If he was going to go through this kind of thing again, Surim resolved to face Song Hanyeong with composure instead. He was the victim in the first place. He was the one who’d been kissed, he was the one whose tongue had been bitten, he was the one who’d fainted after that, he was the one who’d run away, and he was the one who still liked that man despite going through all that.
“…Uugh…”
Surim curled up his body, then this time bonked his head on the top of the desk. Manager Lee Myeongho, who happened to be passing by, was startled and approached him.
“Surim-ssi, what’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
“No…”
“Then why is your face so red?”
“I’m not hurt, so please go away…”
“Huh?”
“No, I’ll go, just…”
Surim wobbled as he walked back to his desk. Lee Myeongho was watching from behind with a puzzled expression, but he didn’t feel like explaining or making excuses.
His thoughts and actions were all a mess because of fear and terror, and the fondness that surpassed those feelings.
It was the same now. Even though he’d run away out of fear, there was only one thought filling his head right now.
‘His complexion has improved a lot.’
Relief filled his chest. Just the fact that the man’s complexion, which had been getting more haggard day by day, had improved calmed his tense nerves.
It made all that time when his breath had risen uncontrollably as he imagined terrible diseases like cancer or tumors seem pointless.
“Is it because I’m a stalker…”
Surim, who had muttered unconsciously, quickly covered his mouth and looked around. Fortunately, there was no one nearby. He must have lost his mind to blurt out such a word at the office.
Normally, he would never have let such a foolish word leave his mouth.
‘I need to pull myself together.’
Let’s refrain from stalking behavior for a while. Since he had cups and chopsticks at home, he could somehow manage with those.
And Song Hanyeong…
‘What should I do?’
Surim needed time. Time to suppress the chaotic confusion and come to a conclusion about how to act going forward.
So Surim sent Song Hanyeong a message.
[Jin Surim] Manager-nim, I want to eat lunch alone.
[Song Hanyeong] Must you?
[Jin Surim] I really want to eat alone.
Just as silence seemed to continue for a moment, Lee Myeongho approached him and handed him a lunchbox.
“What happened again?”
“It’s nothing… Thank you.”
Surim shook his head at Lee Myeongho, who looked dying of curiosity. Lee Myeongho alternately looked at Surim and Song Hanyeong with a suspicious face, then let out a deep sigh, said one thing, and walked away.
“Geez, I don’t know anymore…”
Of course you wouldn’t know. How would you know that Song Hanyeong bit my tongue last Friday? Surim grumbled inwardly while sending another message to Song Hanyeong.
[Jin Surim] Thank you.
[Song Hanyeong] Yes. Be very grateful.
Such a strange way of speaking, really. Surim grumbled but thanked him once more.
[Jin Surim] Yes, I’m very grateful.
After eating lunch alone like that, perhaps understanding that Surim needed time, Song Hanyeong began providing him with dinner lunchboxes. Without any mutual agreement, the dinner appointments naturally disappeared.
Rather than feeling disappointed, Surim felt relieved.
Time passed quickly while he hid, ran away, and postponed his thoughts.
‘I haven’t been caught once in four days except for the first day.’
The game of hide-and-seek continued for all four days, and fortunately, Surim was winning every time.
‘Getting caught on the first day was just a coincidence.’
Surim smiled confidently. Thanks to that, he hadn’t come face-to-face with Song Hanyeong even once in four days. The funny thing was that even in the midst of all that, he didn’t stop reporting whenever he left his seat.
[Jin Surim] I’ll go to the General Affairs Team for a moment. I’m going to see Assistant Manager Seong, so it shouldn’t take more than thirty minutes.
When there was no reply, Surim very carefully raised his head above the partition. Song Hanyeong wasn’t at his seat. He must have gone to the lab.
It might be better to leave his seat quickly while he had the chance. As Surim hurried through the hallway, he casually turned his gaze and discovered Song Hanyeong drawing cold water in the break room. Surim reflexively hid his body behind the wall.
“……”
Surim reflected on what he’d just seen with confused eyes. Song Hanyeong had definitely been swallowing what looked like ten pills all at once.
‘Why is he taking so many pills? And why has his complexion gotten so bad again?’
Wasn’t he supposed to be okay? Song Hanyeong’s complexion, which had been getting more haggard last week, had been surprisingly fine when he saw him on Monday. But in just a few days, he’d become wan again.
Just where was he hurting? The theory that Song Hanyeong was battling cancer, which he’d tucked away before, suddenly reared its head. The amount of pills—ten of them—also contributed to his darkening imagination.
In fact, otherwise, there was no reason for Song Hanyeong, who wasn’t even elderly, to take so many pills.
Unable to do anything about his troubled mind, Surim stood there blankly, then leaned his back against the wall and slid his body down. He was crouching and fiddling with his fingers, suppressing his anxious heart, when Song Hanyeong, who had finished his business, came out of the break room, discovered Surim, and stopped short.
Silence circled between the two for a moment. It was Surim who spoke first.
“Manager-nim, are you sick somewhere?”
“No.”
“You are sick.”
“Mind your own business, Jin Surim-ssi.”
Song Hanyeong, who spoke coldly yet kindly, moved his steps again without even waiting for an answer. If his concern could be turned off just because he was told to turn it off, he wouldn’t have played hide-and-seek in the first place.
Surim calmly reflected on what had happened until now. Song Hanyeong had suddenly started to be in poor condition from last week. And he’d been okay over the weekend, then his condition gradually worsened again.
He didn’t know why his health had deteriorated, but he had a hunch that there was a correlation between the timing when his condition improved and what Surim had experienced last week.
“If he got better from drinking my blood…”
Did that mean Song Hanyeong had a body that needed to drink blood? If so, it made sense that Song Hanyeong had visited the lab on his day off last week. He had come to drink cloned blood to recover his body.
“But Song Hanyeong could have drunk it anytime before…?”
Song Hanyeong hadn’t suddenly gotten sick on Friday and taken a day off. The headaches and insomnia had continued for several days.
Cloned blood was all over the lab. Most of it was old cloned blood, but there would be plenty of freshly made blood too, and Song Hanyeong was in a position where he could have it whenever he wanted. Because he was the head of Research Lab 0.
If he’d drunk blood when he started getting sick, it wouldn’t have deteriorated that much, so why didn’t he drink it?
“No, he must have drunk it.”
The correct answer was: he drank it but didn’t recover. Because the blood lying around the lab was—
‘That’s just a failure. It can’t compare to the real thing.’
—a failure.
Flash, a thought crossed through Surim’s mind. He’d thought it was strange that the head of a secret research lab at a research institute like this would be someone as young as Song Hanyeong. This was a realistic issue regardless of Surim’s respect and affection for Song Hanyeong.
The reason why someone as young as Manager Song Hanyeong was the head instead of an experienced senior researcher with achievements.
He’d heard during new employee training. This research institute had a parent company, and the name of that parent company’s CEO was definitely…
“Song Juhyeok.”
Song Hanyeong was related to him by blood.
Perhaps this lab was being run so Song Hanyeong could research the blood needed for his own body?
In other words, to clone and drink the blood of a vegetarian.
“……”
Surim stood up. In the distance, he could see the top of Song Hanyeong’s head over the partition. Firmly resolve entered the eyes of Surim, who had been staring intently at Song Hanyeong while clutching a file folder.
For the past few days, Surim’s heart had been capricious beyond measure—scared then okay, wanting to avoid him then wanting to see him.
So he couldn’t come to any conclusion about what to do going forward, but upon facing the haggard Song Hanyeong, a conclusion came instantly, making the time spent agonizing seem pointless.
Right, it wasn’t like Song Hanyeong was going to stab someone’s chest with a knife and chew their heart raw—he just wanted to drink a little blood, so what was the big deal?
Song Hanyeong wasn’t even an aspiring criminal who was particularly dangerous to the public. Because Song Hanyeong was the owner of a picky palate who had even set up a lab to conduct cloning research in order to drink the blood of a thoroughly well-managed vegetarian.
* * *
He’d tried to tell Song Hanyeong that he was going to stop the hide-and-seek—no, tag—but as soon as he finished organizing his thoughts, Song Hanyeong suddenly became very busy. He was either holed up in the lab and didn’t come out, or when he did come out, he immediately left the research office, so this time Surim couldn’t face Song Hanyeong due to external circumstances.
Because Song Hanyeong had gone out on external business before leaving work, Surim had no choice but to postpone the conversation to the next day.
But the next day, Song Hanyeong was just as busy. He looked busy all day without a moment to breathe, making calls here and there, checking data while typing something, and holding meetings with Lee Myeongho and the researchers.
‘Today is the contract fulfillment day…’
At this rate, it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to say a word until it was time to leave work. It might even be enough to postpone the blood draw.
