A Beast Unleashed
A large supermarket parking lot located on the outskirts of the city.
Perhaps because it was a Friday afternoon right before the weekend, the parking lot was bustling with people out grocery shopping.
The rattling of shopping carts, the crying of children, and the sharp whistles of parking attendants blended together to create a noisy, mundane scene. Amidst it all, a battered old van sat awkwardly parked behind a concrete pillar.
We were inside it.
Inside the van, we were monitoring Professor Park's movements using a telescope and wiretapping equipment that Deokhu had modified.
"He's coming out."
The professor was pushing a cart out of the supermarket entrance.
He was dressed in a neat suit, complete with a tie.
He looked completely out of place at a local supermarket. With a fastidious expression, he checked his receipt as he walked toward his black Grandeur.
"So far... he looks normal?" Minhae muttered, adjusting the focus of the telescope.
"No. Look at his stride," I pointed out.
"His steps are wider than usual. And his shoulders are completely stiff. He's already angry."
The professor violently popped the trunk and practically threw the grocery bags inside.
Slam!
The sound of the trunk slamming shut echoed loudly through the parking lot.
It was loud enough to make nearby shoppers jump and look over.
"Damn it!"
He climbed into the driver's seat.
Static.
The professor's heavy breathing filtered through the speaker inside our van.
The level of hostility was high for someone just talking to themselves.
It wasn't his usual "refined sarcasm," but a raw, vulgar irritation boiling up from the depths of his temper.
The Grandeur's engine roared to life.
The sputtering sound of the old engine vibrated through the speaker.
"He's moving. Don't lose him."
Minhae started the van and prepared to slowly tail the Grandeur.
Just as the Grandeur entered the lane heading toward the exit,
a compact car entering from the opposite direction put on its hazard lights and hesitated, blocking the lane as the driver searched for a parking spot.
Looking at the driver's seat, a middle-aged woman sat behind the wheel, her car plastered with "Student Driver" stickers.
Normally, this was a situation where one would wait a moment or give a light tap on the horn to signal them to move.
But.
The professor's voice coming through the speaker was laced with pure violence.
HONNNNNK!!!
A long, deafening blare of the horn.
Startled, the driver of the compact car slammed on her brakes. The car came to a dead stop.
HONK! HONNNNK! HONK! HONK-HONK-HONK!!!
The Grandeur's horn didn't stop.
Like a machine gun firing wildly on a battlefield, the hysterical, threatening noise filled the entire parking lot.
"Whoa, what is wrong with him? My ears are going to bleed," Deokhu grimaced and turned down the volume.
Flustered, the driver of the compact car rolled down her window and waved her hand in apology. But the professor's Grandeur didn't stop; instead, it lurched forward threateningly.
Screeech!
The Grandeur's bumper stopped mere millimeters from the compact car's rear bumper.
Screaming at the top of his lungs inside the car, the professor finally kicked his door open and stepped out.
"Uh? Hey! He's getting out. What do we do?"
At my shout, we all pressed our faces against the van's windows.
"Should we go out there?"
"Hold on..."
Professor Park was stomping toward the compact car, huffing and puffing. His face was flushed red with broken capillaries, and he was literally foaming at the mouth.
The rational, cool-headed intellectual was nowhere to be found.
Professor Park Jinchul looked exactly like a rabid dog.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
The professor began violently pounding on the driver's side window of the compact car.
The glass rattled violently, looking as if it might shatter at any moment.
"Hey! Get out! Get out right now!"
"Oh my goodness, what is wrong with you?! I'm sorry, I don't know the way very well..."
The terrified woman sobbed through a tiny crack in the window.
"Sorry? You think saying sorry fixes this? Did you buy your license with pocket change?! Did you learn to drive with your feet?!"
The professor's roaring voice boomed across the parking lot.
"Where does an ignorant wench like you get the nerve to grab a steering wheel! Go back to the kitchen and cook! Get out! Get out right now and get on your knees!"
A torrent of unspeakable verbal abuse poured from his mouth. Passersby began to gather, whispering amongst themselves. Some even pulled out their smartphones to record the scene.
"Oh no... If that gets uploaded, the professor is going to be socially ruined."
"Damn it... this is bad."
"Right? What do we do?"
"We're stepping in."
The situation escalated further.
The moment the terrified woman opened her car door to step out, the professor lunged forward, reaching to grab her by the collar.
"Are you looking down on me? Huh? Do you have any idea who I am?!"
"Aaaah! Help me!" the woman screamed.
The professor raised his hand.
"No!"
I threw open the van door and bolted out.
"Deokhu! Follow me!"
We sprinted through the gathering crowd. The distance wasn't far, but that short stretch felt like an eternity.
We rushed in.
Grab!
I threw myself forward and snatched the professor's wrist.
"Professor! Stop this!"
"W-who are you?! Let go of me! I'll kill you!"
Without even recognizing me, the professor violently tried to shake off my grip.
His strength was monstrous.
This was not the physical strength of a professor who spent his days reading books, watching movies, and writing critiques.
His grip was tight enough to crush bone. I bit my lip hard and shouted,
"It's me! Kim Minjun! Your student, Professor!"
I yelled, staring straight into his eyes.
The professor's pupils trembled.
They were cloudy, unfocused, and spinning erratically.
"Kim... Minjun...?"
While he hesitated, Deokhu quickly stepped in front of the woman to shield her.
"We are so sorry! We are incredibly sorry, ma'am! You must have been so frightened."
Deokhu bowed repeatedly, trying to soothe the woman.
"He's our professor, but he's been under an extreme amount of stress lately due to his research... He suffers from panic disorder. He forgot to take his medication today... He's really not a bad person, we are so sorry. He's sick. He's a sick man, you understand, right? Since he's sick..."
Thanks to Deokhu's smooth-talking lies and his desperate apologies as a burly young man, the woman seemed to feel more bewildered and pitying than angry.
"Still... how could he do that? He looked like he was about to hit me! I'm calling the police!"
"Of course! You have every right to. But if you do, it'll just waste your time with investigations and make things complicated for you... We'll make sure to talk to him. Here is my contact information for now."
While Deokhu led the woman aside to handle the situation, I held onto the professor, who was still huffing and puffing.
"Professor, please calm down. People are watching. Your students are watching you."
Perhaps the word "student" acted as a trigger.
The professor's ragged breathing gradually began to slow.
The dark energy slowly receded from his bloodshot eyes.
"Uh... Uh...?"
The professor looked around blankly.
The terrified onlookers staring at him, the murmuring crowd, and my hand gripping his sleeve.
His fingers, which had been curled like talons to grab the woman's collar, trembled weakly.
"W-why am I... like this? Sigh... things have been so strange lately..."
"What did I... just do..."
Judging by his muttering, his memory seemed fragmented. He knew he had gotten angry, but his expression showed he couldn't remember why he had flown into such a rage or what awful things he had said.
It was a classic early symptom of possession, or rather, encroachment.
"Let's get in the car first. There are too many people here."
I supported the dazed professor and guided him toward the passenger seat.
He followed meekly, as if he didn't even have the strength to resist.
"We'll drive. We'll take you home."
Just then, Minhae got out of the van and ran over.
"Sunbae! I'll do it!"
Minhae was notorious for her wild driving, but right now, she was the most reliable driver to handle the professor.
"Right. I'm counting on you. Don't provoke him under any circumstances, and just quietly drop him off at his house."
"Don't worry. I'll give him the VIP designated driver treatment."
Minhae confidently climbed into the Grandeur's driver's seat.
The professor huddled in the passenger seat, burying his face in his hands. His usual confident, arrogant demeanor was completely gone.
The engine rumbled.
The Grandeur started up again and slowly made its way out of the parking lot.
Deokhu, Seyeon, and I stood watching it leave.
"Phew... that nearly shaved ten years off my life," Deokhu sighed in relief, clutching his chest.
"Hyung, did you see his eyes earlier? He looked like he was genuinely ready to kill someone."
"Yeah. I saw. He really did."
I couldn't take my eyes off the receding rear of the Grandeur.
The black chassis was dyed crimson by the setting sun.
And the pale gray exhaust fumes spewing from the tailpipe.
As the smoke dispersed into the air, it twisted into a bizarre shape.
It looked exactly like a skull, grinning and mocking us.
"Let's go."
I turned around.
"We have a lot to prepare. First, we need to modify the van... and then..."
At my words, Deokhu nodded solemnly.
Immediately after the commotion at the supermarket parking lot,
we returned straight to Minhae's studio apartment—our hideout.
Judging by the rapid deterioration of Professor Park's personality, we were running out of time.
We needed more thorough and foolproof preparations before D-day: Monday at midnight.
I stood in front of the whiteboard once again.
"Alright, everyone, listen up."
"Let's do a final review of our plan. Once the entity reveals its true colors and starts running wild, we'll pursue it in the van."
Deokhu raised his hand.
"Hyung, I get that we're chasing him. But what do we do once we catch up? Ram him to a stop? Or jump from car to car like in the movies to slam on his brakes? Aren't we all going to die if we try that?"
Deokhu's question hit the nail on the head.
We all knew that a physical car chase was merely a means to an end, not the solution.
After all, we couldn't stop a multi-ton hunk of metal traveling at a hundred kilometers per hour with our bare bodies.
"Exactly. That's why I'm going to explain the solution now."
I picked up a marker and wrote a new word on the whiteboard.