# Chapter 39
Oh, so since I’m living with him, he didn’t clean my room.
Even so, Dohyun had never seen anyone entering Haegang’s house. Now that he thought about it, occasionally Haegang would suggest going out or drag him out to eat something, and would insist on accompanying him when he had appointments. Dohyun had assumed Haegang was looking after him because they lived together, but it seems he was just vacating the place as an employer would, asking for the house to be kept tidy.
It was natural for Dohyun to clean his own room, but hearing that his room was specifically excluded from the cleaning made him feel a little hurt.
Dohyun reaffirmed his commitment not to mistake Haegang for a caring person. On the surface, he appeared cold, but Dohyun had thought he was somewhat caring underneath. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.
“If this house feels too big for you, there are other options. As it happens, there’s a decent property not far from here that’s about half the size of this building.”
The real estate agent, who had been listening to Haegang and Dohyun’s conversation, cautiously spoke up. Haegang frowned at the mention of “half the size,” apparently displeased, but Dohyun’s face lit up.
“Even smaller would be fine.”
“Even… smaller?”
“Yes.”
“There are no such properties in this area…”
Hearing the agent’s perplexed response, Haegang quietly spoke from behind.
“Finding smaller places is actually harder around here.”
He had said it was an area where many awakened individuals lived. It was a genuinely wealthy neighborhood. Dohyun pressed his lips together. He’d just look around for now. After all, he hadn’t come out intending to buy a house right away, but merely to check if there were any suitable options.
Dohyun asked to see that house and followed behind the agent. He whispered to Haegang.
“Why did we come to this kind of neighborhood?”
“If you move too far from my house, what will you do when you urgently need Guiding?”
“Well, that’s…”
“Don’t entertain silly thoughts while you’re already collapsing all the time. And if you’re looking for a safe place, this area is the best.”
He treated Dohyun like a complete weakling even though he hadn’t collapsed that many times. Still, since Dohyun had indeed collapsed before, he couldn’t refute the claim.
Haegang said there was no neighborhood safer than this one, and that if a gate were to appear, Espers would come running from all directions to tackle it. That’s why wealthy people gathered to live here. Dohyun fell into thought at Haegang’s answer, then suddenly turned his gaze as a thought struck him.
“Wait, did you say this is where wealthy people live?”
“Yes.”
“…I…”
I only have 7.1 billion won that shocked me last time. Dohyun took out his phone and opened his banking app. Though he had spent a little, almost the entire amount remained in his account.
“…It was for sale, right?”
“Yes.”
“…I don’t think I can afford it.”
“Were you planning to buy it now?”
“No, not really.”
“Then you can just look around for now. If you like it, you can buy it later. The amount Esper Baek Dohyun currently has isn’t enough anyway. You have to consider taxes too.”
Not enough with 7.1 billion won? Guide Choi Haegang spoke about it as casually as someone saying they’d keep an outfit in mind while continuing to browse. Dohyun strongly felt that if he continued living like this, his sense of money would completely disappear. Whether or not Haegang understood how Dohyun felt, he walked closer to the agent and was examining the house.
“The previous house was definitely better.”
“Right? Actually, I thought you might also like the newly built villa near the river.”
“What’s the market price range there?”
“Oh, roughly like this…”
Is this really about finding me a house? Leaving behind Haegang who was engrossed in conversation with the agent like someone contemplating an investment, Dohyun stepped through the open door.
The second house was a bit smaller than the first one they had seen. Of course, it was only relatively modest—from Dohyun’s perspective, it was still a house big enough to make him gasp.
The garden visible right upon entering seemed to be standard in this area. The previous owner must have taken good care of it, as the garden plants were growing beautifully. Looking at the bench placed on one side of the garden, Dohyun wondered if he could sit down. The house was overwhelmingly large, but the peaceful atmosphere appealed to him. Eventually, unable to resist the temptation, Dohyun sat down on the bench.
“The previous owner has passed away. That’s why their children are looking to sell the property at a reduced price.”
The agent’s voice could be heard. Dohyun, who had been looking at the neatly arranged trees behind the bench, turned his head. Just as Haegang was entering, Dohyun stood up, and Haegang silently gazed at him for a moment.
“Do you like it?”
“Much more than the previous house.”
“Even though it’s smaller than that one?”
“It’s still enormous!”
Before the fire, Dohyun had lived in a studio apartment. It had a very old, shabby desk just big enough to barely lie down on, and a closet that looked like it might crumble at any moment. The entrance was filled with just two pairs of sneakers, and when he got up from bed, the kitchen and bathroom were right in front of him.
“It’s incredibly big. But…”
I like it. Dohyun couldn’t easily finish his sentence, feeling that if he voiced his desire, it might all disappear. Though he was surprised by the large house, what he truly wanted was to live stably in a slightly better place rather than a small one.
When living in his old home, he disliked both summer and winter, but preferred summer if he had to choose. The summers spent relying on a single small fan he had managed to acquire were far better than the winters when he had to wear multiple layers of clothes plus an overcoat and wrap himself in a blanket just to fall asleep.
It was a place where he would wake up frequently to check that the electric heater hadn’t started a fire, and where no matter how much he turned the tap trying to get hot water, only cold water poured out. Still, he was grateful not to be homeless.
Every night before falling asleep, he prayed that he would wake up in the morning. That’s why, when he awakened as an Esper, his first thought was that it was fortunate he wouldn’t easily freeze to death even if he fell asleep in the cold.
For someone like him to be now looking at a house with a garden, and to think that such a place might eventually become his home, felt surreal.
In fact, even while staying at Haegang’s house, he was conscious that he would have to leave whenever Haegang asked him to. That’s why he had recorded all his debts on his phone. So that he wouldn’t rely too much on Haegang, so that he would be prepared to leave whenever asked.
“It’s a bit… hard to believe.”
Haegang had made him realize it. That his life would be completely different from before. To Dohyun, who still hadn’t fully grasped this, Haegang seemed to be saying that this was the kind of place he should be living in now. That he should find what he deserved to enjoy as Esper Baek Dohyun, not as the nineteen-year-old Dohyun who lived alongside death.
“You’ll earn even more in the future. How will you manage if you’re already trembling now?”
That he needed to recognize this as his new reality.
Dohyun pressed his lips together, then opened them again.
“I wasn’t trembl—”
“Why did you stop mid-sentence?”
As Haegang approached with a furrowed brow, Dohyun hurriedly pushed him away. Despite pushing quite forcefully, Haegang didn’t move back as much as expected. Haegang, who had stepped back only a couple of steps, looked somewhat irritated, but Dohyun couldn’t focus on him.
It was an energy that made his hair stand on end. By now, he could recognize it easily.
“Esper Baek Dohyun!”
It was the energy he had felt when first entering a gate. He could see the space being torn apart.
“Don’t come in!”
Caught in a way that made him feel like he would be sucked into the tearing void, Dohyun shouted while pushing Haegang away forcefully once more. He could withstand it because he was an Esper.
“Don’t come near here, no matter what.”
His Guide must not get involved.
❖ ❖ ❖
Darkness filled his vision completely. He could clearly tell that he had entered through that entrance, as the torn edge of the gate was emitting a bluish light.
Dohyun, whose experience with gate raids was limited to just once, felt somewhat at a loss about what to do with this gate.
“Ah…”
When he tried to walk, he felt a small pain in his leg. It would heal soon, but it was slightly swollen, making it impossible to get up immediately. At the very least, there was a crack in the bone, or at worst…
“Is it broken?”
Thinking that forcing himself to move might make it worse, Dohyun stood still, staring blankly at the gate entrance that was still torn.
‘When caught in an emergency gate, you should relax your body as much as possible. If you panic and try to resist being pulled in, it could become more dangerous.’
The precautionary advice he had heard continuously before and after his manifestation was of no help at all when an actual emergency gate occurred. What person would relax their body when they thought their Guide might be swept in too? Moreover, a considerable pain surged, perhaps due to the strain on his leg from pushing Haegang away.
Dohyun was thankful that he was the only one caught by the energy released when the gate opened.
He was completely alone inside the gate.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
