Chapter 6
Hyungoh couldn’t believe his ears. It was absurd nonsense he couldn’t possibly take seriously, but Michael’s solemn expression and the alien atmosphere surrounding him made it impossible even to laugh it off.
“You’re saying you’re God?”
Hyungoh asked with an exaggerated gesture. Cold sweat trickled down his back. Uncle. How am I supposed to respond to this?
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
Hyungoh held up both thumbs in front of Michael. Well, it’s my first time meeting God. Haha. Though he’d thought carefully about his answer, judging from Michael’s expression, he didn’t seem particularly pleased.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“No.”
“‘No’?”
“Huh? Ah, that’s not what I meant… Yes, right. I believe you.”
Seeing Michael narrow his eyes even more after he answered “no,” Hyungoh hurriedly corrected himself. This damn English grammar. In his flustered state, Hyungoh had forgotten even the basics.
“I can prove it.”
“Prove it?”
“Yes. I know you well.”
“We haven’t even known each other for a day.”
“Even so, I know you.”
“Because you’re God?”
“Yes.”
Heh heh. Hyungoh laughed awkwardly. What are you, some kind of psychic who can see right through my mind?
“Why are you so sad?”
Michael said, almost in a whisper. Hyungoh smiled wryly and removed Michael’s hand from his shoulder as he answered.
“I’m not sad.”
“You are sad. You want to cry.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m really not…”
“You’re afraid of your mom.”
Hyungoh, who was about to stand up, froze in an awkward position.
“What?”
“The only person in the world you fear is your mom.”
“…”
“You miss her, you’re sad, and you’re angry.”
I’m right, aren’t I? Michael smiled as if he knew everything.
“Huh.”
Hyungoh laughed. Cold sweat dripped down around his eyes, which trembled as if in shock. Is this nonsense too? No. It’s too accurate to be just nonsense.
Beyond Michael, Hyungoh saw a vision of his mother. His mother, who’d been sitting on the bed reading a book leisurely, erased her smile when she made eye contact with him. Her hand slowly slid under the pillow. Something shiny gradually revealed itself.
Ah. Hyungoh clutched his throbbing head. When he looked at the bed again, his mother was gone. What was that? What was I just imagining? Hyungoh looked at Michael incredulously.
He’d never seen a vision of his mother before. He’d never imagined his mother while alive out of longing, and he didn’t want to. For Hyungoh, his mother was just a fearful existence.
He was a strange child. Hyungoh started to feel increasingly stifled in this dark, cool room. Michael’s gaze, staring at him expressionlessly, was also uncomfortable.
“You’re strange.”
“What is?”
“You.”
Michael tilted his head.
“Are you perhaps afraid of me?”
“…”
“Why are you afraid? What does it mean to be afraid?”
Dark, quiet, cold, unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar sensations, red blood, sprawled corpses, and a murderer. Michael, who’d been counting on his fingers one by one with all ten spread out, paused. Hyungoh, who’d been secretly placing his hand on the door, startled at his own nervousness.
“This is what ‘being afraid’… means, right?”
“…”
“By that standard, I find you scarier.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Dark, quiet, cold, unfamiliar sounds, unfamiliar sensations, red blood…”
“Stop, stop. What are you trying to do?”
“…murderer.”
Michael finished his sentence in a mutter as Hyungoh frowned and raised his voice. It was hard to handle such bizarre statements with a clear mind.
“Don’t bring up such strange topics again.”
“What strange topics? About your mom?”
“Wha… Ah, right. That too!”
“Then you shouldn’t either.”
“What?”
“Don’t enter my room without my permission, ever again.”
Michael spoke methodically. However, Hyungoh could vaguely sense he was quite angry. Though he didn’t frown or raise his voice, his expressionless eyes looking at Hyungoh flashed more vividly than ever.
“I’ll only let it slide once.”
“Ah…!”
Michael flung the door open and pushed Hyungoh out with all his might. Hyungoh, who’d lost his footing and fallen on his backside, looked helplessly at the door slamming shut.
***
Hyungoh lay on the bed, blankly staring at the ceiling. Along with the bird sounds announcing morning from beyond the window, the sunlight shining through the dark curtains drew a clear line across the room.
He was tired. But he couldn’t sleep. The conversation with Michael from yesterday evening kept circling in his head, preventing him from sleeping.
Mom.
Hyungoh twisted his body as if in pain. His head always hurt when he tried to recall images of her while alive. Honestly, he couldn’t remember well. He only felt an inexplicable fear of her identity, unconsciously. According to the doctor, it seemed like partial amnesia due to the shock of his parents’ sudden death. Dissociative amnesia, was it? Still, it didn’t bother him much since it didn’t affect his daily life.
But—
“Ugh, my head…”
This splitting headache was quite painful. It felt like someone was dismembering all the cells in his brain. As he tapped his head, hoping the pain would pass, someone knocked on the door.
“Uncle?”
“Good morning.”
The door slowly opened. Hunter stood there crookedly with a cup in one hand. A sweet cocoa smell emanated from him.
“How was it yesterday?”
“It felt like my energy was being drained.”
“Haha.”
Hunter laughed and sat in the chair. Oh. It doesn’t hurt anymore. Hyungoh, relaxing his expression, raised his upper body and roughly combed his disheveled hair with his hand.
“He seemed to dislike me. I was kicked out yesterday.”
“He’s just very shy. There was probably no ill will.”
“I’m not so sure—I definitely felt some ill will.”
“What did Michael do?”
“He was a really strange kid. Suddenly saying he was God, saying he knew me well…”
Hyungoh glanced at Hunter’s reaction before continuing.
“He even brought up my mom.”
Hunter, who’d been lifting his cup, paused. His eyes slowly rolled toward Hyungoh.
“What did he say?”
“Just…”
Hyungoh closed his mouth. That I fear my mother. Somehow, he didn’t want to say it. He was still too suspicious of Hunter to freely show his vulnerabilities. “Just, personal stuff.” Hyungoh smiled slightly.
Hunter, who’d been carefully examining Hyungoh through his horn-rimmed glasses, took a sip of cocoa.
“That’s quite interesting.”
“Is that your only reaction? Ah, did you maybe tell Michael about me?”
“No.”
“Then how…”
“Michael is someone who can naturally accomplish things others can’t.”
“So, what, are you saying that kid is really God or something?”
“He might be.”
Hyungoh’s mouth fell open. What? At Hyungoh’s suspicious gaze, Hunter burst into laughter. Seeing him bending over with laughter, Hyungoh frowned more and more. Don’t joke with a serious face, Uncle. It’s really confusing. Your reaction is just too funny. Hunter calmed himself and spoke again.
“His way of thinking is a bit different from others. He just blurts out whatever comes to mind. Among all that nonsense, if he’s lucky, there might be parts that match the truth perfectly.”
“Even so…”
“He’s a pitiful child. His parents died early, and now he lives alone in that vast mansion with no one to lean on. Even the butler who gave him some affection recently quit, so how lonely must he be?”
“…”
“Wouldn’t it be good if you could be a friend to such a child?”
“Even if you say that… that kid doesn’t like me.”
“I told you, he’s just very shy. With time, you’ll become good friends.”
I’m not really up for it. Hyungoh swallowed his last words. Still, out of sympathy, he couldn’t easily refuse. A child who lost his parents early and became the head of the household at the young age of fifteen. It was quite a similar situation, making him feel a sense of kinship.
With such a large house and even a butler, how wealthy must he be? I wonder if he became a target of resentful relatives like me. Though he couldn’t empathize with the sadness of losing parents since he’d almost lost all memories of his own, he thought the terrible loneliness of being left alone would be similar.
“I’ll try.”
“Good.”
Hunter approached Hyungoh and patted his shoulder.
“Your job is to fill the vacancy left by that butler. Since it’s a wealthy household, I’m sure they’ll pay you well.”
“Wow. How nice.”
“Haha. That’s a really half-hearted response. Oh, when you go to Michael’s today, take the macarons I left on the dining table. They’re his favorite.”
“Okay.”
Hyungoh nodded. Hunter, seemingly satisfied, smiled and was about to leave when he suddenly stopped and turned back.
“By the way, what about my USB?”
Ah. Hyungoh reached his hand under the blanket and touched his pants pocket. Hunter’s USB was there. Right. Why have I been hiding this all along? Hunter’s persistent eyes looked at Hyungoh as if piercing through him.
“Actually…”
“Does Theo have it?”
Hunter asked. Just as Hyungoh was about to pull the USB from his pocket, he noticed Hunter’s fingers, folded across his arms, nervously bumping against each other.
And at that moment, a small trick flashed through Hyungoh’s mind.
“Yes. He must have taken it with him yesterday.”
“Hah… really.”
Hunter muttered, pressing his brow. Well, it doesn’t matter for now.
Was this USB so important? As Hunter, saying he understood, left the room, there seemed to be a hint of worry in his retreating back. After confirming the door was properly closed, Hyungoh pulled out the USB. What could it be? Could there be some secret footage in the CCTV? Examining the small, flat USB from different angles, Hyungoh couldn’t resist his curiosity and turned on his laptop.
He easily bypassed the file lock. Afraid the sound might leak and be discovered by Hunter, Hyungoh muted the laptop in advance. Garage, front entrance, veranda, garden… Hyungoh paused as he scrolled through files containing hundreds of CCTV videos. Living room, kitchen, basement, study, study2…
Room1, Room2.
Hyungoh clicked on the file labeled Room1. To think there’d even be CCTV in the rooms. As a lock window appeared on the screen, Hyungoh calmly moved his hands. It was more complex and harder to crack than the previous locked files. Hyungoh had a feeling that Hunter’s secret would be here.
“This is a bit difficult.”
Hyungoh broke into a cold sweat at the repeated warning messages. Maybe I shouldn’t have messed with this. But once he’d started, he couldn’t stop. Hyungoh recalled the countless hacking techniques he’d studied before and worked on unraveling the clues. It’s okay. I’m almost there. As the warning messages gradually decreased, Hyungoh sighed in relief.
Soon, the videos appeared one after another. Hyungoh scrolled down, looking at videos of an empty room, and tilted his head. Where is this? One of the rooms on the first floor? There was nothing particularly special. He started to lose interest as he continued to see a series of videos showing empty rooms. What? There’s nothing special.
“…Huh?”
As he reached near the end of the file, one video caught his eye. Hyungoh squinted and adjusted his glasses. For a moment, he thought he’d seen wrong. Unlike the other videos, this one had two people in it.
Hyungoh clicked on that video. At first, it was indeed an empty room. At a glance, one of them looked like his uncle. Who’s the person next to him? Hyungoh waited for people to appear. As if answering his wish, Hunter soon appeared. And following behind him, a boy with bright yellow hair entered the room.
“…Michael?”
It’s Michael. Even from behind, he was a noticeable child. Why is Michael entering the room with Hunter? Hyungoh focused more on the video. There were more than just a couple of questions.
The two seemed to be having a conversation, and then Hunter forcefully sat Michael on the bed. Michael obediently sat down and stared at Hunter. After a moment of just facing each other, Michael soon opened his mouth. With heavily lidded eyes, he whispered something.
“What is this…”
Hunter knelt down. And he kissed Michael’s feet. Even though there was no sound, it felt like a wet, sloshing noise was reaching his ears.
What?
Hyungoh slowly covered his mouth. He couldn’t believe it. By now, Hunter was kissing Michael. Hyungoh hurriedly closed his laptop.
What is this?
“What the hell?”
Hyungoh took a step back. The video in the laptop played freely in his head.
“Uncle…”
Why?
Why those two?
Hyungoh pulled back the curtain. Hunter, wearing a navy robe, was watering the plants. Though he seemed relaxed, waving his arms carelessly while watering, his sharp gaze was directed beyond the wall.
