Something Not Human
“If the core body temperature drops below twenty-eight degrees Celsius, it’s classified as severe hypothermia… at that point, arrhythmia can trigger cardiac arrest, or the blood pressure can fall and the patient loses consciousness. The corneal reflex and pain reflex disappear as well. You shouldn’t be able to look this normal.”
“……”
“But Mr. Gal Neoul’s lips aren’t blue—they’ve got color in them, almost rosy, like there’s plenty of circulation. Which means his blood flow is actually quite good, but….”
The doctor, who had been rattling on in confusion, lost focus entirely. It was such an unprecedented, bizarre case that she had no idea what diagnosis to pin on it.
“For now, let’s admit him, keep him warm, and observe the progress.”
Truthfully, she wanted to tell them to take the corpse and get out, but as a doctor she did what she could and recommended hospitalization.
“Admit him?”
But Neoul’s expression darkened.
There had been no such thing as hospitalization in Dragon Palace, and because a court physician had always been in residence—though the poor fellow had run away—Neoul didn’t know the word. Still, he could more or less read the mood from the tone alone.
“I refuse. I am healthy.”
The producer and assistant director tried to persuade him, but Neoul would not budge.
“If the patient doesn’t want it, we can’t force an admission. For now, go home, and if anything seems off, please come back for tests. And… just in case. I’ll write you a referral letter, so if possible, you’d be better off going to a bigger hospital.”
In the end, they had no choice but to return with nothing to show for it.
On the way back to the training pension, the assistant director—who had been firing off messages at the Sea Witch after she failed to pick up—finally saw that she had replied.
The answer was absurd: “Neoul’s body temperature is low by nature, and his heart rate is a little slow. But that’s normal for him. If anything, it’s abnormal when his temperature gets too high, so contact me if it goes above thirty degrees.”
“I-is that even possible…?”
The assistant director thought it sounded completely insane. But the youngest writer, a mystery fanatic, chattered about it in deadly earnest.
“There are people with two heads in the world, and people whose irises are different colors on each side, and children who remember their past lives, right? Maybe there are people whose normal temperature is twenty-six degrees.”
“No, but how can a human body temperature be twenty-six degrees…?”
“It could be some rare condition that hasn’t been scientifically proven yet. He said Mr. Gal Neoul has had it since he was a baby.”
Neoul returned to the dorm where the contestants were staying together. The moment he arrived, he grabbed Sangsangi and Byeoldtongi and disappeared into bed.
He was utterly exhausted after days without sleep, swimming a long distance, subjecting himself to chemical torture in a strange environment, and then going to the hospital to be examined from head to toe.
He hid under the blanket, pulling it all the way over his head to escape the blinding fluorescent light.
The assistant director and the youngest writer asked the contestants sharing the room to call them if anything happened, then had no choice but to leave.
* * *
Everyone was in deep sleep. Four in the morning.
Baek Yuri was the first to open his eyes and begin the day early. He moved quietly, washed his face neatly, brushed his teeth, and even changed clothes before checking that Gal Neoul was still alive. After that, he gave Baek Gi-yeom a light nudge and went outside.
Still half-asleep, Baek Gi-yeom washed his face in a catlike blur, threw on his clothes, and followed Baek Yuri out.
The sleeping Neoul’s eyes snapped open.
Did the rabbit run away?!
He grew suspicious that they might be trying to escape in secret because they didn’t want to give him their liver. Neoul slipped outside in his sleepwear, moving as quietly as he could.
Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom were in the yard, stretching their arms and legs and twisting their bodies loose.
Are they trying to flee?
He hid behind a tree and watched. Then they began to jog lightly. It looked almost effortless, but their legs were long, and in the blink of an eye they were far away.
They are escaping?!
Neoul sank down in despair. He couldn’t run like they could. If this had been underwater, he would have caught them in an instant.
But then, after they had reached the far end of the yard, they jogged back in this direction again. Neoul quickly ducked back behind the tree.
Baek Yuri’s voice came to him.
“Why are you here?”
Huh. Was he caught?
“You didn’t answer me yesterday. Weren’t you supposed to debut as a rapper?”
“……”
“I heard the CEO at your company is dead set on debuting you this year, no matter what.”
So he hadn’t been caught. Baek Gi-yeom, who had been silent, answered.
“It’s just… not really for me. The direction of the songs doesn’t fit, and there’ve been conflicts over lyric writing.”
“What doesn’t fit?”
“You might laugh when you hear it.”
“……?”
The two of them ran back and forth across the wide yard as they talked. Baek Gi-yeom’s voice carried a sheepish note.
“I’ve never gone hungry in my life, even if I did wear hand-me-down clothes sometimes, but they keep telling me to write things like ‘my starved childhood’ or ‘memories of desperate poverty.’”
Pfft.
Baek Yuri laughed, then quickly covered his mouth and glanced back at the building with wide eyes. He was worried the laugh might have been too loud and woken someone.
“What a weird company.”
“And, you know my mom can’t cook, but they kept forcing me to write that I wanted to eat doenjang stew my mother made.”
“What, they wouldn’t accept pork ribs or dakbokkeumtang your father made?”
“They said that kind of lyric wasn’t relatable… and rejected it.”
“Your uncle’s ribs are delicious.”
“Dad says he’s sad you haven’t been by lately. Come visit sometime.”
“Sure. I definitely will next time.”
So Baek Gi-yeom’s father was Baek Yuri’s uncle. That meant the two of them were cousins.
One was a rabbit, and the other was human…
Was Baek Gi-yeom also a rabbit in disguise? But while Baek Yuri looked white, round, and innocent, Baek Gi-yeom had a broad, sharply defined face, thick eyebrows, larger features, and a more refreshing, open impression. His skin tone was darker too.
They didn’t look anything alike—no, they looked as opposite as could be. Or was he, like me, adopted? Had Baek Gi-yeom also lived fourteen hundred years like Baek Yuri?
Neoul sat with his back against the tree and pondered. But beyond their identities, the thing he was most curious about was….
Why are they already out running when it’s still not even dawn?
He yawned sleepily and fiddled with his still-foreign legs and feet.
Baek Gi-yeom and Baek Yuri kept running for quite a while after that, then stopped and stretched again with refreshed expressions. Baek Yuri spoke up once more.
“By the way, why didn’t you tell us you were coming out here? Do you know how shocked I was when I saw you coming in with the producer yesterday while I was eating gimbap?”
“Surprise.”
Baek Gi-yeom grinned brightly and flashed a V-sign with his hand.
“I came here so we could debut together.”
“If you’re confident, go ahead.”
Baek Yuri smirked in challenge and began practicing the signal song choreography he had seen the day before.
“It’d be nice if we debuted together, but for now you and I are competitors too. I won’t go easy on you.”
“Yes, sir—of course.”
Competitors. So that was it.
Neoul understood.
Baek Yuri had clearly said he would give him his liver if they debuted together. If Baek Yuri failed and Neoul debuted, or if the opposite happened, then he wouldn’t get the liver at all. So for Neoul, everyone except Baek Yuri was a competitor.
How many people can debut?
The production team still hadn’t revealed such details.
I must catch Teacher Rabbit and debut together by any means.
If he failed, should he really do as the Sea Witch said and secretly cut open his stomach while he slept?
But Neoul had never harmed a living thing before, apart from the tiny fish and shrimp and anchovies and plankton that made up his usual diet. Naturally, he had never cut open another person’s stomach either.
Did he know what a liver even looked like? Of course not.
The more he thought about it, the more obstacles appeared stacked one on top of another.
Father King… am I doing this right?
—Right? You? Sneaking around somewhere dangerous without permission, you little brat!
It was almost as if he could hear the Dragon King’s furious bellow, fretting over a disobedient son from somewhere far away.
Even in his imagination, Neoul sulked at the Dragon King for not trusting his son.
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh—Gal Neoul. You’re up early… huh? You came out in your sleepwear?”
At that moment, Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom spotted Neoul hiding behind the tree and came over. Neoul hurriedly got to his feet.
“I came out to practice dancing too.”
Then he padded out barefoot across the yard. He liked the way the grass tickled his toes. The sun was rising, and dew had formed in clear beads over the blades.
The dawn on land was moist and fresh.
Neoul lay down in the grass and rolled around. Baek Gi-yeom wore a playful expression, then flopped down and rolled too, delighted with himself as he followed along.
After playing like that for a while, Baek Gi-yeom called out to Neoul with a bright smile.
“Neoul, you must’ve already watched the signal song with Yuri! Did you memorize any of it? Teach me too!”
At his request, Neoul got unsteadily to his feet and moved his body as he recalled the dance steps Baek Yuri had taught him the day before. Thump, thump.
“……”
“……? Is that right?”
Baek Gi-yeom compared the dance he had just seen from Baek Yuri with Gal Neoul’s version in his head and looked flustered.
Unlike the simple-minded Baek Gi-yeom, Baek Yuri had felt a chill when he discovered Gal Neoul hiding behind the tree in his sleepwear and barefoot, but he quickly concealed his expression.
Baek Yuri smiled faintly and showed him the proper choreography.
“Ooooh.”
“As expected of Baek Yuri. He’s good.”
Gal Neoul and Baek Gi-yeom were soon reduced to spectators, both watching in admiration.
“I only learned this much.”
Baek Yuri, stopping midway, advised Neoul that before practicing dance, it would be good to take one lap around the yard first. He also taught him how to walk properly and how to run properly.
Gal Neoul obediently followed Baek Yuri’s instruction. Then he circled the yard over and over without resting. By the time he finished the first lap, walking felt awkward and difficult, but by the second and third, his movements had grown natural and much better.
As Baek Yuri watched him and corrected his posture, he kept rubbing his arms, which had broken out in goosebumps.
That really doesn’t seem human.
At first he had thought Neoul couldn’t walk properly because he was in pain and his body was cold. His face was indeed bloodless, very white and pale. But the more he watched, the more Neoul’s actions seemed like those of an innocent child—or like an animal trying to imitate a person.
Like trying to eat the chocolate they gave him without even peeling off the wrapper, or carefully observing Woo Cheong peeling open a snack and then copying him. Or wandering around barefoot without shoes on.
Just the fact that someone could have a temperature of twenty-six degrees and still walk around perfectly fine without collapsing made no sense….
And that movement. It wasn’t the movement of someone injured or sick. It was the movement of someone who had never walked, never run, and thus had no skill at either.
What’s more, he learned incredibly fast.
As Neoul gradually adjusted to walking and then began to run, Baek Gi-yeom ran beside him and coached him on how to breathe properly while running. Neoul stared fixedly at Baek Gi-yeom’s movements and copied them exactly.
Even while watching that strange creature, Baek Gi-yeom didn’t seem to think much of it. It was like the look of a kind gym guardian spirit spotting a beginner who had just walked into a fitness center and wanting to teach them the correct form. The simple fool.
What is he? Some kind of water ghost…?
Neoul’s pace gradually picked up. Apparently finding running enjoyable, he started laughing like a child. For a ghost, his laughing face was far too bright and pure. Still, the fact that he laughed without making a single sound was eerie.
Baek Yuri recalled their conversation from the day before.
—I am Neoul, the second son of the Dragon King from Dragon Palace.
—The Heungbu? Do you know the Heungbu?
Maybe that wasn’t a joke or a bit of role-play after all.
Then following us out here and hiding behind the tree….
Was he after my liver? Thinking I was a rabbit?
A chill ran down his spine.