* * *
The next day, Jin Seyoung came to find Haebom.
He could have just called Haebom to the center, but Haebom didn’t have a phone, making it impossible to reach him.
Apparently, Wonho had locked himself in the training hall since dawn, so Jin Seyoung had no choice but to come in person.
“I thought you might be uncomfortable, so I rushed things a bit. Here’s your ID, your bank account, and a phone registered in your name. Also, this is the gear you’ll need to wear at all times from now on.”
Haebom stared blankly at the items Jin Seyoung pulled out of a shopping bag.
He had woken up shivering from the cold, so he still felt like he was in a dream.
The ID made sense, but wasn’t it illegal to open a bank account or register a phone under someone else’s name?
Did the laws in this world work differently?
Was this even possible?
His head spun.
“Oh, the phone and account… Well, I figured it would take time for you to set them up, so I took care of it in advance. Mmm, technically, making them without your permission is illegal, but now that you know, it’s not illegal anymore. Right?”
“Uh… Yeah, I guess…”
Haebom made a sour face at Jin Seyoung’s innocent tone.
It was all supposedly for his benefit, so he couldn’t exactly complain.
Besides, Jin Seyoung seemed wealthy, worked for the government-run center, and was even a team leader.
Surely he wouldn’t do anything shady with a mere guide’s identity.
Without thinking much, Haebom opened the bankbook—and gasped.
“I figured you’d need money, so I arranged for you to receive half of your first month’s salary in advance. But… this house…”
Jin Seyoung glanced around the barren house and let out a sigh.
Then, taking back the phone he had just given Haebom, he installed an app.
It was designed for espers, allowing users to order daily meal deliveries, furniture, and clothes.
The center managed the app, so everything was significantly cheaper than retail prices.
Haebom was surprised that something like this even existed.
Well, the female lead never had to worry about things like this since the male lead always took care of everything for her.
So, naturally, Haebom—who had read the novel—had no idea such services existed either.
He still hadn’t met the novel’s main characters, which made him question if this world was really the same as the novel.
On the second day of their pairing, Haebom followed Jin Seyoung to the center, where his guide training officially began.
He learned how to use the gear, how to respond to calls, and how to handle guiding energy.
He was even assigned his own office.
Each guide had their own space, with size varying based on rank.
As an S-rank guide, Haebom’s office was bigger than his one-room apartment.
It was more like a studio apartment than an office, complete with a bed, sofa, desk, and even a private bathroom.
He could even shower there.
But his problem wasn’t the training or the ridiculously spacious office.
What was a guide’s duty?
To guide an esper.
Yet, a full week had passed, and Haebom hadn’t even been able to touch Wonho.
Honestly, he’d be lucky just to see him.
Who knew where he was constantly disappearing to?
Haebom hadn’t even caught a glimpse of a single strand of Wonho’s hair.
His guide office, meant for guiding, was practically deserted.
This morning, his gear had even sent a warning message.
[Pair: Wonho # Overload warning # Guiding required]
Haebom slumped back onto the table, lazily turning his head to check the message on his gear.
It still showed that Wonho’s rampage level was at a warning stage and urged him to guide.
Seriously, it wasn’t like he wasn’t guiding because he didn’t want to.
Besides, guides who failed to perform their duty for a month had to submit an explanation report and could even face disciplinary action.
It made sense—getting paid without working wasn’t exactly acceptable.
But this wasn’t about Haebom refusing to do it.
It was just… holding hands, how hard could that be?
The first time they met, they had already kissed right away.
He could give his hands a hundred times over if needed.
Of course, anything beyond that was something he didn’t even want to think about.
Close-contact guiding sometimes required hugging, but the thought of being locked in an embrace with Wonho felt impossible to picture.
Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it was like that first time—when Wonho had clung to him from behind, exhausted like a bear.
But for any of that to happen, Wonho needed to actually show up in front of him first.
Haebom didn’t want to get disciplined.
He didn’t want to write an explanation report either.
But more than anything, what really bothered him was Wonho’s rampage level.
The novel hadn’t gone into much detail about how much pain Espers suffered.
After all, the male lead was constantly being guided by the female lead, and the Sub Male Protagonist—Wonho—never really voiced his pain to her.
But now that Haebom was actually living in that world, training had made it painfully clear just how brutal that suffering was.
He wasn’t that old himself, but knowing that Wonho had been enduring that kind of pain ever since awakening as a child made it impossible to ignore.
On top of that, the question that Wonho had completely ignored on the first day—the one about why his hair had changed color—was something Haebom had to get an answer to from someone else, Jin Seyoung.
It turned out to be one of the side effects of prolonged guiding deficiency.
Wonho had just brushed it off as nothing but a color change, but Haebom couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something more—like how some people’s hair turned white from extreme shock.
“I really didn’t want to resort to this…”
Jin Seyoung sighed dramatically, watching Haebom groan beside her.
Then, as if she’d made up her mind, she walked over to her desk in the research lab and rummaged through the bottom drawer.
Haebom lifted his head slightly, wondering what she was doing, but he couldn’t see what she was looking for.
After a while, she finally pulled out a glass bottle.
Wait, not just a glass bottle—it looked like a liquor bottle.
Not that Haebom was an expert.
He hadn’t drunk much in his life, so he couldn’t say for sure.
Jin Seyoung looked conflicted, but oddly enough, despite her troubled expression, her eyes sparkled with excitement.
“What’s that?”
“Esper liquor. You probably learned about this in training, but Espers’ bodies function differently from regular people. Alcohol gets detoxified instantly, so they never actually get drunk. Which makes life pretty dull, and that’s why so many Espers have terrible personalities… Ahem. Anyway, a researcher at the center made this specifically for those poor, fun-deprived Espers.”
Liquor?
The strongest thing Haebom had ever drunk was soju.
Actually, he hadn’t even drunk that much.
Just soju, beer, and maybe bokbunja wine?
And even that was just once, when an auntie at the restaurant he worked at had popped open a bottle during a staff dinner.
It had been sweet, but the bitterness still lingered underneath.
But this was called a strong liquor?
The name alone made him worry if drinking it might actually kill him.
* * *
