HVG Ch 19

Episode 19

“…Chorang-ah, Hyung is screwed.”

“No.”

“No, I’m seriously screwed. What do I do?”

“What do I do?”

“I only managed to get one bottle of medicine, but everyone found out. In two days, everyone on Seonak Island will probably know.”

“Ah, no.”

Haewon was buried under the blanket, spilling out gloomy lamentations. Chorang sat beside him, repeatedly saying “No,” trying to comfort him, but Haewon’s self-digging pit seemed bottomless.

They must’ve figured out I have a mental illness, right? Ah… This is depressing. Why did the pill bottle have to roll out there…. Seo Haewon, you’re done for. How many people are even on Seonak Island right now? By tomorrow, everyone will know, right? Great job, really.

Muttering to himself as he lay sprawled out, Seo Haewon would occasionally thrash about. Then at some point, he lay flat on his back and stared up at the darkened ceiling.

“…No, let’s try to think positively.”

“Yes.”

“I should use this chance to act a little boldly. They’ll be too scared to lay a hand on me carelessly now anyway.”

They’re not going to tell Hyung and ask him to kick me out, right? That’d put Hyung in trouble.

“No, I mean… We don’t even have that much food left, so would they really go that far?”

“Yes.”

“Chorang, do you understand what Hyung is saying?”

“Do you understand?”

What are they thinking? Are they talking behind my back, saying I acted all high and mighty? Whispering that I should be kicked out? Maybe they’ve already run to Hyung, whining that I’m some crazy bastard. And then they’ll probably point fingers, saying I relied on meds because I had nothing else to lean on.

As one thought led to another, Haewon let out a sigh and rubbed his face, which had suddenly grown noticeably tired. Outside the window, the sun had already set, leaving only darkness. The dusty glass was full of scratches, and one side was blackened as if scorched.

This place had always been like that. Even when the Awakened first arrived on Seonak Island, most of the fortress was half-destroyed, shabby, and marked with traces of time, as if countless people had passed through before.

“Chorang… Did you brush your teeth?”

“Yes.”

“Come here.”

When he opened his arms, Chorang, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, shuffled over on his knees and hugged him. Haewon pressed his lips to Chorang’s head and breathed in the sweet, milky scent, even though he did not drink milk himself.

“…Chorang-ah, tomorrow let’s stay in the room with Hyung.”

“Yes.”

“Even if it’s hard, you need to stay by Hyung’s side, okay? Hyung is having a tough time right now, so… Once things get a bit better, let’s sneak out and go play outside.”

“Let’s go play outside.”

Ruuumble—

The occasional earthquakes began again. A boom echoed somewhere, and the ground beneath them shook. Dust fell from the ceiling like powdered stone, and Chorang squeezed his eyes shut and burrowed deeper into Haewon’s arms.

The earthquakes had begun earlier that afternoon and, even at this hour past midnight, continued intermittently across all of Seonak Island.

No one knew why. Those who had gone to search for the cause returned scratching their heads, and even the nearby guild scouts shook their heads repeatedly, unable to find the cause.

For now, all they could do was stay close. Everyone had a vague sense that something was about to happen. They just did not know when.

“…I wish everything would just fall apart.”

After seeing that scene at the Tree of Good and Evil, whether it was a glimpse of the future or a flashback, the system had not appeared since. On top of that, perhaps as the price for witnessing that vision, his body had weakened rapidly. He was exhausted, and his eyes felt blurry.

Coughing, he wrapped the blanket even tighter around himself as chills crept in like the onset of a cold. He wanted nothing more than to stay in bed for the rest of his life, hugging the soft Chorang… but of course, that was out of the question.

“Chorang, don’t… go outside… It’s dangerous because there’s an earthquake out there…”

He mumbled out of habit, then heat surged through him, and he squeezed his eyes shut. He had taken the cold medicine Eom Hyungwoo gave him just in case, so he’d probably sleep like the dead until noon tomorrow.

“In the morning… if someone brings us food, cough… eat that…. I put snacks under the bed too, so if you get hungry, eat those as well….”

“Yes.”

“Chorang-ah, but…”

Chorang lifted his face and looked up at the pale face whose eyes were drowsily closing. His small, fern-like hands wiggled as he patted Haewon’s thin chest. It was something Haewon always did when putting him to sleep, so Chorang, hoping he would drift off to dreamland, patted him gently.

With vision growing hazy, Haewon stroked Chorang’s hair and murmured, “Earlier today… did someone come…?”

“Yes.”

Chorang’s pale eyes flicked toward the scratched-up window. Earlier, when he had been sitting alone on the bed, fidgeting with his hands, the window had opened, and an unfamiliar man suddenly appeared. The moment he saw Chorang, he widened his eyes slightly, as if he had discovered something curious.

—“What’s this kid… Where did our hoobae-nim go, and why is a baby here instead?”

—“ Where did our hoobae-nim go, and why is a baby here?”

—“…You just repeat anything people say, huh.”

—“No.”

—“Then why are you copying me?”

—“Why are you copying me?”

The man smiled with crinkled eyes at those words. Then he hopped over the window and stepped inside, looking down at Chorang as if amused.

—“Kid, say that again.”

—“No.”

—“What do you mean ‘no’?”

—“Yes.”

—“What do you mean ‘yes’?”

Chorang’s expression turned gloomy. The child, who had been looking up at the man nervously, eventually averted his eyes to escape the intruder’s gaze. A shadow suddenly fell over his head, and the man lifted Chorang’s soft cheek with a pincer-like grip. 

—“Kid, you look just like our hoobae-nim. Why do you look so much like him? If Hoobae-nim had been a kid, he would’ve looked exactly like this. Did he have a younger sibling?”

—“…No.”

—“No? Then where did you come from? Say ‘Hyung.’”

—“No.”

—“Even the stubborn personality is exactly the same. No wonder he has no thoughts of leaving the guild. As if he would leave when there’s a kid who looks this much like him. I’ve been wasting my time.”

Something was suddenly held out toward Chorang’s face. It was a chocolate bar with a black label, Haewon’s favorite. When Chorang received it with both hands and looked up at the man, the man’s pitch-black eyes curved as he smiled.

—“Kid, since things are already like this, should we make you Haewon’s son?”

“Should we make you Haewon’s son?”

Chorang mimicked the man’s voice, moving his plump lips. But Haewon was already asleep, breathing softly with his eyes tightly shut. Chorang wiped the sweat beading at his temple with the blanket and gently patted his burning forehead.

—“When your mom is hurting, what should you do? You blow on it to make it better, kid.”

“Yes.”

Chorang, who had been patting Haewon’s forehead, heard his groaning and glanced between the bathroom and his own hands. Then he wriggled out of the warm arms, grabbed a towel, and headed to the bathroom. He soaked the towel in cold water, squeezed it with his small fern-like hands, brought it back, placed it on Haewon’s forehead, and patted it once more.

“Hoo—“

Hoo, hoo—

The day Chorang scraped his knee, Haewon had applied medicine and gently blown warm hoo-hoo breaths over the wound. Maybe because of that, Chorang felt like his wound healed faster. So he thought that if he blew hoo-hoo now, Haewon might hurt a little less, too.

He was blowing hoo-hoo with all his strength when it happened.

Creak—

Scrape—

A strange sound came from beyond the door. Chorang’s head snapped toward the old door, its wood eaten away by insects. A dark shadow suddenly spread beneath the door where the darkness pooled.

Kkuung, kkuung.

Whatever it was scratched at the door with a rough rattling sound, then let out a low groan. Chorang looked at the sleeping Haewon, who didn’t move at all, then climbed down from the bed and approached the door. He lay flat, peered beneath it.

A pair of pitch-black eyes and blood-red eyes met across the threshold.

“Kkuung—”

It was a white weasel. It pawed at the floor, muttering kkuung-kkuung about something, then soon stepped onto the wooden floor and ran down the hall. Chorang was left alone in front of the door. His red eyes flickered several times.

‘It’s today. You have to go out today.’

The weasel had whispered that today was the day.

—“Don’t… go outside… It’s dangerous because there’s an earthquake out there…”

Chorang’s hardened gaze gradually drifted toward the space below the window. In his vacant eyes, Haewon lay there with his eyes shut, exhaling hot breaths like someone burning with fever. His cheeks, lit faintly by the moonlight, were pale now.

Chorang rose to his feet and stood upright. A faint tremor rattled the floor beneath him. He turned his back to Haewon and closed his hand around the doorknob.

Click—

A metallic sound rang through the quiet room.

* * *

Ruuumble!

The violent tremor striking the floor jolted Haewon awake. His stomach churned, and his head felt like it would split, making him dry-heave. He forced his eyes open with a grimace, but his vision was unusually cloudy as if fogged over.   

Reflexively, he groped inside his embrace. 

“…Chorang-ah, cough… Chorang-ah.”

When he realized the bed was empty, fear shot through him. Frowning, Haewon flung the blanket aside and pushed his heavy body upright, heading first to the bathroom.

“Chorang-ah, are you in here?”

The dim bathroom was silent as well. Chorang… Where could he have gone? He wouldn’t have gone outside.

“Chorang… Are we playing hide-and-seek? Are you teasing Hyung?”

He turned the entire room upside-down, but couldn’t find even a single strand of hair. Finally, Haewon looked toward the old, hole-ridden door. The door that had been shut before he fell asleep was now slightly open. The moment he saw that, dread surged through him. He reached out, grabbed the knob, and hurried out of the room.

And then he saw it.

“…Why is everyone….”

People were swarming in front of the fortress gate.