A Morning Unlike Any Other
The campus morning was unusually deep. When Ha Yul opened her eyes, she felt an unfamiliar stillness. Normally, some part of her body would already be awake before her eyes even opened—shoulders and arms, hips and thighs, the tension in her wrists. It was less like waking from sleep as an ordinary person and more like slowly releasing a state of vigilance. But today was different. She had slept deeply. Truly rested.
Ha Yul blinked slowly. Morning sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains and stretched across the bed. The sheets were rumpled, evidence of the night before, and the air carried the mingled scents of shampoo, faint sweat, and the lingering warmth on clean skin. She lay between two people. Yoon Chaewon on her left, Lee Sumin on her right.
Chaewon lay on her side with her long wavy black hair half-spread across the pillow. In the morning light her face looked even softer than it had at night. Her usual neat and composed expression remained, yet the corners of her eyes and lips, still heavy with sleep, were far more unguarded. The shoulders and neckline revealed beneath the blanket were pale and smooth, and the curves of her full figure quietly asserted their presence even under the thin fabric of her pajamas.
Sumin, on the opposite side, was more overt. She had kicked the blanket halfway off and was leaning toward Ha Yul, the ends of her short bob brushing against her cheek. One toned leg had slipped out from under the covers, radiating the heat of a healthy body. Even in sleep her expression looked as though she were smiling. Bright, outgoing people left traces of themselves even when unconscious.
Ha Yul remained still for a while, simply feeling her own body. She felt refreshed. Not entirely free of fatigue—yesterday had been a long day. The redevelopment zone hunt, the equipment floor, the shaft, the mutants on the upper levels, the research facility, the blood crystals, Seol-hwa’s gaze. And then the night. Even for her, the accumulation should have remained. Yet inside her body now, everything was quiet. The tension had gone, and there was no heat left.
Is it because affection was mixed in with desire? she thought. The idea amused her a little. It was not the sort of word one attached to a one-night stand. She had always thought that way. Night was night, and once it ended, it ended. It was simply borrowing body heat to cool the necessary fire and hold on to the senses of being human. But between last night and this morning, something subtly different remained. The comfort she felt after so long was almost unfamiliar.
“Awake?” Chaewon’s voice came.
Ha Yul turned her head. Chaewon’s eyes were already open. Her voice was low and soft, as though she had only just woken, yet her gaze was clearer than expected.
“Yeah. Just now.”
The reply came naturally. She had even abandoned half-formal speech, treating Chaewon like someone she could speak to comfortably. She did not speak this way even with Yu-jin, whom she had known for a long time.
Sumin stirred at the sound of their voices and opened her eyes. After a few seconds of blank staring, she grasped the situation and curved her lips upward.
“Wow. We really did it last night, huh,” she muttered in a husky voice.
Ha Yul let out a small laugh. “Seems so.”
Sumin buried her face a little deeper into the pillow and rolled her gaze toward Ha Yul.
“Unnie.”
“What.”
“You look more put-together than I expected.”
“Is that weird?”
“No.” Sumin smiled. “I just like it.”
Chaewon gave a quiet laugh at their exchange. Beneath the blanket, she moved her hand slightly until it lightly touched the back of Ha Yul’s. Ha Yul glanced down at the small warmth, then looked up again.
The three of them lay in bed without speaking for a while. Morning moved slower than night. Last night, action would have come before words, but now everything was different. No one hurried. No one tried to force the atmosphere higher. Ha Yul suddenly realized how little she actually knew about these two women. Names, faces, the way their bodies responded. Who smiled first, who breathed harder. That was all. Before, that had been enough. They had been one-night stands. Nighttime connections. The kind of relationship that brought a little pleasure, eased loneliness, and faded hazily once morning came. So she had never bothered to dig deeper. She had assumed the other side did not want it either.
But this time was different. They had met again, spent another night together, and now lay in the same bed greeting the morning. Ha Yul opened her mouth.
“Before,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “you mentioned you were both studying something, right?”
Sumin let out a small laugh. “You’re only asking now.”
“Too late?”
“A little.” Sumin’s eyes sparkled playfully. “But it’s fine if it’s you, Unnie.”
Chaewon answered from beside her. “I study urban ecology and mutant behavior.”
Ha Yul repeated the words as though tasting them. “Urban ecology.”
Chaewon continued, “How monsters move through the city, where they hide, what kind of spaces they prefer. Things like that.”
“You don’t catch them yourself?” Ha Yul asked.
“I don’t have the ability for that. Instead, I know better than most where they run. I can read their escape routes a little more clearly.”
Sumin pulled the pillow closer and cut in. “I’m doing cultural anthropology and monster culture studies.”
“Monster culture? That’s a thing?”
“It is.” Sumin’s eyes shone. “Monster-worshipping groups, rogue organizations, urban legends, strange communities that deify mutants, memes about worship, cults obsessed with martial artists. People eventually start liking the things that scare them if they stare at them long enough.”
Ha Yul was silent for a few seconds after hearing that. The world she knew was mostly the field. Yet the people who studied it at university were looking at the same monsters from an entirely different angle.
“You’re both studying something meaningful,” Ha Yul said quietly.
Sumin laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Chaewon looked at Ha Yul’s face for a moment before asking, “Was yesterday very difficult?”
Until yesterday, she would not have asked. Perhaps she thought it was all right now. Ha Yul would normally have brushed it off as well. She would have smiled vaguely and said something like “It’s always like that.” She was used to field stories staying among field people, and she had no desire to speak more about them to outsiders. Besides, the bed—especially in the morning—was not the right place for such topics. But today felt a little different. With these two, it seemed all right.
Ha Yul glanced at the ceiling, then spoke slowly. “It was a redevelopment zone. When I went up to the equipment room inside the building scheduled for demolition, there was a mutant.”
Sumin and Chaewon both fell quiet at once.
“It was different from the usual rampaging types. It could speak human words, and its regeneration was strangely fast.”
This time even Sumin did not interrupt. She simply listened in silence.
Chaewon asked very carefully, “Was it artificial?”
Ha Yul looked at her. She really knew where the line was. Where it was safe to ask, and where to stop.
“Probably,” Ha Yul said shortly. “The inside of the equipment room wasn’t a pretty sight either.”
“Like a laboratory?” Chaewon’s question was cautious again.
“Something like that.” Ha Yul could have stopped there. But this time she went a little further. “I found a blood crystal embedded in the back of its neck. It was artificially made.”
Sumin’s eyes widened slightly at that. “Sounds like something out of a movie,” she murmured.
“Dirtier and uglier than any movie.” Ha Yul answered indifferently.
The room fell quiet again. Chaewon did not press further, and before the atmosphere could sink, Sumin spoke.
“Still, I’m glad you came back alive.”
Ha Yul turned to look at her. Sumin was always smiling, but there was sincerity at the end of her words. Ha Yul answered briefly.
“Thanks to you.”
Sumin raised an eyebrow. “Thanks to us?”
Ha Yul said it plainly. “More like thanks to the night before last.”
The mood shifted ever so slightly at those words. Sumin was speechless for a moment, then smiled. Chaewon’s lips curved faintly as well. They said nothing, but their eyes changed. The gaze that had been resting softly on her lingered a little longer on Ha Yul’s face.
Morning sunlight poured more fully across the bed. The gap in the curtains had widened, making the blankets, sheets, bare skin, and strands of hair stand out more clearly. In the place where the shadows of night had vanished, the three of them drew a little closer.
Sumin rolled over and rested her chin on Ha Yul’s shoulder. “By the way… do you have any other plans today?”
There was no call from the Moorim Agency, no message from Yu-jin, and no additional contact from the research facility. This morning was free. When she said so, Sumin grinned widely.
“Nice.”
Sumin pressed closer against Ha Yul’s arm. Instead of resting her chin there, she loosely wrapped her arms around Ha Yul’s shoulder. True to her bright and bold nature, she showed little hesitation in closing the distance this way. On the other side, Chaewon moved quietly as well. She did not charge in playfully like Sumin. Instead, she always came a beat later, yet pressed in firmly. Beneath the blanket, her chest brushed against Ha Yul, arms touched, and body heat slowly transferred. Chaewon spoke softly.
“Then… we have a little more time today, right?”
Ha Yul looked between the two of them and smiled. “Yeah.”
The time that followed was even slower and lighter. It was not urgent like the night, nor did they need to desperately cool their bodies the way they had after a hunt. Beneath the blanket they confirmed each other’s warmth again, laughed, kissed, and when one leaned in, the other followed. Ha Yul suddenly realized that her body did not find this situation unfamiliar. On the contrary, she liked it. A different kind of ease than when moving only on desire. The desire to confirm. The wish to stay together longer. It felt like the precursor to an emotion that would one day change its name. Not something like sex friends, but a relationship she could truly call her own people. That possibility was quietly growing beneath the morning light.
***
Late morning Seoul wore a different face than dawn. On the streets were people whose commute was slightly delayed, university students rushing to class, delivery riders and courier vans, and people lining up in front of cafés—creating a moderate flow. Ha Yul was not familiar with university spaces. The places she frequented were usually hunt sites, research facilities, Moorim Agency buildings, or nighttime clubs and bars. University was different from all of them.
When she passed through the main gate of one of Seoul’s comprehensive universities and stepped inside, the difference became even clearer. Long rows of trees lined the paths, students moved between lecture halls, club posters covered the bulletin boards, and flyers for unmanned license assistant courses or mutant risk management seminars mingled naturally. On one side of the gymnasium hung a banner announcing a practical martial arts liberal arts class. Still, this place was fundamentally filled with youth. The smell of coffee was stronger than the smell of blood, and there was more laughter than screaming. Ha Yul found that unfamiliar.
Chaewon and Sumin walked on either side of her. It had simply happened naturally. No one had decided it, yet Ha Yul ended up in the middle. Students’ gazes began to follow them almost immediately. At first it was just the look one gave a stranger—a black coat, sharp features, long black hair, a gait unlike that of ordinary students. And the sight of her walking with two conspicuously beautiful women. Soon whispers followed.
“Who’s that person?”
“Is she a celebrity?”
“No… she looks like a martial artist.”
“Wow. She’s walking with two of them.”
Jealousy, envy, curiosity. An atmosphere mixed with those emotions formed. Ha Yul was used to that kind of gaze. In bars, at sites, on the street—people looked at her twice. Once because she was pretty, and again because she looked dangerous. But now there was an additional element. Chaewon and Sumin. Both were clearly eye-catching women even within the university, so the fact that they casually occupied the spaces on either side of Ha Yul made it all the more inevitable.
Sumin enjoyed the atmosphere. “Look,” she said with a small laugh beside her. “Everyone’s staring.”
Ha Yul asked quietly, “Is it always like this?”
“No.” Sumin paused for a moment, then curved her lips. “Today’s a little special.”
She deliberately walked a little closer to Ha Yul. Their shoulders brushed lightly, their steps falling into rhythm. Chaewon saw this from the other side and smiled.
“Sumin. You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you.”
“Yeah.” Sumin did not hide it at all. “It’s fun.”
“Are you teasing her?” Ha Yul asked.
Sumin answered immediately. “It’s half bragging.”
Chaewon did not stop Sumin. Instead, she quietly pressed closer to Ha Yul’s other side. It was a different kind of warmth from the one in bed that morning. The two women were already in a relationship with each other, and Ha Yul felt as though she were naturally blending into that space between them.
Chaewon spoke slowly beside her. “This is the Life Sciences Building.”
Ha Yul looked up. The modern glass exterior bore the department name and a directory of laboratories. Two students in white lab coats walked by, and the electronic board near the entrance displayed announcements for academic seminars.
“I come here often. The specimen room is over there too.”
Sumin gestured with her chin toward the building on the opposite side. “I’m over at the Culture Building. It might look useless, but it’s where all kinds of strange stories gather.”
“Like urban legends?” Ha Yul asked.
Sumin narrowed her eyes and smiled. “Urban legends, cults, customs, mutant faiths, Guiin. And why people in a collapsing world keep falling in love with even more dangerous things.”
Ha Yul gave a very small laugh at that. “Do you have an answer?”
“Not yet,” Sumin said. Then she looked at Ha Yul. “But now, I think I might understand a little.”
The words were light, yet carried a strangely heavy weight. Ha Yul did not reply, but she felt the warmth on either side of her more clearly for a moment. Chaewon’s quiet presence and Sumin’s bright movement. Having passed through night and morning together, now walking the daytime campus side by side felt suddenly unreal. Perhaps this reunion would last longer than she thought. And Ha Yul did not dislike that possibility.