FETCH 17

I can’t tell you how uncanny that single remark was. At any rate, when it came to Jeon Jaechan, the guy’s intuition was incredibly sharp.

“What’s so strange about it? I’m just saying let’s go.”

“Are you going to eat lunch with me too?”

“Of course. You’re the only person I know at the Center.”

“Sweet.”

Han Kang finally stood up. Pulling his hands out of his pockets, he stretched his muscles long and loosened up his body.

Rising slowly, he stood next to Jaechan as if it were the most natural thing in the world and slung an arm over his shoulder. After pulling Jaechan into his embrace as if to wrap him up, he leaned his head against Jaechan’s and let out a soft “He-he” laugh.

It was a relief. Han Kang was clinging to him with the same familiarity as always.

“Do you still hate that I became a Guide?”

Jaechan asked, nudging Han Kang’s head up to push it away. At that, Han Kang’s expression hardened into a pout.

“I’m not thrilled about it.”

“Just accept it now. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Yeah, fine. What can I do? It’s already happened.”

Han Kang shrugged as if he had no choice. His attitude was distinctly different from the hesitation he showed right after learning about the manifestation, causing a smile to bloom on Jaechan’s face.

“I’ll just have to keep you stuck right by my side, so no other bastards can even look at you.”

Having finished his sentence, he tightly hugged the shoulder of Jaechan, who was following him. He pulled him in so strongly that Jaechan’s body, which wasn’t exactly small, was tucked firmly into his chest. Whenever that happened, Jaechan’s heart would inevitably race, and just as he began to squirm, Han Kang whispered in a low voice.

“So Jaechan, don’t hide anything from me. I really hate it when things stop being fun.”

The words rang in his ears, poking at his conscience.

“Hide what? When have you ever seen me hide anything from you?”

Jaechan sensed the atmosphere turning slightly strange with incredible precision. So, he intentionally made his movements bigger and boldly threw his arm over Han Kang’s shoulder.

The place he had thought was a classroom turned out to have “Conference Room 3” written on it once they stepped out. The thought briefly crossed his mind that people actually held meetings in a place like this. Well, whatever.

Jaechan tried to leave by firmly pushing Han Kang’s back. At the same time, he wanted to run away from the gaze that was piercing through him. When he pushed harder, Han Kang twisted his back and said indifferently.

“Ah, why are you pushing?”

Han Kang clearly looked displeased, but his mouth was wearing a silly grin as if he didn’t entirely hate the force of the repeated shoves.

Eventually, he started wriggling his body every time he was touched. Each time, Jaechan poked his hard back a few more times. Finally, unable to hold it back, Han Kang burst out laughing.

“Ah, seriously. I give up.”

“What do you mean ‘give up’? You’re not giving up anything.”

Jaechan giggled and matched his pace with him. Since he had finished everything the Center Director had ordered, it was finally time to look around the Center. Expectations began to bloom in his chest at the thought of touring the spaces he had been curious about.

The interior of the EKR Center had never been revealed to the public, making it no different from an unknown territory to ordinary people. While they were busy making a business out of selling Espers and Guides, the inside of the Center was kept tightly under a veil.

Even if they occasionally filmed documentaries about Espers and Guides or released training scenes for news footage, Han Kang had said that those shoots all took place in external studios decorated to look like training rooms.

While he wondered what kind of treasure they were hiding to go to such lengths, he figured there must be a reason for it.

“So, where are we going first?”

When he asked with a gentle smile of anticipation, Han Kang shrugged.

“We should go to the place where you’ll be working first.”

Was there a separate place where Guides worked? Since the Center Director hadn’t given any particular explanation, Jaechan looked at him with rounded eyes.

“Am I not working with you?”

“Yeah. I heard that when Espers are training, Guides do some kind of support work? I don’t really know either.”

Well, of course he wouldn’t know.

Jaechan nodded as if he expected as much. The guy wasn’t that interested in others to begin with. Moreover, since Han Kang was an Esper, he probably hadn’t even thought about looking deeply into a Guide’s duties.

As Han Kang walked forward with steady thumps, it seemed he had memorized the office locations despite his lack of interest in his surroundings. He quickly guided Jaechan to the “Esper Support Team” office, where he said Guides performed their support work.

Since Jaechan didn’t have an ID card yet and couldn’t open the door, Han Kang scanned his access card for him. Along with a beep, an electronic voice quietly echoed in the hallway: “Esper Han Kang authorized.”

‘Whoa.’

Entering the space with a sense of wonder at all the special gadgets, Jaechan swallowed an exclamation.

It was an office that felt strongly white. On a screen installed on one wall, numbers of unknown meaning rapidly rose and fell, distracting his gaze.

Occasionally, someone’s photo would pop up. The personal training schedules for each Esper would appear and disappear, individual schedules for various teams belonging to EKR were shown, and subsequently, the ability levels and danger ratings of the Espers would appear before vanishing.

A spark of life appeared in Jaechan’s eyes. In a life where he had enough of everything and thus had nothing in particular he wanted to do or have, a new interest began to surge.

Jaechan looked around with sparkling eyes. He felt his heart pound heavily with anticipation. The people passing by didn’t look particularly lively, as expected of office workers. Yet, upon spotting Han Kang, they greeted him one by one with bright smiles.

“What brings you here?”

When someone asked, Han Kang replied indifferently.

“They told me to give a new Guide their OJT.”

Han Kang left a sharp reply as if putting his unpleasant personality on display. The embarrassment was Jaechan’s to bear. Jaechan let out a low “Haha” and gave a sheepish nod toward the person.

The man smiled broadly at him. He had an unbothered expression, as if he were already well aware of Han Kang’s poorly formed personality.

“Ah, you must be the Guide who’s forming a new pair with Esper Han Kang? Nice to meet you! I heard you two are friends.”

“Yes, I’m Jeon Jaechan. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Right. You’ll start coming to the office from tomorrow, and one of our team members will probably be waiting for you in the lobby. I am the Team 1 Leader, Ji Sangtaek. Guide Jaechan will be on our team too. Since we’re in charge of Zero.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Jaechan maintained a sheepish smile and looked at Han Kang. Whether he was displeased that the greeting with the man was dragging on, Han Kang was showing boredom in less than a minute.

The “Zero” mentioned by Ji Sangtaek was the Esper team of the sports business division under EKR that Han Kang belonged to. It was a top-tier elite team consisting of the most outstanding Espers in the country, including the leader, Kang Chanbit.

Naturally, they were the team with the most members selected for the national team, and they also participated in the most matches with the best results. By being assigned to Team 1, Jaechan also became a Guide belonging to Team Zero. Fortunately, it was thanks to his matching rate with them being consistently high above a certain level.

The man continued to give a brief explanation of the Guide’s duties. He said that since it was a job group where skills had to be consistently proven, Guides also underwent training three times a week. Furthermore, wave tests were conducted once a quarter, and matching rate analyses had to be done once every six months.

Since these were stories he couldn’t hear through Han Kang, his interest grew even more. When he reacted with small exclamations of “Ohhh,” the man laughed happily. Finding it worth his while to talk, the man began to chatter a bit more.

“And since you’re Esper Han Kang’s friend, you probably know, but we sometimes go out for program filming. These days, the public really likes it when the exclusive pairs get along well, so sometimes we film commercials together.”

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

“Besides that, there are some auxiliary tasks; you can think of it as being like an Esper manager. Getting checkups together, participating in training. During the season leading up to international matches, we do joint training too.”

“If you mean joint training, what kind of…?”

Just as he was asking with full interest, as this was also something he hadn’t heard from Han Kang, Han Kang suddenly grabbed Jaechan’s hand. When he looked at him, he saw a grumpy face with eyes narrowed into triangles.

Ji Sangtaek let out an “Ummm” and laughed awkwardly.

“Still, since you’re friends with Esper Han Kang, well, it’ll be comfortable when you’re active together. There might be some slightly uncomfortable situations, but it’s work.”

It wasn’t like he came here without knowing how guiding was done in the first place. He didn’t know why everyone was emphasizing that they were friends and comforting him by saying there would be uncomfortable situations, but Jaechan really didn’t mind.

It was just as he was about to answer, “It’s okay.”

“We’re not friends.”

Han Kang suddenly cut into the conversation and intercepted the answer.