By Zephyria 
The bright sunlight streaming into the room dazzled my eyes, waking me up. It had already been a month since I came to this house. The ceiling I saw upon waking had become quite familiar by now.
I fumbled across the bed to turn off the alarm ringing loudly by my head. I grabbed a hard object my fingertips touched and lifted it. There was something written in the alarm notification on the screen.
“Hotel collapse…”
What was this again? I tilted my head in a daze, then gasped as a thought suddenly occurred to me.
How could I have forgotten this?
Tonight, a Gate would open, and the resulting shock would cause a building to collapse. Because it happened in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep, and because that building happened to be a famous five-star hotel in the center of Seoul, the death toll was exceptionally high.
Even though I had entered it into my calendar, I had been so overwhelmed by various incidents that I had completely forgotten about it. Of course, I had thought of a countermeasure, but the problem was that I needed Vasily’s help.
I hurried out of the room to find Vasily.
As I flung the door open, I locked eyes with Vasily, who was in the middle of tying his tie. I had been worried that he might have already left the house, so I felt relieved to see him still there.
“I will be going to the association with you today.”
“You said you wouldn’t be going to the association for a while; what’s going on?”
“…….”
I fell into a brief silence, unconsciously avoiding his gaze.
Lately, I felt that my relationship with Vasily had grown significantly closer, so I had been intentionally avoiding him except when performing guiding. Confused about how to treat Vasily due to the discrepancy between the past and the present, I had chosen to keep my distance.
I opened my mouth, pretending to be composed under his gaze.
“I feel stifled after staying home all week. Besides, I am the Esper’s Guide. I just thought it would be better to go together since I don’t know when guiding might be needed.”
The words flowed fluently. Vasily seemed quite pleased with my answer.
“There are no Gate conquests today, so it should be fine for you to come along.”
“Then I’ll get ready right away.”
At his consent, I closed the door and left Vasily’s room.
Vasily had become remarkably busy over the past week. Between Gate conquests and attending various events, there were countless days when he returned home late at night.
On the day I learned the progress of the suppression chip injection, I had subtly suggested to Vasily that he avoid entering Gates frequently for a while, but it seemed that was an unreasonable request. He was dispatched to Gates almost every day.
Still, there were no instances of him returning with his body broken from overusing his abilities like last time. Thanks to that, I was able to finish the guiding with just holding hands or a hug.
The improvement in Vasily’s condition was likely due to the weather as well.
Crossing the living room, I shifted my gaze out the window. The sunlight was still strong during the day, but a cool breeze blew at night. Soon, the temperature would drop without warning, and the season Vasily preferred would return.
It was spring when I regressed and returned to the past, but before I knew it, the end of summer was approaching. To think that only half a year had passed despite so many things happening. Time felt fast, yet slow at the same time.
For the first time in a while, I headed to the association following Vasily. As we traveled to the association in the car amidst the usual quiet silence, a building passing by suddenly caught my eye.
“Esper Vasily. Can you freeze a building of that height?”
Vasily shifted his gaze to the building I pointed at. At the top of the building, which was roughly 20 stories high, was the logo of a famous corporation.
“Something like that is easy.”
He guarantees it too easily. After a moment of thought, I refined the question and asked again.
“But you must not freeze the people inside.”
“Hmm…”
Vasily tapped the steering wheel with his finger, contemplating. I marveled at how he had naturally excluded a factor that should have been considered from the very first question.
“It would be tricky, but I think it’s possible. Why? Should I try freezing it now?”
“No, no! I was just curious, so I asked.”
I hurriedly stopped him at the thought that he might actually freeze it. If I wasn’t careful, society would have been in an uproar first thing in the morning over a building suddenly freezing over.
‘Anyway, it is possible.’
Chewing over Vasily’s answer, I looked out the window again. The hotel that would collapse today was exactly that size. The problem was how to get Vasily near there before the Gate erupted…
Should I suggest going for a drive in the middle of the night?
However, while I knew the hotel would collapse simultaneously with the Gate’s appearance, I didn’t know the exact time. If I spent hours circling the same spot under the pretext of a drive, Vasily would soon sense something was off.
In the end, I arrived at the association without finding a suitable method.
Since it had been a while, the atmosphere from the parking lot was quiet, as if the reporters had all withdrawn. It seemed the association had finally succeeded in kicking the reporters out. Or perhaps they had dropped off on their own because I hadn’t been seen accompanying Vasily.
As soon as I entered the private room, I flopped onto the sofa.
Though it had been a week since I last visited, nothing had changed here. It hadn’t become dirty, nor had the arrangement of objects changed. Even when Vasily used to freeze all the furniture during our arguments, it was always replaced with the exact same furniture the next day.
This sofa might have been replaced without me noticing. There were several times I had upset him while refusing to become his Guide.
“Guide Kwon Gi-dam.”
Just then, Vasily approached me. A faint smile played on his face.
As soon as I saw that meaningful smile, suspicion arose. Why was he acting so suspicious? What was he trying to say? I hesitated and stepped back, but the back of the sofa blocked my retreat.
“You don’t seem to have anything to do right now; would you give me some guiding?”
“Yes… right now?”
Hearing an unexpectedly ordinary request, I stared at him with bewilderment.
He always demanded guiding after returning from a Gate, but he hadn’t entered a Gate today. I felt a slight suspicion, but since he had been receiving his four guiding sessions diligently even while busy, his request for guiding wasn’t strange.
“Then I will proceed with simple contact guiding.”
As if that were enough, Vasily sat beside me and held out his hand. I took his hand habitually.
While proceeding with the guiding as usual, a question suddenly occurred to me. I didn’t know how much he would use his abilities tonight; would this amount of guiding be sufficient?
No matter how much I concentrated all my nerves, only the suppression chip grew hot, and I felt almost no guiding taking place. I should have felt the sharp, ice-like wavelength of Vasily’s ability gradually calming as our wavelengths exchanged, but all I could feel now was a chilly coldness—so cool that I couldn’t tell if it was his body temperature or his wavelength.
I asked a question that had been bothering me for a while.
“Is my guiding even effective?”
With a matching rate of 4 percent, just holding hands would likely have almost no effect. I wondered if this level was really okay.
“The guiding barely works.”
“Then there’s no point in receiving guiding…”
“Instead, it’s warm, so it’s fine.”
Vasily lifted our joined hands and pressed them against his face. A cool sensation touched the back of my hand. As he opened his eyes slightly and looked at me, I still couldn’t read his intentions.
“See, it’s warm.”
What on earth is he talking about…
Feeling the cold chill flowing through my hand, I thought about the suppression chip. As expected, waiting six months is too much. I fell into contemplation over whether I should contact the number on Huai Yan’s business card to find a way.
But the most important thing right now is preventing the incident that will happen tonight.
“Esper Vasily, do you happen to have time this evening?”
“There is one event I have to attend.”
“Then skip that and come somewhere with me.”
“It’s a schedule that’s difficult to skip…”
Vasily murmured in a troubled tone. I scoffed at that. He had a track record of making the association suffer by skipping events whenever he felt like it; was he really expecting me to believe that now?
“Just tell them you can’t go because something urgent suddenly came up.”
“It’s a place where that kind of excuse doesn’t work.”
“Then make up another excuse.”
“Hmm, an excuse.”
Instead of answering, Vasily trailed off, stalling for time.
Sigh… After watching him for a long while, I finally backed down.
“Fine. What do you want?”
As if he had been waiting for those words, the corners of Vasily’s mouth curled up slightly.
“It’s nothing much. Just come with me during the next Gate conquest.”
“Is that all?”
“It’s boring traveling alone. We haven’t gone to a Gate together lately.”
Indeed, Vasily hadn’t taken me to the field since he heard that I had been pretending to be an Esper in a Gate. The only time I had gone back to a Gate after that was when I heard news that Vasily was fighting Huai Yan.
“And it’s a Gate where the conquest will take a long time. If I don’t receive guiding for a few days, I don’t know what I might do.”
This is practically a threat. I was about to nod reluctantly when I paused. Could it be the Gate I saw in the documents piled on the desk last time?
It was a scale that seemed like it would take at least a week to conquer. I had intended to absolutely avoid following him there. For a moment, I failed to manage my expression, and my face crumpled. My plan to enjoy freedom while Vasily was away at the Gate collapsed like a sandcastle.
Barely composing my displeased expression, I spoke.
“Alright. Is that the only condition?”
“Yes.”
Having obtained the answer he wanted, he smiled and finally gave the answer I had been waiting for.
“I’ll tell the association that I’m skipping my evening schedule. So, where are you planning to go?”
“Not far, it’s within Seoul. I just… found a place I want to visit.”
“Fine. It’s not a difficult request.”
Despite the lack of detailed explanation, Vasily readily agreed. I wondered why he was following me so easily without knowing what I would ask.
He was gravely mistaken if he thought we were going to leisurely watch a movie like last time. What would happen tonight would certainly not be to his liking.