FETCH 15

Jaechan read the sentence laid out before his eyes over and over again.

Real? Me? A Guide? And an S-class at that?

Unable to tell if he was dreaming or awake, he gripped his thigh tightly.

“Aaaa.”

A stinging pain registered. It wasn’t a dream.

Only then did he properly examine his surroundings. Because it was a white space, he had hastily judged it to be a hospital, but looking around again, it felt slightly different from a typical hospital.

Jaechan also realized belatedly that the place where he was lying was not an emergency room. If he had collapsed from a simple fever, he naturally should have been in the emergency room, but he was lying grandly in a private room.

Around the large bed, machines he had never seen before were lined up in a row. A large monitor was visible to the side, and as he had seen in the documents earlier, the sight of a graph rapidly rising and falling was repeated.

He followed the lines connected to the monitor with his eyes. The place where the long, opaque white lines were connected was none other than his own body.

Checking the patches attached to his chest and the back of his hand, Jaechan let out an exclamation, “Hooo.” It seemed the rapidly fluctuating graph was recording Jaechan’s wavelength in real time.

“This is a laboratory inside the EKR Center. Guide Jeon Jaechan, you opened your eyes exactly three days later, and now you’re facing an employment contract with us.”

The man had started speaking casually to Jaechan before he knew it. But that didn’t matter; the words the man spoke were more shocking than that.

Three days? Not one or two, but three days?

His body felt so light that he couldn’t even imagine he had been unconscious for that long… Hearing that it had been three days, he could now understand Han Kang’s fuss.

Jaechan was deeply moved that he had finally manifested, and at the same time, he was curious about what would happen next. He was naturally pleased that EKR was suggesting he join. However, there were a few things he had to settle first.

“The matching, what’s the matching rate?”

When he voiced something he had picked up somewhere, the man grinned. He knew vaguely that the most important factor in assigning an Esper and a Guide as a pair was that damn matching rate.

Since he had come out as high-rank, wouldn’t his matching rate be good with most Espers? Among them, the one Jaechan wanted was, of course, Han Kang. He didn’t care what happened with anyone else. As long as the matching rate with Han Kang was good, that was enough.

He didn’t know the center system in detail. But he recalled information he’d seen somewhere that if one had a proper rank and a matching rate above a certain standard with several Espers, they could become a team Guide. And that if one showed a standout matching rate with one specific person, they could become a dedicated Guide.

The man looked back and forth through the documents, letting out an “Eum,” from his vocal cords. The satisfied curl of his lips surely contained a positive answer.

He hoped it would be positive for him too. As Jaechan showed an inwardly anxious gaze, the man casually handed the documents he was holding to Jaechan.

“Want to take a look?”

“Yes, please give them to me.”

Jaechan hurriedly took the papers.

From outside, he could hear Han Kang’s voice making a fuss, asking “What are you talking about for so long,” but Han Kang wasn’t the priority right now. His heart began to race slightly, filled with expectation and excitement.

Jaechan swallowed a dry gulp. Please, please. Offering a prayer inside, he slowly read down through the text.

The Espers listed at the very top were, needless to say, famous people. In the midst of that, he was puzzled not to see Han Kang, and because his heart was thumping so hard, he felt as if it were about to jump right out of his mouth.

And finally, when he found Han Kang’s name.

“Wow.”

Jaechan set the paper down with a “Tuk.”

What did I just see?

As he simply blinked, the man started with an “Uueum,” as if he were in a difficult position.

“Since you wanted to be a Guide, I assume you know well how guiding is done?”

“So, you mean that Han Kang and I are matched now, and I have to have physical contact with Han Kang.”

Jaechan picked up the paper again and stared intently at the number next to Han Kang.

It was a staggering 89 percent. Not only was it a matching rate that far exceeded the ‘Appropriate’ threshold written at the very top, but the fact that his matching rate with the other Espers on the team also surpassed the appropriate level was truly amazing.

Am I really becoming Han Kang’s Guide?

He was so shocked he couldn’t say a word. Because the situation he had only drawn in his dreams for so long was actually right in front of him, it felt unreal instead.

Joy was surging inside him, but separate from that, his expression froze stiffly. His mind was blank. Consequently, Jaechan was unintentionally staring only at the documents with a completely hardened expression.

Then the man spoke up, “Ah-ah.”

“Of course, it might be quite uncomfortable to have to have physical contact with a close friend.”

What is he talking about? Who’s uncomfortable.

At the tone that seemed to be trying to persuade him, Jaechan took his eyes off the papers and looked at the man. Kim Daeyoung pressed his temples while holding his forehead as if he were troubled.

Then he pointed toward the door with his other hand. Han Kang’s loud voice was still continuing outside the door, and the man frowned as if Han Kang were extremely annoying.

“I heard you and Han Kang are close friends, is that right.”

Suddenly it was formal speech again. Jaechan nodded his head, wanting to hear where this was going.

“Then you must know Han Kang well. That guy’s temper is no joke. To be blunt, he’s acting like he’ll resign if we pair Jeon Jaechan up with another Esper as soon as you manifest, so let’s cooperate.”

He acted as if he would force it through coercion if Jaechan didn’t cooperate. Jaechan had no intention of refusing a match with Han Kang, but his attitude was so unpleasant that it made Jaechan’s mood twist. Jaechan looked at him with a sulky face.

Kim Daeyoung roughly loosened his tie. Jaechan wondered if it was okay for the head of a center to be this emotional, but hearing Han Kang’s voice shouting at the top of his lungs outside, he also thought about how much stress that man must have built up in his own way.

Jaechan looked at him with eyes that invited him to say more if he had anything to add. If the man caught hold of him and started badmouthing Han Kang, he was slightly inclined to join in. And in the end, well, he would just stamp the contract.

Suppressing the smile that wanted to burst out, Jaechan looked back into the documents, and then the man spoke heavily.

“In a way, isn’t your manifestation thanks to the center?”

It was a question with not a single wrong word, but why did it sound like a threat?

Jaechan instinctively looked up and met his eyes.

“Are you threatening me right now?”

“It’s not a threat, it’s a request for cooperation. You said you wanted to be a Guide so we provided the drugs, and if you manifested as a Guide with the help of the center, I think it’s morally right for you to become a Guide. Furthermore, Jeon Jaechan, you are the first successful case of the center’s drug clinical trials, the first specimen. We need to observe you a bit more. Even to see if that supernatural power is passed down to later generations…”

“Passed down?”

Jaechan doubted his ears for a moment.

He had simply become a Guide, but it seemed the man was saying all sorts of things to someone who had barely passed twenty. The man cleared his throat with a “Keum.”

“Anyway. I understand that guiding between friends is a bit uncomfortable and awkward. I understand. But still, isn’t there such a thing as business ethics? Didn’t we open the trials and you participate so it would be good for both of us.”

It seemed he didn’t understand Jaechan’s heart even a tiny bit, yet Jaechan conversely couldn’t understand why that man kept insisting he understood while trying to lecture him overbearingly.

It was certain that listening more would only make him feel worse. He decided to wrap up the conversation here. Jaechan set the documents in his hand down with a “Tuk,” and replied indifferently.

“Yes, I’m going to do it.”

“Right, since you’re going to do it… eh?”

“I took that medicine regularly because I wanted to be Han Kang’s Guide, so of course I have to do it.”

Jaechan nodded from where he sat and replied as if it were no big deal. In any case, it wasn’t the man he had to deal with.

“Honey! Honey, what! Who are you dedicated to! Uh! Who are you saying you’re dedicated to! Ah, fuck, open the door!”

It was Han Kang, making a scene outside.

The power with which he pounded on the door as if he intended to break it entirely was enormous. Jaechan scribbled his signature on the last page of the documents the man had handed him, and giving them back, he said.

“Then I’m Han Kang’s Guide now, right? If you don’t calm him down now, he’s really going to break that.”

“We have to open it. Having someone who knows how to handle Han Kang here makes us feel so reassured too. Nice to meet you, I look forward to working with you.”

Finally, the man smiled benevolently at Jaechan and held out his hand. The air of acting threateningly had vanished without a trace.

It felt somehow uncomfortable, but he took that hand for now. At that moment, a sound of something finally collapsing with a “Ujikeun,” was heard from the direction of the door.

As expected, I must be different to Han Kang than other Guides. Trying to suppress his heart, which was swollen with endless hope, Jaechan turned his head toward the door that had been completely torn off.

“You, I said I’m doing it with you. Since the matching rate came out high with you, I decided to pair up with you, okay.”

Han Kang, whose presence had been red-hot to the point of huffing and puffing out rough breaths, calmed down in an instant.