“AAAGH! My hair! Are you out of your goddamn mind?! Let go! Let go, you psycho bastard!”
“Psycho bastard? Tsk tsk tsk, look at this brat. Back in my day, you had to drop to the floor and crawl if a superior so much as looked your way.”
I gave him some gentle advice with a smile, and this rude little puppy had the audacity to hurl curses at me.
“What the hell are you even saying? Crazy bastard. First you try to kill yourself saying you can’t take it anymore, and now you’ve gone completely off the rails?”
What a piece of work. It had been a long time since anyone dared talk to me like that to my face. Blood boiling, I let go of his hair and grabbed a joint instead.
Where the hell is Hyun Je-ha?
Did he seriously dump this disrespectful punk on me without any proper training? What a pain.
Guess I’ve got no choice.
I’ll be the one to straighten you out.
“Now then… maybe a little tweak right here’ll shut that foul mouth of yours.”
They used to call me the joint-snapping artisan, you know.
The moment I lightly tapped his shoulder, the arrogant Esper’s face went sheet-white.
“Y-You wouldn’t dare!”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Even after that threatening warning, this puppy-Eesper still had the gall to scoff at me.
“This is insane… Hey, Yeon Yu-jin, I’m telling you for your own good—quit this insane act. Before we kick you out of the group and throw you in a psych ward.”
He must’ve known I almost tore his hair out by the roots. His body sure reacted like it did. But his mouth? Still flapping with no sense of shame.
“Try it, then. If you think you can.”
“…Are you actually nuts?”
“I’m perfectly sane. You, on the other hand, might want to install some basic manners into that empty skull of yours.”
“You’re completely off your rocker. Aaagh!”
Maybe he thought I was bluffing about the joint-snapping.
Humans are nothing compared to monsters. This was child’s play.
I twisted his arm with force, and the bastard let out a scream. But there was something that had been bugging me since earlier.
Yeon Yu-jin?
“Hey.”
“W-What?!”
“Why do you keep calling me Yeon Yu-jin?”
Who the hell is that? My name is Ahn Ga-hyun. Why the hell were they calling me by someone else’s name?
I asked because I genuinely wanted to know—but the brat’s face twisted into something unreadable.
“Wait… don’t tell me—you lost your memory?”
“What?”
“Your name’s Yeon Yu-jin. You’re our team’s only Guide in ‘Secreti.’”
“…What team?”
“Secreti. The boy group you’re part of. You seriously don’t remember?”
What the hell is going on? Seeing my frozen reaction, the so-called teammate muttered under his breath.
“You really don’t remember…”
“…Tell me in more detail. Who exactly is this ‘Yeon Yu-jin’?”
My demand was met with an icy response.
“The worst-rated member in Secreti. A walking disaster who drags down the rest of us.”
“……”
“They decided to add a Guide to the lineup since the team concept wasn’t complete with only Espers. So they stuck you into the debut unit at the last minute.”
“……”
One sentence from this no-name punk felt like a baseball bat to the head.
What the hell are you talking about?nSecreti? A boy group made up of Espers and a Guide?nDoes that even make sense?
Back when I died, it didn’t matter if you were a Guide or an Esper—the government conscripted all of us to keep the monsters at bay.
Idols? There were people doing something that peaceful?
And I’m one of them? No way. I couldn’t believe it.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?! Hey!”
“Shut up.”
I staggered out of the room, ignoring the yappy Esper behind me, shoved him off to someone else, and bolted toward the bathroom.
Mirror—where’s a mirror?! I need to see myself!
Everyone around me panicked at the sudden outburst.
“What’s wrong with him now?”
“Is he about to do something dangerous again?”
“I dunno. Grab him, just in case!”
Hah. You think you can stop me with that?
I brushed off their feeble attempts to stop me without even breaking a sweat. What would a bunch of untrained rookie Espers know about catching an S-rank Guide who survived the front lines?
“Since when was Yeon Yu-jin that fast?!”
Someone’s dumbfounded voice faded behind me as I rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
Huff… Huff…
A stranger was staring back at me in the mirror.
“…What the hell is this…”
The filthy, battle-scarred body of Ahn Ga-hyun who used to crawl through dungeons was gone.
Reflected in the mirror was a pale-skinned, delicate-looking young man with sleek black hair.
His eyes were big and round like peach seeds despite having no double eyelids, soft and deer-like. His lips were so red they looked like he’d just devoured a rat.
And that build… so fragile. Skinny like someone who’d been starved most of their life. Compared to my hardened, battle-ready body, this guy was a twig—like a dried-out branch.
This can’t be real…
Am I really… this “Yeon Yu-jin” guy now?
And even worse… a Guide again? A fucking Guide?!
And not just any Guide—one who gets treated like dirt by a bunch of snot-nosed rookie Espers?!
Goddamn it. If this is how it’s gonna be, just kill me again!
Maybe it was the stress hitting its limit. My head had been spinning for a while, and when I blinked, the ceiling and floor switched places.
Huh… why is everything upside down? Was my head cut off or something?
“Yeon Yu-jin! Open this door! Get out here right now!”
The noise outside got louder. Someone was trying to force the door open. I tried to respond, but no sound came out.
…Ah. I’m collapsing, aren’t I.
What kind of pathetic body is this?
Maybe this is better…
If this is really reality, then I don’t want to wake up.
If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll wake up back in the middle of a blood-soaked battlefield. If that happens, I’ll ask Je-ha—
What were you trying to say to me before I died?
And just like that, I lost consciousness again.
***
Unfortunately, the reality waiting for me hadn’t changed one bit.
Blink. Blink.
…Not the dungeon entrance.
When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the same hospital ceiling I’d seen before I fainted.
I turned my head—and saw some punk Esper playing a mobile game, who yelped the moment he noticed me.
“Oh! He’s awake! He’s awake!”
“Shut the hell up, you dumbass. You trying to blow out a patient’s eardrum?!”
My voice came out as a harsh, guttural growl. The Esper flinched and muttered stupidly,
“Uhh… well, I guess he seems okay? Everyone, come quick! Yeon Yu-jin’s awake!”
The kid looked even younger than my reflection in the mirror and started making a huge fuss, which drew a small crowd outside the door. But they weren’t doctors or nurses.
The people rushing in after hearing I was awake included: a middle-aged woman in a suit, a potbellied man in his 30s, and that pack of bratty Espers I saw before I passed out.
“…Yeon Yu-jin? Do you recognize us?”
The woman in the suit asked cautiously. I’d been trained to treat women, the elderly, and children kindly, so I kept my guard up but answered slowly.
“…I don’t know who you are.”
“Oh dear…”
“Who are you people? And who am I?”
I curled up defensively, tension radiating from my entire body. One of the tall, pretty-boy Espers muttered from the back of the group.
“This is nuts. First he’s always causing problems, and now he’s claiming amnesia? Unbelievable.”
“Ho-yeon, come on. He just woke up—give him a break…”
The 30-something guy with glasses and a belly tried to calm the Esper down, but the sharp-featured brat snapped back.
“Why? You know better than anyone how much of a trash heap he’s been! Thanks to him, our whole team’s going down the drain!”
“Ra Ho-yeon!”
The man—apparently their manager—tried to intervene, but this Ra Ho-yeon guy stormed up to me and—
Smack—
“……!”
“Does that jog your memory, Yeon Yu-jin?”
He slapped me right across the face without warning.
“There was a huge event today. We were just heading out, and you disappeared without saying a word. Do you even realize how long it’s been since we got a schedule like that?”
“…….”
“Of course you don’t. All you ever do is mess around like we’re on vacation, get yourself into car accidents, and feed scandal bait to third-rate gossip outlets.”
…This fucker just slapped me?
Some random punk I’ve never seen before just hauled off and hit me?
Fucking unbelievable.
Even Hyun Je-ha—my commanding officer—never laid a hand on me, and this baby-faced, pale-ass little Esper thinks he can?!
More humiliating than the time I got drenched in monster guts after slicing one open… More degrading than eating moldy bread in tears after starving for a week to avoid detection…
This? This was worse.
For the first time in ages, a volcano of rage erupted inside me.
