Yuwon sat tense, one foot tapping rhythmically under the table. Hara stood behind him, arms folded, her stance rigid.
"He's stable" Lys continued, "but only technically. His body is intact, but the field he's generating is still active... and growing."
Yuwon looked toward the containment glass, where Saejin's still form lay under the shimmer of resonance radiation.
"What does that mean?" Hara asked.
"It means the upper board wants him removed from the registry. They're already discussing his suspension as a Guide." Lys didn't soften the words. "They're concerned he may no longer be safe to operate in the field."
Yuwon's hands tightened at his sides. He stepped forward without hesitation. "You're calling him unstable because he stopped a collapse?"
Lys's expression remained calm. "We're calling him unstable because we don't know what he is anymore. And because he's still emitting active resonance energy that none of our equipment can contain."
Soren raised an eyebrow. "What kind of levels are we talking?"
"High enough to interfere with shielding. Enough that we can't allow physical access without clearance and containment protocols."
Yuwon looked at the containment room again. The shimmer around Saejin's body pulsed faintly.
"Can I see him?"
"Not yet" Lys said. Then, turning her gaze to him directly: "How are you feeling, Yuwon? Right now."
He didn't even need to answer that. The slight flare in his eyes said enough.
Lys nodded once. "That's what I thought. You haven't had proper guidance since the event. You know what happens to Class A Espers without sync regulation."
Yuwon remained silent.
Lys went on. "Saejin is reacting to his surroundings, but not consistently. However, if our predictions are right, he may still respond to you. His guiding patterns are buried, but not gone. We think his resonance will recognize your need and try to stabilize."
Hara turned to Lys, her voice low. "You want to use their bond as a regulating trigger?"
"I don't want to, Lys said. "But we have no other Guides compatible with Yuwon, and Saejin is getting worse. If we don't act soon, he might trigger a collapse event, and not just inside his mind."
Yuwon looked back toward Saejin. "Then let me in."
Lys met his gaze. "This isn't just about him. If it destabilizes, it could take you too."
Yuwon nodded once. "Understood."
--------
Saejin stood in the dark.
The boy was there again too, sitting cross-legged not far from him. He was moving his hands, fingers tracing silent rhythms Saejin couldn't quite figure out.
"What are you even saying…?" Saejin mumbled. "You're like a broken subtitle track. All gestures, no meaning."
The boy didn't stop waving his hands as though still hoping Saejin might finally understand him.
But no, Saejin sighed and pressed a palm to his face. "Why do you keep showing up?"
No answer, of course.
He tried turning his head, and that's when he noticed it, a ripple in the dark. A shimmer, like oil on water. Then another ripple followed, then another, until something cut through the blackness. A line. No, a door. Or at least the outline of one. Someone was coming in.
--------
Outside the field, in real time, the machinery hissed as containment levels adjusted.
Yuwon stepped into the resonance chamber, his body braced as the field's density settled around him. Glass walls behind him began to opacify, sealing him in.
He looked around, but there was nothing. Just the bare room. Saejin lay on the medical cot, pale, still, hooked up to minimal monitoring. Everything else had been stripped back. They had kept only minimal tech in, nothing that could resonate uncontrollably.
He took a breath and muttered under it "You idiot…"
--------
Inside the black space, Saejin flinched. He heard it. That voice... Slowly, he turned his head and his eyes searched through the void.
"Yuwon…?"
He could see him now, framed through the shimmer, like watching someone walk underwater.
Yuwon approached his body slowly. He circled once, then sat down beside the cot, one knee pulled up loosely, watching Saejin's face like he was trying to piece together a memory.
"I don't know if you can hear me" Yuwon said quietly, "but I'll talk anyway. I need to talk."
Saejin swallowed hard. His throat was dry.
"I don't know if you remember this" he said finally, "but there was this day during our first assessment cycle. You came in late, you didn't explain why. Your whole uniform was soaked and you looked like hell."
Saejin stirred faintly in the blackness.
"You didn't speak to anyone. Didn't look at anyone either. You just sat in the back and just stared at the table like the world had ended."
Yuwon paused, then his voice dropped.
"I don't think the others noticed, but I watched you sit there for hours. I kept wondering what had happened that morning to make you look like that."
Saejin blinked in the darkness. He did remember the day: it had rained and he'd been in a bad place. He hadn't wanted to be seen, but apparently he had been.
"I told myself it wasn't my business" Yuwon went on. "That you probably wanted to be left alone. But the truth is… I didn't know how to ask."
Saejin looked away, embarrassed.
Yuwon stopped pacing and sat down beside him again.
"I wasn't going to bring it up" he said. "But now I'm here, and you're not waking up, and... hell, I don't know. I just wanted you to know that someone saw it. That I saw you."
A pull rose inside Saejin's chest, an urge to go to him and lift some of that weight, even a little. To ease the pressure he could feel pressing back at him now. His hand twitched. His body moved slightly in the dark. And as he turned toward the source, toward Yuwon, the black around him started to thin. Like something was giving way.
"...that was a terrible story..." Saejin mumbled aloud.
Yuwon's body jolted. His head snapped up, eyes wide. For a second, he didn't believe it.
"Saejin?"
Saejin blinked slowly, still groggy, but present.
"You're awake."
"Yeah" Saejin replied. "Thanks for the story."