# Chapter 24
For the first 10 minutes, he just thought he was running late. After 20 minutes, he wondered if the guy had mixed up the time, and after 30 minutes, he was certain it was intentional. Well, can a dog give up its own habits? Trying to torment someone until the end, it was truly exasperating.
Outside the window, it was already getting dark.
Woo Sihyun would not be coming today. That’s what he thought, and as soon as 30 minutes had passed, he kicked away the chair and stood up. He would have left the Center right then if someone hadn’t walked in with heavy footsteps just as he was about to put on his coat.
“It’s been a while, Professor.”
“…”
He stood there with a slightly surprised face. And he stared intently at the man who greeted him with a smile.
The one who entered the Guiding room wasn’t Woo Sihyun.
It was Lee Seungwoo.
“I’m sorry. I lost my phone, so I used Sihyun’s.”
“…”
“Please understand. After all, I’m also your Esper, Professor.”
He had a point. Lee Seungwoo was a bit out of his mind, but compared to Woo Sihyun who would immediately show hostility and resort to violence, he had the advantage of being reasonable. Besides, Lee Seungwoo was close to Woo Sihyun, and like Woo Sihyun, he was an Esper in his ‘my’. So in many ways, he probably shared Guiding methods with Woo Sihyun.
He was planning to advise Lee Seungwoo to change his Guide anyway. Only the order had changed, but it was still the same task he had intended to do.
“Anyway, if I had made the appointment myself, you wouldn’t have shown up.”
What is he talking about now?
His eyebrows furrowed slightly at the incomprehensible statement, but he was already sick of guessing how the original Ko Eungyo would have behaved. He gave up thinking about it further. And decided to do what his heart told him to do.
At any rate, although temporary, he had already obtained the field ability license through the Director. Moreover, he was no longer a professor, so he didn’t need to be mindful of students.
“Sit down.”
When he pointed to the chair opposite with his chin, Lee Seungwoo’s face, which had been smiling broadly, stiffened slightly. Of course, the miracle of Lee Seungwoo obeying Ko Eungyo’s words at once did not happen. He completely pretended not to have heard Ko Eungyo’s words.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but didn’t I tell you to just stay quiet without straining your empty head? I didn’t think you would fail to understand even that simple instruction…”
Such an arrogant bastard.
“I said, sit down.”
“…”
“27 minutes left.”
Hanging the coat he was about to put on back on the empty chair, Ko Eungyo checked his watch and sat down. Then he raised his hand to the desk for Guiding. But even then, Lee Seungwoo just stood there vacantly.
What a truly strange expression.
Indeed, Lee Seungwoo’s facial expression could only be described as ‘strange’. It was neither a smile nor a blank face, but something in between. The corners of his mouth were slightly turned up, but rather than looking natural, it seemed awkward like a bisque doll, and the corners of his eyes were trembling as he stared at Ko Eungyo.
“…Professor, so this… are you ignoring what I’m saying?”
He could guess that Lee Seungwoo was facing a situation he had never expected. But he had no idea how the ‘original’ Ko Eungyo would handle such an unexpected situation. He had already exhausted a year’s worth of patience.
He was no longer a professor, and Lee Seungwoo would graduate safely, so he could no longer be called a student. In other words, he and Lee Seungwoo were now equals.
So he said this:
“Why don’t you listen?”
“…”
“My neck hurts, so sit down.”
At those words, Lee Seungwoo flinched and stared at him thoughtfully for a long time. But whether it was for Guiding or conversation, they needed to sit down. Lee Seungwoo seemed to have the same thought as he slowly walked across the room.
Seeing that he didn’t get upset about being spoken to informally, it seemed that Ko Eungyo had used informal speech before. Well, there was quite an age difference between Lee Seungwoo, Woo Sihyun, and Ko Eungyo. About… five? Six years?
Lee Seungwoo, who sat down silently in the opposite chair, stared at him. He looked just like a poorly trained robot. He was just frozen like someone who didn’t know how to move without being given a command. Hadn’t he been acting like he was about to spill a ton of accumulated words? Ko Eungyo glanced at Lee Seungwoo, who kept his mouth shut.
This was actually better. He didn’t like people who talked too much.
“Give me your hand.”
He directed again.
“…”
Lee Seungwoo stared at Ko Eungyo’s extended hand as if seeing it for the first time, with downcast eyes. A thin, pale hand.
It was just last night when Lee Seungwoo discovered something was amiss.
He had received a call from the Center. Well, it was from a department directly under the Director. The content of that call was truly extraordinary. In essence, it stated that if desired, the handling could be changed from Guide Ko Eungyo to another Guide.
It was impossible for him and Woo Sihyun to receive Guiding from any Guide other than Ko Eungyo. That was because there was no other Guide with a compatible wavelength.
The special provision that guaranteed minimum Guiding for Espers had long since become a shackle for them. The most cursed aspect of this provision was that the higher an Esper’s internal risk level, the more they had to follow the Guide’s instructions. This was because insufficient Guiding could exclude an Esper from the range of normal people.
Ko Eungyo had diagnosed them as having mental issues due to insufficient Guiding. And he insisted that they had to receive regular Guiding from him specifically, yet that same Ko Eungyo had never once given them Guiding.
Forget about Guiding, he didn’t even show his face when Lee Seungwoo called. In short, Ko Eungyo was only interested in Woo Sihyun, and he wanted to punish Lee Seungwoo because he found it detestable that Lee Seungwoo was trying to lure Woo Sihyun away from the Center, not because he had any special interest in Lee Seungwoo.
Once they completely graduated from undergraduate studies, they would become free. After fulfilling the mandatory service period of one year at the Center and graduating from university, they could work freely at places other than the Center by their own will. They had been working at the Center since their third year in order to leave the Center as soon as they graduated from university. Whenever Woo Sihyun drank, he would say that once this damn period was over, he would quit being an Esper altogether.
Of course, when Ko Eungyo ruined their grades, their thought was to see how far he would go. They also thought it was typical of Ko Eungyo. They believed his intention was to somehow delay their graduation to keep them tied to the Center. He had probably become a professor of required liberal arts subjects for that very purpose.
It was unexpected that he tried to do a fairly good job at being a professor, which didn’t suit him at all.
Anyway, they had some time left in their service period at the Center. They thought they would endure for about another semester. Lee Seungwoo calmed down the furious Woo Sihyun and asked his father to change the curriculum to increase the number of required liberal arts courses that would be available next year.
But just last night, they were freed from Ko Eungyo. For no reason, without any price… they became free.
It felt too strange that Ko Eungyo had changed his mind. Lee Seungwoo became suspicious that there might be some other ulterior motive. Woo Sihyun said what could someone like him possibly do, and that he must have given up now because it would end in 6 months anyway no matter how much he struggled, but Lee Seungwoo wanted to figure out what Ko Eungyo was thinking.
But since Ko Eungyo wouldn’t meet him if he made an appointment under his own name, he had borrowed Woo Sihyun’s name with the excuse of losing his phone.
Anyway, Lee Seungwoo was quite compliant. He still had the desire to understand all of Ko Eungyo’s thoughts. And… actually… I don’t know. The moment he saw that hand, the moment he heard Ko Eungyo’s instructions, an almost instinctive thought that he should follow Ko Eungyo’s words occupied his mind.
Lee Seungwoo took Ko Eungyo’s hand as directed.
“…Yes.”
Hearing the belated response, Ko Eungyo blinked.
Honestly, he thought that Lee Seungwoo’s aura was so ominous that he might grab his hand and break it. Or that he might get angry, questioning why he should hold it, and leave the Guiding room.
‘…Well, all’s well that ends well.’
It was strange that instead of showing hostility like before, he was now behaving docilely with an entranced face, but Ko Eungyo didn’t think much of it and let energy flow into Lee Seungwoo’s hand.
In an instant, Lee Seungwoo’s hand and his connected, and he felt once again what could only be described as a fateful sensation toward Lee Seungwoo.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
