# Chapter 176
Iyeon had seen this mutant before. When he was young, during a hot summer day after leaving the orphanage to live with his adoptive parents. On a quiet road where he’d been walking while secretly eating an ice cream bar he’d bought.
It was that mutant, chained up outside the road.
“I’ve heard about you from Lee Taejin.”
Her voice was light and cheerful, but the content was not. The death sentence-like voice struck his ears like thunder.
“You’re Lee Jeongyeon, aren’t you?”
Iyeon froze in place.
Eunju stared directly at Iyeon, who had tensed up without answering, then suddenly burst into laughter.
“Why are you so surprised? I only vaguely suspected. I’ve seen a photo of the person who reported my research institute. I have the right to know who ruined my institute, don’t I? Well, I’m not observant enough to be certain just from briefly seeing a childhood photo, so I was still unsure. But that child would be about your age now, and you even know about the mutant that was in my institute. So it’s pretty obvious.”
After saying this, Eunju playfully winked.
“I heard from Taejin that your hair pigment became extremely light due to his exploitation, but when I saw you at the Management Office, your hood was covering it.”
“…Is the mutant that Taejin-ssi stole a Smoke Fox?”
Since it had come to this, Iyeon just asked directly. After learning Eunju’s identity, it wasn’t difficult to guess what Taejin had stolen from her institute.
“Oh my, you know that too?”
Eunju’s eyes sparkled with interest.
“It was a mid-grade mutant that had just come in, and he took it completely, which was quite troublesome. I had to work hard to cover it up. So he did send it to you after all?”
Although Dr. Kim and Taejin had both been caught, the origin of the Smoke Fox, which was the starting point of all these incidents, was never properly revealed. And this was the context. Even though the mysterious source of the mutant had been revealed, it only left a bitter taste. When Iyeon maintained his stiff expression, Eunju lightly laughed and patted his shoulder.
“Oh my, is it because of the note Taejin left? I don’t consider you my enemy. And in the end, you caught that unpleasant Taejin! I even opened a wine I’d been saving when I heard the news. Well, when I think about it, what happened in the past seems kind of amusing…”
A tone that suggested she knew something. A playful expression. Iyeon instinctively realized this was the puzzle piece he had been looking for. His pulse began to beat in an ominous rhythm.
“…What do you mean by that?”
That was all he could manage to say, barely moving his frozen tongue.
“Oh? Didn’t your uncle tell you?”
Eunju’s eyes widened in surprise at his labored question.
“It was your report on my research institute that caused a chain reaction of closure orders, including Taejin’s institute.”
While on the surface, Taejin’s closure was due to poor performance, that was just an excuse. Her casual muttering afterward sounded increasingly faint. Iyeon blinked with a dazed expression.
That was because of me?
As he reflexively rebelled against and denied this in his mind, fragments of the past flashed by one by one. On a dark night, the shutdown directive he’d discovered deep inside the pristine white research institute. Orders to close the institute, completely demolish the building, and dispose of the test subjects.
‘Ah, right… that’s how you brought my research institute to that state too.’
The incomprehensible words Taejin had muttered.
*
The house he returned to was quiet again today. Only Mungchi’s eyes glowed in the distant darkness.
Iyeon turned on the living room light and stared at Mungchi. With the sudden brightness, Mungchi lowered its posture and glared at Iyeon. He reached out his hand, but Mungchi still made no attempt to approach.
“…”
White sand gathered.
The large clump of sand transformed into the shape of a small child and peeked out from behind Iyeon’s back. Upon seeing this, Mungchi abruptly raised its head. It was a markedly different reaction from the hostility it had shown recently.
When the sand-formed young Jeongyeon shyly waved his hand at Mungchi, it slowly rose. Though still wary of Iyeon, Mungchi took one step at a time toward him.
Then it nuzzled its nose against the small hand.
Iyeon swallowed a sigh so it wouldn’t be visible. This was as good as confirmed. To think that black cat back then was Mungchi. He didn’t even know it was a mutant at the time.
‘You have that Cheongho, don’t you? Take good care of it.’
Eunju’s words from earlier flashed through his mind. How did she know? When Iyeon looked at her with surprised eyes, Eunju responded lightly with an inscrutable smile.
‘You found and returned its gem core, right? That creature has quite a good memory.’
I haven’t heard about a Cheongho being captured by the Management Office, so it must either be staying close to you or you’re keeping it with you, one or the other, right? If you wanted to get rid of it because it was troublesome, you would have asked about the Cheongho’s weaknesses. But you didn’t bring that up at all. She added in a sing-song voice. Iyeon only lowered his head instead of answering, but Eunju seemed already convinced and didn’t ask again.
Instead, she said something unexpected.
‘You said you’re a hunter? It couldn’t have been easy to fool the examination committee, quite impressive that you received a low-grade classification.’
‘…How.’
‘Listen, do you know how excited Taejin was when he drained that ability from you? He bragged to me endlessly, even though it wasn’t even his… Anyway, if you’re not receiving Mugunghwa Tier 5, who else would? The whole world would have been buzzing since the day your grade was announced, but seeing how quiet things still are, you must be hiding it.’
That was… true. Iyeon’s disguise ability was something that those who knew Jeongyeon could recognize immediately. When Iyeon awkwardly closed his mouth, Eunju smiled mischievously.
‘And you’ve hidden it well from the Cheongho too.’
‘…!’
‘How did it find out? You didn’t threaten it, did you?’
Iyeon’s eyes widened. The incident from back then was carefully reconstructed in his mind.
Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? That was the first time Iyeon had openly used his ability in front of Mungchi.
‘It’s not like that… Can it be so wary even when I didn’t threaten it?’
‘Well, even highly intelligent mutants have instincts.’
Iyeon’s shoulders naturally slumped at the accumulating bleak truths. Just thinking about Mungchi continuing to be wary of him was depressing.
Initially, taking in Mungchi was for surveillance purposes, to prevent it from harming others. Mungchi was a top-grade mutant with exceptional combat abilities. Combining Sano’s and Iyeon’s abilities should be enough to stop a Cheongho if needed. That calculation had been at the foundation.
But at some point, Iyeon had grown quite fond of this playful, perceptive creature.
Rather than surveillance, he simply wished for Mungchi to stay by his side.
“Mungchi, don’t you think that kid and I look alike?”
Mungchi, who had been nudging its head at Jeongyeon asking to play, glanced over at Iyeon’s words. After looking at him indifferently, Mungchi turned its head back to Jeongyeon, then quickly turned back to look at Iyeon. Iyeon laughed like a sigh at the clearly puzzled movement.
“How did you plan to fight such a huge mutant when you were so tiny and without a gem core.”
Mungchi blinked quietly. Its slightly round pupils narrowed into thin vertical slits.
“And after I rescued you, how could you just leave me behind and run off? Do you know how hurt I was? I cried my eyes out.”
Jeongyeon’s body gradually crumbled and disappeared. As the small child turned back into white sand, only Iyeon and Mungchi remained in the living room.
Iyeon crouched down to be at eye level with Mungchi.
“Still, I’m glad to see you again.”
He murmured quietly and slowly extended his arm. His fingertips, sliding across the floor toward Mungchi, lightly touched its soft front paw.
Mungchi didn’t avoid his carefully caressing touch. After staying still for a while, the beast slowly lowered its body.
The soft fur touched Iyeon’s arm.
Mungchi rubbed against him and nestled into his embrace. There was no longer any wariness in its slow, fluid movements. Iyeon, who had momentarily held his breath, extended his other hand to stroke Mungchi. Mungchi neither shrank away nor twisted its body. Its long tail swished gently.
It was the feeling of an embrace he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
Sano returned about thirty minutes later. Since receiving an urgent call a few days ago, Sano had been leaving early every morning for somewhere, and his return time had also been much later. With a clunk, the front door opened and closed.
There was a slightly chilly wind smell on Sano as he entered the living room. He looked first at Iyeon sitting on the sofa, then at Mungchi nestled in his arms, before speaking.
“…So you’ve made up with that beast.”
Hearing his somewhat displeased voice, Iyeon hesitated momentarily. It wasn’t like he had wanted it to happen, and he didn’t know about it either… It was just a coincidence. Je Sano isn’t an easy person to deal with. So if he’s just careful from now on, maybe…
The first image that came to mind was Sano walking alongside Iyeon. Going on missions together, traveling, eating, sleeping. That expressionless face and crooked smile, the everyday and familiar attitude.
The person Iyeon liked more than anyone.
“Listen.”
But the next image that surfaced was the faces of his parents, missed and longed for.
“I’ll consider your debt fully repaid, so you can stop now.”
“…What?”
Iyeon hadn’t saved Sano.
“Now go back to your place.”
He had almost killed him.
