What’s happening again?
His fingertips tingled with a startled heart. His peripheral nerves branched out from his brain and spinal cord, extending rapidly at insane speed.
No, in fact, his body reacted before his head. He firmly gripped a decent-looking machete in his hand and dashed out like a shot.
“Huk, huuk…!”
In the rough wind, the raincoat fluttered loudly. He hid behind a low cliff and observed what was happening.
The raincoat hood flowed forward, so he quickly pulled it up. What entered Woonghee’s eyes was…
‘Fuck, what the hell is that…’
It was an unbelievable situation. People were huddled together like a ball on one side, trembling, and in front of them…
Drip drip. From beneath the massive body’s maw with sharp teeth, thick drops of saliva flowed.
That was clearly an enormously huge wild boar.
A beast he’d never even seen on the streets of Seoul was right here in front of his eyes without any iron bars. It was a moment that vividly made him feel that this place really was wilderness that human feet had barely touched.
Damn, then no one knows when such house-sized beasts might attack again, right? At the suddenly encountered terror, goosebumps rose all over his body.
A critical situation. Managing Director Gi walked out, pushing through people huddled in fear with his forearm.
“Come out.”
Crackle, the torch clutched in his large hand blazed up noisily as if it would burn everything down immediately. In his other hand, he firmly re-gripped an axe. Roll roll, he had rolled up his shirt sleeves to his elbows. His forearm muscles like tree roots were exposed, with bulging muscles rising.
Managing Director Gi stared at the wild boar with a completely expressionless face.
“M-Managing Director-nim… What should we do?”
Kyaa, kyaa, screams burst out. The foul-tempered beast’s front legs plunged deep into the sandy beach. It was so heavy that the sandy beach was collapsing. Could he possibly be trying to stab that boar’s flank with an axe?
That’s absurd…! How could a human overpower a wild boar with strength?
Moreover, that wild boar—it must have been starving for days because white foam was caked around its mouth. It drooled heavily while smacking its lips.
What to do.
Woonghee’s eyes darted around. Flutter flutter, his eyelashes fluttered as if gesturing. Fluttering about like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web set by a predator.
At that moment, flash, something sparkled on the sandy beach. Th-that’s it…! Woonghee rolled his body like a tumbling bean bug.
He quickly picked up what was stuck in the sandy beach and frantically squeezed his body behind a large boulder.
“Haa, haa…!”
His two eyes alertly moved, observing the situation outside. Woonghee rubbed his cheeks with his fist clenched like a honey badger’s front paws. Patter. Sand grains fell from his cheeks that were soft like sweet rice cakes. His round eyelashes swayed gently.
He had to aim for one strike, one strike…
What Woonghee gripped in his hand was none other than a corn can. He struck the can with the machete. Clang clang!
Grrrowl…
The wild boar that had been opening its maw wide and baring its saw-like teeth flinched. It howled growlingly and turned its head sharply.
What lay before it was a giant boulder. Clang, claang! Crying out with strange sounds.
The beast’s eyes flashed. Its hind legs that looked tough with muscles like log pillars flinched and stepped back. Its eyes were still targeting this direction.
‘Go away, fuck, get lost…!’
Even louder, clang, clang, claang! He kept striking vigorously. Get lost, just fuck off, you beast bastard…
I’m already going crazy with these damn humans here suffocating me, so why are you coming down and causing trouble too?
Clang, claang, clang! The metallic sound kept ringing. Just a bit more and it seemed like it would run away, but it was trouble. The corn can was getting crushed in his hand like a trampled can.
Crack!
Finally it was completely flattened. A dull sound rang out helplessly. The wild boar, whose interest had completely cut off, turned its head.
Its dark red eyes glowed toward the humans. The wild boar kept puffing out breath like hot steam. With its front legs, scratch scratch, it scraped the sandy beach. Its front legs, bundles of dozens of kilos of fat and muscle, tensed tightly.
Just as it seemed about to charge at the people.
“Huk…!”
Managing Director Gi threw the huge torch. A bright red trajectory remained in the air as if he’d swung a sword.
Squeal!
The torch pierced into the giant beast’s flank. A sizzling sound was heard. Its thick flank burned as if being branded.
The giant beast, startled by the hot flames, quickly fled. Wiggle wiggle, shaking its brown skin covered in massive muscles, it ran into the grass that was as thick as wool. Where it passed, all the grass was pressed down and drooping like wilted kimchi.
“I-it’s running away…”
Only then did the people huddled together collapse like bowling pins, wadadada.
“Aah, that really took ten years off my life.”
The Assistant Director hyung, who had been hiding behind a tree, stuck out his face. His complexion was deathly pale. Step by step. Managing Director Gi approached where the torch he’d thrown was.
“Didn’t I say no solo actions?”
He said that curtly. In a tone that was quite annoyed. The fire was already dying out, but Managing Director Gi deliberately stomped on the embers with his leather shoes to kill it completely.
“I-I had to pee… I just came out to pee for a moment and ran right into it—I thought my heart would stop.”
I’m sorry, I’ll make sure this never happens again. When the Assistant Director hyung bowed so deeply his head nearly touched the sandy beach, the man finally gave him a merciful smile.
“Pull yourself together and live properly.”
Moonlight seeped into the corner of his mouth. He bestowed a splendid smile like a sculpture. Only then did the Assistant Director hyung feel relieved and run over.
“But that wild boar earlier, it was rummaging around over there.”
Hyung pointed somewhere. His fingertips were still trembling. People’s gazes rushed in that direction.
“Could it be… that it smelled, that corpse?”
At the end was the corpse still wrapped in a blanket.
Just looking at it was frightening, so they’d deliberately avoided looking at it. Woonghee bit his lower lip firmly.
The corpse definitely had to be buried. In this hot weather, decomposition would progress even faster. And that would be the minimum courtesy to the dead person.
“Of course we should leave the dead behind.”
Leave behind? Woonghee’s refined brow furrowed at the choice of words that popped out. The language used was strangely peculiar. Again, words that flowed from Managing Director Gi’s mouth.
“It’s right to clean up unnecessary things.”
Unnecessary things. Clean up. Could you really use such words about a dead person? He got goosebumps and felt chills, but for others, that didn’t seem to be what was important. Paeng Hana’s manager asked.
“Wh-who’s going to do that…!”
They were only fixated on who would do it. Woonghee also pressed his lips shut. Because it was that frightening and scary. Courage didn’t come easily.
Amid the silence. People were busy watching each other. Only the sound of eyeballs rolling around could be heard.
“Are my ears blocked? Why can’t I hear what people are saying these days?”
Director Hwang pretended not to hear, picking at his ears, and blew on his finger with a hoo.
Fuck, what kind of bullshit is this bullshit? Cursing inwardly, Woonghee flinched his elbow. As he was about to raise his hand like that.
Step by step, Managing Director Gi moved his feet. Then he shouldered the corpse rolled up in the blanket.
People stared at that sight blankly. Even carrying that large body on his shoulder, the man didn’t show a single sign of strain.
“I’ll go.”
He was so terribly fastidious, obsessively grooming and adjusting his appearance, yet at times like this, he threw hygiene aside—that irony was like a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit.
Why did that man keep flicking and bouncing something inside Woonghee’s chest? Was it his imagination? This unpleasant feeling? Woonghee scratched his forearm roughly with the hand holding the machete.
Now, in this psychologically extreme situation, all senses were sharpened. Anxiety, vigilance, even survival instinct. The sense that that man was dangerous pierced sharply into his mind.
And soon, Woonghee would take one step closer to that ominousness.
It was that very dawn.
