FETCH 63

Jaechan was startled and covered his laptop screen with his entire body. As he looked toward the door with tense eyes, a familiar person was slowly walking inside.

“It’s me, you don’t have to hide it.”

It was Choi Seokyoung, holding coffee in both hands.

Approaching with a smirk, Choi Seokyoung handed one of the coffees to Jaechan. Jaechan let out another exclamation of “Oh!” It wasn’t coffee from a vending machine, but a cold Americano bought from the cafeteria in the lobby.

“Thank you. Why did you come here?”

When he responded in a slightly charming voice, Choi Seokyoung laughed lightly and sat down beside him.

“To watch you write your report.”

After seeing the report items, Choi Seokyoung clicked his tongue. Remarking on whether he really had to write things like this, he shook his head, saying he was already sick of it even though he hadn’t even tried it.

“Just write whatever, they don’t know.”

“Still. It weighs on my mind.”

“By the way, you’re still taking the same medication, right?”

“Yes. The medicine changed a bit, but the amount is the same.”

“Ah.”

Choi Seokyoung let out a low hum and nodded slowly. He said he came to watch the report writing, but it seemed he had come out of concern, fearing Jaechan might be upset since the matching rate had been mentioned.

He had never directly told him that he liked Han Kang. However, Choi Seokyoung was extremely quick-witted. He seemed to have vaguely known that Jaechan liked Han Kang even before he joined the company, and that remained the same recently.

“Why is it dropping even though you’re taking medicine.”

“It hasn’t dropped yet.”

“Ah, right, right.”

Choi Seokyoung laughed and raised a palm as if to say sorry.

Indeed, since he was the type to get defensive the moment anything related to Han Kang came up, it would be the height of dullness for someone right next to him not to notice. It seemed Han Kang was the only one who didn’t know Jaechan’s inner feelings that everyone else knew.

Jaechan looked back at the monitor screen, saying it wasn’t like that. A deep sigh escaped him. After entering that he went to sleep at roughly twelve o’clock, he filled in the rest of the items.

[Wake up, around 8 AM]

After finishing the final sentence, he pressed the ‘Send’ button to save the report. Jaechan exhaled a long sigh and took a sip of his coffee. The nutty aroma of the beans was nice. When he offered a faint smile, Choi Seokyoung patted his shoulder, telling him not to worry too much.

“If the matching rate doesn’t come out great tomorrow.”

“Ah, why do you keep saying such ominous things? Are you a spy, hyung?”

“Hey, listen. This kid is so impatient.”

“Ah. Yes. What is it?”

“Just say your condition isn’t good, rest a bit, and then measure it again. Don’t go popping pills just because you’re anxious.”

“Ah.”

In the end, it came back to medicine.

Jaechan smiled gloomily. He knew he shouldn’t rely too much on medicine, and as Choi Seokyoung said, he knew he shouldn’t take more, but no other breakthrough came to mind. Perhaps because of that, he immediately turned bitter.

But well, what choice was there?

It was perhaps a natural progression for a Guide who manifested through drugs to have their abilities decline. It was also natural to become dependent on the drugs.

Jaechan nodded reluctantly, saying he understood. Comforting words reached him—saying that he knew everything without being told and not to worry, that since it had been fine until now it would be fine in the future—but they didn’t really resonate deeply.

After all, Choi Seokyoung was a Guide who had manifested naturally.

Ah, this inferiority complex is crazy. It was just as Jaechan, realizing his own pathetic state, let out a long “Mmm” sigh.

“Honey, why don’t you just go ahead and cheat on me openly.”

Han Kang’s low, suppressed voice followed.

How long had he been there?

Jaechan’s eyes widened reflexively as he looked at him. He didn’t hear everything, did he? Fortunately, Han Kang simply looked displeased.

At that, Choi Seokyoung, who had been quiet, stood up with a blunt voice as if he were actually the more annoyed one.

“We’re just teammates talking about work, if you’re jealous of even this, how does Jaechan ever let you off the leash?”

Han Kang ignored Choi Seokyoung as if he weren’t even worth listening to. Jaechan hurriedly stood up and moved to block the space between the two.

“Is training over already?”

Jaechan deliberately smiled brightly to soothe Han Kang. He smiled awkwardly and grabbed Han Kang’s arm. He could clearly feel the guiding wavelength slipping out, but ignoring that, he patted his shoulder a couple of times as if to reassure him. The hard, frozen expression on Han Kang’s face slowly melted away.

“It’s not over yet.”

“Go train. We were talking about tomorrow’s checkup.”

Han Kang nodded as if he understood, but he continued to cast a dissatisfied gaze at Choi Seokyoung. Having barely managed to push Han Kang out of the safe zone, Jaechan belatedly apologized to Choi Seokyoung.

“The kid… the kid… his personality is just a bit of a mess, but he’s kind…”

When he relayed the words he had said once before, Choi Seokyoung laughed and said it was fine.

“It’s not like I’ve only seen Han Kang’s mess of a personality for a day or two. Still, don’t coddle him too much. You’ll spoil him.”

Leaving a smirk, Choi Seokyoung left the training room, saying he was going first. The remark that he would freeze to death if he stayed here any longer near Han Kang was an added bonus.

.✦ ݁˖

All the Guides belonging to the Center were gathered in the examination room, warming up. The team leaders were no exception to changing into the examination uniforms provided by the lab and standing in front of the measuring devices. Naturally, it made no distinction between men and women.

Having gathered in one place for the first time in a long while, the Guides shared friendly conversations about the various large and small issues occurring between the teams.

It was the same for Jaechan. Jaechan was laughing as he watched Ji Sangtaek, who sat beside him stretching his stiff muscles, and Choi Seokyoung, who was looking at him with pathetic eyes.

Ji Sangtaek was blinking slowly as if he were incredibly tired, and Choi Seokyoung was half-heartedly massaging his shoulders.

“No, Jaechan was the resident Guide yesterday, so why are you like this, Team Leader?”

Exactly.

Jaechan also looked at Ji Sangtaek with rounded eyes, feeling equally puzzled. As soon as Jaechan received approval for the resident Guide position, he had gone straight to the Team Zero dormitory after work without even needing to pack separate bags.

So he had no idea why Ji Sangtaek was as exhausted as someone who had been guiding all night. When Jaechan tilted his head, Ji Sangtaek let out a long sigh.

“My Esper rampaged.”

“Your wife?”

“Calling her ‘wife’ makes her sound really old.”

“It’s not like you and Esper Zain are young, Team Leader.”

“This kid never loses an argument, hey! Don’t you ever tell Han Kang he’s got no manners. You too, huh? If you look closely, you and Kang are exactly the same, huh?”

Ji Sangtaek jumped up as if it were unfair. Just like most experienced Guides and Espers in the Center, Ji Sangtaek had dated and eventually married the dedicated Esper he met early in his career.

As Team Zero was a team made of male Espers, the majority of Support Team 1 consisted of female Guides, and naturally, among them were Guides who were dating or married to the Espers of Team Zero.

Among them, the male Guides were Jaechan, Choi Seokyoung, and Ji Sangtaek. Ji Sangtaek was a Guide with truly excellent guiding abilities. To Jaechan, who covered all the Espers belonging to Team Zero and asked, “Team Leader, why don’t you have a dedicated partner?”, he had said, “My wife is among the female Espers,” explaining that his dedicated Esper was in another team.

He was married, but at the Center’s request, he hadn’t performed an imprint yet, so he could still guide other Espers.

Anyway, it seemed Esper Kim Zain, Ji Sangtaek’s spouse, had also begun Olympic preparations and suffered a rampage during training. Since Espers were entering training one by one and Guides everywhere were getting busy, it wasn’t a strange symptom.

Whether from guiding all night, dark circles had descended around Ji Sangtaek’s eyes. Jaechan just smiled and watched Ji Sangtaek and Choi Seokyoung bickering.

“What are you laughing at? He’s talking back to his Team Leader with no manners, you should be on my side.”

At Ji Sangtaek’s words, Jaechan laughed again, saying “Oh, come on.” Even though he was laughing, and even though the atmosphere had clearly softened, one side of his chest felt heavy.

He had rationalized that the reason Han Kang kept rampaging would only be known after the checkup, but now that the checkup was actually here, he was getting nervous.

Jaechan desperately hoped that no problems would show up during the exam. Because of that, his mind became increasingly noisy, and the more conscious he became of it, the more he reached a point where he couldn’t even laugh.

Then Ji Sangtaek grabbed Jaechan’s shoulder firmly, saying, “Oh boy, Jaechan.” Seeing that his face looked flushed, he brought over a hand fan and turned it to the strongest setting toward Jaechan’s face.

“Look at how nervous you are, boy. You’re about to start sweating.”

To the comfort offered as if he knew exactly what he was conscious of without being told, he simply responded with a slight smile.