Chapter 31
“Hyung.”
As soon as they stepped out of the door, Chahun approached with long strides. Yeonwoo looked up at Chahun standing beneath the [Center Director’s Office] nameplate with a confused expression. He felt like he was forgetting something extremely important. Chahun ignored the Deputy Director who greeted them and took Yeonwoo away from the central zone.
“Why did you go there?”
At that question, Yeonwoo furrowed his brow. Whenever they ran into each other at the Center, Chahun would argue that people could run into each other anywhere when Yeonwoo asked why he was there. So why was he asking now?
“How did Esper Kang Chahun know I was in the Center Director’s office?”
“I asked you first.”
Chahun, who had been wearing a sullen expression, looked down at Yeonwoo who showed no intention of answering, then spoke first.
“Well, I was waiting because I couldn’t find you, and that goldfish-poop guy who follows you around kept questioning why I was waiting for you. Asking if we were close. When I asked him what was going on, he said you were called to the Center Director’s office. I was worried it might be because of me…”
Chahun’s rapid-fire voice gradually grew softer. After kicking the ground repeatedly, Chahun gently tugged at Yeonwoo’s collar.
“Why did they call you?”
The Deputy Director had told him to ask indirectly, but—
“Esper Kang Chahun.”
He had no intention of beating around the bush.
“Haven’t you signed a contract with the Center?”
“What? Yes. Oh, shit. Don’t tell me that’s why they called you?”
Ice suddenly rose around Chahun as he frowned. Chahun kicked an ice pillar and smiled crookedly. At this point. He mumbled, then looked down at Yeonwoo with a prim expression.
Why me?
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“What?”
“Think about it. Do you think there were only a few people begging me to sign a contract since the day I awakened? Putting my seal on a contract there would be like announcing I’m a sucker. I should first listen to their terms, compare them, and then sign a contract.”
Chahun was right. Yeonhwa was also currently poking around, comparing who would pay more. But… Chahun—
“Aside from the terms, I came here because this was the only place that seemed to listen to me. The guilds just kept saying ‘You’re strong!’ ‘You’re powerful!’ ‘I’ll give you money!’ while showering my parents with gifts. They didn’t budge even when noona sprinkled salt on them and told them to get lost, those annoying pests.”
Yeonwoo nodded in agreement as he recalled some Guild Masters.
“They told me to trust and follow them for just three months, and they would teach me how to control my ability. But do I look like I’m about to sign a contract now? In this situation?”
This was also correct. They gave him a training uniform that was too small and didn’t teach him how to handle his ability, let alone how to handle mana.
“Now that I’ve started handling mana, it’s really disgusting how they suddenly act friendly, saying things like ‘your true value is finally showing.’ They ask if I’m interested in joining their team, if there’s a Guide I like—I’d rather get shot in the head than form a team with those people.”
Ice crystals floated delicately around Chahun as if the mere thought made him angry. Chahun waved his fingertips to disperse the ice crystals and continued speaking heatedly.
“I was about to leave right away, but they wouldn’t let me go, saying how could I leave when I couldn’t even handle the basics. I was supposed to visit Round Guild next month, but they’re trying to cancel that appointment on their own, and they said they’d let me meet my parents on weekends, but then they won’t let me out saying they need to protect civilians! So I’ve just been practicing with hyung every weekend!”
So that’s what bothered him so much. Yeonwoo nodded and moved the shattered ice pillars to Chahun’s training hall.
“I don’t want to contract with a place that can’t even keep basic promises. Team? Anyway, the person I like…”
Chahun muttered and glanced down at Yeonwoo, but Yeonwoo seemed uninterested. Chahun pouted and pulled Yeonwoo’s elbow as he was walking in an unexpected direction.
Yeonwoo looked at Chahun with a complicated expression and pressed his temples firmly to calm a headache.
He definitely knew a lot of stories about Chahun, but they were hazy, as if covered by a veil. Whenever he tried to recall those memories, a headache would surge, making it impossible to think properly. Yeonwoo was covering his ears because of the ringing when he gasped at the feeling of a hand supporting his shoulder.
“Hyung. Let’s go to the treatment room.”
“No.”
Yeonwoo pushed away Chahun’s hand and blankly stared at his feet before fixing coordinates.
“I think I need to go home.”
He felt he needed to examine the book to understand the situation accurately. After folding space, Yeonwoo looked around the clean house with no sign of anyone having visited. Without even taking off his shoes, he headed straight for the bookshelf and opened the safe with trembling hands.
No matter how much he searched from top to bottom and bottom to top, he couldn’t find the dark blue book. He pulled out all books with a bluish tint, but none was the book with Kang Chahun as the protagonist. I definitely put it here. As Yeonwoo fumbled through the second shelf, he took a deep breath.
Calm down and think carefully.
As Yeonwoo traced his memory, he examined the bedside. He remembered waking up, reading the book, and putting it there. And then…? No, did I really read the book? Yeonwoo bit his lip as he looked around with blank eyes.
An inexplicable anxiety washed over him. His heart felt heavy, as if someone had thrown a stone into it. Trembling with fear, Yeonwoo stared blankly at the safe then turned around.
Book. Book. Muttering, he searched the room, touching everything within reach, then collapsed from a headache that felt like his skull was splitting. Whenever he tried to recall the book’s color or the pattern on it, his vision flickered due to the ringing in his ears and the headache.
“Ngh…”
The ear-splitting ringing seemed to be whispering something. Whenever he tried to concentrate and listen to what it was saying, his head would hurt so much it made him nauseous, making it impossible to think.
Writhing in pain while holding his head, Yeonwoo crawled toward the bookshelf. Only after closing the safe door so whoever had entered during the commotion wouldn’t see, did Yeonwoo collapse on the floor without regret. Then he stared blankly at the ceiling.
No thoughts came to mind.
A moment later, Yeonwoo got up, blinking, looked around, and sighed. Why is the house in this state? As he was organizing the scattered blankets on the floor, the void space opened and Yeonhwa appeared.
“What’s this? Why is the house in such a mess?”
As she emerged from the void space, she felt pain in her foot. Muttering a curse that never fully formed, Yeonhwa picked up a cup and gaped as she looked around the space where there was hardly room to step.
“You’re not spring cleaning, are you?”
Starting with the cup, Yeonhwa collected the items that hit her feet one by one, creating a path to the dining room, and clicked her tongue.
“This is the first time since you grew hair that I’ve seen the house like this.”
Yeonwoo, who hadn’t responded to her words, stopped fixing the corners of the blanket and ran to the entrance.
“What are you doing without even taking off your shoes!”
I was just about to. Yeonwoo took off his shoes at Yeonhwa’s scolding and entered the house after meticulously organizing the messy shoe rack first.
“No, I hope not, but there wasn’t a break-in, was there? Ah! What is this!”
Yeonhwa, who opened the refrigerator to put in the fruits she had brought, was shocked at the messy interior. To avoid the shower of nagging, Yeonwoo ran into the bathroom. After organizing the messy shelves and towels, he came out to find Yeonhwa at the sink, turning around with a worried expression.
“What happened? Is something missing?”
“Book.”
Yeonwoo answered reflexively, then covered his mouth. Of all people, he didn’t want to tell Yeonhwa about that book.
“Book? Are you talking about my book? Isn’t it in the safe?”
Yeonwoo, who had been biting his lip at Yeonhwa’s words, slowly nodded.
“The book you gave me when you graduated from the military academy. The color… I don’t remember exactly, but it had a bluish tint…”
Though he tried to keep his voice steady, his voice trembled helplessly like his trembling lips. Unable to continue speaking due to the approaching headache, Yeonwoo shut his eyes tightly.
“I gave oppa a book?”
Yeonhwa’s voice echoed like a ringing in his ears. The headache gripping the back of his neck made him shake his head. As Yeonwoo, who was gasping, shook his head, Yeonhwa’s voice echoed again.
“Are you sure?”
The ringing in his ears urged him to nod.
“N-no!”
As soon as he answered, both the headache and the ringing disappeared. Yeonwoo, who had been staring at the tear marks falling on the floor, slowly raised his head, and Yeonhwa shoved a banana into his mouth.
“I thought so. That book costs so much, I wouldn’t have just given it away, even to oppa. Have more banana. It’s tangy and sweet, really delicious.”
At Yeonhwa’s urging, Yeonwoo sat at the table, wiping his tears as if nothing had happened. Then, out of habit, he examined the fruit on the table. As he carefully checked for any unremoved dungeon mana, Yeonhwa, sitting across from him, frowned deeply.
“Is something spoiled?”
These bastards are so annoying. Yeonhwa, who was fiercely chewing a banana, yawned deeply.
“No. No problem.”
“Well, glad there’s no problem. If you’re going to search the safe, do it now. Do you know how startled I was while sleeping?”
Yeonhwa, who was mumbling whether she was yawning or speaking, opened the void space. Yeonwoo watched Yeonhwa’s back as she completely ignored his suggestion to take some food with her and just disappeared into the void. He sat at the table for a long time afterward.
After a while, Yeonwoo slowly got up and stood in front of the bookshelf.
Yeonwoo had a habit that even Yeonhwa didn’t know about. It was a habit he developed after the association took away the first book Yeonhwa wrote when she was young. So that Yeonhwa could rewrite her books if she lost them, Yeonwoo copied and kept them separately.
And that habit never disappeared even as time passed.
As Yeonhwa grew, the amount of foresight she saw increased, and consequently, the books became thicker. There was a limit to copying all the books, and as it became increasingly burdensome, an incident occurred where an Esper who had been hit by the boomerang of causality died. After that, Yeonhwa stopped showing the books she wrote to Yeonwoo and also stopped her habit of chattering about her dreams every morning.
While he didn’t know what was written in all the books, he could at least be confident that he had organized all the books he had read, even if only roughly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Yeonwoo pulled out a diary that was tucked into one side of the bookshelf. He opened the page where the ribbon marker was placed and flowed mana into the cover pattern. With a rustling sound of turning pages, the few inner pages swelled.
Slowly turning the inner pages and confirming his memories, Yeonwoo pointed to Kang Chahun’s name with a trembling hand.
February 19.
Dark blue / Silver pattern / Kang Chahun / S-rank Attack division (Ice)
After confirming Chahun’s information written in his own handwriting, Yeonwoo bit the inside of his cheek. There was evidence that Yeonhwa had given him the book.
…Yeonhwa had lied.
But why? Suppressing the urge to shake the bell and pull Yeonhwa out of the void space, Yeonwoo examined the diary. He was carefully reading the book’s plot when it happened.
“Huh?”
At that moment, the letters at the bottom began to blur, then turned to ash and started to scatter.
“What’s this?”
Confused, Yeonwoo closed the diary, retrieved his mana, and then flowed it back in, but the disappeared letters didn’t return.
All the writing had disappeared, leaving only the date.
February 19.
Why would there be a ribbon marker on a day that wasn’t even special…? As he was thinking, Yeonwoo looked back and forth between the clock on the wall and the diary, then covered his mouth.
The day he woke from the dream, the day he joined the Center, was the 18th.
Although he had stopped by the house a few times to pack his belongings, he hadn’t been home on the 19th. Since his ability was unstable, he had stayed in C-zone for training. He hadn’t shown the diary to anyone or taken it out of the house since receiving it as a gift from the Round Guild Master.
But who could have opened a diary that only responds to Yeonwoo’s mana and written about the book in handwriting identical to Yeonwoo’s? Gritting his teeth against the approaching headache, Yeonwoo looked at the mirror with a confused face.
It’s truly an absurd, crazy thought, but there’s only one person who could do all this.
Future Yeonwoo.
With that thought, information flooded into his mind like a tidal wave. Yeonwoo’s lips trembled finely as he exhaled a short breath.
Now he understood all the déjà vu.
And the terrifyingly vivid dream too.
“I… I had come back to the past.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
