Although the shadow cast over Ho-eun’s face was concerning, Hosoo believed that instilling a bit of discomfort in slackers like this would lead to some progress.
“You may be a D-rank, but you can guide Do In-ho. I don’t know if it’s because your resonance rate happens to match well or what, but… if you put in the effort, hitting 70% shouldn’t be too hard.”
Hosoo casually spat out another lie, as naturally as breathing.
“If you don’t know how to guide, just ask me.”
Ho-eun, who’d been lost in thought, frowned at Hosoo’s glib tone.
“That’ll never happen.”
Hearing Ho-eun’s firm voice and scrunched-up expression, Hosoo let out a soft chuckle.
“You’re really something.”
Once their conversation ended, Hosoo naturally got up and opened the front door. It looked like a kind gesture, but it probably meant, Get lost already.
Ho-eun stared up at the clear, cloudless blue sky for a few seconds and took a deep breath. His whole body felt stiff from the tension. Stretching his neck, he began walking along the stone path. Just like when he arrived, there was only a single door floating in the middle of nowhere—still just as surreal going out as it was coming in.
When he stepped through the door, he was greeted by the familiar gray cement walls of the Guide Corporation. Taking the opportunity while at HQ, Ho-eun called Se-hee, who’d mentioned she worked here.
***
Kim Se-hee’s office was on the floor right below. Ho-eun took the emergency stairs down to the 6th floor and waited at the office entrance. As the automatic doors opened, Se-hee greeted him with a bright smile.
“I already got permission from everyone in the office!”
“Really? I was only planning to film you.”
“Well, I am the adorable youngest here, so everyone usually does what I ask.”
Seeing Se-hee’s unclouded smile, Ho-eun smiled back. He’d been worried if someone so young could survive office life, but from the look of it, she was adapting just fine.
Inside the office, Ho-eun greeted the staff again and explained that he’d be filming a promotional video for the Guide Corporation, asking for their understanding. With his camcorder in hand, Ho-eun became the cameraman as Se-hee led the way.
Each desk had a baseball-sized transparent orb, gradually filling with a blue liquid. It seemed to be a device that visualized and accumulated broadcast guiding, just as Hosoo had described—likely transforming the collected energy into guiding enhancers.
“So, should I start by introducing the departments within the Guide Corporation?”
“Sounds good.”
Se-hee walked him through each department, explaining what they did. Back when they had their interviews, the departments hosting intern practicums were all actual working teams. Beyond those, the expansive office housed even more divisions.
Se-hee’s own desk was decorated with two monitors and a few cute trinkets, giving off a cozy, cheerful vibe. Her keyboard and mouse were newly customized in a vibrant forsythia yellow that looked lovely. The first shot of the video started at her desk.
“I joined the Field Support Department! What we do here is match Guides to mission sites and create assignment lists based on their rank.”
“What kind of ranking are we talking about?”
“Well, Guides have the ability to support Espers through something called Guiding, right? We measure that and classify them from D to S rank. The higher the difficulty of a mission, the higher-ranked the Guide that gets assigned!”
“So you’re saying you’ll be assigning me to my missions someday?”
“I don’t have that kind of authority yet since I’m still new, but once I do, I’ll make sure to send you to a safe, well-paying site using the good ol’ rookie friendship buff!”
Se-hee winked at the camera, making Ho-eun chuckle softly.
After touring the office, they moved on to introduce various parts of the Guide Corporation building. By the time they wrapped up the building tour, it was already around 3 PM.
Because Se-hee was still a student, her working hours were from 10 AM to 3 PM. Waiting for her to get off, Ho-eun stepped outside the office.
Now it made sense why he hadn’t seen many people around the Guide Corporation. The internal facilities were so well-equipped that employees rarely had to move between floors—they just stayed on the one where they worked. Plus, there were fewer employees than the size of the building would suggest, making encounters even rarer.
“I’m done for the day!”
“Thanks for helping out. I’ll treat you to something good.”
“Hmm, how about heading to the Incheon branch and hitting up that chicken place we went to last time?”
“Incheon branch?”
“Yeah! You’re going to see Ryu Yoon-jae anyway, right? Let’s grab chicken with him after he finishes work.”
Se-hee, who’d chosen broadcast guiding, worked at the Guide Corporation HQ in Gyeongju, while Ryu Yoon-jae, who opted for direct guiding as a desk job, worked at the Esper Corporation’s Incheon branch medical center.
Since Ho-eun’s dormitory was also in the Incheon branch, he’d figured he could just catch Ryu whenever it was convenient—but after hearing Se-hee, he thought it’d be better to get all the video shooting done today.
“Sounds good. But why do you think Ryu Yoon-jae chose direct guiding?”
“Oh my gosh. You didn’t know? Even if it’s a desk job, direct guiding means you actually work while watching the Esper.”
“So…?”
“You remember that Esper who came in as your measurement partner? I think her name was Kim Han-seul?”
Ho-eun recalled the physical enhancement-type Esper he’d met before.
“If an Esper and a Guide don’t have at least a 40% resonance rate, they can’t be paired. And apparently, Han-seul hasn’t found a Guide she matches with yet—her resonance is a little unusual, I guess.”
“When did you find that out?”
“Oh, Han-seul and Ran are friends, so the three of us have a group chat. It’s just us girls. Want in?”
“No thanks! I was just curious. So Ryu Yoon-jae wanted to be Kim Han-seul’s partner Guide, huh?”
“Yup. He said he has a thing for sweet faces that look like they came straight out of a shoujo manga—long black hair and all.”
Ho-eun thought back to Han-seul’s first impression: long black hair, gentle eyes, a small but high-bridged nose, and lips that curled slightly at the corners. He’d never really read a shoujo manga before, but if he had to imagine what that looked like, she’d be it.
He totally fell for the ideal type.
“So yeah, I’m pretty sure he transferred to the medical center just to guide Kim Han-seul.”
While chatting away, they arrived at the elevator. Once it stopped at the 6th floor, Se-hee casually pressed the Incheon button among the elevator controls.
It was so natural that Ho-eun almost didn’t notice how weird it was to have city names on elevator buttons.
The elevator’s floor display zoomed upward—8, 9, 10… climbing past the number of actual floors in the Guide Corporation until it finally stopped at 100. Then the number switched to the text Incheon. The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out into the main building of the Incheon branch.
“Wait… Did we just take the elevator to the Incheon branch?”
“Yep! In the Guide Corporation, you can travel to the Esper Corporation through the elevator. But Espers can’t do the same to come here.”
“Wow…”
Ho-eun suddenly felt silly for trying to figure out how to travel between Gyeongju and Incheon. He’d even thought about asking an Esper for help, but one push of a button, and they were there in under a minute.
So the elevator was made with a crystal implant…
A strange bitterness welled up inside him.
The two exited the main building and headed for the front gate. Just before the exit, to the left, was the emergency medical center. It was a facility neither of them had visited before—typically used for treating injured Espers coming back from the field or for urgent guiding sessions.
Since they’d already contacted Ryu Yoon-jae, he was waiting in the lobby wearing a white coat. Ho-eun, already recording with the camera, waved with his free hand.
Ryu’s face flushed a deep red like a roasted sweet potato. Stiff as a robot, he motioned for them to follow him.
Inside the medical center, the first-floor guiding center had twenty curtained booths—ten on each side of a central hallway.
Each space had a bed, a table, and a chair. While the curtains offered visual privacy, they didn’t block sound, so if anything happened, those nearby would immediately hear it.
“Since the Guiding Center operates 24/7, we work in three shifts. Each station has an emergency call button linked to the security team. If a guide runs into trouble, the response team will be there within three minutes.”
The facility was spacious and comfortable. There was even a break room exclusively for Guides, with TVs, game consoles, and a small café—it looked like a great place to rest between sessions.
“Then… let’s, um, show an example of how… Espers use the facility.”
Ryu, already beet red, went to the reception desk. He blushed even harder when he spotted someone.
At this point, he’s not a roasted sweet potato anymore… He’s a whole volcano.
Curious about who could’ve turned Ryu into such a mess, Ho-eun turned to look—and saw Kim Han-seul brushing her hair behind her ear with a shy smile.
Sensing the charged atmosphere, Ho-eun watched the scene unfold like a drama.
“I, uh… told her that… Ho-eun was coming… to film… and she said she’d help, so… um… yeah. I brought her.”
“Please take good care of the promo video.”
Even on camera, Kim Han-seul’s serene beauty shone through. Ho-eun waved his phone up and down.
“You can either register for a guiding session in person at the reception desk or ahead of time using the app. The only difference is, the app randomly assigns a Guide, while in-person registration lets you request a specific Guide.”
The TV above the reception counter displayed a list of Guides currently available.
“I’d like to request Guide Ryu Yoon-jae, please.”
“Alright. You’re all set.”
Once Han-seul finished registering, Ryu checked his phone.
“When you’re selected, you receive info on the Esper—current status, guiding percentage, and whether they have upcoming missions. That helps you decide how much to raise the guiding level.”
Inside the Guiding Center, Ryu greeted Han-seul like it was their first time meeting. It was clearly a staged example for the video, but it was so cute that Ho-eun couldn’t help but smile.
The half-open curtain indicated the booth was unoccupied. Han-seul and Ryu stepped inside, drawing the curtain fully closed.
Han-seul lay back slightly on the medical bed, while Ryu sat beside her on the auxiliary chair, holding her hands tightly in both of his.
“As the guiding begins, the Guide’s watch shows the Esper’s guiding percentage rising. If a preset target is reached, an alert will go off.”
“Cut. Great work, everyone! I think we’ve got more than enough.”
