AAGULT Ch 64

Chapter 64

Above all, Jaeha had no idea how to even begin solving the issue of his memory loss. Thinking, “I need to recover my memories!” wasn’t something that would magically fix everything. The Association President had offered to support him with a related Esper, but… he wasn’t sure.

The most plausible method was for the boss himself—who had altered his memories in the first place—to undo that power directly. But Jaeha was still confused as to whether the Association President’s words were even true.

Aiden reached out and gently brushed aside Jaeha’s hair, which had become tousled by the winter breeze, before speaking.

“I noticed something while guiding you earlier.”

“Yes?”

“You might think I’m mistaken because it’s the first time I’ve guided someone with a psychic-type ability… but…”

He paused for a moment as though carefully choosing his words.

“Jaeha, if you can recover your rank, I think you might be able to recover your memories through training.”

“…What?”

To Jaeha, it sounded like an absurd claim. His ability wasn’t anything special. It was just reading others’ thoughts—that was it. But regardless of Jaeha’s reaction, Aiden seemed entirely sincere. He began to explain his hypothesis.

“The human brain communicates information through electrical signals between neurons, right? So, maybe your ability actually works by detecting the minute electromagnetic waves that leak from those signals.”

“Uh…”

“There’s a good chance that’s how it works. Your ability is classified as psychic-type, but it could be interpreted as reading these subtle electromagnetic patterns.”

The last time Jaeha had encountered any sort of scientific theory was over six years ago in high school. Faced with all this unexpected scientific knowledge, he could only blink blankly with a dumbfounded expression.

[Idiot. So cute…]

“That applies to memory, too. If you can accurately detect the electrical patterns that make up memory traces, and if you can interfere with and reactivate those signals between neurons… it’s just a theory, but it might be possible to unravel the manipulated memories.”

Jaeha was swept up in the explanation and couldn’t respond. Amid that, he missed the moment to object to Aiden’s internal thought that had just called him an idiot.

Aiden smiled.

“Of course, it’s all up to you. I’m not forcing you.”

“…”

“I was just a bit worried. As a guide, I felt like you’d been neglected in many ways. It didn’t seem like you’d ever properly received guiding since your powers manifested. If you could just receive guiding properly, you’d be able to fully harness your abilities…”

He gently stroked Jaeha’s cheek as if pained. That touch tugged at Jaeha’s heart a little. He had no particular ambition as an Esper, but the fact that Aiden genuinely cared about him made him feel thankful.

“And also…”

“…”

“…”

He hesitated, which was rare. And Jaeha noticed something else: Aiden, who usually looked him directly in the eye—even when joking—was now avoiding eye contact, glancing down instead.

“Aiden?”

His instincts screamed that there was something more. A wave of unease surged up. Jaeha’s heart dropped with a thud.

“…It’s nothing.”

Aiden tried to dodge the question. He even began to pull his hand away, but Jaeha quickly reached out and grabbed it. The IV line in his other arm yanked taut, nearly pulling down the IV stand, but he managed to use his free hand to lift Aiden’s face and cup his cheeks.

“Look me in the eyes. Okay?”

“….”

His lashes, halfway lowered, trembled and then slowly lifted. Even then, he still looked hesitant. The fact that this was Aiden—someone who was never like this—made Jaeha’s anxiety skyrocket. Aiden wasn’t the type to act like this.

“Can you not read me?”

Aiden smiled awkwardly and asked, but Jaeha ignored his words and looked into his eyes. His instincts were screaming that this had to do with him.

So he looked into Aiden’s eyes and used his ability.

“…”

Perhaps because the conversation had already locked Aiden’s focus onto the topic of memory, his mind was crowded with all sorts of unrelated thoughts behind that central theme. It seemed like he was deliberately trying to think of other things so Jaeha wouldn’t be able to read his true thoughts.

But Jaeha, unaware that this was a calculated performance by Aiden, focused on trying to extract the truth he was trying to hide.

[My lost memories are something I have to deal with myself. This isn’t something Jaeha should be burdened by… Jaeha, can’t you just not worry about it?]

“…”

Just that one sentence, pulled from behind a storm of noisy thoughts, made Jaeha realize why Aiden had hesitated and couldn’t speak. The reason Aiden wanted him to regain his memories wasn’t just because “it’s a waste for you not to reach your full potential as an Esper.” There was something deeper, something more important.

Jaeha didn’t want to believe his own suspicion. Because… it was too cruel. Even as he thought surely not, he slowly opened his mouth and asked him a question.

“Did… did the boss mess with your memories too?”

“…”

“Aiden!”

When Aiden dodged the question, Jaeha’s heart sank. He couldn’t hold back and ended up shouting. Aiden flinched at the raised voice, and in that moment, guilt surged through Jaeha, making the strength in his grasp weaken.

“I wasn’t going to say anything…”

At last, Aiden opened his mouth with a sigh. A faint, sheepish smile accompanied his words.

“There are a few inconsistencies between my official records and my memories—along with the memories of people around me. After seeing your case… it made me think something was off. The timeline overlaps exactly with the period when Baek Beom-woo was at the Association.”

“….”

Wait—so the boss used to be at the Association? Was he originally part of it? Then why did he become a villain?

Jaeha’s brain, already strained by recent confusion and stress, began to throb.

“…”

“I’ll say this again—you don’t have to change your mind just because of me, Jaeha. Even if I don’t have those memories, it doesn’t affect my life.”

But that wasn’t what mattered right now. Jaeha shut his eyes tightly, then opened them with force, trying to pull himself together.

Right. Let’s sort this out.

He never imagined there’d be a connection like this between Aiden and the boss. If he were the only victim, it wouldn’t matter. But like with the antidote incident, if there were others affected… and if he could do something about it… then even if he didn’t want to, he had to try.

Even if it meant disrupting whatever plan the boss had intended.

“No…”

After a long internal struggle, Jaeha finally overcame the ‘training’ he’d been subjected to for so long. With his eyes tightly closed in pain, he slowly, very slowly opened his mouth. It was the first time since regaining consciousness that he’d truly grasped a reason to recover.

“I’ll try… I’ll try my best. To recover my rank, too… I’ll work hard.”

“…”

Jaeha didn’t see it—his eyes were tightly shut.

But Aiden did. He saw that Jaeha, who had been skeptical and passive about regaining his rank, had been gently coaxed and persuaded into making the choice Aiden wanted all along.

In that moment, Aiden was seized by an uncontrollable sense of triumph. He realized that the person who had long been hiding in the shadows of Baek Beom-woo had now taken a step—however small—beyond those shadows for his sake.

His obsidian-like eyes sparkled subtly and eerily. With the satisfied sigh of a well-fed beast, he quietly hid a desire that Jaeha would never know. Instead of feigning modesty or saying something like “Don’t overdo it,” or “It’s fine, you don’t have to do this for me,” he pulled Jaeha into a hug and sealed the decision.

So Jaeha wouldn’t look up and see, Aiden embraced him tightly and whispered softly:

“Thank you.”

“…”

“Let’s do our best—together.”

So gently and sweetly, he laid down the trap—and Jaeha, completely unaware, stepped right into it.

It was perfect timing. Snow began to fall slowly.

Jaeha, who quietly nodded and returned Aiden’s embrace, completely oblivious to everything, didn’t know a thing.

Nothing at all.

“Song Jaeha-ssi?”

They had stayed quite a while on the beautifully decorated rooftop, so the cold hadn’t left his body yet. Aiden had offered to walk him back, but it was obvious how busy he was, so Jaeha sent him off. By the time he returned, it was already dusk.

As he stepped into the hallway, he noticed someone standing awkwardly in front of his hospital room. Jaeha hesitated and walked toward them, and the man smiled and greeted him.

Who is he?

Jaeha looked up at the man. He was enormous—so much so that it bore repeating.

Jaeha, who was decently tall himself, had to tilt his head all the way back to meet the man’s eyes. Which meant this man was even taller than the boss, who was in the 190 cm range. This man clearly exceeded two meters in height. And he wasn’t just tall—he had a solid, muscular build.

If they’d met not in a brightly lit hospital hallway but on a dark street at night, Jaeha might’ve instinctively turned and run. His appearance was just that overwhelming.