Yu-geon had no choice but to take a day off and collapse back onto the bed. The house was eerily quiet, suggesting the owner had already left for work.
He tried to get some more sleep, but the piercing sound of a notification abruptly woke him up. It was an alert indicating that a post he was following on the center’s free board had received a comment.
Not every post or comment triggered a notification. Back when Yu-geon was obsessed with pairing with Sa-weol, he had set up alerts for any post that included the keyword “Gu Sa-weol.”
A chill ran down his spine as he checked his phone. The post read:
Title: Looking for Alpha Team S-Class Esper Baek Yu-geon
Author: AGS Gu Sa-weol
Content:
Looking for Alpha Team S-Class Esper Baek Yu-geon. If you spot him, please report his location to the number below. I’m offering a reward if I’m able to catch him.
1) For guides: A limited edition luxury bag made from Creature leather.
2) For Espers: A lifetime free pass for guiding crystals.
I appreciate your participation. Thank you.
010-XXXX-XXXX
Sa-weol had issued a public manhunt for him across the center. And the rewards she offered were enough to entice both guides and Espers alike.
The first reward, intended for guides, was a limited-edition luxury bag made from Creature leather. Given the rarity of the material, it was a bag that had been gifted to Sa-weol by the brand’s designer, who had leveraged her fame as a model to boost their marketing efforts.
As expected, the Creature line had sold out immediately that year, making the bag impossible to find anywhere now.
For guides who were both wealthy and obsessed with beauty, getting their hands on a bag that Sa-weol herself owned was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All they had to do was report Yu-geon’s location, and they could walk away with a treasure.
The bright side, at least, was that if a guide spotted him, he could just run away. No ordinary guide could catch up to an S-Class Esper like him.
But the second reward, meant for Espers, was the real problem. Sa-weol had offered a lifetime free pass for her guiding crystals.
“What?!”
Yu-geon shouted as soon as he read it. Normally, he was first in line for Sa-weol’s guiding crystals.
The primary criterion for prioritizing who received the crystals was the Esper’s rank, followed by their matching rate with the guide. Because of this, Yu-geon had always been the top priority, even when his relationship with Sa-weol was rocky.
Even before they were paired, Yu-geon had been able to access her crystals first. And once they were paired, he had been able to monopolize them entirely.
But currently, Sa-weol had put their pair on hold. The hold period was one week, meaning Yu-geon couldn’t monopolize her crystals, nor could he access them first since she hadn’t charged any new crystals.
This left him starved for her energy waves, and now she was offering those very crystals to another Esper!
And not just any offer—a lifetime free pass!
Yu-geon felt like reporting his own location. The conditions she had set were enough to make any Esper at the center go wild.
Sure enough, the post had already garnered an overwhelming number of comments, and they kept pouring in in real-time.
– PED Park Ji-seung: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ What the heck is going on?
– BEC Han Chan-young: You’re dead. The third infamous thief, Baek Yu-geon. Just wait.
– AGB Moon Su-a: Oppaㅠㅠ I can’t help it this time. You need guiding, right? Where are you? Just tell me secretly.
– CGC Song Min-joo: Yu-geon, I won’t report you, just call me quickly. I’m desperate.
– AEC Kang Ji-han: This is hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Baek Yu-geon, run!!!
– EEA Kim Hee-joon: Yu-geon, be reasonable. Just cancel the pair.
– KGE Moon Chae-ryeong: A battle of the gods. I need popcorn for this.
– DEA Jung Hui-seong: Baek Yu-geon, please contact me. This is a business-related request. Even if it’s not, please contact me. Please. Please, I’m begging you. Just let me try Sa-weol’s crystal once. You’ve used it a lot, haven’t you? If you don’t have that level of humanity, you’re not a person. Not even an Esper. Not even a man. Not even a woman. Just not anything. Pleaseㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
– CGD Joo Jong-yeon: The comment above is so desperate ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ At this point, you should just let yourself get caught.
– DEB Kim Hwan-hee: Looking for Espers to form a party to catch Baek Yu-geon (1/15)
└ BEC Yang Seung-chan: Me! Do you care about rank? I have two friends who can join.
└ DEB Kim Hwan-hee: Sorry, the team is full.
It seemed Sa-weol was more furious than he had expected. She usually avoided messy, troublesome situations, so for her to publicly post something like this meant she was serious.
Yu-geon’s eyes darted across the comments, trying to figure out what to do, when one comment at the bottom caught his eye.
Reading it made his face go pale.
– BEA Kim Han-sol: ??? Baek Yu-geon is at my house.
Kim Han-sol—he was the owner of the house where Yu-geon was currently hiding.
“You traitor!”
Yu-geon cursed under his breath.
And right below that comment was a reply from Gu Sa-weol herself:
– AGS Gu Sa-weol: Can you send me the address?
“Argh!”
Yu-geon let out a strangled cry, dropping his phone as if it had burned him. He tore off the blankets and hastily shoved his clothes on.
He burst out the door, jamming the elevator button with desperation, anxiously watching as the floor numbers descended.
“Come on, come on, hurry!”
He muttered, looking back toward the hallway window, and his heart nearly stopped.
There, in the distance, was Sa-weol. She was just a speck at that moment, but to Yu-geon’s panicked mind, she seemed larger than life, like she was zoomed in under a magnifying glass.
He almost screamed but quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.
‘How did she get here so fast? Is she using some kind of teleportation technique?’
There was no way Sa-weol could hear him from this distance, yet he felt the instinctive urge to keep quiet. The elevator still hadn’t arrived, and it was heading down from a higher floor.
The ES dormitory had six elevators, but with his luck, there was a chance he might run into Sa-weol if he waited any longer. Yu-geon decided to take the stairs instead. As he ran, he noticed the slapping sound of his shoes. He looked down.
Slippers.
“Ah, for crying out loud.”
His heart pounded as he descended the stairs, making his way to the underground parking garage. After confirming Sa-weol wasn’t around, he bolted out, running as fast as he could without looking back.
A cold spring breeze blew harshly in his face, adding to the biting chill of the season’s last frost.
“God, what a mess this all is.”
* * *
Yu-geon’s plan was to leave the center altogether. The place was swarming with awakened Espers trying to catch him, so he figured it’d be safer to lay low at a regular friend’s house for a while.
But as he approached the main gate, he noticed that the physical-type Espers guarding the entrance were on high alert. The atmosphere felt heavier than usual, and there were at least two or three times as many guards as usual. Even as an S-Class Esper, Yu-geon couldn’t guarantee he could outpace or outpower a group of physical-type Espers.
He attempted to sneak out by hitching a ride on top of a military cargo truck, but somehow, they spotted him almost immediately, and a full-blown chase ensued.
“Catch that guy!”
“Argh!”
Desperation kicked in, and Yu-geon began using his telekinesis on everything in sight.
He uprooted trees like baseball bats and swung them around, tearing down statues erected in his honor from his previous gate missions, and slammed them into the ground.
“Sorry! I said stop chasing me!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
The physical-type Espers were taken aback for a moment but quickly adapted.
Like expert obstacle course runners, they smashed through statues with their fists and timed their jumps perfectly to avoid his tree swings.
“Give us the crystal!”
Their obsession with the crystal was overwhelming, but Yu-geon’s determination to maintain the pair was just as intense.
After nearly an hour of running, Yu-geon finally found a hiding spot in the junior awakening building, J-Dong.
J-Dong was where children under 15 received early education before they entered the Awakener Academy. Since these students weren’t fully integrated into the center’s workforce, they didn’t have access to the center’s forums. In other words, it was the only safe place within the center.
Exhausted, Yu-geon snuck into a capsule room to rest. When he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.
“Hey, mister. Why are you sleeping in a capsule?”
To his dismay, a group of junior awakeners had gathered around him.
“Ugh, leave me alone.”
“Do you not have a house? Are you homeless?”
“Homeless? I’m an S-Class Esper.”
“Liar.”
A curious boy tugged at Yu-geon’s hair, while others poked his face and pulled at his nose and lips. A brave girl even jumped up and down on his stomach.
“Ugh… Stop… ugh.”
“Wow, he’s so weak. See? Not an Esper at all.”
“Espers feel pain too. Aren’t you an Esper? You’ve got some serious strength.”
“No, I’m a guide.”
The bob-haired girl huffed, crossing her arms. Yu-geon felt a faint energy wave coming from the hand resting on his cheek—she must be an untrained guide.
“Kid, don’t touch me. I’m starving for waves, and it’s dangerous.”
“Why?”
“If you guide me, you’ll pass out.”
Yu-geon hadn’t received guiding from Sa-weol in days, leaving his energy waves dangerously low—down to 27% instability. If he didn’t get a proper wave by next week, he was certain to experience his first wave outburst.
Despite the faint wave from the girl, his body was reacting instinctively to her presence. If she kept touching him, Yu-geon’s waves might overwhelm hers, causing her to collapse immediately. She was still too inexperienced to handle the intensity of an S-Class Esper.
“Take the kids and leave. Don’t you have class?”
“We’re having class here today.”
Just then, the capsule door opened with a hiss. Yu-geon slowly pulled himself to his feet, preparing to leave.
‘Of all places to hide, it had to be one with a class scheduled.’
“Baek Yu-geon?”
A familiar voice called out.
“You… what are you doing here?”
“No, what are *you* doing here?” Yu-geon retorted. “I’m here for the training.”
Standing in front of him was Ji-soo, a guide from Alpha Team. At first, she looked surprised, but soon a mischievous grin spread across her face. Her crescent-shaped eyes made Yu-geon feel an ominous sense of foreboding.
“Don’t do it.”
Ji-soo pulled out her phone, the faint tapping of the keypad echoing in the quiet room. Yu-geon could only watch helplessly as she texted Sa-weol.
He knew exactly what was happening, and his heart sank.
TL/N:ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ This is laughing like how you write hahhahha
