FETCH 16

“Did you really manifest? Are you a Guide?”

Wasn’t he the one who already knew everything and had been shouting at them to assign me as his exclusive Guide no matter what?

To Han Kang, who was asking cautiously, Jaechan gave a very proud nod.

“Yeah. I’m a Guide. And I’m your exclusive.”

One couldn’t possibly be more triumphant. Jaechan curled his lips into a grin and tilted his chin up.

And naturally, he moved to embrace him.

Flinch. Han Kang twisted his body slightly. It was the first time Jaechan had seen such a reaction. Jaechan’s hands, having lost their destination, stopped in mid-air. For a split second, a look of frustration flickered across Han Kang’s face.

Jaechan twitched an eyebrow and looked at him with a gaze full of wonder. For some reason, Han Kang wouldn’t even meet his eyes, biting his lower lip as if he were in a difficult spot.

Kim Daeyoung tapped Han Kang on the shoulder to comfort him.

“Han Kang, congratulations. Finally, a Guide with a perfect frequency match has arrived. Now you can’t even run away using matching rates as an excuse.”

Kim Daeyoung left the laboratory after leaving behind a simple, casual congratulation.

Inside the quiet lab, only the heavy breaths exhaled by Han Kang and the thumping of Jaechan’s heart weighed down the silence.

Jaechan’s mind was filled with the image of Han Kang instinctively rejecting him. His heart felt heavy. He hadn’t imagined that Han Kang would reject him just because he had become a Guide. Because of that, a bitter taste lingered in his mouth.

.✦ ݁˖

Now that the employment contract was finalized, he thought he would participate in training as soon as he arrived at work, but what do you know?

Far from training, Jaechan was sitting all alone in a place that looked like a small classroom. They had said there was nothing special for him to prepare personally. After being notified to start work the very next day, what was given to Jaechan on his way to work was a thick notebook and a single ballpoint pen.

Jaechan just stared at it. He toyed with the pen for a few minutes, wondering if he was supposed to take notes on the various things he would learn at the Center. The Center Director, who had been busily packing things in front of him, said in a low voice.

‘For today, let’s call it a day once you finish filling out those items.’

It wasn’t a bad offer. He had come to work without even having time to prepare mentally, and even if they said nothing was needed, things he would need while living in the office kept popping into his head. At the very least, shouldn’t he buy a small trash can?

Jaechan opened the notebook, thinking he should go grocery shopping if the paperwork finished early and he could leave work soon. However.

“No, what is this?”

A monologue burst out suddenly, and his expression crumpled.

“When am I supposed to finish all of this?”

Jaechan, who was flipping through the notebook, grabbed his hair. He should have known when it felt thick.

In the notebook the Center Director had handed him, there was one question per page, totaling nearly a hundred questions. They were all related to his lifestyle habits.

At first, he wondered why they were asking such things. But looking closely, it seemed they were collecting lifestyle information from clinical subjects to achieve better results.

No, but usually, shouldn’t they get consent for information collection first? Whether it didn’t matter in the first place, the Center Director made no mention of it.

And how did they pick questions that were so annoying to answer? It felt like it would take at least ten minutes to answer just one.

10 minutes per question. 1,000 minutes for 100 questions.

Does this make sense? He hadn’t even started yet, but he was already getting annoyed. Jaechan stomped his feet with an “Aaack!”

If they’re going to keep me at the company, they should either pair me with Han Kang or send me home!

The only reason he became a Guide was to stick close to Han Kang, but it wasn’t that easy from the start. Still, well, if they tell me to do it, I have no choice.

Sigh. Steadying his mind with a heavy sigh, Jaechan gripped the ballpoint pen firmly.

[1. When did you first start taking the medicine?]

[17 years old]

Eh, this is easy.

Jaechan shrugged his eyebrows and laughed lightly. To the point where his earlier annoyance felt pointless, the next item was easy, and the one after that was easy too. It seemed there were only a few of those annoying questions he had seen when he leafed through the pages.

Annoyance canceled. Suppressing his irritation, Jaechan smoothly wrote down the answers to the following questions without any blockage. It was a relief he was smart. Thanks to having a better memory than expected, the answers to the questions popped out like a vending machine.

Then, there was a weight that touched his shoulder. Though he was surprised, a familiar scent wafted in along with it, so Jaechan just blinked his wide-open eyes a few times and ended up laughing.

“What? When did you get here?”

While he was filling out the answers, Han Kang had taken the seat next to Jaechan as if it were natural. Having been so focused, Jaechan hadn’t even realized he had arrived, and showed a hint of puzzlement.

Instead of answering the question, Han Kang looked bored and pressed his cheek against the desk. The gaze looking up at Jaechan was no different from usual.

“When are you finishing? No, do Guides do things like this too?”

Han Kang asked, poking the notebook. Jaechan felt a sense of familiarity at his perfectly casual attitude and shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know, it’s my first time too, so how would I know?”

“What the… making you do such crap.”

Han Kang’s attitude, which had briefly seemed like he was rejecting him upon learning about the manifestation, had vanished without a trace. Seeing him look no different than usual, Jaechan felt his heart grow lighter inwardly.

Even when he was coming to work, he had been slightly worried about what to do if Han Kang rejected him again. It was even more so because Han Kang was never like that, but fortunately, Han Kang didn’t push him away. Rather, seeing him act as if being together was natural made Jaechan even let out a silly grin.

“Aren’t you… going to training?”

Jaechan asked, covering the notebook after checking the next question. Since the fact that he had participated in the clinical trial was still a secret, he was simply covering up questions that might allow that to be inferred.

“They told me to give you OJT today. They said to show you around the Center and let you know what our schedule is like. Honey, you know it all anyway, right?”

“I guess so. Still, seeing the Center should be fun.”

Jaechan said as he turned to the next page of the notebook. Even though he had heard many times through Han Kang what the inside of the Center looked like, he couldn’t imagine it at all.

The place where Han Kang trains, the place where he engages in mock battles, the place where he eats, and the place where he bickers with his teammates. Thinking about seeing them all one by one with his own eyes made him feel good, and a low laugh escaped him.

As he skipped the occasionally encountered annoying problems for now, he eventually reached number 99. Although there were folded pages here and there to ensure he didn’t miss anything, anyway, the goal was right in front of him.

[99. Are there any distinct symptoms you remember before manifesting?]

“Hmm…”

“Yeah, that one is a bit hard.”

“What do you know? You weren’t even there; you were off at a competition.”

Jaechan laughed and nudged his shoulder. Rolling his eyes upward, Jaechan finished writing the answer.

[Don’t know well]

Since it was the truth, there was nothing else to write. Han Kang, who checked it from the side, laughed heartily.

“What is this? Will it even be helpful?”

To the additional question, he just shrugged his shoulders.

Helpful… Well, do I necessarily have to be helpful?

They were the ones who had openly treated him like an experimental subject, calling him the ‘first specimen.’ At the time, he was so flustered that he just let it slide, but thinking about it now, it made him feel a bit bad.

While they said he was a Guide they absolutely needed, didn’t their nuance speak down to him as if he wouldn’t have manifested in the first place if it weren’t for them?

One word can change everything depending on how it’s said. It made him pointlessly angry that they didn’t even show any sincerity when the same thing could have been said nicely.

Jaechan, who had gripped the pen tightly, took a deep breath. A curious gaze followed him from the side, but he didn’t answer it.

When he looked down again, the last question was staring him in the face. And as soon as he discovered it, Jaechan blocked Han Kang’s view first.

[100. Please state the cycle of medication you took before manifesting.]

It was a question that must never be caught by Han Kang.

“What is it?”

“Ah, nothing. It’s the last one, so I’m just trying to finish quickly and go.”

[A handful before leaving the house, around lunchtime]

Jeon Jaechan, who scribbled down the answer, quickly closed the notebook. A suspicious gaze followed him from right beside him, but he tried his best to ignore it.

After all, wasn’t Han Kang the one who constantly urged him not to manifest, asking what was so good about becoming a Guide?

If he found out that not only had Jaechan created a secret, but had also been hanging around the Center behind his back, Han Kang’s personality would never let it slide.

‘You know that bastard’s personality.’

It was a context that made him deeply empathize with the words the Center Director had spat out in annoyance.

“Let’s go. You said you’d show me around the Center.”

Jaechan stood up, grabbing the notebook, and nudged Han Kang. Han Kang, who had stretched out one arm and rested his cheek on it, just rolled his eyes and looked up at him. Jaechan knew well that in times like this, he had to act composed.

Instead of hiding it, he faced him with a lie that he had actually revealed everything, and Han Kang let out a sigh. Getting up, he shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned loosely against the backrest.

Then, he spat out a word.

“You’re being strange right now.”