How much time passed like that?
Only after the machine hit the maximum value it could display did it blink, blink, and bring up a dark blue error window.
-999999.
That was the value between Esper Oh Jinwoo and Guide Park Seungwon.
No matter how low a matching rate was, as long as they were respectively an Esper and a Guide, no one had ever heard of it dropping below single digits into the negatives. Everyone was so shocked they lost the ability to speak. The one with the blankest expression was Oh Yeon.
There was no one here who didn’t understand what that number meant.
If there wasn’t even a single Guide who matched by 10 percent—no, even by just 1 percent—then the end was, almost without exception, only one thing.
Oh Jinwoo looked at that number with weary eyes, then slowly opened his mouth.
His voice sounded almost a little listless.
“Lee Hansol…… told me last that he was going to find ‘Father.’”
“Father?”
“……‘Teacher’ is alive.”
From the older researchers who knew who “Teacher” referred to came gasps, while from the younger researchers who didn’t know the hidden meaning behind that ordinary word came puzzled murmurs. They were familiar with the existence of the first unmeasurable Esper, but his other name, “Teacher,” was extremely unfamiliar to them.
Lee Mihyun turned her gaze toward the Director without realizing it.
The Director had not been asking Oh Jinwoo any questions herself, but Lee Mihyun could read the rare confusion in her wide-open eyes. Mihyun wet her parched lips once with her tongue and spoke in her place.
“Wasn’t ‘Teacher’ known to have died after going missing during the incident ten years ago?…… I understood that he killed his own Guide himself.”
“My god,” slipped unconsciously from Choi Tae-hoon’s mouth.
At the last meeting, he had hurriedly asked the Director as she left.
“Then where is this Teacher person now?”
But the Director had only smiled faintly without answering, and so Tae-hoon had only vaguely guessed that perhaps this Teacher person was no longer in this world.
He had never imagined there would be a story like that behind it.
An Esper who killed his own Guide himself.
Ji Gwan-young also tilted his head at an angle, not bothering to hide the frown between his brows at those words.
Judging from everything that had been said so far, there was only one reason why that Esper, Oh Jinwoo, had been unable to escape Lee Hansol.
Because Lee Hansol was Oh Jinwoo’s one and only Guide.
Considering his disposition, given that he had surrendered to this side recklessly the moment his Pair was severed, it was obvious what the past years must have been like for him, never having accepted that relationship obediently.
The fact that he had been unable to separate from him for ten years no matter what means or methods he used might be proof of just how helpless an Esper was before a Guide.
Ji Gwan-young loosely tilted his head back and clicked his tongue.
“I saw Lee Hansol talking on the phone with Teacher several times. It’s certain that Teacher is alive. I understand that the terrorist incident in Gangnam a few months ago was also caused by an Esper he was experimenting on.”
T
Tae-hoon’s hand tightened hard where it was clasped in Gwan-young’s, and fear seeped in, bruising a place deep in his heart that would never be erased. Watching that, a small hollow laugh slipped from Gwan-young’s mouth.
He gently loosened his Guide’s hand and tickled over it with his fingers. It was a tender gesture, as if telling him to feel at ease. After smiling so beautifully like that, Ji Gwan-young rose from the chair where he had been sitting.
At Ji Gwan-young’s sudden movement, Tae-hoon looked puzzled and anxious, but he obediently let him go. Every gaze in the hall turned toward the man who looked as though he had been drawn.
Mihyun couldn’t picture why that unpredictable man had suddenly moved. But there was no one here who could guess the meaning of that impulsive action or stop it.
Ji Gwan-young walked straight toward the center of the hall where Oh Jinwoo was, then stopped briefly in front of the transparent prison The Center had prepared. A few researchers tried to warn Ji Gwan-young to step back.
But before those words could even leave their mouths, Ji Gwan-young flicked his index finger as if snapping it.
In that instant, the prison, made from thousands upon thousands of layers using every possible method to block “power,” let out a chilling sound and dissolved, each particle turning into bead-like fragments that rolled down below.
It was a light movement of his hand, like destroying a sandcastle made by children.
Somewhere, someone exhaled the breath they had been holding.
They were now realizing, with cruel clarity, just how powerless the prison they had created—one that had been close to perfect—was before Ji Gwan-young.
No, before “those two Espers.”
Because if Ji Gwan-young could dismantle that prison, then Oh Jinwoo could have dismantled it as well.
The second and the third. Power met power side by side.
Wearing a loose smile, Ji Gwan-young spoke first.
“It’s been a while.”
“…….Yes.”
“When I heard that researcher over there was your family, I was honestly pretty surprised. When you suddenly grabbed Choi Tae-hoon and staged that protest, I wondered what crazy bastard had shown up out of nowhere.”
The thorn hidden in the sentence poured out in an infinitely gentle and mild tone was quite sharp.
The people of The Center frowned as they recalled the exhaustion of that day, when he had nearly driven them into a scene of hell, and those for whom the word “brothers” had become unfamiliar flinched without realizing it and avoided their eyes.
Of course, Choi Tae-hoon let out a small sigh at that viciously cruel word his Esper had clearly chosen on purpose.
But the action that stunned everyone came after that. Ji Gwan-young strode right up to Oh Jinwoo.
Somewhere, a startled voice cried, “Ah!”
Tae-hoon also sprang up from his seat. But Ji Gwan-young ignored all of their reactions, lightly shook the terrifyingly large shackles fastened around Oh Jinwoo’s wrists and ankles, then arched his brows slightly and asked,
“Why did you come here, knowing you’d end up in this ridiculous state?”
Ridiculous state.
To Ji Gwan-young, Oh Jinwoo’s current appearance was exactly that—nothing more and nothing less.
Oh Jinwoo closed his mouth for a moment as though choosing his words, then slowly let them out.
“……To prevent you from becoming Lee Hansol’s Esper.”
“……”
There was no one who could intervene in a conversation between the two Espers.
Ji Gwan-young silently looked at Oh Jinwoo, then before long, his eyes curved faintly as he saw the letter that appeared on the display behind him.
F
At the first lie that had appeared, murmurs rose among the researchers.
But Ji Gwan-young did not seem displeased by the result he had confirmed at all. No, rather, his expression suggested that Oh Jinwoo, whom he had disliked until now, had become a little more tolerable.
“You’re still soft-hearted.”
A mischievous hint about the truth of that day—something only Guide Choi Tae-hoon in this place did not know—slipped out.
“I think you should be worrying about how to hold onto your own life instead.”
“……”
“If that Guide or whatever named Lee Hansol dies before finding a new Esper, then won’t the great second one be doomed to go mad and die?”
Oh Yeon’s fists clenched hard. The only one who noticed was his Guide, Park Seungwon.
The hall was now filled with perfect silence.
In that stillness, Ji Gwan-young let out another faint laugh alone.
It was astonishing that even the Gangnam terrorist incident—the one that had brought him and Choi Tae-hoon together but had ultimately left an indelible trauma inside his Guide—had been their doing.
Now everything was certain.
“Guide Lee Hansol” and the Esper called “Teacher” were enemies who could harm Choi Tae-hoon at any time.
He was almost grateful to Oh Jinwoo for making him realize the danger he had failed to perceive until now through this man’s intrusion.
Just thinking that he could have lost the Guide who had fallen into his hands—no, “Choi Tae-hoon”—like some idiot still made all the blood in his body turn cold.
So there was a need to show a little kindness to the grateful person who had informed him of this fact.
This was Ji Gwan-young’s own version of consideration and thanks.
With his eyes curved, Gwan-young opened his mouth.
His lips moved slowly and soundlessly, forming a sentence only Oh Jinwoo, standing face-to-face with Ji Gwan-young, could read.
—But this time, I have no intention of letting “that thing” live.
***
Right now, Ji Gwan-young and Choi Tae-hoon were having their second fight since becoming a Pair, and their first fight as lovers.
“I don’t trust The Center at all. Never.”
“Still, I don’t think this is right. Can’t I just stay in the car?”
“No.”
Choi Tae-hoon let out a sighing sound and thumped his head against the van seat.
But Ji Gwan-young, looking at Choi Tae-hoon, crossed his arms as if this was the one thing he absolutely would not yield on and turned his gaze out the window.
Sitting in the driver’s seat and watching them through the rearview mirror, Ji Gwan-young’s manager swallowed dryly as though he were the one who had done something wrong.
It was the first time he had ever seen the man under his management make that kind of face and use that kind of tone.
“Gwan-young-ssi.”
“……”
“Seriously, please. I really won’t move an inch and will stay only in the car.”
“No. You have to be near me no matter what.”
“This is near you too, Gwan-young-ssi.”
As if those words were no longer even worth answering, Gwan-young gave no reply and instead pointlessly opened the script he had already memorized from beginning to end.
Seeing that, Choi Tae-hoon lowered his head deeply once more and let out a sigh that was almost mixed with a groan.
That was right.
Right now, Choi Tae-hoon had been glued to Ji Gwan-young all day. And that included his drama filming set.
“There are staff outside, wow, actors over there…… and the place is packed with busy people. How am I supposed to sit there among them when I’m nobody?”
“There’s no one who doesn’t know you.”
“Of course! My photos are all over the internet!”
There was one reason Ji Gwan-young and Choi Tae-hoon were currently at odds.
Ji Gwan-young was insisting, without exception, that Choi Tae-hoon stay literally stuck right beside him, while Choi Tae-hoon’s position was that what was wrong with staying in the car nearby, not even back at the residence.
But generally, in fights like this, the person with the louder voice and stronger stubbornness won.
About ten minutes later, after a staff member knocked on the van window and said, “Gwan-young-ssi, filming is starting,” Tae-hoon was dragged out of the van by his Esper’s hand.
Truly, literally “dragged.”
“Let go! Ah, seriously! Ji Gwan-young-ssi!”
“Where are you going if I let go? Inside the car?”
Everyone on set turned their gazes toward the Pair.
Ji Gwan-young and Choi Tae-hoon were truly incredibly eye-catching.
Ji Gwan-young, who at 187 centimeters tall and with an excellent frame was considered one of the taller figures even in the entertainment industry, and Choi Tae-hoon, who stood at 180 centimeters with a well-built, appealing body from basketball and all kinds of sports, plus especially long arms and legs, both stood far above most people’s eye level.
On top of that, the unbelievably composed man who had always smiled faintly on set and spoken only in impeccably polite words was now speaking sternly with his face fully hardened.
This was truly a legendary scene they would never see again.
The people who had never imagined that “the rumored Ji Gwan-young Guide” would appear on the filming set fixed their gazes on every move the two made, even swallowing dryly.
Painfully aware of those eyes, Choi Tae-hoon whispered,
“Ah, please, come on! Ji Gwan-young-ssi! …….Ji Gwan-young!”
It was the first moment Choi Tae-hoon called his lover by only his name.
As one syllable disappeared, the Esper’s brows curved slightly. He stopped the steps he had been taking without hesitation and took on a slightly sulky expression.
Of course, the surrounding staff and actors clicked their tongues at that.
“Wow. Ji Gwan-young is getting angry and speaking informally!”
“What?”
“I’ll stay in the car. Completely quietly. Calmly. Okay?”
