Guest Ch 19

Wolf Fang, The Leader of the Wild Dogs (1)

I wake up at 6 AM even without setting an alarm. The wall clock next to the fridge faintly glows in the darkness. Despite its light, the room without a single window is a pitch-black abyss. Even with blackout curtains tightly shut, it shouldn’t be this dark.

The fluffy comforter touching my palm feels unfamiliar, giving me a jolt. I grope around a bit more and feel the headboard and pillow. Confused as to why I was in bed, I sat up.

I blinked, trying to think.

I was looking at my notes before falling asleep. Ah, I must have dozed off while going through them.

I was debating whether to go back to sleep or get up and lie down on the sofa instead.

Suddenly.

My wrist is grabbed. Startled by the sudden grip in the darkness, it felt like I’d seen a ghost. I swallowed my breath, unable to scream.

Before I could calm my pounding heart, my body was pushed back into the blanket. The owner of the grip climbed on top of me.

Creak.

With the sound of the bed shifting, the reading light attached to the headboard turned on.

Click.

As the light illuminated the bedside, I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden brightness. I slowly lifted my eyelashes, adjusting to the yellow light that even penetrated through my eyelids.

The man straddling me was Lee Yiseon. He was looking down at me with sleepy eyes. As he slowly inhaled and exhaled, the familiar metallic scent that always clung to him filled the air.

At first, I thought it was the smell of a wild dog’s blood. Later, I realized it was the smell of sand that had naturally stuck to his body from wandering outside. He had brought the outside smell into the bedroom, and despite having just woken up, his chest and shoulder muscles are tense with a taut alertness.

Wearing only sweatpants slung low on his hips, his upper body bare, he stared down at me for a moment. Instinctively, he had grabbed me, checked my face under the light, and then released his grip on my wrist.

“What are you doing, not sleeping?”

His voice is low and raspy, perhaps because it’s early morning.

“You startled me when you moved suddenly.”

He swept his fallen bangs back with his palm and slowly got off my body. He flopped down next to me, closed his eyes again.

A bare body, disheveled hair, a tired face.

What would seem like a typical early morning look to others felt special when it came to Lee Yiseon. In front of others, he was always tense, like a beast ready to hunt. But alone like this, he seemed to relax.

Perhaps he felt my gaze upon him.

Lee Yiseon opened his closed eyes again.

“What.”

He must be asking why I was staring at him.

Hearing his voice, which sounded even more irritable at dawn, I quietly got out of bed and replied.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Don’t bother me. Just sleep.”

“Oh, right. I’ll go to the sofa and sleep.”

“Sleep here.”

“It’s uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine. You don’t talk in your sleep.”

He pulled me back down onto the bed.

Click.

The light went out. Lee Yiseon disappeared once again into the pitch-black darkness. Only his slow breathing could be faintly heard.

Am I the only one feeling tense? His breathing sounds so close, it feels like his head is buried in my neck. But that’s not possible, right? I don’t feel his body heat. I can’t even tell how close or far apart we are.

‘Hyunho.’

I recalled the breathless voice that had called my name. Lee Yiseon, who couldn’t take his eyes off me in the red spider lily field, where I couldn’t tell if it was a dream or a hallucination. He spoke desperately, consumed by a desire and passion I had never felt before.

‘Call my name.’

I felt uneasy. Both my grandmother and Lee Yiseon…I don’t know how to interpret the strange images that pop up when I close my eyes. It’s too unsettling to just ignore them, but if I were to tell them about the dreams, they would surely glare at me with a horrified expression.

“Sleep.”

He could sense, even in the dark, whether I was really asleep or just breathing. What exactly is this person to me?

Trying to fall asleep again wasn’t easy.

The image of the passionate Lee Yiseon from my dream and the Lee Yiseon next to me, breathing steadily, kept overlapping in my mind.

I ended up spending the early morning wide awake.

*

Lee Yiseon opened his eyes when the dim red sunlight began to shine through the dusty ventilator holes. A faint reddish light seeped out between his long eyelashes. Every time he blinked, his black irises reflected the red light and sparkled prettily…

…Why am I even watching this?

As I stiffened without realizing it, Lee Yiseon silently got up. He ran his hand through his disheveled hair and stood still for a while. Then he clicked his tongue, ‘Tsk,’ and shook his head. The muscles in his arms and back, which had been relaxed in sleep, began to tense up again with the slightest movement.

The short, peaceful night was over. Another day of fierce survival had begun.

“By any chance, do you know where there’s a really large red spider lily field?”

Lee Yiseon glanced at me at the sudden question. I told him what I had organized in my mind all night.

“The flower field stretched all the way to the horizon. Is there a place like that?”

Lee Yiseon, lost in thought, asked back.

“What’s a red spider lily?”

“It’s a red flower. They used to bloom a lot in temples. In clusters.”

He still looked like he didn’t know what I was talking about. Forget it… even showing him a picture probably wouldn’t help.

“Why are you looking for that flower field?”

“There’s something bothering me.”

“What’s bothering you?”

Hmm. I saw my grandmother in that flower garden, and I also met you there, filled with lust for me. I could probably explain the former, but I definitely can’t bring myself to mention the latter.

Maybe my precognition is related to dreams. That’s why I want to visit the place in my dream. I might be able to get some new information if I go there in person.

“Can we check it out before I tell you later?”

“What difference does seeing a flower field make?”

“It’s such a dreamlike place that I don’t even know if it exists in this world. If it doesn’t, then it’s meaningless, but if it does, then you and I need to have a serious conversation.”

“What kind of serious conversation? Something related to this world?”

“No, about you.”

He looked a bit taken aback by my unexpected answer.

“Me?”

He asked for confirmation, and I answered him firmly.

“Yes.”

“What about me? Am I going to die or something?”

I was taken aback by how casually he said that. Someone who talks about their own death so nonchalantly… Lee Yiseon chuckled when he saw my startled reaction.

“So I’m going to die, huh.”

He must be crazy. Why is he laughing about the possibility of his own death?

Thanks to him, I had to wave my hands in front of me and speak more seriously.

“No, no. That’s not it. Absolutely not.”

“Then what is it?”

You and I… in that flower field… Ugh, forget it.

“I’ll tell you after I visit that flower field.”

“Hmm, a red flower field.”

No matter how much he thought about it, Lee Yiseon couldn’t seem to come up with a place like that. As he put on his pants and shirt and fastened his belt over his chest, he spoke.

“Black Foot might know. He’s one of the few who can move freely outside these days.”

He was referring to the man who ran like a jaguar and showed off his muay thai.

“Where is he?”

In response to my question, Lee Yiseon, now pulling on a dark blue coat, replied.

“Who knows? let’s go and find out.”

He handed me a light outer garment, a gray windbreaker that zipped up to the neck.

“Follow me.”

I slipped my arms into the windbreaker, which was a size too large, and rolled up the sleeves as I followed behind Lee Yiseon.

We opened the rooftop door and descended the stairs. As we walked down the broken escalator, Lee Yiseon didn’t say a word to me. Once we reached the first floor, the men guarding the fortress approached as if they had been waiting.

“Captain, last night, the wild dogs attacked the retaining wall six times.”

Lee Yiseon replied in his usual nonchalant and cold tone to the man with an eyepatch over his left eye,

“Which side?”

“South.”

“By the stream?”

“Yeah, they keep breaking through that area several times a day. At first, I thought it’d be just once or twice, but now it’s starting to make me anxious. Should we redeploy our forces?”

A man with a prosthetic leg approached from behind the eyepatch and added.

“Toya and the archers are keeping watch, so that’s a relief, but they have been rotating in shifts without rest. Their stamina will drop soon.”

The man with the eyepatch continued.

“I want to redeploy the other wall guards to the stream, but I’m worried that if we leave the other sides empty, they’ll break through there too.”

The man with the prosthetic leg agreed.

“There’s a limit to how many reinforcements we can send. More than anything, we’re starting to get tired from working shifts without being able to sleep.”

“Is there any better solution?”

“I think everyone will start complaining if we make them guard all night again today. It would be great if we could resolve this today.”

Lee Yiseon thought deeply for a moment, considering the state of the wall, the manpower issues, and why the wild dogs were attacking day and night. Then he turned to me.

“Prophet, let’s check this out first before we go find Black Foot.”

He gestured toward me, who was standing idly.

“Follow me.”

Why is he taking me to the area under attack? Is he planning to put me to work because they’re short on guards? I mean, I’ve stood guard in the military before, but still…

“Alright.”

I replied without enthusiasm and followed Lee Yiseon. We left the building, passed through the streets, and walked endlessly south along the closed station and the four-lane road.

After about thirty minutes of walking, we began to hear voices. We were nearing the wall that had been attacked multiple times over the past two days.

“It’s the captain!”

“Captain!”

About sixty people had gathered there, judging by a rough estimate. Their tough demeanor was evident in their eyes and expressions.

“The sandbags are all torn up.”

“How do we rebuild what’s collapsed?”

“I don’t think we can find the materials to repair it right now.”

The men who ran up to Lee Yiseon all had some physical injury. Some were missing an arm, others had hunched backs. There were those whose legs didn’t seem to match in length, causing them to limp, while others had burns or had lost their teeth. Even those without disabilities bore deep scars that hadn’t healed properly due to a lack of professional treatment.