Woonghee rushed over in a flash. He flew like a flying squirrel and snatched the phone. Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt. The phone trembled in his grasp like an aspen tree.
A small envelope icon blinked in the top bar. The sender was Woongju.
[Oppa, where the hell are you? Are you still in the Philippines? The cruise accident isn’t related to you, right?]
[Oppa, why can’t I reach you… Are you okay? You’re eating well, right? I’m really going crazy with worry ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ]
[You said you’d just go on the boat for a bit… You said just a bit would be enough… Oppa, it’s my fault ㅠㅠㅠ I shouldn’t have made something like a fake invitation even though you asked me to…]
[Please reply…]
During the time he’d been gone, Woongju had been wandering around chasing after his traces like this. Those emotions dyed in despair were piled up intact in the message box like this.
Bzzt, the phone vibrated once more.
[Oppa… You know what day it is today, right? It’s the day we go see Mom and Dad, but without you too, it’s so sad and empty…]
Woonghee’s large pupils sank. He gripped the phone tightly with both hands.
[Oppa, the Philippine police went to search for you too. Celebrity fans filed a petition begging them to find you…]
[Even if you’re scared and hungry, just endure a little longer, oppa… You’re a strong person, so I believe you’re alive]
[I’ll definitely find you]
He scanned the last message that arrived with his eyes, and scanned it again. You’ll definitely find me? Woongju believed so firmly, asserted it so confidently.
Instead, Woonghee was skeptical.
…Woongju, can those people find me? I don’t even know where I am myself. After hesitating for a moment, Woonghee soon pressed the keypad with his thumb, pushing hard.
[Oppa will come]
Oppa will come, even if not a single bastard comes to find me all the way here, I’ll swim back with my own two arms.
Soon a transmission failure notification appeared. Woonghee bit down hard on his reddish lower lip. He’d pluck out every hair on his head to get back. Fuck, after I came all the way here.
***
Shk, shwk, shwk…!
He fitted the machete blade onto the whetstone with missing teeth. Shk shk shk, he fitted the blade and shk shk shk, sharpened it keenly.
Right, he had to go back for Woongju’s sake too. Let’s just think about that one thing. After enduring all this shitty stuff and coming this far, he had to take the next step no matter what.
If he was going to collapse here, it would have been better to die on that island from the start. He steeled his resolve while chewing over these thoughts.
…But there were a few things that bothered him. Who exactly was the owner of this island? So he searched the island, and there wasn’t just one or two suspicious things.
“…They must be crazy bastards, right?”
There was a good reason why Woonghee guessed this.
First.
All kinds of obscene lingerie flowed out of the drums he’d pushed and opened. Slippery silk pajamas, police uniforms, stewardess outfits, nurse uniforms…
The tastes were disgusting beyond measure. Moreover, among the pile of orange and gold wigs, even drooping stockings came out.
“What are you doing?”
In the midst of it all, Tula even held up fishnet stockings and subtly tried them against Woonghee’s ankle.
Looking at the bastard’s face, the strength had completely drained from his pupils. As if he’d imagined making him wear that.
“You wanna die? Put some strength in your eyes, unless you want to get beaten.”
This son of a bitch, losing his mind…
Because ‘170/56’ was written on the inside of a drum lid, he wondered what this could be, thought about it carefully, and soon caught on to its meaning.
Right, the one in front is height, and the one behind is weight.
When he asked what the Tagalog next to it meant, Tula scratched the back of his neck for a while. Then with a bright red face, what he babbled was,
‘Sexy, demure lady style?’
It was something like that.
Surprisingly, there were nearly 100 such drums. He understood that some strange perverted bastards were the homeowners, but this many? Unless they intended to sell these, the number was definitely weird.
And second.
Next, he searched the kitchen, and there were suspiciously tons of knives. And what was this again? The white cutting board was soaked with blood. Dried and shriveled innards were stuck all over it.
Just what kind of livestock could this be from? Bird meat? Beef? Or if not… fish?
Woonghee moved his steps slowly. There was a worn-out door right next to the sink, so he opened it. Whoosh, cold air blew out.
“Ugh…!”
He quickly covered his nose. From inside, along with the cold air, a fishy smell wafted out. When he wondered what the smell was, dead crocodiles and rotten fish were piled up full. Had they killed this many creatures they wouldn’t even eat? At least it didn’t seem normal.
Somehow he had a premonition that this wasn’t all there was.
And next, third.
After looking around the kitchen and coming out, the fishy smell of fish had permeated his whole body. Unpleasantness clung clammily to the back of his neck, and he wanted to wash it off with water right away.
So he took off the boxing shorts drooping from his pelvis and entered the bathroom. And because that damn drain was clogged again, he had no choice but to grab the hair and lift it up…
“Fuuuck…!!”
He ended up discovering it. The bright red scalp attached to the ends of the pitch-black hair. Seeing how even the hair follicles were attached one by one, this wasn’t a wig either. It was definitely from a real person.
And it had clearly been forcibly torn off.
And lastly, fourth.
Had he heard Woonghee’s scream from the bathroom? Tula immediately rushed inside. His two eyes wrapped in fear were wide open.
[Why, why, fuck, what happened!]
In one hand, he gripped a sashimi knife he’d grabbed from the kitchen. He’d rushed in so urgently that it seemed like he might have been waiting right in front.
[Which son of a bitch! What the hell happened!]
He even pulled Woonghee’s shoulder to hide him behind himself. While doing so, he kicked around various spots in the bathroom, threatening the air. He made a racket while pouring out curses in Tagalog.
“…Why is this bastard acting like this?”
Instead, Woonghee was more dumbfounded. Didn’t he look fucking anxious like a bastard who needed to take a shit? Had he seen something? Wasn’t he the only one on this island who could read?
So Woonghee grabbed Tula’s shoulder and turned him around.
“What’s wrong, you fucking bastard?”
Then he looked up at Tula. In an instant, the bastard slightly contorted his face and then forcibly lifted one corner of his mouth. As if it was nothing, he clumsily imitated a smile.
[It’s nothing, I was just surprised because you screamed.]
He let his words trail off lightly, but his eyes couldn’t do the same. The bastard definitely couldn’t look at Woonghee straight on. His gaze was unstable somewhere. Cold sweat dripped down the bastard’s nape.
The moment he saw that, a strange certainty arose. The bastard was hiding something.
“What happened, tell me straight.”
Woonghee twisted and gripped Tula’s collar tightly. When he pulled him sharply toward himself, Tula’s shoulders came down awkwardly.
[Why, why are you doing this….]
“Do you want to die here together?”
Woonghee spat out threateningly. No, that was clearly a threat. Because it contained the intention that if he babbled a strange answer, he’d chew up and eat the back of his head.
“If you don’t tell me, you know I’ll go find out myself. If I find out on my own, you’ll die beaten by my hands.”
Woonghee’s fine brow wriggled. Speak, spill it right now, Tula. Tell me what you know. Tula, who had been cautiously reading the situation, reluctantly let out a sigh.
[The thing is actually….]
Tula quickly looked around. Soon he carefully gripped Woonghee’s wrist and went out to the living room. The living room was a complete mess with the drums that had been overturned earlier.
“…Why that?”
Didn’t they check all that earlier? He looked up at Tula with those thoughts. This time Tula gestured with his eyes toward the inside of the drum. As if what really needed to be checked was the inside.
Slowly, Tula let go of his wrist. At that, Woonghee approached the drum. Thump thump, his heart trembled anxiously. It was as if someone was gently scraping down his heart with a thin blade. Saliva was gulped down at the precariousness as if it would stab in at any moment.
And so he looked inside.
Woonghee froze stiff like a plaster statue just like that. As if he’d encountered Medusa.
The inside of the drum shining faintly silver.
It was full of nail marks as if someone had clawed at it frantically.
There had been a person inside.
Could it be that they kidnapped people here and imprisoned them here? And the next moment, what Tula had babbled just yesterday came to mind.
‘Long hair, omega.’
Did they even traffic people by putting omegas in these drums?
“Whew…!”
Woonghee sharpened the machete even more fiercely. Fuck, how unlucky.
But he’d come too far for self-pity. He had to prepare for the crisis that would come. If someone interfered with him, he would return to land even if he had to cut off that bastard’s neck.
Wasn’t it ridiculous to whine at this point? After crossing over here risking his life…
[Woong!]
At that moment, when he heard a voice calling him from behind and turned his head, Tula set something down with a thud!
