Chapter 8: The Unseen Connection

The Unseen Connection

Was something ailing him?

I was deep in thought. The child, who had clearly gone to bed at 8 PM intending to sleep, hadn’t fallen asleep for thirty minutes already. Moreover, their mood fluctuated wildly, as if flipping a coin, making me wonder what on earth they were thinking all by themself.

At first, I simply assumed they couldn’t sleep, but it bothered me that a child who usually fell asleep the moment their head touched the pillow was still awake. Yesterday, we had spent the entire day shopping, and today, after waking up in the morning, we had briefly visited a bookstore in the afternoon. They hadn’t even slept in the car on the way back today, so by all accounts, they should have been fast asleep by now.

If the child were asleep, I would simply go in, stay by their side for a while, and then leave. But with them awake, I hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“Ha…”

‘I have to wake up at seven tomorrow.’

Eventually, I rose from my chair and walked towards the child’s room.

*Knock-knock*

As I cautiously opened the door, I heard a rustling sound from within. The child looked at me with a startled expression.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Oh… I-I’ll sleep.”

Misinterpreting my question as a scolding, the child quickly pulled the blanket over themself. In one corner of the room, the fan we had bought today was diligently whirring.

“Can’t you sleep?”

The child, who had been tightly squeezing their eyes shut, opened them again and nodded.

“Why?”

“…”

“Why can’t you sleep?”

“…”

“I won’t know unless you tell me.”

After a long pause, the child spoke in a quiet voice.

“Tomorrow…”

Tomorrow was Monday. And it was the child’s first day at a new school. Although they didn’t finish their sentence, given their fluctuating mood, it seemed the child couldn’t sleep due to a strange mix of anxiety and anticipation.

“Close your eyes.”

“W-Why?”

“Just close them. I’m not scolding you, so don’t be nervous.”

The child eventually closed their eyes. As I covered their slightly swollen eyelids with my hand, their delicate eyelashes tickled my palm. It felt strange. I turned off the noisy fan. Suddenly, a deathly silence enveloped the world.

“…Huh?”

“Shhh.”

As I sat still and created a cool breeze, the child, almost miraculously, fell asleep in an instant. I hadn’t sung a lullaby or read a book, yet within minutes, I heard the soft, rhythmic breathing of sleep.

‘Buying a fan was pointless, then.’

For the third day in a row—two days ago, yesterday, and now today—as I gazed blankly at the child’s sleeping face, an inexplicable sense of comfort washed over me. It was a feeling of solace and reassurance, simply from being by their side. This was distinctly different from the relief I was familiar with. It was truly odd to experience such emotions, without any apparent reason, from a child so much younger and weaker than myself.

‘I’m the guardian, yet it feels like I’m the one being comforted.’

Each time I looked at the child’s peacefully sleeping face, it evoked an indescribable emotion within me. Just seeing this face would make my chest ache with a strange fullness. In the sleeping child, there was no trace of the man who was nothing short of a devil.

****

“W-What is it? What do you want to tell me?”

At the vending machine in the recreation room, located at the very end of the pediatric ward, there was still only water. As I inserted two crumpled banknotes, a thudding sound was followed by the jingle of coins. I handed the man a full bottle of water. In front of the man, who was giving me a suspicious look, I deliberately opened the cap first.

‘Ah. Still tastes terrible.’

The lukewarm water only seemed to intensify my thirst. I looked at the man sitting opposite me. Up close, the man appeared even more disheveled than he had from a distance. His hair was tangled and uneven, growing wildly. A beard suggested he hadn’t shaved in days. His arm, encased in a cast, was so thin it made me frown. The lack of any discernible odor, even at this proximity, strongly indicated amphetamine use.

“I heard you’re refusing to settle.”

Seeing my face, the man flinched and his shoulders trembled. Then, he gnawed anxiously at his lips and nervously bounced his leg.

“D-Do you think I’d be s-scared just because you, you’re like that?”

“…Ha.”

“N-No matter how much you threaten me, I-I’ll never agree to a settlement.”

The man was precisely the kind of person I found most contemptible in this world. Espers typically viewed ordinary humans as ‘weak beings,’ but there were rare exceptions. Not beings to be protected, but beings to be eradicated. Foolish humans. Among them, what I found particularly foolish was the act of selling one’s soul for substances or drugs, all for trivial gain and futile desires.

“How much do you want?”

“W-What… huh?”

“The settlement money. How much will it take for you to agree?”

The man, with a startled expression, was unable to speak. But that lasted only a moment before he quickly cleared his throat, revealing his true intentions.

“Ahem, ahem, settlement money… I wasn’t going to accept it, you see… but if you’re truly sorry, I might consider it, depending on your sincerity.”

“So, how much?”

“Huh? Hmm… considering the emotional damage… uh, 100 million won? You should give at least that much, ahem.”

“100 million won?”

“Cough!”

The man spat out the water he was drinking and coughed repeatedly. After several deep, rattling breaths, he dislodged phlegm from his throat. With his wretched appearance and bloodshot eyes, he looked no different from a zombie.

“Is that too little?”

“Uh, uh, no. Well, th-th-that much is… fine…”

“I’ll give it to you. However, there’s a condition.”

At the word ‘condition,’ the man’s eyes wavered.

“As you can see, I’m affiliated with the government, so I can’t just give money to a victim on my own. If you suddenly agree to a settlement, it’ll look suspicious.”

“Huh? Th-Then what…?”

“First, hold out for about three months, then say you’ll settle. I’ll give you the money upfront, though.”

This was, of course, utter nonsense. There was no way a government agency like the Center would drag out negotiations on such a sensitive matter for three months. It was obvious they would be on tenterhooks, fearing an article about ‘a physical Esper attacking a civilian’ would break at any moment. Yet, the man didn’t even catch on to such a simple lie. It was a deal with no downsides for him, and with money in hand, holding out for three months would be no trouble at all. Unable to hide his expression, the man’s prominent cheekbones twitched above his sunken cheeks.

“Alright. I promise.”

“However.”

I spoke, emphasizing each word with a calmer tone.

“What if, after three months, you don’t keep your promise?”

“Huh? H-Huh?”

“You might refuse to settle then. I need some kind of guarantee too.”

The man’s expression darkened instantly. Seeing him actually try to think, as if he were genuinely contemplating, was so absurd it made me let out a hollow laugh.

“A guarantee, you say? What kind of guarantee…?”

“The child in Room 503.”

“Huh?”

“That’s your child, isn’t it?”

“Ahem, y-yes, that’s right.”

“I’ll take care of him for three months, then return him.”

“What?”

The man hesitated slightly. I thought he might actually care about his own child, but then the man added, ‘Even though he’s like that, he’s a Guide, so he might be worth money later.’

“Hmm, in that case…”

Manipulating the man was easier than moving a single finger. I presented one more condition. When I said I would ‘keep the child in this hospital for three months, and give him another 100 million won when I take him away after three months,’ the man nodded happily. I wanted to snap the neck of the cackling man who said, ‘That suits me just fine.’

“S-So, when does this start…?”

“Today. Right now.”

The man was visibly delighted. It was clear that all the man could see now was the money that would soon be his.

“Let me be clear, the child is your guarantee, entrusted to me. For three months, I hold ownership. You must not take him arbitrarily. If you try to take him before then, you must ask my permission.”

“Of course. Don’t worry about that. Hehehe.”

“I truly dislike anyone touching my possessions. Ideally, I’d prefer not to run into you here.”

Hearing my cold, subdued voice, the man lowered the corners of his mouth and swallowed dryly.

The only way I could see the child, given that I couldn’t leave the facility for three months, was to keep him in the Center’s hospital. For that, I needed the permission of the man, the child’s guardian. I regretted accepting the disciplinary action so easily. At the very least, I should have tried to shorten the duration. But even then, I hadn’t thought about taking the child with me. I merely planned to visit him occasionally after three months, when I would be allowed into areas with ordinary people.

Transferring 100 million won through an Esper-exclusive account was not difficult. The man, having received the money with a few clicks, fled as if escaping. Originally, I had intended to leave immediately as well. The desire to return home right away was overwhelming. Dealing with this human refuse, whose mind was so rotten it made fighting a Stinkelos—the most foul-smelling of all creatures—seem preferable, was more nauseating than I could have imagined. I desperately wanted to cleanse myself of this filthy feeling.

I walked towards the emergency stairs I had just ascended. As I walked down the corridor, every hospital room I passed had adults, seemingly parents, with their children. If not parents, then relatives, grandfathers, grandmothers. Or even older or younger siblings. Seeing such scenes, my feet felt rooted to the spot.

I found myself walking towards the child’s room, as if drawn by an unseen force. By this point, I was genuinely curious. Why a Guide I hadn’t even matched with was bothering me so much. And how he could annoy me without even being matched. I had clearly been told I could only perceive the emotions of a matched Guide, but no matter how I thought about it, what I had felt earlier was definitely the child’s mood.

“Oh? Didn’t you just leave?”

The doctor, who was on rounds, looked at me with surprise. Having had no intention of returning, I couldn’t answer the question immediately.

“I saw that other person had left earlier, so I assumed you’d visited them and gone home.”

“Is it alright to visit now?”

“Ah, yes. Go on in. He’s probably not asleep yet.”

On the entrance to Room 503, a name tag with the three characters, [Jaeseong], was affixed.

‘So, he was a boy.’

I carefully stepped into the hospital room. The small figure sitting on the bed rustled and turned around.

“…”

“…”

Jaeseong was startled, but didn’t scream or ask who I was. I stood before him, as he gazed at me with wide, round eyes. Splotchy skin. One swollen cheek. His cracked lips were caked with dried blood.

‘He’s quite ugly.’

Still, I liked his unwavering black eyes that looked at me. They were clean and clear eyes, completely unlike the man’s dull, clouded gaze. Even as I leaned against the wall, silently staring at him, Jaeseong didn’t tell me to leave. He would quickly turn his head away if our eyes met, yet he didn’t fear me. I could only think that. Because Jaeseong, lying in bed, reached out a hand towards me before quietly falling asleep.

And so, every single day, without fail, I visited the same hospital room. When Jaeseong was awake, I would stand by one wall for a while before leaving; when he was asleep, I would sit on the sofa before returning. But I never once exchanged words with Jaeseong.

I didn’t know why, but that place felt inexplicably comfortable. Whenever I saw Jaeseong, an unknown sense of relief and longing would wash over me.

‘Is this how it is for all Espers and Guides?’

‘Espers who cannot refuse a Guide’s emotions.’

‘Espers who cannot live without a Guide.’

‘Guides who neither feel nor know such Espers.’

‘A relationship so one-sided it bred resentment.’

‘What a truly ridiculous fate.’