Chapter 137 |
Regardless, the act of killing something living and breathing was bound to be nauseating.
Human life always held the potential for growth. All the clumsy actions of childhood became more refined with time, and they came to understand the meaning of words in sentences they once skipped over without comprehension. This opportunity was given to everyone, regardless of their nature or characteristics.
But because of this, humans felt an aversion to creating something permanent. Death was the most absolute of these, so the act of murder triggered a primal aversion in others.
That was how Kang Mina felt, anyway.
“Heuk, heup.”
Tears and cold sweat dripped down her chin.
“…Aaaack!”
Crack!
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What she was smashing and destroying were, before anything else, plants.
But every sense surged violently through her body, overwhelming her mind, leaving only her eyes to consume the scene entirely. The death before her was so vivid it gnawed at her vision, grotesquely burrowing into her very eyes, enough to make her scream.
Kang Mina was the one killing, but she was also the one dying.
“Please, just go away…!”
It was both a scream and a plea.
“Go away!”
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And also rage.
She finally severed the vine that had climbed up her ankle and was gnawing at her bone, pulling out the embedded teeth. As a consequence of her momentary distraction, another vine climbed onto her back, but Ha Sungyoon behind her dealt with it, preventing its teeth from reaching her neck.
That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
“Ack, keuk…heuu…”
“Ms. Kang Mina, for now…”
“It’s okay, I’m okay. I’m really okay.”
She vividly felt her clothes becoming soaked with blood.
Overwhelmed by unbearable anxiety, her head felt completely filled, causing water to leak out from the surface of her eyes. The droplets, slipping past her tear gl⋏nds, trailing down jer eyelashes, and crawling across her skin, felt almost like a serpent. Before the itch drove her insane, she wanted to tear the skin off her face.
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But the reason Kang Mina kept wielding the hammer despite the anxiety, rage, and despair was that there was someone beside her she had to protect.
“Ms. Kang Mina, if it’s too much, I can…!”
“Shut up! What nonsense are you spouting with blood gushing from your side? Don’t even think about moving!”
“Ms. Mina…!”
She felt the anguish in the voice of the man holding the wooden plank, offering only minimal defense, but Kang Mina had no intention of handing over her position to him. Even though she desperately wanted to, she couldn’t. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t, but she couldn’t.
The moment she yielded, she would become useless.
“I can do it!”
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So she had to do it.
‘I can do it too…!’
She pinned a vine crawling on the ground with her foot, grabbed another one dangling from a tree, twisted it, and ripped it off with force.
Rip, rip, the sound of rubber tearing accompanied the splattering of an unknown liquid onto the ground. She crushed the vine under her foot and looked around.
When the vines were airborne, she’d wrap them around her hammer and tear them off; when they crawled on the ground, she’d crush them with her shoes. She gladly embedded those that climbed down trees into the bark, and she slowed down those chasing from behind by striking them with the back of her hammer.
A vine latched onto her side while she was momentarily distracted, and she hurriedly tore it off, but its teeth had dug in, leaving a wound on her thigh. However, she was able to throw it at another airborne vine as a defense.
It was desperate, but effective.
“Run! There are more coming!”
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“Alright…!”
Even as she led Ha Sungyoon, Kang Mina was frantic.
She had to find Manager Lee Jaehun. Hadn’t he get into this condition after being dragged away by those vines? He must be suffering. Oh, but Mr. Jung Inho healed him, right? No, but the effects of the algae monster remained. I have to find him quickly.
“Heok, huk…!”
I have to do well too.
“…Heuuu…!”
An inexplicable surge of emotion hit her, and her eyes stung again. The tip of her nose ached, and her throat tightened with a bitter taste. If she could, she would just collapse and cry her heart out.
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Kang Mina knew they had high expectations of Manager Lee Jaehun. That was why she readily agreed when Jung Inho offered to suffer in Lee Jaehun’s place.Even so, Lee Jaehun was already struggling enough on his own. In the end, while Jung Inho and Lee Jaehun did everything they could to lead the team, the only thing Kang Mina managed to do was keep herself together.
That was why she wasn’t just looking for Lee Jaehun out of concern.
“Where are you…!”
She wanted to see him.
If that person patted her on the back, she’d want cry right then and there.
More than worrying, she wanted to see the face of someone she could rely on, to be comforted by him and spend time quietly. Even under the pitch-black sky, the crimson bonfire could replace the stars. It was possible.
“Up there, up there… the way I went to look for Ms. Kang Mina!”
“Where’s that?!”
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“Near where the cliff is! I don’t know exactly where he went, but generally, it was in that direction!”
“Okay, okay…!”
She immediately recalled the direction and started running.
Although she wasn’t aware of it, Kang Mina believed that Lee Jaehun wouldn’t dⁱㅌ. That was why she wanted to lean on him and cry her heart out. Everything worked out as long as Lee Jaehun was with them, so she couldn’t help but think that way.
So, once this was all over, Manager Jaehun would regain his composure, and they would talk about why he got so angry, and everything would be alright. Kang Mina believed that.
Then, a black mass suddenly sprang out, and—
“……! Euk!”
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Thwack!
She swung her hammer and struck its head.
“Heok, heuk, heup…”
Whine, whimper…
Staggering, trembling from the impact, it finally collapsed. It was the dog monster she had run from earlier when she heard its footsteps. Its dark body, seemingly sewn together from black cloth, twitched on the ground.
She accidentally made eye contact and almost screamed.
“…Ah, euk…”
Round beads dripped down and landed on the ground. Kang Mina felt a surge of guilt and nausea, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the thing was crying.
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“…Ms. Kang… Mina…”
“…Yes.”
“Ms. Kang Mina, pull yourself together.”
“I–I know. I know.”
But you approached me first.
“Ms. Kang Min-ah.”
“…….”
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You were the one in the wrong first.
You approached me with that dⁱsgʊstⁱng, grotesque body, pushing that nauseating head towards me. You made things difficult for me. Just looking at you makes me want to vomit, so why are you crying? Why are you looking at me like that? You’re a monster…
“Oh.”
“…….”
“…Well, this is a nice surprise.”
A man with blood-stained hands walked out from the bushes.
“I thought I was lost.”
“…Uh…”
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It was Song Inmyeong, the student Manager Jaehun had been chasing furiously earlier.
“…Mr. Song Inmyeong?”
At Dr. Ha Sungyoon’s call, the man slowly nodded. His gaze, however, remained fixed on the dog monster writhing on the ground. Song Inmyeong’s voice was remarkably casual.
“That’s right. That ahjussi suddenly went berserk and tried to kill me, so I ran… I wasn’t sure of the way. Glad I found someone. I wasn’t sure I could get back.”
“Aha…”
“Why did you leave that thing alive?”
Saying so, Song Inmyeong flipped his jackknife and plunged it into the monster’s neck.
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Thud.
“…….”
“…How dangerous.”
The dog monster twitched like an insect for a moment, then went limp, dropping its button eyes. For some reason, Kang Mina couldn’t tear her eyes away from the uneven, wax-like tear drops that pooled on the ground.
And she couldn’t look at Song Inmyeong.
“Are you alright?”
She felt a sense of unease from this man.
“…Earlier, Manager… Manager Lee Jaehun yelled at you.”
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“Ah, he tried to kill me. Seriously.”
“Why did he do that?”
“…Isn’t that a strange question?”
Song Inmyeong’s face looked genuinely natural and wronged as he spoke.
He appeared truly perplexed as to why he was being subjected to such questioning, and his expression, fitting his personality, seemed laced with anger. As if he was offended by the implication that he was somehow at fault.
Of course, Kang Mina could have said more here. The vines that had been chasing them had retreated back into the trees, she still had so many unanswered questions left, and the opponent seemed more than willing to talk.
But Kang Mina was tired, and she didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
“Hey.”
“…….”
“Who do you think I’d believe more…?”
Blinking a few times, Song Inmyeong replied,
“Well, it wouldn’t be me.”
He was still holding the jackknife.
It was obvious where it was aimed.
“…Ha.”
“Such a shame, really.”
* * *
People who pursue life-threatening professions in countries without war were generally divided into two categories.
The first were those willing to dⁱㅌ for their convictions.
Helping those in need benefited the world. Or perhaps they witnessed someone dying without help. Regardless of the origin or motivation, they held the conviction to ‘sacrifice themselves for others.’
The second were those who, while lacking such convictions, believe they ‘can do it.’
They knew they would inevitably face life-threatening situations in their line of work, but they believed they could handle it. In reality, most people worked with this mindset. They might not be willing to sacrifice their lives, but they were confident in their ability to perform their duties up to that point.
And many people considered Han Doyoon to be in the latter category.
“Mr. Noh Yeonseok.”
“…Ah, ah. Yes, you called?”
“Do you have time to talk?”
“Yes, the monsters have retreated…”
“That’s good.”
But in truth, Han Doyoon was closer to the former category.
“I have something to tell you.”
He called out to Noh Yeonseok with his characteristic smooth smile, and Noh Yeonseok, though looking troubled, obediently approached him. Seeing the clear lack of suspicion or malice on his face made Han Doyoon chuckle inwardly.
Human kindness was always determined when one’s own safety was guaranteed. Han Doyoon knew this.
“What… did you want to say…?”
“Well, you see…”
Then, was the naive kindness displayed by Lee Jaehun’s group due to their inherent nature? Or was it their reliance on Lee Jaehun?
“…….”
He didn’t know.
Therefore, Han Doyoon had to share his suspicions with Noh Yeonseok.
“…Mr. Noh Yeon-seok, this might sound a bit absurd.”
“Uh, yes.”
“If you can, you should find the gathering team quickly.”
“…….”
“…I received a truly absurd gift.”
He showed him a small fruit he had been clutching in his hand. The round, whitish fruit was enough to drain the color from Noh Yeonseok’s face.
“Your manager gave it to me.”
Being a firefighter was a life-risking job.
Han Doyoon bore numerous scars from fire. He never considered them grotesque or ugly, but those marks served as a constant reminder.
He knew that human life was more fragile than people thought. A moment of inattention, a single breath of grey smoke, could be fatal. He knew that living people, not just trash meant to be burned, could fall into a fire, and because of that, he knew how people dⁱㅌd. He knew what those circumstances were.
And people could dⁱㅌ even without disasters.
“This fruit. If the person who was healed ends up dying… what happens to the pain of the one who healed them?”
“…That’s…”
“I think it all disappears. If the fruit transfers pain to the one who picked it for as long as the healed person’s injury should have lasted, then why would the pain remain once the original owner of the injury is gone?”
“…….”
“And I keep thinking that Manager Lee Jaehun knew this.”
Han Doyoon placed the fruit in Noh Yeonseok’s hand and closed his fingers around it.
“I’m in no shape to move properly, but Mr. Lee Jaehun moves just fine in his condition. I should learn from him.”
He gave the most casual and smooth smile he could muster. Casual tone, as if joking, as if there was nothing wrong with the current situation. He let go of Noh Yeonseok’s hand, chuckling as if it were all a silly jest.
Naturally, the stiffness in Noh Yeonseok’s expression remained.
“…….”
“…I’ll guard the entrance in your stead…”
He continued, his voice like a sigh.
“Quickly, go find him.”
There were too many people in this world who treated their lives as less valuable than insects.
It was absurd.