SOG Ch 187

On the day before his return, Seon Jae-chan went to Guide Team 2 to pack his things and felt the strange gazes he had expected. They were looks of sympathy. No wonder—he had become the tragic protagonist of a drama, thanks to Seon Min-yeol and Seon Eun-soo.

Jae-chan recalled the stories Woo-jin had told him yesterday.

First, Seon Eun-soo.

Seon Eun-soo, who had fallen into the river after being pushed by the wind in the nuclear power plant basement, had unfortunately fallen under the body of a submarine and nearly drowned. Though he was somehow rescued, he had swallowed a lot of water and still hadn’t regained consciousness. He was already restrained with ability-suppressing cuffs, and even if he woke up, only a lifetime in prison awaited him like the other terrorists. Given his personality, it might be better that he hadn’t regained consciousness.

And as for his father…

Absurdly, it seemed he had been experimented on by the technician. Jae-chan heard that the media referred to it as “Esper murder experiments” in relation to the serial killings in District 5, but he knew the true nature of the experiment. It was the windless zone experiment. The Technician had thoroughly beta-tested whether energy nullification worked even on an A-class Esper once called a hero, before carrying out the terror attack.

However, because the evidence that Seon Min-yeol, along with Seon Eun-soo, had aided the terrorist group was so clear from the beginning, there was little sympathetic public opinion. Most people thought it served him right for being betrayed.

“Did you come alone?”

Team Leader Hong Ye-deok, who was on office duty, approached and asked. She pointed to the desk with her characteristic warm smile, no different from usual.

“How are you going to take all this stuff?”

“I brought a car downstairs.”

Woo-jin had offered to help, but Jae-chan had insisted on carrying the luggage alone. In the end, Woo-jin agreed to wait in the parking lot, and Jae-chan came up to the Team 2 office alone.

Jae-chan packed his personal items from the office into the paper box he had brought. He deflected his colleagues’ sympathy and concern appropriately. He didn’t forget to bow his head to Team Leader Hong Ye-deok, saying “Thank you for everything.” When he placed the rice cakes he had brought as a farewell gift on the central table of the team office, the people of Guide Team 2 fussed, saying “Oh my, you didn’t have to bring anything!”

Still, despite Jae-chan being cast as an object of pity and moving to another team, some people casually closed the distance and approached him.

“Sunbae!”

It was Jae-chan’s former juniors, who had all passed and now crowded Team 2 as new Guides, no longer apprentices.

“We’ll carry your luggage to the parking lot!”

The guys who had belatedly come to the front of the office shouted enthusiastically. After enduring the clamor of the four for a moment, Jae-chan spoke indifferently as he walked towards the elevator.

“I didn’t break my arms or legs. Go back to work.”

“Oh… Y-Yes!”

When Jae-chan got serious, the apprentices who had studied his expressions for a year quickly backed off.

But there was one person who didn’t know when to back down – Nam Hae-sol. Han Myeong-gyu hesitated when he noticed this, but soon left, led by Seong Se-in.

Jae-chan raised an eyebrow as he pressed the elevator button. He thought they were going to exclude Nam Hae-sol again after not doing so for a while.

“You go too.”

Jae-chan said, avoiding Nam Hae-sol’s gaze by pretending to adjust the box. Woo-jin was waiting in the parking lot. He knew full well how that guy had misunderstood his relationship with Nam Hae-sol. Even if his arms and legs were broken, there was no need to receive help from those tiny hands, nor to go down to the first floor together and make Woo-jin uncomfortable.

“Go on. Go eat some rice cakes.”

As he said this, Jae-chan noticed that Nam Hae-sol’s gaze, standing to his left, was fixed on the fourth finger of his left hand. Where the ring Woo-jin had given him was placed.

“I like you.”

Jae-chan’s shoulder jerked at the small voice that suddenly struck his ears.

He turned to look at Nam Hae-sol with his eyes wide open under his short bangs.

At first, he thought she was confessing that she liked Go Woo-jin. That somehow she knew he and Woo-jin were dating, and was making a declaration of war(?) to him.

Seon Jae-chan’s lips were trembling for a moment. The unknowing Nam Hae-sol confessed again with a shaky voice.

“I like you, sunbae.”

Ding, the sound of the elevator arriving echoed in the silence.

“Aren’t you getting on?” The sound of people already inside asking rang out, and Jae-chan barely managed to nod and step back. As the doors slid shut, he swallowed dryly.

“You… why do you like me?”

Jae-chan, barely regaining his senses, asked while hugging the box tightly like a dental practice dummy.

“Didn’t you like Woo-jin? So you were, you were his fan club…”

“No, no…! That was… in the past.”

Flustered, Nam Hae-sol vigorously denied it but then stopped. Realizing the futility of explaining now, she let out a sigh and smiled faintly. Looking into the eyes of her senior, who looked even more boyish with his hair cut short, she whispered.

“You really only see what you want to see, don’t you, Sunbae?”

Jae-chan froze, even the twitch in his face muscles coming to a halt.

‘Sunbae, you only see what you want to see.’

It was something he had heard in the past as well. As Nam Hae-sol smiled faintly, her current expression overlapped with the image of Nam Hae-sol from before his regression. Back then, she had worn her long hair down, her bitter smile lingering in his memory.

Whatever she had meant by those words before, he would never know. But the meaning of her words now was unmistakable—she liked him, not Go Woo-jin.

“……”

“I know you’ll reject me. I know you’re dating someone.”

Nam Hae-sol’s eyes blinked a bit faster. She smiled, looking somewhat relieved and unburdened, then spoke again.

“I liked you, Sunbae.”

She even confessed so coolly.

While inwardly admiring her, Jae-chan didn’t know how to react. He still couldn’t believe it, as if it might be a hidden camera prank, and he didn’t know how to respond from a position where he couldn’t reciprocate her feelings.

“I can’t accept your feelings. . And you shouldn’t confess to someone who’s already in a relationship.”

He could only state the facts.

Adding anything else felt like it would give false hope or be deceitful, so Jae-chan was at a loss for words again.

“You’re really… sharp as a knife, Sunbae. How can you make even a rejection so charming?”

However, he couldn’t help but respond as a senior to Nam Hae-sol’s attempt to somehow ease the awkward atmosphere.

“You must really get blind to someone’s flaws when you like them. Don’t do that.”

“…Yes.”

“Go on, now. You’ll miss out on all the rice cakes.”

“…Yes, Sunbae.”

Nam Hae-sol stumbled as she stepped backwards. Still, with her accumulated experience, she quickly regained her balance without falling like she used to. Seeing his junior who could be said to have grown, Jae-chan pressed the elevator button with a wry smile.

“Goodbye,” Nam Hae-sol bowed awkwardly. “See you later,” Jae-chan returned the greeting as he stepped into the reopened elevator, heading towards Woo-jin who would be waiting for him.

*

That day, on the way back to the officetel, Jae-chan briefly stopped by the Guide dormitory to pick up his laptop. After handling a major incident, he wanted to review the project files, even if it was a bit late.

Since he had confessed about the regression and detailed the project, Jae-chan willingly showed the project files to the curious Woo-jin.

[SUCCESS PROJECT]

[Personal Incidents]

1. Kim Geun-won’s death (✓)

2. Parents’ divorce (✓)

3. Aunt’s Esper disease (✓)

4. Go Woo-jin’s loss of vision in one eye (✓)

[Official Incidents]

1. Discovery of mass planted explosives at President Gyeong Jeon-seok’s 30th inauguration anniversary ceremony (✓)

2. Universal Park hostage situation (✓)

3. Kidnapping of the President’s nephew Han Roy (✓)

4. Outbreak of mass mental illness among Guides during pursuit of drug trafficking organization (✓) → Monitor JS and HI circumstances afterwards

5. District 5 nuclear power plant protest and explosion (✓) → Modified to gun terror incident

6. Appearance of rebel group ‘Black Swan’ 4 years later (✓) → Successfully eliminated predecessor organization and key executives

Though he had already believed Jae-chan’s unrealistic claims, Woo-jin felt the reality of Jae-chan’s regression even more deeply as he carefully examined the record of Jae-chan’s efforts. However, noticing that Jae-chan had listed Han Tae-hoon as a project sponsor and had detailed the events surrounding Woo-jin’s pre-regression loss of vision with particular care, Woo-jin’s smile grew unsettlingly cold. He lunged playfully at Jae-chan, making him flinch.

“Tell me,” Woo-jin asked, his eyes crinkling slightly, as he tormented Jae-chan while their naked bodies were tangled on the bed for a long time.

“Who’s the most precious person?”

“……”

Pn after their entangled bout on the bed, Jae-chan found the smile ridiculously seductive. Yet, he couldn’t understand why Woo-jin kept asking such childish questions while they were engaged in something so thoroughly adult.

“Yo—”

The word slipped out automatically, and Jae-chan widened his eyes in panic.

“—e. I meant to say me!’ Ugh, you’ve got me so distracted… You must have misheard me! Wait—augh, hold on—”

And so his excuses were swallowed into Woo-jin’s mouth.

For the next three hours, Jae-chan found himself moved across the bed and even throughout the room, without a single moment to catch his breath. By the end of it, utterly exhausted, Jae-chan lay sprawled out, muttering over and over—between ragged breaths—that himself was indeed the most important person to him.

Checking the clock hands pointing to 10 PM, Jae-chan was newly grateful that tomorrow was a workday. If not, it was clear he would have suffered more at Woo-jin’s hands. Since Woo-jin had drained all his energy, he should at least wash him… Jae-chan gritted his teeth before succumbing to the weight of his eyelids and falling into a deep sleep.