Chapter 92

"Wha... You were sleeping?"

Chahaya spoke as stiffly as a wooden statue, following the statue.

Seo-un glared at Chahaya without a word. Chahaya, for some reason, avoided her gaze and shifted his eyes to the table where the marshmallows were placed, then to the child lying on the bed. The slow, suffocating movement of his gaze allowed Seo-un to catch her breath.

But then, Chahaya suddenly hoisted the child onto his shoulder.

"What are you doing now?"

"I won't kill him."

His tone was unusually rigid.

"Who said that?"

Chahaya turned his back on her. Seo-un was speechless, and Chahaya left the room without a word. She wanted to stop him, but her legs wouldn't move as she wished.

He clearly wanted to avoid the situation, so what could she have heard even if she had caught him? After Chahaya left, he opened the heavy iron door and went out, the hole in the broken doorknob still visible.

Seo-un felt as if her heart had been pierced by his silence.

Should she have pretended not to know from the beginning? Perhaps it was really Chahaya's mistake at that time, and she should have turned a blind eye. The cowardly thoughts inside her seemed to seep out through the doorknob. Seo-un blocked the gap with a towel.

However, avoiding the answer was unlike Chahaya. If he had kissed her due to some change in his feelings and wanted to pretend it never happened, there would be nothing to say.

Thinking this far, Seo-un felt incredibly miserable.

Now that she thought about it, when he kissed her, she should have called him a lunatic and punched him. That would have been the normal reaction of a friend. But because she liked him, she couldn't even do that. She had never even asked for a reason, keeping it buried in her heart, as the conflicting hopes and disappointments inside her constantly clashed. In the end, what did she find? Disappointment, as expected.

Seo-un hesitated as she was about to throw the two marshmallows on the table into the trash can. The candies were innocent. Seo-un peeled off the wrappers and put both candies in her mouth at once.

'Love me'

'Love me'

The words on the wrapper she held were torn in half.

***

Kid, you kissed me at our house! I wasn't sleeping then, you know?!

I wasn't sleeping, you know?!

Seo-un's angry thoughts kept swirling in her mind. Chahaya, carrying the human variant who felt almost weightless, headed to his room. It was right next door, thanks to the control center's clever design that connected the two rooms.

Chahaya threw the human variant onto the bed and pressed himself against the wall. The room was quiet, and even though the soundproofing wasn't great, he couldn't hear any whispers from the next room. Or maybe the other person wasn't saying anything.

He leaned against the wall and looked up with a blank expression.

Why did Seo-un pretend to be sleeping? Or did she wake up because of his kiss?

But she still pretended not to know? Maybe she missed the chance to question him because of the jellyfish variant's poison.

Thump, thump, thump, Chahaya rhythmically hit the back of his head against the wall.

Perhaps Seo-un had noticed. Maybe she realized he liked her and brought up the incident he had tried to cover up. Even the ridiculous excuse about the thumb was noticed, and she pressured him to tell the truth.

'Stop lying and be honest! You kissed me twice because you like me!'

Although Seo-un had never said it, Chahaya felt it implied. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but Seo-un had brought up the midnight kiss she had pretended not to know. It was as if she was urging him to confess. The reason was clearly to reject him.

If he had fallen for Seo-un's leading questions and confessed, she might have gone into hiding to sort out her feelings. Or, being the good person she is, she might have comforted him, telling him not to have such trashy feelings for a friend.

Chahaya took a deep breath. His gaze naturally fell to the floor. It looked like wine had spilled, leaving a dark red stain on the carpet.

He never saw Seo-un's face when he left the room. He was confident he could keep smiling, but he was afraid his true feelings would show, making it hard to control his expression. He felt ashamed and even self-loathing as he fled from Seo-un's room.

I love you, Seo-un. That's why I kissed you secretly. I am a trashy kid.

How could he confess his feelings and face rejection?

Just then, Chahaya's phone started ringing loudly. He walked to the table where the phone was placed with a sharp look. If it was an unimportant call, he would have broken the caller's neck. He checked who was calling and relaxed. Then he pressed the call button.

[Yes, Uncle.]

- I just arrived. -

[I'll go to the lobby.]

- No, I know the room number, so I'll come to you. How about Seo-un? -

[She knows we'll meet tomorrow.]

- Why didn't you tell her I'm arriving today? -

[Just didn't. I didn't have the chance.]

- Alright, let's meet first. -

Chahaya looked at the wall again. Seo-un's room was still quiet.

***

Chahaya arrived in Sulawesi when he was about 5 years old, and the first to discover him were the local children.

The children living in the central mountainous region of Sulawesi often played hide-and-seek in the caves, away from the adults' eyes. The caves were places where the coffins of deceased villagers were placed.

In various parts of the cave, coffins had rotted away, exposing bones, and there were also dolls resembling the deceased placed around. To outsiders, it might have been a terrifying place, but to the tribespeople born and raised there, it was a sacred site.

They believed that after life in this world ended and death came, one would gain another life in the afterlife. Death was merely an extension of another life. Therefore, the children were not afraid of the bones in the cave. Instead, they were terrified by a child who appeared from the black walls of the cave.

The child, covered in sticky mucus, examined the surrounding children one by one. His eyes, filled with venom, were like those of a beast ready to attack, and he seemed to be on high alert, as if he had just been attacked.

Crack, as the child took a step, the skull in front of him shattered. The local children, who had been frozen in place, began to scream and flee from the cave.

Najma Nizam, the caretaker of the cave cemetery, was roasting chestnuts over a fire to pass the time when he was startled by the screams. He asked the children, who were fleeing in panic, what had happened. The children, pale-faced, told him there was something strange in the cave.

Nizam calmed the five children and picked up a lantern. Even though it was daytime, the inside of the cave was dark. Despite it being a sacred place, it was a site where bones were gathered. Nizam laughed it off, thinking the children had seen something imaginary, and was about to enter the cave.

At that moment, squish, squish, the sound of wet footsteps was heard. Nizam, who had turned a blind eye to the children playing in the cave, felt a chill run down his spine. All five children he had seen had fled the cave. So, who was inside?

Nizam gripped the lantern tightly and opened his eyes wide.

Squish, a small body covered in black mucus emerged from the cave. Before he could relax, the child's eyes, unlike those of a child, flashed. The child wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up at the sun. Soon, an incomprehensible word came out of his mouth.

...Tai?

The child, soaked in black fluid, collapsed.

***

Nizam embraced Chahaya, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, and patted his back. The small child had grown so much that even comforting him was a challenge. Chahaya patted his back in return, and Nizam flinched. Only then did he notice the child sleeping on the bed. When Nizam looked at him with curiosity, Chahaya casually replied.

[It's a human variant.]

Nizam was greatly surprised but tilted his head at Chahaya's indifferent attitude.

[Does it not harm us? It's a variant, after all.]

[It doesn't seem to be harmful by itself.]

[What about the child's parents?]

Chahaya shook his head.

[It's likely that they came over like me.]

Nizam was cautious with his words, as the mention of "like me" reminded him of Chahaya's past. He had no choice but to take in the child who appeared in the cave, but after the child said "Tai," he became silent like a mute.

Nizam was a man who had once worked in Korea and returned to his hometown to become a caretaker. With enough money saved, he focused on building good karma to impress his ancestors. He had never been negligent in his duties as a caretaker. Therefore, it was impossible for a traveler to have secretly left a child there. The child had simply appeared in the cave.

The child learned language from Nizam. It took only six months for him to master Indonesian. The child never mentioned where he came from but clearly stated that he had nowhere to go. Perhaps he learned the language desperately to survive in a foreign land.

The child couldn't easily blend in with the local children. Even after learning the language, he always stayed alone and spent time with the puppy Nizam bought from the market.

Nizam, worried about the child's isolation from the world, tried to force him to socialize with the group several times, but the other children, who never responded to his attempts, were afraid of the child's expressionless face. He advised the child to smile, and from then on, the child consciously smiled, but it only made the children more wary.

Moreover, the child occasionally spoke in a different dialect, as if possessed. Because of this, the villagers were divided, with some feeling sympathetic and others disapproving.

'Ah, not at this point. The gate consumed my cosmos, tsk.'

One day, while guarding the cave cemetery with the child, Nizam couldn't help but doubt his ears. Not only did the child speak like a delinquent, but the language he used was Korean.