#004

“The person who lived here for five years is the rightful owner. Who else would it be?”

“What on earth…”

Director Kim Hye-jeong stared at the bloodied Ha-gyeom with a look of disdain. She looked him up and down, struggling to keep her composure.

“I heard about it. The wave was quite large, and you managed to hold out until the hunt was over. Well done. Honestly, given your previous training records, I didn’t expect you to make it that far.”

“Director, are you trying to change the subject?”

“I’m not changing the subject…”

Looking exasperated, Kim Hye-jeong massaged her temples and glanced around. Everyone knew about the relationship between Baek Seung-woo and Shin Ha-gyeom, so the gathered onlookers and workers all had curious eyes.

“Anyway, happy birthday.”

“You knew it was my birthday? Then you must also know what today signifies.”

“Of course I know. That’s why I’m here.”

Her expression suddenly shifted to cold indifference, causing everyone around them to exchange nervous glances.

“After five years of being missing, it’s standard to declare someone dead. The center has to follow regulations, and no one is an exception.”

“Dead? No one saw hyung die, and there’s no recorded evidence. How can you declare him dead without proof? Besides, it doesn’t make sense for an S-class esper to die so easily.”

Ha-gyeom countered fiercely, though he couldn’t hide the tears welling up in his eyes. Some looked at him with pity, others with disdain.

“Searching and waiting for five years is more than enough. And the fact that you’ve been using a team leader-level esper’s room is a privilege. People turned a blind eye because they understood your situation, not because they were fools.”

“A privilege? It’s an empty room anyway.”

“Do you know how many ability users we rescue each time we go on a mission? We always need more rooms, at least one or two for each mission. You need to think about the future now that you’re grown up. How long will you live under Baek Seung-woo’s shadow?”

Kim Hye-jeong’s sharp words pierced through Ha-gyeom, who was still seething with anger. She wasn’t wrong, and that made it hurt even more.

He knew it wasn’t right to use Baek Seung-woo as a crutch, but even after five years, he couldn’t accept his brother’s death.

“Do you think I want to be like this…”

Seeing Ha-gyeom finally break down in tears, Kim Hye-jeong sighed lightly. She instinctively looked around. The gathered ability users, each with their own painful stories, now looked at Ha-gyeom with sympathy.

Pressing her temples, Kim Hye-jeong spoke.

“I’ll give you one more week. Use this time to clear out the room and deal with your festering emotions.”

“Director…”

“You’re not that nine-year-old anymore; you’re twenty-one. You officially finished training three days ago.”

Kim Hye-jeong stepped closer to the pleading Ha-gyeom. She knew better than anyone how eagerly he had been waiting to go on missions. She had been harsh, and now it was time for a bit of kindness.

“You have an official mission coming up… Stop acting like a child.”

---

‘It’s light….’

The boy opened his eyes. It was the first sunlight he had seen in a month. Feeling his body heavy as if he had been pulled out of a deep bog, he looked around and everything rattled.

It was inside a cramped vehicle, but there was no unpleasant smell of a moldy dirt floor. Only the faint, warm smell of sweat emanated from the man sitting next to him.

Barely nine years old. His small and dirty hands were tightly held by the stranger.

While the warmth and rough texture of the man’s palm stood out clearly, a ray of sunlight, like a single beam, suddenly poured down over his head.

‘An ability user?’

When the woman with the high-pitched voice asked, the man nodded. The boy could faintly tell that the place where he was being carried by the man was the outside world.

Turning his heavy head, he saw a long line of vehicles. It seemed a bit strange to see children of various ages pouring out of them.

‘I’ll take him since he’s not letting go of my hand.’

Was that so? Perhaps it wasn’t the man holding his hand but he himself holding onto the man’s hand.

However, the boy couldn’t think deeply about anything. He was too exhausted and too sad to move. He placed his feet on the ground, feeling barely alive. If the man hadn’t guided him, he wouldn’t have taken a single step.

‘Parents?’

‘At the time of discovery, there were three family members including his brother…’

The boy, who had arrived at an entirely white room, sat at a table like someone being interrogated. However, it was the man who answered the questions, not him. The man, with a complicated expression, added to the woman standing by the door, who looked steadfast.

‘They all passed away.’

Even though the man lowered his voice out of consideration, the boy’s ears could not escape the tragedy. Covering both ears as if suffering from a hallucination, the man immediately approached and placed his hand over the boy’s small hands.

Thanks to that warm, large hand, the boy was instantly freed from his agony. From then on, there was only a buzzing noise. The boy began to observe himself, the woman, and the man in the mirror beyond the table with just his eyes.

The words he could read from their lip movements were limited. But it was not frightening because it was quiet.

‘Name?’

‘Shin Ha-gyeom.’

Compared to the woman and the man, Ha-gyeom thought he looked incredibly shabby. His hair, cut haphazardly with scissors, was sticking out and scruffy, his face was covered in dust and dirt. The clothes he wore hadn’t been washed for months, worn and frayed in places.

Ha-gyeom particularly hated his own thin, bony neck and arms.

‘At the time of rescue… condition… cause of death…’

The woman in horn-rimmed glasses and a clean suit asked the man various questions. The way she rubbed her chin with a serious expression made her look intelligent and neat.

The man.

The man…

‘Baek Seung-woo, what do you think…’

Chewing over the name he overheard during a brief moment when their hands separated, Ha-gyeom stared intently at the man.

A leather belt crossed over a tight black turtleneck. There were a gun and a knife tucked in it, and a large gun could be seen behind him. The outfit that revealed his body made it easy to see that he was very tall and had an exceptionally sturdy build.

‘First mission… achievement… probably rewarded… if… I’m responsible…’

Ha-gyeom knew what an adult man usually looked like. Each face was different, but the aura they exuded was similar.

However, he had never seen anyone like the man standing in front of him. Unlike the men who had beaten him, this man wasn’t rough.

His eyes, still showing traces of youth, held a gentle look. His skin, neither too pale nor too dark, looked healthy without a single scratch, and his body had a smooth, sculpted shape.

His fingers were long and beautiful despite his strength. It was clear since those fingers were pressing down on his hand. Black hair fell and covered his temples. The two-thirds visible ear was smooth, and the vein running from his jaw to his neck was thick.

‘Ah…!’

Ha-gyeom finally realized that the sense of unfamiliarity he felt from the man was due to his kind eyes, which were quite different from his strong appearance.

Having been confined in a dirty, musty warehouse for months, Ha-gyeom had cowered in a corner, trembling in fear that he might be taken to an even more terrible place when someone broke in.

However, the group that had quietly entered the warehouse without making any noise neither beat him abruptly like the men who had kidnapped him nor dragged him to a frightening place.

Ha-gyeom could never forget the eyes of the man who had saved him from that place filled with darkness and confusion. His eyes were deep black, so dark that their depth was unfathomable, yet their surface was so clear and beautiful that they seemed to shine even in the dark.

As the conversation wrapped up, the man removed his hand. The fan on the ceiling of the enclosed room creaked as it turned.

‘Wash him and let him sleep for a while. He looks like he might collapse.’

The woman who had ordered the man soon left the room. The boy was left alone with the man in the enclosed space. The man immediately bent his knees to meet the boy’s eye level.

‘You said your name was Ha-gyeom, right? Shin Ha-gyeom.’

A kind voice.

‘Are you hurt anywhere? I’ll help you wash up, change into new clothes, and rest. So please tell me if you are in pain anywhere.’

The man asked as he examined Ha-gyeom’s forearms and calves exposed beneath his clothes. Ha-gyeom couldn’t tell where he was particularly hurt because his whole body was in pain. As he stared blankly, the man, who had been looking at him gently, stood up.

‘Is it okay if I carry you? Tell me if you feel uncomfortable at any time.’

The man carefully picked Ha-gyeom up and left the room. Ha-gyeom felt so comfortable that he thought he might fall asleep just like that.

‘Baek Seung-woo, Esper. Need any help? We can handle this…’

‘It’s because I still have energy to spare, so don’t worry about it.’

‘You’ve been out for fifteen days, and still?’

The man repeatedly declined the help offered by others. Despite being dirty with sweat and dust himself, his priority was to wash Ha-gyeom and change him into patient clothes.

Ha-gyeom sat on a chair in the shower room, watching the man. He soon removed the belt that had been tightly wrapped around his upper body. It seemed he realized belatedly that the skin was chafed when he carried Ha-gyeom.

‘My name is… Baek Seung-woo. I’m nineteen years old.’

Baek Seung-woo, who finally introduced himself briefly, responded with a faint smile every time he met Ha-gyeom’s sad, thoughtful, and curious eyes.

Ha-gyeom instinctively knew that he was his lifeline. So, when he was held by him again, he struggled not to let go. When Baek Seung-woo tried to put him down in a room full of other children, Ha-gyeom eventually burst into tears.