The Assimilation of Kim Seo-hee
The man tried desperately to wrench my hand away. I squeezed harder. With one hand clamped over his mouth, I drove my foot into his leg. The limb snapped like dry tinder.
"!!!!!!"
His scream died against my palm. I knew the moment I let go he’d start howling, so I released him and slapped his jaw with carefully measured force, exactly the way he’d done to me. He dropped to the floor like a broken doll and lay still.
"D-Dae-hyun… you, you…"
The two remaining thugs were still trying to look threatening, but the pierced girl behind them had frozen in shock. I walked toward the men. Their legs seemed locked; they could only shuffle backward in clumsy panic. Even my deliberately slow stride was enough to close the distance.
This time I grabbed the pig wearing the gold chain by the arm. He tried to resist, but the moment he realized raw strength meant nothing against me, his eyes widened in disbelief.
"Quiet."
I covered his mouth again and wrenched the captured arm upward with everything I had. It tore free with a wet pop.
"!!!!!!"
His frantic thrashing looked so absurd that I watched for a few seconds before slapping him across the cheek the same way I had the first man. He crumpled instantly.
I turned to the last thug.
"S-sorry, I—"
He couldn’t even finish the sentence. Pitiful. Now that I thought about it, this was the one who had tried to hold the others back.
In front of the man paralyzed by terror, I focused power through my body. A warm rush flooded my veins. The swelling around my eyes vanished, my split lip knit closed, and I felt the cracked ribs snap back into place. The man and the pierced girl stared at the impossible sight. Their faces flickered between confusion and raw, animal fear.
"Still… you did try to stop them."
I slapped the frozen man’s cheek. His body folded like a puppet with cut strings and he fainted on the spot.
"Hiiik!"
When I finally looked at the last one—the girl—tears already shimmered in her sharp eyes and her whole body trembled. The tough attitude from earlier had completely evaporated.
I stepped close and snatched her phone. The screen showed the numbers 112. She hadn’t managed to press call. I crushed the device in my fist until it crumpled like an empty soda can.
"……I-I…"
Terror had stolen her voice. A dark stain was spreading across the crotch of her tiny shorts. Incontinence from sheer panic. I never thought I’d actually see it in real life.
"Why did you do it?"
"S-sorry… I’m s-sorry…"
The little cat who had thought she was a tiger, now completely lost in front of me. I wanted to torment her a little more.
I ran my fingers through her short hair.
"I asked why."
"Sorry—hic—ugh…"
The desperate way she fought back sobs while trying to speak sent a strange, sweet pleasure through me I had never felt before.
"…Still. You’re pretty."
"Huh…?"
I pulled the small bottle of petals from my pocket. No hesitation remained. I felt strangely refreshed.
The moment I removed the cork, something abnormal began. A viscous substance oozed from the petals like living slime—the kind elementary kids play with. During Chae-yun’s assimilation I had been too far away to see it clearly, but now I understood. This was what it looked like.
The liquid crawled across my palm, glanced around, then met my gaze. It had no eyes, yet the feeling of eye contact was unmistakable. After a moment it turned away, losing interest in me, and locked onto the pierced girl—Seo-hee.
"What the hell is that…"
Her face flooded with horror. A powerful curiosity stirred inside me about what would happen next.
I watched like a child observing ants.
Having confirmed its target, the creature moved quickly. It slid onto Seo-hee’s shoulder, stretched itself long and thin, then shot straight into her ear canal after brushing aside her hair.
"Unght?!"
A short cry. Her whole body twitched once, violently. I let go of her. She staggered, braced herself against the wall, and clutched her head.
"S-something’s… inside my head… ah?"
Her confused expression looked slightly different from Chae-yun’s reaction. Case-by-case, then.
"Please, I’ll do anything—just spare me, spare me…! I’ll do whatever you want…!"
She clung to me, hands still gripping her skull, face twisted in something between crying and laughing. I felt a pang of genuine regret. Once it reached this stage, I had no idea how to intervene. I simply watched her in silence.
"Eut, aaaaah? Scary, scary, scary—that look in your eyes—I, I—"
Her legs gave out. She slid down the wall and her hand slipped into her shorts, frantically touching herself.
It seemed she hadn’t noticed the changes happening as the thing devoured and merged with her brain.
"My brain is… melting… is this still me? Am I…?"
She kept twitching.
"Ah……"
Now came the part I recognized. After the pain contorted her features, emotion suddenly flatlined. Seo-hee stared into empty space with a blank face. But unlike the others, she didn’t seem to be snapping back to herself.
"…Is something wrong?"
She sat perfectly still like a doll. It felt off. Normally they started behaving like themselves again by now.
I took out my phone and dialed. Despite the late hour, the call was answered immediately.
"Hey, Chae-yun. You’re not asleep yet?"
"Aww, I got excited when you called first and said ‘Chae-yun~’ so sweetly. I was hoping for a midnight date, but you’ve really made a mess this time, oppa."
"I didn’t say it sweetly. Anyway, how’s everything?"
"I healed all the men’s injuries and erased their memories. They’ll probably think it was just a nightmare. Also…"
Chae-yun had come out in the middle of the night at my call. She extended a small tentacle from her mouth and slipped it into each man’s ear, finishing the cleanup in moments. Truly efficient.
Once the work was done, her gaze moved to Seo-hee, who was still slumped unconscious against the convenience store wall. Maybe she felt something because they were the same kind now.
"How is she?"
"Normal. The assimilation is simply taking longer. She should wake up soon."
"Good enough."
"This is all because of you, oppa."
"What? Me?"
While I was tossing the unconscious men into the car like sacks of trash, Chae-yun pressed me.
"What exactly did you do to her during assimilation?"
"I didn’t do anything weird."
"…Really?"
"…Really."
There was a sliver of guilt, but I played dumb. Why was she reacting like this? Had something gone wrong?
While I was wondering, Seo-hee stirred in the corner and opened her eyes.
"….Um…"
"Oh, you’re awake. Do you know who you are?"
Chae-yun rushed over in quick, excited steps, asking after her like a worried friend. She must have been lonely. Having another of her kind clearly made her happy.
I decided to stay back and simply observe. This was the first time I’d seen two of them meet, and I was curious whether they could recognize each other instinctively and how.
"You too…?"
"Yeah. I’m the same as you."
What? How did she know? My curiosity was left hanging. I watched them with a faint sense of injustice.
"First, change your clothes. They’re soaked."
"Th-thank you."
Seo-hee stared at us blankly, still awkward, until Chae-yun pushed her gently toward the storage room. Chae-yun seemed thrilled to teach her how to wear unfamiliar clothes, while Seo-hee—still unable to fully process the situation—appeared to have forgotten I existed.
Left alone, I sat at the tasting counter inside the store and scratched my head, feeling out of place.
About ten minutes later, Seo-hee emerged from the storage room after washing up and changing. She looked much cleaner.
She stood in front of me, fidgeting, then finally spoke.
"Um… the ‘previous me’ seems to have done some awful things. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize properly."
Even though she was still a little stiff, the confident way she apologized helped me understand what they meant about the host’s personality carrying over. It was hard to reconcile this version with the terrified girl from earlier.
"No, it’s fine. It wasn’t really ‘you.’"
"Aish… this is hard to explain. I’m not that smart, but since I did it, I’m the one who should apologize."
"…All right. I accept your apology."
With the atmosphere finally settled, the three of us—me, Chae-yun, and the newly born Seo-hee—sat at the tasting counter and continued talking.
"So you carry ancient genes?"
"I don’t know, but apparently I do?"
I nodded toward Chae-yun. She puffed out her chest with a proud look that said, I found her. Pretty great, right?
"What information do you have about your body? How much of the host have you consumed?"
"Let’s see… Kim Seo-hee, twenty-two, college dropout. I left home, so you don’t need to worry about my parents. I make money through part-time jobs…"
"Whoa, so you’re my unnie… If you left home, where have you been staying?"
Chae-yun cut in. Seo-hee looked slightly annoyed. Her core personality really hadn’t changed.
Even while irritated, she answered diligently.
"Just crashing at a friend’s place. I pay rent too."
"Hmm…"
"A-anyway, I have a question too."
Seo-hee froze again, visibly tense. What was she about to ask that made her so nervous?
"Have you two already… done it…?"
"Pfft!"
"……"
Chae-yun exploded into laughter. I dropped my head into my hands.
"We haven’t gone all the way yet, but I’ve had a taste~♡"
"Stop. It’s embarrassing."
Since she was the same kind as Chae-yun, I had expected the topic of reproduction to come up eventually—just not so abruptly.
Chae-yun grinned and gave Seo-hee a playful thumbs-up.
"…..Eut."
When I lifted my head again, my eyes met Seo-hee’s. She quickly looked away, pretending she hadn’t been staring.
"Speaking of which, oppa, when are we going to do it?"
"…Don’t ask me."
While I suffered through the headache-inducing conversation, the sky outside was beginning to brighten. Six in the morning. Time to leave.
"…I need to get back for my shift soon. What about you two?"
"My place is right nearby. She’s in a dorm."
"…Then let’s meet tomorrow. I still need to consume more brain today. I can’t quite follow your conversation yet."
I gave a rough goodbye, left the store, and asked Chae-yun once we were outside.
"You said you follow the host’s original personality, right?"
"That’s right."
It wasn’t a big deal, but I couldn’t shake a faint sense of unease. Seo-hee’s stiff attitude had felt off since the moment she woke. We had only known each other a few hours, yet something about her behavior didn’t sit right.
Probably because the assimilation wasn’t fully complete yet, I told myself. I pushed away Chae-yun, who was clinging to me again, and finally reached my studio apartment.