PARADOX 52

Seong Semin did not head straight for the living quarters. The distance between Miudong and the Center was too great; if he used teleportation to go there directly, he would surely end up exhausted.

Instead, he moved to a residential area about 3km away from Miudong. Both Gu Jeyi and Seong Semin were celebrities whose faces frequently appeared in advertisements, so taking a taxi while trying to avoid public attention was out of the question. For that reason, he contacted the Center to request a vehicle to pick them up. Fortunately, there happened to be a support team waiting near Miudong, so they didn’t have to wait long.

“Whew!”

Once in the car, Seong Semin let out a sigh of relief. It was a bit embarrassing that they had struggled in a C-class gate, but anyway, they had ultimately cleared the gate safely without anyone getting hurt. Aside from his low mood due to being tormented by a nightmare that was unpleasant to the extreme, his physical condition was also fine.

No, it wasn’t just fine…

‘Do I actually feel a little better than usual?’

It was puzzling, but since Seong Semin wasn’t the type to brood deeply over thoughts, he simply nodded, thinking that a person really needs good sleep. Hadn’t he learned well through “someone” just how bad a person’s condition could get when they can’t sleep?

Seong Semin checked the condition of that “someone” reflected in the rearview mirror.

“Team Leader, you can sleep now. It’s all over.”

Since the monster was dead and the gate was cleared, his life wouldn’t be in danger even if he slept.

However, Gu Jeyi shook his head with a fatigued face.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Why? Can’t you sleep? No way, you look completely sleepy. I’m telling you, it’s okay to just sleep. Is someone going to eat you?”

“…”

Instead of answering Seong Semin, Gu Jeyi looked at the man sitting next to him.

Only then did Seong Semin recognize the presence of the man he had been intentionally ignoring.

‘What on earth did he do in the gate to end up looking like that?’

Regardless of what he was like on the inside, he was a man who at least looked decent on the outside. But whatever had happened in the gate, his appearance was as scruffy as a masterless doll. Even that look felt inexplicably displeasing. He had brought him to the gate just in case, but in the end, hadn’t it been an unnecessary worry?

‘This guy didn’t do anything special in the gate other than follow Gu Jeyi around. Is he just rolling around on the ground to look like he did something because he feels awkward?’

It was while Seong Semin was sending a cold gaze toward the man without hiding it. Gu Jeyi spoke to the man.

“If I look like I’m about to fall asleep, can you wake me up?”

‘Huh?’

It was absurd. Well, staying awake was his own choice, so that was that. But…

‘Gu Jeyi is asking a favor of a guy he hasn’t even known for long?’

Gu Jeyi was a person who gave orders to others; he wasn’t one to ask for favors. Even if it was a trivial matter like asking to be woken up if he seemed to be falling asleep, he was the type who would sooner stab his own thigh than ask someone else. It was even more so if the person he asked was a man he had only recently met.

He wondered if Gu Jeyi had been hit by something strange in that bizarre gate, but he had to swallow his thoughts for fear they might reach the ears of the support team sitting in the driver’s seat.

“You don’t have to do it like you did in the gate. Just call my name to wake me up.”

“Yes, I will.”

The man answered compliantly. Seong Semin’s insides felt stifled.

‘What, how did he wake him up in the gate? What the hell happened?’

In the meantime, the car drove at high speed and arrived at the Center.

‘Eh?’

The incomprehensible events continued. This was because Gu Jeyi, who he assumed would naturally go to the living quarters, headed in the opposite direction.

His gait was oddly slow; as expected, he didn’t seem to have fully woken up yet. He could just go to sleep, but he was being so stubborn. Seong Semin clicked his tongue and called out to his stubborn Team Leader.

“Team Leader, are you still half-asleep? The living quarters are that way.”

Only then did Gu Jeyi stop walking. He turned around briefly to check on Yeo Hanseo, who was following him. Then, he gave an answer different from what Seong Semin expected.

“Seong Semin, take Yeo Hanseo-ssi to the living quarters, let him rest a bit, and then take him home.”

“Huuuh? Me?”

Seong Semin openly showed his distaste.

“He’s not a child or anything. Can your guide not even go home by himself, on top of not being able to shoot a gun?”

Even though the person was right there next to him, Seong Semin spoke only to Gu Jeyi as if the other were invisible. At that, the man, who had been watching the situation, answered.

“Esper Seong Semin is right. I can go by myself.”

“See. He says he can go alone.”

“I saw him staggering when he got out of the car. If it’s uncomfortable for Seong Semin, at least ask the support team.”

“No, what did this person do in the gate to be staggering? If he did, he probably just lost his footing.”

As he added a provocative tone to every word he spoke, Gu Jeyi finally turned his head to look at Seong Semin.

Perhaps because he was sleepy, he didn’t have his usual overbearing aura, but Seong Semin said in an instinctively defensive tone.

“No, I mean, why do I have to clean up after this person? He’s your guide, Team Leader, so shouldn’t you do this kind of thing yourself?”

“I can’t. I’m going to the isolation room.”

“Ah, I see… Yes? What?”

Seong Semin, who had been responding just as nonchalantly as if hearing a choice for a breakfast menu, jumped in surprise belatedly.

“Why the isolation room? Don’t tell me—is that why you’ve been saying you won’t sleep since earlier? What exactly is wrong?”

“That is…”

While answering, Gu Jeyi furrowed his brow.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know. Seong Semin, you almost went into a rampage.”

“What?”

“It seems the monster’s sap had that kind of ability. You and everyone else were in a bad state.”

“Crazy, what? What kind of ability is that?”

Seong Semin was so horrified by the fact that he almost went into a rampage that he momentarily forgot the reason Gu Jeyi said he was going to the isolation room. He hurriedly checked his watch, but his waves were stable, and his physical condition was actually better than before he entered the gate. If it hadn’t been Gu Jeyi saying it, he wouldn’t have believed it.

“Wow, I literally almost died. You must have had a hard time, Team Leader.”

“No, I only pinpointed the location after your waves became abnormal.”

“Huh? Then…”

“Yeo Hanseo-ssi found you first and saved you. If not for that, you wouldn’t be standing here so perfectly fine.”

“…What?”

Seong Semin, who had been standing blankly, suddenly felt his face grow hot.

Only then did the man’s appearance properly enter his sight. Including his ruined palms.

For an Esper with as much combat experience as Seong Semin, it wasn’t difficult to recognize that those wounds were the kind one gets from climbing something like a rope. Going further, with just that one clue, he could practically imagine the sight of the man climbing the monster’s stalks.

In fact, he could have known much sooner if he had only looked a little carefully. He just hadn’t perceived it because he thought: what could an incompetent guide who doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun do?

“I, I…”

Seong Semin basically viewed the existence of guides negatively, and he loathed male guides even more. But whether he liked it or not, he knew that a guide was someone an Esper was supposed to protect.

But when he himself had been pathetically retired in the gate, this man, who was a full head shorter than him, had worked until the skin on his palms peeled off to save him. It was beyond embarrassing. Not just the verbal abuse he had spat at the man without knowing anything, but even the thoughts he had used to ignore him combined to make him feel like he wanted to find a hole and hide in it immediately.

“A-ah, well, then you should have said so… Why didn’t you say anything sooner?!”

With a face so red it looked like it might explode, Seong Semin shouted fiercely toward Yeo Hanseo.

‘There’s no way he saved me for no reason.’

His eyes shone with suspicion. If he saved him in that situation, there must be something he wanted. Otherwise, there was no way he would have risked his life to save him.

Yeo Hanseo, who had been silent as if lost in thought until then, raised his head. He had a face that seemed to have no idea why Seong Semin was angry at him, but anyway, since Seong Semin was asking, he spoke as if to answer.

“Ah, because that isn’t particularly important.”

It was absurd.

Not important?

You save someone’s life and it’s not important?!

Then just what is important to this man?

And Yeo Hanseo showed the answer with his next action. As if that was the end of the attention he would give to Seong Semin, he immediately approached Gu Jeyi, checking him over here and there as he asked.

“Did you perhaps drink the sap?”

“Yes, only a little bit.”

“This still has an effect even after the monster is gone, right?”

“Gate byproducts can’t be overlooked as they remain effective even after a gate is cleared.”

Only then did Seong Semin realize that Gu Jeyi was trying to go to the isolation room because of the possibility of a rampage, just in case. He had been so preoccupied with his own state that he had momentarily forgotten the situation. However, unlike Seong Semin, Yeo Hanseo didn’t seem to have missed a single word from Gu Jeyi.

“Then I’m going with you.”

At those words, Seong Semin couldn’t help but be surprised.

No, no matter how high the matching rate is, you’re saying you’ll follow an Esper who might rampage into an isolation room? Is he serious?

“No, Yeo Hanseo-ssi…”

“I am hyung’s guide. I won’t go home alone in this situation.”

Unlike his gentle-looking face, Yeo Hanseo spoke firmly. As if this was one thing he wouldn’t back down on.

Seong Semin looked at the two of them blankly.

The relationship between an Esper and a guide that Seong Semin knew was usually the opposite of that. The person who wants to be together is always the Esper. Because an Esper cannot live without a guide, but a guide is not like that. Of course, in cases where an Esper possessed a lot, there were guides who treated them well aiming for those things, and Seong Semin had thought Yeo Hanseo would be that kind of guide as well.

…But was that really it?

If he was acting like that because he wanted something, just how incredible must the thing Yeo Hanseo desired be?