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“Yejin! What the hell are you doing?! Let him go right now!”

“Yep. This bastard’s on the verge of a meltdown. Never seen him like this before. Hey! Hurry up and put him under suggestion. And don’t even think about asking Yoo Sejin to guide him, unless you’ve got a death wish.”

“A meltdown? Then I’ll—!”

“Why should he guide him? The idiot can just put himself under suggestion and get better. If you’re handing out guides, do me instead.”

Yeah. No one’s going to guide me.

“If Seonwoo needs it, of course we should help him. Why would you say something like that?”

“Ugh, fuck, so annoying. Look, he doesn’t need a guide. If someone tries to guide him now, after all the suppression he’s been under, it’ll just explode back tenfold. The guide could end up in danger. I’m not about to let that happen.”

He’s right. Yoo Sejin getting hurt is the last thing I want.

“Still, at least try—!”

“I said there’s no need to try! This idiot’s not even throwing a tantrum. He’s not resisting. They just didn’t bother putting him under suggestion when they locked him up… Hey!”

A loud voice rang in my ear. Instinctively, my eyes snapped open wide. Gyeon Yejin was saying something to me, but I couldn’t make sense of it. I could hear the words, but they wouldn’t register. I felt like an actual idiot.

“Put him under suggestion!”

“H-Huh?”

“I said put him under suggestion, dumbass!”

“Y-Yeah… okay…”

“No, goddamn it! Don’t just agree—do it! If Sejin hadn’t begged that old man to get you out, you’d still be rotting in there. And now you’re being ungrateful and causing trouble?!”

“Okay, okay…”

I barely managed a reply and gave a weak nod. Above me, I heard him mutter, “Fuck.” Then Gyeon Yejin threw me down onto the floor. My limp body hit the ground, but it didn’t even hurt.

A wave of heat surged from within. That was what hurt. I curled up on the floor, grabbing my head and pulling my body in tight. Suggestion… I need to put myself under suggestion.

“Gyeon Yejin, you—!”

“Jesus, Yoo Sejin. I know you’re kind, but can you please stop pulling this righteous crap?”

“If you keep treating Seonwoo like this, I don’t care who you are—I won’t let it slide. Got it?!”

“Unbelievable. I help, and I still get chewed out? Does this guy look like some fragile civilian to you? Hey, Woo Seonwoo. Cut the act and get up already!”

“Enough! Stop yelling at him! Seonwoo, are you okay? I’ll guide—”

I reached out my arm—like someone drowning grabbing a lifeline, I reached for a thread of warmth and light. My hand found Yoo Sejin’s pant leg, and I shook my head.

“I’m okay.”

“Okay? You don’t look okay…”

“I’m really okay.”

I could finally breathe.

I think I can do it now… I can put myself under suggestion.

It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.

“I really am fine…”

If Yoo Sejin guides me, Ki Sihyeon will get angry at me.

“Can we… not?”

His flushed face looked down at me with worry. His beautiful eyes were wet with unshed tears. They sparkled. I envied them. I was first. I liked him more. But I get it. Even I would choose Yoo Sejin over me.

“I’m fine…”

I had to reassure him. I cast the suggestion—on myself, and on Yoo Sejin. It didn’t seem to work all that well. Not on me, and not on him.

“Seonwoo? Seonwoo! Fuck! Gyeon Yejin! Go get Yeo Dohun right now! What the hell did they do to him?!”

And then, everything went black again.

* * *

When I rubbed my eyes and sat up, the first thing I saw was the night view.

Not the sterile white walls of the isolation room, nor the dull gray ceiling of my windowless quarters… but the breathtaking lights of Central, too bright to even see the stars.

A floor-to-ceiling glass wall revealed the sprawling city night in vivid detail. I stared at it, dumbfounded, my mouth slightly open.

“……”

Where… am I?

“So, you’re saying he was unresponsive because of an overdose of sedatives? Just a side effect of the sleeping meds? That’s it?”

“Yes. Woo Seonwoo, due to the nature of his ability, is highly prone to becoming absorbed in his internal world. Forcibly putting him to sleep with sedatives was likely perceived by his body as an external attack. There were similar incidents in the past, but this time the dosage and duration were greater, which may explain the stronger reaction. There’s also limited data on Espers with mental-dominance types, so our researchers weren’t fully prepared. We’ll be more careful going forward.”

Even though I had just woken up, my senses were strangely sharp—so sharp, in fact, that I felt nauseous. It was like everything around me had turned too loud, too bright, too much.

A sliver of light crept in through the slightly open door, accompanied by the sharp edges of raised voices. The voices were familiar. One of them belonged to Yoo Sejin. The other…

I’d been staring blankly at the river running through the center of Central, but now my gaze shifted to the door, swaying gently as if it hadn’t fully latched.

“Team Leader, I’m not here to listen to some convenient excuse. I’ve been letting things slide because I get why the Center is wary of Seonwoo, but don’t you think this time was over the line?”

“I agree… but the timing was unfortunate. It couldn’t be helped.”

“I heard Ki Sihyeon was the one who brought him out. That he refused to leave himself. Doesn’t that mean it was excessive punishment?”

“In the end, it was Woo Seonwoo’s decision. If he didn’t want to go, no one could’ve forced him.”

“Are you serious right now? You think Seonwoo just doesn’t listen to Ki Sihyeon? Come on. Don’t play dumb when you know exactly what’s going on. Are you seriously going to keep dodging responsibility like this?”

The sharpness in their argument rang out like shattering glass. I instinctively covered my ears. My senses were so heightened it felt like their shouting was happening right in front of me. The waves in my head that had finally calmed were starting to ripple again, and with enough external pressure, they could very well spiral out of control.

More crashing. Then a few shouted words. Then a sigh.

Silence followed.

If I try to think clearly… it sounds like the two people outside are Yoo Sejin and Yeo Dohun. They’re arguing… probably because of me.

That sort of thing happened a lot. Gyeon Yejin used to sneer and say they fought like parents arguing over how to raise their kid, then told me not to be a damn burden.

But this wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.

Where was I?

I raised both hands, looked around the huge bed I was lying on, glanced up at the ceiling, then turned my gaze toward the panoramic view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, glowing like a framed painting.

My heart dropped.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Since before you woke up, kid.”

Ki Sihyeon was standing in the shadows, arms crossed. I hadn’t noticed him until now—he definitely hadn’t been there a second ago. I rubbed my eyes, but he was still there.

It was genuinely strange. My senses were on high alert. There was no way I wouldn’t notice another presence this close. But somehow, he’d been standing there unnoticed.

Is this an illusion? A dream?

I just stared at him. Sihyeon approached with a wry smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Ki Sihyeon always did that. Showed up out of nowhere without a trace. Never gave you a moment to prepare.

“What are you doing?” he asked, sitting casually at the edge of the bed.

It was a big bed—I kind of wished he’d sat a little farther away, but I didn’t bother saying it.

“Just… wondering where I am.”

“This is Dohun’s place. First time here?”

A chill crept down my spine. That familiar sharp, searing presence of his.

So this really is Ki Sihyeon. I’m not dreaming.

I stared at him, fascinated, then answered, “Yeah. I mean, why would I go out of my way to visit the team leader’s place, especially needing official permission from the Center?”

“True. Now that I think about it, I would’ve been pretty fucking pissed if you had been here before.”

Why does that matter to you? I nearly said it—I’d only ever come here if Yeo Dohun lost his damn mind, but I bit my tongue.

Sihyeon’s expression had gone cold.

When Ki Sihyeon looked like that—like something inside him had shut off—it was better to stay quiet. Safer that way. Less of a hassle.

“What’s wrong? You upset?”

“Me? Of course not.”

“Good.”

I started to shift the sheets off and get out of bed, but Sihyeon grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back down. If this hadn’t been a soft mattress, I probably would’ve been hurt.

As soon as I hit the bed, he was straddling my waist. It happened so fast I didn’t even react.

…Well, not because I couldn’t. I just let it happen.

Sihyeon seemed to know it, too. He looked down at me with a faint scowl like he was frustrated but didn’t want to say why.

The only light in the room came from the cityscape and the pale moon filtering in through the windows. When I’d looked at the view earlier, the lights had looked more orange, but for some reason, when the glow hit Sihyeon, it turned blue.

With a dry, emotionless voice that didn’t match the amused look on his face, Sihyeon asked:

“Why are you just lying there, kid?”

Because you’re ridiculously good-looking and I was staring.

But if I said that out loud, I’d never live it down. At best, it’d become a decade-long joke. At worst, he’d ask, “Wait… does the kid like me?” and I wasn’t about to deal with that.

So instead, I decided to point out something that had been bothering me.

Sihyeon was acting weird. Too quiet, for one. And why was he even here, sitting next to me, instead of out there with Yeo Dohun and Yoo Sejin, arguing like he was supposed to be?

This wasn’t where he belonged.

Not next to me.