By Zephyria 
It was meant to bring him back to his senses.
Tears welled up in Jae-ha’s eyes as I grabbed his collar. Large drops of tears soaked Jae-ha’s pale cheeks.
I was flustered and stammered.
“H-hey, why are you crying?”
“Ugh….”
At my words, Jae-ha burst into even more tears. Even his sobs were small, as if desperately trying to hold back his crying.
Not knowing what to do, I wiped Jae-ha’s wet eyes with my sleeve and said, “Hey, don’t cry. Why is a man crying like this?”
Is this the best I can do to comfort him? I clicked my tongue inwardly, but Jae-ha hugged me tightly.
“I know… I was afraid of losing you, so I thought it would be better to keep you away….”
“……You.”
“But what can I do if I’m scared? What if I lose you to X again? Then… then I’ll really fall into an uncontrollable rampage. Unlike last time when I was lucky enough to experience a Second Awakening, this time I’ll become a disaster that can’t be stopped unless someone cuts off my breath.”
I shuddered at Jae-ha’s words. It was because I remembered the memory Potato had shown me.
The image of a sorrowful Jae-ha, rampaging and devastating the surroundings while holding my corpse.
Jae-ha, who had buried his head in my shoulder, mumbled.
“If that happens, I’d be lucky if someone killed me. Because then I can follow you soon.”
“Hey. Why are you saying such unlucky things? Let’s just not die, both of us.”
I grabbed Jae-ha’s cheeks to stop him from crying and met his gaze up close.
Jae-ha’s tearful eyes, seen from a position where I could see the peach fuzz on his cheeks, were beautiful and sad.
“But….”
“But what?”
“I’m still scared. Just imagining losing you, Ga-hyeon, and having to survive alone again… It’s suffocating.”
Jae-ha’s complexion turned pale as if he was in pain just from imagining it. He was gasping for breath, and his condition didn’t look good.
I dragged Jae-ha to a park bench and sat him down, patting his back.
“Breathe properly.”
“Huk, huk….”
I felt sorry for Jae-ha, who was clutching his chest and panting.
Poor guy.
I never knew that Jae-ha, who had always remained positive and bright in my memory, would suffer from such deep trauma.
I hugged Jae-ha, gently soothing him and whispering as if casting a spell.
As if no one could harm us.
“It’s okay. None of the worst-case scenarios we’ve assumed have happened yet. I’m still alive and well.”
“…Yeah.”
Jae-ha calmed down a little as I instilled hope in him. His pale face didn’t clear up easily, but I was relieved just that he wasn’t trembling with fear.
I hoped that my precious partner, Hyeon Jae-ha, would no longer suffer from that incident.
“This time will be different. Hyeon Jae-ha. Isn’t that why I came back alive?”
Then Potato, who had been listening to my words quietly, snorted.
[Hmph. You were also confused when you first woke up, wondering what was going on.]
‘Be quiet.’
We’re having a serious conversation here.
I pretended to ruffle my hair and pressed down on Potato, who grumbled.
[What! Did I say something wrong!]
I decided to ignore Potato, who was whining.
Unlike the prickly Potato, Jae-ha listened to my words obediently.
“If you say so, Ga-hyeon, then it must be true.”
“Right?”
Such a kind and gentle guy.
Jae-ha seemed to have regained his composure, so I stroked his hair, and he comfortably entrusted himself to my touch.
The wind blew, passing between us. His snow-white hair fluttered. Every time I saw Jae-ha’s hair, I wondered if it had turned that way not because of the aftermath of the Second Awakening, but because he was under too much stress.
I couldn’t confirm it, but whenever I faced Jae-ha’s changed appearance, that thought came to my mind.
Jae-ha smiled at me.
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason you came back alive. Whether you’re a god, a demon, or an angel, the important thing is that you’re back.”
“Uh… yeah.”
I was at a loss for words every time he said something so subtly strange.
It was a little embarrassing and ticklish to have Jae-ha staring at me so intently.
Even though we had physical contact through Guiding when we were a pair, we’re close comrades, close friends.
I only fumbled, not knowing what this tension that Jae-ha occasionally revealed could be.
Suddenly, I remembered the desperate and pitiful voice he had uttered just before I died.
‘No, Ga-hyeon! There’s something I haven’t told you yet…….’
Recalling that time, my face felt strangely hot.
To change the atmosphere, I brought the topic back to X.
“Anyway, forget about the idea of excluding me from the process of catching X.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“What’s not okay? I was prepared for it since the moment I opened my eyes again, so I’m fine. Besides, you came to me right after chasing X, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then it’s settled. That bastard, he noticed your presence even when he was using a stealth artifact when we ran into each other at the Measurement Center, right?”
“He did.”
“Then haven’t you considered the possibility that he pretended to run away and then tracked you?”
Jae-ha said that he had engaged in a chase with X with his colleagues, but in the end, he could no longer track him due to the traces being confused here and there.
I thought that if X harbored a grudge against Jae-ha, he might have tracked Jae-ha in reverse.
I didn’t know what kind of personality the criminal X had, but I was sure that he feared Jae-ha. Just thinking about how he ran away as soon as Jae-ha noticed that he had put an Ability User under Brainwashing as a substitute, or the incident at the Measurement Center, it seemed that he thought it would be too much for him to face Jae-ha.
But if he was a guy who had taken abilities from many Ability Users and made them his own, he might have been very ashamed of this.
Wouldn’t that be the case if he had gained power he didn’t have and driven people to death or killed them several times?
Just as position makes a person, X would have become more arrogant as the number of powers he possessed increased.
Just as powerful people or those with power in history become corrupt and eventually become tyrants.
If I were X, I might have harbored a petty desire to retaliate against Jae-ha.
Even if he couldn’t harm Jae-ha, he would seek a way to inflict a significant wound.
To do that, he would have no choice but to investigate Jae-ha.
As it happened, he had still seen Jae-ha lingering around me. If X found us now, he would definitely try to harm me, as he was uneasy about whether there was some connection between Jae-ha and me.
Even if he wasn’t following Jae-ha right now, there was a high probability that he would pick a fight with me again at some point. After all, I, ‘Yeon Yu-jin,’ was known as an easy-to-remove C-class Guide.
Jae-ha opened his mouth at my words.
“…No way. He almost got caught, so why would he chase after me?”
“How do you know he doesn’t have an ability that you wouldn’t notice? It can’t be a coincidence that you broke through the stealth artifact.”
Jae-ha’s expression became more serious.
“Then I should use my ability right now….”
“Are you going to advertise to the Management Bureau that you’re here? Stop it. It was a secluded mountain area earlier, so it wouldn’t have been noticeable even if you used your ability, but this is inside the city. What kind of trouble are you going to cause by releasing telekinesis like sweeping with a broom?”
The Management Bureau isn’t stupid. It was more surprising that Jae-ha had been hiding for 20 long years.
Jae-ha stopped trying to use his power at my nagging and quietly sat back down.
I sighed as I saw Jae-ha scratching his head, looking embarrassed.
“Why do you keep becoming such an idiot only in front of me? It makes me worry.”
Even though I grumbled, Jae-ha just smiled at me.
“Why do you keep smiling? Do you like being scolded?”
“Yeah.”
“What?”
“Scolding me, nagging me, I like anything you do.”
Jae-ha, who was smiling foolishly, said something heartbreaking.
“It’s a word I can hear because you’re alive. So I like it. I want to hear more. Anything you say.”
This guy.
“What if I swear a whole bunch at you?”
“Then I’ll get sworn at. So what.”
“…Are you a masochist?”
“No. But anything is okay as long as it’s you.”
You’re really a strange guy. Hyeon Jae-ha.
But I didn’t dislike this strange guy. Rather, I liked him.
And I wanted to dream of a future where Hyeon Jae-ha wouldn’t die, and I wouldn’t die either, and we would live and walk freely under the sunlight together.
Just like we once wished for.
I held Jae-ha’s rough hands tightly and expressed my firm determination.
“I guess it’s better for you and me to move together.”
“Hmm? Does that mean you’re going to quit your life as ‘Yeon Yu-jin’?”
Jae-ha’s eyes sparkled, but I waved my hand and explained that it wasn’t.
“Not that. Let’s track X together.”
“How? You’re not in a situation where you can move freely, Ga-hyeon. You can’t even contact me often because of special training and stuff….”
“I’ll have to use the authority I extorted from the Management Bureau last time.”
The authority to access the Database where information on all Ability Users in the country is recorded.
“Let’s narrow down the candidates for X with that. If we cross-reference them with the candidates you’ve narrowed down so far, we’ll find the answer.”