“Both of you, that’s enough. What do you think the younger staff are going to think, watching you two go at it like this?”
Though Eom Tae-seok didn’t raise his voice, it held a commanding presence that instantly drew attention.
Bae Yeon-woo and Eom Seong-chan glared at each other like sparks flying, then turned away at the same time.
“This matter is critical to the HR Department’s reputation. Can you imagine what people would say if HR missed an Esper candidate? That hasn’t happened once in the past twenty years.”
The wrinkles already creased across Eom Tae-seok’s forehead deepened with a grimace.
“As you know, our department is the first point of contact for Guides and Espers.”
At some point, Kang Him-chan had fired up the projector, now casting onto the conference room wall. He opened an Excel spreadsheet linked from his laptop, displaying statistical data.
“When it comes to Guides, we identify them based on elevated hemoglobin levels during routine blood tests. Every hospital is required to input those values into the medical program distributed by the Guide Corporation, and that data is shared with the Corporation. Unless someone’s never been to a hospital in their life, it’s practically impossible to miss a Guide.”
They were all familiar with this. Kim Se-hee, Ryu Yoon-jae, and even Ho-eun had essentially become Guides because of a single test result.
“Guide manifestation doesn’t follow a set age, and there are no external characteristics that accompany it. It’s not easy to detect with just blood levels alone.”
Eom Tae-seok gave Ho-eun, who sat upright with perfect posture, a sidelong glance and continued.
“Soon, we’ll have a dedicated Guide examination. That means Espers won’t have to go around testing for resonance directly anymore. It’ll be a much smoother process.”
Kang Him-chan closed the stats window and opened a thesis filled with Japanese text.
“Let’s move on to Espers. You’re all aware that Esper manifestation happens in two stages, right? The first manifestation occurs in individuals with similar Esper genetic markers. These individuals tend to be physically gifted, with faster recovery rates compared to average people.”
Ho-eun nodded, recalling hearing about this at some point.
“In Japan, there was once an Esper capable of manipulating waveforms. He discovered that Espers and ordinary people emit different waves. That led to the development of a wave detector that can sense Esper frequencies. It’s now used to distinguish second-stage manifesters from the first.”
“So, the second-stage manifesters are actual Espers?”
Ho-eun, who’d been quietly listening, tilted his head and asked.
“If the detector were 100% accurate, yes. But it turns out the device doesn’t actually detect Espers—it detects something called the zone state.”
“The zone state?”
“Yes. It’s a state where the muscles are perfectly balanced between tension and relaxation, and concentration peaks. Humans enter that state when they’re at their most focused. Now, Espers maintain that state constantly, but there are people who enter it temporarily—like elite athletes.”
Zone state? It was a term Ho-eun had never heard before.
“Anyone determined to be in the second manifestation stage is classified as an Esper candidate and placed under HR Department observation.”
“Do you have any idea how busy our department is? HR has the most staff out of any team.”
Photos of around twenty people of varying ages and genders appeared on the screen.
“These are individuals currently identified as second-stage manifesters—Esper candidates. Anyone who exhibits signs of ability use during observation is marked as a Special Monitoring Subject.”
This time, images of a young girl and a man with a long scar over his left eye came up.
“When Esper abilities are visually obvious, it’s easy to confirm awakening. But when the ability isn’t visible, we have to monitor them in real-time. Like these two here.”
“Excuse me, but wouldn’t a Guide be able to tell if someone’s awakened just by initiating direct contact guiding?”
Ho-eun felt like his brain was about to explode from all this technical explanation. A Guide could sense if their guiding energy drained into an Esper upon contact. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be easier to confirm awakening through direct guiding rather than all this observation?
“That’s a good point. But Espers before awakening don’t require guiding. In their incomplete state, they can still use abilities without a Guide. It’s only after full awakening that a Guide can detect it.”
“Oh…”
As Ho-eun’s little head bobbed in understanding, Do In-ho instinctively reached out and patted the back of his head.
“To gather irrefutable evidence, we designate them as Special Monitoring Subjects. But lately, several of these subjects have been vanishing without a trace.”
“There were three more Special Monitoring Subjects besides these two. All of them disappeared around 63 Square. It’s clearly the work of anti-government Espers!”
Kang Him-chan spoke in a booming voice, practically seething.
“Those bastards have had us pulling overtime for two months straight… Ugh! I can’t take it anymore!”
His fury was so intense, one might think he had a personal grudge against the anti-government faction. But he had his reasons.
Kang Him-chan had always been ambitious. Since becoming a Guide, he’d set his sights on making it all the way to an executive position within HR.
The HR Department was one of the most influential teams in the Guide Corporation, and Eom Tae-seok was a well-respected figure even internally.
Determined to succeed, Kang Him-chan threw himself into his work with passion. But endless overtime was driving him insane. He needed time to exercise, study foreign languages, and strategize for combat using Ability Products—but the overtime had wrecked all of it.
To make matters worse, their team leader had taken a month-long leave for family reasons, forcing Kang Him-chan to report the issue to upper management himself and request support from PR.
He didn’t care what kind of mess had gone down between HR and PR.
All that mattered to him was ending the overtime. Even Eom Seong-chan glaring at him like he wanted to murder him couldn’t scare him right now.
“Tsk. When a Team Lead’s incompetent, it’s the Guides who suffer.”
Bae Yeon-woo patted Kang Him-chan’s shoulder sympathetically. His saccharine voice dripped with mock concern as he threw a cold glance at Eom Seong-chan.
“Can’t believe things fell apart like this just because I was gone.”
Eom Tae-seok also gave Eom Seong-chan a disappointed look.
“Uncle! I’m doing my best too!”
It was expected, given the surname, but it was now confirmed: Eom Tae-seok and Eom Seong-chan were related. That explained why Bae Yeon-woo kept referring to him as Nephew.
“Pfft. Your ‘best’ is a joke.”
“What?! You little—!”
At Bae Yeon-woo’s sneer, Eom Seong-chan’s neck bulged with veins as he shouted. His voice was so loud, it pierced the walls of the conference room.
“You’ve still got nothing but a loud mouth.”
“Oh, and what are you so great at?”
“Me? I’m great at everything.”
Bae Yeon-woo grabbed the laptop in front of Kang Him-chan and pulled up the list of second-stage manifesters.
“Twenty second-stage manifesters. Three of them—Special Monitoring Subjects—vanished without a trace after the 63 Square incident. As a Team Lead, shouldn’t you have noticed something off?”
“What?”
“How did the anti-government group know exactly who to abduct? What if there’s a mole helping them on the inside?”
“Don’t—don’t be ridiculous! Did you forget about Zigmunt?!”
“Don’t blow a gasket. Is shouting the only thing you’re good at? Zigmunt’s ability is impressive, sure, but if he betrayed us after joining the company, it’d be meaningless.”
Ho-eun leaned over to Nam Woon-soo and whispered, asking who Zigmunt was.
“Y-you’ve seen him before, Mr. Ho-eun… He’s the Esper who can r-read people’s thoughts… Before joining the company… he’d meet incoming Guides and Espers…”
Nam Woon-soo’s explanation made Ho-eun recall a man who’d come to his house and taken him to the interview site. He had definitely come with Paul, which meant he was HR.
Reading thoughts? Ho-eun mentally scanned through the thoughts he’d had that day, wondering if anything weird had slipped out.
“I thought the same thing as Assistant Manager Yeon-woo.”
Eom Seong-chan was about to accuse Bae Yeon-woo of making things up but fell silent as Eom Tae-seok interjected.
“Zigmunt’s been away on a business trip since last Saturday. He won’t be back until next week. But one thing’s certain—if there were a traitor in HR, Zigmunt would’ve already sniffed them out.”
“Exactly! There might be idiots in HR, but there are no traitors!”
“Idiots?”
Eom Seong-chan tilted his head, as if he misheard. Kang Him-chan quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
“Gah—forget I said that.”
“I’ll let it slide this once.”
“I’ll handle the traitor investigation personally.”
Eom Tae-seok, who’d been quietly listening, ended the conversation as if making a decision.
“Then… since you’re here now, sir… what should we do moving forward…?”
“Hmm… Since HQ already approved the joint operation, we have no choice but to proceed. I’m also curious to see how much you’ve all grown.”
As Eom Tae-seok looked over at Bae Yeon-woo, the latter couldn’t hold his gaze for long.
“Dear, share the information we have on the Special Monitoring Subjects.”
“Yes, sir! According to last week’s reports, the young girl appears to have an ability related to the future. She once convinced her mother to buy a scratch-off ticket, saying something good would happen at the lottery shop—and they won. She also avoided falling debris at a construction site, as if she knew it was coming. We need more observation to determine whether this is coincidence or a true ability.”
The word “lottery” snagged Ho-eun’s attention. If she wasn’t an Esper, she was one hell of a lucky kid.
“The second subject’s ability is still unknown. But everyone who’s encountered him reported having blissful dreams—and ended up giving him money afterward.”
As Kang Him-chan finished his report, Eom Tae-seok finally spoke again.
“If we expect anti-government interference, we’ll need to mix PR personnel into the HR field team.”
“Agreed! PR has four people, so we can split into pairs.”
The meeting was clearly wrapping up.
“How is the observation currently being handled?”
“The girl is being monitored by Paul. I’m in charge of the boy. The PR team has verified both subjects.”
Hearing this, Ho-eun figured Bae Yeon-woo would be paired with Paul.
Since he and Eom Seong-chan didn’t get along, putting them together would just lead to more fighting.
“Then let’s assign the Guides. The girl goes to Bae Yeon-woo—”
“No. I’ll work with Team Leader Eom Seong-chan.”
Bae Yeon-woo’s answer caught Ho-eun completely off guard.
“It’s clear the boy is more dangerous. We can’t assign someone like that to a rookie Guide.”
It was a far more reasonable answer than expected. Ho-eun had half-hoped Bae Yeon-woo would say something like, “I’ll flatten his pride” or “Time to prove I’m better.”
As they say, the most entertaining things in life are fires and fights.
And just like that, Ho-eun found himself thoroughly invested in their drama.
