Chapter Five
Yun
Yep, everyone is looking at us…
I much preferred flying under the radar. Being an S-Rank guide meant people knew about me, of course, but I never enjoyed basking in that sunlight like others.
Like Mercy, over there.
Mercy wasn’t her real name, of course. Or, at least, that was what I assumed. She was the Guild’s perfect little guide, so they’d probably renamed her just to make her look better.
Who could resist the blonde guide named Mercy who looked as though she could walk any runway?
She smiled brightly as she greeted people, sweet but not too sweet, nice but not too nice. She gave off, ‘you could fuck me if you play your cards right’ in just the right amount to make simps of everyone who came in contact with her.
“You know her?” Carter asked from beside me.
“We’ve met,” I hedged, a discomfort settling deep in my stomach. “Have you met her?”
“By which you mean, has she guided me?”
I blew out a breath and turned my gaze from her, unwilling to answer Carter. The answer was yes, that I absolutely wanted to know about that, but I sure as fuck wasn’t about to say that. It made me sound like some scorned girlfriend.
Carter snickered softly. “Yes, she’s guided me before.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“But you were curious.”
“You sure think you mean more to me than you do.”
“You’re not even a little curious?”
Yes. “Nope.”
“Yun?”
I managed to hold in a groan before looking up and finding the very guide discussed standing just before me.
And as much as I hated it, she looked even more perfect up close. Usually, from this distance, people could spot the problems. The blemishes, the way one boob was larger than the other, something. It was like when high-def TV became a thing and newscasters stopped looking so good.
Leave it to Mercy to still look fucking perfect.
“Hey,” I said with an awkward wave, smiling as though I hadn’t just been dreading this very interaction.
She hugged me in the same overly friendly way she reacted to me every time we met.
It always made me uncomfortable, of course, but it was hard to get too mad at her.
She was like an excited puppy—she meant nothing by her actions, and it was my hang-up, not hers.
When she moved away, she offered me a bright smile, as though we were best friends. “I didn’t think you’d be coming today.”
“Yeah, me either.”
Truth be told, I’d tried to get out of it. I hated coming to Guild meetings like this, but Carter had insisted. It seemed even Reject Squad had to show up from time to time, whether they wanted to or not. This was one such meeting, where the higher-ups had demanded both their presence and mine.
I’d rarely gone to these before. Even when part of a squad, they’d always let me off the hook and allowed me to stay back.
Guides weren’t always required, after all. The information presented in these had more to do with upcoming dungeons, with staffing issues, with territory line changes. Those were the jurisdiction of espers, not guides.
However, Carter had absolutely refused to hear any of my excuses when I’d tried to stay back. Instead, he’d just assured me that there would be good food.
As though that made it better.
So here I was, dressed in simple black slacks and a long-sleeved, white, button-up shirt. It was nothing compared to a few of the other guides around.
Mercy wore a white dress like some angel, and she had an honest-to-god ribbon hanging down from her hair. What the fuck? Was she trying to play the part of an eight-year-old?
The guides tended to be easier to spot than the espers, since they stuck out. They wore colors, somehow seemed softer, and often had on far more expensive clothes, a stark contrast from the all black of the espers.
They stood as the showpiece that the squad wanted to display as a symbol of wealth.
I glanced down at my clothing, suddenly uneasy. I hadn’t dressed up, and Carter hadn’t asked me to.
Was it because we all already knew I was defective? Because we all knew the old saying of putting lipstick on a pig?
The weight in my head, the discomfort lessened all at once. It was almost enough for me to ignore how it had happened—almost.
I twisted, my gaze finding Shear across the room, those eerie blue eyes locked on me.
“Stop it.”
He huffed a soft breath and turned away, as though he’d let me have my little tantrum.
“So how are you liking your new…assignment?” Mercy stumbled on that last word, as though unsure how to phrase it.
It felt like when a person gets divorced and moves into a tiny apartment.
People want to be nice and ask about it, but they also know it’s a huge downgrade, so wonder if they should mention it or not.
“It’s fine,” I said, words tight. No reason to say anything more, and ‘it’s fine’ was as honest as I could get. “It’s only been a couple of days.”
A couple of entirely uneventful days. I had dinner with them most evenings, and one or two of them disappeared at any one time. I had no idea what they were doing, but so far, they hadn’t asked for any guiding.
It meant that it had been pretty boring. A lot of playing on the laptop they’d supplied, and a lot of reading.
Though I knew my time off would end soon. No esper could go forever without guiding, after all, which meant I’d have to earn my keep sooner rather than later.
A little fact I tried hard to ignore.
“What about you?” I asked to take the focus off me.
“Oh, same for me.”
“Not going to settle down?”
“I’m not the type to get tied down. I prefer working freelance.” Which meant she often handled the espers at the portals, taking care of the high-risk issues, filling in when squad guides got overwhelmed. It also put her out in front of all the cameras, a place she excelled.
Her gaze moved off me, to Carter, and boy did her expression change. It amazed me, really, as I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen that smile of hers fade. “Carter,” she said, voice tense.
If he noticed the reaction—and I’d bet he did—he didn’t let on. Instead, he smiled as though they were best of friends. “Hey, Mercy. Lovely dress.”
She glanced down as if she’d forgotten what she had on. She patted the white fabric, her words short. “Thank you. I should get going.” Her gaze returned to me, and was that…pity? “Call me anytime, Yun.”
Her words felt like a lifesaver she’d thrown out to me.
But why?
I held back my questions. That wasn’t the reaction of a guide who simply felt bad about who I’d gotten saddled with. Instead, it was personal, had only started when she’d gotten a look at Carter, like there was some history I didn’t want to know but perhaps needed to know.
I turned to ask when a voice broke out through the large, open room. “We are going to get started, so please find a seat.”
That silenced the questions, pushed them aside for later, as Carter held his hand out to gesture me forward, to lead me to a table near the back without touching me.
Just what did Mercy know that I didn’t?
And did it even matter?