Chapter 21: Insufficient

After hurriedly getting ready, So-won got into the car Tae-woo was driving and headed for the Esper Association.

Even though it was rush hour, traffic wasn’t too bad, but because So-won had overslept, they arrived with barely any time to spare.

So-won and Tae-woo went straight to their attending physician’s lab.

This was So-won’s first time undergoing an interim checkup.

Technically, he should have done it eight years ago, but because he’d gone missing back then, it never happened.

Not knowing what the examination would involve, So-won started to feel a little nervous.

Still unfamiliar with the inside of the Association, So-won followed Tae-woo and arrived at the lab.

The attending physician—who had once extracted and analyzed every last trace of data from Tae-woo’s previous guiding test, down to the marrow—welcomed them with new data in hand.

“Guide Lee So-won, have you been well?”

With a smile bright enough to feel burdensome, the physician extended a hand.

So-won accepted the handshake with an awkward smile.

“Guide Lee So-won, please sit here and wait for a moment.

We’ll begin with the Esper’s regular checkup first.”

So-won sat where indicated, and Tae-woo left with the physician.

Thinking Tae-woo’s exam would take a while, So-won fiddled with his phone, debating whether to call his parents.

Just as he hesitated over the call button, they returned sooner than expected and entered the lab again.

Tae-woo came over and sat beside So-won.

Dressed head to toe in black, Tae-woo entered the corner of So-won’s vision, and So-won’s gaze kept drifting toward him.

Realizing he was sneaking glances, So-won forced himself to stare straight ahead.

The physician, seated across from them, clicked the mouse a few times while looking at the monitor, then cleared his throat as if about to begin.

“After reviewing the Esper’s regular checkup results, we’ll proceed with the interim examination.

It’ll take a few minutes for the results to come out, but before that, I have a few questions.”

“Yes.”

So-won straightened his back as if in an interview, looking at the physician.

A hint of tension showed on his face.

“First, the matching rate of 100% is confirmed.

We’ll be officially announcing this to the academic community soon, but rest assured—any personal information regarding Guide Lee So-won will be kept strictly confidential.”

Knowing what lay ahead, So-won nodded.

Even if the Association kept quiet, the fact that So-won was Tae-woo’s Guide would spread quickly.

Though no articles had been openly published, information about So-won was already circulating online.

And now that he was frequently seen with Tae-woo, people would figure it out even faster.

“And there’s something concerning from the previous test results… Guiding waves were recorded even without physical contact.

Esper Kang Tae-woo, do you perhaps feel guiding occurring even when you’re not touching your Guide?”

“Yes.”

Tae-woo answered calmly.

Hearing this for the first time, So-won turned to him in surprise.

Meanwhile, the physician’s face lit up as if flowers might start blooming around him, and he excitedly continued.

“As expected!

This is radiative guiding—a phenomenon that rarely appears in pairs with a matching rate over 90%.

You’re very lucky.

Congratulations.”

Receiving congratulations he hadn’t anticipated, So-won felt dazed.

Back when his matching rate was 65%, nothing like this had ever happened.

Guiding without contact.

So-won suddenly felt strange.

He could feel a faint prickle of energy, but it didn’t feel like guiding the way it did when they touched.

“Tae-woo, then… is guiding happening even now?”

“Yes.

I wasn’t trying to hide it… I thought it might just be my imagination.”

“Wow…”

So-won was secretly happy.

Just being near him was enough.

That meant simply staying by Tae-woo’s side could help him.

A bright smile naturally formed on So-won’s face as he looked at Tae-woo.

Tae-woo couldn’t take his eyes off that smile.

The physician watched the two, who looked close and comfortable, with a satisfied smile.

Then Tae-woo’s examination results appeared on the monitor.

Let’s see how much he’s improved in two weeks, the physician thought cheerfully as he checked the numbers.

He checked again.

“…What?”

The physician’s face stiffened.

There was virtually no change from two weeks ago.

The values had improved only slightly—so little it was barely noticeable, about the same as if Tae-woo had simply rested a few days without entering a gate.

That couldn’t be right.

Even holding hands all day should have produced better results.

Why was this happening?

The physician asked gravely,

“Are you sure you’ve been guiding properly?”

Startled by the seriousness of his expression, So-won answered in a fluster.

“Well… we held hands… and sometimes hugged…”

As he said the word hugged, So-won’s face flushed red, reminded of how he’d broken down crying and clung to Tae-woo in his private room.

The physician was shocked.

This Guide… isn’t an angel—he’s a menace.

An Esper who hadn’t received guiding for over ten years, and all he got was hand-holding and a few hugs?

That was practically torture.

Worse yet, they’d wasted the chance to observe just how much an Esper in the worst condition could improve when paired with a 100% matching Guide.

The excitement that had soared sky-high crashed straight into the ground.

The physician was also stunned by Esper Kang Tae-woo.

Even standing nearby should have made guiding palpable—he must have been desperate for it.

And yet he endured it.

That wasn’t human patience.

That was monstrous patience.

No—really?

The more the physician thought about it, the more unbelievable it seemed.

With a Guide that naïve-looking, he should have coaxed him into intense guiding dozens of times over.

And yet—just holding hands and hugging?

“Wait… then could it be that the building shaking a few days ago was also—”

Esper Kang Tae-woo’s doing?

The physician’s face drained of color.

He recalled how the Association building had trembled all day, as if from an earthquake.

Whenever Kang Tae-woo returned from a gate, it was always like that—occasional booms, walls breaking when he swung an arm in pain, or something shattered from a failure to control his strength.

This time, he’d been certain it wouldn’t happen—after all, Tae-woo finally had a Guide.

The shocked physician could say nothing, watching So-won still blushing in embarrassment.

Then, suddenly, a possibility occurred to him.

So-won’s personality—becoming Kang Tae-woo’s Guide without rejecting him despite being matched to a “monster.”

That innocence, blushing just from holding hands and hugging.

And finally, that endlessly pure face.

At that level of innocence, there’s no way he knows that intense guiding is possible even between men.

The physician smacked his forehead.

This is why the education system is the problem.

Teaching even high schoolers nonsense like, “Holding hands is enough for guiding,” as if they were children—no wonder things turned out like this.

His blood pressure spiked, and he grabbed the back of his neck.

At this point, conducting the interim exam was pointless.

The entire world was curious about every fluctuation of these two’s guiding waves—and yet there was nothing to study.

The physician despaired.

Standing before a pair with a 100% matching rate, unable to do anything.

Already buried under daily research requests from around the world, the thought of replying, “We’ve discovered nothing,” made his vision go dark.

He was about to give So-won some blunt advice—that Esper Kang Tae-woo needed guiding through sexual relations, desperately so.

With resolute eyes, he prepared to drop that bomb—

But Tae-woo’s glare reached him first.

The murderous intensity of Tae-woo’s gaze made the words stuck in the physician’s throat sink back down.

Esper Kang Tae-woo, if you don’t say it now, it’ll only get harder…

The physician pleaded silently with frightened eyes, but Tae-woo’s fierce stare didn’t waver.

In the end, the physician couldn’t tell So-won the most important thing.

Instead, mustering the little courage he had left, he offered a much milder warning.

“Right now, Esper Kang Tae-woo is severely—very severely—lacking in guiding.

He needs stronger guiding.”

So-won was shocked.

Even though they guided every night, even though just being together caused guiding—it was still not enough?

His eyes trembled.

Thinking back, Tae-woo’s condition really didn’t seem improved at all.

His physical state didn’t look better, and the waves were unchanged.

So-won’s shoulders slumped.

If I’d come to see him sooner… if I’d guided him consistently from the start…

He remembered himself lazing around at home, using the excuse that he couldn’t contact Tae-woo.

Guilt rose up, darkening So-won’s face.

“I’m sorry…”

“Mr. Lee So-won, I’m fine.”

Watching Tae-woo instantly soften his tone to comfort So-won, the physician felt conflicted—unsure whether to feel relieved or frustrated—as he observed them in silence.