“If he gets kidnapped again because he was separated from us, are you going to take responsibility?”
Hajin snapped fiercely, causing the man to flinch into silence.
Hajin took a step forward, radiating a murderous aura as if he wanted to slaughter everyone in the room.
“…Hajin.”
A few people turned pale just from those few words.
Suhyeon wasn’t exactly in the mood to stop Hajin, but he reached out and slowly took hold of him.
Hajin allowed himself to be pulled back by Suhyeon’s hand, though he didn’t lower his sharp, predatory gaze.
“Watch your mouth.”
“Ahem! K-hum!”
The man in the center let out a heavy, forced cough.
“W-well then. We shall begin.”
The man, appearing to wipe away cold sweat, eventually looked back at Suhyeon.
Even from a distance, Suhyeon could clearly feel the man’s burning gaze.
It wasn’t a professional look; it was a stare laden with personal emotion, making Suhyeon tilt his head in confusion.
“Guide Chae Suhyeon, I will ask you first.”
Not just the man’s eyes, but the gazes of dozens of people on the platform poured down on him simultaneously.
“Are you certain that you are human?”
The bodies of Yihan and Hajin jolted at the same time.
“…Pardon?”
He heard Yihan mutter “That crazy son of a…” behind him, but Suhyeon himself only blinked. Human? Me?
“I am… right?”
It was the obvious answer, but it didn’t seem to be the one the man wanted.
The man’s face contorted violently as he followed up.
“What happened inside the Gate?”
The Gate?
Suhyeon, who thought this was a hearing regarding the monster, didn’t immediately grasp the intent of the question.
Then, realizing something, his brow furrowed.
“What kind of question is…”
Yihan seemed to catch on to what the man was implying as well.
Every time the man opened his mouth, Hajin and Yihan growled, prompting Suhyeon to look back at them briefly.
The two men met Suhyeon’s eyes and immediately shut their mouths like well-behaved beasts.
“…Are you asking about what happened when I was sucked into the Gate?”
“That is correct.”
Suhyeon turned his head back to ask.
The man, who had been glancing warily at Hajin and Yihan, answered as if he’d been waiting for the opening.
“Why are you curious about that?”
He had asked quietly, but the question seemed to grate on the man.
His face twisted with a sudden burst of pent-up frustration.
It looked as if a dam holding back his anger had finally broken.
Suhyeon paused, thinking that he should be the one who was offended.
“Because Guide Chae Suhyeon has displayed unprecedented power. Since you underwent an abnormal Guide awakening after exiting the Gate, isn’t it obvious that power came from the Gate as well?”
“Are you… referring to the power related to the monster?”
The man huffed, letting out a sharp, mocking snort.
“Yes! Ha! A monster riot in a place that wasn’t even a Gate site. No matter how dangerous the kidnapping was for you, if you had such power, you should have used it beforehand. Does this make any sense? When did you learn to control monsters? Why didn’t you report it to the Association? We should have identified this when you lived right in front of the Gate, tsk! And while controlling a monster rampaging in the middle of the city, did you give no thought to the collateral damage? People could have died! My own relative was injured! I consider it a miracle it was only a minor injury. Are you really human? Are you trying to kill people?!”
The words and questions hit like a bombardment.
By the end, the man was nearly screaming, pointing a finger directly at Suhyeon.
“…”
A chilling silence fell over the room.
Only the sound of the man’s heavy breathing echoed.
Even the people sitting on the platform seemed not to have expected him to explode so suddenly.
Panic rippled through the crowd like a wave.
Suhyeon, having taken the brunt of the loud shouting, blinked slowly.
The questions the man had fired like bullets finally began to make sense in his mind.
“…Ha.”
Simultaneously, a dry, explosive laugh escaped from both Hajin and Yihan.
It felt as if they were releasing the breath Suhyeon wanted to let out.
“Kim Jong-hyeon—”
“You’re being… quite aggressive.”
Suhyeon spoke before Hajin could explode at the man.
Suhyeon took a long, slow breath.
He felt Hajin go silent and look at him.
Suhyeon stared at the man, whose face was flushed red with uncontrolled emotion, and began to answer the barrage of questions one by one.
He could understand the emotional outburst if a relative had been hurt.
However…
“First… inside the Gate, nothing happened except being attacked by an endless swarm of monsters. I was attacked to the point where I still consider it a miracle I came out alive. As for the ability to handle monsters, well. I didn’t know I had such a power until this incident, and even now, I don’t really know how it works. I’m not sure exactly what kind of power I have that made the monster protect me. I can’t exactly report something I don’t know, can I?”
It likely had something to do with his Guide wavelength, but since even that wasn’t a certainty, Suhyeon answered calmly with what he knew.
His heart had fluttered for a moment at being shouted at so harshly for the first time in a while, but he maintained his composure.
“Then—”
The man, seemingly lost to his rage, prepared to shout again.
Light brown eyes, heavy with fatigue, fixed on him.
“Regarding your relative’s injury and the fact that people were hurt… I certainly find it regrettable. I don’t think it wasn’t a mistake, either. I fully understand the gravity of a situation where people could have died. But I would appreciate it if you didn’t assume that I intended for that chaos to happen.”
“What did you say?”
“I was in a state of having been kidnapped until just yesterday, locked in a place I didn’t even recognize. And the kidnapper didn’t exactly leave me alone while I was there.”
Suhyeon pressed his throbbing temples.
It wasn’t intentional, but the movement caused his sleeve to slip, revealing the red marks carved into his skin.
He saw the panting man freeze for a moment upon seeing them.
The others on the platform did the same. Suhyeon continued quietly.
“It might sound irresponsible to say I don’t know anything, but that is the truth, so I have nothing else to tell you. The monster went on a rampage while I was unconscious, and that’s how I was able to escape. I…”
Suhyeon trailed off and took another breath. His exhaustion was growing by the minute.
“I… don’t know everything about Ability Users yet, but I understood that the Association had agreed to be responsible for my safety to some extent. I know it was an unavoidable situation and I heard you sent a rescue team late, so I’m not particularly looking for an apology. But I didn’t expect to hear such aggressive words. As you said, if I had known I had such power, I would have used it the moment I was kidnapped. In this situation, calling me non-human or accusing me of attacking people… it feels like cruel speculation and blame. I’m the one who finds this whole situation the most unbelievable. But one thing is certain: if it hadn’t happened this way, I never would have escaped that place. Isn’t that right?”
He saw the man close his mouth.
Having said his piece, Suhyeon leaned back weakly in his chair.
He wondered if he had ever spoken at such length, in such a tone, to anyone in a setting like this.
Hajin and Yihan, who had been radiating a savage energy, seemed to have calmed down slightly and weren’t trying to lash out like before, though he could still feel their intense gazes.
Suhyeon didn’t bother to look back.
He didn’t have the strength to turn around.
Silence reigned in the hall.
“It seems things have become a bit overheated. Director Kim Jong-hyeon.”
Not long after, an unfamiliar voice spoke up. Suhyeon raised his eyes.
Was it Yihan, Hajin, or both? He heard the sound of teeth grinding behind him.
A woman, who looked slightly older than Yihan, looked down at Suhyeon with a pleasant smile.
Perhaps because of the incident with Shin Seojun, a smile no longer left a good impression on Suhyeon.
“I apologize on his behalf, Guide Chae Suhyeon. It is true that the Association is responsible for the lapse in your safety. We have no excuses for that failure. We didn’t intend to address you so harshly, but it seems Director Kim Jong-hyeon’s personal feelings made his words a bit excessive.”
Suhyeon stared at the woman.
To take her words at face value was difficult; she hadn’t just walked in, but had been one of the many who sat by and watched while the man was speaking.
“Furthermore, we are very relieved that Guide Chae Suhyeon has returned safely, and we plan to increase your security detail beyond its current level. We will take measures to ensure such an incident never happens again. We only ask for your broad understanding that the situation was so sudden that we were unable to act. Of course, we are also deeply sorry for the sudden summons.”
The woman’s eyes curved with a seemingly kind light.
For some reason, it was a very familiar smile.
Suhyeon blinked.
Despite her words being incomparably more polite than the man’s, an inexplicable, tiny discomfort gnawed at the inside of his chest.
