Ordinary Person A

#9

Ho-woo chuckled and picked up his phone that had been buzzing by his pillow, checking the screen.

“Kim Do-hyun”

The cleanly written three-character name was quite welcome on such a weekend. Ho-woo shook off his idle thoughts and quickly answered the incoming call.

“What’s the occasion?”

“I’m calling to save a friend who’s wasting time cooped up at home on this lovely weekend.”

Ho-woo let out a deflating laugh at Do-hyun’s accurate assessment. Having attended the same schools from elementary until now and stuck together boringly, it was harder for them not to know each other.

Ho-woo could bet on chicken that Do-hyun had probably been spending his time the same way before calling him.

“Stop making excuses. Why did you really call?”

“As if you don’t know?”

Right, it’s obvious. He called because he’s bored.

In the end, they were birds of a feather, so Ho-woo giggled. Two guys with nothing to do on the weekend had a set routine.

“If you’re coming, bring heavy hands, you know?”

“What do you want to drink?”

“Just grab whatever four-cans-for-10,000-won deal they have at the convenience store nearby.”

He didn’t have a preferred beer brand, nor did he enjoy alcohol enough to be picky about taste. Ho-woo hung up on Do-hyun, who was mumbling about arriving within 30 minutes, and placed an order with a nearby chicken place.

It wasn’t far from where Do-hyun lived to his place, so he’d arrive around the same time as the chicken. It wasn’t difficult to time it right since they’d done this many times before.

Ho-woo showered and roughly dried his wet hair before Do-hyun arrived. As expected, he sat across from Do-hyun, who barged in simultaneously with the chicken delivery, and picked up a still-chilled beer can.

“Did you buy one of each kind?”

“Two cans of what you liked last time, two cans of what I like.”

“Hmm… Did I really like this?”

“Yep.”

The can with a grapefruit drawn on it certainly looked familiar. Ho-woo opened the beer can without much suspicion and carefully took a sip. The sweet and fruity beer wasn’t bad.

“Did you think I was lying?”

“I’d only believe you if it happened once or twice.”

Ho-woo’s lips pouted behind the can. Do-hyun was good in many ways, but he was so mischievous that he often teased Ho-woo. Most were minor pranks, but given their long history, Ho-woo couldn’t readily believe him. He had been blindsided too many times for that.

Do-hyun, who was excitedly unpacking the delivered chicken, clicked his tongue briefly when he noticed Ho-woo spacing out with the beer can in his mouth.

His old friend Lee Ho-woo tended to space out like that when he was lost in worries or thoughts.

“What is it?”

“Huh? What’s what?”

“What are you worrying about?”

Do-hyun confidently gnawed on a chicken leg, leaning back against the sofa. Seeing Do-hyun drinking beer so comfortably as if it were his own home, Ho-woo sat down nearby.

“Do-hyun, you know a bit about Espers, right?”

“Huh? Why bring up those guys out of the blue? We’re unlikely to encounter them in a good way anyway, right?”

Indeed, as Do-hyun said, given the specialized nature of their work, Espers were beings difficult to encounter in positive circumstances for ordinary people.

At Do-hyun’s words, Ho-woo slowly rolled his eyes, thinking of his neighbor living next door. Except for their first meeting, they had spent quite good times together. That counted as encountering in a good way.

“Did you get into trouble? Did an Esper catch you?”

Do-hyun asked casually while gnawing on his second chicken leg, but he didn’t seem to actually think Ho-woo had gotten into trouble. He was just asking what was going on.

Ho-woo hesitated, his throat rumbling with the beer can still at his mouth.

He just wanted to ask about an Esper moving in next door and being oddly uninhibited with physical contact, but for some reason, he was strangely hesitant.

He could just say that it feels weird when their bare skin touches.

“So, do you know or not?”

“I guess I know as much as anyone else would?”

“……”

“Ah! What is it!! Stop being so frustrating and just spill it cleanly. I won’t help you if you come whining and clinging later!”

Finally, Do-hyun, who had roughly thrown his finished chicken bone into the container, burst out shouting. Intimidated by that outburst, Ho-woo timidly opened his mouth.

“This isn’t about me, but…”

The introduction to the story reeked of suspicion from the start. Do-hyun was 100% certain it was about Ho-woo.

“This person is concerned about someone they met two months ago.”

“Are they flirting?”

Do-hyun gruffly asked while picking up one of the remaining wings and dipping it in sauce.

“…Will you shut up and listen?”

Having already monopolized two legs and one wing of the chicken, Do-hyun decided to quietly listen to his friend’s love story.

Although Ho-woo got along well with people due to his sociable personality, Do-hyun hadn’t seen him date much. This seemed to be an opportunity to increase that infrequent number.

“That person helped my friend two months ago.”

It wasn’t just help, but lifesaving, though Ho-woo boldly omitted that part.

But Do-hyun was quick-witted and could often infer everything sufficiently from just a small piece.

“Is the helper an Esper?”

Just like now.

Ah, damn it.

Since he was caught, Ho-woo unfolded the story a bit more boldly. Of course, he still set the narrator as another friend.

“…Yeah, they met that person again by chance recently, and they still remembered my friend.”

“Really?”

Do-hyun responded indifferently while sipping his beer. The romance was over. That thought was clearly visible on his face.

Do-hyun’s parents were researchers studying Espers and Guides, so he had encountered them frequently since childhood and knew their nature to some extent.

Espers didn’t set their hearts on ordinary people. Only Guides, who held their lifelines, captured their hearts, so Do-hyun thought his friend’s romance was shattered before it even began.

“So that person invited my friend home and they had dinner together.”

“Wait, an Esper did?”

“What does being invited home by an Esper have to do with anything? Anyway, while they were having dinner, it seems they got a call. They suddenly prepared to leave, and I… I mean, my friend was about to go home too? But they told my friend to finish eating what was left and go home without cleaning up the dishes.”

“Huh?”

Do-hyun’s face was filled with question marks at the increasingly strange and bizarre story.

It was rare for an Esper to show kindness to an ordinary person incapable of Guiding.

People who knew even a little about them easily noticed that although they had the same human form, they were actually quite violent. Sometimes even that they had lost their humanity somewhere.

Do-hyun knew this fact early on through his parents, so Ho-woo’s words seemed very suspicious.

“That bastard… I mean, that person didn’t suggest anything weird, did they?”

Beasts that prioritize instinct don’t show kindness without purpose. As his friend’s expression hardened, Ho-woo desperately defended Oh-yul.

“It wasn’t multi-level marketing or religious solicitation.”

“That’s not what I’m asking… Never mind. Judging by your reaction, there wasn’t anything.”

“…It’s not me, it’s my friend.”

It seemed Do-hyun had already realized it was Ho-woo’s story, but Ho-woo still mumbled that it was about a friend. Do-hyun finally pretended to believe the flimsy lie.

“Okay, so what does your friend want to do with that Esper? Date?”

“…W-well…”

“Tell them not to even dream about it. They’re different here.”

Do-hyun tapped his head, driving the point home.

“Their brain structure is different from ours. They don’t even react to anyone but Guides.”

“Is that so?”

Ho-woo briefly considered whether Oh-yul’s kind and friendly attitude towards him was simply due to his inherent gentleness.

It doesn’t seem that way.

Even if he was clueless about romance, would someone act like that out of basic kindness alone?

Ho-woo urged Do-hyun to think of any hopeful situations.

“Has an Esper never dated an ordinary person?”

“It has happened. But basically, they die without Guides. So how could it last long? Would you date someone while tolerating your lover holding hands, hugging, and doing all sorts of things with other people?”

“……”

Ho-woo’s expression turned gloomy at the words that harshly stabbed at the truth.

Certainly, Oh-yul was an Esper who could endanger not only himself but everyone living in the city if he went berserk without Guiding. It meant he was not someone Ho-woo could dare to reach out to.

Do-hyun was about to pat Ho-woo’s head, who looked completely deflated, but realizing his own greasy hands, he clicked his tongue.

“Anyway, keep a proper distance from that Esper. Don’t try to understand what’s in their heads, just think, ‘Ah, this bastard is being fickle.’ That’s the best approach.”

“Then, is it just leading me on?”

“Probably? With your looks, even an Esper might try to have a go at you once. They don’t discriminate between men and women.”

At Do-hyun’s words, Ho-woo blinked his round eyes. His snow-white skin that seemed to have never seen sunlight and his cheeks already flushed from the alcohol made him look naive, even innocent with his clueless expression.

His cheeks were too soft to be seen as a 28-year-old man, and there wasn’t a single trace of stubble above his reddish lips.

His moderately tall height and slender body often gave off a sorrowful air that stimulated men more than women. Do-hyun, who had often had quite naughty thoughts about him in the past, slightly raised the corner of his lips.