The Impotent Rumor

Seo-ah had ended up settling on a date and time. Down to the hour and the minute.

What an absolute menace. Why else would anyone need to set an exact minute, if not for something unspeakable?

He'd acted like he would take care of business right there on the spot if she didn't agree, so what choice did she have?

After he left, the other guides kept sneaking glances at her private office. They clearly wanted to know what kind of conversation had gone on behind that door.

Yeah, I'm going to get a reputation for this.

It was words she'd let slip without expecting Kang Eun-chan to come out swinging like this. She'd naturally assumed he'd snap up the offer, drooling, like a dog thrown a bone. She had never predicted he'd come back with his eyes blazing, demanding terms.

The chilly atmosphere at the Management Bureau reached her even through the glass wall.

The guide who had once volunteered to guide him had now come back to withdraw.

Seo-ah tilted her head at the phrase see you in a new light. She couldn't tell whether it was a compliment or an insult.

This has Kang Eun-chan's filthy paws all over it, doesn't it?

That nasty-tempered bastard was never going to sit still. He'd thrown a tantrum at her, so of course he'd gone to chew out her Team Leader too. And beyond that, he'd obviously had words with anyone who'd stepped forward offering to be his guide.

Now Seo-ah was dying to know exactly what Kang Eun-chan had said to them.

So she replied to Ah-reum.

No longer any real need?

What a bizarre answer. Seo-ah stared hard at Ah-reum's messages, racking her brain for the reason, but it never came to her.

Around that time, the anonymous chatroom was on fire yet again.

"Shin Woo-jin."

"……."

"Shin Woo-jin?"

"……."

"Did you hear the news?"

Woo-jin was buried in his research and hadn't registered his colleague's question at all. Ever since meeting Seo-ah, people had warmed up to him considerably thanks to his changed appearance — but Woo-jin himself hadn't changed one bit.

Research, or Seo-ah. Those were the only two things that existed in his world.

"About Guide Lee Seo-ah's partner."

Woo-jin's head whipped around. His colleague gave a bemused, hollow laugh at the reaction.

"I called your name a dozen times and you didn't even look at me. The second her name comes up, instant eye contact. I'm hurt, honestly."

"……I apologize. But what about her……?"

His colleague glanced around, dragged a chair over with a screech, and scooted in close beside Woo-jin. Then, dropping his voice low, he said:

"He's impotent."

"……I'm sorry, what?"

"Word is he goes around telling people himself. With his own mouth. So everyone who'd volunteered to guide him has pulled out."

Woo-jin thought of Kang Eun-chan. That man? Impotent? They'd progressed all the way to guiding, and he'd kept her as his partner.

Everyone had wanted to guide Kang Eun-chan for that one reason alone — and with the man himself declaring he was impotent, the value was gone.

Woo-jin concluded that he'd laid a very clever trap.

Kang Eun-chan was not impotent. A genuinely impotent man would never go around announcing it to the world.

They clearly aren't just childhood friends.

Seo-ah might be oblivious, but Kang Eun-chan certainly wasn't.

"By the way, why are you wearing your glasses again? And honestly, the swept-back hair suited you way better."

"……This is more comfortable."

Woo-jin ran a hand through his hair, sweeping it down over his eyes. Thank goodness he hadn't cut it short.

The reason Woo-jin had reverted to his old self was simple: annoying things had been happening to him lately, too.

Staff from other departments kept drifting in and out of the research wing, peppering him with questions that meant absolutely nothing. His answer never varied.

"That's something my colleague…… would know better than I do."

"Couldn't you tell us, Woo-jin? This material is really quite important."

It looked important in no way whatsoever. Going to all this trouble just to strike up a conversation with him — honestly, the whole situation was unbearably uncomfortable.

When he gave them the answers they wanted, they'd get bored and scramble to steer the conversation elsewhere. Perhaps they'd finally picked up on the fact that his only interest was research, because they'd even started bringing him strange research papers.

So Woo-jin had gone back. To his original self. He figured it might at least help. But people had already seen his face, and they weren't giving up easily.

The one small mercy was that he was an S-class esper — so unlike Kang Eun-chan, no one dared come hovering around begging to guide him.

Smart move, saying he's impotent.

I assumed he was all brawn and no brains, but he's unexpectedly sharp. Thank goodness — he's worthy of Seo-ah.

"Any plans to go back to how you were before?"

"……No, sir."

He'd only changed because he thought Seo-ah would like it. When she wasn't beside him, it was unnecessary. The contacts dried his eyes out, and he kept squinting even during his research.

"But why, though? You took off your glasses and swept back your hair once and the whole center lost its mind. And you just — gave it up?"

"Yes. Gave it up."

To Woo-jin, everyone else's fuss would always be an and you just gave it up? kind of matter.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, turned his gaze back to the monitor, and buried himself in his research once more.

Cha Yu-geon was reviewing the data on his screen.

He confirmed the location where the gate had erupted, then checked its rank. Nothing out of the ordinary from the current picture.

Guide Lee Seo-ah…… Hm.

Stories about her kept pouring into his ears without end. Everything from the transformed aura around Researcher Shin Woo-jin to the whiplash mood swings the guides had suffered over Kang Eun-chan.

The center, once so quiet, had grown noticeably noisy of late.

He frowned as he paged through Lee Seo-ah's file.

He'd only meant to consider her deployment to the next gate, and somehow his thoughts had wandered off the rails. Sloppy work — uncharacteristic of him.

Yu-geon immediately pulled up the gate data.

"Suppressed within the hour. We could deploy her to a higher-rank gate next time."

If another Human gate opened, he'd send her straight away — but for now, things were quiet.

No matter which documents he reviewed, the investigation into whether the reactivated Human gate was connected to the other gates turned up nothing of note. The research wing had run their own checks and come back with the same answer: no anomalies.

He'd also received the intel on the re-awakened, and it was the same. Their wavelengths had shifted slightly, but that was attributable to their rank changes and nothing more.

"Director, the Operations Bureau is calling — a gate has opened. They're requesting the list of Espers to deploy."

At his Team Leader's words, Yu-geon drummed his fingers lightly on the desk.

"A-Rank gate, on the city outskirts. No civilian casualties are expected, but Espers are rarely stationed in that district, so we haven't been able to assess it quickly. And there's one problem."

When Yu-geon's eyes lifted to him, the Team Leader laid it out at once. From his troubled expression, there apparently wasn't a suitable Esper to send.

"Most of our A-Rank Espers are already committed inside other gates, so we're short on deployable manpower. It would be nothing but green units with little field experience. How would you like to proceed?"

"If casualties aren't expected, sending in a half-baked team shouldn't be a problem."

"Yes, so we've narrowed it down to a few candidates, but……"

The Team Leader slid the list across the desk.

"Sending an S-Rank into an A-Rank gate gives me some pause. And you've been scheduling her gate deployments separately, Director."

Guide Lee Seo-ah — the protagonist of all the recent commotion — was written on the list.

He'd naturally assumed A-Rank Esper Kang Eun-chan would be listed beside her. Instead, it was a different match.

"Sending someone straight from the research wing into a gate seems like rather poor treatment."

"Ah…… well, that is — Esper Shin Woo-jin expressed very strong willingness for gate deployment. He asked that we deploy him whenever needed."

"I take it he's hoping there's something worth researching inside a gate."

Team Leader Seo shrugged.

"Well, Espers do tend to act in ways no one can explain. You'd know all about that, Director — I gave up trying to understand them long ago."

"And why would that remark be directed at me?"

"Because you're an Esper yourself, Director."

"Why on earth is that coming up now."

Cha Yu-geon's eyes narrowed. Under that icy gaze, Team Leader Seo swallowed a dry gulp.

"It seems Esper Shin Woo-jin's abilities will be of use with this gate's characteristics, then."

"Yes. Frankly, we also need to verify the extent of an S-Rank Esper's mental domination capability."

"Then deploy him."

"Shall we assign Team 2's Team Leader Kang as field supervisor?"

It made no difference to him who supervised. Cha Yu-geon gave a small nod and looked away.

It meant: business concluded — now get out.