Chapter 53:
“Teenage Guides are dangerous too. Please don’t Guide anyone until you’re a real adult.”
Seo Jae-yi, who had been panting for a while, finally sighed.
Beep. The receiver emitted a sound, displaying her current overload level on the screen.
【Overload Progress — 23%】
He had lowered it significantly, despite her telling him to go easy.
‘Well, it’s only natural, considering how energized I feel.’
Her hands were still trembling. She clenched them tightly, resisting the urge to cling to him.
“Baek Joo-won, are you okay? What if you’re even more out of it than I am?”
But unlike her, who had regained her composure, Baek Joo-won remained motionless.
He was still staring at her, his upper body leaning over her as she sat on the table.
“Baek Joo-won?”
“Ah, yes.”
“The bruise is gone. Thank you for the Guiding.”
“Ah.”
Baek Joo-won finally released her and stepped back.
As the distance between them widened, Seo Jae-yi pulled down her T-shirt, which had been exposing her stomach. Moving was definitely more comfortable without the bruise.
“I’ll go change now. I’ll treat you to dinner tonight as thanks for the Guiding. Think about what you want to eat.”
Seo Jae-yi smiled and got off the table, heading towards her small personal space in the back of the shop.
Baek Joo-won, left alone, stared blankly at his hand. He didn’t know what he had just done.
Rustle. He flinched at the faint sound and looked up. His eyes met with something white hiding in the bushes.
He wasn’t alone.
“…”
“…”
Airok stared at him, his mouth agape, as if he had witnessed something shocking.
“…I thought I should at least cover my eyes while watching.”
Airok muttered, saying the atmosphere had been so charged, it felt like they were about to do something more than just Guiding.
Baek Joo-won’s expression hardened at his words.
‘…Damn it.’
He sighed and turned away from Airok.
His handsome face was clouded with complex emotions.
***
Despite wanting Baek Joo-won’s time so much that she had willingly taken a punch to her side, Seo Jae-yi was practically ignoring him.
She left him sitting alone at the table in the greenhouse, focusing solely on tending to the plants. And whenever a customer arrived, she would dash out faster than lightning.
Airok, who had been observing the situation, couldn’t help but ask.
He was genuinely concerned, seeing Baek Joo-won’s growing dissatisfaction.
“Master, do you not like him anymore?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Seo Jae-yi looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“Well, you’re not going near him.”
She wasn’t completely neglecting him.
The greenhouse was quite warm, as it was a place where plants grew, but she had given him a blanket, warm drinks, a portable heater, and even an air purifier, fearing he might catch a cold.
It was just strange that she wasn’t talking to him despite taking such good care of him.
“I’m just… scared.”
“Huh? Scared of what?”
“I feel like I’ll want to drain all his energy if I go near him.”
Airok immediately understood her quiet whisper.
Even he had felt the intensity of the Guiding today. It had been so intense that he had considered leaving the shop for a while, leaving them alone.
“It’s truly terrifying Guiding. It’s so scary that I have to work hard to prevent him from being taken away.”
She muttered to herself, determined to hide her greedy thoughts from Baek Joo-won, and then dashed out when she heard a customer arrive.
Airok glanced at Baek Joo-won, who was left alone.
His slightly dissatisfied expression had softened. Airok sighed in relief.
***
Baek Joo-won left the flower shop late at night, despite Seo Jae-yi offering to drive him to the station.
It wasn’t because he was wary of her, like he had jokingly mentioned before.
“…”
He stared at the flower shop sign, so typical of Seo Jae-yi, and then turned and walked away.
The street, usually bustling with people, was dark and deserted tonight.
A black sedan broke the silence, appearing just as Seo Jae-yi’s shop disappeared from view.
A man, impeccably dressed in a suit, stepped out of the passenger seat.
“Good evening. Are you Guide Baek Joo-won?”
“I am.”
“Prime Minister Jang Woo-seok requests your presence.”
“…”
“Now.”
The man opened the back door, as if expecting him to comply without question.
‘Ridiculous. What does the Prime Minister want?’
It wasn’t Baek Joo-won’s concern; he was stateless.
He could have ignored the summons, but he got into the car. He was curious about the government.
‘I dislike how the government and the Center operate.’
Why would Joo Seon-min, who received the greatest benefits in Korea, say that, despite the government’s high public support?
He was curious about the government’s intentions, their desperate attempts to keep him at the Center, even though he had an Esper with a 93% Matching Rate.
***
The car arrived at a traditional Korean restaurant, housed in a serene hanok.
He had seen Korean politicians and chaebols meeting people in places like this in dramas, but he never imagined he would be the protagonist.
It felt cliché.
“Ah, Mr. Baek Joo-won. Welcome.”
Prime Minister Jang Woo-seok was waiting for him in a separate annex.
The table was already set with food, bodyguards were stationed at a distance, and there were no restaurant staff in sight. It was clear they wanted to prevent any leaks of their conversation.
Baek Joo-won briefly observed the scene and then sat across from Jang Woo-seok.
“It’s late, but I couldn’t let you leave without offering you a meal. I’ve prepared a variety of dishes, not knowing your preferences, so please enjoy.”
Jang Woo-seok gestured towards the table laden with food, his expression benevolent.
“Do you drink?”
“I’ll accept if you offer.”
Jang Woo-seok poured clear cheongju into Baek Joo-won’s glass.
Baek Joo-won sniffed the liquor and took a sip. It tasted bland compared to the aged, strong fruit wines he usually enjoyed.
‘And it doesn’t seem poisoned.’
He couldn’t detect any poison in the food either.
“Someone approached me right after I left Seo Jae-yi’s flower shop. The timing was too perfect to be a coincidence. Were you waiting for me?”
“I wanted to have dinner with you. It ended up being a late drinking session.”
“Why did you wait?”
“We didn’t have an appointment, so it was only natural for me to wait.”
His response was so reasonable that it was hard to believe.
“Do you have something important to tell me, important enough to wait this late?”
“You want to get straight to the point before even having a proper meal or drink?”
“I already had dinner with Seo Jae-yi, and I can drink while listening to your answer.”
Baek Joo-won drained his glass. He didn’t hesitate, as he wouldn’t get drunk from this kind of liquor.
“Very well. Let’s finish our conversation quickly, as it’s late. I heard you’ve been spending a lot of time with Seo Jae-yi.”
Baek Joo-won refilled his glass himself, refusing Jang Woo-seok’s offer, and looked at him.
“Of course, it was mostly Seo Jae-yi visiting you. I’m aware of that.”
“That sounds like you’ve been monitoring my actions.”
“Hahaha. Don’t misunderstand. We weren’t monitoring you, but Seo Jae-yi.”
It was an unexpected statement. He had assumed they would be monitoring him, a stateless individual who could disappear at any moment.
“Because of the risk of overloading?”
“An S-rank overloading is extremely dangerous. For example, half of Argentina was destroyed when an S-rank Esper in South America overloaded.”
Baek Joo-won had heard about it during his theoretical training.
It had happened in the early days of Awakening, when Guides were still unknown, and it had made people fear Espers’ overloading more than monsters.
Peace had been restored after Guides were discovered, but the trauma of that incident lingered.
“And Seo Jae-yi is as strong as, if not stronger than, the Esper who overloaded back then.”
Seo Jae-yi was a Heat Manipulation Esper.
With her immense power, she could easily turn an entire continent into uninhabitable ashes.
“It might feel like a violation of human rights, but please understand that it was the best choice for the government to protect its citizens.”
“…”
“Besides, Seo Jae-yi is already aware of this. You can’t hide from an S-rank’s senses. The fact that she’s allowing it means she understands her situation.”
Her situation.
Baek Joo-won emptied his glass again and asked casually.
“So if I become Seo Jae-yi’s Pair, will the surveillance stop? I heard a 93% Matching Rate can even reverse her shortened lifespan.”
Jang Woo-seok’s hand, which had been reaching for his glass, paused. He put his glass down without taking a sip, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
“…You already know that Seo Jae-yi is terminally ill.”