SOG Ch 51

Indeed, could this young fox inquire about the most vulnerable aspect of the mighty beast known as Gong Woo-jin?

As Han Tae-hoon descended to the lobby, lost in thought about the recent events, he didn’t realize that there were eyes observing him. From one corner of the cafeteria, Go Woo-jin, who he had instructed Jae-chan to find out his weakness, was discreetly watching him.

Woo-jin used his ability to further dampened his presence. Last fall, he had gained hints from the arrangement of energy that Seon Jae-chan had concealed on Mentosa Island and applied them. His sharp gaze quietly traced along the hem of Han Tae-hoon’s long coat. Even after Han Tae-hoon had left the lecture hall alone, Woo-jin had remained seated and had yet to stand up.

He wanted to check something, so he stayed here.

Go Woo-jin unconsciously opened his half-folded wallet in moments of complex contemplation, as he often does. He pulled out a slightly worn but well-kept photograph with frayed edges.

“…”

His thick Adam’s apple slowly moved as he swallowed. Facing the figure and the gaze in the photograph, temporary tranquility seemed to settle in as if the tangled threads in his mind were loosening.

Go Woo-jin gazed silently into the noble pupils of the person in the photograph, a gaze he could never show to anyone else.

Everyone had vulnerabilities, after all.

After gently returning the photograph to its place, Woo-jin turned his attention to the urban landscape flowing beyond the tall windows.

[Universal Park Expansion Opening]

Bright yellow outdoor advertisements flashed with exaggerated designs above the stark skyscrapers in the distance.

An amusement park. It felt just as out of place as the person in the photograph, and Go Woo-jin momentarily got lost in pointless thoughts before standing up.

His departing steps were resolute.

He had no desire to confirm whether Seon Jae-chan was coming down or not.

*

Seon Jae-chan was jogging along the pathway inside the central management center of the Esper Guide headquarters.

A soft breath escaped his lips, which were covered by a lightweight athletic padding jacket. It was January, the beginning of the new year, and the heart of winter.

Since his regression, just like when he was twenty-seven, he had been maintaining his morning exercise routine without fail. After an hour-long jog, Jae-chan returned to the guide’s dorm, having climbed the hillside path that still hadn’t fully emerged into the daylight. His roommate was still asleep.

Quietly expressing his dissatisfaction, Jae-chan turned on his laptop.

He disabled the security program, and with a soft chime, the monitor lit up, revealing a file titled [SUCCESS PROJECT].

[personal incident]

1. Personal Incidents (✓)

2. Parent’s Divorce (Ongoing?)

3. Aunt’s Esper Disorder

4. Gong Woo-jin’s Partial Vision Loss

[Official Incident]

1. Discovery of Explosive Devices at the Grand President’s 30th Anniversary Commemoration (✓) 

2. Universal Park Hostage Situation

3. President’s Nephew Han Ro-i Kidnapping Incident

4. Guide Onset of Mental Disorders During Pursuit of Drug Distribution Syndicate

5. Protest and Explosion at the Area 5 Nuclear Power Plant

6. Appearance of the Rebellion Group ‘Black Swan’ 4 Years Later

Events that have already occurred or have changed were marked with a ‘✓’. Jae-chan once again looked at the project from the beginning to the end.

It has already been half a year since he regressed. Unlike in the past, there were a few new facts he had discovered, but they hadn’t provided any meaningful leads on chasing down the Black Swan.

[2. Parent’s Divorce (Ongoing?)]

Seon Jae-chan focused on his parents’ divorce entry which was too ambiguous to be marked with a ‘✓‘. The reason for the “Ongoing?” note was because of what Seon Eun-soo said before he was beaten to a pulp by Go Woo-jin.

‘Our parents are getting a divorce.’

‘Our parents are divorcing… What… What should I do?’

Originally, their divorce wasn’t supposed to happen until next year. But seeing Sun Eun-soo’s reaction, it seemed he had noticed some signs early on. Well, dealing with extended family matters wouldn’t have been straightforward, so it probably took quite some time to reach an agreed-upon divorce.

“…”

Only the black cursor blinked on the white screen.

In the white screen, only a blinking black cursor was visible.

Whether it was due to the divorce proceedings beneath the surface or for some other reason, Seon Eun-soo and his father were quieter than expected. No matter how much Chairman Go Young-chang’s attention had been on Go Woo-jin, he’d expected him to make a fuss over this…

‘There’s no need to stir up a quiet beehive.’

Jae-chan snapped out of his thoughts. For now, he decided to focus on other important matters. He tapped away at the keyboard, adding more letters.

– The connection between Go Woo-jin and Black Swan???

– Need a backing, Han Tae-hoon?

For now, he tentatively concluded that Gong Woo-jin and Black Swan were separate entities. Woo-jin’s past actions and current pursuits were different from Black Swan’s activities. Woo-jin had even voluntarily given up one of his eyes because of the black swan.

However, it was certain that there was a force secretly helping Woo-jin. It was impossible for even an S-class Esper to produce so many bombs on its own. There was a need to find out who was behind Go Woo-jin.

And before that, it was important for Jae-chan to find his own backing.

‘But be warned. After today, you will not attach yourself to me again. Publicly or privately.’

Narrowing his eyes, Seon Jae-chan recalled Han Tae-hun’s request.

‘If you manage to find out Esper Go Woo-jin’s weakness, then I’ll reconsider at that time.’

Woo-jin’s weakness…

The first thing that came to mind was Guide Nam Hae-sol. However, the two of them were not even in a relationship yet, and even if they were, it would be impossible to leak such information to Team Leader Han Tae-hoon.

Jae-chan’s gaze lifted. Slowly, he scrolled the mouse wheel to reach the top of the document file.

[New project goal: To Contribute To The People Precious To Him.]

Woo-jin was still one of the few precious people to Jae-chan.

Suddenly, he remembered the memory from a few weeks ago, during the year-end seminar where he last saw G Woo-jin. It was the same day he had met Han Tae-hoon.

‘Urgent guiding.’

Woo-jin said that after suddenly pulling him out of Seon Eun-soo’s grasp. And then they kissed… Woo-jin also saw him and Team leader Han Tae-hoon go up to the hotel room together.

‘Ah. Why am I having these thoughts?’

Jae-chan consciously shook his head to snap out of his deepening thoughts. He cut off the branching speculations.

He let out a light sigh and decided to focus on something else to confirm.

Although he hadn’t written it down in the project, there were additional things he needed to check. The winter morning sky was slowly brightening. Jae-chan gazed out the faintly cloudy window and immediately made a phone call.

*

The Esper-Guide Bureau was pretty busy at the beginning of the year.

Firstly, all the Esper-Guides in the center had to undergo re-evaluation of their rankings and wavelength tests for the new year. This was to build a database for managing Esper-Guide profiles and for use in the Guide app.

Personnel transfers were also occurring in large numbers. While personnel transfers were usually done gradually and in small numbers, they were the most difficult task. This was due to the fact that newcomers were required to join teams.

They weren’t official team members; they were in the role of assisting the team and learning the role of Esper and Guide from a probationary position. In terms of a regular workplace, it was like having “intern employees.”

The Guide Bureau building was bustling with activity with the arrival of the apprentice Guides. On his way to work, Seon Jae-chan furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered the morning’s call.

– Guide Nam Hae-sol? Uh… He’s not on the probationary list for Team 5.

It was the content of the conversation with Guide Shim Yoon-young, who was now out of the position of the youngest member of Team 5. After hearing her answer, Seon Jae-chan couldn’t find anything to say for a moment.

Originally, around this time, Nam Hae-sol was supposed to have joined as a probationary member of Team 5.

Although the future had changed because of him, Jae-chan hadn’t thought that she would change to the extent of becoming a probationary member of Team 1 in District 5.

He hoped she wouldn’t have been shifted to a different district.

Riding the elevator with fellow in-house guides, Jae-chan reviewed the last message he had received from Nam Hae-sol a little over a month ago.

“Hello, Guide-nim. This is Nam Hae-sol. I received notice of passing the second round of tests today.”

The third test was practically an assessment of personality, so there was no way she didn’t pass. It was a reasonable situation to pass through the 4th District Center with excellent performance as in the past and come to the 1st District as a probationary Guide.

He needs to find out where Guide Nam Hae-sol went…

Ding. In the elevator, Jae-chan went through the list of messages again as he mingled with other people. He thought about contacting acquaintances from the 12 guide teams to see if Nam Haesol had moved to another team in District 1.

“Hmm? Guide Seon Jae-chan, you came just in time.”

At that moment, a welcoming voice reached him. Hong Ye-deok, the team leader of Team 2, was standing outside the office on the 4th-floor corridor, which housed the 2nd Team.

Jae-chan looked up curiously and soon saw a group of newcomers peeking through the open door. Team leader Hong said to the fresh-faced youngsters.

“Now, here is Guide Seon Jae-chan. – Guide Seon. These are the apprentices from our 2nd team that Guide Seon will be in charge of this year.”

Jae-chan’s mouth twitched. Even his light eyebrows were pulled taut.

It wasn’t because he find the new probationary members who were suddenly assigned to him troublesome. Nor was it because he hadn’t handled probationary members around this time before.

“When I asked if there was a Guide you’d like to be your mentor, the new Guide immediately mentioned Guide Seon.”

It was because the fingertips of team leader Hong Ye-deok pointed to one of the apprentice Guides.

Nam Hae-sol, dressed in a guide uniform, shone her bright smile into the darkness beneath the lamp.

*

“I heard that mentor had such a thick face with a golden spoon. He only works for easy tasks.”

The new second-team apprentices were arguing over Seon Jae-chan, who was now their immediate senior. They had just been shoved into the Guide locker room by ‘that mentor’. The walls of the steel cabinets were plastered with posters of the center’s advertisements and promotional articles, as messy as their ramblings.

“It was like he had ‘rich kid’ written all over his face.”

“I heard he’s extremely inclined toward in-house tasks.”

“Even when he’s out in the field, he only goes as a support, right?”

Taking advantage of Seon Jae-chan being away while they exchanged their first greetings in the corridor, the three probationary Guides freely expressed their opinions. Nam Hae-sol was the exception.