Episode 162
“…Deputy Manager.”
“huh.”
“Where are you going?”
Lee Jae-heon answered Kang Min-ah’s question.
“It’s not about going somewhere, it’s about finding.”
“Now…?”
Anxiety was seeping out of her voice.
Well, I understood. Since it was Lee Jae-heon’s impromptu departure, you never know when or where you might encounter something dangerous. Kang Min-ah, who is timid by nature, could not help but feel anxious because she even broke her promise to the main character that she would be quiet like a guard dog.
“I don’t know what you’re looking for, but wouldn’t it have been better if you came with Jeong In-ho? Of course, I brought a hammer with me, but I don’t know how far my abilities will go…”
But there was no need to be this anxious.
“…I guess you had a really scary dream.”
“yes yes?”
“I think in the past…”
Lee Jae-heon chose his words calmly.
“I think I was a little more passive.”
At this point, I really had to think I had seen or gained something through the dream.
Kang Min-ah had a talent for becoming stronger as the number of people she was responsible for increased, and despite her curiosity, she was not the type of person to step forward easily, so she was the type of person who had to be pushed to do something. It means that he was the type of person who couldn’t become strong unless he had shackles or restrictions to take responsibility for.
‘But the fact that I suddenly came forward like this…’
meant that I was greatly stimulated somewhere. Lee Jae-heon had a hunch that it must have been the nightmare that woke Kang Min-ah up from her sleep the other day.
“…Oh, I….”
“Have you ever had a conversation with Mr. Jeong In-ho?”
“…yes? no…? No, if it was just a normal conversation, we had it…”
“It was a more serious conversation than that.”
“Is there anything I can share about that?”
Kang Min-ah’s shoulders slightly shrank and took a defensive posture. When Lee Jae-heon raised one eyebrow at her avoiding gaze and sharp voice, her eyes widened. Perhaps he was surprised by my own reaction.
The reason I couldn’t control myself was because I didn’t have that much leeway. Kang Min-ah was clearly afraid of something and at the same time felt a sense of responsibility.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been anxious lately…”
Lee Jae-heon, who checked his slightly trembling fingertips, soon spoke in a light voice.
“Is this something you can’t tell me?”
“….”
“Then to Assistant Manager Jeong.”
“Uh…”
“If not that, doctor?”
Kang Min-ah blinked a couple of times and asked back.
“why…?”
“Do you know that I talk to Jeong In-ho often these days?”
“I know that.”
Actually, it would have been impossible not to know. The main character, who repeatedly regressed, learned a very foolish way of thinking that determined the success or failure of a given time period based on Lee Jae-heon’s survival, so he naturally had no choice but to become obsessive about things related to his well-being.
Moreover, Ha Seong-yoon would have also probably heard about Jeong In-ho’s return by now, so Lee Jae-heon was one of the few people who knew Jeong In-ho’s secret. Since Jung In-ho confided all his concerns to ‘Lee Jae-heon’, others may have thought that they had been talking particularly frequently recently.
“…You seem very nervous… Besides, In-ho is smart. “I was thinking that you might have made plans for the future with the manager.”
“That is also true.”
“Was there anything else?”
Although he asked that question, it didn’t seem like he really knew anything about it. From the way she deliberately made eye contact, Lee Jae-heon was able to see Kang Min-ah’s intention to hide a secret.
‘I guess I felt something from Jeong In-ho.’
If she were to count some of the people she is conscious of, they would be Jeong In-ho, Lee Jae-heon, and Ha Seong-yoon. When I thought about Kang Min-ah, who sometimes looked at Noh Yeon-seok as if he was a little unfamiliar, I thought that at this point, I would no longer be able to deny it.
“….”
“… Manager?”
People like Kang Min-ah were different from Yoon Gar-ram. In the latter case, you had to painstakingly and delicately dig into the wall, while in the former case, you had to hold the hand of the person hiding inside the wall and pull them out. For no particular reason, it was just efficient.
Jaeheon Lee, who made a quick decision, opened his mouth.
“That’s where you found us after you woke up from your nightmare.”
“…Ah yes.”
“In-ho Jeong and I had a pretty deep conversation. To be honest, it was a story that I couldn’t believe or couldn’t understand even if I heard it. “Jung In-ho is having trouble with the information he recently revealed to me.”
“Well…”
“Jung In-ho claimed that we were dead.”
“….”
Lee Jae-heon, feeling confident, asked Kang Min-ah, who kept her mouth shut.
“What do you think?”
The other person could not answer right away.
If someone who didn’t know the situation heard the words, ‘Are you crazy?’ would have been the immediate question, but Kang Min-ah just had a pale, tired face and her eyes were shaking slightly. Lee Jae-heon was able to clearly realize that Kang Min-ah remembered the events before her return.
But how exactly did that happen? Or how much do you know?
“….”
“….”
“…I….”
Kang Min-ah, who was squirming with a hammer in her hand, asked.
“How long can I tell you…?”
It was a truly ‘Kang Min-ah’-like question.
“…I guess you can say whatever you want, but I know. “If you just say that to our Kang Min-ah, she will spend all her time and keep delaying her answer.”
“…I’m sorry….”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about at all.”
Jaeheon Lee shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m serious.”
He didn’t want this newborn chick to feel pressured by me. As the situation became like this, Lee Jae-heon decided to cling to them even more, so there would be no need to create additional mental distance.
He continued walking again.
“You can organize your thoughts and report within three days. It’s okay to lie, and it’s okay to tell everything you know. “If you feel comfortable answering either way, I will interpret it myself.”
“…Isn’t this a very strange… request?”
“In the end, what I need is an excuse to interpret the person named ‘Kang Min-ah.’”
Jaeheon Lee made eye contact with Minah Kang.
“It doesn’t matter how you behave. “I will take care of everything else, so all you have to do is take care of yourself mentally.”
“…If you just tell me now…”
“I decline. I would like to avoid hearing complex stories like this right away. I would appreciate it if Kang Mina could organize and answer well. Do you understand?”
“….”
“Good.”
Seeing him nodding his head with a puzzled expression, Lee Jae-heon also nodded. Since he is a person who prefers to be a cog in the organization rather than the leader, setting a deadline in this way was the only way to properly proceed with the story.
“Then go back to the beginning… and asked what you were looking for?”
“…Ah yes.”
“….”
Lee Jae-heon, who had been listening, soon opened his mouth.
“that.”
Where he pointed, there was a dog with its body curled up.
“…yes?”
“I can not see?”
“why?”
“What is the context?”
“what?”
Correct.
“Why why why did you have to create a monster…”
It wasn’t a dog, but an abandoned dog monster.
Kang Min-ah looked pale and was holding the hammer tightly with both hands, but slowly moved her feet as if to block Lee Jae-heon’s path. It was a virtual effort to block the view somehow, but it was inevitable that Lee Jae-heon, an adult man, was taller than a woman in her mid-160s. This means that it is not covered at all.
However, it was quite satisfying to see him trying to protect Lee Jae-heon even while he was scared.
‘Even if things go awry, I won’t throw it away right away.’
He muttered inwardly and slowly spoke.
“No matter how you look at that, what he’s doing just looks like a dog, right?”
“…When you say it like that, it sounds like it’s a bit of an insult….”
“Because you sound like a puppy?”
“No matter what, it’s not a puppy…”
“What are you asking me to do, Mr. Ani?”
Lee Jae-heon sighed at the sight of Kang Min-ah, who seemed to be panicking and making vain excuses that she didn’t normally do. He seemed to have grown quite a bit in the last episode, but judging by his less mental strength, it seemed like he wasn’t in the same state as the previous episode.
Anyway, there was a reason why Jaeheon Lee found that abandoned monster dog.
“You never know, there might be one among the monsters that can communicate.”
Of course, this was something I could say because I knew that the abandoned dog monster that appears in the story is friendly to survivors. If I hadn’t known the contents of the novel, I would have been busy beating myself to death for not knowing. Even for Lee Jae-heon, that abandoned dog monster was a deadly harmful creature.
Kang Min-ah’s thoughts were similar, as she looked back at Lee Jae-heon with a white face.
“…You’re crazy….”
“Chief Kang, let’s not cross the line.”
“I’m sorry.”
For some reason, it was a quick apology that reminded me of Jung In-ho.
Suddenly, the thought occurred to him, ‘If this continues, one day all the chicks in the world will become as disgusting as the main character.’ But since it was a pain that future Lee Jae-heon would experience, not the present me, he buried the speculation as is. It was a quick dodge.
Seeing the monster wincing at the sight of the two and wagging its tail, Lee Jae-heon lightly grabbed Kang Min-ah’s shoulder, who was blocking his path, with one hand.
“I know what you want to say, but it’s not completely groundless.”
“I don’t know…”
“That’s not just a dog, it’s a monster abandoned dog.”
“….”
Kang Min-ah’s expression hardened at the word ‘abandoned dog.’
“The other side of the world reflects human thoughts, and the same goes for monsters. In the case of those guys, it is said that they were created by mixing all kinds of human emotions and delusions about ‘abandoned dogs in the park.’”
“…That… So…”
“Yes, it is true that it is a monster and it is true that it will cause great damage to us. Don’t you feel nauseous and your skin itchy just by looking at it? “I don’t think there’s anything good about meeting an abandoned dog or anything else.”
“Then why did you come? “Do you want to have a conversation with that thing?”
“If possible.”
“….”
“…I’m anxious because it’s something I’ve never tried before, but…”
Lee Jae-heon took his hand off Kang Min-ah’s shoulder, adjusted his grip on the pipe, and moved forward little by little. Kang Min-ah, who thought he would stop him right away, did not catch him with a pale face, and Lee Jae-heon, who had a moment of doubt about it, quickly erased it from his mind.
This challenge was very meaningful to Jaeheon Lee.
‘The main character in the story has never tried to communicate with the monster.’
In the first place, conflicts arose several times due to the inability to properly communicate with fellow human beings. In the meantime, there was no time to try to communicate with the monster, so this challenge was also an important factor in preventing Lee Jae-heon from becoming obsessed with the contents of the novel in the future.
Even if I succeeded or failed, it all had meaning.
“….”
Because those who do not change in any way have no value.
“…So…”
How did I talk to it in my dream?
In fact, it may have been possible because it was really a dream. In the first place, monsters do not know human language and there is no language that can be called a language, so it is natural that they cannot communicate. Nevertheless, Lee Jae-heon was somehow able to make a deal with the green algae monster, which was presumed to have Jung In-ho as its skeleton.
And there were only a few monsters capable of such an attempt. Among them, not only are there a lot of abandoned dog monsters around here, but their actions themselves are not very dangerous, they just cause a lot of mental burden. It was an inevitable choice for Lee Jae-heon, who was good at self-brainwashing.
After hesitating, he whispered very softly.
“…hi.”
The ears of the half-mutilated abandoned dog monster prick up.
Jaeheon Lee looked into its eyes.
“….”
“….”
The cheap plastic button eyes are fixed on colorful silk thread and spin around in a circle.
He pretended not to notice the unpleasant tickling and goosebumps that were close to chills creeping up from the soles of his feet. I buried it and forgot about it. The sensation of an earthworm wriggling in a corner of the brain arose for a moment, but soon became a stereotype. The movement itself hardens as if it were a stone.
Jaeheon Lee knew that it loved humans. If I didn’t get angry, he wouldn’t get angry either, and if I approached him first, that poor puppy would also approach Jaeheon Lee.
“Come on.”
The abandoned dog hesitates at the sigh-like whisper.
Kiing.
“Come this way.”
Kiyi-….
“It’s okay.”
Kang!
“You can come.”
Even though his trembling legs were frightened, he gradually approached Lee Jae-heon, and his tail, which was close to him, was waving wildly even when he was in a limp state. The round, quivering eyes are fixed on the speaking mouth and vibrate faintly.
Eventually, it approached my nose and smelled the back of Lee Jae-heon’s hand.
“….”
“…Deputy Manager…!”
Quack!
The dog bit my hand.
“! Boss!”
“Okay, be quiet.”
“I…!”
“I’m surprised you said that.”
“….”
“It’s okay.”
Lee Jae-heon, who had put down the pipe, very slowly stroked the corner of the trembling dog’s mouth without removing his bitten hand. Following the gesture, the force of the teeth became stronger and the dog growled, but even so, the dog felt sorry for its tail curled between its legs. was informing.
So it was okay.
“are you okay.”
Even if it looks like this, I have raised dogs a few times.
“….”
“….”
After a while, the dog took a step back and immediately leaned its head against Lee Jae-heon’s hand.
It stuck out its tongue and licked the blood that had pooled on its hand.
“…under.”
It was a success.
(Continued in the next part)
