By Zephyria “Lee A-gon! Lee A-gon!”
Hae-jun frantically stroked Lee A-gon’s face. He touched his body and then felt his face again.
His hands trembled violently. His heart pounded as if it would leap out of his chest. Hae-jun kept touching Lee A-gon until he confirmed he wasn’t injured anywhere.
“What about you? Are you okay? You.”
Lee A-gon was the same. He wept endlessly, touching Hae-jun’s face over and over.
It was Hae-jun who finally regained his senses. He stood on the giant gourd that had trapped him and looked up.
“We have to get out.”
If it were just him, maybe not, but with Lee A-gon here, they absolutely had to escape. He had to save Lee A-gon. But…
The inside of the gourd was coated with a faintly glowing crimson luminescent liquid. It was extremely slippery, making it impossible to climb. Just in case, he tried punching it, but his hand just slid off. Climbing or breaking out was impossible.
“Help!”
Hae-jun cupped his hands like a trumpet and shouted. Help. Help. Help… His voice didn’t even leak outside the gourd; it just faded away. Gritting his teeth and glaring at the ceiling, Hae-jun suddenly remembered something.
“Lee A-gon, you can float in the air, right?”
“Huh?”
“You, you floated back then. Don’t you remember?”
At the Han River, Lee A-gon had raised the water and floated above it. That was definitely a Special Ability.
“Try it. You can do it.”
“Hyung, that’s…”
Lee A-gon made a troubled face. Hae-jun shook him hard.
“At least you have to get out! Hurry up and try!”
“I can’t.”
“Why!”
“Because that’s not my Special Ability.”
At first, Hae-jun thought Lee A-gon was lying. That he was lying because he didn’t want to escape alone, leaving him behind.
“You know what my Special Ability is, Hyung. I can manipulate people’s bodies.”
“I know. But you back then…”
Back then, Lee A-gon had clearly floated in mid-air.
“Eyes are part of the body too, Hyung. What I did back then was show everyone on the cruise ship the image of the Han River splitting and me floating right before their eyes.”
Hae-jun stared blankly, his mouth agape. Lee A-gon bowed his head in anguish.
“So… that was an illusion?”
“Yes.”
“The water splitting, you floating in the air, those eyeballs too?”
“Yes.”
Lee A-gon’s head sank lower and lower. Guiltily, like someone who had committed a terrible wrong.
Hae-jun let out a thin groan and slumped down. Now he understood, separate from his disappointment, why not a single piece of photographic evidence had emerged despite so many people taking photos and videos of Lee A-gon, and why the news reports had stopped.
Of course. Because there was no evidence. Because what the tourists on the cruise ship saw were all illusions. Because Lee A-gon had created and shown them a reality more vivid than reality itself.
“I see…”
“Hyung, I’m sorry.”
“Then you… can’t get out of here either.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“You fool. What are you sorry for?”
Hae-jun weakly stroked Lee A-gon’s face. He gently cupped his cheek, which was already wet with tears again.
Lee A-gon hadn’t done anything wrong. He couldn’t be asked to do something that wasn’t his ability.
‘What do we do now.’
Hae-jun looked up at the distant sky. It seemed about seven meters high. He didn’t care if he died, but Lee A-gon… he couldn’t let Lee A-gon, who had so much life left to live, die here.
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll save you somehow, Hyung.”
“That’s my line. You have to live.”
“It doesn’t matter what happens to me. You have to live, Hyung.”
“No, it’s fine if I die, but you…”
The two of them, repeating variations of ‘I don’t matter, but you must live,’ suddenly fell silent at the same time. The floor of the gourd was getting hot.
“Is the floor now…?”
Just as Hae-jun was about to voice his question, Lee A-gon acted. He swiftly lifted Hae-jun up, and at the same moment, a sizzling sound was heard, followed by the smell of burning rubber.
“Wh-what is it?”
“Don’t look.”
“But something’s…!”
“Don’t look. Don’t look.”
The hands holding Hae-jun trembled. Even in the crimson light, Hae-jun could see Lee A-gon’s face had turned deathly pale. He was utterly terrified. Blood seeped from his lips, bitten hard with his front teeth. Hae-jun grew increasingly frightened.
“Lee A-gon, what’s wrong?”
“……”
“Let me go. What is it? What’s wrong with you?”
The smell of burning rubber intensified. As Hae-jun struggled, Lee A-gon held him tighter.
“Lee A-gon!”
“Hyung, I love you. I’m sorry. I love you.”
“Let go! Let go!”
“You came to the military because you hated me, and I’m sorry… for following you.”
Lee A-gon spoke as if confessing with a trembling voice. Hae-jun managed to crane his neck with all his might. Finally, he saw Lee A-gon’s feet.
“If Hyung dies… it’s all my fault.”
Lee A-gon was barefoot. To be precise, everything except the laces of his sneakers had melted away, leaving him standing barefoot. Steam rose from his bare feet.
Soon, Hae-jun could smell burning flesh. It was the smell of Lee A-gon’s feet melting. Hae-jun froze, his eyes wide open.
“Hyung.”
As Hae-jun stopped struggling, Lee A-gon loosened his grip slightly. Their eyes met. Lee A-gon was smiling through his tears.
“I’m sorry. If it weren’t for me, Hyung wouldn’t have come here.”
“Lee A-gon. Your feet…”
“It’s okay if I die, but what about you, Hyung?”
“Your feet… are melting.”
Hae-jun turned pale. He was so scared he couldn’t breathe. He gasped as he stroked Lee A-gon.
“Wh-what do we do? You’re melting right now.”
A single tear from Lee A-gon fell to the floor and immediately sizzled, evaporating. Seeing this, Hae-jun screamed. The carnivorous plant was melting Lee A-gon. Lee A-gon was being digested.
“No. No.”
Hae-jun shook his head and grabbed Lee A-gon’s face. Tears welled up and spilled from Hae-jun’s eyes too.
“Ah, please. No. No. God. Ah, ah.”
Words seeking God came from the mouth of Hae-jun, who had no religion. Please save us. He cried as he caressed Lee A-gon. Please save us. Please save us. God. Buddha. Please save us. Please save us.
“My Lee A-gon.”
Hae-jun stroked Lee A-gon’s face frantically. He touched him with such force that Lee A-gon’s lips distorted.
He loved this man so much. Loved him enough to want him to live even if he himself died. It didn’t matter at all that he would soon melt too. He loved these eyebrows, these eyes, this nose and these lips with all his might.
Seeing Lee A-gon’s feet, Hae-jun let out a scream as if his heart were being torn apart. Digestive fluid to melt its prey was slowly rising inside the gourd. Now, Lee A-gon’s feet were gone. He was standing precariously, melted up to his ankles. While holding Hae-jun. To protect Hae-jun.
“Let me go, Lee A-gon!”
He wanted to kneel and let Lee A-gon step on him. Of course, Lee A-gon didn’t let go. He looked at Hae-jun with beautiful, shimmering eyes and spoke in a voice that had grown more slurred.
“I wanted to get married…”
“Lee A-gon!”
“I really wanted to make that person… so happy.”
While his body melted inside the carnivorous plant’s gourd. Lee A-gon told Hae-jun he loved him until the end. Hae-jun grabbed Lee A-gon’s face and shouted. He probably told him to let go and that he loved him too.
The eyes of the two lovers facing death met as if boring into each other’s souls. That moment felt eternal, as if time had stopped.
Raising his tear-streaked eyes, Hae-jun looked up at the sky. Now, the sky over the wilderness was filled with thousands of pairs of large, weeping eyes. They hung their long eyelashes and shed endless rain of tears.
Hundreds of thousands of hands listlessly scratched the ground, and millions of lips sobbed. Hae-jun cried too. Drenched in his beloved Lee A-gon’s tears, he pleaded.
Please save us. Please save Lee A-gon. Please save us. Please save us. But there was no answer from God. Instead, an angel, the kind seen only in holy paintings, appeared in the gloomy sky above.
The angel, with a halo around its head and white wings spread wide, looked down with a warm gaze.
At its feet lay a shabby, dirty man. The angel lifted the dirty man without hesitation and embraced him in its noble arms.
Hae-jun forgot to cry and stared at the angel. That angel was him, and the man collapsed at its feet was Lee A-gon.
Don’t go. Please don’t abandon me.
A sorrowful voice was heard. As the celestial maiden in the feathered robe ascended to the sky, the woodcutter lifted the baby wrapped in a cloth bundle and pleaded. Even if you hate me, for our child’s sake, please come back.
As the woodcutter pleaded, the celestial maiden paused as if pondering. But soon, she fluttered her feathered robe and ascended to the sky, and the woodcutter beat the ground and wailed.
It was the story of the celestial maiden and the woodcutter that everyone knows. And in the story, the celestial maiden had Hae-jun’s face, and the woodcutter had Lee A-gon’s face.
‘What is this?’