Beep, beep—
“The bleeding won’t stop. Vitals are dropping! How much longer until we arrive?”
“We’ll be there in one minute!”
At the paramedic’s urgent voice, another paramedic responded.
The inside of the ambulance was a complete mess.
If he were a regular person, he would have been transported to a general hospital, but because he had awakened as a guide, he had to be moved to the infirmary inside the Center.
He had been rescued from a place quite far from the Center, and the paramedics were struggling quite a bit to stop the bleeding.
Even though they were almost at the Esper Center, the bleeding was not stopping.
If it continued like this, there was a possibility of death from excessive blood loss.
The life of an ordinary person was very important, but the life of a person with abilities was beyond words. In a situation where every second was urgent, the ambulance stopped in front of the Center infirmary building.
The patient on the transport bed was quickly moved inside.
‘Shim Yeonwoo…!’
Haeyoung, who had been sleeping in a corner of the infirmary again without Lee Yuna’s knowledge, was jolted awake by the sound of the call bell echoing through the infirmary.
As soon as he stepped out, he felt dizzy from the smell of blood.
Seeing the man in a wretched state on the transport bed, Haeyoung felt his breath catch.
Seeing the very ‘Shim Yeonwoo’ he had only read about in text being carried in made his fingertips tremble.
“Esper! Please prepare for treatment immediately!”
“Ah! Yes, yes…! Understood!”
It was 3 AM, but fortunately, various things had happened today, resulting in him working late, and he had already copied Lee Yuna’s ability.
He didn’t know if the copied amount would be enough, but it seemed like it would be enough to hold out until another healing Esper arrived.
He followed Shim Yeonwoo, who was immediately moved to the treatment room.
There was an operating room, but it was rarely used because of the healing Espers.
The treatment room was soon filled with the smell of blood.
He must have lost a lot of blood, as his face was deathly pale.
Haeyoung quickly reached out and infused Shim Yeonwoo with the healing ability he had copied from Lee Yuna.
Although he could use the ability without contact, in Haeyoung’s case, contact was more effective.
A pure white light escaped from Haeyoung’s hand and enveloped Shim Yeonwoo’s entire body.
“Huff…!”
Haeyoung let out a ragged breath.
The wounds looked large even to the eye, but using his ability made him realize just how serious the injuries were.
If Shim Yeonwoo had not awakened as a guide and had been sent to a regular hospital, he might have died.
Or he might have suffered from aftereffects for the rest of his life….
Awakening as a guide might not be such a good thing for Shim Yeonwoo’s life.
In the novel, Shim Yeonwoo often thought that he should have died that day.
While awakening as a guide felt like luck at first, in the end, it wasn’t luck.
“Esper Kang Haeyoung! Stop right there!”
Before he knew it, Lee Yuna had pulled Haeyoung’s hand away from Shim Yeonwoo.
Thanks to Haeyoung’s efforts, Shim Yeonwoo’s complexion was returning to its normal color, but Haeyoung’s own face had turned deathly pale.
After quickly checking Haeyoung’s levels, Lee Yuna took him out of the treatment room and over to the guiding machine in the waiting area.
“I told you to do only enough to last until another team member arrived. How long has it been since you started training…!”
“I’m sorry….”
“Enough. Just sit here quietly for now. I’ll go check the patient’s condition.”
Haeyoung nodded with a pale face.
Working in the infirmary was all well and good, but the problem was that it could cause mental strain.
It wasn’t a big problem for other Espers, but it was an issue for Haeyoung, who couldn’t receive proper guiding.
In his previous life, the biggest accident Haeyoung had ever experienced was a car accident.
Even then, “big” only meant a broken leg.
So, he had never seen anything like this—flesh torn so deeply by a monster’s teeth, which were like massive, solid weapons, that the bone was exposed, or fingernail marks raked across an entire body.
At the very least, he had grown somewhat used to it now.
But being used to it didn’t mean there was no mental stress.
“Ugh….”
A groan escaped his lips involuntarily.
Since checking the wound is the basic step for healing, every time he closed his eyes, he felt like he could still see the site of Shim Yeonwoo’s injury.
There was surely no blood in the waiting room, yet the scent of iron seemed to linger at the tip of his nose.
Still, a sense of relief washed over him at the fact that he had helped Shim Yeonwoo.
While this didn’t mean his plan to help him was completely over, it was a start.
After some time had passed, the door suddenly swung open.
When Haeyoung opened his closed eyes, Lee Yuna was looking at him with a twitching eyebrow.
“There are wet wipes next to you. At least wipe your hands.”
“Ah….”
Only then did Haeyoung realize that Shim Yeonwoo’s blood was smeared on his hands.
The smell of blood hadn’t been an illusion.
He pulled out a wipe and cleaned his hands, careful not to let his patches fall off.
Whenever he received guiding from a machine, his stomach churned and his fingertips tingled.
It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, so a deep furrow usually formed between his brows whenever he used it.
“Is, I mean… how is that patient? He’s not a civilian, right?”
Haeyoung almost blurted out Shim Yeonwoo’s name but caught himself just in time.
He stole a glance at Lee Yuna, and fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice.
“He wouldn’t have been brought to the Center if he were a civilian. They said he awakened today. A guide might not realize they’ve awakened on their own, but there’s no way to miss it during the transport process.”
“Right… he’s a guide, then?”
“Yes. A guide. Good job today. See? If you had just gone home quietly, you wouldn’t have had to go through this. Why do you go looking for trouble?”
Yuna grumbled as she checked Haeyoung’s condition.
It was true that Haeyoung staying in the infirmary had been a help.
Usually, Espers lived outside the Center, but Lee Yuna lived inside.
The duty system had been abolished because she could arrive immediately whenever a patient appeared.
Haeyoung looked at Yuna and muttered inwardly that since he had achieved his goal, he would head home now.
Unable to say that out loud, he just gave her a smile.
Yuna only sighed in response.
“Can I go see him once? He’s been moved to a room, right?”
“Yes. Room 302. You know what to do if he wakes up, right?”
Nodding, Haeyoung turned off the guiding machine and stood up.
He could have waited for the notification that the session was fully finished, but he couldn’t hold back his urge to go see him.
Lee Yuna just shook her head and waved him off.
Leaving the waiting room, Haeyoung headed straight for Room 302.
Thump, thump.
His heart was racing.
Even though Field Team 1 and Kang Haeyoung himself were characters he had read about in a novel, he hadn’t felt this nervous or excited before.
Since he had become Kang Haeyoung, it was natural not to feel fluttery about himself, but this was different.
Knock, knock.
He stood before Room 302 and knocked.
He knew the patient wouldn’t be awake, so the knock was useless, but he did it just in case.
As expected, there was no response.
