Chapter 5 – The Price of Misjudgment
Yoon Ki-hyun did not want to guide Jeong Si-jun. No matter how many times he reconsidered, he really wasn’t feeling it.
If it had been any other Esper, he would have gladly helped with the guiding, but of all people, he was being told to guide that unlucky bastard.
To be honest, Yoon Ki-hyun hated Jeong Si-jun so much that it felt like a feat just to have reconsidered it several times.
When he worked at the Center, it was an emotion buried deep at the bottom of his heart, one he couldn’t properly examine. Back then, he spent every last bit of energy—even the strength required to sincerely hate or despise someone—on guiding.
However, the emotions he had forgotten, crushed by accumulated fatigue from overwork and various aches and pains, began to float up and haunt him starting from the moment he left the Center.
Whenever he drank expensive liquor alone, he would chew over the things he experienced at the Center like they were side dishes. He knew it wasn’t good for his mental health, but there was nothing he could do.
How was he supposed to block things that popped into his head automatically?
In fact, the more he tried not to think about them, the more the things he had considered trivial came back as if they had been waiting, to the point where it was infuriating.
“I’m asking for a favor. I’ll make sure to take good care of your special guiding allowance, okay?”
He was suddenly grabbed and asked to help with work, leaving him speechless.
Seo Jin-tae shook the sleeve of Yoon Ki-hyun, who showed no intention of moving. In his own way, [Read unauthorized copyon Read BL Novels]he was trying to be as friendly and intimate as possible, but to Yoon Ki-hyun, even that felt like mockery.
It seemed the people at the Center still viewed him as a Guide obsessed with money. While it was true that he hadn’t actively cleared up the misunderstanding, this felt unpleasant in its own right.
‘Did he think I’d just jump for joy the moment he asked for guiding help without even a hollow greeting asking how I’ve been…’
He wasn’t an idiot; he knew the situation was urgent. Since Yoon Ki-hyun had seen it himself, he could fully understand Seo Jin-tae’s request.
He knew that Jeong Si-jun had a difficult wavelength and that Seo Jin-tae had struggled because of it every time, yet he couldn’t understand why he felt so annoyed.
It must be because the target is that bastard Jeong Si-jun, right?
Yoon Ki-hyun glanced at Jeong Si-jun, who was being moved to a spot slightly away from the gaze of others. Because it was a temporary setup, it was a shoddy space with wrinkled screens that failed to function properly as partitions.
Part of it was because the gate had appeared in a residential alley, making it impossible to establish a proper temporary base, but in Yoon Ki-hyun’s opinion, the Awakener Center’s chronic insensitivity to safety was also severe.
“Come on, Team Leader Yoon. Hurry, please?”
At Seo Jin-tae’s urging, Yoon Ki-hyun slowly moved his feet. He was still vague about what he actually wanted to do. As he passed a few people who looked at him with surprised eyes and stared down at the blood-soaked Jeong Si-jun, he felt strange.
‘If even Team Leader Seo couldn’t catch the wavelength, has he not been receiving proper guiding all this time?’
As if his consciousness was gradually returning, Jeong Si-jun, who was half-curled up, lifted his head. His blurry focus gradually sharpened, and then their eyes met.
“Stop spectating and just give me some guiding already, fuck.”
Jeong Si-jun spat blood onto the ground and snapped irritably.
What did this bastard just say? In an instant, heat rushed to Yoon Ki-hyun’s head.
No matter how few good memories Ki-hyun had of the Center, he felt at least a minimum level of respect or gratitude toward Espers who entered gates for the safety of the citizens.
But Jeong Si-jun constantly spouted bullshit that completely wiped away such sentiments. Honestly, the sheer novelty of his bullshit, which exceeded all imagination every time, was almost awe-inspiring.
“…There’s something I’ve been really curious about for a long time.”
“What?”
When Yoon Ki-hyun began in a soft tone, Jeong Si-jun asked back as if he had misheard. His furrowed brows and displeased gaze grew even more menacing.
At this moment, the only one anxious behind the flimsy partition was Seo Jin-tae. He was still clutching Yoon Ki-hyun’s sleeve, fidgeting and busy reading the room.
“Don’t you know you’ll die if you don’t get guiding?”
“Fuck, who doesn’t know that?”
“No, it’s just that you treat people like water purifier filters so much that I thought maybe you didn’t know.”
“….”
At Yoon Ki-hyun’s indifferent response, Jeong Si-jun shut his mouth. The person who usually focused on guiding without a word was now being sarcastic.
Come to think of it, this was the second time.
The first time was in the guiding room when he asked if the news of his resignation was true. Back then, he had immediately offered a polite apology, leaving the other person speechless, but today he was openly sneering in informal speech.
Treating him like a water purifier filter. It was a more blatant and accurate metaphor than expected, so Jeong Si-jun couldn’t easily speak.
It was common knowledge for anyone affiliated with the Center that Espers tended to look down on Guides. In fact, since Jeong Si-jun also thought that way, he couldn’t even lie and say he had never felt that way.
While lost for words, Jeong Si-jun coughed up blood once more.
Dark red blood splattered onto the sneakers Yoon Ki-hyun had purchased as a lump sum at a department store. Watching this quietly, Ki-hyun replied in an indifferent tone to Jeong Si-jun, who was starting to lift his upper body off the ground.
“Anyway, you’re working hard. Team Leader Jeong Si-jun, good luck with the grueling shit-work.”
Yoon Ki-hyun shook off Seo Jin-tae, who was clinging to his arm, and turned back the way he came.
The flustered Seo Jin-tae seemed to be saying something, but he didn’t listen carefully. He just wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible.
So, what he had snapped at Jeong Si-jun a moment ago was a kind of childish retaliation. It was a revenge—if you could call it that—against the culprit who had caused Yoon Ki-hyun to be called a “public good” at the Awakener Center.
However, the feeling of openly sneering at someone he hated for the first time in his life, and doing it right to their face, was terrible. At this rate, wasn’t he no different stolen stolen contentcontentfrom those lunatics who spout crazy nonsense intoxicated by the thrill of “satisfying revenge”?
He had wanted to see Jeong Si-jun groveling at least once before he died, but he didn’t feel refreshed at all. Rather, he felt sticky and uncomfortable.
‘Still, that bastard deserves to hear that.’
‘Why do I have to guide that guy even in the neighborhood where I came to die? He treated me like a public good, and now he’s finally lost his mind, seriously.’
Even after returning to his lodging, he tried to rationalize it several times, but strangely, he felt embarrassed and ashamed of himself.
Regardless of those feelings, Yoon Ki-hyun still hated Jeong Si-jun. It was because he was the only person who consistently provided him with negative emotions until the very end.
‘Still, I think I would have been pissed off in a different way if I had actually guided him.’
Since he no longer lacked money, there was absolutely no reason to endure the pain to guide someone he hated. He was no longer the public good of the Awakened Management Center, was he?
About two weeks until the day he decided to die. Unless something unusual happened, he wouldn’t have to encounter the S-class Esper, who was constantly busy entering and exiting gates, again.
After returning to his lodging, Yoon Ki-hyun curled up in bed, groaning from a headache that couldn’t be masked even by the soju he had practically poured into himself.
His head hurt so much it felt as if someone were placing a sharp chisel against his temple and striking it with a hammer. He felt a strong pulse in his head, making him wonder if it might actually explode.
Feeling the throb of blood flowing through his veins, Yoon Ki-hyun closed his eyes.
Over the black void of his vision, the clump of blood Jeong Si-jun had vomited near his shoes appeared. Come to think of it, those stolen contentshoes splattered visit our sitewith blood were brand new, bought as a lump sum from the department store only two days ago.
Thinking about it, today was truly a day of terrible luck.
Yoon Ki-hyun pressed his eyelids with the back of his hand, forcing himself to sleep. It felt like it would be the first night he couldn’t fall asleep due to pain.
In the end, he couldn’t sleep deeply. Even after waking up, his head wasn’t clear, and the lingering headache made him feel gloomy and crave alcohol.
In a half-asleep state, Yoon Ki-hyun left his lodging, wearing only a coat thrown over his shoulders.
Yoon Ki-hyun was enjoying binge drinking that felt like self-harm, thinking it wouldn’t be bad to drink his fill before he died.
While drinking alone, he suddenly remembered a contact number he had stuffed in his pants pocket.
Remembering the words “Contact me when you want a drink,” he impulsively reached out, and fortunately, the man was nearby and readily came to the bar where Yoon Ki-hyun was.
“I really didn’t expect Ki-hyun to be the one to contact me first.”
“Is that so?”
Yoon Ki-hyun glanced at the man sitting next to him with a moderate distance.
His face was decent enough, but he had a strange vibe of being a “player.” Should he call it the characteristic atmosphere of someone working in the entertainment industry?
“Actually, I run a shop near here. I was going to tell you to come there, but I decided to come here myself.”
“What kind of shop do you run?”
“Ah, it’s a place like this.”
Instead of taking out a business card, the man showed him a phone screen displaying the shop’s SNS account.
“It’s not an illegal business at all, and I thought someone like Ki-hyun would fit our shop’s image perfectly and that it would be fun to work together.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Of all people, it had to be this kind of guy. Yoon Ki-hyun frowned.
“First of all, female customers are our main clientele, but men often visit as guests too. Well, many friends stay for a long time because they take home as much profit as they work hard.”
He looked at the images and promotional phrases dressed up to look luxurious, but in the end, it was a shop that did that kind of work. No matter how brilliantly it was packaged with plausible modifiers, it was a host bar.
Yoon Ki-hyun looked at the man sitting next to him. He was resting his chin on his hand with a greasy expression.
‘Ah, fuck. Is today some kind of special day?’
Yoon Ki-hyun slowly closed his eyes.
Even with his eyelids closed, the greasy, probing face he had just seen remained as an afterimage.
His stomach churned, and he felt unpleasant. It truly was a day of terrible luck.
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