SOG Ch 1

It would be great if we could throw away useless feelings of unrequited love like useless documents.

The underground base of the anti-government terrorist organization ‘Black Swan.’ Seon Jae-chan, a 27-year-old A-class guide chasing them, the youngest team head of the Central Management Headquarters intelligence department on the rise, had never failed anything except love.

Blood poured from his throat. His mouth was filled with a bitter taste. The explosion blew him up and knocked him to the ground multiple times. His hearing has been gone. His entire body hurt as if it were on fire, but the world was deafeningly silent. His eardrum had to have shattered. It will be difficult to recover.

While chasing a Black Swan with his colleagues, he fell into a trap like an anthill.

Dust slowly settled over the raged body. Jae-chan was spread out on the base floor, staring intently at the steel ceiling with bones exposed. Immediately, the colorful light flickered, and then the light was turned off.

‘… Team Leader…! … hand… no…!’

All of a sudden, his co-workers were screaming. Cough. Blood spattered. A terribly quiet world. Only the hot bloody smell was evident. The pain that cuts through his whole body…

It would have been great if the unexploded ordnance had exploded closer to him. He could have left without seeing anything in an instant. Seon Jae-chan cast a thoughtless glance at a person who was not moving beyond his colleagues. Even though he was buried in the explosion’s debris, he looked at his long time unrequited love.

Go Woo-jin.

Wind attribute S-class Esper. A person who was once a close friend, a first love, and a person who was appointed as his imprint partner, but never became his.

Go Woo-jin cherished a guide. The guide was Nam Hae-sol, who had been saved from the explosion by Jae-chan not long ago. Woo-jin’s lover.  Jae-chan swallowed the hot blood as he glanced at him, who was well-protected in Woo-jin’s strong arms. He made another eye contact with Go Woo-jin.

He had succeeded in so many projects, but Woo-jin was the only exception.

He’s done a lot of bad things in order to have Go Woo-jin. He used the power of his family he was so reluctant to do, becoming the guide director’s mean limb and signing a contract with his stepmother to pressure Go Woo-jin.

But in the end, he failed miserably. Feelings that would have been abandoned sooner if it was a project. He couldn’t let it go so easily, yet it had to come to an end.

He should have ended it sooner.

An empty laugh erupted.

Still, the reason why he couldn’t let go of his gaze on Go Woo-jin was because he sensed the end of his life. After a long, persistent gaze, their eyes finally met. Go Woo-jin’s eyes were lifeless. Just like dust that scatters.

He felt emotions in his black eyes when he couldn’t take his gaze away from him. He must have been disgusted by the look, and that was when he looked away. As he always did in front of Go Woo-jin from some time ago, without shame.

‘Ceiling… Surveillance cameras, lenses…’

He turned his gaze and repeated those words to his colleagues. He found it just before the lights went out completely when he was thrown because of the explosion. He was not sure if his eardrums were damaged and his colleague was getting what he was talking about. Relying on the ringing of the vocal cords and the fluttering of the lips, ‘ceilings, surveillance cameras, lenses.’ He repeated as clearly as possible. Even if he died, he wanted everyone to get out safely.

Ceilings, surveillance cameras, and lenses. Jae-chan, who had been repeating like a broken robot over his colleagues crying, suddenly felt the body temperature touch his hand. His bloodshot eyes widened.

… 

Go Woo-jin, who had just approached him, was holding his hand.

He held Nam Hae-sol with one arm, sat next to him, and held his hands. His face was pale as snow and his young expression was silent as if he was only mourning his comrades… It was enough.

Ah, Woo Jin-ah.

Remorse warmed up in the corners of his eyes.

Originally, Go Woo-jin was such a warm person. A person who is willing to reach out to even the worst person in life. He has made such a friend suffer in the name of unrequited love.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry, Woo-jin…

It was something that should have been said earlier. A regretful force entered the twitching fingertips. Hot tears streamed down his blood and dust-soaked cheeks. He couldn’t even apologize to Go Woo-jin, who would be left behind. He just cried.

It was fortunate that he saved Nam Hae-sol. His life which was dying from the explosion wound contributed to Go Woo-jin’s happiness for the first time.

I should’ve let you go earlier.

I should have wished you happiness instead of obsessing and longing for you.

His heart felt like it was being ripped apart by regret. He felt he knew how to live properly now, but it was all over. He was relieved at the same time. Go Woo-jin will now get away from him and fly away. Just like the wind that is his attribute.

A faint smile spread across his lips as he closed his eyes.

As such, Team Leader Seon Jae-chan, a ‘snake’ of the intelligence service, a human ampler, and a success-oriented human specimen, died during the Black Swan sweeping operation.

The world had turned white. Only the calm wind on his broken ear feels like a blessing.

*

He once heard that heaven is unique. It was said that when people died, they went to the heaven they imagined.

So, was this the kind of heaven he was thinking of?

Seon Jae-chan looked around in bewilderment.

Central Management Center Liberal Arts Building 2nd Classroom. It was a place where the white light that had occupied the field of his vision for a while after death disappeared and was revealed.

“The windless zone is a metaphor for an area where infinite ‘energy’ temporarily stagnates.”

The expert’s voice from the platform was clear, yet it did not reach Jae-chan’s ears. He took a look around. Terraced seats, roughly 40 students spread out with their laptops, and a lecture screen. Clearly, the Guide’s education officer was correct.

It was strange. Heaven couldn’t possibly look like this. He kept looking around, perplexed, until he came to a stop in front of the promotional placard that said, ‘Frontier Seminar: Strategies for Using the Windless Zone.’

‘A windless area?’

His eyes widened when he found the phrase. At the same time, the expert’s voice dug into his ears.

“Where the energy that is the source of the psychic manifestation is too concentrated, all of Esper’s abilities and senses are ‘nullified’ in an instant.”

That was true. An ‘energy nullification phenomenon’ occurred while entering Black Swan’s underground base, a windless zone. This was why, no matter how hard he tried, the healing Esper who accompanied him couldn’t save Seon Jae-chan’s life. 

“Perhaps you will encounter a windless zone while on a field mission.”

Jae-chan heard Professor Noh’s speech become clearer as though the speaker’s volume increased.

“You have a high probability of seeing the Aurora at some point in your life. However, the chances of encountering the Windless Zone, which has made the energy nullification area as famous as a black hole, are extremely slim.”

Now that he saw it, the expert was a well-known professor of Esper phenomenology, whom the liberal arts center had repeatedly invited. He remembered hearing a seminar about windless locations before.

Maybe it was then?

Seon Jae-chan realized that this was a moment in the past. The Guide Bureau used to invite celebrities to hold seminars once a month. It seemed to be one of those memories.

Were his memories could be this realistic?

‘No. It’s neither memory nor heaven.’

It’s like…

It seemed real.

His five senses were fully active. Everything that caught his eye, the professor’s voice, the occasional light typing sound, the feel of his thin short-sleeved shirt, the cold air from the air conditioner on his bare arms, even the cramped toes in his sneakers.

He took a look around. Park Yu-ram, a former classmate he hadn’t seen in years, sat there as if it were reality. She was looking serious while playing a game on her laptop, pretending to look for lesson materials. Fingerprint-stained glasses, pale lips, long, loosely tied hair… His mouth opened blankly as he observed Park Yu-ram.

What. Why was it so realistic!

His toes in his sneakers wiggled like crazy. Professor Noh’s voice broke through again in Seon Jae-chan’s ears, who opened his eyes.

“Actually, twenty-one years ago, Noah Airy had acquired foresight through the miracle of the Energy Nullification Area. As is well known, she later became the defender of the American Confederation, the undefeated goddess.”

He wrinkled his brow slowly. He straightened his eyes and crossed his arms. He wanted to see how far this overly realistic dream would go.

“She is the proof of a miracle.”

A miracle in the windless area. According to the theory, when you were swept away by an intangible explosion that appears in highly concentrated energy with a very rare probability, you gain the ability to transcend your psychic ability, like Noah Airy.

Yes, it was an unproven theory. Just as the probability of winning the lottery changes from 0% to 0.00000012% when you buy a lottery ticket, even if you accidentally enter a windless area, the probability of being swept away by an explosion of energy was extremely small.

Even if Seon Jae-chan and his team broke through a very small probability at the base of the Black Swan, it would not have been him who achieved a miracle. Because he’s dead.

Alright.

There will be no miracles, and he must have died.

But why did this feel so real?

It felt like he was alive. The realistic feelings were scary now. Jae-chan once again looked at the classmates next to him, the invited professor, and the lecture hall. While sitting like that, the moments of chasing a black swan, getting caught up in an explosion, saving Nam Hae-sol, and letting go of regrets for Go Woo-jin felt more like a dream.