Seo Hansu saw the questions all over Sawon’s face and made an “ah, right” expression.“Ah. Well, it’s not important. I figured you two didn’t know each other, so I didn’t pass it on. I mean, what does it matter if you’re from the same place. What era do you think this is.”Seo Hansu drew on his cigarette again. S9. At that long-unheard name, Sawon groped through his past. But like lifting a blank sheet, nothing came to mind. There should at least have been some small tab for the thoughts to catch and pry a gap. He wanted to fish up even a tattered scrap. But there wasn’t even dust of memory left, let alone scraps.Sawon quietly watched the burning tip of his cigarette. It was Seo Hansu who broke the silence.“Hey.”“What.”“You really don’t remember anything?”To the careless question, Sawon answered just as carelessly.“Yeah. I don’t remember anything.”On the day Nine’s Miracle happened, the survivors had no memories of the time in the otherworldized space. Only that period was lost. But Sawon lost every memory entangled with S9 District. From childhood to family and friends—every data point was robbed. He’d even lain on the table for experiments multiple times of his own will to get his memories back, but nothing changed. The moment the experiment started, he’d black out, and when he opened his eyes, he’d be lying on the bed again. The result was always the same. He only ever heard that nothing had been found.“Sometimes, not knowing is a mercy. Anyway, you’re doing fine now, so that’s what matters.”Wrapping the conversation up, Seo Hansu put out his cigarette. Sawon also put his out with a faint smile.Am I… doing fine.The harder he tried to find the past, the harder the wall he hit. Before that wall, Sawon always felt helpless.***After finishing his morning exercise, Sawon entered the ward through the ordinary door, not the window. Because Ji Hayeon had stopped thrashing, the lock had already been disengaged.He’d been sleeping soundly when Sawon left. At some point, Ji Hayeon had gotten up and was sitting with his feet over the bed’s edge. Sawon went to him.“Chief, did you have a good dream?”“……”“Nightmare?”Sawon widened his eyes in feigned surprise. The medic who followed him in stood by the bed with a Metena meter.“I’ll check whether your Metena has calmed. Could you take off your top, please?”With long fingers, Ji Hayeon undid the patient gown buttons one by one. With a flop, Sawon dropped into the chair beside him.“Face this way.”At the medic’s words, Ji Hayeon hesitated, then pulled the bed curtains.What. We’re both men.That made him all the more want to tease. Sawon swept the sagging curtain fully back. What faced him straight on was Ji Hayeon’s back. Because he’d turned at a slant, the left arm was in full view too.“What the!”“Uh— please don’t move!”The medic held Ji Hayeon back. This time, Sawon’s surprise was genuine. Ji Hayeon’s left arm, white as paper, was mottled. Bruises, scratch marks, suture marks, places that had torn and then filled back in—wounds covered the entire left arm. It wasn’t the body of someone holed up in a lab doing experiments.Even hunters out in the field don’t end up ragged like that. What on earth did you do to get your arm in that state?“Metena’s back in the normal range. Your regeneration index hasn’t fully returned yet, so we’ll recheck in three days. You can be discharged, but for about three days, don’t overdo it and get full rest.”The medic removed the meter stuck to his body.“My Amplifier.”“Ah. We gave that to the hunter. You can also use Metena starting three days from now.”Ji Hayeon still had his back to Sawon. As the medic stepped away, Ji Hayeon hurried to pull his clothes back on. Sawon bent at the waist and propped his chin.“Are we keeping things proper between us now?”Ji Hayeon tilted his head slightly and shot Sawon a glare.What are you so embarrassed about when we’re both men. Is it the scars?For hunters, scars on the body weren’t a big deal. But this was Ji Hayeon. With his finicky temperament, maybe the wounds on his body bothered him.After fastening the last button, Ji Hayeon whipped around to face him. When their eyes met, Sawon gave a thin grin.“All dressed?”With his brow furrowing, Ji Hayeon held out a hand to Sawon. When Sawon shrugged, as if he didn’t get it, Ji Hayeon screwed up his expression even harder.“Give it.”“Give what?”“The Amplifier. You said you have it.”Sawon stood and put a hand into his pants pocket.Should I… give it back? Or not.His fidgeting fingers felt the metal ring and little puffball. An Amplifier was a device only Awakened could use, boosting the internal Metena cap up to fifty times. It was also a device that had become useless to Sawon. His rough hand kept toying with the metal.“What are you going to do after discharge?”“What else. Go back to work.”“To the lab?”The half-drawn Amplifier got pushed back down deep into his pocket. Then he put out his empty hand.“Give me your hand.”“Why. Just give back the Amplifier.”“If you want me to give it, give me your hand. Then I’ll give it or not.”With obvious displeasure, Ji Hayeon held his hand out to Sawon. When their hands overlapped like a handshake, Sawon pressed down on the white hand. The ragged fingernail tips touched his palm. He hadn’t noticed while just looking, but holding like this, he could feel the fine trembling.As-is, Sawon let a minute amount of his own Metena seep through his palm. Like a static charge, a prickle passed between their hands.“Ugh…… what are you doing!”“I only let a little through. Don’t make a fuss—push it out.”An Awakened’s Metena had the property of pushing out a Metena of opposite affinity. Intellect-type and stamina-type Metena repelled each other.“Ugh…… it hurts…….”“I said try pushing it out.”If Ji Hayeon were fully recovered, this level of Metena would’ve been easy to reflect. But Ji Hayeon only tried to yank his connected hand free; he couldn’t push out Sawon’s Metena. His body curled in on itself more and more. Only then did Sawon let go.“If you can’t even reflect this, how are you going to use an Amplifier. Why ask for something you can’t use. I can’t give it. I won’t.”“I know the Amplifier better than you.”“What good is knowing the Amplifier? ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Seems like you don’t know your own body.”When Ji Hayeon reached for the pocket with the Amplifier, Sawon twisted his body in a hurry. Ji Hayeon’s cheek banged straight into Sawon’s shoulder.“Ah…….”With a groan, Ji Hayeon grabbed his cheek.“Hey— you okay?”Sawon quickly caught his cheek and checked him. And then the déjà vu came again. The feel under his palm and this moment were somehow familiar. Beyond familiar—he had the certainty he’d been through the same thing once. But there was no such scene in Sawon’s memory. His dark eyes stilled in place.What is this?Maybe from the collision pain, tears had already welled in Ji Hayeon’s eyes. Looking into them, his insides ached strangely. Flustered, Sawon pulled his hand away at once.“If it hurts a lot, let’s have your attending take a look.”“I said I’m fine. Who gets examined for something like this.”Ji Hayeon reached for Sawon’s pocket again. Forcing down the alien feeling, Sawon gripped his hand tight.“I’m keeping this until you’re fully better. If you don’t like it, take it by force.”“Does that sound like something that makes sense to you?”Looking at his annoyed face, his chest still churned. For Sawon, a state that wouldn’t obey his control felt awkward and unpleasant.After their scuffle, this round’s victory also fell to Sawon. They’d just finished packing the few belongings for discharge when it happened. Right as they were about to leave the ward, a call came in as if it had been waiting.— Chief! Are you okay? Do you know how worried we were? Everyone’s at the Central Bureau right now.With that one call, Sawon had to change their destination to the Central Bureau’s 28th floor. A guard’s original role was to follow the protectee’s destination and protect them, not to decide where they should go. Walking side by side down the Central Bureau corridor, Sawon kept watching Ji Hayeon.“You remember what the medic said earlier. Don’t overdo it for three days.”“I’ll handle myself.”“Sure, I bet you will.”At Sawon’s words, Ji Hayeon came to a dead stop. Sawon also stopped and stared right at him.What. Why.He moved only his lips without a sound. Balling his fist tight like he was swallowing resentment, Ji Hayeon set off again.“Is meddling part of the guard brief? Do you always do the job this sloppily?”Sawon snorted.“Sloppily, huh. Want me to show you what sloppy really looks like?”Veins stood on the back of Ji Hayeon’s hand. Looking now, there was a scratch there he hadn’t noticed.Was that me.Thinking back to yesterday when he’d subdued Ji Hayeon naturally brought up that arm covered in wounds.What kind of research did you do to end up with a body like that.Unlike the wrecked left forearm, Ji Hayeon’s fingers were thin and long. The unmistakable hand of a researcher who did nothing but hold a pen and flip pages.Do researchers’ hands all look like that.As his thoughts drifted that far, the story he’d heard from Seo Hansu flashed across Sawon’s mind.‘Hey. But they say among the Institute survivors, there’s someone from the same place as you.’If it was about Institute survivors, no one would know better than Ji Hayeon. Around when the elevator came into view in the distance—“I’ve got a question.”“What is it.”“I heard among the Institute survivors there’s someone from S9 District. Do you know who it is, by any chance?”Walking slow, Sawon asked. But at some point, there was no shadow following him. Without so much as a blink, frozen in place, Ji Hayeon was staring at Sawon.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.