← The Resurrected Guide Wants to Live Quietly
"Wait, you—…"
"I know. I know, so be glad I’m still being careful and keep it moderate. If you go rogue and ruin things, I don’t know what I’ll do then."
Honestly, when Oh Yeon-seo first started acting out, it was tolerable. That’s why he’d followed her to the guiding room without complaint.
But not now. The more Han Yu-geon learned about Ha-neul, the faster his patience hit bottom.
He resembled him. Resembled him to an astonishing degree.
To the point he’d indulged in the absurd fantasy that Seon Yi-yeon had come back to life.
From his height to his general build, his atmosphere, and especially those transparent eyes that seemed to read his thoughts despite being expressionless.
He’d thought he hadn’t forgotten Seon Yi-yeon for a single day, that he remembered everything about him vividly — but looking at Ha-neul made him realize all those memories had been fading with time.
In the eyes staring at him, in the hand movements checking the gun, in every one of his mannerisms. Strangely, he kept seeing Seon Yi-yeon overlaid on him.
There wasn’t a drop of Seon Yi-yeon’s blood left in this world, so he must be a complete stranger. What had that damned mad scientist done with Seon Yi-yeon’s body?
He thought he had to move carefully, but the more he looked at Ha-neul, the more impatient his heart grew.
Honestly, hadn’t he held back enough? Maybe he should just… do it…
"Yu-geon, Han Yu-geon!"
He’d turned his head toward Ha-neul without thinking, and Han Yu-geon barely broke off his thoughts at the hand shaking him.
"…What."
"Are you going to rampage? Your wavelength’s gone crazy! You need guiding right now…!"
"Let go."
It was risky. He recognized his own impaired judgment. Probably accumulated sleep deprivation and fatigue. But was he at the point of rampaging? Not yet.
Han Yu-geon slowly wiped his face with one hand and removed Oh Yeon-seo’s hand with the other.
"Don’t worry about it. I’m still fine."
"What do you mean, why won’t you get guiding!"
"That person went more than ten years barely getting any, too."
He didn’t elaborate. Oh Yeon-seo would know anyway. There was only one person in this world who could influence Han Yu-geon.
Han Yu-geon had once asked Seon Yi-yeon.
It was when he’d been awakened about half a year, perhaps — Han Yu-geon had once asked Seon Yi-yeon.
Unlike ordinary espers, Seon Yi-yeon had never once shown a clean wavelength. He always looked precarious, as if walking a tightrope. He’d asked if he wasn’t getting guiding.
Seon Yi-yeon had said he only got guiding very rarely, only when he truly needed it.
Whenever Han Yu-geon asked why he didn’t get guiding, Seon Yi-yeon always answered like this, with a calm smile.
"I don’t want to forget."
"When espers get guiding, they feel amazing. So everything becomes whatever. You feel like you could just forget the whole past, forget even the people who died, become clean, and live thinking only of yourself."
"Yu-geon, that scares me. I’m afraid I’ll become weak."
Young Han Yu-geon hadn’t understood those words.
If you could forget painful memories, why not just forget them all? Why endure pain on purpose? Why act so foolishly? Why torment yourself like that? The face smiling brightly while doing foolish things had frustrated and annoyed him.
But not anymore. Han Yu-geon understood him now.
Han Yu-geon didn’t want to forget either. The moment he’d seen Seon Yi-yeon with a huge hole punched through his belly, dyed crimson with the blood he’d poured from his belly and mouth, and the despair he’d felt as he grew heavy against his back.
It was painful, certainly, but that moment was the last he had with Seon Yi-yeon. He wanted to remember it — at least until he found the body. No, even just until he learned where the body was.
Finally, the long standstill was over. He had a lead. Just hold on a little longer.
Watching Han Yu-geon stubbornly seal his lips, Oh Yeon-seo sensed it. Further persuasion was pointless.
Fortunately, today there was a good safety measure and excuse.
"Hey. Then I’ll go to HQ alone, so you stick by Ha-neul. I’m seriously worried. With that face, it wouldn’t be strange if he became a pervy esper’s target. Guard him."
At Oh Yeon-seo’s words, Han Yu-geon nodded readily, as expected.
He had no intention of leaving him alone anyway. How could he carelessly let go of a lead he’d gotten after so long, in such a way? Even now he was keenly sensing Ha-neul’s presence. So he could notice immediately if he did anything strange, like fleeing.
"Haah…"
Sending Oh Yeon-seo toward HQ, he started walking toward Ha-neul… though his condition wasn’t great. A slight throbbing headache persisted. Not rampage-level, but he could tell his nerves were on edge. Passing voices, footsteps around him, stares, the smell of gunpowder… everything felt too keen; try as he might to focus only on Ha-neul, it wouldn’t go his way.
"…Pathetic."
The living Seon Yi-yeon hadn’t gotten guiding often, so he’d never seen him with a fully stable wavelength — but he’d never been this disheveled either.
It hadn’t lasted long looking precarious. Like a sea on a windless day, waves but never severe — he’d maintained that state steadily. The more active he was as an esper, the more he realized how extraordinary Seon Yi-yeon had been.
So he felt more regret. It made him angry.
He wished that person were alive. If Seon Yi-yeon had lived — if he hadn’t wasted his one and only life obsessing over revenge — he could surely have done so much more.
He was capable and diligent, and kind too. He could surely have changed many people’s lives. The way Han Yu-geon had found a reason to live because of him — in a positive direction.
"Uwaaaaak!"
His mind, sunk deep filling itself with Seon Yi-yeon until he’d even forgotten his headache, sharpened again. A scream. And its source was precisely the direction Ha-neul’s presence was felt.
The small mercy was that the screamer wasn’t Ha-neul. But something had definitely happened around him.
His body moved before he could think. Cutting through wind and crowd, he ran — and there, quite a crowd had gathered, and beyond them Ha-neul was confronting two espers.
Before he could say anything, Ha-neul’s eyes went round at the sight of Han Yu-geon. Eyes already big and round, now even more so.
"Weren’t we meeting at HQ?" It was clearly an unwelcoming nuance. As if to say, why did you come here.
Han Yu-geon found that oddly irritating. Ha-neul had followed Oh Yeon-seo, not him, so of course he wouldn’t welcome him — he thought that, and it still grated on his nerves.
He needed a deep breath to keep from showing his displeasure.
"I heard a scream. Did something happen?"
"It’s nothing."
It didn’t look like nothing. What was that scream just now, and what was this crowd?
If Ha-neul wouldn’t talk, he was about to ask the espers he’d been confronting — but the moment they saw Han Yu-geon, they spat villain-like lines like "just you wait" and fled the scene as if running away. The crowd, reading the ominous mood, scattered too.
Han Yu-geon pressed his forehead. His headache worsened, stressed by a situation where nothing went his way.
"…Ugh."
"Um, Esper. Your wavelength is very disheveled. It’s gotten worse."
"I know."
"You’d better get guiding."
I should get guiding.
Not dangerous yet, but he didn’t like Ha-neul fussing over him. He’d originally meant to just quietly watch him — why had it come to this?
Just not right now. He’d decided to hold out until the guides affiliated with "Seonyeon" arrived.
This was "Blaze" territory. He’d heard the people here were generally friendly to them —especially the collusion with the guiding center, which was said to be extreme. Beyond merely "close," people said Blaze guild members filled the private rooms of this district’s center at all times.
"Ah."
The timing was bad.
He’d said it imagining the bastards who’d been fooling around in private rooms under the pretext of guiding when they didn’t even need emergency guiding — but the wrong Ha-neul took it with wounded eyes, looking at Han Yu-geon.
Ha-neul’s hand hovered awkwardly near Han Yu-geon’s hand — he’d apparently been about to secretly hold his hand to guide him.
"…I’m sorry."
Had he thought those words were aimed at him? They weren’t.
Han Yu-geon opened his mouth to correct him right away, but no words came out of his parted lips.
Seeing Ha-neul with his shoulders slightly hunched emptied his mind.
Small, he thought without thinking.
To Han Yu-geon, whose height and build were extraordinary, most people in the world were small — but with his general disinterest in others, in all his life there had been exactly one person he’d specially thought of as "small."
Seon Yi-yeon.
The moment his heart had first fluttered looking at Seon Yi-yeon was when he’d newly realized how small he was.
When they first met, Seon Yi-yeon had been much bigger than him. Holding that broad back tight with both arms, there’d been nothing in the world to fear. This person was amazing enough to make even those big, scary monsters run away.
But in just a few years, Seon Yi-yeon had grown small. Precisely, Han Yu-geon had grown. Their eye levels became similar; the back and shoulders that had seemed so broad looked small. He felt like he’d fit easily in his arms.
And so… Han Yu-geon had thought, without thinking, that he wanted to confine Seon Yi-yeon. To give up on revenge and everything and just…
"I’m here! Now let’s get serious. Looks like Blaze didn’t send many since they’re prepping a dungeon raid. Don’t those thugs handle things in their own territory no matter what? They’re worse than thugs but still want to act like… what. What’s with the mood?" Oh Yeon-seo arrived, and Ha-neul scurried over to her side.
Really irritating.
"Anyway, it’s A++ more for quantity than quality, so it shouldn’t be that hard. You think it’s okay to tag along, Guide? What do you think?"
"I’ll follow."
"Oh, reassuring! Good. Shall we head out right away?" Oh Yeon-seo was the problem too. She didn’t even seem to consider asking her companion’s opinion.
Han Yu-geon sighed deeply but decided not to make an issue of it.
Just finish it quickly and go back.
***
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