NOVEL NEXT #42
#42
‘Make sure to carry what I gave you. Don’t leave it at home.’
He had given many things over time. However, most were limited to food, and there was only one item that could be told to always carry around.
Ho-woo decided to take it with him again.
Once he made up his mind, he acted quickly.
After finishing his conversation with Joo Si-yeon, he immediately rummaged through the plastic bag hanging on Oh-yul’s door handle and took out the pager he had put in there.
Tap tap, even lightly tapping the screen didn’t elicit any response from the pitch-black dead screen. This was natural as he had never charged it since receiving it.
“I guess I need to charge it first.”
Ho-woo, after turning it over in his hand, returned home and plugged the powered-off pager into the charger. After a short while, with a small notification, the small screen lit up. Fortunately, the device was working normally.
Ho-woo recalled that this device was a pager that only Oh-yul could call. It was natural since only Oh-yul was registered on this device.
The question was why he was told to carry it around. The fact that someone who knew well that Ho-woo usually didn’t carry the pager suddenly told him not to forget and to carry it well raised unnecessary wariness.
That there would come a moment when this would be needed.
Ho-woo was fiddling with various pager functions when he discovered the communication function and abruptly stopped his hand. He remembered seeing Oh-yul talking to Moon Jin-hyuk with this beside him.
Then, he thought he might be able to talk to Oh-yul with this too. But what would he say if he called him?
The relationship between Ho-woo and Oh-yul was too thin and shallow to offer congratulations or to express resentment.
After hesitating for a long time, Ho-woo decided it was better to at least let it ring once rather than continuing to fret alone, and firmly pressed the call button.
The smooth touchscreen didn’t even feel like it was being pressed. A small phone icon appeared on the round little screen, accompanied by a monotonous ringtone.
It was quite late in the evening, and since he said he was being monitored, he might not answer. But if he did answer… what should I say?
Ho-woo belatedly checked the screen when the monotonous ringtone he had been hearing softly stopped. The call had connected and the call time was running.
“……”
Phone etiquette dictated that he should indicate he had answered, but not even a small breath could be heard from the other party. Still, the call time steadily ticking on the screen assured that the call hadn’t been disconnected.
It was Oh-yul, not Ho-woo, who finally broke the long silence.
“Do you need work support?”
The voice he heard after a long time was still wonderful. Perhaps because it was the first time talking like this on the phone, his voice, which was usually a soft bass, sounded even lower. Ho-woo swallowed his confusion at Oh-yul’s somewhat abrupt words, then realizing that he might be in a situation where it was difficult to talk properly, answered quietly.
“Yes.”
“I’m a bit busy right now, so I’ll come to you directly later. So… will you wait?”
Even though it was a cold tone without inflection, Ho-woo heard the last request to wait as if it were a plea. Maybe it sounded that way because that’s how he wanted to think of it.
“Long conversations are difficult.”
Oh-yul didn’t bring up any other topics. Or rather, it seemed more correct to say he couldn’t. He was cautious with his words, as if watching for something.
“Don’t forget what I said. You only need to remember one thing.”
‘You only need to remember one thing, Ho-woo. That I am always sincere to you.’
It was natural for Ho-woo to recall Oh-yul’s words from before their contact was suddenly cut off.
The embarrassing answer to Ho-woo’s statement that he couldn’t distinguish whether Oh-yul’s words were jokes or sincere seemed to be deeply etched in his mind, as the expression, gaze, and voice he had encountered at that moment came to mind in order. The face he had met was filled with the man’s sincerity that seemed impossible to fake.
So Ho-woo couldn’t pour out sharp and cold words. It was difficult to judge whether this choice was right or wrong for himself.
“It doesn’t seem right to talk like this, so I’ll wait.”
Whether to end it or to face a different beginning, both were remote possibilities in this ambiguous situation.
He wouldn’t be tied to the Management Corporation forever, so it seemed better to wrap up the conversation face to face.
In the end, whether that end was a catastrophe or a new conclusion.
“Then rest well.”
“You too, Oh-yul.”
A small sigh-like breath came over at Ho-woo’s cold voice.
Who’s the one who wants to sigh now?
Unlike when his hand trembled while making the call, Ho-woo firmly pressed the end call button. Somehow, his mind felt even more complicated than before the call.
***
Nothing changed after talking with Oh-yul. There was no contact through the pager he carried every day since their last call, and Ho-woo didn’t force himself to contact him either.
The world was still watching S-class Espers with curiosity, and various news and programs featuring Espers and Guides were pouring out.
The last of these was a variety program disguised as a date.
What’s so good about putting a 15-year age gap between a child and an adult man that they’re making such a fuss?
Ho-woo clicked his tongue, saying the world was coming to an end.
The idea of renting out an entire movie theater to watch a movie and then going to a similarly fully rented café was quite a nouveau riche notion.
In that program, Oh-yul was smiling as if painted on for the entire time his face was on screen.
His slightly upturned mouth and curved eyes even looked affectionate. However, Ho-woo didn’t think Oh-yul looked particularly happy.
He occasionally stared at the cameras filming them rather than Kim Seon-young, and each time, he softly creased his eyes in a smile as if to show off.
As if sending a signal to someone beyond the camera.
His two eyes, shimmering as if steeped in blue paint, were beautiful but felt eerie.
Since filming is usually done in advance, the scenes on screen were from the past, but somehow it didn’t feel good. An ominous feeling sent chills down his spine.
Ho-woo, who had curled up his shivering body, looked out the window at the sound of heavy raindrops hitting it. Rain was pouring down incessantly from the sky filled with dark clouds.
The raindrops were so thick that standing under the rain without an umbrella would make one’s face sting. Such rain had been frequent recently.
Ho-woo counted on his fingers the rainy days of the past week. It had rained like this for 5 out of 7 days, and for 2 of those days, thick hail unsuited to the weather just entering summer had fallen.
Strangely, the sudden weather anomalies weren’t covered much in the news. As if it wasn’t happening at all, they only talked about S-class Espers and their Guides.
During lunch time, Ho-woo sat at his desk browsing through news pages full of frivolous information before turning it off. He should eat something, but he didn’t have much appetite.
As Ho-woo was blankly staring at the rain showing no signs of letting up, he made eye contact with Yu Mi-yeon entering with a wet umbrella in quick steps and lightly bowed his head in greeting.
“Deputy Lee, have you eaten?”
She had a displeased look on her face, apparently not liking her damp clothes and hair, but then smiled brightly. Mi-yeon, who approached holding her umbrella at an angle, peered around Ho-woo.
“Have you not eaten by any chance?”
“I don’t have much appetite.”
Seeing Ho-woo’s gloomy expression, Mi-yeon briefly looked at the scenery outside the window.
“Well, it has been raining so much lately that it’s depressing.”
Mi-yeon, who had been grumbling about not remembering when she last saw the sun, quietly slipped a few snacks she had been hiding into Ho-woo’s pocket, seeing him unable to regain his spirits and focus on the conversation.
“These are what I was saving to eat alone, but I’ll give them to you.”
“Thank you.”
Among them was a familiar chocolate-coated snack that Oh-yul had given him in the office, which made Ho-woo laugh deflated in the end. It’s strange how happy he was to see this snack when his mind was so complicated. Ho-woo reflexively thought of Oh-yul and fiddled with the pager on his wrist.
“By the way, I didn’t notice before, but is that new?”
Mi-yeon, who noticed the pager Ho-woo was fiddling with, asked lightly with curious eyes.
“I received it from someone I know.”
By then, people who had left the office for lunch were returning one by one. They were all complaining about the incessant rain.
Reflexively thinking of Oh-yul again at this, Ho-woo felt a bitterness in his mouth. Even he thought it wasn’t quite normal to associate everything with Oh-yul.
“What model is it? The design is nice, I’d like to get one like it.”
At the question asked again, Ho-woo struggled to suppress his discomfort. Since it was an item received from Oh-yul, it wasn’t clear whether it was actually a product for sale or not. He had a strong feeling it wasn’t sold on the market.
“Well, I’m not sure since I received it as a gift.”
“Hmm? I was thinking of buying something like this these days, I’ll have to look into it.”
Hoping she wouldn’t notice the pagers on other Espers’ wrists, Ho-woo quietly pulled his sleeve to cover it.