Declaration of Extra Strike

On the way back to the dormitory, Han Seo-jin and I did not have a word of conversation. I had a lot to think about myself, and Han Seo-jin, well I didn’t know what he was thinking.

The situation was the same when I came to the room. I looked around Han Seo-jin and headed to my room.

“I’m going in.”

As I bypassed Han Seo-jin’s room and entered mine, there was a gift box on the bed.

“What is it?”

There was a card stuck between the ribbons on the box. The paper was stiff, and when I opened it, I found a brief note written in a shaky handwriting.

「These are additional textbooks! I got a new one after I heard you lost your phone. – Go Eun-young」

When I opened the box, it was filled with books. The basics of guiding, the principles of guiding………….

Just looking at the Guiding’s “G,” I felt nauseous, threw it away quickly, and took out the palm-sized machine at the bottom.

Just looking at the guide’s “Ga,” I felt nauseous, threw it away quickly, and took out the palm-sized machine at the bottom.

I got so excited the moment I saw the word phone; it was a machine that could only use an application dedicated to Esper Guide while all the Internet and basic functions were blocked. It seemed that only text messages and calls could be made through the application.

“This is horrible……….”

The resolution to stand out as soon as possible at the center has been announced again. The useless machine also stopped at the thought that crossed my mind as I tried to throw it away to one side of the bed.

“Oh, right.”

As I dug around, a crumpled piece of paper was touched and slipped out of my pocket. It was a business card with Yeon Seung-yeon’s contact information. I opened the pager, entered the number, and wrote down the text.

「It’s me, Eui-jin.」

I, who naturally used my real name, realized that it would be strange just before pressing the transmission button and hurriedly changed the content.

「It’s me, Ho-hyun.」

「Got a phone. Add me.」

After checking the text, I lay down on the bed. The slight bounce of the mattress’s spring bothered me. I frowned at the ringing of my ears that had been bothering me since last night.

“It’s annoying. It’s uncomfortable. It’s narrow.”

To be honest, I wasn’t this sensitive. It wasn’t the mattress spring that complicated me, it was all the reality surrounding me now.

Closing his eyes thinking that he would get rest, but woke up from the body of a strange man who looked creepy like me. 

Getting trapped on an island off Incheon where he didn’t know where he was because his body was a guide belonging to the country. 

The dog-like memories of the horrible team members and the Guiding I experienced for the first time.

I sunk to the ground and let out a deep sigh.

“For now……..let’s escape from the center.”

***

In the deep night, I struggled and barely uttered a word as I walked on eggshells around Han Seo-jin who was in the next room.

I was so tired that my eyes were wide open and I couldn’t sleep. No matter how I tried to fall asleep, the sound of the spring woke me up and I even had two headaches in my head.

“Oh, no. What a terrible bed.”

Eventually, I jumped up and went to the door with a pillow on my side. I opened my door and there was Han Seo-jin’s room with blue lights on.

‘I thought I was going to sleep.……….’

I immediately made eye contact with Han Seo-jin, who was leaning on the bed and reading a book. Han Seo-jin’s eyes slowly turned to the pillow he was wearing on my side.

“You can’t.”

In fact, I really wanted Han Seo-jin’s room. I yearned for a big space. I did, however, have a conscience.

‘What a mean brat, I don’t want to sleep with you either.’

Knowing Han Seo-jin, I don’t think we’ll change rooms. So the alternative is to rent a bed that’s wide enough for five of them to lie down.

Han Seo-jin covered the book with a snap and turned off the light. He was telling me to go away.

I quietly approached the bed where Han Seo-jin was lying down in the dark. But now that I came out to a spacious room, my head didn’t hurt and I was finally able to breathe, so I couldn’t return to the can-like room now.

What I chose, in the end, was a sofa on one side of Han Seo-jin’s room. When I lay down on the side with the pillow, the cushion was very soft and I felt a moderate pressure thanks to the slightly protruding back.

‘It’s much better, isn’t it? A cheap mattress. It’s way worse than a sofa…’

It was when I closed my eyes thinking that I could sleep on the sofa without having to listen to Han Seo-jin’s bed creaks.

“Are you protesting now?”

When I slowly opened my eyes, Han Seo-jin looked down and asked, not hiding his annoyed expression as he woke up.

“Why are you doing that??”

I am Joo Ho-hyun now, and this is Han Seo-jin’s room. In order to stay at least on the couch, I rationalized that it would be better not to go against Han Seo-jin’s planting.

“No, it’s…

After careful calculation, he opened his mouth.

“The bed is so big. Can’t I sleep with you? You cheap bastard.”

Maybe his emotions were ahead of his reason, his inner thoughts that he tried to hide stood out. Han Seo-jin smiled seeing this as he looked away.

“………I’m doing this now because of that.”

“Well, I think I can sleep here.”

I dismissed the option of going back to my room and pointed to a pretty good sofa as an alternative.

Han Seo-jin did not answer. Just in case he thought I was still aiming for the bed, I patted my pillow as if to prove it. As I was about to lie down comfortably for the last time, my wrist was grabbed by Han Seo-jin. Amidst the face covered by darkness, only the sunken eyes shone coolly.

“……What?”

“I don’t put people in bed except when I’m being Guided.”

I turned to face him as he spoke in a melancholy, chilly tone. My wrist was trapped, and despite my attempts to free it, it didn’t budge.

‘No, I meant sleeping on the couch. Damn it.…………’

I knew that runaway Espers with a time bomb were so famous about how they were obsessed with Guides who could put them to sleep. Yeah, that’s what it’s all about.……….

Conversely, I quickly raised myself by grabbing Han Seo-jin’s wrist. Han Seo-jin’s body stiffened slightly when I touched him.

“What are you…”

“Then it’s fine if I guide you!”

Han Seo-jin’s mouth opened slightly.

“…..do you know what you’re saying right now?”

‘Well, Guiding is Guiding.’

It sounds like the choices are either clutching the hand of that bastard or sleeping on that stinky torture kit.

Before Han Seo-jin changed his mind, I hurriedly packed my pillow as I left the towering Seo-jin behind and ran to the bed.

“I use my left hand.”

I put the pillow on the other side of where Han Seo-jin was lying and threw myself. My body felt as though it were being wrapped in a soft mattress as soon as I laid my back on it.

“….Woah.”

My mouth opened on its own and a slow sigh came out. You can fall asleep in a minute here.

As I was about to go straight to dreamland, I felt the weight on my right side. I knew Han Seo-jin was lying next to me, but it was hard to open my eyes once I closed them. I entrusted myself to the swarm of people who ignored me.

I felt a ticklish touch on my forehead as I was about to fall asleep.

As I ignored it because I didn’t have the strength to lift a finger, the touch that tickled my bangs passed my eyebrows and soon slipped along my cheek.

Pulled up from my sleep in a tickling sensation, I frowned and opened my heavy mouth. A deep voice came out.

“………What are you doing? I’m going to sleep.”

“You’re not avoiding me.”

‘He was the one who touched me yet he’s freaking out.………’

Han Seo-jin said it in the sense of taking his hands off, but despite saying just one inconsequential word, he did not take his hands off.

I was used to the touch of my hair when I was sleeping, so I could ignore it and sleep, but when he started touching my face………… I couldn’t fall asleep.

In the end, when I couldn’t hold out and opened my eyes irritably, I immediately made eye contact with pitch black eyes staring at me in the dark as if he had been waiting for it.

“Can’t sleep?”

“I have something to think about.”

“Then think to yourself, why bother the sleeping person?””

Han Seo-jin’s mouth was filled with a smile at the words I uttered without hiding my annoyance. The moment I looked at him suspiciously, Han Seo-jin smiled quietly and said in a husky voice.

“It’s just… I wonder if people change like this when they lose their original memories.”

“It changed because I lost my memory. You’re talking nonsense again.”

“Originally, it was hard to even touch your hands.”

“…… I don’t remember.”

“Your mind and body’s reactions are all different from before, so can I call this the same person?”

Han Seo-jin’s words surprised me deeply. I tried my best to appear unbothered. The hand that touched the face had not yet been recovered.

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‘Quick-witted punk.’

My lips went dry as I started to become anxious under his gaze. I raised my arm first and grabbed Han Seo-jin’s hand and said, wondering if I should ask anything strange again.

“Are you doing this because I didn’t guide you? Give me your hand. I’ll try.”

“You couldn’t do Guiding.”

“You said I only need to touch the flesh. Oh, that’s right, if you do that from earlier, I’ll kill you.”

Han Seo-jin just stared at me without saying anything. Eventually, I half rose and grabbed Han Seo-jin’s shoulder and forced him to lie down.

Han Seo-jin lay on his back without much rebellion and I patted his chest with a blanket under his neck, indicating him to never get up.

“Let’s get some sleep now. What?

“…”

Han Seo-jin’s gaze followed me until I lay down again. He lay down satisfactorily as I didn’t kick the blanket or open my mouth. Originally, it was bothering me to get closer towards Han Seo-jin, but the bed itself was so wide that I could not reach it as I went to the side.

“Good night.”

I said as I closed my eyes. I really need to sleep now……………. 

The hand that came in procrastinating under the blanket tapped the arm.

“Give me your hand.”

“…What?”

“You said you’d be a Guide.”

“You’re such a jerk. Did you become a ghost who starved to death because he couldn’t get Guiding?”

I reached out my hand and held Han Seo-jin’s hand, putting his tongue on Han Seo-jin’s tenacity. The cool sensation felt better than I thought.

The body, which had been struggling all day, finally got a rest. There seems to be a weak energy flowing along the hand between the comfortable feeling, and soon disappeared to the dreamland with a sigh.