# Chapter 22
## 7. Crack Bomb
Screeeeeeeeech.
Dojoon pulled Jaeha closer, wrapping him in his arms as much as possible while watching the sphere change.
The dark red sphere at the clothing store entrance seemed to have reached its limit.
For a brief moment, Dojoon felt confused when he noticed Dorim squirming in his arms. It was only for a moment, but he couldn’t believe himself for focusing on his friend instead of Dorim, protecting Jaeha’s head and neck.
Although he got along very well with Jaeha, he didn’t consider him more important than family. Moreover, Dojoon’s neck and head were left completely exposed while protecting Jaeha. Even realizing this, Dojoon didn’t want to unwrap his arms from around Jaeha.
In this situation where a protective instinct for Jaeha had suddenly emerged, Dojoon reconsidered his feelings.
Joo Dojoon was often told he was a good person, but that was in everyday life. He wasn’t naive enough to put others before himself in dangerous situations. Yet the warmth transmitted by the body temperature or soft touch felt through his hand holding Jaeha’s neck was vivid.
What was this feeling?
While Dojoon was distracted by his feelings toward Jaeha rather than fear of the unknown sphere, strange movements were caught outside his field of vision. When he properly raised his head to check the sphere, the dark red object that had clearly been floating in the air had disappeared without a trace.
“Huh?”
“What? Is it exploding? Now? Aah! I should have texted my mom that I love her!”
“No, it’s gone.”
At Dojoon’s dumbfounded words, Jaeha turned around with an expression that said it couldn’t be.
“Huh? It really is!”
“Oppa, it’s hot.”
“Just a moment, Dorim. I’ll go check real quick.”
As Jaeha walked toward the store entrance looking for the sphere that had disappeared without a trace, he saw the glass door slowly tilting, as if sliced diagonally in half.
Crash.
“Aah! What, what’s this?”
About half of the glass door fell inward and shattered, but fortunately it was at a predictable level compared to the bomb-like sphere.
Jaeha fearlessly stuck his head outside the store to look around, then gestured to Dojoon.
“It really disappeared. You can come out.”
Without questioning Jaeha’s words, Dojoon cleared away the clothes and picked up Dorim. Dorim, who was about to whine, saw the mess inside the store and hugged Dojoon tightly in surprise.
“Manager, it seems safe now, you can come out!”
Feeling like he should do something in this chaos, Jaeha called toward the back of the store, but there was no response. Thinking that no sensible person would come out to look in this situation, Jaeha decided to leave for now.
“Let’s go home first and come back later. We might have to pay for the damaged clothes even if not for the door.”
“Sob, but it’s Dorim’s clothes…”
“Alright, let’s just say we bought a ton of clothes for Dorim this time.”
Hearing the phantom sound of his nearly empty bank account screaming, Jaeha left the alley with Dojoon. While moving at a surprisingly fast pace, Jaeha sent a message to Jaeyoon.
Someone was watching them from the top of the alley wall, in a blind spot. Jaeyoon, who had been focusing only on Jaeha, contacted Haeil through a communicator instead of checking the continuous incoming messages.
“Your research team made a breakthrough. Your prediction was right. It’s unfortunate that the prediction standard was just for today, but I owe you one.”
— What do you mean you owe me? Without giving the information in advance, they wouldn’t have discovered even this much. It’s all thanks to Seo Jaeyoon.
Daesung’s research team had only been able to guess that the day of the Great Change would come, with little substantial evidence. Thanks to Jaeyoon revealing some information that wouldn’t be known in this period, the research team, which had obtained hints about gates and crack occurrences, worked day and night on their research.
The most important of these was the hypothesis that mana, which becomes more easily activated as the awakening time approaches, could cause explosions when it meets cracks. In reality, it wasn’t just a hypothesis, but a fact revealed in the future.
“Is the guiding room I mentioned before ready?”
After the awakening test, Jaeyoon had met with Haeil to make various preparations. He had also met with Daesung’s researchers and set up a temporary guiding room using items and potions. Thanks to this, there was a small hope for Espers who were called lung failures due to excessive mana use.
— Of course. What happened?
“I almost got delayed so I used too much power.”
Jaeyoon looked down indifferently at his blackened hand before continuing. Even though using power at maximum output was possible, his body hadn’t yet adapted and was overloaded.
“Using items will take time, but at least I need to look human when I show myself to my brother.”
Jaeyoon’s gaze turned to the guards following Jaeha and Dojoon as they moved further away. He wanted to follow them all the way home, but he tried to calm himself by remembering that he had given Jaeha a shock-nullifying item.
‘He said he didn’t want to wear it on his ear, so I hurriedly prepared something else. That was fortunate.’
If he hadn’t seen the bracelet on Jaeha’s wrist, which was extended while wrapping his arms around Dojoon, he might have lost his mind. Eliminating cracks wasn’t difficult for Jaeyoon, but it wasn’t easy to stay calm when Jaeha was involved.
“Now I need to move.”
Today, Jaeyoon had no choice but to be very busy.
The day of the Great Change was also a day when many Espers awakened simultaneously.
A day when many high-grade Espers awakened. Mana called to mana, and crisis promoted awakening. The “Great Change Day” was when hundreds of people were affected by the awakening of a few high-grade Espers, compared to the usual one or two Espers emerging per year.
Jaeyoon had expected this day to come in six months. Although he had notified the research team about the connection between mana and crack explosions through Haeil and had installed mana detection facilities, it was to prepare for the future.
He hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly, with predictions only becoming possible on the morning of the day itself.
‘It was close, but Joo Dojoon didn’t awaken.’
From what he observed, Joo Dojoon had not awakened.
The reason Jaeyoon had rushed here so desperately was primarily for Jaeha’s safety, but it also included preventing Dojoon’s awakening.
‘Since the conditions weren’t met, this is the natural result.’
In the future, Joo Dorim died in an explosion, and Joo Dojoon was found using a barrier. There was a high probability that Dojoon would only awaken if Dorim died or faced a direct crisis.
‘It’s better if he awakens as late as possible. Before that bastard Joo Dojoon awakens, I need to raise my brother’s position as much as possible.’
Not all awakenings always involved such dangers. Depending on how they were managed in the future, they could become as safe as getting a driver’s license.
Right now, awakened people except for important figures would be caught in crack explosions.
“I need to hurry. The day of the Great Change is just beginning.”
Jaeyoon forcibly pulled away his feet that kept wanting to go toward Jaeha. It was time to move to avoid a terrible future rather than eliminating small worries right in front of him.
Jaeyoon believed in what he was doing because he was confident. In the future he knew. In the competence of the guards Haeil had assigned to Jaeha. Even knowing that the future and present were very different, he overlooked something.
That the Black Pig affects the mana of not only awakened people but also pre-awakened ones. That it had been transmitted to unawakened Espers around Jaeha.
When Jaeyoon was moving according to his plan, not yet realizing the cause of the suddenly accelerated Great Change Day, danger was approaching Jaeha.
* * *
“I didn’t do anything but feel really tired.”
“Even if you didn’t do anything, you were tense.”
Having left the scene where space had been torn and a dark red sphere had almost become a bomb, Jaeha and Dojoon felt relieved as they arrived near home. Not knowing what had happened, Dorim happily stomped her feet while holding the hands of both her brothers, one in each of her hands. It was a cute sight that made passersby unknowingly look at her with warm smiles.
The three people, returning to a peaceful atmosphere, stopped at the apartment parking lot. Dorim was still jumping in place happily, but Jaeha and Dojoon were looking at the same place.
“Do you see that?”
“Yes. Why is that here again?”
It was a torn crack.
Fortunately, they could tell it was still okay from the movement that looked like breathing through the split gap. This time, there was no hesitation about stepping back. If it wasn’t a dud like before, they could get hurt.
“Jaeha, hello.”
As Jaeha was stepping back, he saw a familiar person peeking out from behind the crack.
“Sunbae Youngwoo?”
The crack’s wriggling accelerated next to Youngwoo’s face, which was smiling brightly. It was more urgent to warn about the danger than to question why Youngwoo was here again.
“S-sunbae. Come this way.”
“Hmm? Why are you calling so urgently?”
“That thing next to you, sunbae. Don’t you see it?”
“You mean this black gap?”
At Youngwoo’s calm answer, Jaeha nodded his head frantically.
“Yes, sunbae. They say that’s dangerous. We need to avoid it.”
“Ah.”
Youngwoo exclaimed at Jaeha’s urgency, then gave a smile that seemed like it would melt away.
“Are you worried about me right now?”
“Of course. Please come quickly.”
“Okay, I will.”
Youngwoo walked toward Jaeha with light steps. Then a man with glasses, who had been standing behind the crack and wasn’t clearly visible until now, grabbed Youngwoo with a frown.
“Lee Youngwoo. You said you’d introduce me to the professor.”
Youngwoo’s smile faded as he was stopped while trying to go to Jaeha. Youngwoo stared at the man and pointed to empty space. More specifically, at the undulating crack. The man squinted his eyes and spoke with an annoyed voice.
“What have you been talking about with this black gap or whatever? Are you all becoming weird because you’re in some game club or something?”
Jaeha was shocked to see the man’s hand passing right through the crack. Dojoon held Jaeha’s arm while hugging Dorim, ready to step back at any moment. Watching this closely, Youngwoo showed his familiar public smile and reached his hand toward the crack.
“Sunbae Youngwoo!”
Simultaneously with Jaeha’s shout, Dojoon grabbed him and stepped back. At Jaeha’s call, Youngwoo’s formal smile changed to a genuine one, and he gently closed the hand he had inserted into the crack. As his hand came out, the crack instantly subsided. They could only stare blankly, unable to believe that the gap that had opened was closing and even its undulation was subsiding.
Meanwhile, Youngwoo extended his clenched fist toward the man who had been grumbling all this time.
Since they were already quite far away, the conversation between the two wasn’t clearly audible, but Youngwoo’s hand moved toward the man’s mouth, and the man, though incredulous, opened his mouth and pretended to swallow.
“This is ridiculous, we’re not playing house. Since I pretended to eat it, to the professor…”
Thud.
With a dull sound, the man’s form disappeared from the world. Instead, traces scattered in all directions confirmed that what had just happened was reality.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
