GTLTGIDES chapter 15

In this moment, if it were my last, what should I be doing?

Fortunately, I entrusted Yang Heewoon’s child to Elliot.

Both Rex and Elliot have done guiding recently, so only Cha Junseong remains.

Unlike the other two, someone might be willing to guide Cha Junseong.

Even so, it’s too soon for Yang Heewoon, the only person capable of guiding Special Team A at this timing, to retire.

A hint.

I should at least give a hint about Eunsoo’s existence…

I fumbled through my pockets and found my terminal.

I created a group chat precisely for moments like this.

“Ah…”

But the battery was already at its limit.

2%.

I glanced briefly at the charger, but it was too far.

After a grueling 30 minutes, just holding the terminal was exhausting.

“Please…”

Please, let the battery last just long enough for me to leave my final words.

I don’t need to say much. Just ‘convenience store’.

Those three characters will do.

There’s only one convenience store I’ve frequented recently, so Cha Junseong would definitely check it out.

Maybe Rex would remember the convenience store I went to with him.

But as soon as I managed to open the messaging app, the battery icon flashed red, and the terminal abruptly turned off.

“…”

I couldn’t even sigh. I dropped the terminal and slumped.

‘It’s over.’

I can’t move anymore.

If I remain like this, I will die within half a day.

‘I don’t want to…’

Tears welled up.

Having faced death once before, I thought I could be stoic about a second death.

But I was wrong. I don’t want to die. It’s too soon.

Not even half a year, just a week. I want to talk more with Eunsoo.

I want to stay as a guide to the three a little longer. It’s too cruel to give me hope and regrets and then take me away so suddenly.

If I had even three months, no, just one month… I wouldn’t be this sad.

“Ugh… Ah…”

My weak body didn’t even allow me to cry.

As soon as my chest filled with sobs, it felt like a boulder was crushing me.

The already piercing headache intensified, and my muscles screamed.

Gasping for breath, my barely upright body lost balance and fell to the floor.

The floor was cold enough to be pitiful. I curled up and clutched Elliot’s coat tightly.

• Clang clang.

The front door shook. Someone was gripping and shaking it.

Then came the sound of strong knocks, as if pounding with fists.

“Yang Heewoon, are you in there?”

And then, a familiar voice.

“Cha…”

It’s Cha Junseong.

How did he get here? Upon hearing his voice, joy, relief, and sorrow exploded within me.

I wanted to go open the door, but I couldn’t even move a finger. Even keeping my eyelids open was hard.

Tears just flowed endlessly.

“Save… me…”

Before I could finish my words, there was a tremendous crash, and something shattered.

In my blurred vision, obscured by heat and tears, a dark figure approached. I recognized it as Cha Junseong’s trademark suit.

“…Get it together, …Heewoon!”

Hearing him call my name, I closed my eyes.

Thinking irresponsibly that it would be okay to die beside Cha Junseong.

[That person didn’t come today either.]

The boy wrote the same phrase as yesterday as soon as he opened his notebook. It wasn’t just yesterday. He wrote this sentence the day before as well.

But today, he planned to write more. It had been three days of writing the same phrase, and he realized that one line was not enough to express his accumulated feelings.

• Tap. Tap. Tap.

He tapped the period with his pen and then started writing again.

[He is a strange person.]

[He smiles at me.]

[He cried because of me.]

Many people directed emotions like anger, contempt, annoyance, and frustration at the boy. But he was different.

It wasn’t just that he laughed or cried while looking at the boy. Unlike others who projected their emotions onto the boy due to external stimuli, he was the opposite.

The boy’s presence affected him. He focused solely on the boy. Though they were just a customer and a part-timer at a convenience store, the boy felt like he was at the center of the man’s world.

The boy found that intriguing about him.

• Tap. Tap. Tap.

[He seemed to visit twice a day. When I wasn’t there, he left disappointed. When I was, he stayed.]

[He always buys the same thing. He likes coffee milk. Though the brand changes, he only drinks sweet coffee milk with caffeine.]

[If he buys something else, it’s for me.]

[He rarely looks at his phone, lost in thought, glancing at me, smiling, then looking sullen, and smiling again.]

[When he leaves, he waves at me.]

[But he didn’t greet me on the last day.]

The boy glanced at the uneaten sandwich.

He had planned to share it with him if he came back in the evening, but he didn’t come.

Now, it must be spoiled. But he couldn’t throw it away.

At least, until he saw him again.

[Yang Heewoon.]

He wrote the name the man had written on the drink label. It took him a while to decipher the messy handwriting, but after looking at it for a while, he found it endearing.

“……”

The boy stared blankly at the label with ‘Yang Heewoon’ written on it, then forced his gaze back to his notebook.

[Why isn’t he coming?]

• Tap. Tap. Tap.

[Is he never coming again?]

• Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Did he feel burdened because he told me his name…?”

Maybe he didn’t want a personal relationship and just wanted to watch from afar?

“…Then why did he tell me his name?”

“He dragged me into his world and then ran away when I approached?”

He clenched his pen hard. The boy frowned at the scribbled ‘Yang Heewoon’ on the label.

Then he realized something strange. Overwhelmed by the situation at the time, he had overlooked it.

Yang Heewoon was odd.

‘…Weird. Why did Yang Heewoon write his name on this?’

The boy had conveyed his name through lip movements instead of speaking because of the restriction placed on him.

The restriction prevented him from doing anything beyond his part-time job, including personal conversations.

The issue was how Yang Heewoon answered the boy’s question.

Instead of just saying it, he chose to write it on a drink label he bought. Not a memo, but a label, as if he wanted to keep it secret.

Almost as if he knew about the restriction placed on the boy.

The boy relaxed his grip on the pen.

[Special Team A]

He recalled the ID Yang Heewoon showed on the day he was assaulted by a troublemaker.

‘Special Team A…? Could it be, the team of S-class Espers…’

The words of the drunken assailant echoed in his mind.

There’s another hint about Yang Heewoon’s identity here.

The boy had previously disregarded the term ‘Special A-Team,’ but it was a familiar word to him.

“If it weren’t for those damned Special A-Team members, I’d be the best in this country!”

“No. It’s fine. They don’t have a guide to lead them. They won’t last long. Whether they go on a rampage or get devoured by their own abilities and die.”

He often referred to them as ‘idiots.’

Was that man, Yang Heewoon, also an Esper like those ‘idiots’?

The boy shook his head.

No, it felt different. If anything, he was more like the boy himself than the ‘idiots.’ So then…

“Damn it. A mere B-rank thinking he can guide an S-rank Esper. Is he out of his mind?”

“It’s about time he drops out, that B-rank loser…”

“There’s no way a B-rank loser could guide an S-rank Esper…!”

Soon, the true identity of ‘Yang Heewoon’ became clear.

[A B-rank guide affiliated with the Special A-Team]

At this point, the boy came up with a way to make Yang Heewoon appear before him.

There was no guarantee of 100% success, but it was better than just sitting around with his thumb up his nose.

Next step: how to catch him when he reappears.

“What if he shows up and I get hurt again?”

Would he, like on the day he was assaulted, get angry again? Would he come to the convenience store, even if he had to see his wounds?

The boy looked at himself. The most noticeable places would be his hands or wrists.

He raised a pen. He needed to inflict a wound, but it shouldn’t interfere with his work.

However, it needed to be deep enough to elicit sympathy.

He calculated carefully and tightened his grip on the pen.

“No.”

However, he lowered his hand without performing the intended action.

He needed to be precise. Was Yang Heewoon angry because he was ‘injured,’ or because he was ‘hit’?

If it was the latter, simply getting injured might not attract enough attention.

The boy’s contemplation didn’t last long.

“It’s definitely about being ‘hit.’”

The boy, Ye Eunsoo, closed his notebook.