Chapter 23: The A-Class Guide

After finishing the morning training, I headed to Dr. Yoon’s lab at his call.
He was waiting for me with a brighter smile than usual.

However, since he was generally always smiling, I couldn’t be certain that this meant I had been promoted.

I greeted him with a tense face and sat down across from him.
He looked at me and said in a gentle voice.

“The promotion results are out.”

As I thought, he had called me because of the promotion.

“How did they turn out…?”

My heart pounded just waiting for the results.
He, still smiling, showed me the tablet PC.

“Guide Shinui, congratulations. You have been promoted to A-Class.”

“Really? Is it really A-Class?”

Unable to believe it, I looked back and forth between the tablet screen and him and asked.
He then reassured me that it was correct.

He then took me to his monitor.
My data was listed in the monitor’s program window, and I had exceeded all the conditions to become an A-Class.
Seeing that, a sigh of joy escaped me.

“Doctor, thank you.”

My voice trembled incessantly with the excitement of being promoted.

“You’ve worked hard. Now, only S-Class is left.”

“Yes. Just one more promotion and…”

“Just keep doing what you’re doing now.”

Now, only one more step remained.
Dr. Yoon said that since I had become an A-Class, I had to sign a new contract with the Association.
I heard that I would be contacted by the Center Director sometime tomorrow and left the lab.

I wanted to tell Taewoon about my promotion right away, but I wanted to tell him the news in person, not over the phone.

I stood in the hallway and called him.

• [What.]

I heard his indifferent voice, but right now, I was just happy.

“Can you come home early today?”

• [Is it because it’s your birthday tomorrow?]

At his words, I hurriedly checked my calendar and only then realized that tomorrow was my birthday.
I had been so focused on my promotion that I had lost track of the date.

I felt grateful to him for remembering my birthday.
Come to think of it, he had also given me a gift on my birthday last year.

“You remembered?”

• [You whine so much on your birthday that it comes to mind even if I want to forget.]

A small laugh escaped me at his words.
As he said, I had pestered him to eat cake with me on my birthday last year.
And he had reluctantly eaten birthday cake with me and even gave me a small gift.

“If you know, then come early today.”

• [I have a schedule in the evening, so I might be late.]

“It’s okay. I’ll be waiting.”

I was happy just knowing he knew it was my birthday, so it didn’t matter if he was late.
And I wanted to tell him about my promotion quickly.
Now I could stand by his side with confidence.

News of my promotion seemed to have spread quickly at the Center, as Guides and Espers went out of their way to come to my training room to congratulate me.

“Guide Shinui, congratulations on your A-Class promotion.”

“Thank you.”

“Esper Hyun Taewoon will be happy too.”

I hoped so.
He probably would be.
I wanted to go home quickly and see him.

“Hyung, we have to have a celebration party today!”

Jihwon, who seemed even happier than me since earlier, said, putting his arm around my shoulder.
I was grateful for his words, but I wanted to spend today at home with Taewoon.

“Sorry. I don’t think I can today.”

“Why!”

“I’m supposed to meet with Taewoon.”

Jihwon and my colleagues looked disappointed at my words.
I was sorry, but meeting with him was more important to me than them.

“Then tomorrow?”

“I don’t know about tomorrow.”

“Then the weekend?”

“The weekend is fine.”

My colleagues grilled me about my schedule and then said they would throw me a promotion party this weekend.
They felt more like close friends than just colleagues now.
It was also gratifying, as if it showed that I had been doing well at the Center for nearly four years.

After setting up the weekend plans, I went to the team’s exclusive room, and my team members also greeted me as if they had been waiting and congratulated me.
Throughout the training, I waited for it to be quitting time.

I was on my way to change into my uniform after finishing training with the team leader.

I saw Sung Yohan walking from the opposite direction.
I was reflexively reminded of the time I had to guide with him because of the secret project.
That day had become one of the memories I no longer wanted to recall, so I quickly erased the memory.

He also seemed to have recognized me and spoke to me.

“Shinui-ssi, it’s been a while. Have you been well? I heard you weren’t feeling well.”

“I’m fine now.”

The fact that I wasn’t feeling well was only known to the researchers involved in the secret project and Taewoon.
It seemed he had heard it from Dr. Yoon.

“That’s a relief. But you don’t seem to be guiding these days?”

“…What?”

“I don’t feel Taewoon’s wavelength at all. If you’re not on good terms with him, you can always come to me.”

Sung Yohan said with a smile.
At his unsettling smile, I frowned slightly and said.

“I’m on good terms with him.”

“Really? A few days ago, I saw him drinking with a guide at a bar until dawn, so I thought his exclusive contract was going to be broken.”

At his words, I remembered how Taewoon had been coming home drunk in the early hours of the morning lately.
I knew he disliked guides to the point of loathing them, so it was fine even if he came home late, but I felt a small sense of betrayal at his words.
I tried to deny it, thinking it couldn’t be true.

“No. You must have seen wrong.”

“I even talked to them, so I didn’t see wrong. He was with Guide Joo Wonjae, who recently awakened as an S-Class.”

“Was it really Guide Joo Wonjae?”

“Yes.”

At his firm words, a short, dry laugh escaped me.
I didn’t want to believe him, but I clenched my teeth at the plausible situation.

“If your exclusive contract is broken, you can contact me anytime.”

After he left, I stood in the hallway for a while.
And then I slowly moved towards the changing room.

I knew I shouldn’t believe it since I hadn’t seen it myself, but I resented him for creating such rumors.

It was when I opened my locker with a weak hand.
There was a bouquet of roses and a note with a congratulatory message, along with the scent of flowers.

I thought it might be him, but he would never do something like this.
It was probably one of my colleagues.

I would have been happy if I had seen it before meeting Sung Yohan, but I wasn’t happy, and even the flowers didn’t look beautiful.

I picked up the flowers with an indifferent touch and came out of the Center.

I had told Jinho-hyung today that I would go alone.

On the way home, I stopped by a bakery and bought a cake.
I bought a larger whole cake than usual and also a bottle of champagne from a nearby wine shop.
I just moved like a machine, buying things.

After arriving home, I sat on the sofa, took out my wallet, and looked at my mother’s picture and said.

“I became an A-Class.”

My mother in the picture was looking at me quietly.
Looking at her, I continued.

“I think this ability and Taewoon were all given to me because you were worried about me.”

The guide awakening that came on my mother’s birthday, and Hyun Taewoon.
They still felt like a gift to me.

“I’ll live well so you don’t have to worry.”

After the last words, I closed my wallet and stared blankly at the ceiling.

It was around the time the living room grew dark that I came to my senses.
I turned on the lights, but the house, with me alone, was too quiet.
In the end, I turned on the TV and was flipping through the channels when my hand stopped.
The Guide & Esper exclusive news was broadcasting live.

On the screen, his face was in close-up, and next to him was Joo Wonjae.
They looked good together, like a couple.

I realized that the schedule he had for this evening was a celebration party for Joo Wonjae.

The words of Sung Yohan that I had tried to forget came back to me.

I changed the channel and moved to the kitchen to eat dinner.
My face was expressionless, as if my soul had left my body.

After finishing dinner, I checked the time while watching TV blankly.
It was 11 PM.

There was still no contact from him, and he didn’t answer when I called.
He rarely kept his promises, so it was clear he would be late today too.

It didn’t seem like he would come home by midnight.
I felt like I would become too miserable if that happened, so I got up to get a sleep chip.
But as soon as a headache arose, I couldn’t breathe properly.

I clutched my throat and collapsed.
My nose started bleeding, and blood dripped onto the floor.

I tried to get up, but I had no strength, and my body slumped to the floor.
Even at this moment, I thought, ‘If only he had been with me,’ and barely crawled to the kitchen.
I swallowed the medicine Dr. Yoon had given me without water.

Just when I heard the news of my promotion, I felt like today was my world.
But now, it was so painful I couldn’t breathe.
I just wanted to fall asleep like this, unable to think about anything.

Fortunately, the bleeding stopped right after I took the medicine.
The headache was still there, but it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t come to my senses.

I wiped up the blood I had spilled and sat on the floor for a while.
Then, seeing that it was approaching midnight, I took a sleep chip and went to my room.

In the end, he didn’t return until I fell asleep.