The Call
When I revealed to my mother that I had Awakened, she told me to come up to the family home.
By now Executive Director Park Yura had almost certainly told her everything about the situation I had been through. As if she already had some idea, her trembling voice over the phone urged me to come carefully.
How I was supposed to explain to my parents the circumstances that had led to my Awakening left me with a splitting headache. If I told them I had been violated by Yurin until my neck was crushed and had only survived by Awakening, both our families would be utterly destroyed.
Our mothers were not only the closest of subordinate and superior; Yurin and I had been lovers for a long time, and both sets of parents fully expected us to marry. For the sake of peace between the two households, it was a secret I could never speak.
After sorting my thoughts as best I could, Yurin and I each returned to our parents’ homes.
“Son, it’s been a while.”
When I arrived at my parents’ house, both Mother and Father came out to welcome me. Why was Mother home at this hour when she should have been at the company?
“Seon-a, you should have shown your face more often. Your mother missed you so much she even took leave from work.”
Father said it with a look that said there was no stopping her, glancing sideways at Mother.
“How have you been all this time?”
“I’ve been living ordinarily, attending university with Yurin. Right now I’ve taken a leave of absence because I want to do something else…”
In truth it was not a leave of absence but a withdrawal, yet there was no chance I would ever return there anyway. Yurin would never allow it, and I could not brazenly walk the halls of a university where rumors about me might already be circulating. It seemed obvious that I had not abandoned my studies of my own free will.
Father spoke with a bright smile.
“Seon-a, don’t be too disappointed. That’s right—a person has to try doing what they want.”
I was so grateful to have a family that comforted and protected me over the failures I had suffered. I could not tear the household apart over my personal circumstances. The problems between Yurin and me were something I had to resolve myself.
“That’s how it happened…”
I brought up Yurin’s Awakening first and told them about everything she had done to save me. With the parts about Minji and my own violation left out, all that remained was the story of Yurin’s heroic exploits.
The couple was terribly worried about having nearly lost their only son. Because of his looks, stalkers had attached themselves to him three times since childhood, and he had always drawn women’s attention wherever he went—but this time was different. It was the first time he had been kidnapped, and he had even nearly died. Thinking the pain and mental stress their son had endured must have caused his Awakening, they carefully asked,
“So your Awakening happened because of that incident as well?”
It seemed my parents, after hearing my story, had mistaken the cause of my Awakening. In truth, when I had been kidnapped then, I had been violated until my mind went blank and I was out of my senses. I had tasted pleasure so intense it went beyond feeling good into pure pain, so my memories of that time were hazy.
“Yes, that’s right… But I don’t really want to talk about it in detail…”
Since I could not bring up the truth about Yurin, I had no choice but to play along with my parents’ mistaken assumption. Not knowing how I would answer if they pressed further, I spoke as if the memory still carried trauma.
“I’m sorry for asking something unnecessary. Seon-a… You must have suffered a lot inside all this time. It was hard, wasn’t it?”
“If it hadn’t been for Yurin, something truly terrible would have happened. We should go visit the in-laws to thank them, Seon-a’s father.”
When Father apologized for triggering my trauma, Mother Min-a praised Yurin and deftly changed the subject. Worried that the atmosphere would turn too sour from having suddenly talked about so many dark things, I asked how the two of them had been lately. As we shared this and that, I was so glad to see my parents again after only a few months, and it felt as if my heart—exhausted from the constant tension of being with Yurin—was finally being healed.
In fact, the biggest reason I had come to see my parents was to tell them I intended to join the medical center at Hwaryong Guild headquarters. If I went in without a word to Mother, she would be disappointed in me.
“This time I’m going to apply for the emergency medical field at the guild where Mom works.”
Seon-a’s mother, Lee Min-a, spoke in surprise.
“Ability users related to healing or recovery are always short-staffed and constantly recruiting, but for medical personnel they only take those with experience right now.”
She knew well the parts I was unfamiliar with. As expected, her experience working at the guild executive level could not be ignored.
“Well… the ability I Awakened this time is a healing-type ability…”
For a moment Mother’s pupils shook so hard I thought I had misseen it.
“Th-that so? If that’s what Seon-a wants, applying once wouldn’t be bad, but that place isn’t somewhere a boy can easily stay. People come in badly injured too.”
She spoke as if a little flustered, with an expression that seemed to be hiding something. Having lived together so long, I knew that when Mother was hiding something she stammered a little and her gaze darted here and there.
“I’ve thought about it a lot myself. But Yurin says she’s going to apply as a Duty Hunter, and I’m so worried… So I want to work at least somewhere I can see Yurin.”
“Even so…”
Mother tried her hardest to persuade me. Certainly, even the medical center of a Hunter guild was a female-dominated culture, a place hard for a man to endure. It was a place with a great deal of physical work, and there were quite a few rough and violent women. Because of the nature of Hunter work—killing monsters—there were quite a few women who even possessed violent tendencies. Having seen countless people with such personalities, Lee Min-a found it not difficult to imagine that her son might suffer something bad.
At that point Father interjected.
“Even so, Seon-a’s mother. We should at least let Seon-a try doing the work he wants.”
It had been Father who had agreed when I first came home and said I wanted to quit university and do something else. It was clear he truly wanted to help, not just in words.
In truth, becoming a medical officer at Hwaryong Guild was not something I really wanted to do. I was too afraid of what would happen if I “broke what Yurin said.” That was why I had applied to the Hwaryong Guild medical center with the thought of just doing as I was told for now. Listening to Mother continue trying to persuade me, I briefly considered the excuse that I could not do it because Mother opposed it so strongly—but there was no knowing how Yurin would react.
Even if I ran far away while Yurin was doing her alternative service, she would eventually find me and there was no telling what she might do. Looking at Yurin’s current state, ever since she developed problems with impulse control her actions seemed to have become more extreme. Yet she did not do such things just anytime. It often showed that her impulse control failed only in matters related to me. In Yurin’s broken mind, things related to me seemed to be the trigger for her impulse control. She seemed to try holding it in her own way, but in the end, when something related to me came up, she acted without thinking of the consequences. Along with the guilt that I had to take responsibility, I felt a heaviness settle in one corner of my chest.
“Son? Your complexion looks a bit off. Is something wrong?”
As I was thinking for a moment, Mother looked at me and spoke in a slightly sad, worried tone.
“No, just a bad memory came up for a moment.”
After that I eventually persuaded my parents and received permission to apply to the Hwaryong Guild medical center. While I stayed the night, a sad look sometimes appeared in Mother’s eyes as she looked at me. Seeing her keep turning her head away as if afraid I would notice, it seemed there was some reason.
As I was about to step out the front door, Mother finally spoke.
“Son… Take care of yourself, and if something really difficult happens, you must call. Letting something like this pass without a single contact is only once.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you… I’ll definitely do that.”
I left the house and headed for Yurin’s home.
When Lee Min-a became an executive managing director among the executive ranks, she was assigned to Hwaryong Guild headquarters. Having worked at headquarters for four years, she knew almost all the rumors one could learn there.
Healing-type ability users were the rarest among all Awakened. If one endured torture-like things for a long time, body wasted away, and then faced a life-threatening crisis, the possibility of becoming a healing-type ability user was high. Only when the longing to eliminate pain reached its extreme amid intense torture, long-repeated suffering, and the crisis of death could one Awaken a healing-type ability.
And yet her son had Awakened as an Awakened with a healing-type ability.
Lee Min-a found what her son had said suspicious. A mere kidnapping could not cause one to Awaken as a healing-type ability user. Even after being kidnapped, no matter how intense the torture, the chance of Awakening was low. The condition of having to suffer for a long period was not something that could be ignored. She had heard the story of being stalked before the kidnapping, but the intensity of the pain was far too low.
Lee Min-a, based on her own speculation, thought it highly likely that her son was still in such a situation even now. His restless appearance and the way he flinched and shrank as if he had been under extreme tension for a long time—Seon-a’s parents knew the abnormal state their son had shown. The child who had always been confident and sturdy before leaving home now could not properly meet other people’s eyes and sometimes wore a vacant expression, so there was no way not to notice. It was the look of someone being threatened by someone else.