# Chapter 36
When they arrived at the Association, two employees from the Awakened Support Team who had been notified in advance were waiting in the parking lot. The employee who seemed to have a higher position stayed close to Somyeong as if guiding her, and Haegang followed behind. Walking slightly apart from them, Dohyun was accompanied by the deputy manager who had been in charge of him before his manifestation as an Esper.
“Actually, the Team Leader was quite concerned about your Guiding contract.”
“…Was that so?”
Dohyun nodded at the deputy manager’s quiet words.
Was there something to worry about? In Dohyun’s memory, he hadn’t clashed much with Haegang since their first day. Dohyun thought that even if the other person was annoyed with him, he just needed to keep a proper distance and let it go. Dohyun believed that while arguments could have broken out if he’d dwelled on Haegang’s tone or expressions, the fact that they hadn’t was entirely due to his own appropriate attitude.
A relationship marred by misunderstandings from the first day couldn’t easily be fixed. Dohyun thought that Haegang’s recently softened attitude was probably because he was being considerate after learning about Dohyun’s past.
‘…He just needs to properly acknowledge my abilities.’
Dohyun had often received unwanted attention, so he could brush this off too. Haegang was a contracted Guide, not someone to stay with long-term like a friend.
‘It’s unfortunate that our matching rate is high… but I can’t do it because I’m afraid of him.’
Dohyun was still just scared of the large Haegang. But thinking about it, while they had clashed verbally, they had never had physical confrontations. Unlike the image created by his well-maintained large body, Haegang was rather thoughtful, as evidenced by his statement about preparing to enter the Association. Dohyun had been surprised more than once to see Haegang sitting in proper posture in his study or living room, wearing glasses and reading books when resting at home.
But how long would this last? Just because someone doesn’t resort to violence when angry or doesn’t act coercively, could Dohyun completely trust him? Doubt grew inside him, based on memories of the past. Although Haegang had helped him several times, he hadn’t yet risen to the level of someone Dohyun could trust.
“Actually, Guide Choi Haegang has terminated several Guiding contracts prematurely.”
Dohyun was already somewhat aware of this. Haegang tended to put up walls with Espers and didn’t particularly like Espers as beings, so his contracts didn’t last long. He’d heard that Haegang had been summoned to the Association because he hadn’t fulfilled the basic number of Guidings required as a freelance Guide.
Dohyun secretly thought that meeting him had been fortunate for Haegang. It didn’t matter to Dohyun who his Guide was. Moreover, although he had doubted whether Guiding was necessary at the time, now that he could use his abilities, he thought it was fortunate for himself as well.
He was used to receiving negative emotions. While he couldn’t turn those emotions into positive ones, he could avoid being swept up by them.
“Seeing you now, I think it’s fortunate that you seem to like each other.”
“…What?”
Who exactly? Himself liking Haegang? Or Haegang liking him? Dohyun showed a puzzled expression, but the employee just smiled. Faced with that knowing look, Dohyun decided to look away.
“You two don’t seem to be on bad terms.”
“……”
Not being on bad terms couldn’t be the same as liking each other. He was doing what an Esper should do according to the contract, and Haegang was doing what a Guide should do. Dohyun couldn’t understand what about him and Haegang had caused this misunderstanding, so he decided to just keep his mouth shut. Reacting strongly to such matters could lead to accusations of being defensive, and trying to explain could lead to teasing about being embarrassed. He held back his words to let the matter fade away quietly.
The place where Dohyun, Somyeong, and Haegang were guided to was indeed a conference room. But Dohyun’s expectation that computers would be needed to search for Esper information was completely off. Instead, there were several stacks of papers.
“This is going to strain your eyes~”
“I apologize. As you know, the list of Awakened…”
“I know, I know. Thank you for your hard work.”
The employees bowed and left. As Dohyun stood blankly looking at the documents stacked beside the table, Somyeong smiled and pointed to a chair.
“We have to check all of these.”
“…What?”
“They print out documents as needed. These are materials that will all be discarded after we review them. It’s impossible to take them out of here too.”
As Dohyun hesitantly sat down, Haegang also naturally took a seat nearby.
“Did you know it would be like this when you said you would come?”
“Yes. Isn’t three better than two?”
Haegang answered nonchalantly. What could possibly be enjoyable about reviewing documents? Despite it being a time-consuming task, Haegang remained calm. Then wouldn’t it be better to have more people? Dohyun’s expression was filled with questions.
“Then couldn’t Sa Gongchan have come too…?”
“He’s a regular employee, isn’t he? Besides, as a non-Awakened, he can’t come to this office.”
“Esper Dohyun. It’s nice that you think highly of our son as a friend and the Guild Master’s son, but Chan is also non-Awakened. We’re just requesting help from the Association’s Awakened Support Team. The Awakened Support Team only provides information to Awakened individuals. If Chan had come, he would have been blocked from even coming up here.”
“In the first place, information related to Awakened individuals is not something that can be easily verified. While information about famous Awakened, even trivial details, tends to be well-known to people, that’s only when the Awakened person doesn’t prevent it.”
This was why Dohyun’s information was extremely limited and considered uncertain even in communities of Awakened individuals. Sometimes deliberately incorrect information was spread to cause confusion, and information was also hidden as much as possible. Of course, since the Association managed Awakened individuals, one could find relevant materials if they searched, but they would only be basic information. Because Espers were not public figures but individuals, posting information indiscriminately online could result in punishment.
On the other hand, guilds, being official entities, could request Awakened individual data from the Association. There was no other personal information available, only names could be confirmed, and if one dug a little deeper, they could find out which guild an individual belonged to. Of course, guilds had to make official requests, and the Association only provided materials that could be officially shown.
“It seems that Somyeong Guild requested the complete list of Awakened individuals.”
“That’s right. We don’t necessarily need to tell them what we’re looking for.”
Provide a paper printout of the list of all Awakened individuals in our country from the past to the present. That was what Somyeong had requested. It was an extremely cumbersome but safe and certain method. Above all, searches leave records of what was viewed.
Suddenly Dohyun got a strong feeling that Somyeong didn’t trust the Association.
‘In the old days, they treated Espers as ‘military supplies’.’
The old Association had conducted experiments on Espers. Even though things had changed a lot now, Somyeong probably had bad memories of the old Association. Dohyun reached out and grasped the documents.
“Since you said his name is Han Jiwhan, let’s sort out the ‘H’ section first.”
“But did we really need the list of old Espers too?”
“We needed previous ones too in case he’s listed as deceased, that’s why.”
As Somyeong answered with a smile, Dohyun understood. If he was really registered as deceased… That would mean he was what they call an unregistered Esper. Dohyun had certainly heard that he had died. Since deceased people’s resident registrations are basically removed, it was speculation that he might have exploited this fact.
“There could be people with the same name though.”
Haegang picked up the stack of papers marked with ‘H’ and placed them on the desk.
“Guide Choi Haegang. Shall we divide it into three parts?”
“No.”
Haegang shook his head at Somyeong’s words. Flipping through the papers, Haegang stopped his hand. After excluding a certain portion from the front, Haegang also skipped a portion from the back.
“Since it seems to be arranged in alphabetical order, I’ve removed the sections with surnames other than Han.”
Good. At the welcome news that the workload had been reduced, Somyeong checked the stack of papers in front of her. Dohyun also checked the papers. Many of the forms, created like resumes, only had names written on them. There were no photos in the spaces where photos could be attached, and they were clean as if to indicate that they couldn’t reveal which abilities the individuals possessed.
Occasionally, there were people whose information was completely filled out. Details like how many gates of what level they had conquered and what abilities they possessed were densely written. Most of these people were low-ranked Espers.
“Guide Choi Haegang. Why is there so little information about these people?”
“There are several cases, but right now, these are cases where people have opened their information because they need to join a guild.”
“Ah…”
“Guilds wouldn’t contact them if they didn’t know their abilities, right? They openly disclose their information, join a guild, and then switch to private mode. There are also cases where information is disclosed because they need Guide matching.”
“What about other cases?”
At Dohyun’s words, Haegang calmly explained as he flipped through the documents he was looking at.
“They’re deceased. The period of privacy request after being processed as deceased has ended.”
If they were classified as deceased, their information could be checked. It happened six years ago, when Dohyun had become a first-year middle school student, so even if they had requested information privacy, there was a chance it would have appeared. Dohyun checked the names while turning the pages one by one.
“This is…”
Haegang was the quickest to check through his papers, followed by Somyeong, then Dohyun. The last pages of the document stack they held had long disappeared. However, the name they were looking for wasn’t there. Just in case, Dohyun picked up the documents he had put down and checked again. Haegang had set aside papers that weren’t surnames starting with “Han” in the first place, but there was a thought that they might have been mixed in.
Initially, he had naturally thought that only surnames with “Han” would appear. But there were cases where right after a document with the name Han Jeonggu, suddenly names like Hyun Daul or Kim Chanyoung would appear.
“There are many cases of name changes.”
The documents were ordered by pre-name change names, but the actual written names were post-name change. Cases like Dohyun, who had been adopted at a young age and had his name changed, were also included in order of pre-name change names.
“Maybe we need… to check everything?”
There was no Han Jiwhan. At least not under that pre-name change name.
“…I don’t recall ever hearing that he changed his name.”
“He might have changed his name before the orphanage.”
“Ah…”
Because there were many children with the surname Han, Dohyun had naturally thought that his name, given by the orphanage, would have been Han. Dohyun thought for a moment, then suddenly had an idea and searched through the documents again.
“Esper Dohyun?”
“……”
Dohyun’s expression turned strange as he continued flipping through the documents starting with “H.” The name Dohyun was looking for wasn’t visible at all. That’s strange. It couldn’t be.
“That can’t be.”
“Esper Baek Dohyun.”
“…Han Seonwoo isn’t here.”
At Dohyun’s words, Somyeong looked at him as if asking what he meant. But Haegang quickly started searching through the documents he was holding in response to Dohyun’s words.
“My former name that I remember is Han Seonwoo.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
