5:00 p.m. As everyone clocked out and left for the day, Seo-ha slipped out with them. He decided to ask Moon Roi to grab the rest of his things from the locker and left with nothing on him. Though he was walking as usual, his destination was different.
Seo-ha headed for the taxi stand, got in the first cab in line, and told the driver to take him to the terminal.
Pulling out his phone to check the time, he wondered where he should go.
“A quiet place with no Gates, somewhere peaceful… Where would that be?”
After scrolling through a few locations, he ended up booking a room at a pension.
It was the beginning of a trip where he blatantly ignored someone’s request to meet.
***
“This is amazing.”
With his fingers interlocked behind his head, Seo-ha lay back and looked up at the sky. He’d left after work yesterday, crashed at a random inn that caught his eye, and taken a bus at dawn. It wasn’t even noon yet. There was no rush, so he had planned to walk to the inn, but thanks to a kind man on a tractor, he didn’t have to.
Lying atop a heap of hay bales stacked on the trailer, it felt like there was nothing better in the world.
The high sky, the fresh air, and the rolling green hills came together to create a perfectly peaceful view.
Compared to the city where Gates popped up constantly, the further you went into the countryside, the lower the occurrence rate. Considering how high the initial casualty rate was when Gates first appeared, it was a relief that rural areas had largely been spared. No Gates, no Espers. That’s what made it all so fortunate.
That’s also why he’d thought about farming. Because he didn’t want to live in a city packed with Espers and Guides. If he was going to move to the countryside, of course he’d farm.
“I can even take a trip like this and relax.”
The more he thought about it, the more annoying Ju-oh’s smug face from yesterday became.
“What? A formal test? Why the hell should I?”
They’d already tried guiding, and it was obvious they weren’t compatible. What was the point of going through a formal evaluation? What would he even gain from that? It was a complete waste of time. Ridiculous.
Clicking his tongue, Seo-ha shut his eyes. The sunlight was strong on his thin eyelids, but not in an unpleasant way. It was proof that he could lounge around in the middle of the day. That alone made it feel worthwhile.
As he relaxed with his eyes closed, the light suddenly dimmed. He figured clouds had passed over the sun—he didn’t realize someone was blocking it with their body.
“So laid-back.”
It wasn’t the rustic dialect of the tractor-driving ajusshi. It was a low, rich voice—one he’d been hearing a little too often lately. He knew instantly who it was.
Seo-ha frowned slightly and slowly opened his eyes. It hadn’t even been a full day since he left the Center…
“What the hell.”
What was Han Ju-oh doing here?
Seo-ha let out a deep sigh, loud and pointed. Since he got in the cab yesterday, he hadn’t bothered to hide his tracks—not even a little. If anything, he’d made them obvious. Was Ju-oh supposed to follow him? No. He was going on vacation. The whole point was that he didn’t want to be followed.
“Can’t you tell why I came out here?”
“I can.”
“Then why the hell are you here?”
He’d made it clear as day that he wanted no part of this.
“Let’s go. Time to get tested.”
With that annoyingly casual answer, Seo-ha’s last nerve snapped.
Goddamn it.
The ajusshi must’ve realized someone had climbed onto the trailer, because he brought the tractor to a stop. Seo-ha climbed down awkwardly, and right after, Ju-oh followed suit like it was the most natural thing in the world. The ajusshi gave them a wave and drove off.
“This isn’t some regular health checkup, you know…”
Seo-ha couldn’t believe it. Ju-oh had come all the way out here just to do a compatibility test? He let out a sigh of disbelief.
“Come on. I’ll show you the Guild.”
“What’s your deal? Why are you so obsessed with me?”
Seo-ha asked, facing Ju-oh while watching the tractor disappear down the road.
“Obsessed?”
Ju-oh tilted his head, that blatantly shameless face looking like he genuinely didn’t get it. Seo-ha clenched his fists.
“I don’t get it. Why are you so desperate to drag me off somewhere?”
“If I say it’s an Esper’s obsession, will that make it easier to understand?”
Ju-oh muttered the excuse like it was nothing, and Seo-ha turned his head away.
“Must be a dog nearby.”
Even as he muttered about hearing a dog bark from somewhere, Ju-oh didn’t budge from his spot in front of him. It felt like even if Seo-ha ran to the ends of the earth, this guy would follow him there.
“You already booked the inn, didn’t you? Wanna head there? I’ll grill some meat for you.”
Yeah, right. Meat, my ass.
Seo-ha rubbed his face dry with both hands, but there was no peeling Ju-oh off now. He’d stuck to him like an annoying rash. Only one option left, then.
“Do whatever you want. I’m not going anywhere on my own. So you better carry me—on your back or in your arms, take your pick.”
Seo-ha sprawled out flat on the ground, arms stretched wide open. He ignored the way Han Ju-oh’s incredulous gaze practically stabbed into him.
“Go ahead, I’m not budging.”
“Are you really saying I can do whatever I want?”
“When have you not done whatever you wanted? You go around poking at people’s nerves like it’s a hobby, and now you’re pretending to be all restrained?”
Couldn’t an A-rank Gate open somewhere already? Then maybe this guy in front of him would be too busy heading for the Gate to come chasing after him like this.
Staring up at the clear sky, as if that would somehow summon a Gate, Seo-ha muttered internally while Ju-oh let out a stunned chuckle.
“You’re really getting under my skin.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Seo-ha had endured everything up to this point. All the things Han Ju-oh said—he’d heard them all before. He kept himself calm, telling himself there was no reason to get worked up. Except that one time, when Ju-oh started talking about duty and roles—that had made him snap. But even then, the anger hadn’t lasted long.
It was just that he hadn’t gone through this kind of thing in a while. That’s why it felt so intense, and why he kept reminding himself to stay calm as he relaxed every muscle in his body.
“Esper Han Ju-oh, you must’ve figured it out when we met at the café, right?”
Seo-ha dropped the honorifics and spoke plainly.
“An S-class Esper came looking for me. Me—someone everyone avoids like the plague. You should’ve seen their faces. Everyone was stunned.”
Ju-oh’s brows creased.
“Avoids?”
“Maybe not ‘avoids’… more like ignores?”
Lying flat on the ground like it was his own bed, Seo-ha laced his hands behind his head and laughed quietly to himself. The whole scene was so absurd he couldn’t help but laugh.
“I mean, come on. Of all people, you came looking for me.”
“What’s so strange about that?”
Seo-ha rolled his eyes sideways to glance up at Ju-oh.
“What’s so strange? You really don’t get it, huh?”
“Must be overflowing with A-rank Guides around here, huh? It wasn’t like that when I left the country.”
It still wasn’t like that. Even if S-class Guides were few and highly valued, A-rank Guides were still important—at least, the normal ones.
He wasn’t one of them.
“I’m not exactly…”
Seo-ha let out a bitter laugh. He knew from experience—matching rate was far more important than rank, as was the amount of energy he could transfer to a partner. By those standards, he was a useless Guide.
“You don’t need to say it. Even if it’s not you, I’ve already been through enough. So drop it.”
He snapped, tone sharp with irritation—until he caught the strange stillness on Ju-oh’s face and realized something was off.
“What.”
Why wasn’t he reacting?
“What have you been through?”
Ju-oh’s voice came out flat and rigid.
“What do you mean, what? I’ve been ignored. That’s the nice version. There were times people treated me like I didn’t even exist.”
Seo-ha didn’t know why he was saying all this, but once he started listing off how he’d lived, the words just came.
At first, he thought it was just a matter of not finding a good match. Sure, it made him anxious, but no one really dismissed him outright. But once the number of Espers willing to test compatibility with him started to drop, his value hit rock bottom.
He bit back the swell of emotion and answered coldly.
“Anyway, you’re not my match, so there’s no need for a formal test.”
The words were out now, so he might as well say it all.
“I don’t want to be disappointed again.”
That’s why he ran off to the countryside. Call it cowardice if you want—he didn’t care. These days, just sitting in front of that testing machine made it hard to breathe, like he was going to pass out. What else was he supposed to do?
Better to drop everything and get out.
Pending status? Even if he was technically still affiliated with the Center, he wasn’t a Guide anymore.
“Come with me.”
God, this guy. He just wouldn’t quit. Even now, Ju-oh shamelessly asked him to come along.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
Seo-ha shot upright, glaring straight at him.
“What the hell is your problem with me?!”
Why did he keep showing up, digging into old wounds, flipping him inside out?
“I’ve been keeping it all down just fine. I’ve been running away, and doing a damn good job of it. So why are you so obsessed with dragging me back?”
It was all Ju-oh’s fault. When everyone else was talking behind his back, he couldn’t blame any one person—but Ju-oh was different.
He could dump every ounce of resentment on this one man. He’d been unlucky from the very start. And now, this same guy had the nerve to show up talking about Guiding and compatibility?
“I’m not Guiding anymore.”
Seo-ha stood up completely, stepping right into Ju-oh’s space.
“So stop coming near me.”
The sun still had a long way to go before it set. He figured he might as well stick to his original plan and walk slowly.
“Come with me.”
Oh, fuck off. He really doesn’t get it.
