Ordinary Person A

#10

“Me? Am I not ordinary?”

“As if.”

Do-hyun snorted, opening another beer can as the empty one was finished, at Ho-woo’s reaction of not believing his words no matter what. He pitied his friend who would never be able to objectively evaluate his own appearance in his lifetime.

Whether Do-hyun mocked him or not, Ho-woo rummaged through the chicken box and belatedly raised his eyebrows high upon finding a single wing left in the corner.

“Kim Do-hyun.”

“What?”

“Where did one of the legs go?”

At Ho-woo’s ominously lowered voice, Do-hyun patted his stomach. That leg had long since disappeared into his belly.

“You morally bankrupt bastard!”

Ho-woo picked up the TV remote nearby and started hitting Do-hyun with it.

“Ow! Oww!! Are you crazy?! Then just order new legs!!”

“Ordering new ones is one thing, but someone who gobbles up both legs alone needs to be hit!”

Do-hyun, trapped between the sofa and table and unable to dodge the flying remote, enthusiastically received it with his whole body. He hurriedly found his phone to order another set of just legs and groaned at his throbbing back.

“I’ve ordered more, so stop freaking out and tell me the name of the Esper you met!”

Due to his parents’ influence, he knew the names of Espers to some extent, so he planned to tell Ho-woo in detail what kind of bastard that Esper was within his knowledge. However, Do-hyun’s lips tightened at the high-pitched, irritated female voice heard beyond the tightly closed front door.

“Am I the team Guide for Team 1 or a babysitter?! From the captain down to the underlings, there’s not a single one with their head on straight!”

Light but clearly annoyed footsteps stopped in front of Ho-woo’s door after passing by.

And that unfamiliar woman even kicked the door irritably after pressing the broken doorbell that made no sound no matter how many times she pushed it.

“Hey! Oh-yul!! You crazy bastard, aren’t you going to open the door right now?!”

Bang bang bang!! The sound was loud enough to shake Ho-woo’s apartment. With an attitude that seemed certain someone was inside, Ho-woo quietly opened his front door and peeked out into the apartment corridor.

A woman with sleek black hair grown to her waist, wearing a neat uniform mixed with black and white, was kicking the door.

Somehow, it felt similar to the black Esper uniform Oh-yul wore. She was fiercely glaring with her eyes raised while pounding on the tightly closed steel door, then made eye contact with Ho-woo, who had poked his head out slightly, and smiled awkwardly while bowing her head.

“I’m sorry. Was it noisy? The beast living here has been absent without leave for days, so I came to catch him.”

“…Absent without leave?”

Ho-woo recalled Oh-yul’s last appearance. The man with blue eyes had disappeared without even entering his home, leaping away.

“Have you by any chance seen the big man living next door?”

“I last saw him on Wednesday.”

He hadn’t seen even a piece of clothing since that commute home together. Even though they were neighbors, Ho-woo hadn’t heard a single sound, so he couldn’t be sure if Oh-yul was really inside his home.

However, she took out a pad from the handbag hanging on her arm, checked something by pressing it firmly, and then gritted her teeth so loudly it could be clearly heard.

“Captain, you’re bothering the neighbor, aren’t you? Why don’t you hurry up and come out to go to the Guiding room yourself? Or should I issue an Esper rampage evacuation alert in this area using my Guide authority?”

It was close to a threat. Do-hyun, who had come out of the bathroom after washing his greasy hands despite this commotion, rested his chin on Ho-woo’s shoulder and watched the rare disturbance.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, the person who recently moved in next door has been absent without leave.”

“But isn’t that a Guide uniform?”

Do-hyun accurately recognized the uniform she was wearing. Similar to the Esper uniform but mixed with white, the neatly falling uniform jacket at the waistline and crisp white pants were the attire given to both male and female Guides.

“Plus, she called herself a Guide, and then Oh-yul?”

Ho-woo let out a small groan as his friend’s hand on his shoulder gradually applied more pressure.

“Ugh! Kim Do-hyun, it hurts.”

It was a small groan close to grumbling, barely audible to Do-hyun. But at the same time, the neighboring door swung open. The Guide who had been kicking the door, and Ho-woo and Do-hyun who had been peeking out, were all startled.

“Shit… This crazy bastard.”

The Guide reacted first. She quickly reached out to Oh-yul.

Oh-yul’s eyes were perfectly dyed blue, and his hair, always neatly arranged, had its front completely drenched in cold sweat.

His complexion wasn’t good either, and his face with sunken eyes and dark circles looked clearly sickly.

Oh-yul opened the door and immediately stared at Ho-woo. To be precise, he stared piercingly at Ho-woo and Do-hyun, who was resting his chin on Ho-woo’s shoulder. Then he grabbed the Guide’s wrist extended towards him.

“Guide Yu Hee-eun. When did I tell you to leave your post?”

It was a low voice like roughly scraping the floor. Despite being quite hoarse, it was sexy enough to be attractive even then. Ho-woo trembled at that voice.

However, Hee-eun retorted sharply instead.

“Ha! You speak well with your eyes like that? Let’s hear your reason. I need to submit a Guiding log to the higher-ups, so if you have a mouth, try saying something!”

“Do it.”

“What did you say?”

“I said do the Guiding. Guide Yu Hee-eun. Isn’t that why you came?”

Oh-yul was still holding her wrist and lowered his eyes under his long eyelashes. It was a cold gaze without a hint of kindness, but his lips were curved in a soft arc.

Hee-eun was dumbfounded by the sight of this man, who usually never smiled, glaring at her with a smile. She had come out of worry, but was being treated like a complete intruder. However, as Oh-yul said, she came for Guiding, so she slowly drew Oh-yul’s energy into her body through the grabbed wrist.

‘Ugh, shit.’

Every time she Guided this S-grade Esper, it took her breath away. It felt like being thrown naked into a vast, endless ocean and having her whole body pickled in salty water.

From the perspective of a Guide who had to draw the Esper’s energy into her body and become a channel for the energy to flow, she couldn’t help but feel infinite awe and fear towards this endless sea.

The chilling fear that she might drown at any moment tormented her every time she performed Guiding. Moreover, her matching rate with Oh-yul was only 38%. However, even that figure was the highest among existing Guides, which was why she was assigned as the team Guide.

A faint groan escaped between her tightly closed lips. It wasn’t because it felt good, but because she felt like she was about to die from suffocation when Oh-yul released Hee-eun’s wrist.

“…Gasp… Huff…. Shit. I really should quit. Take care of the rest yourself, whether you squeeze it out of other Guides or not.”

Wiping her sweaty forehead after just a few minutes, Hee-eun staggered away. Meanwhile, she politely bowed to Ho-woo and Do-hyun, who were still peeking out, and quickly left the scene.

“Uh… It’s been a while. Are you feeling alright?”

Although he had received Guiding for a few minutes, Oh-yul’s still vividly blue eyes moved slowly at Ho-woo’s awkward greeting. The cold eyes that had been directed at Hee-eun now touched on Do-hyun before hiding again under long eyelashes.

“I apologize for the disturbance. I haven’t been feeling well for the past few days, and my subordinate acted up noisily.”

“Were you sick?”

“…Yes. A little.”

Ho-woo’s eyebrows drooped into a (八) shape at Oh-yul’s words about being sick. If he had known he was sick, he could have taken care of him. He had left someone living alone to suffer alone, unable to tell if he was home or not.

Living alone himself, he knew well how miserable it felt to have no one to take care of you when you’re sick.

“…You could have at least told me. I would have bought you some medicine.”

Ho-woo mumbled, fidgeting with his fingertips.

“I’ll do that next time. …More importantly, I see that’s your friend.”

As Oh-yul’s gaze landed on Do-hyun, who was plastered to his back, Ho-woo quickly introduced him.

“Oh! Ah! Yes! This is Kim Do-hyun, my childhood friend.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m…”

“Oh-yul. S-grade Esper, right? Who doesn’t know your face? The whole country probably knows.”

Ho-woo, who hadn’t known until two months ago, felt embarrassed and covered his eyes with his hand. His ears turned red and his cheeks felt hot for some reason.

As his body heated up and became warm, Do-hyun, who was hugging Ho-woo from behind, whispered in disgust into his ear, “Why are you suddenly getting warm and acting weird?”

Shut up, Kim Do-hyun. Thanks to you, I wasn’t included in the “whole country.”

“I… suppose so.”

The man’s slowly answering gaze landed on Ho-woo. His hands, fluttering busily to cool down his suddenly raised body temperature while biting his lower lip firmly, looked cute in a way that didn’t match his age.

“Well then, since you’re not feeling well, get plenty of rest. Hey, let’s go inside.”

“Huh? …Okay. Then Oh-yul, rest well. We’ll talk quietly now.”

Do-hyun wrapped his arm around Ho-woo’s waist and pulled him into the house. Oh-yul stood there, intently fixing his gaze on that scene.