By Zephyria 
After devouring two trays of bulgogi pizza with sweet potato mousse and cheese crust, and potato pizza, I finally felt full.
‘That’s it. This greasiness! The collaboration of carbohydrates and fats that feels like calories are exploding!’
“Delicious!”
Thanks to the sufficiently filled calories, the sensation of the Guiding energy that had been drained was filling up again was ecstatic.
I offered it to the Secrety members out of courtesy, but they all flatly refused.
“If I took it from you when you’re eating so enthusiastically, I’d feel like the worst guy in the world.”
“Eat up. Eat a lot.”
“Tell me if you want more.”
“Please eat a lot. We’ve already had dinner, so we’re full.”
I was grateful that they wouldn’t eat it. I’ll have to gulp it all down myself.
‘Sniff sniff. It’s so delicious.’
Thanks to the members who were stuck to my arm while I was diligently eating, my energy was recharged, and it became easier to move around.
I was full, and the abnormal condition of my body was resolved.
We sat around on the living room sofa and decided to have a heart-to-heart talk.
But as soon as I sat on the sofa, the egg white, no, the chick Esper guys all knelt on the floor.
“…What are you doing?”
It was a question of why they were doing something I didn’t even tell them to do. The chicks bowed their heads on their own.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, Yujin Hyung.”
Ra Ho-yeon, Shin Tae-beom, Seo Yun-chae, and Cha Si-yoon apologized to me in that order.
If it had been when I was feeling sorry because I was out of Guiding energy and hungry. I would have left without looking back.
But I was full and warm, so I was quite generous and ready to listen to the story.
“What are you sorry for?”
I wasn’t going to let them get away with just saying sorry.
Even though I was sitting on the sofa with my legs crossed in a conceited manner, they only looked at me and didn’t point out anything about my attitude.
It was nice to see them sincerely reflecting.
Ra Ho-yeon, the leader who had been the most aggressive in driving me away, was the first to answer the question.
“I’m sorry for assuming that you were just trying to cause trouble for the team without any solid evidence.”
“Hmm?”
More, tell me more.
“And… not only that, but also the indifference and lack of interest I showed before. I’m sorry for the cold and rude attitude I showed when you woke up in the hospital room.”
“……”
“I was reckless. I should have taken good care of you as a leader, as a teammate… I thought I should apologize even if I couldn’t ask for forgiveness. I’m really sorry.”
I could see the fluctuating energy waves around Ra Ho-yeon’s thinly trembling shoulders.
‘It’s not a lie.’
Ra Ho-yeon was really sorry to me, ‘Yeon Yu-jin’.
That alone was enough to know that he was sincerely repenting.
And….
“I, I’m sorry too. For trying to trap you under the guise of worrying about you. And… for always looking down on you in the past and arbitrarily judging you and evaluating you carelessly. I’m sorry.”
Seo Yun-chae too.
“For spewing harsh words. For ignoring you. For not trusting you and being indifferent again, even though we were colleagues who overcame the crisis together. I was wrong about everything.”
Shin Tae-beom too.
“…Yujin Hyung must have had painful circumstances too. I’m really sorry for hating Hyung and misunderstanding him on my own without even trying to find out more about him.”
Even Cha Si-yoon.
Each of them apologized to me, pointing out their mistakes without avoiding them.
‘But the person who really deserves to be apologized to is already dead and gone from this world.’
I thought I would feel good if I received an apology from the guys who ignored me, but it wasn’t at all. My mouth tasted bitter.
What would the real Yeon Yu-jin have felt if he had received this apology?
Still, it wasn’t bad to see them kneeling and begging for forgiveness.
If they were human trash who didn’t even know how to reflect, I would have run out of here and gone to Jae-ha right away.
‘Oh my. I’m a saint, so I’ll let it slide.’
Since they were young guys who weren’t beyond redemption, I withdrew my escape plan.
…Leaving aside the issue of the penalty for breach of contract.
I listened to the Secrety members’ apologies and chugged down a cool cider, then put the can down on the table.
“Get up.”
“……!”
The expressions of the young Esper brightened at my words.
The clueless Seo Yun-chae sparkled his light green eyes.
“A, are you forgiving us?”
“No.”
When I answered sharply and decisively, Seo Yun-chae shriveled up like a crumpled ball of newspaper.
“Then why…”
“It doesn’t mean I’ve completely forgiven you 100 percent. I’ve only forgiven you halfway.”
“Then…!”
“It means whether I completely forgive you or not depends on what you do in the future.”
Because I’m not the real Yeon Yu-jin. In reality, I thought their earnestness was admirable, so I had almost forgiven them, but I thought there was no guarantee that this wouldn’t happen again, so I put on a safety device.
‘…Aren’t they going to hate it again?’
Contrary to my worries, the Secrety members’ faces lit up.
“I understand.”
“That’s not bad.”
“I’ll try to make up for what I haven’t been able to do for you.”
“I will become a member that Yujin Hyung can trust and rely on.”
Ra Ho-yeon, Seo Yun-chae, Shin Tae-beom, and Cha Si-yoon looked at me with brighter expressions.
Eyes filled with affection.
I was used to it because I had seen it thousands of times through Jae-ha.
‘It’s amazing that that’s how those guys see me now.’
It wasn’t like I was bitten by a mosquito, but the back of my neck was tickling.
I cleared my throat and gave a warning to all the chick Espers.
“Ahem. Okay. I’ll be watching you all, so you better treat me well from now on. We’re not active as Hunters, but Espers are supposed to treat their Guides well. Got it?”
Seo Yun-chae cautiously raised his hand at my words.
“…Can I ask you something?”
“I grant you permission to speak. What is it?”
“What does it mean for an Esper to treat their Guide well?”
Is that even a question….
Still, I had experience in dragging people who had no knowledge of Ability Users in their previous lives, people who were blank slates, to the front lines and training them, so I explained it step by step.
“It’s nothing special. Espers and Guides are just like non-Ability Users. Espers and Guides who are paired up should respect and care for each other, and be affectionate and friendly. Enough to have each other’s backs. While building affection and trust.”
In fact, this was what Jae-ha had told me when I was first thrown into the front lines, when I was confused and scared.
He said it to me when I was despairing over the situation where I had to Guide through skinship.
“Some people or Espers tend to look down on Guides because they can only give energy through skinship… Skinship is just a means. It’s not like Guides want to do skinship. If you don’t like deep, close contact, it’s essential to build up a level of rapport with each other. Compatibility is greatly affected by the emotions between the Esper and the Guide.”
Seo Yun-chae, who listened carefully to my explanation, said this.
“You could say it’s a relationship that’s more than friends but less than lovers.”
“…Right? There are many cases where Espers and Guides who are paired up become lovers.”
“Lovers, lovers…”
Seo Yun-chae’s eyes narrowed and then drew a round arc.
“Then if we Espers give you affection and trust, will you reciprocate with the same weight?”
“I guess… I will?”
I just said it because I thought, ‘How well can they treat me even if they try?’, but Seo Yun-chae’s eyes sparkled.
“Okay. I understand.”
‘What……?’
Why is he smiling at me?
What was chilling was that the other members also smiled brightly, following Seo Yun-chae.
Then I heard them whispering something to each other behind their backs.
“The possibility…”
“It’s not impossible…”
“Not…”
“What are you doing, leaving me out?”
When I grabbed the leader Ra Ho-yeon and turned him around, he hurriedly shook his head as if it was nothing.
“No. We didn’t leave you out. Really.”
“Then.”
“Please take care of us from now on.”
Ra Ho-yeon held out his hand to me.
“As a team member, I will become a reliable colleague in the future.”
“Whatever. Do that.”
It was worth seeing that they had grown mentally. I mentally revised my evaluation of the Secrety members, saying that they were evolving from chicks to young chickens.
“I look forward to working with you too.”
“Then, starting today, we’re going to be working hard at the company’s practice room.”
“Huh… what?”
“We have to strike while the iron is hot. We’ve decided to move up our comeback preparation as quickly as possible.”
Ra Ho-yeon grabbed my hand tightly.
“Think of that pizza as the last supper. If we’re going to prepare for a comeback, we’ll be tired of eating only chicken breast and salad from now on…”
Damn it. I should have just run away.
You can’t meet or get back the dead.
Hyeon Jae-ha had been suffering for the past 20 years, realizing that fact to the bone.
But miraculously, Hyeon Jae-ha’s dead partner Guide, An Ga-hyeon, came back to life.
Although the shell was different, Hyeon Jae-ha didn’t care at all.
Hyeon Jae-ha felt full and alive just by the fact that An Ga-hyeon was breathing and living under the same sky as him.
So Hyeon Jae-ha was scared.
‘What if Ga-hyeon dies again?’
Although no one but him knows that Ga-hyeon has been resurrected as Yujin. It was a possibility.
That bastard, presumed to be X, who wore the red bead earrings, tested Yujin and ran away.
Hyeon Jae-ha was anxious.
So Hyeon Jae-ha disobeyed Yujin’s words to quickly return to the hideout and hid in a place where he could see the Secrety members’ dorm well.
‘This is for Ga-hyeon. If those members do anything stupid, I’ll take Ga-hyeon and run away right away.’
Hyeon Jae-ha had a tendency to let his emotions kick his reason out of the way when it came to An Ga-hyeon.
Hyeon Jae-ha’s eyes, staring at Yujin while holding his breath, soon trembled.
And Yeon Yu-jin collapsed.
Because Hyeon Jae-ha, who had pretended to be on the verge of going berserk, had poured all of his Guiding energy into him.