# Chapter 41
“Welcome. Did you bring Mungchi?”
Jaekyung opened the door with a bright face. Even before greeting Iyeon, his gaze immediately dropped downward as if he had been counting the days for this moment.
When Mungchi met Jaekyung’s eyes, it buried its head against Iyeon’s calf with a cold expression. Is it shy around strangers? Iyeon wondered as he stepped into the house. As Iyeon moved, Mungchi followed, padding along softly.
Jaekyung’s home was a typical studio apartment. The narrow entrance had a kitchen and bathroom on either side, with a living room doubling as a bedroom beyond them. The only furniture inside was a bed, a desk with a computer, a simple dresser, and bookshelves.
The books were so tightly packed that they not only filled the shelves completely but also were stacked densely on top and scattered messily across the floor. A quick glance showed that most were specialized texts on variants.
The contents of the translucent drawers also seemed to be all books. There were clear signs of effort to arrange them neatly for storage, but there was simply too much for the studio apartment, making it hard to tell if this was someone’s home or a library.
“You have so many books…”
“I’ve already thrown out a lot because there’s no space.”
As the two entered the inner room, four variants playing on the bed raised their heads to look at the visitors. They were lower-grade variants rescued from the laboratory. The colorful collection of variants made the bed look as if it were covered in stuffed toys.
With nowhere else to sit, Iyeon perched on the edge of the bed, and the variants slowly distanced themselves, huddling together. They seemed oddly frightened, though it appeared they were wary of Mungchi lying at Iyeon’s feet rather than of Iyeon himself.
“Well, I don’t have much to offer. Is juice okay?”
“Thanks.”
After taking a few sips of the orange juice filling the mug, Iyeon got straight to the point.
“So why did you suddenly ask about Mungchi?”
Jaekyung, who had been quiet all this time, had contacted him for the first time yesterday evening. He abruptly messaged saying he had something to ask Mungchi, and coming from a variant specialist, it made Iyeon worry that something serious had happened, which was why he had stopped by Jaekyung’s place the very next day.
“Well, you see. About Mungchi.”
Jaekyung’s face quickly grew serious. It wasn’t an ordinary level of seriousness. Iyeon unconsciously tightened his grip on the cup.
“How do you take care of its fur?”
“Excuse me?”
Jaekyung’s words poured out like water bursting through a dam.
“See, variants don’t necessarily need to consume food. So their good appearance isn’t maintained by eating and sleeping well, but when I saw Mungchi, even back at the laboratory, its fur was so glossy. I was wondering if you have any special care techniques. Please share some tips. It can’t just be because it’s a high-grade variant, right? What do you wash Mungchi with? Do you have a special brush for grooming? Or maybe you use some kind of essence?”
“I’m leaving.”
“Ah, Iyeon-ssi!”
As Iyeon tried to stand up, Jaekyung clung to him and continued his nonsense.
“Our kids are really gentle and cute, you know. But their fur is a bit dull, and it bothers me. What if I leave them alone and their fur becomes like a dog’s? Just imagining it makes my heart ache.”
“It’s my heart that’s become like a dog’s. I rushed over thinking there was a serious problem.”
“It IS serious to me!”
Yeah, right.
“If you keep this up, I’ll report to the broadcasting station that someone is raising variants.”
“That’s unfair. It’s a secret, isn’t it?”
A gaze full of reproach flew toward him. Only after Iyeon picked up his phone with a lifeless stare did Jaekyung finally stop making a fuss.
His throat felt dry from wasting energy on this pointless argument. After gulping down his juice, Iyeon looked around and met eyes with one of the lower-grade variants that had been glancing at him from the corner of the bed. It was a variant Iyeon recognized.
Grade 9 variant, Long-eared Weasel. A small variant resembling a weasel with long ears. It didn’t have strong combat abilities, but its cute appearance and large population made it one of the better-known variants among ordinary people.
The gathered variants all had beautiful coats, probably because Jaekyung took such good care of them. In truth, from Iyeon’s perspective, their fur didn’t look particularly dull at all.
Jaekyung’s house wasn’t neat, but that seemed to be the human’s doing rather than the variants’. They seem to be living peacefully. When Iyeon carefully waved his hand, the Long-eared Weasel lowered its guard and cautiously moved closer.
“How are they doing? Are they up to anything special?”
“The treatment was all done before the laboratory was destroyed, and now I’m just monitoring their progress. Fortunately, they seem fine. There don’t appear to be any major issues.”
That was good news in the midst of everything. There wouldn’t be any medical facilities for variants, and even if there were, they couldn’t fully disclose the circumstances of variants involved in illegal activities. Even if problems arose, getting help from anyone other than Jaekyung was practically impossible.
“Aren’t you going to ask what happened to the people who were there?”
At Iyeon’s words, the previously chatty Jaekyung fell silent. In the silence, there was a slight rustling as the variants squirmed to find comfortable positions. Tick. Tick. The faint sound of a clock could be heard from somewhere.
When Jaekyung’s voice finally emerged, it was a bit lower.
“I would have chosen variants over humans even if I could go back.”
“I’m sure you would have.”
“I hate humans.”
“It shows.”
Choosing the caged variants over the caged humans without hesitation was probably a mindset stemming from his life experiences. Environment, experiences, perceptions, things like that.
“I don’t agree with your thinking, but it can’t be helped.”
Iyeon didn’t feel like judging him. He had no right to judge anyway.
Iyeon himself wasn’t a law-abiding citizen either. If all his illegal acts were to be properly judged, he would have spent half his life in prison.
A clean and righteous life was the furthest thing from Iyeon. At this point, he had no intention of worrying about such things.
“But you can still be curious, right?”
He was just doing what he could do.
“Aren’t you even a little curious?”
The small voice emerged after a long pause.
“…So what happened to them?”
Iyeon smiled faintly.
“They’re all alive and well. They just need some time to recover.”
Jaekyung didn’t respond, but Iyeon patted his back a couple of times anyway.
“You helped save those people too, you know. Even though you did make a deal with variants.”
“…Are you being sarcastic?”
“You prioritized the variants, but saving is saving.”
“Are you saying that on purpose?”
Jaekyung flopped down with a deflating sound. His voice had lightened considerably.
“I’m also worried about what to do next. I personally want to continue researching variants.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Money.”
“Ah.”
The type of variant research Jaekyung wanted to do wasn’t likely to be profitable. It was obvious that finding investors would be difficult. Lying there glumly, Jaekyung stretched out his arm and stroked the heads of the variants one by one. They must have grown quite close in a short time, as the variants neither avoided his touch nor resisted it.
“I’ll have to find a way somehow. If it doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll get a part-time job…”
Jaekyung’s determination was solid. His eyes sparkled like stars as he chased after what he wanted to do.
That image strangely stuck in Iyeon’s memory.
“Good luck. I’ll help with whatever I can.”
“Oh, then—”
“Except loans.”
“Hmph…”
What grown adult says “hmph”? After drawing a firm line, Iyeon changed the subject, worried that Jaekyung might actually start begging for money.
“By the way, do you have any hobbies, Jaekyung-ssi?”
“Why the sudden interest in hobbies?”
“I’m thinking of getting a hobby myself. I’ve been asking people I meet.”
Whatever Jaekyung’s hobby is, it’s probably related to variants… Iyeon glanced around Jaekyung’s studio. Judging by the books crammed into the room, he was certainly a consistent person.
“Come on, my hobby is right here.”
Jaekyung noticed that Iyeon had asked without much expectation. He jumped up and approached his desk, reaching for his computer.
“…Shopping for books?”
“I prefer buying books from physical bookstores.”
Jaekyung booted up his computer with a confident smile. Opening the browser with practiced ease, he went to a site that even Iyeon, who barely used the internet, recognized.
“Unchat? You use Unchat, Jaekyung-ssi?”
