* * *
He managed to get into the vehicle, but the real problem was that Wonho refused to let go of him.
In the end, Haebom had no choice but to sit on Wonho’s lap.
Wonho shifted uncomfortably, then lowered his arms and wrapped them around Haebom’s waist.
Before he knew it, he was in a full-on back hug. What was this, a stuffed bear?
Riding in a car while held in a strange man’s arms was unpleasant enough, especially since there was plenty of space.
But the moment anyone tried to help separate them, Wonho seemed ready to freeze them on the spot.
So Haebom had to struggle onto the vehicle on his own.
First, he was freezing.
Then, with Wonho’s body heat, he started sweating and felt too hot.
And just when he thought he had adjusted, the sweat cooled, making him shiver all over again.
He was definitely going to catch a cold at this rate.
Fortunately, one of the staff, apparently feeling sorry for him, draped a padded jacket over him.
It was something they had been wearing, so he felt a bit bad, but he didn’t refuse.
It was far too cold for that.
The gate had appeared in the middle of an open lot with nothing but police tape marking the area, which meant the center was quite a distance away.
The staff remained on guard around him the entire ride and started asking questions.
“Your name is Yoon Haebom, and you’re twenty-one, correct? How did you enter the gate?”
“I was camping, went for a walk on the trail, and suddenly, the scenery changed to a desert. I didn’t enter on purpose.”
The man listening to his explanation frowned deeply.
In his ten years working at the center, he had never encountered a case like this.
Walking along a path only to suddenly find oneself inside a gate?
He had never heard anything like it.
Pressing for more details, he bombarded Haebom with questions.
Haebom explained everything in detail—the name and location of the campsite, the exact circumstances leading up to his arrival inside the gate, and everything he had witnessed within it.
The man meticulously recorded his account and immediately reported it to his superiors.
Before long, the vehicle came to a stop.
They had arrived at the center.
“You can step out now.”
“…Yeah. I guess I have to.”
The staff disembarked first, waiting for Haebom to follow.
He wanted to, but there was just one issue—the human backpack still clinging to him.
In the end, he had to practically crawl out of the vehicle, carrying Wonho on his back.
At this point, his stamina felt like it had hit rock bottom.
He had been sweating in the desert, carrying around someone larger than himself nonstop, and now, despite all that effort, not a single person was offering to help.
No, more accurately, they couldn’t help.
None of them wanted to risk turning into a frozen corpse.
“This way. Have you been to the center before?”
“…No, never.”
Haebom darted his gaze around.
Technically, during the car ride, he had told them everything—except for one crucial detail.
That this world was the same as the novel he had read just hours ago.
That he seemed to have entered another reality.
He had deliberately left that part out.
Countless scenarios flashed through his mind in an instant.
No matter how he imagined it, the end result was always the same—a mental hospital.
So that was one thing he simply could not say.
The staff continued speaking, but their words barely registered.
His mind was too overwhelmed, and more importantly, Wonho was unbearably heavy.
He simply followed along on instinct.
All he wanted was to reach a place where someone could finally pry Wonho off of him.
The center was composed of several buildings, which Haebom had already known from reading the novel.
The place the staff took him to was a research facility specializing in espers, gates, and monsters.
Shortly after entering, he felt a slight decrease in the weight pressing down on him.
Had Wonho finally regained consciousness?
He turned to check, but it seemed Wonho’s body was moving purely on muscle memory.
His eyes remained shut.
Was he unconscious?
Asleep?
Either way, he was still clinging onto Haebom, following wherever he was led.
At this point, Haebom could do nothing but accept his fate.
Any time he tried to move away, Wonho’s arms would tighten around his waist.
― Ding! Fourth floor.
The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open.
The staff led the way, with Haebom trudging behind, still carrying Wonho.
The padded jacket he had received was impossible to wear properly with someone clinging to his back, so he just draped it over his shoulders and slipped his arms through the sleeves.
Even that small amount of warmth was a relief.
Back inside the gate, Wonho’s presence had radiated cold, but now that they were outside, he felt warm.
It was strange—but since it was keeping him from freezing, Haebom decided not to question it.
Watching the staff walk away after dropping him off, he sighed and turned to the door they had indicated.
He had expected to meet someone who could resolve this entire situation.
Instead, what he found was a room that looked unmistakably like a hospital ward.
No—it was a hospital ward.
A single white bed sat in the room, surrounded by machines one would expect to see in an intensive care unit.
The space was quite large, with a sofa positioned to the left of the bed.
But since he was still attached to Wonho, he couldn’t sit anywhere—unless he wanted to sit on Wonho’s lap again.
So instead, he just stood there, aimlessly, in the middle of the hospital room.
He had been walking for quite some time, and no matter how much he had read about it in the novel, actually experiencing it—being subjected to such things by a man he had never even met before—was exhausting.
Now that he thought about it, it made sense that he would be mentally drained.
He had even seen a massive scorpion pit, far beyond what could be considered normal in size…
“Haa… Am I even going to be able to go home?”
The camping site wasn’t the issue.
It felt like he had been transported to an entirely different world, and since he had no idea how he got here, there was no way for him to figure out how to return.
A throbbing headache set in, making his exhaustion even worse.
But despite all this, the staff member from the center didn’t seem in any hurry to leave after shoving Haebom into this place.
His legs were starting to ache now…
Click.
The sound of a door opening.
Thankfully, people who could actually do something about this had arrived.
The center staff member he had seen earlier entered, along with several individuals in what looked like doctor’s coats.
“Hello. I was told your name is Yoon Haebom, is that correct?”
The woman at the front approached him with a polite smile.
Haebom quickly nodded.
She introduced herself as Jin Seyoung, the head researcher of Research Team 1.
It was a name Haebom recognized.
While she didn’t play a major role in the novel, she was the researcher who had explained Wonho’s condition to the female protagonist.
“We’re going to conduct an examination on Esper Wonho’s condition now. If it’s not too much trouble, could you lie down on the bed?”
“…What?”
Haebom blinked, unsure if he had heard her correctly.
But looking around, he realized that no one else seemed the least bit surprised by what she had just said.
For a moment, he wondered if he really had misheard.
* * *
