Episode 434
: ‘Why?’ I thought.
When I saw Lee Jae-hee, not a mannequin, but a normal human being. It wasn’t just a lament over the collapse of the setting I had set up. The setting refers to the setting in which one of the older family members brainwashed ‘Jae-Heon Lee’ and manipulated him. The question that came to mind while looking at Jae-Hee Lee was not simply because I realized that I had failed.
Why didn’t that crazy bastard get eaten by the underworld? It was closer to that thought.
We already know that the crazier the person, the higher the chance of being eaten by the underworld. It was surprising that Lee Jae-hee, who was approaching her 50s, had never once been caught in the dark world during that long period of time. None of the families I met even had a mannequin. I even thought about whether I was not doing my job properly in the behind-the-scenes world.
‘Lee Jae-heon’ was brainwashed into a sacrificial spirit from a young age, and the snake police rescued him and taught him various skills. … I spoke to the late Hong Gyeong-jun, Jeong In-ho, and Ha Seong-yoon. The culprit who brainwashed ‘Lee Jae-heon’ is set to be one of the family members, and due to the nature of the behind-the-scenes world, it is difficult for new members to be introduced in large numbers unless all previous members die.
Therefore, at least one of the family members older than Lee Jae-heon would have to be a mannequin to make it more probable, but unfortunately, there was a hole in that setting.
‘But what can a third-rate villain like me do? I just have to complete it by hand.’
Even if I didn’t know who the managers were, who the different parties involved in the industry were, etc., I knew one thing.
In order to prevent the setting from collapsing, one of the blood relatives must be killed.
‘There’s no need to do it right away, you just have to be careful so that the survivors don’t meet Jaehee Lee. Lee Jae-hyung isn’t bad, but Jung In-ho has already found out that he’s not a mannequin… It would have been easier to choose if there were more brothers, but it’s a shame.’
Given the setting, it would be unfair to say that Jaehyung Lee is now a mannequin, so only Lee Jaehee remains. Biological parents would not be a bad candidate, but they were eliminated as candidates because they were difficult to meet frequently.
After organizing his thoughts, Jaeheon Lee opened his eyes.
“…What are you doing?”
Kwon Yeon-hee was closely observing Lee Jae-heon.
“Are you awake?”
“I didn’t wake up… I said I wasn’t going to sleep, but I’m sure.”
“I thought you were sleeping.”
“Why can’t you let me sleep like this?”
“Can’t you just get some sleep?”
“What is the problem with Employee Kwon?”
“Go to sleep quickly.”
“….”
“Whenever the manager is awake, he only chooses to do strange things.”
“Huh…”
“So go to sleep quickly.”
Kwon Yeon-hee wrapped the blanket around Lee Jae-heon tighter with her small hands. The action was so trivial that I laughed, but I closed my eyes as I wanted. Even if I didn’t say that much, it was late and I was planning to sleep.
It’s just that I have a lot to think about.
“Good night?”
“I’m not sleeping.”
“…Why did you bring Seo-ah?”
He willingly answered the questions while trying to appear calm. The eyes were still closed.
“Crazy people buy and sell children.”
“Human trafficking….”
“No matter how much you talk about selling your experience, the essence of it is not going anywhere, so you just speak out.”
“Where did you get Seo?”
“At an event.”
“What kind of event was it?”
“It was an event full of crazy people.”
“Are you okay?”
“There is nothing that is not okay.”
“…Do you have any pain?”
I felt a little sleepy so I answered as is.
“doesn’t exist.”
There’s no reason to be sick.
* * *
“…are you sleeping, Manager?”
Lee Jae-heon had no answer to Kwon Yeon-hee’s quiet question.
Kwon Yeon-hee, who checked that he was sleeping lazily under the loosely made blanket, nodded, and Noh Yeon-seok, who had been waiting with keen attention, picked up Lee Jae-heon and moved him to the bed in the master bedroom. The survivors followed them. The house was so large that the road to the master bedroom was long.
Kwon Yeon-hee, who prides herself on being a small citizen, muttered softly.
“What kind of house is this palace-sized?”
“It feels like another world.”
“I can’t believe that only one manager lived in such a big house.”
“That’s right.”
Still, I was able to point out one improvement.
“Now the boiler is running.”
“yes? “Oh, I see.”
“Maybe it’s because Seo-ah came… You can think of it as a good change.”
“Because the manager likes kids.”
“It’s fortunate that you can take care of yourself in that way.”
The weather was slowly getting warmer, but the air inside Jaeheon Lee’s house was cool and dry, perhaps because it was located at a particularly high altitude. Or it could be that there is only one person living in this big house, so warmth is not generated well. Now that he had a child at home, he seemed to be paying attention in many ways.
In-ho Jeong thought it was not a bad change. It was the same for Seo-ah and Lee Jae-heon.
‘…Of course, I was cold when the seizure occurred.’
It was only a few hours ago, but my heart still sinks when I think about it. The sight of Lee Jae-heon ‘talking in his sleep’ was so familiar that it made us think we had been devoured by the underworld again.
“…I’m sure you’ll be okay, right?”
Woo Woo-young asked in an anxious voice whether it was just Jung In-ho who did that.
“Since you’re sleeping, we should go out too. I wonder if it’s okay to leave you alone like that.”
“If you are worried, I will stay with Director Lee Jae-heon.”
“Teacher Ha Seong-yoon?”
Ha Sung-yoon smiled softly as usual as Woo Joo-young’s voice rose in tone.
“Anyway, if I get a call, I have to go back to the hospital. I had an important surgery, and even though it was over and all I wanted to do was take care of my vitals, I didn’t really want to sleep because I didn’t feel like leaving it to the kids. “Let me keep an eye on you.”
“Then thank you, but….”
“Unlike you, I don’t have a set schedule in the morning. It’s very late, and if you have to go to work, you’ll be tired even if you go to sleep now. “You should go to sleep quickly.”
Ha Seong-yoon was right. Although it was not officially decided, the planning team was particularly quick to get to work, and other people felt reassured if Ha Seong-yoon, a doctor, was watching over them. Ha Seong-yoon smiled as if he was really okay and approached Lee Jae-heon, who was lying on the bed.
At that time, Ha Seong-yoon’s face hardened as he examined Lee Jae-heon’s condition. The only person who noticed it was Jeong In-ho, who was trying to leave the living room for the last time.
“….”
“…What’s going on?”
“wait a minute.”
When Kwon Yeon-hee, who sensed an ominous feeling, hesitated in the hallway, Jeong In-ho smiled and entered the master bedroom. Jeong In-ho once again smiled at Kwon Yeon-hee, who was fidgeting with no intention of following her into the living room. Yeonhee Kwon returned to the anxious survivors like me and headed to the guest room.
As was the case in the behind-the-scenes world, the survivors’ decision-makers in reality were Lee Jae-heon, Ha Seong-yoon, and Jeong In-ho. They built trust amidst countless risks, and that trust continued in real life. It’s not that they weren’t anxious, but because they trusted Ha Seong-yoon and Jeong In-ho, the survivors silently entered the room that Jae-heon Lee had chosen for them.
“So what’s really going on?”
When Jeong In-ho saw that the survivors were moving away from the main room, Ha Seong-yoon sighed.
“I’m not even sure what happened.”
“What is that…”
Ha Seong-yoon pointed to Lee Jae-heon’s pastoral song, and Jeong In-ho’s eyes followed him.
neck? It was healing well and there seemed to be no problem other than Lee Jae-heon scratching it in his sleep a few hours ago. Jaeheon Lee must have known that, too, because he wore a round tee instead of a polar tee.
Jeong In-ho, who was looking at his neck that had turned red after scratching it with his fingernails, looked a little further down his neck. I noticed the presence of white gauze and bandages that were obscured by a pitch black T-shirt.
It was exquisitely hidden in the clothes.
“….”
It was red.
“…How did you get hurt again?”
“The most credible hypothesis is that you were killed at that damn family event.”
“I heard you bought and sold Seo-ah?”
“Isn’t this an event where only crazy people gather? “There must have been someone crazy enough to put their hands on someone from the Idang group.”
“I guess he was quite crazy.”
I didn’t notice because of the tight-fitting t-shirt and the outerwear covering it, but my clothes got a lot messed up in the process of being dried and unwrapped from the blanket. Jeong In-ho continued speaking while checking the end of the bandage and the size of the gauze covering the bottom of the neck, which became visible thanks to that.
“It can cause such big wounds.”
The bandage started from the bottom of the neck near the collarbone, went backwards, and continued along the trapezius muscle to the left armpit.
It was hard to see because it was covered with bandages and gauze, but its width was considerable. Even a light scratch would have been treated as a serious injury. The two survivors exchanged glances as they carefully lifted Lee Jae-heon’s clothes to check so as not to wake him from his sleep.
“Could it have something to do with you having nightmares?”
“I think the possibility is high.”
I had a nightmare where a person who had just been to an ‘event’ held in his arms a child who was said to be being sold there. Considering the injury he was trying to hide with his clothes, as if he didn’t intend to let anyone know, it seemed certain that the ‘event’ had taken a big toll on Lee Jae-heon.
The problem was that there was no way to know who the culprit was.
“… Speaking of industry-related events. Is it really Song In-myeong?”
“You said you met with your family, so we can’t raise any doubts about that either.”
“I don’t know why you’re getting hit here and there like this.”
“What kind of sin did you commit in your past life to be like this?”
I remember the time when Lee Jae-heon, who was panting like in the other side of the world, looked at Jeong In-ho with blurry eyes.
‘…Me too…’
‘Yes?’
‘At that time… I would have died.’
‘….’
‘If I were dead….’
If I were dead.
‘Was I happy?’
You don’t even have a chance to be happy, Manager.
“…This is a story about a time when I ate fruit in the park.”
“That’s an interesting topic. “Please keep talking.”
“I had auditory hallucinations. “I think it was the voice of several people, but I don’t remember the details.”
In-ho Jeong unbuttoned the collar that covered his neck. I knew Ha Seong-yoon was staring at it, but I didn’t want to hide it and there was no reason to hide it. He even folded the sleeves of his shirt and placed them above his elbows.
Then he rubbed his itchy neck. I wanted to scratch him, but unlike Lee Jae-heon, I had no intention of getting scolded by Ha Seong-yoon. Of course, he probably scratched it because he wanted to get scolded for calling him Lee Jae-heon…
“I heard he was a monster.”
“A monster.”
“It’s okay since you don’t die anyway… Isn’t it? Did I just tell you to die? “I guess I don’t remember much.”
“okay.”
“I just remember the emotion in his voice.”
Things like hatred, contempt, and murder.
“These must have been the feelings the manager had.”
Even though there was nothing, my neck felt tight as if I was tied somewhere. My wrists were sore rubbing against my shirt. Even after unbuttoning and rolling up my shirt, the uncomfortable pressure did not go away.
“Since when have you heard something like that?”
“Are you telling me to die?”
“It means that sacrificing for others is the meaning of your existence. You may not know Ha Seong-yoon because he wasn’t at school with you, but his mental strength becomes stronger when he truly sacrifices. “I actually feel comfortable.”
“There is no answer.”
“The police must have done something to make you like this.”
So even though I knew that there was someone else who had been torturing Lee Jae-heon, it was difficult to erase all the hostility towards the ghost police officer. Wouldn’t he have been the person who could lead Jaeheon Lee to a better path?
“They are really bad people.”
From Lee Jae-heon’s sincere words in his sleep, Jeong In-ho was able to know what the only thing he desperately wanted. It wasn’t that great of a desire.
“Making people who want to be happy want to die.”
I just wanted to be happy, but I couldn’t even do that. Or it was stolen.
“Every time I see the manager, I feel like I’m looking at a problem that has no answer.”
“I happened to have similar feelings.”
“Is this really a problem in the first place? It just happened like this, but maybe we twisted it further because we thought it was the problem. “I think so too.”
“The problem is a problem no matter how it gets twisted. “The essence doesn’t change.”
“Don’t all problems in the world have a cause, process, and result, and there must be a way to solve them?”
Jeong In-ho looked at the bandage wrapped around Lee Jae-heon’s left shoulder and continued speaking, imagining the wound underneath.
“Where should I start and how should I solve it?”
A person who has become twisted and hardened.
Ha Seong-yoon answered.
“…First, I have to try to survive.”
“and?”
“I can’t do anything other than that. People like us don’t have the authority to stop or intervene no matter where Jaeheon Lee’s fingernails are pulled out. Unfortunately, that’s the reality. Even today, if Jaeheon Lee hadn’t told me first, I wouldn’t have known what this person was doing.”
Ha Seong-yoon was a talented doctor who had been called to various places since he was young. So, I had some understanding of the world Jaeheon Lee lived in.
“We can’t do anything without your permission.”
“That really hurts my pride.”
“The only thing that allows us to control Mr. Lee Jae-heon without permission is the underworld.”
“….”
“So let’s wait. Try hard to survive and hold on…”
Ha Seong-yoon continued, covering Lee Jae-heon’s neck with a blanket.
“No one knows what the ending will be.”
(Continued in the next part)
