Jeokryeohui (4)
A middle-aged man stepped out of the elevator at the Seonhwa-dong Community Center.
It was Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang.
"Yeon-ah. Why'd you suddenly tell me to open up the auditorium…"
The words died on his lips as he hurried out. A noisy crowd of children had gathered in front of the community center.
The kid missing an arm and the one whose face was completely smashed in didn't help matters either.
"…Choi Yeon. What the hell is all this?"
"Well—"
"Don't tell me you teamed up with Nubyeok, stormed a Jeokryeohui lab, and dragged all these kids out?"
"Oh. You just summarized my last two hours beautifully."
"So it's true?"
"Yes."
"Without even reportin' to me?"
"If I had, you would've stopped me."
"Of course I would have, you little bastard! What were you thinkin', waltzin' into a place that dangerous on your own!"
"It wasn't really that dang—"
erous, Choi Yeon swallowed the rest. Kim Jaesang's brow had shot up like a blade.
Ordinarily he might have cracked a joke about the man looking like a monster and needing to relax his face, but doing that now would only buy him a world of rage.
To protect his precious paid leave, Choi Yeon decided to keep his mouth shut.
That was when a voice rose in his defense.
"Don't scold Squinty Mister, okay."
"Huh?"
"I asked him to save my friends. Mister just did what I asked… him to."
It was Lee Geon-woo.
The boy spoke carefully, and somehow he seemed afraid of Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang.
Children always flinched when adults got angry, of course—but that couldn't be the only reason.
Realizing his mistake, Kim Jaesang bent down on one knee.
Even with his belly asserting its plump presence, the former hunter kept his balance without a wobble.
"Hey. I ain't scoldin' him."
Kim Jaesang's voice spread quietly.
It reached not only Lee Geon-woo but the children behind him as well.
"Uncle here just got worried, so my voice got a little loud. I'm sorry."
"……."
"Think you can forgive me?"
"W-what do you mean, forgive, over something like this…"
Lee Geon-woo looked away in flustered confusion.
It was the first time an adult had ever apologized to him, and he had no idea what to do with it. The other children were no different—they only nodded a few times.
"…All right. Let's get the kids upstairs first."
"Yes. Ah—what about Heeseok-hyung?"
"Third floor. He's openin' the auditorium doors right now. You were the one who told me to have him open it, remember?"
With that, Kim Jaesang herded the children into the elevator.
There were fourteen of them in total, but the elevator—rated for 750 kilograms—ran just fine. Even with Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang riding along.
After them, Choi Yeon and the Nubyeok members moved the Jeokryeohui captives. "Together" was a generous word; the Nubyeok members did the actual hauling while he diligently pressed the open and close buttons.
They dumped the prisoners in the holding cell in the corner of the office and came back down to the auditorium, where places for the children to rest and lie down had already been prepared.
Choi Heeseok, reading the situation from the presence outside, had put his good sense to work.
As expected of hyung…
While Choi Yeon was still admiring him, the elevator moved again behind him.
Ding. The doors opened, and Kim In-beom stepped out with the bob-haired Jeokryeohui member slung over his shoulder.
"That was fast… Huh? What happened to that guy's left arm?"
Somewhere along the way, the bob-haired man's left arm had been crushed.
It looked like rice cake pounded over and over in a mortar—barely holding its shape.
"He tried to escape with some weird ability, so the leader subdued him."
"Subduing him was fine, but what exactly did he do to leave him looking like that?"
"That part I wouldn't know. According to the leader, he just gave him a little pinch."
"A little pinch? And he ended up like that?"
"Yes."
"……."
Choi Yeon was at a loss for words.
A little…? If he'd squeezed even a bit harder, it would've burst. Muttering only to himself, he took custody of the bob-haired man.
"He'll be lonely by himself, so we'd better toss this one in too."
"Oh. Sunbae-nim's consideration truly knows no bounds. However."
"……?"
"You are coming back to the auditorium, right? Not that I'm suspicious or anything—it's just that you didn't actually say you'd come back after putting him away."
"…I'm hurt. If I don't come back, should I just leave the kids like that and clock out?"
"Haha. Exactly."
Our sunbae-nim isn't the sort to be that inconsiderate.
…Strange. He'd clearly agreed, so why did it sound like something else?
Choi Yeon went upstairs to the office with an uneasy feeling. After stuffing the bob-haired man into the cramped holding cell and coming back down, somewhat reluctantly, the auditorium was quiet.
In the span of just a few minutes, every child had fallen asleep. A few were still awake, but even their faces looked as if they were dreaming.
Choi Yeon walked carefully so as not to wake them. On his way to Dongdae Chief Kim Jaesang, he exchanged a glance of greeting with Choi Heeseok beside the children.
Surrounded by kids, the man looked even larger than usual—truly like a bear.
"I heard the rough version. Jeokryeohui used some kind of strange power?"
Kim Jaesang whispered softly.
So as not to reach the sleeping children's ears, Choi Yeon's voice naturally dropped as well.
"Yes. Their eyes turned red and their mana circulation sped up enormously…. That was not a normal acceleration. The more they use it, the more it'll eat away at their own bodies."
"That so? Then it's fair to figure they ran the experiments to get rid of those side effects."
"That's what I think."
"Tch. Not good…."
"What isn't?"
"They said the experiment succeeded, didn't they? That's why they took the kid named Seo Na-yul. So what's Jeokryeohui gonna do now?"
Choi Yeon gave a lazy shrug.
Watching him not even pretend to think it over, Kim Jaesang frowned.
"You'll handle it, Chief."
"Hah…."
"Don't tell me you think Jeokryeohui will go deep underground?"
Kim In-beom's voice cut in—he'd been doing the thinking Choi Yeon wasn't.
"Yeah, that's right. If they dig in for real, findin' those bastards'll be like pickin' stars out of the sky."
"If we interrogate the team leader, we might get something, right?"
"Is that guy even core enough to know that kind of intel? You said he didn't even know where they moved the kid named Seo Na-yul."
"Ah."
"Far as I can tell, interrogatin' him won't get us anything important."
"Aah…."
Regret slipped from both Choi Yeon and Kim In-beom's mouths.
We went through all that trouble bringing him back for information….
"…Huh? Then what do we do? I promised Geon-woo I'd save him and Na-yul."
"That's your own damn fault. Who told you to go makin' a promise like that?"
"Yes."
"Who? In-beom?"
"The atmosphere of the moment?"
"……."
Kim Jaesang shot him a sidelong glare.
Was picking this punk as Heeseok's successor really the right call? Should I start looking at other candidates even now? It might not be too late….
He shoved the cascading thoughts aside.
It was a promise made for a child, after all.
"…Still, we'll have to interrogate him. We need to learn about that power, and figure out what those bastards are after."
"Right. He might be more impressive than we thought and have good information—"
"You dream big. You think a guy like that would've gotten caught by the likes of you?"
"……."
A person is allowed to dream, you know. Dreams.
Choi Yeon grumbled inwardly. Saying it out loud would only earn him more scolding.
The chief looked back at the children.
"That power—the kids can use it too, you said?"
"Yes. Most of them couldn't control it, though."
"Good grief…. It's gonna take a while before we can send them home."
"Mm…."
Choi Yeon and Kim In-beom looked at each other.
The hesitation unique to people who had something difficult to say flickered between them.
"What? What's with those looks?"
"Well…."
Choi Yeon lowered his voice even further. He was careful in case anyone might overhear.
"Most of the children are orphans. Even the ones who had families were brainwashed so thoroughly they don't remember them."
"There was even a kid who'd forgotten their own name."
"Hah…."
Kim Jaesang let out a sigh tangled with both lament and fury.
Choi Yeon and Kim In-beom twisted their lips in equal frustration and drew deep breaths.
Roughly scratching his broad forehead, the chief spoke.
"First thing we gotta do is find the kids a place to stay…."
"Bohwa Temple runs an orphanage. How about there?"
"The place where Monk Myeongjin is, you mean?"
"Yes."
"It's a place we can trust. But… because of their abilities, the kids already living there might get hurt."
Kim Jaesang scratched his forehead as if it itched.
Considering the children's powers, housing them alongside ordinary kids at a regular orphanage would be difficult.
It would be fine if they could control their strength—but most of them couldn't.
"It's tough. And it's not like we can just found a brand-new orphanage…."
"Hm…?"
The finger scratching his forehead stopped cold.
"What if we did found one, just like you said? Demand it from Jung-gu District Office."
"Chief, there's no way. The district office is the kind of place that cuts your budget and pats itself on the back for saving money."
"Tch, true enough. But if that guy makes the request and I work the politics a little… I feel like it might actually go through…?"
Choi Yeon looked in the direction the chief was pointing.
Aside from Park Do-kyeong of Pakator, the most famous hunter in South Chungcheong Province was watching over the children.
If Choi Heeseok made the request, even the district office wouldn't be able to brush it off so easily.
"Should I get a few rumors circulating on the street?"
Even clumsy PR, layered on top of the politics….
Kim Jaesang's mouth curved like a crescent moon in the night sky. No matter how many times he ran the numbers, the odds of it working looked plenty high.
"…Interesting."
A voice dropped onto the table. The gazes of those seated in rows on either side turned toward the head seat.
Red eyes, floating like orbs beside him, looked upon them without a trace of emotion.
"News is the sort of thing that always arrives with both good and bad mixed together."
"……."
"Which would you like to hear first?"
No other voice rose from the table. Everyone knew it wasn't a question that wanted an answer. The eyes had already turned elsewhere.
"There has been progress at the Bihak Mountain laboratory."
The man who had fallen under those red eyes spoke in an explanatory tone.
"Experiment subject Bi-100, who showed progress, has been transferred here along with the researchers and is currently undergoing a status examination."
With every voice that stacked up, the eyes turned toward one another. The table itself was quiet, but the atmosphere had shifted. Their eyes were fever-bright.
"The problem—and this is the bad news—is that the Bihak Mountain laboratory was hit by a Dongdae hunter and a vigilante group called Nubyeok."
"……!"
The eyes that had been turned on each other flew wide open.
It was as if someone had dumped cold water over all that fevered excitement.
"The name of the fool who overstepped his place is Choi Yeon. A C-class hunter of Seonhwa Dongdae."
"……?"
"Never heard of him, I take it? But put this way, you'll all know him. He's the one who made a fool of Amhyanghoe's Daejeon branch leader."
"……!"
"Yes. Judging by the executives' reactions, it seems you do know him."
"……."
"Because of this incident, our Jeokryeohui has drawn the city hall's attention. We need to decide our course from here."
A glance—the eyes turned toward the head seat. In place of the red eyes, only pale eyelids were visible.
"…If anyone touches our Jeokryeohui, even city hall will simply be crushed underfoot."
"Those people won't even be able to touch us."
The executives' mouths opened carefully. Soon their voices fell onto the table.
"As you say—but what does city hall matter? Our objective has always been Amhyanghoe, has it not?"
"…True."
"I think the same. But shouldn't that little brat who dared lay a hand on us pay the price?"
"Ah, of course. Quite right."
"Good. I'll beat him to death myself."
"Pardon? Oh my…. Why would you personally move just to deal with a day-old puppy? I'll send Baekmyeon."
"Baekmyeon?"
"Yes. That ignorant little mutt who overstepped will die toyed with and mocked."
Heh heh… A vile laugh settled over the table.
Even in the dark of night, more than a few pairs of eyes were still open in the auditorium.
Of those, the only child was Lee Geon-woo, and he was up on the stage platform with Mr. Woo.
"Nameless Mister."
"…You talkin' to me?"
"Yeah. What's your name, mister?"
"My name?"
"I just realized—you're the one who saved me, but I don't even know your name…."
"Mm…. Far as savin' goes, I didn't really do much, though?"
"No."
Lee Geon-woo shook his head.
The boy's small, resonant voice was full of certainty.
"Being saved on the bridge—that was the start. If I hadn't met you then, I wouldn't be sitting here right now."
"……."
"So tell me. Your name, mister."
"…Yeon-ho. Woo Yeon-ho."
"Woo Yeon-ho…."
Lee Geon-woo murmured Woo Yeon-ho's name. He repeated it carefully, syllable by syllable, as if determined never to forget.
After repeating it several times, the boy called out to the young man.
"Yeon-ho Mister."
"Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"…Sure."
The corner of Woo Yeon-ho's mouth lifted slightly.
Hearing a child's thanks left a strange, ticklish warmth somewhere around his chest.
"But listen, Geon-woo."
"Yeah?"
"I ain't a mister just yet. So call me hyu—"
"Mister is mister."
"Hyu—"
"Mister."
"…R-right."
The ticklish warmth in his chest vanished in an instant.