#3

 

 

 

“I’m not normally like this, but it’s just that when I come here, I can’t think straight, so I end up like this!”

 

I was embarrassed like a person who was caught writing a love letter secretly. I didn’t know if it was more because I could see the professor’s face when Cha Kwon-woo criticized the assignment.

 

He shouldn’t make that face when he sees someone else’s lyrics, really! He has no manners!

 

With determination, I quickly pulled the notebook towards me and continued to write the lyrics, saying that I would still try to complete the assignment.

 

[My four-year-old cat, don’t get sick, my cat]

 

I rhymed the words ‘key’, ‘ky’, ‘cat’, and ‘cat’. It looks like I’m writing without thinking, but I did my own calculations. Do you understand, Cha Kwon-woo?

 

Cha Kwon-woo, who had been stealing glances at my work until then, turned his attention back to his book.

 

Today, he let me go after four hours of guided practice. What an asshole.

 

“By the way, I was wondering about something.”

 

I finally gathered the courage to ask after two years of chatting with the staff at the entrance.

 

“By any chance, does that esper can’t speak?”

 

Suddenly, the thought crossed my mind that I had never heard Kwon-woo’s voice before.

 

“I thought so, too.”

 

The staff pointed over there with a chin.

 

“They do talk with the team when it’s necessary. Very occasionally…”

 

Beyond the glass window, Cha Kwon-woo was talking to his colleague with his arms crossed. I couldn’t hear his voice, but it was amazing that Cha Kwon-woo’s mouth was moving. More than when my newborn niece was babbling.

 

“Wait, Kwon-woo is speaking?”

 

I must have been staring at him for a long time. Kwon-woo, who was conversing with his colleague, suddenly turned towards our direction. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach in an instant.

 

As I stood there, flustered like a cockroach crawling up a wall and coming face-to-face with a human, Cha Kwon-woo made a quick impression. He bowed his head ninety degrees, as if he were about to start a fight, and hurried out of the center.

 

***

 

The next day and the next day, Kwon-woo Cha kept calling.

 

While eating, while listening to lectures, even when I was about to fall asleep and the notification from his call vibrated on my wrist, I silently cursed.

 

This persistent guy. Can’t he give me just one day off? Huh? Just one day?

 

They say geniuses don’t pick their places, but I do pick my place when it comes to assignments. Of course, I’m not a genius.

 

In addition, most of the tasks cannot be done without equipment, and even one hand has to be given to Cha Kwon-woo, so I can’t do anything with a laptop.

 

Yesterday, I was trying to do an assignment on my laptop with one hand, and I was so pissed off that I gave Kwon-woo a piece of my mind.

 

‘Can’t we just kiss and be done with it? Mr. Cha Kwon-woo, let’s cool off with a kiss and be done in three hours of guiding! Can we?

 

‘…….’

 

‘Or, let’s go for it, let’s do the mucosal guiding thing, huh?!

 

Cha Kwon-woo grabbed me by the collar and threw me out the door like a piece of luggage. A security guard heard the commotion and rushed over, picking me up from the hallway like a popped water balloon and consoling me.

 

“Well, even if Kwon-woo, the Esper, really hated the guide and threw it at you, your skull and ribs would have been shattered by now.”

 

“Thank you, that’s very comforting.”

 

The man said.  I need to sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to this kind of audacity.

 

I felt even more miserable when I saw the zombie reflection in the elevator mirror, with even more bruised and battered features than yesterday.

 

Doesn’t Cha Kwon-woo feel anything even after seeing such a face? He is goblin or something. Let’s not bring our Cha Kwon-woo along.

 

I clicked my tongue and entered Room 305, which is like my house. I gave up on the idea of doing anything here today. I didn’t even bring my bag.

 

I grabbed Cha Kwon-woo’s hand, which is now more familiar to me than a bus handle, with both hands and buried my forehead in it.

 

Still, I can’t just come here to make money and leave without sleeping, so I’m going to close my eyes for four hours and pray for Cha Kwon-woo’s health and well-being.

 

“I’m going to close my eyes and think for a while……. Don’t disturb me……. Mmm.”

 

I kept my eyes closed for about 10 minutes.

 

Cha Kwon-woo, who had little patience, lightly tapped my shoulder. Seriously, he was too much. Just ten more minutes…

 

“Uh, just ten more…”

 

I shook my hand and tried to stop him, but Cha Kwon-woo wasn’t the patient type. He touched my body as if telling me to get up, leaving an impression with his hand.

 

Oh, he’s really too much. Not even allowing someone to sleep for ten minutes. I’m so tired. Cha Kwon-woo, do you even know what an exam is? Did you go to college? Huh?

 

…Did I say this in my mind just now? Or did it slip out of my mouth?

 

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine, and I opened my eyes slightly.

 

Eh……?

 

Something seemed strange about the angle. Why can I see Cha Kwon-woo here?

 

Confused, I rolled my eyes around…

 

I had no memory of getting here, yet I was on a bed.

 

And it was under Cha Kwon-woo’s feet.

 

I raised my head and looked down at myself.

 

I was lying there, curled up like a baby, holding Cha Kwon-woo’s left foot dearly in my arms.

 

Wait, crazy. This is me?

 

I heard the sound of Cha Kwon-woo’s patience snapping in my ear. His head jerking up, he raised his remaining hand as if he didn’t know what else to say, and with incredible reflexes, I rolled down the bed once before it flew at me.

 

Just then, a loud notification signaled the end of the guiding.

 

“Thank you for your hard work!”

 

Without even turning around, he hastily left room 305.

 

And on the way back home that day, I left a message for Cha Kwon-woo.

 

[Cha Kwon-woo, I’m Kim Do-won, your guide.

 

Thank you for your hard work today!

 

I really enjoy guiding our amazing esper like you.

 

It’s nothing.

 

But, I have 5 exams and 4 assignments next week.

 

You didn’t ask? I’m just saying.

 

Have a great day today! >_<]

 

…Of course, it got ignored.

 

***
The pager didn’t ring until a week later.

 

When the call rang every day, I lived with swear words in my mouth, saying, “Please stop calling me because I’m tired of it!” but when the call didn’t ring, I became anxious again as it didn’t ring.

 

Human adaptability is so scary.

 

I’d check the pager while taking exams, while showering, waking up in the middle of the night, and even while walking down the street. I even jumped out of my seat at a cafe today when I heard the table next to me vibrate and thought it was my pager.

 

Why isn’t it ringing?

 

The guy who used to look for me every day, as if it were his three meals a day, suddenly doesn’t contact me for over a week?

 

I wondered if the pager might be broken, so I pressed the reset button and set it up again, but the pager still didn’t ring the next day or the day after that.

 

It’s definitely strange

 

I, who used to eagerly shout for freedom from being a guide slave, couldn’t seem to enjoy it when the esper finally gave me my freedom.

 

Has there been any strange creatures recently? Are the espers all taking a break?

 

I’ve had all sorts of thoughts lately, even resorting to searching on a portal site about what espers are up to these days. <Espers>. Unless I search, it’s hard to find any information about what espers are doing.

 

When strange creatures first appeared, the earth turned upside down. Some even planned to abandon the Earth and leave for another star due to the widespread rumor that the Earth would end.

 

But that’s also more than a hundred years old.

 

Now people on our planet are not surprised that one or two people are killed by strange creatures. We’ve become so numb to it because we’ve experienced this sort of thing so often.

 

I searched for news articles, and it seems that he has already been to the scene three times this week, so why isn’t he requesting a guide?

 

“Could it be that this guy is considering my exam period?”

 

……Cha Kwon-woo can’t be like that.

 

Even though I said it, I rubbed my nose with my finger because I was embarrassed.

 

For reference, one of the days Cha Kwon-woo called me to the center last year was Parents’ Day, one was Buddha’s day, one was my birthday, one was Christmas Eve, and another was Christmas.

 

‘It seems like you want to be with me on special days. You called me on my birthday, on Christmas Eve, and today again, on Christmas.’

 

I said that because I wondered how he could choose only these days, but Cha Kwon-woo looked at me with disdain as if he had never heard such a sarcastic remark in his life.

 

At the time, I tried to say to that face, “What I just said wasn’t sarcasm, but a sound that points out that you called me out for the poor days.” But I held it back for my own safety.

 

I’m a man who has a very good grasp of my subject, and I know very well that if a guide fights with Esper, the guide will die a hundred percent chance.

 

Anyway, this is not the point now.

 

Tomorrow, in the third period, there’s a <Basic Chinese Characters> exam. It’s a general education class that I confidently signed up for, as I already had a 7th-grade qualification in Chinese characters when I was in the 6th grade of elementary school. However, I had completely forgotten about it. I also learned that our school has a Chinese language department.

 

~~~