A start.

Had he ever yearned this desperately? Every word was thickly coated with emotion. He could feel the other person’s emotions toward him as well. All the feelings he thought he had lost were hidden behind his memories. He had an intuition that this was what his forgotten dream had been about.

‘Ju-eon.’

While this name should be called by Yun-jae, even though the face was obscured as if painted with watercolors, it didn’t feel like Yun-jae. Did he want it not to be Yun-jae? He had firmly believed that only he had changed during the time his memories were lost. But what if that wasn’t the case?

Beep beep beep beep—

Beeeeeeeeep———

A loud noise filled the measurement room. Just as Ju-eon was about to dive deep under the surface with his submerged memories, he was pulled back up to the surface.

“Why is it doing this?”

The dazed staff member suddenly stood up to check the measurement device. Worried they might have made a mistake while being distracted, they checked with a pale face, but found no errors.

[ERROR 010]

Measurement not possible.

Restarting measurement…LOADING

[ERROR 010]

Measurement not possible.

Restarting measurement…LOADING

The screen remained red with no sign of returning to normal.

“What’s going on?”

Eventually, the staff member had to call their superior. It felt like there must be some mistake they hadn’t noticed, but they couldn’t find it alone. All the superiors would be with the person who just measured as a C+ grade esper….

“What’s happening with my assessment?”

“Please wait a moment.”

They might get scolded for calling about an annoying issue, but there was no choice.

“Hello, Team Leader. I’m sorry, but could you come down to the general measurement room for a moment?”

-Of all times to make a mistake. What’s the problem?

Even though the team leader wasn’t physically present, the staff member kept bowing apologetically and explained the situation in a tone full of regret.

“There’s an error. What? No. I don’t think I made any mistakes… Yes. I’m sorry.”

-Try turning it off and on again.

“I did that but it shows the same thing….”

-Ah. Fine.

The call ended with an irritated response.

It was rare for District 2 to produce B-class or higher talent. High-grade awakened ones wouldn’t be left alone by their surroundings. When news spread of early ability manifestation, most were taken to headquarters for measurement.

While high-grade ability users occasionally appeared elsewhere, it had never happened here. The staff member needlessly turned the measurement device off and on again.

[ERROR 010]

Measurement not possible.

Restarting measurement…LOADING

“Ah. It keeps showing the same thing. The error keeps appearing… Just a moment.”

That’s why the staff member only thought it was a machine problem, completely failing to consider that Ju-eon’s grade might be high, and was just flustered. Meanwhile, the summoned team leader arrived and hit the staff member’s shoulder hard enough to make a thud, wearing an irritated expression.

“Team Leader?”

Thinking the situation would be resolved eventually even if they got scolded later, the staff member welcomed the team leader. The team leader stood in front of the computer connected to the measurement device, checked the error, and asked.

“Did you check why the error appeared?”

“Ah, no.”

“You should check the settings first.”

It was an error number the team leader had never seen before. Since errors rarely occurred, the staff member learned for the first time that they should check the error number when an error first appears.

“Error…010….”

The staff member quickly scrolled down to find the error number and stopped.

ERROR 010: While the device is operating normally, measurements outside the measurable range cannot be processed. Please remeasure with a different device.

“Um, Team Leader…?”

The staff member called out to the team leader who was staring at the measurement device with a blank face.

“What.”

“It says to remeasure with a different device?”

“It was working fine until just now, did it break?”

“I don’t think that’s it?”

Hearing the staff member’s dumbfounded voice, the team leader irritably went to their side. Then, making an even more stupefied expression than the staff member, the team leader muttered.

“No way.”

“Team Leader?”

When the staff member, who hadn’t grasped the situation accurately, asked again, the team leader bit their lower lip and muttered.

“Turn on… the special measurement room right now.”

“What?”

“Run to the special measurement room and turn it on, now!”

Only then did the staff member vaguely understand how the situation was unfolding.

“……!”

It was the first day the special measurement room, which could measure from B-class to S-class and had never been used outside of District 1, was turned on.

**

Ju-eon stood in front of the assessment center for a long time, holding his test result paper.

‘A-class. Congratulations! Would you like to register?’

‘Isn’t there a grace period before registration? I heard grades can be readjusted before registration if there are pre-existing conditions or physical defects.’

‘Just a moment.’

‘……’

‘Oh. There is such a clause? Then how….’

‘Please put it on hold for now.’

It didn’t feel like himself. Ju-eon had known nothing about ability user-related matters, to the point where Gu-young would scold him. Information he had never known came flowing out as if it had been waiting. Even the staff members all showed surprised expressions and only learned about registration exceptions after searching for them.

“Hyung, are you done?”

“…Did you wait?”

“Yeah. But it took longer than when I got tested. Even though there seemed to be fewer people getting assessed than when I did….”

“Sorry for making you wait.”

“I waited on my own, so it’s fine. I heard some loud noises upstairs earlier. Did something happen?”

“…Yeah.”

“Why do you look like that? Did you get your test results?”

He had thought it would be blocked forever, never to be cleared. That no matter how much he pushed, his brain would never allow access to past memories. But they were returning without him even knowing.

“Hyung?”

Gu-young went behind Ju-eon and looked at the test result paper he was holding. Since he didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding it, Ju-eon let Gu-young check the paper.

Assessment Result: A-class

A-class?

Even though it was written in the largest text, Gu-young read it again.

“Hyung, didn’t you circle the guide section when filling out the ability user assessment application earlier?”

Gu-young asked while reading the test paper for the fifth time with eyes that looked ready to pop out.

“…Yeah.”

Gu-young immediately covered his mouth with both hands. This was huge.

There were far fewer guides than espers. The reason esper rampage prevention medicine was developed was because the number of guides couldn’t keep up with the number of espers.

The place that officially had the most A-class or higher guides was the Special Abilities Agency headquarters, and they had fewer than 30 A-class or higher guides. A-class guides were even rarer than A-class espers.

“Hyung, you’re really an A-class guide?”

At Gu-young’s loud question, people leaving after finishing their assessments all turned this way. The gazes of those who had heard the commotion inside the measurement room earlier were sharp.

“Let’s… get out of here first.”

Ju-eon wiped his dry face with his palm. It was certainly something to be happy about, but Ju-eon couldn’t simply be happy.

**

After calming down an extremely excited Gu-young who kept asking what he was going to do next, Ju-eon looked down at his phone. Instead of going straight home, Ju-eon turned his steps toward the restaurant in District 2’s only hotel.

He wanted to ask. If Yun-jae would be honest with him now, then. He felt he might be able to resent him a little less. Yun-jae’s concern for him wasn’t fake. Being the closest to Ju-eon, he knew Yun-jae was more sincere than anyone.

So he wanted confirmation that this resentment came from a misunderstanding, that he had twisted Yun-jae’s words.

From far away, Yun-jae came striding over.

“Did you wait long?”

“No. I just got here too. Take your time.”

“How could I be leisurely when you’re waiting? What’s the occasion? You suggesting we eat out first?”

“Just wanted to talk a bit.”

Yun-jae’s forehead was slightly damp with sweat, probably from rushing over. While he would normally have noticed right away that Ju-eon was tense, Yun-jae was so happy about Ju-eon’s suggestion to eat out that he didn’t notice Ju-eon was more tense than usual.

“True. I’ve been so busy lately we haven’t properly gone out even once. I’ll be a bit less busy from next week.”

Yun-jae smiled slightly at the thought that he could stay here for a while, using research as an excuse. Until just moments ago his mood had been as foul as if it had been thrown in the gutter, but now it was fine as if that had never happened.

He wasn’t hoping for anything grand. If only Ju-eon would stay by his side, and their relationship could move forward even very slowly, he wouldn’t ask for anything more.

“…Shall we order first?”

“Sure.”

Ju-eon opened the menu. None of the items registered in his mind. Whatever he ordered, forget tasting it – it would be fortunate if he didn’t get indigestion.

The soft melody of piano music filled the space between them. Soon a waiter came and poured wine into their glasses. The distinctive scent of wine lingered at the tip of his nose.

At Yun-jae’s gesture, the waiter poured wine into Ju-eon’s glass.

“You don’t like me drinking.”

“A glass of wine is fine.”

“……”

“I’m saying this as your attending physician too, it’s okay.”

He couldn’t readily speak up. Ju-eon held the wine glass and swirled it slowly. Since he didn’t drink often and had low tolerance, the distinctive smell of wine felt overwhelmingly strong to the point of being nauseating.

While they had naturally glossed over such questions, theirs wasn’t a typical romantic relationship. Taking a step back, their relationship that had seemed fine when they were close now appeared distorted.