A Late Introduction
Baek Yeo-eul, who had awakened as a Guide on the eve of her CSAT, was whisked off by people from headquarters for testing the moment day broke. The nineteen-year-old Baek Yeo-eul had stood there in silence for a long while, a photograph in her hand.
Years of effort had vanished like a mirage in a single day. What had been pressed into Baek Yeo-eul's hand was not her exam admission slip, but an identification card certifying her as a Guide.
"There's no rush, so take your time preparing. If you'd rather not, your face doesn't have to be made public. The reporters, however, cannot be avoided — it will inevitably come out either way. Your face simply won't be posted on the official site, that's all. Beyond that, everyone will come to know Guide Baek Yeo-eul's face regardless."
"Then... I'll put it off for now, at least."
"Understood. I'll pass that along."
By then, Kim Yu-ra had finished the treatment.
"The bruise is not as serious as it appeared. It has barely swollen at all — the color is simply dark."
"Thank you."
Not long after the treatment wrapped up, Han Yi-hyeon emerged, and the two of them left the building together.
Do Geon drew close to the window and committed to memory the sight of Baek Yeo-eul and Han Yi-hyeon climbing into a car and driving away — watching until the vehicle shrank to a tiny dot, and then vanished from view entirely.
"A whole week of vacation?"
The moment they arrived home, Baek Yeo-eul's eyes went round as saucers at Han Yi-hyeon's words.
"Yes. In exchange for turning down Guide Baek Yeo-eul's proposal regarding field dispatches, the Director offered a compensation. Fill your quota for one month, and you will receive one week of vacation. Emergency dispatches remain the exception, of course."
"...So it doesn't come out of the leave I already have?"
"It is separate."
Baek Yeo-eul was so delighted she nearly leapt right out of her seat. Endure a single month of hard work, and a whole week of vacation appeared — separate from the leave she already had! More than fair compensation!
She squirmed in place, unable to contain her excitement, but Han Yi-hyeon's expression was far from good. Only belatedly sensing that something was off, Baek Yeo-eul turned to look at him.
"Did he say something else, too?"
"Well..."
Han Yi-hyeon wavered for a moment, then let out a long sigh and spoke.
"It appears I will have to go on an overseas business trip in a month."
"Overseas? Where to?"
Espers could not enter another country at will. Any incident abroad was handled under that country's laws, so the government never sent Espers overseas unless the matter was truly exceptional.
There was, however, one exception: business trips. The reasons varied, but more often than not the purpose was to handle a Gate on the host country's behalf. This time was no different.
"A Grade 2 Gate in the United Kingdom is causing trouble. It opened about ten days ago and has remained at its first stage ever since, so the monsters keep coming without end. They've requested our country's help."
"Ah, that one."
It was something Baek Yeo-eul knew of as well. Gates rarely appeared in the UK, but strangely, once one did, it lingered for at least a week or more.
"But doesn't the UK have S-rank Espers of its own?"
Curiously enough, S-rank Espers were exceedingly rare in the United Kingdom. Instead, its A-rank Esper count soared well past twice the average of other nations, and the country made up for its lack of top-tier power with sheer manpower.
"As it happens, that Gate's affinity is incompatible with S-rank Espers."
"Then they really have no choice but to ask another country for help."
A Grade 2 Gate was more than A-rank Espers could handle, no matter how many of them there were. Unless it was Han Yi-hyeon.
"So we rest for a week, and three weeks from now, we head to the UK."
"Yes."
"I'll guide you as diligently as I can until then."
In case he rampages while I'm gone, I'd better do as much guiding as I possibly can this week.
Somehow, Baek Yeo-eul had a gut feeling that the coming week would be anything but peaceful.
"...Guide Baek Yeo-eul."
"Yes?"
"I am going with you. You are coming with me as well."
"...To the UK?"
Han Yi-hyeon nodded, avoiding her eyes, and Baek Yeo-eul blinked.
Espers being sent on overseas assignments was common enough; Guides were another matter entirely. Guides were far too critical a national resource to be shipped abroad carelessly.
An Esper whose condition required guiding would never be dispatched in the first place, and even one sent out without a partner would simply receive guiding from a Guide assigned by the host country.
Baek Yeo-eul had naturally assumed Han Yi-hyeon would go and come back alone.
"It's only that my condition remains unstable, so... I'm sorry. Truly."
Han Yi-hyeon shot to his feet. Baek Yeo-eul, who had been lost in thought, jolted and asked,
"Where are you going right now?"
"I need to tell them this cannot happen. It is far too dangerous."
Watching him reach for his shoes, Baek Yeo-eul finally lowered her head.
"Forget it. I'll just come with you."
"But..."
"Then tell me — could you really take guiding from a Guide who isn't me?"
One shoe on, Han Yi-hyeon nodded, his face drained of color.
"I can. I would have to."
"Fine. Keep that up and you'll rampage."
He must have been thinking the same thing, because he ultimately kicked the shoe back off and returned, docile as ever.
"Esper Han Yi-hyeon."
Baek Yeo-eul called his name.
Inwardly, she was grateful to him. True, the reason her life had been turned upside down overnight was Han Yi-hyeon himself — but he, too, must have had a rough time of it all this while.
Suffering from severe Guiding Rejection Syndrome was no different from being allergic to oxygen itself. That was how essential guiding was to an Esper — as essential as breathing.
Han Yi-hyeon had never once treated her carelessly. Every Esper was presumably deferential to Guides, but Baek Yeo-eul had never come across one who poured devotion into her the way he did.
What was more, having been brushed off as a mere C-rank Guide by her own partner in the past, she knew all too well that Han Yi-hyeon's behavior was anything but ordinary.
And yet he unfailingly addressed her as "Guide Baek Yeo-eul" in his gentle, courteous register, and never once made a sly, unwelcome advance on her body. This was the man who had bent all the way down at the waist to make his hair easier to grip — even while it was being seized.
At first, she had tried her hardest to dig up some flaw in him, but she no longer did. She couldn't.
He never asked why she didn't want to go to the hospital, and he had never once needled or scolded her over the vast gulf in rank between them.
If everything he had done over the past month had been an act, then that, too, would have to count as one of his abilities. But for some reason, Baek Yeo-eul couldn't make herself believe it was.
Baek Yeo-eul admitted it. She liked Han Yi-hyeon.
"I should have said this back when we first met, honestly."
Baek Yeo-eul rose from her seat and set her appearance to rights — a quick fix of her hair, a brisk smoothing of the wrinkles from her clothes.
Once she was presentable, she held out her hand to Han Yi-hyeon.
"......"
"I don't know how far this bond of ours will go, but I want to stay on good terms with you, Esper Han Yi-hyeon, right up to the very end."
Han Yi-hyeon stared, unblinking, at the hand she offered.
Don't tell me he's actually not going to take it?
Just as the anxiety came to a head, Han Yi-hyeon clasped her hand. His large hand closed around hers.
The grip wasn't especially strong, but the firmness with which they held on to each other was enough to set her heart at ease.
Relieved, Baek Yeo-eul said,
"Let's do right by each other from here on out."
"...It is I who should be saying that. Please take care of me."
That day, for the first time, Baek Yeo-eul saw Han Yi-hyeon smile.
"...As such, it appears the number of partners assigned to our A-rank Guides will need adjusting."
"The reason?"
"Research is ongoing, but we have yet to obtain any results worth noting."
For several years now, the number of people awakening had been creeping upward a little more each year. The problem was the ratio: Espers made up an overwhelming majority, while Guides remained pitifully few. Guides were perpetually in short supply as it was, and the only thing multiplying was the number of Espers who needed guiding — a genuinely dire state of affairs.
Worse, this was not South Korea's burden alone; it was a crisis shared by the entire world, a grave matter that had topped the agenda at international summits for years running. South Korea and the United States, boasting the fastest scientific advancement, were leading the research effort.
"Japan has not produced a single Guide in roughly half a year, and has requested assistance from China."
China, with its enormous population, produced a comparatively respectable number of Guides — but the Espers awakening there outnumbered them several dozen times over. Perhaps because Japan's very first Gate had opened at Fukushima, site of the nuclear meltdown, mutated monsters prowled the country with alarming frequency, and the damage was anything but trivial.
No one mocked the sight of Japan begging for help from the neighbor it had once savaged like a mortal enemy. South Korea was grappling with the very same decline in Guides, and everyone understood exactly how serious that was.
Hence the negotiations with the United Kingdom. A good two months had already slipped by since agents from headquarters had departed for the UK, officially on a business trip, to hammer out a formal agreement.
"Has there been no further contact?"
Come to think of it, the deadline had long since come and gone. He had wondered whether something had disrupted a schedule that was supposed to take a month at the outside — but the reports had kept arriving at a steady clip. Nothing urgent had happened; the work was simply taking longer. Each message had amounted to a single line.
And even that had ended a week ago.
"Investigate."
Having weighed every circumstance, Do Geon issued the order to Kim Yu-ra. From her post in the corner, Kim Yu-ra answered with a clipped, "Yes, sir."
"Has the agent to be assigned to Guide Baek Yeo-eul been decided?"
Seo Joo-hwan straightened his posture before replying.
"Yes. We've secured one."
He had known the question was coming at today's briefing, and scraping up a candidate in mere days had cost him every favor he had. Seo Joo-hwan squared his shoulders, brimming with confidence — because he genuinely liked the man he had chosen.
"His name is Bae Jun-soo. Twenty-nine years old. Despite his youth, he has experience serving as the assigned agent for an A-rank Guide, no less. Bae Jun-soo is precisely the rising star to watch—"
A capable agent every Guide in the country had their eye on. Having landed Bae Jun-soo through a few well-placed bribes and a liberal application of influence, Seo Joo-hwan wasn't angling for praise. He simply prayed the moment would pass without incident.
But the instant he saw Do Geon's expression, Seo Joo-hwan folded that prayer neatly in half and sent it flying on the wind.
"...He falls short of a rising star. Yes, I thought so as well. Which is why I have considered one more candidate."
Seo Joo-hwan's mind kicked into overdrive.