By Zephyria 
With his long legs, he closed the distance in a few strides. The man leaned down and reached out. Then, he grabbed the other’s face firmly and—instead of ripping it off—began to knead it.
Yoo Jiha, who had been trembling for fear that his neck would be twisted off at any moment, gradually became suspicious. The man’s movements were bold, as if he were checking the features to see if they were well-formed. Surely he’s not just fascinated because it’s his first time seeing a human… right?
“So this is what a face looks like… You’ve grown a lot.”
The low murmur only deepened the suspicion.
“It would have been better if you’d put on more weight. Can’t you eat properly? Or are you a picky eater?”
The man lightly pinched his cheek, making sure not to hurt him. He’s not planning to rip off a piece of my cheek to dip in sauce, is he?!
Just as Yoo Jiha was preparing to appeal his lack of tastiness again, the man let go.
“Well, since meeting like this is fate, shall we introduce ourselves first? My name is Jeil Heon.”
“…Uh, that, the thing I saw and read earlier…”
It was a mumble so crude that even he found it awkward to hear, yet the man understood without difficulty. His eyes, emitting a mysterious glow, narrowed into a smile.
“It’s the true eye. Phrases read with the true eye are called True Eye Text.”
“True eye?”
“An eye that pierces through the essence of an Aberration. You must have had a similar experience here?”
“Y-yes! I met the Savior and the alcoholic earlier. Letters suddenly appeared in the air, and I was the only one who could see them.”
He had finally found someone who knew what this strange phenomenon was. Yoo Jiha stammered as he explained the situation when he encountered the patient Aberrations, and the man listened silently, nodding.
“So that’s why the doctor’s name earlier, uh, uh…”
Yoo Jiha stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening. He belatedly realized something he hadn’t noticed until now. The man smiled faintly.
“You can’t see my name right now, can you?”
No letters floated above the man’s body. It was as if he were facing an ordinary person. Come to think of it, there was none of that uncomfortable dissonance in his voice, unlike the Aberrations. Instead, it wrapped around his ears with a soft resonance. It was a wonderful mid-to-low tone, like a voice actor’s. Which meant…
‘Is he actually human?’
Was the sight of him plucking out eyeballs a hallucination…? His thoughts became a tangled mess.
“Won’t you tell me your name as well?”
“Yes, yes! I’m Yoo Jiha!”
“Hmm, I see. Yoo Jiha, Yoo Jiha…”
The man murmured the name several times as if savoring it, then whispered softly.
“It’s a lovely name, Jiha.”
His nightmare of a Noona only ever wasted her breath when she spoke, and his parents had never called his name with such a sweet pronunciation, so his heart gave a sudden thud. He wondered if it was okay to be called so sweetly by a monster—or rather, someone he didn’t know if was a human or a monster—upon their first meeting. Either way, it was strange.
To shake off this bizarre feeling, he hurriedly changed the subject.
“You said those letters pierce through the essence of an Aberration, but earlier, the doctor’s name, I mean, your title…”
He beat around the bush to ask, ‘Even if you’re human now, weren’t you an Aberration until a moment ago?’ and he felt the man give a small laugh.
“It’s funny that you call me ‘doctor.’ Don’t be so formal; just call me Ahjussi.”
“Yes…”
“Anyway, my name—hmm, my title?”
“Ha, haha.”
The man’s laughter grew a bit louder, and though Jiha didn’t know what was funny, he followed along with a clumsy laugh.
“I suppose after playing with Aberrations for so long, I’ve come to be seen as one myself.”
Playing with Aberrations? Even while terrified, the explanation was absurd. Before he knew it, the question “…Do you not have any friends?” slipped out. Yoo Jiha gasped and covered his mouth, but fortunately, the man answered without any sign of offense.
“I just have a specific taste.”
“…Excuse me?”
“You saw it too. The one tied up tightly with a straitjacket and chains.”
“What?”
“Don’t you know BDSM? Ah, perhaps it’s too early for this conversation. Our friend must still be young.”
“I-I know what it is, but…”
Yoo Jiha felt his mind go blank as he asked back.
“Then, why did the Aberration disappear when I called your—I mean, Ahjussi’s name?”
“Hmm, a safe word?”
“…”
The more he listened, the more certain he became that this was nonsense, but he couldn’t press further. Why would a man he just met in a strange place where monsters eat people give a detailed explanation?
“Aha, haha… I see… I’ve interrupted your quality time…”
He had no choice but to force a smile and accept it.
“Not at all. I was starting to get bored, so the timing was perfect. Thank you.”
Despite having his “quality time” interrupted, the man smiled brightly. It was a talent, spouting such nonsense with a kind tone that sounded as if he had never deceived anyone in his life.
“Jiha.”
“Yes.”
“Are you very tired?”
“Uh, no. I haven’t been in this hospital that long, so…”
“Right. If you can move, let’s get out of here before you get hungry. We have to escape. It’s not good when hunger starts to set in within an Aberrant Realm.”
“But before I got caught up in this, I had some drinks…”
“Ah, you said you were chased by the alcoholic? That guy has an incredible nose for the smell of alcohol.”
The man thought for a moment and asked.
“Which floor did you enter from?”
“The 3rd floor.”
“Then it’s fine. It would have been troublesome if it were the top or bottom floor, but he only moves via the elevator, so we just need to avoid him in advance.”
The man’s attitude of casually referring to an Aberration that had posed a lethal threat as ‘he’ felt like the composure of the strong, or perhaps a sign that he viewed Aberrations as insignificant.
‘…Can I trust him and follow him?’
The man acted as if it were a given that they would travel together, but it was true that Yoo Jiha hesitated. However, there was no other way. Even if he ran away from a man suspected of being a monster, all he would find were real monsters. He let out a deep sigh. Since the man seemed to know things not even mentioned in the Procedure Manual, it might be better to follow him for now. In the first place, if he had intended to make Jiha his prey, he would have eaten him already.
Whether he noticed the turmoil in Jiha’s heart or not, the man dusted off his hands and nonchalantly walked past him to open the hospital room door. The alcoholic had vanished, and the lights of the empty hallway brightly colored his vision.
The hallway and Room 404 seemed to be separate spaces, as the light did not seep into the room. However, it was more than enough to reveal the face of the man, who was about a head taller than him.
For a moment, his heart skipped a beat as a strikingly beautiful appearance was revealed, enough to make him forget where he was. There was no hint of the instinctive dissonance he had felt from other Aberrations. Rather, as he had sensed from the voice, he was a young man. His profile, which looked no older than his early to mid-thirties at most, glowed white under the lights. He was almost too young to be called Ahjussi.
His somewhat long hair, covering his nape, wasn’t grown intentionally but looked disheveled and unkempt, as if he had forgotten when to cut it. His smooth bridge of the nose and expressionless, closed lips were sharp and chilling, as if carved with a keen blade. However, that indifferent and fierce edge transformed the moment he turned his head toward Yoo Jiha.
The slanted eyes that had made him look cold now held a gentle warmth, and the left eye that had given him the creeps settled into a deep color like an ordinary person’s. The firm set of his mouth became a smile as the corners lifted softly. It was as if he were announcing that the fear Jiha had felt was all an illusion.
Above all, what relieved him most was that there were no wounds around the eyes. If he had plucked out eyeballs, there would have been some trace. It must have been a hallucination after all.
“Did your legs give out?”
The man, Jeil Heon, leaned down and reached out a hand. Jiha tried to stand by taking his hand, but his weight shifted onto his sprained ankle. As he let out a short scream and collapsed back down, Jeil Heon’s expression changed.
Without a chance for explanation, the man knelt before Yoo Jiha, his large hand tending to the throbbing ankle. Contrary to the extremely cautious touch, the voice coming from his bowed head was chilling.
“Jiha, who hurt you?”