Chapter 53
It seemed like it was getting a little hotter, but soon it became so sultry that sweat ran down even when standing still.
Do Espers have genes for resisting cold, heat, and pain that manifest along with their abilities when they Manifest?
Guides would freak out and move away saying it was too hot if you got a little close to them, but Espers were running around excitedly.
“Are you very hot?”
“I feel like I’m dying.”
Seriously, without any exaggeration, I felt like I’d collapse even standing still.
It was the time when the afternoon sun was blazing down.
As it was getting hotter, I stopped participating in Gates, while Yoon Cheong went to the Association one more time.
When I asked what he did today, Yoon Cheong casually said he helped with document sorting this time too.
The other Esper students in our class wanted to enter Gates again after their Gate entry experience, but Yoon Cheong hadn’t even mentioned wanting to enter Gates since then.
I knew he was surprisingly sensitive to emotional attachments.
But to think he wouldn’t properly tell even me what he was trying to do.
I felt a bit hurt, and worried too.
Wanting to know why he was so intent on helping with the Association’s work, I deliberately went to his room to ask.
But this bastard’s answer was absurd.
‘…Because they saved my parents.’
Last night’s voice came to mind. I let out a big sigh while watching Yoon Cheong bringing over a drink using telekinesis from far away.
“What’s with you now?”
“Just feeling a bit stuffy. It’s hot, you know.”
“That doesn’t explain why you sighed looking at me.”
He knew that all along.
He obviously knew what my worries were these days, yet he pretended not to know.
He’s not dense, so why is he acting like this?
If I start nagging again about his Association work, he calmly turns his head away.
My mind wasn’t complicated for no reason.
‘So how much are you getting paid? You know what the minimum wage is, right? Since you went in the morning last time, if it’s 4 hours…’
‘I got 50,000 won last time, at 12,000 won per hour.’
‘…Right. Good job.’
I tried to catch him on the hourly wage, but he slipped out of that too.
In fact, 50,000 won for 4 hours is practically free for employing an Esper.
When you conquer a Gate once, you earn what ordinary people make in a year.
I knew he was helping from the goodness of his heart, but it was unsettling and had been worrying me.
I understand he’s not getting into any trouble.
The problem is that I can’t easily put my mind at ease no matter how hard I try.
Plus, after each visit, the amount of guiding needed was considerably more than I expected.
It wasn’t a burdensome amount for using S-class Bigar, but I was worried because the way he scurried off to the Association was too similar to how Yoon Cheong was before the regression.
“Yoon Cheong.”
“Yeah?”
“After you graduate school, are you going to join the Calling Guild?”
Before the regression, this hero guy belonged to the Chaehwa Guild under the Association.
Now he’s with me, and since he’s been with Ji Yeohoon, he’s temporarily affiliated with the Calling Guild, but still.
From what I’ve seen him doing, I thought there might have been something like this in the past before the regression that made him join Chaehwa.
If Yoon Cheong’s parents got injured in the past I didn’t know about, and he helped the Association as a result and joined Chaehwa, it would make some sense.
So I was concerned he might end up at Chaehwa again.
Chaehwa isn’t bad, but their treatment of affiliated Espers wasn’t as good compared to other top guilds.
On top of that, I knew most of them got stressed while being involved in Association work, which worried me.
“No, I’m not sure. I wonder if I really need to join one.”
“Then will you go to Chaehwa?”
“No, not that. I don’t really want to go there.”
Unlike his uncertain response to my previous question, he immediately shook his head when I asked if he would go to Chaehwa.
That was somewhat reassuring.
If his thoughts were firm, I wouldn’t have to worry about it for now.
For Guides, the Association is a very comfortable, familiar place that provides a lot of help.
But since this guy and the other one were Espers, not Guides, and since they were kids I’ve been taking care of, I didn’t want to get too entangled with the Association.
I started thinking like this after meeting Oh Chung-yeon Sunbae, the Guide who had his imprinting released before.
‘The method of releasing it isn’t very good. In fact, it’s no different than something achieved through experimentation, so it’s no longer recommended. That’s why I was the first in our country.’
Then, who conducted this experiment?
The answer was too simple.
Some experiments conducted in our country must have been led by someone, and it couldn’t have been a regular research institute. It would have been too much for guilds to do individually.
It was an inhumane experiment, especially with Guides’ lives at stake, so there’s no way the Association wouldn’t have intervened if a guild was conducting it.
With 100% probability, the Association must have pushed for it.
Since I, who was an Association-affiliated Guide, had never seen such content, they must not have disclosed it.
That Sunbae seemed to have hidden it, speaking quietly and kindly so that I wouldn’t notice easily, but anyway, my guess that it was an Association-led experiment was practically a certainty.
“What flavor ice cream do you want?”
“I’ll have melon.”
“Got it.”
It was so hot that our homeroom teacher eventually bought us ice cream.
Everyone was excited, shouting “Waaaah!” and I, who had been sitting in the shade the whole time, barely managed to get up at the mention of ice cream.
With the melon ice cream in my mouth, Yoon Cheong was staring at me.
“Wha-“
“Just wondering, are you really going to exercise?”
“It’s about time I do, isn’t it?”
“Well, if you want to, go for it. It just doesn’t seem like you, since you’ve always been sprawled out.”
This bastard is subtly calling me out with facts.
In the past, I actually exercised regularly.
When my body was sick, it was hard to go to work, and if my physical strength was lacking, fatigue would build up a bit more severely after guiding.
After becoming an S-class Guide, the amount of Bigar wasn’t much of an issue, but I thought I should start exercising soon because there was a chance D-class Bigar might be used when a new Esper comes in or for use in different Gates.
“It’s fine, the school has exercise equipment too.”
“A gym?”
“Yeah. They say the installed equipment is really expensive.”
Surprisingly, there were quite a few Guides who had the same thoughts as me.
In middle school, not many people wanted to exercise, but as soon as we entered high school, Guides started taking care of their bodies.
There were occasionally second or third-year Guide seniors, and what was more surprising was that there wasn’t a single Esper among them.
From the beginning, Espers get strong, great bodies regardless of gender after Manifesting, but since Guides have ordinary bodies, they gain weight if they eat, get unhealthy if they don’t eat, and get sore all over if they move too much.
Before the regression, I remember making a bet with friends to build our bodies by getting gym memberships in high school.
This time, I didn’t get to meet those guys again to become friends because I was busy taking care of these kids.
“Ji Yeohoon asked me the exact same thing.”
“If you’re going to exercise?”
“Yeah. Why are you asking? Being healthy is good, right?”
“Well, they say exercising makes you age faster.”
“…Where on earth are you guys hearing these strange things lately?”
“No, I saw it on YouTube. They said human genes originally have a set amount of energy they can use, and it gets depleted faster through exercise…”
I wonder if they’ve been watching videos about the downsides of exercise.
These days, Yoon Cheong was not only growing taller but his body was becoming incredibly solid, and the same went for Ji Yeohoon.
When both of them stood next to me, I looked like a tiny kid, so I wanted to build up my body more, but the other day Ji Yeohoon spouted nonsense about how if I got too big, I’d be 0.1g less cute, so I punched him in the side.
Around the time I threw my finished ice cream stick in the trash, Esper kids started gathering one by one where the Guides had assembled.
Guide students who had learned to adjust the amount of Bigar flowing during guiding were providing very small amounts of guiding.
“Please take care of me.”
“Sure!”
The pink hair… no, Ye Han-dam was receiving guiding from Oh Ji-hyun, who had experienced reverse guiding.
For a while, he had received my guiding, but from yesterday, they started carefully guiding each other.
Since a large amount could be dangerous, they were doing very small amounts of guiding that wouldn’t cause serious injury even if reverse guiding occurred, and they agreed to come to me only when their bodies hurt too much.
Today, since they hadn’t used abilities at all during the afternoon, they probably wouldn’t come.
“Soo-young~”
“Rejected. Denied.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet?”
“You’re going to talk about Gates, right?”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
Yoon Seong-jin, seemingly untiring, was talking about going to Gates together.
Although not part of the Calling Guild, Yoon Seong-jin was also a prospective member of a top guild, so he could participate in guild-sponsored Gate conquests operated by the guild.
Usually, people participate in conquests of their affiliated guild, but students can enter as part of training when Gates recruit student conquerors, and in the case of Guide students, they can be additionally allowed in if requested by a student affiliated with that guild.
This was due to the shortage of Guides.
Of course, even for Guides, it wouldn’t be easy with a guild like Calling that ranks first in Korea.
“Class is over, should we go to the middle school building?”
“Let’s do that. Since we didn’t go during lunch. And strangely, there’s been no contact from Ji Yeohoon today.”
At the mention of the middle school, Baek Da-hyuk and Yoo Ji-ae immediately ran over.
Having kids bigger than me around really gives me a complex.
Recently, when I measured my height, it was 173.4cm.
It’s the average height for non-Esper male students, and I didn’t think I was short, but I just realized it at some point.
“Yoo Ji-ae, you’ve grown a lot too.”
“Right?”
She proudly smiles, saying she’s 178cm.
Although she’s an Esper who uses her body, being a close-range dealer, she was relatively shorter than reinforcement-type tanks and expressed regret about it.
Just how much taller do you want to be?
Looking at Yoon Cheong, he seemed to have grown 1-2cm more compared to spring.
“When are you going to give me some of your height?”
“…I’ll give you some when I find a way.”
I spouted nonsense to Yoon Cheong on our way to the middle school building.
It’s not like he could actually give it or I could receive it, but Yoon Cheong kindly went along with my words.
Today, saying he had prepared candy, Baek Da-hyuk excitedly ran ahead at a fast pace, and Yoo Ji-ae, not wanting to lose, followed suit.
To me, it wasn’t so much running as it was practically flying. Yoon Cheong and I just walked slowly.
“I’m curious about something.”
“What are you curious about?”
“You know, that time before.”
“When?”
“The day our parents were hospitalized. The day I used a lot of abilities.”
“Ah, that day,” I nodded.
Before passing through the wall leading to the middle school building and the middle gate, Yoon Cheong asked.
“You guided Ji Yeohoon, right? A bit differently than usual.”
Yoon Cheong asked, strangely hesitating.
“Yeah. Because I had to enhance the aunt’s healing ability too.”
Yoon Cheong seemed to be asking because he knew that when I guide other students, and when I guide them, I usually just hold hands or give hugs.
“If there’s a day when I use a lot of abilities like Ji Yeohoon, then at that time-“
“I’ll do it for you too.”
Why are you asking something so obvious?
I looked at Yoon Cheong with a slightly dumbfounded expression.
Moreover, Yoon Cheong looked even more surprised at my answer, which made me more bewildered.
“But don’t deliberately use your abilities to get guiding, or get hurt. I won’t do it then.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Don’t forcibly use your abilities.”
Don’t be in pain. I don’t like being in pain myself, and I don’t like seeing others in pain. So don’t make me worry.
Yoon Cheong laughed at my words.
“Okay, I won’t be in pain. I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt either, Moon Soo-young.”
Seeing him smile so brightly like that for the first time during our time together, somehow my ears felt hot.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
