Chapter 104: I Know Her

Between the closed shops, a woman parked her bicycle in front of a 24-hour ice cream discount store.

It was dawn with few people passing by, so she just left her bicycle and went into the store.

The woman was in a short-sleeved shirt despite the chilly weather, as if she had just stepped out of her house for a moment.

Judging by the watch on her wrist and her small frame, she was clearly a guide.

A guide residing in a civilian area.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The woman hummed a song coming from her earphones as she scanned the ice cream she had piled in her basket one by one at the self-checkout machine.

Perhaps because she took her time, it took quite a while to finish paying.

“Oof.”

The woman, who had grabbed the heavy bag of ice cream and left the store, flinched.

“Uh… my bicycle.”

It was gone.

Her bicycle, which she had parked right in front of the store.

The flustered woman, without even thinking to turn off the music, looked around, searching for her bicycle.

Her steps, quickening to the rhythm of the loud song, headed towards the building next door.

Her bicycle was lying in front of the entrance of the dark shopping center.

‘As if it had been blown away by the wind.’

“You scared me.”

The woman, who had hurriedly picked up her bicycle and was checking the pedals, was startled by the chill that covered her body and quickly lifted her head.

“Who-.”

Before she could finish asking “are you,” the wind that poured out from the wide-open entrance enveloped the woman’s body.

Without even time to scream, the woman, bound by the wind, was sucked into the building.

“Ugh!”

The woman, who had tumbled over and over before hitting a wall, let out a groan.

At the same time, the door closed, and even the lever of the lock turned on its own.

“Shh.”

One of the two unregistered individuals who revealed themselves approached the woman.

The two Espers, who were similar in height, style, and even appearance, were twin brothers.

The older brother who controlled the wind, and the younger brother who made everything he touched transparent.

“Don’t scream. If you want your limbs to stay intact.”

The older brother, whose impression was slightly sharper, warned her, binding the woman’s limbs with wind.

The younger brother just kept watch from a distance.

The woman, frozen with a terrified face, couldn’t even let out a cry for help.

As if satisfied with her reaction, the Esper straightened the woman’s hair that had been scattered by his wind.

“Hyung. Don’t waste time, check quickly.”

“Alright, alright.”

Following his younger brother’s urging, he gripped the woman’s hand tightly and closed his eyes.

He took a long breath and forcibly extracted the guiding flowing through her slender body.

It was to check the matching rate.

“Oh. This is good. It’s the highest among all the guides I’ve seen so far. Hyeon-seo, you come here too.”

“It’s fine. If you like her, hyung, take her.”

“She must be A-class. Right?”

The older brother, whose complexion had brightened with just a moment of guiding, tried to check the woman’s watch.

But before his hand could reach it, the round watch screen lit up.

The white screen flashed brightly like a signal and then went out.

“What the…”

“Hyung!”

The Esper, whose legs momentarily gave out from the guiding the woman released, staggered.

In that brief moment, the woman, who had freed her bound hands, took a cord from the protective vest she wore underneath her clothes.

With agile movements that were no less than the Esper’s speed, she wrapped the thin cord around the Esper’s entire body.

“Aaargh!”

The younger brother, who made eye contact with his older brother who was bound by the cord made for arresting unregistered individuals, was engulfed in panic.

The cord, which tightened the more he resisted, dug into his brother’s flesh.

“If you want to save your brother, follow me quietly.”

The woman, who had dropped her terrified act, warned him with a calm face.

She belonged to Team A, selected after special training, and was yielding the most results in Attack Team 1’s guide deployment operation.

Thanks to her agility that surpassed her delicate frame, she skillfully completed her missions even while becoming a target for many unregistered individuals.

“If you want to live, you should be the one following us!”

“What are you saying.”

Ji Oh, who had used teleportation, appeared behind the shouting younger brother.

Exactly 5 seconds after the signal had flashed on the woman’s watch.

“Ugh!”

The young Esper, whose neck was grabbed by Ji Oh before he could even use his transparency, was slammed to the ground.

After that, Tae Hwan, who had opened the lock with his psychokinesis and entered, pushed the brothers against the wall.

Seung Ho was outside, handling the barriers of the other teams as well.

They had voluntarily cooperated in Team 1’s guide deployment operation.

It was not at all the kind of behavior that Team 3, who had no interest in others’ affairs, would show.

These were the guys who would refuse, saying “do it yourself,” even if ordered to in a normal situation.

“Aram. Mid-170s, female.”

They caught the unregistered with a surprising amount of passion.

Especially Tae Hwan, who acted persistently as if he had a grudge against Aram.

“Do you know her or not. Answer.”

Tae Hwan threatened him, applying enough pressure to crack the wall.

Ji Oh, who had no great expectations, watched the woman from behind as she collected the cord that had subdued the unregistered person.

‘Wondering if Yoon Bodam could also handle an Esper with that cord.’

“Keuht. Park… Aram.”

“What?”

Tae Hwan, who narrowed his tired eyes, asked again.

Until now, no unregistered person had reacted to the name Aram.

No matter how much they interrogated, only the answer “I don’t know” had returned.

“If it’s Park, Aram… I know her.”

The younger brother answered on behalf of his older brother, who had already fainted when his neck was choked by the guide’s cord.

Thanks to Tae Hwan releasing his psychokinesis, he, whose airway had been cleared, fell to the floor, gasping for the breath that had been blocked.

“Tell me what you know. Anything that could be a characteristic.”

A strange light shone in Tae Hwan’s eyes as he lifted the gasping Esper back into the air without waiting.

The guide who was watching from the side thought that, for whatever reason, it might be better for Aram to at least die if she was caught by Tae Hwan.

He only searched for Aram.

That damn Aram. Aram.

“She wears winter, cough. winter clothes…”

“Crazy. It’s her, right?!”

Ji Oh, who clapped his hands, swore in delight, saying that an unregistered person who knew Aram had finally appeared.

It had been a full four days.

In that time, they had caught and crushed more than ten unregistered individuals.

“And.”

“Her… her hair is long…”

The Esper, overwhelmed by Tae Hwan’s intimidating appearance and aura, stammered.

He looked at the drawing on the phone screen Tae Hwan held out and tilted his head.

“Look properly, you bastard.”

Even after rubbing his eyes and checking properly, it only looked like an unidentifiable doodle.

The PDF file set as Tae Hwan’s lock screen didn’t look like a composite sketch at all.

“I, I’m not sure what it is…”

“You don’t know? You don’t know?”

“No, that is, I…”

“Rub your eyes more and look.”

In fact, Tae Hwan also didn’t know what it was at first.

He was about to curse after hearing the explanation that it was Aram’s composite sketch, but then immediately added a compliment after hearing that Bodam had drawn it.

Anyway, he found him.

An unregistered person who finally knew Aram.

“Tell me her ability. Everything you know.”

“Agh!”

Tae Hwan, who had warned him by pulling his entire body up and down beforehand, carefully observed the young Esper’s expression.

If he even made up a story, he was going to break his leg right then and there.

Thanks to the clever-looking Esper opening his mouth quickly, he didn’t see blood.

He gave an answer that was exactly as expected.

“A rampage… she makes them… rampage…”

“How.”

The Esper, whose spine was stretched taut, shook his head, shedding silent tears.

He was so afraid to even answer that he didn’t know that he just repeated “I’m sorry.”

“Is that all?”

“Just the name, I know…! Really. What ability it is, sob, I’ve only heard that much.”

Ddiririk.

At the sudden vibration of their watches, Tae Hwan and Ji Oh’s eyebrows twitched.

It was the sound they had been waiting for the most recently.

Until now, only annoyance had soared whenever their watches rang, but since Yoon Bodam returned…

“Hey Lee Tae Hwan. I’m leaving first.”

“Ah, shit.”

The owner of the watch notification was Min Ji Oh.

He, who pressed the guiding acceptance button with the brightest face in the world, teleported as if he had been waiting.

He had no choice but to dash off immediately when none other than his exclusive guide was calling.

Tae Hwan, who was infuriated at not being chosen, lifted the brothers into the air side by side.

The younger brother’s tears grew stronger at the sight of his limp older brother.

Tae Hwan, who had no interest in the young unregistered person’s cries, bit his lower lip and held back his curses.

As he checked his wavelength reading with eyes burning with jealousy, only a sigh came out.

Not because it was high, but because it was low.

Recently, Tae Hwan’s readings showed no sign of deviating from the stable range.

Even though it was a good thing, he was only disappointed.

Because Yoon Bodam didn’t look for him.

Even though he was an S-class and should have had difficulty managing his wavelength, Tae Hwan was excessively healthy.

‘If he were moderately sensitive and his recovery was slower, he would see his exclusive guide more often.’

Hoo-. Tae Hwan, who finished his last sigh and focused on his work again, let go of only the younger brother.

The Esper, who fell to the floor with a thud, seemed to have twisted his ankle and squeezed his eyes shut.

“You can go.”

Even the guide who was waiting behind was surprised at Tae Hwan’s action of letting the unregistered person go without a second thought.

Of course, the most dumbfounded was the person himself.

“…What?”

“I said go. Go and bring Park Aram.”

The Esper, who had turned pale, trembled as he faced Tae Hwan, who was slowly closing the distance.

“I’ll be waiting here at this time every day. I’ll give you exactly 3 days.”

“Eup.”

Tae Hwan, who blocked his retort by clamping his large hand over his lower jaw, gestured to the older brother with his eyes.

“He’s coming with us. So you come within 3 days.”

“Euueup-!!”

Tae Hwan’s thick thumb pressed down on the Esper’s gums and pulled out three teeth.

He placed the red, blood-stained teeth in his trembling hand and patted his cheek.

It was a warning not to forget the deadline and at the same time, a notice of what would happen to his brother if he broke the promise.

As everyone had expected, Tae Hwan had a considerable talent for torture.

***

‘Time sure flies.’

Bodam, who had been lying on the living room sofa and checking the time, turned off the TV and yawned.

The new waiting room of Attack Team 3, which was much larger than before, had a TV the size of a movie theater’s.

Even though it was well past midnight, Bodam checked the wavelengths of his Espers.

Min Ji Oh’s reading was getting a little high, so he called him.

In a normal situation, he would have let it go, but since the rampage incidents had not yet been resolved, he had them maintain a more thoroughly low reading.

Not that Bodam was working the night shift, absolutely not.

“Ah, I want to watch more.”

He had pulled an all-nighter binge-watching 〈Esper’s Obsession〉 all day yesterday, so his days and nights had gotten mixed up.

He had been so engrossed in the fun of the already completed drama that he hadn’t been able to sleep for two days.

Even though he lived with the TV on, only checking their wavelength readings from time to time, no one dared to ask Bodam for guiding.

Since working when he wanted to was the first of the returned Bodam’s working conditions.