# Chapter 38
Public interest in the large Rift faded as time passed. People were more drawn to provocative and entertaining issues in the entertainment and political worlds than to a Rift whose true nature they didn’t properly understand. Even the government seemed to have completely delegated all Rift-related matters to the NECC.
Seemingly peaceful days continued. At least on the surface.
“Heerim. Give me your hand.”
“…Yes.”
When I spoke as clinically as a nurse addressing a patient, Heerim extended his hand. I took it and performed the Guiding. Heerim, who would have once chattered nonstop during Guiding, now wore an inscrutable expression and said nothing. I was the same way.
Since that day, we had been maintaining professional boundaries as Guide and Esper. It was probably for the best. I no longer had to run from the confusing feelings that arose whenever I faced Heerim’s obsession with me.
“That’s done.”
As soon as the Guiding was complete, I released Heerim’s hand and stood up. I wanted to get out of this cramped break room as quickly as possible.
“Jaeo hyung!”
It was just as I was turning the doorknob. Heerim called out to me urgently. I stopped but instead of answering, I merely turned my head and looked at him with an indifferent gaze. When our eyes met, Heerim seemed to read my expression for a moment before shaking his head.
“…It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
I was curious about why Heerim had called me, but I deliberately showed no reaction and walked out.
In the office, Jeongmun sat alone playing a game on his laptop. Last time it was Gomoku, now it was Tetris. The Director, who had been here until just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s the Director? Did she step out again?”
“She went to the rooftop terrace for a smoke.”
“Ah.”
I nodded and sat at my desk. Heerim, whatever he was doing, still hadn’t come out of the break room.
He’s not crying, is he?
I glanced at the closed break room door and sighed. I was trying not to worry about Heerim, but it wasn’t working well. Reducing our conversations had the side effect of making me observe him more.
“Jeongmun. Are there any new requests?”
Trying to distract myself, I spoke to Jeongmun who was in the middle of his game. Jeongmun, whose Tetris blocks had just reached the ceiling and died, scratched his cheek and shook his head.
“No, there aren’t any.”
“I see…”
“It’s been quiet lately.”
As Jeongmun said, the office was as quiet these days as when I first arrived. No, to be more precise, it was only quiet for me. For the past few days, everyone except me had been working outside the office. The day before yesterday, all three of them had left, leaving me alone to watch over the empty office. I asked several times what they were doing, but each time they all evasively avoided answering.
First Heerim, and now this—they were truly irritating people. Feeling annoyed, I was mindlessly tearing off useless Post-it notes when the Director returned from the rooftop.
“Where’s Heerim?”
“In the break room.”
“Is that so?”
The Director walked to the break room and came out dragging Heerim. I quickly examined Heerim’s face. Though his expression was somewhat dark, his face looked clean, so it seemed he hadn’t been crying.
“Heerim and I will be going out for a while.”
“Oh, where are you going?”
“Work.”
The Director concluded her answer with a single syllable and then left the office with Heerim. I let out a hollow laugh as I watched the two of them disappear in an instant.
“It doesn’t seem like everyone else is having a quiet time.”
I expressed my true feelings to Jeongmun in a joking tone. Since it wasn’t the first time we’d been left alone like this, talking with him was no longer awkward.
“I feel bad for Jaeo.”
Jeongmun closed his laptop cover and suddenly apologized to me. When I remained silent at this inexplicable apology, he continued.
“Though it’s not intentional, it seems we’re excluding you.”
“…”
“There’s work we’ve been doing from before. It’s very important and dangerous for us. It’s also something we’re conducting secretly, but more than that, we couldn’t involve you in something dangerous.”
Jeongmun was telling me what neither Heerim nor the Director had. For a moment, I thought it would have been nice if Heerim had been the one to tell me this.
“Anyway, if you felt left out, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m just a part-timer anyway. It’s not common to tell part-timers all the details of company business.”
Despite having felt extremely hurt all this time, I pretended it didn’t matter. Thanks to Jeongmun’s words, my hurt feelings had subsided, but my curiosity about what they were doing had only grown. However, after hearing this much, I couldn’t press for more information. I swallowed the bitterness that hadn’t completely disappeared and fiddled with my phone.
“Huh?”
[Jaeyeon: Where r u?]
About 10 minutes ago, Jaeyeon had sent me a message. When I replied to her question about my whereabouts that I was at work, she immediately called.
“Oppa, I’m near your company right now.”
“At this hour? What about school?”
“Today was the May mock exam. We finished early.”
“If you finished early, why don’t you go home instead of hanging around here?”
“I want to see your company. Can I come?”
“What?!”
Surprised by this completely unexpected statement, I jumped up from my seat, causing Jeongmun to look at me with an equally startled expression.
“My… my sister is asking if she can visit the company…”
“Ah. Tell her she can come.”
“What? No, it’s fine. How could I do that?”
“What! You just got permission for me to come, right? I’m coming now! I’ll be there in 20 minutes!”
“Hey! Do you even know what kind of place this is?!”
“I found that handsome oppa’s business card in my gym uniform pocket this morning. I discovered it today.”
Aaaargh! Heerim! Why did you give her your business card?!
“Just hang up!”
Knowing she wouldn’t listen even if I told her not to come, I hung up the phone first.
“I need to make this look like a normal company before my sister arrives.”
“But our company is a normal company.”
“…Are you serious?”
My eyebrows furrowed involuntarily. On the sofa table, board game pieces were scattered messily, and next to them were snack wrappers. Moreover, at the front of the office door was a paper with the company name scrawled hastily by hand. It absolutely did not look like a normal company.
“I should throw out the trash first. Oh, is there anything we can hang up in the office? Like a business registration certificate?”
“Ah, that’s in Hanyoung noona’s desk drawer. I also have some photos we could hang up. I’ll look for them.”
I hurriedly cleaned up the scattered board games and trash before heading to the Director’s desk.
“Why is it so messy?”
Maps of all eight provinces of the country were disorderly spread across the Director’s desk. I thought about organizing them too, but worried I might get scolded by the Director if I touched them, so I only checked the drawers.
“Found it!”
After rummaging around for quite some time, I was able to find a laminated business registration certificate deep inside the desk.
I had been curious whether they had actually registered the business since none of the employees seemed to have any interest in business operations, but seeing “Other Service Business” written under the business type, it really was a formally registered business entity. I hung it in a place where it would be immediately visible when opening the door.
“Jaeo, I think this would look good next to it.”
Jeongmun, who had quietly approached my side, placed something shiny and gold on the entrance cabinet.
“Gold prize in the Youth Computer Skills Competition? Why this…?”
“Haha. I’ve only kept it on my desk until now, so it feels awkward displaying it like this.”
“…?”
I looked back and forth between the trophy and Jeongmun with a puzzled expression. Jeongmun scratched his head and blushed as if embarrassed. I couldn’t understand what connection there was between the Earth Peace Research Institute and a gold prize in a computer competition, but since it didn’t look bad, I left it there.
“What’s that photo in your hand? Are you planning to hang that up too?”
“I’m still considering it.”
“What kind of photo is it? Let me see.”
I became curious about what the photo might be, as Jeongmun kept acting uncharacteristically shy.
“Um… is this person in the photo the Director?”
“Yes.”
The photo was different from what I had expected. The Director, wearing a judo uniform, had her arm around a boy who looked to be about elementary school age. She was holding a trophy in her other hand, so it might have been from a competition. The Director in the photo looked exactly the same as now, just slightly younger.
“Wow, the Director did judo? If you won gold, doesn’t that mean you’re a black belt? But who’s that next to her? Her younger brother?”
“Ah, that’s me.”
“What?”
“That’s me. The child next to her.”
“Next to her? There’s no one… Wait. You mean this little boy?!”
I pointed at the boy standing next to the Director with wide eyes, smiling shyly. Though I could hardly believe it, Jeongmun nodded.
No way. That’s Jeongmun?
The child in the photo was incredibly cute. His chubby face was flushed with a bright pink hue. The curly hair that slightly covered his eyebrows made him look even more adorable. While his features weren’t particularly striking, he had the kind of face that would receive a lot of affection from people everywhere.
But Jeongmun now… Far from having baby fat, he had a hard, tan face that looked like it wouldn’t bleed a drop even if pricked with a needle, and his hair was cut so short it was impossible to tell whether it was curly or straight.
What hardships did he go through? What experiences could turn that face into this one?
Unable to believe the transformation, I looked back and forth between the child in the photo and the Jeongmun standing before me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
