Chapter 92 – The Price of Misjudgment
‘God, those old people are such drama queens.’
Jeong Si-jun lay back on the bed with a bored expression. He had just kicked out the swarm of high-ranking officials who had crowded into his hospital room moments ago.
‘Now, let’s set up another meeting after you’re discharged and talk then. Team Leader Jeong, do you understand what I’m saying?’
The way they clung to the hope of a future meeting until the very moment they left the room was almost unpleasant, as it reminded him too much of how he himself had clung to Yoon Ki-hyun.
“If they had been that devoted to Hyung, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
Ridiculously, Jeong Si-jun had reached a point where he grouped himself and Yoon Ki-hyun together. If anyone asked what right he had to think that, he wouldn’t have an answer, but he simply wanted to.
‘I think I heard they bullied him something awful.Like, workplace harassment.’
He had heard bits and pieces later on about how Yoon Ki-hyun had been treated after expressing his intention to resign.
At first, they had acted friendly, trying to coax him by suggesting meetings just like they had today, but then their attitude had suddenly shifted.
‘There’s no guarantee they won’t do the same shit to me.’
These were people capable of treating him exactly as they had treated Yoon Ki-hyun.
No matter how few S-class Espers there were in the country, in their eyes, he was nothing more and nothing less than a resource to be squeezed dry to the very marrow.
Just thinking about the attitude of the Vice Minister, who had visited the room flanked by a meticulous entourage of aides and secretaries, made his blood boil.
‘The Minister is also aware of Team Leader Jeong Si-jun’s hard work in closing this gate. As a citizen, I am grateful for your efforts in tackling the gate, even at the risk of your own life.’
Perhaps because the words were so insincere and oily that he couldn’t feel visit [visit our site]our siteany truth in them, he almost [unauthorized copy]mistook it for being election season.
He still wondered why someone like the Vice Minister had bothered to visit the hospital room in the first place.
Was he supposed to be moved by the fact that a high-ranking official had personally visited to comfort him for his hard work?
Maybe for other Espers, but to Jeong Si-jun, the Vice Minister and the Center Director were all the same.
He maintained a reasonable level of courtesy because they were at the top of the organizational hierarchy, but wasn’t the concept of a “boss” something that only applied within the company?
There was no reason for Jeong Si-jun to bow and scrape to middle-aged men who would be no different from random pedestrians once he quit the Center.
[The humans are gone now. I seriously can’t tell if they came for a hospital visit or to interrogate someone.]
When he sent the message to Yoon Ki-hyun as a complaint, the read receipt didn’t appear. Checking the time, it was still too early for dinner.
“…Is he taking a nap?”
Jeong Si-jun stared blankly at the message window that remained unanswered.
Then again, come to think of it, Yoon Ki-hyun wasn’t the type to live with his phone glued to his hand.
Even when they spent aimless time together in the guiding room, he would look at his phone, but he never seemed immersed in it.
He occasionally watched dramas or read a bit of manga on the tablet Jeong Si-jun had bought for him, but…
‘Did you finish the drama you were watching last time?’
‘No.’
‘Was it boring?’
‘It wasn’t my taste. It was too absurd.’
Yoon Ki-hyun’s tastes were quite ambiguous in many ways.
What he liked was perhaps money and principles. He didn’t have any distinct preferences that stood out, to the point where one might suspect he disliked almost everything.
Still, he seemed to eat everything without being picky.
‘Ah, maybe he is sleeping now?’
Jeong Si-jun thought of Yoon Ki-hyun, who was cruelly not replying.
When Yoon Ki-hyun had collapsed and been hospitalized, Jeong Si-jun had taken leave to volunteer as his caregiver, and he discovered that his Guide slept more than expected. It might have been because his body had weakened, but he would doze off frequently like a sick chicken.
Whenever he saw that look—Yoon Ki-hyun waking up from a short nap, looking strangely disheveled and staring at him with a lukewarm expression—he was seized by an impulse to hug him right then and there.
‘Yoon Ki-hyun after waking up was so damn soft and warm…’
Was that all? Perhaps because he was still half-asleep, his responses were strangely slow and his tone became soft, which drove him absolutely crazy.
Thinking of Yoon Ki-hyun, who might be fast asleep, Jeong Si-jun became anxious out of habit.
Would he have another chance to hold a newly awakened Yoon Ki-hyun again?
Looking at Yoon Ki-hyun’s softened attitude now, the possibility seemed high, but since his emotions were so unpredictable, it was too early to be certain.
Yoon Ki-hyun was the kind of person who could make someone’s heart flutter like this, only to request the termination of the contract with a relieved face once the agreed period ended.
“Ugh…”
Jeong Si-jun buried his head in the corner of the pillow and groaned.
Why was Yoon Ki-hyun’s personality so fickle, sensitive, and unpredictable? And even knowing that, what was wrong with him for liking the man so much?
“So annoying. Yoon Ki-hyun.”
To think that he could feel such irritation simply because he liked the other person too much.
But he was more than willing to be swayed by these ambivalent emotions. Wasn’t this a fragment of emotion he wouldn’t have dared to even imagine just a month ago?
If he missed this opportunity, there would be no next time. Knowing that made his mind frantically complicated.
To think that the price for living recklessly without thinking about the consequences would come back to him in this way.
If he had known, he would have been kind to Yoon Ki-hyun from the moment they met. Jeong Si-jun buried his face in the pillow, chewing over a regret he had already repeated so many times that it no longer felt poignant.
Only after it became impossible to stall any further with the excuse that they would monitor his progress closely did Jeong Si-jun finally take off his patient gown. In the meantime, several gates had appeared, but the world continued to turn with surprising normalcy.
“I’m going to quit the Center.”
Perhaps because of that, the plan to quit the Center naturally slipped out of his mouth.
“Huh?”
Yoon Ki-hyun, who had practically clocked in at the hospital room every day until the day of Jeong Si-jun’s discharge, looked up as if asking what that meant.
“I mean, think about it. They’re doing fine at tackling gates even without me, so is there any reason for me to stay? It’s not like Hyung is there.”
Yoon Ki-hyun blinked.
“Besides, it’s been confirmed that I have a one-sided imprinting, so I can’t keep tackling gates. I shouldn’t be receiving guiding from anyone but my Hyung.”
Yoon Ki-hyun recalled the test results he had received a few days ago.
[The patient’s unique Esper wavelength particles react only to the awakened body of a specific subject. It is confirmed to be a one-way imprinting, and no reaction is observed in the awakened bodies of Guides other than the subject.]
It was an undeniable one-sided imprinting. Jeong Si-jun said he intended to use the test results as a pretext to quit the Center.
“If you quit the Center…”
It was while Yoon Ki-hyun was trailing off with a complicated expression.
“You’re not worried about how I’ll make a living, are you?”
Jeong Si-jun stared at Yoon Ki-hyun with a bewildered face. In that instant, Yoon Ki-hyun’s face flushed faintly. It seemed he had been hit right on the mark.
“Hah.”
To think that Yoon Ki-hyun, of all people, would worry about his livelihood. Jeong Si-jun asked with an incredulous laugh.
“Hyung.”
“Ah, don’t say it. I’m embarrassed just because the thought crossed my mind for a second.”
“Why? I’m so moved that you worried about me that I feel like I might cry.”
In the past, a cold glance would have been the most he would have received.
“I said stop. You didn’t look like someone who was moved.”
“What can I do if my eyes just look like that? Hmm?”
As they joked around, Jeong Si-jun subtly grasped the tips of Yoon Ki-hyun’s fingers.
“By the way, Hyung.”
“What now.”
“I’m being discharged today.”
“Yeah.”
“How many days are left?”
“For what?”
Yoon Ki-hyun blinked, not understanding the question.
It wasn’t like an expiration date; what on earth was left for a few days… As Yoon Ki-hyun paused to think, his eyes gradually widened.
‘Oh, shit.’
The day Jeong Si-jun had safely returned from the gate, finished site">visit our sitesurgery, and regained consciousness. He had definitely notified Jeong Si-jun of a 17-day grace period.
However, at some point, he had been so busy chewing over his feelings for Jeong Si-jun that calculating the date had fallen to the back burner.
“Uh, that is…”
Seeing the flustered look, did he not count the days?
‘Damn, I shouldn’t have asked!’
Jeong Si-jun hurriedly changed the subject, sensing a blunder.
“Um, Hyung, but.”
“…Yeah.”
“I’m telling you in advance, but you can refuse this after hearing it.”
“What is it?”
Yoon Ki-hyun asked back, tilting his head.
‘This brat, why is he hesitating so much? What kind of proposal is he about to make that’s making me nervous?’
He momentarily forgot the shock of having forgotten to count the grace period he had given Jeong Si-jun.
“I’m being discharged, but they said I need to have my wavelength checked.
“And?”
“As you know, Hyung, I can’t do it with anyone but you.”
He phrased the fact that he had a one-sided imprinting in a very strange way.
“…Yeah.”
“So, about that.”
Jeong Si-jun swallowed, fiddling with the area around his Adam’s apple, which had grown stiff with tension.
“Could you stay at my place for just a few days— Ow, ah!”
Yoon Ki-hyun had only raised his fist to make a gesture of flicking him, but Jeong Si-jun let out a loud shriek as if he were in pain. He wondered if the man was actually sane.
Yoon Ki-hyun lowered his fist and muttered pitifully.
“Hey, I didn’t even hit you yet.”
“…Ah, exactly.”
Jeong Si-jun closed his eyes in resignation and let out a small sigh.
He thought it might work if he played it right. But he didn’t fall for it.
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