16
Jihwan was glaring at the menu board in front of the cafeteria. Having been toyed with by boxes all day, Jihwan had reached the point where he got angry just looking at anything rectangular. Why did they make the menu board square? It even has four corners! It looks so damn annoying!
Recently, Jihwan had been having nightmares where he was trapped in a box, rolling around. Then, out of nowhere, his team seniors and strangers would appear, pointing fingers at him and laughing. Hahaha! Hahaha!
“…Jihwan?”
“What!”
Someone called Jihwan. Recalling last night’s dream, Jihwan turned around with a surge of emotion and came face to face with Hoyoung, whose eyes had widened in surprise.
“Ah, Sunbae. I’m sorry…”
Jihwan apologized, startled.
“Are you… okay? You look terrible.”
Hoyoung said affectionately painful words. Jihwan glared at the touch-screen menu display and grumbled.
“I’m fine. It’s not like I’m a porter, but my shoulders and arms are aching from carrying things back and forth every day, and my back is killing me, and I have nightmares every night! But I’m really! Fine.”
Sniff. Wiping his nose, Jihwan looked at Hoyoung. Hoyoung had stepped back, showing both palms toward Jihwan. He looked like a trainer handling a wild animal. This made Jihwan feel even more miserable.
“Sunbae, can’t you just feed me?”
“Huh?”
“My arms won’t even lift up, so I can’t even place an order. And Taehyun hyung isn’t here right now…”
At Jihwan’s words, Hoyoung’s face briefly crumpled before smoothing out. Jihwan put on the most pitiful expression he could manage.
That’s when it happened. Buzz- buzz- A vibration sounded between them. Hoyoung quickly pulled out his phone from his pocket. After looking at the screen with widened eyes, Hoyoung patted Jihwan’s shoulder. Jihwan’s shoulder screamed in pain.
“Uhh, Jihwan. I got a message from Minjae sunbae, so I have to go. Sorry.”
And then he vanished into the distance in an instant.
Eventually, without having eaten, Jihwan trudged back to the training ground and sluggishly moved his aching arm to take out his phone. He checked his message inbox. There were 2 new messages.
Forgetting his arm pain for a moment, Jihwan rapidly tapped his phone, almost breaking it, to check the messages.
-All flight espers and physical enhancement espers to assemble.
-Don’t you come.
One was a notice from the Center, and the other was from Minjae. Minjae’s message had arrived less than 10 seconds after the assembly notice, as if he had known the order would be issued.
Minjae’s instruction was clear. There would be an all-hands assembly, but you shouldn’t come. But why? Jihwan bit his lip.
He kept recalling the image of Hoyoung running off urgently after receiving Minjae’s call.
Hoyoung sunbae is in the same flight category as me. He said he’d be my mentor, and the Center instructed us to work as a pair…
Jihwan had never once received a call from Minjae. Honestly, he did deserve to be disliked. And he thought it was true that he was quite disliked. Though Jihwan was terribly oblivious, Minjae’s attitude was obvious enough to overcome even Jihwan’s lack of sensitivity.
But this is too much. Jihwan muttered.
Jihwan quickly headed to the locker room to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes. If he changed clothes and flew quickly, he wouldn’t be too late.
***
A large sinkhole had formed in the middle of the road. As the ground suddenly collapsed, about six cars fell straight into the huge hole that formed, leading to a series of 6-car and 9-car pile-ups. It was a common occurrence.
Since espers had manifested, sinkholes had become more frequent, and groups advocating for esper expulsion linked this to the “apocalypse.” Some called all ability users the children of the devil.
“Over here! Over here!!”
Dr. Kim waved both arms at Minjae, who was flying in from a distance. Dr. Kim was a civilian emergency doctor and paranormal researcher frequently encountered at incident sites. He often moved with firefighters, so he was acquainted with Minjae.
Minjae landed lightly, still being carried by Hoyoung.
“You don’t need to do that, I can see everything.”
Minjae responded curtly, then turned his head and patted Hoyoung’s shoulder.
“Thanks. Uh… Doctor, our team…”
“Hoyoung!”
Hoyoung shouted with an aggrieved expression as Minjae trailed off while introducing him.
Ah, I thought his name was Oyoung or Goyoung earlier since he didn’t say anything when I called him that. Minjae halfheartedly patted the fuming Hoyoung.
“Yes, yes. I know, Hoyoung. Thank you.”
“Sunbae, you’re really mean.”
Minjae snickered at Hoyoung’s ineffective tantrum and gave him a light tap on the head.
“You’ve grown up? Even talking informally.”
“Ow!”
Hoyoung complained of pain and continued grumbling as he stuck close behind Minjae, who was walking alongside Dr. Kim.
“What’s the situation?”
“Six cars fell in. It’s incredibly deep. Seems like it collapsed about eight meters down.”
Dr. Kim sighed heavily.
“Any word on survivors?”
“If I knew, would I be like this?… But it’s really fortunate you came so quickly.”
“We’ll have to see about that.”
Adding this with an expressionless face, Minjae crossed the safety line set up by the firefighters. Without hesitation, Minjae bent down and stretched his body as far as possible to examine inside the hole.
“Sunbae!!”
“Hey, the ground there is unstable! Be careful!”
The firefighter and Hoyoung shouted simultaneously. This was because additional ground had slightly collapsed right in front of Minjae. Hoyoung, who was behind, pulled Minjae back in panic.
“Hoyoung.”
“Yes!”
Minjae called Hoyoung’s name correctly without hesitation. Hoyoung responded quickly.
“You can go in.”
It was a question with no rising intonation at the end. The longer they delayed, the fewer people they could rescue. Hoyoung nodded lightly.
By the time Minjae and Hoyoung had rescued people from two vehicles, additional support teams arrived.
As soon as the support team arrived, Minjae quickly scanned them, but Jihwan was nowhere to be seen. And as expected, reporters had arrived too.
If that guy had come, it would have been even more chaotic. Minjae felt relieved.
Minjae moved around inside the sinkhole, finding overturned or crushed cars and providing emergency treatment to the people inside. Then Hoyoung would take those people outside the sinkhole.
Flashes of light kept illuminating the large hole in the middle of the road. Camera flashes went off and shutter sounds continued to be heard.
Bang! Bang!
Clickclickclick!!!
“Hey, you vulture bastard! Stop it already!”
Someone among the residents peering from outside the safety line around the sinkhole shouted. With that as a starting point, several citizens began shouting in anger, and the photographing of the sinkhole interior temporarily stopped.
With the help of the support team, the rescue sped up. The support team briefly headed up to take care of the rescued people, and Hoyoung flew up carrying a person who had been in the fifth vehicle.
It was just as Minjae was approaching the sixth vehicle, half-buried in dirt. A white hand emerged from the sixth vehicle’s window, making gestures. Minjae quickened his pace.
“Citizen, are you injured? Are you able to move?”
Minjae asked a formal question. If the person could move their hand but couldn’t open the door, they might have major injuries to their abdomen or legs, so he couldn’t touch the door carelessly.
No answer came. The white hand kept making strange gestures from the window, twitching continuously. It seemed like it was beckoning him to come, or maybe telling him to go away.
Minjae quickly approached to examine the ground around the car and inside the window.
“Citizen. Are you able to speak?”
“For hu…”
Some mumbling sound was heard.
“Pardon?”
Minjae asked again. At least they seemed to be conscious, which was fortunate. As Minjae was considering whether to open the door first, the driver’s side began to open with a clunk.
Minjae reflexively thought he should inject healing first and radiated his ability. White light rippled from his outstretched hand.
“For humanity!”
A somewhat clear pronunciation came from within the light. What? Minjae thought. And then—
BOOM!
An explosion erupted. Flames rose in front of Minjae.
The impact threw Minjae’s body backward. A sharp pain shot through his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Huh. Huh. Minjae gasped for breath.
Before his eyes, he could see a man covered in wounds and burns, his body red and black, slowly collapsing. Three small bombs that had finished detonating were tied to his body with burnt wires.
“Ugh…”
The bloodshot eyes of the man were visible. The man let out a small moan. It seemed he was still alive.
Why? Minjae wondered. Why did he do this? Did he also create the sinkhole? Was that hand gesture earlier meant to summon him?
“What happened?!”
People from above were murmuring at the loud noise. Some espers seemed to be approaching the inside again.
Before he could organize his thoughts, Minjae clutched his chest and began to move.
Fuck.
An orange light was emitting warning signals from Minjae’s wrist.
Minjae moved his body toward the nearly dying man. The man seemed to slightly shake his head from side to side.
“Don’t… want…”
The man uttered words of refusal.
“I’m not… ugh… doing this because I want to either.”
Huh. Huh. Gasping for breath, Minjae stretched his hand toward the man. Then white light emanated again. The man’s wounds began to heal. Only his burnt clothes remained as evidence that he had been engulfed in flames.
“Don’t want… espers…”
These were the words the man uttered after his wounds healed.
“I don’t want them either.”
Minjae had no ability left to heal himself.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! Minjae repeated in his mind. Footsteps were getting closer. He wished someone would take this man away. But the man couldn’t die before that happened.
Outside, reporters were swarming. Regardless of which terrorist group or rebel faction this man belonged to, he shouldn’t go out dead.
The man slowly moved his mouth and stuck out his tongue. Seeing his attempt at suicide, Minjae crawled toward the man and forced his hand into the man’s mouth, prying it open.
“Ugh…”
The inside of his mouth was dirty and wet. It felt like sticking his hand into a monster’s mouth.
Minjae gripped the jaw with his remaining hand to prevent the man from biting his tongue.
“Dis… gusting…”
Minjae muttered.
“Sunbae…?”
Someone seemed to be calling him. Minjae forcibly turned his increasingly closing eyes.
There stood Jihwan, looking at him with trembling eyes.
Fuck. Why did you come? Minjae said. No, he wanted to say it. But instead of words, something hot suddenly spurted out of Minjae’s mouth.
“SUNBAE!!!”
Jihwan seemed to be calling him. So noisy. Minjae thought.
***
What would he say when he sees me? Jihwan thought about this the entire time he was flying.
Sunbae clearly told me not to come, but if I go now, will our relationship become irreparable? As Jihwan flew, thinking only about Minjae’s reaction, a huge hole came into view.
Is it okay for such a large hole to form in the middle of the road? The depth was so deep that the interior of the sinkhole wasn’t clearly visible unless looked at carefully.
He could see several espers moving around the area and reporters holding cameras.
“Oh, you came?”
Hoyoung spotted Jihwan and raised his hand in greeting. Jihwan bowed his head slightly in response.
“Where is Minjae sunbae?”
“He’s down below. I should go back down too…”
“Park Jihwan! Park Jihwan!”
Someone was desperately calling Jihwan.
Jihwan turned his head to see who was calling him. The person desperately shouting while stretching his upper body behind the safety line was a reporter holding a camera.
With a bewildered feeling, Jihwan pointed at himself with his index finger and asked,
“Me…?”
“Yes! Please give us a brief interview! I’m Kim Myeongseok, a reporter from YBM!”
Jihwan’s gaze turned to the reporter who had identified himself. Then the reporters scattered around gathered in a rush.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
