What Do You See? (2)

"Hello. I'm Oh Tae-oh, Acting Team Leader of Analysis Team 5……."

I flinched inwardly at the sight of this man called Oh Tae-oh.

The Oh Tae-oh who had come to my hospital room practically announced I'm a researcher and I pulled another all-nighter today with his mere presence.

Thick-rimmed glasses and a white lab coat draped over his shoulders — a man in his early thirties.

He and I were obviously meeting for the first time. So why, then?

Several of his features were strangely, achingly familiar.

For instance: the unkempt, unbrushed hair.

The deep dark circles.

The pale skin.

The hunched back.

The half-asleep voice.

And even the shuffling,listless gait.

Was this not the very image of a colleague in my industry, on the eve of a publication deadline?

After seeing nothing but Bureau muscle-heads with backs straight as flagpoles, running into one of my own kind left me with a rather complicated feeling.

Oh Tae-oh shuffled across the hospital room, clutching a tablet and a file folder to his chest, and came over to the table where I, Cha Si-eon, and Gwak Jae-gyeom were sitting. He took the seat across from us and let out a long, long exhale the moment he settled into it.

"I'm so glad you've recovered……. I was on pins and needles, worried something terrible had happened……."

A fitting attitude, I supposed, for someone working on Analysis Team 5 under the name of Seo Do-woon.

While this was my first time meeting him, Oh Tae-oh showed not the slightest bit of unfamiliarity toward me. On the contrary, he broached the agenda as calmly as a coworker I'd worked alongside just yesterday.

"There's a lot to discuss, but let's start with the easy part. The 'personal belongings range experiment' that Response Team 3 conducted informally has been temporarily suspended. We did get meaningful results, but the accident was also far too serious……."

The personal belongings range experiment.

He meant the fact that I went around tethered to Gwak Jae-gyeom with a rope.

And the "far too serious accident" would be Ha Yu-ju's injury, I presumed.

"Did you find the cause of Ha Yu-ju being pulled in as well?"

"Only a hypothesis……."

Oh Tae-oh answered Cha Si-eon's question offhandedly. Then he took out his tablet and held it up for us to see.

On it was CCTV footage of me and Jae-gyeom, and Yu-ju.

The three of us were clustered together, holding up a poster.

It was the moment right before we were pulled into the General Stadium Where Corpses Run.

"Do you see this hand here……?"

Oh Tae-oh pointed his pen at the area near Ha Yu-ju's shoulder.

Looking closely, a large hand was resting on Ha Yu-ju's shoulder.

……It was Gwak Jae-gyeom's.

My eyes and Cha Si-eon's turned to Gwak Jae-gyeom, who averted his gaze with an embarrassed look.

"Agent Gwak Jae-gyeom was holding Agent Ha Yu-ju's shoulder……. It appears this physical contact is what caused Agent Ha Yu-ju to be caught up in Agent Seo Do-woon's pull as well……."

"Then why was only Ha Yu-ju's wrist severed?"

"That's right here — do you see this hand……?"

Oh Tae-oh said the exact same thing as before, moving the tip of his pen.

This time he pointed at Ha Yu-ju's arm, stretched out toward the far end of the corridor.

When Oh Tae-oh tapped the tablet with his fingertip, the images of the three of us vanished in an instant. All that remained on the screen was Ha Yu-ju's raised hand — and it dropped, thump, from the empty air to the floor.

Watching that, Cha Si-eon narrowed his eyes and asked again.

"She was excluded from the pull range because her distance from Seo Do-woon was too great?"

"Yes. Now, let's take a look at the line where Agent Ha Yu-ju's wrist was severed. This is the silicone bracelet Agent Ha Yu-ju was wearing……."

The limited-edition merchandise reserved for first-wave members of the Otter Survival Movement Headquarters — the one Yu-ju had bragged about to me.

The silicone bracelet on the screen had been cut with astonishing precision.

It hadn't merely snapped in one place — it had been split clean in half, into two pieces.

"The cut surface looks like a straight line at first glance, but if you zoom in, it's a curve. If we go back to the earlier photo and project this bracelet's cut line outward until it connects…… you get a circle with a radius of 1.3 meters, centered on the top of Agent Seo Do-woon's head."

At Oh Tae-oh's touch, the photo of me, Gwak Jae-gyeom, and Ha Yu-ju reappeared.

Then a single line extended from Ha Yu-ju's silicone bracelet, tracing a circle around my on-screen figure.

"Agent Gwak Jae-gyeom's and Agent Ha Yu-ju's bodies are inside the line. The only part that crossed outside it was Agent Ha Yu-ju's hand……. So it seems it couldn't come along, and was cut instead……."

"So anyone who touches me gets pulled in within that range?"

I asked, alarmed.

If this was how it worked, I could never make contact with another person.

Not only might they be dragged along with me at any moment, but anything caught on that line of severance would be sliced clean off.

This time it was only a wrist, so it could somehow be reattached. But what if a head or a torso got caught on that line? That would be instant death.

"It's easy to assume so, but we can't say for certain yet. It's only been observed once. We don't know whether the proposition 'connected to Agent Seo Do-woon by a line, one is pulled into the special zone together' was valid only for this instance or valid always. Nor can we say at this point whether that 1.3-meter radius is constant or changes every time……."

Another unknown.

I was starting to feel suffocated by the riddles that kept being tacked onto my own life.

But just then, Oh Tae-oh brought up something intriguing.

"That's why I've devised a research method for this phenomenon……."

"A research method?"

Nod nod!

His formerly murky eyes suddenly lit up as he bobbed his head. Oh Tae-oh manipulated his tablet as if to show me something, and I looked at it with rising expectation.

"……?"

Wait, what is this? A cone-of-shame lizard collar?

The new image Oh Tae-oh pulled up was a picture of a person.

But that person was wearing some kind of round board around their neck.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

What's more, the board had distance markings from the neck printed on it in measured gradations.

It looked like a Halloween costume cosplaying a dartboard or archery target.

"It's a neck collar that can measure the range of Agent Seo Do-woon's pull into special zones. If the 1.3 meters observed this time is truly a meaningful range, then when Agent Seo Do-woon gets pulled into a special zone, the 1.3-meter line on this collar will be severed as well. I set the radius at 1.5 meters for a comfortable margin of error."

He'd been speaking like a perpetually drowsy man, and then suddenly his voice turned bright and clear.

Don't tell me he's serious.

He actually intends to put this on me?

A board with a radius of 1.5 meters — three meters across — around my neck?

He might as well have strapped a sword to me; this was a reality I refused to accept.

Just then, Cha Si-eon spoke up beside me.

"The proposal in question was already rejected, on the grounds that it was excessively conspicuous and would severely restrict movement."

Thank goodness. It wasn't reality after all.

"Tch……."

But the moment his plan was thwarted, Oh Tae-oh clicked his tongue quite openly.

Excuse me? Wasn't it already rejected?

"It's a shame, but it doesn't really matter. After all, a flexible and unpredictable special zone can never be understood through mechanical interpretation like this……."

It doesn't really matter, yet you tried to put that thing on me?

Why bother? You'd already been shot down once?

"Besides, once we begin experimenting, the other side will respond in kind. So it truly doesn't matter to me……."

For someone claiming not to care, this man's excuses were running rather long.

And for all his professed indifference, he seemed to hold a grudge.

In fact, he seemed to hold quite a big one.

Otherwise, why would he push his glasses up with his middle finger — pointed squarely at Cha Si-eon, of all people?

……Can I actually trust this man?

Just moments ago, when calculating Ha Yu-ju's wrist position and my radius, Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-oh had seemed fairly reliable.

But the instant the neck collar came out, the trust that had been stacking up brick by brick collapsed entirely, and even the ground beneath it began to shake.

They said Analysis Team 5 was the team investigating my situation.

And this man is the acting team leader?

Come to think of it — what was with the "acting" part?

Don't tell me the team leader position is vacant?

Suddenly anxious, I turned to look at Cha Si-eon.

Cha Si-eon simply stared in stony silence at the middle finger that had been raised in his direction.

Whether I looked forward or to the side, my mind was nothing but chaos, so I swallowed a sigh and asked Oh Tae-oh.

"Th-the 'other side' you mentioned — do you mean the special zones?"

"No. Not the special zones — the things behind them……."

"The things behind them?"

"Do you believe, Agent Seo Do-woon, that your being pulled into special zones is a phenomenon that happens by accident……?"

What on earth was he talking about all of a sudden?

"I believe it's not a phenomenon, but an intent……."

Oh Tae-oh added, but I still couldn't follow. Then he elaborated while operating his tablet.

"I'll show you exactly why. These are the dates Agent Seo Do-woon was pulled into special zones……. The Railway Station on February 3rd, the Hospital on February 17th, the Warehouse-Style Mart on March 5th, and the General Stadium on March 27th. Counted by day, that's intervals of 14, 16, and 22 days. What do you make of that……?"

I'd been dragged away twice a month, steadily?

Had I really been through that much?

I deliberated for a moment, then shook my head. At that, Oh Tae-oh slid a few photocopied documents in front of me.

"Then compare it with this. Agent Seo Do-woon's medical records, written by Director Kim Woo-in."

My first impression upon seeing it was, Wow, I really did get hurt a lot.

The thought that followed was, So they're just passing my medical records around.

And the last thing that surfaced was an indescribable sense of wrongness.

"You've noticed it, haven't you……?"

As my expression ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hardened, Oh Tae-oh drove in the wedge.

"Which means, Do-woon, every single time your injuries fully healed, you were pulled back into a special zone……."

"What are you……."

Just then, a certain voice flashed through my mind.

-Just run him through the wringer already — what is this?

-If he gets pulled back in while looking like this, he's dead in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠three minutes. What then?

Words Kim Woo-in had said some days ago, when he came to see me while I was bedridden.

Words that had genuinely unsettled me at the time.

Throughout my hospital stay, I had been tormented by the thought: what if I get pulled into a special zone when I can barely even walk?

But contrary to my worries, no such nightmarish situation ever actually materialized.

Despite countless injuries and a fairly long course of treatment, whenever I was pulled into a special zone, I was always in decent condition.

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I had assumed it was mere coincidence.

I had chalked it up to a blessing amid misfortune…….

As if to fan the flames of my confusion, Oh Tae-oh added:

"Look — it's a pattern, as if something was waiting for a full recovery. There's no way this is just coincidence……."

"If it isn't coincidence, then what on earth……."

"That's our greatest unsolved question. Were the special zones naturally occurring — or were they manufactured by something?"

Oh Tae-oh hurled me deeper into a pool of ominous question marks. Raising his glasses again, he said:

"I am certain it's the latter. That they were made — by the 'Designer' of the special zones……."