By Zephyria 
A sharp, savage scent surged, filling the old yard. An utterly vulgar and crude pheromone emanated from inside the man’s shirt collar, from the inside of his wrist where a thick watch was fastened, and with every heave of his broad chest, it breathed out.
“I… I’m telling you, she’s not my Noona….”
Eun-myeong swallowed hard, struggling.
“How can I possibly believe what you say….”
“…You?”
Haha, the man let out a low laugh as if he found it absurd. Cigarette smoke wafted and curled like a twisting snake.
“Then you can just check for yourself.”
The man gestured with his chin toward the back. Eun-myeong slowly turned around. There, a jar was placed. Bright red blood covered the brown ceramic surface like a spiderweb.
Eun-myeong’s lips clamped shut tight. In his heightened state of alertness, the rhythmic clack, clack of shoe heels echoed in his ears. The man’s shadow instantly eclipsed Eun-myeong’s shadow that had been cast across the yard.
“Why?”
A sticky laugh sounded right beside him. Eun-myeong slowly turned his body. The man was already standing close behind him.
“Can’t do it?”
He whispered languidly. A suggestive smile still lingered on his lips. He was making assumptions and mocking him to his heart’s content.
“…….”
Eun-myeong swallowed dryly. He didn’t want to see a corpse. But he couldn’t flee a single step without confirming that.
He had to confirm that it wasn’t his Noona. Eun-myeong slowly took one step back at a time, his gaze still fixed on the man.
“Hmm?”
The man’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Those pitch-black eyes, glistening as if soaked in oil, were pinned precisely on Eun-myeong.
Now, the final step. He slowly pulled his foot back. Something brushed against his back, and he gradually turned around.
“…Gasp.”
Through a slightly open gap, the hand of the deceased was visible. Eun-myeong slowly pushed the lid.
The inside of the jar was revealed. The stench of death grew stronger, and his vision turned red. Eun-myeong’s shoulders jerked. He locked eyes with a glistening eyeball.
“…Hah.”
Eun-myeong staggered. The one covered in blood armor was a man. Moreover, he was someone Eun-myeong knew. The sashimi restaurant owner….
He seemed to have died without even being able to close his eyes. With his limbs limp, he stared blankly into the void. His tongue had been cut, with only half of it remaining. Seeing that blood filled the inside of the mouth, it seemed the tongue had been cut out while he was still alive. He shuddered instinctively at such brutality.
“See, I told you it wasn’t me.”
This was a person who had been alive and moving right before his eyes just a few days ago.
…But why. Why was he now a lump of meat shoved upside down into a jar. Countless questions pierced Eun-myeong’s chest, but his throat felt as if it were glued shut, and nothing actually came out.
“Lee Eun-joo….”
The man muttered in a slightly raspy voice.
“Where is she now?”
Eun-myeong’s chest froze with a chill.
“My Noona, why….”
Eun-myeong gasped for air.
“Why are you looking for her?”
“Because your Noona fucked up Mister’s business.”
The flat voice echoed low in the eerie yard.
“There are no cards in Lee Eun-joo’s name, and no call logs, but the last place she was spotted was the terminal. Since there are only two of you as family….”
He finished his sentence as if whispering.
“The baby will be found soon.”
The man’s eyes licked down Eun-myeong’s body. His chest swelled large like an oxygen tank and then returned to its original position. The rectangular muscles below his neck tightened even more irritably.
“Shitty bastard, smells like milk.”
He must be smelling Eun-myeong’s pheromones. Terrified, Eun-myeong slid his body backward.
At that moment, the sound of the main gate creaking open was heard. Eun-myeong trembled and turned around. And appearing there was a man as large as a bear, easily over two meters tall.
“Boss.”
The man with a crew cut bent his waist at a 90-degree angle.
“I’ll move the body.”
Bear walked thumping into the house. Then, with a sudden heave, he lifted the jar and placed it on his shoulder. It was an unbelievable feat of strength. The sashimi restaurant owner was a pig of over 100kg, and combined with the weight of the jar, it must have been enormous.
However, Bear moved the jar outside without a hint of struggle. There was a thump as if it were being loaded into a car.
“Boss, the car is ready.”
As Bear returned and bowed at 90 degrees, the man’s large hand reached out and tapped Eun-myeong’s cheek.
“See you again.”
Eun-myeong felt his spirit crush under the sight of the dark tattoo. He instinctively flinched and stepped back. Finally, the iron gate slammed shut with a bang.
“Haa, ha….”
Unable to even catch his scattered breath, Eun-myeong bit the tip of his tongue hard. The man’s final words seemed to weigh heavily on his chest. Thump, thump, thump, his heart pounded violently. See you again…?
It was a complete disaster.
Hah, haah….
Eun-myeong breathed in short gasps. His small chest heaved several times. Now, what to do? Someone died, so he had to notify the police quickly….
After pacing anxiously for a long time, he crawled into the house on all fours like a dog. As he picked up the receiver, his hands shook like an old man who didn’t even have the strength to hold a spoon.
“1, 1, …2.”
He barely managed to press the buttons one by one. The dial tone flowed in his ears. Eun-myeong quickly scanned his surroundings. No one is hiding and watching, right…? Like a prey animal being fiercely hunted, every tiny hair on his ears was standing on end.
Finally, a clicking sound of connection was heard.
—Ye-yes, hello? This is the Gyeryong police substation.
He gripped the receiver tightly with both hands.
“I, uh, is this the police station? I’m at the house in front of Stork Supermarket.”
As he stammered out the main point, his voice trembled like a fool. Because he sounded so haphazard, an irritated voice immediately responded.
—What, where did you say?
“The house in front of Stork Supermarket….”
Then, a long sigh of realization followed.
—That house where the orphans live without a mother?
At the ruthless phrasing, his shoulders instinctively curled up like ferns. Eun-myeong’s spirit completely withered.
“Yes, that house, and someone just d-died at our house….”
—Someone died inside the house, you say?
The indifferent tone of voice suddenly spiked. It was a sour, grating voice, like a spoon roughly scratching a green chalkboard.
“I came home after buying ramen, and there was someone in my house.”
Eun-myeong swallowed dryly. He felt a very dense tension filling his chest.
—Right, and did you see their face?
“He was a man, really, incredibly tall.”
He was such a large man that a gasp had escaped Eun-myeong’s lips the moment he saw him. His body was as massive as a high hill, and the suit he wore like armor looked unimaginably expensive; even his shoes looked so stylish that it was scary to look at. As if they might wear down just because he looked at them….
—What did he look like?
“He looked scary…, his eyebrows were black, and his nose was sharp.”
Eun-myeong tried to continue, but he stopped as if his throat had been suddenly blocked.
‘See you again.’
It was because something had intruded into his mind like an afterimage. That face that had looked at him. The corners of the mouth revealing teeth like a crocodile, the eyes that had watched him narrowly.
Eun-myeong pulled his knees up to his chest. He tightly gripped his pale legs, which looked as if they hadn’t seen a speck of sunlight, and his knees that protruded and stood out particularly red.
“And….”
“And, also….”
He didn’t need to explain everything in detail. Just by mentioning the tattoo on the man’s hand, that spider tattoo, they would figure out who it was immediately.
His jaw was sharp, like a finely honed harpoon. The thick nape of the neck leading down from it reminded him of a snake’s body that had swallowed a herbivore alive. He was a man who might just swallow him whole like that, too.
Why on earth did that man let him live? He couldn’t even guess the reason, but….
One thing was certain: he wouldn’t let him live a second time. He was the only witness at the time, and the man seemed to know who his Noona was. Eun-myeong was nothing more than a rat caught in a trap.
—Uh, and what else?! Where is the evidence?
“T-that’s, they took the body away.”
When he hesitated, the officer, perhaps mistaking it for a prank call, flared up in anger.
—You brat, you little shit. Adults are busy, you shouldn’t make prank calls, you hear?
“It’s really not a prank!”
—Now even some brat is making prank calls. Stop it!! You’re going to get scolded by Mister.
A shout that pierced his eardrums was heard, and the call was abruptly cut off. The mechanical sound of beep, beep, beep, beep echoed disorientingly in his cochlea.