TS 052

This is not good. Yoon Taehwa contemplated for a moment which would be more efficient. To deal with work first and then deal with Han Suryeon, who was, for some reason, in a bad mood, or to deal with Han Suryeon when he was less annoyed, get an earful from the higher-ups within an hour, and then deal with work.

“I told you I’m not running away.”

Yoon Taehwa tapped Han Suryeon’s stomach and gestured with his head toward the corridor. Dealing with people was more troublesome than work.

“Follow me.”

He didn’t know why he was being sulky, but his plan was to resolve this first.

As he lowered the blinds, the outside scenery was instantly blocked. It was obvious the pager would go off in less than an hour, but to delay that time even a little, it was best not to be seen.

‘Though it’s just a temporary measure.’

When he turned around, he saw Han Suryeon sitting quietly on the sofa. Yoon Taehwa sat on the sofa at the head of the room and crossed his legs.

“I don’t know what on earth you wanted to talk about that you had to tell me not to run away. And in a situation with a monster right in front of us.”

If any other Esper had done that, he would have rained curses on them right then and there.

It was an incident where an A-class monster had appeared in the middle of Seoul, not even in a dungeon. To be joking around in a situation that needed to be handled as quickly as possible, he would be lucky to get away with just a cursing; after returning to the Center, he would have been summoned to the panic room.

The only reason he had accepted his words, saying they’d talk later, was purely because it was Han Suryeon. It wasn’t because he was hesitant to lay a hand on him since he wasn’t a real team member. It was because he had dealt with the monster without much difficulty even while talking to him.

“Don’t you have any intention of being careful?”

“Careful?”

“It’s just amazing that you’d think of jumping in that situation.”

Only then did Yoon Taehwa properly look at Han Suryeon. His posture, with his elbow on the sofa and his chin in his hand, was not much different from usual, but his slightly twitching lips represented his mood. It was a reaction that Yoon Taehwa couldn’t understand at all.

“I think I told you already. It’s the same thing I did for you.”

“Was it subconscious?”

The soft question was far from a sarcastic tone, but Yoon Taehwa narrowed his brows.

“I don’t think so…”

His eyes, which were lowered because he was resting his chin on his hand, rolled upwards.

“You jumped in when you saw the Kraken rushing at him. Did you want to get hurt instead of Kim Su-an?”

A sudden thirst washed over him, and Yoon Taehwa moved the fingertips of the hand resting on his thigh. It was a feeling similar to the urge to smoke.

“In the field, you’re responsible for your own life. It’s not something the Team Leader should be taking care of.”

He wasn’t wrong. He had jumped in because he was in a support role; if he had been dealing with the monster directly, he wouldn’t have rushed in to save Kim Su-an. But even if he was right, it didn’t mean he could understand why Han Suryeon was interfering to this extent.

“Are hunters different? I’m pretty sure you said it yourself that you support your guild members.”

“I said I support them, I never said I’d save them if they got into danger because of their foolishness.”

“Then should I just stand by and watch in a situation where I can stop it?”

“You should have, Team Leader.”

Han Suryeon’s cheek twitched, as if he were stating the obvious.

“That’s how they won’t make the same mistake next time.”

“So the Field Commander of our Borein is trying to interfere with my ways.”

Yoon Taehwa tapped his foot. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand Han Suryeon’s advice that wasn’t advice.

‘It’s true that you make fewer mistakes after you’ve experienced it once.’

But the very act of him throwing such advice at him was an overreach of his authority.

It wasn’t like Yoon Taehwa liked his own subconscious actions either. But having lived more than half his life as an Esper belonging to the Center, it wasn’t easy to move calculatively in the field.

In the first place, state-affiliated ability users were of a different breed from guild hunters. They were volunteers, and they had to do things they didn’t want to do. After rolling around in the field for over a decade, it became a habit for the body to react reflexively.

Maybe it was because of that incident 18 years ago.

“Do you think I’m interfering with you right now, Team Leader?”

Rarely, as he was delving into his old past, Han Suryeon’s voice awakened him from his thoughts.

“If this isn’t interference, then?”

“It doesn’t seem to occur to you that I’m doing this out of worry.”

“Worry?”

Yoon Taehwa propped up his elbow, following Han Suryeon. When he tilted his head askew, his gaze became entangled with the eyes that were staring at him.

“I’m not someone to be worried about, Suryeon-ah.”

As if it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, Han Suryeon’s expression crumpled.

“Do you like it when you get used to that?”

“Get used to what.”

“People not worrying about you. I asked if you like it when you get used to it.”

Yoon Taehwa didn’t say anything in return. He had never thought that he had gotten used to it. It was just that there was no one who worried about an S-class Esper.

“Why are you worried about me?”

His red lips parted slightly, and a breath similar to laughter escaped. It seemed as if a bit of Russian was mixed in.

“Our Team Leader has a strange way of hurting people’s feelings…?”

What part of that.

Yoon Taehwa mulled over the reason why Han Suryeon was annoyed with him. The starting point was when he had thrown his body to save Kim Su-an.

‘I thought his mood had improved later. Isn’t that why he was clinging to me? Come to think of it, earlier…’

Suddenly, the images of him being subtly conscious of Seo Sichan overlapped. Yoon Taehwa snorted and straightened his posture.

“Suryeon-ah.”

“..…”

“Be jealous of something worth being jealous of.”

Han Suryeon frowned.

“Jealous?”

“I just can’t understand why you’re in a bad mood.”

At this point, he felt like they were having a war of words over something trivial.

“Because I jumped in to save Kim Su-an? Or, because of Seo Sichan?”

“I guess I’ve been clinging to you a lot, Team Leader.”

Han Suryeon, who let out a short, hollow laugh, stood up from his seat. After staring blankly at the tightly drawn blinds, instead of leaving the team leader’s office right away, he approached Yoon Taehwa. When he placed his hand on the armrest, his waist naturally bent, and the distance between them closed.

“Seeing as you’re acknowledging now that I’m very jealous.”

Yoon Taehwa didn’t back away. He just sat in the same posture as before Han Suryeon had stood up and rolled his eyes.

“It’s true that I was jealous, just as you said, Team Leader. I’m jealous that you’d rush to save an Esper who was foolishly careless, and I’m also jealous that you’d dote on a tail-wagging son of a bitch.”

Their sharp gazes clashed. It was an atmosphere where a physical fight could break out if either one of them so much as lifted a fingertip.

“But still…”

Han Suryeon completely lowered his eyelids toward Yoon Taehwa. At the sharply honed gaze that was looking at him, all his senses were on edge. It was a premonitory symptom of the instinctive hostility or the search to tear each other apart that was usually felt when Espers had a war of nerves. Since it was Yoon Taehwa, he thought that sexual desire was probably mixed in as well.

“…you shouldn’t think that I’m doing this just because of jealousy.”

Sexual desire was just a hair’s breadth away from violence. In terms of coveting the other’s body, they were not very different acts. Han Suryeon already knew what kind of ragged breaths Yoon Taehwa let out, and what kind of voice he moaned with.

Force was put into the hand on the armrest. He bit his tongue inside his mouth and slowly backed away. He saw the man who was still sitting in a nonchalant posture, as if he had nothing to be afraid of.

“Isn’t it a bit much to make a fool out of someone who’s worried about you?”

“What?”

At the unexpected remark, Yoon Taehwa squinted his eyes like a man who had been hit. Han Suryeon didn’t answer the question back. He just left the team leader’s office.

Even after smoking, the thirst showed no signs of being quenched. Yoon Taehwa put a third cigarette to his lips and stared at the vast view of the Center. The building, which never seemed to sleep for 24 hours, was emitting an even brighter light today. It was because all the staff had gone into an all-nighter due to the sudden appearance of the monster and the terror attack on the Center.

“Did you get chewed out a lot?”

Yoon Taehwa exhaled smoke and slowly turned his head. Lee Woojin, who had approached him, leaned against the railing.

“As much as I expected.”

“So you got chewed out a lot.”

Despite the sympathetic gaze, Yoon Taehwa just shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t something he hadn’t expected.

“Don’t you need Guiding?”

“I told you, you don’t need to worry about me.”

Yoon Taehwa answered indifferently and offered a cigarette to Lee Woojin. Lee Woojin, who had been about to take the cigarette, flinched.

“Taehwa, that’s your problem.”

“I’m not in the mood to listen to your nagging, Hyung.”

“But I have to. Why do you keep telling people not to worry?”

“I don’t know why on earth anyone would worry about an S-class Esper.”

The war of words with Han Suryeon came to mind, and Yoon Taehwa swept his hair back in annoyance. Perhaps because of the harsh cigarette, the thirst intensified, and his nerves were on edge.

“See, you’ve been rolling around in the field for too long. You should rest for at least two years.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“You talk to other people like that too, don’t you? ‘I’m an S-class Esper, so don’t worry’?”

“Hyung. Other people don’t worry about S-class Espers.”

“Only the higher-ups at the Center would say that.”

The hand that was about to light Lee Woojin’s cigarette momentarily stopped. Is that so? Maybe it’s because the people he usually deals with are Center people.

“Hah… This is the problem. The Center grinds people down too much to run.”

“It’s fine once you get numb to it.”

“Just because it becomes fine doesn’t mean it’s all good.”

“Shouldn’t you have been a kindergarten teacher?”

Yoon Taehwa let out a cynical laugh and put the cigarette between his lips.

“If I wasn’t a Guide, I might have. Anyway, don’t say things like that in front of other people. It only hurts the person who was worried.”

Acrid cigarette smoke escaped from between his slightly parted lips. Looking at the scattering gray smoke, he remembered the man who had brazenly parted his lips and stolen that smoke. Along with it was the image of him coughing to the point of tears welling up in his eyes, despite his bold act.

“Why would someone get hurt by being told not to worry?”

“They worry about you because they like you, don’t they? If they disliked you, they wouldn’t even worry. Who would be pleased if they told someone they liked that they were worried, and the other person reacted with ‘what’s it to you’?”

“..…”

“This is the problem with the Center. Why don’t they give the kids mental counseling? Sometimes when I look at you guys, I just sigh.”

Yoon Taehwa inhaled the cigarette smoke out of habit.

The unquenchable thirst came again.