#113
***
At the touch of a gentle nudge, Ho-woo drowsily opened his eyes. Having fallen asleep without realizing it, his neck felt stiff from being slumped over.
“Did you sleep poorly?” Seong Ha-young asked while checking the chart. Ho-woo massaged the back of his neck and smiled awkwardly. After being tormented by Oh-yul all night, he had dozed off, but even in that short nap, he had a strange dream.
Though he couldn’t remember the details, the fact that it was an odd dream remained strongly in his mind, leaving him feeling peculiar even after waking up.
“I just had a weird dream. I can’t remember what it was about, but I feel uneasy.”
“Hmm… It might be due to the residual energy in your body. The readings are a bit high. Did you do anything special yesterday…?”
Seong Ha-young was quickly jotting something down on paper when she noticed Ho-woo’s face turning bright red. She nodded in understanding.
“I see.”
She added ‘Close guiding performed’ to the special notes. Ho-woo bowed his head, wondering why there had been so many embarrassing incidents lately.
“If you’re really transforming into an esper, there might be noticeable physical changes, or it could affect you mentally. Let me know if you feel different from usual.”
Ho-woo followed Seong Ha-young. After the internal energy level test in the energy detection chamber, there would be simple strength and fitness tests. Then it would be time to test the blocking ability that had prevented Bae Gi-hong’s mental power.
“Do you exercise?”
Ho-woo, who had changed from his guide uniform into comfortable workout clothes, scratched his cheek at Seong Ha-young’s question.
“I don’t exercise separately, but I did about a month and a half of fitness training with Oh-yul.”
“Is that so?”
Seong Ha-young coldly wrote ‘No regular exercise’ on the chart. Ho-woo looked a bit dejected at her merciless judgment, but she showed no intention of changing her assessment.
After recording the grip strength test and a brief running fitness test, Seong Ha-young showed displeasure before the final examination.
“Ho-woo, it’s been a while?”
Choi Seon-woo greeted Ho-woo with a smile from inside the energy detection chamber. His deeply purple eyes curved into long crescents. Ho-woo sat down in front of him and gave a brief greeting.
“Was Choi Seon-woo the one helping out?”
“A-class mental espers are quite rare. Since Bae Gi-hong is an A-class esper, the assistant also needs to be A-class, so they sent reliable me.”
He pulled out a crumpled and folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Seong Ha-young. She looked at it with obvious displeasure but took and examined it.
“It’s an authorization with the minister’s signature.”
Seong Ha-young sighed as she unfolded the crumpled paper. She seemed displeased with both the situation and the wrinkled document. She pulled up a chair to sit between Ho-woo and Choi Seon-woo, then placed her chart on the table with a thud.
“This is an experiment, not suppression, so there’s no need to use your ability strongly from the start. We want to see what level you can defend against, so slowly increase the energy output.”
Choi Seon-woo met Ho-woo’s gaze at Seong Ha-young’s instruction.
It was an uncomfortably intense stare. Although he tried to reassure Ho-woo not to be nervous, Ho-woo remained vigilant, watching him closely. The memory of what happened with Bae Gi-hong came flooding back, and even though he knew Choi Seon-woo wouldn’t harm him, Ho-woo couldn’t help but bristle like a cat with its fur on end.
Perhaps the aversion to someone attempting something on him, even though he couldn’t feel anything, was also playing a part.
Ho-woo stared in shock at his right hand slowly rising against his will. He hadn’t realized he’d lost control of his body. Clearly it was his own hand, but Ho-woo watched blankly as if it belonged to someone else. When that hand poked his cheek with a finger, he shot a “what are you doing?” look at Choi Seon-woo.
Just like with Bae Gi-hong, no sound came out. Only his thoughts were under his control. Ho-woo tried to give Choi Seon-woo the most insolent glare he could muster, but the man just hummed a tune as he pulled out his phone.
What, what are you going to do?!
Ho-woo’s eyes shook with anxiety. Choi Seon-woo fiddled with his phone for a moment before pointing the camera lens at Ho-woo. Like a director absorbed in his work, he stared at Ho-woo through the screen, then made a short “Hmm” sound as if something displeased him.
“Esper Choi Seon-woo, please refrain from unnecessary actions.”
Seong Ha-young, who had been recording the numbers displayed on the chamber screen onto her chart, clicked her tongue and tried to stop him, but Choi Seon-woo responded with a brazen face.
“No, this is all helpful.”
How?!
Ho-woo was horrified to find his body now making a flower pose with both hands cupped.
“How exactly is taking such photos helpful?”
She looked at him in disgust as he kept pressing the shutter button while changing Ho-woo’s poses, but Choi Seon-woo didn’t stop. He even went further, carefully selecting from the photos he had taken and shoving them in front of Ho-woo’s face.
“Ho-woo, look at these. The photos came out well, right?”
Himself making a flower pose, poking both cheeks with his hands, resting his chin on his hand and looking at the camera with a strange expression.
Ack, aah! Ack!
Ho-woo screamed internally as shame washed over him. With the sole thought of making him delete those awful photos immediately, Ho-woo trembled furiously. But his body didn’t move even a finger.
Beep-! Beep-!
Instead, the chamber emitted a series of high-pitched warning sounds. Seong Ha-young hurriedly checked the screen. Choi Seon-woo’s energy, which had been pressuring Ho-woo, was fluctuating unstably.
“See? People make desperate efforts when they have a catalyst.”
Choi Seon-woo maintained control precariously as he wiped away the cold sweat that had formed on his forehead. Though he tried to keep a relaxed expression, he was actually surprised.
Bae Gi-hong had barely made it into A-class. So he had unconsciously underestimated him. Thinking that even if the mental barrier was high, it wouldn’t work against him. But as he gradually increased the pressure, he was genuinely impressed.
This was truly a masterpiece among masterpieces.
‘At this rate, he’ll be able to block even the chief’s ability soon.’
Since it was a power derived from Oh-yul, blocking the same power should be easier than eating cold porridge while lying down. If he could block even Oh-yul’s power, Ho-woo would have a perfect mental defense shield.
Choi Seon-woo smiled at the anger reflected in those light brown eyes glaring at him.
“These photos are too good to keep to myself. Should we keep them as research records?”
“―!”
Ho-woo cursed with his eyes as hard as he could. Fortunately, Seong Ha-young was on Ho-woo’s side and firmly cut him off with a “We don’t want them.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll just send them to the chief.”
He lightly tapped the screen a couple of times, then showed it to Ho-woo. Several photos had been sent to Oh-yul. The number next to the message disappeared in real-time. Proof that Oh-yul had seen them. Choi Seon-woo slipped his phone into his pocket with a grin.
“It looks like the chief is calling for me, so I should go.”
Before leaving, he winked at Ho-woo. His irritating behavior made Ho-woo wish he could just hit him once.
As Choi Seon-woo disappeared from view, Ho-woo, released from control, slumped onto the table, gasping for breath. He felt extremely fatigued. It hadn’t been this bad with Bae Gi-hong, had it?
More importantly, those photos….
A collection of aegyo poses from a 28-year-old man.
It was something he would never do in his right mind. Even if it wasn’t voluntary, the photos only showed him. Was he cursed lately? Why did embarrassing things keep happening? Ho-woo shook his head repeatedly.
“Are you alright?”
“It would be a lie if I said I was, wouldn’t it…?”
“…Hmm.”
She cleared her throat. All Seong Ha-young could do was offer him a bottle of water. Today was just the first experiment, and until Ho-woo could perfectly block Choi Seon-woo, these mischievous pranks would likely continue.
But requesting another esper wasn’t an option, as Ho-woo’s unique situation needed to be kept from outside exposure as much as possible. One hopeful thing was that Ho-woo had an even higher mental barrier than she had thought.
“Ho-woo, the results aren’t bad, at least.”
Seong Ha-young showed Ho-woo the organized chart and explained calmly.
“Even considering the variable of close guiding, B-class and lower mental espers shouldn’t be able to affect you. According to the numbers, you could even momentarily overwhelm an A-class, so if there’s enough residual energy in your body, you could be considered completely immune in the mental category. Moreover…”
She trailed off for a moment. Her expression was complex.
“I’m not sure whether to consider this fortunate, or if I should say you’re unlucky. I’d like to think of it positively, but honestly, I can’t say being involved with that man is a good thing.”
Seong Ha-young spoke frankly. This was absolutely not a good thing.
She had received one authority from Oh-yul as soon as he took office as minister. Given the authority to freely access all research data conducted within the management corporation, Seong Ha-young immediately checked them. It was to satisfy her curiosity as a scientist and to see if there was any content that could be applied to Ho-woo, even a little.
