Episode 36
Jeong In-ho was going crazy.
He was a person who had a knack for hiding everything, so most people did not notice, but just as Director Kang Min-ah suddenly realized his disgusting side, Jung In-ho’s inner self was calmly crushed to the point where his original form could not be found.
So many things were ruined in front of him.
Firstly, Director Kang Min-ah and intern Noh Yeon-seok did this before returning to the past, and secondly, Manager Lee Jae-heon, who we do not know how he died, did this. They were just a piece of meat, mangled and distorted.
And the third example was employee Kwon Yeon-hee, who visited Director Lee Jae-heon after his death.
“….”
At that time, Jeong In-ho saw the skin of a living person on fire for the first time in his life.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…!”
“…ah.”
That sense of heterogeneity drove people crazy.
In fact, Jeong In-ho was patient enough just by running without seeing Director Lee Jae-heon’s death until the end.
I was sure that he would regret not seeing the last of the person who protected them in some way, but Jung In-ho chose to regret instead. If you’re going to regret it anyway, it’s right to save at least one more person.
Because that was the right way and action as a human being, and it was courtesy to the colleagues I had been with all along.
“Kaaaaah ah ahhh…!”
“….”
“Ugh. Hehehe…”
But even that was ruined by Jeong In-ho.
He went to employee Kwon Yeon-hee as Director Lee Jae-heon said, but for some reason, she was screaming with her whole body on fire, and from a little further away, he saw two students in school uniform running as if they were running away.
“…water. “Something like water.”
“The lake is too far from here!”
“Then at least sprinkle some sand! No, cover it with a coat….”
All kinds of messy knowledge appeared in Jeong In-ho’s mind.
If the fire is caused by oil, pouring water will actually make the situation worse. In that case, the fire would have to be extinguished by blocking the air, but then how on earth could the fire burning all over my body be extinguished? Am I saying the right things now? Am I making the right decision? Did you do it?
I worked hard to get my mind together. Despite everything, In-ho Jeong could not come to his senses, and in the end, employee Yeon-hee Kwon could not survive because the fire on his body did not go out even after shaking it off.
But she wanted to live.
“…Nana.”
“….”
“I want to live….”
“….”
“….”
Still, he died.
The words were spoken in a slurred voice, as if the tongue, melted by the extreme heat, had stuck to the roof of the mouth.
How could it be so miserable to see a pitch-black body that died without even being able to utter a single word?
“…ah.”
Suddenly, I wondered if it would have been the right thing to do even if I had turned off the light.
There was no proper medicine or bandages. There are no treatment tools. Even if the fire had been taken from Kwon Yeon-hee, whose skin and internal organs were all crushed, would she have been able to survive?
Since I wouldn’t have been able to survive, I wonder if it would have been more humane to have died without suffering more. That’s what I thought.
Then, this thought occurred to me. Did the person who originally fell into the fire die this quickly? In fact, it may have been so urgent that it felt like time had passed by in a flash. Or it could have been part of this world where the mind is said to have a great influence.
Various vague thoughts gnawed at my head, but only one thing was certain.
“…Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu in
us in us us
for us for they are sure they will be able to help you
.
President Garam Yoon, who witnessed the deaths of four people in an instant, acted as if he had lost his mind, and Inho Jeong felt a sense of disconnection from reality from her sorrowful moans. Perhaps because of this, rather than crying, I felt empty and couldn’t react at all.
Nevertheless, Dr. Ha Seong-yoon asked him to do something productive.
“…It’s evening. “Fires are lit here and there in the forest, so we can have some visibility, but if it goes on for too long, it’s at a disadvantage to us.”
“…Then what should we do?”
“I need to find a place to rest.”
It was really surprising, but fortunately he didn’t say something abstract like ‘the living must live’. It was truly fortunate.
Immediately after staying up all night, Jeong In-ho visited the place where he last saw Director Lee Jae-heon. For some reason, the traces left by the fire that died down without spreading to other places were very obvious.
“….”
“…Oh my.”
But there were only blood stains and no bodies to be seen.
I felt my heart sink, but unfortunately, I still remained calm on the outside. It made me wonder if maybe I was used to it because I had seen so much death.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking at it, opened his mouth.
“There’s no body.”
“…But I don’t think I bought it.”
Unfortunately, too much blood was shed to predict whether Director Lee Jae-heon survived just because there was no body. Even Jeong In-ho, who had no medical knowledge, had no idea that he would have survived.
Instead, Jeong In-ho could not hide his laughter at the sight of something heavy and bleeding.
“If I follow those tracks….”
“….”
“I might be able to find out where that monster lives.”
The extremely efficient person disappeared until the very end, leaving behind a profit instead of a corpse.
After that, Jeong In-ho seemed to be possessed and tried to find a way to survive the green algae monster to protect the remaining group.
When and where does that monster come from and how does it operate? What do you want? Eventually, it was discovered that caterpillars full of blood living in trees would be an excellent bait to deal with the monster.
Now that I think about it, I think it was probably Dr. Ha Seong-yoon’s guidance, but at the time, I didn’t have time to think about anything. I was just busy surviving.
“….”
If Director Lee Jae-heon had been alive, things would have been better than they are now.
I found bait, but even that had its limits. There weren’t enough blood-spewing larvae to save everyone. So, it refers to ‘all’ people, excluding our group.
Well, they weren’t the only ones left alive in the park.
“I am Detective Hong Gyeong-jun.”
“Detective.”
“Yes, I’m looking for someone…”
And at that time, Jeong In-ho met a detective who said he was Hong Gyeong-jun.
The detective, who had an expressionless but tired face at the same time, made eye contact with Jeong In-ho, bit his lip for some reason, and then continued speaking as if sighing.
“…If it’s okay, may I ask you a few questions?”
“….”
Once again, I think it would have been better if Director Lee Jae-heon had been alive.
Because unlike him, he was crazy from the beginning. Unlike me, who was gradually going crazy, I had already adapted and acted double-faced as if I had created a completely new personality, and yet I was really good at dealing with people.
If he were still alive, he would at least have been better than Jeong In-ho.
“…What are you curious about?”
I would have made a better choice than that.
* * *
“Yes, I am the manager. “Are you not coming to your senses?”
“….”
“I saw you just opened your eyes. I saw you straining your hands. “What kind of accident was this bastard trying to cause?”
“Chief.”
Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho, paying no heed to being grabbed by the collar, repeated the words.
“….”
“Manager.”
There was a slight fanaticism attached to that call.
The eyes, which had been loose like a crushed figure beyond the fog, wavered a few times, but soon turned into a dark color and looked at Lee Jae-heon. A black light that can never be achieved with paint and lighting stares at the other person.
Lee Jae-heon sighed as he watched Jeong In-ho’s eyes gradually come into focus.
“what.”
“…You’re alive.”
“Then die?”
“no.”
Jeong In-ho looked at him with pitch-black eyes and smiled.
“Fortunately, the.”
“….”
It was a disgustingly sincere face.
Lee Jae-heon felt himself running away from home in confusion. Coming this far, he was pessimistic about his situation of having to raise children, but honestly, it was a joke.
‘It was really only half a joke.’
Think about it. Compared to children crawling around on their backs, they were literally adults who drank and smoked. These kids are all grown up. What kind of parenting is this?
In the first place, the word ‘parenting’ itself means ‘raising a child.’ The childcare he envisioned for his group was about helping and managing the mental health of grown adults, not the process of raising people with pure minds like children.
But that’s right. Yes, I was bad. When I saw a teammate who was creaking just because he was away for a moment and the main character who was literally on the verge of losing his mind, no matter how much Lee Jae-heon was, he couldn’t help but blame himself.
He sighed inwardly at the sight of the protagonist looking at me blankly with pitch-black eyes.
‘I didn’t fucking trust this chick…’
Well, I’m an idiot for trusting this bright yellow chick. I’m an asshole.
Lee Jae-heon felt so helpless that he let go of the collar he was holding with one hand.
“How can this happen while I was away for a while…”
He frowned at the sight of the other party members looking at the two of us with round eyes.
“Why are they shaped like that? “Who’s going to have a funeral?”
“…I’m the manager….”
“…Ah, why are you doing this again, really…”
Lee Jae-heon shrugged his shoulders, feeling embarrassed at the whining noises he heard among the group.
As you can tell just by hearing his voice, the person who called him was employee Kwon Yeon-hee, who was so flushed that she was on the verge of tears. She, who was standing next to her siblings, was half in tears and was hesitantly approaching him. It was a gesture as if you were dealing with a stray cat that runs away if you approach it too quickly.
Employee Kwon, who had no idea what kind of emotion he was feeling, spoke in a hushed voice.
“Why, why, why did everyone come here so dead…”
“….”
“If anyone saw them, they would think they were zombies…”
Lee Jae-heon, who was looking back at those words, was momentarily dumbfounded and asked back.
“…Is that what you want to say to the manager?”
This guy has been seeing me for so long that he suddenly calls me a zombie.
At Lee Jae-heon’s words, Dr. Ha Seong-yoon looked at him with an ambiguous smile. Even though he didn’t say anything, Ha Seong-yoon asked as if he had been waiting when he turned around and felt his complicated feelings.
“Is it true that you say something like that, Manager? “Are you saying you’re worried about yourself?”
“No, even under these circumstances, you still have a position. “A manager like the sky is a zombie. Is this a company?”
“This is not a company. “How can you live without the law?”
“It’s not like anyone’s dead, so what…”
Of course, it wasn’t a 100% sincere conversation.
‘I came back a bit of a mess.’
I understand. Who can rest in peace when the person who was the center of the team was taken away by a monster? There were probably more than one person who had trouble sleeping during the night.
When I swept the back of my neck once, blood came out from no where. It had been a while since I arrived here, so it might have hardened, but the blood on my hands and wrists was slippery, as if it had just flowed. I’ve always thought about it, but it wasn’t a particularly pleasant feeling.
Apart from that, it was also a familiar feeling, so his thoughts became clouded for a moment, but Jae-Heon Lee soon seemed to shake it off as he cast his gaze towards the group looking at him.
“…Are you hurt anywhere?”
Even though I felt like I was tired and lost, I couldn’t help but take care of my image.
“I guess there wouldn’t have been a big problem since I was the one with that monster, but still…”
“Is that what you’re going to say now, Manager?”
“No, people say they just want to worry, but really. “Why are you so twisted?”
“As Yeonhee said, the person who came looking like a zombie is worried about us who are fine.”
“Can’t I even worry?”
Anyway, this was a manageable range.
‘From now on, we’ll just think of them as ten-year-olds.’
While talking with Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, Lee Jae-heon glanced at the other party members out of the corner of his eye.
If his mental state had deteriorated to the point where it was impossible or difficult to control, no matter how skilled Lee Jae-heon was in managing such situations, it would not have worked. Still, it didn’t seem to be a very serious situation, as the group, who had been frozen one by one, began to move slowly.
“I really…”
Lee Jae-heon sighed lightly and dropped the pipe he was holding in his hand.
The pipe made a dull noise as it hit the ground and weeds, but the group’s eyes were focused on Lee Jae-heon as he immediately collapsed into his seat. The bodies of the brother and sister, who were staring at him intently but keeping their mouths shut, seemed to be shaking.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon approached him as if he had been waiting and lightly tapped Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho, who was standing blankly next to him, on the shoulder.
“….”
He blinks several times at the nuanced gesture telling him to come to his senses.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon, ignoring In-ho Jeong, got down on one knee, removed Jae-heon Lee’s blood-stained shirt with his hands, and opened his mouth.
“You all came back dead.”
“Why are you arguing all of a sudden?”
“For doctors like us, there is no patient in trouble like you. If you fix it, you get hurt, if you fix it, you get hurt….”
“….”
“…Hmm.”
He stopped talking when he saw the bruise on Lee Jae-heon’s neck.
He blinked once and raised his shirt collar to cover it so that the other party members’ eyes could not reach him. It was truly a natural gesture, but Lee Jae-heon knew that the protagonist was watching all of this with pitch-black eyes.
After being silent for a moment, the doctor laughed in his characteristic soft voice.
“…I’m glad you’re alive.”
“…It was nothing.”
For some reason, it seemed like it sounded like an insult.
