Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Tuna Can (2)
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The tuna can was the problem.
I don’t know the exact date, but it was a long time ago.
In the laboratory.
They seemed to be researching the right dosage of medicine for regeneration without scarring.
Though I didn’t know why they were doing it on my body.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
a researcher asked.
“You look hungry.”
Was he asking me?
“Me?”
“I wasn’t asking you.”
The other researcher, who was looking at a computer screen, turned to look at me.
“This thing can talk?”
“They say it does sometimes, if you tell it to.”
“Really?”
I can talk.
I’m just quiet because they told me I was noisy.
Besides, not many people talk to me.
They all avoid me.
Almost no one asks questions to a blood-soaked magical beast.
“I asked what your favorite food is.”
What was it?
Let me think.
“It’s not talking.”
“No, it will. Favorite food.”
There were a few people I liked.
People who were kind.
“What do you like to eat?”
Something to eat.
Something I ate a lot.
What was it?
“Maybe it’ll understand if I say ‘feed’?”
Not much came to mind.
“Tu…”
“Oh, it’s talking.”
“Tuna… can…”
“It says tuna can.”
The tuna cans I used to eat with Si-hoo.
We had them at home.
They’re delicious.
They were surprisingly expensive, so we couldn’t eat them often.
The tuna rice balls were good too.
Though we had to go all the way to the city to buy them.
I remember Si-hoo cutting his hand while trying to open a can.
They were hard to open.
It bled.
It’s bleeding.
“Huh?”
What are you doing?
What are they doing?
They’re doing something with a knife.
It’s a pocketknife.
He lightly sliced my lower abdomen.
Like drawing a line with a pencil.
“Let’s write down that it likes tuna cans.”
“You’re going to leave a scar?”
“Eh.”
What are they talking about?
“No, should I draw a picture? It said it’s hungry.”
I never said I was hungry.
What does a picture have to do with being hungry?
“A tuna can, huh.”
“Can’t put one in its belly, but I can draw one on it.”
What in the world are they saying?
They said the scar experiments on my arm were over.
I was restrained, so I couldn’t move.
I didn’t have the strength to resist in the first place.
There was no way to stop them.
I still didn’t really understand.
What are these people doing to me?
“Show it to your friend when you see them.”
he said, mocking me.
“If they ask, ‘What do you want to eat?’ you can just show them.”
“Eh, agh.”
What have you done?
I don’t want this.
“Isn’t it a good thing? It can’t talk well anyway.”
What are you saying?
What are you talking about?
I wanted to close my eyes, but for some reason, even that wasn’t easy.
The unpleasant sensation on my stomach.
A tuna can?
My memories were being desecrated.
I don’t want to eat tuna cans anymore.
The ones I ate with Si-hoo.
They were good.
But why on my body?
Ah.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
I don’t like tuna cans.
Don’t write it.
Don’t scribble on my body.
What are you doing?
“I drew it wrong. Ovals are hard to draw.”
“I told you to just write the words.”
“It’s hard with a knife. What should I write?”
I hate tuna cans.
But the ones I ate with Si-hoo were delicious.
No, but I hate it.
But tuna cans are tasty.
I like tuna.
But why are you writing ‘tuna’ on my body?
Why?
I don’t get it.
“Agh…”
So I’m tuna, or a tuna can.
I told Si-hoo we should eat it together.
I’ve even had tuna ice cream.
I like that stuff.
I liked tuna cans, so Si-hoo bought them for me a lot.
They were delicious.
Still, you don’t need to write it on my body.
Si-hoo already knows without me saying anything.
No one will know even if you write it here.
“But why a tuna can?”
“Maybe someone gave it to it as feed? Like you’d give to a cat.”
Why are they doing this?
With Si-hoo, with Si-hoo, together.
At home, there wasn’t much to eat besides rice and ramen.
So sometimes, when we took one out to eat.
It was delicious.
I like it.
I shouldn’t have said I liked it.
I shouldn’t have said I liked it.
I shouldn’t have said I liked it.
What are you doing?
A sense of helplessness enveloped my entire being.
“Heh.”
Something inside me snapped.
No.
It’s fine.
It doesn’t matter what they do to my body.
No one will know anyway.
I just have to not show my friend.
Tuna can.
Likes.
It’s an obvious fact, so there’s no need to write it down.
No need.
*Stab.*
A small amount of the drug was administered.
When the healing effect is minimal, a scar remains.
A scar was left behind.
Intricately written words and a drawing remained.
Tuna can.
Likes.
That’s what was written.
There’s no way this happened to me.
Who did it happen to?
Yoo Seo-ah?
Who’s that?
Who is she, who is she, who is she.
I don’t think it was me.
Ahahaha.
Time passed and passed.
But the scar didn’t disappear.
Today’s experiment supervisor is going to drink coffee tomorrow morning.
I see.
A researcher told me his shopping list for tomorrow.
He’s buying a lot of vegetables.
And fruit.
To be precise, one head of cabbage, five radishes, and a box each of apples and pears.
Oh, and he said he’s buying cereal too.
Looks like he’s getting beer as well.
It must be a shopping list.
You should write things like that on a notepad.
A person’s back is not a notepad.
Even if you’re too lazy to find a pen and paper.
Most of the scribbles were on my back.
They said it was hard to write on the abdomen, so it seemed they wrote on my back instead.
This is a scar. I wonder if it will fade.
I even found out a researcher’s initials.
What was it… something starting with K.
He wrote it on my shoulder before he left.
Said he was practicing his signature.
I don’t know why he’d do that with a box cutter.
Probably because he was bored.
It’s a relief that more of them didn’t leave scars.
The drug was effective, so many wounds healed perfectly.
I wonder why scribbling became so popular.
Do they scribble on other magical beasts for fun too?
Maybe the researcher who wrote ‘tuna’ started a rumor.
“Heehee.”
What if Si-hoo sees?
What if my friend sees?
What would he think of me?
What did he say last time?
Think carefully.
At the end.
Didn’t he say something harsh?
Did he call me a slut?
No, that wasn’t it.
How do I prove it now?
People just scribbled on me and left.
Eheehee.
Why did they do that?
You want to do it too?
What do I do, what do I do.
People will see it and think I’m weird.
What do I do?
Do you like tuna cans?
No.
Then why is that written on your stomach?
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
Those people did it.
They said it was their break time at the lab.
I didn’t do anything.
Why does your back list how many vegetables to buy?
I don’t know.
Those people are buying them.
I guess it’s convenient to use as a notepad.
There’s a phone number.
Is there?
I don’t.
Understand.
They said they’d erase it with the medicine so my skin would be clean for more memos later.
Did it get erased?
I guess so.
I could check in a mirror, but I’m scared to look.
I’ll just pretend it never happened.
Like it never happened.
I didn’t want to show the scars that were already on my arms.
But I could still show them to my friend.
But a scar that says I like tuna cans… I don’t understand it.
What if I get caught?
Will they treat me like a psycho?
Will they just think I’m a little slow?
This thing.
I said I liked tuna cans, so they drew it for me.
Isn’t it pretty?
Hee.
“Heheh.”
There’s no way that’s true.
Yeah.
Be rational.
“Heh…”
There’s no one else in the room anyway.
There’s no one to see me but me.
“Ahaha.”
Even lifting my clothes just a little revealed the crude drawing of a tuna can.
It says I like tuna.
“Heehit…”
I laughed because I didn’t understand.
I just…
…liked eating them with Si-hoo.
They asked what food I liked, so I answered.
“Ehehehe…”
The drugs made me feel good.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
You never know.
Maybe someday we could have been on good terms again, like before.
“I’ll pretend it never happened.”
I don’t like tuna cans.
So there’s no reason to say it’s my favorite food.
So there’s no reason for them to scribble on me.
No, but… do you get scribbled on if it’s your favorite food?
I don’t even like vegetables that much.
Why did they write a shopping list?
What if my friend sees?
“You’re not going to leave this place anyway, right?”
I can’t leave.
I shouldn’t leave.
“And you don’t have any friends anymore, so it’s fine.”
They’re all people I can never meet again.
And even if we did meet, they probably wouldn’t recognize me.
I don’t care.
I never planned on meeting them anyway.
I just want to observe.
The protagonist will take care of everything, so I’ll just watch.
“Forget… about it.”
I’ll forget.
Look how many things I’ve forgotten already.
I’m going to forget.
I’m going to forget.
I’m going to forget.
“Ahahat.”
Even though I can’t remember anything important.
“…[Forget about it.]”
And just like that, I really forgot.
Until the Doctor reminded me just now.
***
Hyperventilating.
“Hah— Haa, haa.”
[394 hours, 12 minutes]
Separate from the drug's effects, it seemed my trauma had resurfaced.
I couldn’t see the scar anymore.
The Doctor had bandaged it up nicely.
There wasn’t much, just enough to cover my lower abdomen, but it was enough.
“Haa, haah, ha.”
My breathing was ragged.
In the end, the root of the problem was never solved.
It wasn’t that I’d overcome it; I had just forgotten.
I’d been forced out of the bliss of oblivion.
They just scribbled on me a little.
A trivial prank.
“[It’s okay.]”
Is it?
I felt a little more at ease.
My breathing calmed down.
“[Rest assured.] It’s just a scribble, after all.”
Is it?
Right.
I felt relieved.
“Ah, and I’m keeping all the video logs from the experiments.”
“……”
Video logs.
That kind of thing was recorded?
“Your friends will never see the videos, so don’t worry.”
How much does the Doctor know?
If he saw the videos of the experiment table…
More than that, if he knew the experiments themselves were happening…
If he knew I was trapped in a place like that…
Why didn’t he come to save me?
He’s supposed to be a good person.
He is a good person.
He has to be.
I don’t even know why I was in a place like that to begin with.
Since when was I in the lab?
The Doctor spoke as if it was something I chose, but I have no memory of that at all.
“I’ve also collected every last bit of the surveillance camera footage.”
It’s a happy ending anyway.
I killed all the people who tormented me.
I did the same thing to them.
They didn’t even last thirty seconds.
Should I have asked them what they liked?
“The fact that you’re a murderer, Seo-ah, is something that no one but me…”
…knows.
No one.
“…Huh?”
A murderer?
“You did half-destroy the research facility. If that got out, you’d essentially be treated as a villain. If it weren’t for me, that is.”
Does the Doctor know everything?
I don’t know what would have happened by now if it weren’t for the Doctor.
He really is a good person.
“I plan to hold onto the recovered videos for the time being. The experiment logs in particular seem like they might come in handy. I’ll keep them safe, so don’t worry.”
There’s no way they’ll come in handy.
Is he blackmailing me?
“Ah, it’s not blackmail… It seems you don’t remember at all.”
the Doctor continued, looking troubled.
“There is a beneficiary. A beneficiary who owes you a great debt, Seo-ah. Do you remember?”
A debt?
A beneficiary?
I didn’t know what he was talking about.
I had no idea.
“She’s the one they call the Saintess. She’s forgotten everything and is living happily now, but…”
The Doctor straightened my clothes.
“We have to collect that debt.”
He took my hand and helped me up from the bench.
“The wind is getting cold. Shall we go inside and talk?”