BP 20

Joy answered Seung-hyun’s question.

“Depending on the condition, it can drop below 5%. It looks like it’ll be easy today.”

“What is the value that can be called safe?”

“40%. If it goes above that, they struggle a lot. Headaches, bleeding, psychokinesis explosions. It varies.”

“Esper Ha Jae-il went up to almost 80% a few days ago.”

Seung-hyun was firing a barrage of questions to the point where Joy couldn’t even start the guiding.

“He did. He’s a monster, so he can endure that much. Normally, it’s not like that. Ugh, I thought I was going to die that day.”

Recalling the memory of that day, Joy shuddered. The man, who had been observing Seung-hyun’s face, suddenly cut into the conversation.

“How did you take down Lee Jae-jin? Even if he looks like that, he’s a skilled person who’s even entered competitions.”

“……?”

Because of the sudden question, the topic shifted instantly. Joy looked back and forth between the men with a face that didn’t understand what was happening, and Seung-hyun silently looked up at the man. He was someone who usually answered questions faithfully, but this time he couldn’t speak readily. It was difficult to explain something he had done reflexively.

“What do you mean by that?”

When Joy asked, the man replied with a thin smile.

“That this person beat down Lee Jae-jin. During sparring.”

“What? But why didn’t I know?”

It was news Joy was hearing for the first time. Seung-hyun scratched his forehead as if the situation were quite awkward.

“Why do you think? Guide Lee Jae-jin worked so hard to shut the Espers’ mouths. I was there at the time. Wow, I was surprised.”

The man’s gaze fixed on Seung-hyun again. His smiling face was full of pure curiosity.

“Really? When?!”

Joy spoke in an excited tone.

“…It’s been a few days.”

Seung-hyun, tracing back the date, glossed over it.

“Is that why your lip burst back then?”

“Yes.”

“That guy asked to fight first, right?”

“Yes.”

“He got beaten instead? And then he went around keeping people quiet because he was embarrassed. Gosh, how pathetic. Truly pathetic.”

To Seung-hyun, who was answering honestly one by one, a wide and large hand was extended. The man offered a handshake.

“I am Louis Winter.”

“…Nice to meet you. I am Ji Seung-hyun.”

Having learned that the handshake they offered was the highest courtesy toward a Guide, Seung-hyun took his hand without hesitation. The man’s energy, like Jae-il’s, only fluttered finely around Seung-hyun’s hand. Perhaps because the amplification level was low, it wasn’t threatening at all. The subtle tone of the energy was similar to the man’s smooth personality.

Holding Seung-hyun’s hand tightly and rubbing the back of it softly with his thumb, Louis tilted his head.

“Huh? I can’t really tell?”

“It’s because he hasn’t even opened the channel yet.”

When Joy spoke as if it were obvious, Louis let out an “Ah” and let go of the hand.

“It’ll have to grow a lot.”

“Indeed. I’ll start now.”

Joy’s small hand was placed over Louis’s heart.

* * *

After eating lunch and coming out of afternoon training, Seung-hyun received a call from Daniel. At the word to stop by for a moment if he wasn’t busy, he changed his clothes and set out.

As he opened the door to the counseling room and entered, Daniel greeted Seung-hyun with the same genial and clean smile as the day they first met.

As Seung-hyun sat down, Daniel, leaning his elbows on the table, rested his chin on his hand and softly met his gaze.

“Have you been doing well?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks to you, Jae-il’s Amplification Hazard Level has dropped a lot. Thank you.”

“Not at all.”

To be praised just for sleeping together felt similar to receiving money without labor, so he was very embarrassed. Seung-hyun bowed his head deeply and scratched the back of his head. Daniel’s gaze lingered on the reddened tips of his ears and cheeks before withdrawing.

“How is life at the center? Is it not too hard?”

“It’s fine. Much more than I worried. There are many people taking care of me.”

The faces of Joy, Rowan, and Jae-il flashed through Seung-hyun’s mind. Suddenly remembering the temperature of the finger that had inspected the inside of his mouth, Seung-hyun rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand. Even thinking about it now, it was excessively hot.

“Is there anything stressing you out?”

“……?”

For asking about his well-being, it felt a bit persistent. Seung-hyun opened his eyes wide and faced Daniel’s face. Daniel was wearing a smile, just waiting for Seung-hyun’s mouth to open. At the incomprehensible, gentle pressure, Seung-hyun shook his head.

“There is none. It’s at a bearable level.”

“I see,” Daniel murmured softly, and as he took a deep breath, the flat chest beneath the gown swelled and then subsided.

“It’s nothing else, but I called you because there are a few things I want to ask.”

“Yes.”

After a brief pause, the man looked deeply into Seung-hyun’s eyes. The intention to dig out his inner thoughts was strongly evident.

“Did you suffer from a sleep disorder when you were in the 13th District?”

“Pardon?”

In front of Seung-hyun, whose face showed he didn’t quite understand what he meant, Daniel added emotionlessly.

“Like waking up in a different place after sleeping. Or having wounds on your body. Or things in the house being scattered.”

“…….”

“Or someone telling you that you were awake, even though you only remember sleeping.”

Seung-hyun, who had been listening quietly, spoke.

“Are you perhaps talking about something like sleepwalking?”

When he pointed it out directly after the man had intentionally spoken in circles, Daniel smiled. From some point, his expression had vanished.

“I didn’t have that.”

“…Hmm.”

Lost in thought for a moment, Daniel rubbed his chin. A persistent suspicion lingered in his glancing eyes. Seung-hyun struggled to search his memories. The 13th District. If such a thing had existed, he would have told the hospital before coming here. His hands fidgeted beneath the table. After hesitating a few times, Seung-hyun spoke while gauging Daniel’s reaction.

“I think something happened when I spent the night with Esper Ha Jae-il. Is that correct?”

Daniel’s quiet smile was an affirmation. Seung-hyun felt a chill settle near his heart. It felt as if someone had flicked the back of his head. So that was why his tone had been so [unauthorized copy]cold and why he kept avoiding his gaze. As Jae-il’s stolen contentinexplicable behavior began to make sense, he simultaneously became confused. A sleep disorder? He had never imagined it. His eyes wavered like ripples on water as he looked at Daniel.

“Did I… perhaps do something wrong to him?”

“No. It’s nothing like that.”

Daniel shook his head with a look intended to reassure him, but Seung-hyun knew instinctively. Jae-il had lied.

“Since you say you had no symptoms before then, I’ll change the question slightly.”

Seung-hyun lowered his gaze and bit hard into the inside of his lip. He wasn’t even being scolded, yet he couldn’t stop feeling tense. The space where it was just the two of them became utterly uncomfortable. Every word Daniel spoke felt awkward and foreign. It felt as difficult as the aggressive interrogation he had endured before entering Haon, and he tightened his grip on his fidgeting hands.

“Has anything happened recently that caused you severe shock?”

“…….”

“Something significant enough to change your state of mind, Mr. Ji Seung-hyun.”

The moment he processed the question, a vision flickered before Seung-hyun’s eyes. Fingers, white and brittle. Powder scattering in a cold, violent wind. A pain in his heart that tightened so hard it felt suffocating. Seung-hyun’s body began to stiffen visibly. His tensed fingers dug their nails into the backs of his hands. The skin was soon peeled away, leaving gouges in the flesh. An inexplicable tremor was climbing up his arms.

“No.”

“…….”

“There isn’t any.”

Seung-hyun spoke curtly. The trembling had now crawled up to his throat.

“None at all?”

“Yes, none.”

“Hmm….”

Daniel fell back into thought. This time, he looked away diagonally, deep in contemplation. Just as he straightened his upper body to check Seung-hyun’s chart to see if he had missed something, Seung-hyun abruptly stood up. He staggered for a moment from the recoil and braced himself against the table.

“I’ll be going now.”

“……?”

Daniel looked puzzled, but Seung-hyun had stopped looking at his face long ago.

“If you’re going to keep asking things like that, I have nothing more to say. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Daniel rubbed his chin, probing Seung-hyun’s reaction. Though Seung-hyun seemed unaware, his initial claim that there was “nothing” had shifted to “not wanting to talk about it.”

“You don’t want to talk about it?”

“Yes, yes. That’s right.”

He didn’t even know what he was talking about. With a face pale as a sheet, he stood barely upright, looking as if he might collapse at any moment. The hand gripping the table trembled violently. Beads of blood had formed on the back of his hand from where he had scratched himself. He radiated a precarious atmosphere, as if something terrible would happen if he weren’t let go. Judging that further counseling was impossible, Daniel gave a light shrug. In truth, looking at Ji Seung-hyun’s reaction, there was no need to actually hear the answer.

“I understand for now. Let’s talk next time.”

Seung-hyun hurried out of the counseling room as if escaping.

* * *

The first thing Seung-hyun learned to survive in the 13th District was selective perception. He grasped what was necessary and selectively cut away what was bothersome. It was a necessary process to survive in such a barren environment.

If one looked at or felt pity for things that were rotting and festering, they would either stagnate or, worse, be infected. Even if it was cruel and cold, it couldn’t be helped. He had to be especially careful with emotions that tended to soak in or soften. It was better not to glance at them in the first place.