Chapter 37 #14 Kim Jae-ho is Free
Kim Jae-ho closed his eyes. The chirping of birds far away, the warm sunlight tickling his eyelids, the soft doll nestled in his arms. Everything felt so good.
This owner was weird. He didn't yell at him. Didn't beat him.
Didn't torment him to use his ability.
But Kim Jae-ho wouldn't fall for it.
He wouldn't make the stupid mistake of trusting someone again, like that idiot from before.
He wouldn't end up like that fool.
'Hey.'
Calling him more kindly than anyone.
'I hope you're not hurting.'
Worrying about him without asking.
'I'm fine. Don't make that face.'
He wouldn't become like that fool who died for him so recklessly. No matter how strange this owner was, he wouldn't care.
A delicious smell tickled his nose. Kim Jae-ho reached out and took the bowl. The salty, warm broth slid down his throat.
"Don't just drink the broth. Eat the rice next to it too. And the meat in between."
Eating as instructed, it tasted really good.
Kim Jae-ho set down the empty bowl and turned his back before the owner could say anything.
As the footsteps faded away, someone whispered softly to him.
'Isn't that person worth trusting?'
Kim Jae-ho pretended not to hear the voice whispering to him.
It was a hallucination.
The voice of that guy who must have died long ago couldn't possibly be real.
'From what I've seen, he doesn't seem like a bad guy.'
Ignoring the voice echoing in his ear as best he could, Kim Jae-ho closed his eyes again.
Kim Jae-ho blinked. Where was this? He lifted his hand—it was small.
Ah, he was young.
The dream pulled Kim Jae-ho into the past.
Before he could grasp the situation, adults in white clothes herded him and the other kids together. They counted the children, nodded, and dragged them into a small room.
The doctor in the white coat drew blood from the kids skillfully and handed out pills.
"You have to take these."
Kim Jae-ho swallowed the pill. The kid behind him did too. And the one after. Everyone gulped them down.
Good job.
The adults said that, and Kim Jae-ho nodded. Yeah, I did good.
But as soon as the adult left, the boy next to him shoved his fingers down his throat.
"What are you doing?"
The boy didn't stop, digging into his throat despite Kim Jae-ho's question. Kim Jae-ho grabbed his wrist, but the boy shook him off like he was annoying.
Finally, after retching, the boy pulled out the slimy pill from his stomach.
The moment Kim Jae-ho saw it, his face turned pale.
"No."
He shouted without thinking. You have to take the pills. At that, the boy scowled like he was looking at the world's biggest idiot and asked,
"Do you even know what this is?"
"No."
"Taking this makes you dull and stupid. Do you have any idea what those people plan to do with us?"
"No."
"Sigh."
The boy sighed and said,
"You can't take this. If you swallow it by mistake, puke it up like this."
"But they said to obey..."
"If you want to live, listen to me."
Overpowered by the boy's intensity, Kim Jae-ho nodded unconsciously.
"Oh, right. My name is ■■."
He definitely knew the guy's name, but in the dream, it was like static—noise blocking it out.
"What's your name?"
What had he answered back then? He couldn't remember that either.
After that day, Kim Jae-ho stuck to the boy. He puked up the pills as the boy told him to, and later learned to hide them under his tongue and spit them out.
The boy was smart.
Smarter than anyone in that facility.
It was around when they both turned ten.
That's when they started getting massive injections—the size of a finger joint. They could dodge the pills, but not the shots.
The shots hurt going in, but afterward was worse.
Every night, their bodies ached. Some days, it felt like red-hot pokers stabbing everywhere. The bedsheets soaked with their sweat every day.
"Damn bastards, what the hell did they give us."
The boy cursed and trembled every night. Kim Jae-ho endured the surging pain beside him, clenching his teeth.
The effects were real. Two years after the shots, at just twelve, they had bodies like adults—huge.
Unfortunately, side effects came too. Their skin couldn't handle the sudden growth and burst open; their durability weakened everywhere.
In bad cases, bones snapped just from walking, or fingers broke lifting a spoon. Those kids got isolated. The adults said they'd get special treatment, but...
To fix the shot side effects, they fed more pills. Those had worse side effects. Hair fell out, teeth dropped.
One problem led to another pill, creating new problems.
The number of kids dwindled fast.
Through it all, Kim Jae-ho and the boy held on somehow.
Kim Jae-ho liked this kid who shared all his pain. So every night, he prayed—not like the other kids. He prayed the boy wouldn't leave. That he'd survive and stay by his side.
On a sleepless night of agony, the boy said to Kim Jae-ho,
"I want to be free."
"What's free?"
"Hmm, doing whatever I want."
Kim Jae-ho couldn't grasp it easily. The boy frowned in frustration at his expression but gave up and explained,
"Not doing what you hate, only what you want. Going where you want, not where you don't."
Finally getting it, Kim Jae-ho said,
"I hate it here."
"Yeah, but we're stuck here. So we're not free."
Kim Jae-ho wished then.
I want both of us to be free.
But how?
No way out in sight.
Time passed like that. Kim Jae-ho pouted and looked at the boy.
"Today, she petted my head!"
"Petting your head? I can do that too."
Kim Jae-ho ruffled the boy's hair as he said it, but the boy said firmly,
"It's different from you. That person's different."
He said all the 'adults' here were bad, but that one was different.
The woman who petted his head and said sorry after wrecking their bodies with shots. The one who sneaked them extra stuff every day, dodging eyes.
Honestly, Kim Jae-ho trusted her a little too.
She was kind, the first to care about him and the boy. Said sorry.
At first, Kim Jae-ho didn't like her butting in, but over time, he started believing her.
But that woman betrayed the boy. Betrayed us.
Fourteen.
The day the boy made and executed the perfect plan to escape the facility for the first time.
"What a letdown. I thought ■■ liked me."
A sharp spear stabbed the boy's side.
"Hah... haa."
Blood poured from the boy's mouth as he hung on the spear.
Even then, the boy lived. Breathed. His reinforced body wouldn't die from this. Knowing that, Kim Jae-ho still froze like an idiot watching.
"Ru... run, idiot!"
The boy yelled at frozen Kim Jae-ho. But he couldn't move, stupid as he was.
As the boy's pupils glowed purple, the woman said,
"Oops, can't have that."
Another hated shot into the boy's neck. His body went limp. She whispered to the slumped boy,
"If you'd been good, I'd have kept treating you well. Why try to leave? You said this place got better because of me."
Her voice was still sweet as honey. Hearing it, Kim Jae-ho trembled.
All an act. A scam. To keep them trapped.
The man beside her said,
"Need to subdue that one?"
His finger pointed at Kim Jae-ho.
"Nah. He's a failure who never awakened his talent."
"Why wasn't he scrapped earlier?"
"Because our ■■ clung to him. Kept him like an attachment doll. Guess they even planned to escape together."
The woman said exaggeratedly,
"After all this effort, scrapping him for bad behavior? Too unfair."
"Him too?"
She frowned.
"Hmm. Yeah, rules say so. He just followed the other one's lead, though. Ah, since we're scrapping anyway, might as well experiment."
"Experiment?"
"Yeah!"
Grinning creepily, she whispered to the man,
"Oh, transplanting an Awakener's body part to make one? Didn't those fail?"
"There's one body part we haven't tried transplanting yet."
Heart.
Kim Jae-ho thrashed, but couldn't beat the adults. A needle stabbed his neck. His body hit the floor. His eyes met the boy's—pinned like an insect specimen on the spear.
The boy smiled sadly.
"I'm fine."
"Sorry. If I had any power..."
"It's... not your..."
"Don't talk."
Kim Jae-ho cut in quick. Blood poured from the boy's mouth with every word. He was dying.
Kim Jae-ho didn't know what to do. Tears streamed down unknown to him.
He called the boy's name.
"Kim Jae-ho."
Ah, then the subject realized. 'Kim Jae-ho' wasn't his name—it was the boy's.
Born in the lab, he had no name. Only the outside kid knew his.
'Kim Jae-ho' said to him,
"Live."
With those final words, the subject's mind shattered.
When he opened his eyes again, the subject lived. But no 'Kim Jae-ho' anywhere. The subject tore at his chest, sobbing. The surgical scar on his heart told everything.
The woman said the experiment succeeded.
The subject inherited the boy's ability perfectly. No—stronger. His heart beat just three times a minute; he controlled his whole body at will.
Seeing her smile, the subject vowed revenge.
But that was the last he saw of her.
Another shot to the neck, and he blacked out again.
Desperately, the subject repeated 'Kim Jae-ho' to not forget amid the dumbing drugs.
Eventually, it became his name. He'd live as the vanished Kim Jae-ho's replacement.
The boy told him to live free.
So 'Kim Jae-ho' would be free.
No matter what, he'd be free.
No one ever gave him freedom, but he craved it.
When the iron bars opened, Kim Jae-ho knew he'd be caught soon.
The collar would paralyze him; a shot to the neck.
Still, he wanted to run once.
Run aimlessly.
Smell freedom.
So he ran.
Straight to what he saw, climbing high. Open sky filled his eyes.
Panting, Kim Jae-ho collapsed there.
But no one came. Not a soul.
A day passed. Two days.
If 'Kim Jae-ho' were here, he'd ask.
Is this the freedom you meant?
Hungry.
Cold.
Kim Jae-ho lay there, blinking.
The boy said freedom was doing what you want, going where you want. So Kim Jae-ho went back down the way he came.
"Food."
The owner looked dumb, then nodded with a smile.
He didn't get freedom yet, but the owner's food was tasty as always.