AAGULT Ch 7

Chapter 7

 

Jiwon let out a sigh full of relief, as if reassured. Jaeha gave a helpless smile and lowered his eyebrows.

“Well… I know it’s not much of a substitute, but could I get the pager?”

“Oh, yes.”

Jiwon took out a small device that looked like a walkie-talkie from inside his coat. Do all guides affiliated with the association receive one of these?

“…Then, please get some rest. I’ll be going now.”

“Okay.”

He stood up. For a moment, he felt as if someone was peeking into the lounge through the small window outside. He turned his head to look in that direction, but fortunately, no one was there. …Perhaps he was just being overly sensitive, worried someone might be listening.

“…Um, Jaeha-ssi.”

“Yes?”

He gently held the pager, careful not to accidentally press the SOS button, and turned to look at Jiwon. Jiwon was smiling faintly. Along with relief, a subtle concern seeped into that expression.

“…You’ll have to receive guiding someday, after all.”

“Thanks for your concern.”

“…”

He gave a small bow and left the lounge. After climbing the stairs up to the first floor, he checked the lock thoroughly. The guides had a separate entrance for coming and going, so all he could hope for now was that this door wouldn’t need to be opened again today.

When he arrived at the bar, all the tension in his body melted away.

“Oh, Jaeha-ssi! Did everything go well?”

“Ah, yeah…”

He laughed awkwardly. He silently thanked Harin several times in his heart for taking care of the bar so well while he was gone.

“Did we have any customers?”

“No.”

“That’s a relief…”

“Jaeha-ssi, you’re really unique.”

Jaeha brushed off Harin’s words and slumped into a nearby seat. Right, nothing happened today… The manager or the boss wouldn’t know, and since he had avoided Aiden’s suspicion, Aiden wouldn’t come back to this bar again.

That’s what he thought—until he had to meet Guide Aiden again four days later.

“Hello.”

“…You came again.”

“I told you I’d be back.”

The corner of his mouth, fixed into a polite public smile, trembled slightly. He didn’t want to choke again by reading another weird thought, but he had to read this man’s mind. Had he failed to fully erase the suspicion last time? Harin wasn’t working today, so he had to handle everything by himself…

He was dressed similarly to the last time. A formal coat, harness, white shirt, and gloves. It contrasted with his fresh, student-president-like face in a way that made the difference even more attractive.

Jaeha looked into the man’s eyes. When their gazes met, the man smiled. That smile was so pure and refreshing, it reminded him of the male actor who had become a hit in a coming-of-age summer drama set in the countryside. What was his name again… But honestly, this man was even prettier than that actor.

For a moment, he almost got caught up in his looks and had to tense his eyes. He had to stay sharp. If this really was a follow-up visit due to lingering suspicions, and if it was beyond what he could handle… then he would have to consult with Guide Kim Jiwon and report it to higher-ups or somehow redirect the direction of this man’s suspicion.

[Just like I thought last time…]

“I’ll have a Godfather, please.”

But fortunately—or unfortunately—he didn’t hear a suspicious voice this time.

“…Of course.”

[Your eyes are seriously turning me on.]

That aside, he did catch a very embarrassing thought…

For some reason, he suddenly felt exhausted and tightly closed his eyes.

Two more weeks passed. He thought the man wasn’t going to return, but then three days ago, he showed up again out of the blue.

Jaeha had braced himself and read his thoughts again, only to find the man full of flirtation aimed at him. He might have felt strange inside, but the man remained perfectly kind on the outside. He didn’t reveal his inner thoughts and simply had a drink each time before leaving. That dissonance only made Jaeha feel more miserable.

There were still moments when the man seemed suspicious, but those had decreased significantly compared to the first day, so it seemed safe to relax a little.

The only problem was that the man believed Jaeha to be a “F-rank esper with distorted waves.” Because of that, Jaeha had been drinking his rampage suppressant-slash-wave suppressant almost every day instead of the usual once every three days. He was anxious, not knowing when the man might show up again. On particularly stressful days, he drank it two or three times a day, which left his stomach constantly bloated, and the side effects that had slightly improved started to torment him again.

And so, eventually, this day came.

He ran out of suppressant.

“Everything alright?”

“…Well.”

“What is it?”

The manager, who had stopped by for an inspection, asked indifferently. Jaeha knew exactly what would happen if he brought this up to the manager, who went around checking for any irregularities in each section—but he had no choice but to open his mouth.

“That… I ran out of ‘it’… Could you possibly give me more?”

“…All of that already?”

“…”

Even if he asked for an explanation, Jaeha had nothing to say, so he kept his eyes lowered in submission. He couldn’t mention the agreement with Jiwon, or the fact that someone from the association had visited, or that the man kept dropping by.

“Heh, seriously.”

The manager let out a sarcastic laugh and shoved a hand into his pocket. Then he strolled over to Jaeha, who stood politely with his hands clasped at the bar, and started flicking Jaeha’s forehead with his fingers. Jaeha continued to lower his gaze and kept his hands as polite as possible.

“Song Jaeha. Are you out of your damn mind?”

“…”

“Well, well.”

Slap! The manager raised his hand and struck his cheek hard. Even though Jaeha had braced himself, his head snapped to the side.

“Ugh…!”

“You know how much that stuff costs?”

“Y-Yes, I do…”

“Just because the boss likes you, you think you can act all high and mighty.”

Slap, slap, slap! After several harsh slaps, Jaeha’s vision became dizzy. His mouth was bleeding—he could taste the metallic tang. It was a relief that Harin wasn’t working today.

“You think you’re confident just because the boss dotes on you.”

“It’s not like that…”

“Not like that? You think the boss doesn’t know I let you get beat like this? Keep acting all arrogant and I swear—”

“Ugh!”

Thunk. The manager punched him in the solar plexus. As he staggered from the impact, the manager kicked his shin and sent him crashing to the floor.

Crash! Jaeha’s body hit the barstools, knocking a few to the ground.

That marked the start of full-blown violence. Of all days, the manager was wearing hard-soled dress shoes. Every time he was kicked in the stomach or chest, Jaeha felt like vomiting. Several glasses on the bar shattered. Fearing that shards might get in his eyes or mouth, he tightly shut his eyes and clenched his mouth shut. He raised his arms to shield his head.

“Ugh, kuh!”

“Lately, you think you’re comfortable, huh? Think I went easy on you?”

“I’m, I’m sorry… Agh!”

Yeah, the manager had gone easier on him lately. Still, he hadn’t hit him directly for a while.

Why had he offered to help Jiwon? Why did he agree to hide it? He wouldn’t be suffering like this if he’d just reported it then. If a guide from the association kept showing up, the boss would’ve handled it, not made him endure this misery. It was a cowardly regret that only surfaced when he was in pain.

But he knew that if he resisted or tried to dodge, things would get worse. So the only thing Jaeha could do was silently endure it. He’d been beaten plenty at the orphanage, and when he first started this job, the manager had hit him even worse. This was nothing. Really… this was nothing…

“Hah, hah…”

“Ugh…”

How long had the beating lasted? By the time his cheek was so swollen he couldn’t see out of one eye, the violence finally stopped. The nausea from the suppressant felt unbearable. Gagging, he let out a cough mixed with dry heaves. Thankfully, nothing came out. Above him, the manager scoffed in disbelief.

“Enough with the dramatics. Tsk… What do I even expect from someone this stupid?”

“S-Sorry…”

“Whatever. I’ll send a box later. Hold out until the boss gets here.”

“Yes, sir…”

“Tsk.”

[An esper, huh.]

The manager left the bar, leaving Jaeha sprawled out on the floor.

Jaeha lay there for a while before groaning and pushing himself up.

‘At least I got a box…’

He felt a bit pathetic. If he just went downstairs, he could receive guiding—but instead, he was getting beaten up and forcing himself to drink that disgusting medicine.

“Boss…”

And in the end, he found himself hoping again.

That he would return. That he would receive leftover guiding from him. That he could feel that warm energy smeared on the man’s hands…

[So that you’ll crave my touch.]

The man’s low, laughing voice echoed in his head.

And suddenly, Jaeha felt utterly miserable.

Even though his whole body ached from the beating, he still had work to do. It was almost opening time, so Jaeha dragged his aching body to clean up the broken glass. He prepared ingredients and got everything ready to open the bar.

He hoped no one would come today. Whether it was customers or anyone else, he just wanted to be left alone.

Jaeha sat on a long chair, slowly drying glasses with a towel. His pace was slower than usual, likely due to his condition.

“Ugh…”

He occasionally groaned from the intense nausea. He set down a glass and leaned his head against the wall with his eyes closed. The dizziness was overwhelming. He felt like he would collapse if he didn’t rest even for a short while.

“Haa…”

And at the absolute worst moment—when he was praying no one would come, when he wanted to be alone the most—the door chime rang as soon as opening time came.

Ding-ling.

“Welcome…”

Was it already almost 6? No, had he even flipped the sign? It should still be on [Close]. Despite his confusion, his trained body moved first. He rose from the chair he had been leaning on, but staggered slightly as he took a step—perhaps he’d been hit too hard earlier.

Before he could even lift his head to see who it was, he sensed the air change. That’s how Jaeha knew—today’s customer was someone he knew.