After the death of the monster in
Episode 369, Room 1201, the commotion settled down as if it had been waiting.
All survivors trapped in apartment building 119 were able to get out of the building, and those who fell into the sinkhole also escaped easily thanks to the monsters’ pursuit being cut off.
Although Lee Jae-heon’s condition was still not very good, it was much better than before, when he lost consciousness for several days.
Miraculously, not a single person died, and only then were the survivors gathered at the police station able to relax.
“Anyway, do you know what’s the funniest thing right now?”
“What.”
“Even after we went through that mess, we couldn’t return to reality.”
Kwon Yeon-hee smiled with a liberated face.
“Is this what living is like?…”
The other survivors laughed or sighed awkwardly at her words.
That’s right, they were still in the underworld.
“I was wondering if the uproar wasn’t the usual uproar.”
“It is true that it was a pain in the ass, but the monster itself was not particularly strong. “It was a structure where you could easily escape if you solved the puzzle correctly… Didn’t the ignition monster die with just one gesture from President Yoon?”
“That’s true, but…”
“I mean, didn’t you say that all monsters that allow you to return to reality are strong? “Of course the rules were a pain in the ass, but the monster itself was weak, so it’s understandable that it couldn’t return to reality.”
As Kwon Yeon-hee’s small shoulders slumped, Vivian scratched the back of her head and continued.
“Of course… yes, it was difficult. “But I think it’s definitely… a bit unreasonable for everyone to have overcome the risk of death but not be able to return to reality.”
“right?!”
Kwon Yeon-hee suddenly raised her head at Vivian’s agreement.
“Chased by a monster! I can’t even eat! I can’t even sleep! Didn’t someone say they were locked in some strange house for four days straight? If you can’t solve the puzzle, won’t you fall into the trap of burning to death? I can’t even eat! “I couldn’t even eat!”
“This is the third time I’ve heard of not being able to eat.”
“Besides, the manager even suffered burns!”
Lee Jae-heon, who was lying on a chair at the police station far away, opened his mouth. A cracked voice came out.
“Why did you suddenly include me?”
“The biggest victim of this accident is the manager?!”
“Oh, I treated you. “It would have been okay if I had treated it.”
“Oh my, the only manager who can’t live up to my expulsion doesn’t even listen to my employees!”
“I brought that in as a subordinate, really…”
Lee Jae-heon’s gaze was not kind when he looked at Kwon Yeon-hee, who had dragged him to the planning team through some kind of trick, but Kwon Yeon-hee, who had already finished analyzing the person named Manager Lee Jae-heon, was not afraid of him. He always said the worst, the highest, the lowest, and never properly scolded me.
Kwon Yeon-hee was frustrated that she could not escape reality, so she decided to go out even more shamelessly.
“The manager is a windbreaker!”
“…? What the hell, who told me that? Ha Seong-yoon?”
“It’s not me.”
“Then what is it? who is this. “No, in the first place, do you even know what ‘pungakjaengi’ means?”
“The manager is a tsundere…!”
“Don’t use jargon, don’t use it… I looked at that little thing and it started climbing up into the sky without even knowing it was high up.”
“The sky is not this tattered…!”
“Is this going to hit the manager?”
Even though he said that, the sight of him not being able to get up from the chair clearly showed that he was a patient, so no one defended Lee Jae-heon. Because it was true that he was in tatters.
Ha Seong-yoon said with a bright smile.
“I’m glad I prepared the medicine in advance. Lee Jae-heon’s treatment was completed as soon as he was rescued.”
“Ha Seong-yoon, are you saying this because you think it’s really fortunate?”
And in the process of treating Lee Jae-heon, what Ha Seong-yoon, Yoon Garam, and Lee Jae-heon were doing at the pharmacy was revealed. Hong Gyeong-jun, who found out about this, trembled with a sense of betrayal somewhere between ‘I knew it would happen’ and ‘No matter what, you?’ It was an incident in which Ha Seong-yoon’s image among survivors was classified as a dangerous molecule.
However, Ha Seong-yoon, who had strengthened his relationship with Yoon Gar-ram through the incident in Room 1201, only laughed shamelessly.
“Is there anything wrong with preparing when I have time and seeing results when I don’t?”
“Don’t you think there’s a problem with the process itself?”
“It’s a pity that I’m not in a state where I can feel such remorse.”
“I don’t know how anyone can feel sorry in this case.”
Even though it was revealed that crazy people had prepared drugs in advance without consulting them, the atmosphere within the survivors was actually not that bad. This was because Hong Gyeong-jun, who should have set the mood the most, surprisingly did not react more negatively to the deviations of Ha Seong-yoon and Yoon Gar-ram.
Ha Seong-yoon, who also knew this, narrowed his eyes and smiled at Hong Gyeong-jun and Jeong In-ho.
“Well, it’s nice to see that the two of you seem to be getting closer…”
“Are you sick?”
“The pharmacy is over there.”
“I can’t even make a joke like this.”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who was openly stern, and Jeong In-ho, who smiled neatly and bowed his hand, looked disgusted by everyone, but most of the survivors, other than Ha Seong-yoon, were convinced that there had been progress between them. The conversation between the two in the past was at a level that could be considered evil.
And Ha Seong-yoon seemed to know, at least roughly, what was being said between the two.
“Why did you feel relieved?”
“….”
“…There really is no sane person here.”
Hong Gyeong-jun heard from Jeong In-ho about the ‘next opportunity’ and felt reassured by that. Since this is a job, I know how terrible death is, but despite that, I welcome return.
In fact, in the behind-the-scenes world, Hong Gyeong-jun depended a lot mentally on Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon. Hong Gyeong-Jun was not the only survivor who used the two people who were dead and not easily broken as spiritual pillars, but would you say that the severity was worse than the others? That may be why we welcome him even though we know how dirty and terrible the nature of regression is.
Although it was logically understandable, it could not be said to be a sane decision.
“Is it true that you are okay, Manager?”
“…hmm.”
Ha Seong-yoon nodded to Jeong In-ho’s question.
“Physically, there doesn’t seem to be any problem. “There is nothing that can be done about the injuries suffered in reality, but the bleeding has stopped and the burns…”
“You were burned, weren’t you?”
“Yes, that’s okay too. “It’s all healed.”
A doll resembling Lee Jae-heon, who was burning brightly in the living room of room 1201. As expected, it was connected in some way, and Jaeheon Lee actually suffered burns. Areas where the chains were tied, such as the torso, limbs, and neck, were particularly serious. Not only the skin, but also the inside of the body was damaged to a great extent.
It was entirely thanks to Lee Jae-heon’s mental strength that he did not die of shock even while being burned alive in a shapeless fire. If it had been an ordinary person, he could have died without even being able to cure it with medicine.
“Mr. Lee Jae-heon’s difficulty in movement right now is simply… a mental problem.”
“It’s a conclusion that doesn’t seem good at all.”
“Haha, I guess so?”
Lee Jae-heon once again intervened in the conversation between Ha Seong-yoon and Jeong In-ho.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, you bastards…”
“Ugh, the truth.”
“what? “What did this doctor say just now?”
“Even pediatric patients don’t listen to me like this.”
“Are you criticizing me for being worse than the kids?”
“If you know, just shut up and sleep. “I laid him down to sleep and he started talking a lot earlier.”
“Hey, that, that… that’s the doctor I wanted to be.”
“Hmm, it’s coming back…? “If you think about it, you probably know that I’m older than you, right?”
“….”
“That’s right.”
Ha Seong-yoon smiled in satisfaction at the sight of Lee Jae-heon quietly closing his mouth and closing his eyes, as if he had nothing to refute. As expected, that patient was the prettiest when she slept in silence. Objectively, he is a man in his 40s who has the vicious look of a mafia or gangster.
Ha Seong-yoon smiled softly and continued.
“Everything about the medicine here is good except for the process of purchasing it, but since the effects appear instantly, there is a problem of feeling a disconnect between the body and mind. “Even if your body is completely healed, the process is so fast that you don’t even realize that you are mentally healed.”
“So, Manager, there are no personal problems? So…”
“I don’t think there are any particular aftereffects from this incident. And I’m not a psychiatrist, Mr. Jeong In-ho. Hong Gyeong-jun, please turn your impure gaze away.”
Ha Seong-yoon stretched out two fingers and pretended to poke his eyes, then narrowed his eyes.
“Before I stab you.”
“…It’s even scarier when someone who has a history of imitating a prosecutor with a scalpel says something like that.”
“Seeing how you’re making fun of me, I guess you’re worth living now.”
My Lime Orange Tree It was much easier to watch as the faint image of the main character in the melodrama I was filming disappeared. When I saw him go out on his own and look so defeated, I wanted to hit him on the back of the head.
Ha Seong-yoon blinked and muttered softly.
“…well….”
Would it be difficult to consider this normal?
‘My eyes are tired.’
Ha Seong-yoon, who was looking into Jeong In-ho’s round, pitch-black eyes, soon burst into laughter. From the moment he saw Lee Jae-heon, who had been carried by Vivian while barely holding his breath, his reaction had been a little strange, and now he seemed to have completely turned away. Such a neat smile with a dirty and bumpy gaze like nervous scribbling.
I liked it because it seemed like the protagonist of a secret world.
“…Have you had a bad idea just now?”
“Ah, such a cruel misunderstanding. “I always live with a faithful and humble heart.”
“I guess you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to look when you’re sick and tired.”
“Should we just do Jeong In-ho?”
“Crazy guy.”
“That’s right.”
You had to be crazy to survive here.
We all did that.
* * *
In a quiet police station, everyone is asleep.
“…big cluck.”
Jaeheon Lee opened his eyes with a small coughing sound.
“….”
“….”
“…Ait-san, I’m surprised.”
A hoarse voice rings out from somewhere.
“What is it, Jeong In-ho?”
Jeong In-ho was quietly looking down at Lee Jae-heon.
“…Iknow, right.”
Why were you looking at this person?
Blinking his eyes slowly, Jeong In-ho glanced at his superior’s pale face.
Jaeheon Lee was always as white as a sheet of paper. I wasn’t saying that he was scared or that he looked in pain. It had a face with a soft bluish-gray glow, like a vampire or a monster with blue blood that lives in a dead body, as if it had no bright red blood from birth.
“Why…”
It was after I entered the secret world with Lee Jae-heon that I found out about it and looked into it so closely.
“….”
How can it be so compatible with the word ‘death’?
When I first found out about Lee Jae-heon’s true identity, I realized that all his nervous and forced appearances were just an act. Many survivors felt a strange sense of distance from Jaeheon Lee. Apart from the fact that he sacrificed his whole body to save us, it felt as if Lee Jae-heon was not human.
Lee Jae-heon never once resented it. Rather, he took it for granted and helped them feel distant from him so that they could take advantage of him.
“…Are you not going to say anything?”
“….”
“What are you doing standing there like a ghost?”
The deeply subdued voice, as if someone had just been strangled and then released, is annoying.
As I was staring blankly at Lee Jae-heon, he awkwardly stood up, probably worried about his condition. As Ha Seong-yoon said during the day, is it a result of the mind not adjusting to the recovered body? Perhaps the pain of the injury sustained in reality was still bothering him.
Lee Jae-heon, who raised his entire upper body, asked.
“…Mr. Jeong In-ho.”
“yes.”
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“yes.”
“Don’t do this in the middle of the night.”
I couldn’t stand it and spat out the words.
“It’s alive.”
live.
“….”
“He’s alive.”
Lee Jae-heon is alive and well in the vision that has become accustomed to the dark.
His hair is all disheveled, his eyes are puffy from lack of sleep, and he always smells of blood due to frequent bursting of wounds. It looks so lifeless that it’s funny to wonder if it’s really okay to call it ‘alive’.
Oh, I see.
“…I thought you were dead.”
In-ho Jeong was treating Jae-heon Lee as a dead person.
Maybe it was from the last episode when I voluntarily sacrificed my head to him. He was going to die, so I accepted the absurd idea that he was already dead as reality. Even though I was in a state of unconsciousness the entire time, it wasn’t until Jaeheon Lee was carried by Vivian that I became aware of these thoughts.
Skin completely crushed by burns, drops of blood dripping, heads that fell off as if they had lost consciousness, and pale skin. A body without any movement. The silence is terrible….
“This is a bit….”
“….”
“It’s unfamiliar.”
It was unfamiliar.
It was strange to see Lee Jae-heon, who I thought was a corpse, exhale.
He always hid in places unseen and accepted death. I’m not sure if it’s Lee Jae-heon’s last remaining pride or his unwillingness to cause trouble to the remaining survivors, but I don’t know. What more do I need to say? The most powerful thing that Jeong In-ho remembers about Lee Jae-heon was death.
“It’s unfamiliar.”
“okay?”
“…breathe….”
I knew that a faint warmth was lingering on the skin even without touching it.
“…It seems strange.”
The living Jaeheon Lee was embedded in my mind.
Even if I die soon, I will never forget this strange sight.
(Continued in the next part)
