Yeon Dogyeong’s curiosity was innate, and his greed for information gathering was acquired. Regardless of the order, Yeon Dogyeong had a strong desire to collect information regarding fields he was interested in. In that sense, and also in terms of personal greed, Joo Seonghan was an important existence to Yeon Dogyeong. He was both a medium that would bring new information to Yeon Dogyeong and a lucky key that would fulfill a small dream he thought would be impossible. Moreover, their sexual compatibility was good too. He needed to go meet him quickly too. Yeon Dogyeong hummed while thinking of Joo Seonghan who had been dripping above and below.
After driving for about thirty minutes, Yeon Dogyeong’s car passed through a wide road and entered a narrow street. Yeon Dogyeong drove skillfully through the back alleys of a complex and flashy neighborhood where shops were starting to open, and arrived at his destination. He parked in a place too dirty to be called a parking lot and entered an old four-story building. He passed the first-floor door firmly locked with an iron door and went up to the second floor. He entered a 12-digit password on the keypad attached to the door and went inside.
Unlike the building’s old exterior, the inside was another world. Just selling the large and small equipment here would bring in several hundred million won. Yeon Dogyeong passed through the familiar hallway and entered the living room.
“I’m here.”
He spoke to Teacher Choi, who sat on the wide sofa with a stern face. Teacher Choi, the only personnel at the secret research lab, turned his gaze from looking at the transparent glass box on the table and looked at Yeon Dogyeong. He silently bowed his head. The knife scar running long on his left cheek made Teacher Choi’s impression even more menacing. He, who carefully held the glass box, stood up from his seat. The vertically elongated rectangular glass box was filled with water vapor. It was the home of seeds.
“Upstairs?”
When Yeon Dogyeong asked, Teacher Choi nodded his head and opened the built-in closet door behind the sofa. Yeon Dogyeong, in place of him who had no hands, slid a part of the left wall inside the built-in closet to the side. A small hole appeared.
“Where’s the key?”
“It’s in my gown pocket.”
He took the key from his pocket, put it in the wall hole, and turned it. The right wall opened, revealing a narrow elevator. Teacher Choi got on first, and Yeon Dogyeong, who pulled out the key, followed. When he pressed 3, the door closed. Zziing. The elevator operated heavily and went up.
No one opened their mouth. Teacher Choi was originally a man of few words, and Yeon Dogyeong knew that well. Ting, ting. The sound of metal clashing was heard, as if there was a problem somewhere with the parts. The unfamiliar yet familiar sound evoked nostalgia. Yeon Dogyeong smiled and stepped outside the door that opened without notification.
Intervention. Yeon Dogyeong first heard that word when he was 8 years old. While eating ice cream with a bruise around his eye and watching middle school hyungs wielding iron clubs and fighting at a construction site, he appeared. The magician.
‘Aren’t you going to intervene?’
His outfit was something you’d see in a fairytale book. He was shabby, had soot on various parts of his face, and wore a strangely shaped hat. Yet he was wearing an expensive-looking ring on his hand. Young Yeon Dogyeong glanced at him and went back to watching the fight. He, who plopped down next to Yeon Dogyeong, took out a small liquor cup from his pants pocket. He put it to his lips, moved his Adam’s apple, and tilted his head back. When he removed the cup from his lips, his lips were wet.
‘Why are you laughing?’
The magician asked. Yeon Dogyeong held the dripping ice cream in his hand and giggled without answering. Then the magician grabbed both of Yeon Dogyeong’s shoulders. One of his eyes glowed eerily.
‘I think I was exactly like that when I was your age too.’
Yeon Dogyeong opened his eyes wide and continued to grin foolishly. To such a Yeon Dogyeong, the magician brought his body close and whispered. Shall I tell you an interesting story? The price is simple. Grant me one favor. Then I’ll tell you a very, very interesting story.
From that day for two weeks, Yeon Dogyeong met the magician every day and listened to the stories he told. Stories of a certain day hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago when semi-humans and humans coexisted.
“It’s as you said.”
Teacher Choi, who placed the glass box on the table, spoke while opening the first door in the hallway. Yeon Dogyeong, who entered the room, looked at the semi-human sitting on top of a pile of soft cushions and blankets. Having thrown far away the sketchbook and colored pencils he usually wouldn’t let go of, he was instead gripping a handful of brown grass that Yeon Dogyeong had brought from beyond Guimun. The semi-human, who opened and closed his mouth, wiggled his orange-haired legs and put his nose to the brown grass. He sniffed the smell, then hugged a cushion and rolled around. His fluffy tail swayed here and there, and both cheeks were flushed.
“Do you like it?”
He asked while bending his knees and sitting in front of the small semi-human. The semi-human, who raised his red eyes with a sparkle, made a “keeek” sound and blinked his eyes slowly.
“That’s a relief. Don’t do it too much.”
Yeon Dogyeong smiled, stroked the fox semi-human’s red hair, and left the room. He approached the large table where five glass boxes were placed. Like the one Teacher Choi had brought from downstairs, all the glass boxes were filled with water vapor. Teacher Choi pulled forward the glass box marked in red among them. He pulled a small handle to open the door. When the water vapor escaped, an almond-shaped seed could be seen lying on moss.
“It grew 0.01mm.”
“Wow, it grew a lot.”
At Yeon Dogyeong’s words, Teacher Choi nodded his head twice largely. He looked proud.
“I gave it water brought from beyond Guimun and the soil I discovered. If I had been just a little late, it would have been dangerous.”
The timing worked out well. He had to go beyond Guimun at least once because of the sick seed, but it was troublesome to catch the timing to cross over, and the method of returning was also not certain, so he had been hesitating to go. But the Research Director did him a favor. He didn’t know he would use a pregnant semi-human to send Yeon Dogyeong’s team member beyond Guimun, but for Yeon Dogyeong, the situation wasn’t bad. He also came to know what the Research Director tried to obtain through that attempt. Just brown grass. His mind was transparent.
“I guess the lake water was the answer. Do you think you’ll need more? I brought as much as I could, but I dropped one bottle at the last minute.”
There was one thing to confirm among the methods of returning from beyond Guimun that he learned this time. So he sent the others into Guimun first and rescued Han Jaejun alone from the semi-human with horns on his forehead. In that process, he dropped one bottle of lake water. It was regrettable, but it didn’t matter much. Since he confirmed the method of going back and forth through Guimun, if he ran short, he could just time it well and go get more.
“Soil is needed more than lake water.”
Teacher Choi carefully sprinkled the soil contained in a Petri dish on top of the seed. The seed vibrated finely and opened. The soil disappeared through the thin gap, and the seed that finished its meal returned to its original form. Seeds eat soil. It wasn’t common soil but one with specific components, and it wasn’t easy to obtain.
“I’ll go get it. Can it be distinguished with the naked eye?”
“You need to use fire. If you bring it to the soil, it will glow blue briefly. Since it’s not gathered together and the amount is small, please get as much as possible from various places.”
“Yes. Please tell me the estimated location.”
Teacher Choi, who nodded his head, went to the large safe behind the table and entered the password. Beep. With a small sound, the lock was released and the door opened. Semi-human eggs were filled in each compartment of the top row. There were a total of seven eggs, and the compartments below were filled with various medicines and materials. Teacher Choi took out one file from the materials compartment and handed it to Yeon Dogyeong.
While Yeon Dogyeong checked inside the file, Teacher Choi, who closed the safe, sprayed lake water into the glass box with a spray bottle and closed the door. And he approached the elevator ahead. Yeon Dogyeong looked at his back and closed the file.
“There’s one more thing I want to hear.”
“I left the materials downstairs.”
Teacher Choi pointed at the elevator as if to follow. Yeon Dogyeong got on the elevator without any particular words.
As soon as they came down to the second floor, Teacher Choi went into one of the glass doors that were lined up and came out. He handed Yeon Dogyeong a red file. Yeon Dogyeong received the file and opened it. He turned the first page back. Although no name was written separately, this was Joo Seonghan’s DNA analysis chart. Yeon Dogyeong skipped over all the difficult-to-understand symbols and read the expert opinion that Teacher Choi had written by hand at the very bottom.
[Currently in progress. Approximately 51.58 percent probability of becoming a semi-human.]
“Please bring him once. I need to draw blood.”
Yeon Dogyeong smiled and raised his head. Teacher Choi’s eyes shone hotly. He felt heat that shouldn’t be felt.
“Were the samples insufficient?”
“There’s something to confirm with blood.”
The DNA test samples of Joo Seonghan that Yeon Dogyeong gave Teacher Choi were hair, urine, and semen.
“However, next time please don’t mix urine and semen.”
More precisely, it was urine mixed with semen. Yeon Dogyeong laughed “haha” out loud and lowered his gaze back to the file. The letters Teacher Choi wrote remained the same. Probability of becoming a semi-human. He tapped that part with his finger, tok tok. Although the probability came out lower than expected, he was still satisfied.
* * *
The meeting ended. Researchers who gathered their tablet PCs, laptops, materials, and such placed in front of each of them left the conference room one by one.
“Chief Lee, stay for a moment.”
Chief Lee, who had been gathering her things like the other researchers, stopped her hands at the Research Director’s words. After everyone except the two of them left, the conference room door closed. Chief Lee turned to face the Research Director.
“Please speak.”
“Did you find the semi-human whose egg Team Leader Yeon took out?”
“No. According to the person in charge, more semi-humans than expected came over that day, so semi-humans whose corpses were severely damaged were briefly examined and immediately burned, and it seems to have been one of them. The cremated remains of several are all mixed together, so it’s not feasible to find it even if we spend time. Let’s just give up now.”
