Chapter 1: Eight Years of Distance

At twenty-two, in the summer, I awakened as a Guide.

So-won awakened as an A-rank Guide, a rank that made up only three percent among the already scarce number of Guides.

Young, immature, and ignorant, So-won was left reeling the moment he awakened, overwhelmed by the flood of national benefits that poured in all at once.

Without doing anything at all, money appeared in his bank account, he no longer had to prepare for employment, and even the military service he had postponed again and again was no longer required.

So-won never doubted that he would be matched with his ideal female Esper.

‘You have been matched with S-rank Esper Kang Tae-woo.’

However, on the day he received the matching results, everything collapsed.

S-rank Esper Kang Tae-woo.

Unable to receive proper guiding, he suffered horrific side effects that left his entire body covered in dark crimson veins, and he was one of only three S-rank Espers in the country.

Living up to the epithet “monster,” his ability was physical enhancement.

He was a man who fought barehanded, possessing steel-like hardness and unbelievable strength.

After awakening as an Esper at the age of ten, Kang Tae-woo achieved the grim record of having a matching rate of less than five percent with all Guides.

He lived relying solely on mechanical guiding and was an Esper who could go berserk at any moment.

He had even once nearly killed someone by accident because he could not control his power.

And yet, So-won was the first person to achieve a matching rate of sixty-five percent with such a monster.

The moment the matching results came out, So-won ran to the department in charge, crying and begging them to please change his Esper.

The staff member looked at him with pity, but the only answer he could give was that under the Guide Mandatory System, So-won was required to become Kang Tae-woo’s Guide.

From that day on, So-won’s life became a nightmare.

At his first meeting with Kang Tae-woo, the man’s appearance was even more terrifying than what So-won had seen online.

He looked nearly two meters tall, with an enormous frame.

Most frightening of all were the dark crimson veins covering his entire body.

The veins bulged grotesquely beneath the skin, sometimes seeming to writhe, making it feel like watching a horror movie.

The moment So-won met Tae-woo’s beast-like eyes, he nearly fainted.

His body trembled uncontrollably.

His legs gave out, and he nearly collapsed before a staff member barely managed to catch and steady him.

Tae-woo, who had been watching, calmly turned his head away.

Under the Guide Mandatory System, So-won ended up living in the same house as Kang Tae-woo, but every time he encountered him, he shook with fear and ran away.

He stopped eating and drinking and locked himself in his room, and at times he fled to hide at his parents’ house.

Yet each time, due to warnings from the Esper Association, he was forced to return to Tae-woo’s home.

So-won even suffered severe depression, drawing concern from those around him.

Tae-woo felt sorry for him.

His emotions had dulled to the point where he felt almost nothing, but he understood all too well that So-won—small and fragile at a glance—was terrified of the monster that was himself.

He understood that fear.

Although he had finally found a Guide, he avoided contact out of consideration for So-won, received guiding only at the bare minimum, and continued to survive through mechanical guiding as before.

Eight years passed like that.

So-won still found Tae-woo terrifying and grotesque, but he had grown somewhat accustomed to him.

Even so, the habits formed over those years remained, and aside from times of contact guiding, he did not even face him.

In eight years, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Tae-woo and So-won had never truly spoken.

Tae-woo’s condition, as expected, worsened with each passing day.

The veins around his eyes had spread across his entire face, the number of guiding machines in the house had increased to five, and even those went unused because he was almost always hospitalized at the Esper Center.

So-won gradually began to feel guilty toward Tae-woo, but that did not mean he could guide him.

Whenever he saw him, he still froze like ice, unable to move, and seeing that, Tae-woo would frown and quietly remove himself from the situation.

The distance between them only grew wider.

Then today, in the middle of the night, a Gate opened in Incheon.

A Gate that appeared suddenly in the heart of Incheon without any warning signs threw the entire nation into anxiety.

The government declared a state of emergency, and monsters stronger than usual poured out all at once, turning the area around the Gate into chaos.

The predicted difficulty was S-rank.

It was a supermassive Gate, unprecedented in the history of South Korea.

Several hours had passed since the three S-rank Espers of South Korea, including Kang Tae-woo, headed toward the Gate.

Under the Guide Mandatory System, So-won waited in the Esper Association building near the Gate in order to guide Kang Tae-woo upon his return.

For several hours, So-won sat in the waiting room alongside the Guides of the Espers dispatched to the Incheon Gate, all of them waiting for the Gate to close.

By the time his body grew stiff from sitting too long, news finally came through the TV mounted on the association wall that the Gate had closed.

The Guides in the waiting room let out long breaths of relief.

So-won envied them, those who could worry for their respective Espers.

For So-won, the Gate closing meant that he would have to guide Tae-woo, and the thought of facing him—surely in worse condition than usual—terrified him.

“Guide Lee So-won?”

A staff member who had rushed over called out, breathing heavily.

So-won, trembling among the other Guides, lifted his head.

“Esper Kang Tae-woo is in critical condition.

Please hurry and provide guiding—”

The staff member’s expression was grave.

Yet even seeing that face, So-won felt no concern for Tae-woo’s condition.

He was simply afraid of meeting him.

The staff member leading So-won moved at a hurried pace.

With every step, the stench of blood grew stronger.

Strangely, So-won’s heart began to tremble with unease.

The place he was brought to was an operating room.

The moment he opened the door, the overwhelming metallic stench of blood rushed into his nose.

What he saw next was unbelievable.

Something enormous lay on the operating table, and the doctors stood around it in a tight circle, unable to do anything.

The massive form was soaked in red and torn to shreds, making it difficult to recognize that it was Tae-woo.

Blood dripped steadily beneath the table.

When So-won lowered his gaze, he saw blood already pooled around his feet.

‘Did all of that come from Tae-woo’s body?’

The situation felt unreal.

When So-won finally comprehended Tae-woo’s condition, it was dire.

His skin—said to be impenetrable—had been pierced by what looked like a massive horn, leaving a gaping hole in his abdomen from which blood poured endlessly.

Blood continued to flow from numerous wounds that showed no sign of regeneration.

It was hard to believe he was even alive.

As the doctors stood helplessly, unable to touch his nearly destroyed torso, So-won knelt on the blood-soaked floor and grasped Tae-woo’s hand with trembling fingers.

Cold.

So cold and stiff it did not feel like a human hand.

The violent waves of power that had once tormented him were now eerily subdued.

Only then did So-won begin to realize that this was real.

As all sensation slowly faded, Tae-woo sensed warmth from one side of his hand.

Realizing his Guide had arrived, he struggled to open his eyes and looked at So-won.

The Guide who once froze and could not speak whenever he saw him was staring blankly, tears streaming down his face.

He had lost a lot of weight compared to eight years ago.

Tae-woo remembered briefly thinking, back then, that So-won’s rabbit-like cheeks and round eyes were cute.

The innocent Guide had been unhappy because of him.

If not for him, So-won would have lived happily, but because he was a grotesque monster, he had ruined that life.

Tae-woo barely managed to release the apology he had carried for years.

“I’m sorry.”

His voice cracked and leaked out weakly.

Hearing that thin sound and meeting his dim gaze, So-won felt his heart drop heavily.

Guilt crushed him.

Unable to do anything else, he clung to Tae-woo’s hand and sobbed.

Cough.

With a heavy cough, Tae-woo spat out dark crimson blood.

The blood splattered across his face, staining it horribly.

His eyes seemed to stare into empty space.

So-won panicked.

It felt as though Tae-woo might die at any moment.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Please don’t die…

Please, I’m sorry…”

He spoke in a rush, but all that came out were the same apologies repeated again and again.

This wasn’t it.

This wasn’t what he wanted to say.

S-rank Esper.

Monster.

Skin like steel that nothing could pierce.

So-won had never once imagined that Tae-woo could die.

That was why he had resented the life he believed he would be bound to forever.

But the reality was—

He had never properly guided Tae-woo even once, had looked at him like a monster, and had not even treated him as a person.

Meanwhile, Tae-woo endured the agony that drove him mad without forcing guiding on him, and whenever he encountered So-won frozen in fear, he quietly stepped away.

So-won finally realized it.

The worst person of all was himself.

The real monster was So-won.