Camouflage
'Tomorrow, a misfortune factor transfers to this human! Sometime around 2 p.m.? Apparently his clothes get dirty. Pretty minor, this time!'
That was exactly what An-gae had told me today — that around two o'clock, someone would suffer the misfortune of having his clothes ruined.
The person An-gae had shown me, the face that matched this description, was the very same man I'd just seen: the director.
I had no way of knowing how his clothes would get dirty, but I figured it would most likely be one of two things — tripping while touring the garden, or spilling a drink.
So I'd cut the garden tour from his itinerary entirely, and since there was nothing I could do about the drink, I'd watched him as closely as I could.
And yet the director had just climbed into his sedan and driven away in a spotless suit.
'Was it the garden trip after all?'
I'd never once managed to block someone else's misfortune this easily, and it left me feeling strangely disoriented.
It was a relief that no accident had happened, of course — but I was standing there, unable to shake a nagging, inexplicable unease, when—
"Hey there, kid."
I turned at the sudden voice and found one of the reporters who'd come to take photos today.
"Yes? Is something the matter?"
"There's something I want to ask you. I'm not some weirdo or anything."
He rummaged through his pockets as he spoke, which made him look plenty weird to me.
I studied his hands carefully while trying not to let my wariness show, but fortunately, what he pulled out was a rectangular slip of paper.
"The truth is, I'm not actually a reporter — I'm a freelance photographer. Say, have you ever thought about acting in a drama?"
"……Sorry?"
The word was so far out of left field that my answer came late.
"A drama?"
"Yeah. I juggle a lot of odd jobs, and one of them is working with a drama team. They need a child extra for this one, and it's barely any lines. Not even two sentences."
"Oh…."
"No pressure or anything — I just thought it might be fun for you. Of course you'd need your guardian's permission, so talk it over with your director, and if you're interested, give me a call at this number."
Unable to answer right away, I simply stared holes into the business card he'd handed me.
The man, apparently with plenty more to say, fired off his words like a machine gun.
"Filming's already next week, and the PD keeps going on about naturalness this, naturalness that, refusing to call in actual actors, what a load of— ah, sorry. Didn't mean to curse."
"It's all right."
"Anyway, I don't know all the details, but it shouldn't be hard. They said the character's a bright one, and seeing you today — it really suits you."
"Oh… thank you."
"Heheh, sure. Give me a call if you're interested. Good work today. Tired? Your energy's completely different from earlier."
Only after repeating his request for a call two more times did the man finally leave.
By then, the other kids had all bolted outside, leaving just me and the director standing there.
"Yeonjae, you worked hard. You must be exhausted."
"Not at all. You've worked hard too, Director."
My head was a mess, but I managed my expression as best I could and looked up at her.
Her face was full of things she clearly wanted to say, so I quietly waited for her to go on.
"Yeonjae, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"Yes?"
The director opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, as if she couldn't bring herself to say it.
"The way you acted in front of the director earlier today… it was so different from the you I usually know."
"Yes. I thought you'd like it if I acted a little brighter."
For some reason, deep creases formed between the director's brows.
"Yeonjae, acting a little brighter and acting like a completely different person are two different things. Saying you love hot chocolate earlier — that was the same. That was a lie, wasn't it?"
"Ah… yes. I wasn't trying to lie, though. I'm sorry."
"That's not — I'm not saying you did something wrong…."
Unable to find the words, she finally just said, "Let's talk about this another time," and turned away toward the director's office.
I watched her back retreat in silence.
Even after that, the misfortune An-gae had foretold never came — not until the moment I fell asleep.
"Yeonjae!!"
"Ah! You scared me. What is—"
"What did you DO?! What did you do!!"
The instant I opened my eyes, I was confronted with An-gae, so worked up that he could barely breathe.
He couldn't even answer my question — just kept repeating the same words over and over — and I found myself wondering what on earth was wrong with him.
"First, calm down and breathe. I have plenty of questions for you too."
"You're talking about how the misfortune didn't come, right?!"
"Yeah, that. What happened?"
I worried that something might have gone wrong, but I did my best to keep my tone level as I asked.
My hope was that it would help An-gae calm down even a little. It did not help at all.
But what he said next left me with no choice but to be shocked.
"Every single one of your misfortune factors dropped off you at once!"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"I'm saying they ALL dropped off! I don't— I don't know what this is either. What did you do?!"
What did I even do.
It was An-gae's voice, raised in agitation like I'd never heard before, that had me stunned.
Of course the news that all my misfortune factors had vanished was astonishing in itself — but more than that, it was An-gae's deathly pale face that kept nagging at me.
"Is it really that big a deal? Just try to calm down first."
"Do I look like I can calm down?! You — what you have, that kind of energy… wow. I still get chills just thinking about it!"
"Energy?"
Hadn't he said last time that he couldn't see my energy because I was completely buried under misfortune factors?
Ah — so this time, with them all gone, he saw it for the first time.
"What's the matter? Is my energy that bad?"
If misfortune factors had been clinging to me that densely, then surely my energy itself had to be terrible.
It was the kind of thing I could guess easily, having already heard the explanation — but the fact that An-gae, who was always laughing, looked that rattled meant it must have been worse than I imagined.
'Not that I could ever see it myself, anyway….'
I waited a long while for An-gae to come back to his senses, but when no sign of calming down appeared, I sank down onto the floor.
If An-gae was right, then energy wasn't something I could change no matter what I did.
I had no idea what form energy took when he looked at it, but even if mine looked like some ominous, sticky tar, there would be nothing I could do about it.
Which was why what I actually wanted to ask was why the misfortune factors had dropped off in the first place—
"Your energy is really — wow, just, WOW! It's amazing!"
"Okay, okay. Was it really that horrifying?"
"What are you even saying?! It was the brightest thing I've ever seen!"
…What?
I had been sitting in the chair An-gae had conjured for me amid all the chaos, but at this completely unexpected turn, I looked up.
"I still can't believe it. That brightness… and the smell — oh, the smell. I was almost dazzled for a second there, I swear!"
His voice was charged with excitement, as if he couldn't contain it if he tried.
"I've seen the energy of so, so many humans over the years, and there has never, ever been energy as pleasant as yours! I only glimpsed it for a moment and I still can't get it out of my head!"
"Only a glimpse? You can't see it now?"
"Nope! It's covered up by the misfortune factors again. Same as always!"
He bounced in place like a delighted child, so I simply shut my mouth and waited.
I kept waiting a good while after that, and only once I saw his excited face settle slightly did I speak up.
"An-gae. Can I ask you something now?"
"Yeah! Ahh~ I feel so good! Heehee!"
"Good for you. But listening to you, there's a part that doesn't add up."
At my even tone, An-gae stopped bouncing and grew wary.
"Ugh, what now…."
"I'm not blaming you. You're the one who told me that factors attach according to the light and scent flowing from a person's energy. Right?"
"Yeah. That's right."
"And my misfortune factors have been clinging to me without a single gap, this whole time. But if my energy is really that bright and pleasant, doesn't it make no sense for that many misfortune factors to be stuck to me?"
"Mmm, yeah, I don't know about that one!"
"……Honestly, what DO you actually know?"
I finally gave up on phrasing things as kindly as I could and gritted my teeth — and An-gae flinched, then scrambled to defend himself.
"Nobody ever taught me any of this, okay?! I just picked things up from existing a long time…. But it IS true that factors attach according to energy!"
"Then why are misfortune factors sticking to me when there's nothing wrong with my energy?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but…."
When I couldn't hold back my frustration and let out a small sigh, An-gae hurriedly added:
"I couldn't see it clearly, but there was something stuck next to your energy!"
"Something?"
"It looked like a black stone… and honestly, the factors weren't gone for very long, so I couldn't get a good look at it…."
"Do you know why the misfortune factors dropped off?"
An-gae answered with silence — the kind meant as an apology.
He hunched himself up small, watching my every expression, and I felt like some cruel human tormenting a poor, helpless animal.
It would've been easier if he'd just whined and complained. Standing there like that, I couldn't even bring myself to scold him.
"Haa. I wasn't trying to take it out on you. I was just frustrated. Sorry."
"No, no! It's fine!"
The moment I offered the apology first, unsettled as I was, An-gae recovered his spirits in an instant and beamed at me.
What followed was a full hour of explanation on just how brilliantly my energy had shone, and how wonderful it had smelled.
The descriptions were so meticulous he could have published them as an academic paper, and I couldn't quite hide my bewilderment as the praise rolled on and on.
He kept interjecting with "your scent is SO good," and I ended up begging him, please, to put the word "energy" in front of it.
"But really, why did the misfortune factors drop off? They just came pouring off you all of a sudden — it scared me!"
"Do you know exactly when they fell?"
"Yep! It was when a human who looked like this came up and talked to you!"
The instant he finished speaking, An-gae's shape shifted — into Choi Sang-hoon.
When did I talk to Sang-hoon today? This morning, I think… right, and his reaction was weird then, too.
"As a matter of fact, Sang-hoon's reaction WAS strange. What do you think he felt?"
"Humans can't sense the flow of factors or energy! But weren't you doing something at the time?"
"I wasn't doing anything special. I was just, in my head…."
I stopped mid-sentence, my mind catching on something.
At that moment, I had definitely been thinking—
'I am Park Ha-eun.'
I'd been repeating it to myself over and over, right before the director's arrival, worried I might slip up.
When I told An-gae what I'd been thinking, his eyes lit up.
He went quiet, lost in thought for a long stretch — and then, all at once, his eyes flew open.
"Yeonjae! What if it's this? Camouflage!"
"Camouflage? You mean the organs inside the body?"
"No, you dummy! Not that — the thing animals do! Like how lizards change their skin color!"
Camouflage.
[Camouflage: the behavior by which animals take on colors or forms resembling their surroundings in order to hide from predators.]
A passage I'd once read in a book on zoology flashed through my mind.
Camouflage… I supposed I could interpret it in a similar vein.
Which meant — because I was thinking and acting like someone else—
"The misfortune factors got confused for a second about whether it was really you, and dropped off!"
An-gae declared, then broke into a triumphant grin, like a contestant who'd just shouted the winning answer at the finals.
Anyone watching would think he'd been selected for the national team. Well, still….
"It's possible."
The evidence was thin, admittedly, but it was the most plausible theory in our current situation.
"Right?! Wow, how is this even possible! You only thought it, and the misfortune factors dropped off on their own! You're incredible. You're amazing!"
An-gae laughed brightly, as if nothing in the world could be more fun than this.
When he asked what I planned to do next, my answer was simple.
"Do about what?"
The experiment had a subject now. Time to run the tests.