Chapter 1 – ​The ​Price ​of ​a ​Misjudgment

1. ​I’m ​Resigning.

Yoon ​Ki-hyun’s mourning for his ​father ​ended on the ​first day of ​the ​funeral.

After ​all, ​wasn’t ​this ​the father who ​had ​abandoned ​him after running ​away from home as ​a child, ​only to ​suddenly reappear ​years ago ​claiming ​he ​had fallen ill ​and demanding ​support? Honestly, Ki-hyun felt ​he had done enough.

Unlike ​his father, who had ​vanished into ​a ​handful of ash, Yoon Ki-hyun had ​to keep living. Even ​if ​all ​that ​remained ​for him was ​a mountain ​of ​terrible debt.

He felt ​suffocated ​just thinking about the loans ​he had ​recklessly ​taken out to ​cover ​medical ​bills ​and ​the tedious ​administrative ​reporting procedures.

No ​matter how much a Guide was classified ​as a high-income ​special profession, there ​was a limit to ​what an ​individual could handle. ​Still, ​he believed he ​would manage, just ​as he ​had ​somehow endured ​until ​now.

However, it ​wasn’t ​long before ​Yoon ​Ki-hyun ​realized he had ​reached ​his limit. ​Though ​it ​came ​somewhat sooner than he expected and in a form he hadn’t wanted.

“It’s called Other Restrictive Awakened Abnormal Syndrome. It’s a type that occurs rarely among Guides. The problem is that it’s a disease not covered by insurance, so the treatment costs are somewhat…”

It was a rather absurd ending.

At a hospital he had visited because every part of his body had been aching for months, the doctor abruptly mentioned a rare, incurable disease.

‘No wonder it hurt like a bitch.’

Yoon Ki-hyun sat blankly, barely listening to the serious explanation the doctor was laying out. The treatment costs were ridiculously expensive. That was because it was a disease not covered by health insurance.

Since he had no money, listening to the explanation was meaningless, so he had no choice but to let it go in one ear and out the other.

Even in the taxi heading back to the Center, it didn’t quite feel real.

The doctor said he would die from complications if left untreated, but instead of a sense of crisis, he only felt like laughing. They say you laugh when something is just too absurd, and that was exactly the case now.

‘Ah, whatever happens, happens. How much harder am I supposed to work? I don’t even know anymore. Fuck it, whether I’m screwed or not…’

As he continued to laugh incessantly in the backseat like a lunatic, the taxi driver waved his hand as soon as they arrived at the Center, telling him the fare was on the house. Whether it was pity or something else, Ki-hyun was just glad to save the money.

When Yoon Ki-hyun bowed to the driver and returned to the Center, there was already a long list of Espers waiting for his guiding.

Normally, he would have gone straight to the guiding room, but today was different. After checking [unauthorized copy[stolen content]style="font-size:0;position:absolute;left:-9999px;">]the guiding list, Yoon Ki-hyun headed for the breakroom.

He leisurely brewed a capsule coffee, sat in his seat marked with the Team Leader nameplate, and blankly scrolled through the resignation form.

After typing “personal reasons” in the reason column and submitting the request for approval, his messenger began to ring loudly shortly after.

Awakened Management Center/Headquarters/Guide Director—Kim Si-chan

Ki-hyun?

Awakened Management Center/Headquarters/Guide Management Deputy Director—Jo Mi-seong

Team Leader Yoon, I think you submitted the approval request by mistake?

Yoon Ki-hyun stopped scanning the messages and stood up. It was too tedious to respond to them one by one.

He could deal with the barrage of questions later. To secure even a little more of the incentive that would be included in this month’s salary, the backlog of guiding came first.

Even if he was going to die, shouldn’t he die after squandering his paycheck?

‘Ugh, I’m sick of this. Fucking guiding, seriously.’

He felt like he was about to gag. However, his mood improved slightly when he reminded himself that this ordeal would last a month at most.

He walked down the hallway, dragging his exhausted body, with a smirk on his face.

“Oh, Team Leader Yoon. Did something good happen?”

Something good, my ass. He had just come from hearing that he had a disease requiring incredibly expensive medicine and injections to survive, all while his loan debts were piled high.

In truth, he felt lost on how to deal with the disaster-like situation that had suddenly crashed into his life.

But at least for now, he didn’t want to think about anything. His energy to think had long since been depleted.

‘Well, if worst comes to worst, I can just die.’

Yoon Ki-hyun grinned and replied to the Center employee whose name he could barely remember.

“No. I just felt like smiling.”

“Ah, I see.”

The employee backed away slowly with a puzzled expression. He figured rumors would probably circulate that Yoon Ki-hyun was walking around the hallway smirking creepily.

But so what? Whatever those bastards who would be strangers in a month said didn’t matter.

Yoon Ki-hyun truly didn’t care.

Standing blankly in front of the guiding room with his hand on the handle, he was still smiling crookedly.

For someone who had decided to commit suicide, his face looked excessively bright.

---

The “Public Good” of the Awakened Management Center. This was the derogatory nickname attached to Yoon Ki-hyun, the Team Leader of Guide Team 2, who provided guiding to anyone as long as the time matched.

Espers who use various abilities inevitably experience various side effects stemming from situations where wave suppression becomes impossible. Guides are the ones who help Espers with this wave suppression.

Direct contact was essential to suppress another’s wavelength, but most could guide with simple contact, such as a handshake.

However, there are occasionally cases where contact guiding alone cannot suppress an Esper’s wavelength.

In such cases, the Guide had to take the lead by drawing the Esper’s wavelength more strongly through the mucosa. While visit [visit our site]our siteit was called mucosal guiding, it was essentially no different from kissing.

When an Esper could not control their reason, it frequently led to acts equivalent to sexual intercourse, so most Guides avoided mucosal guiding—even though it came with a significant incentive.

Whenever that happened, Yoon Ki-hyun was usually the one to step forward at the Awakener Center headquarters.

To pay off his loans quickly, he wasn’t in a position to be picky, and it was also possible because Yoon Ki-hyun didn’t mind sexual relations with men.

Consequently, Yoon Ki-hyun became the target of low-grade sexual harassment from the Espers.

The news of Yoon Ki-hyun’s resignation spread much faster than the man himself had hoped. He was a person of interest to the members of the Awakened Management Center, both in a positive and negative sense.

“The Public Good submitted his resignation.”

“Why?”

“Who knows. I heard the higher-ups asked for a few interviews, but he’s just ignoring them.”

“Did he snag someone with a lot of money?”

“Then shouldn’t he get a ton of guiding before he leaves?”

“There aren’t many guys with decent faces other than the Public Good, ah.”

It took only an hour for the news of Yoon Ki-hyun’s resignation to reach the lounge where the Espers gathered in small groups.

“But why is he leaving?”

“He guides as much as possible, so his salary must be insane.”

“He seems to have been doing less guiding lately… is there really something going on?”

Just as the gossip was reaching its peak, a small head popped up over the back of a large sofa.

“Who submitted their resignation?”

Upon seeing the face of the person asking, one of the Espers quickly corrected his posture.

‘Fuck, I’m screwed. The bastard who usually sleeps in the nap room, why the hell is he out today?’

If he had known, he would have stayed in the smoking room and chuckled.

While he was regretting it and shifting his eyes, the man who rose from the sofa frowned. He looked as if he were ready to throw a punch at any moment.

“I asked who submitted their resignation, you brat.”

“The Team Leader of Guide Team 2. I heard he intends to resign next month.”

At the disciplined response, the man scratched the back of his head. There was only one Team Leader of Guide Team 2 that he knew.

“The Public Good?”

“Yes.”

“Team Leader Yoon Ki-hyun submitted his resignation?”

“The rumor has already spread. I heard the Guide Director told his secretary to buy a cake. To try and coax him during the interview.”

“What the… forget that. Do you know why he’s quitting?”

“I’m not sure about that part…”

“You fuck, what the hell do you actually know?”

Jeong Si-jun, the Team Leader of Esper Special Team 2, who was berating the teammate who had disturbed his sleep, leaned against the sofa back and thought.

‘Yoon Ki-hyun is resigning?’

He was the only A-class Guide who had a good compatibility with him.

During the last large-scale rift, Si-jun had overexerted himself and was almost classified as a high-risk group for outbreak; it was during that process that he had mucosal guiding with him for the first time.

Since that day, Jeong Si-jun realized he could sleep with a man. From then on, he had started to be subtly mindful of Yoon Ki-hyun.

And now he was resigning. It was not good news.

“I was finally sleeping well. Why the hell do you wake me up by blabbing things you don’t even properly know, you piece of shit.”

“I’m sorry.”

The teammate scratched his head, looking [[stolen content]class="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">unauthorized copy]awkward. Glancing at him, Jeong Si-jun checked his wristwatch.

As it happened, he had been assigned guiding from Yoon Ki-hyun today.

‘I’ll just ask him in person.’

Jeong Si-jun left the lounge, recalling which floor the reserved guiding room was on.

Fitting his nickname as the Center’s Public Good, Yoon Ki-hyun handled his assigned guiding as best as he could and often guided even outside of working hours. Though for some reason, he had been leaving work early occasionally lately.

‘Why is he suddenly quitting?’

He had no inkling. Though, in the first place, he hadn’t been that interested in Yoon Ki-hyun.

While waiting in the guiding room with questions in mind, Jeong Si-jun asked as soon as he saw Yoon Ki-hyun arrive exactly on time.

“The rumor that you’re quitting has spread. Is it true?”

As he waited for an answer, he looked at Yoon Ki-hyun’s face, which looked haggard. He usually lacked a spark in his eyes, but today they were half-closed.

His complexion was pale; no matter how he looked at it, Read on Read BL Novelsstyle="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[stolen content]he didn’t seem to be in good condition.

‘Is he very sick?’

While Jeong Si-jun was thinking that, Yoon Ki-hyun blinked slowly and caught his breath.

‘This is the third guy asking if I’m quitting? Fuck, how long has it been since I submitted the resignation that the rumor is already out? How many more are left…’

It certainly wasn’t a number he could count on one hand.

The Espers scheduled for the next guiding sessions would obviously ask the same question. Whether it was true that he was leaving the Center. Then he would have to answer like this again.

‘Yes. It just happened that way.’

He had to hide the pathetic fact that he was sick and affirm the resignation. After all, it was true that he had submitted the resignation.

When he had replied this way to the two people he guided previously, both had surprisingly shown the same reaction, as if they had coordinated.

They tried to exchange contact information and pried into the reason for his departure. He had to brush off the reason as personal circumstances and reject the exchange of numbers, cutting off the conversation under the guise of guiding before he could escape the barrage of questions.

He didn’t think Jeong Si-jun would ask anything different. Thinking about how many times he would have to repeat this useless unauthorized copystyle="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[visit our site]Q&A, irritation surged from within.

Perhaps that was why a sharper response flew out than when he dealt with the previous two.

“Is there a reason you’re asking when you already know?”

“I just wondered if it was true.”

“Yes.”

Lacking the energy for a long response, he gave a short affirmation, and Jeong Si-jun tilted his head.

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? Is it that strange that I’m quitting? If a person’s job is fucking awful, they can quit. It’s not like I was born as a piece of equipment for this place…”

Yoon Ki-hyun, who had been pouring out his sincerity without a filter, abruptly cut himself off and wiped his face with his hand.

No matter how awful it was, he had to work at the Center for a month for the handover. Acting out like this wouldn’t bring any benefit. If anything, it would only make the remaining month harder.

He took a deep breath and apologized to Jeong Si-jun.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to take my anger out on you, Team Leader, but I got irritated because people keep asking the same thing… I’m sorry. I’ll start the guiding.”

When Yoon Ki-hyun finished his apology, Jeong Si-jun couldn’t find a response and silently held out his hand. He had an intuition that he shouldn’t push any further.

Seeing him obediently hold out his hand, Yoon Ki-hyun felt relieved but also regretted it.

‘Of all people, why did I take it out on him?’

He had snapped in the heat of the moment, but who was Jeong Si-jun? His nickname was the “Mad Dog of the Awakener Center” because he acted however he pleased, as if he had thrown social etiquette to the dogs.

Getting irritable with a guy like that only resulted in a loss for himself. He was just lucky that Jeong Si-jun didn’t say much despite the irritable response.

Yoon Ki-hyun took Jeong Si-jun’s hand, which was scarred in places, and immediately drew the wavelength. He intended to finish the guiding quickly, just in case Jeong Si-jun decided to act out later.

As the wavelength flowed through their touching palms, a tingling pain surged through his entire body as if it had been waiting.

Seeing intermittent flashes before his eyes, it seemed the signs were not good. Yoon Ki-hyun tried his best to ignore the faint smell of blood he felt in the back of his throat.

His physical condition was a mess, but while working at the Center, [[stolen content]class="wm" style="opacity:0;font-size:1px;user-select:all;">stolen content]he wanted to focus on guiding as much as possible. Even if he only looked like a “Public Good” to others.

‘It’s my last paycheck, so I should diligently collect every incentive I can.’

He needed money to die without regrets. He would only be satisfied if he resigned after receiving enough money to spend lavishly until the end.

To think that the desire to die would paradoxically make him live through today.

It was a bit funny, and without realizing it, Yoon Ki-hyun’s lips curled upward.

Unaware that Jeong Si-jun was watching him with a troubled expression as he suddenly began to smirk.