#45
“You’ve been working like this and just taking money all this time! You vermin!”
The abusive language hurled at the researchers, who had been diligently doing their part, was clearly audible. One didn’t need to be an Esper with keen hearing to hear the booming shouts; if you couldn’t hear them, you might need to question your hearing ability.
Few Espers liked the researchers who treated their bodies like experimental tools. Joo Si-yeo displayed a sneering smile at the sight of those bowing their heads and enduring the humiliation. Her yellow eyes, filled with contempt and disgust towards them, met Oh-yul’s gaze. She waved her hand lightly, offering a casual greeting.
“Wow, it’s hard to see your face. Have you been well?”
“Esper Joo Si-yeo, you’re being rude.”
“You’re being so petty about a two-year age difference. If you’re not happy, I told you to drop the formalities.”
Joo Si-yeo stood with her arms crossed, completely ignoring the small wildcat still clinging to Oh-yul’s arm. Meanwhile, Ha Eun-chan, who had been standing a bit further away, quietly took his place at this rare gathering of S-class Espers.
“Is it okay not to stop that?”
The minister, his face red from shouting, was slapping the doctor’s cheek. Each time the plump hand swung, there was a fairly loud slap. The man’s body trembled as he struggled to stand straight after each blow. It was probably trembling from shame as much as pain.
“Do we need to?”
“Oh-yul’s right. Do we need to?”
Joo Si-yeo, who particularly disliked the researchers, grinned as if finding it amusing. Her yellow-tinted eyes above her curved lips glinted with murderous intent. It was the researchers at the complex who had confined electric-type Espers in power plants and treated them like generators. There was no reason for her to have any good feelings towards them.
“Why is he just slapping the cheeks? Can’t he knock him down and stomp on him?”
“He’s trying to give humiliation rather than pain.”
Sometimes, pride can be above pain. Oh-yul briefly looked at the doctor suppressing his resentful expression, then glanced at Kim Seon-young, who was nonchalantly using her phone despite the tense atmosphere. She was busily moving her fingers, seemingly chatting with someone, her face calm even in this situation.
“What are you looking at?”
Kim Seon-young sharply raised her eyes, perhaps sensing Oh-yul’s gaze. The girl seemed displeased that a mere Esper was making eye contact with her. Her attitude clearly showed what kind of ideology she had been instilled with by Kim Dong-cheol.
“It’s unpleasant, so get on your knees and look up at me. From now on, if you look down on me from above, I won’t guide you. They say you’ll die without that, right? It’d be better for you to crawl.”
Like father, like daughter.
Being a Guide and unable to feel an Esper’s intimidation, she was no different from a small dog barking without fear. Oh-yul barely suppressed a scoff at her overconfidence that the thin thread of being a Guide would protect her.
The faces of Joo Si-yeo and Ha Eun-chan, who were listening nearby, also crumpled more miserably. Their expressions also showed a hint of relief that they had narrowly avoided being imprinted with such a person.
“Huff… Huff…”
Meanwhile, the minister, exhausted on his own, wiped his sweat-soaked forehead and spat at the feet of the doctor who couldn’t offer any resistance. Then he ordered the men standing around:
“Take away all communication devices from that bastard.”
The pointed finger was directed at Oh-yul. When the bodyguards, who had better physical abilities than ordinary people but were still civilians, hesitated and showed signs of reluctance, the minister shouted “Hurry up!” with a reddened face.
The men, driven more by the power-backed order than their instinctive fear for their lives, approached Oh-yul clumsily and patted him down. They found and confiscated the cell phone in his uniform pocket and were about to take the pager on his wrist when Oh-yul gently stopped them.
“This is an emergency pager.”
“You’re not allowed to keep any electronic devices.”
“I see you don’t understand the meaning of ’emergency’.”
Oh-yul lowered his voice threateningly, as if scratching his throat. A more intense, threatening pressure and energy spread around him, and white frost slowly settled from beneath his feet. At that moment, Kim Seon-young, who had been casually occupying Oh-yul’s arm, screamed briefly and hurriedly stepped back. The small ice crystals clinging to her sleeve sparkled in the light.
Even with a Guide to hold them in check, it wasn’t a good choice to go against the temperament of naturally violent Espers, so the doctor tried to quickly defuse the situation.
“A-anyway, that device doesn’t connect to anything outside the complex. It only connects to other pagers or phones authorized by the complex, so it’s okay to leave it.”
The man with both cheeks swollen like steamed buns from being hit mumbled with unclear pronunciation. At those words, the minister seemed to decide not to take away the pager as well. He only kept the confiscated cell phone, approached Oh-yul, and patted his shoulder lightly.
His face, twisted strangely with uncontainable greed, glowed. The man, consumed by his desire, forgot even his instinctive fear as his eyes gleamed.
Oh-yul found this amusing and trivial. It was all the more so because their desperate attempts to grasp power while treating Espers like beasts were no different from crawling vermin.
“Don’t do anything foolish. Remember, I hold your life in my hands.”
That same old Guiding threat.
Oh-yul, hearing this threat he’d been sick of since childhood, tilted his head slightly and answered briefly, his eyes filled with displeasure. He had never been a completely obedient dog.
“Yes.”
But it was still time to bow his head compliantly. Satisfied with Oh-yul’s docile response, the minister left the laboratory with a smile. Kim Seon-young and the bodyguards followed him in a line. They looked just like a group of scurrying rats.
The immediate problem for Oh-yul was that now he only had the pager to contact Ho-woo.
He hadn’t said anything in advance, so there was a risk of losing contact at this rate. He frowned, wondering if his pair had properly charged the pager that was likely tossed on the bedside table.
“Esper Joo Si-yeo, return to the power plant now.”
Amidst this, Joo Si-yeo, receiving what was effectively an order to return to her post from the swollen-faced doctor, grumbled as she left her spot. Despite everything, it seemed she couldn’t disobey when her life was being threatened, so she moved with heavy steps. After she left the laboratory, Ha Eun-chan quietly asked Oh-yul in a voice barely audible to him alone.
“Hyung. Will you be okay?”
It was a concern close to asking if he was really going to go through with the imprinting, but Oh-yul smiled lightly. Having already unilaterally imprinted on Ho-woo, there was no way he could proceed with imprinting on Kim Seon-young, and he was already half-planning to participate in this ridiculous play, so he wasn’t particularly moved.
What worried him more was Ho-woo potentially building unnecessary misunderstandings, not these people.
“Is there any reason I wouldn’t be?”
“…”
“Esper Ha Eun-chan, return to your position. Aren’t you also sick of these worthless Guiding threats?”
Ha Eun-chan left with an expression still not free of worry at Oh-yul’s cold words. As he departed, the doctor with his severely swollen cheeks approached Oh-yul. He spoke to the most dangerous Esper, who was looking down at him expressionlessly, with a slightly tense face.
“You’ll be under surveillance for the time being. External communication or contact with other Espers is not allowed, so go to the isolation facility. The Guide will come after that.”
“…”
Oh-yul bowed his head obediently, hiding his emotions. From childhood until now, these people still only had Guiding as a means to threaten him. Who would suffer more losses if he went berserk? One of him for one city was quite an expensive exchange.
Suppressing his contempt, he entered the isolation facility prepared in the research wing of the management complex, closed the door himself, and quietly held his breath in the dark space surrounded by thick iron walls without a single window.
He could ignore their orders at any time, but the reason he had obediently followed their laughable commands until now was solely for Lee Ho-woo.
Because preparation was needed to completely devour him from head to toe. He had endured for 21 years like that, and enduring a little more wasn’t so difficult.
The only problem, if there was one, was that he couldn’t send even a single message to Ho-woo. There was no other way to contact Ho-woo now. The pager on his wrist wouldn’t work properly inside these thick iron walls, and carelessly contacting him could lead to being traced.
In the darkness without a single light, the beast’s eyes narrowed unpleasantly.
***
“It’s time for Guiding.”
The man who pushed open the thick iron door cautiously approached Oh-yul, who was sitting on a chair in the center of the room. The overly tense expression and stiff neck and shoulders of the man were captured in the monster’s eyes, now accustomed to the darkness.
Suppressing the desire and urge to tear apart the Guide in front of him and go to Ho-woo immediately, Oh-yul obediently extended his hand to hold the unsatisfying hand.
