SOG Ch 190

Jae-chan felt he needed to explain his sudden actions, so he began. From the moment he first discovered the Black Swan emblem a few hours ago, he had been itching to share his suspicions with Woo-jin. Jae-chan confessed without hesitation.

“I think Gyeong Hye-in might have been Angel. Not a victim, but Angel who actively led the group alongside the Technician.”

Gyeong Hye-in’s skillful handling of the President’s secret affairs like bombs and drugs, the Black Swan emblem found in her house, Kim Geun-won becoming her lover unlike in the past, her antipathy towards the President – these seemingly contradictory yet intersecting pieces of information once again supported the extreme conjecture that had previously crossed his mind.

Could she possibly be Angel?

Clearly, the future intelligence agency recognized Angel not as a simple Guide or victim, but as an active leader. Besides her remarkable guiding ability, she was someone who thoroughly understood and oversaw the affairs of the Center and the military. They could have spread false rumors about a non-existent Technician, but why would someone who already had plenty of spare lives make such an attempt? To the point of dispersing their own power.

Also, if Gyeong Hye-in was indeed Angel, it would explain the sense of dissonance he felt when he saw the Technician treating Guides like disposables during the District 5 incident.

Black Swan was the only terrorist group that treated Guides humanely. What if that policy was semi-forcibly created because of Gyeong Hye-in?

“…So what you’re saying is.”

Woo-jin, who had been listening attentively to Jae-chan’s explanation, furrowed his brow and tried to summarize the situation.

“Gyeong Hye-in isn’t Angel now… but if things go wrong, she might become a terrorist like Angel again, so we need to help her before that happens. Something like that?”

“That’s right.”

Jae-chan affirmed. However, he couldn’t directly pass on information about the President to Gyeong Hye-in. It was difficult to fully trust her, given that she might have been Angel. Instead, he planned to pass the information to the Freedom Alliance.

“It would be good if Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang could lend support to Gyeong Hye-in.”

Team Leader Choi Si-eun of the Freedom Alliance was the secret aide to opposition Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang. From the beginning, Seon Jae-chan had been providing designated sponsorship knowing that Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang was behind the Freedom Alliance.

Assemblywoman Kwon, a prominent opposition member, was a strict principled person who disliked the President. The President, while viewing Assemblywoman Kwon with distaste, couldn’t easily get rid of her. This was because her husband, who was in an international marriage, was the brother of the American Union’s Secretary of Defense and a renowned Esper during his active duty. Moreover, Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang, along with Han Tae-hoon, had stood against Black Swan until the end and worked to stabilize the social system, unlike the President who had been helpless against Black Swan.

Jae-chan hoped that Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang would keep President Gyeong Jeon-seok in check and become a guardrail for Gyeong Hye-in. To prevent Gyeong Hye-in from resorting to extreme measures like terrorism when pushed to the brink.

“I hope the Freedom Alliance can be a safety pin.”

Woo-jin, who had been listening, responded to Jae-chan’s words.

“There’s already someone like that in her life, isn’t there?”

“…Ah, it seems so.”

Jae-chan agreed.

Gyeong Hye-in was trying to become a good person.

And the driving force behind that was Kim Geun-won, who hadn’t existed in the world before the regression.

“…”

Seon Jae-chan felt a bit strange. The meddlesome person he once thought was largely insignificant and a nuisance was now playing a crucial role.

But then he realized that this was true for everyone’s existence. Someone who might be just a passerby to one person could be incredibly precious to another. The same was true for Seon Jae-chan himself. Even he, who had struggled with not accepting his insignificant self, had become precious to someone.

Suddenly, Jae-chan reached out and took Woo-jin’s hand.

Holding the firm knuckles, he looked at the beautiful eyes he had protected with a newly emotional feeling. Perhaps sensing Jae-chan’s mood, Woo-jin suddenly became emotional too and leaned in for a kiss. He kissed Jae-chan’s eyes, which no longer needed an eye patch, and the tiny scar left below his eyebrow.

Receiving the ticklish kiss, Seon Jae-chan wrinkled his nose bridge. Was spring already in full bloom? His skin tingled as if cherry blossoms were brushing against it wherever Woo-jin touched him.

“Let’s go see the cherry blossoms.”

Jae-chan blurted out impulsively. Woo-jin’s eyes blinked a couple of times.

“…Right now?”

“Right Now.”

Jae-chan returned the tablet to the back seat and adjusted the rearview mirror and driver’s seat as he spoke. Woo-jin, swallowing the words ‘Aren’t we going home?’, asked:

“It’s night, though?”

“Even better.”

Jae-chan joked about doing various things when others weren’t watching.

“Choose where we should go. Capitol? Lake Park?”

Woo-jin laughed out loud at Jae-chan’s excited response suggesting cherry blossom hotspots in District 1. He showered Jae-chan’s endlessly chattering lips, flushed cheeks, and soft earlobes with kisses. Jae-chan, who had been returning the kisses, claimed there was no time for this. He said he really wanted to see the cherry blossoms right now, and if they wanted to kiss, they should do it there. So Woo-jin chose Lake Park, which was closer.

About 10 minutes later, the two were walking under dozens of large cherry trees where buds were just beginning to bloom. Even though they weren’t fully bloomed yet, the spring flowers cast over the night path were incredibly beautiful. Probably because they were with someone they loved. Jae-chan looked up at Woo-jin with warm eyes as they walked hand in hand, and suddenly remembered something.

“I’m going to re-register at the Center as a multi-Guide.”

Thinking about it, there was no reason to hide this ability anymore. Before the regression, he had lived as an unregistered multi-guide because his father opposed it and Han Tae-hoon wanted to keep it confidential, but now all those constraints were gone. Besides, it was technically illegal to hide his ability.

Woo-jin, smoothing his hair tousled by the night breeze, nodded. Although he disliked sharing Jae-chan’s secret with others, his desire to support whatever Jae-chan did was greater. Just as Jae-chan supported whatever he did.

As they were pleasantly walking along the lakeside path divided by wooden fences, Jae-chan suddenly frowned. Woo-jin asked “What?” ready to listen.

“A thought just occurred to me.”

Jae-chan said seriously.

“What if Assemblywoman Kwon A-ryang isn’t ready to confront the President yet?”

If Assemblywoman Kwon couldn’t support Gyeong Hye-in, they would need to consider other options. No matter how he thought about it, Kim Geun-won alone seemed like an insufficient safety pin.

“We can keep thinking about it together from now on.”

Woo-jin promptly suggested an answer.

Jae-chan soon smiled and agreed, saying “That’s right.” Woo-jin was correct. There was no need to reach a conclusion right away; they could gradually think through the answers. By moving forward like that, he would surely reach a better place somewhere. Not alone, but ‘together’ with Woo-jin.

Jae-chan suddenly realized that what he thought was the conclusion of his project wasn’t truly the end. It might sound a bit childish, but Seon Jae-chan now wanted to protect the world. For the sake of his precious self, and Woo-jin who was just as precious.

Until the not-yet-bloomed flowers fully bloom, scatter, shed their leaves to become bare branches, and then form buds again. So that he could leisurely walk under the flowering trees with Woo-jin anytime.

Unable to contain his sudden surge of enthusiasm, Seon Jae-chan grasped Woo-jin’s hand firmly. At this abrupt action of gently pulling that hand and starting to run, Woo-jin soon laughed softly and began running along.

Before they knew it, a noticeably warmer spring breeze was blowing. Above the heads of the two running people, the branches laden with flower buds waved gently as if cheering them on.

The project was still ongoing.

DISCUSSION: The Road Not Taken

At the age of fourteen, Go Woo-jin was struggling to accept the labels suddenly defining his life: an S-rank Esper, the heir to Go Young-chang, chairman of a multinational pharmaceutical and medical device company. Like a buoy adrift at sea, he wandered aimlessly until one day.

Go Woo-jin met ‘that guy’.

“As expected, the son of the elite Esper Seon Min-yeol is different.”

A boy of the same age with an indifferent gaze, yet looking at his own father with devoted eyes. A Guide who instantly calmed Woo-jin’s unstable wavelength.

The wavelength of the guy who first touched the precarious world, which was like an empty shell or a cocoon-less pupa, was as soft as down feathers. That was Woo-jin’s first impression of Seon Jae-chan.

*

“What is it? You got a problem?”

Seon Jae-chan with his sharp jaw raised defiantly, asked as their eyes met.

An A-class Guide born unexpectedly into an Esper noble family, son of a Union Hero. There was one more modifier that followed the fourteen-year-old Seon Jae-chan. It was ‘the young master who is picky about his friends’.

After the day he first met Seon Jae-chan, Go Woo-jin, who often visited the Guide Bureau to receive guiding from him, realized this saying all too well. Because he himself was among the people Jae-chan was ‘picky’ about.

“I asked if you have a problem.”

Woo-jin was dumbfounded by the other’s confident attitude. Seon Jae-chan had no clue what thoughts were spilling over to Woo-jin during their guiding sessions, yet he acted with unshakable confidence.

It was certain that Seon Jae-chan disliked Go Woo-jin. Jae-chan was the type whose thoughts were occasionally transferred during guiding, and the notions that came across each time were as follows:

‘Just because he’s an Esper, he thinks he’s all that.’

‘I want to be an Esper too.’

‘Ah, I hate myself for thinking like this.’

‘I hate this bastard even more for making me think like this.’

‘Damn, he’s so tall. And his face is so pretty…’

These were the main thoughts. And the notion that he most frequently recalled was-

‘I really hate guiding.’

-this one.

Therefore, whenever Woo-jin encountered Jae-chan’s aversion, he thought that he was definitely one of the people being ‘filtered out’ by him.

However, some people who didn’t understand the situation seemed to see it differently.

“Your Guide is getting into a fistfight over there… You should probably stop him.”

Perhaps their relationship appeared close from the outside. On occasion, those who couldn’t handle Jae-chan themselves would discreetly turn to Woo-jin for help.