SOG Ch 60

At the same time, the pile of unsorted documents that Hae-sol had been organizing slipped and tumbled all over. Jae-chan reached out his hand and managed to prevent the document avalanche at the last moment.

“Tha… thank you.”

“You’ve been working hard.”

Seon Jae-chan glanced at the faxed documents arriving from all sorts of public institutions and private companies.

“Yes, we’ve been receiving some rather unusual requests for collaboration.”

Nam Hae-sol seemed flustered in various ways, as she fumbled with the pile of papers.

In truth, she had been berating herself for being so disrespectful to her senior a few days ago.

Wasn’t he the one who had been tirelessly splitting his time, even sacrificing his personal hours, for the sake of others, unlike the seniors from other teams? Moreover, Jae-chan had also helped her father, Nam Myung-seong. Hae-sol knew very well about what had happened in underground of Mentosa Island.

“Um… did you say March 1st?”

“March 7th.”

“Oh, I see.”

Nam Hae-sol meticulously checked her calendar app.

It was Jae-chan who was rather puzzled. What happened? She didn’t even ask what anything.

How should he approach this?

Seon Jae-chan was looking for something to say and decided to just spit it out.

“On that day, I’m going to measure the matching rate with Esper Go Woo-jin. I want you to participate as well.”

“…Pardon?”

Seeing her bewildered, Jae-chan went ahead with the explanation he had prepared.

Do you remember that I received the results of the wavelength examination? For some reason, I think you and Go Woo-jin’s wavelength match well, so I want to formally measure it. To sum it up, that was the story.

“Are you going to do it?”

Hearing his somewhat unconvincing persuasion, Hae-sol was taken aback, but also… felt her heart race a little. Wouldn’t it be natural for a Guide to dream of guiding an S-class Esper? And at one point, she had quite liked Esper Go Woo-jin.

“Yes, I will do my best!”

In the end, Hae-sol answered confidently.  A small smile appeared on Seon Jae-chan’s lips.

*

A few days later, two days before the day of the three people’s matching rate test.

It was when Seon Jae-chan returned to his dorm. Jeong Noah, who had been in the room first, glanced at the desk.

“Hey. Some strange thing came for you.”

Seon Jae-chan raised an eyebrow, then looked at the thick yellow envelope and involuntarily displayed a surprised expression. He quickly checked the mail, as if thinking it had finally arrived after waiting for it.

[Matching Rate Assessment Results]

It was the result of the matching rate test between Go Woo-jin and Nam Hae-sol, which was illegally requested.

It was only natural that Seon Jae-chan knew of an illegal matching rate measurement company. Due to the uncertainty of his matching rate with Go Woo-jin, which always seemed to drop every year, he had a long history of relying on illegal private agencies even after being officially informed of his matching rate.

Of course, it was inaccurate as an illegal institution, and the majority of the errors were about 3 to 5%, but it was a happy thing for Seon Jae-chan in the past. Every time he received results that were slightly higher within the error range, he would clutch the pile of documents, tears streaming down his face, and say, ‘This is my real matching rate. My real matching rate’ It was a cringe-worthy memory.

Shaking off the horrendous past, he tore open the envelope with nervous hands.

The matching rate between Go Woo-jin and Nam Hae-sol…

For some reason, he was more nervous than when he had checked his own matching rate in the past. He exhaled deeply and carefully checked the contents. His trembling, dark brown eyes moved over the graph and waveform on the paper and the tiny notes in between, eventually reaching the last part.

‘What’s this.’

Jae-chan’s expression twisted slightly as he took in the estimated matching rate between Go Woo-jin and Nam Hae-sol. It was as if his roommate’s laughter from watching a comedy show was mocking the silence, ringing in his ears.

*

Two days later, on the day of measuring the matching rate.

“Have you consumed alcohol, coffee, or medication that could affect the assessment? Also, please remove any earrings. Turn off your phone.”

Jae-chan, who had arrived at the research institute in advance, followed the staff’s instructions and silenced his phone. However, he couldn’t hide his restlessness and glanced around. Hae-sol, who had come along, calmly removed her earrings and was placing them in a small zippered bag provided by the staff.

Seon Jae-chan was still unable to escape from the result of measuring the illegal matching rate.

He discreetly observed Hae-sol. She was examining the room with curiosity, looking at the white walls, the color spectrum chart, the high-performance automatic guiding device, and the wave emission model in the first-time wave measurement room.

Above her round pupils, it seemed like the illegal matching rate assessment results of her and Go Woo-jin were overlapping. Jae-chan shook his head slightly at the numbers that came to mind.

‘… The measurement result must be wrong.’

After all, it was an illegal assessment agency.

In preparation for the possibility that the matching rate might differ from the past, he had entrusted the assessment to an illegal agency. However, it was disconcerting when the results actually turned out to be very different. In the end, Seon Jae-chan concluded that the measurement result was just wrong.

He had no way of knowing why the matching rate was different from before and why it made him feel so uneasy. Jae-chan absentmindedly pressed his hand against his chest.

Lost in various thoughts, the door to the research room opened again.

Go Woo-jin entered the room 5 minutes before the appointed time. His calm gaze swept over Seon Jae-chan, then stopped when he spotted Nam Hae-sol.

“Hello.”

Seon Jae-chan stood up from his seat and willingly stepped between the two.

Nam Hae-sol also bowed and greeted. In the past and now, the two people who look good together like a picture were introduced at a glance.

“This is the Nam Hae-sol, the guide I mentioned. She is an A-class Guide belonging to Team 2, and she is an apprentice who came in this time. -This is Go Woo-jin Esper. You surely aren’t unfamiliar with him?”

Jae-chan added a touch of humor to his words. Hae-sol, who was quite nervous, managed to muster a smile that twitched at the corners of her lips in response to his joke. She extended her greeting first.

“Hello.”

“Yes, hello.”

Go Woo-jin’s voice was very soft as it returned. It was so soft that it sent a shiver down Jae-chan’s spine. It was a voice that made you want to scratch your ears while also wanting to get closer to hear more.

When Hae-sol raised her gaze to meet the voice, she discovered a face as sculpted and handsome as his voice, even more so than she had seen in the media. Everything seemed to exude depth, from the shadowy and solemn eyes to the straight nose bridge and slightly dim lips. The appearance she had been so taken with for so long was right in front of her, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

‘I thought I was going to be buried in that underground base. And also, to be saved by a high-class Esper.’

Memories of what she had heard from her father, Nam Myung-seong, about what happened in Mentosa Island’s underground base resurfaced. Her father, who always loved to repeat the same stories, seemed to be vividly reliving that day again in her mind.

Of course, her father had returned safely, and he didn’t seem to have any regrets about it, even for Esper Go Woo-jin… For some reason, Hae-Sol found it difficult to like Esper Go Woo-jin as much as she had before.

“…”

Go Woo-jin also stared at Nam Hae-sol, feeling somewhat perplexed. He was recalling what Jae-chan had said before he left for District Z.

‘I’ll bring another guide..’

‘I said that within half a year, I would introduce you to a guide with a high matching rate.’

‘It’s the Guide from earlier. Guide Nam Hae-sol.’

Jae-chan really had brought a new guide.

Moreover, this woman…

Woo-jin lowered his eyes to hide his confusion after he looked at Nam Hae-sol, whose long hair was neatly tied up.

Meanwhile, as he watched the two people who seemed oddly frozen in place, Jae-chan became slightly tense. Maybe because he knew that Woo-jin and Hae-sol had been lovers in the past, the tense atmosphere between them felt like the awkward tension between a man and a woman before they became lovers.

‘Don’t think unnecessary thoughts. Things will go back to normal.’

Inevitable fate. Jae-chan’s thoughts seemed to settle as he recalled that phrase again.

“…Do you need guiding?”

Seon Jae-chan asked, sensing Go Woo-jin’s subtly entangled wavelengths.

Perhaps there had been another intense training, the wavelengths that had previously flowed smoothly and looped back after being carefully woven seemed to be slightly distorted.

In response, Go Woo-jin evaluated his own condition anew. The pain was minimal, but his senses were slightly overwhelmed. Unintentionally, he could perceive even the slightest breath of everyone in the room as a resounding noise.

However, as he looked at the composed face, Jae-chan reflexively reached out his hand. Physical contact was the most effective way to closely feel wavelengths.

‘Oops.’

Jae-chan quickly withdrew his hand. It was fine when he was guiding, but he didn’t have the right to casually touch Go Woo-jin like this.

“Call me anytime.”

Instead, he said this with a hint of regret.

He was ready to rush over, so why wasn’t Go Woo-jin calling him? If this were the case, it might have been better to set a regular date like other Espers or Guides did. However, that wasn’t something Jae-chan could suggest unless Go Woo-jin wanted it.

On the other hand, Go Woo-jin invertedly caught a glimpse of a white, delicate hand that reached out to him and then returned. Seon Jae-chan’s voice continued in his ear.

“Call me. Just call me. After the matching rate assessment is done later, I’ll guide you and go.”

Jae-chan’s fingers, which were half a knuckle smaller than his, would get tangled up thinly when they interlocked while guiding. It was when Woojin nodded while looking at him.

“Oh. You can get it from Guide Nam Hae-sol.”

Out of nowhere, Seon Jae-chan muttered this with a slightly delighted tone.