IMPRINT 44

“…A guide for me?”

“It was revealed today that GDX might be putting a strain on your body, Kang Juha Mr.”

“I was fine. Sincerely. In fact, I felt like my condition was even better than usual.”

Kang Juha did not seem particularly pleased with the news of seeking a guide, but that only made my resolve firmer.

“That is exactly the point. It is not supposed to be like that, normally.”

“…”

“I will request cooperation from the Guide Bureau to stabilize your Guiding and run matching with newly entered guides, and if necessary, I’ll contact overseas partner agencies…”

“Wait, just a moment. Sunbae.”

As I stood up with the intention of contacting the Guide Bureau immediately, Kang Juha hurriedly grabbed my arm.

However, before even a few seconds had passed, he let go hastily as if he had been burned by fire. He then stared at his own palm, repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fist.

“What is it? Did you get a static shock?”

“I don’t know. It was a bit… electric…”

Kang Juha looked at me with bewildered eyes before cautiously grabbing my wrist again. This time, there was no reaction, as if there was no static. However.

“Um… how long are you going to keep kneading my hand?”

He continued to mumble and squeeze my wrist as if it were rice cake dough. Even though he clearly heard me, his touch did not stop, and when I finally couldn’t take it anymore and pulled my hand away, he smacked his lips with blatant disappointment.

Though he acted otherwise, Kang Juha was quite fond of physical touch. Or rather, should I say he was easily tamed by a hand? Nevertheless, the reason I didn’t feel a great deal of repulsion was likely because Kang Juha felt like a large dog that enjoyed being petted.

If someone other than Kang Juha… for example, Park Juyoung, had done such a thing…?

Ugh. I suddenly got the chills.

I was making a sour face because of that pointless imagination. Perhaps mistaking it for his own fault, Kang Juha’s body crumpled inward. His large frame didn’t actually get smaller, but he did look pitiful.

“I don’t need a guide.”

I didn’t know of any trauma he had regarding guides, but I wondered if there was something I wasn’t aware of.

“Kang Juha Mr., you are an Esper, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you belong to the Center.”

“…Yes.”

“You are S-class, and you have a lot of field duty.”

“…”

Kang Juha kept his mouth tightly shut as if he knew what I was going to say. At first, he had answered well, even nodding his head, but now he looked at me with resentful eyes. Not that looking at me like that would change his nature.

“An Esper needs a guide.”

“It’s not a guide that’s needed, it’s Guiding.”

He talked back with a rebellious glint in his eyes that was unlike him.

I didn’t answer immediately and just stared at him quietly; soon, Kang Juha lowered his gaze with a dejected expression.

“I don’t know if this is appropriate to say in the current situation, but since your Guiding compatibility is so abysmal, a guide won’t be found easily. So, what I’m saying is you don’t have to worry about a guide suddenly falling from the sky right this second.”

“…”

If one could be found easily, the Center Director would have attached a guide to Kang Juha’s side long ago. He was the person who cared most about Kang Juha’s Guiding status.

Even when he first asked me to look after Kang Juha, he told me to just get him into a state where he could at least receive Guiding.

Guiding is a type of internal energy. It is considered a normal state when it spreads evenly throughout the body, centered around the dantian where the Guiding energy gathers, but Kang Juha was currently unable to do that. Like a blocked blood flow, the stagnant energies inside his body would clump together and cause shock reactions, or he would waste Guiding energy in the wrong places.

Originally, Guiding should flow in an amount that fits one’s body—neither too much nor too little. Since Kang Juha was born with a massive capacity, finding a matching guide was even more difficult.

In short, Kang Juha’s body was an Italian sports car—you know, the one starting with ‘Fe’—that would be used in an F1 race where cost-effectiveness and fuel efficiency are the worst.

“If a guide perfectly suited for you appeared right away, it would have to be called a miracle.”

If a normal Esper finding a guide suited for them is described as finding an oasis in the desert, for Kang Juha, it could be described as finding a needle’s eye in the desert while riding a helicopter. It might be faster to win the lottery. Seriously.

“…What about you, sunbae?”

“Me?”

“Are you looking for a guide too, sunbae?”

“I’m the type to just take whoever is available.”

I mainly received it from Yu Seonjae, but it didn’t necessarily have to be him. When Yu Seonjae was on vacation, I often received Guiding from other guides as well. By comparison, I was an Esper with very high cost-effectiveness.

“I don’t really like living with people stuck by my side.”

“Then what about me? Sunbae, you’re living with me stuck to you right now.”

Pffft! As soon as Kang Juha finished speaking, the sound of someone spraying water echoed.

Naturally thinking it was Juyoung, I was about to scold him immediately, but the owner of the sound was none other than Director Shin Ms.

Director Shin Ms. hurriedly wiped her mouth where coffee was dripping and waved her hand as if to say not to mind her. Juyoung tore off some tissues and handed them to Director Shin Ms.

“Um… if the two of you are going to keep having that kind of conversation, should we step out?”

Juyoung then asked cautiously. Director Shin Ms. nodded as if she strongly agreed.

I looked at Kang Juha once and then back at the two of them.

“What kind of conversation?”

I had no idea what ‘that kind of conversation’ Juyoung was talking about was, and I couldn’t understand why the two of them had to leave. Isn’t an Esper talking about finding a guide something that isn’t particularly secret?

Of course, if Kang Juha really did find a guide, that guide’s identity would be treated as information with a high security clearance… but that was a story for the distant future.

“…If you don’t know, then never mind.”

Juyoung sighed and shook his head.

Wait, why?

I was puzzled, but since it seemed like it would be nonsense anyway, I decided to let it go.

“Anyway, it’s not that I’m living with Kang Juha Mr. stuck to me, but that Kang Juha Mr. came to my house.”

“I didn’t know you disliked it. Then why didn’t you kick me out?”

“That’s because…”

It wasn’t even a monumental question. Yet the moment I heard Kang Juha’s words, I found myself at a loss for words. There was definitely something that came to mind, but I hesitated to let it out.

It was strange. No, it was a strange feeling.

One of my life principles was to never trust humans met in society, and another was to not even trust family. In short, I do not trust anyone other than myself.

Especially regarding relationships, I am extremely reluctant to let in new people, and my boundaries are more than clear—they are practically under heavy guard.

But why is Kang Juha okay?

I had never even categorized the fact that Kang Juha was staying at my house as a feeling of ‘dislike’ or ‘like.’ Since he said he was having nightmares and was afraid of being alone, I had simply accepted it as a matter of course.

Furthermore, living together for several days straight, I had never once thought that I should kick him out. Even though I thought he would leave on his own when the time eventually came.

So, why did I do that?

It’s a difficult question, but perhaps the answer is…

“I guess I don’t dislike it…?”

It might sound funny to speak as if it were someone else’s story. But there was no more accurate way to express my state.

For some reason, Kang Juha looked at me with moved eyes, and the other two…

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Eh? No… it’s nothing.”

“Yes, it’s nothing. It just feels like I’m peeking into my boss’s romantic life, I guess.”

Juyoung spoke almost in a whisper at the end, so I didn’t hear it properly, but I felt like I wouldn’t feel great if I understood it, so I decided not to press him.

“Ahem.”

Director Shin Ms. cleared her throat and stood up.

“Yihyeon, I’m deeply moved because it’s the first time I’ve seen you getting along so well with someone other than us, but for me to be purely happy about this, the other person is…”

She then swept her eyes over Kang Juha’s entire body.

The sentence trailed off, but I could vaguely guess what she wanted to say. It was likely an extension of the things she had told me last time. Because Kang Juha’s memory is currently incomplete, we don’t know when he might return to normal, and we don’t know how he might change when he does return to normal.

“I hope nothing happens that would cause worry. Thank you for the coffee.”

Director Shin Ms., who gave a slight smile toward Kang Juha, vanished after leaving only a goodbye greeting.

I spent a long time thinking about what exactly Director Shin Ms. might be worried about, but I couldn’t reach an answer even by the time I left work.