Who the Hell Is That Monster
"Who the hell is that monster."
"Mmm, so good—!"
Seoyeon giggled as she sucked noisily on her straw.
Three days after crawling out of that underground hell, we were tucked into a corner of some café. Seoyeon had ordered a mountain of whipped cream piled on top of her drink. I just got an americano.
…Well. "Just" wasn't quite right.
I'd stared at the menu for a solid ten minutes. Too many words. Americano, latte, cappuccino, macchiato, cold brew… I didn't know what any of it meant. In the mountains, you ate whatever was in front of you. Salmon if there was salmon. Honey if there was honey. You didn't choose. You just ate what there was.
But in the human world, you had to pick everything.
In the end I ordered the thing written at the very top. That was the americano.
When the cup came out, my fingers wouldn't fit through the handle. Not even my pinky. So I just wrapped my whole hand around the cup. The paper cup looked like a shot glass sitting in my palm.
I took a sip.
Bitter.
…Why is this popular.
I glanced sideways at the next table. A drink piled high with whipped cream, brown mixed with white. It looked sweet. Just looking at it made my mouth water. The memory of being a bear, of scooping entire beehives into my mouth up in the mountains, rose to the tip of my tongue.
…Should've ordered that.
Seoyeon must have caught my stare, because she casually slid her drink out of view.
"This is mine. You want one, buy it with your own money."
"…"
"What's with that face. If you want something sweet, just say you want something sweet. What pride does a bear even have."
"…I'm not a bear."
"You totally are."
We were still bickering over drinks when the customer at the next table stood up and scraped their chair back. The screeech made my shoulders jerk on instinct, my head snapping toward the sound.
On guard.
In crowded places, I couldn't stop scanning my surroundings. Who was behind me. Where the noises were coming from. Habits the mountain had carved into my body. Even after becoming human, they wouldn't leave.
"…You're doing it again. This is a café. Nobody's going to jump you. What kind of lunatic would even try."
Seoyeon cackled.
Sunlight through the window. People's laughter. The smell of coffee.
…It was a strange feeling.
Just a few days ago I'd been in an underground filled with blood and screams, and now I was sitting in an ordinary café like this. Bear, then human, then beast again. After surviving all of that, the place I'd arrived at was nothing more than a sunlit seat—and somehow that didn't feel bad at all.
"So. What are you gonna do now?"
Seoyeon asked, still sucking on her straw.
"Do about what… I don't really have any plans."
"What?"
She pulled the straw from her mouth.
"No plans? Dude, you're free now. No debts, nobody chasing you. You can do whatever you want and you've got no plans?"
"…Yeah."
When I was a bear, all I thought about was surviving. After becoming human, all I thought about was hiding what I was. Underground, all I thought about was getting Seoyeon out.
But now it was all over.
For the first time, I was in a state where I didn't have to do anything. And somehow that made me feel even more lost. What I should do. What I even wanted to do.
"Ugh, for real."
Seoyeon looked at me like I was hopeless.
"You big dumb bear. All that size and your head's completely empty."
"…I'm not a dumb bear."
"Yes you are. Dumb bear, dumb bear. Giant dumb bear."
"…"
"What, you're not? Hmm?"
She poked my arm with her straw like she was teasing me. I just sat there. No matter how hard this little thing poked, it didn't even tickle.
But strangely, I didn't mind it.
Underground, nobody had ever treated me like this. They were either terrified of me, putting a price on me, or trying to use me. Only Seoyeon, from the very beginning, had treated me like a regular person. Even while calling me a dumb bear.
I liked that.
"Heehee."
Seoyeon laughed, foam stuck to the tip of her nose without her noticing.
We were still squabbling over stupid stuff when it happened.
Seoyeon idly checked her phone—and froze.
"…Huh?"
"What."
"Look at this. This video's blowing up right now."
She turned the phone toward me.
A video was playing on the screen. The view count was absurd. Thousands of comments piled underneath.
But.
The second I saw the footage, I went rigid.
A dark underground. A packed crowd. And in the middle of it all, a massive shadow flinging people through the air like sheets of paper.
It was a familiar scene.
Too familiar.
That was—me.
A few nights ago, that fighting pit. The night I'd wrecked a hundred men. Footage someone had somehow filmed was sitting on the internet in its entirety.
"…"
My heart dropped.
How the hell is this online. That place was a secret facility. Who leaked it.
But the moment I looked at the comments, I almost didn't know whether to laugh.
Nobody thought it was real.
It was too unrealistic. A man throwing a hundred people with his bare hands didn't make sense. Everyone wrote it off as high-end CGI, a staged video, some short action film.
…I guess that's a good thing?
"Whoa…"
Seoyeon stared at the screen, goosebumps rising on her arms.
"That's actually terrifying. If it were me I'd have run the second I saw that. A hundred guys rushing him and he just wrecks all of them without blinking. Total monster. Insane…"
"…"
"Who the hell is that monster. How does a person even move like that. That's actually scary."
She shuddered for real.
I just watched her.
Then Seoyeon slowly looked up from the screen and met my eyes.
She looked at my face.
At the shadow on the screen.
Back at my face.
"…Oh."
Her expression hardened by degrees.
"…Wait. That."
"…"
"That's… you."
"…Yeah."
The second I admitted it, Seoyeon nearly dropped her phone.
"Dude!! So that was REAL?! I just called you a monster and everything!! Aagh, all my goosebumps are void!! Wait no not void, I've got EVEN MORE goosebumps!!"
"…You said you got the chills."
"Of course I did! The monster is sitting next to me drinking coffee!!"
She made a huge production of it. Not actually scared—just completely floored. Even though she'd known all along.
After the full meltdown, Seoyeon looked back at the screen.
"…But wait."
Her face turned serious.
"Isn't it kind of dangerous that this is going viral? People think it's fake, but… you and I know it's real. What if somebody recognizes you."
A sharp point.
Seoyeon had grown up in that world. Her instincts for this kind of thing were razor-sharp.
"But also… if it's gotten this famous, maybe we could use it somehow. You said you can do anything now. With a physique like yours, the things you could…"
She sank deep into thought.
In that moment, something flickered through my mind.
Things I could do with this body.
Me on the screen, throwing people.
And—one business card I'd been given at the hospital.
"…Ah."
"What?"
"…Business card."
"Business card? What business card."
I dug through my pockets. After everything we'd been through these past few days, somehow that card was still crumpled into a corner of my wallet.
I pulled it out and held it out to Seoyeon.
UFC Asia Matchmaker
Seoyeon took the card and her eyes went round.
"…UFC? Wait, is this THE UFC? The Octagon one?!"
"…Yeah. Probably."
"Where did you even GET this?!"
"…I got it a while back."
"A while back WHEN!"
"…When I was in the hospital."
Seoyeon stared at me blankly for a second.
"…The hospital? You were in the hospital like… that was months ago."
"…Yeah. About two months, maybe."
"TWO MONTHS?!"
She practically yelled.
"Dude!! A UFC matchmaker handed you her card in person and you STUFFED it in your wallet for two months?! Are you insane?! Do you have ANY idea what kind of opportunity this is?!"
"…Is it?"
"It's not an 'is it' situation! You big dumb bear!"
She shoved the card right under my nose.
"Call her right now! Right now! Immediately!"
"…Right now?"
"RIGHT NOW!! It's already been two months, she might've moved on! Hurry!"
Bulldozed by Seoyeon's relentless pressure, I punched in the number on the card.
My thick fingers clumsily tapped the digits on the tiny screen.
I hit call and put the phone to my ear.
The ringtone started.
Beep—
Beep—
…Wonder if she'll even pick up. This was months ago.
I listened to the ring with no real expectations.
Rachel Kim was staring at her phone.
Two months already.
That man she'd met at the hospital. The one who supposedly survived a bear attack—no, who seemed like a bear himself. The calluses on the back of his hands. That animal posture. And that unreal physique.
She'd thought a diamond was just rolling around on the floor.
So she'd pressed her card into his hand and walked out. If you remember anything, give me a call. The bear story had been an excuse. What she was really after was the man himself.
But.
No call came.
A day, two days, a week, a month. And now it was two months in…
Rachel checked her phone every single day. For any missed calls she might have overlooked. For anything from an unknown number.
Nothing.
"…Did I miss him."
Rachel sighed.
Ten years as a matchmaker. She'd seen plenty of rough gems, but nothing had made her heart race like that man. And that diamond had vanished without so much as a single call.
On top of that, some bizarre video had been circulating online for the past few days. A man beating down a hundred people with his bare hands. Everyone said it was CGI. Fake.
But when Rachel watched that video, she thought her heart had stopped.
That build.
Those movements.
Those hands.
…That's him.
She couldn't be sure. The quality was terrible and his face was a blur. But that impossible physique—it was identical to the man she'd seen at the hospital.
If that was real.
If the monster in that video really was that man.
…Then I just let the biggest find of my career walk away.
Rachel clutched at her hair.
She had to find him again somehow.
Dig through hospital records, put out feelers with the police—
Right then.
Brrrring!!
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Rachel glanced at the screen without thinking—and froze.
No way.
No. No way.
Her heart started hammering. With trembling fingers, she hit accept.
"…H-hello?"
From the other end of the line, a low, heavy voice came through.
"…Uh. I'm the guy who got your business card."
Rachel's eyes flew wide open.