Chapter 108: Laugh

Two voices echoed softly in the old, long-abandoned underpass.

Even in the dark space without a single light, Aram and Jinhyuk were eating snacks, looking at each other clearly.

The two were talking, lying on a bed made of piled clothes.

This was their frequent hideout.

“Are you cold?”

Jinhyuk asked Aram, who was putting the holey snacks on her fingers and eating them one by one.

Aram shook her head but couldn’t stop the slight trembling of her shoulders.

Jinhyuk, who had found a blanket in the pile of clothes, wrapped it around Aram.

Aram, who had already finished her snacks, buried her head in the blanket and muttered.

“I don’t know.”

“What don’t you know?”

“Why does the guide have to follow us?”

“That again.”

Jinhyuk, who let out a tired sigh, answered as he threw the empty snack bag.

“I told you. The Center is dangerous. We’re getting them out.”

“Are we not dangerous?”

“…The Center is more dangerous. It’s a dirty and terrible place.”

“Did you see it?”

Aram tightly grabbed the hand of the speechless Jinhyuk.

Since meeting the pure white guide, a question had arisen in her.

‘Why does the guide refuse us, who are freeing them from the Center? Have they been brainwashed into thinking the Center is a good place? Or, conversely, are we…’

“Aram-noona!”

Before Aram’s thoughts could deepen, a familiar voice was heard from the underpass entrance.

It was the voice of the twin brothers.

Seeing how they appeared noisily, it seemed to be the older brother, not the quiet younger one.

“Hyun Woo?”

“No, it’s me, Hyeon Seo.”

“I can’t see you right now.”

Hyeon Seo belatedly dropped his transparency and revealed himself.

He had forgotten that he had hidden himself.

That was how urgent he was.

“H-hyung… my brother was caught.”

“So.”

Jinhyuk showed a cold reaction to Hyeon Seo, who had run over, panting.

It was a common occurrence for them, the unregistered, to be caught by the Center, so it was nothing to be surprised about.

“Stay strong.”

Aram offered her condolences to Hyeon Seo, who had tears in his eyes.

Not a single one of the Espers who had been caught had returned alive.

Feeling sorry for the younger brother who had lost his twin, Aram took out a new, unopened bag of snacks.

“Take it. Eat it by yourself.”

“P-please help us.”

“Hey. Get lost.”

Jinhyuk, who had no bond with anyone except Aram, kicked at the air.

Hyeon Seo, who didn’t budge even at the gesture to get lost, even got on his knees and begged.

“Help us. Noona. Please.”

“I said, get lost!”

“Speak. Hyeon Seo.”

Aram, who had stopped Jinhyuk who was about to throw an empty can, continued the conversation.

“They’re looking for noona. They said to bring… noona. Th-then they’ll release my brother…”

Hyeon Seo, who burst into tears while speaking, bit his lip.

“What do you want me to do, you bastard. You want to trade Aram for your brother?”

“B-but, sob. My brother…”

“Think of him as dead! Don’t you know what the Center is like?!”

“Don’t yell.”

Aram calmed Jinhyuk down and stood up.

She helped Hyeon Seo up with a calm face and asked.

Who was looking for her.

***

“Tae Hwan did something smart.”

Team Leader Baek appeared behind Seung Ho, who was waiting for the deployment signal for Guide Team A.

Seung Ho was standing alone on the building’s rooftop, placing a thin shield in the vicinity and observing the movements of the unregistered.

“He told them to bring Aram by dawn tomorrow, didn’t he.”

Team Leader Baek approached Seung Ho’s side, looking up at the dark night sky.

At the intersection Seung Ho was watching, a motorcycle was sent flying by Tae Hwan’s psychokinesis.

Ji Oh, who had blocked it with his hand just before being crushed by the motorcycle, shrieked and threw it back at Tae Hwan.

The two had a long argument, passing the motorcycle with the unregistered person on it back and forth like a ball.

It was a dogfight that had started because Ji Oh hadn’t apologized for his mistake of stepping on and breaking Tae Hwan’s phone.

“Anyway, they’re coveted talents. Shall we merge the teams while we’re at it? And share the guide a bit.”

The unregistered person, who had been thrown around in Tae Hwan and Ji Oh’s hands and eventually vomited, burst into tears.

Seung Ho, who had been watching the pathetic scene indifferently, maintained his silence.

Even though she pretended to respect guides in front of others, Team Leader Baek was the type who thought of guides as nothing more than guiding tools.

She thoroughly ignored guides, who were on the middle rung between ordinary people and ability users.

Team Leader Baek, who snickered at Seung Ho’s consistent silence, took out a cigarette.

“The Center Director’s expectations are high. Of course, mine are too. With Kang Yi Jun and even Lee Tae Hwan stepping up to catch the Crow, of course, I can’t help but have high expectations.”

Seung Ho, who raised an eyebrow at the mention of Kang Yi Jun’s name, looked at Team Leader Baek.

“He’s obsessed with the Crow these days. To offer it to your guide.”

Team Leader Baek flicked her cigarette ash at Seung Ho’s sharpened expression and waved her hand, telling him not to worry.

That there would be no trouble for the guide.

“Once this case is wrapped up, I’m going to dispose of Kang Yi Jun. Just you know for now.”

She clicked her tongue, saying that Kang Yi Jun was a weapon with too much risk to be used for long.

She said that if he caught the Crow, they would have extracted enough value, so she would handle it herself.

It was her own arbitrary decision, which she hadn’t even informed her superiors about.

“Let’s finally wipe them out. These damn unregistered bastards.”

Team Leader Baek’s gaze, who had instructed him to get enough guiding for tomorrow, briefly touched Seung Ho’s shoulder.

She threw the butt on the floor, crushed it firmly with her foot, and left without a word.

‘Thinking that Seung Ho’s usefulness wouldn’t last long either.’

Seung Ho, who averted his gaze from the spot where his former mentor had been, focused on his mission again.

He reinforced the barrier on the street to block out the noise of Min Ji Oh’s rampant cursing.

Even while refining the widely spread shield, his gaze frequently went to his watch.

He too, like Tae Hwan and Ji Oh, was just waiting for the guide’s call to ring.

***

Yi Jun, who had woken up, rubbed his eyes.

He would collapse and fall asleep in the middle of eating or being interrogated.

The symptoms of narcolepsy, of suddenly falling asleep, still remained.

“Hey! You f*cking laughed just now, didn’t you.”

The bald man’s loud voice filled the interrogation room.

Yi Jun, who buried his aching eyes in his palm, lifted his head towards the sound.

Because there were no major breakthroughs in the interrogation whenever Yi Jun fell asleep, the bald man was always angry.

After experiencing the usefulness of a mind-type, it became difficult for him to continue the fruitless interrogation alone.

“Is this situation funny to you? Want me to make it more fun?”

Yi Jun, who picked up a water bottle the caretakers had prepared, watched the boring scene.

The bald man, if he didn’t like the unregistered person’s attitude, would raise his hand, asking if they were ignoring him.

He would beat him until he was satisfied and only then hand him over to Yi Jun.

“Wow, this bastard is laughing again!!”

This time, as if he was really pissed, the bald man grabbed the unregistered person by the collar and lifted him up.

A loud noise followed as the table and chair overturned together.

The unregistered person, who had been hidden by the ignorantly large frame, dangled, held by the collar by the bald man.

Then, his eyes met with Yi Jun, who was watching quietly, and at that moment.

“Hyung…”

Yi Jun, who had dropped the water bottle, rushed at the bald man.

“Ack!”

The bald man, who had been distracted by the unregistered person, couldn’t avoid Yi Jun’s surprise attack and was thrown towards the wall.

The unregistered person, freed from the bald man’s grip, slumped down powerlessly.

The unregistered person, with a thin and small frame unlike an Esper, had exceptionally pale skin.

Like someone who had grown up without seeing the light.

“Dam-hyung.”

A thin body and skin as white as snow, with light brown hair.

At a glance, they were characteristics that could remind one of someone.

Yi Jun’s still hazy eyes made a mistake with just those small characteristics.

That was how much he missed hyung.

“Hyung… Bodam-hyung…”

Yi Jun, who sat on the floor following the unregistered person, called his name as if clinging to him.

He was no longer in a hideous state, so he wasn’t ashamed to stand in front of hyung.

“Were you hit? Shall I, shall I kill him for you?”

Yi Jun made a cold expression as he examined the red cheeks full of marks from being hit by the bald man.

He waited for hyung’s answer, ready to bring him the bald man’s neck right away.

If he said no, he was planning to kill him where hyung couldn’t see.

“……”

At hyung’s unanswered reply, Yi Jun’s lips moved.

‘I can do anything. I can kill anyone. If hyung wants, really, anything at all.’

As the quiet silence continued, Yi Jun became anxious.

He was afraid of losing hyung again like this.

His lost fingertips hovered around hyung.

He wanted to wipe away the bloodstains covering his pale cheeks, but he felt like he would disappear if he touched him.

Yi Jun, who placed his hesitant hands on his lap and clenched his fists, made a sound.

“I… was quiet.”

‘So don’t go.’

“Hyung, I.”

‘I won’t hold you. Don’t go.’

“I’ll catch all the unregistered for you.”

Yi Jun spat out the unstable words one by one, endlessly confirming that hyung was in front of him.

Even though they were facing each other, he couldn’t see hyung’s face properly.

The blurry face became two, and then three.

“Dam-hyung… don’t leave me.”

A white hand approached Yi Jun’s out-of-focus face.

The unregistered person began to stroke Yi Jun’s cheek.

With a hand that was supposed to be bound.

“So it’s you. The mind-type.”

The unregistered person, who smiled softly, grabbed Yi Jun’s arm.

The unregistered person, who had released his hidden wavelength, emitted an aura that he had never felt even from Tae Hwan.

A reinforced wall, which blocked out external sounds and vision, surrounded Yi Jun and the unregistered person.

Yi Jun felt his entire body bound with just one arm grabbed.

Yi Jun, who had opened his mouth slightly at the overwhelming difference in power, whispered with a slow smile.

“It’s the Crow.”