# Chapter 54
“…Ugh, it’s cold.”
Coming up from the subway to the ground, Jeongyun crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders against the knife-like wind. It had been quite warm during the day thanks to the sunshine, but as soon as night fell, the temperature dropped sharply.
Worried that he might catch a terrible cold, Jeongyun tightly fastened his clothes and hurried home.
Today he would fill the tub with warm water for a half-body bath. After a satisfying bath, he’d drink beer and fall asleep happily. It was a perfect plan just thinking about it.
After passing the main road and entering the alley, Jeongyun suddenly noticed how dark it was. Looking up, he saw that the street lights were intact but weren’t lit.
‘What’s going on…’
The street lights further away were already lit, but the alley where Jeongyun stood was shrouded in complete darkness. Could they be broken? As he was about to dismiss it and continue on, he felt someone watching him.
Jeongyun stopped in his tracks, slowly uncrossed his arms, and put his hand in his pocket. He grabbed his pager and carefully looked around. But there was no one else there.
‘…Was it my imagination?’
First all the street lights were broken last time, and now perfectly fine street lights weren’t turning on. There were too many suspicious points for this to be just a coincidence.
But if his location had been exposed to unregistered Espers, Jeongyun would have already been killed or kidnapped. They don’t observe Guides for this long.
‘Just in case, I should request a patrol.’
Instead of his pager, Jeongyun took out his phone and sent a patrol request to headquarters. This way they would check the area every few hours, which was reassuring.
Setting aside his anxiety, Jeongyun used his phone light to illuminate the path as he went deeper into the alley. Fortunately, the street light in front of his house was working. Seeing light in the darkness was comforting.
‘Just walk a little faster.’
The moment Jeongyun reached his building, the light illuminating above his head suddenly disappeared. As even his phone light vanished, the world was plunged into complete darkness.
The timing was too perfect to be coincidental.
‘No way…!’
Jeongyun ran toward his house. Though he couldn’t see anything in the darkness, he knew the way clearly having walked it countless times.
His hand touched cold glass. Having barely found the keypad of the common entrance, Jeongyun fumbled to press the numbers.
Beep beep, as he was randomly pressing numbers, he heard breathing behind him.
“…!”
Jeongyun froze and rolled his eyes to the side. He still couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black darkness, but the presence was getting closer.
“Haa…”
The breath passing over his neck was hot.
Jeongyun lowered his hand from the keypad and tried to take out self-defense tools from his bag, but strangely, his body wouldn’t move.
He felt a heavy weight pressing down on his shoulders, which had stiffened as if coated in plaster. It felt like a person was there, but he couldn’t see their form. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if this was reality or a nightmare.
“Make sure to deliver this message.”
The voice was completely distorted. It seemed like a man’s yet also like a woman’s; he couldn’t tell. The weight pressing on his shoulders disappeared, and instead, sharp fingernails touched his sensitive neck.
“Say that I’ll be coming to find them soon.”
“…What—”
Whoosh, a strong gust of wind blew. When Jeongyun, who had tightly closed his eyes, opened them and looked back, both the person and the pitch-black darkness had completely disappeared.
The street lights were illuminating the road as usual, and the phone in his hand was lit again. It really felt like a dream.
Slowly turning around, Jeongyun laughed hollowly when he realized he was standing at the common entrance of a different apartment building. No wonder the door wouldn’t open no matter how many times he pressed the passcode.
‘I need to move.’
Even if the procedure was complicated, now that his location was exposed, he needed to leave this place as soon as possible. It must have been an unregistered Esper. After all, there was no reason for a government-affiliated Esper to come find him and do something like this.
‘But who are they coming to find?’
He mulled over the enigmatic message but couldn’t make any sense of it. Sighing deeply, Jeongyun raised his hand to wipe away the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead.
Staggering down the stairs, Jeongyun found his correct building. Standing in front of the common entrance, just as he was about to enter the passcode, he felt another presence, perhaps due to his heightened sensitivity.
‘Did they come back?’
Thinking that he wouldn’t just passively let it happen this time, Jeongyun put his hand into his bag instead of reaching for the keypad. He had brought an electric shocker just in case.
He turned on the switch and assessed the situation. Thump, he heard approaching footsteps. His plan was to turn around and zap the intruder with the electric shocker as soon as they got a bit closer.
‘Just a little more…’
Turning around with all his might, Jeongyun swung the electric shocker he’d pulled from his bag. The electric shocker, with its fierce sparks, narrowly grazed the person.
Not giving up, he was about to make his next attack calmly when his hand holding the electric shocker became stuck, unable to move as if caught on something.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“…Choi Domin?”
Domin, who had grabbed Jeongyun’s hand with telekinesis, cursed when he saw the electric shocker with its ferocious sparks. If he hadn’t dodged quickly, his body would have been zapped.
“Why are you swinging such a dangerous thing around?”
“Well… earlier—”
Jeongyun stutteringly explained what had happened just before. How everything suddenly went dark, and an unknown person appeared, said something incomprehensible, and left.
After listening quietly to Jeongyun’s story, Domin looked around. Since Jeongyun wouldn’t lie to him, it wasn’t a bad idea to prepare for any contingency.
“Go inside the house first.”
“What about you…”
“You said you saw an unregistered Esper. I’ll look around once and come back.”
After sending the dazed Jeongyun into the house first, Domin sent a call to headquarters. And until other Espers arrived, he lightly surveyed the area around Jeongyun’s house. He didn’t find anything suspicious.
‘It’s not a lie, and it’s definitely not his imagination.’
But an unregistered Esper who discovered a government-affiliated Guide didn’t kill or kidnap him. They didn’t harm him at all, just muttered something incomprehensible and left—it was unheard of.
‘Still, this place is dangerous.’
Whatever the outcome, the fact that Jeongyun’s home had been exposed remained unchanged. He would need to relocate quickly, but he’d heard that due to the damned Protection Act, it would take more than a week just to get approval for a Guide to move.
He couldn’t leave Jeongyun here until then. There was no telling what that person might do if they came back. This was a concern any Esper would have.
“…This got annoying.”
He had just come for a light Guiding, and now look at this mess. Domin placed his hand on his throbbing forehead, deep in thought.
Meanwhile, the Espers who had received the call arrived.
“Esper Choi Domin?”
The Espers who discovered Domin hesitated. Their wavering eyes were filled with questions about why a celebrity they’d only seen in advertisements was here.
Sighing deeply, Domin approached the Espers first. Judging from their youthful faces, they were probably new recruits who hadn’t been assigned to a team for long.
He remembered when he was like that too—such a distant memory now.
“I’ve already done a quick check around the area but didn’t find anything suspicious. Still, just to be safe, I’d appreciate a more thorough investigation.”
“Ah, yes. Understood. We’ll investigate further.”
The Espers, bowing deeply, began to survey the neighborhood as Domin had requested. Though they probably wouldn’t find a single trace of the unregistered Esper who had already left, they had to do this to prevent other minor issues from arising.
‘Still, I can’t leave him here.’
Having delegated the follow-up, Domin returned to Jeongyun’s house. He entered the common entrance by typing in the passcode and stood in front of the tightly closed front door. Though he knew this passcode too, Domin pressed the doorbell and waited patiently for Jeongyun to open it.
“Choi Domin.”
Jeongyun, who had rushed to the door, opened it.
Though he was better than before, he still looked pale. Looking down at Jeongyun, who was trying hard to pretend he was fine, Domin made his decision.
“Pack your things right now, you’re coming to my house.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
