Chapter 3: The Broken Cup

Chul-soo Hyung and I started dating the year we first met and imprinted the year after.

Like the kind-hearted Esper he was, Hyung suggested we think it over more for my sake, but like the selfish person I am, I whined that I wanted to do it even a day sooner.

I was anxious.

I was afraid someone else would snatch Hyung away.

Unlike me, a fool who knew nothing but guiding, Chul-soo Hyung was perfect.

He handled everything flawlessly, as if he were born a team leader, and was always surrounded by people.

Laughter always bloomed wherever Hyung was, and everyone loved the bright Hyung.

I was a dark person who couldn’t even fit into that crowd.

Hyung and I were different in every way.

From one to ten, everything.

So, it was natural for me to love Hyung, but it made no sense for Hyung to love me.

And yet, Hyung told me he loved me.

Whenever I, who was full of doubt and anger, became anxious, he held onto me, vowing to only look at me for the rest of his life.

My peaceful daily life stemmed from the affection Hyung gave so generously.

Without Kim Chul-soo, my life could not continue.

To exaggerate a little, Hyung was my everything.

“Ah, sh*t.”

I cut my hand while cleaning up a broken cup late at night.

I had been waiting for Hyung’s call since lunchtime, and when it didn’t come even after evening passed, I started to worry.

It was something that happened from time to time, but it made me anxious every time.

Hoping for at least a text message by bedtime, I tossed and turned in bed for a long time, eventually staying up past two in the morning.

I hugged Shiru, who slept right next to me, and tried to fall asleep, but my eyes kept opening.

I figured I should warm up some milk, and that’s when this mess happened while getting a mug.

“Are you an idiot?”

I mindlessly tried to clean up the broken shards with my bare hands and ended up with a long cut on my middle finger.

My mind had been blank ever since I came out to the kitchen.

I should have worn rubber gloves to clean it up.

“Hyung is going to scold me.”

I muttered to myself with a sigh, wrapped my finger haphazardly with a tissue, and cleaned the floor first.

When the kids came out, drawn by the noise, I shooed them back to their room, waving my arms.

By the time I had swept up all the broken pieces and wiped the floor, it was three in the morning.

This won’t do.

Sitting at the dining table with a tense face, I hesitated before calling Hyung.

The ominous sign of the broken cup amplified my worries.

What if he got into an accident?

As the ringing tone dragged on, one of my legs began to tremble.

When the automated message saying the call could not be connected came on, I made a motion as if to throw my phone before setting it down.

“Calm down. Stay calm. Don’t overreact.”

There probably wasn’t a problem.

If there were, I, connected to Hyung by our imprint, would have been the first to notice.

Although Hyung’s wavelength reading was slightly rising, it was stable.

No matter how far apart we were, through the senses connected by our imprint, we were the first to detect each other’s emergencies.

An imprinted Esper and Guide share each other’s pain and emotions.

If an Esper’s wavelength spikes or they sustain a major injury, their Guide partner feels it too.

It wasn’t to the same degree, but I could grasp the general state of their mood and the magnitude of their pain.

Hyung’s wavelength was normal, and apart from chronic fatigue, he didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere.

So why wasn’t he contacting me?

“Don’t tell me he lost his phone.”

Hyung doesn’t lose things easily.

Alternating between muttering to myself and thinking, I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes.

After confirming Hyung’s stable wavelength, the sleep that hadn’t come before now washed over me.

I fell asleep within seconds of closing my eyes and waited for Hyung even in my dreams.

It was a dream no different from reality.

I was still slumped over the dining table, staring at the dark phone screen.

If it weren’t for Hyung’s voice coming from thin air, I wouldn’t have known it was a dream.

‘Yeong-u.’

Hyung, present only by his voice, told me he was fine and that I should hurry and go sleep in bed.

He soothed me, saying he’d be back soon, so not to worry.

‘No.’

Ignoring Hyung’s words, I irritably demanded that he show his face.

I pounded on the table, demanding he appear right now, and glared into the empty air.

‘…Hyung?’

Was it because I was acting too much like a child?

After that, Hyung didn’t even let me hear his voice.

‘Chul-soo Hyung!’

No matter how long I waited, Hyung’s reply never came, so I searched for him, tearing the whole house apart.

Of course, Hyung was nowhere to be found.

As I bowed my head in frustration, my heart nearly dropped.

At the black water pooling at my feet.

‘What is this….’

Looking closely, it was blood.

In an instant, the dark red blood rose to my ankles, sloshing around.

The metallic smell of iron made my stomach churn with nausea.

Even before I could wonder whose blood it was, an uneasy certainty washed over me.

I couldn’t bring myself to call Hyung’s name anymore and clamped a hand over my mouth.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Breathe! Guide Seo Yeong-u!”

Just then, someone shook me awake.

“Follow me! In, out! In, out!”

I recognized who it was just from the voice.

It was a voice I’d often heard when talking to Hyung on the phone.

Was it Esper Hwang Tae-gyu?

No, it was Gyu-tae. Hwang Gyu-tae.

“In, out! In, out!”

“Cut it out, you punk. Can’t you see his eyes are open?”

From behind Esper Hwang Gyu-tae, a more familiar face approached.

It was Tae Seung-jun, an Esper from Barrier Team 3, where I had been the dedicated Guide.

It had been so long, I almost didn’t recognize him.

“Can you get up?”

Tae Seung-jun pushed Esper Hwang Gyu-tae aside and came closer to ask.

As he helped me up from where I was slouched over the table, shaking my head, he said we had to move right now.

I continued to gasp for breath, pressing my palm against my pounding left chest.

Sensing Hyung’s soaring wavelength, I grabbed Tae Seung-jun’s arm and clenched my jaw.

If I opened my mouth now, I felt like the tears would burst out.

“Let’s go, for now.”

Instead of a long explanation, Tae Seung-jun lifted me up in his arms and left the house.

Esper Hwang Gyu-tae shouted his apologies and covered me with a coat he had brought from the room.

My body shivered uncontrollably.

A violent storm had begun to rage in Hyung’s wavelength, which had always been like a calm lake.

Hyung was calling for me.

Very desperately.

Tae Seung-jun didn’t take me to the Guiding Room in the Center’s main building, but to the Medical Center.

He carried me, though I wasn’t a patient, down a long corridor and headed for the exclusive treatment room for high-ranking teams.

“He’s only had first aid. You know that boosting his recovery is faster than surgery.”

“…Yes.”

“He’s unconscious, so his recovery is slow. You need to pull him up with guiding.”

Tae Seung-jun finally set me down in front of Hyung’s hospital room, grabbed my shoulders, and urged me on.

“Don’t you lose consciousness. Keep your wits about you.”

I staggered from a sensation like my head was splitting open, clenched my fists, and replied that I was fine.

Tae Seung-jun’s gaze lingered on my hand for a moment before he opened the door for me and left me with his final words.

“Don’t overdo it.”

He seemed to add something else, but I couldn’t hear it properly.

In fact, I hadn’t understood everything he’d said on the way here.

The sound of my own violently beating heart was so loud that all surrounding noises were drowned out.

There was only one thing I remembered clearly.

Tae Seung-jun had warned me beforehand not to be shocked when I saw Hyung.

“You’re Guide Seo Yeong-u, correct? You need to start guiding immediately.”

As soon as the door opened, one of the medical staff surrounding the wide bed in front of me approached with a chart.

He quickly explained Hyung’s injuries and the areas that needed special attention, then led everyone out.

I stared at the bed as if in a trance, then flinched at the sound of the door closing.

Get a grip. I clenched my trembling hands and moved my frozen feet.

I approached the spot vacated by the medical staff as if I were a substitute player and started with radial guiding.

I had been emitting my energy from the moment I entered the room.

A suffocating heat filled the hospital room, which was already saturated with Hyung’s wavelength.

I felt a heat so intense it made my skin tingle.

It was a sensation transmitted only to me, who was connected to Hyung.

“H-Hyung.”

The pain enveloping Chul-soo Hyung’s body was slowly transferring to me.

Compared to the pain Hyung was actually feeling, it wasn’t even a tenth of it, but even that felt so overwhelming that my body kept trying to slump to the floor.

What tormented me more than the deepening pain as I got closer to the bed was the smell.

I couldn’t bring myself to breathe the air mixed with the smell of Hyung’s burnt flesh.

“Chul-soo Hyung.”

I placed a hand on the blood-soaked bed and focused on guiding.

Forcing air into my constricted throat, I pushed my tilting body upright.

I barely managed to find my balance and reached out to touch Hyung, but my trembling hand only hovered in the air.

Is this really my Hyung?

No matter how hard I tried to look at him properly, he didn’t look like a person, but a large lump.

A dark red lump, torn in places with white rods sticking out.

Moreover, his face was covered in bandages and couldn’t be seen.

Smack!

I slapped my own cheek several times as if to tell myself to snap out of it.

I slapped my cheek until my nose bled and stared straight at Hyung with wide eyes.

I beat myself up internally for trying to deny the reality of Hyung, who was pushed to the brink of death, and reached out my hand again.

This was no time for crying.

“Hyung, it’s okay.”

I placed my hand on his broken arm and poured my guiding energy with all my might to let him know I was here.

The wavelength that had been expanding inside his tattered body reacted to the guiding, flinching, then swelled up again.

As if simple contact was nowhere near enough.

“I’m here now, so it’s okay.”

Catching my breath, which grew ragged every time his most severely injured leg came into view, I started to take off my clothes.

There wasn’t much I could do bare-bodied right now, but I undressed anyway.

“Don’t worry.”

Climbing onto the red bed, I tried my best to maximize the contact area with Hyung, who was more familiar with my naked body than I was.

Afraid of hurting him, I gave up on a full embrace and pushed my lips forward first.

Hyung’s wavelength reading had soared to a staggering 86%.

If it surpassed 90%, the pre-rampage symptoms would begin, so I had to lower the number immediately.

I grabbed his torn chin and forcibly parted his blood-filled lips to kiss him.

Pouring kisses mixed with the taste of iron, I poured every bit of energy circulating in my body into Hyung.

The guiding, mixed with my tears, was sucked into Hyung’s broken body without reservation.

“Chul-soo Hyung….”

Soothing his violently expanding wavelength, I whispered for him to hurry and go home.

I even tempted him, saying that when we got home, I’d let him do whatever he wanted.

I wouldn’t call him a pervert no matter what he wanted to do, so I just begged him to live, crying.

The entire time I was guiding.

Until Hyung’s wounds healed.