Goal: Removing the First Obstacle (5)
Sa Hae-geon and I entered the center building and headed straight for the examination room. Since he had overused his abilities causing severe wave distortion, we needed to check more thoroughly than after the first dungeon.
But standing in front of the examination room door, I suddenly felt like running away. I was anxious about hearing that his waves were in a seriously worse condition compared to before entering the dungeon.
What if something happened to Sa Hae-geon that made even my Guiding ineffective? I felt like my ankles were caught in groundless fear.
I didn’t want to see Sa Hae-geon suffering without being able to receive Guiding. At some point, I had begun desperately hoping that Sa Hae-geon’s waves would be calmed and stabilized by my Guiding.
As I stood blankly in front of the examination room door, Sa Hae-geon seemed to sense something was wrong and carefully called out to me.
“…Hyung?”
“Ah… yeah. What?”
“Why are you just standing there? Don’t you want to go in? Or are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Sa Hae-geon’s face was quite serious as he asked in an urgent tone. I had so much I wanted to say about his attitude being more sensitive about my condition than his own, but I swallowed my words.
“No. I’m fine. I just had something to think about for a moment. Let’s go in quickly and get you examined.”
“Yes. You’re getting examined too, right?”
“Me? Why would I?”
“You’re not?”
“Guides don’t really need examinations unless there was something uncomfortable during Guiding. Examinations are mostly for Espers.”
Sa Hae-geon furrowed his eyebrows as if my words were strange, but he nodded. Since his expression suggested he’d let it go for now, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Let’s stop arguing and go in.”
“Yes.”
Inside the examination room, seven other Espers were waiting for their examinations. Most had faces I’d rarely seen before.
“Hello. Will it take long?”
“There are quite a few Espers waiting, so you’ll probably need to wait about two hours. Is it urgent?”
The thought of a kid who had collapsed in the dungeon having to wait two hours for an examination was unacceptable. I answered the doctor in a very concerned tone.
“Ah… well, Hae-geon overused his abilities in an A-class dungeon and lost consciousness. He said he felt a headache too. I think there were slight signs of runaway precursor symptoms, but I’ve provided Guiding for now. Hae-geon says he feels better than before.”
“What?”
“Well, I guess we could wait about two hours…”
“No, that’s a serious matter! If there were precursor symptoms, you know he should be examined as a top priority!”
The doctor, speaking in a surprised voice, looked around at the waiting Espers.
“I’ll need your understanding on this.”
“…”
“Why no response? You all know how terrifying ability runaway is, don’t you? Surely it’s not difficult to yield your place?”
The Espers looked at Sa Hae-geon and me with reluctant gazes, but finally responded after the doctor’s urging, making a fuss.
“…Yes? Of course not. Please go ahead with the examination.”
“Yes, that’s right. Please go first.”
“Yes, yes. Our situations aren’t that urgent.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you for yielding. I’d prefer to keep the order if possible, but the precursor symptoms make me cautious.”
“Oh, we understand. Don’t feel burdened and take your time with the examination!”
“Yes, thank you. Hae-geon, you should thank them too.”
“Thank you.”
I laid Sa Hae-geon, who was nodding, on the examination bed and sat in the chair next to it. Then I smiled back at the Espers who were awkwardly smiling in our direction. They scratched the backs of their heads, exchanged glances with each other, and hurriedly sat back down in the waiting chairs.
Perhaps feeling jealous that I was looking at them, Sa Hae-geon hooked his finger with mine.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not that serious, you know.”
“Hae-geon.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have the right to say that.”
“…Yes.”
At my rebuke, Sa Hae-geon closed his mouth with a quiet response. Since he must have a conscience, he probably understood completely. I glanced at Sa Hae-geon, who was watching me carefully but not letting go of my hand, as I waited for the examination to begin.
* * *
The next morning, all members of Field Team 1 gathered in the meeting room. I swallowed a sigh as I looked at Sa Hae-geon sitting next to Esper Lee Cheol-min. We had received Sa Hae-geon’s examination results yesterday evening. Fortunately, the results were good, but since his waves hadn’t completely returned to normal, the doctor advised caution when using abilities for a while.
I wondered if Sa Hae-geon properly remembered that fact, as he had the most excited face in the meeting gathered to capture Shin Woo-jun.
The lights in the meeting room went out, and the beam projector was aimed at the whiteboard. Jong-hyeok hyung stood in front of the whiteboard where the PowerPoint slides were being projected. The meeting room, which had been filled with laughter and chatter until just a moment ago, fell silent.
Jong-hyeok hyung looked around at the team members briefly before speaking.
“I’ll now begin the meeting about the plan to arrest Shin Woo-jun.”
As the PowerPoint screen moved to the next slide, hyung began the main discussion.
“First, Shin Woo-jun doesn’t have a Guide with a high match rate. Even if he did, it would only be Jeon Ju-hwan, whom we’re already protecting. Because of this, Shin Woo-jun’s waves are likely very unstable right now.”
“Yes.”
“We need to take advantage of that. So it would be good to provoke Shin Woo-jun and encourage him to use his abilities as much as possible.”
Esper Lee Seong-rok, who had been listening to Jong-hyeok hyung, raised his hand. When Jong-hyeok hyung gave him a nod, he voiced his concern.
“What if Shin Woo-jun goes into runaway mode?”
“Good question. We can use artifacts made from dungeon byproducts for that. They’re effective for preparing against Shin Woo-jun going into runaway mode because they momentarily suppress abilities and cause unconsciousness.”
“Oh, there’s such a thing? Then why not just use that artifact from the beginning instead of doing it the hard way?”
In response to Esper Hwang Ji-hyun’s words, hyung shrugged and answered.
“It’s quite expensive to use recklessly.”
“…Ah, budget issues. Then I understand. Okay.”
The other team members were also nodding their heads and laughing. But the main part of the meeting was just beginning.
“Now I’ll explain the approximate location and characteristics of the hideout where Shin Woo-jun is hiding.”
With those words, the team members’ faces became serious. Sa Hae-geon in particular participated quite earnestly, even offering plausible opinions in response to Jong-hyeok hyung’s questions. I was puzzled why he was trying so hard when he wasn’t even fully recovered.
As the meeting was drawing to a close, Esper Hwang Ji-hyun suddenly stood up and exclaimed.
“How about a team dinner to celebrate the youngest’s first meeting participation?”
“What?”
“What are we celebrating?”
“It’s not about celebrating. She just wants to have a team dinner. She wants to drink.”
“Youngest, do you want to go to the team dinner too?”
At Esper Hwang Ji-hyun’s question, Sa Hae-geon glanced at me. Honestly, judging by Sa Hae-geon’s personality, I thought he would hate such gatherings, but it was strange that he was checking my reaction.
Could he actually be curious about the team dinner? I quietly waited for Sa Hae-geon’s answer. After studying my expression, Sa Hae-geon finally gave his answer.
“I’d like that.”
“Right? See, the youngest wants to go too! Seriously, my only crime is noticing the youngest’s feelings before anyone else!”
“Oh my, I’m sure that’s the case. Team Leader, what should we do?”
“Isn’t it a bit early for a team dinner? We still need to catch Shin Woo-jun… Let’s have a team dinner with peace of mind after catching Shin Woo-jun.”
“What are you saying? Let’s boost morale with a team dinner today and then deal with Shin Woo-jun tomorrow!”
The meeting room was suddenly filled with opinions that were completely different from the meeting’s topic. As the team members began to divide into those strongly advocating for the dinner and those wanting to postpone it, Jong-hyeok hyung finally spoke up.
“Everyone, stop.”
At his voice, which seemed to be suppressing anger, the team members who had been loudly voicing their opinions closed their mouths and watched for his reaction.
“We still have a lot to do. We need to catch Shin Woo-jun and prepare for the S-class dungeon. It’s too early to talk about a team dinner right now.”
“…Yes.”
“We can have a team dinner after dealing with both Shin Woo-jun and the S-class dungeon, and it won’t be too late.”
“Yes…”
“Tomorrow we’ll deal with Shin Woo-jun, and from the day after tomorrow, the personnel who will tackle the S-class dungeon together will enter an A-class dungeon to practice coordination. Everyone should take note of this.”
After clarifying the situation, Jong-hyeok hyung gave me a look and went outside. Since it seemed like he wanted me to follow, I carefully left the meeting room.
Hyung explained as he took me to Field Team 1’s office.
“I have some things to discuss about Hae-geon.”
As he said this and opened the office door, Jong-hyeok hyung’s face was quite serious.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
