This S-Class Esper is Not an Obsessive Maniac

4.

The initial password for the pair’s accommodation is an eight-digit number combining the Esper’s and Guide’s birthdays. Ryu Ho-yeon first entered the four digits of his birthday and then quickly turned his head back. He was about to ask about the birthday, but a hand suddenly reached out from behind and pressed the keypad. One-one-two-two, pound. Somehow, it was an easy-to-remember sequence of numbers. Once again, he noticed how long the fingers were.

Without much thought, Ryu Ho-yeon placed his hand over the Guide’s hand as it was about to leave the keypad. He might have been mistaken, but he thought he heard a sharp intake of breath right behind him.

Regardless, Ryu Ho-yeon’s attention was already fixated on the size of the Guide’s hand. Once something caught his interest, he couldn’t rest until he resolved it, so he continued to fiddle with the Guide’s hand, ignoring the sound of bags dropping. Due to their height difference of about 10 centimeters, when he calmly placed their palms together, the Guide’s hand was easily a full joint longer. Every time he pressed the soft palm, devoid of calluses, it felt like red bean paste oozing out of a bun, and the subtle burst of guiding felt good.

Standing behind him with his hand awkwardly trapped, the Guide was now blushing furiously, barely able to breathe properly. Completely oblivious to this (and likely not caring even if he had noticed), Ryu Ho-yeon spent over 5 minutes playing with the other’s hand before suddenly letting go and striding through the front door on his own. He had been standing too long. His legs were starting to hurt.

“…Hm?”

Something felt off from the moment he took off his shoes and opened the inner door. Wondering if it was strange that the person who entered first was standing there with a puzzled look, a voice from behind asked, “What’s wrong, hyung?”

“It’s just…”

“Just?”

“Isn’t it… too spacious?”

Indeed, it was. Unless it was a standalone house given to team leaders and above, the accommodations typically provided for pairs were at most 15 or 16 pyeong (about 50-53 square meters) two-room apartments. No matter how skillfully the balcony was expanded or the interior designed, the spacious corridor and open living room before them were definitely not sizes that could be crammed into 15 pyeong. Having frequently visited Kim Jun-young and Lee Jung-hyuk’s pair accommodation before they moved out, he knew this for certain.

“Ah. Is that why? When I came to see it last time, it seemed a bit cramped, so I just asked for the entire 11th floor. It feels less confining with the walls knocked down, doesn’t it?”

“Huh?”

“What?”

Ryu Ho-yeon unconsciously responded with “Huh?” and the Guide, not understanding Ryu Ho-yeon’s reaction, immediately replied with “What?” The two blinked at each other, staring at each other’s faces for a moment.

Breaking through an extremely improbable scenario, this time it was Ryu Ho-yeon who showed the more sensible reaction. Naturally, the Ability Management Agency, colloquially known as the “Center,” under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of South Korea, was a government agency operating according to national laws, not a private institution owned or operated by an individual or corporation. This meant that the living space allocated to pairs and individuals was all formally determined. Even if the manager in charge of assignments tried to accommodate requests, at most they could assign quarters closer to the main building or try to place them on a preferred floor if possible.

In fact, a few years ago, when the child of a quite well-known member of the National Assembly entered as an Esper and caused a commotion, insisting they absolutely couldn’t live in such cramped individual quarters and demanding pair accommodation, the incident made the news. After that, monitoring of accommodation assignments became even stricter. It was impossible to accept and move on with a reason like “It seemed a bit cramped, so I asked for the whole floor.” Especially for Ryu Ho-yeon, who knew the inner workings of the Center better than anyone.

“No. You’re saying they just gave you a whole floor because you said it seemed cramped? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Well… They did give it to me…”

“Why?”

“Well… Strictly speaking, this accommodation building… was built by my grandfather?”

“What are you talking about? Are you saying your grandfather was a construction worker or something?”

“What?”

“Huh?”

It was a repetition of the same situation. Having come in to sit down because his legs hurt, Ryu Ho-yeon forgot about his aching legs and looked up at the Guide’s face with a huge question mark practically written on his forehead. The Guide, who had been wearing an equally bewildered expression despite having no right to be so confused, eventually asked cautiously if Ryu Ho-yeon didn’t know.

“What don’t I know?”

“Um… I’m Lee Han-seo’s cousin.”

“!!”

It was the kind of impact that made him feel like he should immediately find some orange juice to dramatically spit out, even though he wasn’t drinking anything. Ryu Ho-yeon felt he hadn’t been this surprised in nearly ten, no, twenty years.

“Ha, Ha, Ha, Han-seo?”

“Yes.”

“The, the, the Han-seo I know?”

“…Yes. ‘That’ Lee Han-seo.”

Seeing Ryu Ho-yeon’s reaction, which seemed (and truly was) even more joyful and excited than when he heard the news of his pair Guide appearing, the Guide showed an ambiguous expression, neither smiling nor crying, as he pulled at the corners of his lips.

Lee Han-seo, known as Ryu Ho-yeon’s oldest friend and an S-class Guide, was a golden spoon among golden spoons, with a grandfather who was the chairman of a leading conglomerate known to everyone in the country. And Lee Han-seo’s maternal grandfather, that conglomerate chairman, was the paternal grandfather of this Guide standing right in front of Ryu Ho-yeon.

It was a well-known fact within the facility that after Chairman Choi’s beloved grandson was revealed to be a Guide, he poured money like water into the Center, newly expanding the main building and accommodation buildings. Moreover, the ownership of this land with several accommodation buildings lined up, and all the buildings, still belonged to Chairman Choi, who had permanently leased them to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Therefore, Choi Jae-won, as a direct descendant of Chairman Choi, the landowner and building owner, legally had the right to enjoy this level of convenience and more.

“So we’ve met before, but I guess you don’t remember.”

“Han-seo’s cousin… Han-seo’s cousin…”

The Guide’s bitter mumbling didn’t even reach Ryu Ho-yeon’s ears, which were filled with a name he hadn’t heard in a long time. It was a natural reaction, considering that Lee Han-seo was still the person who held the heaviest weight in Ryu Ho-yeon’s inner world, second only to his mother.

Lee Han-seo, who had been diagnosed as an ability user at the mere age of seven, claiming the titles of Asia’s first and the world’s youngest S-class Guide simultaneously, was still a very famous figure holding the champion belt as Asia’s only S-class Guide. To Ryu Ho-yeon, more than these impressive titles, he remained the first peer friend he had ever met and the person he thought might become his first pair Guide.

A materialization ability user who could surely soar if only supported by guiding, and an S-class Guide who appeared out of nowhere. Moreover, they were the same age. From the perspective of the higher-ups, how tempting a combination must it have been?

For this reason, despite their extremely low matching rate, Ryu Ho-yeon and Lee Han-seo had been bound together as a prospective pair since they first met at the age of seven. And until about five years ago, just before the twenty-year-old Lee Han-seo left to choose another Esper, Ryu Ho-yeon had believed without a doubt that Lee Han-seo would stay by his side for life. Although, even until the day Lee Han-seo left, after dedicating himself to matching rate improvement experiments for over a decade, suffering to the point of near death, their matching rate remained at a mere 50 percent.

Since the matching rate between an Esper and a Guide was determined by how much the Guide could accept and endure the Esper’s unique wavelength, the pain of the improvement experiments over their long years together was imposed solely on Lee Han-seo. Therefore, Ryu Ho-yeon couldn’t even think of trying to turn back the steps of his friend who wanted to leave for another Esper whom he truly loved, truly felt attracted to, and claimed to have recognized at first sight.

After parting like that, the two, each harboring excessive guilt towards the other for different reasons, lived in the same Center but couldn’t interact directly, only cautiously observing each other from afar…

“Has Han-seo’s cold gotten better? I noticed he seemed to have a bit of a lingering cough last time.”

Where had such a gift suddenly fallen from? Ryu Ho-yeon’s eyes, which had been as dull as frozen pollack in the dawn wind, suddenly began to sparkle as if by magic. His iris color, notably lighter than most Asians, shone with vitality, looking just like glass marbles polished to a high shine.

“What? Ah, yes… It should be, no, it has gotten better. He should be fine now.”

The Guide, who had crawled into the Center of his own volition, blinded by long-standing unrequited love, nodded as if mesmerized by Ryu Ho-yeon’s eyes. Though they weren’t particularly close cousins to begin with, he suddenly realized that showing he didn’t even know his cousin had been sick would be missing a huge opportunity.

“No wonder you looked so refined, it’s because you’re Han-seo’s cousin. I see, I see.”

The small nodding head was just unreal in its beauty. Just like that moment when he had crashed into his young life like an accident, dominating his entire field of vision in an instant.

“Say, how’s Han-seo doing these days? Have you heard anything?”

“Let’s unpack first, hyung. I’ll tell you slowly.”

“Ah! Right, the luggage!”

Watching Ryu Ho-yeon scurry away like a squirrel with his simple luggage bag containing just a few clothes, Choi Jae-won quickly pulled out his mobile phone. To receive even a few more seconds of attention, he needed to quickly find out how his not-so-favorite cousin was doing.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had personally contacted Lee Han-seo, but he wasn’t too worried.

“Ah, hello. Aunt?”

―Oh my. Jae-won! Did you get to the Center alright? I heard you entered today!

“Yes. That’s why I’m calling, how’s Han-seo hyung doing these days? I was wondering if I should contact him later if he’s busy.”

―Han-seo? He’s the same as always. Just yesterday, he brought Team Leader Park over and had dinner at our house. With his chubby cheeks, he may be my son, but he really looks like he’s living the good life.

He had a reliable source of information that always worked for him – family ties.