# Chapter 21
Hajin wrapped the picture frame in clothes to prevent it from breaking, closed his suitcase, and went into the living room.
“I’m all done.”
“Are you sure that’s enough to pack?” Cha Jinwoo asked.
Hajin nodded in response.
“I can buy anything else I need later when necessary.”
“Then let’s just go shopping now while we’re talking about it, hyung!”
What…? When Hajin came to his senses, he found himself standing in a department store, blinking at the current situation.
He had merely said that it wasn’t a bad idea, but before he knew it, he was bundled into a car as if being kidnapped and arrived at the department store.
The department store was completely empty, making him wonder if they had somehow managed to reserve the entire place in such a short time.
Then suddenly, when someone said they would buy him household items as a commemoration of becoming a team, it devolved into a competition of sorts, with everyone scooping up “gifts” as if in a race.
“How about this?”
Han Seungho ran over to Hajin, who was still sitting dazed on a chair that had appeared from somewhere, with an excited face to show him what he had chosen.
“Why would I need a dehumidifier?”
It was even quite large. And he was strong too. To just carry it over like that.
Unaware that Hajin’s voice sounded a bit bewildered, Han Seungho answered proudly.
“It feels uncomfortable when it’s humid.”
That was true. But it wasn’t summer yet, and even if it were, given Hajin’s tendency to avoid unnecessary spending, a dehumidifier would clearly be useless.
“If it feels uncomfortable, I can just turn on the air conditioner.”
It didn’t make sense to buy a separate dehumidifier when the air conditioner already had a dehumidifying function.
“Hmph.”
Having received a rejection from Hajin, Han Seungho trudged back with the dehumidifier like a child returning a toy to the shelf.
Before Hajin could even sigh at the sight, Baek Jaan approached next.
“Hajin hyung, how about this?”
“A bedding set. Don’t they already have those at the quarters?”
At Hajin’s words, Baek Jaan smiled shyly.
“I wanted you to use something I bought for you.”
“…Please pick something else.”
“Aww.”
Hajin remained firm despite Baek Jaan’s drooping eyebrows and pitiful act. While a bedding set was quite a normal choice, how could he use it comfortably after hearing something like that?
He understood that his guiding was good, but at times like this, it was a little—no, quite a lot—burdensome.
“Hyung! Hyung!”
This time it was Lee Doyoon. Should he be grateful they were coming one by one?
“Doesn’t this look really good?”
“…It’s a gaming console.”
“It’s the newest model! It has two-player mode—want to play together?”
Hajin pondered how to respond. He had never played games before.
In that sense, compared to what the previous two had brought, this was the most useless. But seeing Doyoon’s excited face with sparkling eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to put it back.
Unlike Han Seungho and Baek Jaan, who gave off a distinctly adult male vibe, Doyoon still had a childlike quality to him, which made Hajin less harsh with him than he had been with the other two.
‘He seems to have brought what he thought would be the best…’
Plus, given that he was asking to play together, he clearly thought Hajin would enjoy the game too.
Even without that, Doyoon was already the youngest member, nearly ten years younger than Hajin. Thinking that he must have put thought into his selection, Hajin couldn’t bring himself to say no.
“…It looks fun. Let’s play together sometime.”
In the end, Hajin couldn’t be cold-hearted. Regardless of whether one had siblings, how many people could reject a gift chosen by someone nine years younger?
When his gift was approved, Doyoon grinned with delight.
“Hajin-ssi. Doyoon is here too. What did you choose…?”
Seeing the gaming console in Doyoon’s hands, Cha Jinwoo shifted his gaze to meet Hajin’s eyes. His look seemed to ask if that was really okay.
Detecting the meaning in his gaze, Hajin nodded, and Cha Jinwoo also nodded as his voice trailed off.
“As long as Hajin-ssi likes it, that’s fine.”
Though he was a cool and strict team leader, even Cha Jinwoo couldn’t be harsh to the team’s youngest member, who was ten years his junior, in moments like this.
“What did the team leader pick?” Doyoon asked.
At his question, Hajin also looked at him expectantly. Considering the image he had shown so far, Cha Jinwoo was the one Hajin had the highest expectations for. However, there was nothing in his hands.
“Haven’t you chosen anything yet?”
“I have. But it was too much to carry, so I arranged for it to be delivered to the quarters.”
“What did you choose?”
“Clothes.”
Cha Jinwoo’s gaze turned to Hajin.
“Seeing the small size of your suitcase, it didn’t seem like you had many clothes. So I picked out a few outfits. I didn’t have time to leisurely choose designs, so I selected them myself. Is that alright?”
“Of course. I’m in no position to be picky as the recipient. I was thinking I needed to buy clothes anyway since most of what I have are formal suits, so this worked out well.”
This wasn’t just empty words—it was genuinely the most appealing gift among all the candidates so far. As for the design, there was no way Cha Jinwoo would pick something strange or bizarre, so there was nothing to worry about.
Cha Jinwoo’s gift also received a passing grade. Now only Han Seungho and Baek Jaan needed to choose gifts…
After sending them away multiple times for failing to match Hajin’s taste, it was Hajin who finally gave up.
Whether they were doing it on purpose or genuinely lacked sense, both Han Seungho and Baek Jaan kept bringing items that made their initial choices look better in comparison, exhausting Hajin.
Honestly, while he might understand it from Han Seungho, Hajin couldn’t shake the feeling that Baek Jaan was doing this deliberately. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have smiled so brightly the moment Hajin agreed to the bedding set.
Hajin felt uneasy, but he was too tired to wrestle with it anymore.
‘At least now I can rest when we get back.’
However, when Hajin returned to the quarters and entered his room, he let out a deep sigh at the sight of shopping bags filling every inch of space, leaving no room to step.
Even Cha Jinwoo, whom he had thought was relatively normal, turned out to be just like the others.
* * *
After spending three full days organizing his belongings, Hajin visited the training center again.
It was remarkable how those four people had made him think that returning to the training center after just three days was the better option.
This time, he came alone by car after stopping them from following him. As Hajin arrived at the training center, before even entering the building, he raised an eyebrow at the person blocking his path.
It was the young Guide who had previously confronted Hajin.
“I’m sorry, but what was your name again?”
Noticing from Hajin’s calm attitude that he didn’t have the slightest interest in him, Han Jiwoo gritted his teeth and replied.
“…Han Jiwoo.”
“I’m Lee Hajin.”
Hajin naturally extended his hand for a handshake, but Han Jiwoo ignored it completely as if he couldn’t see it.
“Come with me for a moment.”
Then, without waiting for a response, he strode off. Hajin let out a small sigh at the behavior—charitably described as confident and honest, but frankly just rude.
‘Should I just ignore him?’
The thought crossed his mind unconsciously, but it wasn’t a bad idea. However, whether he liked it or not, this was someone he would have to deal with in the future, and if he ignored him now, there was no telling what kind of tantrum he might throw.
Even if it seemed unfair, it was better not to give him anything to latch onto by getting involved in such incidents.
‘Sigh, what am I doing with this child?’
In the end, Hajin followed Han Jiwoo, who was already far ahead. He couldn’t help but think he had made the right decision to arrive earlier than the class time.
Han Jiwoo led Hajin to a secluded spot where people rarely came.
Had this been a movie, this would be the part where Hajin gets knocked out from behind and kidnapped, so he rolled his eyes and looked around just in case.
Meanwhile, Han Jiwoo finally stopped walking and turned around. His glare was so fierce that Hajin wondered if there was some past history between them that he couldn’t remember.
“I came to warn you.”
“Warn me?”
Han Jiwoo, gnawing at his lips as if something was so infuriating, began to speak.
“From now on, it would be better for you to mind your own business and take care of what’s yours, rather than being interested in what belongs to others.”
At this baseless warning, Hajin couldn’t help but sigh deeply. Lee Suyeon had mentioned it, but hadn’t he already guessed?
That just as Espers become obsessed with their Guides, Guides also become obsessed with their Espers.
In a place where treatment varies according to ability, to prove one’s abilities, one needed to guide more exceptional Espers—so he could understand the obsessive mindset.
“Are you listening? I’m talking to you and you’re not responding.”
However, Hajin couldn’t understand why he was being dragged into this situation just because Han Jiwoo wanted to act according to his own greed.
Despite calling him childish, Hajin simply couldn’t understand how an adult male, not even a minor, could behave so immaturely.
“Do you not see Espers as people?”
What angered Hajin most was Han Jiwoo’s attitude of viewing Espers merely as means to prove his own abilities.
If he had asked Hajin not to guide a specific Esper that he liked, Hajin might have nodded after some consideration.
After all, he had learned painfully through the Alpha Team how the Espers reacted after being guided by him.
But Han Jiwoo was acting like a child who licks something to claim it as his own.
Like a child who, already overwhelmed with holding too many things, drops them everywhere yet still shouts that everything belongs to him.
‘If he were actually a child, it might be cute.’
But this was a man as big and dark as Hajin himself behaving this way, which was just irritating.
Normally, Hajin would have just said “sure, sure” to avoid creating conflict, but people are more influenced by their environment than they realize.
No matter how easygoing one’s personality might be, who wouldn’t be stressed in a situation where they had to abandon everything they had built overnight and start anew?
The same was true for Hajin. No matter how high his rank or how well he was treated, his entire living environment had changed against his will.
Even though Hajin was older and had more social experience, it was still difficult to keep enduring and letting things slide.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
