← The Guide Who Hides Their Power is an Otter
Lee Moon-soo, breathing hard, went on.
“We can bury them in our hearts and memorialize them that way. Say more than a hundred people died in there and only the three of us came back. Is that hope? That’s telling everyone to die together, isn’t it?”
He was practically spitting as he shouted, like he was giving a speech.
“So let’s stop this deflating talk. A month of grieving is enough. You need to start finding your own way to live, too. You’re a hero who came back alive to ordinary citizens, too. I’m offering to find you a way to live, so let’s stop this wasteful wrangling.”
The paper Lee Moon-soo subtly held out was a contract delegating the Center Director position. His clenched fist trembled violently. Even as his whole body shook, he closed his eyes tight and opened them again, as if he had resolved on something.
“Park Gap-cheol, did he sign too?”
“You ask the obvious. So don’t blame yourself too much either. We survived by chance, but we have to find our own way. Otherwise the only road left is for all of us to fall together. Isn’t all of this to save the country?”
Heisha opened his eyes wide. He gently closed the Director’s forcibly opened eyelids with his fingers, and let out a sigh. Park Gap-cheol’s nephew was Park Gang-u, and Park Gang-u had been rated S-rank.
Had he taken his uncle’s place?
He suddenly had the reasonable suspicion that the reason Park Gang-u went around clearing gates like he wanted to die was that he already knew this fact.
“How was it?”
Director Gu slowly opened his eyes, laced his fingers together, and leaned back calmly against his chair.
“How did it feel, peeking into someone else’s head?”
Seeing Gu wake and regain consciousness faster than he’d expected, Heisha calmed his startled heart and opened his mouth.
“Did you really have to go this far?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Director Gu In-yeol spat the words out bluntly and let out a long breath.
“You have one year left. So stay quiet, and then go back to your country without a fuss.”
“This country is my country, too.”
“Half of it. And it’s falling apart.”
Heisha narrowed his eyes and threatened him like someone confronting an enemy.
“Leave Park Gang-u alone.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Shall I show you how I run wild?”
Even the ever-cheerful Heisha hardened his face today and glared at him.
“Even if this country disappears like this, the dead won’t come back.”
“Instead, the rest could die with less guilt.”
“Do you think the people who were sacrificed that day would want something like this? You’re full of empty delusions.”
At the suddenly fluent Korean, Director Gu frowned.
“Director Gu. I’ll say it again.”
Heisha softened his hardened face and grinned.
“If you keep sending Park Gang-u out on deployments, I’ll scramble all those memories in your brain into a complete mess.”
“Are you threatening me right now?”
“No.”
Heisha tilted his head and slanted his eyes at him.
“That was a murder notice.”
When Gu’s face hardened in an instant, Heisha smiled brightly.
“It’s a joke. But the part about rummaging through your head is real.”
“Heisha.”
“You think I can’t do it?”
“Do you know what will happen if your home country finds out, and you’re still doing this? It’s an ignorant attitude.”
“They’ll say I did well.”
Heisha closed his eyes, lifted the corners of his mouth, and forced a smile.
“They’ll call me the half-Korean expatriate who saved the falling country of Korea.”
“Park Gang-u.”
Heisha raised his name once more.
“Just try touching him.”
“……”
“If I lose it, I’ll show you a completely mad sea otter.”
That should have gotten through. Heisha sighed, tidied away his smiling face, and turned around.
“Heisha.”
Director Gu rested his chin on his laced hands and opened his mouth again.
“I’m curious what you thought. Those scenes, you saw them all, after all.”
Objectively speaking, countless words came to mind, but he spat out the most fitting one.
“So disgusting.”
Heisha answered at once and grinned.
“All three of you.”
Director Gu stared blankly at Heisha for a moment, then slumped back against his chair and gave a bitter smile.
“Even if I say that, do you think Park Gang-u will just stay still?”
“……”
“It isn’t only my orders. He knows about his uncle’s business and he’s running around with the same thoughts as you. He’s a kid who was raised on that dirty money, after all. He feels grateful and disgusted at the same time, and that’s why he goes around like that alone.”
Gu In-yeol let out a big sigh.
“Get out. Today’s business never happened. That’ll be better for both you and me.”
Heisha let out a short laugh.
“Now I understand a little.”
“……”
“If you want to die that badly, go alone.”
Gu In-yeol stared at Heisha without answering.
“You’re not a child. What are you doing to the people of this country who are running hard to live, trying to ruin the country to get revenge on the Prime Minister? It’s childish.”
“Childish or not, I have no choice.”
“I’ve decided. Delete the secrecy clause for me.”
“Do you want to go back to your home country?”
Watching Gu throw out the threat, Heisha scratched his chin with an index finger. Then he acted like he couldn’t understand.
“I don’t want that.”
“Heisha.”
“Other people don’t need to know. Just release it for Park Gang-u. If you refuse, I have my own ideas, too.”
He smiled brightly, eyes closed.
“Lee Moon-soo. Aren’t you curious how our country’s Prime Minister will react if he learns this fact?”
A Center Director struggling to destroy this country. There was no way he’d stay still. If Gu had just obediently listened, he honestly hadn’t intended to threaten him. But he wasn’t going to listen anyway.
“I still can’t do it.”
Heisha grinned as if he’d expected exactly that.
He’d known it would be like that anyway. Smiling a smile completely different in mood from a moment before, Heisha did a somersault and transformed into a sea otter. Then, before Gu In-yeol could take any measure, he dashed over and slammed his own head straight into Gu’s head.
Thud!
When the soft head collided with the hard human head, tears welled up. Gu frowned, both pained and dumbfounded.
“…What are you doing right now?”
“Sleep well!”
Heisha opened his eyes wide and giggled like a mad sea otter. Meeting his eyes, Gu In-yeol, frozen with an incredulous look on his face, suddenly rolled his eyes back and fainted.
“I met Heisha and changed the contract clause.”
“……”
“I delete the secrecy clause.”
“……”
With his mouth open blankly, he accepted the contents and stored the false memory distinctly. Heisha spread his fingers wide. He was still heated from the argument a moment ago.
“When I wake up, I will resolve to chant ‘Long live Heisha’ three times.”
It was childish, but this might be enough to vent his anger. Just then, a phone vibrated among the uniforms strewn on the floor. Heisha twitched his mouth at Gu in annoyance, then went toward the phone that kept vibrating.
You’re My Destiny
Seeing the long saved name, his nose twitched. He’d agonized over how to save Park Gang-u and, meaning to save it temporarily, had put in that phrase. Without any need to hesitate, he pressed the call button.
—Guide Heisha. Where are you?
“Right now…”
He couldn’t say he was in the Center Director’s office.
“At home.”
—I went by, and you weren’t there.
“……”
—I heard the Director called you. Did you go to his office? I’m actually right in front of it.
What? While he was on the phone, knock, knock. He heard a knock.
“I am Park Gang-u. I will come in.” “I am Park Gang-u. I will come in.”
At this rate he was a rat in a trap… no, a sea otter in a trap.
“Uh, uh, uh…”
While he floundered, the voice from the phone and the voice from right outside the office overlapped, and the door creaked open.
Heisha summoned superhuman strength and rolled straight under the sofa. His body was a bit wedged in, but he got underneath without being seen and barely escaped the crisis.
But why am I hiding? I just erased the secrecy clause from his head anyway.
Even though it wouldn’t matter now if he were caught being a sea otter, when the sound from the phone rang out, he unconsciously pressed the red end-call button hard.
“Director.”
Gu In-yeol opened his eyes and murmured blankly.
“Long live Heisha. Long live Heisha. Long live Heisha.”
When he finished murmuring, Gu In-yeol covered his own mouth with his hand. Silence flowed between the two men. Park Gang-u frowned.
“What are you doing?”
Serves him right! Under the sofa, Heisha barely held back his laughter.
“What was that?”
Gu In-yeol muttered to himself and smacked his own head with his palm, tap, tap. His expression, like something had gone wrong, said the memory had thrown him into confusion.
Serves you right!
Heisha glared at the Director from his shady hiding place, then froze stiff when he realized Park Gang-u had come right up beside him.
“Did Guide Heisha stop by?”
“Ah. Yes. That. Didn’t you see Guide Heisha?”
“I did not.”
Creak. The chair, unable to bear Gu In-yeol’s weight as he stood, made a noise.
“I need to find him right away. What about you? Is it urgent?”
“I came to report on my hospital records.”
“Ah. How is your condition?”
“I am fine.”
“Why not stay hospitalized longer? You come out without receiving guiding, what do you think you’ll accomplish?”
“I will deploy.”
At the firm voice, Heisha’s hand flinched.
He came because of that, and he’s saying he’ll deploy again?
Now Park Gang-u seemed reckless. No matter that he’d secretly guided him, it hadn’t been proper guiding. He had no way to confirm whether Park Gang-u’s body had fully recovered, not knowing how much the guiding he’d poured in one-sidedly, without mutual agreement, had healed him or how well he was doing.
What if he’s still unwell, and again?
Should I have slammed my head into this side instead of that side?
“Do as you like. You never listen to my orders anyway.”
“Will you give up on the matching?”
“There’s no guide to match with a bastard who says he won’t receive guiding. Thanks to you, everyone is driving me into being the bad guy, so now you find a suitable guide yourself, however you can.”
“You know there is no such guide in this country.”
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