Beyond The Control

Chapter 34

“Oh, Mom.”

It was a call from my mother after a long time. It wasn’t that we weren’t on good terms, but our family just followed the principle that no news is good news.

“Are you home?”

“No, I’m at a company dinner. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to hear my son’s voice after a long time.”

Judging by her voice, it really seemed like nothing was wrong. She’s not good at lying, so it would be obvious if something was up.

“How’s Dad?”

“He’s right here.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. He’s the most taciturn and gruff person I know, but I could picture him pretending not to care while perking up his ears next to Mom.

“Is everything alright with you, son?”

“Of course. I’m doing so well it’s almost a problem.”

As I answered, I slowly flapped the collar of my shirt to create a breeze. Although it’s March, the night air is still chilly, but my face and neck felt hot, probably from the alcohol.

“Always be careful. Don’t drink too much and go home early.”

“Okay. I’ll try to visit home next month or the month after.”

I ended the call with a wish for them to rest well. After letting out a sigh, I was about to turn around when someone spoke to me as if they had been waiting.

“Excuse me.”

When I turned my head, there was a couple standing there. They were clearly strangers I had never met before.

The woman, who I assumed had spoken to me, opened her mouth again.

“You’re Lee Su-hyeon, right? Can I have your autograph?”

I was a bit taken aback by her suddenly holding out paper and a pen.

I know that high-ranking Espers are treated like heroes, enjoying enormous wealth and fame, and even have unofficial fan clubs. But that’s only for a few famous Espers. In our team, I’ve only occasionally seen people asking for autographs from our team leader or Gitae, but this was the first time I was the target.

Moreover, she called me “ahjussi” (middle-aged man).

When I remained silent for a moment in surprise, the young-looking woman drooped her eyebrows. I almost fell for her made-up face, but looking again, she seemed to be a young student wearing what looked like a windbreaker jacket and a school uniform skirt.

In the meantime, the female student held out the paper again. I belatedly took the pen and gave her the autograph she wanted. Although her attitude was a bit rude, I thought it was tolerable if I considered them as today’s lively youngsters.

In fact, there was someone even more ill-mannered. The man standing behind with a sullen expression – who also looked like a student – suddenly spoke in a confrontational tone.

“You’re the guy who hitched a ride, right?”

“…What?”

“Aren’t you the guy who hitched a ride with Song Ji-hyeok or whatever? You look exactly like the one I saw in the video.”

Only then did I understand what the male student in front of me was talking about. I don’t know how the information leaked, but the news that Song Ji-hyeok had made a temporary pair contract was also widely reported.

The comments were largely divided into two categories. There were congratulatory comments about a promising S-class Esper getting a potential pair candidate, and comments saying that the guide had hit the jackpot.

The latter was overwhelmingly more common, but I didn’t particularly care. It was just gossip to them anyway, and there’s always a truckload of people eager to badmouth others for no reason.

But that’s when reading anonymous text comments from unknown people. Hearing such words directly in front of me was quite unpleasant. It was especially absurd coming from a completely unfamiliar, green youngster sneering at me.

I looked at the male student for a moment and then suddenly raised my hand. As expected, he flinched and raised his guard. Inwardly laughing at his reaction, I changed direction and ran my hand through my hair. I didn’t forget to use my tall height to look down on him condescendingly. Just as I was about to open my mouth in that state-

“Kyaaaa!”

The female student who had been anxiously watching us suddenly screamed and covered her mouth with both hands. Her expression was not one of fear, but of delight. Her gaze was fixed somewhere beside me, and even the cowering male student looked surprised.

‘What’s going on?’

When I turned around, I also slightly widened my eyes. Song Ji-hyeok was standing there, though I didn’t know when he had come out.

“Do you know them?” he asked me.

Realizing he was asking me, I stumbled through an answer.

“No…”

After hearing my answer, Song Ji-hyeok then addressed the male student. It was an expression I hadn’t seen in quite a while, visibly sullen.

“Are you an awakened one?”

“M-me?”

“Yeah, you. Are you an awakened one?”

“N-no.”

“Then what makes you think you can mess with an awakened one? You’d be the first to die if a dungeon break happens.”

It was enough to make anyone bristle, but the male student didn’t even open his mouth. Instead, he had already lowered his head to the ground.

I felt a sort of reality check from this typical case of being strong to the weak and weak to the strong. He was so cocky and sneering at me, but in front of Song Ji-hyeok, he was nothing but subservient. To top it off, Song Ji-hyeok delivered a critical hit.

“Get lost. Before I blow your head off.”

In the end, the male student fled without a word, stumbling as he went. The female student, suddenly left alone, said “W-wait for me” and chased after him, bringing the situation to a close.

With the insulting guy gone after just a few words, what remained was worry.

“I’m pretty sure he’ll go home and post something badmouthing us.”

“Let him post. We can just sue him for defamation.”

“…”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s nice how straightforward you are…”

Song Ji-hyeok shrugged at my words. That wasn’t meant as a compliment.

Only then did I have the leisure to look around. Fortunately, while the street was bright with streetlights, there weren’t many passersby. But since we never know when more strange attention-seekers might appear and cause trouble, I led Song Ji-hyeok further inside and asked him:

“Why did you come out?”

“To sober up a bit.”

“Weren’t you fine?”

“I didn’t know it was a bomb shot and downed it in one go.”

Oh dear.

As I looked at him with sympathetic eyes, this time Song Ji-hyeok asked me a question.

“Why were you just listening to that nonsense?”

Realizing he was talking about the ill-mannered male student from earlier, I answered slowly.

“I can’t get into a fistfight with a civilian.”

“Why not? One punch would solve everything with a guy like that.”

“You want to see me wearing silver bracelets?”

“Or we could just bury him completely. Destroy the evidence.”

I looked at Song Ji-hyeok with incredulous eyes, but soon found myself chuckling. He could have pretended not to hear, but he stepped in, and seeing how he drove the guy away with just a few words, I have to admit it felt satisfying.

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Let’s go back in.”

I lightly patted his back in gratitude and returned to the bar. The team members were still having a great time, drinking away.

Not to be outdone, I too joined in the atmosphere, drinking the soju bomb Gitae had mixed for me as soon as I sat down. Laughing heartily at jokes and playing a few drinking games, time easily passed midnight.

As a result, by the time we disbanded, I was quite drunk. But I wasn’t particularly worried about tomorrow morning, or rather, this morning. I had taken a day off after a long time to visit my sister in the hospital.

‘I’ll sleep in and go in the afternoon.’

Knowing I could sleep late put me at ease. The team members who came out were all busy calling taxis. On the other hand, I usually went home with the team leader since we lived in the same direction.

This time too, I was casually looking for the team leader when I saw him talking with Song Ji-hyeok.

“Ji-hyeok, where do you live?”

Today’s drinking party cum welcome party lived up to its name. Now that we’ve become one team, we decided to drop the formal “Esper” title and just call him by name. Everyone agreed, though Baek Sun-jong was the only one whose face turned pale.

“XX-dong.”

“Then you can come with us. Su-hyeon!”

“Yes! I’m right here.”

I quickly responded as if I had been waiting and approached them. The team leader let out a hearty laugh, saying I was indeed a prepared talent, and then called a taxi.

Somehow, the team leader ended up sitting in the front passenger seat, while Song Ji-hyeok and I took the back seats. The team leader’s fame shone even here. The taxi driver kept glancing at the seat next to him and finally spoke to the team leader.

“Are you perhaps Esper Yoon Hyun-tae?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

At this cool acknowledgment, the driver was very surprised and then started showering praise as if he had some script only he could see.

Listening to the words coming through clearly, I couldn’t hold back my laughter. If this guy knew that an S-class Esper was sitting in the back seat, he’d probably faint.

But my laughter didn’t last long. With the alcohol already affecting me, sitting still and spacing out made drowsiness hit me hard.

No, no. I should sleep when I get home.

I tried to shake off the sleepiness by rubbing my hands as if pressing acupuncture points and pressing hard on my eyes. But it was useless. Using the driver’s incessant chatter as a lullaby, I ended up dozing off at some point.