SOG Ch 40

“Ha!”

The team leader of Team 4 clicked his tongue. He had a bad feeling about Jae-chan from the moment he heard what he had done to his son, but it turned out to be more than he had thought.

He returned his gaze to the national hero of the past as if to inform him of this. Esper Seon Min-yeol, who was caught in the middle, appeared embarrassed and opened his mouth to calm him down.

“Jae-chan. I’ve heard all the circumstances before and after. Your stepping up for the weak is a great deed, but it seems there was a misunderstanding.”

Even in this situation, Jae-chan’s father did not lose his calm smile. It was obvious that Seon Eun-soo was copying his father’s outward expression when she smiled. Jae-chan asked back with a smile on his face as he was also influenced by his father.

“What misunderstanding?”

Seon Min-yeol hesitated at his son’s question. The situation was not what he expected. Somehow, he was not like the second one who rushed to him and rubbed his hair under the palm of his hand.

Jae-chan was probably still feeling upset from the E-class Esper manifestation.

He’s a useless guy anyway. Seon Min-yeol continued to smile as he forced the corners of his mouth.

“Let’s talk privately for a moment. -Please wait a moment. I think we need to clear up the misunderstanding and talk about it. No matter how bad he is, he’s still dear to me.”

Esper Seon Min-yeol asked team leader Heo for his understanding. At the same time, he took a step over to his son and tightly squeezed his wrist. Jae-chan was also being dragged in an unkind manner. As his rage grew, Seon Min-yeol simply walked past the S-class Esper Go Woo-jin, who would have greeted him.

“…”

Go Woo-jin, who had been watching the situation from afar as a bystander, gradually lifted his gaze. The silent eyes followed the movements of Seon Min-yeol and Seon Jae-chan without blinking. Seon Jae-chan’s face was calm as usual, but his wrists appeared to be aching from his father’s tight grip.

If he held it that tightly, it would leave marks. Woo-jin knew because he saw it when he lost his composure and was being guided on Mentosa Island, as well as when he was searching his body. Although it was something Woo-jin knew even though he had only experienced it a few times, somehow Esper Seon Min-yeo didn’t seem to know his son’s constitution. Or he knew and didn’t care.

In the end, Seon Jae-chan was dragged through the crowd of onlookers and behind the center desk.

The place they entered was the emergency center office. Tak. The print on the inside fluttered for a moment as the door closed.

The worn-out paper with emergency instructions fluttered, then sank, followed by the sound of a door lock. His father left him where he was and trudged inside.

When he lowered the string of blinds covering the window, the flat slat that had been upright was laid down. They were disconnected from the outside world.

“Call the sexual harassment office immediately and tell them you’re withdrawing the complaint.”

Seon Min-yeol’s blunt voice resounded in the completely blocked square space.

Jae-chan raised his eyes while fiddling with his already reddened wrist. His father’s face had become expressionless. The stark light emitted by the metal lights in the office made his father look colder.

Seon Jae-chan noticed that his father used his abilities through the wavelength he felt as an E-class Esper.

True to his reputation as the Union’s shield, Esper Seon Min-yeol specialized in defensive abilities had the ability to ‘soundproof.’

Only Espers of a higher rank than his father can hear the voice beyond this shield. In other words, Jae-chan had to assume that no one outside could hear the two people talking no matter how much they put their ears to the office door.

Except for Go Woo-jin.

“…”

That fact bothered him. It was also why he couldn’t fight his father right away.

He himself was no different from the pretentious family members. He never wants to show the ugly side of being beaten by his father.

Jae-chan wanted to be seen as a beloved son.

He took a deep breath and moved closer to the blinds. He slipped his fingers between the flat slats of the blinds, leaving his father’s watchful eye on him. He peered inside the emergency room through the narrow gap.

The people behind the window were finding their place. Team leader Heo Gyu-sik and Heo Moon-gi were talking with the director, and Go Woo-jin… was gone. He seemed to have already left.

‘Well. Kim Geun-won should be enough.’

Since Woo-jin wavelength was not severely twisted, it will be sufficient to use Kim Geun-won or an amplifier. Jae-chan was disappointed, but he thought it was a good thing that he had gotten a head start.

Meanwhile, Seon Min-yeol was relieved as well. He was also looking through the gaps in the blinds. He didn’t notice Go Woo-jin didn’t like his second son anyway, but it was easier not to have ears to listen to.

“Withdraw the complaint immediately.”

So he spoke in a more stern tone.

“That’s what guides are for. Even if an Esper did something unintentional while being guided, do you report it because you don’t understand it? Are you going to bring shame to your father’s face?”

Seon Jae-chan pulled out his finger that had been inserted between the slats. He looked into my father’s eyes, which were as cold as the northern wind and snow.

The Seon Min-yeol he knew was not the type to solve problems in this way. According to his father’s usual pattern, he should have quietly called him home or solved it over the phone.

It was very likely that someone else’s comment had gotten him this far. It was most likely the opinion of team leader Heo Gyu-sik.

One unanswered question remained. It was about why his father was being swayed by the team leader of Team 4.

“Why?”

Seon Jae-chan’s eyes narrowed.

“Because Team Leader Heo Gyu-sik said he would drop his charge against Seon Eun-soo? If I withdrew the complaint against Heo Moon-gi?”

Jae-chan soon realized that his words were correct. It was because his father was silent.

Haa. Jae-chan sighed. Now it seemed to him that he knew why things that hadn’t happened in the past had happened.

‘Your brother is crazy.’

‘I heard he touched one of the senior Esper from Esper Team 4 this time.’

‘They reported it to the Sexual Harassment Complaint Center and the police.’

He remembered Gyeong Chang-hun’s words.

It was obvious.

To begin with, Seon Eun-soo would have gone after Team 4’s senior Esper, Lee Hyo-hee.  His father would have made some sort of deal with team leader Heo in order to put pressure on senior Esper Lee Hyo-hee. The situation could have been handled easily.

However, while the situation was being resolved, Seon Jae-chan reported Heo Moon-gi.

Team leader Heo must have offered his father a deal after getting to know him. Let us cover each other’s mistakes.

“Why do you ask me to solve what Seon Eun-soo did?”

In the end, it was all Sun Eun-soo’s fault that he got caught up in this unusual incident.

Seon Min-yeol’s hands tightened in response to Jae-chan’s calm voice. But he was angry and embarrassed at the same time. His son was unfamiliar to him. Not only did he have a keen understanding of the situation, but he was also not the youngest trying to be loved.

He knew that Jae-chan had secretly avoided him after being classified as an E-class Esper. But he was basically a kid in his grasp. From Seon Min-yeol’s point of view, his son’s change was sudden.

“I’ll go if you don’t have anything to say.”

Jae-chan saw no point in wasting more time. Seon Jae-chan concluded by summarizing.

Unlike his father, who was at a loss for words, he wasn’t surprised at all. The twenty-seven-year-old him was originally like this in front of his father just before regressing. He just acted the same way as he did back then.

He should have been like this a long time ago

The past overlapped with the present. He had no idea why he had been so cowardly in front of his family when he was young. He was foolishly saddened looking at his father, who was younger than he remembered, but his father did not want his feelings at all.

“We’re not done talking.”

Seon Min-yeol stopped Jae-chan from leaving. His father’s back was to the door, so Jae-chan had no choice but to stop.

“I have nothing to say.”

“Cheeky brat. He’s your brother. Your family. Who do you think you owe it to that you’ve grown up wearing normal clothes so far?”

“I have been taking care of my own business without any help from my family since I was 14. Eun-soo hyung still can’t do that?”

“-Even so, this bastard!”

Seon Min-yeol raised his hand.

Seon Jae-chan’s eyes suddenly turned cold. It was ridiculous that he was trying to slap him in such a lowly manner.

He had never been hit before, but the twenty-seven-year-old him had been hit by his father many times. It hadn’t frightened him the way it had the first time. It only made him sneer.

Should he be beaten, or humiliate him by going on a rampage like he was before he regressed?

It was time to decide. At the time Seon Min-yeol hesitated because his second son’s reaction was strange.

A knock on the door broke the tension between father and son.

After some time. Seon Min-yeol withdrew the hand he had raised. He smoothed his collar with the hand that was about to hit Jae-chan. The movement to open the lock was also calm, like flowing water.

“What is it?”

He stiffened as he opened the door. The corners of his mouth that had been forming a faint smile also stiffened.