Deal Breaker - Chapter 6
“Just look at the screen.”
“Huh?”
A device was immediately fitted over her head, covering even her eyes. She expected pitch-black darkness, but instead, a rainbow-colored vortex spun in front of her eyes.
“Uh… is this all?”
“You’ll learn the radiative guiding method during training later. Right now, we’re just testing your basic aptitude, so just keep looking at the screen.”
“Oh, okay.”
She’d expected the test to be difficult, so she was relieved that it wasn’t. Soon, the machine started to whir, and Hyeji stared at the ever-changing shapes on the screen before her eyes. Just as she started to feel dizzy and thought she might get motion sickness, the screen turned pure white and the machine stopped.
Is it finally over? The moment she closed her dry eyes, Iyeon’s voice rang out.
“Now your radiative guiding grade will come up.”
Hyeji’s eyes flew open immediately.
What about my salary? Drumroll, please.
When nerves and anticipation mixed, she found herself acting out of character. She even imagined a drumroll in her head as a single black letter appeared before her eyes.
[ F ]
Thud. Her head echoed like a drum.
A startled “Uh…” slipped out, loud enough to be heard outside, she thought. The shoulders she’d been holding up high with expectation slumped.
- I got an F.
She’d always been at the top of her class, gotten the highest grades on her college entrance exams, but now she was in the lowest grade.
In a dazed voice that betrayed her shock, Hyeji asked,
“Uh… if it’s F, does that mean I can’t be a Guide…?”
“That’s not it, so don’t worry. The effect of your guiding will definitely be weaker, but the Center is so short on Guides that even F-Class is precious right now.”
But she hadn’t seen F-Class mentioned in any of the job postings… Everyone was asking for D or higher. Iyeon must have sensed her lack of comfort and added something to encourage her.
“As long as your matching rate is high, it’s fine even if you’re F. The grade only indicates the average quality and output of your waves. So for some people, your waves might be just fine, in both quality and output.”
So she went straight into matching, but there was an unexpected problem. Hyeji’s waves weren’t being emitted in meaningful amounts for matching.
“Like I said earlier, you’ll go into training for radiative guiding at the training center. Let’s try matching again then.”
The fact that the words of encouragement kept getting longer meant the reality was pretty grim.
“Most people pass this at the beginning, right?”
She asked as she took off the device, and after a brief hesitation, Iyeon nodded. So, even with training, there might not be any improvement. Hyeji hesitated, then asked,
“How do you test other forms of guiding besides radiative?”
“We induce pleasure to measure the sensitivity of your bodily fluids and the waves released internally.”
“Pleasure…?”
She couldn’t help but have odd thoughts. Fortunately, ‘pleasure’ here meant applying a substance that causes itching to the skin and then cooling it with an ice pack to induce the sensation. Sensitivity and waves from bodily fluids were measured by having the subject bite down on an electrode.
“It’s not required, it’s optional. You only have to do it if you want.”
As Iyeon asked for her preference instead of just suggesting the test, Hyeji suddenly felt an uneasy thought.
“There’s no way that, if I take this test, I’ll be forced to do contact guiding, right?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I’ll give it a try.”
She had nothing to lose. No, not doing it seemed riskier. The escape route from poverty, which she thought she wouldn’t find for another twenty years, was suddenly wide open before her, and she didn’t want the brand of an F-Class Guide who couldn’t guide to close that path again.
“Oh, your waves are coming out well with this one.”
As soon as the test began, Iyeon, who was watching the large display in front, muttered to herself. Whether that was good news or not, Hyeji couldn’t tell.
Before long, the grade appeared on the display.
[ S ]
“Holy—”
A rough exclamation burst from both of them at once. Hyeji didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, while Iyeon looked like she already knew the answer. Staring at the display with a complicated expression, she hesitated for a moment, then asked,
“Do you want to try matching, too?”
Her voice lacked confidence. It sounded like she was recommending against it.
“Normally, the rules say we should proceed to matching after the test results come out, but I’ll just…”
Lowering her voice, Iyeon made a gesture like she was covering something up with her hand.
“But if matching works, does that mean I’ll have to… with that person, no matter what…?”
“No, it’s not like that. It’s just that if you match, those people might start pestering you, so I’m just warning you. But that’s just my opinion. You can decide for yourself, Hyeji-ssi.”
Driven by stubbornness, Hyeji pushed on with the test, but when the results came out, she realized: even if that path was a sure escape, she didn’t have the courage to escape that way.
“Then…”
She also made a covering gesture with her hand. For now, it was more rational to try saving herself as an F-Class first.
Of course, rationality doesn’t guarantee success.
On her twentieth day at the training center, even though she trained without taking a single day off, Hyeji’s radiative guiding skills hadn’t improved at all.
