DM Chapter 7

Lee Hyun asked Na Tae-young quietly.

“So, leaving your aura all over the alleyway like that…wasn’t that an invitation to follow?”

“…”

“You really thought no one would notice you using your powers in Sector 37? What business would you have in a place like that?”

“I just didn’t expect someone to sneak around behind me so quietly…like a rat.”

Lee Hyun smiled with a hint of bitterness.

“The rat here is you, Lee Hyun. Hiding an S-grade Guide in your back pocket, hoarding her all for yourself.”

At Na Tae-young’s sneering words, Lee Hyun’s fists trembled. The air around him thickened, as if powerful telekinetic energy was leaking out, making it hard to breathe. Na Tae-young, unwilling to back down, clenched his teeth, standing his ground in front of Lee Hyun.

Yoon Min could only stare at the two, her face pale as she watched their tense standoff.

Until now, she had tried to feign ignorance of the situation and the conversation unfolding. But now, it was impossible. They were talking about her as if she were a ‘Guide.’

Even compared to Na Tae-young, who had seemed intimidatingly large when she first saw him, Lee Hyun didn’t appear small in the least. Na Tae-young might have been slightly bulkier, but the air around Lee Hyun was sharper and more ruthless.

Chu Jin-ho, clearly panicking, stepped in between Na Tae-young and Lee Hyun, breaking the tense atmosphere momentarily.

“Let’s not do this here. Why don’t you both go speak to the director?”

“And why should I?”

Na Tae-young scowled, glaring at Chu Jin-ho.

“I’m not going.”

Lee Hyun responded curtly, following suit.

“Mr. Lee Hyun, it might be best if you especially went to see the director.”

Chu Jin-ho muttered, casting a sideways glance at Yoon Min.

Without so much as a blink, Lee Hyun walked over to Yoon Min and looked down at her. Yoon Min looked up at him blankly.

It was the same Lee Hyun she’d seen this morning, but it felt as though they were meeting again after a long time. She felt a curious hint of relief.

“What happened to your finger?”

Lee Hyun asked, his brow furrowed. It wasn’t a question directed at Yoon Min in particular; it seemed he was addressing everyone present.

“Na Tae-young broke it.”

At Yoon Min’s calm response, Na Tae-young scowled, Chu Jin-ho gasped, and the female researcher beside them suppressed a laugh. It seemed everyone found Yoon Min’s composure in this situation rather extraordinary.

Lee Hyun sighed and helped Yoon Min to her feet. She let him guide her off the bed, his hand on her shoulder. In this room, Lee Hyun was the only familiar face.

Though she was trying to maintain a calm exterior, her mind was in turmoil. Questions and confusion filled her thoughts. There was so much she needed to ask Lee Hyun.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

Chu Jin-ho blocked their path firmly.

“To the dormitory.”

“You must register as a Guide and wait until the examination is complete. There’s no way around it.”

“This girl is not a Guide.”

At Lee Hyun’s quiet response, Na Tae-young scoffed openly.

“If you take her to the dorm, the other Espers won’t be too pleased. You seem quite fond of her, but if she’s here at the Center, the best way for her to live even somewhat normally is to go through registration, get examined, and be assigned to an Esper.”

A faint trace of supernatural energy began to ripple off Lee Hyun’s back as he stood there, his calm demeanor slipping just slightly as he struggled to hold in his anger. But he couldn’t argue with Na Tae-young; there was truth in his words.

After a moment, Lee Hyun, Yoon Min, and Chu Jin-ho left the lab filled with rows of transparent tubes, walking down a long hallway. Above the door to the lab, they saw a sign reading “Lab 11.” Yoon Min looked around, trailing behind Lee Hyun and Chu Jin-ho as they continued forward. Chu Jin-ho was muttering away beside Lee Hyun, though Lee Hyun didn’t seem to be listening.

Lee Hyun didn’t glance back at Yoon Min, not even once.

“If the director finds out, you’ll be in serious trouble. Were you really trying to hide a Guide? It’s hard to believe you’d go to such lengths, Lee Hyun. Luckily, he’s out on leave right now, or you would’ve faced a severe warning.”

“…”

“And saying she’s not a Guide, when she’s clearly an S-grade Guide? That’s not like you at all, Lee Hyun. Where did you find her? During the search a few years back, we couldn’t find a single young Guide in this entire area.”

“Let’s just walk quietly. I’m not in a great mood right now.”

Lee Hyun murmured in a tone that was almost gentle. Yoon Min walked behind him, unable to believe the coldness in his voice. Finally, Chu Jin-ho fell silent. The wide, brightly lit corridor was empty, and it was impeccably clean.

As she gazed up at the bright lights on the high ceiling, Yoon Min’s eyes drifted to the windows along the wall. Beyond the glass, she could see a bustling cityscape—this was Sector 50, the place she had only ever heard about in stories.

Unlike the other sectors, devastated by monsters, gates, and poverty, Sector 50 and beyond, home to the wealthy and powerful, was eerily quiet and peaceful.

Now it felt real to her—she was in the Central Esper Center, the very place that blared across the radio nearly every day.

Jin Dong-han, the leader of the second-generation Espers who had seized power, frequently communicated the Center’s policies through his representatives. The Central Esper Center managed everything: from Sectors 1-10, where the gates were located, to Sectors 11-15, where the military was stationed, from Sectors 16-40, densely populated by the poor and common folk, to Sectors 41-49, where camps were established to foster hope of reaching Sector 50, and finally, from Sectors 50-60, where the top 1% resided.

Other countries had similar systems, but in Korea, the Central Esper Center in Sector 50 was the heart of it all. Yoon Min realized she had entered that very heart.

After walking for a while, they stopped in a waiting area where the corridor opened up into a larger space.

Yoon Min took in everything: the neatly arranged chairs, a water dispenser, a coffee machine, and a row of lush green plants. She felt detached from reality. It was as if she had landed in an entirely different world overnight. Had she not known about ‘Jin Dong-han’ and ‘Center policies’ devoid of sympathy or humor, she might have thought the Center was hosting some special event for the lower class.

“Please wait here. I’ll make arrangements with the registration staff. When the number appears above, you can send in the Guide. The ‘Guide’ only.”

Chu Jin-ho glanced briefly at Yoon Min, then looked over at Lee Hyun with a firm reminder. He pointed to a sign reading [Guide Registration Center], where a small holographic screen displayed various instructions.

“Understood?”

Chu Jin-ho prompted, waiting for Lee Hyun’s response.

“Understood.”

“And don’t try to run off, alright?”

“…”

When Lee Hyun only gave him a quiet stare, Chu Jin-ho cleared his throat awkwardly and quickly disappeared through the automatic doors.

Now, only Lee Hyun and Yoon Min were left in the waiting room. Na Tae-young, who had been pressing them to hurry up with registration and exams, was nowhere to be seen.

Lee Hyun sat quietly on one of the chairs, while Yoon Min simply looked at him.

“Sit down.”

Lee Hyun told her.

“Dung-gae is still alone at the shack.”

It was the first time they’d spoken since entering the Center.

“I took him to the dorm. Gave him some food, too.”

At Lee Hyun’s answer, Yoon Min remained silent for a moment, then slowly sat down in a chair a little distance away from him. The chair was soft and comfortable.

“What exactly is going on here?”

Yoon Min murmured to herself, glancing down at her grimy hands, worn-out shoes, and clothes, realizing how out of place she looked in this overly clean and tidy waiting room.

The idea that she was a Guide—it was an utterly ridiculous joke.

“I’m sorry.”

Lee Hyun apologized softly. Yoon Min looked up at him, surprised. He wasn’t looking at her but instead fixated on the hologram text that read, ‘Welcome to the Guide Registration Center.’

“For what?”

“First, you’ll go through registration. The researchers inside will draw some blood, and in about thirty minutes, you’ll find out what grade of Guide you are. Once the results are in, the examination will proceed in the testing room. They’ll calculate your matching percentage, and all the other S-grade Espers will come.”

Lee Hyun ignored her question and started explaining the process. It was the explanation she’d been dying to hear, though it wasn’t easy to fully grasp it all just by listening.

“…S-grade?”

“Yes.”

Yoon Min let out a scoff. A sudden, earth-shaking miracle seemed more plausible than this.

“…Why?”

“Because there’s a high chance you’re an S-grade. S-grades are matched with other S-grades. There’s less efficiency in pairing you with an A-grade Esper. Currently, Korea has only one S-grade Guide, but there are four S-grade Espers.”

She knew that much. It was a big deal for Korea to have four S-grade Espers—only a handful of nations could boast such a number, with places like Japan having two and China, despite its vast land, only having four.

In a world as bleak as this, it was a source of pride for the common folk. But to Yoon Min, it had been irrelevant, something she paid no mind to. Yet, in an instant, this foreign reality had become her own.

“So, what happens after the matching percentage results come in?”

Yoon Min asked, trying her best to appear calm.

“You’ll be assigned to the Esper with the highest matching percentage. But if the match is over forty percent with other Espers as well…”

Lee Hyun stopped mid-explanation and turned to look at her. Yoon Min, who had been watching him all along, locked eyes with him directly.

The sharp edge in Lee Hyun’s gaze softened slightly when he looked at her. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, dried blood from his combat gear flaking onto the floor.

“You really need a wash.”

Yoon Min muttered. The unexpected comment made Lee Hyun chuckle, albeit faintly.

“So, you’re not an F-grade?”

Her questions weren’t over. Lee Hyun’s expression hardened slightly, and after a brief silence, he nodded.

“And you…you’re an S-grade, too. So you helped me because I’m a ‘Guide,’ right?”

At last, everything started to make sense. The seemingly random F-grade Esper who’d appeared like a stroke of luck to help Yoon Min was, in fact, an S-grade—an Esper so rare that one might never encounter them in a lifetime. And if she were truly a Guide, it explained everything.

“No, that’s not it.”

Lee Hyun denied her conclusion, frowning in discomfort.

Yoon Min stared at him, quietly observing. He seemed to struggle to say more, as though his mouth was sealed shut. A strange feeling filled her chest.

It was a peculiar mix of disappointment and betrayal.

She hadn’t entirely believed he was helping her out of pure kindness; she’d thought perhaps he was just a madman or an idle Esper. But perhaps she’d grown somewhat attached over the past few weeks. This inexplicable disappointment—it was a funny feeling.

Just then, as Lee Hyun was about to say something, a clear electronic chime sounded from the hologram display.

[Guide number 1, please proceed to the registration room.]

It wasn’t hard to guess that this ‘Guide number 1’ was referring to Yoon Min. She walked toward the glass doors, aware of Lee Hyun’s intense gaze on her back, but she deliberately avoided looking back.

As the automatic doors slid open, the interior of the registration room came into view. It was a simple, starkly minimalistic space.

On one side of the room, there was a desk, and in the middle stood a plain white bed. Chu Jin-ho, who had been conversing with a female employee at the desk, hurried over to Yoon Min.

“Please have a seat on the bed.”

The female employee watched Yoon Min with a curious gaze as she slowly walked over to the bed and sat down. Chu Jin-ho approached her, a slightly nervous smile on his face.

“Hello. It’s nice to finally meet you officially. I’m Chu Jin-ho, a researcher here at the Central Esper Center. I handle the management of Guides—in a way, I’m in charge of overseeing everything. Normally, another staff member would handle registration, but, well…what should I call you?”

“Yoon Min.”

“Right, Ms. Yoon Min. I’ll personally oversee your registration and examination.”

“…”

“I apologize on behalf of Mr. Na Tae-young for treating you poorly. Among the S-grades…he’s a bit…rough around the edges. But he does try to follow the rules, even if his impulse control can be shaky. He’s not a bad person. Probably.”