Episode 14
The main character can do anything.
* * *
“It’s my personal opinion, but I think mental strength is important in this world.”
At the man’s words, Jeong In-ho turned his head and looked at him.
“…So, Teacher Ha Seong-yoon?”
“Please call me whatever you prefer.”
“So what did you just say?”
Jeong In-ho held the tree branch he had just picked up again and stared at Dr. Ha Seong-yoon. President Yoon Gar-ram, who had joined him outside the company, also looked at Ha Seong-yoon as if he was puzzled.
Seeing the two of them like that, he touched his earlobe once and continued speaking.
“I’ve felt this after going around for a while, but people don’t die easily and they’re not very strong.”
“Is that your philosophy as a doctor?”
“It’s not a philosophy, but rather my subjective judgment. I didn’t bring this up to explain my way of thinking, but… it’s just that people faint or die over seemingly insignificant things.”
Ha Seong-yoon said as he neatly organized the newspaper he had picked up earlier.
“My wounds are similar.”
He pointed to his side with the hand that was not holding the newspaper.
Before leaving the flower shop with Manager Lee Jae-heon, there was an unclean wound, as if something had happened there that had been torn by teeth.
Even though it was covered with a bandage, the blood that had flowed out was staining one side of the shirt red.
“I applied pressure, but since the bandage was not used to stop the bleeding, I couldn’t help the bleeding. So, I thought it wouldn’t be surprising if I fainted in the middle of the day….” “
….”
“As you can see, I’m fine enough to walk on my own two feet and pick up things from the floor.”
After saying that, Ha Seong-yoon pursed his lips for a moment and continued speaking.
“Let me correct you, because the pain is still felt.”
“Are you saying the reason you’re holding on now is because of your mental strength?”
“Probably in my opinion.”
He folded the newspaper neatly into a square.
The newspaper, which had shrunk in size with a rustling sound, seemed to be darker than the color they knew, as if it had eaten the shadow rather than the light of the gray sky.
For some reason, Jeong In-ho thought that sound was very disgusting.
“This world is a little strange. Even if I stay still, my head hurts or I feel dizzy. “I am guessing that this world has some effect on our mental powers.”
“Is that so?”
President Garam Yoon pressed his head as if to check whether what he said was correct, but Inho Jeong, who was also making the same guess as Dr. Seongyoon Ha, did not complain and kept his mouth shut.
“But I was giving strength to my brain like I did during the surgery, and surprisingly, I was able to hold on even in my current condition. “It’s strange that I’ve endured this much even though I’ve never suffered an injury like this before.”
“…That’s because of your mental strength.”
Jeong In-ho muttered that and adjusted the thin tree branch in his hand.
It was a pretty reasonable guess.
Manager Kang Min-ah and Noh Yeon-seok, who were on good terms at the company, were people he evaluated as mentally strong, and although he didn’t know much about Kwon Yeon-hee, she seemed to be less stressed because she didn’t worry too much.
So, considering the situation so far, Manager Lee Jae-heon was probably also aware of this.
The fact is that mental strength alone can maintain strength beyond the current physical condition.
‘…Is that why you acted so early?’
As I stared into space with my eyes behind my glasses, Dr. Ha Seong-yoon opened his mouth.
“Of course, I’m not sure. “There is no evidence whatsoever.”
“….”
“But given the situation, I wanted to share my thoughts as much as possible, so I brought up the story.”
He continued.
“So, Jeong In-ho.”
“…yes.”
“What kind of person was Jaeheon Lee?”
“….”
At those words, Jeong In-ho closed his mouth without realizing it.
It was a rare reflex reaction.
It is a reaction that just comes out instinctively, not even briefly, after much thought.
For Jeong In-ho, who usually pays attention to even a single word, this was a very unusual situation.
Jeong In-ho, who soon recognized this, was embarrassed that actions outside of his control were revealed.
He didn’t want to seem strange by delaying speaking any longer, so he opened his mouth feeling a little embarrassed.
The voice was cracked, as if there was a hint of irritability.
“…He was just that kind of manager.”
Being strange becomes a weakness, and revealing a weakness means losing the information battle.
In-ho Jeong did not want to be the underdog.
“A ‘that’ manager?”
“…hmm. He was not a person with a good personality. “He is what we commonly call an old man.”
Jeong In-ho, who had already lost his embarrassment, shook his head.
With the help of Manager Lee Jae-heon, these two were able to get out of the flower shop safely, although not completely unharmed.
Since she probably had a crush on him, there seemed no need to make it seem like she was backstabbing by saying something unnecessary.
There were also limited situations in which you could gain favor by gossiping behind your back.
He came up with information that could be seen as objectively true as possible.
“At a company dinner, he himself said it was a parachute. “Judging by his spending, his family appears to be well-off, so it seems like he wasn’t very well-liked by his colleagues.”
“So you’re an old man with a parachute and a golden spoon?”
“…It’s not a joke… but to sum it up, that’s it.”
Jeong In-ho felt uncomfortable with Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, who overemphasized what he said.
I realized why Manager Lee Jae-heon sometimes made a strange expression when talking to him. This is what it felt like.
He may or may not have been aware of Jeong In-ho’s feelings, but he continued speaking in his characteristic soft voice.
“It’s different from what I saw at the hospital or flower shop.”
“…I think so.”
President Garam Yoon, who had been quietly listening to the two, opened his mouth.
“He seemed a bit sensitive… but he didn’t seem like an old man at all. “I think there are times when you say things that make me feel that way, um.”
“….”
“Wasn’t it just something you said out of frustration?”
Even as she said that, she seemed to doubt her own judgment.
“…If you’re asking that, I don’t have anything to say.”
And it was the same for Jeong In-ho.
That’s why Manager Lee Jae-heon acted as if he had a double personality.
I used the honorific expression, then I used the inferior expression. The voice lowered and then stretched again. His eyebrows were almost always frowned, but as his tone of voice changed, his body language also changed slightly.
At least that’s what Inho Jeong observed from him.
Perhaps President Garam Yoon unconsciously felt this duality.
Since I haven’t figured this out yet, I’ve come up with a reasonable guess as best as I can, but even I don’t trust it.
To that extent, Director Lee Jae-heon’s current condition was too strange to be considered normal, but…
‘It’s not a dual personality.’
Jeong In-ho was convinced of that and continued speaking.
“Personally, I think they are very thorough in distinguishing between construction and construction.”
“…Crossroads?”
In response to his words, President Garam Yoon made an ambiguous expression as if asking what he was talking about, and Doctor Seongyoon Ha slowly rolled his eyes.
He could roughly guess what each of them wanted to say from their expressions.
Jeong In-ho picked up another thin twig and opened his mouth.
“…Because my home is a bit far from the company, I never had the opportunity to meet the manager in private.”
To be honest, that was natural. No, that is the right thing to do.
What office worker would want to meet in private with a boss who harasses them all weekdays?
Of course, he could do as much as please the other person in order to get promoted, but Manager Lee Jae-heon was not one of those targets.
He was truly a person who got into that position based solely on connections and wealth, so he was subtly hated by powerful people, and Director Lee Jae-heon was not a great person to the point where Jeong In-ho could please him even in personal matters.
Of course, the difference in rank between a manager and an assistant manager was enormous, but it was also true that I did not want to chase after Manager Lee Jae-heon.
Moreover, since several of his subordinates had often driven him to his home as if calling a taxi, Jeong In-ho, who knew his address, was confident that he and I would never meet in private.
Unless he had work to do, he had no intention of going near Manager Lee Jae-heon’s house, and Manager Lee Jae-heon also had no reason to stop by his old and unsightly neighborhood.
And In-ho Jeong’s judgment was shattered when Manager Jae-heon Lee stopped by his neighborhood.
“The manager… he probably stopped by the area to buy something.”
Of course, he knew that what Manager Lee Jae-heon had bought was a bottle of alcohol, but he did not dare to say it out loud.
He hid what he bought at the time, and I don’t know if it was sincere or an act, but at least there was no need to offend him by spreading useless stories.
“And in the middle of it, a child ran into the road toward the other side.”
“….”
“The manager grabbed that kid from behind….”
Clink.
“…We fell together.”
The sound of bright blue glass shards, which should not have been heard, came to my ears.
This was clearly an auditory hallucination he had heard since entering this world, but Jeong In-ho could not tell whether it was the sound of a liquor bottle breaking or the surface of an expensive watch breaking.
What was certain, however, was that Director Lee Jae-heon felt no value in the pain it caused.
Even though blood is flowing out through the torn and cracked skin.
Feeling dizzy for a moment, Jeong In-ho pressed the bridge of his nose.
“…Right after that, the car hit a utility pole. “The child was almost run over by the car, and the driver almost killed the child.”
“I guess I can say I survived thanks to Lee Jae-heon.”
“Yes, that’s right. “He treated even the driver’s wounds to a minimum… saving the lives of more than one person.”
In-ho Jeong recalled a woman running to a crying child.
If such a precious child had died while running towards her right in front of her, would that woman’s life have been intact?
Jeong In-ho, who had already been fiddling with a large collection of tree branches, opened his mouth.
“So, privately, I don’t know who he is. The manager I had at work was not a particularly good person…”
“It was different when you saw it from the outside?”
“Yes.”
Exactly how they are different has not yet been defined.
“Actually, it was thanks to my manager that I rushed out of the company.”
“Now that I think about it, you’re in good shape considering you just escaped from that tall building.”
“…You may have heard it because you were in the situation earlier, but the manager was taking the lead and was injured by himself.”
Jeong In-ho, who hesitated for a moment, continued.
“I thought you only cared about your own well-being.”
“….”
“It didn’t seem like that.”
Rather, looking at what Director Lee Jae-heon was doing, it seemed as if he was literally living with his liver outside his stomach.
Or maybe there are multiple lifelines.
He suffered large penetrating wounds to his shoulder and leg while leaving the office, and at the flower shop, he suffered burns to the point where the skin on his ankles melted. The wounds I saw over the weekend would not have healed within a day or two, so there were already scars on my arms and wrists.
As Dr. Ha Seong-yoon speculated, it was not at a level that could be endured unless the individual’s mental strength had a visible impact.
However, what was funny was the fact that no one in the group felt guilty about Director Lee Jae-heon’s condition.
It was so absurd when I realized that Director Lee Jae-heon himself was at the end.
Did he want division? It may not be possible, but that may be why he hoped to quietly escape from his current group.
Jeong In-ho had no intention of letting that go.
“So, personally, I don’t think he’s a good person…”
Manager Lee Jae-heon was not a good person.
From the moment we entered this world, we were out of our minds. At the same time, even before that, Manager Lee Jae-heon was in a state that could not be said to be normal.
If he were normal, would he have been able to act like that so calmly? Could it be possible to show duality, which can be felt as a dual personality, in a more rational way?
Could we be so adept at suffering that we could recognize it but not value it?
In Jeong In-ho’s judgment, Director Lee Jae-heon was not normal at all, and he did not even try to hide it, at least from him.
He remembered that Manager Lee Jae-heon at the company made eye contact with me right before he injured his shoulder.
And Manager Lee Jae-heon, who is insane and pursues extreme efficiency, was the person our group needed more than anything else.
Jeong In-ho continued.
“…But he was willing to die for us.”
“….”
“Personally, I think he’s a good person.”
He is a more rational person than crazy.
‘…It still doesn’t really hit me…’
Jeong In-ho frowned without realizing it.
What he was best at was logical thinking, and through that judgment he arrived at the conclusions he has drawn so far, but despite this, the image of Manager Lee Jae-heon from the past did not all disappear.
To Jeong In-ho, Manager Lee Jae-heon was just an old boss with a bad personality, and of course they did not get along well.
Director Lee Jae-heon always thought of me as a precious person, and now it was too vivid to believe it was an act.
Was it true that it was all an act? In fact, since it was an act, it was even clearer that he was crazy, but it seemed like when he fell asleep for a while and woke up, he would see Manager Lee Jae-heon in front of him as usual.
To that extent, Manager Lee Jae-heon was a worthless person to Jeong In-ho.
‘Actually, if there had been no accident over the weekend, I would have continued to think that way.’
Jeong In-ho sighed because his head hurt.
Director Lee Jae-heon, who thought he would live and die for his own safety for the rest of his life, rescued the child with his own hands, and the sight of him making excuses that did not work was unfamiliar.
There would be nothing more foolish than not changing your evaluation of the other person even after seeing that.
Jeong In-ho, who was pressing the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache, suddenly remembered Manager Lee Jae-heon’s hand.
“….”
The hand that was covering half of the face of the child that was saved.
Before the child even cries and before he sees anything. Hearing a loud noise, he looked at the crowd of people and covered the child’s eyes with his bleeding hands.
Manager Lee Jae-heon was clearly wary of the gazes of the onlookers.
Throughout the entire process, he kept his eyes wide open as if he was surprised by an unexpected situation, but the mood was even more acute when he covered the child’s eyes.
It was an instinctive and anxious touch, as if a blind man who had lived without a guardian wandered through a fire with his fingertips instead of a cane.
After thinking that far, Jeong In-ho turned to Dr. Ha Seong-yoon and asked.
“So, what do you mean?”
“….”
“Why are you so curious about the manager?”
At those words, Doctor Ha Seong-yoon let out a shy smile.
“…Did you see a lot?”
“Yes, a little.”
It goes without saying, but in fact, it wasn’t ‘a little’. How can you not know when you ask so openly?
Jeong In-ho continued speaking with a slight frown on his usually sincere face.
“….”
“You said we would share our thoughts, right?”
So, if you want to share correct information with each other, you should spit out what you found out.
It was a short time, but it didn’t take that long to get to know the other person.
Jeong In-ho quickly realized that the most twisted people among the group gathered were him, Director Lee Jae-heon, and Doctor Ha Seong-yoon in front of him.
Perhaps, being that kind of person, Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, like Jeong In-ho himself, must have been thinking a lot inside.
He wanted to hear about the other person’s judgment.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon rolled his eyes upward as if he was thinking about it for a moment and then opened his mouth like a sigh.
“…When I saw it, Director Lee Jae-heon….”
At that moment,
“-Kyaaaaaaaa!”
A woman’s piercing scream was heard.
“…uh?”
For a moment, all his reason was paralyzed.
The sound came from the direction where we started, and there were two women in the group.
I couldn’t be sure that the voice belonged to one of the group I had left behind, but I didn’t have the mental strength to judge that. Make your choice quickly.
A decision has to be made.
“….”
Kwasik!
Without even coming to his senses, Jeong In-ho hit something crawling beneath his feet.
Because the monkey wrench wasn’t very long, I had to bend down.
“….”
…It was a vine similar in shape to the one I saw at the flower shop.
“…ah.”
“This…”
To be exact, it was wrapped around Manager Lee Jae-heon’s ankle. So, the monster that melted his skin.
“…There was a monster here too.”
In the end, all Jeong In-ho said was this obvious fact.
As I saw at work and at the flower shop, monsters existed everywhere in this world.
Jeong In-ho, who confirmed this for himself, felt that his fingertips holding the bright blue tool became cold.
There are a total of 4 people remaining on the other side.
Noh Yeon-seok, Kwon Yeon-hee, Kang Min-ah, and Lee Jae-heon.
The monkey wrench, one of the two tools that can be used as a weapon, is currently being held by Jeong In-ho, and Lee Jae-heon, who is best able to use the other weapon, the pipe, is not in a very good condition.
Of course, looking at Director Lee Jae-heon’s unfounded skills from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think he will be easily defeated…
“….”
What I heard now was a woman’s scream that belonged to no one else.
Jeong In-ho let out an exclamation without realizing it.
“…ah.”
He had a feeling that someone had died.
