# Chapter 52
Lee Ha-min stared at Kyun In, wondering how he knew such things.
Kyun In was indeed skilled at handling these situations.
“I don’t care how you’ve been doing business or how you’ve been making money. We need to see where Seo Eunwoo the Esper disappeared to, so show us the CCTV footage right now. Or are you curious about what might happen if you don’t?”
Kyun In spoke and raised his hand.
Using abilities against ordinary people was strictly forbidden, and if discovered, it could result in disciplinary action at the Center level, but no one present feared those consequences.
A moment later, the thick metal cabinet beside them was completely crushed beyond recognition.
It seemed difficult to crumple something that thoroughly even if it were just thin paper.
“Let me tell you what I’ll do next. I’ll put you in a cabinet and do this to it. Are you feeling a bit more inclined to show us the CCTV footage now?”
The staff nodded frantically.
And so the S-class Espers were able to view the CCTV footage showing the hall.
They could see Seo Eunwoo walking out after Lee Ha-min left, looking around as if searching for him while talking with Shim Woo-jin.
The S-class Espers quickly noticed why Eunwoo had chosen that direction.
‘It’s because of the Center Director. He went that way to avoid running into him and wasting time.’
At that thought, the anger toward the Center Director that they had been suppressing rose again.
But right now, they barely managed to control their emotions, focusing on finding out where Eunwoo had gone.
“Uh…”
The S-class Espers realized that Seo Eunwoo had a terrible sense of direction.
“Is he trying to come back but moving like this instead?”
When Byun Tae-young spoke, Shim Woo-jin sighed.
He thought that if Eunwoo wasn’t so directionally challenged, they wouldn’t have met in the forest.
He desperately hoped that Eunwoo would return safely so they could laugh about it together.
“Who’s that?”
Lee Ha-min was the first to spot the man in the suit.
He and Seo Eunwoo were captured together on the CCTV.
The area where the suited man was standing wasn’t clearly visible, but a staff member pointed to another monitor.
“You can see better over here.”
All the S-class Espers immediately looked at the monitor.
“Why is that bastard there?”
Kyun In shouted loudly.
“Who is it? Do you know him?”
When Byun Tae-young asked, Kyun In covered his mouth with his hand.
“Fuck! It’s Mental Division. That bastard, did he target him? No way. Did he target Seo Eunwoo from the beginning?”
“I don’t think so. Look, he seems surprised to see Eunwoo.”
Lee Ha-min said, but the S-class Espers didn’t seem to completely rule out the possibility.
“Can we hear the audio?”
When Lee Ha-min urged, the staff member asked them to wait a moment and turned on a smartphone.
The screen on the phone was different from what was showing on the monitor.
It was impossible to tell how many cameras were installed.
Sound came from the staff member’s smartphone.
“Turn up the volume a bit more.”
When Shim Woo-jin spoke, the staff member turned the volume up to maximum.
They could clearly hear the conversation between the two people, even the sound of the suited man snapping his fingers.
“Did this bastard just use his ability? Did he hypnotize him?”
Byun Tae-young shouted loudly as if about to leap up, asking Kyun In.
“Ah, shit!”
Kyun In rubbed his face as if washing it with dry hands, wondering how things had turned out this way.
“Let’s go to Origin. If we go to the Center and turn the place upside down, they’ll hand him over. Eunwoo should be there now.”
After speaking, Kyun In rushed out first.
“Hyung. Grab the video file.”
Byun Tae-young said to Shim Woo-jin, but Shim Woo-jin ran out even faster than him.
He tried to say something to Lee Ha-min, but Ha-min also left quickly.
“If you give me your phone number, I’ll send it to you.”
When the staff member spoke, Byun Tae-young recited his number and hurriedly followed the others.
The S-class Espers were cursing like they were chanting spells.
“Those crazy bastards. They took Seo Eunwoo? Using their abilities too? I’ll show these insane bastards! Let’s see if there’s anything left of the Center when I’m done!”
Kyun In was shouting into the air by himself.
Shim Woo-jin was behind the wheel, and Lee Ha-min kept wondering if that was really a good choice.
Shim Woo-jin drove at full speed, completely ignoring traffic signals, and the places their car passed through turned into chaos with cars entangled with each other.
None of them were in their right minds.
The last scene they saw—the Mental Division Esper carrying Seo Eunwoo away—kept flashing in their minds, making it impossible to stay rational.
Kyun In accessed the Center and found information on the Mental Division Esper.
“Cha Yoon. That’s right. Cha Yoon. It was this bastard. I should have thought of him from the beginning.”
“Cha Yoon? I’ve never heard of him.”
Byun Tae-young said, but Kyun In didn’t respond.
Why wouldn’t he know him, he thought.
B-class Mental Division Esper.
Kyun In knew him.
They didn’t have a connection from fighting in dungeons together.
When discussions about Origin and the new Central began, Cha Yoon’s name came up early.
Someone else might have drawn the big picture, but it was fair to say that Cha Yoon was the one who made it possible.
He was the one who met with high-ranking officials in the political and business world and controlled their minds, implanting the perception that they would be in danger if they didn’t move to the new Central.
The explosive exodus.
That had started with him.
“Where do we need to look for Cha Yoon?”
When Byun Tae-young asked, Kyun In answered.
“The Center Director at Origin should know. We just need to rough up the Director. If he wants to live, he’ll give up Cha Yoon.”
“If Cha Yoon took Eunwoo, was it on the Center Director’s orders?”
“I don’t know.”
“They must think Eunwoo is necessary for Origin, right? They won’t hurt him, right?”
Lee Ha-min asked in a frightened voice.
Kyun In wanted to tell him that was likely the case.
But that wasn’t the answer he knew to be true.
“I don’t know.”
Because it was Cha Yoon.
He couldn’t guarantee that either.
The reason Cha Yoon became a B-class Esper.
It was because people said so.
No one had ever seen him awaken as a B-class.
Kyun In had thought many times, watching Cha Yoon’s achievements, that abilities of that level couldn’t possibly be B-class.
He had asked those who prepared the new Central together and knew Cha Yoon well, but even they didn’t know the details.
They just answered that he must be B-class because he said he was.
***
‘Where am I?’
A familiar smell.
But I don’t even know why I think this smell is familiar.
When did I smell this before?
It feels like I’m opening my eyes but can’t see anything.
Like something is covering my eyes.
Like I’ve forgotten something I shouldn’t forget, in a dream…
Yes, just like a dream.
It felt like I was dreaming.
I felt anxious and impatient, as if I had fallen asleep and was dreaming when there was something urgent I needed to do.
Yet, the place where I was felt so incredibly calm and peaceful that it felt good to be there at that moment.
It felt like I had finally reached a place I had wanted to be for a long time.
I looked around quietly.
It seems I should call out if someone is there, but I don’t even know who I’m looking for.
“Is… anyone there?”
Then I heard a sound from outside.
It wasn’t a response to my words, but rather a sound that had been there all along and only now reached my ears.
I took a step.
It felt so dreamlike and unreal, with my body feeling as if it were floating, so I wasn’t confident it would work, but I moved anyway.
As I approached, I saw a door.
The door hadn’t been there from the beginning.
It appeared as I was walking.
I was clearly aware of this.
Everything was strange and bizarre.
When I opened the door, the sound from outside grew a bit louder.
And I saw one very familiar face.
A person who looked at me intently once with a toothbrush in their mouth, then went on their way as if no longer interested.
It was my sister.
“Noona…?”
I asked in surprise, but my sister showed no interest in my question.
“Ugh, so annoying. If they can write so well, they should just write it themselves. If they don’t want to read it, they don’t have to, but they keep following along and cursing. Is this someone else’s alt account? They just believe in their own mental victory. This is the author’s alt account. My writing is so perfect and so interesting that they feel threatened.”
What is this?
It feels so real?
The only person who would talk like that is definitely my sister.
“Yeah, yeah, really? Whatever, whatever!”
Is she crazy?
What is she saying?
My sister kept scrolling with one hand while occasionally holding her toothbrush with the other.
If she’s just going to hold it like that, why brush her teeth at all?
“Noona. Aren’t you going to work?”
Only then did my sister look at me.
“Are you rubbing salt in my wounds? Are you telling me to find another job since I became a full-time writer and every project I do fails?”
What is she talking about?
Anyway, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, so how can she be so completely unexcited to see me?
Maybe I don’t look like myself?
No, that can’t be. If that were the case, she wouldn’t treat me so naturally as her younger brother.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
