GP | Chapter 1.1

A nameless leaf floated in the teacup. Was it cheap tea, served only out of politeness? That seemed unlikely, given that the man serving it was the sort who always used only the finest of everything. The bitter scent of tea filled the office.

Yoon Seoh scratched at a hangnail with the tip of his finger, silently staring at the teacup in front of him.

He had been told there was something to discuss, then left sitting here while the man only drank tea. It was unsettling. He already broke the rules constantly and got punished as often, and now the person who had summoned him was the director of the Guide Center, the very pinnacle of power. Of course he was nervous.

Unable to fight off his anxiety any longer, Seoh finally picked at the hangnail. He rubbed at the bright red bead of blood and was about to scratch at it again when the silence strangling his throat was finally broken.

“Guide Yoon Seoh.”

But the director’s voice was dry as dust. Seoh swallowed hard and curled the bloodied finger into his palm.

“…Yes.”

At that weak reply, the director set the teacup he had been holding onto the table.

The sound of glass meeting porcelain made Seoh’s eyes roll that way. Perhaps it had all been deliberate, meant to pull his attention. The beautiful hand that had placed the cup gave a little gesture, as if to tell him to look up.

Seoh slowly raised his head. He met a dry gaze that matched the voice. Eyes that looked indifferent to anyone who saw them. And yet Seoh felt that those eyes were persistent.

“I really don’t understand you.”

“…”

“Why are you living like that when you’re an A-rank Guide?”

Guides who stabilized Espers’ unstable energy and prevented them from rampaging made up only 5 percent of the world’s population. Among them, A-rank Guides were only 0.01 percent, and so they were classified as the highest grade. The elite among elites everyone dreamed of. That was what an A-rank Guide was, and Yoon Seoh was one of them.

“Are the Guide rules that hard to follow? A-rank Guides only have to guide three times a week. Why are you breaking the rules and illegally guiding Espers?”

The rules made by the Guide Center were simple. A-rank Guides were limited to three guiding sessions a week, B-rank to eight, C-rank to fifteen, and D-rank to twenty. Since a Guide could handle up to ten people a day, even lower ranks did not have especially grueling schedules.

If anything, the higher the rank, the more leisurely the life.

“We fought with the Esper Center just to get these rules settled, so you could all have it easy. If you keep breaking them like this, it’s going to be a problem.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“You say that, then go sneak around and do it again?”

“…”

Seoh could not answer. Because as the director had said, it was only a promise to get through this moment, something he could never keep.

“This isn’t just about you. Don’t you understand that if you keep acting like this, it hurts other Guides too?”

It didn’t seem like it would hurt that much, though… Seoh answered inwardly. At the very least, even if high-rank Guides had their guiding schedules doubled from what they were now, it still wouldn’t be that hard. Some even complained of being bored because they still had energy left and too much free time.

Espers could not survive without a Guide’s guiding, but Guides had no such restrictions. When desperation was one-sided, it meant the formation of a power imbalance.

Had the Guide Center really fought the Esper Center and barely managed to protect Guide human rights? Seoh did not think so. Espers must have had no choice but to be dragged around helplessly by Guides, who held their lifelines in their hands.

Even while receiving only the bare minimum of guiding, even while being mistreated by their only saviors, it was still an irrational relationship that they were supposed to protect first and foremost.

That was the situation Espers were in.

“Ah, come to think of it, did you say it hurt?”

“…”

Yet there was one aberrant presence in the relationship between Espers and Guides. Yoon Seoh clenched the finger he had been holding tight.

“You said it hurts when you’re full of energy?”

“…Yes.”

“The tests came back normal, though.”

The director picked up the tablet he had left beside the sofa and opened Seoh’s information again.

Name: Yoon Seoh. Age: 24. Guide Rank: A. Blood: normal. Physical response: normal. Nervous system: normal. Muscles: normal. Normal, normal, normal.

The results were listed as normal from beginning to end. No mental illness, no abnormal findings. Even at the very moment when he had claimed he was in pain, they had run tests, but the only result was that his body was tense from forcing himself to push through.

After multiple rounds of testing, the final report had eventually stated, “There is a possibility this was a lie made for the purpose of guiding.”

The director stared at it for a long time. He had reviewed the information on Yoon Seoh many times before, but this particular part still irritated him. Whether it was an act born of an ironclad spirit of sacrifice, or whether it was connected to the “that” rumor circulating through the Guide Center, he had no way of knowing.

Whatever the reason, it did not matter. Now that the time had come, there was no need to indulge him any longer. Yoon Seoh’s reckless guiding ended today.

“Do you want to guide as much as you please?”

The director asked in a gentler voice than before. Seoh’s eyes trembled.

He wanted to answer yes, but he knew very well that the director was not waiting for that answer. Still, he could not answer no, either. He felt a silent pressure, as if he should keep his mouth shut if he planned to lie.

A Guide who had not given up guiding even while receiving punishment. There was no way the director would trust someone like that.

Seoh moved his lips, but in the end, no words came out. He had said it tens, hundreds of times before, that the more guiding energy he accumulated, the more terrible the pain became, but nobody had ever believed him. The examination results came back normal, so he had no way to prove that pain.

In the end, he realized no one could help him. So he had begged the Guide Center to at least increase his own guiding quota. But that had not been accepted. The reason was that exceptions were unfair.

He vaguely knew that was not the only reason. The relationship with Espers, the power structure the Guide Center had built, the interconnected institutions. The people who held so much in their hands did not want to let go of anything.

In the end, the only thing he could do was break the Guide rules.

Because he could not endure that dreadful pain, as if every single cell from his fingertips to his toes were being broken down, he clung to Espers however he could. Not just during the scheduled times, but anytime outside them as well.

When it was not an official session, it was always urgent. Sometimes he asked whether he could guide and got permission first, but most of the time it was so urgent that he forced his way in without asking.

That was how he was caught in the end, and how the rumors spread. It had been the expected conclusion.

The lucky thing was that he had never once been rejected. Of course he hadn’t. How could they refuse a Guide offering to guide them? Big or small, they always lived with pain. They had probably never once received satisfying guiding. That was because the Guide Center tightly restricted it.

“Does guiding really lessen the pain?”

“…”

The director set the tablet down beside the sofa. He stared for a while at Seoh’s confused expression, then suddenly smiled.

“Well, tests can’t tell us everything, so I’ll believe you. Doing it legally in a safe place would be easier for us to manage than your sneaking around all the time anyway.”

“…What?”

The director was saying something obliquely. The thing Seoh had always only imagined in dreams, the day he had thought might never be possible in his lifetime.

Seoh stared blankly at the director, who was still smiling.

“I’m saying I’ll give you what you want. I’ll make it so you can guide as much as you like.”

At those words, Seoh sucked in a breath.

He could guide as much as he wanted? A life where he did not have to watch anyone’s face, where he no longer had to break rules, where he did not feel pain. Was that really what he was being given now?

“It’s not ideal to just leave those strange rumors be… and you seem like the type who would keep guiding no matter what anyone said, so let’s make it legal instead. Guide the Esper as much as he wants.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Seoh shot up from his seat and bowed deeply.

“Thank you!”

The process had not gone smoothly. There had been misunderstandings, accusations, and hatred. But in the end, his desperation had reached someone. The director’s claim that he trusted him was surely a lie, but that did not matter to Seoh at all. Even if it was being used as a tool of power, if he could only guide, he would have accepted anything.

Seoh bowed again and again, thanking him over and over. The director stared at him for a while, then snorted and said,

“Enough with the thanks. Sit down first. I’ll explain it properly.”

Only then did Seoh stop bowing. With a flushed face, he sat carefully on the sofa and waited for what would come next, his chest swelling with the hope that he might be assigned immediately starting today.

“If you want to guide the way you want, there are a few conditions.”

“Yes, what are they?”

Even hearing that there were conditions, Seoh was not disappointed at all. He had expected as much, and as far as he was concerned, whatever the condition was, he could absolutely meet it.

“You look confident.”

“I’ll do my best. No, I’ll absolutely follow the conditions.”

“Oh? Then.”

As if he had known Seoh would say that, the director immediately began listing them.

“You’ll be assigned as the exclusive Guide for Esper Song Taejoon. Since he’s S-rank, even if you guide him as much as you want, he may still say it’s not enough and ask for more.”

“…What?”

“To do that, you’d have to move into his residence, and once the decision is made, you can’t take it back. What do you think? Can you do it?”

“W-wait a second. Exclusive… Guide? To Song Taejoon, the Esper?”

“Yes, Song Taejoon.”

Seoh’s face went white.

“That person is!”

“If you don’t want to, you can stay here. But if you choose to remain here, we’ll assign you a bodyguard and limit your number of guiding sessions. Do you understand what that means?”

“Director…!”

S-rank Esper Song Taejoon. He was so famous that no one did not know his name. Unlike the other Espers, he was the only one who rejected guiding, and even if a schedule was set, he supposedly never showed up. Then, right before he rampaged, he would come in as an emergency case and use up all of a Guide’s energy.