Psst psst.
It was a sound you’d make to an animal. He raised his head at that sound because he’d experienced it a few times. Yeon Dogyeong, dressed sharply in a black suit, approached Joo Seonghan with a stylish smile.
“When did you get here?”
“…Just now….”
He’d imagined it once or so. Yeon Dogyeong wearing a black suit, the Semi-Human Department members’ work uniform. Reality beat imagination by an absurd score. Joo Seonghan tried with all his might not to look him over. Meanwhile, Yeon Dogyeong found the writing on Joo Seonghan’s body.
“He wrote it on your arm. Wait a moment.”
Yeon Dogyeong went into the store. Joo Seonghan watched him moving around inside the store through the glass door, then turned his head. He looked down at the moistly wet paving blocks. The rain had stopped at some point. The lightened clouds no longer spat out anything, and only the raindrops remaining on the leaves left traces in the puddles pooled here and there. Yeon Dogyeong came out of the store when the puddles had formed about four circles. In his hands were makeup remover and cotton pads.
“Come here.”
Gesturing to Joo Seonghan, he went into an alley behind the building. When he followed, a quiet pavilion perfect for resting appeared. Joo Seonghan and Yeon Dogyeong sat side by side on a relatively clean bench.
“Your arm.”
Yeon Dogyeong, who’d put remover on the cotton pad, said briefly. Joo Seonghan extended the arm with the black writing. Yeon Dogyeong rubbed Joo Seonghan’s arm to wipe away the writing.
“Gyeongjae only carries permanent markers.”
“…Yes.”
The address disappeared. Their knees of different sizes touched. It seemed hot.
“Did the examination go well yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“Doctor Choi didn’t say anything unusual?”
“Yes.”
“At the pool? Were you okay?”
“That’s a mole.”
At Joo Seonghan’s out-of-the-blue words, Yeon Dogyeong, who’d been rubbing the same spot continuously, moved the cotton pad and scratched the skin with the mole with his nail. Joo Seonghan looked at his arm that had turned a bit red.
“You’re right. You have a lot of moles.”
“Yes.”
“You have one on your butt too.”
“……”
He was at a loss for words. He left his parted lips as they were and raised his head that he’d been keeping down. He smiled pleasantly.
“It’s true. There’s a small one in the anal wrinkles. I saw it when it was all spread out.”
He straightened his back and put strength in trying to pull out the arm that Yeon Dogyeong held. It wasn’t that he wanted to run far away, but he wanted to at least turn his back to him. But he didn’t let Joo Seonghan go.
“You were going to ask if it was okay to get the drug at the pool, right?”
The one who’d completely stolen someone’s mind continued the conversation nonchalantly. Joo Seonghan, who had no strength, stopped resisting. He nodded a couple of times. Then he added more smiles.
“Not asking for help.”
“……”
He couldn’t understand what he was saying. That he hadn’t erased Joo Seonghan’s memory was a secret between the two of them. Just by acknowledging Yeon Dogyeong in front of Cha Gyeongjae, Joo Seonghan had essentially broken their promise. But Yeon Dogyeong was questioning something else, not that. Not knowing the reason, he couldn’t find words to say. As he kept his mouth shut, he suddenly brought his empty hand to his ear and removed it.
“Yeah. I’m sitting down after buying something to drink.”
He let go of Joo Seonghan’s wrist and brought his index finger to his lips. At the signal to be quiet, he nodded and looked away.
“It’s in the car trunk. If you’re sending someone, tell them to take that too.”
Having nothing to do, he looked down at his sandal-wearing feet. An ant that had come nearby changed direction in front of the shoe tip. It slowly entered the shadow created by the tree. His hair swayed.
“Guimun has closed too, so I’ll just stay nearby. Tell him to stop by Gyeongjae first.”
Yeon Dogyeong gently ran his fingers through Joo Seonghan’s hair. Joo Seonghan turned his head to look at him. He said “Okay” briefly and touched his ear once more. He seemed to have ended the communication.
“I’ll have to get up soon.”
He spoke while stroking the back of Joo Seonghan’s head. Strength entered his hand that had gone down to his neck. Joo Seonghan, pulled by him, braced himself against the bench and leaned his upper body. Their faces drew close.
“Knowing that, you came to see me without even washing.”
“……”
“Why are you so good?”
He smiled and rubbed under his chin. He didn’t ask why he’d chosen to meet. He’d said to come if he had business, but didn’t even bring up whether he had business, let alone what the business was. He just asked a few questions and wiped Joo Seonghan’s arm. And while doing so, he called Joo Seonghan good.
“When the sun rises, I’ll come to Joo Seonghan-ssi’s house.”
“……”
“If I go, will you make me food?”
“…Yes.”
He liked him.
“I have about 10 minutes, what should we do in the meantime?”
“…Whatever Team Leader Yeon wants to do.”
Yeon Dogyeong closed his eyes and laughed aloud. He grabbed Joo Seonghan’s lower jaw and rubbed the corner of his lips with his fingers.
“Isn’t it what Joo Seonghan-ssi wants to do?”
He asked mischievously and lowered his head. Joo Seonghan parted his lips. The feelings he should have kept to himself and killed off pounded gently.
When Joo Seonghan returned home, the first thing he did was check when the sun would rise, and he prepared a meal timed to that. He made doenjang-jjigae with hastily bought ingredients. When he tasted it the first time, it was salty, and when he tasted it the second time, it was bland. He was somehow managing to fix it when, as if keeping his promise, Yeon Dogyeong came to Joo Seonghan’s house shortly after. He laughed at the sight of the dining table with only fried eggs, kimchi, rice, and doenjang-jjigae plainly set out, and the two sat facing each other and ate. The doenjang-jjigae ended up being salty. However, Yeon Dogyeong emptied every bowl without changing his expression once.
‘Could probably sell it.’
That was the impression he left as he put down his spoon.
“Should we start from the beginning?”
Yeon Dogyeong said as he lifted his coffee cup with ice floating in it from the living room table. Joo Seonghan took his portion of coffee and sat beside him. The soft leather of the sofa made a small sound.
“I was about to leave after swimming….”
“From further back than that.”
“……”
He couldn’t talk about what came before that. There was no way he could tell the story of masturbating and throwing up in the bathroom. Joo Seonghan kept his mouth firmly shut and looked at him.
“You said the first semi-human’s voice you heard was ‘like.'”
Fortunately, that wasn’t what he was asking for. Joo Seonghan, secretly relieved, nodded and explained the situation at the time. Following that, he also rattled off hearing ‘human’ and ‘baby.’
“The last one was a sentence. When I was just about to cross Guimun with Kang Hyeonjoo, a dying semi-human asked why I was going. Where was I going, and there…. I couldn’t hear the rest, but it said ‘there, our.'”
He finished speaking and took a sip of coffee. Yeon Dogyeong, leaning comfortably against the sofa, closed his eyes with a smile on his face.
“At the pool? Did you hear the semi-human talking?”
“…Yes. He asked if I heard a scream, and when I was caught by Cha Gyeongjae-ssi, he told me to run away.”
The coffee cup in Yeon Dogyeong’s hand swayed precariously. Joo Seonghan looked back and forth between Yeon Dogyeong, who still had his eyes closed, and the coffee cup in his hand.
“You heard a scream. They must have done an experiment today. Guimun sometimes opens then.”
“…What kind of experiment?”
“Semi-human vivisection. It’s a secret, but the Research Director has hidden a few semi-humans in the basement of the research center.”
Yeon Dogyeong turned his head. His eyes met Joo Seonghan’s.
“I’m keeping one too.”
“…Is the Research Director the kind of person who’s smart but stupid?”
The person at the very top who doesn’t dislike him but doesn’t want to lose Joo Seonghan to him. Yeon Dogyeong smiled and answered yes, as if Joo Seonghan’s guess wasn’t wrong.
“Then does Team Leader Yeon also conduct vivisection like the Research Director?”
“I can’t say I don’t, but the purpose is different. I’m trying to give the semi-humans a nice gift, while the Research Director is trying to use them for bad things.”
Yeon Dogyeong turned his body toward Joo Seonghan. He comfortably rested the side of his head against the backrest. His face looking down was unfamiliar.
“I’m a good person.”
He grinned. He didn’t want to deny it, but he couldn’t completely affirm it either. Joo Seonghan moistened his coffee-tasting lips once and opened his mouth.
“You know the Research Director is doing bad things… why don’t you stop him?”
