[KE Group’s Cha Seong-ju Missing… No Contact After Leaving Around 8 PM.]
[Three Days Since Disappearance… Whereabouts Still Unknown.]
[Breaking News: KE Group Chairman Cha Seong-ju Believed to Have Been Kidnapped… CCTV Footage and Witness Testimonies Secured.]
Time crawled by agonizingly slow. Since that day, he checked the news every single day, anxiously waiting for any update on Cha Seong-ju. Yet, the news he longed for never came. The situation was grim.
It was the morning right after his friends barged into Cha Jae-woo’s house. The moment he opened his eyes, still groggy, he was hit with shocking news—he didn’t even have the luxury to suffer through his hangover.
[Park Yeon-ho: They say the KE Group Chairman is missing.]
[Park Yeon-ho: Apparently, he’s Cha Jae-woo’s grandfather. Isn’t that right?]
[Jo Ha-eon: Are you serious? Cha Jae-woo’s part of a chaebol family?]
[Park Yeon-ho: Dumbass, didn’t you see the article?]
[Jo Ha-eon: Oh, right. But seriously, he just vanished out of nowhere… What the hell’s going on?]
[Kim Geon-ung: What the hell? There’s an article?]
[Park Yeon-ho: (article link)]
[Park Yeon-ho: It’s blowing up. Number one in trending searches.]
What the hell were they even talking about? It was so sudden and absurd that it was almost impossible to believe. But just as they said, Cha Seong-ju’s name was sitting at the top of the trending search list, with terms like KE Group, Cha Jae-woo, and Missing trailing right behind. The chairman of KE Group, and Cha Jae-woo’s grandfather, Cha Seong-ju, had truly disappeared.
Without thinking, he immediately ran to Cha Jae-woo’s room. He figured Jae-woo would be devastated. But by then, Cha Jae-woo had already left. Given the situation, it made sense he wouldn’t just stay cooped up at home, yet stupidly, he had assumed he would be there.
Cha Jae-woo didn’t return until late that night, his aura completely wrecked. There were so many things he wanted to ask: What happened? What was the situation? Was Cha Jae-woo okay? But in the end, he kept his mouth shut. Cha Jae-woo looked utterly drained, and he figured that providing Guiding would be the best form of comfort he could offer.
A few days passed like that. Every day, Cha Jae-woo left early in the morning and didn’t come back until late at night. Whenever he returned, his aura was always in disarray—a clear sign he’d been using his abilities.
He was convinced that Cha Jae-woo was doing everything he could to find Cha Seong-ju. Because of that, even though he wanted to ask countless times what the current situation was, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. He didn’t want to bother someone who was already drowning in worry. Of course, he didn’t want to pressure him either.
No one wanted to find Cha Seong-ju more than Cha Jae-woo did. So, the only thing he could do was to keep Guiding him diligently whenever he came home exhausted—praying that Cha Seong-ju would be found safe and sound.
But the uncertainty around Cha Seong-ju’s whereabouts only deepened. And by the third day, evidence began to surface, suggesting he had been kidnapped.
People clung to the story like madmen. Articles poured out nonstop—not just about Cha Seong-ju’s kidnapping, but also about his relationship with Cha Jae-woo, questioning why Cha Jae-woo hadn’t been able to find him.
It was suffocating. He desperately hoped this nightmare would end peacefully—and quickly.
[KE Group’s Chairman Cha Seong-ju Found Dead.]
But the situation only grew worse. Cha Seong-ju, who had been missing, was eventually discovered dead in an abandoned factory.
“Haa…”
He knew better than anyone that sighing wouldn’t change anything, but it was all he could do. The world had grown even noisier with Cha Seong-ju’s death.
Had everyone lost their minds? Instead of mourning a boy who had just lost his only family, they were busy gossiping about how pathetic Cha Jae-woo’s abilities must be for failing to find him.
Cha Jae-woo was an Esper, not a god. He wasn’t an all-powerful being who could do anything. Yet instead of offering comfort, they chose to tear him down.
[Tragedy Born from Twisted Greed.]
[Evidence Emerges that Chairman Cha Seong-ju Secretly Hired Espers and Guides for Personal Gain.]
At least, with the revelation that Chairman Cha Seong-ju had been secretly smuggling Espers to exploit them for profit, things had quieted down a little lately. Whether that was something to be relieved about, he wasn’t sure.
The news that Cha Seong-ju had tried to transfer Espers into private companies and use them to hunt Gates for money had been utterly shocking. Public attention immediately shifted toward that scandal. And to top it off, the miserable conclusion—that he had been killed by the very Espers he had exploited—only fueled the frenzy. It was the kind of story people could gossip about a hundred times over without ever getting tired.
But in his mind, there was only room for worry about Cha Jae-woo. No matter how much wrongdoing Chairman Cha Seong-ju had committed, Cha Jae-woo was still the one burying his grandfather. Since it was a murder case, an autopsy had been conducted, and police investigations dragged on for some time. During all that, Cha Jae-woo hadn’t returned home even once.
“You hanging in there?”
His nerves were stretched taut. He hadn’t even been able to sleep properly from the worry. Of course, there was no way he looked fine. Kim Geon-ung kept shooting him worried glances over the past few days. There had been times like this before, too.
He wanted to brush it off, answer that he was fine, but his lips wouldn’t move. Instead, he just slumped over the table. There was about an hour left until their next class, so they decided to sit in the campus café.
He didn’t really have the appetite for anything, but Kim Geon-ung had bought an assortment of snacks and forced them onto the table, urging him to eat. Feeling guilty about letting his friend worry, he managed to nibble on a few bites.
“Will the funeral finish tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
“Then he’ll probably come back tomorrow.”
“…I guess so?”
Even as he answered, he wasn’t confident. Would Cha Jae-woo come straight home? He hoped so. At the very least, he wanted to see how he was doing.
Honestly, he wanted to go to the funeral hall himself. But unless he wanted to announce to the world that he was Cha Jae-woo’s Guide, that wasn’t an option.
No matter how much scandal Cha Seong-ju had stirred up, he had still been the chairman of a major corporation. A college student like him showing up at the funeral would be suspicious as hell. Everyone would immediately suspect a connection.
“Haah… I don’t know.”
The helplessness of having no choice but to wait was driving him crazy. He fiddled with his phone for no reason. Even though he had the notification volume set to maximum and would have heard any alert, he kept checking obsessively, afraid he might have missed something. But, of course, there were no new messages.
Well, of course, he must be busy. Handling the funeral, cleaning up Cha Seong-ju’s mess—it all had to fall on Cha Jae-woo’s shoulders. Rumor had it that there was even a will. Since Jae-woo was the only remaining family, he would have to deal with that too.
He understood all that logically. But emotionally, he was a mess. Maybe because it had been too long since he’d last seen Cha Jae-woo’s face, impatience gnawed at him. Maybe because tomorrow, he might finally see him again, today was dragging unbearably slowly.
“…”
He must be exhausted. He must be struggling. Too much had happened.
Of course, their situations were different, but having vivid memories of a funeral himself, he could easily imagine how hard it must be for Cha Jae-woo.
He wanted to do anything he could to help. But right now, all he could do was wait.
***
After returning home, he couldn’t bring himself to stray far from the front door. Word had finally come that Cha Jae-woo, who hadn’t been heard from even after the funeral, was on his way home.
Waiting by the door wasn’t going to make Cha Jae-woo arrive any faster. Still, the moment he heard that Jae-woo was on the way, he found himself pacing back and forth near the entrance, unable to sit still. Honestly, he wanted to wait outside, but he forced himself to hold back, worried it might make Jae-woo uncomfortable.
The wait felt endless. Every minute dragged on like an hour.
He couldn’t stay still; he paced and shifted, straining his ears for any sound of Cha Jae-woo’s arrival. It had only been a few days since he’d seen him, but because he was so used to seeing Jae-woo’s face every day, his heart felt unusually frantic.
“…Ah.”
It wasn’t until what felt like forever had passed that he finally heard a car pulling up outside. Normally, he wouldn’t even have noticed such a sound, but today it echoed sharply in his ears.
The moment he realized what it was, he couldn’t hold back anymore. Without even thinking, he flung open the front door and rushed outside. He had to see Cha Jae-woo’s face—he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“…You’re home?”
“Why are you standing out here?”
The instant he finally saw Cha Jae-woo, he had to fight desperately to keep his expression from crumbling. Standing there in a pitch-black suit, hair disheveled, Cha Jae-woo looked utterly worn out—and it hurt to see him like that.
Determined not to show his emotions, he forced the corners of his mouth up until it hurt and raised his voice slightly, pretending to be upbeat.
“Did you eat yet? …Ah, you look exhausted. You haven’t been sleeping well, have you? It’s always like that at funeral halls… hard to sleep there… and especially since you were alone…”
“…”
“Ah! Let’s go inside first! We shouldn’t be standing out here.”
“…”
“Right, the housekeeper prepared a meal for you. So, you should take a shower first—”
“Why are you trying so hard?”
Well, I got caught immediately. It wasn’t anything new. I had always been terrible at hiding my real feelings—especially when it came to Cha Jae-woo.
“Don’t force yourself. I’m fine.”
Cha Jae-woo lightly ruffled my hair and stepped inside the house first. The moment his back was turned, I hurriedly pulled up the corners of my mouth again, which had drooped without me realizing it. He was acting like everything was okay; if I started whining now, it would be pitiful beyond words.
“Yes. …Ah, but after you wash up and eat, you should still get some Guiding. It’s been too long…”
I chatted brightly as I matched my steps to his. Rather than stopping, Cha Jae-woo simply shrugged his shoulders in response.
“Take it slow.”
“Hmm… Ah, well, I guess there wasn’t much need for you to use your ability. But still, it’s good to be ready, right? Plus, your mana’s full right now…”
“Later.”
I had wanted to do it today, but if Cha Jae-woo said no, there was nothing I could do about it. I followed him as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. He hadn’t even told me to come along, but because I’d been waiting for him so desperately, I found myself trailing after him without thinking. If I hadn’t snapped out of it halfway, I would have walked right into his room.
“Ah…”
I stopped abruptly right in front of his door. Just then, when I expected him to go inside without a glance, Cha Jae-woo paused and turned back to look at me. I forced a clumsy smile.
“Get some rest. You must be exhausted.”
“…”
“…Um. Do you need anything?”
But Cha Jae-woo didn’t say a word. Under his quiet, steady gaze, I felt my eyes trembling all over from the awkwardness.
Then Cha Jae-woo chuckled softly.
“You’re making me feel a little guilty.”
“Huh?”
“Go to your room. Like you said—I’ll wash up, eat, and then come for Guiding.”
“Ah…”
“You need to rest too.”
Maybe it was the tenderness in his voice, but my mind blanked, and no words came out. Thankfully, Cha Jae-woo closed the door before I could embarrass myself any further.
For the first time in a while, my heart was pounding wildly. Pressing a hand against my chest at the unfamiliar feeling, I slowly stepped backward.
Anyway, Cha Jae-woo had come home. I had seen his face, even if just for a moment. And for now, that alone was enough to bring me comfort.
