By Zephyria 
“I have somewhere I need to go for a bit… will you be able to go back alone tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t wander off elsewhere; go straight home.”
“I understand.”
As Gi-dam nodded obediently, Vasily curled the corners of his lips as if pleased. Watching him rise from his seat, Gi-dam asked.
“Are you leaving right now?”
“Do you want to come along?”
“No, I don’t.”
When Gi-dam shook his head immediately, Vasily continued.
“Then I’ll be going. I have to hurry if I want to be back quickly.”
“It’s fine if you’re late.”
“You’re being mischievous. I’ll be back by midnight tomorrow.”
Leaving Gi-dam behind in the private room where the lights were dimmed, Vasily departed.
Left alone, Gi-dam looked down at his thigh, which had been throbbing for a while. Pulling back the blanket, he saw white bandages wrapped beneath his patient gown.
Gi-dam murmured softly.
“I suppose this bought me some time….”
The injury wasn’t a mistake. No matter how weak his body had become, he had entered and exited Gates for six years; there was no way he would be injured in a mere E-class Gate.
He had intended to buy about a week’s worth of time under the pretext of receiving treatment, but he had gained the unintended benefit of not having to enter a Gate for the time being. If this were before the regression, he wouldn’t have been able to rest for a single day with an injury of this magnitude, but it seemed possible now because not much time had passed since he met him.
Thump. Gi-dam lay back on the bed, stretching out his limbs and staring at the IV fluid dripping steadily.
He thought he had barely survived a Gate, only to find himself returned to the past. Moreover, it wasn’t a normal regression. He had come to a parallel world. And a terrible one, where he and Vasily were in a romantic relationship.
At first, he couldn’t accept it, but seeing the articles flooding the internet and Vasily’s attitude of constantly closing the distance between them, he had no choice but to believe it. Even if he wanted to deny it, his thoughts wavered the more he saw Vasily acting like a lover while facing him every day.
The Vasily of this parallel world even had a different personality from the one Gi-dam knew. He strangely used formal language, went without guiding for long periods… and while his original personality seemed to surface whenever Gi-dam rubbed him the wrong way, his usual demeanor was so different that Gi-dam still hadn’t adjusted to it.
“Damn it… I guess it’s a relief I didn’t just die….”
Of all things, to end up in such a strange world.
He wanted to run away from Vasily immediately, but this place was different from the world he knew. Just as he had become lovers with Vasily, he didn’t know what other things might be different. He felt it would be best to pretend to have lost his memory for as long as possible until he fully grasped the situation here.
‘I hope nothing happens until then….’
He stared at the door Vasily had left through with complicated emotions, then abruptly turned over to lie on his side.
* * *
Click.
At the sound of someone opening the door and entering, Gi-dam reflexively opened his eyes.
I thought he’d be late, is he back already?
He wanted to close his eyes again and pretend to sleep, but there was no way Vasily wouldn’t have noticed he was awake. He had no choice but to sit up and turn his gaze toward the door. However, instead of Vasily in a sharp suit, he saw the Attending Physician wearing a familiar white coat.
“Hello, Guide. Good morning.”
As their eyes met, the Attending Physician offered a morning greeting. Gi-dam gave a quiet nod and checked the clock hanging on the wall. It was too early in the morning for the Attending Physician to be starting work.
“I will remove the IV needle for you.”
Come to think of it, the IV fluid was almost gone. He could have had someone else do it; did he come to work early just for this?
The Attending Physician asked while removing the needle.
“How are you feeling?”
“Only the injured area throbs a bit; everything else is fine.”
“This is the antidote. Take it three times a day after meals, and if the dizziness or pain worsens, you must visit the Association Hospital.”
Gi-dam took the medicine envelope handed to him. Explanations about the dosage followed, but since it was information he had heard dozens of times before, he nodded while letting the words drift past.
“Are you heading home immediately?”
“Yes. That is the plan.”
Vasily had urged him to go straight home, and since he had nowhere else to stop, he intended to return home first.
He stepped down from the bed while applying pressure to the site where the needle had been removed. Then, realizing belatedly that he was still in a patient gown, he hurriedly looked around.
His original clothes were nowhere to be seen in the private room. He hurriedly caught the Attending Physician, who was about to leave, and asked.
“Um… by any chance, have you seen my clothes?”
“Ah, those should be at the hospital where you first received treatment. I will contact the staff and have them brought here.”
“Thank you.”
After the Attending Physician left, an Association employee arrived shortly after and handed over his clothes.
He changed into the suit that had been well-preserved in plastic and left the Association. Thinking about it, he realized he had no clothes at home other than the suit Vasily had given him. Living without even pajamas was a bit uncomfortable, so he thought it would be good to buy a few sets of clothes now that he had some leeway.
As he passed in front of the Guide Association to catch a taxi, someone shouted his name and ran toward him.
“Mr. Gi-dam!”
It was a familiar face. He was sure he didn’t know the person, yet they felt familiar.
Wondering where he had seen them, he remembered it was the person he had encountered in the hospital hallway on the first day he woke up in this world. At that time, this person had been very glad to see him and had greeted him warmly.
“It really is Mr. Gi-dam. Have you been doing well?”
“Is Esper Vasily doing okay lately?”
Other people nearby also greeted him warmly as if they knew him. Seeing them coming out of the Guide Association, they seemed to be Guides or employees here, but they were people not in his memory.
It wasn’t just one or two people; they all knew his name. Wondering if he could find out something about the ‘me’ of this world, he didn’t avoid them and spoke cautiously.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve lost my memory due to an accident recently.”
“What?”
“I was caught in a rampage and suffered a severe injury to the back of my neck, so I have no memory at all of the time after my awakening as a Guide.”
A short silence followed his words.
“Then you don’t remember at all that you worked as a temporary Guide?”
“Temporary Guide…?”
He blinked at the completely unexpected words.
I was a temporary Guide?
Something was strange. Instead of becoming Vasily’s Guide immediately upon awakening, he had worked as a temporary Guide.
The more he spoke with them, the more information he learned that he hadn’t known. That he had worked as a temporary Guide immediately after awakening, the fact that he had become his Guide relatively recently, and even that he had been announced as C-rank.
More questions arose. Why did he stay as a temporary Guide even to the point of hiding his rank, and why didn’t Vasily tell him that he had been a temporary Guide even after seeing Jo Woo-yeon, who was greeting him?
With this, his suspicion that Vasily was hiding something turned into a conviction. As expected, it was a good decision to hide the fact that he had regressed from Vasily.
“Then you’ve lost your memories regarding Esper Vasily as well?”
“Yes… well….”
“The Esper must be very worried. You two were so close….”
“…….”
Listening to Jo Woo-yeon, it seemed that the romantic relationship with Vasily was indeed a fact. To think that that Vasily visited the office every time and even sent bouquets of flowers.
Jo Woo-yeon said that seeing the office where he had worked might trigger some memories and led him by the wrist to the Temporary Guide Department. He showed him a now-empty desk, saying it was the seat he had occupied, but as expected, he remembered nothing. It was only natural. He hadn’t lost his memory; he had come from another world.
“Did you injure your leg too?”
As Gi-dam limped while rising from the seat, Jo Woo-yeon asked.
“Yes, I was slightly injured in the Gate I entered yesterday.”
“What? You entered a Gate…?”
Jo Woo-yeon’s eyes widened.
When he nodded in affirmation, another commotion broke out, just as it had when he revealed his memory loss. It seemed that the news of him entering Gates had not yet spread widely. That must be why the Association employees reacted that way whenever they saw him entering a Gate.
“Did you go to the hospital?”
“I was on my way home after receiving treatment.”
“You should go and rest quickly; I’ve held you up for no reason….”
“No, it was helpful.”
When he answered sincerely while shaking his head, Jo Woo-yeon looked at him with eyes full of emotion.
“So, about that… if I have any questions, may I contact you…?”
“Of course!”
He asked for the number from the man who nodded readily. When the man replied that it should already be saved in his contacts, Gi-dam told him that his smartphone had been changed and all the numbers had disappeared.
Come to think of it, this smartphone was also something Vasily had provided for him. The only numbers in the contacts were his family’s and Vasily’s.
Since even the belongings the original Gi-dam possessed had all been discarded, there had been no way to trace his footsteps until now. Therefore, this encounter might be the only means of uncovering the past.