People with Aching Heads
The woman’s hazy gray eyes looked utterly forlorn, like a lost child. Even though those dull pupils were pointed straight at me, I couldn’t feel her gaze at all. She had simply turned her head toward the direction of my voice. She wasn’t actually seeing me.
“...Oppa? Are you still there? Did you leave…? I see… I’m sorry. The friends at our house said Harumu’s knife was really cool. So I wanted to show it off to the kind oppa too, but it must have scared you… I’m sorry…”
“.......”
I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but the atmosphere didn’t feel particularly dangerous. Looking closer, she was soaked to the bone. A tattered bandage clung to her cheek, blood trickled from a scraped knee, and ugly purple bruises bloomed across her pale skin. What the hell were all these injuries…?
She was shivering, probably from the cold. I gently stroked her trembling forearm.
“...Eep…? Oppa?”
“...Are you cold?”
The woman let out a soft moan, startled by my touch against her chilled skin and bruises, and turned her head.
“Ehehe… You’re still here. Thank you. Oppa’s hand is so warm… Um, Harumu… I have a favor to ask… Could you hug me? Just once?”
“....Huh? Wait, I don’t really speak Japanese that well… Um…”
A bright, pure smile spread across her face, one that revealed an untouched innocence, yet sorrow slowly bled into it. With eyes full of childlike curiosity, sadness, and desperate longing, she spread her arms wide. Even though we couldn’t understand each other’s words, I knew exactly what she was asking of me.
She looked so pitiful, so heartbreaking. Caught in the faded light of those eyes, I unconsciously opened my own arms, about to pull the small woman into my embrace—
THUD—!!
A dull sound echoed loudly across the street. My vision shook violently. My body staggered, then began to tilt. A wave of pain exploded from the right side of my forehead a beat too late. My legs gave out. For a split second, I nearly lost consciousness entirely.
What had struck my head was something long, thin, and black.
“You damn monkey bastard! How dare you, how dare you touch the young lady’s body…!”
A furious voice, having approached without a single sound, lowered the leg it had swung through the air back to the ground. The woman’s slender leg. The tip of her dress shoe was stained with bright red blood.
Is that… my blood?
“Oppa?! Where did oppa go?! That voice—is that you, Hana?!”
“Yes, young lady! I’m sorry for being late. It’s me, Hana! Are you alright?! Are you hurt anywhere else…!”
Another woman tightly grasped the hand of the one who had been frantically groping the ground in panic at the loud noise. She wore a crisp suit and had the same cold, calculating eyes as Yunsol in her Succubus Form.
I blinked, staring at the suited woman who had turned to glare at me with pure rage as I lay sprawled on the asphalt.
“.............”
Hot liquid streamed down my forehead, forming a small puddle on the ground. My vision spun wildly. Strength had already drained from my arms. And I couldn’t speak…
The camera flashes from the growing crowd of onlookers and their buzzing chatter began to overwhelm my eyes and ears. Just before my vision sank completely into darkness, someone cradled my fallen head in their hands.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Unnecessarily assaulting a civilian…! I will report this to headquarters…!!”
A familiar voice spat out unfamiliar words, laced with raw anger. The gentle touch pressing a soft handkerchief against the wound on my forehead belonged to Noa.
Kwon Noa…
“Do whatever you want. We’ve found the young lady, so the mission is over. We no longer require your assistance. We’ll handle Miss Harumu’s medical check and mental stabilization ourselves, so stay out of it. More importantly, get that filthy monkey out of the young lady’s sight. It’s an eyesore.”
“...Do you have a death wish?”
“If you’re here as an interpreter, speak in Japanese. Useless guide.”
A bloodthirsty exchange unfolded right before my eyes, the kind that could erupt into violence at any second. Noa narrowed her eyes sharply, spitting out heated Korean, while the woman in the suit matched her intensity without backing down. What stopped them was a small, pitiful whimper.
“Hana… Harumu is scared…”
“Ugh…! I-I’m sorry, young lady! I’m right here with you. Please don’t worry! Come, let’s return quickly. Your mother is very concerned after you disappeared during the coming-of-age ceremony.”
“...Mom… is worried about… me…?”
The woman in the suit pulled the knife from the ground and took the blind woman’s hand, leading her away. The woman with the unseeing eyes glanced back one last time before they both vanished down the end of the street…
“...What the hell…! Master—no… Mr. Wooju, are you okay?! Can you hear my voice?!”
“......”
Noa’s urgent call as she pressed firmly against my bleeding forehead was the last thing I remembered that day.
‘That little witch hunter possesses a truly peculiar soul. The natural flow that every human should have has been stolen by someone else.’
A body suspended in darkness. A resonance that vibrated through my brain.
‘Ah, mmm… I see. So that’s how it is. It is rather amusing. That little one is just like ‘Isabelle’… Very well. There is only one seat for the witch. Let us wager all the ‘desire’ we have gathered so far. It seems you too have found an absurdly vast vessel. I can feel an enormous amount of accumulated desire. This is… a craving for recognition? So that’s why that side is so confident. Of course, it does seem extraordinarily impressive…’
A conversation between unknown entities was being written directly into my mind as I quietly kept my eyes closed. In the darkness, I could sense three presences besides myself. One felt familiar, but the other two… Their presence was only faintly detectable from far across the void. I couldn’t hear their voices clearly, nor could I see their forms hidden in the shadows. I just wanted to escape this dark place that filled me with inexplicable discomfort. It felt suffocating, like I couldn’t breathe. I needed to wake up now.
“........”
My fingers twitched at the command from my brain and sprang upward. My body was moving. I barely managed to lift my still-stiff arms, using them as leverage to slowly push myself upright—
‘My friend is an incredibly greedy person, you see. The one who will become the witch is me.’
A black hand grabbed my shoulder. A voice that replaced the earlier resonance whispered directly into my ear.
‘Are you confident, Choi Wooju…?’
A faint chuckle. A voice that sounded eerily like Go-eun’s pushed against my back before I could even respond, and—
“────”
I was helplessly shoved out of the darkness.
“...It’s seven o’clock…? I slept like a log…”
“...Ugh! Oh my god! Seriously!! Where the hell have you been wandering around to come back beaten up like this?! Say something to him!”
“...The fact that he’s talking nonsense the second he wakes up means his head must be fine. He can be discharged.”
The moment I opened my eyes, I read the numbers on the wall clock and rubbed them. Mom was clicking her tongue and lightly smacking my shoulder while tattling to Dad.
Dad sat in a chair below the bed with his arms crossed. He simply nodded without saying a word.
Even though I had just woken from a hazy dream, I immediately knew where I was. The hospital emergency room. On a bed. I could feel the bandages wrapped around my head and the IV needle in my hand.
What was it again? I felt like I’d had a strange dream… I placed a hand on my foggy head and let out a small groan. No good. I couldn’t remember a single thing. It felt like a murky, unpleasant dream, but… whatever. If it was a bad dream, there was no need to force myself to recall it.
“How did both of you even know…?”
“...Well, we got a call from that young lady over there. Said our son got hit in the head and collapsed from a concussion.”
Dad let out a long sigh of relief. I turned to look at him. His blunt finger was pointing toward Noa, who was speaking with a nurse.
Noa kept bowing her head as she handed the nurse a white envelope. A professional smile sat on her face. Then, as if sensing my gaze, her eyes met mine. She broke into a wide grin and hurried over with quick steps.
“Ah, Mr. Wooju! You’re awake. Thank goodness…”
“Oh my, miss, we can’t thank you enough… How can we ever repay this kindness…”
Noa reached my bedside in a single stride and offered a warm smile, all traces of her usual stiffness gone. The moment she arrived, Mom stood up from her chair, grabbed Noa’s hands tightly, and sniffled.
“Not at all! It was only natural! My original job is helping people, after all…”
“Ah, so you’re a nurse?! Or maybe even a doctor!”
“Honey, don’t speak so recklessly when you don’t know. I’m sorry about her.”
I had never seen Dad smile so brightly before. A warm, harmonious atmosphere filled the space as my parents expressed their gratitude and Noa awkwardly bowed her head in response. While I lay there, unable to move even a single finger despite the awkward scene unfolding right in front of me, two women in black suits caught my eye among the white coats bustling through the emergency room.
“...Ugh?!”
The moment I looked at the woman standing behind them, my headache intensified. It was the cold woman who had kicked me in the head. And the one standing in front of her was…
Click. Click.
The sound of heels echoed as the two women slowly walked toward us. Even Mom, Dad, and Noa, who had been exchanging greetings, noticed the approaching shadows.
Everyone—including me, lying on the bed—froze in place as the two women stopped before us. The one in front bowed her head first.
“...I have come to apologize for the grave discourtesy I have shown toward your son. Please forgive me for being so late in lowering my head before all of you.”
Her Japanese accent remained, as did her faded white hair, but her appearance was far more refined. A coat draped over her shoulders despite the hot weather, clearly meant to hide the countless injuries that had once covered her body. The dreamy expression on her face, paired with those same faded, dead gray eyes, was worlds apart from the girl I had seen earlier.
“My name is Yumekawa Harumu. Once again, I sincerely apologize for the harm I have caused your son.”
The clumsy, sorrow-filled expression was gone. In its place was a solemn face full of depth and dignity as she bowed at the waist and introduced herself as Harumu.
But wait a second… She was clearly speaking Japanese. Why could I understand her?
“...Who are you people… Are you foreigners?”
“No, Dad. The woman standing behind her is the one who kicked me.”
“Tattling at your age? Anyway, you’re the one who did this to my son?”
Dad placed one hand on his hip and raised his voice. The woman standing behind Harumu bit her lower lip slightly, looking irritated.
“Hana.”
“Y-Yes! Young lady!!”
“Because of your mistake, I, Yumekawa Harumu, was forced to kneel. If the only thing you feel while looking at this is humiliation, then I shall decorate the end of the coming-of-age ceremony with your neck.”
“N-No…♡ I, Natsuki Hana… I was simply so overjoyed that the young lady had returned that I momentarily…”
Hana trembled violently at Harumu’s cold voice, clearly thrilled to hear a death threat. She actually liked being told she’d be killed? And more importantly, decorating the end of a coming-of-age ceremony with a neck? What the hell was that even supposed to mean…?
Both Noa and I wore expressions that said we might have stumbled upon something far more dangerous than we expected. Before us, the woman named Natsuki Hana also dropped to her knees and bowed her head.
“I will offer no excuses!! I am truly, deeply sorry!”
“...What have they been saying this whole time? These people.”
“...They really are apologizing, Dad.”
The anger that had flared on Mom and Dad’s faces upon learning this was the person who had sent me to the hospital gradually softened. Both of them were the type who couldn’t stay mad at someone who was bowing so deeply and apologizing so earnestly.
Seeing my parents looking awkward and unsure what to do, Harumu held out the case she had brought with her.
“I do not know if this will bring any comfort to the wounds on your body and heart, but please accept it.”
“...Hiek…”
The attaché case clicked open. Inside was a thick stack of 50,000-won bills. No one dared comment on how tacky the presentation was. After all, the amount of cash being offered was far too much to be considered mere settlement money.
The only one who didn’t seem surprised was Noa. She spoke in Japanese.
“...The third daughter of Alive, the major pharmaceutical company known as Haru Pharmaceuticals. Is this compensation given as a Yumekawa, or as Agent Yumekawa Harumu of the Japanese Branch? If it’s the latter, it feels rather dirty. It seems like a little performance staged specifically for me to see, in order to keep my mouth shut and protect the reputation of your direct superior and mother, Agent Yumekawa Kaede. I hope it is merely my own excessive imagination.”
“...You must be Agent Kwon Noa from the Korean Branch. I apologize for my rudeness. I am sorry. Seeing how much interest you showed in this mere civilian man, I mistakenly assumed you were family. And you are correct, Agent Kwon. It is indeed your excessive imagination, so please do not worry.”
A completely different kind of nerve war than the fiery clash I had witnessed between her and Hana before losing consciousness. It was a battle of ice against ice—an analytical standoff where each tried to read the other’s moves right before our eyes.
“...Then I am relieved. I will explain the situation to these people myself, so you may leave now. I heard the coming-of-age ceremony you are in the middle of is quite demanding. It must be even harder with the illness you are suffering from.”
“..............”
Noa’s sharp jab landed perfectly. Harumu was smiling, but she couldn’t say a word. Illness? Was this woman named Harumu actually sick with something? It didn’t seem to be about her eyes. Her entire aura was certainly different from before…
“...As you say, we will take our leave now, but… I have also accepted ‘that child’ as part of myself. Calling ‘her’ an illness hurts me, even if only a little. She will surely be saddened as well.”
Harumu and Hana rose from their knees, bowed once more, and turned to leave.
“The fact that we met like this must also be a connection formed by the girl inside me. If we are fated to meet the two of you again, I would be very happy. I will take my leave now…”
“...Once again, I am truly sorry.”
With that, Harumu spun on her heel and strode out of the emergency room, Hana trailing quickly behind her. Judging from Noa’s reaction, it seemed the two of them were also part of the organization… Still, they hadn’t come here specifically because they knew who I was. If their goal had been to kill me, there had been dozens of opportunities back on that street.
Even so, I had many questions. Why had those two been in Korea? The ominous feeling behind the term “coming-of-age ceremony,” the mention of an “illness,” and more. But the atmosphere hadn’t allowed me to jump into the conversation at all.
“...Mr. Wooju, let’s be careful for a while.”
It seemed Noa had sensed the same thing I had. Those two women were dangerous.