Seojun warned that cutting incorrectly could cause bleeding. Jihan carefully examined the claws, pressing down on the white front paw.
“Is this the blood vessel?”
“Yes, you should only cut up to that point. Diagonally like this.”
“Ah, okay. Let’s have Geonho do it when he comes.”
Jihan naturally put down the nail clipper and planted a kiss on Siwoo’s paw pad. The soft pink flesh was so lovely that his tongue unconsciously reached out.
“Hyung.”
Seojun pulled Jihan’s shoulder to stop him.
“What if guiding happens?”
Jihan made an exaggeratedly dejected face.
“To think I have to just look at this jelly-like thing.”
Though he complained that it was like hell, he immediately removed his hands from Siwoo’s body.
Siwoo was currently in a state where he needed to avoid contact with espers. His attending physician had cautioned the Baekya Guild not to guide him for a while.
He said Siwoo’s heart had weakened considerably. His body, not yet sufficiently trained, had been strained by frequent high-level guiding.
The Baekya Guild couldn’t say anything when the doctor explained there must have been pain all along. They just stood silently, taking to heart the warning not to stimulate him until he woke up on his own.
Two weeks had passed like that. Siwoo still hadn’t woken up.
He had remained in human form initially. Now, as if wanting to conserve energy to maintain a human body, he had returned to his true form.
Siwoo was diligently recovering on his own. The problem was that he tried to guide even while sleeping.
“You shouldn’t touch his skin.”
“That’s why you’re wearing gloves?”
Jihan praised the youngest member wearing thick combat gloves and patted his head. Seojun handed gloves to Jihan as well. He had prepared them in advance for his hyungs too.
“Thank you.”
With gloves on, Jihan touched Siwoo without worry. He slightly pulled down the thin blanket to check if his heart was beating well, then covered him again.
“Now we can replace it with a thicker blanket.”
They had been using a thin blanket because his fever wouldn’t go down. Now his body temperature had returned to normal. His body was no longer hot, and he wasn’t struggling to breathe.
Seojun nodded quietly and then suddenly sighed. His gaze, fallen to the floor, was full of regret.
If only we had the acorn, the guide would have recovered faster.
They had lost the acorn in the process of exiting the gate. Since the barrier stone was still in the pocket, it seemed to have disappeared on its own.
Did it vanish after using up all its stored power?
Seojun had gone to find the former Grand Guild Master, but he too was in a comatose state. He returned after only receiving the sheet music, being told that time was running out.
Jihan, who was sitting on the bedside table instead of the bed, pressed the tip of Siwoo’s drooping tongue back into his mouth. Seojun habitually patted the bulging blanket.
They silently looked at Siwoo like that.
A bitter smile spread whenever Siwoo squirmed in his sleep and sent out guiding energy. On very rare occasions when he meowed while moving his small mouth, they would become melancholic about the fact that they weren’t cat beastkin.
What was he saying?
What kind of dream was he having that made him cry even while sleeping? There were many things they wanted to ask when Siwoo woke up. And many stories to tell him too.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
