Chapter 13

A deserted city where everyone has been evacuated. Only the pale moonlight that floated across the dark gray street stood out. Jae-chan walked through the desolate ruins, unsure when the killer would appear. He followed the grumbling Kim Geun-won and silenced his footsteps.

*

Back in the empty lot, Go Woo-jin and the youngest member of team 5 still sat side by side. The youngest member’s cheeks were unusually red as she held the Handycam.

Kim Geun-won laughed heartily and took the tablet PC from the cross bag on the pile of bricks. He connected it to the Handycam he was carrying and began editing the video using the waiting time for guiding.

Jae-chan had considered it before, but it couldn’t be anything other than a really low monthly salary environment. Jae-chan looked at Kim Geun-won, puzzled, and then sat down, leaning against a wall unaffected by a typhoon. It wasn’t Kim Geun-won’s side, nor Go Woo-jin and the youngest team 5’s side, so it looks like a small triangle was formed when viewed from above.

He pulled out his phone. He received three missed calls and five text messages from Lim Jeong-wook. He put it back in his pocket because there was no guide call. It was when his ears were filled with nothing but grass bugs.

“Ugh, I don’t know… What’s wrong with this…”

The team’s youngest member, whose face had turned red earlier, grunted while clutching the Handycam. He glanced over it. He saw Go Woo-jin, and the stumped youngest, wrinkling her forehead while touching the Handycam.

Jae-chan, who was looking more closely for something, raised his eyebrows. What’s wrong with them?

“…”

Just in case, he turned to Kim Geun-won. Now, he has taken out his headset and is fully immersed in the editing work with his mouth open. The worry was short-lived. Jae-chan stood up from his seat.

“Is the camera not turning on?”

“Yes…! Yes, that’s right!”

The youngest exclaimed furiously. Her eyes flashed as if she had seen a savior, and she abruptly displayed the cell phone she was clutching. It was a Viewtube app.

“I looked everywhere for instructions on how to turn on the Handycam! When you open the wings in the video, it turns on by itself, but this… I think it’s broken. However, Esper Go stated that it is not the case. It was fine until about an hour ago…”

Ah. Jae-chan only realized her red cheeks were caused by her irritation at the camera not turning on.

Go Woo-jin held on to the belief that there was no malfunction and pressed the small silver button with ‘power’ written on it once every 10 seconds. Press once and wait, press again and wait.

The youngest member of Team 5 next to him seemed to have itchy hands, wanting to press buttons or hit (?) a few Handycams right away. Jae-chan, who held back a laugh, offered advice because the two appeared to be completely contradictory.

“It doesn’t have batteries.”

“…What?”

“…What?”

Go Woo-jin, who had been pretending not to notice him, raised his head as well. Seeing the embarrassment in his indifferently shaded eyes, Jae-chan withdrew his smile once more and explained.

“The battery is out of the back.”

He returned the scattered cross bag. Indeed, there’s a large battery lying on the bottom. He took the cam and placed it in the empty back. The switch sound is a little dull.

“Here you go. I see now that the fasteners are loose. It can fall off again, so use it carefully.”

“…It works! Wow, thank you!”

When the youngest opened the touchscreen, which she called ‘wings’, the screen lit up. She cheered as she panned the dim surroundings with her Handycam.

Meanwhile, Go Woo-jin was staring at Seon Jae-chan. He turned his head as if he sensed the gaze. Their eyes met. The round eyes widened slightly, blinked quickly a few times, and then turned to the side once more. Could it be because of the late-night darkness? Woo-jin thought that the long eyelashes blinked as if they would make a rustling sound.

That’s right. Seriously, such behavior is strange.

‘If it was like before, I would have rushed right in.’

If it had been like before, Jae-chan would have rushed up to him and tried to hug him instead of avoiding his gaze. Why was he looking at him like that? Does he need a guiding? After he panicked, he would have made an absurd excuse that the wavelength appeared unstable with a sly smile. It’s been a pattern that he’s been fed up with for the past few years.

However, the last few days have not been like the Seon Jae-chan he remembered. Even now, he avoided his gaze and knew about the Handycam, which he had no interest in.

Seon Jae-chan possessed an acquired mechanical skill. He never touched anything he wasn’t interested in or had nothing to do with his interests in the least. Electronic devices were also like that for Seon Jae-chan. He didn’t even know how to use his phone’s basic functions, which Go Woo-jin, who had become frustrated as a pair Esper, frequently reminded him of.

‘Something is strange.’

While Go Woo-jin was lost in his troubled thought, Seon Jae-chan, who was befuddled by his persistent gaze, was considering a similar thought.

‘It’s really strange.’

It was so strange.

…

Go Woo-jin looked cute.

He’d never thought of Go Woo-jin as cute. He either thought Go Woo-jin was cool or wanted to rely on him. He was the same age as him, but he was much more mature and had a lot to learn from, much like a ‘real ideal older brother’. He learned everything faster and became more proficient than him, so he was ecstatic whenever he received help from Go Woo-jin.

However, he seemed to know more than Go Woo-jin now, whether he had spent six years in vain. Even though 27-year-old Go Woo-jin is clear in his mind, 21-year-old Go Woo-jin keeps looking cute.

‘It’s hard to give up if you keep looking at me like that, Woo-jin-ah.’

Go Woo-jin couldn’t take his suspicious gaze off him. He thought he was searching ferociously, but it was when Jae-chan was barely calming his heartbeat at the smooth gaze that looked like a baby hawk.

“Woo-jin. Please look at this for a second.”

It was Kim Geun-won without the headset. He didn’t even look at the youngest and Woo-jin when they were struggling, but when Go Woo-jin expressed interest in Seon Jae-chan, he called out to him.

Woo-jin went there obediently. Jae-chan sat next to Team 5’s youngest member while watching Woo-jin put on the headset from Kim Geun-won.

“Do you know how to film?”

The youngest member of team 5, who had been tinkering around with the Handycam by herself, smiled brightly in the subtle atmosphere of Jae-chan and Go Woo-jin.

“Yes! Now it’s super easy!”

The youngest waved her hand, saying that all that remained was to turn it on. She abruptly paused after expressing her gratitude one more time. He placed her hands on her lap and covered the Handycam.

“I… Guide Seon Jae-chan. I have a question.”

Jae-chan, who was staring at Kim Geun-won, regarded him with suspicion.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“Nothing else, um, that you… um, that… I hear you are close with the team leader.”

When Seon Jae-chan heard that, he wondered if she was referring to Lim Jung-wook, Team 5’s team leader, who would now reach out to women.

Jae-chan thought he was gay, but he was just a perverted bastard. Jae-chan, who was about to report him to the sexual harassment counseling center, still searching for confirmation.

“Are you talking about team leader Lim Jung-wook?”

The youngest showed signs of a mistake.

“No, no! Another team leader!”

“…Team leader Hong Ye-deok?”

Jae-chan mentioned the team leader of Team 2. She was the team leader of the team he was on, and she was a middle-aged woman with a laid-back demeanor, who always smiled blankly.

“No! I’m sorry… that, that… In fact, the team leader of Team 1! Multi-Guide Han Tae-Hoon Team Leader! I heard that you and he have a close…. friendship.”

It was an unexpected name.

Jae-chan was momentarily speechless and looked down at the youngest member of Team 5. She seemed to be embarrassed, but her spirits faded as she noticed. Jae-chan barely spoke again.

“Yes. That’s true.”

He was a little confused while answering. He clenched and opened his fists, but for now, he stayed by the youngest member of Team 5. It seemed like an expression that he was willing to have a conversation, so the youngest sighed and sat a little closer.

“Team leader Han Tae-hoon is a Multi-Guide… So, I heard that he awakened his abilities as an Esper in his mid-twenties. Me too… I’m the same age now, so I’m curious.”

Multi-Guide.

A rare Guide who had Esper abilities. ‘Multi-Esper’ is a similar concept. Multi-Guide and Multi-Esper were determined by which energy level they had was higher, the Guide or the Esper. In Han Tae-hoon, Team 1’s team leader case, he had an S-class Guide and an A-class Esper, an unprecedented Multi-Guide.

And Han Tae-hoon, who was appointed as the leader of Guide team 1 in his early 30s, was expected to become even more famous in the future.

Sooner or later, he will rise to the position of the youngest Guide Director.

For a brief moment, Jae-chan recalled his former direct supervisor and role model he once devotedly served. Just by imagining it, it appears that the metallic smell that has always emanated from the director strongly permeates his lungs.

“How old are you?”

He brushed his hair trying to clear his thoughts. He asked the youngest member of Team 5.

“Twenty-three.”

Ah. He looked at her again, remembering how often he saw people whose ages and faces did not match today. He couldn’t believe she was an older sister. Turned out the youngest member of Team 5 was him.

“You’re about the same age. The team leader of Team 1 also awakened at 25.”

Jae-chan nodded and explained.