Chapter 12
“Just rinse off with the seawater and come out.”
Yeonwoo, who was about to tell him to wash up if he felt uncomfortable, rolled his eyes. While Yeonwoo might have spare clothes, what about Kang Chahun? Even if he wanted to lend him some, they clearly wouldn’t fit based on size alone. Well, he’d figure that out himself. He wasn’t a child after all.
Yeonwoo pulled out a towel and handed it to Chahun, then watched in amazement as he dried himself off. His training uniform, which already clung to his body like it had been sewn onto him, now looked like vacuum-sealed packaging around a person when wet. Could he even walk like that? Taking it off would be quite a task too.
Clicking his tongue, Yeonwoo turned his head to check the time. The supply store was still open. Get a new training uniform and… then go home. After calculating the time, Yeonwoo gestured to Chahun who was trying his best to wring out the water.
“If you feel uncomfortable, let’s get you a new training uniform to change into.”
But there was no response from Chahun. He just shook his head vigorously to get the water out of his hair, his expression blank. What’s this about? Do S-class Espers need to get their uniforms fitted in the A zone?
As Chahun headed toward the exit, apparently intending to leave, Yeonwoo hesitated for a moment. Walking around like that, he might get reported for indecent exposure.
Chahun seemed to be having second thoughts too, pausing with his hand on the doorknob. Then he turned around, making splashing sounds as he walked back. Yeonwoo was looking around wondering if he should lend him some spare training uniform when he was startled.
“Thank you.”
Chahun bowed his waist, hesitated for a moment, then bowed once more before walking out. Looking at the wet footprints left all over the floor, Yeonwoo covered his mouth. He felt strange. He never expected to receive thanks for something like this.
* * *
“What’s this? Why do you look like that?”
“Did you sleep there again? If you’re going to sleep, do it comfortably.”
“I just sat down to eat and dozed off for a bit. You start nagging the moment you see me.”
“And what about you? The moment you open the door, what’s the first thing you say? ‘Why do you look like that?'”
As Yeonwoo entered the house, Yeonhwa, who had been dozing at the dining table, greeted him with a wave. The sibling reunion was cut short when Yeonhwa grimaced at Yeonwoo, complaining about a fishy smell as soon as she saw him.
With hair that had gone from curly to downright fluffy from being dried in a hurry, Yeonwoo let out a small laugh as he dampened it. Though it was just a common expression of gratitude, since Espers naturally helped each other, it had been quite a while since he’d exchanged thank-yous with anyone. Feeling both embarrassed and strangely happy, Yeonwoo buried his face in his hands and chuckled while applying soap.
As he came out after drying himself, Yeonhwa was stretching with a long yawn and beckoned to him.
“Heat this up for me. What’s with the induction stove?”
“A fire-type Esper moved into the upstairs apartment. They said they were anxious since they had just awakened, so they had everything changed.”
It was a lie.
At some point, even the smallest spark made his heart pound violently. When anxiety and fear overwhelmed him, making it hard to breathe and leaving him trembling, phantom pain would engulf his body, feeling as if his hands were melting away. After suffering from these phantom pains for days, Yeonwoo got rid of the gas range.
He’d developed an aversion not just to flames but even to warm food, so it had been a long time since he’d eaten anything hot.
If Yeonhwa hadn’t stopped by the dormitory to sleep, there wouldn’t have been any heat-producing appliances at all.
“Come here. I’ll show you how to use it.”
At Yeonwoo’s explanation, Yeonhwa, who had been curiously examining the induction stove, suddenly started snickering.
“What?”
“No, I just find it funny that a fire-type had the place changed to induction because they were afraid of starting fires. Don’t worry, there won’t be any fires for a while.”
“Only for a while?”
At Yeonwoo’s question, Yeonhwa rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know you’d switched to induction. You know, human affairs are unpredictable. The future changes depending on the choices people make.”
Though it was an obvious statement, Yeonwoo found it a bit absurd coming from Yeonhwa and couldn’t help laughing.
Yeonhwa’s ability was to foresee everything—what choices people would make, what futures those choices would bring, and even the extended timelines beyond. She probably had anticipated Yeonwoo switching to induction. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought soup in an induction-compatible pot.
“Well, if someone just awakened, their ability might be a bit unstable, so being careful isn’t a bad idea. When you first awakened, you wouldn’t budge from the house either. I had to spoon-feed you to get you to eat anything.”
Watching Yeonhwa warming up to tease him, Yeonwoo couldn’t counter and just rubbed his heated ears.
When Yeonwoo had first awakened, he leaked mana unconsciously. The problem was that Yeonwoo had spatial teleportation ability.
As Yeonhwa said, there were many times when his spoon would suddenly disappear while eating, and Yeonhwa had to feed him with her small hands. Countless times, he’d stepped on coordinates he’d unknowingly created and woken up in unfamiliar places. As more and more objects he was holding suddenly vanished, he developed a need for everything to be in its designated place to feel at ease.
After entering the military academy, as he became more proficient with his ability, things no longer disappeared suddenly, but his obsession with keeping objects in their proper places remained.
“By the way, what about the rice cooker?”
“Ah, it broke down, so I sent it for repair.”
This too was a lie.
Yeonwoo had become so rigid with fear at the sound of steam escaping from the rice cooker that as soon as the hot air dissipated, he grabbed the cooker and set coordinates. It was probably sunk somewhere in the ocean by now.
“So you’ve been living on bread? Don’t you have instant rice?”
I want to eat rice with this hot soup.
A chill ran down his spine at those words. Hot soup? Just imagining it made him shudder.
“We can eat something else. Is there anything you want? Chicken?”
“How about pork trotters? The pork trotter place will go out of business and be replaced by a chicken place, but that’s two years from now.”
Mumbling with her cheek on the table, Yeonhwa suddenly jumped up. What happened? Yeonwoo embraced her and tensed up, straightening his back.
“What’s this? Let go. Did a chicken place open at the Center?”
Watching Yeonhwa rage about being left out of eating chicken, Yeonwoo slumped into his dining chair in disbelief. He gestured for her to stop and order pork trotters instead, then rested his forehead on the cool table.
“What’s wrong? Headache? Want a tangerine?”
Before Yeonwoo could ask what tangerines had to do with headaches, Yeonhwa stuffed one into his open mouth. The sweetness was otherworldly, clearly not an ordinary tangerine but a dungeon byproduct. Looking at the pile of blue tangerines on one side of the table, Yeonwoo slowly chewed while staring at Yeonhwa.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He couldn’t answer the question. What should he say?
That lately he couldn’t sleep properly? That when he finally managed to fall asleep, he’d wake up startled because of dreams? That he couldn’t even remember what the dreams were about, but the anxiety that gripped his heart was driving him crazy?
That he spent all day looking around due to a strange sense of discomfort and déjà vu?
That things he’d definitely never seen before felt strangely familiar? That he got goosebumps every time he found familiar training tools?
Or should he say that his ability was acting up?
That if you could call what he got sleep, his ability would somewhat obey him in the morning, but as the afternoon progressed, he’d feel repulsion from his mana? That he might lose not only his job but also the qualification to protect her?
Blinking, Yeonwoo nodded at the tangerine.
“It’s delicious. Peel some more.”
“Don’t you have hands?”
Watching Yeonhwa, who grumbled about him peeling his own tangerines while still removing even the white strings for him, Yeonwoo closed his eyes.
Yeonhwa was already struggling with people trying to steal her book for her ability. Compared to Yeonhwa, who hadn’t been able to sleep peacefully from childhood until now, Yeonwoo’s worries were too trivial to even mention. He didn’t want to make her worry unnecessarily.
“So what was all the commotion about earlier?”
At those words, Yeonwoo, who was opening the pork trotter package, briefly rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to talk about Kang Chahun in front of Yeonhwa. They would have to discuss it someday, but not today. Just imagining Yeonhwa acknowledging that she was preparing for death was horrifying.
After he’d prepared a way to avoid death… Thinking about this, Yeonwoo rubbed his forehead as a headache approached. Yeonhwa, who was mixing her noodles, offered a tangerine, but Yeonwoo waved his hand in refusal.
“If you’re sick, take medicine. Don’t eat these things.”
“Wow, my little sister is worried about me. Medicine doesn’t work on Espers, you know? This works much better than those strange potions you bring.”
“Wow. You were worried?”
At that, Yeonhwa’s eyes narrowed.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
The joking response was met with sincere concern. Caught off guard, Yeonwoo lowered his gaze. Embarrassed, he pretended to struggle with opening the bag of wrapping vegetables, which earned a clicking of the tongue.
“Anyway, be careful with whatever you’re doing. Even I can’t see all futures, and even if I do see something, I can’t always warn you about it.”
Saying she was embarrassed because of him, Yeonhwa stuffed pork trotters into her mouth, then hugged her full stomach and flopped down, claiming she couldn’t eat anymore. Watching her head to bed despite being told to brush her teeth, Yeonwoo clicked his tongue just as she had done.
After covering the now-sleeping Yeonhwa with a blanket, Yeonwoo looked around the house. While he had been focusing on training, Yeonhwa must have come and gone several times, as the arrangement of the house had subtly changed. He told himself to ignore it, but his eyes kept going back to it. Finally, with a sigh, Yeonwoo got up and started putting the books that had been moved back in their original places.
He methodically organized from the top of the bookshelf downward. He was about to get up to put a cup back in its proper place when he noticed Yeonhwa’s notebook stuffed messily at the bottom of the bookshelf.
The notebook had been shoved in with such force that it was compressed and crumpled, with the cover on the verge of tearing off. Being careful not to look at the contents, Yeonwoo gently straightened the crumpled pages and taped the torn cover back into place.
The way she treated her ability’s product showed just how much Yeonhwa despised her own power. Though everyone looked up to her as S-class and coveted her precognitive ability, it was obvious from the way she lived alone in a pocket dimension.
Standing up with the stack of notebooks, Yeonwoo felt along the right side of the bookshelf. The rightmost compartment of the ordinary-looking bookshelf was a disguised safe. When he pushed mana into the protrusion that could only be felt with fingertips, there was a click, and the door opened.
The safe, connected to Yeonhwa’s pocket dimension, was packed tightly with books.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
