247 Days
There was one statement handed down like gospel truth among the staff of the facility:
Hon needed Kang Seok.
Kang Seok was a scientist brought in during the later stages of the H Project.
A young man who had proven his brilliance through countless published papers.
The H Project had succeeded for the first time after hundreds of millions of failures—though in its early days, the word success was somewhat of a stretch.
The experimental subject they had finally obtained, Hon, harbored a violent hostility toward every member of the facility's staff.
Whenever anyone so much as tried to approach the white-haired boy, he would bristle and lash out, making real experimentation impossible—they couldn't even hold a conversation with him.
But once Kang Seok arrived, everything changed.
"Hi there. I'm Kang Seok. Feel free to call me Seok-hyung."
"……"
"I know you understand me. I heard they installed language capabilities in you."
The moment Kang Seok stepped into Hon's room, he strode forward without a hint of hesitation.
At the man approaching in bold, confident steps, Hon let out an unintelligible, animal-like sound.
"Khh…."
His hands and feet were bound tightly in restraints. It was the only thing he could do.
It was, to any observer, a deeply negative signal—but Kang Seok was undeterred.
"Everyone else says you act this way because you're scared. That everything's confusing because you don't understand any of it yet."
"……"
"I disagree."
There was a chair sitting in the middle of the room, but Kang Seok ignored it entirely, walking straight toward Hon.
When he reached the boy, he simply dropped down onto the floor where he stood.
"You understand your situation perfectly well, don't you? Including the fact that you were made in a lab."
"Khh…."
"No need to make animal noises. It's not like we're shooting a drama. Save your strength."
Kang Seok shrugged, entirely unbothered.
"I heard they packed all sorts of useless things into you when they built you—movies, dramas, that kind of stuff. Something about raising your comprehension of humanity, apparently. Seems like it just confused you for no reason."
"……"
"Let me make this clear. There is absolutely no need for you to imitate the 'reaction of a startled human' right now. You're smart—you'll understand this just fine. Pretending changes nothing. Not a single thing."
On the surface, it was a heartless, ice-cold remark.
But it carried enough logic for Hon to grasp, and it landed exactly as intended.
Hon stopped making animal sounds. He stopped the violent outbursts.
That didn't mean he let his guard down right away, of course.
"Want this? It's a cream bun. Though I'm sure you already knew that."
"……"
"Isn't it about time you stopped glaring at me? Doesn't it hurt your eyes?"
Hon understood Kang Seok's words with sharp clarity.
That violence changed nothing—it only made him tired.
And eventually, he came to realize that talking to the person in front of him would cost him nothing.
All of it was thanks to Kang Seok.
"Scoot over a little. God, this room is cramped."
"……"
Kang Seok spent entire days at Hon's side.
Twenty-four hours a day, literally.
He did his paperwork in Hon's room. He ate there. He slept there.
Though the room wasn't small, Kang Seok insisted on lying down pressed right up beside Hon.
Hon stared at the man in silence.
And at last, the mouth that had stayed shut for so long finally opened.
"……You're the one who could move over."
It had been exactly 247 days since Hon had been created.
Outside, the scientists watching through the cameras went blank, wondering if they'd heard something that couldn't possibly be real.
Kang Seok, on the other hand, smiled and answered with perfect composure.
"Well, look at that. You? Where are your manners, young man?"
"……I'm not human."
"What are you talking about? You were made from human DNA. That makes you human."
"……"
"You know it already. Quit pretending you don't. Call me hyung from now on."
Hon simply stared at the man who laughed cheerfully and added, "I'm older than you. Much older, in fact."
Kang Seok went on living alongside Hon after that.
The days when 'Seok-hyung!' and 'Hyung!' tumbled constantly from Hon's lips arrived far sooner than anyone expected.
The boy who had once stood there breathing silently with dead, empty eyes was gone.
Hon grew into a lively child who couldn't sit still for even a moment, chattering away nonstop.
Having opened his heart to humanity through Kang Seok, Hon threw himself willingly into the purpose for which he'd been made.
He participated obediently in every experiment, gritting his teeth harder than anyone to make each one succeed.
He was badly injured again and again over the course of those repeated trials—but it didn't matter.
"Ppulppuri, are you okay?!"
Because there was always a man who came running straight to him.
Hon stared for a moment at the sweat beading on Kang Seok's forehead from sprinting, then turned his head away with an exaggerated hmph.
"You're too late. What took you so long? Planning to come only when I'm actually dead?"
"You're younger than me, and you've got a lot of nerve talking like that. You're not dying. Not while I'm here."
Hon, hearing the tender words that followed, had to bite down on the smile creeping across his face.
That's right. As long as you're here, I don't have to die.
No—I won't need to at all.
All Hon had to do was whatever Kang Seok told him.
And in return, a warm embrace and gentle praise always followed.
"Just listen to your hyung."
What his hyung ordered was, for the most part, painful and exhausting work.
Sometimes it tormented him until he vomited blood. But it was fine.
Because whenever an experiment succeeded, his hyung always hugged him.
Days when that alone was enough slowly became his everyday life.
"Hyung!"
"There's our Ppulppuri, bursting with energy again today."
Several years later, Hon gave Kang Seok his heart, completely.
It was unavoidable. He never even intended to resist.
And so the experimental subject began living for one single human being.
"Yeonjae, looking sharp again today."
Stepping out of the car, I answered Junghyun-hyung's greeting with a smile.
"You too, hyung."
"Aigoo, when did our little one get this big?"
I'd barely gotten out a single line.
But the response I got back was almost embarrassingly enthusiastic.
While I was absently receiving the hug Junghyun-hyung wrapped around me, a disgruntled voice drifted over from the side.
"……Seriously, what is it with you two?"
It was Kim Seokjun. He grumbled with an exasperated face, "You see each other every day, so why do you act like it's been a month?"
Junghyun-hyung laughed and answered him.
"You already know the answer. He's my son."
"…? Seriously?"
"Yep. I gave birth to him with my heart."
"Fine, fine. My mistake for talking to you two at all."
Actor Kim Seokjun shook his head and turned to walk away.
It was me who stopped him.
"You're here again today, Seokjun-hyung. You don't have a shoot today, do you?"
Just like back during the zelkova tree days—the man was endlessly diligent.
Kim Seokjun snorted at my words.
"Look who's talking. You don't have one either."
"I just came to watch."
"Same here."
Liar.
Set down that script in your hand before you say that.
One glance was enough to tell the script in his grip was well worn—thumb-stained from who knows how many rounds of practice.
Kim Seokjun arranged his face into an expression of leisurely ease.
"For me, it's all the same whether I'm home or here, so I just came. But you—you've got school, and you still crawled all the way out here with no shoot? Can't you rest for once?"
"I don't think you're in a position to say that, hyung."
"Oho, look at the mouth on you now."
Kim Seokjun laughed and raised a hand, aiming a flick at my forehead.
Junghyun-hyung smoothly blocked it, grinning all the while.
"Alright, that's enough—let's head in. I'm the one actually filming here, and somehow you two look more excited than me."
"Can't even flick the kid's forehead? So only you get to do it, huh?"
"There's nothing there worth flicking. Quit spouting nonsense."
Kim Seokjun and Junghyun-hyung bickered like this every chance they got.
I honestly can't tell whether they get along or not.
Since the conversation clearly wasn't going anywhere near an end, I headed into the set first by myself.
The set that would become Hon's Room once the cameras rolled was enormous—and completely empty.
I looked around the wide space filled with nothing but cameras.
Not exactly a nurturing environment, is it.
Whether Hon was an experimental subject or a human being, he was still a child, no question about it.
Maybe the production team had intended it, but a bare room without a single toy did not look like a healthy place for a kid.
A perfect setup for gaslighting.
Growing up alone in a room like this for years, with no children his age around—of course sound judgment would be beyond him.
And if someone treated him kindly in the middle of all that, he'd have no choice but to become blindly devoted.
"……"
I looked around quietly, then went and sat down in a corner.
Filming was still a long way off, so I wouldn't be in anyone's way.
But after sitting there in silence for just a few minutes, I felt loneliness wash over me.
Except—this wasn't my emotion.
He must have been so lonely.
I could feel it vividly, the loneliness Hon had felt in this vast room whenever Kang Seok was away.
And I understood, more deeply now, why he'd grown so obsessively attached to the man.
Tsk.
My mouth turned bitter.
Children should be allowed to grow up like children.
If they were going to experiment anyway, they should have made one more, a same-age companion.
I was sitting there blankly, wondering why anyone would leave a child to be lonely by himself, when it happened.
"Um… hi there."
Someone was poking my shoulder.
"…?"
I turned around and found a little boy standing there.
His face was young, and his small frame looked to be around eight years old at most.
There was no one else nearby but me—and above all, he'd been poking my shoulder, so I answered him.
"Hi."
"Are you here to act too?"
"Yeah."
It grated a little, being addressed so casually by such a tiny kid, but I figured a child wouldn't know any better and just answered.
"Me too! I'm here to act!"
"I see."
It was nothing special as words went, but the boy's face lit up.
Then he plopped down right beside me.
"What's your name? I'm Luke—no wait, Han Haram. You can just call me Haram!"
"I'm Lee Yeonjae."
"Your name is so pretty!"
"Thanks. You're pretty too."
At my flat reply, the boy beamed.
"It's only grown-ups around here, so I was a little nervous. I'm so glad you're here!"
"Glad to hear it."
The boy talked more than I'd expected.
Even with me giving nothing but light little responses, he chattered away earnestly on his own.
His pronunciation's a touch off, though.
There was a high chance he was foreign.
He looked Korean at a glance, but I already knew full well that guessing nationality from appearance was a fool's game.
Seong Ijun's American, after all. So what.
He'd introduced himself as Luke in the first place, and that slightly slipped pronunciation made foreign birth seem likely.
"You really stand out, you know. The second I walked in, you were the first thing I saw."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Of course! You're really cool! What's that word again? Shine? You're like a star!"
"Thank you."
So I just let him talk, comfortably enough.
They say foreign kids don't care about age gaps. Guess it's true.
It was oddly fascinating, how naturally he called me you despite the obvious difference in our size.
I was watching him babble away to himself, musing on whether this was what a cultural difference looked like, when it happened.
"Haram! What do you think you're doing over there!"
Some woman started shrieking hysterically.
The boy, who had been chattering away with a flushed face, went pale in an instant.
"Didn't I tell you not to run around the set like that!"
"I'm sorry, Mom…."
Mom?
"You can't even wait the few minutes it takes me to greet the director? What kind of child has so little patience―."
The woman marched closer, her face twisted in a scowl—until her eyes landed on me.
In a flash she froze, her eyes widening for a moment, and then her entire expression transformed.
"Oh my! Aren't you Actor Lee Yeonjae? Oh my~ It looks like you've already been chatting with our Haram. Ho ho."
The woman beamed as though she'd never frowned in her life.
I looked back and forth between the woman and the boy, who had gone ghostly white, and thought:
Why would anyone let her act?
She could just do it herself.