* * *
To this guy, nothing held any real meaning.
Everything felt horrifyingly light.
Jaewon wanted to grab him by the collar, maybe even strangle him.
‘Why? Why did you do it? Was there even a reason?’
He wanted to scream.
“…It’s nothing.”
That was all Jaewon could manage to say.
He couldn’t forget: this version of Youngha hadn’t done anything yet.
He couldn’t ask this Youngha, and even if he could ask the past Youngha, it wasn’t like he’d get an answer he could understand.
No matter how much he bled and screamed, he’d just end up looking like the crazy one.
“Let’s just do what we can.”
He couldn’t forget—Youngha was a ticking time bomb.
You deal with a bomb like a bomb: carefully monitored and tightly controlled.
For the sake of his own sanity, he turned his head away.
“…Saul hyung! How’s it going? Are they cooperating?”
Hwi Saul, who had been crouching and gently stroking the leaves of a low tropical plant, looked up.
With a slightly disappointed expression, he answered, “They’re not hostile, but… they’re not listening either.”
Hwi Saul was a plant-type Esper.
He could grow, control, or communicate with plants.
He’d tried to manipulate the overgrown vegetation inside the dungeon, but it didn’t seem to be working very well.
The plants usually liked Saul, but this kind of thing was common inside dungeons.
After all, the plants were part of the dungeon too.
Still, the fact that they weren’t hostile was good news.
“Okay. What about the ones you brought? Are they usable?”
“Yeah, those are fine.”
Saul took a few small seeds out of his pocket and dropped them on the ground.
Within seconds, slender green shoots began to sprout and stretch out over the muddy terrain.
“The environment’s pretty ideal—I think I can grow them pretty big.”
“Alright, then let’s start the scouting.”
“Mm.”
A breeze swept through the leaves, and a ticklish wave of energy brushed against Jaewon’s ankles before fading.
Pale green vines twitched, then shot out explosively, extending beneath the surface of the water.
He could feel something squirming underfoot—it must’ve been the roots spreading underground.
Exploration through root systems was one of Saul’s specialties.
It took time, but it had a lot of advantages.
For one, the range was wide—it could even reach underground and underwater—and the data gathered was pretty detailed.
It also helped save time when searching for the dungeon core, which was essential to clearing it.
Unlike scouting drones, plants usually weren’t recognized as threats by dungeon defenses.
Even if the dungeon rejected them and tried to attack, once the roots were in, they were almost impossible to remove.
Barely ten seconds had passed since Saul started his work when Hwi Sara asked, clearly bored:
“So, what’s it saying?”
Hwi Sara being short-tempered wasn’t anything new, so Hwi Saul didn’t even pretend to listen and focused entirely on scouting.
Standing behind them, Ji Myunghoon looked like he had no idea what any of this was for, but with Joo Youngha next to him, he seemed too hesitant to voice his doubts.
After a few more minutes passed, Hwi Saul spoke calmly.
“Looks like there’s no underground structure.”
That was a relief.
If the dungeon had been large and complex, they might’ve had to continue the raid for days.
“I don’t see any hidden rooms either… Ah, but—”
Just as Hwi Saul trailed off, something darted across the edge of Seo Jaewon’s vision.
“There are some pretty deep puddles around. We should be careful.”
Right then, a loud splash echoed through the space.
Min Yoomin, who had been walking with his head tilted up to look around, lost his balance and fell straight into one of the puddles.
“……!”
As soon as Seo Jaewon registered what had happened, he instinctively reached out and grabbed the back of Min Yoomin’s collar.
The puddle was deceptively deep.
In an instant, Min Yoomin was submerged up to the top of his head.
It hadn’t looked deep at all from the surface!
Because of that, Seo Jaewon was pulled down with him, weight dragging on his shoulder.
“Ugh—ha!”
Min Yoomin flailed and clung to Seo Jaewon for dear life.
Jaewon leaned his weight back and barely managed to drag him out.
“Someone give me a hand here!”
“Ah, sorry. I forgot he’s all fragile now.”
Hwi Sara came over and effortlessly lifted Min Yoomin out of the puddle.
“Fragile…?”
There wasn’t even time to be offended.
Min Yoomin’s legs gave out beneath him and he staggered.
Seo Jaewon quickly caught him, worried he’d fall right back in.
“Waaaah… Thank you…!”
Min Yoomin immediately clung to Jaewon and started half-sobbing.
“If it weren’t for you, I really would’ve died. I seriously can’t swim.”
Dazed, Seo Jaewon found himself awkwardly patting Min Yoomin’s back.
This… wasn’t really what he’d signed up for.
“I almost drowned at a beach in Jeju when I was a kid. Went there with my parents. That memory just hit me, and I totally panicked…”
So this is what it means when people say someone floats when they fall into water.
Despite being drenched and shaking, he was still talking a mile a minute.
He’s already calling me ‘Jaewon’?
In this life, we’ve barely exchanged a few words—one of which was him screaming.
Back in their previous lives, Min Yoomin had been one of the few people who treated the socially isolated Seo Jaewon with any kindness.
Even when others whispered behind his back, Yoomin had always greeted him first.
Jaewon remembered that clearly.
He’d been exhausted by people back then, but honestly, it had meant a lot.
With enough time, maybe they could have become friends.
Well, not that he had let himself hope for that much—but at least he thought he could’ve responded with a greeting or a joke.
Unfortunately, their relationship had been cut short when Seo Jaewon was killed by a monster not long after.
‘We’re both Guides again. Maybe this time… we could actually get along.’
This wasn’t exactly the time to go around making new friends.
But teamwork was important, and Seo Jaewon wasn’t the type to hate people.
A little connection like this couldn’t hurt.
“We really need to be careful,” Hwi Sara said, shaking water off her hands.
“At this rate, we’ll turn around and find one Guide missing after another.”
For the first time since becoming a Guide, Seo Jaewon felt insulted.
Sure, Guides were weaker than Espers—that was true.
Their physical strength was barely on par with average civilians.
But Seo Jaewon wasn’t just some civilian.
He’d trained the same way as the Espers.
Physically, he was taller and more fit than most people.
“I’m actually a strong swimmer.”
But no one in Team 4 paid any attention to what he said.
Hwi Sara leaned in and whispered something to Saul.
Then she rummaged through Saul’s backpack and pulled out something small.
“What’s that?”
“Well, we’ve got two Guides, so I packed extra.”
In front of the confused Guides, Hwi Sara shook out the item.
Something that had been palm-sized unfolded into a larger shape.
A thin, crinkled vest.
“Watch this…”
She pulled the long cord sticking out from it, and the vest immediately puffed up.
A life jacket.
“Whoa, I wore one of these when we went into that lake dungeon before!”
Min Yoomin marveled at it like it was the most amazing thing ever.
Seo Jaewon barely stopped himself from making a snide comment.
When Guides hyped stuff up like that, Espers got way too full of themselves.
Sure enough, Hwi Sara puffed up a little, passed one life jacket to Min Yoomin, then pulled out another and inflated it.
“Here you go, Jaewon.”
Jaewon took it with obvious reluctance.
Come on—I already said I can swim. And besides…
“…Why is mine yellow?”
It was a glaring, bright yellow, like a freshly hatched chick, with reflective bands across the chest that would glow in the dark.
Meanwhile, Min Yoomin’s was a standard camo pattern—just what you’d expect inside a Gate.
Hwi Sara grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Newbie Guides should stand out. Makes it easier to rescue you if you fall in.”
“I’ll stand out to monsters too, you know?!”
“Don’t worry! Noona’s got your back!”
“That’s not the point…”
“Team leaders wear this kind of stuff all the time!”
What kind of backwards logic is that?
“No, seriously. If we’re talking safety, wouldn’t Min Yoomin need this more than I do—”
“Ah, nope!”
Min Yoomin immediately cut him off.
For the first time, his voice was firm, almost professional.
“I’m cool-toned. Yellow really doesn’t work on me.”
Your hair is literally yellow!
As a last resort, Seo Jaewon turned to Hwi Saul.
‘Come on, think logically. Who needs to wear this ridiculous thing more?’
Hwi Saul met his gaze, seemed to understand, then calmly said:
“…Still seems risky. Sara, maybe you should just carry him on your back?”
Even his brother?!
Seo Jaewon was flustered.
In his past life, just being around would make the whole mood go cold.
Now, having a conversation like this mid-raid felt surreal.
Aren’t they way too relaxed right now?
Was our team always like this?
Maybe?
But he remembered things being more synchronized, more efficient…
Had he romanticized it in hindsight?
While Jaewon was lost in confusion, Hwi Sara swiftly strapped him into the yellow vest.
He was completely helpless, like a Maltese being dressed up by its owner.
“Jaewon-ah, it really suits you.”
Behind him, Joo Youngha gently rested his chin on Jaewon’s head.
Thanks to the inflated life vest, Youngha now had the height advantage.
“You’re really asking for— I mean, stay still.”
Jaewon barely managed to swallow his words.
No swearing, polite language…
After Joo Youngha’s death in a previous incident, body cams had become mandatory in dungeons.
There had been talk of implementing them before, but that tragedy had finally pushed the law through.
Now, screaming obscenities at each other mid-raid was rare.
Jaewon had gotten used to it.
He hadn’t been much of a swearer to begin with—but somehow, seeing Joo Youngha again made even unspoken curses bubble to the surface.
“Jaewon, I’m not just saying this. You really need to be careful.”
At that moment, Hwi Saul resumed speaking calmly.
“You used to be an Esper, but now you’re just a civilian. You can’t go around reaching out like that. What if Min Yoomin falling into the water had actually been a monster ambush?”
“That’s not… Hyung, I just—”
Before Jaewon could even defend himself, Saul launched into his next point without missing a beat.
“So we’d be trying to clear the mission after losing both our team leader and our guide at once. Can you handle the consequences of that? If something unexpected happens, you need to fall back immediately. Leave the rest to the espers.”
“Ah.”
It was a perfectly reasonable thing to say—so much so that his face flushed.
He would’ve said the exact same thing, back when he was an esper himself.
“So wear that life jacket, and don’t leave our line of sight.”
“…Okay.”
Seo Jaewon forced himself to lift his head, which kept wanting to drop in shame, and gave a reply.
‘Right. I’m a guide now.’
This wasn’t a matter of strength or weakness.
In a dungeon, holding your position was everything.
If a guide tried to act like a fighter, they could end up endangering the whole team instead.
Just as he felt an apology rising in his throat, a soft voice whispered by his ear.
“It’s okay. Even if everyone else dies… you’ll survive.”
A cold arm wrapped gently around his neck.
“…!”
His heart plummeted like it was falling off the edge of hell.
Smooth skin brushed his neck, and a tender hand patted his shoulder.
The touch was as light as a butterfly’s wings—gentle, delicate.
But somehow, it felt like it was suffocating him, like something was tightening around his throat.
“And yellow really suits you.”
Joo Youngha said it like he was singing, his voice laced with amusement.
* * *
