Chapter 123 (Side Story 3-IF): An Unforeseen Awakening

I thought it was just another ordinary day. A repetitive routine of training at the factory and receiving machine-like instructions.

To temporarily erase the emotion of depression hidden deep within my mind, I visit the hospital on my days off from the factory.

Last year, the grief of my mother’s death was already overwhelming, but when the mounting interest was piled on top of that, the disease of depression began to fester inside me.

When I hear the factory manager’s habitual phrase, “Work like a machine,” I truly wish I could become a machine. Because machines have no emotions. No tears. Because I don’t want to die.

Until her death, my mother worried about the debt that would weigh on me for the rest of my life, and she passed away without even being able to close her eyes. Would it have been a little better if I hadn’t seen that?

After a formal conversation with the doctor, I came out with a prescription. Counseling might improve my condition, but the money for it was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

The pharmacist quickly prepared the medication and briefly explained it. I had heard the same story dozens of times, so I let it go in one ear and out the other, and came out with the medicine bag and a vitamin drink I received as a freebie.

I immediately turned my steps towards the factory dormitory, but in my dream today, I saw my mother holding daffodils in her arms. It wasn’t the blooming season for daffodils since it was October, but I thought a flower shop might have them, so I headed to the one near the subway station.

Despite it being a weekday, the city streets were filled with a considerable number of people. I also blended in among them, just another ordinary person.

Depression mutated into a different form every day, constricting my heart, but it never showed on the outside. Perhaps that’s why the people at the factory always tell me they like my bright smile.

I saw the flower shop sign in the distance. As I quickened my pace, the surroundings, which had been bright just a moment ago, began to be cast in a dark shadow.

In an instant, my vision was engulfed in darkness, and people stopped in their tracks, tilting their heads up to look at the sky. Ominous-looking dark red clouds were gathering in the sky.

‘A precursor to a gate…’

As soon as I realized it was a gate, A-Class gate emergency alerts began to ring out from all around. The ominously echoing alarms quickly threw the surroundings into chaos.

“Hey! Can’t you hear me telling you to move!”

“Please evacuate to a nearby shelter!”

“Don’t step on my foot! It hurts, you f*cker!”

What a disaster for my first outing in a long time. I also pushed through the crowd and moved towards the shelter. A huge gate was already standing tall in the sky. It was the first time I had seen a gate in person, and just looking at it made my stomach churn and filled me with a sense of unease.

I desperately hoped the gate wouldn’t open until I reached the shelter.

I saw an Esper guiding people on the road to the shelter. As I was running towards them, the gate began to open with a loud ‘BOOM!’. Monsters of unimaginable and horrific appearance began to pour out from the opening. I was terrified and ran with even more strength in my legs.

The shelter was only 200m away, but the monsters quickly reached the road where I was and began to kill people indiscriminately.

I had always wished for death, but when it was right in front of me, I found myself desperately running towards the shelter to live.

I had dropped the medicine bag a long time ago, and my head and clothes were drenched in sweat from the tension.

I reached the vicinity of the shelter, but there were monsters here too. The monster’s face was distorted like a potato, and it had horns on both corners of its mouth and on its forehead. It looked similar to the orcs I had seen in movies.

I was crouching between the cars, observing their movements, when the person behind me screamed. I turned around to see a monster bringing down a large axe on their back.

Terrified, I ran blindly. I became a target for the monsters as I fled without a chance to hide, but my terrified body only repeated the words “run away” in my head.

The monsters that had chased me right up to my nose rushed at me. Just as I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking I was dead, someone snatched me up. I slowly opened my eyes to see the windows of a tall building and a red sky instead of the monsters that had been attacking me just a moment ago. I was being held by a man who looked like an Esper, floating high in the sky.

I was so surprised that I struggled in the air, and the man soothed me, saying it was okay. As soon as his hand touched my back, my heart thumped with a dull sound, and I couldn’t come to my senses as my whole body felt like it had been electrocuted.

“Are you okay?”

As I trembled uncontrollably, the man stroked my back. And strangely enough, the trembling stopped.

I rolled my eyes to check his face. He was the S-Class Esper Hyun Taewoon, who had been on the news frequently lately. He smiled at me and said.

“You’re a guide I’ve never seen before.”

Taewoon spoke in a gentle voice and put me down inside the guiding shelter barrier near the gate, then said, as if to implore me.

“I’ll be back, so wait here.”

I nodded, dazed. I couldn’t take my eyes off his rapidly retreating figure.

My eyes followed his back, and then I saw a monster banging its head against the barrier wall and hurriedly hid behind the shelter’s wing. Then I watched as he and the other Espers dealt with the monsters at the gate with their abilities.

Not long after, the boss monster was engulfed in his flames and annihilated, and the gate closed.

Before the boss monster had even scattered into ash in the air, I saw him flying towards me. He looked around near the shelter, and his eyes met mine, as I was standing by the wing. He quickly teleported to me and asked with a relieved expression.

“I was surprised, I thought you had disappeared. Which organization are you from?”

“…I’m not a guide.”

“I thought so. I wouldn’t have forgotten if I had seen you even once, so I thought you might be a non-awakened.”

“…I am a non-awakened. Thank you for your help earlier…”

He looked at me silently as I bowed my head, then smiled gently and asked if he could hold my hand. I wondered why he wanted to hold my hand, but I couldn’t refuse the words of the man who was practically my savior.

When I held his hand, I felt a weaker tingling sensation than before, and I could feel his energy, as if our bodies were connected. I had never felt this kind of sensation before, so I didn’t know why. The turbid and heavy current I had felt from his hand gradually became lighter and softer.

“When was the last time you had an aptitude test?”

The last time I had one was three years ago, before I got a job at the factory. The result was ‘normal, non-awakened’.

“Three years ago.”

“There are many cases of late awakening.”

He blushed slightly and placed my hand on his face. I thought it would be hot since he used a fire ability, but his skin that touched my fingertips was very cold.

“It feels good. This is the first time I’ve felt this.”

The people nearby were looking at us with curious expressions. I instinctively shrank back at their gazes.

“What’s your name?”

“Lee Shinui.”

“It’s a pretty name that suits your face.”

At those words, I unconsciously avoided his gaze. It felt strange and peculiar to be called pretty by a man.

“Thank you for your help. But I have to go home now…”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can go home.”

“What? Why…?”

I wondered if I had committed some rudeness, but I couldn’t think of anything. His words that I couldn’t go home just sounded scary.

“You’ve awakened as a guide, so I think you have to go to the Center with me now. Is that okay?”

“I… awakened as a guide?”

“Yes. You’ve definitely awakened. You must have felt it too, Shinui?”

I still felt a faint electric current from our clasped hands, and a strange, unidentifiable current surrounded us. I didn’t know if I had awakened, but since Taewoon, an S-Class Esper, said so, I had no choice but to go to the Center.

“…Then I’ll go to the Center.”

As I nodded in agreement, he immediately spoke into the earpiece he was wearing, saying he was returning. Then he took out the earpiece, put it in his pocket, and asked me.

“Shinui, you’re not hurt, are you?”

“Ah… no.”

To be honest, the places where I had been pushed by people were aching, but I didn’t want to worry him, so I didn’t say anything. But even after hearing my words, he seemed worried and had a nearby healing-type Esper heal me.

The scratches healed completely and returned to their original state. It was truly amazing. The places that had been hurting just a moment ago were instantly healed, and I no longer felt any pain.

“Let’s go to the Center now.”

With his teleportation ability, we were able to arrive right in front of the Center. He immediately stepped up to take a matching test with me. We were also going to proceed with my rank test, but that had to be postponed until Dr. Yoon, who was on an overseas dispatch, returned.

The matching test result was an 83% match. It was the highest figure ever measured in the country. The Center echoed with the cheers of the researchers, saying that a miracle had happened.

It was a mystery how an ordinary person like me could have such a high matching rate with an S-Class like Hyun Taewoon, but seeing his and the researchers’ happy faces, my tense body relaxed with a sense of relief.