Episode 332
Lee Jae-heon visited Ha Seong-yoon first.
“Did you see anything here?”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re showing your mental breakdown here.”
“What if you blame me for this?”
Despite the unexpected question, Ha Seong-yoon soon realized the intention of Lee Jae-heon’s remarks.
“It’s too much of you to call me crazy for not being able to answer that right away.”
“The person I know, Ha Seong-yoon, understands me perfectly even when I speak nonsense.”
“It’s a little embarrassing to compare my usual state with my current state… Well, I understand.”
Fortunately, Ha Seong-yoon seemed to have come to his senses in a short period of time.
“Do you mean you’ve never seen anything in this garden?”
Lee Jae-heon’s question just now was a little more specific, but Ha Seong-yoon seemed to understand that it meant whether there was something reflected in his glass-colored eyes.
“…don’t you think you are placing too much expectations on me?”
“I’ve already heard everything from Mr. Kim Ki-jeong.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who felt confused because the topic suddenly changed to Kim Ki-jeong while talking about eyes, frowned. I don’t know why Kim Ki-jeong suddenly appeared, but he started off with a rebuttal to Lee Jae-heon’s calm and shameless face.
“What are you talking about? “I saw that you came straight to me after talking with your police friends, and you are blatantly defrauding me.”
“Have you not seen that counseling center opened recently? There are many stories I heard while wandering around. “I heard a rumor the other day that Ha Seong-yoon scared Kim Ki-jeong.”
“This is a huge rumor. Why am I harassing Kim Ki-jeong? A poor friend who has nothing to do with bullying….”
“Our conductor Kim Ki-jeong is so fragile on the outside and inside that he can fly away when the wind blows, so he gets scared even if you tease him even slightly. “Please be careful.”
“Whoa…”
Ha Seong-yoon shook his head once at Lee Jae-heon’s words and soon fell into his own thoughts. Since the topic wouldn’t have changed from Glass Eyes to Kim Ki-jeong for no reason, I thought maybe they were finding a connection between the two.
“….”
“….”
“…Ah.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who was fiddling with his earlobe as if he had just remembered something, nodded.
“Fertilizer?”
“You managed to think of it.”
“If the teacher hadn’t been spinning around, I would have remembered it sooner.”
“I’m sorry, I’m out of my mind these days.”
“I’ll admit that.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who confirmed the gist of what Jae-heon Lee was trying to say, blinked a couple of times and said.
“Once upon a time, Mr. Kim Ki-jeong said something along the lines of, ‘They use good fertilizers here, so the crops grow quickly.’ I laughed a little as I passed by. Is it correct to say that you harassed Mr. Kim Ki-jeong at that time? “You’re saying I scared Kim Ki-jeong with what I saw in the garden?”
“I’m glad you remember.”
“Well, as soon as he saw my smiling face, he turned white. Since you are not a very weak person, it is possible that you felt that even that was harassment. “I will admit this too.”
Ha Seong-yoon looked at the two police officers standing far away and asked.
“Did you intentionally leave me alone?”
“I was afraid you might feel uncomfortable talking about eyes…”
“Thank you for your consideration. But this much is okay. “I’m not In-Ho Jeong, and I won’t say that I can’t do my job just because I bring up a sensitive topic.”
“….”
“I’m not angry.”
Yeah, I’m angry.
‘It’s natural to be angry since we threw quite a bit of porridge in the last episode.’
Jaeheon Lee nodded inwardly.
Actually, in the last episode, the only one who was able to keep his mind the best was Ha Seong-yoon. Student Seong Ji-ho died prematurely. Not to mention Park Da-hoon and Kang Min-ah, who went crazy and went around killing survivors. Yoon Gar-ram thought he was doing well, but at the end, he let go of reason… ‘Jung In-ho literally gave up on himself
. It’s natural to dislike Ha Seong-yoon’s personality.’
Ha Seong-yoon, who had a somewhat cold-hearted side, disliked incompetent and stupid people. Of course, I didn’t just despise them by saying, ‘Oh, you bug-like bastard,’ but I tried to care for and embrace good people by somehow putting them in the category of ‘patients’ even if they were incompetent and stupid.
‘The problem is that the protagonist’s personality is at its lowest.’
The reason Jeong In-ho was evaluated by those around him as a good person, both in novels and in reality, was not because he was really nice. In the novel, he protected himself with a sense of responsibility and duty, and in reality, he had the spirit to manage his image, so it should be said that he was evaluated as such.
‘Besides, I don’t think I dislike Jeong In-ho simply because of his personality…’
‘Lee Jae-heon’ looked at Ha Seong-yoon with a strange look.
“…Ha Seong-yoon has a bit of a cold side towards Jeong In-ho.”
“What do you mean by buried car?”
“People may be having a hard time….”
“But can you say that I was right to throw away everything I had to do? “The more Mr. Jeong In-ho becomes relaxed, whether physically or mentally, his personality strangely deteriorates.”
“Don’t sick people naturally become sensitive?”
“I’m a doctor who understands that patients are sensitive, but I think Mr. In-ho Jeong’s case is a little different… Why did the story come this far?
“….”
“We were talking about fertilizer, sir.”
“…Please look after Jeong In-ho sometimes, too. “I feel sorry for everyone.”
“Is there anyone else to feel sorry for?”
He frowned as Ha Seong-yoon looked ‘Lee Jae-heon’ up and down with astringent eyes.
“Good, good. “Let’s go back to the topic of fertilizer.”
“You are avoiding a topic that is unfavorable to you.”
“It’s not avoidance…”
“I understand.”
Ha Seong-yoon nodded and called the police who were a little away.
“Did you call me?”
“Yes, I have something to tell you….”
Contrary to Lee Jae-heon’s concerns that he might further irritate Ha Seong-yoon, who was already at risk, Ha Seong-yoon calmly continued to give a simple explanation about his eyes.
“I don’t remember if I ever told you about this in detail, but this is snow from the park. “When I returned to reality, I still had it, even though the general public didn’t see it.”
“The exact function of the eyes…”
“I can’t clearly define that either. “There are a lot of things I don’t know… I haven’t figured it out yet because he’s too opinionated to write whenever I want.”
“okay.”
“But sometimes you see things even when you don’t mean to.”
Ha Seong-yoon said, slightly touching the corners of his eyes, perhaps unconsciously.
“These are things related to death.”
“…death?”
For some reason, Hong Gyeong-jun and Kim Yeon-woo turned to Lee Jae-heon.
“…Why are you looking at me?”
Now I see that Ha Seong-yoon was also looking at Lee Jae-heon.
“Why are you looking at it?”
“I’m sorry for such an inadvertent thought.”
“I’m sorry, but please tell me the reason.”
“Actually, out of all of us, you are the one who is closest to death.”
“I’m going to be amazed.”
“Then can you explain further?”
“Is that so?”
Ha Seong-yoon laughed and continued.
“Jae-heon Lee came to me and asked me a lot of questions, asking if I could see anything in this garden. And I actually saw a few things through the scarecrow.”
“Do those eyes have to decide on an object to see something? So… a reference point.”
“you’re right. It’s a little difficult to watch it freely when I want to, but if I decide to watch it, I have to set a standard like you said. “We paid more attention to the garden because it was a space we had chosen as a rest area.”
“What did you see?”
“I think those scarecrows were originally people.”
“oh.”
Ha Seong-yoon nodded and said as if he sympathized with Hong Gyeong-jun’s exclamation with a slight frown.
“To be exact, it seems like they killed a person and only used the skin…”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Because it is not certain and the risk is low.”
“Where did you see…?”
“I figured that neither the scarecrow nor this garden would have the means to attack the survivors directly. First of all, it is true that the garden itself only has three rules… No, there is nothing dangerous in this garden in the first place.”
“Isn’t it too early to be sure?”
“I couldn’t completely trust you, so I guess you didn’t stop me from exploring potential shelter sites, right? However, the conclusion I have come to after observing so far is that the Scarecrow is designed to be friendly to the survivors. “Unlike most abandoned dog monsters in the park, which like humans but some are aggressive, these are just made that way.”
“Hmm…”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who was snapping his fingers, nodded.
“I still don’t know why I made that decision.”
“To put it bluntly, these people have no will. “I just do what I’m told.”
“Do you order it?”
“Sometimes I see the death of strangers. The victim’s skin was used as scarecrow skin, and everything inside was used as fertilizer for the garden. The scarecrows created in this way attract survivors and create new scarecrows. Perhaps there is a problem within the apartment complex….” “
….”
“I’m not sure exactly who it is.”
‘Lee Jae-heon’, who was quietly listening, made an absurd expression.
“That… why are you saying that now? If you found out that far, you should have told me a story, right?”
“Once again, I wasn’t sure, and even if I said it, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. We’re not out looking for new escape monsters in our apartment complex, so why would we do that? “There are a lot of people who are already confused, but I didn’t want to add to their worries.”
“Then, if a problem arises in the garden…”
“I would have told you before. But it was more beneficial to keep my mouth shut than to speak. “There wasn’t anything urgent right now… and more than anything, I wasn’t sure?”
“For you to say that, do you have a detailed guess?”
“….”
Ha Seong-yoon, who seemed to reflect on himself for a moment, nodded.
“I guess it was annoying.”
“You can do that, I understand.”
“I was tired.”
“I said I understand.”
Kim Yeon-woo, who was listening to the conversation between the two, asked Lee Jae-heon.
“So what does this have to do with the altar you just mentioned…?”
“discharge?”
Perhaps because the religious term came up, Ha Seong-yoon looked at Lee Jae-heon with curiosity, and Lee Jae-heon slightly scratched his neck and opened his mouth.
“There are places that are structured like this, usually within gentrified apartment complexes. “There are no rules specifically stated, but that’s what I do when I come up with statistics.”
“What structure are you talking about? If the word ‘discharge’ had even been mentioned, it would have been quite grandiose. “It’s not a commonly used term.”
“That’s…”
In fact, the word ‘echelon’ was the name given by the main character in the novel when he saw this structure. This is a guy who secretly likes to give names to the glass apples in the park.
“…there is an altar where sacrifices are made. There is an eye to identify candidates for the sacrifice, and there is a source of survival or development through the power of the sacrifice.”
“…It’s hard to understand.”
“I understand, at first I thought this was some kind of bullshit.”
Honey, what on earth are you writing a novel like?
“Yeonwoo Kim, you said there was an eyeball monster.”
“Oh yeah. “Are those the eyes that are said to identify potential sacrifices?”
“you’re right.
Actually, I don’t know that well, but…” Lee Jae-heon doesn’t mean he knows everything. In the first place, Jeong In-ho’s purpose in the novel was to survive in the back world, even if only slightly, rather than figure out the rules of the back world or return to reality. Since there were other people to feed, it must be said that they were not actively observing the rules.
So Jaeheon Lee, who was a reader, also did not know the proper rules. Even the information itself, ‘If there is an eye monster, there is an area where sacrifices are made’ was organized and defined by Lee Jae-heon after he read the entire article, so it’s all said and done.
‘But it’s true that I know better than these guys now.’
Jaeheon Lee continued speaking naturally.
“To put it simply, the survivor is the fuel, the umbilical cord is where the fuel is put in, and the source is heated by the fuel being put in… It’s like a heated floor. “If you think of it like a hanok, the survivors would be the firewood and the altar would be the altar.”
“Then are those scarecrows over there like a pile of ashes left over from burning firewood or smoke coming up a chimney? So, leftover by-products?”
“I’m glad you understand exactly what I meant. Of course, those scarecrows are good workers, so it would be difficult to treat them like useless by-products…” “
But do you think they are not dangerous?”
“You were the doctor who said it wasn’t dangerous, so why are you doing this to me? But I agree that staying in the garden itself is not very dangerous.”
Lee Jae-heon scratched the pastoral line once again and said.
“Usually, you can avoid this system as long as you don’t go to the most important places…”
“What do you mean?”
“You said there was a sinkhole, so that might be the source. All the tricky monsters will gather there and live there. “I can’t say for sure because the rules are slightly different for each apartment complex, but as long as you don’t provoke them, there won’t be a big problem.”
And I added a word intentionally.
“maybe.”
As expected, Kim Yeon-woo was caught.
“Perhaps ramen… is there some other exceptional problem?”
“If you’re really unlucky, yes, that could happen. “I don’t think there is any chance of something happening.”
“Please explain in detail.”
“There’s not much to explain. “It’s just… really bad luck.”
Since this was also the original setting in the novel, Lee Jae-heon was able to use his tongue comfortably.
“The most representative case is that it is an offering that the eyeball monster cannot miss. Or maybe there was a chain reaction.”
“What is chain reaction?”
“It happens when you touch a monster or device that acts as a trigger. For example, when monster A outside the apartment complex screams, monsters from the source come out and start a riot…” “
Is the same true in the former case? “If the eyeball monster decides it’s an offering it can’t miss.”
“I’m just giving an example, but no one knows whether the result of ‘making a fuss’ will actually come out. I need to know. Surprisingly, you might get through it easily.”
While talking with Kim Yeon-woo, Hong Gyeong-jun suddenly intervened.
“What happens if I am chosen as a sacrifice?”
“That too… it’s a little different. Perhaps in the case of this apartment complex, the skin and flesh are separated and used as nutrients for the garden. Either they are simply tied up somewhere and their powers are taken away, or they become a host to some kind of monster… I don’t know, a monster? It looks too fine on the outside for that to be true. Anyway, that’s how it goes. It could be seen as something like a parasite entering the body. Or, there are cases where they just kill you right away.”
“You know very much.”
“….”
‘Lee Jae-heon’s’ mouth gently closed.
“Jaeheon Lee?”
“teacher?”
“Mr. Lee Jae-heon….”
These were the reactions of Hong Gyeong-jun, Ha Seong-yoon, and Kim Yeon-woo, one by one. ‘Lee Jae-heon’ was unable to hide his troubled appearance and eventually sighed.
“What did I do to make you look at me like that?”
“It looks like you’ve done a lot.”
“Maybe it happened because I didn’t die?”
“Now you’re talking openly and rudely.”
“In life, this and that happen.”
Lee Jae-heon waved his hands and continued.
“Anyway, don’t go near the sinkhole. If possible, don’t even touch the monster inside the apartment. “The trigger may be out there, but you never know.”
“I understand for now. I will have to be as careful as possible. “Are the monsters that act like triggers created by accumulating thoughts from the real world?”
“Is there a place like that in the other side of the world?”
Even as he said that, Lee Jae-heon was thinking of another monster.
“So be careful. If you become a sacrifice like that….”
“….”
“It usually doesn’t end well.”
A fire-making keyring monster that Han Do-yoon had to catch.
Isn’t that the monster inside the apartment?
(Continued in the next part)
