29.
“Hyung!! Jung-hyuk hyung!!”
Ryu Ho-yeon rushed in, bursting through the door of the team leader’s office located in the Esper Oversight Department. Perhaps not expecting anyone to boldly enter the team leader’s office without knocking, the two people entangled like one body on the three-person sofa jumped apart in surprise. It wasn’t a surprising sight, as he had seen it many times before.
“Ryu Ho-yeon. Don’t you know how to knock? And I told you not to come looking for me privately during work hours.”
Kim Jun-young, the Acting Head of Esper Oversight, didn’t bother hiding his irritation as he scolded him, but as always, Ryu Ho-yeon didn’t even react, considering it pointless talk.
This was a man who could easily hear everyday conversations happening kilometers away if he wanted to. This meant he would have heard Ryu Ho-yeon’s pounding footsteps as he rushed here.
It was obvious he had been reluctant to separate from his Guide, yet he was pretending to be surprised. Lee Jung-hyuk seemed to know this too, giving Kim Jun-young a stern look. Kim Jun-young protested, “No, that’s not it, Jung-hyuk.”
“Never mind. It’s not like this is anything new from hyung. Ho-yeon, come over here and sit down. Did something happen? Why did you run here so urgently?”
Indeed, it was good that he came. Ryu Ho-yeon realized anew that he had no one else to consult with besides Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk anyway.
“Hyung, hyung, hyung. What do I do? Help me, uh, you see, my ava…, I mean, Choi Jae-won…!!”
Ryu Ho-yeon was uncharacteristically stuttering and at a loss for words. This was someone who had remained utterly calm when his friend of fourteen years, who had been his provisional pair, suddenly bid farewell, and when he heard that innate Espers without Guides usually died before reaching thirty. Seeing him so flustered now, both Lee Jung-hyuk and Kim Jun-young quickly grew serious.
“Ho-yeon, breathe. Breathe, and slowly. Okay? Tell us so we can understand.”
Lee Jung-hyuk’s calm guidance usually worked well on Ryu Ho-yeon, as well as Lee Han-seo, Lee Hyesu, and even Kim Jun-young, but today seemed to be an exception. Pulled along to sit on the sofa, Ryu Ho-yeon continued muttering like someone who had lost his mind.
He had been planning to consult with Lee Jung-hyuk about his concerns soon anyway, but this morning—he had finally seen it. Choi Jae-won sticking an unmarked suspicious syringe into his arm. Secretly, in the bathroom.
He had run here immediately, too shocked by what he saw. All official substitutes and other medications supported by the Center’s research lab or medical team had the Center’s mark stamped somewhere on them to prevent counterfeiting. But that particularly thin syringe had no such mark anywhere. It meant it was a non-official product. The destructive impact of actually seeing something with his own eyes versus vaguely suspecting it in his mind was tremendously different.
“Myavaisondrugshowtherebebrokewritinglikethisisntsomerulethatobsessivestalkersfollowindistinctswhatisthiswhatisthisreallywhatisthis…!!”
“Ho-yeon, Ryu Ho-yeon?”
He couldn’t understand a word. Truly, it was utterly incomprehensible. Lee Jung-hyuk firmly grasped the shoulders of the trembling, muttering Ryu Ho-yeon and shook him once. Then, suddenly coming to his senses, Ryu Ho-yeon gasped, swallowing his breath quickly, and abruptly stopped his broken-tape-like muttering.
“Ah, sorry. I was too shocked.”
“We need to know what happened to help you. This is related to Choi Jae-won, your Guide, right?”
Nod, nod. With his shoulders still held, the small head moved up and down several times.
“Slowly, tell us slowly.”
After gulping down the warm water that Kim Jun-young had brought from somewhere, Ryu Ho-yeon explained the changes in guiding status he had recently experienced, Choi Jae-won’s strange behaviors, and even the validity of his thought process that led him to his conclusions. He articulated everything clearly in a monotone voice, as if reading a written text.
“…That’s what happened. Do you understand so far?”
“Hmm, yes. I can see why you were so shocked.”
“Yes. Me too.”
Throughout his explanation, there were many bizarre terms that the two couldn’t understand (mostly about how his “ava” was this or that, how the clichés of unrequited love stories were this or that, and how character attributes were this or that), but it wasn’t difficult to grasp the main point.
“Wh-wh-what should I do? What should I do? As someone who’s discovered a public official’s misconduct, I should report it immediately, but, uh, he probably did it because of me, so it doesn’t seem right for me to be the one reporting it.”
For Ryu Ho-yeon, who had lived his entire life strictly according to the formulas and manuals he had set for himself, this unexpected, non-standard situation was extremely perplexing. Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk carefully exchanged glances while trying to calm him down again. Assuming that everything Ryu Ho-yeon had observed was true, his hypothesis was quite convincing.
In regions where Guide supply was inadequate or in countries where guiding substitute development was lacking, highly addictive drugs that acted like strong painkillers were often used. There were countless cases of Espers who refused conscription and lived in hiding, ending their lives as addicts after using drugs instead of substitutes. Though it was rare to hear of Guides doing this, the idea of numbing sensations to suppress guiding surges wasn’t entirely impossible.
“Come on, what are you talking about? You’re making such a fuss over something that isn’t even confirmed yet?”
Kim Jun-young mockingly exaggerated his tone, pretending. It was to calm down Ryu Ho-yeon, who seemed to be in a state of panic. Though he hated to admit it, within the palm-sized sky and mouse-dropping-sized world that Ryu Ho-yeon lived in, Kim Jun-young was undeniably the most experienced and clever one. When he asserted this, Ryu Ho-yeon’s ears perked up, saying, “R-really?” Lee Jung-hyuk, noticing Kim Jun-young’s intention, quickly joined in.
“Yes, he might have had a chronic condition all along, or maybe his health has just deteriorated recently, and he’s hiding it because he’s uncomfortable telling you. And as for the guiding… you two have been matched for a year now. It wouldn’t be strange if your matching rate has improved during that time. If the matching rate has increased, making the transfer efficiency higher, then naturally both of you would feel less burden in the field.”
“Really…? Can that, can that happen…?”
Of course, there were cases where the matching rate between an Esper and a Guide gradually increased as they synchronized over time.
“Sure. Of course. When have I ever lied to you, hyung?”
“Never… never…”
However, that time frame typically wasn’t just one year—it usually took at least three or four years. Lee Jung-hyuk continued to calm Ryu Ho-yeon while carefully choosing his words. For now, it seemed better for Kim Jun-young and him to accurately assess the facts first, organize any issues if there were any, and then relay the information to Ryu Ho-yeon.
“We’ll look into it and let you know, so just go about your normal routine without thinking too much. Don’t show any signs that you’ve noticed anything to your Guide.”
“Okay…”
The slightly upturned corners of his eyes looked unusually dejected and gloomy today, which was concerning. Both Lee Han-seo and Ryu Ho-yeon, perhaps because they had known them since they were very young, always seemed like children left by the water’s edge, even though they knew they were proper adults already in their mid-twenties.
“Well then, want to have a meal together before you go? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”
Kim Jun-young offered a meal as he roughly ruffled Ryu Ho-yeon’s hair, who seemed somewhat more relaxed now. Even in his oddly dispirited state, Ryu Ho-yeon clearly expressed his wishes with remarkable determination.
“No… I want to eat at the residence. I saw this morning that there’s braised short ribs.”
It was just as clear who had prepared those braised short ribs as Ryu Ho-yeon’s intentions. Somehow, it didn’t feel bad. Kim Jun-young smiled wryly as he ruffled once more the hair of this troublesome dongsaeng who had sent his hyungs’ hearts plummeting since morning.
