I only meant to snap him out of it.
But the moment I grabbed Je-ha by the collar, tears began to spill from his eyes. Thick drops rolled down his pale cheeks.
I panicked and stammered.
“Uh, hey. Why are you crying?”
“Ugh…”
At my words, Je-ha started sobbing harder. He was clearly trying to stifle the sound, barely letting out quiet, choked whimpers.
Flustered, I clumsily wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with my sleeve.
“Don’t cry, come on. You’re a grown man.”
Was this really the best comfort I could offer? I clicked my tongue inwardly, but Je-ha pulled me into a tight hug.
“I know… I thought maybe it’d be better to keep you away because I was so afraid of losing you again…”
“……You.”
“But what can I do? What if I really lose you to X again? If that happens… if that happens, I’ll go into a berserk state I can’t come back from. Not like last time, when I somehow managed a lucky second awakening. Next time, unless someone kills me on the spot, I’ll become a walking disaster.”
His words made me flinch. I remembered what Potato had shown me.
That vision of Je-ha, devastated, hugging my corpse while going berserk—tearing the world apart in his grief.
With his face buried in my shoulder, Je-ha murmured,
“Maybe it’d be better if someone just killed me then. That way, I could follow you right away.”
“Hey. What’s with the death talk? Just don’t die. Neither of us needs to.”
Trying to stop his tears, I cupped both his cheeks and brought my face close.
From this distance, I could see the fine hairs on his skin. His tear-soaked eyes were beautiful and heartbreaking.
“But still…”
“Still?”
“I’m still scared. The thought of losing you and having to live alone again… it’s suffocating.”
Just imagining it seemed to drain the color from his face. His breathing turned ragged, and he looked like he was about to collapse.
I guided him over to the park bench and sat him down, gently patting his back.
“Breathe, okay?”
“Hah… hah…”
Seeing him clutch his chest and gasp for air tugged at my heart.
Poor guy.
I never imagined the always bright and upbeat Je-ha from my memories would be this deeply scarred by trauma.
I held him and softly whispered like a mantra, as if to ward off the darkness. As if no one in the world could ever harm us again.
“It’s okay. None of the worst-case scenarios we’ve imagined have happened. I’m alive and fine.”
“…Yeah.”
Giving him hope seemed to calm him down a little. His complexion was still pale, but at least he’d stopped shaking with fear—and that alone was enough to ease my worry.
My precious partner, Hyun Je-ha. I just didn’t want him suffering anymore because of that day.
“This time, it’ll be different. Je-ha. That’s why I came back alive in the first place, isn’t it?”
At that, Potato scoffed from atop my head.
[Pfft. Says the guy who completely freaked out when he first woke up.]
Shut it. We’re having a serious moment here.
I pressed down on him like I was brushing back my hair, and he grumbled.
[What! I’m not wrong!]
I ignored the whining little spud.
Unlike grumpy Potato, Je-ha obediently listened to everything I said.
“If it’s you, Ga-hyun, then that’s what it is.”
“Right?”
He was just… so damn sweet.
He seemed to be calming down, so I gently stroked his hair. He relaxed under my touch like it was the most natural thing in the world.
The breeze swept past us, fluttering his snow-white hair. Every time I looked at it, I couldn’t help but wonder—maybe it wasn’t his second awakening that turned it white, but the overwhelming stress he’d endured.
I had no proof. But whenever I looked at the Je-ha of now—so different from the past—I couldn’t shake that feeling.
Je-ha smiled softly at me.
“I don’t care what brought you back. Whether it was God, a devil, or an angel—what matters is that you’re here again.”
“Uh… sure.”
Every time he said something weirdly sentimental like that, I never knew how to respond.
The way he stared straight into my eyes made me flustered and a bit ticklish inside.
Sure, we’d had all kinds of physical contact through guiding back when we were paired—but we were battle buddies, best friends.
So when Je-ha got all serious like this, I had no idea what to make of it. I just panicked.
Suddenly, I remembered the voice he let out, desperate and pained, right before I died.
“No, Ga-hyun! I haven’t told you everything yet…”
Just thinking about it made my cheeks feel oddly warm.
I changed the subject to break the mood.
“Anyway, drop this whole idea of cutting me out of the hunt for X.”
“You sure you’re okay with that?”
“What’s there not to be okay with? I’ve been ready for this ever since I woke up. And come on—you came straight to me after chasing down X, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then that’s it. That bastard recognized you at the testing center even though you were wearing a stealth artifact, right?”
“He did.”
“Then did you ever consider that maybe he pretended to run—while actually tailing you?”
Je-ha had said they lost X’s trail because of all the interference and decoys. But what if X had decided to track him instead?
I didn’t know what kind of personality X had—but it was clear he feared Je-ha. The way he fled the moment Je-ha exposed the decoy at the site, the encounter at the testing center—everything suggested that X didn’t think he could handle Je-ha head-on.
But if he was someone who’d killed and stolen abilities from countless Espers, he might find that humiliating.
Power breeds arrogance. And someone who’s stolen so many abilities would only grow more and more overconfident.
History’s full of examples of powerful tyrants who fell to corruption.
If I were X, I’d probably want to take revenge on Je-ha out of sheer pettiness. Even if I couldn’t hurt him directly, I’d find some other way to land a devastating blow. And to do that, I’d have no choice but to dig into Je-ha’s life. And X had already seen Je-ha hanging around me.
If he spotted us again, there’s no way he wouldn’t come after me.
Even if he wasn’t tailing Je-ha right now, there was a high chance he’d try to come at me again. After all, “Yeon Yu-jin” was known as an easy-to-dispose-of C-rank Guide.
At that, Je-ha’s mouth fell open.
“…No way. You think I was that close to being tailed, and he actually followed me here?”
“How do you know he doesn’t have abilities that can bypass stealth artifacts? The fact that he saw through yours at the testing center probably wasn’t just a fluke.”
Je-ha’s expression grew increasingly grim.
“Then I should use my power right now—”
“You want to broadcast to the Bureau that you’re here in the city? Don’t be ridiculous. That mountain you were in earlier was secluded, so it didn’t draw attention—but this is the middle of the city. If you start throwing telekinesis around like you’re sweeping the streets, what do you think’s gonna happen?”
The Bureau isn’t stupid. The fact that Je-ha had stayed hidden for twenty years was impressive enough. At my scolding, Je-ha stopped himself and quietly sat back down.
Looking embarrassed, he scratched his head.
I sighed at the sight.
“Why do you always turn into such a dumbass around me? You make me worry.”
Even though I grumbled, Je-ha just smiled at me.
“Why are you smiling? You like being scolded or something?”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“Getting scolded, nagged—if it’s from you, I like it all.”
Like a complete idiot, he gave me this goofy smile and said something that hurt my heart.
“I can only hear stuff like that because you’re alive. That’s why I like it. I want to hear more. Anything you have to say—I want to hear it.”
This bastard…
“What if I just start cussing you out, huh?”
“Then I’ll just take it. Whatever.”
“…Are you some kind of masochist?”
“No. But when it comes to you, I’m okay with anything.”
You’re seriously weird, Hyun Je-ha.
But… I didn’t hate this strange man.
In fact, I liked him. And I wanted to dream of a future where neither of us died, where we could both walk freely under the sun. Just like we once wished for.
I took Je-ha’s rough hands in mine and made my decision, firm and clear.
“I really think the two of us should work together on this.”
“Hmm? You mean you’re gonna give up on your life as Yeon Yu-jin?”
His eyes lit up, but I quickly waved my hands to clarify.
“Not that. I mean we should track down X together.”
“How? You’re not exactly free to move around. You’ve got training, schedules—you can’t even contact me that often…”
“That’s what those permissions I extorted from the Bureau are for.”
The authority to access the national ability-user database.
“We’ll use it to narrow down X’s identity. Cross-check with the candidates you’ve already identified. That should give us our guy.”
