“Lee Hanseo, Guide!”
The loud footsteps pierced his frayed nerves, and soon, the door slammed open.
A visibly exhausted medical staff member barged in.
Before he could catch his breath, he screamed Lee Hanseo’s name like a desperate shout.
His urgent voice sliced through the air, striking Hanseo’s eardrums.
“He, he woke up…! Park Woojun, the Esper… he woke up!”
Before the man could finish his sentence, Hanseo was already out the door.
Though his legs trembled uncontrollably, he somehow managed not to fall as he dashed forward, all while a group of Espers who had been anxiously waiting outside the room quickly followed him like shadows.
With each unsteady step Hanseo took, the group behind him twitched, their hands involuntarily trembling.
But none of them, no one, dared—to reach out and touch Hanseo’s body.
By the time he had barely passed through the hallway, his lungs were burning.
This is why people always tell you to exercise a bit more, right?
A kind voice echoed in his ears like an auditory hallucination. His teeth clenched instinctively.
His legs, pumping furiously, showed no sign of slowing down.
There was no time to wait for the elevator just two floors down.
Hanseo threw open the emergency exit door and leaped down the stairs two or three steps at a time. His legs, unable to keep up with his frantic heart, wobbled uncontrollably.
A loud clatter echoed down the emergency stairwell, like a skid mark left behind.
“Hanseo, the S-class Guide!”—someone gasped in shock.
Thankfully, he managed to grab the railing in time, avoiding the humiliation of tumbling to the floor.
“Guide Hanseo, perhaps it’s better if we—”
“Don’t touch me!”
Hanseo screamed, almost violently. His arms, sore from supporting the weight of his entire body, and his clearly sprained ankle were both numb to the pain.
It wasn’t their fault. Not really.
After all, who was Lee Hanseo?
He was the only S-Class Guide in all of Asia, not just this country.
It made sense for them to feel more comfortable treating his body like a sacred relic.
But… until he saw with his own eyes that his Esper, who hadn’t woken up for days after escaping the dungeon, was truly okay, he didn’t want to touch anyone—or be touched by anyone.
“…”
Several Espers reflexively reached out as if to catch his shoulder, but Hanseo glared at them sharply, offering no apologies. He straightened his legs again and started running.
Every second counted.
Perhaps it was worth the breathless sprint because soon, the familiar sign of the isolation room came into view.
Given how anxious and restless Hanseo had been the past few days, it seemed only natural that he would rush in.
Yet, just as the moment he had been waiting for was right in front of him, he froze, unable to place his hand on the door handle.
Why? He just needed to open the door and walk in.
The person he had been waiting for was surely beyond that door.
So why couldn’t he bring himself to push it open?
Hanseo stared at the floor, asking himself the same question over and over again.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know the answer.
He was merely buying time by not going in.
“…”
The answer was painfully simple. He was terrified.
Because he couldn’t be sure what kind of condition the awakened Esper on the other side would be in this time, waiting for him.
Swallowing down a sob he tried to convince himself was due to shortness of breath, Hanseo slowly placed his hand on the door handle.
Without making a sound.
“Park Woojun, I’m here….”
Finally, the door opened softly.
“Did you sleep well? How do you feel? Your guiding levels… hmm, not bad.”
He forced himself to speak cheerfully, resisting the urge to scream and run away.
His gaze darted anxiously between the panel displaying the guiding levels and the other unfamiliar medical devices.
The tension was palpable.
“Hey, Woojun.”
Still, there was no response.
Hanseo’s voice was the only thing echoing in the small 3-4 square-meter Esper isolation room.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“…”
“Didn’t you miss me?”
Hanseo awkwardly straightened his head, trying to hide his trembling hands behind him.
There was no more avoiding it.
“Who… who are you?”
The once gentle voice that had whispered sweet nothings to him now struck Hanseo’s heart like a stone thrown with casual cruelty.
He inhaled sharply, blinking his eyes several times, trying to dry the tears.
As he did so, the man lying on the bed in a patient gown—a man who looked so unfamiliar—continued to drag Hanseo into despair.
That man was still Park Woojun, yet, at the same time, he was no longer Hanseo’s one and only bonded Esper.
“Do you… know me?”
The eyes that once overflowed with tender love now held nothing but confusion, and perhaps fear.
Hanseo felt a sudden, violent urge to kill the man who was now looking at him in fear.
“Yeah… I know you. Too well, that’s the problem.”
Swallowing back familiar impulses along with his tears, Hanseo forced a radiant smile.
This too would pass, fade away, just like a fleeting moment.
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