Chapter 9
Even though they must have known Ko Eungyo was watching them, they didn’t avert their gaze from him.
‘Could this possibly be… jealousy?’
Fundamentally, Espers in one’s “my” had a tendency to not want to share their guide with anyone else.
Seeing them constantly looking at him and showing possessiveness because he had a conversation with Nam Seonjae, they didn’t seem all that different from typical Espers…
Had he misunderstood Woo Sihyun?
Come to think of it, he still hadn’t formally greeted his Espers. Just because Woo Sihyun seemed to dislike him, he couldn’t treat him with one-sided prejudice. Perhaps Woo Sihyun was just someone whose eyes naturally looked… a bit different from others… showing an unintentional expression.
For now, he considered sending a signal to his Espers that everything was fine, just as he used to do when he was Jang Iju.
Of course, there was no need for that. Before he could try anything, they showed disinterest, took their eyes off him, and started talking among themselves.
‘That figures.’
He felt slightly disappointed.
As he waited patiently, the classroom gradually emptied. Of course, there were still students occupying seats. He glanced at the wall clock. Don’t these students have another class? Well, today was Friday. He looked down to check the attendance sheet. Eleven teams had already submitted their lists and left.
It seemed like only one team was left. Obviously, it was those guys over there…
After some deliberation, he turned his chair and approached the students who were chatting noisily. In truth, from the moment he took a step away from the podium, he felt like all six students were watching him.
‘Is it because I’m a guide?’
Espers naturally pay attention to guides, knowingly or unknowingly. But some of them must be guides, not Espers, yet they still behaved that way.
As he approached, they began to close their mouths one by one, until finally everyone was silent. Somehow, they all seemed to be looking at him with unfriendly eyes.
He scratched above his eyebrow once and then spoke as normally as possible.
“I think it’s about time you submitted the list and started the group assignment. Don’t you think?”
A moment of silence followed.
“Ah… the list.”
Someone mumbled slowly. He saw the students glancing at him and exchanging meaningful looks among themselves, but he waited patiently.
“Sorry for making you come all the way here, Professor. I forgot.”
Despite the apology, there was a hint of laughter in the voice, making it not sound sorry at all. It seemed to imply, “Why did you come all the way here? We would have gone over eventually if you had waited.”
As soon as those words ended, the sound of Woo Sihyun snorting was distinctly heard.
Seems like the latter interpretation was correct.
It felt as if a blatantly hostile gaze was piercing his crown. He had never refused a challenge extended to him before. As he raised his head, he immediately came face to face with Woo Sihyun’s excessively handsome face.
The color of the eyes looking at him with hatred was a light grayish-brown.
“How considerate of you.”
It was a sarcastic tone. Anger surged at such disrespectful attitude, but at the same time, he perfectly understood why the original owner of this body, ‘Ko Eungyo,’ couldn’t help but ardently love Woo Sihyun despite being so hated by him.
He was a handsome man whose ordinary black hair somehow seemed remarkably impressive. From his neatly exposed forehead, perfectly arched eyebrows, eyes shining with youth, harmonious nose bridge, to well-shaped lips below—everything was as beautiful as if measured with a ruler. Photos captured only half of his real appearance.
This man, Woo Sihyun, whose pictures decorated Ko Eungyo’s room in place of wallpaper, despite showing fierce hostility towards Ko Eungyo, had such a handsome appearance that even that negative attention felt electrifying. He had thought he was good-looking from afar, but up close, his appearance stood out even more.
“Here’s the list, Professor.”
‘Oh no.’
It felt like ice water was being poured over his head. No matter how handsome he was, it was unbelievable and simultaneously shameful that he had momentarily lost himself in the man’s face. Everyone must have seen his foolish behavior.
He quickly took the Post-it note that Lee Seungwoo was holding out. The claim of forgetting seemed genuine, as several names were already neatly written on it.
Afterward, he briefly met eyes with the dark pupils behind round glasses. It was a gaze as if observing the other person. Though not as openly fierce as Woo Sihyun’s glare, he too didn’t appear the least bit friendly.
It wasn’t just them. Other students didn’t view him favorably either, and his skin seemed to tingle from their piercing gazes. The atmosphere was completely unbearable.
But what surprised him most wasn’t the other students, but Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo.
It was natural. Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo were… anyway, Espers in his “my.”
So… he thought that these Espers, even if they disliked him for whatever reason, would take his side at crucial moments. Just like how Lee Seungwoo had saved him from Park Kyungho earlier. That’s why he had lowered his guard, but now he couldn’t help but be confused by the coldness they seemed to be personally fostering.
Why would Espers in his “my” be hostile towards him?
He had never heard of or felt anything like this before. But he couldn’t openly reveal his shaken heart. The moment he showed his bare face, he would certainly be looked down upon. Nevertheless, he was still confused.
He tried to maintain his composure.
“Prepare well for the presentation.”
Not even a faint smile emerged. Clutching the Post-it, he hurriedly left the place.
He confronted an avoidant tendency he didn’t even know he had, wondering what to do about this situation. Of course, no amount of contemplation would yield an answer to this problem.
All he could do was make meaningless speculations. There must be something related to ‘Ko Eungyo’ that caused his Espers to be hostile towards him. Something that the current him could never know, even if he died and came back to life.
He thought that the upcoming lectures were far more important than that.
Rather… their hostility towards him could even be beneficial. First, since they were hostile, they wouldn’t try to engage in much conversation with him. Also, it meant they would be fine without receiving guiding from ‘Ko Eungyo’.
This meant the possibility of them discovering that he wasn’t the real Ko Eungyo was significantly reduced.
No matter how much the Center lacked guides, that applied only to registered guides. As evident from Ko Eungyo himself, there were quite a number of guides who served no differently from ordinary people. Even if Ko Eungyo didn’t guide them, they probably had guides with whom they had established their own relationships.
He tried his best to forget about the Espers in his “my,” Woo Sihyun and Lee Seungwoo. It was more efficient to think about how he would live from now on rather than deducing the reasons behind their behavior.
‘They might have fought with Ko Eungyo very recently. Maybe Ko Eungyo had decided to take down those damn wallpaper photos but happened to fall in the bathroom that day…’
Grumbling inwardly, he arbitrarily imagined what might have happened between Ko Eungyo and them.
For now, it was clear that he needed to continue giving lectures. The only thing he was good at was being a guide, but no matter how much he thought about it, there was no way to prove his abilities and immediately return to being a field guide. To become a field guide, he would first need to enter gates, but it was nearly impossible for a regular guide like Ko Eungyo to be deployed to gates without any training.
His livelihood now depended on these commissioned lectures. With regret, he suppressed the sweet fantasies that began with “If only I could enter a gate…” Instead, he decided to first deal with the immediate problem.
Being a professor was more difficult than he had expected, but making a living was never easy to begin with. It was wrong to have thought he could get by without effort from the start. He lightly chastised himself for his foolishness.
After rummaging through the kitchen ceiling, he found a coffee tea bag and brewed a strong cup of coffee. Then, wiggling his toes, he revised the lecture plan. It seemed reasonable to have students learn theory for about two weeks… and then practice in groups.
‘Hmm…’
In reality, though he said two weeks, the first week was already over. Since presentation classes were scheduled to start next Friday, he effectively had only one hour to explain the theory.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
