I Don’t Want This Reincarnation

Even after Kim Woo-jin’s rampant energy stabilised, he could hardly come to his senses and remained asleep. It was only after a full day had passed that he opened his eyes.

“Uurgh…”

Around 5 a.m., Kim Woo-jin searched for water, groaning. As I stayed seated, waiting for him to wake up, I brought a cup of lukewarm water to his mouth.

Kim Woo-jin, who took the water and drank like a baby bird eating food without knowing who gave it, opened his closed eyes and looked at me.

“…Han Yi-gyeol?”

“Oh.”

Kim Woo-jin, looking surprised, had jolted. I set the empty glass of water on the side table and sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“This is…”

“The medical wing in the guild. You’ve been asleep for two days now.”

“It’s been two days? How come…”

“I heard you collapsed when the surgery was over. Don’t you remember?”

“Fainted…”

Perhaps because Kim Woo-jin had just woken up, his mind was still hazy. After thinking for a while, the guy stuttered, confused, “My body… was a little hot. I thought it was a cold…”

After staring blankly at me for a moment, he wrinkled his eyebrows and grabbed my shoulder.

“Where are you hurt? Are you okay? You wouldn’t stop bleeding—I was afraid something would happen before you got to the hospital…!”

“I’m fine, so calm down.”

Kim Woo-jin’s eyes were red as if they were about to shed tears at any moment. His hand, which was holding my shoulder tightly, trembled.

It reminded me that he had been worried enough about me that his energy had destabilised. I thought he would be even more anxious if I reacted emotionally, so I unbuttoned my shirt while speaking as calmly as possible.

“Here, see for yourself. No scars left, right?”

I unbuttoned my shirt all the way to reveal my wounded side. Kim Woo-jin, who blinked his eyes several times and stared at my body tenaciously, gently swept my waist with a careful touch.

“Are you satisfied now?”

“…mh.”

Only then did Kim Woo-jin breathe a sigh of relief. I buttoned up my shirt again and said, “You’re more of a concern than me. How is your body?”

“It’s okay. Rather, it seems to be lighter than before.”

Perhaps not noticing that his energy had changed, Kim Woo-jin tilted his head with a puzzled expression. There was no need to hold onto the kid, who just woke up, and give complicated explanations.

As I got up from his seat, I pressed Kim Woo-jin’s shoulder firmly. Kim Woo-jin, who was lying down again, opened his eyes and looked up at me.

“Sleep more. I’ll come back with Min Ah-rin-ssi in the morning. You have something to listen to… You will probably be very busy soon.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain to you when you wake up.”

His unbalanced energy stabilised, but he would need to rest since his body was strained. As I expected, he was tired, but Kim Woo-jin relaxed his body without resisting. He slowly closed his eyes a couple of times and then opened them. Hesitatingly, he said, “Han Yi-gyeol.”

“What?”

“It’s my fault…”

Why an apology all of a sudden? I couldn’t even respond properly to his random words and looked at him, but Kim Woo-jin continued with a calm expression.

“The question from the gate. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s not something you have to apologise for.”

Apologising was not what he should be doing. Even if you were disappointed, it was me who didn’t change my mind.

“Before, I wanted to know what you were hiding…”

“……”

“It’s fine now. Whatever you do… I will always be by your side.”

The quivering words were a bit childish. I was choked with emotions that I couldn’t even define.

“Let me be by your side, Han Yi-gyeol.”

I gave a bitter smile to Kim Woo-jin, who looked at me with a pleading gaze, and covered the dishevelled quilt up to his chest.

The deep blue dawn light gently shone on Kim Woo-jin’s face. Without giving any answer, I turned around and left the room.

* * *

“Well. His energy is completely back to normal. We can relax now,” Min Ah-rin, who was holding Kim Woo-jin’s hand and examining his energy, said with a bright smile.

“I’m an A-rank…”

After hearing the explanation from me and Min Ah-rin, Kim Woo-jin still couldn’t believe his situation.

“You have an appointment with the measurement centre. You will know more about your ability after getting measured.”

“This is the first case in Korea where the rank has changed… Maybe the media will flock in.”

In fact, it was likely there was going to be an uproar, rather than just being crowded by the media. He had moved up two levels from C-rank to A-rank, so there was no way it would be over after a few articles.

“Either way, it’s something to celebrate. Congratulations, Woo-jin-ssi.”

“Yeah. Now that you’re an A, your ability will change, so you can stop worrying about being stuck with useless people.”

Min Ah-rin and I each said a word as Kim Woo-jin bit his lip and bowed his head slightly. It was the expression that Kim Woo-jin made whenever he was embarrassed.

“Ah! We still have time, so why don’t you try this and that to see what kind of ability you might have?” Min Ah-rin clapped her hands and said excitedly, “If you use your energy, your ability will be activated. I’m curious. Aren’t you?”

I nodded my head. Perhaps Kim Woo-jin was of the same mind, with an awkward expression, he raised his energy.

“Mh?”

There was something blurry next to Kim Woo-jin. As if looking at a screen with poor transmission quality, the crackling shape looked quite similar to Kim Woo-jin at a glance.

“Kim Woo-jin, use more energy.”

“…like this?”

After I spoke, he used more energy and the shape became much clearer.

Min Ah-rin shouted in surprise, “There are two Woo-jin-ssi!”

Another Kim Woo-jin, made with Kim Woo-jin’s ability, looked at me blankly. Kim Woo-jin was bewildered when he saw his own replica.

“Wh-what?”

“Is it like an alter ego? Or maybe you can duplicate everything.”

Either way, the Kim Woo-jin who was created in front of me was quite interesting. I got closer and took a better look, but I couldn’t see anything different from the real thing. Even the mole under the right eyebrow was the same.

“You have to get measured to find out. But it doesn’t look bad either way.”

Hearing Min Ah-rin speak, I looked at the fake Kim Woo-jin, who blushed a little and tentatively wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me. As it was an action that the real Kim Woo-jin would never actually do, I left him alone, but Kim Woo-jin jumped up hurriedly.

“What is that bastard doing!”

Wooow.

Pure admiration arose at Kim Woo-jin’s ferocity, who relentlessly swore at someone who looked like him, even calling him a bastard. Regardless of whether the real one was startled, the fake did not stop hugging me but instead rubbed his face against my shoulder. Like a little puppy.

“I guess they look the same, but their personalities are different.”

“That’s interesting.”

“You crazy… You’re still not letting him go?”

Unlike me and Min Ah-rin, who were just having fun, Kim Woo-jin growled towards the fake with a hideous face. Then, terrified, the fake withdrew his body slightly and hugged me tighter.

Tsk, tsk. I felt sorry for how he looked, so I patted his back and said something.

“Don’t be like that. What did he do to make you so angry?”

“What?”

“Even though Woo-jin-ssi’s face is like that, he looks very pitiful…”

Exactly so. I asked Kim Woo-jin, while hugging the fake, “Let’s calm down and figure out your ability. Can you connect your senses with him?”

“My senses?”

Kim Woo-jin hesitated for a moment then carefully nodded his head.

‘Hm, that might not be good.’

As if thinking the same as me, Min Ah-rin said worriedly, “If the fake gets hurt, Woo-jin-ssi will feel the same pain.”

“It would be convenient if you could control it. If not, we have no choice but to be careful with the fakes.”

All abilities had pros and cons. Right now, even with Han Yi-gyeol’s wind ability, it was very versatile but its attack power was weaker than other A-rank abilities.

“We don’t know for sure yet, but if you’re sharing your senses, you shouldn’t use it carelessly.”

“Mmh.”

Kim Woo-jin looked at the fake with complicated eyes. As expected, he was still unfamiliar and awkward. I beckoned to him, contemplating what to do.

“Kim Woo-jin. Come here. It’s your ability from now on, so you should get to know each other a little bit.”

I meant hugging the fake like I did. However, Kim Woo-jin was rather frightened and stepped back.

“Don’t wanna.”

At the same time as Kim Woo-jin said no, the fake also raised his eyebrows and shook his head. They seemed to agree at weird times.

“It’s cute, but this Woo-jin-ssi doesn’t speak. Could it be that he can’t?”

“Um, I think…”

I looked down at the fake with blank eyes and said what I had been thinking about for a while, “How should I say this? I don’t think his intelligence is that high. It’s similar to a dog? He’s even more expressive.”

“The hell, I feel bad.”

Kim Woo-jin’s face turned pale. Even if you didn’t like the fake, you wouldn’t like hearing that someone who looked like you had low intelligence.

“From what I’ve heard, it’s said that controlling an alter ego is the most difficult ability in this field. It’s Woo-jin-ssi’s first time, too. Wouldn’t it be possible to master it with practice?”

“It makes sense.”

After all, the alter ego now didn’t listen to the owner and did what he wanted.

“By the way, he sticks to Yi-gyeol-ssi and doesn’t let go. I think it’s because he resembles the original.”

At Min Ah-rin’s words, the fake glanced at Kim Woo-jin’s eyes and came closer to me. Kim Woo-jin’s eyes grew fiercer. Seriously, this guy…

“Yes. Probably…”

Chu.

I stopped speaking at the strange feeling on my cheeks. A cute sound resounded in the room, where we were talking seriously about abilities.

Surprised, I looked to the side and the fake smiled brightly at me. This guy gave me a kiss on the cheek, like a baby.

“That crazy bastard—!”

At Kim Woo-jin’s angry cry, the fake in my arms disappeared in an instant. Kim Woo-jin cut off his energy relentlessly. My arms were empty, so regrets came pouring in.

“Why are you so angry? Kids do that.”

“That’s right. He was cute too.”

“Both… both of you are insane.”

Kim Woo-jin covered his bright red face with both hands. He seemed to feel shame for what the fake had done. I didn’t know how long it would take for him to control his alter ego after that.

“Don’t be like that; think more positively. It’s a pretty good skill.”

“Why don’t you take this opportunity to negotiate your salary with the Master this time? You went from C-rank to A-rank.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

While putting my head together with Min Ah-rin to extort a little more money from Cheon Sa-yeon, someone knocked on the door of the hospital room.

“Good morning.”

It was Woo Seo-hyuk who came to visit. After greeting us bluntly, he handed the brochure he brought to Kim Woo-jin.

“I will accompany you to the measurement centre. Read the brochure on the way.”

“Did the Master send you?”

“Yes. We have to leave within 10 minutes to be on time.”

If you said so.

There wasn’t much to do, so we decided to leave right away.