Chapter 6: Memories Of Past

Bodam, who had thrown up and crawled on the floor after being soaked to the bone in the rain, ultimately couldn’t escape the cold.

His body, which reacted to even the slightest overexertion, suffered greatly as if protesting for him to quit his job immediately.

He left the instant porridge he bought from a convenience store at his bedside and stayed in bed for two days.

Despite just eating and sleeping, his weight, which had nothing left to lose, dropped by another kilogram.

Judging by his belly fat, which went in softly when poked, it was clear that only his muscle mass had been reduced again.

His swollen face, perhaps from shedding tears alone in sorrow, looked plump.

“Kimchi dumplings.”

When Bodam, whose fever hadn’t even subsided, returned after a two-day sick leave, Tae Hwan, whom he first encountered in the Attack Team 3 waiting room, abruptly said the name of a food.

Bodam pretended not to hear, thinking that crazy bastard was surely asking him to go out and buy them.

“Kimchi dumplings with a whole lot of filling.”

‘Has that bastard finally lost it due to his personality problems?’

Tae Hwan, who was sitting alone at the table waiting for his team members, was saying incomprehensible things while glaring at Bodam.

Bodam, who had become tired of everything, silently took off the eco-bag slung over his shoulder and sat across from Tae Hwan.

If he had his way, he wanted to leave forever to a place without them, but he had to come to the waiting room for the team’s regular meeting.

Attack Team 3’s regular meeting started sharply at 9 a.m. every Friday.

He resented his own diligence for coming out 30 minutes early to not be late for the meeting.

As if he had been a s*ave severely beaten by his master in his past life, he was uselessly diligent and timid.

“I’m talking to you, but you’re not answering. Got candy in your mouth?”

Tae Hwan picked a fight again today with Bodam, who was sitting quietly with his mouth shut.

The bastard, who had not a single speck of will to work, was always the first to show up for team meetings or gatherings.

He was always there, keeping his seat even before Bodam, who always arrived 15 minutes early.

Every time Bodam saw Tae Hwan, who was uncharacteristically punctual, he thought that he must have a lot of free time.

All he did when he came early was pick a fight with Bodam.

“Oh ho. Ignoring me again?”

“Cough.”

Bodam deliberately coughed at Tae Hwan, who was leaning his upper body over the table and thrusting his mean-looking face at him.

He avoided his eyes, fearing the aftermath, but he felt a little relieved inside.

“……”

Tae Hwan, who had been coughed on directly in the face, froze for 3 seconds.

Bodam, who moved his dry lips, fiddled with the scarf around his neck, pretending not to notice him.

It was a scarf that Jo Yeon, the only one who had worried about him while he was suffering from a cold and body aches, had gifted him.

He had repeatedly told Bodam, who had a weak respiratory system, to be sure to keep his neck warm.

‘By the way, why is it so hot.’ He had thought it was just his imagination that the air had gotten stuffy since he had entered the waiting room, but it wasn’t.

The temperature of the floor under his slippers was almost hot.

“Did you turn on the boiler?”

Bodam, who had not wanted to talk to Tae Hwan, finally opened his mouth.

Tae Hwan’s eyebrows twitched at the voice that came out of his damaged vocal cords.

Bodam’s voice, which was cracked as if something terrible had happened to his throat, was serious.

“Why?”

Bodam asked.

Tae Hwan, with a bead of sweat dripping from the back of his neck, asked back, frowning irritably.

“…What.”

“I asked why you turned it on. Aren’t you hot?”

It was a spring day, good for opening the windows wide and airing out the room.

Bodam, who had slightly loosened his scarf, looked up at Tae Hwan with a puzzled expression.

Now that he looked, he seemed quite hot.

He had rolled up his long sleeves and was maintaining the stuffy indoor air.

“Mind your own business.”

‘Right. My business was too much. Okay.’

Bodam, who wore an enlightened expression in front of a wall that didn’t communicate, closed his mouth.

He decided to just think he had entered a sauna and sweat it all out.

Lee Tae Hwan, whose personality had followed his fierce face, was the type to turn up the temperature even more the hotter he got.

“Ah, don’t.”

Bodam, who had been rummaging through his eco-bag to ignore Tae Hwan who was sitting across from him, let out a raspy voice.

Tae Hwan was using his psychokinesis to pull out a tissue from a box and cover Bodam’s face, obstructing his vision.

“I said don’t.”

“Don’t open your mouth. Your voice is shitty.”

‘The crazy bastard is saying what he should be hearing.’

Bodam, who had lost his reaction at the absurd scolding, removed the tissue covering his face.

He wanted to throw the tissue back at the Esper bastard who was tormenting him when he was already feeling unwell.

But that punk was a being with psychokinesis.

If he got serious, got angry, and threw the tissue, he would be the one to look ridiculous.

It wasn’t just once or twice that he had secretly thrown something at him when his eyes had gone crazy, and it had hit his forehead.

He had to be satisfied with just glaring at Lee Tae Hwan, who knew how to beat a person without even using his hands.

“You must be crazy…”

Bodam, who had gritted his teeth, muttered with a slurred pronunciation.

Perhaps because he had said it as if to himself while looking at the distant window, Tae Hwan did not get curious.

Bodam just wiped the sweat on his forehead with the tissue he couldn’t throw at Tae Hwan.

‘Why on earth is Lee Tae Hwan getting angry and picking a fight with me, who is living a virtuous life, without any reason?’ ‘Was he my master in a past life?’

Bodam, who couldn’t escape the lower class even in his imagination, opened his bag again to soothe his gloomy heart.

“What is that.”

Tae Hwan gestured with his chin towards the thermos Bodam had taken out of his eco-bag.

Bodam, who knew well that his interest always led to fault-finding and ridicule, just answered shortly.

He didn’t even give Tae Hwan a glance.

“Tea.”

After answering with a phlegmy voice, he bent his upper body to open the lid.

It seemed his anger only grew at the thermos lid that wouldn’t open even when he used enough strength to make his fists turn white.

“Heup.”

Bodam’s cheeks trembled as he did his best, even letting out a grunt with his non-existent strength.

The more it didn’t open, the more he wanted to open it.

Bodam’s trembling upper body bent until it was about to touch the table.

“Give it here.”

The thermos in Bodam’s hand flew through the air and landed in Tae Hwan’s.

Without even using all his fingers, he grabbed the lid with just his thumb and index finger, and when he gave it a twist, it opened with a pop.

Bodam, who had watched this in vain, tried to think that it was because he had already loosened it almost all the way.

“You really closed it tight.”

When Tae Hwan opened the lid, the sweet scent of yuzu tea wafted out.

Bodam, whose nose was stuffy, couldn’t smell it, but it was felt even more strongly by the Esper, Tae Hwan.

Tae Hwan, who had looked down at the steaming hot tea, took a mug from the kitchen shelf and placed it in front of Bodam instead of handing it over immediately.

With his psychokinesis, of course.

At Tae Hwan’s erratic kindness of even pouring the tea into the mug, Bodam pouted his lips slightly and pulled his chair closer.

In fact, it was yuzu tea that Jo Yeon, who had come to check on Bodam after finishing his work early in the morning, had packed for him along with his breakfast.

He had closed it gently in his own way, but since Jo Yeon was also an Esper, it had been hard for the sick Bodam to open.

“Thanks.”

At Bodam’s voice, which was like scraping metal on the floor, Tae Hwan, who had already been wearing a fierce expression, furrowed his brow even more and didn’t even pretend to listen.

He just turned his head to the side and grumbled to himself.

He was a difficult person to show even basic courtesy to.

Bodam drank the delicious tea, blowing on it, without any interest in Tae Hwan’s mutterings.

Tae Hwan, who had been watching this silently, was about to close the thermos lid, so he said in a dying voice to close it gently.

“You do it.”

Tae Hwan, who had a habit of mixing annoyance even in his everyday words, just placed the lid on the opening.

Bodam, who had nodded his head, thought it was better this way.

There were still 10 minutes until 9 o’clock sharp.

There were still only Bodam and Tae Hwan at the table.

Because Tae Hwan, who usually asked about this and that, had his mouth shut for once, only the sound of Bodam sipping his tea was heard from time to time.

Bodam, who was blankly blowing on and drinking the lukewarm tea, leaned his limp body against the chair.

He had wanted to rest one more day, but for a guide in charge of a team to be absent for three consecutive days was an act equivalent to ‘I don’t need my salary anymore’.

“Why are you breathing like that.”

Bodam, who had been looking at the mug in his hand, lifted his head and looked up at Tae Hwan.

“Huh?”

“I asked why you’re not breathing properly.”

Bodam, in order not to use his throat, which had been soothed by the warm tea, unnecessarily, just pointed to his nose with his hand.

It was a mime that meant, ‘Have you never seen a person breathing through their mouth because their nose is stuffy, you bastard.’

Tae Hwan, who tilted his head and furrowed his brow, seemed not to understand.

“Yoon Bodam, you-.”

Tae Hwan’s words were cut off by Ji Oh, who had suddenly appeared in the living room via teleportation.

“Ah, what the hell.”

Min Ji Oh, who must have been born crying out of annoyance instead of a first cry, made a harsh sound as soon as he appeared.

“What idiot turned on the boiler in this weather.”

He, who had taken off his sunglasses, lost his temper, his makeup-free face, which was not swollen at all in the morning, shining.

He walked to the boiler controller, stomping his feet sharply without even taking off his shoes, and shouted.

“Shit, 38 degrees?! Who was it, this!”

“It was me. I set it wrong.”

“Are your eyes decorations, Lee Tae Hwan?! If so, live with them closed, you bastard!”

Tae Hwan, who had roughly waved his hand, saying sorry, pulled out the chair next to him and calmed Ji Oh down.

He knew well Ji Oh’s temper of going on a rampage without end once he started.

The Espers of Attack Team 3, who all had their own uniquely crazy elements, showed a certain consideration for each other not to provoke one another.

It also meant they were that close.

They never included the guide, Bodam, in the category of that closeness.

Bodam, who couldn’t stand to listen to Ji Oh’s annoyance, which didn’t stop even when Tae Hwan admitted his fault, stood up from his seat.

Ji Oh, who was unbuttoning his casual shirt, glared at Bodam’s back with a sensitive gaze.

Tae Hwan, who was next to him, also stopped picking his ear and watched Bodam.

Then,

“Hey!”

“Sit down!”

Tae Hwan and Ji Oh shouted at the same time.

Bodam, who had been trying to open the kitchen window with his sick body, was startled by the shout and stuck to the wall.

He had been trying to open the window to let in the outside air because they were making such a fuss about it being hot.

“Cough.”

Bodam, stuck to the wall, took a breath in surprise and coughed.

Tae Hwan and Ji Oh, who had been watching Bodam, who was frozen like a mouse that had lost its hole, let out a sigh full of curses and temper.

“Just do what you’re told.”

Ji Oh growled lowly at Bodam, who had been put back in his chair by Tae Hwan’s psychokinesis.

Bodam, who had lowered his eyes to hide his surprised heart, just moved his head slightly.

‘How should I deal with these two-legged beasts.’ Bodam, who had been on the team for half a year, felt his adaptability decreasing as time went on.

They were newly crazy every day.

Clank.

The sound of the front doorknob turning echoed.

The second hand of the clock, which was pointing to 8:56, was passing exactly 12.

The door opened with the sound of dress shoes, and a person who would lower the temperature of the already chilly atmosphere even more entered.

It was the team leader of Attack Team 3, Han Seung Ho.