The Espers Who Regretted Losing Me Chapter 55

I stared dryly at the two of them, who still didn’t seem sane, then pointed at the rift.

“Hey. That thing’s shrinking a lot right now…”

At this rate, we might actually get trapped.

Lee Shinra spoke urgently.

“Oh! We should hurry. Dogyeong hyung is probably crying his eyes out.”

“Yeah. Ah—Hyeya. Just in case, I think it’d be better if we held hands.”

“Huh? Uh… okay. But you should speak casually too. It feels weird if I’m the only one hearing honorifics…”

Every time Cha Eunhwi called me “Hyeya, Hyeya,” he felt like a clear-eyed lunatic.

At this point, it would’ve been better if he called me stiffly like before—“Yoon Hyeya.”
But there was no way I could ask that. Casual speech was probably better.

At my words, Cha Eunhwi covered his mouth with one hand. His eyelashes trembled, his cheeks flushed red, and he nodded shyly.

“Okay, Hyeya.”

“……”

I was losing my mind.
What on earth happened to these guys over the past year?

I couldn’t even hide my dull stare—but something even more shocking was waiting for me.

The moment we passed through the rift, a familiar space appeared.

And then I saw it.

Yeon Dogyeong was sitting on the ground in front of us, crying his eyes out.

What is wrong with him now?

Cha Eunhwi and Lee Shinra had kept saying Dogyeong would be crying, but I didn’t believe them.
There was no way he’d do that.

And it wasn’t like there was no one around.

Some faces were familiar, others weren’t.
The ones who knew me stared in shock the moment they saw me.

We weren’t close to begin with, and I’d decided to live recklessly from now on, so I ignored them and looked at Dogyeong.

Maybe he only realized I was there just then.
The moment our eyes met, his face crumpled horribly and he burst into loud sobs.

“Hy… Hy—h-hyeya……”

“……”

“I—I thought you weren’t coming out… so… so……”

I had never seen Yeon Dogyeong cry since we were kids.
No—back then, he hadn’t cried like this either.

Back then, I would’ve pulled him into my arms like a teddy bear and gently patted his back, saying It’s okay, it’s okay.
But imagining that now made my skin crawl.

His emotions are unstable, but it’s not that serious.

And this wasn’t even a situation where we were fighting monsters.

There was no reason for me to step in and guide him, so I just stared blankly.

But Dogyeong kept crying—and then even Shinra started crying too, tears dripping down his face with a dazed look.

The surrounding noise grew louder.

I hated being the center of attention, so I turned to Cha Eunhwi with an annoyed expression.

“Do we have to stay like this? People are staring. I don’t like it.”

“N—No— I mean— um. Could you hold my hand? Not for any weird reason. Like I said earlier, I can teleport, so I can take us somewhere people won’t notice.”

Cha Eunhwi almost slipped into honorifics again and quickly corrected himself.

He was much taller than when we were kids, his voice deeper and firmer, barely recognizable.
Still, maybe because of his gentle tone, he reminded me of his younger self—like when I’d looked at Dogyeong earlier.

When I quietly held out my arm, Cha Eunhwi lightly bit his lower lip and took my hand with extreme care.

Then he stepped toward Yeon Dogyeong and bent down.

“Dogyeong, grab on. We’re going to the ops room. Shinra, you hold on too.”

“……”

Neither of them answered, but like I had earlier, they obediently grabbed his arm and shoulder.

Soon, the bleak scenery and people’s faces blurred and wavered.

I felt a light dizziness.

When I opened my eyes again, the familiar operations room was in front of me.

“Ha……”

Maybe because he used his ability while in bad condition, Cha Eunhwi turned pale and staggered.

The hand holding mine loosened.
He took a pill bottle out of his pocket and hurriedly swallowed a pill, just like Shinra had earlier.

I’d already felt it before, but it really showed—
he didn’t even think about receiving guiding.

He used to take his medicine while clearly showing how annoyed he was.

I didn’t even need to think far back.
He’d done the same thing just before we were trapped in the gate.

Cha Eunhwi didn’t put the bottle away right away.
He handed a pill to Yeon Dogyeong and Lee Shinra too.

Both of them were still crying, sniffling as they swallowed the pills.
Their chaotic energy settled a little.

The silence in the ops room was broken by Yeon Dogyeong.

“Yoon Hyeya.”

He looked so blank he almost seemed stupid as he called my name, so I looked at him.

Sniffling, he spoke again.

“Yoon Hyeya.”

“……”

“Yoon… Hyeya……”

It didn’t seem like he had anything to say.

Still, we couldn’t stay like this forever, so I replied with an uncomfortable look.

“What. If you’re going to call my name, say something.”

This incredibly rude tone was something I’d learned directly from Yeon Dogyeong.

There’s a saying about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

You have to treat people the way they treated you for them to realize it’s wrong.
I hoped seeing me act the same way would make him reflect a little…

“Y-You’re… talking casually to me right now?”

…That would be nice, but judging by how red his face turned, it probably wouldn’t be easy.

As I broke into a cold sweat and closed my mouth, Yeon Dogyeong smiled brightly.

At that exact moment, a broadcast came through the speakers in the ops room, and Cha Eunhwi’s phone and pager started ringing loudly.

[Geumgang Second Unit. All members are to gather immediately in the Director’s office.
All members, report to the Director’s office immediately.]

There were a lot of people around, so it wouldn’t be strange if word had already spread that I was alive.

Can I really lie properly…?

Lying to these guys and lying to older people like the Director were on completely different levels.

Still… well.
I was pretty confident in pretending not to know anything.

And honestly, I had a lot of resentment toward the Director too, so I didn’t feel guilty about lying.

[Geumgang Second Unit. All members are to gather immediately in the Director’s office.]

The announcement kept repeating, clearly showing how urgent the situation was.

I stared at the speaker, then turned to Cha Eunhwi.

“Isn’t that calling us? They said Geumgang Second Unit. I thought you said it was officially disbanded, but they’re still using the name.”

If they were rebuilding the unit anyway, I wished they’d change the name.

Every time I heard Geumgang Second Unit, it made me worry that one day it might merge with the First Unit.

After I said that casually—

The ops room door suddenly burst open.

“…Hyeya. Is that really you?”

The Director stood there, sweat beading on his forehead, calling me in a trembling voice.

For a moment, my breath caught.

Unlike Yeon Dogyeong, Cha Eunhwi, or Lee Shinra, the Director was more of an adult.
He was also my guardian.

Lying even to him felt… heavy.

No. If the Director hadn’t told them about my resignation in the first place, things wouldn’t have gone this far.

Now that I thought about it, it was true.

Being suddenly assigned to the expedition unit, the espers losing their tempers inside the gate—
the root cause was the Director breaking confidentiality.

I didn’t exactly suffer inside the gate, but I still can’t forgive him!

I hold grudges for a long time.
I’d already planned to complain openly after the mission, so my feelings flipped quickly.

Reluctantly, I moved behind the espers, half-hiding myself.

Then, in a small whisper, after hearing someone inhale sharply, I asked,

“Who’s that?”

The Director was retired now, but he used to be an A-rank esper.

Awakened people lose power as they age, but even then, they’re far stronger than normal humans.

So of course—

He definitely heard my voice.