#117
7. Turbulent Waters
Ho-woo looked at the long corridor. Countless doors were lined up along the corridor. All of these doors were wide open, allowing a clear view inside. He walked slowly along the long corridor and impulsively peeked inside an open door.
Beyond the door filled with bright light, he saw himself.
He couldn’t remember the exact day, but he saw himself walking home from school with Do-hyun. It was just an ordinary day when they were both out of pocket money and shared a single chicken skewer, giggling together.
Ho-woo walked past numerous doors. As he approached the end of the corridor blocked by a tightly closed door, the Ho-woo beyond the doors gradually became younger, as if moving backward in time. The once clear scenes became hazy, as if covered in fog, making it difficult to see inside.
However, some memories were so vivid that Ho-woo could recall them with a “Ah, that’s how it was back then,” and he smiled contentedly. Most of the clear memories were related to Do-hyun. While it was natural given the long time they had spent together, it still felt fresh.
After passing by these doors, Ho-woo finally stood in front of the tightly closed door and looked up. The massive and solid-looking door that occupied the end of the long corridor was as black as if it absorbed all light. Though it clearly existed there, it also appeared as if it was an empty space, causing Ho-woo to raise his hand as if entranced.
He just wanted to know if a door existed there. Believing it would be firmly locked, Ho-woo was taken aback. With a small creaking sound, a cool draft seeped through the opened gap.
A very small gap.
A faint light spread through the gap that could barely fit a single finger. A small curiosity gripped Ho-woo.
Would it be okay to peek just a little?
Like a wife overcome by curiosity to open Bluebeard’s secret room, Ho-woo slowly bent down and pressed his face to the gap. A small human figure flickered in the dim light. The shadow, too small to be considered an adult, slowly turned around as if noticing Ho-woo peeking. Purple sparkled between jet-black hair like crow feathers.
Behind the very small and even seemingly emaciated child, a strange sense of pressure surged. Ho-woo and the child whose face couldn’t be seen made eye contact through the small gap. The child asked:
‘Can you handle the consequences of your curiosity?’
It was more like a vibration than a sound. The voice, alternating between child and adult, echoed in his head like a reverberation. Ho-woo curled his fingertips with a tingling tension.
‘Then open the door.’
‘No, don’t open it.’
‘Open it.’
‘Don’t open it.’
Conflicting voices, Ho-woo’s heart, fought fiercely. The shadow in the darkness curved its eyes widely in a smile. Just as he felt the smile was somehow familiar…
‘Ho-woo.’
Along with a low voice, a firm hand gripped Ho-woo’s shoulder from behind.
“―!”
“Ho-woo.”
Oh-yul was looking up at Ho-woo, his body bent down. Disregarding his knees touching the dirty floor, he was examining Ho-woo with feigned concern.
“You seemed to be having a nightmare, so I woke you up.”
“Ah…”
Belatedly looking around, Ho-woo scratched his cheek awkwardly. Seong Ha-young and Kim Jin-woo cleared their throats with a “Ahem” and averted their gazes. Ho-woo felt even more apologetic at their reaction. It wasn’t just any situation, but one related to him. At a presentation of the records and results from researching Ho-woo for the past month, he had not only failed to concentrate but had even dozed off.
Looking at the currently displayed PPT, it seemed he had indeed briefly fallen asleep. Still, the fact that he had dozed off during work hours remained unchanged, so Ho-woo straightened his slightly slouched posture with an embarrassed face.
“I’m sorry. I had trouble sleeping.”
The cause of his sleepless night widely curved his eyes. Oh-yul, patting his knees as he stood up, sat back down and listened attentively to the resumed presentation.
“There were no significant changes with regular guiding. However, after close guiding, noticeable changes were detected.”
Seong Ha-young pointed to an additionally marked section on a graph showing daily recorded measurements. It marked the day when close guiding was performed, but Ho-woo’s cheeks turned red.
This is embarrassing.
Even though it’s called close guiding, in the end it’s…
“Basic strength and stamina have improved slightly from the beginning. Considering that he’s not doing any separate exercise, this is definitely an indicator that his body is changing.”
“Indeed, his stamina has improved quite a bit.”
The esper who had directly experienced the improved stamina last night gave Ho-woo a meaningful look. The implication was so clear that Ho-woo desperately ignored it.
“He’s also blocking mental abilities 7 out of 10 times. Although it’s difficult to get accurate statistics with only Choi Seon-woo esper as the test subject, since he’s an upper-tier A-class esper, resistance should be possible at an even higher rate against lower-ranked espers.”
Ho-woo recalled Choi Seon-woo. He would smack his lips in disappointment whenever his ability didn’t work.
7 out of 10 times defense.
Probability is such a funny thing; those who are meant to succeed do, and those who aren’t, don’t. Even with a 0.0001% chance in a lottery, there are winners, so a 30% success rate was neither too low nor too high.
To borrow Choi Seon-woo’s words, it was a rate worth challenging. With each embarrassing photo added, Ho-woo vowed. That one day he would block them perfectly.
“So it’s just speculation, as you say.”
“Unless we experiment with other mental espers.”
Kim Jin-woo sharply retorted to Oh-yul’s words. The couple, who were fine with other experiments but particularly disliked the mental defense experiments, raised their eyebrows as if ready to vehemently oppose if another esper were to be introduced here.
“Haha, surely you don’t think I would do that.”
Oh-yul burst into laughter, but the couple exclaimed with eyes full of distrust:
‘You’re just the type to do it!’
Despite the distrust directed at him, the esper rested his chin on his hand, maintaining a light smile.
“So, is this the end of the report?”
It was a concise report. It was merely a presentation of listed figures. It would have been better if there was more time, but Oh-yul wanted monthly reports. Seong Ha-young briefly showed an embarrassed face at the insufficient report content, but she quickly composed herself.
“It’s only been a month. Expecting great results is greedy. Besides, Ho-woo’s case is completely unprecedented.”
“I know.”
The esper, who had been vaguely wearing the face of a superior until just now, stood up from his chair with a scraping sound.
“Well then, I look forward to your continued efforts.”
Kim Jin-woo and Seong Ha-young frowned, unable to respond, unsure if the words delivered with a cool smile meant “please take care of it” or “do it properly.”
“Shall we go get lunch?”
Oh-yul lightly asked Ho-woo, ignoring the couple. When Ho-woo checked the time on his pager, it was indeed lunchtime. Since he had been spending a lot of time in the lab lately, Ho-woo, who always ate lunch with the couple, briefly glanced at the two, but was ignored.
“Um…”
“Surely you’re not planning to eat with someone else instead of me?”
Oh-yul tilted his head with his hands behind his back. It looked quite cute, but the couple turned away and quickly left the conference room. Unable to say a proper goodbye to the couple, Ho-woo let out a big sigh and lightly patted Oh-yul’s chest.
“Let’s go eat lunch.”
***
“By the way, what kind of dream were you having earlier?”
Oh-yul sat next to Ho-woo, handing him a coffee. They had just finished a simple meal provided within the corporation and were enjoying the golden lunchtime that every office worker cherishes. They were comfortably full, and the weather, just entering autumn, was neither too hot nor too cold, perfect for a walk.
Ho-woo, who had been thinking it would be nice to lie down and take a good nap, hesitated at the sudden question but then smiled lightly.
“There was an incredibly long corridor.”
Ho-woo answered casually while blowing on his hot coffee.
“A corridor, you say?”
“Yes, there were so many doors on both sides, and they were all wide open.”
From the most recent memories to childhood events he couldn’t recall well, everything was inside those doors. Ho-woo tried to recall the corridor he had seen in his dream. The corridor came to mind as vividly as if he were standing there looking at it in person.
“That’s an unusual dream.”
Ho-woo nodded briefly at Oh-yul’s response.
“Right? You know what’s even more unusual?”
“Hmm?”
“Like in a movie, I could see past events inside the doors.”
“……”
“Even now, if I recall the corridor I saw in my dream, I remember it clearly.”
Ho-woo closed his eyes and walked along the long corridor he had seen in his dream. In his thoughts, Ho-woo was the owner of that corridor. Whenever he recalled a certain ‘memory’, he found himself standing in front of the door in the corridor where that memory was visible.
As if a projector recording memories had been implanted in his head.
“―!”
At that moment, Ho-woo jumped up from his seat as if struck by lightning.
“This!”
Seong Ha-young always emphasized: if anything unusual was noticed in his body or mind, he should not hide it but definitely report it. That’s why Ho-woo had spent the past month closely observing himself. It might not be noticeable unless you paid special attention, but it had been a month that perfectly fit the description of “today is better than yesterday.”
