Chapter 20
I slept like a log.
Seriously, I just slept—nothing else.
We had clearly fallen asleep on futons laid out on the floor, but when I woke up, I was surprised to find them lying on either side of me. I had slept so soundly that I didn’t even notice them coming up.
“Ah, both of you get up, quickly.”
Since they couldn’t get up even until I came out from my shower, I pressed their backsides with my foot, and they made stretching noises.
They were like elementary school kids who didn’t want to go to school, and I was dumbfounded.
“You little ones, how old are you?”
“I really don’t want to get up…”
“Ugh…”
“I’m not your parent, you know. Yoon Cheong, Ji Yeohoon. Aren’t you getting up?”
The contrast was stark between Yoon Cheong, who was running his fingers through his messy bed hair as he headed to the bathroom, and Ji Yeohoon, who was hugging the blanket tightly with only his eyes open, watching me dry off my remaining moisture.
Perhaps because Yoon Cheong was gradually maturing, he tended to try not to show his childish side, but Ji Yeohoon, on the contrary, acted even more childish.
Even now, he was looking at me with sparkling eyes as if asking if he could sleep a little longer.
“No. Get up. We need to go eat.”
“But Yoon Cheong hyung hasn’t come out yet…”
“Still no. Get up and prepare to wash.”
He seemed to get a bit sulky, but then he got up from the bed and stared at me as I took out my uniform.
“Good morning.”
As he looked up at me, I realized one thing for sure.
These guys have really handsome faces.
The one who had already gone into the bathroom was growing taller, so with his long arms and legs, though not yet model height, he exuded a model-like presence. Despite not being a physical enhancement Esper, he was visibly toned, making him someone people would turn to look at as he passed by.
Ji Yeohoon still had a cute face, perhaps because he was still young, and because he was short, looking up made him appear even cuter—which he seemed to know and often used to his advantage with adults.
In today’s case, I roughly understood why he was looking at me like that, but I’m not your parent, Ji Yeohoon.
Ji Yeohoon kissed his parents on the cheek every morning. I was used to seeing this whenever I visited Ji Yeohoon’s house, but that was because they were his parents.
“You need to wash first so you can go to your room, change clothes, and go to school. Or you can go to your room now, wash up, and come back.”
“…I’ll just wash here. Yoon Cheong hyung, come out quickly!”
“I’m washing!”
Ji Yeohoon seemed to back down a bit as he knocked on the bathroom door and shouted, and Yoon Cheong shouted back.
Don’t feed the pigeons or attention-seekers.
Of course, I knew these were two people I needed to care for, but I drew the line in advance, knowing that giving more would become problematic.
‘One trait of Guides is that they’re weak to Espers.’
Having been like that before the regression, I could understand what that meant.
Though they teach it as a personality trait now, it was practically instinct.
The tendency to initiate guiding when an Esper is sick or struggling after using their power, and the inability to coldly push away an Esper who subtly touches you.
That’s why they instilled rationality in Guides from a young age or as soon as they began guiding, through education.
They taught that it’s natural to want to help, but if you focus only on one person who’s struggling, you might not be able to provide necessary guiding to other Espers in emergency situations.
Espers probably had classes about overcoming their instincts too.
That unless a Guide was dedicated or imprinted to them, Guides also had their own freedom, so Espers shouldn’t try to keep them close.
But Espers, who had been educated almost to the point of brainwashing, focused on the loophole in that statement.
If they were dedicated or imprinted, it would be okay to keep them close.
As a result, Espers tried to enter into dedicated contracts to keep Guides by their side. The Association, already short on Guides, constantly clashed with Espers who kept trying to take Guides away.
Imprinting on each other was inherently rare, so it was an exception.
There were even regulations regarding dedicated contracts.
[For an Esper to enter into a dedicated contract with a B-class or higher Guide, they must verify the matching rate and confirm that the Guide’s intention is clearly to provide guiding only to that Esper. ‘Clearly’ means there is a positive emotional exchange such as marriage, engagement, or a romantic relationship.]
The conclusion was that unless you were married or in a romantic relationship, you shouldn’t enter into a dedicated contract.
The reason for limiting it to B-class or higher was because they had strong guiding abilities and could save multiple Espers with less effort.
As a result, Espers tended to develop stronger feelings for Guides they liked.
“Soo-young!”
Like now.
As a bright puppy came running to embrace me, Yoon Cheong immediately lifted him with telekinesis and threw him far away.
This had been happening frequently lately, so even though he was thrown and landed in a corner, he calmly stepped on the wall and landed on the ground.
“The wall will break. Don’t throw him so hard.”
“Okay.”
“Aren’t you going to ask if I’m hurt?”
“I know you won’t be.”
Yoon Seong-jin, who immediately became sulky, held out his hand asking to be helped up, but I just sat down.
You’re too big and heavy. There’s no way I could lift you.
The triplets, who had been haggard due to growing pains for a while, seemed okay today and were chatting with friends in the classroom.
“Seong-jin should have given up by now, but he’s still at it today.”
“He likes Soo-young. It’s sad but amusing.”
Yoo Ji-ae, the close-range female student who had requested guiding right after I transferred, spoke as if feeling sorry for him, and Baek Da-hyuk, the male student who had been lifted onto the transparent wall, muttered in his usual dull voice.
Whether he was fixated on my invitation to eat together on my first day or on the time we spent together afterward, Yoon Seong-jin expressed his affection for me very directly.
In our grade, there are only five Guides including me. When the five of us take care of many Espers, the other Guide students often run out of energy. So when I first transferred, I mostly helped the Esper students.
As time passed, the other Guide students also became capable of somewhat stable guiding, though fine control was still difficult, but Yoon Seong-jin still came running to me like when he was younger.
And throwing him far away was Yoon Cheong’s job.
“He’s fixated on Soo-young even with other kids around.”
“He’s totally into him.”
“He knows an S-class Guide is good.”
Compared to other grades, the first-year middle school division had very good relationships now.
The children who used to live separately with the mentality of “what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours,” barely touching each other’s space, now argued, reconciled, and tried to understand each other’s personalities.
At first, the homeroom teacher was flustered by the children fighting and tried to separate their personal spaces. But for the past two years, I had been working hard to disrupt that.
No matter how much financial trouble arose from Espers clashing and damaging the surroundings, if they were left as they were in school, wouldn’t they all graduate living like they were alone in the world?
These days, I also visited Ji Yeohoon’s class, putting candy in the hands of Ji Yeohoon and his classmates.
Food is the best way for children to become friends and talk to each other.
“Are you going to give candy to the sixth graders later?”
“Yeah. Want to come?”
“I’d love to!”
“I want to go too. The kids are cute.”
Yoo Ji-ae and Baek Da-hyuk nodded quickly.
I provided light guiding to Yoo Ji-ae and Baek Da-hyuk as they approached, then moved on.
Yoon Cheong looked displeased, but what could he do? I was an ordinary Guide, neither imprinted nor in a dedicated contract.
Of course, I paid more attention to Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon, whom I had been watching since childhood, and saw them more often, but dedicated contracts made before the body fully matures are legally invalid.
This is the time when Guides learn power control, stamina management, and guiding according to Espers’ situations by matching and guiding with various Espers.
Seeing Ji Yeohoon following me to my room after classes, it seemed that not only Yoon Cheong but also Ji Yeohoon was upset about me guiding other students.
Who knows, they might find a more compatible Guide while attending school.
“I’ll carry the candy.”
“I can do it myself. I thought you didn’t like going to the sixth-grade classroom?”
“I’ll go anyway.”
But that didn’t seem likely right now.
On the way to the elementary division building, Yoo Ji-ae and Baek Da-hyuk followed, but Yoon Cheong didn’t seem interested in going with them and stuck close to me as we walked.
Despite the growing height difference that should have made him walk slowly, he didn’t seem to mind. I felt that matching his pace to mine was quite affectionate, even without expression or words.
“I’ll go first.”
“Cheong! Soo-young! We’ll go to the sixth-grade classroom first!”
Those two Esper kids ran ahead.
Being close-range attack and physical enhancement types, they were already far ahead while I couldn’t even follow.
“I’m just going to give Ji Yeohoon some candy, but they follow along well every time.”
“…You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“They’re going because they’re into a sixth-grade Guide.”
“…”
Spring seems to come to children’s hearts too.
Ah, of course, that spring that came to our class puppy is not spring for me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
