“You’ll be meeting the interns who arrived a day before you, Kwon Ho-eun. Including you, there are three new recruits this term. The class above you has seven members, and they’ll soon be becoming full-time employees, so if you have any questions, you can approach them.”
Paul explained that for about a week, they’d be receiving theoretical training on what it means to be a Guide and an Esper. Ho-eun was relieved to hear they wouldn’t be thrown into work right away.
The two of them moved to a different location—what appeared to be the largest building within the premises.
Unlike the quiet atmosphere at the Guide Corporation yesterday, this place had an entirely different vibe. It wasn’t still or silent—real employees bustled about everywhere, visibly working.
The staff wore typical office attire and ID badges, with lanyards in either blue or black.
As they stepped into the first-floor lobby, there was an elevator in the back. This time, Paul seemed uninterested in riding up with him, instead taking a step back and looking at Ho-eun.
“This is where I leave you. The fifth floor is the training facility for new Guides, so from now on, you’ll be coming here.”
“Thank you for showing me the way.”
“It’s my job. I’ll see you again, Kwon Ho-eun.”
Without a second thought, Paul vanished in front of Ho-eun using his ability.
“So he was holding off on using his power just to guide me around.”
In hindsight, he could’ve come straight from the dorm to the training center, but Paul had taken the time to show him around the branch office. Grateful for the gesture, Ho-eun made a mental note to return the favor if the opportunity arose.
And by “return the favor,” he didn’t mean kissing the back of Paul’s hand like yesterday—buying him a cup of coffee sounded more appropriate.
Ding—
Ho-eun stepped out onto the fifth floor and opened the door at the end of the hallway marked .
The moment he entered, it felt like he’d gone back to his college days. A wide platform stood at the front, and in front of it were desks and chairs arranged just like a lecture hall.
The training hadn’t started yet; the podium was empty, but a man and woman already seated turned to look at him simultaneously.
“Hello!”
“Good morning!!”
“Ah… Hello.”
Caught off guard by the upbeat greetings, Ho-eun felt relieved. These people didn’t seem like bad company.
Seeing the two seated side-by-side in the spacious training room, Ho-eun naturally took a seat next to them.
The three exchanged brief introductions.
The girl’s name was Kim Se-hee. She looked young—and indeed, she was just seventeen. Apparently, she was scouted during a school physical exam. Despite her soft, puppy-like eyes and short bobbed hair, her loud voice and energetic gestures gave off serious beagle energy.
The boy beside her, who offered a shy smile, was named Ryu Yoon-jae. With tan skin, thick eyebrows, and a sturdy build, Ho-eun assumed he worked out—but it turned out Yoon-jae managed several farms out in the countryside.
He, too, had been scouted by the Guide Corporation during a routine health check in his village.
Ho-eun fell silent after hearing their stories.
‘So that ridiculous job posting from the Guide Corporation was a trap set just for me.’
He’d been wondering how Guides were recruited—it really was all tied to health checks.
Unlike the others who were drafted against their will, Ho-eun had all but marched into the Guide Corporation holding his medical report like a flag. He might as well have begged to be devoured by a tiger.
“I’m Kwon Ho-eun. I submitted my résumé to the Guide Corporation and ended up here.”
After introductions, the three naturally drifted into casual conversation.
None of them seemed to fully understand what a Guide was or what this place even did, but judging by the facilities and scale, they didn’t think it was shady either. Ho-eun agreed with that assessment.
When he asked what training they’d received on the first day, the content seemed roughly on par with what Ho-eun had read online the night before.
Starting today, they were supposed to dive into what guiding actually entailed.
Creak—
Right on cue, the door opened, and a man who appeared to be the training supervisor walked in.
He had sky-blue hair in loose curls. His gentle eyes and upturned lips gave him a serene, approachable air, even without expression.
After greeting them, the man handed each of them a booklet. Its title read The Sensible Guide Life.
“Sensible,” huh…
Curiosity piqued, Ho-eun flipped open the booklet. The opening pages were densely packed with text detailing the origins of Guides.
Flipping further, he came across a section that looked straight out of a health class—it was all about sexual contact.
“……?”
Just as confusion began to rise, the trainer’s voice rang out.
“Since we have someone new today, let me introduce myself again. I’m Haneul, your Guide training instructor. This week, we’ll be focusing on guiding theory. Next week, you’ll receive practical training on how to actually guide.”
Haneul glanced at Ho-eun and smiled warmly, his voice fluttering like a butterfly’s wing. It matched his delicate appearance perfectly.
“Ah, and I should give you a heads-up. Next Friday, as part of your practical, you’ll be expected to perform a guiding session on an actual Esper. So within the next two weeks, each of you will need to get close to an Esper and bring them in as your practice partner.”
“Huh?!”
A startled voice rose up beside him.
“You want us to bring an Esper?”
‘How the hell are interns like us supposed to convince an Esper to come here?! Espers are too busy running around protecting people!’
As if reading their minds, the instructor handed each of the three a company ID with a yellow lanyard.
“Guide interns wear yellow ID badges. If you have this on, Espers around you will assist you. Since the Incheon branch is home to many Espers and serves as a hub for mission transfers, it won’t be as hard to meet them as you might think. Now then, let’s begin the theory class.”
Despite his gentle appearance, Haneul wasted no time after the announcement and dove straight into the lesson.
Ho-eun stared at his badge. It displayed the ID photo he’d submitted with his résumé. Below it were his name and rank—each of them marked with a “D-”.
“One of the other interns who started earlier told me: all interns begin at D-. It changes after you take a rank test, but having a high rank isn’t necessarily a good thing. If your rank is too high, you might get assigned to departments with higher risk.”
Whether she was just perceptive or good at reading the room, Kim Se-hee quietly explained what Ho-eun had been wondering without him having to ask.
‘If it’s a high-risk department, the odds of needing to write a will probably go up too.’
The “D-” reminded him of his old college GPA, but in this case, it seemed the lower the better.
Ho-eun looped the badge around his neck. Just wearing it made him feel like an actual employee. With his curiosity satisfied, he focused on the lesson.
Guiding was laughably mundane—almost too ordinary for something labeled as a “state secret” by many nations.
Guiding was simply the flow of gi (life energy) from within the Guide. Guides unconsciously released this gi, which healed Espers who absorbed it.
However, unconscious guiding had its limits due to its passive nature. Because the gi was released involuntarily, only a small amount was emitted.
In order to use broadcast-type guiding consciously, one needed intense concentration and the ability to sense the gi inside their body—like a martial arts protagonist training under a waterfall, asking themselves, Who am I? What is the energy inside me? But since nobody could realistically undergo that kind of training, this was where a different form of unconscious guiding came in: direct guiding.
Direct guiding involved physical contact with an Esper. Simply touching them provided a healing effect on par with focused broadcast guiding.
The content itself wasn’t complicated, but if guiding was kept secret for any reason, it was likely due to the ethical dilemmas surrounding direct guiding.
The more a Guide touched an Esper, the stronger the guiding became. Moreover, the Guide’s emotional state influenced the effect—when the Guide felt good, the guiding improved. This sometimes led to healing-based contact being mistaken—or misused—as sexual in nature.
As such, Guides had to clearly distinguish between healing and sexual contact, and forcing guiding without the Guide’s consent was punishable under international Guide law.
After a lunch break and two more hours of training, the session ended around 3 p.m.
Haneul told them they were free to explore the area and observe how Guides and Espers lived.
“Ah, and one more thing. Each month, one million won in welfare points will be added to your ID card. You can use it like a debit card at any store within the complex.”
‘This whole place runs like a circus, but when it comes to benefits, it’s like a proper public institution.’
After exchanging numbers with the other two interns, Ho-eun parted ways with them.
The compound was large—he figured it would take a while to explore it all.
“Still… where the hell am I supposed to find an Esper?”
Feeling the weight of the daunting task, Ho-eun stepped outside and wandered down a well-maintained path. Just then, he rubbed his eyes, unsure if he was seeing things.
Three people wearing yellow badges like his were cornering a man who wasn’t wearing any badge at all.
The scene looked disturbingly familiar—like a group of high schoolers loitering outside a convenience store, harassing an adult to buy them cigarettes.
The three interns looked small and immature, while the man they were surrounding towered over even Ho-eun’s 182 cm height. Yet, the man remained hunched over, quietly enduring it all.
“Hey, don’t touch him with your hands. You’ll accidentally snatch his guiding.”
“You’re already stealing his broadcast guiding. It’s disgusting.”
Yellow badges were for interns—Ho-eun remembered that clearly. Since neither Kim Se-hee nor Ryu Yoon-jae were present, he figured these must be the senior interns Paul mentioned earlier.
They were poking the larger man with sticks, and his black pants were smeared with dirt and shoe prints.
Judging by his build, the man could easily overpower them—but he just stood there, silently taking it. It made no sense.
“Shifok**, if it were me, I’d be on my knees begging, Please, guide me just a little. Who knows? Maybe they’d give you some extra time.”
“……”
The mention of “guiding” confirmed it—these were definitely the senior interns Paul had talked about that morning. The man being bullied wasn’t wearing a badge, so it was unclear whether he was a Guide or an Esper.
“Hey, what’s your exact time left, huh? You don’t even have a partner Guide, so you’ll probably explode during a berserk episode and die, right? Just drop your core and be done with it already!”
“Hahahaha!”
One intern spat venom, and the others laughed in agreement.
Ho-eun glanced around. There were quite a few people walking by. Some wore blue badges, others black—but not a single one intervened.
‘What kind of damn company lets this kind of workplace bullying go unchecked?’
Was this what Haneul meant by “look around and see how Guides and Espers live”? Was he trying to show them that being a Guide meant having the power to abuse others?
“Hey, Shifok**. You ignoring us? Huh? You think you can ignore us just ‘cause we’re interns?”
“As if. We’re about to go full-time anyway.”
The man, who had been standing silently, let out a quiet sigh and finally lifted his bowed head.
“……Huh?”
From across the path, Ho-eun’s eyes locked with the man’s the moment he raised his head.
‘It’s him.’
As their gazes met, those golden amber eyes stirred something deep inside him. His heart dropped with a heavy thud, just like last time.
**Note: Shifok is an abbreviation within the Esper/Guide community, shorthand for “시간폭주자” (shigan pokjuja), which translates to “time limit berserker”.
