By Zephyria 
“This isn’t something I can decide on my own. If all you want is a conversation, show it through your actions.”
What she took out and threw was a restraint for the neck. It was a Jihwan, a tool used to isolate Aberrations that possess self-awareness and are cooperative with the Management Bureau. It looked like a common choker, but it was imbued with the symbol of ‘voluntary submission’ to allow the control of an Aberration.
The Aberration, having released the hostage, readily put the Jihwan around its neck. The stiff air finally relaxed.
All the victims of the Eight Phases Mental Hospital were rescued. As it happened, the moment the patient entities began to die was just as the victims had arrived on the 6th floor. The timing was perfect.
While clearing the Aberrant Realm and prioritizing the rescue of the only injured person—a man in his twenties—the team leader cast a sidelong glance. His name was Yoo Jiha, if he recalled correctly. At any rate, that victim was slowly approaching the new Aberration.
The team leader signaled the agents who were about to stop him and quietly watched the situation unfold. This was an opportunity to observe the characteristics and behavioral responses of the new Aberration.
Unaware of the secret eyes watching him, Jiha cautiously approached Jeil Heon. Jeil Heon was perched on the hood of a sedan.
“……Mister.”
Jeil Heon, who had been fiddling with his lips as if something were missing, turned around slowly. Jiha, who had walked up hesitantly while rubbing his fingers together, discovered a trace of the same emotion in those black eyes that gazed back at him without a word.
Jeil Heon was nervous. The man who had been composed even while opposing the Aberrations.
Once he realized that, the taut string that had kept his spine stiff snapped, and a mindless laugh escaped him. Jiha bowed his waist deeply.
“Thank you for listening to my stubbornness. I’m sorry for the late introduction.”
“……Are you not afraid of me?”
“To be honest, it would be a lie to say I’m not scared…….”
It was still vivid in his mind. The man slaughtering the Aberrations. The gruesome wounds that had regenerated at a rapid pace. The sight of him curled up in a dark room. Nevertheless, Jiha cleared his throat and put strength into his voice, ensuring his sincerity would not be misconstrued.
“Actually, I didn’t just fall earlier; it was because a Sunbae from school tripped me. That Sunbae is definitely a human just like me, yet the moment things became dangerous, he threw me as bait without hesitation.”
“…….”
“But you tried to get me out safely, and you listened to my request. You kept looking out for me so I wouldn’t get hurt.”
“…….”
“So I thought… maybe humans are scarier than monsters…….”
Since he wasn’t particularly eloquent, his words became more disjointed the more he spoke, to the point where he didn’t even know what he was saying as he heard it. Feeling pathetic for being unable to convey his true feelings properly, Jiha lowered his head. Maybe he should have gone to that speech academy his mother mentioned when he was little.
Jeil Heon, who had been listening in silence, raised a hand. Jiha did not avoid the hand approaching his ear.
“There was a crumb in your hair.”
After removing the crumb, Jeil Heon finally smiled at him. It was a strange smile, filled with an emotion far too deep for someone he had met only a few hours ago.
“You grew up quite beautifully.”
“Th-thank you? Are you beautiful too, mister?”
Caught off guard, he ended up giving a stupid response.
“Beautiful? This is the first time I’ve heard I’m beautiful since I was 14.”
Perhaps it was such a strange answer that Jeil Heon burst into laughter, and Jiha’s earlobes turned a faint red for no reason. The sound of the laughter was so fresh and clear that he felt like calling him Hyung rather than mister. From now on, and continuing forward.
‘What are those two doing?’
Meanwhile, the gaze of the team leader, who had been observing the scene closely, turned cold. He wondered if he should check that victim’s mental Corruption Level first.
Just then, permission regarding the Aberration’s request was granted. A radio transmission informed them that the Director of the Management Bureau would meet him in person.
Once the crowd was settled, under the guidance of the Management Bureau agents, Jiha walked hesitantly toward the Hongsal Gate that appeared amidst a thick, milky-white mist. As he passed through the Hongsal Gate and opened his eyes, what he saw was not the eerie, old hospital in the woods, but a wide, neatly paved open lot. The lighting, bright as broad daylight, pierced his eyes, which had grown accustomed to the darkness.
‘What is this?’
It wasn’t teleportation, yet the world had changed in a single step. As he stood there stammering in confusion, an agent pulled him to the side.
Then, as Jeil Heon’s body fully emerged into the open lot, the muzzles of the Enforcement Division agents, who were waiting in a surrounding perimeter, all pointed toward him simultaneously. Even in a situation where red lasers were aimed across his entire body, Jeil Heon stood nonchalantly, as if he had just come out for a stroll.
“Um…….”
A low sound escaped him unconsciously out of worry. Jeil Heon turned his head, met his eyes, and lightly shook his head toward Jiha. His calm gaze was gentle, as if soothing him. Jiha unconsciously withdrew the foot he had taken forward and swallowed hard.
After a few minutes, a tall, middle-aged woman in a suit stepped out from among the agents. She tilted her chin up with an irritated expression.
“I am Kang Suk-young, Director of the Management Bureau. Unless you first reveal how you obtained information regarding those names, there will be no convers—”
“Suk-ja, did you become Director?”
“……What?”
“Of all people, for you to wear such a bothersome hat—what a strange turn of events.”
At Jeil Heon’s voice, which even carried a hint of gladness, Kang Suk-young—whose name before changing it was Kang Suk-ja—finally looked at him properly. It didn’t take long for her overtly distorted face to turn into one of shock.
“You, you you……!”
Kang Suk-young, whose finger pointing at him was trembling, snatched a pistol from a nearby agent and strode forward.
“Director! It’s dangerous!”
Shaking off her aides who tried to stop her, she approached Jeil Heon and immediately pressed the muzzle firmly against his temple, while grabbing his collar with her other hand. Low whispers were exchanged between the snarling Kang Suk-young and the smiling Jeil Heon.
After exchanging a few words that no one else could hear, Kang Suk-young lowered the gun and took a deep breath. Then, a scene unfolded that no one present expected. Kang Suk-young slapped Jeil Heon’s cheek with the handle of the pistol.
“Gasp, mister!”
Jeil Heon staggered from the force of the blow. Spitting out blood-tinged saliva, Jeil Heon rubbed his reddened cheek and broke into a grin.
“You son of a bitch. I thought you’d have died long ago.”
“Wow, our Suk-ja’s temper is still the same. I never taught you to be like that; who on earth did you learn it from?”
“I learned this temper from you, so shut up and go get yourself disinfected.”
Snorting, Kang Suk-young turned her back and waved her arm to the agents.
“Withdraw!”
The agents were equally unable to grasp the situation, but it was the Director’s order. While the scene was quickly cleared, Jeil Heon took off the Jihwan, returned it to the team leader, and beckoned to Jiha. The team leader, who received the Jihwan unexpectedly, widened his eyes. This was a restraint that an Aberration could never remove on its own once worn.
“Jiha, do you want to come with me to get disinfected?”
The restless Jiha nodded vigorously, not even knowing what ‘disinfection’ was.
* * *
The anomalies created by human fear and the darkness of reality forged an Otherworld that was structured like reality but never identical to it. Those were the Aberrant Realms and the Aberrations. Because the Otherworld was rife with toxicity that harmed and contaminated humans, those returning from an Aberrant Realm had to undergo disinfection—that is, a purification process.
In a space where Eastern and Western incantations were exquisitely blended with modern scientific technology, once the purification of everything, including personal belongings, was complete, the victims were finally able to sit together around a table. Only Park Jun-yeol, who had been transported to a hospital, was absent.
While congratulating each other on surviving, people’s gazes busily scanned their surroundings. From the Aberrant Realm to the purification process, it had all been an unbelievable experience, as if they had entered an occult movie.
Soon, the door opened and Management Bureau staff entered. Once the testimonies regarding the events at the Eight Phases Mental Hospital were finished, they politely presented a document.
“You must be very tired. Only the final procedure remains before you head home, so please review this.”
The murmuring people each took a document. Upon receiving the papers, they fell into a simultaneous silence, focusing intensely as if they were being sucked into the documents, barely even breathing.
“……?”
At the sudden change, Yoo Jiha also swallowed his tension and began to read.