Ordinary Person A

#32

Maybe I drank a bit too much.

Even though it was night, a fairly warm and humid breeze was blowing. Feeling hot from the alcohol, Ho-woo loosely pulled down his tie to open up his collar and breathe easier.

It wasn’t a long drinking session, but it was one that made his head complicated. He had attended simply to clear his thoughts about Oh-yul, but instead his head ended up completely filled with him.

“Haah…”

Letting out what must have been his umpteenth sigh of the day, Ho-woo walked on weakly. He wanted to quickly wash up and fall asleep without thinking about anything. The familiar road he returned on after taking the last subway was dimly lit by a few streetlights.

As he trudged along that road alone, he suddenly stopped at the sight of a large figure standing at the entrance of the apartment complex.

The figure was leaning slightly against the wall, just outside the range of the dim orange streetlight. When their eyes met, the person slightly bowed his head in greeting, then turned without hesitation and entered the complex. It was as if he had just been waiting to confirm Ho-woo’s arrival.

“……”

Ho-woo’s heart fluttered. He tried not to discern whether this was due to the alcohol or some other reason.

***

‘Brother Yul.’

The still vivid, brightly smiling face was clearly drawn on his closed eyelids. Rosy chubby cheeks, round eyes, white skin, and light brown eyes directed only at him.

Comfort offered by an innocent child, pure goodwill, and therefore more precious affection.

The young Oh-yul of that time welcomed all of it gladly. For the first time since he had become like this, he enjoyed the pleasant attention shown to him without using his abilities.

He loved the time spent eating together, reading books, and briefly sunbathing in the yard so much that he looked forward to the days when the child would come.

The longer he spent writhing alone in pain, the more anxiety swept over him like a tidal wave, but he tried hard to suppress it.

Even though he knew he could no longer endure, that accumulated greed twisted everything and became the seed of a new goal.

He tried to improve his low mood by recalling the feeling of Ho-woo comfortably embracing him.

Oh-yul opened his eyes, which had been gently closed, and looked over Moon Jin-hyuk standing stiffly with his back straight.

He wanted to kill him immediately upon hearing the words he had poured out to Ho-woo, but he held back. He held back not for Moon Jin-hyuk’s sake, but for Ho-woo, who was anxiously watching the situation.

“Esper Moon Jin-hyuk. Have you completed the incident report as instructed?”

At the coldly delivered voice, Moon Jin-hyuk flinched and carefully placed a thick stack of papers on the desk. However, Oh-yul didn’t even look through it, instead drawing water to his fingertips and dropping it onto the papers.

As the black ink spread, the papers quickly became damp, beyond salvaging.

“Again.”

Despite the unreasonable order from his superior to rewrite it without even looking at it, Moon Jin-hyuk didn’t argue. He had learned from Woo Tae-sik, a fellow team member, while being treated, how miraculous it was that he still had his head attached to his shoulders.

Team 1, except for Moon Jin-hyuk and Guide Yu Hee-eun who were newly assigned this year, had worked with Oh-yul for quite a long time and knew well how vicious his temper could be.

Their superior was a quiet mad dog.

Unlike those who acted out without thinking, he knew how to subtly use his position to kill others. The number of Espers and Guides who had irritated him and then been processed as casualties during missions easily exceeded ten.

What are the chances of B-class or A-class Espers dying during a C-class monster subjugation mission when going out with an S-class Esper?

Everyone knew but kept quiet about it.

Moon Jin-hyuk, who had just graduated from the Management Complex’s Esper training facility and been assigned to Team 1 as he had hoped, realized that the person he had only found admirable wasn’t just shining and brilliant.

“Understood!”

Oh-yul glared intently at Moon Jin-hyuk’s back as he hurriedly left the office, almost fleeing with the wet papers. Then, feeling his body’s condition was quite stable, he slightly lifted the corner of his mouth.

Since manifesting as an Esper, he had never felt this light in body. It was amazing how even an incomplete pair could have such a big influence. Of course, this applied to the negative side as well.

Not long after meeting Ho-woo again, Oh-yul had suffered like a dog in heat. Thanks to that, he even experienced an uncharacteristic unauthorized absence.

Similar to when he had endured without Guiding as an ignorant child, he had to exercise extreme patience while enduring times of headaches and his whole body burning with fever.

He panted, suppressing the blazing desire and possessiveness towards his incomplete mate that he could sense through the wall that wasn’t even as thin as a piece of paper to him. When he had only watched from afar, knowing he couldn’t touch, even his body had been quiet.

But now, thinking he could hold hands and embrace him to feel his body heat just by reaching out, the Esper’s instinct wanted to solidify the incomplete imprint even more.

Oh-yul slowly traced the very faint connection. Even if incomplete, an imprint was an imprint, and Lee Ho-woo clearly existed at the end of that connection. Even if Ho-woo himself didn’t know due to it being a one-sided imprint.

Due to the imprint entangled with Ho-woo long ago, his matching rate with other Guides never exceeded 40%. Originally, an imprinted Esper couldn’t accept Guiding from other Guides, but perhaps due to its incompleteness, he was fortunate to be able to receive even inefficient Guiding.

Otherwise, he would have already gone berserk, swept away this entire city, and died.

“Captain, are you in?”

A familiar voice asking while lightly knocking on the door broke Oh-yul’s reverie. He told the person on the other side of the door to come in. As soon as he answered, Choi Seon-woo entered with his hands in his pockets, wearing a nonchalant smile all over his face.

“How’s your love life going these days?”

“If you’ve come to talk about useless things, I’ll give you work to do.”

“That Jin-hyuk kid was crying while writing his incident report. Go easy on him, will you? He’s still just a kid, right? He just got assigned here, he’s bound to make mistakes~”

“He is an adult fully capable of taking responsibility for his mistakes.”

Choi Seon-woo knew how much Oh-yul had already let slide, so he didn’t press further. Instead, he casually sat down on the sofa in front of the desk, stretching his legs out, and looked over Oh-yul with his cold face.

“I should have known when you were sneaky from the start. That’s when you met Lee Ho-woo, right?”

“……”

“You went out for the Guide selection test just once, 13 years ago.”

“Your memory is good.”

As if reflecting Oh-yul’s soured mood, the temperature in the office dropped noticeably. Choi Seon-woo, wearing a thick uniform in the already warm weather, laughed heartily at the cooled temperature as if an air conditioner had been turned on.

“When you were 17, I was 25, so of course I remember. 13 years ago isn’t that long ago.”

For mental Espers, memories were like photographs, making them one of the hardest things to forget.

That’s why Choi Seon-woo remembered Oh-yul from 13 years ago. The 17-year-old boy had a slightly flushed face that day, holding a faint expectation within his expressionless face.

“From then until now… Wow, stalker. That level of obsession is a disease.”

Choi Seon-woo made a disgusted expression. Targeting one person for 13 years. At these added words, Oh-yul corrected him without even looking at him.

“I’m sorry, but it’s not 13 years, it’s 21 years.”

“…?”

“21 years.”

“21 years?! You’re 30 years old, so 21 years means 9 years old?! You’re a thief!”

“…I was young too, so what do you mean by thief?”

“Knowing full well your intentions were dark from a young age, are you speaking with a clear conscience?”

Choi Seon-woo exclaimed in shock, springing up from his seat. He had thought they first met during the Guide selection test, but 9 years old? The change in the first digit was shocking. Since this meant he had targeted Lee Ho-woo from then, implying he had deliberately gone to the Guide selection test, Choi Seon-woo asked with a disbelieving face:

“Don’t tell me Lee Ho-woo is a Guide that you diverted midway? I did feel something was a bit off…”

Choi Seon-woo closed his mouth at Oh-yul’s gaze falling on him. His cool eyes were sending a sharp warning. Lee Ho-woo was Oh-yul’s sore spot.

Suddenly, it became more surprising that Moon Jin-hyuk’s head was still on his shoulders. He rubbed his nape with his hand. Goosebumps rose at the further lowered temperature.

“Esper Choi Seon-woo, I believe you understand without me having to explain in detail.”

“When have I ever disappointed you?”

Oh-yul twisted up one corner of his mouth at Choi Seon-woo’s words. He faithfully followed the orders of his superior who was younger than him. He kept his mouth shut and didn’t leak unnecessary information outside. This was the reason he could endure by Oh-yul’s side for a long time. Of course, Deputy Captain Han Seong-won and Woo Tae-sik worked with Oh-yul on the same team for a long time for the same reasons.

“So, is Lee Ho-woo a Guide? Diverting a Guide is a serious crime.”

“He was an ordinary person.”

“Was?”

Choi Seon-woo, picking up on Oh-yul’s characteristic ambiguous words, put on a seemingly serious expression. Oh-yul pushed aside the papers he had been looking through.