Chapter 17: Hide-and-Seek

“…I have about three months left.”

“Are you planning to submit a transfer request? You’ve earned enough money already. I heard you were planning to return to your hometown.”

“…Yes.”

“Then that works out perfectly.”

The moment I answered carefully, Kim Seokhwan let out a long sigh and turned toward me.

Then he spoke.

“You should leave.”

“…….”

“Choi Siram and Park Suchang are both indispensable to this team. So if someone’s going to leave anyway, wouldn’t it be better for both the team and yourself if it were you?”

“…….”

“I do feel sorry for you, but honestly… Park Suchang isn’t entirely wrong either.”

He sure used a lot of words just to tell me not to cause any more trouble and get out.

The wounds Park Suchang left on me hadn’t even begun healing properly yet, but Kim Seokhwan calmly said something even crueler without changing his expression once.

I thought the contrast was unbearably vicious.

To people like them, was I really nothing more than an efficient disposable tool after all?

Otherwise, how could someone say things like this so easily?

How could they treat me this way?

“Once your contract expires, submit the transfer application to management. It’ll probably get approved within two weeks. After that, live however you want. I won’t care where you go, what you do, or how you live. Just leave and do whatever you want outside.”

“…I…”

“But until then, be careful not to create more problems for Choi Siram. Think of the people who’ll still be left here. I’m asking you to sacrifice a little more.”

“…….”

“You’re leaving eventually anyway, aren’t you?”

Kim Seokhwan grabbed a pen from one of the employees repairing the shattered emergency room wall and scribbled carelessly across a small sticky note.

For the sake of the people staying behind, the one leaving should sacrifice a little more.

My thoughts stayed trapped inside that sentence for a long time.

No.

It wasn’t that I lingered on it.

I simply couldn’t escape it.

Out of all the cruel things the team members had ever said to me, Kim Seokhwan’s words hurt the most.

They weren’t words thrown out recklessly in anger like Park Suchang’s.

Nor were they deliberately meant to wound me like Kwon Yiyul’s.

Which somehow made them even worse.

“Here. Contact this number and tell them you want your transfer application processed. He’s an older friend our family knows personally. He’s currently the management department team leader. You understand what I’m saying, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Good. That makes things easier.”

Right.

Kim Seokhwan hadn’t acted out of justice.

He hadn’t stopped Park Suchang because he cared about me.

Or because he wanted to protect me.

He simply hated seeing cracks form within the team because of his rigid personality.

“I’m leaving then. Your treatment’s done, and if all you need now is your medicine, there’s nothing else for me to do. Ah, and don’t forget to contact Choi Siram later. He’ll worry.”

I silently watched Kim Seokhwan walk away, leaving behind nothing but a small scrap of paper.

His shadow disappeared quickly beyond the pillars at the end of the hallway and never returned.

Beep—

“…Hah.”

I finally returned to the dormitory and placed the medicine I’d been prescribed onto the table.

The spacious dorm felt cold and lifeless.

Without any sign of another person around, the silence felt almost oppressive.

The first thing I did was strip off the clothes that reeked of sweat and stale air.

Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to go straight into the bathroom and wash everything off cleanly.

But I remembered the doctor warning me not to let water touch the stitched areas until they healed properly.

In the end, I simply changed clothes, poured myself a glass of cold water, and sat down on the living room sofa.

“…I can finally breathe.”

Standing blankly in front of the terrace overlooking the entire city skyline, I suddenly realized how hungry I was.

Earlier, I’d barely managed to swallow the gukbap because my throat felt so tight.

Now my stomach protested desperately for food.

Rubbing my aching knees, I slowly searched through the kitchen for anything small to eat.

“…Huh?”

That was when I noticed the chrysanthemum drooping weakly beneath the moonlight pouring through the window.

A bad feeling crept over me immediately.

I hurried toward the windowsill and checked the flower carefully.

The white petals that had still looked healthy this morning had completely withered away.

Just like the other chrysanthemums that had already died earlier, the edges had yellowed, drained entirely of life.

“…What… what happened to you?”

Using the arm that still worked properly, I gently gathered the brittle petals into my hand.

Only yesterday they’d fluttered softly like fine silk.

So why had they become this ugly overnight?

“Why… why are you like this…?”

The moment I realized the flower had truly died, tears spilled from my eyes.

My trembling sobs trickled out quietly like a narrow stream.

Curling my body inward, I buried my face against my knees.

Don’t cry.

If you cry, you lose.

I repeated the words to myself over and over like hypnosis.

But the flood of emotions crashing through me rendered every attempt meaningless within seconds.

Rustle.

“Hic… ngh… ugh…”

People always said sweet things helped when you were depressed.

So from the bloodstained cardigan, I pulled out one of the small strawberry candies the man had given me earlier that day and placed it into my mouth.

Rolling it slowly against my tongue, I let the sweetness melt gradually down my throat.

But the candy wasn’t sweet at all.

It was sweet.

Yet it wasn’t.

No.

Rather than sweet, it tasted bitter and sharp.

So bitter it made me nauseous.

“Why is it always me? Why does everyone always treat me like shit? Why? f*cking why?!”

On my twenty-fourth birthday, clutching a dead chrysanthemum in one hand and sucking on the candy I’d received as a birthday gift, I finally broke down crying.

At first the tears fell silently.

Then curses spilled uncontrollably from my mouth like someone incapable of controlling their emotions anymore.

“What the hell did I even do wrong…?”

Even though crying wouldn’t bring the dead flower back to life, I continued sobbing alone inside the empty dorm for a very long time.

2. Hide-and-Seek

“Excuse me. Sorry, coming through.”

“Jaeyoon! Over here! Over here!”

Time passed.

I lost count of how many times I debated whether or not to call the number Kim Seokhwan had given me.

After receiving an urgent call from the control room, I headed toward the top floor of the center where a helicopter was waiting.

Checking the codename displayed on the pager attached to my wrist, a single letter floated onto the screen.

[A]

Even Director Lee Dongwon, who had personally come down to the cafeteria to retrieve me despite his busy schedule, looked noticeably pale.

Codename A.

It meant a mission dangerous enough to rival a national disaster.

The center constantly monitored incidents occurring throughout the Special Relief Zones and assigned threat levels ranging from S to F depending on the scale and severity of the disaster.

Most incidents never rose above C-rank.

So just how catastrophic was this one for the management division to issue emergency warnings throughout the center?

“Kwon Yiyul has already been dispatched to District 5’s Special Relief Zone.”

“…What? No, wait. Was the situation really serious enough to require even Kwon Yiyul?”

“Yes. For the past six months, there have been increasing reports of Earthshade appearances in that region. But apparently the Earthshades surfaced above ground and completely devastated the city. At this point, not only District 5 but even the upper districts have fallen within the disaster range.”

“…What about Choi Siram and the others? Where are they right now?”

This was a disaster.

Out of all possible Espers, it had to be Kwon Yiyul dispatched there.

Tilting my head slightly, I looked up at the news streaming minute-by-minute across the screens.

Creatures called Earthshades—beasts with hard shell-like backs resembling large felines—had overtaken the cities within District 5’s Special Relief Zone.

Some clung to ancient skyscrapers while threatening civilians.

Others had already dragged people back into their nests to store as food.

District 5 was one of the poorest and harshest regions among the seven districts.

For Earthshades entering breeding season, surfacing above ground in search of prey was almost inevitable.

In simple terms, this entire disaster was the unavoidable collision between human civilization and nature.

“I’m sorry, but there’s currently no one left in the center capable of properly guiding Kwon Yiyul. Including Choi Siram, all the other members of Attack Team 3 are currently dispatched to the Northern Center.”

“…So you’re saying I have to guide Kwon Yiyul alone?”

“There really isn’t another option. Even the Center Director said the circumstances left him no choice. He asked us to sincerely request your cooperation.”

I ran a hand through my stiff hair with a troubled expression.

Guiding Kwon Yiyul alone while his physical condition and wavelength stability were already deteriorating posed far too much physical risk.

Especially considering my own body had been worsening lately despite all my efforts.

I kept losing weight no matter how much I tried to take care of myself.

People who passed me by had started openly worrying about me.

My pale skin had become so bloodless that the veins beneath were visible.

The dark circles beneath my eyes only deepened with time.

I’d started coughing for no reason.

Sometimes dizziness hit me out of nowhere during ordinary days, forcing me back to the dorm to rest.

One of the department employees I’d temporarily been staying with had even tried convincing me to visit a hospital they knew personally for a proper examination.

“At approximately 9 AM today, during the Earthshade Nest incident that occurred within District 5’s Special Relief Zone, two children tragically lost their lives after being buried beneath collapsing debris. Roughly thirty minutes ago, the council officially announced the deployment of Attack Team 3 leader Kwon Yiyul to the scene. Reports indicate the scale of destruction has already surpassed even the Mahava Typhoon that struck District 4 last year. For further details, we’ll now turn to correspondent Park Iseon reporting live from the scene.”