The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 16

Since he had planned to leave the task of persuading Do-gyeong and Shin-ra to Eun-hwi, the situation was awkward.

Espers instinctively become obsessed with “their guide.”

The more guiding they receive, the stronger their dependence becomes—and those two in particular had such low compatibility with other guides that Hyeya was the only one who worked for them.

Even so, pushing forward with a squad reorganization had actually been for Hyeya’s sake as well.

At the rate things were going, it wouldn’t have been strange for Do-gyeong and Shin-ra to imprint on Hyeya at any moment.

If the number of espers under Hyeya increased, the amount of guiding she gave to those two would naturally decrease.

Once their condition improved, the plan was to consider assigning different guides to them again.

It was true that bad relationships within the squad were a problem, but there had been trust and confidence that Baek I-deun and Cha Eun-hwi would handle that just fine.

Later on, there had even been plans to explain all of this properly to Hyeya herself.

And yet, without even a moment to breathe, an incident like this had erupted.

On top of that, Cha Eun-hwi was reacting in an unexpected way, which only made things more frustrating.

‘…This is troublesome.’

Just as Jeong Si-gyeom let out another sigh, his phone vibrated repeatedly in his pocket.

He had set it to the lowest vibration, but it was still sharp enough for espers’ keen hearing, and attention briefly shifted.

Thinking it might be urgent, he lightly gestured for the meeting to continue and took out his phone.

Then he flinched when he saw the screen.

┈┈┈┈
❮Yoon Hyeya ⇢ Jeong Si-gyeom❯

↪ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ I hate you

↪ Seriously ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ you’re so mean

↪ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ that’s awful

↪ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽

↪ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ really

↪ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ I hate you!

↪ waaahhh……

┈┈┈┈

Whether intentional or not, exactly eighteen messages had come in.

Even Jeong Si-gyeom, who rarely got flustered, felt a trace of madness in them.

Normally, he would have replied briefly that he was in a meeting—or ignored it altogether.

But this time, his fingers moved before he could stop them.

┈┈┈┈
❮Jeong Si-gyeom ⇢ Yoon Hyeya❯

↪ What happened? Don’t cry—calm down and tell me

┈┈┈┈
❮Yoon Hyeya ⇢ Jeong Si-gyeom❯

↪ If you won’t accept my resignation then please just keep things as they are! Please

↪ If I stay with them I’m seriously going to snap, I’m not a shrimp

┈┈┈┈

What on earth had happened inside the gate…?

The question was quickly answered.

‘Looks like something went wrong with Geumgang First Squad.’

After all, Eun-hwi and I-deun—the ones meant to mediate—were both here.

As exhaustion washed over him, Jeong Si-gyeom ended up sighing yet again.

In truth, the reason Jeong Haram had been assigned to Geumgang Second Squad today wasn’t just because of his detection ability.

There had also been a clear intention to have them work together in advance of the squad reorganization.

Barometz was already a cleared Named Monster, and he had firmly believed that surely they wouldn’t fight inside an A-rank gate.

It seemed that judgment had been wrong.

Whatever had happened beyond the rift, and whatever words had been exchanged, would need to be confirmed—but if future gates continued to behave differently from before, even greater caution would be necessary.

Forcing people who didn’t mesh well into the same team would only stir up more trouble.

After finishing his thoughts, Jeong Si-gyeom raised his arm again and drew everyone’s attention.

Leaving a brief pause, he spoke calmly.

“Until we know how gates may merge in the future, strengthening training is appropriate. However, we will postpone discussion of squad reorganization. If strategies change, even espers who’ve worked together for a long time may struggle to coordinate. This isn’t the right time.”

All squads were organized with each esper’s efficiency in mind.

Given the circumstances, the decision was unavoidable—but complaints surfaced immediately.

“This is difficult, Director. Our squad can’t manage with just Taerin. Even today, we went in without Haram and Taerin still collapsed halfway through.”

The one who spoke was Baek I-deun.

He wasn’t exaggerating. With one guide suddenly missing, the remaining guide’s burden had increased, and the espers’ conditions had begun to destabilize.

That was why they had long been hoping to receive guiding from Hyeya, whom they had been watching closely—and now it was suddenly on hold.

Seeing I-deun smile while clearly dissatisfied, Jeong Si-gyeom thought of the currently unaffiliated guides and replied,

“For now, I’ll assign two B-rank guides to Geumgang First Squad and reinforce them as personnel become available. I know other squads are struggling too, but please bear with us a little longer.”

“But the fairness—”

“The espers of Geumgang Second Squad have extremely low compatibility with other guides, while their growth rate is excessively fast. You all understand better than I do what happens if they don’t receive proper guiding. I ask for your understanding.”

There were only three S-rank guides registered at the Korean headquarters.

One belonged to the Graphite Squad, traveling nationwide to handle gates as they appeared.

One had served on the front lines for decades but was now gradually losing strength and considering retirement.

And the last one was Hyeya.

Everyone wants to use their full strength.

The desire for an excellent guide was strong, but with the Director speaking this firmly, no one could continue complaining.

Especially since they all knew the pain of those so-called “side effects.”

As the captains’ expressions shifted, Jeong Si-gyeom continued,

“Now, let’s return to the topic of gates. For now, uncleared gates will be handled by two or more squads, with reserve squads waiting outside—”

As everyone listened to his steady voice, Baek I-deun stared at Cha Eun-hwi, who sat calmly.

Feeling that blatant gaze, Eun-hwi lifted his head.

With his already-sharp senses, it was impossible to ignore such a persistent look.

Their eyes met in midair, and I-deun smiled warmly, moving his lips.

‘Lucky you.’

Normally, Eun-hwi would have ignored it as not worth responding to.

He might have scoffed at it as a cheap provocation.

But right now, for some reason, the fact that Hyeya was their guide made his mood lift in a strange way.

‘Yeah. I am.’

He smiled gently and shot back without hesitation.

Seeing Baek I-deun twist his lips in irritation was satisfying.

Lowering his gaze, Cha Eun-hwi looked at his own hand.

Inside the gate, and even after coming out, he hadn’t received proper guiding.

But when he recalled Hyeya nervously scattering her energy while watching his reactions, his nerves settled.

The issue of squad merging had been dealt with, one way or another.

Now, only one problem remained.

He curled his open hand into a fist and let out a silent breath.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Four days had passed since we cleared ‘The White and Pallid Barometz Arboretum.’

A lot had happened in the meantime. First of all, the official term for that rift was established as a “Composite Gate.” Exactly as it sounded.

However, until additional cases were reported, an order came down to keep the matter confidential, so there was no formal announcement yet.

No matter how much the Association had minimized damage caused by gates, the fact that gates themselves were dangerous hadn’t changed.

Announcing that something even more dangerous had appeared—when nothing was properly understood yet, including the conditions under which it occurred—would only heighten public anxiety, so the decision made sense.

On top of that, espers’ training schedules were expanded, reserve squads were assigned to B-rank gates, and everything felt generally unsettled.

Most importantly, the squad reorganization was put on hold, and the current setup was maintained.

‘Even though I’ve submitted my resignation seventy times already and got caught pretending to be weak… thank goodness.’

Because that day, even after the gate was cleared, another problem cropped up.