Chapter 49: A Crack in the Walls

As of this morning, it had been over a week since I stopped going to the Center.
The Association was still treating my unexcused absence as a vacation.

Seeing that, I knew the Association was turning a blind eye to my actions.
Losing me, an S-Class, would be a loss, so they seemed to be accommodating me, but that didn’t change my desire to resign.

Sung Yohan, the root of this situation, knew I wasn’t coming to the Center, but he continued to request guiding through the Guiding Watch.
I had just received a guiding request from him now, but I ignored it.

Now, even more than Hyun Taewoon, the thought of Sung Yohan made me sick.

Just thinking about his lips and wet tongue that had touched mine was enough to make me shudder.

I took off my Guiding Watch and was wondering how to spend the day.
I faintly felt his wavelength.

It had been a fortnight since he had said he wouldn’t approach me.

Wavelengths were truly annoying.
I could block the wavelengths with low matching rates, but the ones with high matching rates were exposed to me completely.

Even if I tried to block the wavelength in the middle, my wavelength and his were pulling at each other.
In the past, I had liked it every time his wavelength approached me, but now, it had become a nuisance.

Before long, the doorbell rang.
I knew it was him without even checking.
My head was already complicated with the matters of the Association and Sung Yohan, and with him added to the mix, I felt tired already.

I went to the wall pad and checked the screen.
I saw his tense face.
I pressed the voice button and said in a voice filled with annoyance.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t we agree that you wouldn’t approach me?”

• [I heard you haven’t been to the Center for over a week, so I came because I was worried.]

“It’s not your place to worry. Please leave.”

• [Can’t you spare just a moment? I have something to give you.]

“I don’t need it.”

At my words, his face became dejected, but I felt nothing.

• [Then I’ll just leave it by the door.]

“Didn’t I say I don’t need it.”

Despite my repeated refusal, he left the item and went away.
Feeling his wavelength recede, I remained standing in front of the wall pad.

I could just ignore the item he had left, but I felt like it would keep bothering me, so I went outside and checked.

Next to the door was a paper bag with the logo of my favorite chocolate brand.
When I checked, it was the handmade chocolate I used to enjoy eating before returning to the past.
The reason I had come to like this chocolate was because he had bought it for me.

Seeing this chocolate reminded me of the good memories from that time, but I quickly erased them.
I took the chocolate and went inside.

I placed the chocolate box on the sofa table.
It was awkward because he had given it to me, but my eyes kept going to it.
In the end, wanting to know if it tasted the same as I remembered, I took one out of the box and put it in my mouth.
The taste was the same, then and now.

I still disliked him, but ever since I had the thought that he might be different from the person I knew, I kept acting ambiguously.
This action was also like that.

I reminded myself again of the hurtful things he had done to me.
Before and after the regression, he was the same person.
Steeling my weakening heart, I took the chocolate and threw the whole box into the trash.

Feeling suffocated from being at home, I went outside for the first time in a while.
I didn’t go far, just a downtown area that was about a 30-minute taxi ride away.

It was a place I had often come to buy clothes or daily necessities on my days off when I worked at the factory.

Looking at things and buying what I needed for the first time in a while definitely lifted my spirits.
After finishing my shopping, I was on my way to the taxi stand to go home.
The surroundings became noisy.

I saw the backs of Espers in black coats running away, using their abilities and making a mess of the road.

They didn’t seem to be Association Espers.
If they were from the Association, an emergency alert would have already gone off.
I guessed they might be from the government, but that didn’t seem to be the case either, as Espers in uniforms with the government mark were in hot pursuit.

At that sight, I thought the people in the black coats might be anti-Awakened or terrorists.

I was afraid of getting caught up with them, so I tried to hurry home, but all the roads were blocked.
It seemed I would have to take the nearby subway.
I felt a sense of dismay that I had to come out on a day like this.

I was squeezing through the buildings, looking at the subway sign, when I saw someone collapsed.
As I got closer, I saw that it was an Awakened in a government uniform.
His white shirt was soaked in blood, as if he had been injured.

“Are you okay?”

I hurriedly sat down next to the man and checked his wound.
Fortunately, he seemed to be an Awakened with healing abilities, as the wound was slowly healing.
But the state of his wavelength was not good.

“A guide…”

The man asked me to call a guide, but there was only me and him in the alley.
I could find a government guide, but it seemed the man’s condition would worsen in the time it took to find one.

Originally, Association guides could only guide Association Espers, but the Association’s rules were no longer my concern.

“Is it okay if I guide you?”

At my words, the man unconsciously nodded.
At that, I started guiding him, thinking I was saving a life.

The man didn’t seem to have a good compatibility with me, as the guiding felt slower compared to other Espers.
Still, I was relieved that the man’s raging wavelength had calmed down.

As he received the guiding, the man slowly began to come to his senses and asked me who I was.

“…Who are you?”

“A passing guide.”

At my words, he looked at me with suspicious eyes.
I had no intention of revealing my identity to him, so I thought I should leave soon.
There was no good in getting involved with the government.

“Your level should have risen to the calm zone. Then I’ll be on my way.”

The man was not yet in a state where he could move properly, but this much was a lot of consideration on my part.
And since the man had healing abilities, he would recover soon.

I leaned the man, who had been lying on the floor, against the wall and was about to leave, but the man grabbed my wrist.

“What’s your name…”

“I can’t tell you.”

“I want to reward you.”

“It’s okay.”

I just hoped the man would return to the government safely.
In the end, I pulled my hand away from the man’s and quickened my steps.

After coming out from between the buildings, I turned back to check on the man one last time.
Fortunately, I saw two men in government uniforms supporting the collapsed man.
Relieved at that, I was able to go back home.

I heard the sound of the door lock unlocking, as if Wonjae had come home from work.
He, who always ran to me when he came home from work, was quiet today.
Feeling something strange, I approached the entrance and asked.

“Wonjae, are you here?”

He didn’t answer my question.
His expression as he entered the living room was unusual.
It seemed something had happened at the Center.

“Is something wrong?”

“Hyung…”

He walked to the sofa where I was sitting with listless steps and then collapsed next to me.

“Today… the Association ordered me to be Esper Hyun Taewoon’s exclusive.”

“Esper Hyun Taewoon’s?”

“Yes.”

I had vaguely thought that he might become his exclusive.
Since there were no guides at the Center who could be his exclusive, the only one left was him, who had recently awakened as an A-Class.

“I told them I had no intention of being his exclusive, but the Association won’t listen. What should I do now?”

Since he was young, the Association seemed to have thought he was an easy target and pushed the matter.
I couldn’t just stand by and watch.

“Let’s go to the Association together tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And you don’t have to guide him just because you’ve become his exclusive. Just keep refusing.”

At my words, I could feel his frowning face relax.

“I feel relieved now that you say that.”

Although I comforted him, the Association probably wouldn’t let him break the exclusive contract easily.
Still, I believed that acting was a choice that could increase the possibility, however small, rather than just staying still, so I planned to request it with him.

The next day, we went to the Association, but as expected, we were told that it was not possible.
At that, my aversion to the Association only intensified.
I felt the need to be stronger than ever before.
Otherwise, the Association would keep me and him tied to them for life, intending to use us.