DB Vol 2 Part 1

Espers are obsessed with Guides. For Seona, who had never received satisfactory Guiding in her life, it was like a myth. But now she understood that saying painfully well. Ji Won-woo’s gentle smile seemed to radiate light. She felt like she could cut off her arm if he asked for it in exchange for guidance. However, the actual request was so simple she could hardly believe her ears.

“You want me to stop the gangsters?”

“Yes. Gangsters hired by loan sharks. They’ve been forcibly demanding loans from Director Hwang. It seems he’s been harassed quite a bit.”

“Who is Director Hwang?”

“Oh, Director Hwang Sang-cheon.”

Is this someone famous I don’t know? Seona thought maybe it was because she wasn’t interested in worldly affairs.

“Why are the loan sharks forcing him to take out more loans?”

“Director Hwang is diligent. They think he’ll pay everything back, so they’re forcing more loans to extract more interest.”

Ah. It’s a kind of business strategy. Seona nodded, then paused.

“How did such a diligent person end up with loans… No, never mind. It’s not my business to pry into others’ affairs.”

“Hwang Nani said he may have lost money to a friend.”

Who’s that now? Director Hwang Sang-cheon’s daughter? The questions multiplied with each exchange. Seona raised her hand to stop Won-woo, trying to organize the information.

“So if I stop those gangsters, you’ll guide me? Any other conditions?”

“None.”

Seona’s face instantly turned cold.

“Don’t be ridiculous. How can that be all the compensation?”

“Is it not enough?”

“Everything in this world has its proper price.”

“Not everything.”

Won-woo slowly shook his head.

“Some things don’t need compensation. And those can sometimes determine one’s life.”

“What is that?”

“Luck.”

Luck? As Seona furrowed her brow, Won-woo turned his gaze sideways. The sky had darkened, covering the Center building’s rooftop like a blanket. It made the city below, glowing like a swarm of fireflies, seem like a different world from the rooftop where they stood. Won-woo looked down at that world as if he were a god.

“Luck plays a big part in life, but the problem is it’s unfair. So someone who doesn’t try might get more. Conversely, someone who works hard and diligently might see their dreams turn to bubbles. So when luck comes your way, don’t hesitate out of caution. Just shamelessly grasp it.”

Are you saying you’re my luck? She couldn’t bring herself to be sarcastic. If what Ji Won-woo had just shown was truly guidance, he shouldn’t be treated as luck, but worshipped as a god of fortune.

“No, but still, for a stranger to suddenly help like this…”

“You helped me too, Ms. Han Seona.”

“…I just happened to…”

“You were my luck too, Ms. Han Seona.”

He must have been referring to how she helped him, but Won-woo’s eyes wavered as if about to cry. It was a deep emotion Seona couldn’t understand. So she could neither refute nor coldly reject his kindness. Do I resemble someone he knows? As she hesitated to speak, she heard a sincere request.

“Even if you end up receiving my guiding, please keep it hidden for now. I can’t officially be designated as your Guide at the moment. It would be better to reveal it after resolving some troublesome issues.”

Seona asked with a puzzled expression.

“How do you plan to resolve it? Not only will the Center not approve your request, but the Guide One won’t allow an S-rank Guide to guide someone like me who’s only B-rank.”

“I’m not an S-rank guide.”

“Then are you an Ultra S-rank?”

Seona wondered if such a grade even existed as she asked. She had asked quite seriously, but Won-woo took it as a joke and laughed softly. His voice was quite pleasant to hear, so Seona tried not to be enchanted by it.

“I’m D-rank.”

“I don’t really like jokes about ranks.”

“It’s not a joke. I’m different from ordinary Guides. You felt it through my guiding, didn’t you?”

Felt it indeed. This kind of guiding was a first for her.

“If not a Guide, then what exactly are you?”

“Will you grasp this luck?”

Is this really just luck? Without needing compensation or incurring debt? Seona had never once in her life felt that she was lucky. So the word “luck” that Ji Won-woo spoke felt unfamiliar and awkward. She looked at Ji Won-woo for a moment, clenching her jaw, then spoke, “Whether it’s good luck or bad luck, I don’t have a choice. I have to grasp it.”

Won-woo smiled silently. That smile seemed like proof of luck, making her unconsciously hopeful. But this too was unfamiliar. Don’t expect anything. As she habitually suppressed it, she heard the answer to her earlier question.

“My identity is a bit unfamiliar here. I’ll explain it slowly later. Anyway, for you, stabilizing your power is more important than my identity, right?”

“But if you guide me, won’t it become clear that you’re not D-rank?”

“That’s why I need you to keep it hidden well until I leave Guide One.”

Leave Guide One? Seona quickly shook her head.

“The preventive medicine for Guide Disease is only supplied to Guide One members. It’s dangerous to leave. No, it’s a place you can’t leave by your own will. Not before getting kicked out.”

“Then I’ll have to get kicked out. I won’t catch Guide Disease anyway.”

At this point, Seona seriously worried about him again. Did his guide rank suddenly increase and cause something wrong with his head?

“I’m not saying this because I don’t trust you, but Won-woo, you recently went into a monster farm, right? I heard your life was in danger. How about getting counseling at the Center? …Why are you smiling?”

“I just think you’re a good person. Director Hwang said the same thing.”

That person who’s being threatened by gangsters? The way he referred to Director Hwang sounded quite familiar, so she thought they must be close. She had thought he was a loner both at the Center and at home, but it’s fortunate he has someone to rely on.

Seona immediately chided herself for thinking that. Why are you so concerned about someone you’ve only talked to twice? As she hardened her expression, Won-woo, on the contrary, smiled gently at her.

“You don’t need to worry about me getting Guide Disease. So I’ll try my best to get kicked out of Guide One as soon as possible.”

At those words, Seona made a strange expression as if something had occurred to her.

“Are you trying to form a guide contract with a place forbidden by Guide One?”

“No. I think there’s an easier way, so I’m planning to use that.”

Another way? Was there a way other than a guide killing an esper? As Seona tilted her head, a question was heard.

“Come to think of it, I heard there’s one place where Guide One forbids guiding. Where is it?”

“You don’t know that? Ah, you said you had memory problems.”

Seona closed her mouth for a moment, then carefully spoke the name.

“Um, the Gye family. The rulers of the North.”

***

“I told you to go control Ji Won-woo, and you came back after filming four reality shows?”

At his older brother’s irritated voice, Ji Seong-hyeon barely held back the curse that was about to come out. Thinking about how that bastard had stood him up, he felt like cursing and shouting even in front of his brother wouldn’t be enough.

But today was different. Just a little while ago, the business management president he met had been crying to Ji Seong-hyeon.

‘We’re in a position where we have to pull out all our flagship stores in the city because we can’t even pay rent. We’re already in a situation where we can’t open new businesses because loans for new venture costs are blocked, and next week all our bonds are coming due at once. The bank? You know. They haven’t been cooperating with our family since last year. This is all because of the Gye family. The Gye family is pressuring the banks. Haa, please save us, Representative. We’re all going to die at this rate.’

The president often complained, but this time it wasn’t an exaggeration. Even Ji Seong-hyeon, who usually just scoffed, had to take it seriously this time. He had tried to set up dinner meetings all last week with a bank president he knew, but was rejected every time with excuses of being busy.

The reason was really pressure from the Gye family. Since their power didn’t work on Espers and Guides, they were applying all the pressure they could with money. With money they shamelessly earned in such a dirty way. Outwardly they demanded Guides, but behind the scenes they kept picking fights tirelessly like this.

At first, Ji Seong-hyeon was angry, thinking that they may have thought he had nowhere else to borrow money from besides them. But there really was nowhere to pull money from. Only then did he realize the urgency of the situation, and looking around, there was only one place to cling to.

As much as he hated it, he had no choice but to borrow from his brother. So he obediently followed his older brother’s instructions this time. But that bastard Ji Won-woo…

“What do you want me to do about Won-woo running off?”

He suppressed his temper but couldn’t hide his resentment. Ji Dong-hyeon, who had been focused on the monitor, threw a displeased look at his brother at those words.

“Is it the first time that pile of waste has hidden? How many times has that bastard tried to run away even after we’ve been drugging him for years to make him listen? You should have expected him to hide and gone prepared. Don’t you know that going into the Center noisily with a broadcast team is like telling him in advance to run away because you’re coming, you idiot?”

At Ji Dong-hyeon’s cursing, Seong-hyeon got angry again but bowed his head, remembering what he had to ask today. He had to pretend to be remorseful, even if it was a lie.

“I’m sorry. You know I do the filming almost in real-time. With viewer numbers dropping lately, how could I have known trying hard would turn out like this?”

Ji Seong-hyeon kept his head bowed and glanced up at his older brother. Since childhood, when he showed such a submissive attitude, Ji Dong-hyeon would be satisfied and throw him the prey he wanted.

Ji Won-woo was different. He always defied and rebelled against Ji Dong-hyeon’s orders. Ji Seong-hyeon helped Ji Dong-hyeon in making Won-woo fall out of their father’s favor.

It didn’t take much effort. After all, Won-woo was lucky not to be discarded with his useless D-rank ability. But Ji Dong-hyeon seemed to resent suppressing him with drugs rather than his own power, and saw Won-woo as a thorn in his side. Seong-hyeon couldn’t understand why he cared about a useless idiot who couldn’t do anything.

“I’ll meet him again this week. I’ll teach him properly this time. So, brother.”

Ji Seong-hyeon carefully watched Ji Dong-hyeon’s reaction as he made his request.

“Just this once, release some money. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you know what the family situation is like right now?”

“I know. Father’s lobbying everywhere to get guide voting rights, so the family’s money has dried up. How desperate do you think I am to bring this up? If it’s difficult for you, just make one phone call to the central bank president.”

He expected an easy agreement after lowering himself this much, but the answer he heard was firm.

“No.”

“Ah, why?!”

“Don’t act like a child, you brat. You think I don’t want to help?”

Even Ji Seong-hyeon, who was known as the dumb one in the family, immediately understood his brother’s meaning.

“Fuck, has the Gye family blocked our family’s money too? Haa, those damn Gye bastards.”

Ji Seong-hyeon cursed while running his hands through his hair.

“How are those bastards still alive without Guides? Are they cockroaches? This is driving me crazy, fuck. Hyung, come on, tell Father to send them a Guide. They’re going crazy because they don’t have Guides.”

“Say something that makes sense. There’s already an uncrossable river between us and the Gye family. Once Father gets the voting rights, we can crush them more decisively, so so endure it.”

“I can’t endure it, that’s why I’m saying this!”

Ji Seong-hyeon jumped up from his seat, went in front of his brother, and pleaded almost begging.

“Hyung, if money’s not possible, just let me use one Alpha seed. Just one is enough. With just one, all my problems will be solved…”

“Stop talking nonsense, you immature brat.”

When Ji Dong-hyeon spoke sternly with a serious face, Ji Seong-hyeon finally closed his mouth. When his brother talked like this without cursing, he couldn’t push any further. But what am I supposed to do? Reading his inner thoughts, irritation spread in Ji Dong-hyeon’s eyes.

“Don’t you know how much Father cherishes the Alpha seeds?”

He knows. Their father is the kind of person who would save one more Alpha seed even if his child dies. Ji Seong-hyeon ran his hands through his hair again as if about to tear it out.

“But Father has a lot of Alpha seeds, right? He’s got hundreds stacked up in his safe, so if he’d just let me use one…”

Ji Seong-hyeon, who had been pleading, stopped abruptly upon seeing his brother’s expression. Ji Dong-hyeon was expressionless, but Ji Seong-hyeon, who had observed him for a long time, could tell immediately. He was perplexed right now. Why?

“Don’t tell me Father doesn’t have any Alpha seeds left?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then they’re almost gone?”

“Shut up.”

Seeing Ji Dong-hyeon speak so fiercely, Ji Seong-hyeon’s eyes widened as if they would tear.

“Is it true? Are they really gone? Don’t tell me Father is trying so hard to get voting rights because he has no Alpha seeds left and wants to seize power…”

“Fuck, I told you to shut up, why do you keep babbling!”

Flinch. Ji Seong-hyeon finally lowered his eyes and closed his mouth, but he couldn’t quell his pounding heart.

“Talk to Director Shin on your way out. He’ll help with the urgent matters.”

His brother finally said what he wanted to hear, but it didn’t properly register in Ji Seong-hyeon’s ears. Father has no more Alpha seeds? Then what will happen to their Ji family now?