← The Guide Who Hides Their Power is an Otter
Gu In-yeol gave no answer.
Of course. He probably planned to stick him with some nonexistent guide, let him get guiding roughly, and wash his hands of it even if he died. That bad Director!
Underneath, Heisha ground his teeth. He didn’t need anyone to explain it to him after seeing the past, he could tell this was a plan to ruin the country out of Gu’s own guilt and keep anyone from saving it.
I have to stop Con Man’s plan first. I need to get out and meet Park Gang-u alone…
With Park Gang-u having come in, he was stuck, unable to go anywhere.
“There are plenty of other competent guides. It’s your fault for being so picky while going on about high matching rates.”
Is that guy crazy?
“Park Gang-u.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to say this is my fault, too?”
Silence settled over the office. He could only see Gu’s face, not Park Gang-u’s as well, and it was frustrating. What kind of face was he making, what expression, as he faced Gu In-yeol? What was he thinking, hearing this question?
“No. It is my fault.”
It sounded as if he were taking his uncle’s blame onto himself, and the corners of Heisha’s mouth drooped down.
***
A strange vibration rang from the side table. After he’d erased the secrecy clause from the Director’s memory, his perfectly fine phone had caught fire.
Bzzz. Bzzz.
He was floating on his back on the water filling the bathtub, fiddling with his clam, when irritation suddenly surged up.
“He’s persistent!”
He’d thought he’d succeeded in dodging him all day, but except for the early morning hours, a call came every ten minutes. When he dodged the calls, a barrage of crazed texts with the same content began.
[I will explain the secrecy clause again. For whatever reason, even if I deleted the clause, the contract terms spoken aloud are not reflected in the intact written contract. Stop dodging my calls and answer.]
The texts piled up past two hundred. They were probably all the same, but it put his nerves completely on edge. He’d changed the contract clause, and now all he had to do was meet Park Gang-u and talk, but that very person had suddenly stopped deploying from that day on and hadn’t shown himself for two days.
“Ugh…”
Heisha burst out of the bathtub and shook his body irritably. He set the clam on top of the tub, and, still soaking wet, walked heavily over to the side table. Splish. Splish. Footprints from his webbed feet were stamped across the floor.
“Is he crazy?!”
In the end, he turned the phone off. He’d left it on in case Park Gang-u might call him, but he figured it would be better to go find him directly.
Staying here won’t solve anything. I have to go out.
He’d been hiding at home because he might run into the Director wherever he went, but judging by how he hadn’t come looking for him directly, the Director must be plenty busy, too.
And I can’t just stay home.
He’d looked into why Park Gang-u had been absent and not deploying for two days, but no sharp solution came to mind at all.
“So this is as far as my brain goes…”
He let out a deep sigh.
“Where did he go.”
Before floating in the bathtub, he’d worked up the courage to call first, but Park Gang-u hadn’t answered. Calling again felt embarrassing after that, so he’d left messages instead.
[Call me when you see this!]
[It’s not urgent, it’s about Hei.]
[It’s nothing big, but Hei misses you.]
After sending them he felt embarrassed, as a bonus, but what was sent couldn’t be taken back. Water he hadn’t wiped off dripped onto the phone screen.
“……”
His reflection in the screen was unmistakably a sea otter. Even if he erased the clause, if he told Park Gang-u this form was really him, wouldn’t he be shocked?
“I didn’t think that far.”
His eyes could picture how shocked he’d be if he transformed into Hei and suddenly spoke. It was a method he’d sometimes used to startle the mercenary ability users who came to his homeland, and while it was fun for startling, it really wasn’t a good way to reveal a secret.
Korea had no official beast-types, so Park Gang-u would be seeing such a person for the first time, he might find it rather strange.
Ta-da, Hei was actually Heisha all along!?
…Hei was Heisha? That can’t be.
Running the simulation and picturing it made him suddenly go cold.
“Mm.”
Heisha groaned and glared at his own face reflected in the black screen. He pressed one cheek with a hand. Clear eyes, a shiny black nose, the fur pressed down by his hand sank in, making his mouth show in more detail.
Am I not pretty cute, at this level?
But in someone else’s eyes, he might just be an animal. His barely visible ears drooped. The nickname even his homeland had acknowledged, “the cutie,” felt pointless.
“But I’m good at guiding. And our matching rate is good. What if I tell him to try my guiding…?”
That wouldn’t be bad either. The nose on the screen twitched, and his expression brightened.
“Okay!”
His weapons were his cheerful brightness and pushing forward, there was nothing for it but to push ahead. Heisha clenched his fist tight and groomed his fur to get ready to go out.
“I’ll show him!”
Once he was sure of himself, his heart suddenly swelled. His heart, whether from excitement or nerves he couldn’t tell, faithfully went on thumping.
Ding-dong. Bang, bang!
After the doorbell, someone knocked on the door. He had to turn back into a human, but at the sudden visit his thoughts froze, and the doorbell that should have thrilled him turned into horror.
Ding-dong. Bang, bang!
When it rang and sounded once more, his fur stood on end. He wanted to ask who it was, but his mouth was frozen.
It can’t be the Director, can it?
Heisha quickly steadied his breathing and took careful steps.
Squelch, squelch.
Wet sounds followed between each carefully taken step. Heisha moved his feet as carefully as he could and waddled toward the intercom.
Faced with it, he couldn’t decide what to do. It would be better to tell Park Gang-u the truth before he ran into the Director, but considering Park Gang-u would be in a position to be utterly shocked, he didn’t much want to, either.
Still, Hei or Heisha, they were the same being, and there was a limit to how long he could keep it secret. He fell into serious worry about whether to keep it hidden a little longer.
“Guide Heisha. It’s me.”
Frozen like a stone as he stared blankly at the intercom, wondering what to do, he saw a large box in Park Gang-u’s hand.
“I didn’t know what you would like, so I brought whatever I could grab for now.”
“……”
“Is Hei at home?”
Even if he didn’t reveal it yet, couldn’t he just pretend to be a clever sea otter for now? A sea otter who opens doors. Not bad, right?
If he sent him away like this, the fresh seafood that would be in the box would become rice cake he couldn’t eat. He decided to let him in first, and think slowly about when to reveal it.
“Guuing!”
Leaving behind the tasty sound he’d made, he jumped and threw open the door lock.
“…Hei?”
His damp fur was already glossy. It was because he’d groomed just a moment ago. At his bright, sparkling gaze, Park Gang-u couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing, kuhak.
“Ah. You know how to open a door, too.”
Clever. He stroked Heisha’s head as he passed, but something felt off. He took off his shoes, came boldly into the entryway, and set the box down on the dining table.
“Hei.”
“…..?”
He showed him what he was holding dangling under the box. It was a white uniform hanging on a hanger. With a meaningful smile and an oddly confident stride, he came over and suddenly held it out.
“I came to return this as well.”
Why is he suddenly using polite speech? And just then, his finger dropped onto Heisha’s nose with a tap.
“Guide Heisha.”
His heart pounded so roughly it felt like this must be what a heart attack meant. Park Gang-u took off his shoes, came boldly into the home, and set the box on the dining table.
It’s the one I left in the Director’s office.
Only now did he remember. A chill ran down his spine. He was so shocked he felt his body temperature plummet.
Without hesitation, Heisha brought his hands straight to his face and froze with his mouth open.
He found out before I could even confess!
At this moment, more than any other, he felt like one of the boulders Park Gang-u always lifted with telekinesis at gates.
“Is it something to be that shocked about?”
Heisha worked his mouth dumbly and blurted out,
“…Uh, uh, when… since when did you know?”
Park Gang-u shrugged his shoulders.
“Since we met eyes at the reservoir, perhaps.”
Then that meant he’d known since then and had treated him completely like a pet. His horrified mouth opened even wider.
“Honestly, it was a suspicion then. I became certain during the matching.”
“Why?”
“When the measurement was almost finished, I deliberately stopped the machine with telekinesis. There was no way a graphed matching result sheet would come out of there. And the title and everything were handwritten, unless you did it, it doesn’t explain itself.”
Half of it was right, and half was wrong. It wasn’t that he’d asked to be shown a graphed matching result sheet; as he left the lab, he’d momentarily implanted in the researcher the memory to write it by hand if a result came out.
That was why, when he’d gone to the Director’s office and confirmed it, he’d been delighted. He really hadn’t thought it would come out.
But he’d had that graph sheet in his mouth.
While he just worked his mouth like a fool, not knowing what to say in explanation, Park Gang-u folded his legs, sat down, and matched his eye level.
“You seemed to be hiding it, so I played along. If you were shocked, I apologize.”
He spoke in a very gentle tone.
“No. That’s, but, you know.”
Even knowing that, he’d scrubbed him like laundry when he was Hei, watched him sit on the dining table and eat squid, fastened his seat belt for him with his own hands, and received guiding from him when he’d come dashing in wearing a plastic bag? As all those scenes flashed past like a revolving lantern, his face heated up bright red.
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