Swallowed by the Gate
No — no, it isn't. That's not the point here.
It's too, too much. I'm exhausted.
Right now, Baek Yeo-eul could not have cared less whether Han Yi-hyeon went bald because of her or not. When a person is worn down — mentally, physically — they turn irritable and start thinking only of themselves.
Should I really just run away?
It was no idle thought.
A few nights ago, unable to sleep, Baek Yeo-eul had spent the small hours combing through plane tickets to the United Kingdom. The UK was the nation that had restored its collapsed government faster than any other after the Gates appeared.
By a stroke of outrageous luck, the British head of state had awakened as an S-rank — which meant that, unlike South Korea, an Esper had gone on to lead the country, and its systems had no choice but to fall into place ahead of everyone else's.
South Korea now boasted the finest public order in the world, but by all accounts the early days had been utter chaos. Outlaws had crawled out of every woodwork, and more than a few violent criminals had awakened as Espers themselves, which had led to no end of upheaval.
The United Kingdom, however, had an S-rank Esper at the very top of its leadership, and its preexisting laws were famously unforgiving — so its public safety had come to rival South Korea's own.
How much do I have saved again?
Baek Yeo-eul summoned up her account balance yet again, out of pure habit. No matter how well she earned, prices climbed every year.
After a long stretch of mental arithmetic, she arrived at the same old conclusion: if she wanted a comfortable retirement, she needed to save more.
Tap.
"Director."
Tap.
"Director."
The second call carried more force than the first. Tap. The drumming on the railing stopped, and Do Geon finally turned his head toward Kim Yu-ra's voice.
"Your next appointment is scheduled."
When she conveyed, in roundabout fashion, that now was no time to be standing around, Do Geon's face registered a belated ah of realization.
Kim Yu-ra could not hide her bewilderment at the sight. He had abruptly changed course, come out to the site where the Gate had appeared, and for the past hour had been observing from a distant vantage point. He was so absorbed that it had taken at least three calls for him to notice her — and even now, with her telling him they needed to move, his gaze refused to come down.
"Is it because of Esper Han Yi-hyeon?"
"...Esper Han Yi-hyeon?"
As though he had heard something absurd, Do Geon's brow knitted.
"Ah, right. Yes. I was preoccupied with Esper Han Yi-hyeon."
But he admitted it readily enough a moment later and folded his arms. His gaze was sweeping over some point near the Gate. To Kim Yu-ra, an unawakened civilian, the distance was so great the figure was barely a dot — yet she did not doubt for a second that the person he was staring at so relentlessly was Han Yi-hyeon.
"Esper Han Yi-hyeon will be fine. He is still in a rampage state, but his readings have dropped noticeably."
They had not fallen dramatically, but they had at least come down to a level that allowed a measure of peace of mind.
Do Geon drummed the railing again — tap, tap. What he found so displeasing, she had no way of knowing, since he kept his mouth clamped shut.
And, as it happened, neither did Do Geon himself.
Do Geon narrowed his eyes. He would set out tracking Han Yi-hyeon's every movement, only to find that at some point his gaze had drifted to Baek Yeo-eul, staggering about as far from the Gate as she could manage.
...It's because she's Han Yi-hyeon's partner. That's all.
Because she was that man's partner. If she got hurt, the one person who could hold Han Yi-hyeon back would vanish entirely — that was the only reason he was watching. Having arbitrarily settled the matter of his own heart, Do Geon made to turn away.
Do Geon's eyes blew wide open, and his hand clamped down on the railing.
"Director?"
Baffled by his reaction, Kim Yu-ra turned her head to follow his line of sight.
"……!"
And there — the Gate was swallowing Baek Yeo-eul whole.
The inside of a Gate — the dungeon — was an unknown space. Like the abilities of Espers and Guides, it defied scientific explanation, and its sheer inaccessibility made it nearly impossible to study; almost nothing about it was known. But for the Espers and Guides who had to enter those Gates in person, information withheld from ordinary citizens was shared among their own.
Baek Yeo-eul had heard the rundown herself during practical training. Ground swallowed by a Gate became a dungeon — a breeding nest for monsters. Because the monsters were bound to defend it, they hurled themselves at any Esper who tried to destroy the Gate's core.
If you made it inside the dungeon, you had cleared the first hurdle. But that was where the real fight began. Being able to enter a dungeon at all meant the Gate was Grade 3 — so once inside, the core had to be found, and destroyed. And the reason I'm bringing all this up out of nowhere is...
"...I'm losing my mind."
...because Baek Yeo-eul and Han Yi-hyeon had just been dragged inside a Gate.
It had been a day like any other. Mother Nature had hammered away at Baek Yeo-eul without once letting her stamina recover. As always, she was off at the farthest possible remove from the monsters, writhing in Mother Nature's embrace, and Han Yi-hyeon — having finished off most of the horde — was nearly within reach of her when it happened.
In flagrant violation of the cardinal rule that no one was to approach the Gate, one of the Guides drifted toward it, saying she wanted to take a picture. The Gate, which had hung there dead-still, suddenly quivered, wobbled — and then something went terribly wrong.
"Huh...?"
Too busy suffering through Mother Nature to notice anything, Baek Yeo-eul was bowled over by the Guide fleeing for her life — and the Gate swallowed her whole. She thrashed at the alien sensation of her body drifting weightless.
Before the Gate could take her completely, Han Yi-hyeon flung his hand out toward her. But she was engulfed before her fingers could even reach for his — and when she opened her eyes, there was the dungeon, and Han Yi-hyeon was beside her.
The moment she came to, Baek Yeo-eul was muttering curses under her breath. Damn it all — of all the things that could happen.
Han Yi-hyeon, who had been sitting quietly at her side until she woke, rose and extended his hand.
Was he seriously asking for a guiding in the middle of all this? When she shot the shameless man a glare, he hastily waved his hand.
"Not guiding. Just take my hand."
Everyone who entered a dungeon complained of dizziness — and standing up too quickly could make it far worse. Han Yi-hyeon hurriedly tacked on the explanation.
Just as he'd said, the moment she took his hand and stood, the dizziness came flooding in as though it had been lying in wait. It was worse than anything she had imagined — bad enough that she half wondered whether Han Yi-hyeon himself had seized her head and was rattling it back and forth.
"Ugh..."
When Baek Yeo-eul clutched her head and swayed, Han Yi-hyeon quickly steadied her.
"Rest for a moment."
He had caught her condition at a glance, and the words came quickly.
With no hope whatsoever of moving, Baek Yeo-eul plopped straight back down where she was. The dizziness that had been needling at her skull began, at long last, to recede a little.
Only once she had a moment to breathe did she finally look around. She had seen dungeon interiors in photos and footage before — but never with her own eyes.
And once time had passed and her head had cleared, Han Yi-hyeon finally came into view. The bloodless pallor of his face. The thin film of cold sweat beading at his hairline.
Ah.
Baek Yeo-eul realized that Han Yi-hyeon had been fighting monsters until the very moment the Gate took her.
"Esper Han Yi-hyeon — let me guide you."
"No, you can't. You haven't recovered yet — how could you..."
"I've recovered at least that much."
Baek Yeo-eul patted the spot beside her — tap, tap.
"Hurry up."
Your condition has to hold if either of us is walking out of this Gate alive.
At her nakedly self-serving urging, Han Yi-hyeon hesitated a moment — then quietly settled in beside her.
The sight of him offering up his head with such practiced ease made Baek Yeo-eul falter.
"Esper Han Yi-hyeon."
"Yes."
Baek Yeo-eul opened her mouth with care.
"Me grabbing your hair like that... it doesn't bother you?"
"Not in the slightest."
He answered without a flicker of hesitation, as though the question weren't worth a moment's thought.
"I know the Gates don't agree with you, Guide Baek Yeo-eul. And the reason you have no choice but to come out to the field at all is me. Of course your body can't be in good shape — so something like that is no problem at all."
The rapid-fire delivery was standard by now, and his voice truly carried not a whisper of displeasure. Which was precisely when Baek Yeo-eul's conscience began to ache — because, in truth, she had felt a faint, guilty thrill every single time she had seized a fistful of that hair.
"And if you would rather keep contact to a minimum, that is fine as well. Do whatever is comfortable for you, Guide Baek Yeo-eul."
Ah, I really can't take this. Stung by guilt, Baek Yeo-eul finally let out a faint groan and buried her face in her palm.
"Is something wrong? Does your head still hurt?"
Baek Yeo-eul called quietly to Han Yi-hyeon, who was fussing anxiously beside her.
"Esper Han Yi-hyeon."
"Yes. Go ahead."
"...About why I've been guiding you by the hair all this time."
"Yes."
"When I guide you, Esper Han Yi-hyeon, my strength drains faster — and drains more — than with anyone else. Last time, when you went on a rampage, I was holding your hair and I couldn't even last ten minutes before I blacked out. If that happens in a genuine emergency, it's a catastrophe, isn't it? And there aren't exactly crowds of Guides who can guide you, Esper Han Yi-hyeon."
"You are the only one, Guide Baek Yeo-eul. The only Guide who can guide me."
Han Yi-hyeon, who had been listening in silence, corrected her — pointing out the error in her wording.
With the odd sensation of having met eyes gleaming behind his blindfold, Baek Yeo-eul scratched her cheek, sheepish.
"Er, well... anyway. Unless a Guide with a higher matching rate than mine turns up at headquarters, you and I are likely to be partners for a long time, Esper Han Yi-hyeon. And I can't keep grabbing your hair until the end of time."
Baek Yeo-eul held out her hand.
"Let's start with hands. Slowly — so we can get used to each other."
Before Han Yi-hyeon could take it, she added quickly:
"But we draw the energy out little by little. Understood? The second it feels like too much, I'm pulling my hand away."
"...Will it really be all right?"
"Yes."
Baek Yeo-eul nodded, her expression set with firm resolve. Truthfully, she had been meaning to say this for a while now, but she'd kept waiting for the right moment and it had slipped past her. She couldn't go on guiding by the hair forever.
She had said it herself — until a Guide with a higher matching rate than me shows up — but for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that no such Guide ever would.
Shaking her head hard to fling off the pointless unease, Baek Yeo-eul beckoned.
"Come on, hurry."
"...Then I'll do my best."
His tension written plainly across him, Han Yi-hyeon clasped her hand.