Deal Breaker - Chapter 8
To be honest, aside from the fact that he was single and supposedly good-looking, Hyeji hadn’t paid much attention, so she couldn’t remember much.
“Whoa! This is crazy. Seriously, what do we do!”
Yeowoon, who had scrolled down the screen, suddenly got excited and smacked Hyeji on the back for no reason.
“Ow, what the heck?”
“He left a comment himself!”
Forced by Yeowoon’s insistence, Hyeji looked at the screen, but there wasn’t much there.
[ S-Esper Han Kanghyeon (Batch 91)
Jeong Iyeon, delete this right now. ]
“Oh my god, what am I going to do.”
It wasn’t even as if Han Kanghyeon had left a comment on her own post, but Yeowoon acted like she’d won the lottery.
“What do you mean, ‘what are you going to do’?”
“How can you not understand what this means?”
“I don’t.”
“Ugh, listen. I just confirmed with my own eyes that the senior I’ve admired all this time is alive in the same era as me and shares the same online space. Don’t you get it?”
It’s not even a physical space, it’s just the internet. By that logic, turning on a social network used by billions would mean hitting the jackpot every time. No matter how much Yeowoon explained, Hyeji couldn’t understand why she was so excited.
“Isn’t he the one who dropped out of Stanford?”
A male classmate sitting across from them asked. With the mention of dropping out of a prestigious American university, trainees from other tables started to join in, and soon the topic had shifted completely to this person who wasn’t even present.
“Why did he drop out? What a waste.”
“He awakened while he was doing well in school. The US government offered him citizenship, but he refused and came straight back to Korea.”
“Why?”
“He said he was going to serve in the military.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t about the money?”
The male classmates went wild. Giving up US citizenship for Korean military service—most of them thought he must be crazy. Only Yeowoon, taking the side of someone she’d never met, stuck up for him.
“Wow, what a patriot. Fulfilling his military duty as a Korean. That’s a real man.”
“I heard his father is some big shot in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“Ah.”
If a high-ranking official’s son dodges military service and changes his nationality, that official’s career is over. Only then did Hyeji nod in understanding.
“I heard he doesn’t have a dedicated Guide.”
Yeowoon grinned slyly and started tapping at her phone again.
“Maybe he saw my introduction post?”
Hello, this is Kim Yeowoon from Batch 108. As soon as people entered the Center, everyone posted introduction messages like this. Of course, it wasn’t just introductions, everyone made sure to show off their abilities and ranks, too. This wasn’t a university student forum, it was a professional community.
For F-Classes, introductions were torture. Since you had to put your rank next to your nickname, Hyeji had never posted anything beyond her intro.
Yeowoon was scrolling through the welcome comments left by upperclassmen on her own post with hopeful eyes. Han Kanghyeon didn’t seem to be there. If he had, she would have screamed ‘What do I do!’ again and whacked Hyeji.
“I even picked the best photo of myself to upload…”
Yeowoon muttered gloomily. Desperate for contact guiding with a handsome Esper (in other words, s*x), she had uploaded a full-body shot when everyone else posted face pics. If Hyeji hadn’t stopped her, she would have uploaded a bikini photo.
“Ah… I hope he contacts me after seeing my post.”
The male Espers who had their eyes on Yeowoon looked distinctly displeased.
Hyeji wasn’t the only one at the bottom of the pyramid. Those rookie Espers who ignored her were at the bottom, too. Guides always gravitate toward Espers with enough money to offer high salaries, and usually, that wealth is proportional to the Esper’s experience.
That’s why Espers advise their junior Espers to snap up a good Guide early, and Guides tell their juniors not to get caught up with someone during training.
But all of this had nothing to do with F-Class Guide Hyeji.
* * *
There was no way things would suddenly change in the last ten days when nothing had changed in twenty. After a month of training, Hyeji returned empty-handed to her musty, moldy semi-basement apartment.
While the other trainees landed jobs while still at the Center, only Hyeji was left unemployed. She’d gotten a few offers, but everyone advised her against them. They were either one-month temp jobs, or overseas placements in dangerous locations no one else wanted.
Good companies never hire F-Classes. Besides, a Guide who couldn’t emit waves in the first place? Even if she managed to get hired, the company might sue her for falsifying her credentials.
Hyeji lay on her side in her damp room, looking out the window. All she could see was people’s feet passing by, not the sky.
For a short while, she’d dreamed of buying a Han River-view apartment. She’d checked current prices and even learned complicated terms like Loan-to-Value. She’d picked which neighborhood she wanted. Scrolling through listings on her phone, she’d let herself get swept up in that dream… only for it all to collapse.
It stung.
It leaves more regret to have hope and lose it than to never hope at all. If she hadn’t become a Guide, she would never have even looked at those Han River-view apartments, which belonged to someone else’s world.
