“He was just afraid of the adults around him and avoided them, but absolutely never showed aggressive tendencies. Due to the hatred toward Transcendents and mistaken prejudices prevalent in society, the majority of center staff showed high-handed attitudes toward Haeju and the quarantined people. The center staff will probably say that not just Haeju but all the quarantined people have aggressive tendencies. But Haeju was a very kind and pure child. He’s a kid who couldn’t even kill a single ant.”
The image came to mind of Haeju groaning that his heart beat fast and he couldn’t breathe when he thought of the doctor, but Yeojin deliberately erased that thought from his mind.
The officer asked Yeojin another question.
“What do you mean by mistaken prejudices about Transcendents?”
He could see Director Im glaring with silent threats. Even on the way here, she had kept begging Yeojin to please watch his mouth.
“I’m talking about the one-dimensional way of thinking that regards all Transcendents as villains with aggressive and destructive tendencies. Not all Transcendents are like that. They’re people just like us, and in a way, aren’t those people victims? It’s not like they became Transcendents because they wanted to.”
The generals who were listening burst into shouts.
“Hey! What is that? How is someone with such rotten thoughts working at a state facility?”
“Isn’t he a dangerous person? Drag him out right now!”
“Who put something like that in the center?”
The general-level figures raised their voices while pointing at Yeojin. Water bottles looked ready to fly, but Yeojin stood there calmly. He was used to being criticized like this.
He could see Director Im squeezing her eyes shut and trembling while clenching her teeth tightly. That blockhead bastard. That crazy bastard. She was definitely cursing him with every insult in her mind.
“I apologize. May we continue the meeting?”
The officer calmed the atmosphere in the hall. When the commotion subsided, the moderator looked at Yeojin again and opened his mouth.
“According to the testimony of the soldiers who were at the scene, Seo Haeju suddenly became excited and manifested his ability.”
“Didn’t they mention that their excessive force was the cause?”
The officer’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“That day was Haeju’s birthday. We were having a birthday party for the kid when suddenly heavily armed soldiers barged in and pointed guns first. Just because Haeju squirmed a bit out of fear, they beat the kid mercilessly. They even pointed a gun at me when I protested and assaulted me. Haeju used his power to save me. If the soldiers hadn’t used excessive force like that in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened.”
If the soldiers hadn’t touched Yeojin. Haeju had stayed still when he himself was being hit, but manifested his ability when Yeojin was assaulted.
He had used his power to save Yeojin. Not for his own safety.
“A soldier pointed at a civilian the gun the country issued to protect the nation. Isn’t this the biggest problem? Since when did this country’s laws change like that? Even if all the fault lies with Haeju, isn’t it true that the soldiers provided the cause!”
“Dr. Min Yeojin, please calm down.”
The officer, rather flustered by Yeojin’s agitated reaction, calmed him down. Vice Minister Hwang pointed at Yeojin and shouted angrily.
“Hey, Min Yeojin! Are you in cahoots with the rebels?”
Now they’re saying I’m in cahoots with rebels. It was so absurd he couldn’t even laugh. Yeojin didn’t hold back either and confronted the vice minister.
“On what basis are you saying that? Why would I, an ordinary person who’s not even a Transcendent, collude with rebels?”
“Looking at your personnel records, you usually take their side and gathered online with blockheads like you doing bullshit human rights movements saying Transcendents are people too, they have human rights too, all people in the world are equal, right? You even protested at Seoul Station recently?”
Yeojin pressed his temples hard because his head, which hadn’t fully healed from its wounds, throbbed. He’d thought that not all the NSP higher-ups would be blockheads, but even the vice minister was like that.
“Hey! Where’s Seo Haeju right now?”
Vice Minister Hwang finally stood up abruptly from his seat. The vice minister’s face was bright red. No, the vice minister’s face had been beet red since he entered the meeting room. He was rumored to be a heavy drinker—had the alcohol from yesterday still not worn off?
Still, thinking this wasn’t right, everyone around tried to stop Vice Minister Hwang. But he was stubborn.
“Drag him out and interrogate him right now! Don’t you think he’s the one who smuggled Seo Haeju out?”
The moment Yeojin opened his mouth with the resolve to overturn everything and be dragged to an interrogation room or detention center, a soldier burst into the meeting room, throwing open the door.
“Vice Minister!”
“What are you doing? I told you no one should enter during the meeting!”
The vice minister’s secretary stepped forward to stop the soldier who had rushed in.
“There’s urgent news. Since all the meeting attendees turned in their cell phones before entering, there was no way to contact you separately, so I came directly. I apologize!”
Hearing those words, Vice Minister Hwang directly asked the soldier.
“What is it?”
The soldier quickly moved next to Vice Minister Hwang and whispered in his ear. Vice Minister Hwang’s eyes widened as if they’d pop out. It seemed to be unusual news. Vice Minister Hwang looked at the audience with a seriously hardened face and said.
“Is there anything more to report? Let’s end the meeting here. First, deploy all our people to find and bring in Seo Haeju. If capture seems impossible, shoot him on sight.”
Yeojin shouted.
“Vice Minister!”
“Min Yeojin!”
But at the same time Yeojin cried out, Director Im also shouted Yeojin’s name. Director Im’s expression looking at Yeojin was frighteningly hardened. Vice Minister Hwang blinked his eyes as if absurd, looking between Yeojin and Director Im alternately.
“Why are these two acting up together? While we’re at it, drag him away and interrogate him too.”
“Vice Minister, I’ve been watching Dr. Min all this time, so I know him well. Even though his inclinations are impure, he’s a very sincere and upright person. When we were struggling because no doctors wanted to apply to our center, I was so grateful when Dr. Min came to the center.”
Director Im pleaded earnestly, but Vice Minister Hwang called the military police with a chin gesture.
“What are you doing? Take him away.”
Vice Minister Hwang and the staff left the meeting room, and the military police approached Yeojin and grabbed both his arms.
***
Dragged away by the military police, Yeojin came out after being interrogated for about two hours. They didn’t even let him drink a sip of water and interrogated him aggressively. But the answer they wanted didn’t come out.
You have to know something to answer. Yeojin really didn’t know anything. He hadn’t smuggled Haeju out, nor was he a rebel. Throughout the interrogation, Yeojin thought about something else. What exactly was the urgent news that the soldier who rushed into the meeting room brought? Seeing Vice Minister Hwang order them to find Seo Haeju, it clearly wasn’t news that they’d found Haeju.
After only repeating “I really don’t know anything, I’m just a doctor, Haeju is just my patient,” Yeojin was finally released only after even taking a lie detector test.
Exhausted, he was getting bottled water from a vending machine in the hallway to drink when someone mercilessly struck his back. It was Director Im.
“You son of a bitch! I can’t live because of you, I can’t live! You crazy bastard!”
“Ahhh. That hurts.”
“It hurts? It hurts? I almost collapsed clutching my neck while waiting for you! I, huh? Like that, huh? I begged you so many times to watch your mouth, huh? You son of a bitch! You think you die alone when you run your mouth recklessly? I die too, everyone dies, got it?”
Director Im inserted firm interjections between her words while slapping Yeojin’s back. Water overflowed from the water bottle in his hand, soaking Yeojin’s hands and clothes.
“What do you mean you die and I die? Is this some kind of dictatorship? They just go ‘You’re the enemy, right?’ and immediately execute you? No wait. I guess we could die. Ah, I don’t know. Tell them to kill me if they want! But fuck, I can’t die alone!”
“Are you even speaking right now? You’re going to die before your time because of that damn mouth of yours!”
“No, but suddenly asking ‘Are you in cahoots with the rebels?’ Is that even words or farts? Didn’t that person’s alcohol not wear off yet?”
“Why don’t you understand that your way of thinking is fundamentally rotten, huh?”
“I didn’t say anything wrong. Transcendents aren’t enemies. Those people are people just like us. We should think about living together with them, so why ostracize and drive them into a corner!”
People passing by all glanced this way as they passed. Director Im was horrified and covered Yeojin’s mouth. Yeojin irritably swatted Director Im’s hand away.
“Dr. Min. Min Yeojin. What are you really trying to do acting like this? If you keep going recklessly like this, you’re really going to be in big trouble, man.”
Yeojin clicked his tongue with a tsk, drank all the remaining water, crumpled the water bottle, and threw it in the trash.
“I’m quitting. I’ll send my resignation by email.”
“What are you saying? Have you lost it?”
“I’m perfectly fine. I’m not a center employee anymore, so you won’t have to have your insides burst because of me. Thank you for everything. Take care.”
“Hey, Min Yeojin!”
Ignoring Director Im calling him, Yeojin strode forward.
