Chapter 86
He shows no sign of stopping me.
Since he doesn’t seem to have any intentions toward me, I quietly took a sip.
“We just turned the water purifier back on after changing the filter. The water isn’t cold, is that okay?”
“It’s fine.”
Just ordinary water. I felt rather embarrassed for being unnecessarily tense.
Of course, there’s no way they’d do anything to water from the purifier.
I wondered if I was being too sensitive in my suspicion of the Association, but I couldn’t ignore the sensation I’d been feeling for quite a long time.
[Ji Yeohoon> Hyung, what are you doing for lunch?]
[I’ll get Yoon Cheong out first and think about it while eating with him.]
[Ji Yeohoon> Not eating with me??? (๑´╹‸╹`๑)]
[I’ll have a separate lunch with you later instead.]
[Ji Yeohoon> Okay~.]
Maybe it was because of the emoji, but he just looked cute, and as I kept staring at it, Yoon Cheong suddenly thrust his face close to mine.
“What?”
“What’s on your phone? You look really happy.”
“It’s Ji Yeohoon.”
“Is he that cute?”
“He’s cute, isn’t he?”
I laughed at Yoon Cheong’s expression, which seemed somewhat upset.
“You’re cute too.”
“That’s not really true.”
“Why not?”
Yoon Cheong made a face that said he didn’t like that expression either, so I just shook my head.
Seriously, he doesn’t like me calling Ji Yeohoon cute, and he doesn’t like being called cute himself—what am I supposed to do with these cute guys?
“Did you move everything?”
“Yeah. All done.”
“Then let’s go. Can I take this guy with me?”
“Of course. See you later then, Cheong.”
“Goodbye.”
I didn’t like Yoon Cheong being so subservient either.
Come to think of it, during the Chaehwa days, Yoon Cheong was completely indifferent outside, but he still diligently did everything the Association and guild told him to.
I kept wondering if there was some connection.
“Moon Soo-young, your eyes look fierce right now.”
“I don’t have a fierce face, so even if I glare like this, I don’t look fierce.”
“Still, you look fierce to me.”
He wasn’t usually that perceptive, but he was quick to notice my expressions.
Is this some kind of buff effect from spending a long time together?
My reflection faintly visible in the glass window didn’t look any different from usual.
I thought maybe I looked sharp, but there didn’t seem to be much difference.
“Is it that obvious?”
“I don’t think other people would notice, but…”
“How do you know? Ji Yeohoon does the same thing.”
Even the classmates I’d been with for a long time couldn’t distinguish it well.
At most, Yoo Ji-ae, who was relatively perceptive, seemed to barely recognize the change in atmosphere before I started nagging.
I didn’t give these guys any passive ability to read my expressions.
Yoon Cheong met my eyes and casually opened his mouth.
“I know because I focus on you that much. Both me and him.”
“…”
What’s that supposed to mean?
These guys sometimes casually shake up my thoughts these days.
* * *
“…Can I see him just once?”
“No. Do you think they’ll let you talk to him?”
“I really have something to tell him. No other reason.”
“Are you acting in line with what you’ve done in the past?”
“I already apologized. And besides, it’s not your business to interfere.”
After morning classes ended, I was heading to fill my water bottle during break time when I heard a familiar voice.
I immediately recognized Ji Yeohoon’s voice, and the other voice was both familiar and unfamiliar.
It couldn’t be helped since I’d only heard it during the period when his voice was changing.
I lightly tapped the shoulder of the light brown-haired boy, nearly blonde, who was trying hard to hide his silver hair.
“Soo-young hyung!”
Why the surprised face? I waved my hand saying hello, and Ye Han-seo’s eyes also widened before he bowed politely.
Oh, he bowed? After talking frequently with Ye Han-dam, his behavior has definitely improved a lot.
“It’s been a while.”
“Hi. No, hello.”
“You can speak casually. I don’t really mind.”
Anyway, in Ji Yeohoon’s grade, only Ji Yeohoon and Do Yoon-seo used formal speech.
Do Yoon-seo because of her personality, Ji Yeohoon, for some reason, only to me.
Anyway, judging from their conversation, it seemed Ye Han-seo had requested to meet me.
Since the boys had moved up to high school, we were in the same building, and the classrooms weren’t that far apart, so we could have run into each other while coming and going. Yet I hadn’t encountered Ye Han-seo even once, probably because these two had been actively preventing it.
No wonder. Even if I moved just a little, Yoon Cheong would say he was planning to go too and follow along.
Fortunately, Yoon Cheong had gone to the dormitory briefly in my place right now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known at all.
Ji Yeohoon must have recognized my expression immediately because he approached with an incredibly innocent look and grabbed my hand.
“Hyuuung…”
“You… Let’s talk about this later.”
“I’m sorry…”
Some things can be overlooked because of a face, and some can’t. No matter how weak I am to these guys, I couldn’t let this slide easily.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“Can we talk privately?”
Ye Han-seo was looking anxiously at Ji Yeohoon, which made me feel sorry for him, so I stared intently at Ji Yeohoon.
“I can’t concede on that.”
I knew he wasn’t the type to do anything dangerous, but I could also understand Ji Yeohoon’s anxiety.
He was sensitive and on edge about any actions that might harm me.
And Ye Han-seo didn’t seem to want to talk with Ji Yeohoon present either…
“Fine. Then Ye Han-seo, follow me, and Ji Yeohoon, you stay some distance away.”
“Hyung! He’s a close-range type, so it won’t be easy to respond if something happens!”
“Tell Yoon Cheong instead. Tell him to go to the classroom and hold onto Ye Han-dam. That’ll work, right?”
Ji Yeohoon immediately nodded at my words.
Yoon Cheong would ask what I was talking about, but I thought Ji Yeohoon would understand quickly.
The Ye brothers might have had a bad relationship, but they’d become close enough to have normal conversations now.
Their balance might not match, but in any case, he was the only family the boy had left.
The intent was that if Ye Han-seo did anything harmful to me, it would turn into a conflict between guilds through Ye Han-dam.
Actually, I didn’t really mean for him to actually fight by grabbing him, but it was a response I showed for Ji Yeohoon’s benefit.
It’s not a morally or ethically good method, but it was like saying, if he hits first, you hit back.
Ye Han-seo stopped only when Ji Yeohoon was barely visible to my eyes.
Ye Han-seo had slightly better eyesight than Yoon Cheong, so at this distance, he probably couldn’t see lip movements or hear sounds? No, he probably couldn’t even see our figures clearly.
Ye Han-seo turned around as if this distance was sufficient.
“Do you know Ji Yeohoon’s eyesight?”
“I checked during the physical exam last time. It’s similar to mine.”
Ji Yeohoon is such a cheat too. Having eyesight similar to a close-range fighter.
“What did you want to say? It doesn’t seem like you just wanted to get Ji Yeohoon away.”
That was the impression I got.
If he just wanted Ji Yeohoon not to hear, we could have stayed a bit closer.
Even with an Esper’s dynamic vision, it wouldn’t be easy to catch the content of a conversation just by reading lip movements.
Especially since Ji Yeohoon, though an Esper, was just an ordinary high school student. He couldn’t read lips.
But Ye Han-seo seemed to want to make sure not just Ji Yeohoon but everyone at school couldn’t see us.
That’s why we came to a wooden bench near the garden at the edge of the field, away from the building.
“Actually… Have you noticed anything strange about Yoon Cheong… hyung?”
You bastard… Is it that hard to call me “hyung”?
What’s with these guys finding it difficult to call me “hyung”?
After being lost in an irrelevant thought, I shook my head.
“Not really? Except that he goes to the Association extremely often.”
“Haven’t you heard anything else?”
“No. Why?”
“I couldn’t remember well because it was before my manifestation, but I recently recalled something.”
Both Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon sometimes forgot things from before their manifestation if they weren’t things they originally remembered.
Thanks to that, there were times when I had to remind them of things they said when they were young.
“What did you remember?”
“My brother definitely wasn’t affiliated with Chaehwa.”
“Not with Chaehwa?”
What’s he talking about? As far as I remember, Ye Han-dam was with Chaehwa, and after being expelled due to various reverse guiding incidents, he was affiliated with the Association.
I hadn’t even thought about Ye Han-dam not being with Chaehwa.
“After our aunt passed away, my brother had to live in the dormitory, so he came to pack his things, right?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m sure someone from the guild where my brother was temporarily affiliated came at that time. You know, some places have guild uniforms.”
“That’s also correct.”
Some places had formal suits made for official business, and others had uniforms or activity clothes made.
“At that time, it definitely wasn’t Chaehwa Guild. That person knew I was also an Esper manifestation candidate and asked if I would come to their side when I manifested, but I was too scared to say anything.”
As a child, he might not have been able to answer.
But since they couldn’t take him to the guild’s dormitory without his consent, Ye Han-seo, the nephew of the deceased Guide and a future manifestation candidate, seemed to have been inevitably moved to the Association’s childcare facility.
“Do you remember where it was? You might be remembering incorrectly.”
“It’s not precise. But when I briefly went to the guild recently, I saw the historical uniforms. The outfit I saw wasn’t in Chaehwa.”
‘I heard that Espers provisionally affiliated with other guilds often transfer to Chaehwa.’
Why did I suddenly remember the text Ji Yeohoon sent me?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
