My House Collapsed! (3)

Is this girl insane?

…Then again, she wasn't wrong. And it was something nobody else knew.

His fiancée was painfully shy; there was no chance the story had leaked from her end. His parents knew only that it had been a shotgun situation — not the inside story of him being a sniping prodigy. He hadn't even told Yoo Siwol…

Or had he? He might've spilled it that one time he was drunk.

Either way, the voice on the other end kept pouring itself out in desperation.

"…Are you actually Siwol? Why does your voice sound like that?"

Moon Sangjun cut in, perfectly calm. Honestly, it was hard to believe — but superhumans calling themselves Awakened had started showing up left and right. At this point, nothing would surprise him.

…It was absolutely not because he was terrified of what else might come out of that mouth.

"Cut the shit. What the hell happened?"

Moon Sangjun rubbed his temple. He couldn't tell whether his head hurt because any of this was true, or because the person on the other end was the kind of headache that infected everyone around them.

The news report he'd seen earlier flashed through Moon Sangjun's mind. A woman in a hoodie and sweatpants.

"Wait. A motel?"

Moon Sangjun let out a long breath and stood up from the couch.

"Where are you."

"We'll talk when I get there. Don't do anything. Just stay put."

"It'll take about thirty minutes. I'll knock when I get there. Come out then."

Click. The call went dead.

A dragon. And a little girl.

Honestly, he didn't take the woman claiming to be Yoo Siwol at her word. She knew a secret nobody else should have known — but that didn't prove she was Yoo Siwol. It was a slim chance, but his fiancée could have told a close friend, and it could have gotten out from there.

It didn't matter. He couldn't get ahold of Yoo Siwol himself, and this person knew something only that idiot would know. Meeting this woman wasn't going to suddenly kill a still-living Yoo Siwol. She was worth meeting.

Moon Sangjun carefully picked up his car keys. He carefully pulled on his coat, went down to the garage, and carefully opened the car door.

What he could not carefully stop himself from doing was unconsciously flooring the accelerator.

VROOOM! CRUNCH!

"Fuck. My car—"

Nor could he stop himself from unconsciously slamming the brakes.

SCREEEEECH! CRRRUNCH!

"Fuck! My! Car!!!"

The thirty minutes we'd agreed on had come and gone, and Moon Sangjun still wasn't here.

Maybe it was the spectacular way I'd spent my dawn, but I was starving. I considered hitting the convenience store for some ramyeon, then caught my reflection in the mirror above the bed and dropped the idea.

Okay, I do look pretty.

Even I had to admit it was a face that turned heads. The kind that would end up on someone's socials if I so much as walked down the street. Best not to go out if I could help it.

That said…

"He's laaate—"

At this rate, am I going to get arrested?

I was starting to get nervous. Moon Sangjun was a slippery bastard; trusting him was a leap of faith on a good day. What if he hadn't believed me at all and just called the cops?

Should I go buy a placard right now and write DO YOU KNOW CLUB and I LOVE YOU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA on it? Hang it around my neck, stand in the middle of Gwanghwamun going whimper whimper I don't bite, and watch the Instagram addicts lose their minds trying to get a photo?

I was gnawing on my finger hard enough to draw blood when a knock split the silence.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I lunged for the doorknob on reflex.

Wait. What if it's the police?

I called through the door, careful.

"Who is it…?"

"It's me."

I checked the peephole. Fortunately, the catastrophe of Moon Sangjun showing up with a police escort did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not come to pass.

"I believed in you, dammit!"

I threw the door wide with a bright grin.

"Thank you for believing me. Please, come in."

Moon Sangjun didn't answer. He didn't move. The only thing that moved were the cold, sanpaku eyes under the brim of his pulled-down cap, raking me from head to toe.

"…Are you really Siwol?"

"Can't you tell just by looki— anyway. Get in first."

He locked the deadbolt, latched the chain, and dropped onto the bed. I sat in the chair by the nightstand and rummaged around in my waistband.

"I definitely stashed my wallet in here… ah, there it is. Look. My ID. And this is my phone."

"Give them here."

I handed Moon Sangjun the wallet and the phone. He checked both of them over with painstaking care, then collapsed onto the bed and closed his eyes.

About ten minutes later — right around the time I started waving a hand in front of his face, wondering if this guy had just gone and died on me — he opened his eyes. And he sighed like he was trying to deflate the entire planet.

"Haaaaaaah……"

"Who are you sighing at right now? I'm the one who got fucked here."

Lost the actual dick in the bargain, too.

Cha-ha-ha—

"……"

Moon Sangjun sat up. His gaze landed on the rolled-up cuffs of my sweatpants, climbed the worn hoodie, passed over the white hair and the skin and the sharp, pointed teeth, and stopped on eyes that were, in a very literal sense, glowing.

"Your pupils… are vertical……"

"Yeah. I told you I turned into a dragon."

Moon Sangjun reached toward my eyes.

"Whoa, hey, what are you doing."

I jerked back in alarm, and he grabbed my whole head instead.

"No, you're seriously Yoo Siwol? Seriously?"

"That's what I've been saying."

"This thing that looks like a middle schooler doing anime cosplay with the most unhinged AI smoothing slapped on a Twitter photo? You're telling me this isn't some crazy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠girl who thinks she's Yoo Siwol — this actually was that miserly little bastard?"

"What is this? You picking a fight? And hyung, you look at that kind of stuff?"

I jabbed my foot into Moon Sangjun's side.

"Ah, shit. You little— hyung's going through some stuff right now, okay?"

Moon Sangjun flicked his wrist.

WHAP! BANG!

"GYAAAAAH!"

"Hey! You okay!?"

"I don't think I'm okay!? I think my ankle's gone!? Is my foot even still attached!?"

I was not kidding. I genuinely thought an ankle mine had gone off. I was wiping away the tears that had leaked out when Moon Sangjun frantically yanked up my pant leg. My twig-thin ankle had swollen a violent, throbbing red.

"Huh. What's this? Why is my ankle like this?"

"Uh……"

"How does a person even do that? If you have a problem, use your wor—"

Ah.

Moon Sangjun was, by family temperament, a fairly slippery and underhanded piece of work — but he was not a psychopath who would wreck his little brother's ankle just because he was in a bad mood. Which meant this had not been on purpose.

"Did something happen to you too, hyung? Did you turn into one of those superhuman types?"

"Uh, yeah…"

So that's why this guy believed me so easily. I'd thought it was weird. He was not the type to swallow a story like that without a fight.

I was privately nodding along when Moon Sangjun poked my ankle.

"Gyak."

"Does it hurt?"

"Are you a psychopath? You poke it and then ask if it hurts?"

Moon Sangjun's face went dark.

"Hospital first. We need to find an ER that's open."

"Hold on. Is it even okay for me to walk into a hospital looking like this?"

"I'll handle that. Just come on."

He hoisted me over his shoulder like a sack of rice. The man was huge to begin with, and with that stride, every step mashed my stomach against him. I hadn't eaten anything and I still felt like throwing up.

"Could you carry me a little more comfortably? Every step feels like a steel beam jabbing into my gut."

"No. If anyone takes a photo, this is the safest pose. Walking around with me, you look young enough to be my daughter. What if it makes the news and my wife has a heart attack?"

Hmm.

"You do kind of have an old face, hyung."

"You're dead."

Gotta give it to my sister-in-law, though.

A detached house on a hillside in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seocho-dong. A glass greenhouse and a vegetable patch in the yard, a little pond stocked with koi. Two floors above ground, two below. An elevator between levels, and a parking garage in the basement.

That was the kind of place a man named Moon Sangjun lived in.

"You insane gold spoon. I can feel myself turning red."

"Then get out."

"Aigoo, why would you say it like that."

I grinned and rubbed my palms together. Moon Sangjun snorted a laugh and opened a door.

"Use this for now. It's a guest room, but nobody uses it anyway."

"Thanks."

I hobbled in on crutches and threw myself onto the bed.

"Ack! Gyak!"

"Be careful."

The hospital's diagnosis had been a hairline fracture and a torn ligament. No surgery, thankfully — but clomping around in a walking cast with crutches was a special kind of miserable. I glared at Moon Sangjun, unimpressed.

"If you'd been careful in the first place, my ankle wouldn't be like this."

"I already said I was sorr— no. I'm sorry. This was my fault."

"So get me some water. I need to take my meds."

Moon Sangjun came back with a cup of water and sat down in the chair. He tore open the pharmacy envelope and asked, as if it were nothing,

"Anyway. So. What now. What did you actually call me for. You didn't track me down just to ask if I had a spare room because your house caved in."

"Well, that too, but… the most urgent thing right now is identity. I need legal protection, for one."

I laid out everything I'd been turning over at the motel. I had no house. I had no money. I had no dick. And thanks to all of the above, I might as well have had no identity either. The police were looking for me, and I had zero legal or political safety net, and I did not want to put my life in the hands of the state.

Moon Sangjun listened in silence, then tossed it out like a dart.

"So basically you want me to be your backer."

"Yeah. Help me, Sangjun-emon……"

"And while we're at it, restore your identity, handle the whole collapsed-house thing, and lend you a room since you've got nowhere to sleep?"

"It's a little shameless and I'm asking for a lot, but… yeah, that's about right……"

I let my gaze drop, sheepish. There was nothing in this favor for Moon Sangjun. It was a request riding entirely on the fact that we were close. So if he turned me down, I wouldn't resent him for it. Because that's what a favor is……

He must have read it on my face. He'd been staring at me, and then his expression crumpled.

"Hehe. I asked for a lot, didn't I? But you don't have to get mad all of a sudd—"

"No. Back in the day, if a guy was sitting there looking that pathetic and reading the room, I'd have smacked him upside the head. But you doing it looking like that is kind of cute and pitiful. Then I remember it's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you and it suddenly feels fucking gross."

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

I shouldn't have asked. I was grumbling with a look on my face like spoiled milk when Moon Sangjun carefully set a hand on my head. The hand trembled from the effort of holding back his strength, and still managed to ruffle my hair like a bear.

"Why are you walking on eggshells. We're not strangers. Don't read the room — just ask for help. It's not even a hard favor."

I'm not even a crier, but I just teared up a little…

"Father……!"

"Ah, that's a bit much. My wife's already got my kid in her belly."

"Unable to call a father 'Father'…! As expected of an orphan…!"

"First verse only."

"Yes, sir."

Moon Sangjun laughed and patted my head. It stung a little, but he seemed to be getting the hang of controlling his strength.

"Aren't you tired? Did you sleep at the motel?"

"I got maybe two or three hours… yeah. I am tired. I just got really sleepy all of a sudden."

The second the tension let go, my eyelids grew heavy, as if they'd been waiting for permission.

"I need to call my wife and my parents. Loop in a few people. I'll kill the lights on my way out — just get some sleep for now. I'll take care of what you asked."

"Okay. Thanks."

Moon Sangjun switched off the light and stepped out.

"Go to sleep."

The door clicked shut.

I wriggled over and laid my head on the pillow.

"Hah. At least I can breathe for a second……"

With the room gone dark, the whole day started flickering through my head. I'd turned into a dragon and blown up the house I'd been saving for since middle school. I'd run for it in a stranger's body and found out the world had filled up with superhumans. I'd met Moon Sangjun, somehow convinced him I was Yoo Siwol, and become a cripple.

Temporarily, at least.

All of it in half a day.

I closed my eyes and curled up. I was exhausted enough to die and sleepy enough to drop, but sleep wouldn't come. I squeezed my eyes shut anyway and tried to force it.

I had way too much happen today……

I'm so tired, for real……