Chapter 79
To live a better life, Lee Jaehun was willing to do anything.
* * *
Run.
“…….”
Kang Mina had heard that voice from Lee Jaehun before. She had seen him cough up blood right in front of her.
Surrounded by concrete walls without a single window, with black legs crawling out from the cracks, the horrid stench of raw blood that didn’t seem human. The strange noise it made as it scraped its rugged surface.
Lee Jaehun had his shoulder pierced by a monster she couldn’t even recognize, and Kang Mina had almost become a blood-soaked prey for them.
“…Ah.”
Pain.
Or death.
“Ah, ha.”
Her breath came out in chunks.
Recalling that, Kang Mina grabbed the wrist of someone in a school uniform and started to run.
“…Ack! Unnie?!”
“What, what’s going on, where are we going! Hey, Park Dayoung! Noona!”
Despite the young voices echoing through the forest, Kang Mina’s pace didn’t slow.
A black hammer was already clutched in her hand. Gripping the familiar handle so tightly it seemed it would snap, she kept her head forward, ears straining to hear the growls of a four-legged beast as she ran.
Her sudden sprint caused the others to start hesitating.
“Kang Mina-ssi?”
“What, what, what…?”
“What the hell, what is that…?”
Yoon Garam stared after Kang Mina with a bewildered face, and Kwon Yeonhee repeated the word ‘what’ as if she couldn’t process the situation.
Seeing the faces of Director Lee Jaehun and Team Leader Kang Mina turn pale, Noh Yeonseok alternately glanced at both of them, his shoulder suddenly grabbed and pulled forward by a hand.
“―Ugh! Huh? Deputy Jung?!”
Jung Inho, his face contorted with an unknown emotion, answered the bewildered voice.
“Run, you idiot!”
“What, what?!”
“Don’t you hear something coming this way?!”
Noh Yeonseok’s face went white as he remembered something.
The sound of footsteps running across the dry, grassy ground. The threatening growls of a four-legged creature, the voice of that grotesque beast he wanted to forget.
He had heard this howling before, not too long ago.
His voice trembled.
“…This, this is crazy.”
“These are the same monsters you guys saw before!”
It was the sound of the grotesque, dog-like monsters that had made Kwon Yeonhee collapse in tears.
Before he could be shocked by the curse word coming from the normally polite Deputy Jung, Noh Yeonseok, pulled along, corrected his posture. Thanks to regular exercise, he could quickly start running despite a brief hesitation.
There was no time to wonder how Jung Inho, who hadn’t seen the dog-like monsters back then, recognized their footsteps and growls.
“Ugh.”
He twisted his ankle slightly, having stepped wrong on a rock.
Even as he ran, the sound of the beast breathing deeply in his ear grew louder. It sounded like the snicker of a predator catching the scent of its prey.
“Hah…!”
“Don’t scream! They’ll hear you and follow!”
“…Sniff, hic, snk…!”
Despite gritting his teeth at the doctor’s words, he couldn’t help but let out a few stifled sobs. Noh Yeonseok didn’t consider himself a particularly strong person.
Seeing the staggering flower shop owner being dragged along by the doctor, he turned his head forward again. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t worried about the others, but he had no time to check on them.
If he stopped even for a moment, it felt like that grotesque dog would devour him.
“Snrk…!”
“…….”
Jung Inho, lips pressed tightly together, glanced back.
―Crunch!
“…Director!”
Lee Jaehun, holding a pipe, was beating the four-legged beast as if trying to break it.
What he was striking at was distorted by the black darkness and the flickering light of the campfire, making its form unclear. Or maybe they were already too far from him. Lee Jaehun still hadn’t started running. Perhaps the wound on his palm had reopened; his red-stained hand and the light scattering from the blood dripping down the pipe were all that indicated his presence.
With his heart pounding, Jung Inho called out to him again.
“Director, stop it…! Just run!”
“…….”
“Director…!”
Lee Jaehun turned to look at him.
“…….”
He said nothing.
He simply looked at Jung Inho with eyes as cold as grey.
“…You bastard.”
There was nothing Jung Inho could say to that.
“You bastard…!”
Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through the back of his head.
Muttering softly as he ran, Jung Inho fumbled in his pants for the lighter he had. He had enough fuel to keep it going all night.
Before returning to the past, he had encountered these monsters.
“Yeonseok… Yeonseok. Hey!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…! I’m listening, I’m listening!”
“Take this, and follow Mina-ssi! Quickly!”
A creature rustled through the bushes beside them.
“Mina-ssi doesn’t have a lighter!”
Naturally, neither Park Dayoung nor Park Dahun had lighters. They weren’t delinquent enough for that, after all.
Understanding Jung Inho’s words, Noh Yeonseok gritted his teeth and nodded repeatedly.
“Got it, got it…! I’ll go, so you follow quickly…!”
“I’ll catch up! Stay with Mina-ssi and the students!”
“Okay, okay!”
Despite the stutter caused by his trembling jaw, his quickened pace showed he understood Jung Inho’s intent. As someone interested in athletics, he would easily catch up with Mina and the others.
Watching Noh Yeonseok run ahead, flicking the lighter, Jung Inho turned to the three beside him.
“Follow him. No matter how out of it he is, he won’t leave you behind…!”
“Wait, wait. What about you, Inho-ssi?”
“I’m going to get that bastard back!”
Now, he was truly angry.
“…He’s going to die at this rate…!”
Why wasn’t anything going right?
And why didn’t he know what was going on?
‘Director Lee Jaehun could die too.’
As he pushed the others and stopped, Jung Inho turned around and gripped his monkey wrench.
Lee Jaehun was no longer visible.
“…….”
Only the panting of the beast could be heard.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped his lips.
Thinking rationally, no one in their group seemed to care about Lee Jaehun’s safety. Not one person had turned back, instead, they all ran.
That was chilling.
“…You bastard…”
He could guess the reason.
Trying to curse, which he rarely did, left him breathless. More than that, Jung Inho felt his eyes ache from the absurd and complicated situation.
Their group had accumulated many debts to Director Lee Jaehun. They were grateful for the lives he had saved and felt guilty for the injuries he had suffered. Yet, none of them had even glanced back at him.
First, they relied on the abilities he had shown so far. Second, they were terrified of the monsters approaching from all sides. And third.
They were more afraid of ‘Lee Jaehun’ than the monsters.
“…Really, this is…”
He swung at the monster’s head, teeth bared, and muttered, “What madness are you trying to pull off…!”
Thunk!
Though he couldn’t avoid its slashing claws, the monster staggered back, making dying sounds as it collapsed. Thick, leathery flesh was exposed.
Ignoring the sharp pain in his thigh, Jung Inho sprinted forward as if oblivious.
“What was the problem, exactly?”
His breath caught in his throat.
Avoiding the four-legged monster, he struggled to regain his composure.
It was only recently that he realized something was off about Director Lee Jaehun. If only he were a patient who complained persistently about his own injuries, it might have been better. Instead, he was not one to talk about where or how he had been hurt.
That’s why Jung Inho only belatedly noticed the abnormalities in Director Lee Jaehun’s behavior. Occasionally staring into space or behaving absentmindedly even after being injured, or noticeably sleeping more. According to Jung Inho, the Director Lee Jaehun he knew had never shown such behavior before.
He was always either sensitive and angry or reckless. Having spent quite a long time in the same department, Jung Inho had observed him in his own way, but Director Lee Jaehun had never spaced out or suddenly been injured before. While he had often seen him get caught up in something clear or get hurt while showing off, there had never been a time when he couldn’t complete his acting.
Furthermore, his recent increase in sleep was strange. Director Lee Jaehun was faster to work than anyone else, if nothing else, but there was no way he could sleep a lot after coming to the office. Above all, there was a time when he couldn’t sleep for three days.
He tried hard to avoid looking at the monster running toward me and swallowed the spit with a dry feeling in his throat. The mucous membrane hurt as if it were pressing on.
‘It’s been worse since then.’
After the incident where I slept for three days, Director Lee Jaehun’s strange symptoms became clearer.
Until then, he had thought it was just because of fatigue. After being caught by the green monster for a while and staying up all night, and being injured all over, there must have been no mind or sleep.
But recently, Director Lee Jaehun’s condition couldn’t be explained just by that. Even if I scratch my throat or scratch it due to stress, what does it mean to spit? Even the expert doctor Ha Sungyoon couldn’t find the cause.
And the strangest fact was that Director Lee Jaehun sometimes couldn’t finish my acting.
‘If he’s sane, there’s no way he’ll do that.’
Lee Jaehun was the most meticulous person Jung Inho knew.
For some reason, he hadn’t told him yet, but he’s been portraying himself as an old-fashioned director who doesn’t want to be seen as crazy. Perhaps he wanted a normal life that was the most possible, as he had guessed with the words, ‘I don’t want to be treated like a madman.’
But even if he wanted such a life, it was just a portrayal of a bossy boss, and the process was so delicate and perfect that Jung Inho himself wouldn’t know. I can say with confidence that his parents or siblings wouldn’t know his true feelings about Director Lee Jaehun. He couldn’t easily show his real self because the crazy person was family.
However, a person so meticulous has recently begun to show cracks in their appearance.
‘The guy who doesn’t want to be treated like a madman, he’s become that way.’
Jung Inho recalled when he provoked Director Lee Jaehun.
He blocked the other person’s way and just wanted to promise, ‘I’ll be a little more careful in the future’ and ‘I won’t get hurt’. Director Lee Jaehun chose a bigger loss than the small loss of blocking the way.
As a result, the entire team clearly realized Director Lee Jaehun’s discomfort, and until then he seemed to have no idea what the problem was. It was just that he thought the team’s atmosphere had subsided and tried to make up for the joke, which was not funny.
In addition to that, I often made mistakes that were too frequent to be simply tired, and Director Lee Jaehun never realized my problem until the end. It’s a saying that I don’t realize that my acting, which I have maintained tenaciously no matter where or how I eat it.
Moreover, recently, just before they ran away. The appearance of DirectorLee Jaehun who woke up…
‘That…’
It was clearly a crazy appearance.
All of this came from what happened after he was caught by the green monster and came back, and also.
“Director!”
Jung Inho, who returned to the burning bonfire so far, found Director Lee Jaehun.
Jung Inho, who was in a situation like this, had experienced it at a time when there was no such thing. Even though he didn’t know a lot, he felt it instinctively.
“Jung Inho-ssi.”
“Director, you need to get out of here for now…!”
“Why are you here?”
“……”
“Why are you here?”
Ah.
“Director….”
“Why are you here?”
I don’t know why,
“……”
He took a step back.
I saw that.
“……”
Where did I see it?
The light of the bonfire makes a large shadow, covering half of the awkward wall, and the remaining flame eats away. The flames nibble on the dry branches of the wall.
Standing long like a corpse with a neck tied in front of the flames and in front of a bigger shadow. With a long club in one hand and a bright torch in the other, I tilt my head awkwardly as I approach.
Between the torn flesh of the monsters, it asked.
“Why are you here?”
* * *
You have to run, protagonist.
