# Chapter 23
Thankfully, Dorim couldn’t see anything because Dojoon was holding her in his arms.
Jaeha and Dojoon, who witnessed a person exploding, couldn’t say a word.
When Youngwoo, who had his back turned to them, turned around, he was covering his face with both hands. When he lowered his blood-covered hands, his clean face was revealed. When his eyes met Jaeha’s, he smiled brightly and approached with light steps. Even though it was his familiar gentle smile, it was strangely creepy because of the blood and flesh pieces on his clothes.
Youngwoo seemed completely unfazed even though a person had just exploded right in front of him.
In this situation where reality seemed questionable, Jaeha tried to step back as Youngwoo approached.
Thud.
“Huh? What’s this?”
Youngwoo, who had been approaching, stopped as if he had hit an invisible wall. Blood and flesh stuck to what seemed like a transparent wall in front of him and dripped down.
Youngwoo stared at it and slowly stretched out his arm, just like when he had put his hand into the crack earlier. Unlike his bloodstained back of hand, his palm was white and clean. That hand touched the transparent barrier and didn’t move. Youngwoo tilted his head and reached out his hand again.
Thud. Thud.
“That’s strange. Why can’t I get through?”
Youngwoo, who had been tilting his head, smiled brightly when his eyes met with the frozen Jaeha.
“Jaeha, can you remove this? I want to get closer.”
“What?”
Unlike Jaeha, who was confused about what Youngwoo was asking him to remove, Dojoon had been staring without blinking, which Youngwoo finally noticed.
“Ah, it’s you? The one who made this.”
Youngwoo lightly tapped the transparent barrier. Dojoon didn’t answer, but as people started gathering around with murmurs, Youngwoo continued to tap the wall with a disappointed look.
“I came to see Jaeha, so why is someone else interfering?”
Seeing Youngwoo show hostility toward Dojoon, Jaeha felt uneasy and stepped in.
“S-Sunbae. How did you do that just now?”
“Huh? Do what?”
“The crack in the air. You just put your hand in… that’s dangerous, isn’t it?”
“Are you worried about me? You really are different, Jaeha.”
Blood dripped down Youngwoo’s chin as his round eyes curved into a deep smile. Even if his face was clean because he had covered it, the terrible traces of blood on his head and neck were clearly visible.
“This just worked when I tried it.”
Jaeha was dumbfounded, as if hearing a perfect-score student say they just studied from the textbook. Youngwoo continued with his kind explanation.
“I wanted to come see you, but people kept bothering me. I reluctantly attended a meeting, and then that thing appeared in the air that you just saw. No one else could see it, but since you can see it too, you really are special.”
Youngwoo said he kept looking at the crack because it was fascinating, and the bright red bead inside became clearer. He said he thought he could grab it, so he put his hand into the crack and grabbed it, but somehow felt anxious.
He said he felt anxious that he needed to hide it somewhere, so he put the bead he was holding into a beer glass, and someone drank it. When he came back from the bathroom, the scene was in chaos as if a bomb had exploded. Youngwoo spoke normally about this. He showed no guilt or anxiety about the incident.
“When I saw that, I was so worried about you that I couldn’t stand it. I wanted to see you, but this annoying guy kept sticking to me and begging. Then I saw this here too, so I grabbed the bead with my hand, and as you can see… ta-da~”
Jaeha didn’t know Youngwoo was such a talkative person.
Plus, what he was saying kept making Jaeha step back.
“Jaeha, I’m hurt here.”
Jaeha was startled by Youngwoo suddenly showing his hand. Youngwoo pressed his hand against the wall and made a pitiful expression as he continued with terrible words.
“I think I got scratched by a tooth fragment. Maybe the beads burst at different times. I should have been more careful.”
Jaeha’s legs trembled when Youngwoo’s gaze fell on him. He was so tense that he would have collapsed if it weren’t for Dojoon’s arm supporting his back. Youngwoo, who had been staring at Jaeha, smiled.
“Jaeha, I said I’m hurt.”
He kept telling Jaeha about each place he was hurt, not thinking about the person he had killed by exploding them.
“My shoulder hurts too. Feels like something heavy hit it.”
Jaeha couldn’t react to Youngwoo’s complaints. The good thing was that Dorim, who had gotten sleepy, was dozing in Dojoon’s arms. Even in this situation, Dorim’s presence helped suppress Jaeha’s fear a little.
He needed to pull himself together.
To deal with Youngwoo, who had suddenly become a bomb murderer.
“Sunbae Youngwoo, shouldn’t you rest if you’re hurt?”
“Yes, I should rest. I think I’ll recover quickly if I rest with Jaeha.”
“You need to see a professional. Sunbae, go to the hospital. You seem badly hurt.”
“Ah, our Jaeha. Aren’t you too innocent? This isn’t my blood. It’s from the person lying around here, so you don’t need to worry so much… No, actually. Worry about me, Jaeha. More.”
For the sin of not knowing Youngwoo was crazy, Jaeha nodded in agreement for now.
“Sunbae, don’t you need to wash up first to see where you’re hurt?”
“That’s a good idea. Since Jaeha’s house is close, could I borrow your bathroom?”
Jaeha forced a smile despite feeling cold sweat.
“I’m sorry, but that would be difficult.”
“Why?”
Jaeha thought hard as Youngwoo looked disappointed, as if he truly didn’t understand the reason. The brief moment felt extremely long, but no excuse came to mind, and Youngwoo kept staring at him. Since there was no other way, Jaeha shared his honest feelings.
“To be honest… I’m a bit scared of you, Sunbae.”
Actually, he was terrified, not just a bit scared, but he tried to speak as calmly as possible. Youngwoo just smiled sweetly after hearing this.
“That’s a wrong thought, Jaeha.”
“What?”
“The bead isn’t my power. It’s the power of the black crack.”
“What does that…”
For the confused Jaeha, Youngwoo continued to explain in a gentle tone, trying to make it easier to understand.
“The scary thing is that black crack from earlier. The bead inside it is the scary thing. If that bead had just exploded, not only me but you too would have been hurt, right? I solved it with just this one annoying man.”
From Youngwoo’s calm explanation, Jaeha realized that his common sense and standards were different from his own.
Seeing Jaeha’s still pale face, Youngwoo nodded as if he understood and apologized.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. I guess Jaeha is afraid of blood. I should have been more considerate. Sorry for startling you.”
Jaeha still couldn’t hide his fear because of Youngwoo’s completely misguided apology. Seeing Jaeha’s tense face, Youngwoo tapped the wall again and apologized once more.
“Jaeha, I’m sorry. But I’m in a lot of pain. My heart hurts too because you’re scared.”
Jaeha had no answer, and the barrier separating the two remained solid. When his apology didn’t work, Youngwoo’s hand slowly slid down the wall.
“Hmm. What should I do now?”
Youngwoo’s gaze looked around inside the transparent wall. As he circled around the wall, tapping it with his hands, red handprints were left. After going around once and returning to the front, Youngwoo spoke again with a smiling face.
“What do you think would happen if I used that bead from earlier on this wall?”
Youngwoo’s smiling hand pointed over Jaeha and Dojoon’s shoulders.
Despite being curious about what was behind them, they both couldn’t move because of the strangeness they felt from Youngwoo.
Despite the screams of people gathering around and the sound of sirens in the distance, Youngwoo was just smiling brightly.
# Chapter 8. The Future Left in the Past Ver.2
# Extra Story 2. Lee Youngwoo
He used to believe that his ruined relationship with his brother, which was beyond repair, was Seo Jaeha’s fault.
He resented his brother who ignored his low-grade younger brother and only provided guiding to high-grade Espers. His hope that his brother might look at him now that he had become B-grade was shattered by the still out-of-contact Seo Jaeha. Seo Jaeha was too busy hanging out with high-grade Espers to care about his suffering brother.
For years after that, until he received an A-grade after working to death, Seo Jaeyoon thirsted for guiding. There were significantly fewer guides, and even those were monopolized by A-grade or higher Espers. Seo Jaeyoon, who was B-grade or lower, only had a chance to receive guiding when he was unconscious and on the verge of death, at which point the Association would assign him a guide.
It was both hope and a curse. The lightened body and overflowing power, as if finding a new life, made Seo Jaeyoon even more desperate. Added to that was his resentment toward his brother who had betrayed him, and Seo Jaeyoon worked hard while suffering to the point of death.
Seo Jaeyoon, who grew exceptionally quickly, rose to A-grade in just a few years.
Only after becoming high-grade could Seo Jaeyoon learn the truth. How high-grade Espers like S and A-grade treat guides. How Seo Jaeha, who was not an Esper but a guide, was being broken. While closing his ears and running only toward his goal, Seo Jaeyoon only learned what other Espers already knew after he reached that position.
Guide Sample 15
The guide assigned to Seo Jaeyoon when he became an A-grade Esper handed over a video with a serious face.
Looking at just the filename, it seemed like a guide demonstration video. When he opened the file, several naked men appeared on a large bed. At first, he thought it was the beginning of some pornographic scene. If he hadn’t received the video from the guide, he might have considered it a bad joke and thrown it away.
The people appearing in the video were recognizable to Seo Jaeyoon as quite high-grade Espers. Only one of them was perfectly dressed and wearing an even loving smile.
The figure smiling lovingly was rare to see in person, but Seo Jaeyoon knew the name as a high-grade Esper.
Lee Youngwoo. An Esper with x-ray vision and penetration abilities.
“Let’s see. We’ve finished recording the fourteenth video, so let’s record the fifteenth.”
Lee Youngwoo’s voice was as gentle as his caring expression. In contrast, the voice that followed was terribly broken and hard to understand.
“No… more.”
“Hmm, it’s too early to end. If increasing the number is difficult, shall we increase the intensity? Would Jaeha like to choose?”
If he hadn’t heard the familiar name, Seo Jaeyoon wouldn’t have recognized who the person lying on the bed was until the end.
“Sun…bae, please… let me go now.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
