44.
“Are you really not going to give in?”
“That’s funny. Why should I?”
“This kind of thing is about respecting your elders, man.”
“Ah, yes. Acting Team Leader must be so-o-o pleased to be so-o-o much older.”
Ryu Ho-yeon, who was usually busy displaying the ultimate boomer attitude toward Choi Jae-won who was five years his junior, was strangely openly mocking someone else’s boomer behavior today. His stretched-out tone of “so-o-o pleased” clearly contained mockery. It was hard to believe that this childish person was an S-class Esper standing at the front line of national defense and security. What’s more, Kim Jun-young couldn’t even find words to counter Ryu Ho-yeon’s mockery about being pleased to be older, and could only say, “Jung-hyuk! Did you hear what he said?!” tattling to his Guide. It was fortunate that they were the only customers in the café. This was such a childish spectacle that it was unbearable to watch.
“Um, I’m sorry. It’s just that Kim Jun-young… thinks of Ho-yeon quite casually…”
“No, senior. It’s fine. I understand.”
When separated, these people were somewhat mature adults fulfilling their duties, but when put together, this chaos always resulted. Lee Jung-hyuk and Choi Jae-won, not wanting to get caught between these chaotic Espers’ exchange of opinions, had taken a separate table.
“I guess it’s fortunate that Han-seo isn’t here…”
“Is it worse when Han-seo hyung is here too?”
“Yes, it’s definitely worse.”
“Wow… It’s amazing that it can be more childish than this.”
Choi Jae-won’s voice of admiration was so pure that Ryu Ho-yeon warned him with “I can hear you, Jae-won” in the midst of everything. While the other pair seemed to have the Guide as the superior, in this case Choi Jae-won wasn’t even at the bottom of the hierarchy—he had barely climbed one step up from the absolute bottom. He hurriedly waved his hands, saying, “No, that’s not it, it’s a misunderstanding, hyung!”
In any case, what had ignited the competitive spirit of these two S-class Espers so fiercely was an invitation from Berlin. The senders were, of course, Lee Han-seo and Park Woo-jun.
The International Esper Association, based in Europe, was indeed attentive to the mental care of Espers and Guides.
They had initiated a kind of anti-homesick week, where members of the U-class dedicated team who had been away from their homeland for a long time could select the colleagues they missed most and send invitations. The selected individuals could then stay at headquarters for a certain period.
The invitation that arrived in Korea had the recipient’s name left blank. Lee Han-seo had irresponsibly sent the invitation with just a Post-it note saying it was difficult to choose between the two pairs, so they should check their schedules and decide among themselves.
The maximum stay at Berlin headquarters was about a month, and the International Association would provide support to fill the power vacuum during that time. Both Kim Jun-young and Ryu Ho-yeon realized as soon as they read the fine print at the bottom of the invitation. This invitation was a kind of lottery. One where the first prize was already guaranteed. Or perhaps a golden lifeline sent from heaven.
Without external support, even if they got a long vacation, it would only be two or three days at most. Even then, they couldn’t dream of going abroad and would have to rush back from the countryside if an urgent alert came, forfeiting their vacation. After all, natural disasters don’t consult human schedules and occur at convenient times.
Moreover, since they would be going as guests, there would be no other duties while at headquarters unless the world was literally about to end and every single Esper in the headquarters had to be dispatched without exception.
A guaranteed maximum of one month, completely exempt from duties, an overseas trip with accommodation included.
They had to get it somehow. Missing this opportunity meant uncertainty about when such a chance would come again.
“Hyung, you just went to Berlin recently. So give in this time.”
“Who went there for fun? I went for the Peace Maintenance Symposium presentation. Don’t even mention it. Even then, I just took the plane and only set foot in Berlin for less than five hours.”
“Still, you did go there.”
Ryu Ho-yeon spoke forcefully, deliberately widening his already large eyes. He put so much tension around his eyes that, with a bit of exaggeration, it seemed they might roll out if he wasn’t careful.
“You said you hate travel because it’s troublesome and uncomfortable. You said just looking at it on a monitor is enough. You said your bed in your room is the best place!”
Kim Jun-young was never one to back down when it came to childish behavior. Ryu Ho-yeon’s expression momentarily faltered as if struck at his core.
“Ugh, that’s cheap…”
“Yes, yes, S-class Section Chief. The much older Team Leader is quite talented at being cheap, isn’t he?”
He was indeed a person difficult to keep up with when it came to verbal sparring. But Ryu Ho-yeon didn’t give up. He was desperate for this opportunity for several reasons.
For Ryu Ho-yeon, who had never even been to Jeju Island, this meant his first plane ride, his first trip abroad, and face-to-face meeting with his best friend whom he heard every day but hadn’t seen in person for years. Each item on the list was compelling, but the most crucial reason was something else.
“Senior, I have a question. When I try to do radial guiding during combat, the transmission doesn’t work well for some reason. It wasn’t like that before, but it happens suddenly sometimes.”
“Ah, about that…”
This was all for the sake of that Guide with the loose demeanor who was discussing guiding techniques with a capable senior even while Ryu Ho-yeon was engaged in a desperate battle with Kim Jun-young.
The matching rate, which had been increasing by tiny increments of 0.1 or 0.05, had been stagnant for quite some time. Perhaps they were approaching the fundamental limit of the matching rate that existed between him and Choi Jae-won.
Choi Jae-won had increased the frequency of his experiments from once a week, saying he finally understood why shareholders became so impatient when their company’s stock price got trapped in a box pattern. No matter how much he was dissuaded, he wouldn’t listen. He was busy seeking out Dr. An almost daily when it was time. His obsession, or rather fixation, on the matching rate seemed almost like a compulsion.
Just when he was thinking he needed to do something, a lifeline of salvation had conveniently descended. Since they couldn’t neatly pack Dr. An into their suitcase to Berlin, he had the brilliant idea that preventing Choi Jae-won from going anywhere near the laboratory for at least a month might improve his abnormal compulsion.
There’s a saying “out of sight, out of mind.” It might not be exactly the right expression for this situation, but anyway.
“Ugh…”
He couldn’t win against Kim Jun-young with words. Ryu Ho-yeon let out a frustrated groan and briefly considered whether to play his final card. It was a card that Kim Jun-young would never refuse. Namely… the condition that Ryu Ho-yeon would take over the Acting Esper Team Leader position that Kim Jun-young was desperate to get rid of. In exchange for the one-month trip to Berlin.
Just as he was about to speak, saying, “Hey, hyung,” Kim Jun-young exclaimed first, “Can’t be helped!” with a big shrug of his shoulders.
“Let’s leave it to fair chance.”
“Huh…?”
“We’ll draw lots. How about that?”
That sounded like a fairly reasonable suggestion. Ryu Ho-yeon decided not to play his final card yet, thinking he might get lucky and win. If things went sideways here, he could still offer his final deal to Kim Jun-young as a last resort.
Since Kim Jun-young was known for playing pranks on those close to him, Ryu Ho-yeon remained vigilant throughout the preparation of the drawing. However, mocking his vigilance, Kim Jun-young said they would both be suspicious if they made the lots themselves and entrusted both making and drawing the lots to a café employee.
“Is that okay?”
Ryu Ho-yeon just nodded glumly. Now he really had to leave it to pure luck.
The café employee, finding it amusing that these faces often seen on the news were behaving so childishly, displayed an undisguised smile as they mixed the hastily made tissue paper lots and selected one.
“Gasp…”
“Please, please, please, please…”
Ryu Ho-yeon prayed desperately with his hands neatly folded in front. The employee slowly unfolded the crumpled tissue. On the brown tissue with the café’s logo, written boldly in black marker was:
“No way! Yes! Jae-won! We got it! We’re going!!”
Ryu Ho-yeon. Those three characters that would surely be the most special in this world.
