“Well… I just remembered something Esper Kim Hyun-joong said a while ago.”
“Something I said…?”
“Yeah. You know… that stuff about how Guide Hwang Seol-bin might be a fake or something like that…”
The moment the word fake came out, Kim Hyun-joong’s face stiffened. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he cautiously studied Kim Yong-ha’s expression as if trying to figure out what he was getting at.
“I mean… yeah, I did say something like that once, but… why bring it up now?”
“It’s just that…”
Kim Yong-ha trailed off, hesitant. He glanced around as if checking for listening ears, then leaned in slightly and whispered under his breath.
“Back then, I figured you were just talking trash behind his back, but… lately, I’ve started having doubts too.”
“Doubts?”
“Yeah. Like… what if he really is a fake?”
At that, Kim Hyun-joong, who had been quietly listening, suddenly widened his eyes and leaned in close.
“So you believe me now, right? Right?! Hahaha!”
He didn’t even wait for an answer. Repeating the question like a broken record, he clenched his fists and burst into laughter, completely unhinged.
“I knew it! I wasn’t wrong! Hwang Seol-bin is a fake!”
Kim Yong-ha silently clicked his tongue.
Every word he’d said was a lie. It was all bait, meant to lure Kim Hyun-joong in.
That’s the only reason he was putting on this act—yet Kim Hyun-joong had no clue and just kept laughing like an idiot. It was pathetic… but honestly, it worked out better this way. The more gullible Kim Hyun-joong was, the easier he’d be to manipulate.
“Anyway… there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Ask me?”
Kim Hyun-joong tilted his head, waiting for more. Kim Yong-ha dropped his voice again.
“If you could help me out a little… maybe we could finally figure out whether he’s the real deal or not.”
“H-How?”
“I want you to hide him. Secretly. Hwang Seol-bin.”
“What? What do you mean… hide him?”
Kim Hyun-joong’s face stiffened with confusion. He wasn’t being asked to catch the guy—he was being asked to hide him. Of course it sounded shady. Kim Yong-ha had already prepared a convenient excuse.
“We’ll hide him and run our own little test.”
“A test?”
At the repeated question, Kim Yong-ha calmly laid out his plan.
“Yeah. We lock him up somewhere secluded and watch how he reacts.”
“But if that’s all it is, why do we have to do it in secret…?”
“If word gets out, it’ll cause a huge commotion. He’ll run before anyone can even question him. And besides…”
“…”
“Besides, I wouldn’t mind if this whole thing brings the two of us a little closer.”
“Hmm…”
Noticing the flicker in Kim Hyun-joong’s eyes, Kim Yong-ha pushed a little further.
“If he really is a fake, don’t you think he’d show his true colors when he’s alone with me? I am an S-Rank Guide, after all.”
“Alone?! That’s way too dangerous—”
“You’ll protect me, won’t you, Mr. Kim Hyun-joong?”
Feigning innocence, Kim Yong-ha looked up at him. Sure enough, Kim Hyun-joong’s face turned bright red. He was probably already imagining himself swooping in like a hero.
Idiot.
Still, it was times like this when that dumb, naïve side of his was useful.
After staring off into space for a while, Kim Hyun-joong snapped back to reality and asked,
“So what do we do first?”
“Well… first, we need a place to hold him. Somewhere inside the Center, preferably…”
“Oh! I know the perfect spot. It’s underground—”
“…Underground?”
Kim Yong-ha’s eyes widened at the word. He knew the Guide Center was huge, and he’d heard there were areas where even Espers weren’t allowed, but he had no idea there was an underground level.
“It’s an old storage area for unused equipment. No one ever goes down there. There aren’t even any CCTVs, so I figured… it might be the perfect place to stash Hwang Seol-bin without anyone noticing.”
With that, Kim Hyun-joong eagerly offered to lead the way. Kim Yong-ha followed him down a narrow staircase tucked away in a far corner of the Guide Center. At the bottom, several doors lined the corridor.
Kim Hyun-joong headed to the one at the very end and opened it.
“…Well? Not bad, right?”
His voice was full of pride. Kim Yong-ha stepped inside and took a slow, thorough look around.
They hadn’t run into a single person on the way here, and there were no CCTVs either.
The room itself, though clearly long unused, was surprisingly clean and orderly. There was even an old bed in the corner. Honestly, it was perfect—no one would suspect a thing if they locked Hwang Seol-bin up here.
“…It’s good. We’ll go with this place.”
As soon as Kim Yong-ha spoke, Kim Hyun-joong’s eyes began to widen, little by little. To him, that smile on Kim Yong-ha’s face was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
***
“Kang Bijun!”
Kang Bijun flinched in surprise. He had been deep in thought, staring at a stack of documents piled high in front of him, when a voice suddenly rang out and the door slammed open with a bang. His head jerked up.
“…What the hell?”
The uninvited guest storming in was none other than Kang Biso. He didn’t care in the slightest that Bijun had just nearly jumped out of his skin—he marched over and shoved an envelope into his hands.
What the hell is this?
Bijun opened the envelope—and was immediately hit with confusion and disgust. It was full of what looked like trash: broken glass from a drink bottle, tissues with some kind of goo smeared all over them. He frowned and muttered irritably.
“…Captain. I’m already drowning in work, and now this? You want me to take out the garbage?”
“Analyze the contents.”
“…What? This?”
He wanted this crap analyzed? Why?
It wasn’t like running the analysis was difficult, but still—this was classic Kang Biso. Always dropping stuff on him without even a basic explanation. Bijun shook his head, baffled by his boss’s usual reckless behavior. Biso, meanwhile, just kept talking, unbothered.
“If anything shows up… no, once you get the results, report back immediately.”
“Can you at least tell me what this is?! You can’t just storm in and—”
“I’m asking you.”
There was a flicker of barely suppressed anger in Kang Biso’s voice. Sensing that, Kang Bijun exhaled a deep breath and gave a reluctant nod. Fine. Biso didn’t lose his temper for no reason—there had to be something going on.
Still—
CRACK!
Biso suddenly slammed his fist onto the table in front of the sofa, shattering it completely.
“Seriously?! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Bijun shouted.
“Buy a new one.”
“That’s not the point! What the hell are you doing?! At least explain before wrecking the place!”
You couldn’t just walk in, dump trash, break furniture, and expect people to go along with it without any context. Sure, he was pissed—but how was anyone supposed to help if they didn’t even know why?
Bijun glared at him, his face red with frustration.
Finally, Biso let out a long, shaky breath and sat heavily on the sofa, right on top of the broken table.
“…Haa.”
With that sigh, he finally started talking—explaining everything that had happened earlier that day.
“…So that’s what happened.”
Once the story ended, Kang Bijun rubbed his forehead and sighed again. Now he got it. Now he understood why Biso had been about to blow a fuse.
Apparently, some Guide had confessed to Hwang Seol-bin, saying he had feelings for him. But something about the guy’s eyes had set off all of Biso’s alarms—so now he wanted a chemical analysis of the drink the guy gave Seol-bin.
“You could’ve just told me that in the first place. Why take it out on the poor table?”
Bijun brushed the splinters off the sofa and sat across from him.
“You’ve mellowed out, huh? Letting something like that slide?”
“Hwang Seol-bin turned him down.”
“Oh, of course. I’m just saying… do you really think he would’ve slipped something into a drink with you standing right there? Isn’t that being a little too paranoid?”
No one in their right mind would try to pull that kind of stunt with a witness right in front of them—especially not someone who supposedly had feelings for the target. That’s just basic logic.
But Biso didn’t seem convinced. A cold, eerie smirk crept onto his lips.
“I know. But no one reads guys like that better than I do.”
The steel in his voice made any further argument feel pointless.
And seriously—of all people to catch feelings for, it had to be Hwang Seol-bin? That S-Rank Guide really picked the worst possible target.
Bijun glanced over at Biso again. His fists were clenched so tight they looked ready to snap, and his face was twitching from how hard he was grinding his teeth.
At this rate, he really might snap and kill the guy.
Which would be a disaster. Killing an S-Rank Guide? That’d mean war with the government—no doubt about it. And they weren’t even close to being ready for something like that.
Clearing his throat, Bijun decided to try and calm him down first.
“We don’t know anything for sure yet. Just… take a breath.”
“…What do you mean?”
Biso actually looked confused. Did he not realize how terrifying he looked right now?
With a weary expression, Bijun pointed at his face.
“You look like you’re two seconds away from killing someone. Let me analyze the stuff first—just wait, quietly.”
“…Yeah.”
Biso’s answer was surprisingly compliant, and it put Bijun at ease—at least a little. For now, it looked like he wasn’t going to go on a rampage.
Still, just to be safe, Bijun kept watching him out of the corner of his eye as he cautiously asked,
“Hey, Biso.”
“Yeah?”
“…If—really if—you’re right about this… what are you going to do?”
Biso smiled.
It was a wide, crooked smile, but his eyes were dead cold. The contrast made his whole face look unsettling.
After a beat of silence, he asked,
“What do you think I’ll do?”
“….”
Bijun couldn’t answer.
“Was that too hard of a question?”
“….”
“Don’t you wonder how long it’ll take for that guy to go from confessing… to begging me to kill him?”
The icy smile never left his lips as he spoke, but the murderous glint in his eyes was unmistakable. Just watching him sent a chill down Bijun’s spine.
He shook his head.
Shouldn’t have asked.
And now… it was time to start preparing.
Because there was no way this was going to end quietly.
