Chapter 13: The Greenhouse

The first thing I worried about after returning to Taewoon’s house was the greenhouse.
He had kicked me out, so there was no way he would have taken care of the plants.
I expected them to have withered and died since I hadn’t been able to care for them for so long.
But contrary to my expectations, the plants were growing well, just as they had been when I last saw them, as if someone had been managing them.

‘Could it be that Taewoon was taking care of them?’

I knocked on his door to ask him.
He answered immediately.

“What.”

“I have something to ask you, can I come in?”

“What is it.”

The door opened, and I saw him.
I was surprised by the sudden opening of the door, but I calmed my surprise and asked him about the greenhouse plants.

“Taewoon-ssi, did you by any chance take care of the flowers in the greenhouse?”

“No. Why would I?”

At his denial, I thought the housekeeper might have taken care of them.
I felt a small sense of disappointment that things weren’t as I had hoped.

“Ah…. So it was the housekeeper.”

“You thought I would have done it?”

He said in a sneering tone.
Seeing that, I regretted asking in the first place.

“I was just curious. You can go back to resting now.”

When I started walking towards the living room instead of my room, he didn’t miss it and stopped me.

“I thought I told you to stay in your room?”

His words made me stop in my tracks.
I was supposed to stay in my room, but I wanted to raise the plants my mother had left behind and the daffodil he had given me as a gift.

“…Can’t you just allow me the greenhouse?”

“No. Go back to your room.”

At his words, my eyes reddened, and my lips trembled without me realizing it.
Seeing my tearful face, he finally spoke in an annoyed voice.

“Is this something to cry about?”

“I wasn’t crying…”

His words really made me feel like crying.
I bit my lip hard and swallowed my tears.
He, watching me, kicked the floor and then went into his room, saying.

“Just the greenhouse. Nowhere else.”

At his unexpected permission, I looked at him, and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before closing his door.
I quietly said thank you and headed back to the greenhouse.

He probably wouldn’t have allowed me to go to the greenhouse if he disliked me.
I could definitely feel that our relationship was improving.

As a C-Class, I wasn’t originally supposed to participate in the gate simulation, but I got the chance thanks to Team Leader Park and Minseong-sunbae.

Team Leader Park and the team members believed I would be promoted in the next grade test.
I was grateful for their faith in me, which was greater than my own.

However, Taewoon looked at my participation in the team gate simulation with displeasure.
He seemed to have repeatedly told Team Leader Park that I was still lacking to participate in the simulation.
But Team Leader Park didn’t listen to him.

In the end, he came to me and told me not to participate, but I pretended not to hear and ignored him.

Contrary to his wishes, I put on my combat training suit and headed to the gate simulation room.
He, who was already waiting, spoke in a low voice.

“So you came after all.”

“Yes. I thought it would be helpful later if I practice now.”

“Just don’t be a burden.”

“I’ll be careful.”

I had absolutely no intention of being a burden to the team members.

Before entering the simulation room, I put on an earpiece to communicate with the team members and held an energy gun.
It was the guide weapon I handled best among those I had encountered while receiving private gate training from Team Leader Park.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to show off my skills today.

“Let’s go in.”

At Team Leader Park’s words, the simulation room door opened.

The inside of the simulation room was a virtual space, so the background changed depending on the situation.
Today, it was a downtown area surrounded by tall buildings.

The team gate simulation was conducted in an environment similar to a real gate appearance.
I didn’t know where the gate would appear.

Before long, a gate start notification came through the earpiece.

<[Gate will now commence. Three, two, one, zero.]>

A gate formed above a building, and the door began to open.
The sight of the gate floating in the sky was so realistic that I couldn’t help but be surprised, finding it hard to believe it was a virtual space.

This simulation was a low-level A-Class gate, out of consideration for me, but even if it was low-level, it was still an A-Class, so I had to be careful.
The gate simulation also allowed for setting the number of monsters.
This time, there were 100.
It was a small number compared to a real gate, but this too was a consideration for me.

“Don’t be nervous, just do as you did in training.”

“Yes.”

As soon as he heard my answer, Team Leader Park floated into the air and moved towards the gate.

I could see low-level monsters descending to the ground from the gate.
Minseong-sunbae and I took care of those monsters on the ground.

The bullets of the energy gun were powerful enough to annihilate up to high-B-Class monsters.
Guides, who lacked abilities unlike Espers, were required to carry energy weapons in gates.

I aimed the energy gun at the monster’s head and fired.
Through the training this time, I had discovered that I had a knack for shooting.
This time too, I hit the monster’s head with a single shot and annihilated it.
Every time a monster was annihilated, the number on the monitor installed above the gate door also decreased.

• [Shinui-ssi, you’re doing well for your first time.]

I heard Minseong-sunbae’s voice praising me through the earpiece.

“Thank you. I’ll work hard.”

• [What’s the point of working hard when you’re a C-Class?]

Taewoon chimed in between my words and Minseong-sunbae’s.
Since the earpiece communication was connected to all team members, he must have heard our conversation.
When I turned my head towards the gate, I saw him confronting the boss monster.

• [Esper Hyun Taewoon, let’s maintain courtesy among team members. That was rude.]

Minseong-sunbae said in a displeased voice, but he retorted without backing down.

• [It’s the truth, isn’t it?]

As soon as he finished speaking, a loud explosion erupted from above with a large flame.
Looking up, I saw the boss monster engulfed in flames and burning.

• [Let’s wrap it up now.]

He said, as if he didn’t want to do the gate training anymore.

The gate closed, but there were still monsters on the ground.
I aimed my gun at the monsters to show him I could be of some help, but he shot fire at my target first.
And then he used his abilities indiscriminately and killed all the remaining monsters.

However, unlike reality where the simulation ends when the gate closes, the team gate simulation only ended after guiding.
It was time for guiding now, but he told Team Leader Park he was leaving, as if he had no intention of receiving it.

“I’ll be leaving now.”

“Taewoon-ssi, you have to guide with Shinui-ssi.”

“I was planning on getting machine guiding like I always do.”

“But Shinui-ssi is here today.”

Minseong-sunbae said in an angry voice at his behavior.
I could only watch them anxiously.

It seemed he didn’t want to guide with me.
But in the end, at Team Leader Park’s firm words, he entered the virtual guiding shelter.

I was contemplating whether to follow him when he called me.

“What are you doing, not following?”

“I’m coming!”

At his words, I followed him like a puppy and entered the guiding room together.
But the guiding room was smaller than I thought.
It was about one pyeong in size, and it felt packed with the two of us inside.

“It’s still cramped in here.”

He said, sitting on one of the two chairs provided in the guiding room.
I sat next to him and hurriedly held out my hand.

“I’ll guide you quickly.”

Fortunately, he took my hand without saying anything else, but the reprimands continued.

“Why did you participate in the simulation when you’re a C-Class?”

At his words, I finally realized that the reason he was angry wasn’t because he had to guide with me, but because I had participated in the simulation.

“You saw earlier. I can do well without being a burden.”

“It’s different from a real battle.”

“I know. I won’t go out to field gates until I get promoted.”

Despite my words, he still looked displeased.
Seeing that, I focused more on guiding.
I wanted to show him that I was helpful.

His guiding level, which I had checked before entering the guiding room, was 58%.
I wanted to raise it to 70% with my guiding.

“Still, didn’t I do well today?”

“You still have a long way to go.”

“I’ll try harder.”

He didn’t say anything more and closed his eyes.
But it seemed he liked my guiding, as he didn’t nitpick about it at all.

When the guiding level surpassed 70%, he opened his eyes.
And as soon as he checked the guiding level, he left without a word and disappeared in an instant.

I was bitter at his heartless behavior, but I was relieved that he didn’t refuse the guiding.

I felt like he was slowly giving me a place by his side, so I resolved to work even harder.

Normally, I could have gone home after this, but I went straight to the training room.
All the team members told me to rest, but I stubbornly continued my guiding training.

Team Leader Park, seeing me like this, specially allowed me to do autonomous training in the afternoon.

And so, I trained the entire time I was at the Center.
It was a tough schedule, but when I thought of him, it wasn’t hard at all.