Da-woon promised to start going out to the field with Yeo-ul beginning the very next week. Yeo-ul, who hesitated right up to the end, only left the dorm after extracting a repeated promise from Da-woon that he would absolutely never go out into the field alone.
“Resting is only nice for a day or two.”
After seeing Yeo-ul off and being left alone in the dorm again, Da-woon scrubbed a hand down his dry face. Everyone was working hard, and yet here he was, the only one staying behind in this nice dorm to rest. It didn't sit right with him at all.
If it were an ordinary day off, Da-woon would naturally have welcomed it with open arms, but maybe because this was forced rest, it didn't sit well.
“I'd rest a lot easier if everyone just rested together...”
As he muttered to himself, his eyes met the cat's again, the cat that was staring straight at him. It was lying on top of Da-woon's chest, the two of them sprawled together on the living room sofa.
“At least I've got you. That's a relief.”
He stroked the soft, fluffy back and planted a quick kiss on its nose. He'd expected the little thing, which loved kisses, to swish its tail happily. Instead, the cat just rested its chin on Da-woon's chest with a sullen look.
“...Are you sulking?”
Da-woon marveled at the cat as it pointedly whipped its head away. So cats got jealous too.
It seemed the cat's feelings were hurt because Da-woon had spent so long talking only with Yeo-ul. To coax the sulking cat back into a good mood, Da-woon scooped it up and rocked it gently back and forth.
“Sorry. I'll only play with you from now on. What should we do? Want to go for a walk?”
Oh, right, cats don't go for walks.
It wasn't really the time for a walk anyway. Da-woon let out a sigh as he looked at the living room clock, which was creeping toward four in the morning.
The sun would be up soon, and yet Ryu Jin still hadn't come back to the dorm. It bothered him, the thought of Ryu Jin pulling an all-nighter alone in a Guiding Room where countless Espers came and went.
After mulling it over for a moment, Da-woon shifted his gaze to the cat nestled snugly against his chest. Both of them were wide awake, eyes bright, despite the early hour.
“Looks like neither of us is sleeping tonight, huh?”
The cat glanced up at Da-woon and let out a light meow. As if to agree.
Heading out of the dorm in the dead of night, Da-woon decided to go see Ryu Jin, who was holding down the Guiding Room alone. He packed up the ice cream Yeo-ul had bought, planning to share it with Ryu Jin. And as for the cat...
“You okay? Not uncomfortable?”
Da-woon, who'd slung a large backpack on his front, poked his head down through the half-open zipper. The cat, sitting quietly inside the backpack, tapped at Da-woon's face with its front paws and wagged its tail.
“Feeling better now?”
The cat, perched on a thick folded towel, looked thrilled about its first outing with Da-woon. And Da-woon, too, after being cooped up in the dorm all that time, felt the stuffiness in his chest ease now that he was outside.
Good thing he'd come out. If he'd stayed in the dorm, he'd only have tossed and turned.
The last image of Ryu Jin nagged at him. Even after the guiding attempt ended, Ryu Jin had clearly looked like he had something he wanted to say.
It might be his imagination, but it couldn't hurt to check.
“This is the Guiding Room building. At this hour it's probably quiet.”
Da-woon explained the building to the cat as he pushed open the entrance. And in that very moment, an atmosphere that was the complete opposite of his explanation unfolded.
“Guide from Hongryeon Guild! Please come to the ER!”
“Anyone moving to the medical center, let's go together!”
“I have to go right now! Teleport Esper! Over here, me!”
The interior of the Guiding Room building, which was usually rather quiet, was in an uproar like never before. It was a sight Da-woon had never witnessed.
Teleport Espers kept vanishing and reappearing all over the place, each leading a crowd of Guides, and from every direction the buzzing of pagers signaling emergencies rang out noisily.
Every single Esper heading up to the individual Guiding Rooms was battered and broken. Even the Teleport Espers, whose only job was transport, were injured, and Da-woon's expression turned grave.
“Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you when you're busy.”
Da-woon approached a Guide who was catching his breath for a moment among the people bustling back and forth, and asked about the situation. The exhausted Guide explained weakly, without even turning to look at Da-woon.
“There was a gate explosion. Across all districts.”
“All districts?”
“Yes, so hurry up and try to reach your assigned Esper.”
With that final piece of advice, the Guide rushed off upstairs. If he'd recognized Da-woon of Sawoo Guild, he would have explained in more detail, but right now he didn't even have the presence of mind to look the other person in the eye and talk. And it wasn't just that Guide. Everyone was the same.
A gate explosion had occurred not in one district but across all of them. And simultaneously, at that.
Gate explosions were uncontrollable disasters that periodically gave the whole world a headache. Because the core inside a gate would detonate on its own like a time bomb, without any warning signs, there was no way to even prepare for it, and everyone regarded it as a natural calamity.
Even one going off caused massive damage, and now they'd happened across every district. So this chaos was...
Meow!
While Da-woon was taking stock of the situation around him, the cat, which had been sitting still, abruptly poked its face out of the bag.
“It's okay. Don't worry.”
Even as he soothed the cat out of habit, figuring it had been startled by the sudden commotion, Da-woon's gaze kept sweeping the area. The cat, reading Da-woon's air of being ready to bolt off somewhere at any second, meowed loudly.
“Is there anyone who can do field guiding?!”
Just then, a newly arrived Teleport Esper shouted, seemingly looking for backup.
The instant Da-woon saw that Teleport Esper, one arm hanging in tatters, his body moved on reflex.
“Oh, wait, Esper Jung Da-woon!”
The Esper, who'd been shouting nonstop, lit up at the sight of Da-woon running toward him. By some twist of fate, it was a face Da-woon knew too.
“Let me treat you first. I'll finish quickly.”
He was the Teleport Esper who had lent Da-woon suppressants when his heat hit. Remembering the man's kind impression, Da-woon swiftly pulled off his glove and touched the man's wound.
The wound was quite deep, as if he'd been ambushed by a monster. The man, who'd been enduring the pain, dropped beads of cold sweat and bowed his head as Da-woon began the treatment.
“Th-thank you.”
“Esper Da-woon! Please, me too!”
“Us as well!”
Those who witnessed the scene recognized Da-woon of Sawoo Guild and began to crowd in, one after another.
“Our district is short on Healers!”
“Just a little, just a little of your time, please! Even a quick one is fine!”
Not only the Espers but the Guides, too, pleaded with him to help their guilds. With the medical center paralyzed as well, the power of a Healer was needed more desperately than ever.
“Okay, I'll come right away.”
Da-woon swiftly finished treating the Teleport Esper and was just asking which district was the most critical.
Meow!
Suddenly the cat sprang out of the bag and clung tightly to Da-woon. It threw all four legs wide and gripped Da-woon fiercely, as if crying out for him not to go.
Meeeow-!
Having no way of knowing the cat's heart, Da-woon simply thought the cat was frightened, terrified by the sudden situation.
“It's okay. There's nothing to be scared of. I'll be back soon.”
Regretting that he'd brought the still-young thing out, he handed the cat over to the Teleport Esper.
“You've been to our dorm before, right?”
The day he'd borrowed the suppressants, the man had safely seen Da-woon all the way back to the dorm. Da-woon asked him to carry the cat to the dorm.
Meeeow! Mrraak!
“Don't worry about a thing. I'll be right back.”
The Teleport Esper pried the cat clinging to Da-woon off by force. There was no way a mere kitten could overpower an Esper's strength. Held helplessly in the man's hands, the cat bristled its fur and began thrashing violently.
Nyaaak!
Its short legs flailed with all their might, trying somehow to reach Da-woon. Unable to bring himself to walk away at the sight of it screaming until its throat gave out, Da-woon stroked it one last time.
“I'm sorry. Just wait a little while.”
The moment he smoothed down the puffed-up, snow-white fur, the cat turned its head and bit down hard on Da-woon's wrist!
It was only a kitten, so its teeth couldn't possibly be sharp, and yet a dizzying pain of skin being pierced shot through him. At the same time, a faint trickle of blood began to pool beneath the cat's snout where it clenched Da-woon's wrist.
“Esper Da-woon, I'm going to head out now.”
The Teleport Esper, who hadn't seen this, forcibly pried the cat off again. No one could have predicted that a mere kitten's bite had drawn blood from Da-woon's wrist. Not even Da-woon himself.
Da-woon was a little flustered, but for now he focused on the urgent matter at hand. The cat, having left a deep set of tooth marks on his wrist, cried no more.
It simply went limp again like a sodden cloth and, together with the Teleport Esper, vanished in an instant.
As he watched this with worry, a great many people closed in and blocked Da-woon's view. Everyone, carrying the same kind of desperation, sought his help.
“Please save our Esper!”
“Esper Da-woon!”
The hands stretched out, begging him to take hold, were something Da-woon could never turn away from.
