FETCH 21

The man who followed and approached introduced himself as Kim Daeyoung and explained various things about the Center. He went on and on, saying it would be better for the parents to know in detail, but most of what he said was difficult for Han Kang to understand.

However, since he had awakened as an S-class, his transcendent power was strong. Therefore, he could be a threat to ordinary people who had not awakened, and the explanation that it would be better for him to live at the Center to control and manage that power was understood at once.

Han Kang, once again, was the first to say he would do so. Since his parents also seemed to respect his opinion, there were no major issues.

It wasn’t that he was worried about other ordinary people; it was for Jeon Jaechan. Because he didn’t want to see Jaechan freezing up in a blizzard like that again.

He thought that if he lived at the Center, learned how to handle his transcendent powers properly, and became accustomed to guiding, he might be able to go out and see Jaechan again then.

Then, Han Kang realized that the refreshing energy lingering in his body was the wavelength of guiding. If that was the case, hadn’t Jeon Jaechan also awakened as a Guide? It was only for a split second, but the refreshing feeling that had circulated through his body was twice as good as any produced by medicine.

Han Kang’s lips twitched as he asked the man.

“By any chance, wasn’t the person next to me a Guide?”

He wanted to say that he felt this kind of refreshing feeling from him too, but for some reason, his father blocked his mouth.

“You, no matter how much you like your friend, really, you rascal.”

“No… I felt this good when Jaechan hugged me too.”

“That’s just because you’re comfortable with an old friend.”

Is that so…

He meant that if he had to live at the Center anyway, he wanted to be with Jeon Jaechan, but those words were soon swallowed back into his mouth by the adults.

At the same time, inwardly, he secretly hoped that Jaechan would awaken as a Guide. He didn’t want him to feel that much pain, but he thought it would be nice to be together anyway.

But that was only for then.

Han Kang reduced his school life at the same time he began living at the Center. He began to feel a subtle discomfort between the adults who controlled his outings using his wavelength as an excuse, and the Guides who fumbled with his body under the pretext of taking care of him.

The more that happened, the more he missed Jaechan. Since they wouldn’t let them meet, he couldn’t hear any news of him either, which made it even more frustrating.

Had he been discharged from the hospital? When he went to school after being discharged, would he be surprised to see that he wasn’t there? Still, since their parents were close friends, he might have heard news about him.

While inflating his dreams day by day with such thoughts, Han Kang was granted permission to go out for the first time. It was his mother’s birthday. He was only able to leave the Center after his parents, who had personally come to pick him up, took over custody and signed various documents.

“I’ll go see Jaechan and come home quickly!”

Han Kang headed to Jaechan’s house first. He heard his parents’ voices trying to stop him, but Han Kang could not endure missing Jaechan any longer.

Every corner of his body was tired. Since he was still undergoing training on techniques for handling transcendent powers, he was in the middle of learning skills by bumping here and there from morning until evening.

That was why he was tired every day, even though he received guiding every day. It was common for him to fall into a deep sleep, and he couldn’t even shake off the dense touch of the Guides who approached him.

Nevertheless, he was starved for Jaechan. Han Kang ran hurriedly and arrived in front of the apartment line where Jaechan lived. Just then, he spotted Jaechan walking with heavy steps after finishing school. He couldn’t hide his joy. Han Kang greeted him, waving his hands wildly above his head.

“Honey!”

When he added the nickname he had been used to calling him since they were young, Jaechan came to a dead stop and looked at him. It felt so good to see a bright smile spread across that pretty face.

“Han Kang! Are you okay? I heard you’re at the Center now, is it okay for you to come out today?”

“I got permission to go out today. How about you, are you okay? You were hurting back then.”

“Me? I got better the very next day. Congratulations, really, an Esper—that’s so cool.”

His shoulders puffed up with pride.

Inside the Center, no matter if they were Espers of a lower rank than him, it was a place full of people already skilled in transcendent powers, so it was extremely rare to hear praise; yet when Jaechan said he was cool, it felt like an illusion that all his past hardships were being resolved.

An excited Han Kang grabbed Jaechan’s hand firmly. He even slightly expected that he might feel the refreshment he had felt before. But as his father said, whether it was simply because they were friends and it was comfortable, he no longer felt that refreshment.

Then who was it that gave him that refreshment back then? It made even less sense that it wasn’t Jaechan.

His struggling physical body remained the same, and his aching joints were the same. Han Kang swallowed his disappointment inwardly and smiled broadly. But what was this? Jaechan, who had never done such a thing before, subtly pulled his hand away.

“Why are you pulling away?”

Since holding hands, kissing, or hugging each other was one of the daily occurrences between them, Jaechan’s attitude was very puzzling.

When Han Kang opened his eyes wide, Jaechan lightly scratched the back of his neck. His mouth, which had settled somewhat bitterly, held a faint tremor, but then he shook his head, saying no.

“They say I shouldn’t do this with you anymore.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not a Guide, they say I can’t be with you.”

“Who says that?”

“The, uh, person called the Center Director said so. Your parents said so too, and so did my mom.”

Was it an illusion that he looked somewhat dejected?

Han Kang felt a faint fire burning in his chest.

Guide or whatever, he didn’t understand what was so great about it that they dared to separate him and Jaechan.

They forcibly blocked contact, made it impossible to meet, and now they were putting forward the strange logic that they couldn’t be together if he wasn’t a Guide.

Even if his black hair turned white, he intended to be with Jaechan for the rest of his life, so he could not agree with their thoughts.

“Tell them to stop talking such fucking bullshit.”

When he protested strongly, adding a curse word he didn’t usually use, Jaechan smiled beautifully. Just as he felt his heart aching at the impression that he looked somewhat sad for some reason.

“But… I think that’s right. You, you have to be with a Guide. It’s okay, let’s just call each other occasionally.”

Jaechan eventually took a step away from him along with a single bitter remark.

For some reason, a bulging pout of grumpiness surged up.

Han Kang grabbed Jaechan’s arm tightly and looked at him with slightly wronged eyes. He said an Esper was cool earlier, so why was he avoiding him? He didn’t know why he was making such a sad face again while doing that.

It’s probably because we’ve been apart for a long time, so he’s just a bit confused right now.

Han Kang held Jaechan’s arm and tried to pull him in to kiss him just like that. He tried to hug his body just as he had done before.

“…”

But now, Jaechan even turned his head away and avoided it.

He couldn’t believe it. Jeon Jaechan avoiding him. Stunned as if he had been hit in the back of the head with a large hammer, Han Kang stared at him blankly, and Jaechan took another step back.

“Go on in. If you’re at the point where you can come out on leave, it’s okay to call, right? Can I message you?”

There was nothing else to say to the words spoken as if everything were normal while hiding the awkwardness.

“…Do it.”

He didn’t have his phone in his possession yet, but he only thought that he would get it today somehow before going back in.

It hadn’t even been that long since he had been away from Jaechan. Had it been about a month? But he was anxious at the sight of Jaechan, who had changed in that short time. His whole body wanted Jeon Jaechan, but he was pushing him away. That one fact was incredibly shocking.

“Jaechan is a bit strange.”

Having returned home, Han Kang muttered the suspicion quietly. To the gazes sent by his family who were sitting around eating, asking what was wrong, he recounted in detail what had happened when he met Jeon Jaechan today.

The strange thing was that his family looked as if it were to be expected. When Han Kang looked at his parents with a puzzled gaze, his father, who had been eating in silence, put down his spoon.

“Jaechan’s grandfather passed away because of an Esper’s out-of-control wavelength.”

“…When?”

“It was probably right when you two were born. Even if Jaechan isn’t largely affected by it, since that’s the family background, he can’t have good feelings toward Espers.”

It was even more shocking because it was the first time he was hearing it.

He knew that his grandfather had passed away and that they were strictly performing ancestral rites, but he hadn’t dreamed that he died because of an Esper’s wavelength. Jeon Jaechan had never mentioned that either.

Perhaps worried about his silent, closed mouth, his mother added as she placed a piece of grilled short rib patties on his rice.

“Ordinary people are scared because there’s no way to help them if they get caught in an Esper’s wavelength… It must be a shock, but you should understand.”

There was nothing else to say to the added words.

Until now, there had been no difference between Jeon Jaechan and him. Their family circumstances were similar, their ages were the same, and thanks to their parents being close friends, there was no reason to live feeling any difference other than their sibling relationships.

A difference had arisen between them.

Esper and ordinary person.

Han Kang and Jeon Jaechan.

The feeling that an unbridgeable gap had been created soon transformed into a sense of vast distance.