Episode 341
Hong Gyeong-jun, who was checking the number of people in the garden, frowned.
“Mr. Kim Yeon-woo.”
“Did you call me?”
“Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon still haven’t returned.”
“I was thinking it was strange too.”
As Kim Yeon-woo said that, there was concern on his face that could not be hidden by his cold appearance. Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon, who had gone out in the morning to explore the surrounding area, had not yet returned to the garden.
Yeonwoo Kim looked up at the sky and muttered.
“It looks like it will get dark in just two more hours….”
In the other world, it is difficult to tell the time with the naked eye, but we know that when a light gray light begins to appear, the sky quickly turns pitch black within a few hours. I was able to. The sky was still brightly colored, but seeing that the saturation had decreased overall, it seemed like the day would soon be setting.
And because there was a lack of light everywhere in the other world, the level of danger increased in the evening. Even though they couldn’t have known that, the fact that they haven’t returned yet suggests that Lee Jae-heon and Ha Seong-yoon may have been caught up in some incident.
“…If I waited this long and still didn’t come, something might have happened.”
“I think so too. Of course, if the two of you are coming here safely, it may be a little difficult, but shall we create a rescue team to search the surrounding area? Even if we diverge, everyone knows the route well, so I don’t think there will be any major problems.”
“Then…”
As Hong Gyeong-jun and Kim Yeon-woo were talking about the rescue team, Yoon Gar-ram approached them.
“Hey, are you going to look for Mr. Ha Seong-yoon and the manager?”
“ah.”
Kim Yeon-woo exclaimed as if he had finally found out. Come to think of it, it was none other than Garam Yoon who had been exploring the surrounding area with Seongyoon Ha and Jaeheon Lee. It is a natural procedure to first investigate the human relationships surrounding the subject in question, but Kim Yeon-woo himself must have been quite distracted to forget this.
Kim Yeon-woo, who was embarrassed but did not show it, nodded slowly.
“Yes, of course I don’t have a lot of free time, but I’m anxious. I thought it was right to come visit you two before it gets completely dark. “Do you have any advice?”
“I told you this before, but the two of you were walking around the shopping center these days. “Today, after checking the inside of the shopping mall, he said he would mainly go around the outskirts… I returned to the garden before going around the outskirts.”
“Did the two of you leave any special comments?”
“Other than just going around lightly… I thought you would come back early. I thought the reason I was a little late was because I had to check somewhere far away. Still, I’m anxious…”
“I see.”
Unlike Kim Yeon-woo’s attitude of trying to listen to Yoon Gar-ram as simply a friend or family member of the victim, Hong Gyeong-jun, who was one step away from them, had his arms crossed and was tapping his forearm with his fingers.
“….”
Lately, that person has been strangely annoying.
The last time I returned to reality, I thought about stopping this crazy act of doubting a teammate who ‘…looks like something is going to cause an accident…’, but as Hong Gyeong-jun, who has lived with his intuition his whole life, it felt uncomfortable at all .
I couldn’t shake it off. It was because the feeling I had when I saw Yoon Garam and Ha Seongyoon these days was very subtle. Although the degree was different, it felt the same as when I first saw Jung In-ho.
Moreover, what I felt from Yoon Garam and Ha Seongyoon was not the same at all.
‘If Yoon Garam is more of an impulsive criminal, Ha Seongyoon feels like a slightly more intelligent criminal.’
Either way, it was not the right attitude to treat a colleague. Hong Gyeong-jun also knew this, but it was not easy to ignore my intuition that subtly warned me every time I saw them.
“Can I go with you?”
“…of course.”
However, this did not mean that he would truly consider Yoon Garam or Ha Seongyoon to be criminals.
‘Making the same mistake once is enough.’
I still shiver when I think of the events at the park when I was first consumed by the secret world. I can’t believe I missed this ridiculous bastard named Song In-myeong right in front of me. It was a mistake that even Hong Gyeong-jun could not help but be deeply shocked to miss while doubting other colleagues. Considering what Song In-myeong did, it was difficult to express Hong Gyeong-jun’s foolish behavior with the cute word ‘mistake’.
‘Besides, it’s not at a very serious level…’
What Hong Gyeong-jun felt towards Yoon Gar-ram and Ha Seong-yoon was at the level of simple suspicion. It wasn’t like I had a strong intuition like when I saw Song In-myeong or Jung In-ho, so even if the two of them had really caused a problem or were planning to cause one at some point, it wouldn’t have been a very big deal.
Thinking like that, Hong Gyeong-jun quietly ignored the warning given by his intuition.
“Then let’s form a new rescue team.”
After coming to a conclusion in some way, he immediately organized a rescue team to find Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon, and upon hearing that fortunately among the misfortunes, Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon were the ones who would come, the survivors expressed their willingness to actively participate. Among them, there were few who did not receive treatment from doctor Ha Seong-yoon or comfort from Lee Jae-heon, their spiritual leader.
Even Vivian, who usually did not have much interaction with Ha Seong-yoon or Lee Jae-heon, came forward.
“Student Vivian protects the garden….”
“Monsters can’t enter the garden anyway. Wouldn’t that be okay? “Until all the survivors moved to the garden, there were only grandmothers and kindergarten students.”
“At that time, Han Do-yoon was also there.”
“Anyway, please include me too.”
Vivian shrugged her shoulders with her characteristic calm expression.
“From what I’ve felt while watching, Jaeheon Lee seems a bit… the type of person who shouldn’t be given time to think on his own. “I’m a little worried.”
“I agree with this.”
Hong Gyeong-jun could only nod his head at the words that accurately identified Lee Jae-heon. Surely, Jaeheon Lee had a peculiar habit of destroying himself when left alone, even in normal times, not in a crisis situation. It would have been better to quickly retrieve it and put it somewhere visible.
In the end, the search team consisting of Hong Gyeong-jun, Yoon Garam, Vivian, Do-yoon Han, and Kim Ki-jeong were able to find Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon inside the shopping mall before it became completely dark.
“….”
“….”
“…Oh.”
And Hong Gyeong-jun felt his head throbbing at the sight of their faces.
“You’re hurt… a lot.”
“You didn’t look very good, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
“Jaeheon Lee’s excuses are not very credible.”
“Are you so blatantly arrogant?”
“well.”
Even if the scratches and gashes are all over the place, how on earth can someone with a completely broken arm say, ‘It wasn’t that big of a deal?’ People like Lee Jae-heon often made remarks that were not understood through common sense. They were a race that could not have a conversation at all.
Kim Ki-jeong asked Ha Seong-yoon, unable to hide his embarrassment.
“No, what on earth happened? Jaeheon Lee, why are your arms like this?”
“….”
Unlike usual, Ha Seong-yoon, who had a tired face without a trace of a smile, rubbed his face with both hands and answered in a dry voice.
“Plaster…”
“Yes?”
“The plaster monster at school.”
“Wait a minute, you mean a plaster monster?”
“….”
Ha Seong-yoon seemed to be choosing the words to say with his mouth closed.
“…I was wandering around the shopping center and on my way back to the garden, I passed in front of Eonhak High School, and a group of broken and damaged plaster monsters came rushing out from there. I couldn’t go back to the garden like this, so I ran inside the shopping center. The monsters in the shopping mall and the group of plaster monsters collided and took advantage of the confusion to hide here near the police station. The plaster monsters went on a rampage and soon disappeared. Can we stop talking here and move Mr. Lee Jae-heon to the garden? “It’s hard to find a healthy place, let alone my arms, because they protect me from monsters.”
“…Oh yeah, sorry.”
“What does Mr. Kim Ki-jeong have to be sorry about? These damn monsters….”
“Ha Seong-yoon…?”
“I made a mistake with my words.”
Rarely, Ha Seong-yoon was unable to control his emotions.
‘Is this really okay?’
Hong Gyeong-jun once again thought about the judgment he had made while in the garden: ‘My intuition is warning me, but there won’t be any problems.’ This was because the competent doctor in front of me seemed to have lost half, if not about two-thirds, of his eyes just to reflect on what had happened in the park.
Well, after the Unhak High School expedition was canceled, my condition seemed to have worsened significantly, but still. Still, Hong Gyeong-jun’s surprise was even greater because he knew the composure shown by a doctor named Ha Seong-yoon, who resembled a white and polished baduk stone. Although he had been having a hard time recently, the rampage of the plaster monsters he was caught in this time seemed to have ruined Ha Seong-yoon’s poker face.
“…Well, I’ll hear the details later…” After
thinking about that, Hong Gyeong-jun turned his gaze back to Lee Jae-heon.
“First of all, it would be better to move Jaeheon Lee to the garden first. “Can you walk?”
“….”
“…?”
Hong Gyeong-jun’s eyes widened when he saw Lee Jae-heon not answering right away. To be honest, at first, I even wondered, ‘What does that sign mean?’ But after a while, I was able to figure out the meaning through Lee Jae-heon’s reaction of avoiding eye contact.
“…No really? really?”
Uncharacteristically, Hong Gyeong-jun denied reality.
“Are you unable to walk now?”
“…I sprained my ankle…”
“Why on earth?”
“Because I am human too.”
“That’s true, but no.”
He suddenly felt uneasy.
‘The situation was this bad?’
From what I heard, the plaster monsters that escaped outside the school and started a rampage seem to naturally disappear over time, but what would have happened if they had chased Ha Seong-yoon and Lee Jae-heon without getting tired like other monsters that have no time limit? It may be a meaningless assumption now, but it sent a chill down my spine for no reason.
Ha Seong-yoon was competent as a person assisting someone, but it was difficult to treat him as a main combat personnel, and Lee Jae-heon was a crazy person who specialized in saving anyone by sacrificing his own body. Lee Jae-heon, who had a sprained ankle, a broken arm, and was in poor physical condition in addition to his original injuries, would not have been able to last very long among the crowd of plaster monsters.
If so, it’s really just an assumption, but if the luck was bad….
“….”
Lee Jae-heon could have died.
“…Uh…”
When Hong Gyeong-jun pursed his lips, Do-yoon Han, who was watching the whole situation, smiled and opened his mouth.
“Now, let’s go back to the garden, shall we? “I will carry Lee Jae-heon.”
“Ha Han Do-yoon is right. Jae-heon Lee is also injured, and Seong-yoon Ha doesn’t look all that well… I think it’s right to allow him to go back and get some rest.”
After Han Do-yoon and Kim Ki-jeong made their claims, the chaotic atmosphere was somewhat resolved. Among the monsters in the mall, the only ones not affected by the police’s status were stray cat monsters, which made strange sounds and threatened them, but since there were so many of them, most of the cat monsters ran away first.
Han Do-yoon, carrying Lee Jae-heon, asked.
“Is there anything uncomfortable?”
“Yes, it’s okay.”
“Strangely enough, the ‘okay’ thing that Jaeheon Lee talks about is not easy to trust.”
“If you don’t believe me, why did you ask…?”
“Haha, just kidding. “I’m glad you’re alive!”
“….”
Lee Jae-heon kept his mouth shut at the subtly thorny words, and Ha Seong-yoon also refrained from speaking as if he had a lot to think about. Thanks to this, the rescue team was able to safely arrive at the garden in strange silence.
However, that does not mean that the atmosphere in the garden was good.
“…Boss?”
Jeong In-ho greeted Lee Jae-heon with a white face.
Lee Jae-heon could only avoid his eyes once again as his gaze slightly wavered.
(Continued in the next part)
