Episode 12.
Doon didn’t reveal anything for the moment and simply left it alone. If he brought it up now and it vanished into thin air like last time, he would be the one taking the loss.
‘What’s the principle? Could it be that?’
Every time Seoyul put food into his mouth, Doon could see guiding energy bubbling up and leaking out.
Perhaps the guiding condition wasn’t a state of hunger, but rather a desperate longing to eat something? Since he had been hungry, he might have thought he simply wanted to eat something.
“Um…… Esper-nim. Could it be that you have no appetite?”
Realizing he had been too immersed in the food by himself, Seoyul blushed. At that moment, the bubbling guiding energy disappeared. Doon smacked his lips.
“I was about to eat now. Eat plenty.”
“Yes!”
As Doon picked up his chopsticks, Seoyul finally relaxed and began ferrying food to his mouth.
Everything, even the water, was incredibly delicious.
‘To think it could be this delicious!’
The Center’s cafeteria had been delicious enough, but this place was a shock in and of itself.
Seoyul ate until he felt like his stomach would burst. He wanted to eat more, but he could feel food sloshing down his throat and couldn’t take another bite.
“Ugh. I feel like my stomach is going to burst.”
A voice brimming with the happiness of one who had eaten his fill rang out. Doon felt the guiding energy still leaking out even now and thought.
‘There’s no doubt.’
Having observed him roughly throughout the meal, Doon was strongly convinced.
“I think I found it.”
“Huh? Found what?”
Seoyul rubbed his distended belly and straightened up. Doon opened his mouth with a serious gaze.
“The activation condition.”
“The activation condition?”
To think he had been thinking about that while eating. Seoyul felt embarrassed, as if he alone had been mindlessly shoveling down food.
But more important than that were Doon’s words.
“It’s certain that you’re a Hidden Guide. Energy was leaking out until just now.”
“Huh? Really?!”
The leaked energy had led to radiating guiding. The first time he had felt it was probably radiating guiding as well, not direct guiding.
Doon briefly recalled that time and continued.
“Every time you ate, energy leaked out, right?”
“Huh? E-every time I ate?”
Seoyul’s face flushed crimson with embarrassment. It was mortifying enough that he had eaten so frantically, but of all times, why did it have to be then?
Still, he couldn’t help but feel happy inside. Because now he could truly be of help to Doon.
“It’s certain. Every time you eat, you become a Hidden Guide!”
“…….”
Doon shouted with conviction. But Seoyul’s eyes rolled around uneasily.
If he became a Hidden Guide every time he ate like Doon said, then why hadn’t it happened before?
Reading that thought, Doon continued his explanation.
“Rather than just eating, it seems important to be eating something delicious.”
“Something…… delicious?”
“Yeah. You like the Center’s food, right?”
“Ah…… yes…….”
Though something weighed on his mind, Seoyul nodded obediently. It was true that he had liked the food from the Center cafeteria quite a bit.
“I’m sure of it! The reason we couldn’t discover it until now is that you weren’t in a state of wanting to eat too badly.”
A state of wanting to eat too badly?
Seoyul couldn’t understand what that meant, but Doon excitedly explained.
“You said you were hungry then, didn’t you? So what then? When you’re hungry, don’t you want to eat like crazy? Then it must have tasted good, right? In other words, you become a Hidden Guide when you eat something delicious!”
“Ooh!”
Finally understanding, Seoyul was amazed. Listening to him, it did seem that way. Humans were creatures who felt food tasted better when they were terribly hungry.
Doon had never experienced such a thing himself, but he knew it very well because Seonjeong always groaned every time she skipped meals on account of her research and hastily ate something to get by.
So he had no doubt that Seoyul was the same.
“Good. Then let’s come here and eat again tomorrow. If guiding activates the same way tomorrow, then this is definitely your condition!”
“Yes!”
Seoyul answered brightly, his eyes sparkling. And he didn’t forget to praise Doon, saying that as expected, he was an Esper-nim.
* * *
In a good mood, Doon raised his chin proudly and shrugged his shoulders. It was thanks to the S-rank Guide’s radiating guiding that he had received throughout the entire meal.
Feeling quite pleased, he stopped by the lab right away to deliver the good news to Seonjeong.
And the next day.
“Why……? It definitely worked yesterday……?”
Doon buried his head in the sofa in a daze. He had confidently returned to the restaurant, but the same thing hadn’t happened.
“Tsk tsk. I could tell the moment you started acting so hastily.”
Seonjeong clicked her tongue and nagged at him.
“Don’t get his hopes up for no reason and do things properly. You get so worked up and then deflate like that—doesn’t Yul get hurt even more?”
It was true. When it didn’t activate again, the most disappointed was Seoyul.
He had taken his first spoonful deliciously, but the moment he heard it was different from yesterday, his shoulders slumped in disappointment. Picking at his food, he looked so devastated that it was obvious he wanted to crawl into a hole.
“Ah, I know already, so stop it.”
Doon snapped and raised his upper body. The hurt and disappointed guide caused great ripples for Doon as well. With slumped shoulders and a tearful face, nothing was to his liking.
He realized that, as she said, he had acted too hastily and exposed his emotions too much, unlike himself.
“You manage your expressions so well normally. Why can’t you do it at all in front of Yul?”
That was exactly what he wanted to ask. Why couldn’t he manage his expressions at all when he was with him?
Maybe it was because Seoyul was the type whose emotions flowed out so easily, or maybe because he was the first guide Doon had ever had.
Doon was experiencing this for the first time as well, so he was simply bewildered.
“Ah, seriously. I didn’t come here to get nagged. What do you think the problem is? He definitely ate deliciously. He ate deliciously yesterday, and he ate deliciously today too.”
“Are you sure?”
Seonjeong asked without taking her eyes off the monitor.
“I’m…… pretty sure?”
Seoyul was someone whose expressions showed very clearly. He had definitely worn the same expression as yesterday when taking the first spoonful. Though from the middle onward, he had completely wilted from disappointment.
“Then did the food stop tasting good?”
“Does taste…… disappear?”
“No matter how delicious something is, it gets bland if you eat it every day.”
Doon was dumbfounded by Seonjeong’s words.
“Is that how it is?”
Because Doon had never once thought food was delicious, he had no way of knowing such a thing. He only knew that food tasted best when eaten while hungry because he had heard it somewhere.
“What would you know? You don’t even have a sense of taste.”
Seonjeong clicked her tongue and nagged again. Without hesitation, she made discriminatory remarks, saying ordinary people’s tongues were this delicate and that he, being no ordinary person, wouldn’t understand.
“Ah, come on.”
Doon snapped and scowled fiercely, but it didn’t work on her in the slightest.
“So what am I supposed to do!”
Yes. What the hell was the conclusion? He had dragged himself here despite the annoyance, wondering if there might be something to gain. He didn’t want to go back empty-handed.
“What do you mean, what are you supposed to do? Try going on a famous restaurant tour or something.”
“A famous restaurant…… tour?”
A famous restaurant tour……
It was a phrase he had never once considered before.
A famous restaurant tour in Cha Doon’s life.
‘Because of him, I’m really going to end up trying all sorts of things.’
Hah…….
Doon let out a small sigh but busily moved his fingers. Even though he had only searched briefly, lists of famous restaurants poured out one after another.
* * *
“A famous restaurant?”
Seoyul tilted his head at the sudden word.
He had been greatly disappointed after realizing that the activation condition was food but it hadn’t worked immediately.
But suddenly, a famous restaurant?
“I don’t think just delicious food is important. It seems extremely delicious food is what matters.”
“Yes……?”
Seoyul tilted his head again, but thinking about it carefully, it did seem right. When he first ate with Doon at a Korean restaurant, it had been so delicious he felt like he could fly, and he had been so happy.
But on the second day, while it had still been tasty, it hadn’t been quite to that degree. Couldn’t the activation condition be not “eating deliciously,” but “eating extremely deliciously”?
“I think that’s right, Esper-nim!”
“Right? Let’s go right now. I found everything.”
Doon boldly led him to the first famous restaurant. The place they arrived at was a renowned restaurant near the Center.
“Wow!”
Last time it had been Korean food; this time it was Western food. At the completely different atmosphere, Seoyul lost himself and couldn’t close his open jaw.
“I heard the meat here is incredible. They say you usually have to wait about a month to eat here.”
“A whole month?!”
A famous restaurant that required waiting a whole month. How delicious must a place be to require waiting an entire month?
Seoyul’s heart pounded in anticipation. And he genuinely admired Doon’s ability to secure a reservation right away at such a place.
“You’re amazing, Esper-nim.”
“Right?”
Doon was also satisfied that the guide seemed to like it very much. It was a good预感. Somehow, it seemed the activation condition really was famous restaurants.
And that premonition was exactly right.
“Woooow…….”
As Seoyul cut a piece of steak and put it in his mouth, guiding energy bubbled up and poured out from him again. At that ecstasy, Doon’s pupils briefly glazed over.
But he immediately shook his head and became wary of his surroundings.
This wasn’t a small place like the Korean restaurant they had gone to before, but a large restaurant occupying an entire floor. Moreover, since it was near the Center, many of the patrons were espers. With an S-rank guide’s radiating guiding pouring out in such a place, it was only natural for an esper to feel guarded.
‘……Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to leak far.’
It was a stroke of luck that this was a VIP room. Whether it couldn’t cross beyond the walls, the bubbling energy stayed only within this room, guiding Doon. Every time guiding energy entered through his skin, he felt ecstatic, making it hard to keep his sanity.
“Esper-nim, could it be…….”
Seoyul, who had once again become immersed in the food, paused and looked at Doon. Seeing no wrinkles between his brows, hope welled up that perhaps guiding was happening.
“I think so. So don’t pay attention to me and eat a lot. A lot.”
Sensing that the radiating guiding disappeared whenever Seoyul became aware of him, Doon urged him to eat quickly.
At that, Seoyul’s face lit up radiant with joy.
“Haah. I’m going crazy.”
―Boom!
“E-Esper-nim?”
Doon collapsed onto the table, hiding his reddened face.