CHAPTER 10
"Uh huh?"
Gu Jei looked at the man and said, "A man who became a Guide just two days ago also happen to work as a janitor at the Center. Up to this point, I'll chalk it up to coincidence."
"......"
"But in a dangerous situation where everyone was evacuating, he specifically sought me out and guided me while I was in a berserk state... And this was a man who had been an ordinary person just two days prior. Doesn't that strike you as odd?"
Pyo Myeongho, who was about to defend the man, ultimately chose silence. He seem to agree with the logic in Gu Jei's words.
Simply attributing it to luck wasn't enough. Everything had gone too smoothly, almost as if it was planned right from the start.
"What's your name?"
"Ye-Yeo Hanseo."
"Mr. Yeo Hanseo, even veteran Guides with decades of experience fear Espers in a berserk state. Guide training explicitly instructs us to cease guiding and flee if an Esper begins to lose control. I don't know if you've reached that part of the curriculum yet. But you dared to guide me anyway."
The man, who had been frozen in fear, suddenly retorted, "But Esper Gu Jei wasn't in a berserk state. He was merely in a standby state, on the verge of losing control."
"Even so, it's not something a Guide with only two days of experience should attempt. What do you think the chances are of a novice Guide successfully guiding an Esper on the brink of berserking?"
"If the compatibility rate exceeds 90%, it's possible."
"......"
"Well, uh... just saying."
Pyo Myeongho answered, seemingly blurting out the information without realizing it. When Gu Jei shot him a cold glare, Pyo Myeongho averted his gaze as if he hadn't spoken at all.
Gu Jei turned his attention back to the man.
"Then there are two possibilities. Either you're one of the fabled 'soulmates'—one in a million—or you're not a novice Guide who's only been awakened for two days."
"Huh?"
"I strongly suspect Mr. Yeo Hanseo is an unregistered Guide. His entry into the Center as a janitor was a deliberate attempt to target me from the start. Anyone who knows me knows I've been struggling with my Guiding issues, so he likely thought he could exploit that weakness to manipulate me."
"That's... absurd."
The man shook his head, his face pale with fear, but Gu Jei pressed on relentlessly.
"Then explain it to me in a way I can understand. When the alarm sounded, why didn't you run like everyone else? Why did you came looking for me? And how could a Guide who had only awakened two days prior possibly guide an Esper on the verge of losing control?"
"I... I didn't run because I was worried about the Esper Gu Jei Esper. And the second thing... uh, I don't really know how it happened either..."
"Oh, you were worried about me."
If he had at least said something like Pyo Myeongho—about a Guide's duty or devotion to the nation—it would have been laughable, but at least amusing.
But to claim he was worried about an S-Class Esper capable of sinking an entire island with his own power? It was so absurd that Gu Jei couldn't even muster a derisive laugh.
"You risked your life for such a reason? Am I supposed to believe that?"
Gu Jei stared down at the man with a cold expression.
Having possessed so much since childhood, Gu Jei had encountered countless swindlers trying to exploit him. He had never let such men off easily because he despised being deceived or betrayed.
However, this man appeared frail and had just regained consciousness after fainting. Gu Jei was simply being polite and trying to reason with him, rather than resorting to pressure.
But if this man persist in his absurd lies, Gu Jei is fully prepared to resort to other methods.
"Regardless of your motives, the fact remains that I received help from Mr. Yeo Hanseo. I'll give you one chance to speak honestly. But if you continue lying, I'll have no choice but to use other means."
Gu Jei deliberately released a sliver of his psychic power to pressure the man.
Hanseo's long eyelashes trembled slightly.
"I... I truly just wanted Esper Gu Jei to be safe."
"Are you still going to cling on to that ridiculous lie?"
If he knows it's not working, he should come up with a different excuse.
Seeing the man tremble so intensely made Gu Jei feel uneasy, as if he was bullying someone weaker.
"This is your last chance. Tell me the truth. What do you hope to gain by doing this?"
"I... I went because I was genuinely worried about you. Because..."
"Ha, still lying..."
"B-because I like you, Esper Gu Jei!"
The taut tension snapped like a thread.
Gu Jei blinked blankly.
"What did you say...?"
"Ah! I remember now!" Pyo Myeongho exclaimed. "No wonder he looked familiar! The Heukyeong-dong Gate incident! Right?"
"Ah, yes," the man with wide eyes nodded awkwardly.
Gu Jei frowned. "Heukyeong-dong Gate? What about it?"
"Haven't you seen the news? Oh, right, you wouldn't have. You don't have a TV."
Gu Jei didn't keep a TV at home. He couldn't even stand the noise. Even if he had one, he wouldn't have watched it. He was too preoccupied with clearing gates to spare any attention for anything else.
"Then it's no wonder you don't know. The news has been going all over, the story about a missing person from the Heukyeong-dong Gate who returned after seven years. Here, look."
Pyo Myeongho searched for the Heukyeong-dong Gate incident on his phone and handed it to Gu Jei. He continued to chatter at the man.
"I'm usually good at remembering faces, so I was puzzled. I was so sure I'd seen you somewhere, but I couldn't figure it out. Wow, now I get it! You look exactly like your photo. Honestly, I thought the photo only looked flattering, but it's not!"
"Ah, some people recognized me because of that photo. Even though it was taken down after just a day."
"Aigoo, now that I think about it, Mr. Hanseo must have been uncomfortable. That photo wasn't taken with your consent, was it?"
"It seems like a reporter took it without permission and uploaded it. But they took it down quickly after I complained. Still, some people occasionally recognize me."
"You've been through so much. Even being handsome is a sin....."
Listening to their conversation, Gu Jei slowly scrolled down the page.
As Pyo Myeongho had said, articles about the return of the missing person from the BHeukyeong-dong Gate flooded the internet.
Skimming through the articles, Gu Jei's gaze landed on the comments:
― Missing since elementary school, and now he's back at 20 ㅠㅠ This is so heartbreaking.
― It's a relief he's back at all, but thinking about the lost years... I hope he finds happiness with his family from now on.
└ You didn't read the article properly. He's the only one who returned from his entire family.
- I hope something like this never happens again. If the Espers had cleared the gate faster, everyone would have returned safely.
└ The article says it happened seven years ago, before the gate location prediction system existed.
└ They blame Espers for everything ᄃᄃ Even when they save us, they get all the hate.
└└Well, they earn enough to compensate.
― Looking at his baby pictures, he grew up looking exactly the same ᅲᅲ Please debut in the entertainment industry!
└ ?? Do you have current photos too? I can't find any in the articles.
└ (Deleted comment)
└ Oh, thank you!
└ Wow, he's freaking handsome! Debut immediately!
└ Huh? This is considered handsome? He just looks like a gigolo.
└└ Sir, maybe you should look in a mirror before commenting.
└ You're all out of your minds. Stop rating the looks of ordinary people. How can you do this to a victim who's been through something so horrific?
└ I missed the photos. Where can I find them? I've searched everywhere but can't find them ᅲᅲᅲᅲ
Gu Jei handed the phone back to Pyo Myeongho.
The man, noticing Gu Jei's gaze, became quite creating an awkward silence between them.
"...So, you were missing for seven years and just returned?"
"Yes."
"Then you must have recently undergone an Esper-Guide compatibility test."
"Yes, the results came back two days ago."
"......"
If this is true, the this man couldn't possibly be an illegal, unregistered Guide as Gu Jei had suspected. He would have been inside the gate until just over a month ago.
Gu Jei had two reasons for suspecting this man.
Why didn't he run away like everyone else when the alarm sounded? Why did he go searching for him?
Gu Jei had believed the man was an unregistered Guide who knew his weakness and deliberately approached him. He reasoned that the man must have been risking his life for some ulterior motive.
But now, his suspicions were losing their foundation.
"Because I like you! Esper Gu Jei!"
...Let's set that answer aside for now.
But still, the second question remained:
"How could a Guide who had only awakened two days ago possibly Guide an Esper on the verge of losing control?"
The answer to the second question came the next day.
"Esper Gu Jei, the compatibility rate result with Mr. Yeo Hanseo are in. But..."
There was no need to hear the rest.
Gu Jei had just checked the compatibility rate recorded on the document:
98%
The answer to the second question.
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