Guest Ch 23

Wolf Fang, The Leader of the Wild Dogs (5)

At that moment, Lee Yiseon and I locked eyes. His gaze seemed to say something to me. A car was going to hit me. No. It was going to hit me, so I should dodge it on my own.

On second thought, your standards for survival are too high. How could an ordinary person avoid an oncoming car?

Bang!

The car hit the wild dogs around me. It began to sweep them aside in one direction, as if cleaning them up.

“Aaaah!”

“Aaaah!”

It was chaos. I, too, was swept away by the wild dogs, who were being swept aside like waves. The moment I was pushed by them and lost my footing, I realized. This was a mistake.

My body tilted into a massive sinkhole.

‘Do you want to come in?’

The darkness whispered. Even amid the long screams, the voice calling out to me was clear.

‘Come on in. Hurry. What you want is here. Inside me.’

It was when my slipping body fell, as if being sucked into the hole.

Urgh!

The pain in my forearm, pressed by the rope, brought me back to my senses. Hanging at the entrance to the darkness, I looked down into the bottomless sinkhole. I had never seen such deep darkness before. It felt more like a black hole than just a hole. The sound of rocks falling and breaking off the walls where my toes scraped mixed with the distant screams of people.

“Woo Hyunho!”

At the urgent call from above, I slowly raised my head. It was the person holding onto the rope wrapped around my neck and arms with all his strength. Standing with both feet at the edge of the sinkhole, gripping the rope in his hands and holding on for dear life.

Lee Yiseon.

“Your arm’s going to break! Grab the rope with your other hand, quick!”

…What. Weren’t you the one who said it didn’t matter if I died?

It was just one arm bearing my entire weight. If it weren’t for the rope wrapped around me, even if Lee Yiseon held onto the rope outside the hole, my neck would have snapped, and I would have died. The pressure of the rope digging into my skin made it feel like my arm was about to break, just as Lee Yiseon had said, but I couldn’t grab the rope with my free hand.

‘Karruk.’

I heard a laugh from deep inside the sinkhole. The rocks I had kicked with my feet continued to clatter somewhere below.

Tok, torr, tok tok.

It wasn’t a sound I was unfamiliar with. As I thought about where I had heard it before, strangely enough, I was reminded of the darkened halls of Seoul Station.

I had heard that sound from inside a platform where the stairs had collapsed, making it impossible to enter. Stones had constantly rolled around, as if something was trying to catch my attention right next to me.

Tok, tok, took, tok.

In the darkness that had swallowed up people, I saw a hand.

No, two.

No, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand.

Red hands stretched out, filling the sinkhole. The red hands swayed like the stone flowers that bloomed in my grandmother’s front yard, fluttering in the breeze. Each fingertip, tinged with blood like sap, swayed delicately like the stamen of a flower. The way the fingers bent in unison, like a dance, made the scene look like a red wave sweeping through.

‘Come here.’

It wasn’t just a hallucination.

It was an evil spirit, waiting in the darkness for me to take my own life.

“Woo Hyunho!”

At the desperate call, I blinked. I saw Lee Yiseon, his palms bloodied from gripping the rope that held me. Blood dripped down the rough rope. As I watched myself hanging by the rope like wet laundry, his eyes were shaking uncontrollably.

“What the hell are you thinking, damn it.”

I vaguely looked up at him and slowly reached out with my other arm, grabbing the rope. Once I firmly gripped the rope, Lee Yiseon’s anxious expression brightened slightly. Perhaps realizing that there was no longer a danger of the rope loosening and breaking my neck, he slowly began pulling the rope.

After I was pulled out of the hole, I could feel the anxious gazes of Toya, Black Foot, Garrison, and the Stand-ins watching us. I couldn’t bring myself to smile at them, even though they were relieved to see me.

I turned my tired head and stared back into the sinkhole, where moments ago, it had beckoned me with hands like flowers, urging me to come inside.

Tok, torr, tok.

The sound of rocks still rolling could be heard from the bottom of the hole.

Torrrr.

The image of tens of thousands of red hands shaking gently like flower stamens, beckoning me to come inside, remained like an afterimage.

Squeak.

Lee Yiseon cut the rope with a knife. The red, swollen marks left from the rope burned at the slightest touch. Blood still flowed from the deep cut.

Normally, people would be terrified and cry after experiencing something like this. Should I cry too? But I’m too tired.

This was an experience beyond what I could process. My emotions and thoughts couldn’t keep up with the weight of it all. I felt so numb that I couldn’t think of anything.

“We need to take him to the Doctor. The wound is deep.”

Toya said as she examined my neck. Lee Yiseon stood next to me, wearing a grave expression. After gathering his thoughts, he gave orders to Garrison and the Stand-ins.

“Everyone, return to the fortress.”

I climbed into the back of the military vehicle, supported by Toya. Lee Yiseon and Black Foot also got in. Once the driver confirmed the four of us were in, he turned the steering wheel.

Rattle.

Every time the military vehicle jolted, I had to close my eyes tightly from the dizziness.

It felt like my shoulder, the one wrapped in the rope, had popped out. I was worried since it didn’t seem like there were proper medical facilities here. What if I couldn’t use my arm anymore?

When I tried to touch the throbbing wound on my neck, Toya hurriedly stopped me.

“It’ll get worse. Don’t touch it. I’ll find a mirror.”

But there wasn’t anything resembling a mirror in the military vehicle aside from the side and rearview mirrors. I couldn’t judge the severity of the wound just from the faint reflection in the window. Giving up on checking the wound, I slumped tiredly against the backrest.

Lee Yiseon was watching me intently in the shaking car. When our eyes met, he moved his lips as if to say something. But I beat him to it.

“Don’t say anything.”

He paused. Looking at me with an unfamiliar expression, I added another comment.

“I don’t want to talk to you, so shut up. Don’t talk to me.”

I tried not to feel anything toward him. No disappointment, no sadness, no sense of betrayal, and no gratitude for saving me. I didn’t want to waste any more energy.

I closed my eyes. The flood of thoughts and pain that had poured in was instantly blocked the moment my eyelids shut. As if waiting for that moment, the thoughts filling my head scattered. The thoughts I had desperately tried to keep together shattered, and I lost consciousness, as if I had fainted.

When the car finally stopped, I felt arms lifting me. Who could lift a grown man like this? Even in my hazy state, I could clearly feel the solid chest holding me.

I didn’t bother to open my eyes to see who was holding me so gently. Nor to find out whose breath was falling slowly on my forehead.

I leaned my head against the chest, inhaling the familiar scent of the wind.

I was tired of so many things.

“The wound has been disinfected and stapled. His neck was really swollen. Don’t let him speak for a while.”

I heard the Doctor’s voice in my dream. While the wound was being treated, I felt the burning pain in my neck and heard the clicking sound of the medical stapler.

It hurts. It feels like my throat is on fire. The sensation of my skin burning must be from the rope wrapping around my neck, right? Was that terrifying chase not a dream? Did I really go through that? How did I survive? I remember falling into that massive sinkhole.

I wasn’t fully conscious. My fever was so high that I must have been rambling nonsense.

“No, you’re not dead.”

The Doctor responded to my ramblings as if they pitied me.

“It’s normal to be scared. If you want to cry, cry. It’s okay. No one will say anything.”

What nonsense was I spouting? Why would I want to cry? I’ve held back until now, and I’m not going to cry over something like this.

In my fading memories, I recall hearing things like, ‘Your shoulder blade is dislocated. It had to be the right side. Prophet’s right-handed, isn’t he?’ or, ‘There are too many scrapes. We’ll have to find time to bathe him in medicinal water later. Treating them all one by one will be a hassle.’ The Doctor’s words, mixed without context, blurred and I fully lost consciousness.

How long had I slept?

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was a vent stuck to the wall. The cobweb-covered blades of the vent slowly rotated clockwise. It seemed wind was blowing in from outside. A hazy red light filtered through the blades like a mosaic. Occasionally, that red triangle would fall on my eyes and then slide away, only for another red light to cover my face in a cycle.

In that dreamy atmosphere, I thought reflexively.

It’s a dream. This time, it’s a dream of a new space, not of the red spider lily flower field.

I shifted my blank gaze to the other side. What came into view were two eyes staring straight at me. A person watching me with their head resting on folded arms.

How long had we been lying side by side like this? Now that I thought about it, the warm scent from the bedding was also coming from this person’s body. What was their name again?

“…Lee Yiseon.”

I guess this really is a dream. The person who used to glare at me fiercely whenever I called his name now looked at me calmly.

Beyond the quietly spinning vent, the red light kept swirling in place. The five triangles illuminating the bed looked like pinwheels with only the wings left. The red light that occasionally fell on his black eyes made them seem a bit prettier.

What a strange person. He annoys me and casually hurts me, using me only for my prophetic abilities, and yet, what is this look in his eyes? Anyone would misunderstand if they saw this. They’d think you care about me too much.

“I.”

Lee Yiseon spoke. Unlike his usual dry and harsh tone, it was a little gentler. Maybe it’s because this is a dream.

“Did the choices I made disappoint you, Woo Hyunho?”

What’s with him calling me by my name while treating me like a ‘Prophet’? Why don’t you just use me and discard me like you usually do, instead of showing affection? Well, I suppose you’d get attached to a pen you use often, so it makes sense you’d be more attached to someone who can talk and walk on two legs. If that’s the case, why not be a little more careful with my life? Why do you keep hurting me? It’s not like we have too many chances to get along.

As I gave him no response, Lee Yiseon sighed. He muttered like someone who had done something terribly wrong.

“Why are the things that were natural to other Prophets not natural to you?”

Each time the red light from the vent touched his dark eyes, I remembered the ecstasy I had seen in my previous dream. But this gaze was much more complicated. That ecstasy had been filled only with love, affection, and passion, but now I could see all the complicated feelings he had about caring for me mixed in.

I stopped thinking because I didn’t have the luxury to consider Lee Yiseon’s feelings. I didn’t want to worry about him anymore.

“…Stop appearing in my dreams.”

A rough voice escaped, as if my vocal cords had been scratched. Just saying that one sentence was hard, and a cough followed.

If this were the real Lee Yiseon, he would have frowned and said I was spouting nonsense again. But the person in front of me didn’t show any displeasure. He asked me back with affection, without desire.

“I guess I often appear in your dreams.”

The voice calling me, even without a response, was sweet.

“Woo Hyunho.”

I resent him for being so kind only in my dreams.

Maybe I’m the strange one. How pathetic I am, making love to him so passionately in my dreams, only to be hurt alone by the heartless Blue Hawk in real life.

Drumming, playing the janggu, and twirling the sangmo. I’m doing everything by myself.

Stupid, Woo Hyunho.

“When you kiss…”

I muttered through my sore throat and closed my eyes.

“…you’re too sweet, I hate it.”

I wish the dreams where you appear were nightmares. Then I could hate you in real life too. I handed over the responsibility to him, thinking that I’m suffering because of your inconsistency.

I buried my head in the blanket. I pressed my nose into the mixed scent of the warm bedding and the smell of Lee Yiseon’s skin, and just took shallow, quick breaths. It was an incredibly comfortable moment, considering the dreams that had tormented me.