Chapter 1
0.
I always thought that being a Guide was more of a peripheral role than one at the center of the world.
We help those damn Espers who throw around their superpowers and struggle with them (if I get caught calling them “damn,” I’ll be dragged to the faculty office to write an apology letter). But we’re not exactly main character material, are we?
Take the most obvious examples: a certain Ji, one year younger than me at eighteen, became nationally famous thanks to his S-class manifestation, while a certain Yoon, the same age as me with an A-class rating, was so capable and famous that his face appeared not only on TV programs but in advertisements too.
But Guides were strictly protected by the Association from recklessly going into dangerous situations. And in cases where Espers didn’t just bind Guides with contract papers but imprinted on them, the Espers kept them even more tightly wrapped up, making it rare for Guides’ faces to become publicly known.
Yeah, I wanted to remain obscure too.
I don’t want to be at the center of this insane world.
No, I didn’t want to.
“Give that fucking thing back! It’s mine!”
That nineteen-year-old bastard is practically the protagonist of this world.
Espers must convert everything they eat into height because he’s nearly 190cm tall with a decent build. When he’s not smiling, his cool eyes set up a wall that could freeze everyone around him.
Though that’s totally different from how he’s acting now.
When his power first manifested, he was classified as a B-class telekinetic Esper, but recently his readings have increased dramatically, and they’ve reclassified him as A-class.
Normally, that bastard should have gone through all sorts of trials, been confirmed as S-class, and then seven years later, stood at the center of a collapsing world amid simultaneous Gate explosions, restored the distorted Earth, and died a hero’s death.
“Come on! Hyung, you’ve been making lots of money going through Gates lately! Just buy more!”
That eighteen-year-old bastard is the villain destined to destroy the world.
He recently bragged with puppy-dog eyes that he measured 188cm tall, which made me grab the back of my neck in exasperation, but when he stops smiling, he has that sharp aura characteristic of high-ranking Espers.
This bastard, identified as a powerful Esper from his first manifestation, recently had his readings stabilize and was finally classified as S-class.
Normally, he should have been the one to cause Gates to explode, then stand on the opposite side fighting, make the one-year-older bastard the savior of the world, and then die crying crocodile tears saying he never wanted any of this.
“Damn, my ears are killing me…”
And currently nineteen-year-old me should normally have had little connection with these bastards. Five years later, before the simultaneous Gate explosions, I should have been near a Gate that the younger bastard blew up as an experiment. I should have been the first casualty, hovering near death, surviving surgery but continuing hospital life until the protagonist bastard, the same age as me, used all his strength to prevent the simultaneous Gate explosions but lacked the final push, leaving me to die alone in a hospital room near a Gate that burst open – an unfortunate, ambiguous D-class Guide.
“You bastards…”
“Shit, you made him angry! What are you going to do?”
“Wow, why is this hyung blaming me? I can’t believe this. It’s obviously your fault for being so loud!”
Their voices are loud too.
While one was trying to steal ice cream and the other was making a fuss trying not to let it be stolen, they both approach me at my comment and start chattering beside me.
It’s fortunate these two bastards aren’t physical-type Espers, but seeing them run around all day without getting tired makes me wonder why they aren’t physical types.
I know Espers’ bodies are different from normal people’s, but that stamina is just cheating.
Yoon Cheong, the same age as me who was throwing a tantrum claiming he’d written his name on the ice cream, appeared quite cool and aloof in my memory of him on TV. And Ji Yeohoon, one year younger, who was running around avoiding him claiming that whoever eats it first owns it, was an Esper who was popular for his kind appearance and personality before being branded a criminal for causing Gate explosions.
They weren’t these childish idiots.
“Please, both of you, get lost…”
“How can you say something so harsh!”
“Hyung, they say using nice words helps mental stability.”
“Not having you two around would help more! You damn bastards!”
Somehow, I unwillingly traveled back in time about 20 years, and though I don’t think I did anything special, the world I knew has completely flipped. With both hero and villain stuck right by my side.
I wish these bastards would just leave me alone.
## 1.
I am an ordinary person, or would have been, or wished to be.
Actually, just manifesting as a Guide made me not so ordinary, but my D-class rating kept me far from any protagonist vibes despite being an awakened person.
I heard that even as a D-class, since there are few awakened Guides, you could earn a decent living by joining a guild, but I chose to be affiliated with the Association.
I chose stable civil service life rather than raking in money.
In truth, as an unremarkable D-class Guide, I could only do basic treatment to soothe Espers in emergencies, so my role focused more on medical activities than Esper management.
Later, I even got a doctor-Guide license through an exam supported by the state for Guides.
The Gate support medical team I joined for some extra allowance wasn’t particularly dangerous. Since the initial Gates appeared 80 years ago, there had been almost no Gate explosions after the first 5 years, so I mainly treated scrapes and minor injuries of Espers and Guides who came out for Gate raids.
Until that C-class Gate suddenly exploded due to gauge instability right after a successful raid.
As usual, I was checking the list of guild-affiliated Espers and Guides coming out of the Gate and sending verification documents for processing dungeon by-products when the Gate gauge bar started dancing.
“Huh…? Why is it suddenly doing this?”
Ji Yeohoon, who had come to help and check the skills of guild rookies, lifted the gauge meter with a serious face unlike his characteristically gentle eyes. A guild Esper with defensive skills sensed danger and put up a barrier.
Yeohoon and I, who were checking the closing Gate nearby, weren’t included in the barrier, and then the explosion happened.
After the explosion, I was on the brink of death.
Unlike Espers who become tougher after awakening, I was a Guide with normal durability, so I had to undergo multiple surgeries.
I clearly remember Yeohoon trying to shield me when he saw signs of the Gate about to explode. I gave several broadcast interviews thanking him, saying I was less injured thanks to him trying to protect me.
Even when it was revealed that Yeohoon had caused the explosion, I defended him by recounting the first explosion incident, insisting it couldn’t have been him.
I didn’t know back then.
“I was stupid.”
Gate explosions occurred because Yeohoon, with his buff-type skills, could affect not only Espers but also objects, animals, and even the Gates themselves.
The ability to cause Gate explosions with his power was enough to be recognized as a risk factor. That’s why Yeohoon, who had carefully hidden his true ability, was eventually caught in the investigation net and admitted it, causing a sense of betrayal.
“I feel bad for that Association Guide, but it was quite helpful thanks to him.”
I swore that once I recovered, no matter how impossible it might be for a Guide’s body, I would kill Yeohoon.
But that promise was never realized.
Yoon Cheong, who came to investigate the incident and wanted to confirm the situation more accurately, listened to everything I had to say about the time when the Gate exploded. I handed him a fruit knife that was placed on one side of the hospital room, asking him to stab that bastard in the gut for me.
“I’ll do what I need to do even without that.”
Yoon Cheong, who got up with a calm face, eventually tracked down Yeohoon and left him on the verge of death. However, the Gates that Yeohoon had already infused with his power were exploding.
People held their breath watching Yeohoon, who said he had done everything he needed to do, disappear in the explosion, and Yoon Cheong, who opened all his power to stop Yeohoon.
When Yoon Cheong collapsed after preventing most of the Gate explosions, the very last Gate he couldn’t stop – the one near my hospital – exploded.
“Fuck…”
“Use nice words, hyung. You have such a pretty face but always use bad words.”
“This is clearly because of you, you know?”
I wish that term “nice words” would stop being thrown around. Whether it’s Yeohoon trying to calm me down or Yoon Cheong responding sarcastically, I wish they would both disappear from my side.
Thinking this while looking at their faces, I suddenly remembered my death.
The tinnitus that remained due to my damaged ears after the Gate explosion, the IV that was never removed from my arm, all vividly in my memory, and the sight of my young parents right after death…
* * *
After the explosion, I returned to the age of four and began to receive all my parents’ love and attention.
No, not just love and attention, but worry and concern too.
Faced with the incomprehensible phenomenon of regression, I took a vow of silence until I entered elementary school.
My panicked parents, not understanding what had happened to their child, held me while crying and headed to the hospital, but since this was really an issue of my mind, I kept my mouth tightly shut.
“Doctor… What if he’s delayed in speaking? Our Soo-young used to speak earlier than other children.”
I feel sorry for worrying my parents so much, but my mental state took priority over my parents, who were sobbing while holding onto the doctor.
I’m sorry to the doctor who checked whether the child had suffered any shock, whether there had been any abuse from the parents, or whether anything had happened at the kindergarten I had recently enrolled in, but I was busy organizing my memories after the regression aftereffects.
My parents, determined to get me talking again somehow, smiled more actively and took me outside every weekend to show me various things. I even quit kindergarten and started accompanying my parents to work, one day with my mother and one day with my father.
Thinking about it now, I feel even more sorry.
But I couldn’t just say, “Actually, I died at twenty-six, and now I’m confused because I’ve become four years old again, so please leave me alone.”
Besides, it seems I was quite the affectionate child when I was young, so I couldn’t bring myself to act that way again, which is why I chose this method.
I, who had grown to twenty-six, had returned to being a tiny four-year-old, and I just couldn’t replicate that childish affection again.
“Today, we’ll be together in Class 1-3 for a year~. Let’s start by saying hello~ to the person sitting next to you~!”
The first time I spoke after four long years of silence was on the day of elementary school enrollment, after seeing the face of the classmate sitting next to me.
My parents, who wanted to delay my enrollment for about a year because “our child doesn’t speak,” were trembling as they watched the children greeting each other in the classroom after the entrance ceremony, and looking at me.
Four years after my regression, surprisingly, Yoon Cheong was sitting next to me at the entrance ceremony, looking dignified despite his young age.
And my first words upon seeing Yoon Cheong were:
“Why the fuck is this bastard here.”
* * *
Seeing me speak again at the entrance ceremony, my parents looked at each other, rushed in, hugged me, and sobbed loudly. Meanwhile, Yoon Cheong, who had been cursed at out of nowhere, stood there frozen, holding his frog-shaped pencil case in this bewildering situation.
Only then did I remember.
Back in elementary school, a memory I couldn’t recall, a quiet child whose name I couldn’t remember sitting next to me, occasionally lending me his frog eraser.
Was that him?
I tried to pretend I didn’t know him and keep my distance. Being entangled with the protagonist and main villain and saying goodbye to the world once was enough. I needed to live a life as unrelated to them as possible.
However, the relationship between me, who wanted to live quietly on the outskirts of the world, and Yoon Cheong, whose abilities were getting stronger like a protagonist, couldn’t remain the same as before the regression.
We should have been elementary school classmates who would completely forget each other once we were in different classes. But thanks to my parents, who treated Yoon Cheong with utmost respect for getting me to speak again, we were forced to become friends.
“Son, what did you do with Cheong today?”
Feeling guilty about not speaking for four years, I started answering simple questions if not showing affection, and my parents always began conversations with stories about Yoon Cheong.
It was a bit tedious that the questions after school were always the same, but I understood that my parents had no choice.
I dutifully answered because of my overwhelming guilt.
Today’s lunch menu, what classes we had, how I got 100 points on the dictation test (I couldn’t accept anything less than 100 with a sound mind), and Yoon Cheong got 90 points. Only after explaining all that could I escape the barrage of questions.
Anyway, according to plan, I would manifest as a D-class Guide when I entered middle school. Based on famous internet stories, Yoon Cheong would manifest around 3rd grade in elementary school and transfer to a school dedicated to Espers and Guides, so our only real point of contact was now. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal if we got a little closer.
Moreover, low-ranking Guides could continue life in regular schools with parental request and Association approval, so I was able to attend regular schools until high school and start Guide activities after graduation. So I wouldn’t have to work with Yoon Cheong anyway.
Elementary school memories would soon fade, so I thought it wouldn’t be bad to be friends now. I tried to create good memories for Yoon Cheong by borrowing his eraser, like in my fragmented memories before the regression, and by teaching him difficult Korean consonant clusters, which are challenging for elementary students.
“He’s really handsome!”
“Cheong is really handsome too, but so is he.”
The classroom was buzzing with excitement.
As I was sitting quietly after placing my bag down as usual, a little kid who attended the kindergarten on the first floor was seated in our first-grade classroom.
A classmate had grabbed the kindergartener’s hand during a school tour and brought him to our classroom.
I was dazed once more as I watched him looking around as if wondering why he was here.
“Baby, baby. How old are you?”
“I’m seven. I’m not a baby…”
“We’re eight, so you are a baby.”
“That’s not true, hyung. I’m only a year younger, so I’m not a baby.”
Amidst the noise, a child with an adorably cute face that would catch anyone’s eye was sitting quietly among the older girls and boys, politely answering their questions.
“Why the fuck is that bastard here too.”
At the villain’s appearance, I wanted to grab the back of my neck in exasperation.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
