The past days when she had easily run away, leaving him behind, mocked her. Who would have predicted that there would come a time when even teleportation would be useless?

Did I want to hide it? No, actually, I don’t know. Did I really want to hide it until the end? Wasn’t it because I wanted him to notice that I let him hear my conversation with Doctor Moon?

If she hadn’t wanted the content of the call to be revealed, there was a way to break the tablet. She could have simply run out of the car. The one who childishly continued the call under Cheon Geon-young’s protection was herself.

A moment of silence passed. Cheon Geon-young broke the quiet by stroking her arm with his scarred palm.

“Your right arm. It’s where you were seriously injured.”

“Yeah.”

Yoon Tae-ha lowered her head, avoiding his gaze.

“Was it because the company put you on an unreasonable mission?”

He was just saying something he already knew. It was easy. She clearly knew it in her head. But when she felt his worried gaze, it wasn’t easy.

“I got hurt when I was young, so it has nothing to do with missions. I got hurt during training. It was live-action training, and what I thought was a training dummy was real. Alive.”

She decided not to make eye contact with him at all. Then the words came out a little more easily. Yoon Tae-ha buried her face in the blanket that bore half of their scents and murmured,

“My arm and leg were badly bitten, and I bled a lot. The staff said it was a mistake. They said they failed to measure the attack power.”

It had happened after Hyun Yi-jung died. If she had been there, wouldn’t she have stopped such an experiment? It was a meaningless hypothetical, but she sometimes thought about it.

“I didn’t get hurt in Korea. I got hurt here, at a facility somewhere on this land.”

Cheon Geon-young gently began to stroke her shoulder. Thanks to his warmth, she could barely open her mouth.

“In various parts of the zone called the anarchic zone, there are facilities that house unstable espers. The first time I came to the Green Sea was to get into one of those facilities. Not for work.”

“Do you remember when?”

“After Teacher Hyun Yi-jung passed away. At that time, I was a little unstable. The headquarters must have decided they couldn’t keep me in Korea, so they sent me to a detention center somewhere here. Of course, it would be registered as a school. Calling it a detention center doesn’t sound good, does it?”

Cheon Geon-young gently hugged her, who was briefly shuddering as if taking a deep breath after finishing her words. Yoon Tae-ha was finally catching her breath after spitting out sentences as they came to her.

The place Kwon Hyeok of Changcheon had mentioned. A facility where Arc selected and sent espers, secretly smuggling them out under the guise of Orca.

It was highly likely that Yoon Tae-ha had stayed at that facility. A place that couldn’t have been a cozy cradle.

It felt like a flame that had risen in her chest was spreading throughout her body.

What emotions must the young girl have felt as she was dragged here? She must have swallowed a fear greater than when he was confined in his grandfather’s mansion.

Could I ever go outside again? Me, who has lost everything.

After finding her own mistakes in the past, she would have used them to carve into her own flesh. She would have fallen asleep dreaming of a face she couldn’t see.

Her emotions stirred to the point of a headache. She wanted to know all the names of the humans who had immediately made her nights sleepless and forced her to swallow harmful drugs.

What should be done about the things that had ruined her legs and arms? To satisfy him, they would have to suffer the same fate and die painfully. Would this woman allow that? She would definitely say no.

Gently comforting Yoon Tae-ha, who was bringing out painful memories as best she could, he plotted revenge.

A clean death is too good for some lives in this world. But if not retaliating was for her peace, he had no intention of forcing it.

He could do it. He would find those who didn’t deserve Yoon Tae-ha’s patience and forgiveness. He would burn them without a trace so they couldn’t even enter her dreams. Perhaps his late-blooming flame existed for that very reason.

Cheon Geon-young continued his affectionate touch, measuring the depth of the time she had endured.

“So my right side is sensitive. I’m trying to fix it, but when I get nervous, it comes out habitually. I always get pointed it out even in mock battles. Most people are weaker than me, so even if the opponent knows my habit, it’s not a problem to win. But it can’t always be like that.”

“Anything else?”

“……Anything else?”

“You still haven’t told me why you’re afraid of that woman.”

Yoon Tae-ha glared at him as if she strongly disliked it. And then, in a timid act of defiance, she scratched his chest.

“It tickles.”

“That’s what I intended.”

He lowered his head and gently touched the lips of the struggling woman. A short kiss followed.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now?”

“Maybe.”

“A guide using their body to……”

Body? He playfully echoed the end of Yoon Tae-ha’s sentence. With a look of both injustice and resentment, she whispered as if accusing him of a great crime,

“You’re using your body to seduce an esper and extract information.”

“Was that it?”

“‘Was that it?’ It’s a serious violation of regulations.”

“Is the person who was worried about eavesdropping thinking about violating regulations?”

Cheon Geon-young pressed down on her nape with his fingertips. Despite it not being a sexual touch, Yoon Tae-ha’s body reacted. In fact, it was meaningless to distinguish the nature of the touch. It seemed that who it was mattered more than where it was.

“That person is a supervisor. Someone the headquarters assigned to me.”

The hand that had been lingering on her nape soon moved down to her waist, leaving red marks as his trace.

“Doctor Moon So-eun?”

“Gaia monitors all employees. Espers with high ranks like me are subject to special management. They attach one artificial intelligence and one dedicated staff member to control our health and mental state and eliminate variables.”

“The artificial intelligence must be Jet.”

Yoon Tae-ha gave a wry smile.

“I think everything I say to Jet goes back to Gaia. Doctor Moon is the same. She was probably assigned to me instead of Teacher Hyun Yi-jung. The two of them were close.”

“The reason you’re still here despite being monitored is Lee Hae-kyung?”

She narrowed her eyebrows as if it were an unexpected question.

“Why is the Center Director’s name coming up suddenly?”

“You’re close.”

“I’m also close with Winter unnie, and with Bo-mi unnie.”

“And Seo Do-jin too.”

Yoon Tae-ha carefully observed Cheon Geon-young’s expression. Was it jealousy? The tension that had been in her body while talking about Doctor Moon suddenly dissipated. The movement of the hand on her waist had already stopped.

She had been bothered by the fact that he had been talking to himself like someone who had taken a truth serum a little while ago. She asked in a light tone, like someone who had caught him in something,

“Are you worried?”

“I’m jealous.”

Cheon Geon-young stated the fact dryly. Even if he was becoming a narrow-minded guide obsessed with his esper’s human relationships, he wanted to say this much.

“They know a time I don’t know. Those people.”

It wasn’t that he disliked the guide constitution. After all, it was thanks to his unique constitution as a late-awakened guide that he was able to possess Yoon Tae-ha. But he deeply regretted not sharing her childhood.

“I hate that.”

Having heard the unexpected confession, Yoon Tae-ha was silent for a while. Flicking her own hair tie on Cheon Geon-young’s wrist without hurting him was all she could do.

*

The rain poured fiercely all day long.

Listening to the raindrops hitting the window, they tangled together on the bed. As if escaping from everything that would begin again once the rain stopped.

Things left unsaid. Things they wanted to say. Things they shouldn’t say. The only way to empty their turbidly mixed minds was to cling to each other’s bodies. They forgot everything except the sensations being injected.

It was evening when Yoon Tae-ha, with a flushed face, declared defeat. “I’m hungry.” Cheon Geon-young wiped something from the corner of her mouth and accepted the truce.

Yoon Tae-ha, who came out of the shower, turned away when she saw Cheon Geon-young wearing only his shorts.

She didn’t remember properly wearing clothes since yesterday. They had received supplies, so they had more than enough. But they hadn’t eaten or dressed properly. It was embarrassing in retrospect.

Was it because she had taken the medicine the company provided that she was like this? As she thought that the suppressant, which had been too big to swallow easily, had taken effect, her resentment towards the medicine slightly subsided. While she was blankly drying her hair, Cheon Geon-young called her.

“Let’s eat.”

They had a simple meal with ingredients that didn’t smell too strong. After finishing eating, he brewed warm tea and placed a cup in front of Yoon Tae-ha, who was studying.

“What kind of person is the Secretary-General?”

“Ambitious.”

Her answer was simple. Cheon Geon-young took a cup of a different color and sat next to Yoon Tae-ha. A large map of Cocytus and Phlegethon was spread out in front of him.

“Everyone knows what Kim Kang-seop is like. From a rift orphan to the Secretary-General of Arc. He’s an amazing person.”

“Is the internal evaluation the same as the external one?”

“His influence within the headquarters is absolute. It’s not because the employees genuinely respect him, although there are people like that, but because he’s the man with the greatest authority to access Gaia.”

Yoon Tae-ha briefly explained what she knew about Gaia. Cheon Geon-young listened carefully. And took a sip of the tea in front of him.

“You’re being monitored.”

“Since I was young.”

“Why are you still here? Because of the people?”

It was a fundamental question. The reason she stayed at Arc despite being tormented so severely. Someone who wasn’t an esper might find it difficult to understand.

Originally, she wasn’t the type to put in effort and time to make others understand her intentions. But she wanted to let him know.

“I grew up hearing stories about how espers were used by powerful people. I also know that we’re more useful resources for dealing with political enemies than for killing monsters from the rifts.”

“……”

“Especially in the case of espers with excellent teleportation abilities like me. It’s even more so. Any esper with long-range killing abilities thinks this way. If I go outside of Arc, can I live such a stable life? Can I have a delicious dinner with someone I like without worrying about being falsely accused?”

It was the voice of someone who had already acknowledged and accepted her situation.