“What are you saying? Guiding didn’t work?”
Jin Seyoung, who had been seated at her desk, shot to her feet when an unwelcome guest barged into the lab.
The intruder was Choi Yoonseo.
It was supposed to be the time when Yoonseo was guiding Wonho.
But instead of being in the guide office with Wonho, she had come here, to Seyoung’s lab.
Her whole body was trembling with fear, but Seyoung couldn’t summon even a shred of sympathy.
Her mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of Wonho.
“It’s the first time this has ever happened. I couldn’t feel his wavelengths at all. It was like… like Wonho’s whole body was rejecting my guiding. His nose was bleeding, his eyes were bloodshot… He looked really bad.”
“Where is Wonho now?”
“In my office. Wh-Where are you going?”
‘Is that even a question?’
Seyoung furrowed her brow in frustration.
Ignoring Yoonseo’s pleading eyes, she grabbed an armful of guiding medication and rushed off to find Wonho.
As she made her way toward the building where the guide offices were, Seyoung pondered.
Why would Wonho reject guiding from Yoonseo, especially when their matching rate was relatively high?
It didn’t make sense.
‘…Yoon Haebom, wasn’t it…?’
That was the name of the person Wonho had been desperately searching for, turning the entire center upside down in the process.
The name felt oddly familiar.
No matter how much Seyoung racked her brain, she couldn’t recall ever hearing that name in her life, nor did it appear anywhere on the center’s guide registry.
There were probably plenty of people named Yoon Haebom across South Korea, but Seyoung had a gut feeling they weren’t the ones Wonho was looking for.
There was only one reason an Esper would go to such lengths to find someone: their guide.
There was no other explanation.
On top of that, the symptoms Yoonseo described didn’t add up—unless it was one specific thing.
But that shouldn’t have been possible.
‘…Imprinting? With who?’
Wonho had always struggled with receiving guidance from others.
But never before had he outright rejected it this violently.
From the bleeding, to a high-matching guide unable to sense the Esper’s wavelengths, to the complete refusal of guiding—it all pointed to one thing:
Symptoms that only appeared when an Esper tried to receive guiding from someone other than their Imprinted guide.
Jin Seyoung moved quickly as soon as she arrived at Choi Yoonseo’s office.
Luckily, Yoonseo had rushed out so hastily that she hadn’t closed the door properly, making it easy for Seyoung to slip in.
Her hands trembled slightly from nerves, but she forced herself to focus.
She wasn’t a Guide or Esper, so she couldn’t sense the wild energy waves coming off Wonho, but even as an ordinary person, she could clearly feel the murderous intent radiating from him.
“Wonho! Get a hold of yourself! If you keep this up, you’re going to lose control!”
“Ugh… fuck… haah…”
Judging by his cursing, he wasn’t completely gone yet.
The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, veins bursting across them.
His clenched fists bulged with veins that looked ready to explode.
Honestly, Seyoung couldn’t even imagine how much pain Wonho was in.
She’d never seen him suffer like this before, and just witnessing it felt contagious.
“Give me your arm. Hurry.”
Gritting his teeth, Wonho extended his arm, muscles taut as his energy waves raged inside him like they were about to tear his organs apart.
It wasn’t just his fists—the veins all over his body were swollen and ready to burst.
Clicking her tongue, Seyoung grabbed one of the Guide serum vials she’d hastily snatched earlier, stabbed the needle into it, and drew the liquid into the syringe.
Guide serum couldn’t be injected more than three times in one go, but just in case, Seyoung had grabbed several.
“Wonho, relax your arm. If you tense up like this, the needle won’t go in.”
Wonho frowned at Seyoung’s words. It wasn’t like he was tensing up on purpose.
The searing pain and the chaotic waves raging inside him, urging him to lose control and destroy everything, made it impossible not to tense.
Even now, amidst the pain, he thought of Haebom.
He regretted how he’d always scolded Haebom for not relaxing when they were together in bed.
How the hell was anyone supposed to relax?
Smack.
Seyoung slapped Wonho’s bulging forearm with her palm.
The sudden shock made Wonho’s muscles loosen slightly, and Seyoung didn’t miss the opportunity, plunging the needle into the swollen vein.
His entire body was in so much pain, or maybe he was just so numb, that he didn’t even feel the thick needle piercing his skin.
He couldn’t even feel the serum flowing into his veins. His body was paralyzed with pain.
After injecting the entire dose, Seyoung checked Wonho’s face.
Was he getting better?
His eyes were closed, brows furrowed in discomfort.
It was hard to tell.
It was obvious one dose wouldn’t be enough, so Seyoung quickly prepared another injection and stabbed the needle into Wonho’s arm.
“…Wonho, how are you feeling?”
After administering the maximum allowed doses, Seyoung checked Wonho’s vitals.
Tapping the display on her wrist device, the screen showed Wonho’s wave levels.
The numbers had dropped slightly—but noticeably.
Guide serum didn’t immediately suppress waves like direct Guiding did.
It was still far from being a true substitute.
If Wonho hadn’t been an S-Class Esper with exceptional mental control, enduring this much pain would’ve been impossible.
The average person wouldn’t survive having their body ripped apart from the inside.
Moments like this made Seyoung doubt whether Wonho was even human.
“Haah…”
“Feeling a little better? Your levels are going down.”
Unlike direct Guiding energy, the serum simply suppressed his waves, so the pain couldn’t be eliminated entirely.
Still, his face looked marginally less pale.
Wonho clenched his jaw and nodded.
He could feel the chaotic waves subsiding, if only slightly.
But oddly enough, it felt worse now that the waves were being forcibly suppressed.
His body craved Haebom’s Guiding more than ever.
His face might’ve looked steadier, but his expression was clouded with despair.
“…Wonho, who did you Imprint with? Besides Choi Yoonseo, were there any other available Guides? Who is it? Are they in the Seoul branch? No, if they were, I’d know. Are they domestic? Foreign?”
Seyoung, sensing the murderous aura dissipate, carefully opened her mouth.
She started cautiously but quickly grew desperate, her eyes shining with urgency.
If possible, she wanted to grab Wonho by the collar and shake him, but touching him right now would be suicidal.
Seyoung had known Wonho a long time, but even for her, approaching in moments like this wasn’t easy.
Frustrated, Seyoung clenched her own fists in the air.
Wonho tilted his head back with an annoyed sigh.
“Yoon Haebom.”
“…What?”
“Yoon Haebom. My Guide.”
Even at the mention of Imprinting, Wonho showed no reaction.
It wasn’t like he’d known Haebom was his Imprint while Haebom was still around.
He hadn’t realized until after Haebom disappeared and he received Guiding from Choi Yoonseo.
That’s when it hit him—he’d Imprinted on Haebom.
Wonho had thought the only trace Haebom left behind in this world was that small room on the first floor of his house.
But no—Haebom had left his mark on Wonho’s body too.
Realizing he was Imprinted with Haebom filled him with overwhelming relief.
It made him feel Haebom’s existence with every fiber of his being, allowing him to finally breathe.
The phenomenon of Esper Imprinting was still under study—its causes and consequences unclear.
It wasn’t something one could do intentionally, so research was slow, with limited examples.
Yet… Wonho had Imprinted?
