* * *
The psychic pressure of a rampaging—or possibly already rampaged—Esper was nearly unbearable. Haebom felt like throwing up.
His insides twisted painfully under the weight of that overwhelming force.
“Na Hyunjoon! Step back!”
Seyoung stepped in front of Haebom, yelling at Na Hyunjoon.
When Espers went on a rampage, they were drawn—by instinct—to the Guide with the highest compatibility rate.
That’s why it was crucial to subdue them before they could reach the Guide.
But in the Seoul branch, without Wonho, there was no Esper strong enough to suppress Na Hyunjoon.
Whoosh!
“Ugh—! S-stop! Esper Na Hyunjoon!”
As a pillar of flame dropped right in front of them, Seyoung spun around, grabbed Haebom, and dragged him back into the lab.
She couldn’t just hand Haebom over.
The compatibility rate between Na Hyunjoon and Haebom was 91%—exceptionally high.
It made sense that Na Hyunjoon’s rampaging energy would seek out Haebom instead of Choi Yoonseo.
That’s why Seyoung had tried to evacuate him quickly.
But Na Hyunjoon was faster.
Seyoung continued calling for Wonho while shielding Haebom.
His white lab coat was turning pitch black as it burned.
Step. Step.
Footsteps echoed—heels against the broken tiles of the ruined corridor. Haebom thought it sounded like the Grim Reaper.
He had seen videos of Espers in a rampage before, but this was different.
Those videos showed mindless beasts stripped of reason.
But Na Hyunjoon didn’t seem completely gone.
He didn’t look entirely sane either…
Still, Haebom had no intention of talking to him.
If conversation were an option, he wouldn’t have come hunting like this in the first place.
“Haebom, listen carefully. Inside that room, there’s an emergency exit. Go through there. Don’t look back. Go straight down.”
As soon as the footsteps got closer, Seyoung pulled Haebom up and pointed at a door.
Offering the Guide to the rampaging Esper would quickly end the situation—but the safety of that Guide couldn’t be guaranteed.
Haebom might be an S-rank Guide, meaning he might not die—but he wouldn’t come out unscathed.
There had been cases where Guides forced into sync with a rampaging Esper had lost their ability to guide ever again.
“Come with me!”
“Go! Move now!”
Seyoung pulled a gun from a drawer in the lab.
It wasn’t enough to completely stop Na Hyunjoon, but it could reduce the damage. T
he gun was loaded with special bullets infused with Wonho’s ability.
Seyoung shoved Haebom toward the emergency exit room and headed out into the corridor.
Haebom, pushed into the room, hesitated. He opened the emergency exit.
Took a step forward. But he couldn’t bring himself to go down.
He knew. Turning back was the more dangerous choice.
But he couldn’t just leave Seyoung behind, possibly to die.
He hadn’t intended to guide with Na Hyunjoon—not for a second.
But at this point, there wasn’t much choice.
Letting Seyoung be the one to get hurt was worse.
Haebom squeezed his eyes shut, then reopened them and turned back.
Just as his hand gripped the door handle—
BOOM!
A deafening explosion shook the entire area.
Startled, Haebom failed to register how this blast was different from the earlier one and flung the door open.
As soon as he did, a violent gust of wind slammed into him.
Thud!
The wind hurled him against the hallway wall of the emergency stairwell.
Pain exploded across his back, tears springing to his eyes.
But there was no time for that.
Seyoung was in danger.
“…Team Leader!”
Haebom grabbed the door handle again and ran back into the lab.
The wind that had slammed into him had lessened.
He rushed to the lab door—no, tried to.
He would’ve sprinted out immediately if someone hadn’t stepped through the scorched, gaping door.
For a split second, Haebom thought it was Na Hyunjoon and held his breath.
“Yoon Haebom, what the hell are you doing here?! Are you insane?! That bastard’s targeting someone and you’re just standing here?!”
The one he saw wasn’t Na Hyunjoon.
Thank god.
Haebom almost collapsed in relief.
And even more—he was shaking, because it was Wonho.
“…Wonho, where’s Team Leader?”
“Haebom, turn around and go straight down the emergency stairs. Now!”
Wonho didn’t give him time to feel relieved.
He shoved Haebom back toward the exit and slammed the door behind him, shouting for him to run.
Pushed back toward the emergency exit, Haebom didn’t get a chance to ask about Seyoung’s condition.
But Wonho was there—so it would be okay.
Unlike earlier, there wasn’t a trace of hesitation in his step as he rushed down to the shelter.
“Fuck, I knew you were going to screw things up.”
After evacuating Haebom through the emergency exit, Wonho stormed out of the lab and approached Na Hyunjoon, who was frozen solid from head to toe.
Crack, crack.
The sound of ice fracturing filled the air as Na Hyunjoon’s heat, now like a blazing inferno, melted Wonho’s icy restraints.
He had taken too long evacuating Jin Seyoung and checking if Haebom was still inside—he hadn’t expected to run into Haebom face-to-face.
But he had expected Na Hyunjoon to break out of the ice.
BOOM—!
As the ice shattered completely and Na Hyunjoon’s eyes glazed over in a full-blown rampage, irritation surged in Wonho like a flood.
Already on edge from returning empty-handed from another branch’s Gate, now this bastard had the nerve to lose control like this.
Wonho didn’t care why Na Hyunjoon had gone berserk—what pissed him off was how obvious his target was.
Haebom, clueless as he was, had turned off general guiding notifications and wasn’t checking them at all.
But since that day, Na Hyunjoon had been sending daily requests for general guiding to Haebom.
Wonho had found out through Jin Seyoung.
Na Hyunjoon even went as far as filing a formal complaint with the Center.
But since Haebom had an assigned pair Esper, the request wasn’t approved.
Especially not with Choi Yoonseo already registered as Na Hyunjoon’s pair—it was never going to happen.
Na Hyunjoon knew that too, yet he kept pushing.
Maybe to get under Wonho’s skin.
Or maybe because he hoped Haebom would pay him some attention.
Either way, Wonho couldn’t care less. He wished both of them would just fuck off.
Wonho knew exactly why Na Hyunjoon was clinging to Haebom—it was that damn compatibility rate.
But that still wasn’t Wonho’s concern.
Haebom was his.
He didn’t just want to guide him—he wanted all of Haebom.
There was no way he was going to let this asshole lay a finger on him.
Wonho had taken down rampaging Espers before, but never an S-Class one.
Subduing a berserk Esper was harder than killing one.
You had to immobilize them, cuff them, and knock them out using a portable guiding device—that was the standard method.
The problem was, no one knew how long it would take to bring down an S-Class like Na Hyunjoon.
With the Seoul Gate opening while Wonho was away at another branch, there wasn’t a single A-Class Esper left in the area.
And B-Class Espers?
Might as well be no one.
So it was up to him—alone.
“Fuck…!”
* * *
