Joo Cheong-gyeong shrugged.
“Am I supposed to praise you for getting the right answer?”
“Why the hell would you do something like that…!”
The informant shouted, his face stricken with horror. He knew he was overstepping, but he couldn’t help himself. Someone of Joo Cheong-gyeong’s standing could’ve easily received proper guiding through legal means—there was absolutely no reason to resort to criminal acts like this. He couldn’t fathom where Joo Cheong-gyeong had found an S-rank Guide, or why he was treating them so recklessly. None of it made sense.
“Is it a problem for me to be with my own Guide?”
But instead, Joo Cheong-gyeong asked back, sounding genuinely puzzled.
The informant was left speechless.
“And frankly, I don’t think you’re in a position to be worrying about someone else right now.”
“……!”
“To be honest, I was a little pissed off.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong rose from his chair. The informant instinctively tensed into a combat stance as Joo slowly approached, an unmistakable air of menace around him. In the blink of an eye, his vision cut out. It felt like he had lost control of his body for a split second before regaining it.
“Hh—!”
When he came to, he was collapsed on the floor with a heavy thud.
The informant realized Joo Cheong-gyeong had used his ability. Unlike him, who hadn’t even had a chance to react, Joo Cheong-gyeong calmly straightened his slightly tilted posture.
“You breaking into my house was already bad enough, but then you bring something like this?”
Crunch.
A small device shattered in Joo Cheong-gyeong’s hand. Fragments fell to the floor, landing right in front of the informant’s nose. Joo dusted his hands off cleanly.
“And trying to snoop on my Guide, too.”
“……”
“To be honest, you were all worked up, weren’t you? Thinking, ‘Ah, I’d love to be guided by him, just once…’ That kind of greedy thought. I really, really can’t stand it.”
His voice turned icy, drawing out every word with deliberate contempt.
The informant curled up, panting through the pounding headache that returned full force. Even amidst the haze, terror surged within him. Joo Cheong-gyeong had peeled back his thoughts and laid bare his shame—the yearning of an Esper desperate for a perfect guiding. Whatever objections he had to Joo Cheong-gyeong’s behavior were one thing, but having his private desire exposed like this was unbearable.
“Thanks to people like you, I’ll probably have to worry about our Eun-soo for the rest of my life. I’ll never feel at ease, not even for a second.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong let out an exaggerated sigh, his pale face twisted with mock frustration. A moment later, his gaze—just as cold as his voice—bore down on the informant.
“Well then… I guess it’s best to deal with you after you’ve outlived your usefulness, wouldn’t you say?”
A shiver of dread clawed down the informant’s spine. His eyes widened in horror, instinctively sensing the worst was yet to come.
***
Inside a sleek and elegant building, a young man exchanged greetings with the staff as he walked by. Passing a display of various perfume collections, he opened the door to the CEO’s office. What greeted him was a teenager sprawled on the sofa, glued to his phone.
“Hah.”
His usually warm and friendly expression twisted with displeasure. As he walked over to his desk and took off his jacket, he asked,
“It’s a weekday. Why aren’t you at school, cousin?”
“Mm, no classes today, cousin hyung.”
“What, are you in college or something now?”
The man shook his head in disbelief.
“Back in my day, skipping even one day of school felt like the end of the world.”
“That supposed to be funny?”
The cousin let out a scoffing laugh.
“I do wanna graduate college early like you and start a business, but I don’t want that kind of life.”
“Which is exactly why I’m asking for some allowance, CEO Seo Junho.”
Seo Junho looked at him like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Why don’t you just relax at home or hang out with your friends? What are you doing coming all the way here to beg for cash?”
“Ever since I got my new phone, I’ve been totally broke.”
“Didn’t your dad give you a card?”
“He took it back ages ago.”
The boy’s youthful face fell into a pout.
“The moment he heard I almost died trying to record a monster video and save my phone… Ugh, my back still hurts from that beating.”
Seo Junho’s expression stiffened for a brief moment. He, too, remembered the incident—his cousin had nearly been killed after encountering a monster. It hadn’t happened all that long ago. The injuries were mostly just bruises, nothing life-threatening, and at the time, he’d been overwhelmed with relief.
“Your body… It’s fully healed now, right?”
“Of course.”
The cousin responded casually, ever the optimist. He never complained about trauma or showed any signs of lingering fear after such a terrifying ordeal. Seo Junho found himself envying that. His own mind was still haunted by memories he desperately wanted to forget.
Catching the shift in Seo Junho’s expression, the cousin fell silent, suddenly realizing he’d touched a nerve. The memory of Seo Junho falling apart after losing his friends to a monster attack resurfaced—he remembered it vividly. Seo Junho’s birthday had become a day of mourning for many, and for a long while after, he’d drifted through life like a ghost, consumed by grief for the people who’d gathered to celebrate him only to meet their deaths.
He hadn’t meant to bring up anything related to monsters. Now feeling guilty, the cousin rose to his feet awkwardly.
“Uh… Maybe I should go meet up with some friends like you said.”
“Just like that?”
“I only came by to see your face for a bit. Wasn’t planning to distract you while you were working.”
He muttered, fussing with his clothes in an exaggerated show of annoyance. Seo Junho gave a small nod as he absently fiddled with his phone.
“I transferred the money to your card.”
“Wha—!”
The cousin covered his mouth as if overwhelmed with emotion. Then, completely forgetting his earlier awkwardness, he beamed from ear to ear.
“Thank you! Life really does get better when you’ve got a chaebol hyung!”
“Get going. I’ve got a meeting soon.”
“Yessir!”
The cousin gave a polite bow and bounced out the door with a spring in his step. Seo Junho watched his retreating figure with a faint smile.
He recalled the scene at the hospital—his cousin, full of life, passionately explaining how S-rank Espers had saved him from the brink of death. It truly had been a relief. If the gifted ones who slaughter monsters had been humanity’s enemies instead… it would’ve been a world devoid of dreams or hope. Maybe it wouldn’t have been the monsters claiming lives—but the Espers themselves. It wasn’t such an impossible thought. Power, authority, ideology… Even without the threat of monsters, other forces would surely have sparked conflict in the world.
Seo Junho’s brow furrowed. Even though he was genuinely grateful to those who had saved his cousin, his thoughts about Espers always ended in unease.
Beep, beep.
A soft chime rang from the desk clock. As always, he started meetings by reviewing the latest product lineup, so he gathered the necessary documents to head out. Spritzing a touch of his preferred floral perfume onto his wrist, he stepped out of the CEO’s office. His waiting secretary promptly followed.
“For the line we’re launching today…”
It was while he and the executives were examining the new products—
Vrrrmmm.
The glass bottles on the display shelf began to tremble.
“Huh…?”
“What the—?”
The shaking was obvious enough for everyone to notice. Faces turned to each other in shock and confusion. The tremor grew stronger, soon shaking not just the display shelves, but the floor beneath them, the windows, and eventually the entire building—like an earthquake.
“……!”
Seo Junho quickly looked around and drew in a sharp breath.
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass, he spotted something hurtling toward them at high speed from outside. It was difficult to make out the shape, but it was definitely not a plane.
His instincts screamed—danger. They warned him that whatever it was, it needed to be avoided now. There was no time to wait until the grotesque lifeform, oozing killing intent and malice, became clearly visible to the naked eye.
Seo Junho shouted in a rush.
“Everyone, take cover!”
But even as he yelled, he knew. Knew it all too well. It was already far too late to run anywhere. And in the moment the monster collided with the window—when everyone saw it up close—realization dawned on them all.
That the last thing they would ever see in this life…Would be a massive, stinking eyeball and barbed wings.
KWA-CHAAAANG!
The sound of reinforced glass shattering rang out in vain. A scream—undoubtedly someone’s—was cruelly swallowed by the chaos. Seo Junho squeezed his eyes shut and crossed his arms over his face. Debris rained down on him. Before he could even register the pain, his body was flung backward, crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the room.
It would’ve been better if he’d blacked out right then and there.
Flashes of light exploded before his eyes, and an indescribable agony spread down his back. The moment he opened his mouth, a gush of blood poured out. He writhed in pain so intense he couldn’t even tell what part of him was injured.
Ki-ri-rik…
More than half the building had been obliterated. The line between the living and the dead had blurred amid the devastation. Shattered perfume bottles everywhere were releasing an overwhelming, cloying scent. The monster that had taken over the interior sniffed the air with a twitch of its nose.
Then, slowly, it turned its head to glance at the remaining intact perfumes—miraculously unbroken and glittering on their shelves. The shiny, fragrant objects caught its attention.
The monster reached out a forelimb and seized one of the bottles. Under its merciless grip, the glass shattered instantly with a crack. As if amused, it grabbed another, and smashed that one too. Then another, and another. Once there was nothing left to destroy, it pushed itself up with its massive arms and stood.
Shhhk, shhhk.
It began to breathe slowly and heavily, scanning for a new toy.
And then—its gaze met Seo Junho’s.
His eyelids were fluttering, threatening to close for good. Yet somehow, his blurry vision locked with the creature’s grotesque eyes.
Krrrkrrr…
The monster opened its mouth and let out a chittering sound, lips stretched all the way up to its lower eyelids, giving the terrifying impression of a wide, torn grin. Seo Junho had one brief thought:
I really am… unbearably unlucky.
That was his final moment of awareness, just before he lost consciousness.
“……!”
Someone appeared behind the monster.
A second later, the creature shrieked—far louder than anything it had uttered until now—as if it had just been attacked. Seo Junho’s hazy eyes caught the blurry image of the enormous beast thrashing violently. It looked like it was now locked in a fierce brawl with someone—most likely an Esper.
The figure was clearly smaller than the monster, but still massive in their own right.
A spray of dark red liquid—presumably the monster’s blood—splattered out in a violent arc.
And with that final sensation against his numbed body, Seo Junho’s consciousness slipped away.
