SOG Ch 94

Jae-chan’s heart was suddenly filled with a complex emotion. It bothered him that before the incident occurred, Gyeong Chang-hyun had met with the three people, including Jeong Yeon-oh… Nevertheless, if this guy were at fault, he should rightfully face the consequences.

Anyway, the current situation was something he hadn’t experienced before regression. Jae-chan leaned back on the seat, wondering if this event had never happened in the past, or if it had happened but he had unknowingly overlooked it.

Following Chang-hyun’s erratic guidance, they arrived at the unmanned motel ‘Little Alien.’

It wasn’t famous yet, but it would later become a hotbed for the Center’s illicit affairs. It was quite well-kept for a newly established place.

“I don’t even remember coming here.”

Looking at Chang-hyun with a troubled expression, he insisted again.

“Wait… Which room did I come out of?”

Chang-hyun stood still in the narrow lobby with a kiosk installed. He sat hesitantly on a sofa with a peculiar design, trying hard to recall.

Meanwhile, several couples came and went. Perhaps it was not yet well known to the people at the Center, but there were no familiar faces among the couples waiting in front of the touch monitor.

“You can go.”

Jae-chan whispered softly to Woo-jin, who was silently leaning next to him.

Woo-jin just shook his head with a calm expression. Since Chang-hyun was grumbling for quite a long time, Jae-chan pulled out a black mask from a daily necessities vending machine and handed it to Woo-jin. Woo-jin was quite well-known through the mass media. He was concerned about the eyes of customers who happened to be looking this way.

Chang-hyun wanted to whine, ‘What about my mask?,’ but since the two people were helping him, he kept his mouth shut.

Then something embarrassing happened. When Jae-chan noticed another gaze and raised his head, he saw a familiar face.

Jae-chan recognized the other person right away. A man who carefully grows and trims his beard right down to his sideburns. It was the Guide who kissed Esper passionately without even locking the guiding room door, saying that they had marked not long ago.

The partner who now walked in with him, giggling, wasn’t the Esper back then.

“…”

It seemed the other person recognized Jae-chan as well. The sideburns guy looked disgruntled, avoiding eye contact. “It’s not great here. Let’s go somewhere else.” His voice was muffled as he whispered to his partner as he turned to leave.

It wasn’t like there were no cases of people cheating even though they had marked… but… ugh.

Even after Jae-chan forgot what he wanted to say, Chang-hyun continued to mumble for a while before finally getting up from his chair.

“I need to search while walking around. Earlier… I crawled out like this from here…”

Taking advantage of the absence of people, Chang-hyun mumbled as he staggered into the elevator.

Since Chang-hyun continued to wander after that, the three were able to find the correct floor number after using the emergency exit. Remaining faithful to the alien theme, the fluorescent lighting colors varied slightly on each floor, which helped Chang-hyun to recall his memories.

“Here, I think it’s here.”

It was when Chang-hyun, with no recollection, hesitantly retrieved a card key with no numbers from his pocket. Jae-chan stopped him. There was something like plastic stuck in the door frame.

However, when they quietly opened the door and entered, they were met with an empty room.

“H-Have they already reported it?”

Chang-hyun asked, looking around at the messy bed and the sheets that had fallen on the floor.

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

Jae-chan replied. When Chang-hyun strongly denied, pointing out the overly calm situation for a motel where the police had supposedly been, Jae-chan’s expression changed.

“No, that person was definitely dead. Lying so straight, lips blue, no breath at all…”

“…What?”

Jae-chan’s expression changed subtly as he recognized keywords such as upright body, blue lips, and no breath.

He immediately turned around and headed to the bathroom. Woo-jin had already checked it. It was definitely empty. This time they went outside. Jae-chan estimated the direction, then took the elevator again. Even though Woo-jin and Chang-hyun didn’t know why, they followed Jae-chan because his attitude was so firm.

When they arrived on the first floor, they heard commotion from inside the corridor. It was where the unisex restroom was located. Hey, what’s wrong? When Jae-chan heard someone’s confused voice, he opened the doorknob.

“…!”

As the door opened, they were met with a startled young man and a woman hurriedly drinking water with her face pressed against the sink as if in a panic.

Jae-chan immediately rushed over and pulled the woman away from the sink. The man watched the situation and walked away as if he didn’t want to get involved.

“N-No… Let go…!”

The woman struggled for the water, but Woo-jin joined in and quickly subdued her. Chang-hyun was muttering with trembling lips.

“Th-The corpse… came back to life…?”

While Woo-jin also looked a little surprised, only Jae-chan maintained a stoic expression. Let go! Let go! She shouted at Chang-hyun as he held on to the limp arm of the woman who was running wild as if she had lost her mind.

“Call the rescue team!”

While confirming that Chang-hyun was urgently pulling out his phone, Jae-chan looked at the woman struggling to hold onto the sink.

Symptoms resembling those of a corpse, followed by extreme thirst after waking up. All of them matched the symptoms of ‘TZ’. A year later, the drug that would dominate the back alleys of the Union was already circulating.

*

“Transferring to Central 5-1 Hospital. The patient experiencing mental change, decreased consciousness.”

The ambulance’s action was quick. The woman, who had been struggling, was now unconscious and securely strapped to the emergency bed. Ignoring the murmurs of the people coming and going from the motel, Jae-chan also ran after the ambulance team.

“She seems to have taken drugs. Right now, she’s showing symptoms of water intoxication.”

While waiting for the ambulance, Jae-chan mentioned the symptoms of the woman, who had vomited water while feeling weak all over her body. The ambulance team briefly eyed the three soaking wet individuals suspiciously before deciding to prioritize the patient.

The ambulance left with the siren on, and the three of them also left the Little Alien Motel.

Taking a dazed Chang-hyun with him, he got into Woo-jin’s car and followed the ambulance. Not long after they arrived at the same hospital’s mild emergency medical center, the police arrived after receiving a report.

“I’m a victim too. I was also drugged!”

Chang-hyun lost his temper when the police asked for his personal information while questioning the relationship with the woman.

“Yeah, it’s just a witness interview. Not a suspect interrogation.”

Jae-chan calmed Chang-hyun down and urged him to cooperate with the official procedure. As witnesses, both Woo-jin and Jae-chan also provided their phone numbers and addresses.

Of course, after the police left, Jae-chan advised Chang-hyun to contact a lawyer for advice, just in case.

Chang-hyun was left to receive medical treatment, and Jae-chan, sitting side by side with Woo-jin in the waiting room, pondered what had happened.

What could have happened?

Reflecting on what had happened in just a few hours, he recalled the side effects of TZ.

TZ, a drug with a not-so-funny nickname, known as the “thirsty zombie” drug. It caused intense thirst and respiratory suppression, giving the impression that the person had died and come back to life. It wasn’t unreasonable that the carefree Chang-hyun would mistake a TZ user for a corpse, whether drunk or under the influence of the drug.

It was also the drug commonly handled by the drug-distributing criminal organization being tracked in the later incident of “Guide Group Mass Mental Disorder Incident.”

When Jae-chan thought about it, it didn’t seem unusual that it was spreading now. The police had requested cooperation from the Center regarding the crime organization next year. The serious harm to the Guides occurred in early the year after next.

For these reasons, there was no doubt about the appearance of the drug. The problem was Chang-hyun. Jae-chan looked back at Gyeong Chang-hyun, who was receiving a neutralizing IV over there.

This punk, he surprised the heck out of me.

Looking at Chang-hyun, who still seemed half-distraught, Jae-chan realized that he was quite relieved. He had been worried about what would happen if that guy had committed a crime, but just as in the past, Chang-hyun was someone who would fall victim rather than commit major wrongdoings.

The situation was put to rest when Jae-chan asked a passing emergency doctor about the victim’s condition.

“That patient? There shouldn’t be any lasting effects.”

Chang-hyun also received a diagnosis of nothing serious besides mild dehydration from alcohol consumption. The three of them didn’t leave the emergency room until late at night.

“…Thank you.”

When they reached the parking lot and got back into Woo-jin’s car, Chang-hyun muttered.

“Yeah. There’s one more person you should be thanking.”

Jae-chan replied. Chang-hyun, who had just been staring blankly, turned his eyes towards the driver’s seat and said, “Thanks,” with an awkward attitude. Woo-jin nodded once through the rearview mirror and turned the steering wheel.

The car soon arrived at the narrow alley where Chang-hyun’s apartment was located in the city center.

“Go in,” Jae-chan said.

“…Okay.”

“Don’t go anywhere else.”

“Okay.”

Still in a daze, Chang-hyun muttered, “Okay, okay,” like a seal, before sluggishly making his way into the apartment. Jae-chan watched him walk into the building and checked the time. It was already eleven o’clock.

“Thanks for today,” Jae-chan said sincerely to Woo-jin. He also felt sorry.  Jae-chan felt Woo-jin would be tired, so he tried to send him back, but Woo-jin had opted to drive himself.

“I’ll get off here too.”

Jae-chan said as he unfastened his seatbelt. He hoped that Woo-jin would return quickly and rest. Fortunately, Chang-hyun’s apartment was close to the center.

At that moment, Woo-jin grabbed Jae-chan’s arm. After catching Jae-chan’s puzzled gaze, Woo-jin finally uttered the words that had been lingering on the tip of his tongue.

“… Aren’t we going to finish what we were doing?”

Jae-chan’s fingertips twitched at his low-pitched voice.