Chapter 22: One Step Closer to Freedom

“Stop talking and return to the center if you’re feeling better now. Judging by it, the director seems to have a lot he wants to say to you.”

“Haha, that crazy old man. I wish he’d just shove his face into water somewhere and die.”

“Kwon Yiyul.”

“But seriously. He’s the one who sent me on dispatch missions, and he’s the one who gathered the council knowing the risks involved, so why does he always throw a fit at only me whenever a mission ends? Maybe it’s finally time to get rid of that old bastard.”

After setting me down on the bed, shadows deepened across Kwon Yiyul’s face as he spoke with Kim Seokhwan.

Choi Siram, who had been lingering nearby and waiting for the right moment, carefully approached to check my condition.

“Jaeyoon-ssi, did Yiyul really just tease you? Is that really why you cried?”

“…Yes, that’s true. I wasn’t feeling very well today, so even something insignificant ended up making me emotional.”

“I’m sorry. Things like this keep happening whenever I’m not around, and it honestly makes me feel awful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’ll make sure to warn Yiyul properly this time. I’ll tell him not to treat you like that again. At least Park Suchang seems capable of understanding words, but honestly, why are all these grown adults acting this way?”

As Choi Siram leaned over and gently patted my shoulder, tears welled up inside me again.

Just what was so special about being an A-rank?

What was so important about that damned rank that Choi Siram could stand confidently even before someone like Kwon Yiyul?

What was even more shocking was that right after promising me this, he calmly walked over to Kwon Yiyul and immediately began scolding him.

Kwon Yiyul carefully tried to soothe the visibly angry Choi Siram, who looked overly frightened.

“I warned you three years ago, yet you still don’t listen, huh? Or maybe you’re just fearless.”

“…I’m really sorry, but I’m not in the mood to deal with Mr. Park Suchang today. If you want to pick a fight, could you please do it later?”

As though they had planned it beforehand, Park Suchang approached next and completely drained the remaining energy from me.

Just Choi Siram’s presence alone felt enough to make all the exhaustion inside me explode, yet now Park Suchang—someone I was utterly incompatible with—had shown up too.

My luck really seemed terrible today.

“…Ha, unbelievable. I came here to make sure you didn’t end up in trouble.”

Trouble?

Was Park Suchang seriously trying to say he came all the way here because he was worried about what would happen if Kwon Yiyul and I were left alone together?

But who asked him to do that?

To begin with, even if Park Suchang hadn’t appeared, Kwon Yiyul wouldn’t actually have done anything outrageous to me.

Ah, no.

Considering he had just suggested I sell my body to him earlier, maybe Kwon Yiyul really was interested in my body after all.

“…Nothing happened. If something had really happened between Mr. Kwon Yiyul and me, there’s no way I’d still be sitting here alive and unharmed.”

“Hm, fair point.”

The moment I genuinely showed how exhausted I was, Park Suchang unexpectedly stepped back without pressing further.

Then, with a strangely meaningful tone, he turned toward Kwon Yiyul and asked,

“Yiyul hyung!”

“What is it, Suchang-ah?”

“Hyung, are you really okay? No matter how high Han Jaeyoon’s matching rate is, I heard from the control room that your waves were seriously unstable. Shouldn’t you get guiding from Choi Siram again?”

Park Suchang glanced back briefly, giving me a meaningful look as though telling me to pay close attention this time.

I quietly sat on the bed and listened to their conversation.

“I’m fine for now. More importantly, the environment here is too poor, and it seems the equipment available isn’t sufficient for receiving guiding from Siramie. Once we get back to the center, I’ll think about it then.”

“Really? That’s surprising. You looked like you were about to go crazy earlier.”

And finally, I made up my mind.

“Even if you say that, this is still just a temporary fix.”

From now on, I would never cry because of him again.

“Isn’t that what backup batteries are for?”

And I would never acknowledge my feelings for Kwon Yiyul again.

“So you want to apply for a transfer?”

On the morning of Christmas Eve, aside from the employees on duty, the entire center was immersed in a festive year-end atmosphere.

Despite the huge commotion from before, I rarely ran into Kwon Yiyul or Park Suchang’s group afterward.

Sometimes Kwon Yiyul would suddenly show up at my dorm without warning, but he truly only came for guiding, so we never exchanged greetings or had actual conversations anymore.

And before I knew it, time had passed, and the end of my contract was right around the corner.

“Yes. Would that be difficult?”

Just a week ago, I had hesitated even to call the department because accepting Kim Seokhwan’s help hurt my pride.

But eventually, I compromised with reality.

The center might outwardly appear to be an organization of ability users, but inside it was divided into numerous factions, and without connections, getting a transfer approved—or even resigning—was often extremely difficult.

Kim Seokhwan understood that too, which was why he personally used his own connections to help me.

Team Leader Kim Su-gyeom warmly welcomed me, saying he had already been waiting for my call while I awkwardly stumbled over my words.

Despite coming from one of the First District Relief Special Zone families, Kim Su-gyeom was one of the rare people who held neither prejudice nor negative views toward refugees.

Instead, he gently comforted me, saying he could already imagine how awful Attack Team 3’s personalities must be—including Kim Seokhwan’s—and that the amount of hesitation written all over my face showed how much I must have struggled before coming here.

I sat there blankly in the management department where Kim Su-gyeom’s office was located before finally managing to thank him.

“No, it’s not that. I was just wondering whether you’ve already discussed this with the other team members.”

“…I haven’t told the others yet. But judging from the situation, I think they’d all welcome it.”

“To be honest, I already heard some of the circumstances from Kim Seokhwan. Though he seemed embarrassed by his own behavior and only gave vague explanations, I could more or less figure things out.”

“…I see.”

For some reason, my face grew hot, so I buried my nose into the coffee cup Kim Su-gyeom handed me and swallowed the bitter coffee.

Anyone working in this field already knew I wasn’t treated well by my teammates, but this was the first time someone had genuinely tried to understand my situation to this extent, and it strangely made the back of my neck itch with discomfort.

With a gentle smile, Kim Su-gyeom began asking me various questions about my plans after the transfer application was approved.

“Once the transfer goes through, what’s the first thing you want to do, Jaeyoon-ssi? I’d appreciate it if you could also tell me about how you want to live moving forward or whether you have any future goals.”

“…Do I really have to answer things like that too?”

“Since I accepted this favor, I’d like to process everything as smoothly as possible without complicated procedures. But even I have to be mindful of the higher-ups. If it feels burdensome, you can just answer the earlier question instead.”

I did vaguely have plans to return to my hometown, live with the people at the shelter, and help the refugees still suffering in the conflict zones.

But I had never seriously thought about my future in detail.

Maybe reality was simply too bleak to dream about tomorrow.

At this point, escaping the center alone already felt like enough.

“First, I plan to return to the shelter. I heard there aren’t proper facilities in the conflict regions to accommodate ability users like here, and incidents involving untrained Espers losing control have been happening frequently.”

“Mm…”

“My rank may not be impressive, but my matching rate is actually pretty high. So I want to help the people suffering there. Even someone like me would feel incredibly happy if I could be of use to them.”

As though speaking to himself, Kim Su-gyeom quietly muttered that I was kind while carefully examining the documents I submitted.

He spun the pen between his fingers once.

For some reason, every time his eyes moved quickly across the papers, my throat went dry.

“First of all, the documents are flawless. There’s nothing problematic here, no history of incidents, and nothing suspicious either. However, I noticed you haven’t had a health examination recently. Why is that?”

“That’s… there were circumstances.”

“Is it difficult to talk about?”

“Yes. Kind of…”

Kim Su-gyeom stared at me suspiciously, but there was no way I could tell him the truth.

That every time I tried to use the additional services provided by the center—including medical checkups—Park Suchang would stand nearby calling me a parasite draining national funds and relentlessly grind down my nerves.

He always mocked me, saying that if I got assigned to the team through favoritism, then I should at least have the decency to take care of my own body myself.

“Well, it’s okay. Health checkups can always be done separately during the transfer process. The real issue now is whether the team members agree to it…”

“Is it impossible to transfer without informing the team members?”

“It’s not impossible, but it’s extremely difficult. As you know, once contracts expire, the center desperately tries to keep talented people within headquarters by any means possible. In that situation, pushing through your request while ignoring the opinions of the team members would realistically require direct approval from the director.”

I suddenly felt anxious.

The team members probably wouldn’t care whether I disappeared or not, yet something still bothered me.

I wanted to vanish quietly without anyone knowing, like the little mermaid dissolving into sea foam in a fairy tale.

As the required procedures piled higher and higher, I wanted to hide my existence in the shadows and disappear forever from their sight.

For the first time, I hated the fact that I was a Guide.

How many more permissions did I need before I could finally become free?

“But don’t worry too much. I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t end up in any difficult situations.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“For now, you can safely consider the document review approved. Once the exact transfer date is decided, I’ll contact you personally.”

Smiling lightly, Kim Su-gyeom placed my documents back into the folder.

Looking into his dark eyes, so deep I couldn’t even measure them, I thanked him once again.

With this, I had finally taken another step toward my goal.

There was still one major obstacle remaining, but simply passing the document review alone brought me immense comfort and relief.

It had felt as though a thick rope had been strangling my neck this entire time.

Only now did it finally feel like I could breathe again.