Chapter 6
Arriving at Ji Yeohoon’s house and watching the hero and villain quietly playing games was unsettling.
The funny thing was that despite fighting all the time, they still often played games together afterward.
Even while displaying clear dislike for each other on their faces, they clamped their mouths shut as if enduring and focused on moving their cars. Anyway, they might be cooperating now, but their “just wait until this is over” attitude made me truly uneasy.
Actually, this wasn’t so much their problem as it was my soul’s problem—mentally I was a grown-up, exhausted by these kids’ intensity.
“Oh come on!”
“You’re the one who needs to drive properly.”
“I gave you an angel earlier, didn’t I? So why didn’t you give me one?”
“Because you got the angel after getting hit?”
“No, I didn’t!”
“I was watching my own monitor when I did it?”
“I saw your monitor too?”
“Don’t lie.”
Maybe it’s my soul with memories of nearly 30 years of life, or my brain, that can’t keep up with their noise and energy level.
Their parents said they would come as soon as they finished work. Yoon Cheong’s mother was apparently on a business trip, so only his father would be coming.
Yeohoon’s parents said they weren’t entering an attack gate today, but were observing student Espers doing gate practice, so they would finish relatively early.
“I still prefer playing with Suyoung hyung.”
“I’d rather play with him than with you too.”
Leaving the two of them glaring at each other like sparks might fly from their eyes, I lay on my side on Yeohoon’s spacious bed, looking up at the ceiling.
Typically, in an Esper’s first practice session, they would enter a relatively safe F-class gate to feel the pressure inside, and learn how to use their inventory bag to store and retrieve necessary items.
After clearing the gate, they would briefly learn about matters to report to the association staff and post-processing procedures, so there was little risk of serious injury.
However, even in F-class gates, regular mobs could appear, and in rare cases, the gate could be upgraded to a higher level, with boss monsters that normally appear in D-class gates or above. Therefore, practice sessions required accompaniment by attack-type and support-type Espers of B~C class or higher, along with Guides.
For the association, this was a safety measure, while for guilds, it was an opportunity to promote themselves to strong student Espers before graduation.
No matter how physically strong Espers were with their supernatural abilities, students entering gates for the first time were usually inexperienced dreamers who didn’t perform well on their first day of gate practice. So, cases where they defeated boss mobs in their first practice…
“Ah!”
“I’m first!”
“Why did you push me out at the end!”
“You should have done better, hyung!”
…existed.
Those two bastards had cleared a gate that was suddenly upgraded from F-class to C-class (not even D-class) during their F-class practice, and defeated the boss to clear the gate.
Even if it’s F-class, a gate is still a gate and doesn’t continuously appear. Inevitably, only middle and high school Espers who applied for gate entry among that year’s Esper students could enter, with high school students given priority.
Yet those two, as middle school Esper students, defeated a boss on their first day of practice gate entry, making the news.
Are they really a hero and a villain? Beyond that, thinking about their specs—worthy of main characters in any story—gave me a headache.
“Hyung, Suyoung hyung, they say our parents will be here soon.”
“Yeah, okay. Then turn off the computer and do your homework now. Yoon Cheong, write out the dictation words you got wrong ten times.”
“Okay.”
Seeing them obediently follow instructions made me wonder what I should do.
From the beginning, I preferred being physically and mentally comfortable, so I joined the association instead of a guild. Though paperwork was annoying, the computerized system was good, and if you checked everything properly, gate management didn’t involve much work.
I planned to do the same this time, but somehow it seemed like Yeohoon’s parents had no intention of allowing that.
Every time we visited their home, they would say “our Yeohoon, please take good care of our Yeohoon,” and judging by the affection Yeohoon and Yoon Cheong showed me, I thought that regardless of the matching rate, guiding them wouldn’t be bad.
Since guiding between a Guide and an Esper is heavily influenced by affinity, that might be the case.
Not all affinities affect matching rates, but guiding is influenced by affinity.
For example, there were cases where despite having a 20% matching rate, good mutual affinity resulted in few guiding failures. That’s why matching rates alone didn’t automatically exclude someone from guiding.
Plus, I usually had decent Guide matching rates with most Espers. The reason I was a D-class Guide was because my guiding speed was a bit slow, but overall my compatibility wasn’t bad. That’s why I could easily join the association that supported Espers in general.
While guild Espers and association Guides might consider each other a nuisance, they basically never fought and relied on each other in emergencies.
But if things continued like this, I felt like I would become the D-class Guide in charge of these guys, making me wonder if I should distance myself now.
Despite my main goal of making Yeohoon and Yoon Cheong become friends, and becoming close with Yeohoon to discourage his terrorism, I still felt conflicted.
I really find it too bothersome to deal with these guys…
“Hyung, teach me multiplication.”
“Should I write out the 2 times table for you? Bring your notebook.”
“Moon Soo-young, I finished this.”
“Good job.”
I’m not a teacher, so why do they ask me to check their homework and studies?
Do these guys really think I’m a genius? They kept pushing their work at me. Though they’re annoying, I can’t bring myself to refuse because they don’t seem hateful to me, so I keep accepting. The problem is that even when they’re noisy, they watch my reactions and lower their voices occasionally, or proudly rush over to show me when they finish homework or studying, which is cute (maybe because of their faces).
Moreover, these guys who were much taller than me before my regression now have tiny faces with big eyes, tiny hands, and are a bit shorter than me.
Having always been an only child both before and after the regression, I wanted a younger sibling rather than an older one, so I couldn’t help weakening.
Additionally…
“This should be written as ‘balda.’ Rieul, bieup. You wrote ‘babda’ again.”
“Ah!”
“And memorize this completely.”
“R-really? I have to memorize this? This is adding like this and this and going on? Isn’t it calculated?”
“Yes. Memorize it.”
It’s frustrating when they get elementary school first-grade level problems wrong.
According to regulations, D-class or lower Guides could attend regular schools. At my parents’ strong request, I attended a regular school until high school. Not only that, for the sake of personal comfort, I studied just enough to work with the association.
This means I received something like entrance exam education like other normal kids and studied accordingly. Not that I’m pretending to know, but having already received a regular humanities high school education, I couldn’t possibly overlook mistakes.
Even low-grade Espers have superior physical strength compared to non-ability users, which could lead to accidents, so they must attend Esper-Guide specialized schools. But Guides, apart from being able to stabilize Espers through guiding, were no different from ordinary people.
I want to attend like regular students as before my regression.
What’s this ominous feeling that I won’t be able to…
“Son~ Cheong, Soo-young~”
“Are you all playing well~”
At Yeohoon’s parents’ voices, which sounded like kindergarten teachers, we went out the door, bowed, and said, “Welcome home.”
The two, who had been asking Yeohoon about his day affectionately, looked at Yoon Cheong and me with satisfied smiles.
It really seems like they have some sneaky thoughts filling their eyes, but why do I feel like I should pretend not to notice?
The uncle nodded while looking at Yoon Cheong and Yeohoon, and the aunt looked at me proudly, saying I was growing well. It felt like a Guide recognizing an Esper and an Esper recognizing a Guide, making my heart race unnecessarily.
I haven’t had a physical examination yet, I’m still a normal person, I’m going to attend a regular high school…
“We came a bit early, but Soo-young, when did you say your mother and father are coming?”
“After work. They said they’ll come right after finishing at 6 o’clock.”
“And Cheong?”
“My dad also gets off work at 6.”
“Then we have about 30 minutes, shall we prepare to grill meat together? Will all three of you help?”
“Yes~”
As the excited (prospective) Espers ran out, the aunt followed them, while the S-class Guide and (prospective) Guide followed slowly.
“Soo-young, you’re quite calm, aren’t you? I’ve often seen Yeohoon and Cheong running around, but you’re always quiet.”
“Since they’re excited, I need to be quiet to maintain balance.”
“You know words like that too?”
Ah, was my word choice too advanced? Seeing him smile as if thinking “Is he really a genius?”, I froze momentarily before pressing my lips shut.
When I nodded confidently like a real child, the uncle just patted my head as if finding it even more amusing.
Since the housekeeper who helps with Yeohoon’s household chores was already preparing in the garden, our job was just to hover around and repeat what had already been done.
Meaning, we rinsed already wet lettuce and other wrap vegetables in water again. It was like how kindergarten teachers prepare everything and kindergarteners just connect things and take home the crafts as if they made them.
Our job was to clean each already clean vegetable leaf under running water, place them on a tray, and receive praise.
“Is it fun?”
“Yes!”
“I cleaned all of them!”
Thanks to the two excited little ones, I could understand what reaction I should have.
“It’s enjoyable.”
Of course, I was a bit less childish, so the Guide uncle called me an old soul in a young body.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
