PARADOX 42

Baekgu felt wronged. However, he suspected that even if he had known, he probably wouldn’t have reported it. Doing so might have revealed that he was from the research center.

While he didn’t know exactly what the Center did, he instinctively felt that it would be dangerous if the fact that he could guide any Esper was revealed. He didn’t want to be dragged back to the research center to live as a test subject again.

Baekgu bit his lip and spat out in a mutter.

“Think whatever you want. Anyway, I’ll do as you say, so I can go now, right?”

As he tried to sneak toward the door, the man immediately blocked his path.

“I can’t let you wander around alone when I don’t know what else you might pull. You might change your mind and try to take that woman hostage.”

“I won’t!”

“I can’t trust your word.”

“…Fine. Since Mom—that woman—is probably sleeping right now, we can just go together tomorrow morning.”

“Go now.”

“Now? There’s no need to wake someone who’s sleeping. Instead of that…”

“Now.”

The man was relentless. In the end, Baekgu had no choice but to head home with the man trailing him. He muttered to himself as they walked. I’ll just wake her up briefly while she’s sleeping and end it right away. Then she might just think it was a dream.

However, the world never went quite the way Baekgu wanted.

“My goodness, Jinyoung! Where have you been at this hour! Do you know how much I looked for you?”

As soon as Baekgu entered the house, the woman came running in a flurry. It seemed she had realized Baekgu was gone and had been out searching for him. The moment her worried gaze landed on him, Baekgu froze. He wanted to vanish from that spot.

“Do it.”

Then, he heard the cool voice of the man standing behind his back. Only then did the woman notice the man, and her eyes grew sharp.

“Why are you…!”

“Mom.”

“Huh?”

Baekgu opened his mouth. For some reason, his voice trembled.

“Listen carefully to what I say.”

Baekgu meeting the woman had been pure coincidence.

Having escaped from the Cult Leader, Baekgu was so hot, hungry, and exhausted that he couldn’t move a single step further when he arrived in this village. Perhaps because he looked strange sitting blankly at the entrance of a path, the middle-aged woman had approached him and asked if he was alright. Thinking it was a good opportunity, he used his ability on the woman to make her take him to her home.

The woman lived alone. From what he heard, she had divorced her husband long ago, and her only son had died in an accident while out on a boat. When Baekgu looked around, the house was filled with photos taken with her son.

Her son was a man who looked nothing like Baekgu. He was tall and sturdy, and he was smiling very brightly while hugging the woman. Looking at that face, one could tell that this man had lived a life entirely different from his own.

At that moment, an impulsive feeling took hold of him.

After awakening as an Esper, he used his ability whenever he wanted something. Because he wanted to be free, because he wanted revenge on the research center, because he needed food, a place to sleep, and clothes to wear.

So Baekgu used his ability as he always did. It wasn’t because he wanted to humiliate or torment the woman, as the man thought. He simply wanted something that he, who was born and raised in a research center, had never possessed.

But in truth, he knew. Unlike food or clothes, the thing he had come to desire this time could never truly be his.

“‘I am…'”

That it was a fake that would disappear once the ability vanished.

After coming to her senses, the woman stared at Baekgu in silence for a long time. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her expression was contorted in a way that made it impossible to tell if she was crying or laughing. After a long silence, she said:

‘Why did you do it?’

‘…’

‘…I won’t report you to the Center. But never, never show your face before me again.’

That was how it all ended.

Baekgu submissively followed the man back to the dingy motel room. Originally, he had planned to look for an opportunity to escape, but for some reason, he didn’t feel like it. His stomach felt nauseous and he felt listless, as if he had taken medicine that didn’t agree with his body.

Baekgu crouched down in the spot where he had sat yesterday. Then, after a long while, he asked the man.

“What are you going to do with me now?”

“I should report you to the Center.”

“What? You said you wouldn’t!”

“I said I wouldn’t kill you; I never said I wouldn’t report you.”

Since it wasn’t a lie, Baekgu had nothing to say.

“What happens to me if you report me to the Center? Do I go to prison?”

“As an unregistered person who used their ability on a civilian, I suppose so.”

“Then what about you? You used your ability on me, too. If I report you, won’t you go to prison as well?”

“First of all, you are not a civilian, and since I used it to subdue an unregistered Esper, there is no problem.”

However, despite saying that, the man didn’t report him immediately. It seemed like something from the previous conversation was weighing on his mind, as he remained silent and didn’t respond no matter what Baekgu asked. After throwing out a few more questions and getting no answer, Baekgu also shut his mouth.

After a long time, the man asked.

“Do you have any intention of turning yourself in?”

“Are you crazy?”

“If you turn yourself in, you might get a reduced sentence. That would be more advantageous for you.”

“Sentence? Reduced? What does that even mean?”

“…How old are you?”

“25!”

“…”

“And how old are you, then?”

Instead of answering, the man looked away. For some reason, he seemed troubled. Was it because he was asked his age? No, that wasn’t it. Baekgu’s eyes narrowed.

“You can’t report me, can you?”

“…”

“Right? That’s why you’re telling me to turn myself in. Because you can’t do it.”

The more he spoke, the more certain he became. Baekgu had also worried that if he reported this man to the police, he himself might get caught instead. This man was clearly in the same situation as him. It was obvious seeing as he was doing nothing while talking about reporting him to the Center or whatever.

I knew his personality was rotten for a reason. It was just as Mom… no, the woman said. Maybe this man had also committed a crime somewhere else and fled here.

“There was a reason you crawled all the way to this countryside where there’s nothing to see. You talked so much about me, but it turns out you’re a criminal too, aren’t you?”

“Absurd.”

“Otherwise, just report me. I’ll just talk about you after I’m caught. Then we might find out who you are and why you came here.”

“…”

The man looked at Baekgu as if he were a bothersome piece of luggage that he could neither throw away nor ignore. The gaze behind the glasses was cold.

Baekgu shut his mouth. Come to think of it, that man didn’t necessarily have to report him. Killing him and burying him in the ground would be the easiest way to get rid of a nuisance.

Fortunately, it seemed the man didn’t intend to go that far just yet, as he did nothing. He merely replied coldly.

“Don’t treat me the same as someone like you.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

The man murmured in a tone as icy as his gaze.

“I loathe people like you. Wielding your abilities as you please while ignoring the responsibilities that come with them. That kind of thing…”

Suddenly, the man faltered, covered the lower half of his face with his hand, and went into the bathroom. Baekgu watched this in bewilderment before snapping to his senses and quickly running toward the door.

However, before he could take three steps, his body lurched to a halt.

It’s this ability again. How annoying!

Baekgu, who had been dragged back in, was hung upside down in mid-air. Feeling like his eyeballs were going to pop out from the rush of blood, he hurriedly piled up excuses.

“No, I was just in a rush to find the bathroom! I couldn’t use it because you went in. You wouldn’t want to see someone else’s junk either, right?”

“Every time you open your mouth, it’s a lie.”

“No, I’m really gonna go! Uh-oh! I’m gonna pee! Hey!”

The man sat on the edge of the bed as if he couldn’t care less whether Baekgu actually peed or not. His pale face looked somehow more tired than just a moment ago. Baekgu also stopped acting at that point and made a request, half-resigned.

“I’m asking you, please just let me go. Then I’ll really live a good life. Okay?”

“Nonsense.”

The man rejected Baekgu’s request flatly. At the same time, with a thud, Baekgu fell to the floor. As Baekgu pretended to be dying with an “Ouch, ouch,” the man declared in a low voice.

“Stay here quietly for the time being. Until I decide your disposition.”

Neither the Baekgu of this time nor the man knew then. How long this “time being” would be, and yet, on the other hand, how short.

The dream continued. For several days, Baekgu tried to escape whenever he had the chance, and each time, he received the punishment of being hung upside down in the air.

“Do you have no capacity for learning?”

Around the time Baekgu’s face was turning dark purple, the man spoke as if he were pathetic and let him go.

“Ah.”

Something hard pressed against Baekgu’s buttocks as he fell from the air. Simultaneously, the TV screen turned on. Baekgu peeked at the man’s reaction. It was because over the past few days, he had realized that the man didn’t like the TV or loud noises.

However, contrary to expectations, the man didn’t turn off the TV immediately. His gaze was fixed on the screen where the news was playing.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Gasp.”

Hanseo snapped his eyes open. He had been wondering where he had seen it, and finally, he remembered.

The Miudong Gate.

Gu Jeyi must not go in there.