[Everyone’s gone.]
Serubi approached me as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
[I’m curious about something.]
Despite his swishing tail, Serubi’s eyes were very serious.
[You said the method used to kill your younger brother was the same as what happened to Juju. I want to hear more details about that.]
I wondered why Serubi was interested in this issue, but I explained what I’d felt exactly as I experienced it.
“I could clearly detect another Esper’s wavelength, but there were no signs of resistance and the inside was too clean. Just by looking at the outside, you’d think he was just sleeping. In that state, the heartbeat just significantly slowed down until it stopped. If I hadn’t examined the wavelength, I wouldn’t have known he was dying.”
It would have been better if there had been some special trace left behind, but there really wasn’t any distinguishing feature. Even I thought my explanation was lacking, so I moved my lips a few times, but had nothing more to add.
“But why do you ask?”
[It’s similar to how beasts preserve their food.]
The subject of our conversation suddenly vanished from my mind.
“Beasts? Not Espers?”
Serubi scratched his ear with his hind leg and answered casually.
[We can’t rule out the possibility of a mental Esper. But from what I’ve seen, it’s more like a beast. If it were human, they would kill immediately. There’s no reason to wait several hours to kill.]
When I heard the term ‘mental Esper,’ I naturally thought of the Esper with whom Woo Jeonghyun had recently signed a dedicated Guide contract. It’s not that I didn’t trust Serubi’s words, but there were still questionable aspects to definitively conclude it was a beast. If I were the Center Director, releasing a beast would seem like the riskier option.
“I think we should also hear from someone who’s a mental Esper.”
[Take me to Juju. I can tell whether it was a person or a beast that used the ability.]
Serubi seemed frustrated by my response and stomped the floor with his front paw as he spoke.
“It’s been a day. Is that still possible?”
[The wavelength won’t remain, but if it was a beast, its distinctive smell will still be there.]
This was a very animal-like method, which made sense.
“Se-eun needs to go to school now, so she’s probably busy. Let’s go in the afternoon.”
I calmed Serubi, who was wiggling his bottom as if ready to go right away. He licked his lips in disappointment but obediently brought his two paws together and crouched down.
After that, it was life as usual. Last night I had suffered through a fever and faced a turning point that flipped my entire life upside down, but the world kept spinning just as it had yesterday.
The scene of having breakfast together. Jeong Seyeon saying goodbye in his neat attire. Yang Garam turning back and waving at every step until he left through the front gate. Do Wonjin skillfully starting the household chores. Everything was so peaceful it was painful. Though I didn’t show it, I had been impatient since breakfast, and my insides were continuously crumbling. Affected by this, sparks were randomly shooting from my fingertips. I massaged my arms secretly and gave a bitter smile.
‘I told Garam to be patient, but I’m the one who can’t wait.’
But the more I thought about it, the more my teeth clenched and my murderous intent surged. That man had been involved in every moment my life had fallen into the abyss.
‘When the house burned down, when signing the dedicated Guide contract. When my younger brother was murdered…’
For a very long time, he had been destroying the foundation I stood on, and in the end, made me face the most dishonorable death. Though we didn’t have any personal business outside of official matters, he was my superior, and I had unconsciously considered him to be definitely on my side. Even though he treated me with authority, he was the only one who had extended a helping hand whenever I was in trouble.
‘In reality, it was probably to cover up what he had done.’
My teeth gritted again.
‘How should I pay him back?’
I said I would return everything as I received it, but I couldn’t just charge in recklessly. If I wanted to repay the Center Director for what he had done to me, I needed to work carefully behind the scenes to make sure there was no evidence that I did it. That way, I could maintain my influence over him for a long time.
Tap tap.
Lost in thought, I raised my head at the sound of someone knocking on the window.
Do Wonjin, who had just been hanging laundry in the yard, had climbed a tree and was knocking on my bedroom window.
“Leaving a perfectly good door and entering like a thief.”
I opened the door with disbelief, and Do Wonjin came through the window with a grin.
“I wanted to see you quickly.”
Do Wonjin spoke those embarrassing words so casually, and I made a wry expression as I was still not used to this side of him.
“Did you finish the laundry?”
Thinking I might push him back out the window if he was slacking off, I asked, and he shrugged as if it was obvious.
“Have you made good plans for what to do next?”
“So that was your purpose.”
“Jeongjae must be anxious too, right?”
I was a bit surprised that Do Wonjin had noticed my urgency, as I thought I had hidden my impatient appearance well. Do Wonjin grabbed my arm and sat me down on the sofa near the window.
“Come on, talk to me. I’ll listen.”
“I haven’t really planned anything grand yet. I was just thinking about all the things I lost because of that person.”
“You must be angry.”
“Yeah. I realized I’ve been dancing in the palm of his hand for a long time.”
“Now you can pay him back exactly the same way, from start to finish.”
My overheated, jumbled mind cleared at Do Wonjin’s words. I had been thinking I needed to meticulously craft something complex, but it was actually a very simple matter.
“What’s the first thing you lost?”
“The house where my family lived. It burned down.”
“Then let’s burn that bastard’s house first.”
“You say it so easily?”
“You don’t like that?”
“No, I like it.”
I found myself smiling without realizing it. I would need to find out where the Center Director’s house was first, but just imagining it was satisfying.
“What did you lose next?”
“My mother disappeared from our home.”
“Hmm. Should we take something precious from his house?”
I shook my head at Do Wonjin’s suggestion. Simply burning down his house versus kidnapping a person were issues of completely different dimensions.
“That doesn’t seem right. That bastard should pay for his crimes. What crime did the people around him commit?”
That’s why the method the Center Director used against me was so vicious. He had completely ruined the lives of everyone around me. Though I said I would pay him back, I didn’t want to do exactly the same as him.
“I don’t mean to bring back a person.”
I opened my eyes wide at Do Wonjin’s words.
“He’s raising a beast at his home, right? How precious must it be for him to keep it like a pet in his house? Let’s take that away. Well, we could also kill it on the spot.”
Serubi, who had been prowling around the sofa perhaps finding our conversation interesting, showed a startled reaction.
“That sounds good. Since he’s already keeping a beast secretly from the government, it shows he has some dark intentions.”
Though Joo Seolhyeon’s memory was of something that would happen five years in the future, so there was no guarantee that the beast was still in the Center Director’s house now, it wasn’t a bad plan. However, Serubi seemed to think I was talking about him, as he was glaring at me with eyes full of betrayal.
“Serubi, come here.”
I couldn’t help but laugh again as it was so obvious what he was thinking with that small head of his. Serubi seemed upset by my expression, narrowed his eyes, then turned away abruptly and jumped onto the bed.
“He seems to be in a bad mood today.”
Do Wonjin casually remarked as he looked at Serubi curled up on the bed, and I just nodded with a smile.
After that, we continued back and forth, building our plans step by step. Do Wonjin pointed out things I hadn’t thought of, so the plan became increasingly extensive. By the time we finished talking, it was well past lunchtime.
The plan we devised was divided into three main parts. First, burning down his house. Second, destroying his organization. Third, making him go berserk.
“That was fun, right?”
Do Wonjin smiled and stroked my head as I was shocked to see the time. Now that I think about it, I had been laughing the entire time we were making plans. It was mostly because of Do Wonjin’s ridiculous nonsense, but it was true that I had lost track of time because of it.
“Thanks to you.”
With a smile still lingering on my face, I agreed with him, and the hand that had been on my head moved to the back of my head, bringing his face suddenly closer.
“Since I did well, give me a kiss right here.”
I was dumbfounded seeing Do Wonjin playfully presenting his lips, but perhaps because I was in a good mood, I thought it wouldn’t be bad to play along with his joke this time. Smooch. I gave Do Wonjin’s offered lips a light peck and pulled away.
It was just a childish kiss, but since it was the first time I had initiated a kiss with him, it was somehow embarrassing. I immediately lowered my head without checking his face, but when there was no reaction from Do Wonjin, I raised my head again.
“…”
Do Wonjin was looking at me with a stupid expression, his face bright red as if frozen.
“Do Wonjin?”
At my words, he jumped up from his seat like someone unfrozen from a game of freeze tag. He covered his face, which had turned as red as if it was about to burst into flames, fumbled around, then quickly left the room saying he had to go now.
“What was that? Why that reaction?”
We had done more than this before, yet he was acting like he’d given all his innocence away for just one little peck.
Belatedly, his heat seemed to transfer to me as my face grew hot.
“This makes it seem like you really like me.”
As I was fanning myself to cool down, my phone rang. It was Peter, whom I had parted with yesterday in the dungeon without even saying goodbye.
—Mr. Jeongjae, are you available to talk now?
“Yes, I am.”
—This morning, the Center Director came to express his gratitude for yesterday’s incident. When he saw I was staying in temporary accommodations, he asked how long I would be staying in Korea.
For a moment, I put aside the assumption that the Center Director might be the leader of the terrorist organization Peter was pursuing, and quietly listened to what he had to say.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
