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After finishing lunch, I headed to the Guide Bureau for the first time in a while. It was to replenish the guiding I had depleted while treating Kang Juha.

Once we arrived at the Guide Bureau lobby, Juyoung took a step back.

“Have a good guiding session. I’ll be waiting here.”

“…Alright.”

I gave a short nod to the staff in the lobby and headed straight to the 6th floor, where the individual guiding rooms were located.

The guide usually assigned to me was A-Class. Ordinarily, I should have received guiding from an S-Class guide to match my rank, but that particular workforce was severely lacking. Of course, I tended to be satisfied with A-Class guiding anyway.

There were two ways an Esper consumed guiding. One was consuming it regardless of one’s will to recover from physical trauma or stamina, and the other was, as commonly known, consuming guiding by using supernatural powers voluntarily.

Among these, I rarely fell into the former category, so my internal guiding consumption was significantly lower compared to other S-Class Espers. And unlike Kang Juha, my guiding compatibility was absurdly high, so I absorbed nearly 100 percent regardless of which guide I received it from.

Since I left the guiding schedule entirely to Juyoung, I paid almost no attention to that side of things—to the point where I didn’t even know which guide was being assigned each time.

“Team Leader Seong! It’s been a long time!”

Of all people, it had to be Ryu Sunjae. The moment I saw his brightly waving face, I felt an urge to close the guiding room door again.

It wasn’t that the kid had a bad personality, but he talked too much. I wanted to rest quietly while receiving guiding, but the problem was that he chattered about this and that so much that he never gave me a moment’s peace.

“What are you doing not coming in quickly!”

“Sigh…”

I sat in the chair with a face that screamed I hated being there. Ryu Sunjae, who had both his arms stretched out on the desk, spoke refreshingly.

“Give me your hand!”

I let out another deep sigh and overlapped my hand on top of his. When Ryu Sunjae pressed the button to signal the start of guiding, a green light came on in a small device attached to the table. In front of this guiding room door, a green LED light would have turned on along with the phrase ‘Guiding in Progress’.

“As expected, Team Leader Seong is no fun.”

“I see you were trying to play a prank again.”

“I did it for a second, just a second. I’m not doing it now.”

It was a truly unfortunate thing for an Esper, but I have guiding anesthesia. Other Espers gave reviews saying they felt a heavenly mood while receiving guiding or that something like a Sanctus echoed in their ears, but I didn’t feel those things at all.

There was a faint sensation of energy filling up, but it was far from the ecstatic mood or good feeling other Espers talked about. Rather, it was closer to a bizarre sensation where some intangible aura swept through my entire body.

So, whether Ryu Sunjae poured guiding in with full intent or not, it was all the same to me. At first, there were guides who didn’t believe I had anesthesia and stepped forward saying they would show me the ‘true taste of guiding’, but now most of them had given up.

“You still haven’t met a guide you’re seeing?”

“…”

“Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen that ‘why are you curious about that crap’ expression.”

“If you know, then stop asking that kind of question.”

“The sunbaes told me to ask. To be honest, every time I get assigned to Team Leader Seong, I get glared at a lot by the sunbaes. Did you know?”

What kind of talk is this again?

“Before I came here today, they stood me in the corner of the hallway and told me to make sure to check if Team Leader Seong has a guide he’s seeing. They said it’s suspicious because you haven’t come to the Guide Bureau often lately.”

“What… I don’t come because I’m busy.”

“That’s the thing. Usually, for an Esper, the busier they are, the more they make time somehow to come.”

That might be true for a normal Esper, but not for me. If guiding was lacking, I lived with it being lacking, or I just got help from the medication I carried as a standby.

“Everyone is eyeing the spot next to you, Team Leader.”

“What nonsense…”

“It’s true.”

Ryu Sunjae said, “Think about it,” as he pulled back one of the hands he was holding and spread his five fingers wide. Then, starting from his thumb, he folded his fingers one by one as he spoke.

“You’re handsome, have great abilities, have lots of money, have no people around you, and though your personality is a bit lacking, you have good manners.”

Somehow it sounded like an insult disguised as a compliment. Especially what are those last two?

“It sounds like an insult.”

“No way. There’s a rumor like this going around the Center lately. That among the Espers in Korea, there are only two Espers whose relationships with guides aren’t messy.”

As if telling a secret story, Ryu Sunjae lowered his voice at once.

“Actually, there were originally three. You, Team Leader, and Esper Kang Juha from the Field Operations Division. But since that person passed away half a year ago. Everyone was very sad. There are still many people who can’t believe it. To be honest, I also thought he wasn’t someone who would die that easily.”

Ah. Other people don’t know the fact that Kang Juha has returned yet.

They said they would announce his return once Kang Juha’s physical condition was fully recovered, so that day probably wasn’t far off. Until then, there was nothing I could say.

In the National Security Bureau, there was mostly nothing you could say. Except for things like the lunch menu I ate today.

“You said there were three, so why are there two?”

“Ah, the final third one hasn’t been decided.”

“What does that mean again?”

“The third one is an Esper who just manifested. Since they haven’t received guiding even once yet, there wouldn’t be any guide relationships to speak of.”

After hearing it, it was such a pathetic story that I wondered why I had even listened.

“Why on earth are you going around saying things like that?”

“Because it’s fun. It gives a dopamine hit. Exactly who is the guide that will snatch the spot next to Team Leader Seong. This is the ultimate interest of the Guide Bureau. Didn’t you know? It’s already been several years. They even hold popularity polls between Esper Kang Juha and Team Leader Seong.”

“…”

“Aren’t you curious who won? I have about five years’ worth.”

“No. I’m not curious at all.”

“That’s a shame.”

Why on earth are they doing something like a poll that has absolutely no use? And why are they curious about who I meet in the first place.

Clearly, everyone was going crazy because they lived locked up in the Center. No. Guides are relatively free to go out, so they aren’t living locked up. But then why on earth…?

It was something that I could neither understand nor empathize with. I didn’t know why dopamine hit from that. I also couldn’t understand why that became an object of people’s interest.

“It feels bad to have useless information engraved in my brain.”

“Wow, you really talk like a mental-type Esper.”

“It means to be quiet. Before I force your mouth shut.”

“…Yes.”

I finally spent a barely quiet hour in the guiding room, and at last, a beep beep alarm sounded and the red light turned on. I immediately pulled out my hand that had been held and stood up from my seat.

Ryu Sunjae, who was stretched out as if collapsing while extending his arms over the desk, spoke.

“Team Leader Seong, is your condition not good lately?”

“Why that again? Did a sunbae tell you to look into that too?”

“No. It’s just that the guiding efficiency seems poor today… If possible, get a check-up periodically or something.”

At those words, I checked the smartwatch wrapped around my wrist and saw the guiding level was at 52%. Ordinarily, it would have filled up to 70% after receiving guiding for an hour.

When the thought occurred that I’d have to waste several more hours to get a single check-up, annoyance surged like crazy.

It’s probably just because I’m tired. Could anything really be wrong?

༘⋆

When I stopped in front of the Special Treatment Room door and hesitated for a long time without entering, the security team staff and Juyoung looked at me as if I were being strange.

It’s not like this is a preview for a soap opera. The last words I heard last night were the shocking confession that he wasn’t seven years old. I was afraid to see the next episode. Just what on earth was he planning to say.

If I went in and he brought up my memory again, asking if I forgot he was thirty-forty-five years old, I felt like I’d get heated in its own way.

If not…

Has his memory fully returned? Has the awareness that he is twenty-eight-year-old Kang Juha finally formed. Then it was something to cheer for while shouting “Hurrah,” but I was afraid to open the door in case things had twisted in a strange way.

“Are you not going in?”

Finally unable to endure it, Juyoung urged me, and I clenched both my fists.

“I’m going.”

Muttering my resolve, I opened the door. At the same time, I spat out my words quickly.

“I am Seong Yihyeon, Information Team Leader of the Center’s National Security Bureau Information Security Department.”

“I’ve been waiting for you.”