Since the body’s fissures were still accelerating, he figured it was likely an effect of that.
“Whew.”
Placing his hand over Go Yeonwoo’s heart, Kim Sungchan closed his eyes.
It was a task requiring a high degree of concentration.
Sustaining almost no breath at all, he exhausted his energy to inspect the interior of the heart.
Whether an esper or a guide, all energy is generated from the heart.
In Go Yeonwoo’s case, his body’s fissures cracked precisely because excessive guiding energy was being produced.
After inspecting the interior of the heart for a short while like that, Kim Sungchan’s brow furrowed.
Opening his eyes a moment later, Kim Sungchan turned his head to look at Han Jihyuk.
Han Jihyuk’s gaze, colder than before, was fixed entirely on one spot.
On Go Yeonwoo’s right ankle, which showed not the slightest hint of recovery.
“……What’s the problem?”
The voice that slipped out belatedly was chillingly low.
It was a flat, uninflected voice that seemed to carry a frost.
Though it was subtly different from his usual demeanor, it didn’t look that way to Kim Sungchan.
Seeing Han Jihyuk acting so unfazed only made Kim Sungchan’s anger flare up even more.
Gone was any trace of his usual timidness as Kim Sungchan raised his chin toward Han Jihyuk and spoke up.
“You asking what the problem is? Everything is a problem. Everything, dammit!”
“Just give me the conclusion.”
“……Ha. Whose fault is it that things came to this mess, and you’re this nonchalant? Unbelievable, really.”
“I don’t say things twice. The conclusion.”
Biting his lip at Han Jihyuk’s warning tone, Kim Sungchan spat out the diagnosis results in an irritable tone.
“Whew……. Go Yeonwoo’s body has gotten worse. You don’t even need me to tell you what caused it, I’m sure.”
With that said, Kim Sungchan slid his hand behind Go Yeonwoo’s neck and stroked it.
“You implanted a chip in here, didn’t you? The chip that seals esper abilities, I mean.”
When Han Jihyuk remained silent, Kim Sungchan aggressively swept back his own bangs this time.
“What are you going to do now that it looks like it’s going to become useless?”
At those words, Han Jihyuk’s brow twitched faintly.
Having grasped the entire situation from a single sentence, Han Jihyuk clenched his fists.
“Like I said before, there’s too much guiding energy. It’s overflowing like crazy. Do you think that’s a good thing? It means the guiding energy is about to devour every single bit of esper energy left inside his body, too.”
“…….”
“Which means the recovery ability—the unique trait of espers—is currently disappearing.”
“And why isn’t your treatment working on just the right ankle?”
“It seems like the two energies inside Go Yeonwoo are clashing with each other. Esper energy properties are viciously violent to begin with, you know. Like a bunch of monsters.”
Halting his explanation for a moment, Kim Sungchan shifted his gaze back to Go Yeonwoo’s still-unhealed right ankle, then added:
“Because the guiding energy keeps trying to consume it, the esper energy is violently resisting. That’s probably why my treatment isn’t working partially. This unhealed ankle right here is proof of that.”
Even after giving the full diagnosis, Kim Sungchan still looked like he had more to say.
Glancing sideways at Han Jihyuk, whose gaze remained fixed on Go Yeonwoo, Kim Sungchan spoke slowly.
“If you hadn’t driven Go Yeonwoo into this kind of state, his body wouldn’t have deteriorated to this extent. Park Jaerim and Seok Kiwoo took a lot of guiding, so Go Yeonwoo’s condition had been somewhat stable.”
“…….”
“What you did, Han Jihyuk, acted as the catalyst.”
Honestly speaking, Kim Sungchan wanted to hurl every curse in the book at Han Jihyuk.
He knew that if he searched the entire world, he wouldn’t be able to find another guide like Go Yeonwoo.
Guides were already few in numbers, and instead of cherishing such a precious guide, they were breaking him to pieces.
Kim Sungchan felt a raging fire burning inside him.
Of course, he knew that Go Yeonwoo had killed Woo Jiyoo.
He also knew that was why those bastards were itching to torture Go Yeonwoo.
But no matter how much Kim Sungchan thought about it, he felt like there must have been another reason for Go Yeonwoo’s actions.
They claimed that Go Yeonwoo, harboring a one-sided crush on Lee Dohoon, had ultimately gone crazy and killed Woo Jiyoo, but from Kim Sungchan’s perspective, it felt rather grating.
The idea that Go Yeonwoo killed Woo Jiyoo for a simple reason like that felt a bit suspicious.
Woo Jiyoo was someone who held a treasured position within the Center, starting from Team 1.
A precious guide protected by everyone—and Go Yeonwoo had killed him with his own hands?
That was something that couldn’t possibly be committed without extraordinary resolve.
If even he could sense that something was off, why couldn’t the guys from Team 1 even entertain such a thought?
It was beyond his understanding.
It was glaringly obvious to Kim Sungchan’s eyes: those guys were simply incapable of rational thinking when it came to anything concerning Go Yeonwoo.
Kim Sungchan was a healing-type esper, but he ranked high and had been on plenty of gate missions.
Assessing a situation was so easy for him it was practically second nature.
To think they were so blinded by the fact that Go Yeonwoo killed Woo Jiyoo that they were entirely obsessed with tormenting him—they truly were a bunch of hopeless idiots, Kim Sungchan thought as he looked back down at Go Yeonwoo.
Seeing the right ankle still twisted without the slightest hint of recovery made him sigh.
Honestly, in a state like that, even natural recovery was at a level that was difficult to expect.
With the esper energy fiercely interfering with the healing process itself, there was no way natural recovery could happen.
Reaching the conclusion that Go Yeonwoo might end up with a permanent limp in the end, Kim Sungchan pressed hard on the bridge of his nose.
“Haa…….”
Since recovery was impossible anyway, he figured he should at least apply a splint.
Leaving him like that as-is didn’t feel right either.
He wasn’t a doctor, just a healing esper, but he knew how to put on a splint and wrap bandages.
“I saw some stuff in the warehouse earlier that could work for a splint. Can I go grab it?”
Even at Kim Sungchan’s question, Han Jihyuk gave no answer.
He merely stared unblinkingly at Go Yeonwoo with a gaze that was nothing short of obsessive.
What a moron he was for expecting an answer.
He’d just take care of it himself.
Sighing to himself, Kim Sungchan opened the door and walked out to head to the warehouse.
Click.
With the door closing, only Go Yeonwoo, still unconscious and lying on the bed, and Han Jihyuk were left behind in the room.
Han Jihyuk didn’t blink an eye as he stared at Go Yeonwoo.
It was a gaze full of obsession, borderline suffocating in its tenacity.
Within that stare, some unnameable emotion was also swirling.
Han Jihyuk, who had been about to reach out toward the twisted ankle, abruptly stopped short.
Strangely, he hesitated.
