OMH Chapter 21
by Volare21. The S-Grades I Ended Up Raising (2)
I was living with Wooreen, but my basic routine remained unchanged.
As always, I woke up at 5 a.m., went for a jog, came back, showered, and prepared to go out for breakfast, waking Wooreen up in the process.
The biggest change in my life was that I had converted all of the morning and afternoon training sessions I used to have with the trainees into personal training time because I didn’t have a suitable place to leave Wooreen and wanted to take care of him myself.
However, I didn’t spend all of my training time solely on childcare.
Having nothing to do with just the two of us was difficult for both Wooreen and me. So, I changed my training to activities that allowed me to take care of Wooreen.
For example, doing pull-ups while holding him in one arm or doing squats and running with him on my shoulders. Wooreen also seemed to enjoy using my back as a desk while I did planks, reading fairy tales and playing house. He seemed to be playing well on his own without any particular complaints about the situation.
While we were spending our time peacefully, Woojin was discharged from the Medical Bureau and entered the Guide facility.
The Guides all live together in a building right next to the Research Center, but this building strangely doesn’t have an entrance.
To enter the Guide facility, you have to go through the passage in the Research Center.
At the entrance of this passage, you need to verify your identity with the Smartwatch of the Guides or the Smartwatch of the Healing-type Espers in charge of the Guide facility to enter.
Actually, I couldn’t understand why they created such a system, but now I think I know why.
Now that Woojin was officially registered with the Association as a Guide and even received a Smartwatch, he was able to enter the facility.
I was relieved that he was able to take care of his own room and board, but there was a problem.
Wooreen was a refugee who hadn’t been registered, so he couldn’t enter.
Just yesterday, on the day Woojin entered the facility with his face still bruised, Wooreen cried and threw a tantrum trying to follow his brother, but the Association refused, saying they couldn’t accept an unidentified person who wasn’t a Guide.
Even though it was obvious that he was a young child who was family, the Association was firm.
So, Wooreen and I continued to live as roommates.
Wooreen, who came to live with me, ate breakfast, went to the Civilian Protection Shelter to borrow a lot of things he wanted to play with today, and then spent time playing alone or with me next to me while I exercised.
And in the evening, he would return most of the toys to the Civilian Protection Shelter and take one or two to the Dormitory to play with.
After eating dinner, he would take a night walk with me or play more in the Dormitory before going to bed.
He hasn’t cried saying he hates it yet, so it doesn’t seem like he finds living with me bad.
While I was living a more or less peaceful daily life with my roommate, an official document regarding personnel matters came down.
The new job I got at the Association is called ‘Special Education for High-Risk Espers.’ What is that…
‘I don’t know either.’
That’s just how it’s written on the official document. What is a high-risk Esper? Are they talking about S-grade? Putting that aside, what is special education?
There is definitely an Esper-only education curriculum in the Association. I know for sure because I was educated with that curriculum.
First, you learn what an Esper is, and then you learn common denominators such as how to unleash your ability and Guiding, and then you learn physical training and basic combat training like a soldier.
And along with training, you are divided by the type of ability and learn how to control and deal with your ability in depth.
After receiving some education, you also train while acting as a guinea pig at the Research Center to help upgrade the Esper database.
This process usually takes about 3 to 5 years.
And after all these processes are completed, you can perform missions as a formal Esper Association member, not a trainee.
But I’ve never seen ‘special education’ in this process? I also had a rare ability, but I’ve never heard of that.
The Association must have anticipated this confusion because they sent a text message telling me to participate in a workshop before starting work in earnest.
The workshop location is ‘Research Center – Building A, Room 172.’ I think I’ll know what it is once I go there.
*
The arrived Research Center – Building A, Room 172 was a wide open space.
The floor is also a soft mat, so it seems like it can be used as a Gymnasium. But since one wall is a mirror, it seems to have been made so that researchers can observe from the next room.
Well, this is the Research Center.
Wooreen and I came too diligently, or no one else was there besides us.
They told me to come at 9 o’clock, so I came right after eating breakfast, but it’s still 8:55.
But shouldn’t the workshop be ready 5 minutes in advance?
While I was grumbling, Wooreen was going to the mirror and making handprints on the mirror. He likes it, saying the mirror is huge and amazing.
At first, I wondered if I had brought him for nothing, but I’m glad I brought him because he liked the big mirror he saw for the first time.
While I was talking with Wooreen, the door to Room 172 opened and someone came in.
‘Huh? It’s Woojin? Why did Woojin come here?’
While I was staring at him, Woojin, who came inside, also looked at me.
And he soon smiled and walked towards me. It had been a while since I saw Woojin’s smiling face head-on, and I was mindlessly looking at his neat white teeth visible between his curving lips, his white skin contrasting with his jet-black hair, his crescent-shaped smiling eyes, his eyelashes like black butterflies, and the tear dot neatly imprinted on his left eye.
Woojin, who came up to me, raised his white and slender hands and stroked my short, prickly hair.
“Gang Hana, how have you been? You still look like a chestnut today, so cute. Shall we ditch the workshop and go on a date?”
‘Ha, damn it. No wonder his face is clean without a single bruise.’
It’s not Woojin.
It wasn’t Woojin, but I couldn’t curse in front of Woojin’s face, so I closed my eyes tightly, gritted my teeth, and said.
“…Hey, release the Polymorph. Jang Hana.”
“Aww, why do you know already~”
“Say those lines after releasing the transformation. Don’t say such things with Woojin’s face and voice!”
It’s not bad to hear, but don’t do it anyway. When I was fed up, Jang Hana released the transformation.
The eye level, which was more than half a hand taller than me, became similar, and a girl with fancy hair full of various colored highlights and a T-shirt with a large skull and flame picture appeared.
‘Even though it’s a gathering for official work, she’s not wearing a uniform today.’
Jang Hana, who released the transformation, immediately opened her mouth.
“Is he the famous ‘Gang Hana’s Man’? Cha Woojin~ You can’t deny it. I’ve already read it all.”
“You should really be moderate when you act up.”
“You know my ability, right? He’s really handsome! You have a right to fall for him, sunbae. But it’s the first time I’ve seen you spacing out like that. It’s so funny! Do you like his face that much? Huh?”
Jang Hana opened her mouth and rambled without caring about the other person. The EGA Association doesn’t have a senior-junior culture, but Jang Hana, who calls me sunbae because our names are the same and it’s ambiguous, is a double ability user with Mind Reading and Polymorph abilities.
With this ability, Jang Hana reads other people’s minds and then transforms into the person they care about and often teases them.
‘It’s a very perverted ability.’
Since it’s not an ability that has many uses, Jang Hana is diligently wasting her ability to tease others.
Come to think of it, there is a part that bothers me in her words.
“But what is ‘Gang Hana’s Man’? Who made up such a strange word?”
“Isn’t it something that people who know you know that you fall for a certain man? They say you’re very devoted~ You go to see him every day, give him flowers, give him time, and give him your heart~”
‘Everyone who knows me knows it, so most people in the Association know it.’
Why do they know? Is visiting him diligently in the Medical Bureau something that would spread so much? Or did the Administration Department too actively obtain the position of Woojin’s pre-educator?
But even if I thought about it, I couldn’t find an answer.
I turned off my mind about the source of the rumors that were shrouded in mystery and looked at the clock with the feeling that I came to work, so I should work. It’s still 58 minutes.
“But, if it’s 2 minutes left, shouldn’t everyone be gathering? Why aren’t they coming?”
While I was grumbling for no reason, Wooreen teared up.
“Oppa… went away? He was here a while ago… Why isn’t Oppa here?”
Jang Hana is making Wooreen cry too. He’s never cried while living with me, but if a child cries, it’s because of Jang Hana.
Since there’s no one here anyway, I took off my Smartwatch and gave it to Wooreen, saying I would call Woojin to comfort him.
But while I was about to call Woojin, the door opened and people came in. It’s Jo Yong and Ham Soyoung.
Jang Hana, Jo Yong, Ham Soyoung. The common point of these three is that they are underage S-grades. I heard that they are all about the same age.
‘So, high-risk Espers were immature S-grade Espers.’
These three are Espers who awakened after the Gate Break and were rescued by the EGA Association on the chaotic battlefield.
The time they were discovered was not much different, and they were discovered in the early days before the Gate Break, so they should have received as much education as they could, but they are still friends who can’t get out of their trainee status.
‘They wouldn’t be in charge of the workshop. It’s past 9 o’clock, why isn’t the person in charge coming?’
I grumbled while looking at the clock pointing to 9:02. Just in time, the door opened and Kim Daeyeop came in.
“Everyone’s gathered. Then we’ll start the workshop on ‘Special Education for High-Risk Ability Users’ from now on.”
“Here?”
We were standing alone in the middle of the empty Room 172.
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