Chapter 158

And the bad feeling came true.

“Jaeha-ssi. I’m really sorry. What… what should I do?”

“Please don’t worry about it. Go first, Senior Mi-ae.”

Aiden and Jaeha still hadn’t been called—almost to the very end. The same went for the boss, Kwon I-do, and Seo Tae-geon.

“Damn it, we really can’t change the order?”

“We’ll manage somehow with the device you gave us. You should go now.”

Jaeha tried to reassure her. They had received tools to restrain the boss—devices that suppressed waves to block ability use—but both he and Mi-ae knew they would be useless. The boss was being docile for the moment, but there was no guarantee he would remain compliant after she left.

But what else could they do? If Mi-ae didn’t leave now, she might never exit this gate for the rest of her life. Reassurance was the only option.

“Jaeha-ssi. Come out right after. Okay? I’m… really sorry, but I have to go.”

“Yes. It’s truly fine—please go.”

In the almost empty space, Mi-ae kept looking back again and again, but at last she had to step through the right-side gate.

“……”

“……”

…And so, five people and one remained.

Jaeha, Aiden-ssi, the boss, Mr. Seo Tae-geon, Mr. Kwon I-do—and the Boss.

Was that really a coincidence? Or the plan of a boss who chased pleasure and novelty? As time wore on, the boredom visibly lifted from the boss’s face; his expression brightened, glittering. Huge as a giant, propped on a chin like a statue, he looked like a god peering down at a puppet show.

“Jaeha-ssi. Stay by me.”

Aiden was just as tense. If it came to a clash with the boss’s party now remaining, this side was at a severe disadvantage.

“……”

With one arm, Aiden pulled Jaeha close to his side. Tense, they waited for the next five minutes to pass. But the others sat with their eyes closed, resting. Their own tension felt almost awkward.

“……”

Clutching the device, Jaeha glanced at the humming boss. With fewer people, the humming was clearer between silences. Five minutes passed quickly, and the next name was called.

“Kwon I-do!”

A man in the corner, eyes closed, slowly rose to his feet.

But instead of heading straight for the gate exit, he approached them. The tension, which had loosened a little, stood all Jaeha’s hairs on end again.

“…Do not come closer.”

Addressed before he reached them, he stopped obediently. Keeping a slight distance, he spoke.

“I came to say goodbye. It’s the last chance.”

“…We can see each other again outside the gate.”

“No. It’s more likely we won’t.”

He reached into his jacket. Aiden-ssi stood, moving in front of Jaeha. Regardless, Kwon I-do drew out two ampoules.

Small, long glass vials clinked together. Inside, a transparent liquid with a blue tint swayed.

…They were painfully familiar to Jaeha and Aiden. They had once stormed a lab to find proof of this research.

Ability nullifier.

“……”

To stand beside Aiden-ssi, who guarded him, Jaeha slowly rose too. His lips parted. He wanted to respond but couldn’t find words.

“I was originally ordered to inject one into Jaeha-ssi.”

I-do flicked a glance sideways. The boss wasn’t even looking their way. His eyes returned to them, slow and steady.

“But I won’t.”

“…Why?”

“Because it’s needed.”

He pocketed the nullifiers again. His mouth twitched upward, brusque.

“For where?”

“One for me, one for my wife.”

“……”

“If the day comes when I can save her.”

Jaeha reached a conclusion. I-do Guide had finally lost it. Given his story, it was understandable, but the bitterness on Jaeha’s tongue was unavoidable. He didn’t respond. Neither did Aiden. Perhaps I-do hadn’t expected an answer anyway; he bowed his head slightly in farewell.

“I hope you make a similar choice, Jaeha-ssi.”

“……”

“Goodbye.”

He turned without regret and walked off. Watching his back, Aiden snorted.

“He’s completely insane, isn’t he?”

“……”

“Still… it looks like he doesn’t intend to attack, so that’s a relie—”

Aiden cut himself off. His eyes flew wide. Jaeha stiffened in the same shock.

I-do had passed the boss and left through the Past Team’s left gate exit—not the Future Team’s right exit.

As if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“…He just took the wrong one.”

Aiden protested immediately—not to I-do, who had already crossed out, but to the boss, who flicked through the roll call.

In a space now reduced to only five, Aiden’s voice echoed.

“What’s ‘wrong’ about it?”

“The one who left just now was Future Team. Shouldn’t he go out the right exit?”

“That’s up to the person going out.”

“……”

At that offhand tone, a thought struck Jaeha. Come to think of it, the boss had never said one had to leave through the door one had entered.

‘…Which one should I go through?’

‘Huh? Ah—you’re one of the “overlapped” ones.’

Even when the team leader asked, the boss had said—

‘You want to leave according to when you entered, right? Go as you are now.’

…That’s what he’d said. He had never said they must leave by the time they’d entered. He hadn’t explained what would happen if they didn’t—but from context, leaving through the left gate seemed to mean going out into the past.

“……”

If so—if that were really so…

“……”

It might finally explain why the boss had entered this gate.

Just then, the boss, who had been sitting with eyes closed, slowly stood. The moment Jaeha saw it, he pressed the device instinctively—but as expected, the boss was unaffected. He didn’t approach either. He simply exhaled slowly and spoke.

“Jaeha.”

At that voice, Jaeha flinched.

“…Jaeha-ssi, behind me.”

Sensing it, Aiden squeezed Jaeha’s hand tight.

“……”

“I’ll be brief.”

At last the boss turned his gaze their way. Their eyes met.

“Come with me.”

“……”

To where? He didn’t ask the foolish question. His eyes drifted naturally to the boss’s left-hand gate, shimmering.

Together… there?

If they went there, what would happen?

“You won’t remember it.”

“……”

“But I promised to save your parents.”

He didn’t have his memories back—but Jaeha knew that much, indirectly.

‘I think, if you listen to me, I can bring your parents back.’

He had seen the scene with his own eyes—the boss offering that after having killed them. Thoughts tore through Jaeha’s mind like tangled wire.

“He also said he’d make you not an esper.”

‘I’ll make you not an esper.’

From his inside pocket, the boss drew two vials—the same. Glass clicked together.

“…How?”

Jaeha asked.

At that moment, time must have elapsed; the boss called Seo Tae-geon’s name. Seo yawned wide and stepped through the left gate.

If he didn’t hesitate, it meant those three had already agreed to clear the gate and go out to the past.

“When I go out, I’ll be eleven.”

How could he say that? As a member of the Future Team, where did he get the certainty that leaving through the left gate would let him live the past safely again?

“And then?”

“Well. Maybe I’ll win your parents’ sympathy—and become your hyung.”

He joked, voice tinged with laughter. Jaeha frowned. It wasn’t just nastier than expected—it was familiar. He’d heard that setup somewhere.

The boss slipped the clinking nullifiers back inside his coat.

“One is for you. One is for me.”

“…For you too?”

“I have to fix my disease.”

“……”

Now it all made sense, the pieces finally fitting. But more than that, nausea rose; Jaeha turned away—and found the boss’s eyes on him.

In the illusion, he had worn glasses. Why?

‘Acute drug toxicity damaged multiple organs. Acute liver failure, damaged kidneys, and impacts on the central nervous system and the occipital lobe—you almost lost your sight permanently.’

Sight. He remembered what he’d heard after being rescued, when he came to. Wasn’t that the same reason he wasn’t an esper in the illusion?

Then why wasn’t the boss an esper there? Why had he been Jaeha’s hyung? Why were his parents alive? And why had Aiden-ssi lived such an unhappy life?

…Had the boss been showing him?

What would happen if he followed?

“…Don’t believe him, Jaeha-ssi.”

Or else—

“I’ve been too scattered to say it, but—That bastard tried to kill you earlier.”

Was even this a trap?