Chapter 30 : The Following Gaze (6)

Jisung fell silent at Yejun’s words. He was right, but it was somehow annoying to hear it from the person who had caused the incident.

‘My kids are out on a mission on this hot day because of him…’

“So, what’s the reason you came to see me, even resorting to deception?”

“Deception… That’s true, but it hurts to hear it directly.”

“A terrorist is hurt by the word ‘deception’?”

‘A terrorist is more dangerous and malicious than a con artist, isn’t it?’

Jisung couldn’t understand Yejun’s way of thinking.

“Well…”

Yejun glanced back. He looked at the hospital room door as if waiting for something to pass by, then closed the door and approached the bed where Jisung was. Watching Yejun walk slowly towards him, Jisung clenched his fists without realizing it.

“You don’t have to be so tense.”

“In front of a terrorist?”

Jisung gave a bitter smile.

“What do you know you’ll do to me?”

“That’s strange. I thought I only showed you a favorable side.”

“That’s the most suspicious part.”

“Hmm?”

Yejun blinked with an innocent face, as if he didn’t know anything. Jisung frowned deeply at the sight.

“There’s no reason for you to be favorable to me. Or did we meet a long time ago? A childhood friend… or something?”

“…No.”

“Then why did you save me and even cause a commotion to come and see me? It doesn’t seem like you came to kill me.”

Jisung frowned at Yejun, who was keeping his mouth shut. It seemed like he had no intention of answering the question today either. Yejun smiled at his sigh and said.

“Don’t be so discouraged. I’d like to answer if I could, but it’s classified information, so I can’t easily tell you.”

Yejun shrugged and smiled.

“What about my question is classified information?”

“Hmm… Everything?”

Jisung’s expression hardened at Yejun’s answer.

“Just say you don’t want to tell me.”

“It’s true.”

Yejun smiled sweetly and sat on the edge of the bed. He could feel the bed sheet dip slightly to the left. Jisung let out a sigh and tried to organize his thoughts. But at that moment,

Thud.

Yuaan’s snack, which had been on the sofa, fell to the floor. Jisung froze in the middle of running his hand through his hair. ‘Why did that suddenly…?’ It hadn’t been precariously perched on the corner of the sofa; it had been right in the middle. He couldn’t understand why the snack had suddenly fallen to the floor for no reason.

“…”

Jisung turned his head and looked at the window. As expected, it was firmly closed.

“…Excuse me.”

“…”

Yejun averted his gaze at Jisung’s call.

‘This bastard…’

“You said not to be tense…”

“No, this is…”

“You were all about being favorable and what not.”

“That’s…”

“You brought a comrade. And in disguise.”

“Hmm…”

For the first time, Yejun looked flustered. His eyes darted around. As he was searching for an explanation, Jisung clicked his tongue and shouted.

“You pretended to come alone, but you brought an assassin! Wow, even if you’re an enemy, isn’t that too sneaky?! Ah, you just conned us with a fake threat letter a moment ago, right!”

“That person has no combat ability. So, shall we calm down for now?”

Yejun tried to handle the situation somehow, but distrust was already clear in Jisung’s eyes. Looking closely, he could see that one of the sofa cushions was sunken. Since Yuaan was always rolling around in that spot, he couldn’t have not noticed the strangeness.

“You are a con artist!!”

As Jisung shouted, a small thud was heard from the sofa, and the table shook slightly.

“Ahem! That person has never killed anyone. So calm down. In the first place, I don’t need anyone else’s help to kill you.”

Jisung fell silent at Yejun’s explanation. Certainly, he didn’t need to bring another comrade to kill him, who wasn’t even an Esper. Moreover, Yejun was one of the stronger Espers. Jisung could easily be killed with just a flick of his hand.

‘But still, it’s annoying.’

“Well then, shall we get back to the main point?”

“No.”

“Hey, come on. The reason I came to see you today, aren’t you curious?”

Jisung frowned. He was curious, but he didn’t want to admit it. After a small sigh, he couldn’t overcome his curiosity and asked, “What is it?” At that, Yejun smiled sweetly.

“I came to get you.”

“…Pardon?”

Jisung momentarily doubted his own hearing. ‘Did I hear that right?’ As he looked at Yejun in a fluster, he smiled, his lips curving into a crescent, and said again.

“Come with me.”

Jisung, who had been staring blankly at the hand extended to him, then snapped out of it and shook his head vigorously from side to side. Then he asked Yejun with a bewildered expression.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“You’re asking me to become a terrorist?”

“Yes.”

“How can you say something like that with a smile? It’s so confusing… You didn’t say that thinking I would agree, did you?”

“Personally, I’d like you to agree just like this.”

“Even so, that’s not right. You come to a person who’s living well and suddenly say, ‘You, become a terrorist!’ and they’ll be like, ‘Sure! I’d love to…’”

“Hmm, then how about thinking of it like this?”

Yejun closed the distance in an instant and approached him. Jisung, flustered by the face that was right in front of his nose, backed away and was blocked by a wall.

“What are you doing?”

Yejun, who had smiled sweetly at the flustered voice, then pushed Jisung’s shoulders and knocked him over. His vision blurred and he thought he saw the ceiling, but then Yejun’s face appeared. Jisung, who had been blinking rapidly, quickly reached out his hands to secure a safe distance.

“Hey, can we solve this with words?”

“I am using words.”

“No matter how I look at it, you’re not showing it with your actions?”

At Jisung’s words, Yejun laughed as if something was funny.

“Do you think we’re terrorists?”

“…Are you asking that now…”

Jisung was at a loss for words at the absurd question. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them, then asked back.

“Then do you think you’re not?”

At his question, Yejun smiled brightly.

“It depends on your perspective.”

“Perspective?”

“To you, we might be terrorists, but we think of ourselves as revolutionaries.”

“Pardon?”

Jisung’s brow furrowed. ‘Revolutionaries?’ He couldn’t hide his bewilderment at the completely unfitting word.

“How much do you think you know about the reality of Espers?”

“To some extent, I know.”

“No, you don’t know at all.”

Jisung fell silent at the firm voice. He felt somehow uncomfortable with Yejun’s gaze on him and averted his gaze without realizing it.

“What you know is just a small part. You know that Espers are taken by the government under the pretext of help as soon as their abilities manifest, right?”

Jisung nodded.

“Then what happens after that?”

“After that?”

“Do you know what happens to the Espers who are taken?”

At Yejun’s question, Jisung recalled what he had learned in school.

“Ability control and development, and psychological care…”

“They are subjected to experiments under that pretext.”

Jisung’s eyes widened at the word ‘experiments.’ At his reaction, Yejun opened his mouth with an indifferent expression, as if he had expected it.

“What you know is just that much… just the promotional slogans put forward to hide the truth.”

“Experiments, what, what do you mean?”

At Jisung’s trembling voice, Yejun calmly continued his explanation.

“Strength tests to test how strong an Esper’s body is, drug tests. Experiments on weapons and poison reactions that can kill Espers… they’re diverse. Espers who die during the experiments are falsely reported to their families as deaths due to ability rampage, and they have been hiding the fact of the experiments all this time.”

Yejun frowned and smiled at Jisung, who was standing still as if frozen.

“Where do you think we came from? Terrorists who are intoxicated by the abilities they obtained like a stroke of luck and indiscriminately harm people? That’s a joke.”

Jisung’s heart beat irregularly at the words pouring out of Yejun’s mouth. He clenched his trembling hands without realizing it and bit the inside of his mouth.

“We are the people who escaped from those experiments.”

Jisung’s pupils dilated. And at that moment, he recalled Hyunwoo’s appearance, who had nonchalantly spoken of eating poison in preparation for assassination. His calm voice, his calm expression. His attitude, as if poison was nothing, was now making Jisung’s heart flutter with anxiety.

“Isn’t it surprising? That something like this is happening. And that you didn’t know anything about it.”

“…”

“The government was able to run wild like this because of the people who are ignorant about Espers. They accept the created image of a hero at face value and don’t care about anything beyond that. Why? Because it has nothing to do with them. As long as I’m safe, as long as the shield that protects me does its job properly, it doesn’t matter how hard they are.”

Jisung bit his lip hard. He couldn’t deny what Yejun was saying. Because he too had not known much about Espers. To him, Espers were no different from beings living in another world. Amazing people with amazing abilities. Heroes who protect people from terrorists. That was all Jisung knew.

“We are fighting to regain the rights of Espers. Because we don’t want to be used as tools with our freedom suppressed.”

“…”

“Then I’ll ask again. Do you really think we’re terrorists?”

He couldn’t answer readily. The fact that Yejun, the terrorist group, were actually Espers who had been captured by the government and were experimental subjects, and the fact that Hyunwoo or Yuaan might have suffered the same experiments, was confusing Jisung.

He had felt a sense of unease and anger at the Center’s attitude towards Espers. But he had thought they were being treated unfairly, not that they were suffering such… such absurd things.

Jisung shook his head. It was too early to be sure. He couldn’t believe Yejun’s words at face value. It could be a story made up to instill suspicion and distrust in the government. But even as he tried to compose himself, the anxiety that had already bloomed was not easily extinguished.

His head throbbed, and a ringing sound was heard in his ears. He blinked his eyes several times to focus his blurry vision, then squeezed them shut.

He really wanted to see Hyunwoo right now.