Discovery
In the quiet office, I slip off my lab coat and hurl it into the corner. Alone in the empty lab, beneath the flickering fluorescent lights, the coat was stained with the nosebleed I’d left behind.
“How the hell am I supposed to wash that out?” Just thinking about cleaning the blood from the fabric made my head throb. I pulled out my phone and searched for methods to remove blood stains. Lately, irritating things kept piling up, and the nosebleeds had grown more frequent because of it. I told myself I was tired, but I didn’t exactly hate the feeling. More work was a good thing. It was proof that humans were striving to better themselves. The more tasks I had, the greater the opportunity to evolve.
“..........”
I set the phone down. Tilting my head back to stare at the blinking light somehow steadied me.
“Aaaargh!! Those fucking bastards!”
These days, unbearable rage would surge without warning. I swept everything off the desk in one violent motion. No one was diligent. No one whipped themselves forward. Why? Why were the people and society of this era drowning in peace, selfishness, and arrogance? And yet they remained oblivious. They were too busy shoving blame and responsibility onto each other.
“....Ah, again...”
Blood began trickling from the other nostril I hadn’t plugged with tissue. It seemed I was still lacking too. To lose my temper like this just because my superior had given me a mild scolding. I pulled out a handkerchief already soaked in blood and pressed it to my nose.
“Right. No need to get so angry. We’re the ones who will change the world.”
On my desk, I gazed at the white flower sealed inside its case.
“I will. Without fail.”
...By the way, when am I supposed to clean all of this up?
I stared at the flower that had finally bloomed on my table. Damn, it really had grown in just a week. I set the spray bottle down and let out a small sigh of admiration. It felt like the sprout had only emerged yesterday, yet here it was already in full bloom.
“...Yeah, it really was just yesterday.”
The sprout hadn’t been growing for long at all, but it had produced a flower in a single week. A bewildered laugh escaped me as I picked up the Flowerpot and headed for the refrigerator. I opened the freezer, placed the Flowerpot inside, and closed the door.
This was the method Chae-yoon had told me about. If there was no way for it to reproduce over time, it would begin scattering petals. The parasitic organisms that lost their source of nutrients would die quickly, so freezing them forced them into hibernation to preserve their life functions.
‘When you need one, just take it out and use it.’
“What is this, not like tissues or something...”
Grumbling back at the Chae-yoon in my head, I unpacked my bag and walked over to the convenience store next to my studio apartment where Seo-hee worked. I was going to find the woman who had been completely out of contact for an entire week.
The last time I went looking for her after class, some middle-aged man had been standing behind the counter instead.
‘Seo-hee? She quit...’
She had quit, he said. She wasn’t answering calls, and I had no idea where she was or what she was doing. If I knew where she lived I would have gone straight there, but all I knew was that she shared a place with friends. I had no other information, so I couldn’t even begin to search.
That left me doing what I was doing now—waiting endlessly. If she lived nearby, maybe we would run into each other. I walked the streets, jogged them, then finally gave up and sat down on a bench.
“Ah.”
“Huh?”
I had been sitting there mindlessly when I actually ran into her. The startled sound slipped out before I could stop it, but Seo-hee didn’t seem surprised at all. She waved with a face full of genuine delight.
“I was actually planning to come find you.”
“Where have you been? Why weren’t you answering your phone?”
“Ah, well… my phone broke.”
“How?”
“While I was making some money...”
How exactly do you make money that results in a broken phone? I stared at her with a mixture of disbelief and exasperation. Fidgeting, she pulled a white envelope from inside her jacket and handed it to me.
“Compensation for when my friends beat you up last time.”
“No, that’s—”
“Just take it.”
I was the one who should have been paying compensation. She jerked her chin, urging me to check inside. There were many things I wanted to say, but her insistence left me no choice. I opened the envelope and looked at the amount.
“...What the hell is this?”
“It was a bit tough.”
“What exactly have you been doing?”
The thick, heavy envelope contained a thick bundle of yellow bills—the kind you saw stuffed in bags in noir films. Roughly five million won in total. Seo-hee’s original job was part-time at a convenience store. Even if she earned well, a million a month would have been the limit. Five million in a week?
“How is it? Do you like it?”
“....”
She looked like a proud, high-maintenance cat waiting to be praised. But my concern lay elsewhere.
“You didn’t do anything that would draw attention, right...”
We were possibly being tailed by an unknown organization. I had wanted to meet her to teach her that she must never do anything as careless as simply handing over evidence...
“I didn’t do anything noticeable, so don’t worry.”
“Then where did all this money come from?”
“My friends helped a little.”
“This is the place where ‘Kim Seo-hee’ is staying.”
Yes, no mistake. I had checked multiple times. This was definitely the location.
“...I am Kim Seo-hee. The three friends living here with me are Jeong Ha-eun, Lee Su-a, and Lee Yun-seo. The four of us have been friends since high school...”
I repeated the body’s information to myself over and over until I had it memorized. I climbed the stairs naturally, reached the third floor, turned right, and entered the door lock password without hesitation. Opening the door, I raised my voice as usual.
“I’m home.”
“Seo-hee, Seo-hee~ You’re back?”
“...Where are the others?”
“Huh? They all went to school. You’re going straight to bed, right? Night shift must’ve worn you out.”
“........”
This woman was definitely Lee Su-a. The other two must be at school.
“Why are you spacing out?”
“...You’ll do nicely.”
“Huh?”
According to the information I had seen inside the host ‘Seo-hee’s’ mind, what I needed right now was funds. Money. This woman looked like she could be put to good use.
I hid one hand behind my back and slowly approached Su-a.
“Um… why are you… Honestly, you’re kind of scaring me...”
She smiled awkwardly and took a hesitant step back. I closed the distance. From the hand behind me, I extended my index fingernail into a long, thin needle. In an instant, I drove it into her neck.
“Agh?!”
Neurotoxin. I generated the toxin within my body, then turned the nail into a syringe and injected it.
“....Ah... ah... uh...?”
Her expression quickly turned vacant and stupid. Her mouth hung open as drool spilled down her chin. The toxin slowed her brain activity, lowered her bodily functions, and dulled her thoughts.
“...Lee Su-a?”
“...Eh.... uh... ah...?”
I stepped past Su-a, whose legs had given out and left her slumped in the living room, and entered the bathroom to wash my hands.
“...We have plenty of time. I’ll take it slow and be thorough.”
I extended every fingernail on both hands into long, needle-like points. One by one, I slid them into her skull. Su-a’s cranium gave way like pudding, and the needles quickly reached her brain.
“Ack?! Uh.... eh?”
“It doesn’t hurt, does it? The neurotoxin has anesthetic properties too.”
I spoke to Su-a, who was now trembling all over like a fish being electrocuted from the stimulation to her brain. She couldn’t answer, of course.
“Sorry. But you’ll have to work for us.”
Her eyes rolled back, drool pouring from her mouth. The pajama pants she wore grew dark and wet as she lost control of her bladder, soaking the floor beneath her.
“I’ll finish quickly. Just wait.”
“Ah♡ Hack?! Uhehe?♡!”
I delicately manipulated the inside of her skull. She was moving too much; next time I would need to tie her down first. Every time I adjusted or overwrote the information in her mind, her body would twitch violently as if electrocuted. The varied reactions were amusing, so I deliberately stirred her brain even harder.
“Kahaak...! S-stop, aah?!♡”
“So what is your role?”
“I will do anything for Seo-hee. Even if I have to sell my body, I will earn money every single day♡?”
“The work you did before doesn’t pay well. And if you get caught it becomes annoying, so break up with your boyfriend too.”
“Yes, I understand.”
With ten needles still buried in her head, drooling blankly in front of me, I stirred Su-a’s mind one more time.
“Ahet♡? Ah... ah...♡”
Joy and ecstasy flooded her convulsing, squirting expression.
“Good girl. Listening to my commands feels that good, doesn’t it?”
“Listening to Seo-hee’s commands... feels so good... aha...♡”
“Perfect. Then what are you?”
“I am, ah♡ a whore, uht, yes..♡”
“Good child.”
I gave her brain one final burst of stimulation. Su-a’s broken, ruined voice quietly melted into the silence of the small apartment.
“...Something like that. Maybe a few more people...”
“And in the process, a resisting woman destroyed your phone?”
Watching Seo-hee nod in front of me, I covered my face with my hand and burst out laughing in disbelief.
“Then instead of giving this to me, just buy yourself a new phone.”
I tried to hand the wad of money back, but—
“There’s one more.”
When she pulled out yet another thick bundle from inside her jacket, I froze mid-motion and laughed even harder.
“...Just how many people did you turn?”
“My three friends, my friends’ friends, their friends’ friends...”
She began counting on her fingers while staring seriously at the ceiling. I stopped her before she could continue.
“That’s enough. Don’t make any more. Madam Kim.”
“...Madam?”
Seo-hee tilted her head in confusion. I grabbed her by the arm and decided we would head downtown first to buy her a new phone.
“...Senior, I have identified the location where the experimental subject was lost.”
“...........”
“After checking the wind direction that day, Seonghoe University appears to be the most likely site.”
“.........”
“...Senior?”
“Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment… haha...”
“Ah, I see. Shall I explain again?”
“No, I heard everything.”
I had tried to lighten the heavy atmosphere with a little joke, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. I cleared my throat and gave Min-jeong her orders.
“Then let’s hold a meeting. Meeting time!”
I waved at Min-jeong as she bowed and left to prepare. She really was one of the few diligent, conscientious people here.
“Seonghoe University...”
The experimental subjects that had survived on that petal were probably few in number. The ones that had successfully parasitized human bodies would be even fewer, I thought, but...
“Can’t rule it out completely.”
There was no harm in being cautious. Safety first.
“.........”
Dogs. Dogs. Fucking bastards. More of them. Dirtier.