← The Guide Who Hides Their Power is an Otter
“Not really.”
Park Gang-u got into the driver’s seat first. Heisha turned his steps toward the passenger seat, and the door opened from inside first, again.
“I know how to open a door too.”
He only shrugged his shoulders again. Heisha climbed into the passenger seat, observed the clothes Park Gang-u wore, and opened his mouth. His outfit was too light.
“You’re going without equipment?”
“It’s an investigation, not a deployment.”
“Ah.”
Heisha plucked at his own clothes. Then he should have changed before coming out. He had come out wearing the uniform he wore for deployments, so if the two of them went out like this, they would stand out.
“I should have changed too.”
“Actually, before going out, we have to report to the security guards.”
“Really?”
“So, would you hide for a moment?”
“Now? Hide?”
Park Gang-u was already driving, and he pointed a finger downward toward Heisha. It was a gesture telling him to go down by the glove box.
‘Give me some warning first!’
He scrambled down beneath the car as it was about to stop in front of a large building, but no matter what, it was too cramped for an adult man to hide. Heisha decided it wouldn’t work, curled his body up, and transformed into a sea otter.
Pop! With a low sound, Heisha, covered by his white uniform, lay flat without moving. A man gave a rough salute, peered in through the window, and asked.
“Thank you for your service. Are you going out alone?”
“Yes.”
“Please present your ID card.”
How on earth had they gone to the sea that day, he wondered, and searching his memory, there had been no guard then.
Beep. Some sound rang out, and the man saluted.
“Confirmed. Please return safely!”
“Thank you for your service.”
Holding the steering wheel, Park Gang-u snickered, thinking of Heisha who would be sulking inside.
“You may come out now.”
“No. It’d be nice if you told me in advance. What if I’d been caught?”
“Well. I probably would have gone alone.”
“Tell me in advance about things like this from now on. I really thought my heart would drop.”
Grumbling, Heisha climbed up into the passenger seat and sat leaning against the seatback.
“Shall I fasten your belt for you?”
“I can do it myself.”
With a sulky face, he pulled at the end of the seat belt, struggled with it as he sat, and fitted the belt into the buckle. Park Gang-u looked in order at Heisha’s side profile, back, and front, then clenched his teeth and held back a laugh.
“You’re going like that?”
“Why? Do you not like it?”
Heisha opened his eyes round and tilted his neck like a machine.
“No. It does not matter. Either way is cu… well. It’s fine.”
“Why do you start saying something and stop? But why is it so dark today? What time is it now?”
“It just turned two.”
Strange. Was it a time when it should be this dark? It wasn’t cloudy weather, yet the sky, which should have been red, was murky and blackish. Before a gate burst, he used to get a certain sense of deja vu, and he could feel it more fully as a sea otter, so back home they had even called him a gate detector. That was why he felt ominous.
“Can I make one phone call?”
“A call with whom?”
“A friend. I’ll be quiet so I don’t disturb your driving.”
Park Gang-u nodded his head. Heisha struggled again to pick up the phone that had fallen under the glove box.
He had to unfasten the seat belt, so he hung awkwardly, and in the end he undid the clip buckle.
“That is dangerous.”
“My phone is over there.”
“Please wait.”
Screeech. He stopped the driving car, on what could hardly be called a shoulder.
“Can you just stop like this?”
“There are no cars traveling here anyway.”
Park Gang-u unfastened his belt and leaned his body toward the passenger seat. In his white shirt, he came close, and a nice scent came from him. What should he call it. A masculine scent.
“Do you wear cologne?”
He didn’t have a dog’s nose, but at this proximity, it was a fact that the scent inevitably wafted. He picked the phone up from below, handed it over, and sat back in the driver’s seat.
“Why would I wear cologne?”
“Is it strange? I thought I might smell of sweat.”
“Because it smells good.”
Looking at Heisha, who held the phone in his hand and grinned, Park Gang-u’s face flushed somewhat, and the back of his neck reddened.
“I’ll just call for a moment.”
Park Gang-u answered roughly with a nod, then, looking at the belt Heisha had unfastened, leaned back over to the passenger seat and nonchalantly fastened it for him again. Then he went back, fastened his own belt, and the car moved forward.
“Thanks for the belt.”
Often, when he said something close to a compliment, he could see Park Gang-u’s neck burning up. At first he had wondered if the man was sick, but watching continuously, he seemed to be embarrassed, and his reactions were fascinating.
Heisha called Bellian. A short ring sounded, and a voice was heard right away.
“Bellian!”
-Heisha! How have you been? I was just about to call. Is it all right over there?
“What do you mean?”
Bellian floated on the sea and let out a sigh.
-Suddenly the number of gates has increased a lot. Before, they were Code A or B, so there was no need for us to go out, but even a Code C has appeared.
“Code C has never appeared, has it?”
Heisha asked seriously.
So that was why the Director had said he might call them home. Why is the timing like this?
Bellian gestured somewhere, then poked a face into view.
-Heisha!
“Urban!”
Park Gang-u glanced at the call, but all that could be seen through the screen were sea otters with white faces, so he bit his lower lip and held back a laugh. The conversation was this serious, yet the sight of the sea otters huddled together on a call was fascinating and cute. It would be trouble if his laughter burst out, so he clenched his teeth with all his might and stole looks at them.
“Is everyone all right?”
-Don’t worry! Heisha, are you all right? Nothing is wrong in your country, right?
Even though it was a half-country, calling it “your country” as a matter of course made Heisha smile broadly.
“Yeah! If anything happens, I’m here. And next to me… is that esper I told you about.”
-Who? Who? Surely not? You mean that esper you mentioned before?
“Bellian, let’s talk about that later. He’s right next to me. I’m busy, so I’ll hang up now. If anything happens again, tell me. You can message instead of calling.”
-OK. Heisha. You contact us often too. All right?
Heisha nodded his head hard and ended the call.
“Is that esper you mentioned me? That is a curious story.”
“It’s not such an amazing story that you need to be curious.”
“Then could you not tell me?”
“I’ve talked about it before, when we met as a sea otter inside a gate. That’s what I mean.”
It was a call about whether he’d been caught or not, but at the end there had been his declaration that he would pair with him, so he omitted only that part.
“I’ll introduce you to my friends later too.”
“That would be fun.”
At the thought of the sea otters gathering in front of a phone and greeting people as he introduced this person and that person, laughter seemed about to burst out at once. Park Gang-u couldn’t hold back his laughter, held the steering wheel with one hand, and blocked the laughter about to burst with his other hand stroking his mouth.
“May I ask what you spoke about with the Center Director?”
Heisha hesitated, not expecting such a question suddenly. He had no particular intention of lying. Home already knew gates had appeared, so if the man was quick-witted, it wouldn’t be a very surprising story.
“They said some of the diaspora who came down together have gone back to their home country.”
“Is that so?”
“The talk was that I might end up like that too.”
Director Gu’s plan to ruin Korea was simple. For Park Gang-u to destroy himself on his own. After all, among the ability users left in Korea, Park Gang-u was the only one who could clear gates.
But a guide with better ability than Park Gang-u had suddenly come in, and it must have given him a headache. By all appearances, he must have thought Heisha was compatible with Park Gang-u. So he stuck a C-rank on him and deliberately severed any point of contact.
He probably never dreamed that Park Gang-u would rampage while Heisha was here, or that they would meet like this.
As much as they had spent a year without discovering each other from a distance, they were growing close at a rapid speed. Was this feeling only his own?
“Park Gang-u.”
Still, isn’t it a bit much to call him by name only?
“Esper. You won’t die now, right?”
No answer came back. But Heisha saw the answer in his face. A faintly worn smile, and the very fact that he was taking him along on the investigation, showed a hope to live.
The road did not feel long. With no words exchanged between them, they gazed forward at the desolate scenery turned to ruins and the darkened sky. The atmosphere, which had felt awkward before, had strangely changed into tension.
The closer they drew to the sea, the more black storm clouds gathered in the sky. The car, having reached the harbor, turned a corner smoothly and stopped. Park Gang-u unfastened his belt first and got out of the car.
“Would you wait a moment?”
“Why?”
“I will search only the vicinity and come back. Do not get out, please stay.”
He was probably going to check whether an additional gate had formed. Heisha nodded toward Park Gang-u, whose face was barely visible from his low line of sight. Left alone, the inside of the car was silent.
“I just have to not get out.”
With nothing to do, he stuck to the window and closely observed the sea visible right there.
‘The color of the sea seems a little blacker than before.’
Heisha pressed his face right up to the window and stared intently at the sea. The direction of the waves was inconsistent, tossing here and there as if drawing a whirlpool.
“That’s strange?”
As if someone were controlling them, the direction kept changing. Heisha stamped his feet impatiently. He would have to go in and see to know properly. The sea was his home ground, and a part of him too.
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