Episode 3
So, to roughly sum up the current situation, it went like this.
I Goeun, a twenty-seven-year-old job seeker living in the “real” real world of South Korea, had finished her afternoon shift at the convenience store and was heading home with that day’s spoils: a discarded sandwich.
The sandwich’s expiration was 20:00 that day, but she had seen someone write something like that online.
“If you don’t fall asleep, that day isn’t over. So if you keep watch, the sandwich won’t go bad behind your back.” It was such a profound saying that, to Goeun, who regularly ate discarded convenience store food, it was a comfort. It felt as though it granted legitimacy to her self-justification.
So she kept watch over the sandwich until two in the morning the next day, and when she unwrapped it and smelled it, it seemed fine—better than expected. So Goeun ate the discarded sandwich and, as usual, opened her web novel app.
The novel she began reading was one featuring Espers and Guides, with a million spoonfuls of romance thrown in.
After that, Goeun went straight to the ER with food poisoning, and when she came to, she had possessed a character in the last Guide novel she had read, *Can an S-Class Date Too?*
“Yeah… I’ll give you a hundred concessions up to this point, so fine, this is fine.”
It wasn’t particularly good, but she decided to count it as good.
However, this character, ‘I Goeun,’ had one enormous problem.
“I Goeun… is a character who dies early on!”
In this Guide novel, ‘I Goeun’ was a sickly character who, ever since childhood, had suffered from an illness of unknown cause and couldn’t properly attend school. One might think she died of illness, but that wasn’t it.
Actually, unlike the Guide heroine, I Na-eun, ‘I Goeun’ in the novel was an Esper. However, with her frail, glass-like body, she couldn’t overcome her ability and eventually went on a rampage in the middle of the city and died.
That’s right. In the novel’s development, the trigger for the heroine, Na-eun, awakening as an S-Class Guide was none other than the character ‘I Goeun,’ who shared the same name as Goeun.
“Shi—…”
As Goeun sorted out her situation, she unwittingly spat out a crude curse.
If Na-eun, the heroine of this novel and ‘I Goeun’s older sister, had seen this sight, she might have burst into tears.
The original ‘I Goeun’ was a very gentle and kind younger sister who, because she had been sick, had never properly attended school even once and didn’t know any modern slang at all. Of course, this too was a setting that had passed by in a single line.
“I should’ve just quietly fixed my cover letter instead……”
She had procrastinated because she didn’t want to write application essays that weren’t even in her destiny, escaping reality through web novels, and thanks to that, it looked like she would never get to write them now. If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have prepared for employment; she would’ve just gotten rehabilitation treatment and gone back to judo.
“When… exactly is it now?”
According to Goeun’s memory, ‘I Goeun’ in the novel died fairly early on. Na-eun and Goeun’s family was a massive Guide development management company, but even so, they were heartbroken that they couldn’t find a pair Guide for Goeun… or so it had been mentioned in a line or two of the novel.
Compared to the effort the author put into the ‘I Goeun’ character early on, it was quite a hollow ending.
Twenty years old. A small frame with a cute face. A kind and pure younger sister who adored her older sister to the point of being a complete cling-on. And then they had added an S-Class Esper setting on top of that… that character was ‘I Goeun.’
“Ah, right… the reason why they couldn’t find a pair Guide had definitely come up.”
She had found the early parts explaining the world-building boring and skimmed diagonally through them, only to meet with such a catastrophe.
All you readers who enjoy this world’s web novels, listen well. Never skim through the world-building explanation of the web novel you are currently reading.
“Or you’ll end up like me……”
Goeun’s current state of mind was utter despair itself.
“When did I Goeun die again……”
Her health had rapidly deteriorated around the time summer ended, and she died at Christmas. So the episode title for that chapter had been something like ‘A Sad Christmas.’
If asked how she remembered even such an episode title, it was because it was truly, truly in the very early chapters. It was a scene you could see by scraping together the free five chapters, the wait-if-free chapters, and the occasional random points the platform gave out.
“Ughhh…… Guide…… my Guide……”
Goeun was in agony. The reason why they couldn’t find a Guide still wouldn’t come to mind, so she groaned, tearing at her hair.
“Goeun!”
“Ah……”
In the end, she was caught in that state by Na-eun, who had brought the attending physician.
“Does it hurt a lot? Doctor, what do we do with our Goeun?”
Of all times, Na-eun returned just as she was tearing at her hair. Seeing that bizarre sight, she froze in place, her body stiffening in shock. And so, Goeun made the original heroine, Na-eun, who loved her younger sister terribly, burst into tears.
* * *
“Un…nie, I’m begging you, can’t you not go to school?”
Goeun was desperate. Her forearm was densely packed with thick IV needles, just as before, and her clothes were still the white patient gown bearing the words ‘Seongun Hospital.’
It had already been a week since she possessed the novel. Goeun had spent the entire week lying in a hospital bed, unable to do anything. The only thing she could do now was cling to Na-eun’s pant leg and whine because Na-eun said it was exam period and she had to go to school.
“Goeun, I fully understand that you don’t want to be apart from me, but……”
“If you understand, then don’t go. I need you.”
“Goeun……”
Even if they were as close as sisters could be, one might think this was too much, but Goeun had her reasons.
Inside Goeun’s body, her psychic ability was always bubbling and boiling like lava, ready to explode at any moment. Yet whenever Na-eun’s hand touched her body, it would calm down ever so slightly.
Someone had once said: if an Esper is a patient with rhinitis, a Guide is like a nasal spray that clears their nose.
Only after becoming ‘I Goeun’ in *Seugayeon* could Goeun realize through her whole body what those words meant. To Goeun, Na-eun was closer to motion sickness medicine than a nasal spray. Goeun didn’t want to miss this stabilizer.
“I already contacted Grandmother, so she’ll bring another S-Class Guide soon. Just hold on until then, okay?”
*There is no more perfect motion sickness medicine than you, I Na-eun, in my current situation. None! It’s only because the two of us are blood-related that it’s even this much!*
Just before Goeun entered the novel, ‘I Goeun’ had had another ability outburst. It was an outburst brought on by the imminent approach of her awakening. Goeun had wondered how one would know that, but once she possessed the Esper character, she naturally understood without anyone telling her. *This is going to blow up soon,* she thought.
During the last outburst, she had truly thought she would die helplessly just like this. It wasn’t something a person could overcome. It was a horrific pain, as if her whole body were being torn apart and set on fire.
Since a person was dying like this, on the off chance, she had rematched with Na-eun using the portable matching rate tester at the hospital. But nothing had changed. The results were still devastating.
Thirty-two percent. Even this was a high number thanks to Goeun and Na-eun’s blood relation. Of course, it might be because Na-eun’s rank was still around B-Class, but even if her rank went up… it wasn’t a situation that would improve much.
The other Guides working at the hospital scored even lower. Even those with higher ranks than Na-eun couldn’t exceed thirty percent.
“I’ll come straight back as soon as my exam ends. In the meantime, don’t forget to take the medicine the doctor gave you, and take it right after you eat.”
“Unnie……”
Although the heroine of *Seugayeon*, I Na-eun, was two years younger than the real I Goeun, Goeun had completely immersed herself in ‘I Goeun’ and was naturally calling her ‘unnie’ left and right.
Of course, right after possession, she had been confused and blurted things out in her original personality. Na-eun, watching from the side, had been surprised, but very fortunately, it passed more naturally than expected. Likely because ‘I Goeun’ in *Seugayeon* was a sickly character to begin with, she hadn’t had many long conversations with Na-eun.
‘I Goeun’ had spent more time asleep than awake. It was a miracle she was even awake like this now. So much so that Na-eun would tear up, saying Goeun was amazing, just from eating a meal.
“Then I’ll be back, Goeun.”
In the end, Na-eun left for school, leaving behind the whimpering Goeun. As soon as Na-eun moved away, her chest felt tight.
*…This is really not good.*
It felt like she had chugged two bottles of liquor on an empty stomach.
How could she fall into such a state the moment Na-eun, her Guide, moved away? So this was why the Espers in the novel were so obsessed with Guides.
Only after possessing an Esper character herself could Goeun understand the obsessive tendencies of the other Esper protagonists.
“I Goeun.”
Just then, the door to Goeun’s hospital room opened and someone entered. And Goeun was horrified.
Contrary to Na-eun’s words that she would bring an S-Class Guide, no one was standing behind Yeorye—the grandmother of the Na-eun and Goeun sisters and chairwoman of the Seongun Group.
“Grandmother……?”
*Why did you come alone? What about my hangover cure?*
“Hangover?”
Yeorye asked, tilting her head slightly.
Goeun hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands. Startled by the sight of Yeorye standing alone, it seemed her thoughts had slipped out. The surprised Goeun stared blankly at Yeorye with rabbit-like eyes.
“I heard from Na-eun. That you… are an Esper.”
As Yeorye uttered the word ‘Esper,’ her brow furrowed. She looked somewhat reluctant, as if she had spat out something she didn’t want to say. Goeun stole a glance at that expression for a moment before quickly bowing her head deeply.
“Is what Na-eun said true?”
“Ah, yes.”
Yeorye was the first person Goeun had met besides Na-eun after possessing this body, so Goeun unwittingly tensed up and answered with excessive vigor. Yeorye looked at Goeun with a puzzled gaze and slightly furrowed her brow.
“Why didn’t you tell this old woman sooner?”
“Ah, well… it hasn’t been long since Unnie and I found out either.”
There was a reason no one had thought Goeun was an Esper. In *Seugayeon*, Esper abilities usually manifested in men. It was described that an incomplete chromosome caused a mutation, granting psychic abilities, and that this was a characteristic of the male chromosome… or so it was written.
Since *Seugayeon* was a reverse harem romance novel, it seemed this setting had been created to tie the Guide heroine, Na-eun, to the male Esper leads. Because of that, no one suspected that Goeun, who had been unusually weak since birth, was an Esper.
So Na-eun had said she only learned Goeun was an Esper during the second outburst that happened recently. And that second outburst was precisely the moment Goeun had possessed ‘I Goeun.’
“If I had known sooner, I wouldn’t have left you in the hospital like this……”