The Wild Yena Appears
The wild Yena had appeared. “What exactly did we just see?” I wasn’t really expecting an answer. It was simply something I muttered under the crushing wave of helplessness.
“It’s simple.” Thud. Lee Han sat down beside me and provided the answer. “It’s an anomaly.”
“I know it’s an anomaly…! I understand that much now. Even though I still lack a lot of experience, they never taught us about anything like this during training.” I covered my face with both hands. Weren’t my trembling fingers speaking volumes about how I felt right now? The hand touching my face was ice-cold. It felt as sharp as an ice pack pressed against the fevered cheek of a child suffering from a terrible flu. Just like that moment earlier.
“Anomaly. Anomaly. Anomaly. Strange phenomena that occur in modern society! I know what they are. But what we saw just now was strange. No, it wasn’t strange. But it was strange.” I remembered the door creaking open. I remembered that person—or that thing—greeting us. I remembered its appearance. Full of noise, overlaid, painted black, erased. Yet because it had existed, I could no longer remember the loss itself. Because I had seen ‘it.’ Because I had seen ‘it’ glowing an eerie blue within a monochrome world viewed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of a luxurious home. Because I had witnessed myself shattering into pieces inside that light. Because I had seen her frowning face. It was no longer merely an anomaly.
“Isn’t that a contradiction?” Tap tap. Tok—tap. Tap. His fingers drummed against the floor. The sound of Lee Han tapping the floor echoed down the hallway. God, even that tiny noise made my heart jump. Couldn’t he stop?
“Anomalies are called anomalies because they are strange (goe) and different (i).” He traced one character after another on the floor with his fingertip. The goe of monstrous. The i of异.
“However, the very definition of strange already contains another anomaly within it.” A large C-shaped symbol took form. Anomaly ⊂ Strange.
“Any effort to understand the strange only summons yet another anomaly.”
“...”
“Therefore, anomalies cannot, by their very nature, be defined.”
“What if the anomaly didn’t feel anomalous?”
“Good question.” Lee Han began scratching another set of characters onto the floor. Then he raised his voice in a mocking tone. “I get that anomalies can’t be defined, Professor~. Still, there’s this instinctive sense of ‘anomalousness,’ and if inside that feeling you sense ‘non-anomalousness,’ then should we still call it an anomaly? If the definition is that vague, couldn’t I be called an anomaly too? That’s what you’re asking, right?”
“...Yes.”
“To cut to the conclusion, when dealing with anomalies you don’t think too deeply about them.”
Ugh, this infuriating man. I’d thought it before, but he somehow manages to be annoying in exactly the right amount. These scribbles too. Did he really think I could read them when he was scratching away like that? No pencil, no brush—just lines carved into the empty floor. I had to strain my exhausted eyes just to follow them.
“There have been countless attempts to understand anomalies.” The goe of collapse (goe). The ri of principle.
“This is principle, or reason. Ultimately, it only brings about the collapse of the current world.” Anomaly (壞理).
Transparent calligraphy engraved using the floor as a brush and the air as ink. That invisible writing seemed to writhe as if glowing with blue light.
“It is so-called forbidden knowledge.”
“...”
“That is why we receive no education on the true nature of anomalies. We simply respond to them as best we can.”
Lee Han crossed out everything he had written with one large X.
“...Then how were you completely fine earlier, Mr. Lee Han?”
The moment we faced the anomaly, my mind felt like it was being drenched in icy reason under threat, yet Lee Han had acted as if nothing was wrong. He had checked on me and hidden me behind his back. How was that possible when he was human just like me?
When I looked up at Lee Han’s face, it was deathly pale. Between his snow-white skin and jet-black hair, his eyes were so deep they seemed to swallow people whole. The iris I met wasn’t exactly brown so much as something a little more….
“Heh. Exactly. It’s because you lack experience. Why else would I be a veteran? For things like that, put in a little more effort, get yourself a full-time employee badge, and then ask me!”
It was true, but… why did he have to say it in such an irritating way?
“Once you’ve rested a bit, let’s check the other floors.”
“Pardon? P-pardon?”
“Come on, we don’t have time to rest.”
He lifted me up as easily as a piece of luggage even as I tried to plant my feet and resist. Why was his strength so ridiculous!
“Struggling is pointless~.”
“Why, whyyy…!”
“If you keep whining I’ll leave you behind?”
…Stop it, you jerk!!!
As expected, the first success really is the biggest. We checked two more floors, but there was nothing particularly noteworthy. The only difference was that unlike the relatively clean 36th floor, the hallways on floors 35 through 31 were soaked in blood. Someone might shout, “How is a hallway full of blood not special?!” But inside an anomaly, blood was as common as water splashes around a swimming pool. Of course, paying close attention might reveal useful information, but not right now. Besides, no one answered when we rang any more doorbells. The implication was obvious. The residents had been murdered.
In this situation, with Jung Ji-soo looking like she might faint at any moment and whining nonstop, we had no choice but to head back. Taking a self-proclaimed agent who was still essentially a civilian into an already confirmed danger zone would have been reckless.
“Wait a second!”
When we climbed the stairs past the 37th floor from the 36th, the first floor of Neulbom Villa suddenly appeared as if backgrounds were overlapping. With a sense of relief, I started up the familiar staircase of Neulbom Villa. The moment we reached the door leading into the second-floor hallway, Jung Ji-soo grabbed my arm.
“What if that muscular monster is still waiting up ahead?”
“You mean Hulk?”
“…Yes. Hulk. What if Hulk is still waiting for us?”
“Well, then we run downstairs again. Want to go even deeper this time?”
Pfft. It was genuinely funny how her face drained of all color at a single remark. Why did she keep trying to shoulder responsibility like she was already a full-fledged agent?
“Um… well….”
“Hey, I’ll figure something out. I already ran away once—why would the second time be any different? I’ll take responsibility for at least one Jung Ji-soo, so stop worrying so much.”
“Then why did you tell me not to come this way when I was running from Hulk?”
…Wait, you heard me say that and still came this direction?
At my heavy stare, Jung Ji-soo scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“I had to run somewhere. It was the only visible path… I thought you’d close the front door and hide.”
“When I saw a muscular old man with his neck twisted 180 degrees, hiding was the only option that came to mind.”
“I was planning to take responsibility and lure it all the way to the end!”
Who asked you to? Using her grumbling as background music, I clicked the door open.
Good. No one here for now.
‘H-hieek.’
At the insistent poking in my side, I turned my head. At the far end of the hallway, the mini version of the 180-degree-headed Hulk—Bruce Grandpa, essentially—was walking toward us. Fortunately, his idiotically twisted head was facing the opposite direction.
‘Let’s get inside, quick.’
I hurried to room 203, opened the door, and stepped in. Two pairs of wide eyes greeted us. The door shut with a heavy thud, and Jung Minhee approached.
“Landlord! You’re safe!”
“It was nothing. Easy boss.”
“…Pardon?”
“…Never mind.”
Hm? Wasn’t that greeting enough? It wasn’t like we had time for an emotional embrace—what was the problem? Oh!
“Ah, this is Jung Ji-soo. Ji-soo, this is Jung Minhee. I rescued her while she was trapped among zombies.”
“Ah, hello.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Um, is the little one Hyunah?”
“I’m Baek Hyunah.”
“Hello.”
The kid who popped out from behind her mother and gave a cute belly bow. Was the situation wrapped up now?
“Um, Landlord.”
“Ah, just call me Lee Han.”
“Ah, yes. Mr. Lee Han.”
What had been bothering her since earlier? Her eyes darted around as if avoiding my gaze. As if excited by something, Hyunah came running over and tugged hard on my leg.
“Mister! There’s a woongni! A woongni! Pretty woongni!”
Woongni? I knew of Ungnyeo. The founding ancestor this nation’s people regard as their spiritual pillar, the symbol of patience and unyielding will, the emblem of honor and glory. To declare that one would inherit that spirit was a truly admirable—
“That’s… a guest has arrived.”
Stay calm. But…
“A guest?”
Huh? Whose permission did they use to invite a guest? I was the landlord! And that so-called guest, too. Even if Minhee didn’t know any better and let them in, they should have read the room and declined. Heh, had the courtesy of the East now become ancient history? I had clearly witnessed my homeland’s Confucian spirit take root, yet oh, how lamentable.
…Wait. It appeared?
“I am in the place where I rightfully belong, so why do you treat me as a mere guest?”
The partition that had replaced the former wall slid open to the left and right.
⟨ The Wild Yena Appears ⟩
White hair and red eyes. Her hair was pinned up with a red ornamental hairpin, and she held a white fan in her hand.
“Welcome, Master.”
The wild Yena had appeared.
Hoo-rok. Tap. Yena gently set down the teacup she held politely with both hands. The room fell silent. Where on earth had Yena been keeping this wide, low table? Five people sat around it. Jung Ji-soo, who had unexpectedly come face-to-face with the highest boss of the company she would soon join, had turned deathly pale. Jung Minhee was so overwhelmed by Yena’s dominating presence that she remained completely silent. The only one perfectly fine was little Hyunah, who simply liked pretty things! The kid had betrayed her mother and now sat beside Yena, simply staring at the heavy teacup!
“To borrow Master’s words, the current situation is that anomaly erosion is in progress… is what I understand.”
“Correct.”
At my explanation, Jung Ji-soo respectfully added details and summarized the events. Jung Minhee stammered through what had happened while I was gone, but it seemed to boil down to Yena suddenly appearing after opening the curtains and demanding to know who she was. Normally the only guest I ever had was Yena, yet I somehow produced tea and teacups I had never bought from somewhere in my room and placed them before everyone. It was the same apartment size, so where had Yena stored this enormous table?
“Yena, I’m not suspecting you, but… exactly when did you get here?”
“Are you suspecting me?”
“Ah, no. It’s not suspicion, it’s just…”
This girl Yena usually looked cool as ice, but she could hold a grudge for a long time if she got upset!
“It was a joke. It was an excellent decision.”
“Ha, haha. I was just checking.”
“In any case, it appears I am the fake.”
“Gasp!!!”
“Hup!”
“Hip!”
It was understandable that Jung Ji-soo and Jung Minhee, who had been nervously fiddling with their teacups, jumped in surprise. I was surprised too. Kid, are you covering your mouth because you understand? It’s obvious you’re laughing behind that hand.
“I have absolutely no memory of this zombie outbreak. Today is… November 23rd. The zombie situation first erupted on the evening of the 20th and began spreading in earnest from the 21st. That is accurate. I only possess memories up to the 20th.”
“You even sent me a text telling me not to wander outside.”
“I definitely have no memory of sending that.”
Her expression darkened slightly.
“It seems this apartment anomaly required a character to fill an empty role.”
“Your room was empty, after all…”
“Yes. It must have created new characters to its own taste in every vacant room. For example, the entity Master called ‘Hulk.’”
“Mm-hmm. That makes sense.”
“However… hm. How could something like me possibly dare to replace me?”
“Indeed.”
Who did our Yena think she was! For a mere anomaly to pull something like this!
“To act like the owner in my own domain is utterly impossible.”
“Right, so I wasn’t planning to say anything about you being fake, so don’t feel discouraged or too upset…”
“How strange.”
“Huh?”
Was that not the right response? In any case, even if it was a kind of thought-form, I had no intention of ignoring or neglecting it! Wasn’t this also a sort of Lee Yena MK2?
To me as I nodded along, Yena slowly extended the smartphone with its screen turned off.
“To dare speak so rudely to Master.”
“…”
“What nerve does this bitch have to spout such nonsense in front of me?”
“…Yena, that is you, you know?”
“I am aware. However, since I have no such memory, it was not me who did it.”
“Uh…”
“Only I am permitted to speak rudely to the boss.”
The slight dent I thought I saw in the corner of the smartphone had to be my imagination.