“It’s been a while, Guide Lee Han-seo. But what brings you—”
“Is the Director in?”
Without waiting for the assistant director standing outside the office to respond, Lee Han-seo shoved the door open and stormed in.
“Hey! Mr. Lee Han-seo!” the aide shouted after him in a panic, but Han-seo didn’t care. If he were the type to worry about formalities, he wouldn’t have barged in without a word in the first place.
BANG!
“Director! You promised I would be the first to test my Matching Rate with Park Woo-jun!”
“Ahem, ahem… Guide Lee, let’s calm down and—”
“Calm down, my ass!”
The Director, his silver hair slightly disheveled, looked away with an awkward expression. How could he not understand what Han-seo was after, especially with the way he’d been acting ever since Park Woo-jun arrived? The kid blinking blankly behind him clearly had no idea what was going on, but Lee Han-seo’s intentions were obvious—he wanted that Esper as his Bonded Pair, no matter what.
Realizing that Han-seo had finally taken interest in someone other than Ryu Ho-yeon, the Center had been scrambling behind the scenes, trying to buy time to pair Park Woo-jun with someone else. If they got lucky, and a Guide with imprint compatibility showed up and completed the Imprint, then not even Lee Han-seo could do anything about it.
“Isn’t my mom’s donation funding the new dorms for general admin staff next quarter? You really don’t care if that whole budget disappears overnight? Shouldn’t you at least retire while you’re still holding the title of Director? What a shame it’d be to get demoted before retirement, huh?”
“Hey now, that’s going a bit too far. Just take a breath and let’s talk—”
“And your son’s getting married soon. Wouldn’t want to set a bad example right before the big day, right?”
Yeah, Lee Han-seo knew how to throw a punch—and he wasn’t pulling any. Normally, even when irritated or fed up with how the Center operated, he never crossed the line like this. But this time? This time, he was pissed. Beyond pissed.
Getting hit with what was basically a threat from a punk half his age would infuriate anyone. The Director’s face flushed red, then pale, then red again. But Han-seo had already pulled the trigger and had no intention of letting up.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. A full quarter of this Center’s quarterly budget comes from my grandfather and my mom—money they donate so I can live freely, without having to kiss anyone’s ass, and just do what I want. If that money vanishes, who’s going to be held accountable? Have I ever asked for anything unreasonable? No. I joined when I was fifteen, did every damn thing I was told. When you needed someone for experiments, I volunteered. When you needed field support, I went. I’ve played nice my whole damn life.”
If he’d wanted to play dirty, he could’ve done it long ago. But Han-seo never stepped out of line. Not because he couldn’t—because he’d never had to. He’d never wanted anything badly enough to go this far.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever asked for. Just this—Park Woo-jun’s Matching Rate. I only asked to be the first to test it.”
Behind him, Park Woo-jun stood frozen, heart pounding. Was this really okay? Should he be watching this?
His chest thudded so loud it echoed in his ears—and it wasn’t from fear. It was excitement. No, thrill. The kind that sets your whole body alight.
While he’d just sat there crying like an idiot and obediently taking tests after being told he couldn’t be Paired with Han-seo, the man himself had marched right up to the final boss and slammed into him head-on. Maybe—just maybe—the outcome could change. Maybe that promise—“Just trust me and follow”—hadn’t been a lie.
“And you think stabbing someone in the back like this is okay? Imagine it was you, Director. Wouldn’t you lose your mind?”
“W-Well, we had no choice. You have to consider our position, too. If it was just the Matching Rate test, nobody would object. But it’s obvious you’re angling to change your Pair entirely. And if you come at me like this, what am I supposed to tell the higher-ups?”
To be fair, the Director had a point. There’s always a reason behind the madness.
Most people imagined the Director as some all-powerful puppet master pulling strings. But that only held true when dealing with subordinates. Once the discussions hit minister-level politics, it was a whole different ballgame. Even though the Center was practically treated as a separate agency, it hadn’t yet been formally recognized as an independent bureau and was still technically the Esper Management Bureau under the Ministry of Defense.
The order to tether Special-Type manifestation Esper Ryu Ho-yeon to an S-Class Guide—ensuring he couldn’t flee the country—had come straight from the Defense Minister himself.
And whenever a new administration took office, the Blue House always asked the same question: “So when will Ryu Ho-yeon and Lee Han-seo be officially Paired?”
So even if Han-seo threw a fit, there was no way a mere Director could just approve that kind of change on his own.
And Lee Han-seo knew that. That’s why he wasn’t demanding to be Paired with Park Woo-jun outright. He was asking to go through the official procedure—to test the Matching Rate. Honestly, he wanted to skip all that and go straight for an Imprint. It was taking everything he had not to.
He hadn’t officially tested it yet, but he was sure his Matching Rate with Park Woo-jun would be at least 90 percent. After years of grueling experiments designed to artificially boost Matching Rates, Han-seo had developed a hyper-sensitive instinct. Just brushing fingers was enough for him to tell, with near certainty, how compatible he was with any given Esper.
Since being first evaluated as a Guide at seven years old, he’d been guiding Espers nonstop—whether it was called testing or “field support.” There had never been enough Guides, and the Guide Management Department always leaned on him to pick up the slack.
But out of all those Espers, not a single one—not one—ever gave him the same feeling Park Woo-jun did.
That first time he saw Woo-jun unconscious. When he pushed through that whirlwind and took hold of those massive hands. That was it—Han-seo knew, right then and there.
This one’s mine. He was made for me.
The electric shock when their skin touched. The dizzying euphoria, like they’d fused completely. That high, like something had pierced straight through his soul and set it ablaze.
He couldn’t give an exact percentage. But he knew.
Lee Han-seo and Park Woo-jun would have a Matching Rate no one else in this country—no, on this planet—could come close to.
That’s what fate was. And if this wasn’t fate?
Then fate didn’t exist in Lee Han-seo’s world.
“At least 95 percent. If our Matching Rate falls below that, I’ll walk away. No questions asked.”
“H-Han-seo…!”
Not every Bonded Pair had gone through Imprinting. In fact, it was rare to even see a Matching Rate hit 85 percent.
Across the entire country, less than half of all registered Pairs had completed the Imprint process. And even then, most of those had started in the high 70s or low 80s, gradually building compatibility over years of working together before finally attempting it.
So for Lee Han-seo to confidently throw out ninety-five percent like it was nothing—everyone in the room, except for the still-green Park Woo-jun, knew exactly how outrageous that claim was.
“That’s… really high, right? And if it’s not… if we don’t…”
Park Woo-jun trailed off anxiously, glancing at the Director’s horrified face and tugging nervously on Han-seo’s sleeve. But Han-seo casually shook off the hand clutching his coat, drawing a clear line.
“Stay out of it. I know what I’m doing.”
This wasn’t a reckless gamble. He wasn’t the kind of person to stake someone’s entire life on a hunch.
“I get it. You need justification. That’s why I’m only asking to run the Matching Rate test. If the initial reading comes out over 95 percent, it’ll make international headlines. And it’s not just any pairing—it’s an S-Class one. You know exactly what that means.”
“…Can you be sure?”
“The one who needs to be sure right now is you, Director. So promise me this: if the result hits 95 percent or more, you’ll pair me with Park Woo-jun. No negotiations. No delays.”
“Mmm…”
“Think about it. Ho-yeon and I—after more than ten years, we still haven’t hit 20 percent. And to officially register as a Bonded Pair, we need at least 40. How many more years are you planning to waste chasing a dead end? Wouldn’t it be smarter to reinforce our active forces with an S-Class Pair that’s actually ready?”
He wasn’t wrong. It all hinged on whether the Matching Rate was really as high as he claimed.
“…You know I can’t authorize something like this on my own. Wait outside for now. I’ll make the call.”
Letting out a long, resigned sigh, the Director finally reached for the sleek phone resting on his desk.
It connected directly to the presidential residence—straight to the Blue House.
