“I’ll do better from now on, I’ll do Guiding too, and I’ll, I’ll try harder. Don’t die, please….”
So Won was now begging him as if pleading.
But Tae Woo, unable to hear it, was slowly having his life extinguished.
Noticing that, So Won burst into tears and shouted even louder.
Even So Won’s cries, indistinguishable between desperate struggle and wailing, drew no response from Tae Woo.
His breathing grew fainter, and the energy wave of Tae Woo felt through their touching hands was growing weaker.
It seemed he would truly die.
So Won desperately clung to Tae Woo’s hand as if it were his life.
“Be happy.”
At the unexpected words, So Won’s cries stopped.
So Won looked at Tae Woo in surprise.
But Tae Woo’s eyes were already closed weakly.
Beep-.
The sound from the machine echoed in multiple branches like tinnitus.
At the same time, the thin energy wave of Tae Woo that had been felt through his hand was cut off as if snipped by scissors.
His vision went black.
So Won’s eyes slowly opened.
His blurred vision gradually brightened and became clear.
So Won lay blankly for a moment, then looked around.
He was in the emergency room.
Along with the hospital smell, there was a slight commotion, and people were busily walking around.
As his mind cleared, the first thing that came to mind was Tae Woo’s death.
Kang Tae Woo.
As soon as he thought of him, tears streamed down.
The tears that began with a single drop flowed endlessly as if a faucet had been turned on, soaking the soft pillow under his head.
Is Tae Woo dead?
He must be dead.
The image of Tae Woo lying weakly in the operating room pooled with blood, unable even to regenerate his wounds, flashed before So Won’s eyes.
The cut-off of the energy wave he had felt before losing consciousness and the high, sharp sound of the machine rang in his ears like tinnitus.
‘Be happy.’
So Won recalled Tae Woo’s last words.
So Won had not treated him well enough to receive a blessing from him.
If anything, he should have cursed him; there was no reason for him to say such a thing to him.
He had abandoned even the duty of a Guide—he should have been cursed instead.
On Tae Woo’s face, which he had seen for the last time, the dark red veins that had swelled as if to devour him were dead and black.
Those veins had spread not only over his face but his entire body, and those curse-like things were the side effects Tae Woo suffered from not receiving Guiding.
If I had done Guiding for him properly, at least he could have died with a decent face.
Guilt gripped So Won’s heart.
So Won suffered from a pain of a magnitude he had never experienced in his life.
It felt as if his heart was continuously being stabbed by a knife.
Regret surged in like a tide.
So Won gradually began to sob, then cried aloud.
“Patient Lee So Won, are you in pain?”
A passing nurse saw So Won crying and spoke to him in surprise. But So Won did not answer.
It hurt. His heart hurt so much he thought he would die.
Tae Woo must have died.
And he was also a cause of that death.
So Won regretted his young self, his ignorant self.
He was a person too.
He wanted to shout at his past self, who had looked at him as if he were a monster, to not do that.
Seeing So Won only crying without a word, the nurse sensed something was wrong and called a doctor.
“Patient Lee So Won, congratulations on awakening as an A-rank Guide. Is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable?”
The doctor approached and examined So Won’s body here and there.
The patient was clearly crying his eyes out, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with his body.
The flustered doctor looked at So Won.
He was a patient who had been brought in after fainting from awakening pain while awakening as an A-rank Guide, and this was his reaction as soon as he woke up.
This was a first. He worried that he might be criticized by the public if something went wrong with a precious A-rank Guide.
“Nurse, call the Guide Association and ask them to send a Guide specialist.”
In the end, the doctor chose to pass the buck.
So Won, hearing the doctor congratulate him for awakening eight years ago, was dumbfounded even as he cried.
Especially since he was currently in a state of collapse from the shock of an Esper dying.
Dumbfounded, he looked at the doctor while crying, then felt a sense of incongruity when he saw the hospital name written on the doctor’s name tag.
So Won had definitely been at the Esper Association in Incheon, but this place was a university hospital built in the middle of Seoul.
The name was familiar, and when he thought about it, it was the hospital he had been brought to on the day he awakened at 22.
Thinking it was strange, So Won stopped crying and looked around the hospital with a tear-soaked face.
Suddenly his eyes went to a digital clock hanging on one side.
The time was the middle of the night, and the date was the summer eight years ago.
Is the clock broken? No, it must be a dream.
The place was strange, the doctor was strange, and the clock was strange. It was definitely a dream.
“Um, this is a dream, right? Is Tae Woo dead?”
The nurse and doctor exchanged strange looks.
“It’s not a dream. You have awakened as an A-rank Guide. Do you feel any pain in your head?”
Hearing that it was not a dream, So Won blinked for a moment.
Right, there was no way someone in a dream would say it was a dream.
If this was a dream, he wanted to see Tae Woo, who might disappear when he woke up.
Thinking of Tae Woo, tears welled up in So Won’s eyes again.
“Please call Kang Tae Woo for me…. S-rank Esper Kang Tae Woo, please….”
Once again So Won burst into tears.
He heard the doctor, flustered, telling someone to try calling both the Guide Association and the Esper Association.
So Won only cried like a child, calling Tae Woo’s name.
Just then, a couple who had been hurriedly entering the emergency room heard the familiar voice and ran to So Won.
Seeing So Won crying bitterly, the couple was greatly surprised and shouted.
“Oh my, So Won! Are you hurt? Why are you crying? Doctor, is our So Won injured somewhere? How much pain must he be in for the child to cry like this! Oh my!”
It was So Won’s mother. So Won turned his head at the familiar voice.
His rejuvenated parents were looking at him with worried eyes.
For a dream, it was too detailed.
But in So Won’s mind, there was only the thought of Tae Woo dying in a pool of blood.
“The patient has awakened as an A-rank Guide. There is nothing wrong with his body, but we do not know the cause either. We have contacted the Guide Association, so….”
“What? A Guide?”
“Kang Tae Woo… Tae Woo….”
Waaah.
The emergency room was in chaos because of So Won’s crying.
Even people who had been brought in with minor symptoms glanced at where So Won was.
So Won felt those gazes, but paid no heed and continued wailing while calling Tae Woo’s name.
So Won squeezed out tears for a long while until no more would come, wailing Kang Tae Woo’s name, and the doctor and So Won’s parents talked with serious expressions, saying So Won’s condition was strange.
This commotion continued until a doctor who had rushed over from the Guide Association looked at So Won and said there was nothing wrong.
Whether he had cried himself to exhaustion and fallen asleep, or woken from the dream.
So Won tried to open his dry eyes along with his fragmented memory.
Looking around, So Won was lying alone in a single-occupancy hospital room.
So it was a dream after all. He had wanted to meet Tae Woo even in a dream and apologize.
Tears streamed down from So Won’s eyes, having failed to meet Tae Woo in the dream in the end.
His eyes stung from how much he had cried.
“Oh my, So Won, why are you crying again? Are you hurt? The doctor said there was nothing wrong….”
The hospital room door slid open, and So Won’s mother entered along with a familiar voice.
“Mom… is Tae Woo dead?”
“Who is Tae Woo? You’ve been looking for him since yesterday…. Did you have a dream? How old are you, crying like that over a dream.”
At the answer that she did not know Tae Woo, So Won was startled and looked at his mother.
Then he saw his mother, still young as in last night’s dream.
So Won was so flustered that he could not speak. Could it still be a dream?
“Mom, what year is it this year?”
“It’s 2023. So Won, are you really hurt? Should I call the doctor and ask for another examination?”
So Won was about to believe that this place was still a dream, but then slightly pinched his own body under the blanket.
It stung. It seemed it was not a dream after all.
Then did that mean the past eight years had all been a dream?
“So Won, they say you awakened as an A-rank Guide. You always sang about not wanting to prepare for employment. It’s good you don’t have to prepare for employment anymore. Right?”
But the past eight years had been too vivid. It was a terrible hell, and each day was too long.
So Won recalled the past days. Tae Woo’s final appearance flashed by.
He felt as if he could still smell blood.
He even had the unrealistic thought that perhaps he had returned to the past.
Even the cell phone placed next to So Won was the model he had used in the past.
So Won pressed the power button firmly.
Soon the screen lit up and showed the date from eight years ago.
The date was the day after So Won awakened as a Guide.
Perhaps worried by So Won’s lack of response, So Won’s mother said she would bring a nurse and went back outside.
So Won watched her, then suddenly thought he should search Tae Woo’s name.
Kang Tae Woo.
As soon as he typed the three characters, a profile without a face appeared along with a flood of articles about Tae Woo. Fortunately, there were no articles saying he had died.
“Haa….”
Feeling relieved, So Won let out a deep breath. Stretching his limbs out in a spread-eagle, So Won flopped down on the bed. Looking out the window at the clear, peaceful sky without a single cloud, he tried all sorts of strange imaginings, but nothing happened. It seemed it was not a dream after all. If so, had he perhaps regressed?