The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 101

“……What time is it?”

My improved eyesight was still the same, so even without turning on a light, I had no trouble making out objects around me.

I blinked and looked around, but I couldn’t see a clock.

Then I suddenly noticed that a blanket had been draped over me, and that there was something on the table that hadn’t been there before.

There was a sealed food container, a bottle of water, and several notes.

[You wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I tried, so I’m just leaving the food here. I’ll come back at ● o’clock, so if you wake up before then, eat and wait a little. – Gong Suyeong -]

[I’ll come at ● o’clock. I’ll come again at ●:●. – Gong Suyeong -]

[I kept coming back until midnight, but you must’ve been really tired because you still didn’t wake up. I’ll be sleeping in the room inside, so wake me up when you get up. – Gong Suyeong -]

“……”

Since only the times had been blacked out, it looked like she had been going back and forth repeatedly.

It was surprising enough that I had slept through all of that, but when I saw the last note, I finally realized that I could hear someone breathing inside the room.

“She really is a kind person……”

If her only goal had been to keep an eye on me, there would’ve been no reason to go this far.

Even if I had shared supplies, there was no reason for her to take such good care of me.

And considering how worried she had been earlier and how she’d kept giving me advice…

No, even before that. Just hearing that she had gotten hurt while helping someone else was enough to tell me she was a genuinely good person.

When I opened the container, it was filled generously with fried rice. There was even a note attached that read, “If you don’t have an appetite, you don’t have to force yourself to eat.”

I really didn’t have much of an appetite, so I closed the container again and set it down.

After drinking a little water, I stared at the room whose door was half open.

She had asked me to wake her up when I got up, but I didn’t really want to wake someone who was sleeping peacefully.

I decided to just wait until Unni woke up and sat back down on the sofa.

Then an alarm suddenly rang from inside the room.

Beep-beep-beep-beep.

The sound made me flinch instinctively, and then it stopped.

About a minute later, a beam of light that looked like a flashlight appeared from inside the room, and Gong Suyeong Unni came out into the living room.

When she spotted me sitting on the sofa, she startled just like I had a moment ago.

“……Did you sleep well?”

“Oh, hi. Didn’t you see the note? I wrote that you should wake me up if you got up.”

“I did see it, but I only woke up a little while ago too. You didn’t wake me up either, so I was wondering whether I should wake you.”

At my honest answer, Gong Suyeong Unni let out a small laugh.

She used a remote control to turn on the light she’d mentioned earlier and switched off the flashlight.

It wasn’t extremely bright, but the room became much more illuminated.

“You still haven’t eaten. Do you not like fried rice?”

“No. I’m not picky. I’m just not hungry right now.”

“I see.”

“But Unni, did you set that alarm because of me?”

“No. I always wake up around this time… Though I guess you wouldn’t know the time since I have the clock. It’s already seven o’clock. You must’ve been really tired.”

Gong Suyeong Unni showed me the alarm clock that had gone off.

I’d only been used to clocks with digital displays, so seeing such a retro-looking clock felt strangely fascinating.

“It’s a wind-up clock. Cute, right?”

“Yes. I guess… since there’s no proper power supply, old electronics probably don’t work anymore.”

“Right. Still, this place was equipped to handle emergencies to some degree, so… Ah, though you’d probably know more about that than I do.”

“Oh, no. You probably know more than I do. I only ever went around clearing Gates, so I never paid much attention to Headquarters.”

That wasn’t just something I was saying.

It was true.

Still, I was pretty sure that the emergencies Suyeong Unni was talking about hadn’t been situations like the current world.

They had probably only prepared for cases where an A-Rank Gate wasn’t cleared quickly enough and monsters started coming out.

After a somewhat awkward exchange, Gong Suyeong Unni sighed.

“Hyea, you know… It’s been almost a year since an outsider came here. And it’s been even longer since we’ve met an Esper. To be honest, there was always this invisible wall between Espers and everyone else. Even when we lived together here, we weren’t exactly close. But…”

“But…?”

“Director told us a little about you yesterday. He said you’re like a daughter to him, and because of various circumstances, you don’t really like interacting with people and might feel uncomfortable when people pay too much attention to you. He also said you were an exceptionally talented Esper.”

“……Director said that?”

“Yeah.”

Even if my physical abilities had improved, I wasn’t an Esper.

The reason I’d hidden the fact that I was a Guide from Lee Seung-gwon was because I had sensed something similar to Esper energy from the people here.

Just in case it caused problems.

“At least from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t seem like there are any Espers here…”

But if Director had introduced me as an Esper, then keeping quiet was the right choice.

Whatever his reasons were, there was no harm in being cautious.

After watching my expression, Gong Suyeong Unni continued.

“Personally, I didn’t get that impression from you at all, but I only met you briefly. So everyone agreed to be careful around you. But… remember what I told you yesterday? About the kids?”

“Ah.”

“The kids are really curious. There’s one six-year-old, one eight-year-old, and two fifteen-year-olds. They’re tired of being stuck here all the time, and the older ones have said a few times that they wish they could become Espers too… So I think they’ll be very interested in you. Which is why I wanted to ask… do you like kids?”

Now I understood why she’d been speaking so carefully.

Without realizing it, I smiled.

“No.”

“……I see. Well, that’s understandable. Kids are cute, but they’re noisy and can be pretty unruly. Ours can be like that too.”

The smile that had brightened on Gong Suyeong Unni’s face when she saw me smiling stiffened slightly.

Still, she tried not to show it as she continued, and I awkwardly added:

“I don’t dislike them either. I don’t know if you know this, but at Headquarters, children usually spend time with other children, and adults stay with adults.”

“Oh, so it’s more that you don’t really know how to interact with them?”

“Yes. But since they’re young children, I’ll be understanding even if they get a little annoying.”

No matter how unruly or stubborn they were, they couldn’t be worse than the Espers who had acted like tyrants.

At my answer, Gong Suyeong Unni finally seemed relieved.

We talked a little longer before leaving the room.

She told me to follow her, and I obediently did.

I wondered where we were going, but she led me to the rear exit on the first floor—the place where the balcony had been.

It had originally been a small park-like relaxation area, but now it had been turned into a vegetable garden.

There were also several large water tanks that seemed to be used for collecting rainwater.

“It used to be completely open here…”

Now, however, tall walls and barbed-wire fencing surrounded the entire area, making it look impossible for either people or monsters to enter freely.

And somewhere in that space was the makeshift shower room Suyeong Unni had mentioned.

“This is… really well made for something called ‘makeshift.’”

“Right? The Espers built it back when they were still here.”

It was surprisingly spacious, with separate men’s and women’s sections.

There were proper partitions, doors, and even functioning showerheads.

There wasn’t any shampoo or conditioner, but there was a chunky-looking bar of handmade soap.

“There’s no hot water… right?”

“There is. Didn’t I tell you this place had some emergency preparations in place? We store energy using solar panels. We can’t waste it, though. We also take turns handling wastewater treatment and things like that, and we grow crops in the garden over there, so we’re more or less self-sufficient. During winter, we cover everything like a greenhouse.”

Gong Suyeong Unni explained everything with a hint of pride.

Even though this world had apparently been like this for three years, only two days had passed from my perspective.

So it was impossible not to compare things.

But remembering the ruined world Director had shown me, this was absolutely a place worthy of pride.

“I already told everyone you’d be using it this morning, so nobody will come. I’ll lock the door too, and I’ll be watering the garden nearby, so don’t worry and wash comfortably. Those toothbrushes are all new, so just take one. There are towels in the basket. You can change into whatever clothes fit well enough. They’ve all been washed. There are new underwear in the drawer beside it too. Just wear whatever fits and leave your laundry here when you’re done.”

Just like yesterday, Gong Suyeong Unni explained everything in detail from beginning to end.

Then she gently pushed me into the shower room and closed the door.

Soft lighting glowed inside as well.

“She really feels like an older sister…”

For some reason, the feeling was incredibly, incredibly strange.