HLSEBT - 51

51. Bad Adults 2

Yoon Taeha encouraged Woo Joo Han to share anything that came to mind. 

“Think about it. Anything related to Kwon Min-gi—any story, no matter how small.” 

After some thought, Woo Joo Han mentioned noticing a few Guide students who weren’t close to him acting suspiciously. Their names overlapped with those Cheon Geonyoung had provided earlier: minor errand-runners for Hwang Sungbin. 

“They’re errand-runners.” 

“So Hwang Sungbin is using kids to sell drugs? Is he threatening them?” 

“We see it as mutual cooperation.” 

Unable to contain himself, Woo Joo Han cursed. Despite his dislike of Espers, he seemed like the kind of person who would never cross certain lines. She’d sensed that from their previous conversations. 

“So what’s the plan? Are we storming the principal’s office now?” 

“And then what?” 

Her unexpected counter-question made him blink. 

“Aren’t you supposed to barge in with a gun, arrest everyone, and shout, ‘Don’t move! Hands up!’?” 

“That chaotic stuff only happens at the very end. I don’t even kick doors down much—I usually teleport.” 

For some reason, Woo Joo Han looked deeply disappointed. 

“You don’t kick doors?” 

“Is that disappointing?” 

“Damn…” 

Yoon Taeha understood his feelings. On her first mission, she had also expected everything to unfold like a movie. 

Ignore procedures, act swiftly, and let others clean up the mess—not her. 

But reality was different. Even when the desired outcome was right in front of her, patience was often required. Investigating a networked criminal organization like this demanded immense restraint. 

They still lacked information on how the drugs entered the school and who supplied them to Hwang Sungbin. 

There was also no concrete evidence tying the principal to everything or identifying someone who knew about his true nature and assisted him. Such a witness likely didn’t exist among the students. 

“The big fish will eventually get caught if we track them. But if we cut off the roots haphazardly in the middle, finding them again becomes impossible—even for us.” 

That’s why investigations started from the bottom and worked their way up, not the other way around. 

It was like repotting an expensive plant—gently shaking off the soil to ensure no newly sprouted roots were left behind. That’s what the Center expected. 

“So are we doing mass testing?” 

“That’s the goal.” 

“These kids are sharp. If we try drawing blood, they’ll hide immediately.” 

“Exactly. Testing requires blood.” 

“…Ah!” 

Woo Joo Han’s eyes lit up as if struck by enlightenment. Yoon Taeha gave him an encouraging look, silently urging him to explain. 

“After the evaluation matches, you’re planning to expose them!” 

She neither confirmed nor denied, simply gazing at him curiously, as if wondering how he arrived at that conclusion. 

Woo Joo Han felt like he was standing in front of a chalkboard covered in difficult problems. Nothing had changed except the revelation that she was an undercover agent. 

“Around the Olympics, doping scandals always spike. For you guys, the most important competition here is the evaluation matches.” 

“Is that so?” 

“I guarantee you, no Esper here will resist temptation just before the matches. These kids stake their lives on rankings—from newcomers to veterans. If we want to catch everyone involved, that’s the optimal time.” 

“So you’ll cooperate?” 

“Me?” 

“Did you think I’d tell you all this and leave you out?” 

Woo Joo Han’s eyes widened. 

Yoon Taeha gave him time to process. It was the right moment to recruit someone to help monitor the other students’ movements. 

Woo Joo Han had wide connections, and based on her observations, many female Espers seemed charmed by the dissonance between his cute appearance and cocky demeanor. 

He also had high recognition and favorability among the Guide students, making him perfect for monitoring Hwang Sungbin. 

“To be honest, you don’t really have a choice.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“This is the first time I’ve shared such information with you. So if this leaks, we’ll immediately know where it came from.” 

“Are you threatening me?” 

“I feel a little guilty since you’re a current student.” 

Woo Joo Han glared at her, clearly doubting her sincerity. She shrugged slightly. 

“I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt. All you need to do is keep an eye on the students’ movements.” 

“You think I’m scared to answer?” 

“Aren’t you?” 

“No way!” 

Flustered, he quickly agreed to help. After asking about the extent of his surveillance duties, he confidently declared it wouldn’t be a problem. 

With a slightly flushed face, he muttered, “I can do it,” then abruptly voiced something he’d been secretly worried about. 

“Kwon Min-gi… He’s not dead, right?” 

“I think someone who wanted to hide the side effects of the enhancer smuggled him out of H Building. They probably couldn’t kill him outright.” 

“Last year’s top ranker was Kwon Min-gi. But after autumn, his practical scores started dropping.” 

“And the next top ranker was Kang Jin-ho.” 

“The tyrant of Zellot Class.” 

Woo Joo Han’s expression twisted in disgust. 

“He’s worse. You know that?” 

“Is there a difference between the two?” 

“Kwon Min-gi only cared about his own path. Sure, he wasn’t the brightest bulb, but as long as no one provoked him, he was relatively normal among Espers.” 

“What about Kang Jin-ho?” 

“His sabotage is particularly vicious. The fact that word of it reaches us Guides shows how bad it is. Espers usually hate leaking their issues to Guides.” 

Yoon Taeha could feel the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place. 

Kwon Min-gi had caused trouble due to enhancer side effects and was hidden by the sellers. Kang Jin-ho emerged afterward as the new bait product. 

The principal likely struck a deal with him. By maintaining his top rank, he’d surely received substantial rewards—and he must know what happens if he loses that position, like Kwon Min-gi. 

Yoon Taeha naturally speculated how the bait must feel. 

“Kang Jin-ho must be terrified.” 

Woo Joo Han sighed after glancing at her. 

All the transfer student talked about were strange, frightening things. Yet, her words pierced through the doubts he’d harbored since last year. 

“Ah!” 

Desperate to help, he suddenly remembered something shocking he’d momentarily forgotten. 

Yoon Taeha turned to look at him. His voice brimmed with certainty. 

“There’s someone else who thinks like me.” 

---

For days, Hong Eunsoo had holed herself up in the dormitory. 

She told her teacher she was sick—an exaggeration, but not entirely false. As an intelligence-type Esper, Hong Eunsoo had been overworking her brain for days. 

Her forehead burned like a fever victim’s, and she shivered with chills. If she weren’t an Esper, she’d already have been rushed to the hospital. 

Swallowing a few painkillers, she relentlessly typed away on her laptop. Her mouth was dry and cracked, but her fingers didn’t stop. 

“Where are you trapped… you idiot, Kwon Min-gi.” 

Her raspy voice carried desperation. Muttering to herself, she began searching the unpublished blueprints of the Shelter for something. 

“There must be a hidden space somewhere—a place not on the blueprints…” 

Hong Eunsoo of G Class had once hacked into the school’s network after declaring that, considering the Shelter’s budget, the cafeteria food shouldn’t be this terrible. 

“The actual value of a meal at our Western Shelter is far lower than what’s officially stated!” 

Furious, she posted her findings on an anonymous bulletin board visible to the students and layered it with firewalls to prevent staff interference. 

It was famous for taking active intelligence-type Espers a full 24 hours of brainstorming to unlock the locks Hong Eunsoo had placed. 

Her eyes gleamed as she examined the complex blueprints. 

“Huh?” 

Suddenly spotting a red dot on the screen, she bolted upright. 

Her first homemade tracking device, assembled by secretly dismantling a few school supplies. Prototype #1 had reappeared after three days. 

She had forced it into Kwon Min-gi’s hands. 

She couldn’t believe she had to go this far for someone who might disappear and begged her to find him if he did. But her body was already preparing. 

“It’s moving.” 

Outside was dark. The students had already finished dinner and were either studying or practicing in various buildings. 

Pulling up her hood, Hong Eunsoo dashed out of the dormitory. 

---

Sometimes breakthroughs come from completely unexpected places. 

That’s why flexibility is crucial in planning. No operation ever goes exactly as planned—seniors always said that. 

Reflecting on Hong Eunsoo and Kwon Min-gi’s relationship, Yoon Taeha realized how right they were. 

“So Eunsoo’s type was Kwon Min-gi, huh?” 

“I don’t know about that, but they seemed surprisingly close.” 

It wasn’t strange for Espers to like other Espers—they weren’t machines programmed to hate each other. 

She’d even seen cases where threats like “You die, I survive” transformed into “I’ll kill anyone who touches you” during joint missions. 

Still, genes driven to extremes in love were alien to her, who had lived a life far removed from such emotions. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to get entangled. 

“When did you hear about this?” 

“A few days after we played doubles badminton.” 

So they were close. That explained why Hong Eunsoo was separately curious about Kwon Min-gi’s whereabouts. Perhaps that’s why she had asked Hwang Sungbin to guide her—if Kwon Min-gi had said something. 

Moreover, Hong Eunsoo was brilliant. Among Western Shelter students, she was unmatched in hacking. With a mild personality and no history of harming others, she had been placed in G Class for those reasons. 

Come to think of it, the timeline matched: the day Kwon Min-gi disappeared from H Building coincided with when Hong Eunsoo claimed illness and locked herself in the dormitory. 

“I need to visit Eunsoo.” 

Having reached a conclusion, Yoon Taeha extended her hand. Woo Joo Han eyed her neatly aligned fingers and tilted his head in confusion—he still wasn’t used to this mode of transportation. 

“Aren’t we getting down? If you want to attend class on the roof, fine by me.” 

At the implication of being left behind, he hastily grabbed her fingertips. Frowning at his awkward movement, she teased him. 

“If you don’t hold on properly, your arm might detach from your body mid-descent.” 

“You always have to joke around…” 

Glaring at her resentfully, he saw her lips curl into a playful smile, as if looking at someone young and in need of protection. Grumbling, Woo Joo Han tightened his grip on the formidable Esper’s hand.