49
Minjae rubbed his stiff eyes as he opened the front door. Today too, he had a lot to do.
“Good morning, Sunbae!”
Jihwan was standing there with a grinning face.
Minjae closed the door. A thudding sound echoed.
Jihwan waited outside Minjae’s quarters early every morning. He was no different from an alarm clock. In fact, he really was like an alarm clock, since he would knock on the door if Minjae overslept.
Minjae harbored a vain hope that Jihwan might be gone when he reopened the door, but it was useless. Jihwan’s smiling face remained unchanged, as if nothing had happened.
“Did you remember what you forgot?”
It seemed Jihwan thought he had closed the door because he had forgotten something.
No, I closed it because I couldn’t stand the sight of you. Minjae wanted to say that, but he held back. He had already tried that the day before yesterday, but Jihwan had shown an attitude of not letting him leave for work until he explained what he had done wrong, with a hurt expression on his face. After nearly losing his mind, Minjae decided to stop trying.
“Ha….”
“Sunbae, are you tired? Did you not sleep well again yesterday?”
“You really….”
Huh? Jihwan looked at Minjae with wide round eyes. Jihwan’s strange behavior had started from that day. The day he was hit with raw eggs from the protesters. Jihwan had said nonsensical things about protecting Minjae.
It was problematic that he himself hadn’t been able to respond to such nonsense, but the real issue was that since then, Jihwan had been acting like an overzealous manager, apparently thinking he was protecting Minjae.
Previously, he had just followed Minjae around like a newly hatched duckling, but now he was sticking to Minjae’s every move, obsessed with providing “unhelpful” help.
“Are you cold perhaps? Should I give you a hand warmer?”
“No! I’m not cold!”
It’s not even winter yet, what hand warmer! Minjae grimaced. But Sunbae, you look pale… Are your hands and feet tingling? Should I massage them for you? Because Jihwan kept saying such things in a booming voice, Minjae had taken to pulling his hat down or lowering his head as he walked through the Center’s corridors.
Moreover, the most absurd thing was that this guy somehow managed to find Minjae’s schedule with uncanny accuracy.
Minjae had never once given his schedule to Jihwan in advance, but Jihwan acted as if he already knew it. He even reminded Minjae of appointments he had forgotten.
“There’s a team meeting a bit later today, so let’s eat together before we go!”
Minjae imagined Wooseok’s face, smirking and saying that thanks to Jihwan, Minjae had become more diligent in attending Center schedules. Ah, could information be leaking from that side too? Minjae gritted his teeth.
“Sunbae, is there anything you’d like to eat?”
Minjae looked at Jihwan with a troubled mind. If he said he wasn’t going to eat again, it was obvious that Jihwan would make a fuss about starving himself too, and then his stomach would growl during the meeting.
In any case, Jihwan wasn’t making any major mistakes, and was actually enthusiastically taking care of Minjae’s schedule and meals, so the outcome wasn’t bad.
“…Let’s just go to the cafeteria.”
“Yes!”
Jihwan smiled brightly and walked in step with Minjae. Then he started reciting today’s menu, which he had learned in advance. Minjae responded casually, telling him to eat whatever, as he headed to the cafeteria.
***
Recently, team meetings had mainly been about the children rescued from The Crow.
Minjae had entrusted Eunjeong with the care of the children. It was a decision made because it seemed too dangerous to immediately place them in facilities for raising espers. They had slightly remodeled one of the currently empty rooms in the dormitory to allow the children to live together.
“Will it be okay?”
“Yes, I think it’s better if I do it. I’ll probably be able to respond quickly too. I’ll give it a try.”
Eunjeong nodded readily to Minjae’s cautious suggestion. She was taking turns with Seoyeon to care for the children in shifts.
“Is there anything going on?”
Minjae asked. Eunjeong seemed tired, pressing near her temples.
“First, the kids are a bit unstable and… the kids don’t talk much.”
“You know there’s no need to rush them, right?”
“Of course. But… occasionally there are times when conversation happens.”
Eunjeong paused briefly, thinking about something, then continued.
“It seems they’ve been presented in front of sponsors a few times.”
“Sponsors?”
“Yeah. Spon… They said that in front of the children, they exchanged talk about percentages and such.”
Those fuckers. Eunjeong cursed. Hoyoung and Jihwan’s expressions also darkened.
Sponsors? Rats from the Center? Or from somewhere else? In any case, it meant there could be more involvement from external forces. How far and where did the connections go? Minjae turned his brain as quickly as possible. Given that they were called sponsors, they were probably those who benefited from using The Crow. Even if not for profit, there were many rich people with perverted tendencies.
“And… I think there might be more children. More than the ones we missed.”
“I thought that might be the case… Did the kids meet others?”
“Not so much met… They said they saw some kind of list and the number was quite large. According to the kids, more than their fingers and toes.”
There might be more than one building. Minjae thought.
Somehow the headquarters seemed too flimsy for its size. If so, there was a high possibility of multiple branches.
It was possible that they had set it up so that if anything happened, they could cut ties with a few branches, except for the truly important core areas. Minjae recalled the woman he had met at the demonstration.
“For now, Eunjeong, just bear with it a little longer. And you two, if Eunjeong asks for help, run to help her right away.”
Yes! Hoyoung and Jihwan responded quickly. Minjae wrapped up the meeting. The list of things to investigate had grown longer.
***
Wooseok was leaning at the entrance of the guiding room, sipping warm coffee. One of his juniors had boasted about bringing coffee beans from an incredibly delicious place and shared it, but whether it was because he lacked the ability to brew coffee or not, it didn’t taste very good.
“Ha… a bit…”
When he peeked his head out slightly, he saw Minjae passing through the diagonal corridor. Recently, Minjae had been making such noises while walking through the corridors. That was because the S-class esper was sticking to him like glue and constantly fawning over him.
“Shall I carry you on my back? If you’re feeling dizzy, should I give you some candy?”
Oh, come on. Wooseok let out a hollow laugh. The aforementioned S-class esper had recently been wearing mostly tracksuits or Center work clothes, probably because it was convenient to stuff small items to fawn over Minjae in the pockets. It was so amusing to see Minjae’s disgusted reactions whenever something emerged from those bulging pockets.
From the time he had returned with Minjae, looking half-dead, Wooseok had thought there might be something going on, but it seemed Jihwan had been more greatly stimulated than expected.
At first, his intentions had been somewhat suspicious, but since it wasn’t causing harm to Minjae, Wooseok was actually grateful from his position. Thanks to the S-class esper’s overzealousness, Minjae seemed to be getting a bit healthier these days.
It was good to see that Minjae, who sometimes wouldn’t even drink water all day if Wooseok didn’t take care of him, now seemed to be eating meals regularly. Next time when I’m feeling lazy, I should send him to wake up Minjae. Wooseok had a pleasant thought.
“What are you looking at?”
A junior colleague spoke to him from the side.
“Something fun.”
“Something fun? Ah… you’re watching Sunbae Minjae.”
The junior guide let his voice trail off slightly as he glanced at Wooseok. Huh? Wooseok felt that the atmosphere was somewhat strange.
“You two really get along well.”
“Well, it’s been a long time.”
Everyone in the Center knew that Wooseok and Minjae were close friends and guiding partners.
“But Director, you’re really cool about it. I guess it’s because you’re high-ranked and have known each other for a long time, you seem so relaxed… You two really seem to have a solid relationship.”
Huh? What are you saying? Wooseok felt that there was some incorrect word choice in his junior’s statement and asked again.
“I couldn’t stand it if my lover was hanging around with someone else like that. Well, I guess that S-class esper is not a guide and he’s too young… I suppose an esper can’t beat a guide after all?”
“No, no, wait. What did you say?”
“Yes?”
“What did you say before? Lover?”
At Wooseok’s question, the junior spoke as if puzzled.
“Yes, you two are lovers, aren’t you? And you’ve been together for a really long time!”
“Whaaat?”
Wooseok’s voice rose at the unexpected statement.
“Oh, um… you’re not?”
“We’re not!”
Oh, I’m sorry. The junior apologized in embarrassment. Wooseok blinked blankly and then nodded, accepting the apology offhandedly. Where the hell did this nonsense spread from? It was maddening.
“But where did you hear that story?”
“Huh? Um… I just heard people talking about it during lunch time.”
“What did people say?”
The junior hesitated but then revealed what he had heard. The rumor had been constructed quite plausibly.
It was about how they met at the Center when they were young, came to rely on each other, and then as they went through puberty, Wooseok realized his feelings and confessed, leading to their relationship.
Isn’t this just taken from some romance novel? Wooseok was listening with interest but frowned at the part where he supposedly confessed.
“Hey, do you think I would be the one to confess? Even if we were dating, shouldn’t he be the one accepting me?”
“Um… why?”
“Just look!”
Wooseok gestured from his head to his toes. The junior just laughed.
“Does our junior want to work overtime?”
“No.”
The laughing junior stopped laughing and shook his head at Wooseok’s joke.
It seemed that such rumors had been inflated because Wooseok and Minjae were so close.
Oh, come on. Wooseok let out a hollow laugh as he recalled Jihwan’s face freezing when he saw Wooseok and Minjae together. Had he picked up the rumor from somewhere and that’s why he had such an expression? Then how far has this nonsense spread?
“Who else knows about this?”
“…Everyone, I think?”
Everyone knows? For a moment, Wooseok thought of Ojun sitting in the secretary’s office. However, the secretary’s office was a place where this kind of gossip rarely reached.
And Secretary Yoon didn’t seem to have the sociability to chat about light gossip with people waiting to meet the Center Director. Moreover, Ojun brought a lunchbox and ate alone in the secretary’s office.
-Have you heard the rumor?
As he wrote the message he intended to send, it felt a bit strange. It seemed like he might be making things worse unnecessarily.
The person was already acting like a sensitive wildcat. Decisively, Wooseok was also not in a position to make unnecessary excuses about this matter.
If they had heard the rumor, they might contact him first, he thought. Wooseok deleted the message he was writing and put his phone in his pocket.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
