The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 12

Jung Ha-ram spoke as if he were being wronged, but what mattered wasn’t his excuse.

Calming my breathing, I closed my eyes and focused.

Each time Yeon Do-gyeong pushed forward, hacking through the tentacles, my arm was yanked along with him.

From all directions came thud, thud—the sound of things bursting with reckless enthusiasm—mixed with a nauseating blend of stench and burning flesh.

I’d never had a strong stomach to begin with, so my insides quickly churned.

It had also been a long time since I’d been this close to the battlefield, and I clearly wasn’t used to it anymore.

After keeping my eyes shut for quite a while, Cha Eun-hwi spoke, his voice laced with a sigh.

“This won’t end if we keep going like this. Shin-ra, how long do you think the barrier can hold?”

“If Hyeya noona keeps guiding like she is now, we could keep this up until tomorrow. Of course, if she collapses from exhaustion halfway through, then it’s over.”

That’s bad. I was planning to pretend I got tired and collapse halfway—but if the barrier breaks, I won’t survive either…!

My chest tightened with tension.

I reflexively opened my eyes, and Cha Eun-hwi immediately asked,

“How long do you think you can last, Guide Yoon Hyeya?”

Honestly, I was confident I could keep this up until tomorrow.

What worried me was the fact that, until now, I’d always pretended to be ‘just tired enough’ at the ‘right time.’

I hesitated, unable to answer right away. Yeon Do-gyeong cut in, flinging a mass of flames.

“Isn’t it obvious? Our Yoon Hyeya starts panting after about thirty minutes, then an hour later her legs give out and she collapses. That is, unless all that ‘fragile’ acting was fake.”

“……”

“Then one hour is the limit, right? There’s no way Hyeya noona would deliberately pretend to be weak.”

The corner of my eye twitched.

So you weren’t clueless at all… I was laughing at you for being hopelessly dense.

I couldn’t even bring myself to glance sideways, just stared straight ahead. Cha Eun-hwi asked again,

“So? How long can you really last? I’m aware that you haven’t been very diligent with your guiding until now, so please be honest.”

Was he saying he’d let it slide if I confessed now?!

Interpreting his expression however I pleased, I parted my tightly pressed lips.

“If we maintain the current state… I’ll be fine until tomorrow.”

“Even with one more person added?”

I flicked my eyes toward Jung Ha-ram, who was helping clear the area alongside Yeon Do-gyeong, then nodded.

This wasn’t the time to deny it—being honest was clearly the right choice.

But the moment the words left my mouth, unease crept in.

Not because of what was happening now, but because I could already imagine how these three would act once we got out alive.

If they just sniped at me like usual, that’d be a blessing. Given their personalities, it wouldn’t be strange if they actually put handcuffs on me and a leash too.

Or they might take this as their chance to demand something beyond hand-holding and hugging…

Of course, if they seriously went out and bought handcuffs or made unreasonable demands, I had no intention of submitting. I’d get my hands on guns, bombs—anything—and beat them senseless, even if it landed me in prison.

But the thought of my future becoming that bleak was unbearably depressing.

This wasn’t overthinking.

The reason I’d pretended to be physically weak all this time was entirely because of Yeon Do-gyeong and Lee Shin-ra.

Cha Eun-hwi, with his calm temperament and lack of sharp edges, had matured early and grown up relatively well.

Well—by the standards of espers who were severely lacking in character education, anyway.

In contrast, those two had been reckless brutes since childhood, acting however they pleased.

They were terrible at controlling their abilities, always pushing themselves to the limit and going on rampages.

Back then, I was clumsy at guiding too.

My burden grew heavier by the day, and just holding hands wasn’t enough to calm them—I sometimes had to cling to them like a koala.

If it had stopped there, I could’ve accepted it.

The real problem was how fast and how explosively their abilities grew.

By then, our relationship had already gone sour, and I had no desire to give Yeon Do-gyeong or Lee Shin-ra my all.

If I let things keep escalating, I really would have to rub lips with them someday.

Faced with that spine-chilling outcome, I made up my mind.

Even if I got cursed at for being incompetent, I’d just pretend my stamina was trash.

So I started method acting—collapsing dramatically whenever I could.

At first, I wondered if it would even work. But surprisingly, it did.

Yeon Do-gyeong and Lee Shin-ra began controlling their output.

Probably because they realized on an instinctive level that they were the ones who’d suffer if they couldn’t get guided.

They only went all-out in the first place to show off their power.

Still, that was my perspective. From theirs, I’d probably look deceitful and infuriating.

I’d muttered all that right next to them—there was no way they hadn’t heard.

And yet… strangely, no one said anything.

As I watched Cha Eun-hwi cautiously, Jung Ha-ram—who’d been flailing around—suddenly whined.

“Hyeya, I’m tired. My head hurts, and my nose feels like it’s about to fall off. I think I’m gonna cry…”

“Ah—just a moment. Your hand—”

Clench.

A strong grip locked around my interlaced fingers.

“……Would radiation-type guiding be okay?”

“Mmm. Probably not okay. But Do-gyeong and Shin-ra definitely won’t let go of your hands, so I guess it can’t be helped. But Hyeya—why the honorifics? Between us, just call me ‘Ha-ram~.’”

“Ha…….”

I’m going to lose my mind. His face and smile were pretty, but the things coming out of his mouth were absolute trash.

Swallowing the urge to say we’re strangers, total outsiders, even greeting each other is awkward, I spread my energy widely.

Then, just like always, I tried to cut it off neatly—doing things by the book.

If a tentacle hadn’t exploded with a bang! right behind Jung Ha-ram.

“……!”

Tattered chunks of flesh slammed into the barrier and slid down.

Jung Ha-ram and I turned our heads almost simultaneously.

Cha Eun-hwi—clearly the one who’d destroyed the tentacle—spoke in his usual calm tone.

“If you’re distracted, it’s dangerous. Be careful, Esper Jung Ha-ram. That’s probably why you didn’t even notice the monster approaching.”

“H-huh? No, but seriously, I didn’t feel anything at all—”

“If you keep fooling around, Ha-ram hyung, you might end up outside the barrier alone. I won’t take responsibility, so watch yourself.”

“Does your whole unit walk around spaced out like you? At this rate, you won’t even need my help to die young.”

All the barbs that normally would’ve been aimed at me were now directed squarely at Jung Ha-ram.

They weren’t wrong—but wasn’t that a bit too blatant?

Even I, used to this treatment, would’ve stiffened. But Jung Ha-ram just beamed.

“You’re worried about me? Thanks, guys. I really hope we end up in the same unit someday. Everyone in my unit is older than me, so it gets lonely. But here, there’s Eun-hwi, Do-gyeong, and Hyeya—it’s great. Ah, and I like calling Shin-ra ‘hyung’ too.”

To interpret it that way… in a sense, that was impressive.

The problem was that bringing up unit integration again soured Yeon Do-gyeong’s mood.

Twisting his lips, Yeon Do-gyeong stomped his foot.

Boom.

The ground shook, heat surged, and a ring of flames spread around us.

Nearby tentacles burned black and crumbled into ash, and the advancing wall froze as if it sensed the threat.

But the tension didn’t ease even slightly.

Yeon Do-gyeong smiled savagely at Jung Ha-ram.

“Do you have something other than a brain in that head of yours?”

“Not sure. Never opened it up to check.”

“Then let’s take a look now. Those things will take care of melting the rest of you.”

That wasn’t a joke.

Not even close.

Everyone knew Yeon Do-gyeong had a nasty temper. Before Cha Eun-hwi joined last year, he used to beat monsters to death with a nail-studded baseball bat.

People said he wasn’t right in the head so often that the director himself had asked him—politely—to switch weapons.