Chapter 51: Who Uttered This Nonsense

Bodam’s initial reaction was a fierce curse, and then he immediately looked for Team Leader Kim.

The sight of the plump old man asking him if he’d had relations with his former assigned Esper, with no explanation whatsoever, was terrifying.

His last memory was distinctly of sitting in a KTX first-class seat, set to depart at 11:30 AM, taking a bite of gukhwappang.

‘My phone.’

His shoulder was still clutched, so Bodam moved his hand with difficulty, fumbling in his pocket.

‘Damn it.’

His phone wasn’t there.

‘Ah, what’s even more damnable is that the clothes I’m wearing aren’t mine.’

“Hmph…”

Bodam clenched his fists and glared, then burst into tears.

The sharp gazes of the researchers observing him in this unfamiliar place, and the fact that his clothes had been changed, was overwhelming.

Above all, his body ached.

“You did, didn’t you? You did have relations, correct?”

The Research Director, who had forcefully confronted Bodam even as he clearly shook his head, found conviction in his tearful reaction.

‘He did, he did.’

Imprinting occurred through relations.

When two people had their hearts moved and exchanged vows of imprinting, then their bodies intertwined, the imprinting would magically be carved within each other.

An Esper imprinted with a Guide would not rampage.

Even if their wave value reached 99%, it would never go beyond that.

“Esper Kang Yi Jun is in danger.”

The anxious Research Director gripped Bodam’s shoulder, which was trying to pull back, even tighter, pressing him against the wall.

With a thud, Bodam’s head felt numb from hitting the wall.

He just mouthed “no” repeatedly.

When he weakly cried, “Please let me go,” the researchers stepped in to calm the Director.

“He just regained consciousness, he needs time to stabilize. His physical condition isn’t good.”

“There’s no time! We need to get a definitive answer before Team Leader Han hears about this!”

The Research Director, pressured by the Center Director due to Esper Kang Yi Jun’s condition showing no improvement for a month, yelled.

At this rate, he was going to lose his job.

“Calm down. We need to consider the Guide’s condition too. Forcing him like this could escalate the problem.”

One of the researchers, adjusting his angular glasses, lowered his voice and tried to calm him down.

He whispered to the Director, keeping an eye on the Guide who was turning pale.

In the meantime, Bodam, clutching his rapidly pounding chest, bit his lip, trying to grasp the situation.

In the train, taking out gukhwappang, taking out the notebook from his pocket, eating gukhwappang, gukhwappang…

“Mr. Yoon Bodam.”

A researcher cautiously approached Bodam, who was trembling, and spoke to him.

The researcher quickly observed the Guide, who appeared overly fearful, and reassured him so he wouldn’t panic.

“You coughed up blood and fainted on the train. A barrier Esper, who is a multi-ability user, quickly transported you to the Medical Center. Thanks to that, you completed your treatment quickly and are now safely awake.”

The researcher, reading the confusion in his wide, unyielding eyes, smiled gently.

Maintaining his distance, signifying that he wouldn’t approach further, he continued.

“Esper Kang Yi Jun had a seizure at the time you left. He has been surviving only with a guiding machine for a month now. His wave value has reached 96%.”

“Huh?”

Bodam, hearing the wave value that should never be reached, instinctively questioned.

He was a Guide, after all.

Even though he had resigned, a Guide’s waves and instincts flowed within Bodam’s body.

If an Esper in critical condition appeared before him, his body would act first.

Because if they rampaged, everyone would die.

“Surprisingly, it’s true. He’s been maintaining the 90% range for over two weeks now.”

“Th-that doesn’t…”

“It doesn’t make sense, right? We only have one theory for why he hasn’t rampaged with this condition sustained.”

Bodam, whose heartbeat gradually returned to its normal rhythm following the calm voice, gulped.

He quickly understood why they had asked about his relationship with Kang Yi Jun.

“Since you were a Guide, Mr. Bodam, you’ll know. An Esper who has imprinted doesn’t rampage. However, if they don’t have their partner’s guiding, the rampage crisis state continues endlessly.

Extreme pain and abnormal physical symptoms appear. That’s Esper Kang Yi Jun’s current state.”

Bodam, leaning his back against the cool wall, rubbed his throbbing shoulder.

He bit down hard on his trembling lower lip, as his body temperature dropped, and listened intently.

“If, in the unlikely event, you have imprinted.”

The researcher emphasized the preceding words, slowing his speech so that the Guide could clearly understand.

His voice, articulating each syllable distinctly, echoed through the tension-filled patient room.

“You also know very well that the Guide is in danger, right?”

His light brown eyes, no longer shedding tears, wavered.

He was a Guide who was fearful, but his comprehension was not poor.

“A Guide whose senses are connected to an imprinted Esper cannot endure the pain of the rampage crisis state and dies. Furthermore, the moment the Guide dies, the Esper immediately rampages—”

“I didn’t.”

Bodam said.

“I didn’t.”

He met the researcher’s eyes directly, correcting his trembling voice.

He held back the urge to scream, even though his throat was numb with pain, and repeated himself.

He endured it, thinking he might faint if he lost his energy right now.

“I’m actually, I’m not well. I often collapse and sometimes bleed.”

Bodam took a small deep breath and put force into his firm voice.

He strained his neck, telling them to look for another Guide.

“Not even once?”

“No.”

He glared at the researcher, who still suspected sexual guiding with Kang Yi Jun, as if he were about to hit him, and replied.

Then the researcher, adjusting his glasses again, spoke as if he had been waiting.

“Then we’ll need tests for a more accurate confirmation.”

A dry breath escaped the Guide’s silently parted lips.

The researcher, observing this, continued with a horribly gentle voice.

“You know very well that both Esper Kang Yi Jun and any Guide who guided him must undergo testing anyway. Whether current or former. Everyone.”

He wasn’t wrong.

***

Bodam, wearing a blanket instead of a coat, was pulled in the direction the researchers led him.

He trudged along, his feet unwilling to move, as if being dragged to a slaughterhouse.

Even when he tried to straighten his back and brace himself to avoid falling, he kept stumbling, requiring assistance from the talkative researcher who had been chattering away.

He deliberately put more weight into his steps, walking slowly.

“You’re heavier than you look.”

Ignoring the researcher who tried to make conversation as the elevator moved, Bodam looked up at the rising numbers on the display panel.

His eyes, which were timid but highly adaptable, sank low.

Once he accepted the situation, a hollow laugh escaped him.

It was absurd.

His predicament, captured and brought back to the Center only a month after he’d gone through all that trouble to say goodbye to it, was utterly ridiculous.

He thought of spitting in Kang Yi Jun’s face for causing such a misunderstanding, and then, as soon as he got home, eating chicken with all sorts of side dishes.

But then, remembering Kang Yi Jun’s wave value, which had reached 96%, his chest grew heavy again.

A throbbing pain throughout his body also caused anxiety.

‘I was originally sick. I was originally sick.’

He inwardly soothed his rapidly beating heart, calming his anxiety.

‘Imprinting? That’s impossible.’

He swore to the heavens that he had never even taken off his underwear with Kang Yi Jun.

“Here it is.”

They arrived in front of a large patient room, passing barrier users who stood packed in the corridor, forming a safety barrier.

An atmosphere befitting a terrifying wave value permeated the air.

His already frightened heart shriveled even smaller.

“Are you okay?”

His stomach, which had been relaxed during his rest at home, suddenly protested with a rumble from the intense stress.

To Bodam, who replied that he was not okay, the researcher responded, “Then let’s go in now,” and opened the door.

Drrrk.

Bodam stepped his heavy feet into the smoothly opening sliding door, and his body instantly froze.

“Ha….”

His breath caught, and he burst into coughs.

The stern gazes of the researchers watching him glinted.

‘He did, he did.’

The Esper’s waves, which completely filled the excessively large patient room, constricted Bodam’s airways.

His fingertips trembled, and his lips kept parting.

Even in a state where he couldn’t breathe properly, his heavy feet moved forward.

He walked without stopping, drawn like a magnet to a predetermined destination.

Because of the massive guiding machine blocking the view, Bodam, being short, couldn’t see Kang Yi Jun lying inside.

Three team-leader-level Espers stood in a triangular formation, casting barriers.

One of them moved the machine so that the Guide could approach.

“Don’t… go.”

Bodam stammered with convulsing lips.

He was flustered, not knowing why such words had escaped him even after he had uttered them.

The barrier user who heard him replied not to worry, saying he would stay in place.

Watching the trembling Guide, the barrier users built their reinforced walls even thicker.

As fellow ability users, they were reading the flow of Esper waves from Kang Yi Jun and Guide Yoon Bodam.

‘It seems like it truly is imprinting.’

A wave value of 96%.

Reminding himself of the dangerously high level where simply being alive was a miracle, Bodam tried to compose himself.

He couldn’t even imagine what Kang Yi Jun looked like now.

“……”

Forcing his gaze, which refused to rise from the white blanket, he stuck closely to the bed.

And then, silence.

Silence lasted for a moment, save for the faint sound of breathing from inside the oxygen mask.

His light eyes, with burst red capillaries, quietly looked down at the Esper lying as if dead.

‘Is that really Kang Yi Jun?’

He stared blankly at the Esper, who was bound and had become a dark blue monster.

His eyes were covered with a black cloth, and his body, lying under a white blanket, was trapped within a special barrier, like a mummy.

All Bodam could reach was the dark, bluish cheek covered by the oxygen mask.

It wasn’t the pure white cheek with visible peach fuzz, but one covered in dark blue bruises.

Grotesquely swollen blood vessels and muscles protruded like roots beneath his neck and jaw.

His white hand, drawn by his gaze, touched the dark skin.

He felt a burning heat that seemed ready to burst.

Surprised for a moment by the unfamiliar texture, unlike human skin, Bodam, as if entranced, released his guiding.

He infused his energy into the palm of his hand, which cupped Yi Jun’s cheek.

The guiding ended quickly.

Bodam’s waves did not seep into Yi Jun.