A Fleeting Glimmer
The lecture ended far more uneventfully and abruptly than I had expected. I walked through the university grounds with Chae-yun in tow, her strings now completely severed. Even as I scanned our surroundings with heightened awareness, the complete absence of any sensation that someone was watching us sent chills down my spine. I never believed for a second that they would simply give up after failing to capture us once. That was precisely why I couldn’t shake this eerie feeling.
The thought that eyes monitoring everyone who came and went from this school might be hidden in every corner made my whole body tense up involuntarily. My gait grew awkward and stiff.
“.....”
I found myself envying Chae-yun, who walked beside me like a doll—utterly thoughtless, simply following my lead.
“Let’s hurry.”
For now, I decided to take her hand and head back to my studio apartment. Originally she lived in the school dormitory, but the current Chae-yun couldn’t possibly return there. Her roommate would be present, and her friends might notice something off about this doll-like version of her. In the worst case, it could draw unwanted attention.
I’d patted myself on the back for coming up with a decent plan on the fly, but of course an improvised scheme quickly revealed its flaws. Whatever these beings could detect with their light was the parasitic organism inside a person’s head. It seemed they couldn’t sense an empty shell once the parasite had left, but the problem was Chae-yun’s residence. That residence existed right here in the university—which was currently the most dangerous place of all.
“What am I supposed to do with you?”
“.......”
Chae-yun’s empty shell stared back at me with a vacant face, completely unaware of the frustration burning inside me. I’d considered having her stay at my studio apartment, but it seemed the school issued warnings if someone stayed away from the dorms for too long. In our current situation, anything that drew attention was something I absolutely wanted to avoid.
For now, let’s go back to the studio and hear her opinion.
I glanced around one more time at the invisible, unfelt gaze, then quickened my pace and stepped out of the dome of light.
> “Welcome back~”
The moment I opened the door, Seo-hee greeted us while cradling a plastic container filled with white liquid.
“Must be nice being unemployed.”
“I’m not unemployed. You’re the one who called yourself the madam, remember?”
At the unexpected banter, I waved my hand dismissively and sat down in front of Seo-hee, guiding the empty shell of Chae-yun—who was still holding my hand—to sit beside me.
“Alright, go over there now. You’re making me uncomfortable.”
Seo-hee looked down at the thick, sticky white liquid inside the plastic container as she spoke. As if it understood her words, the substance crawled out of the container on its own, slid across the floor, and crept up the doll-like body of Chae-yun before slipping smoothly into her ear.
It was exactly the same scene I had witnessed when these things first parasitized a human. Chae-yun’s body began to twitch and convulse. Small moans of “Ah… ah…” escaped her lips as her consciousness gradually returned. The only difference was their size. What had once been as small as flower petals had now grown to the size of two adult fists combined. It really did seem like the rapid growth was thanks to the “nutrients” they had spoken of so eagerly.
While I was lost in thought, Chae-yun—who had finally reclaimed her body—spoke.
“…Ah, ah, my speech is coming out fine… It seems there aren’t any side effects.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Oppa, you didn’t do anything weird to my body while I was gone, right?”
“.........”
Her tone-deaf joke, meant to lighten the heavy atmosphere, only made the room fall even quieter.
“…I was joking.”
“Yeah, well, anyway—nothing unusual happened, right?”
“That’s why I came back safely.”
Thankfully, both of the hypotheses I had formed had proven correct in succession. There was no need to celebrate with a mental “hooray,” though. Simply running away like this wasn’t going to solve anything. I knew that perfectly well, yet I had no idea what to do next.
They never revealed themselves. Even the pursuers who had chased us had hidden their faces. Clearly, they had no intention of showing their true identities first. It would have been nice if they had left even a single clue behind…
“Because someone went and wiped them all out…”
“Then what the hell was I supposed to do?”
“I was joking. Just joking.”
Seo-hee had killed them all, and in the process of erasing the evidence, she had melted the entire scene. At the time I had been slightly shocked that she could do something like that alone, but now that the situation had actually arrived, it didn’t feel entirely like a good thing.
“Just what the hell is their identity… their identity…”
“Exactly. They refuse to show it to us.”
“More importantly, what are you going to do about the dorm? Isn’t that the most urgent issue right now?”
There were so many headaches piling up.
“Huh? Don’t worry about that. I already contacted them saying I’d be leaving the dorm.”
“Who did you contact?”
“The dorm supervisor.”
“Wait, then where are you planning to stay?”
“Oppa’s place.”
Both Seo-hee and I stared at Chae-yun in shock, but she simply looked back at us as if wondering what the problem was.
“Why?”
“…Never mind. Let’s do that.”
Several objections came to mind, but I decided she must have handled it properly on her own. I moved on to the next problem.
“So, how exactly are we supposed to find them?”
“That’s the biggest issue…”
Seo-hee, who had been watching us both rest our chins on our hands in thought, spoke with clear exasperation.
“Don’t overcomplicate it. Weren’t there any unfamiliar faces at your university? There’s a high chance one of them is the culprit.”
“If it were that easy, we wouldn’t be struggling like this, unnie.”
“.......”
It was a ridiculous suggestion. Even if we excluded students, countless people came and went from the school every day. How were we supposed to find them?
Then, for some reason I couldn’t fathom no matter how hard I thought about it, something flashed through my mind. My head throbbed as if struck by lightning for a split second, only for the pain to vanish just as instantly. Like the phenomenon people called a flashback, a single word that had absolutely no business appearing in this situation popped into my head.
“…Handkerchief?”
I stood up and searched the desk. There it was—the handkerchief soaked in a red, fishy-smelling liquid. This was definitely the one I had picked up at the school cafeteria.
“I’m sorry, are you alright?”
“Ah, yes. I’m sorry. I should have been watching where I was going.”
Another brief exchange flickered through my mind like an old photograph. Who was that man?
“Oppa, what’s wrong?”
Chae-yun asked, sounding worried.
“The owner of this.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know anyone who could find out who owns this?”
It was an unreasonable request, and even I didn’t fully understand why I was asking. But I couldn’t shake the conviction that this was important. There was something here.
“…I don’t know who it belongs to, but I can find the owner.”
“How?”
“By scent. Normally fabric deodorizers or similar things make odors fade quickly, but if it’s soaked in blood, it should still carry that person’s scent clearly.”
“Wow, you really are like a dog.”
Chae-yun explained it seriously while Seo-hee teased her.
“I’m counting on you. Can you find him for me?”
“Aigoo, back in my twenties I didn’t get tired at this hour.”
It had already been two full days of staring at monitors inside the trailer while stretching. As expected, once they noticed us, they weren’t going to let us catch their tails easily.
“You’re still young, sunbae-nim.”
“What’s so young about being thirty-five… I’m envious of the youngest members like Min-jeong. Once you hit your thirties, even a little running leaves you out of breath. I had to quit regular cigarettes and switch to vaping…”
“Still, I’m the one who’s envious of you, sunbae-nim. I wonder if I’ll be able to become a team leader by the time I reach your age.”
“Come on, the future belongs to the juniors. I’m sure everyone here will do well.”
Even as we chatted and laughed playfully, my eyes never left the monitors. That didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. I genuinely believed what I said. Approaching work diligently and sincerely while still taking good care of subordinates—that was what I considered the mark of a good senior. It should be the most natural thing in the world. Why did people find it so difficult?
“Team leader, I’ll take over surveillance now. Why don’t you get some rest? You’ve been watching all day.”
“Oh, really? I was feeling a bit tired, haha…”
A researcher who had appeared beside me at some point took my place in front of the monitors. I gave him a grateful bow, then stepped out of the trailer. I lit a cigarette while watching the sunset for a brief moment of rest.
But even that short break was interrupted when the device on my wrist let out a soft beep, delivering information about “her.”
> …Vital signs normal. Nutritional levels normal. Proceeding smoothly.
If I were raising a daughter, would this be how it felt? Watching my creations grow so vigorously brought a warm smile to my face without me even realizing it.
“Sunbae-nim.”
“Whoa! You startled me.”
At Min-jeong’s soft voice calling me from behind, I dropped the vape pen that had been in my mouth.
“I’m sorry. Did I scare you badly?”
“No! I’m fine. Just a little surprised.”
“…Um, since it’s your break time now and you haven’t eaten anything all day, would you like to grab a meal together? My treat.”
“No, I’ll treat you!”
She was a subordinate I kept close because, despite having seen both the good and bad sides of the lab at a young age, she still maintained her passionate attitude. I liked that about her.
“…So I analyzed the characteristics of this batch of specimens, and compared to the venom-using ones we saw before…”
Talking about work even during our break. Wasn’t that a bit much? I smiled inwardly as I listened to her story while we walked.
“…But sunbae-nim, what if we don’t get any results this time?”
The work conversation continued until she suddenly voiced her anxiety about the current operation.
“Ah, that doesn’t matter.”
“What? But the previous team leader was held responsible and…”
So the previous team leader’s sudden dismissal had been weighing on her mind after all.
“It’s fine. I’ve already produced results.”
All values of F-BW-003 are normal.
— L. LUKE
“Huh? What kind of results…?”
“I’m not telling anyone right now~ Not a soul.”