Just when it seemed things were finally quieting down a little, before long someone came looking for Tae Woo again.
This time, the attending physician who had knocked came to see him once more.
Their eyes sparkled as they looked at Tae Woo. Tae Woo’s head throbbed, and irritation rose in him.
“Esper Kang Tae Woo, Guide Lee So Won is here.”
The attending physician’s eyes trembled with fear as they said that, but they were filled with an expectation they could not hide.
Tae Woo pressed his throbbing head firmly with his hand and rose to his feet.
Thinking about it would only make his head hurt more.
As usual, Tae Woo followed what he told himself.
He roughly tore the machines attached to his body off in handfuls.
Because he could not control his strength, a few were sometimes bent and broken, but Tae Woo did not care.
Tae Woo followed the footsteps of the attending physician, which somehow seemed light.
Even while moving a short distance, the faces of the employees who happened to run into Tae Woo were stained with terror.
In truth, Tae Woo did not pay them any mind.
Though Tae Woo had practically lived in the Esper Association for over ten years, it was his first time in the Guiding Test Room.
He had never had reason to come in the first place, and he would never come again.
Once it was proven that this test was wrong, he would simply return to his daily life.
Click, the door opened.
He had the illusion that a warm breeze was blowing through the slightly open gap in the door.
Soon the door that separated So Won and Tae Woo opened completely.
Tae Woo felt something strange.
It felt as if five, no, ten Guiding Machines had been attached to him. It was as if something cozy was gently wrapping around his body.
Startled, Tae Woo looked at the small boy standing in front of the door.
A face that seemed to have just become an adult as it looked at him, round eyes, white skin and reddened cheeks, and pitifully trembling hands.
Guide.
Though no part of them was touching, Tae Woo immediately realized that the boy in front of him was his Guide. Tae Woo’s heart began to beat rapidly.
Meanwhile, So Won came to his senses at the prickling wavelength he felt the moment the door opened.
His body was still trembling, but he did not find him as frightening as before.
That is, until he saw his face.
The ominous eyes he met the moment the door opened already looked to be in a very bad mood.
The moment So Won’s eyes met Tae Woo’s, he froze instantly.
Perhaps because his condition was quite bad, So Won could already feel Tae Woo’s violent wavelength stabbing at him.
So Won had always feared this moment. It felt as if the sharp wavelength would swallow him whole.
It was a wave he always felt when near Tae Woo, but perhaps it was his imagination, because it seemed stronger than usual.
The fortunate part was that, unlike eight years later when dark red veins covered his entire face, Tae Woo now had veins bulging red only around his eyes.
The corners of his eyes, with large and small blood vessels spreading in all directions, looked black as if shadowed, and were disgusting.
His short-cropped hair was the same now as it had been then.
Compared to eight years later, his state was a little less horrifying, but So Won’s fear did not fade.
Tae Woo belatedly realized that So Won was afraid of him.
Only then did he begin to care about his monstrous appearance, which he had never cared about before.
For the first time, Tae Woo thought he wanted to cover his face.
Thinking that, Tae Woo turned his head and tried to hide his face from his Guide as much as possible.
“Hello.”
So Won forced open his tightly frozen, unwilling mouth.
He had wanted to greet him without trembling, but his voice had already shaken on its own.
He thought he had made a mistake, but decided to take meaning from the fact that he had greeted him first.
Originally, even such a greeting had not existed in So Won and Tae Woo’s first meeting.
That was because So Won, after actually seeing Tae Woo, trembled and then, upon hearing Tae Woo’s low greeting, looked at him as if he were a monster.
Eight years ago, that had been their first and last conversation.
Tae Woo, who had not expected So Won to greet him first, was a little surprised.
The small, round Guide had a voice as clear as a rolling bead.
“Hello.”
Tae Woo replied calmly.
Even as he trembled, So Won heard Tae Woo’s voice and for some reason nearly burst into tears.
It was not the heavily hoarse voice from the day he had coughed up blood and died, but a pleasant low tone.
Though his chest was crushed by guilt, he was glad he could hear this voice once again.
To hide his reddening eyes, So Won bowed his head deeply.
Tae Woo’s attending physician, who had been watching the scene with a pleased look, said the test would begin and pushed Tae Woo and So Won into the test room.
When they sat on the chairs in the room, two researchers approached.
“Before we begin the Guiding Test, we will attach the machines first.”
One person attached to each of So Won and Tae Woo and began attaching machines to their bodies.
Machines were attached one by one to So Won’s face, arms, legs, and all over his body.
Each time the cold metal touched him, So Won flinched slightly as if nervous.
The attachment of So Won’s machines finished quickly before long.
But Tae Woo had only just finished half.
The researcher attaching machines to Tae Woo’s body had a pathetically trembling hand.
The researcher slightly lifted Tae Woo’s clothes, which he wore long-sleeved even in summer, and when the disgusting veins greeted him, he wanted to die.
He squeezed his eyes shut at the sight that looked as if it might writhe at any moment, then opened them again because he had to attach the machine.
Trembling, the researcher carefully attached the machines so as not to offend Tae Woo’s mood and so that his hands would not touch that disgusting body.
This was the first time he had ever felt such fear from a hand resting quietly on an armrest during a Guiding Test.
Receiving the pitying gazes of others, the researcher barely managed to attach the last machine to Tae Woo’s body.
When Tae Woo’s attending physician, sitting beyond the glass, gave an okay sign, the researchers hurriedly left the room.
So Won, unnecessarily shaking his leg, watched the researchers rushing out and felt pity and a sense of kinship.
<I’ll begin.>
However, So Won was not in a position to worry about them.
Once all the researchers left the inside of the test room, only Tae Woo and So Won remained in the space.
The suffocating atmosphere pressed down on So Won.
So Won sat in the chair, his body stiff with tension. The machines powered on and the test began immediately.
‘What kind of test is this? Since it is a Guiding Test, do I have to do Guiding?’
Even So Won, who did not know much about Guiding, knew that there were various types of Guiding methods.
The simplest was light contact, such as just holding hands, and the larger the contact area, the greater the amount of Guiding.
He also vaguely knew that between people of the opposite sex, there was Guiding that involved sexual contact…
<Guide, please hold the Esper’s hand.>
So it really is Guiding. So Won, who had expected at least this much, was not surprised and looked at Tae Woo’s hand resting quietly on the armrest. 3
The clothes that always covered his arms had been lifted, revealing the disgusting dark red veins exactly as they were.
Gulp. So Won swallowed. Unlike his resolve, when he saw the frighteningly prominent hand, his body would not move easily.
Anxiety rose on the faces of the researchers watching him.
Meanwhile, Tae Woo was in the most comfortable state he had been in since awakening at age ten.
Even though he was not touching So Won anywhere, his head did not throb and his body was comfortable, as if he were being Guided.
The veins that had clearly been rampaging because his condition was bad had settled languidly as if they had never done so.
Tae Woo suddenly remembered the number in the Matching Result Sheet his attending physician had brought. 100%.
He had thought it was a machine error, but it occurred to him that perhaps the Matching Rate really was 100%.
If just being next to him felt like this, Tae Woo became curious what real Guiding would feel like.
If that white, small hand were to touch his disgusting body.
Tae Woo looked at So Won with thoughts full of anticipation.
But when So Won’s face, pale with fear, entered Tae Woo’s eyes, the hope that had been growing small inside Tae Woo’s heart vanished.
“Your Guide will be unhappy.”
He recalled the mocking tone of another S-rank Esper he had met at a Gate sometime.
At the time, he had not cared at all, but as he looked at So Won trembling pitifully, was the reason that remark came to mind because it was a truth even Tae Woo knew?
Tae Woo’s heart sank coldly. That Esper’s words were right.
This small, pitiful Guide would become his Guide and be unhappy.
Tae Woo looked at his arm, exposed by his lifted clothes.
The dark red veins, so prominent they looked as if they might burst out at any moment, ran down his arm to his hand.
He knew well how horrifying those veins, which caused a physiological repulsion in anyone who saw them, must look to So Won, who was seeing them for the first time, unlike himself who had grown used to them after a lifetime together.
From the moment he saw So Won’s frightened face, Tae Woo gave up on Guiding.
He merely felt desire. If it was a Guide like this, he would be fine not doing Guiding, so it seemed it would be enough if he simply stayed by his side.
But even that would be a horrible thing for the Guide, and Tae Woo knew well that it was his own gloomy selfishness.
“You don’t have to push yourself.”
Without realizing it, a regretful feeling mixed into his voice.
No one else in the same space noticed it, but Tae Woo was anxious that someone might have heard his ugly heart.
As if it were not enough that he had gained a Guide too good for him, he even wanted to receive Guiding from a Guide who was too afraid to move.
His greed was excessive. Indeed, he was worthy of being called a monster.
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