It didn’t make sense that an S-class Esper had appeared when I was 22, yet I hadn’t known about it until I was 27. But nowhere in my memories had I ever heard about there being an S-class Esper other than myself.
‘Wait, if there had been another S-class Esper, wouldn’t that mean I didn’t have to go to that dungeon in the first place?’
There was only one reason the country sent me to the dungeon despite the risk of me going berserk. It was because I was the country’s one and only S-class Esper.
To say that I just didn’t know about this fact because I had packed up and left right after signing the exclusive guide contract with Joo Seolhyeon didn’t make sense—I had personally experienced the impact that an S-class Esper had on society.
When I awakened at 17, the country kept my identity secret because I was a minor, but all the media had already extensively covered the story of “Korea’s First S-class Esper,” and due to rumors that spread under the table, those who needed to know already knew. An S-class Esper was one of the measuring sticks symbolizing a nation’s power. It wasn’t something that could be quietly buried and forgotten.
“But this is really top secret, so only you should know about it, hyung. The government said they’re not going to disclose it to the public.”
I pressed my forehead, feeling like it was ringing. The question I’d just had was immediately answered. This S-class Esper was being treated as someone who existed but didn’t exist.
Then why didn’t the country reveal their existence?
“Why?”
Woo Jeonghyun smiled bitterly, as if he had expected me to ask.
“This person is a mental-type Esper.”
Mental-type Esper.
I let out a short “Ah.” That made sense. Even though Espers and Guides lived alongside regular people in society, they were such a small minority that ordinary people treated Espers like beings from another world. As a result, flashy elemental Espers like me were held up as heroes, while mental-type Espers actually caused anxiety. The very idea of manipulating someone’s mind made people uncomfortable.
And given that this ability was S-class, the country had already calculated that there would be more disadvantages than advantages if this became public knowledge. In reality, whether mental-type or elemental-type, neither used their abilities on ordinary people, so they were equally dangerous in their own ways.
“So you’re going to sign a contract as an exclusive guide?”
Woo Jeonghyun nodded with a gloomy expression, and all the puzzle pieces fit together.
“You can’t refuse, can you?”
“Well, as you can see.”
Woo Jeonghyun shrugged with a resigned face.
The urgent phone call late at night was already a signal that this was very urgent. Honestly, while mental-type abilities had a negative image among citizens, they were much better than my abilities for government use. I wasn’t interested in that sort of thing so I didn’t know the details, but I was well aware of the world of higher-ups where yesterday’s friends often became today’s enemies.
‘If only they had awakened earlier.’
If they had awakened as a child, they could have at least received proper training to control their abilities under the Minor Esper Protection Act, but because they awakened as an adult, they would end up using their abilities without proper training. The reason for urgently assigning a guide was obvious. They needed the Esper’s abilities immediately.
“Can’t you just not go?”
More than an Esper I’d never even seen, I was worried about my brother right now. It was common knowledge that guiding a mental-type Esper was more difficult than guiding other types. Moreover, guiding an Esper who hadn’t even been properly trained? Woo Jeonghyun could get hurt.
“They’re saying the matching rate is over 80%. This isn’t a situation where I can refuse first. I have to hope the Esper side refuses.”
Woo Jeonghyun rubbed his arms as if he was getting goosebumps, despite being the one who brought it up.
“When you found a guide with a matching rate over 80%, I shouted that it was impossible. Now I guess I’m getting that back.”
“Yeah, now you understand how I felt?”
“But you’re an Esper and I’m a guide. Our situations can’t be the same.”
It was clearly a situation where I should comfort him, but when it came to talking back to me, he was no different than usual, and I almost smacked him without realizing it.
“Maybe it’s an error in the matching machine? What’s with this 80%—it’s not some pet dog’s name. How does it make sense that two people under one roof are both experiencing this? And both getting tangled up with S-class, no less.”
But watching Woo Jeonghyun gather up words that were somewhere between complaining, resignation, and escaping reality, I felt a tightness in my nose.
“Take care of yourself. Since it’s come to this, what can you do? You just have to do it. You’re my brother, so you’ll do well. Even that S-class Esper will fall head over heels for you and give you everything, liver and gall bladder included. Don’t let yourself get exploited for guiding; make sure they treat you well.”
As I spoke, I realized I was reciting what I had done to Joo Seolhyeon, but right now, comforting my brother came first, so I pushed aside my self-loathing for a bit.
I hugged my brother, and Woo Jeonghyun quietly leaned into me. He was so tall that it was hard to tell who was hugging whom, but Woo Jeonghyun rested his head on my shoulder without saying a word. Because of the water dripping from his freshly washed hair, my shoulder remained wet for quite a while even after he left my arms.
“I’ll be going, hyung.”
“Be careful.”
After seeing off Woo Jeonghyun, who had become more spirited than when we first talked, I crawled back into my bedroom. After eating a simple breakfast with Woo Jeonghyun, I was starting to feel sleepy again.
“Is the future changing, or am I just learning about a future I didn’t know about?”
I mumbled while lying on the bed. I was sure I was about to fall asleep, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, my mind became wide awake.
“Or is it both?”
Originally, I shouldn’t have been living under the same roof with Woo Jeonghyun right now. The future had already deviated once when I ended up not living with Joo Seolhyeon.
But what if the future was predetermined?
What if my not leaving home caused my brother Woo Jeonghyun to leave on his own?
“Wait, but I thought Jeonghyun only worked as a temporary guide until he was 24?”
Being an exclusive guide requires living with the Esper, so he would have to leave this house. But in my past memories, Woo Jeonghyun was horribly murdered by a villain while guarding this house alone after I had left.
“Why are things happening that didn’t happen before?”
The existence of another S-class Esper could be something I didn’t know about if the country deliberately kept it secret, so I could let that slide, but Woo Jeonghyun signing an exclusive guide contract was something that didn’t happen in the past and shouldn’t be happening now after my regression.
‘Did the future start to change from the moment I regressed?’
I had to feel my thoughts becoming more complicated the more I thought about it. I tried to organize my jumbled mind, but I gave up immediately. I forcibly closed my eyes and tossed and turned for a long time before falling into a light sleep.
Buzz—
The vibration sound brought my consciousness to the surface. With the persistent sound, I answered the phone in a half-asleep state thinking it might be Yang Garam again, but it wasn’t.
—Esper Woo Jeongjae. Your first mission has finally been issued.
The only one with the authority to give me formal mission orders was the Center Director. Fully awake now, I sat up straight in bed.
—Report to Gate A by 10 AM tomorrow.
“Yes, understood.”
After my response, the Center Director talked about precautions for dungeon dispatch and code of conduct, and I earnestly nodded my head, answering “Yes, yes.”
When the call ended, the tension drained out of me, and my body tilted back onto the bed. Earlier, I was so focused on talking with the Center Director that I hadn’t thought about the date, but as I stared blankly at the ceiling, it occurred to me. Tomorrow would be the 29th.
‘Huh? Originally, my first mission was on May 1st.’
It had been moved up by a full two days.
“Surely the future isn’t changing because of me, right?”
Things were increasingly going beyond the scope of my expectations. The situation was not looking good.
“This isn’t right, is it?”
Because I had regressed to the past, I hadn’t worried too much about the future. I wasn’t taking the future lightly, but the thought that ‘it’s just me’ had unconsciously taken root in my mind.
But the future was changing. All I had done was struggle to change one guide, and even that was a half-baked result that I couldn’t completely sever—yet things were still changing.
I vividly remembered the day I went on my first mission five years ago, but I couldn’t recall whether it was at Gate A or Gate C. If even the location they were telling me to go to had changed, then it might not be the same shabby dungeon from five years ago that I was thinking of.
Unnecessarily anxious, I bounced my leg up and down before jumping to my feet. I checked my phone, but there wasn’t a single message from Woo Jeonghyun even by lunchtime, though he had left early in the morning.
[Good morning, hyung!]
Instead, I saw a message from someone else. Looking at the sender’s number that was still displayed since I hadn’t saved it yesterday either, I remembered a presence I had completely forgotten about.
[Did you sleep well? You must have been very tired last night.]
[My exam period starts today ã… ã… ]
[The weather is so warm. I want to go out with you, hyung.]
[Have you had lunch? I’m about to eat now.]
There was a steady stream of messages sent to me since morning, even though I hadn’t replied.
Seeing the 10 missed calls from last night and 12 accumulated messages from this morning, I felt bloated despite not having eaten anything.
“What’s with this kid? It’s scary.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than my phone vibrated again.
[Hyung, did you just wake up?]
It seemed like he was about to send me a message when he noticed I had read his texts. Though I desperately wanted to ignore him, I feared he would call if I didn’t respond, so I pressed the keypad.
“Yeah, I just woke up.”
I sent just a casual “Yeah” and put down the phone.
Did I encourage him too much on the first day when he was being friendly? Did I perhaps do something that could be misunderstood?
I pondered these questions as I headed to the bathroom, but I couldn’t really find any issues with my behavior.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
