Chapter 25
For the past few years he’d lived a simple life where all he had to think about was surviving and killing, so days full of thoughts like these lately were uncomfortable. The unfamiliar emotions and his constantly shifting moods unsettled Baek Jin.
And at the center of that unsettledness was Seo Young-woo. At some point the man had stopped leaving his head, and Baek Jin found himself wanting to know more about him, curious about him.
Letting out a quiet breath, Baek Jin looked out the window and pressed his feelings down. If he met the man with feelings like these, it felt like everything would be exposed.
Only after stopping at two more lights did the car come to a halt. Saying thank you, Baek Jin hurried out of the car. It was too embarrassing to receive the trouble of having the door opened for him like before.
Republic of Korea Special Power Management Bureau
The name written there in bold somehow carried an intimidating weight. Perhaps because of the soldiers standing at the entrance.
Baek Jin paced near the entrance, waiting for Seo Young-woo.
“Do you need help?”
A nearby soldier spoke first. A stiff voice, and sharp eyes that looked at him as if he were a criminal.
Instead of answering, Baek Jin sent him a sharp glare, then ignored him. Even without testing it, the man was weaker than him, so a provocation like that was no threat at all.
Perhaps the soldier had expected him to get scared and back off, because his face crumpled at Baek Jin’s nonchalant attitude.
“This is not a place civilians may enter as they please. If you’re an awakened, state your affiliation.”
Just then, behind the soldier, who was growling as if he might level his gun at any moment, the face he’d been waiting for appeared.
“This one doesn’t have an affiliation yet.”
At Seo Young-woo’s appearance, the soldier erased his menacing air as if it had never been there and stiffened with tension.
“My apologies. I didn’t know he was with you.”
“That’s fine.”
There was no “it’s all right.” Seo Young-woo tapped the soldier’s shoulder, as if to tell him to take it easy. That was how high the rank of an S-rank awakened within the Bureau was, incomparable to a mere soldier’s.
“You arrived earlier than I thought.”
His expression softening at once, Seo Young-woo led Baek Jin, who stood before him, along the wide entrance road.
“We’re going inside the building?”
“Yeah. You’ll be coming here often from now on, so I thought I should show you around. Is it still a bit uncomfortable for you?” At the careful question, Baek Jin shook his head. What happened that day had been unpleasant, but among everything he’d experienced, it ranked on the milder side, not something to hold on to.
“I’m fine.”
“You shouldn’t be fine.”
Judging by his face, the uncomfortable one was Seo Young-woo. He was smiling, but something uncomfortable showed in his furrowed brow. Feeling as if he’d said something wrong, Baek Jin changed the subject.
“This place seems really big.”
Looking around in a hurry, the Bureau was too big for the word “big” to cover. There were more than five buildings in sight alone, and even the road they were walking now was wide enough for cars to pass.
“The building facing us from the entrance is the Bureau Center. Mister works there too. Based on the Center, the biggest building on the left is the training ground, and on the right is the research lab. The rest, we’ll memorize as we come and go.”
“The left is the training ground, the right is the research lab…….”
Baek Jin repeated Seo Young-woo’s explanation under his breath, unable to take his eyes off the buildings. Even from the outside alone, they were on a completely different level from the mercenary base he’d lived at until a few weeks ago. Lavish enough to make him think it was a bit extravagant.
“Here, your hand.”
Seo Young-woo held out his hand.
“The Bureau is big, and I’m worried I’ll lose you halfway.”
Surprised, Baek Jin’s mind went blank again. But even if his thoughts had stopped, his body moved at once. When he lightly laid his fingertips on the palm marked with small scars, the hand wrapped around the back of his hand and held it. His eyes widened in surprise, but the one holding his hand walked on as if nothing were the matter.
The worry that had continued since last night vanished in an instant the moment their hands joined. The buildings that had been stamped into his eyes until moments ago disappeared from his view, and all his senses focused on the joined hand, making Baek Jin swallow without realizing it.
“Jin-ah.”
“……”
“Baek Jin.”
Only at Seo Young-woo’s voice did Baek Jin come to his senses.
“S-sorry. What did you say?”
He could feel a worried gaze, somehow, but right now Baek Jin had no room to worry about even that. He could only worry whether his skin had heated up without any sense.
“Jin-ah, you….”
Just then, a gentle breeze brushed past Baek Jin’s face and neck. The hand holding his tickled so much. As if even a brief passing breeze could make him crumble.
Baek Jin gazed at Seo Young-woo as if spellbound. He wanted to avoid the meeting gaze, but his body had frozen solid and wouldn’t move.
The heartbeat that should have been felt in his chest was felt in his hand. Startled in advance by a feeling he’d never experienced in his life, Baek Jin yanked his hand free and hid it behind his back.
“……”
“That, it was a bit….”
Seo Young-woo’s hand was left hanging in the air.
“It made me uncomfortable.”
Baek Jin, who had no way of knowing Seo Young-woo’s circumstances as he froze as if in shock, walked on ahead, simply relieved that his damp palm hadn’t been discovered.
***
Sitting on the sofa, Seo Young-woo glanced at Baek Jin, who was focused on the screen video, and smiled.
The audiovisual room inside the Center was the first place elementary school students on field trips usually stopped. Since they couldn’t walk all over the huge Bureau and see everything, explanations of each facility and videos of the awakened in action were shown on screen.
At first, he’d meant to personally show him the places he’d be visiting often from now on. But everyone they met showed excessive interest in Baek Jin, and his face gradually hardened. In the end, Seo Young-woo changed the plan and came into the Center.
“That’s Mister.”
Watching the screen, Baek Jin murmured softly.
The video showed Team AXIS resolving a special operation. There was actual combat footage too, but since real scenes were usually too dangerous to capture on camera, footage filmed separately for promotional purposes played longer.
Then, from behind, bright light leaked in slightly. At the small sound of someone calling, “Team Leader Seo Young-woo,” Seo Young-woo rose.
“Keep watching. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
At the round eyes looking up at him, Seo Young-woo stroked Baek Jin’s head and left the audiovisual room.
Baek Jin was left alone in the wide space. Normally, a dark space might have made him a little anxious, but Seo Young-woo’s face appearing here and there in the video put his heart at ease.
When the video of the awakened in action ended, it moved to the next chapter. Among the explanations that began under the title [What Are Espers and Guides], there were things he knew, but most were things he didn’t.
To begin with, Baek Jin was different from ordinary Republic of Korea awakened from the very start. Unlike him, who had awakened overseas, the awakened here received quality testing and management from the beginning, gradually built their skills, and found partners to work with, the explanation went.
“Partner…….”
Baek Jin thought of the partner system he’d also heard about from Seo Young-woo. He’d thought it was merely a kind of insurance for guiding, but it was a far more serious and deep relationship than he’d imagined.
It was a system that first weighed the possibilities based on the esper’s and guide’s basic data, then checked their matching rate. The highest figure in Bureau history was 82 percent. A high matching rate not only improved guiding efficiency but also greatly reduced the esper’s chance of rampaging, so the higher an esper’s rank, the better a guide they sought, one with an even better matching rate.
Listening to the explanation, Seo Young-woo naturally came to mind. The only person who could guide him, despite his guiding rejection syndrome. Wasn’t that proof, even without testing, that their matching rate was high?
Baek Jin looked down at his casted right hand and thought of Seo Young-woo, who had pressed his lips to his without hesitation. The mucous-membrane guiding that was only supposed to be possible under a partner contract. Already.
Realizing he’d dwelled too long on that day’s kiss, Baek Jin glanced around like a child caught doing something bad. He rubbed his neck for no reason, trying to erase the embarrassment.
Even if Seo Young-woo didn’t want to live with him right now, if he learned their matching rate was high, if they signed a partner contract and he became his dedicated guide, wouldn’t things change? A tiny hope bloomed in Baek Jin’s heart.
The video ended with the man and woman on screen folding their hands together and bowing at the waist. At the click of the lights coming on, Baek Jin squinted slightly and rose from the sofa.
He said he’d be right back. Stepping out of the audiovisual room to wait outside, Baek Jin was about to walk toward Seo Young-woo, visible not far away, then stopped.
Someone was clinging to Seo Young-woo, arms wrapped around his waist. As if used to it, he didn’t even pay it any mind and kept talking with the people in front of him.
His comfortably smiling lips and the way he patted the shoulders of the people before him, encouraging them, were different from what Baek Jin knew. The distance felt impossible to intrude upon, and he couldn’t bring himself to go any closer.
Just today alone, his mood had crashed to the floor and soared into the sky several times over. Right now, he felt something strange. The only person at his side was Seo Young-woo, but he’d only just realized that Seo Young-woo had far too many people around him.
Baek Jin stood still, only watching the people with Seo Young-woo, then went back into the audiovisual room.
***
When Seo Young-woo returned to the audiovisual room, Baek Jin was asleep on the sofa.
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