Taboo (1)
"Don't go past there!"
A warning rang out behind the young boy.
"What...?"
"Didn't you hear me? Cross that line, and they say you never come back."
"Get back here. Now!"
The man turned and walked away, his face crusted thick with old grime.
"But it's the only soccer ball we've got left..."
The boy looked left, then right. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he went after the ball.
His small figure vanished into the dark.
"You like it that much?"
The team leader looked at Hana, smiling the way a mother would.
"Yes! Hehe."
"Well. I was the same, once."
As if calling something back, she let her eyes fall gently shut.
"We have received all there was to receive, and rested all there was to rest."
"It is time we worked again."
Our first mission as higher-grade librarians. My fist tightened.
"But I will be sitting this one out. I have business at Pandora."
"The two of you shall be sent in the manner of a dispatch."
A dispatch?
"Of late, disappearances have been reported without end in the Gwangmyeong 5th Yellow Zone."
"Join the local unit, and settle in. That will do."
The excitement bright on Hana's face eased, just a little. The team leader propped her chin on one hand and went on.
"Have you not managed well enough without me?"
"There will be no combat. It is still only an investigation."
We had fought on our own before, true enough. Even so, hearing she wouldn't be coming left an odd feeling in my chest.
"And it has grown difficult to keep the power of purification hidden."
"Since matters have come to this, it is time you mixed with other teams."
"I had meant to keep you concealed a while longer, and raise you so."
She rose onto her toes and stretched both arms up. Her hands came to rest on my head, and on Hana's.
"You grew too quickly, you brats."
I was smoothing my mussed hair, just about to speak, when she set her hands on her hips and cut in first.
"Jaehee. Hana."
"From this day on, it will not be aberrations alone that come for you."
"Every filthy thing there is will try to cling."
In the brief pause that followed, something like her past seemed to flicker past me.
"Even so, do not fret."
"I will protect you. Without fail."
The dog tags at her throat caught my eye. She must have lived through a great deal—things she did not want to remember, things she never wanted to endure again. Maybe that was why. I could feel the wish in her: that we would never have to.
"Team Leader, you're getting pretty good at saying embarrassing things."
Hana pressed her cheek to the team leader's and rubbed.
"Ah— no, get off me!"
"You like it."
Saying it out loud must have made her shy after all.
"You'll be back soon, right?"
Pushing Hana away, the team leader looked at me.
"Yes, you brat. Two days, I should think."
"I was uneasy at first. Now you are starting to feel reliable."
Resigned, the pint-sized noona surrendered her cheek to Hana.
"We'll catch up before you know it!"
At my shout, packed full of fighting spirit, she smiled, just barely.
The moment I set foot on ground crowded with shacks, a damp chill climbed my legs. Beneath the dim streetlights, children were kicking a ball around, and their clothes were as worn-out as the ball itself. What filled the streets was not a lively bustle, but the clutter of people just trying to get through one more day.
Just as the locals' stares were starting to weigh on me, a man bowed far too deeply and offered his hand.
"You're with White Night, yes?"
"Yes. That's us."
I took the handshake, working the stiffness out of my body. Is he trying to turn a handshake into a contest of strength?
"This would be Grade 4 Librarian Han Jaehee. And this one, then..."
He let go at once and pointed at Hana.
"Must be Grade 5 Librarian Seo Hana?"
Jeon Taeho's eyes traveled up and down the both of us, and irritation rose hot under my skin.
"That's right. I'm Seo Hana."
"A pleasure. I'm Jeon Taeho, chief of the field security team."
A Grade 5 librarian's insignia hung on him, and the rest of him was a mess—hair uncombed, clothes unwashed. It might have been prejudice, but I already had a rough read on the man called Jeon Taeho.
"You're here to acclimate and look into things, correct?"
"Yes. Show us around."
"As you command."
He put on a sullen face and turned his back. Hana didn't like him either; her expression had gone sour. I was already missing the team leader.
But I have to stand firm. Everything comes down to momentum. Or so the pint-sized noona had told me—something about how the ones who'd looked down on her for being small were all beneath her now. Back then it had only sounded cute.
You were right, Team Leader.
"Pay your respects. These are White Night, the Lantern's own special operations team."
We stepped into a building no bigger than a neighborhood police outpost. Five or six people were inside, and every one of them moved at a deliberate crawl. Putting on a show of territorial spite, maybe.
"Loyalty. Kim Myeonghwan, Grade 7."
"Cha Seoyoon, Grade 6."
Their mouths said loyalty. Their eyes looked straight through us. So that's how it is. Fine.
Pint-sized noona—I'm borrowing you.
"Nothing to drink around here?"
I shoved both hands into my pockets and cocked a hip. Hana startled at the attitude, eyes going wide.
"...Yes?"
Kim Myeonghwan's eyes had gone just as round.
I tipped my chin and glared at him.
"I asked if there's anything to drink."
"Ha ha, please, sit. We'll get something ready."
"Though, as you know, this is a Yellow Zone, rather humble, so whether it will agree with—"
Jeon Taeho laid the courtesy on thick, scrambling to turn the mood.
"Enough. Instant coffee, light on the water. Hana, you?"
I dropped into a seat and looked at her.
"Uh...? Coffee for me too."
Still dazed, she sat down beside me.
"Get it ready. No need to bring mine."
Looking thoroughly put out, Jeon Taeho took the seat across from us. Kim Myeonghwan, heading off to mix the coffee, wore an especially rotten look. I obviously seemed younger than him, so of course he was annoyed. And what was he going to do about it? I was Grade 4. They were under me.
I didn't want to play it this way either.
"Hey. Twin-tails. Grade 6."
At that, the already cold room went colder still.
"While you're at it, bring snacks."
She didn't answer, but her body seemed to tremble, just slightly.
"May I brief you on the situation?"
He was using polite words. There still wasn't any respect in them. Looking down on us for being young? Or was it, you lot have it easy, working in Seoul?
Fine, you bastard. I'm not bending either. We'll take this all the way—
A cool voice came from beside me.
"No. When the drinks get here."
Hana?
Legs crossed, her expression resembled the team leader's, somehow.
Kim Myeonghwan brought the coffee with a face full of complaint. Cha Seoyoon, who had brought the snacks, was unexpectedly blank. Since he had no intention of hiding how he felt, I kept both hands in my pockets and listened to the briefing half-sprawled in the chair.
I stared at the coffee the whole way through. He must have spit in it. Did he think I'd actually drink it?
The briefing was, as expected, nothing much. A string of recent disappearances. The odd part was that every victim was a child. They were interviewing the parents, looking into how it had happened.
I made a show of dumping the stone-cold coffee into the trash.
"You can't throw coffee away in th—"
Like I care. I left the muttering Kim Myeonghwan behind and walked out of the security post.
Hard to say whether they'd lost all will after being posted to a Yellow Zone, or whether they'd always been like this and that was why they'd been sent here. I was liking them less by the minute.
Just as the disgust was swelling, a ball rolled up and stopped at my feet with a soft tok. A pack of boys came running from a ways off.
"Ah— sorry!"
I picked the ball up and tossed it back.
"It's fine. Go play."
"Thank you!"
They snatched the ball and thundered off, but one boy couldn't bring himself to leave.
"Hey, kid. Something wrong?"
Hana crouched down to his height.
"I... it's..."
He couldn't meet our eyes. He fidgeted, restless. Something was clearly the matter.
"It's okay. Tell us."
She pressed a piece of candy into his hand.
"Miss... and sir. You're librarians, right...?"
"Yeah. We are."
"The new ones. Kind of important, right...?"
Important, huh. We're not quite there yet.
"Could you help us...?"
His voice shook, but there was resolve in it.
"That's what we came to do."
At Hana's gentle answer, a little more of the tension seemed to leave him.
"My brother... I can't find my little brother. It's been days..."
"They say they're looking, but there's no word at all..."
Tears gathered in his eyes as he forced the words out.
"Can you... can you help...?"
Watching him cry, I started to get angry. It was obvious how those people would have treated him—stalling and stalling, wrapping the delay in one excuse after another. I swallowed it once and looked at the boy.
I wanted to say we'd find him, just like that. But a disappearance in a Yellow Zone... honestly, finding a body would already be lucky. What was I supposed to tell him? We'll find him felt far too light.
"What's your name? I'm Seo Hana."
"Huh...? Park Yongho."
"Yongho. That's a cool name. And your brother?"
"Park Yonghyeon..."
"All right, Yongho. We'll find him. But let's make one promise."
There was no lightness in her voice.
"You have to harden your heart. Understand?"
A kid living in Seoul wouldn't have understood. A kid surviving here couldn't fail to. He would already be learning, little by little, how useless hope could be.
"...I understand. Please just find him. Even if that's all..."
The tears fell without strength.
Hope was useless. Sometimes it was cruel.
And yet.
In the end, people had to look toward hope and keep walking. That was what I believed—the same way I had saved Hana.
"Even so. Try to keep believing."
The boy looked up at me.
"In one corner of that hardened heart."
"Hold on to one hope. Even a small one."
"Got it, kid?"
I crouched too, bringing my eyes level with his.
"Yes..."
Candy clenched tight in his fist, his face was a mess of tears.
To hear the rest, we headed for Yongho's house. Unlike the great cities sheltered by Anti-Anchors, this place had no such protection. A village had sprung up here only because it sat close to one, most likely. An old utility pole came into view, bearing every mark of the years. Had it been forty years since the first aberration, Eoduksini, was born? Forty years ago, this place would not have looked like this.
When we reached the front of Yongho's house, the faint sound of conversation drifted out. Had someone come by? Or was it his family?
"Looks like we have guests..."
From the way he said it, not family.
"Mom, I brought people."
The door opened, and a familiar silhouette was in the middle of talking with Yongho's mother. Grade 6. Twin-tails. The moment our eyes met, her expression soured at speed. The type who can't manage her face.
"Grade 6 Twin-tails. You were investigating out here?"
So she's the diligent one, at least?
"I'll be going, then."
Cha Seoyoon moved to leave in a hurry. That won't do.
I said it on purpose, drawing the words out.
"Hold on."
"What was your name again?"