By Zephyria 
Is it class time? Jeil Heon found himself wearing a bitter smile. Even though he knew the other was likely in class right now, he unconsciously kept searching for him.
Because he had departed from a murder scene in the provinces, it was already dark by the time he arrived in Seoul. He had planned to pick up Yoo Jiha, who was studying for exams at the school library, but he was very late. This time, Yoo Jiha answered the phone immediately.
“Jiha, are you still studying at school? I just arrived in Seoul.”
Did the thing you were looking for go well?
“No. I’m thinking of taking a look around Jongmyo after I drop you off.”
Oh, then I’ll just take the bus home!
“Will you be okay? It’s very late.”
Eh, I used to commute all the way to Suwon in the past, so it’s fine.
After saying he was fine and hanging up, Yoo Jiha sent a text shortly after.
[I met Captain Ing-bar! He says he’ll drop me off at home hehe. I’ll go home first and order some late-night snacks! Pig trotters, cool?]
Jeil Heon’s grip on the steering wheel tightened for a moment, and he felt a deep sense of self-loathing at his own reaction. Objectively and subjectively, Jeong Ing-bar was a very good person, and rumors of him being a devoted husband were widespread. Thus, there was absolutely no way he would approach Yoo Jiha with any ulterior motives.
Therefore, this was simply low-grade jealousy. He was disgusted by how pathetic he was. If he felt his blood boil just because the boy was close with a colleague, did he intend to lock him up so he couldn’t move an inch? Did he intend to forcibly bind him to his side so that he could meet no one and only reflect Jeil Heon in those eyes?
He wanted to return to Pilgyeongdang quickly and hold him in his arms. He wanted to deeply taste the lips of the boy who would be puzzled, not knowing what a trivial action—one he likely didn’t attach much meaning to—had ignited within him, making him feel only Jeil Heon. He wanted to carve his marks into that white skin, carving them again and again, so that even when he wasn’t by his side, the boy would remain trapped in his traces.
Jeil Heon sighed repeatedly as he drove his sedan toward Jongmyo. He couldn’t enter since visiting hours were over, but it didn’t matter. Anyway, he couldn’t approach closely because of the Aberration’s Essence mixed in his body. This was the same for the Smiling Man. While not a barrier as pure as the Management Bureau’s, Jongmyo was a sacred site imbued with the energy of the ancestral spirits who had received rituals for hundreds of years.
It was possible for a powerful Aberration to forcibly tear its way in, but if that had happened, the Management Bureau would have known already, so he carefully surveyed the perimeter. He walked along the wall and looked around once, but there were no particular anomalies. Just as he thought it might not be here.
“……!”
Jeil Heon suddenly bent his waist. Beneath a roadside tree, a field mouse was screeching fiercely instead of fleeing. At a glance, it looked like an ordinary field mouse. However, the mouse’s eyes were bloodshot red, and tiny eyeballs were embedded between the fur on the crown of its head. Its mouth was similar to a shark’s. It had been contaminated and deformed.
Entities capable of contaminating animals without intelligence are extremely rare. Among them, an Aberration that would go so far as to approach the sacred Jongmyo to leave a trace… Jeil Heon’s eyes sank coldly.
Found it. The Smiling Man’s Waveform.
Now, after checking if this Waveform had been measured by the Management Bureau… As Jeil Heon was quickly organizing what to do next, he suddenly stopped. He felt a sense of déjà vu from the Waveform. He hadn’t sensed it vividly, but he had definitely felt it recently. A Waveform that had felt quite faint to be dismissed as merely an Aberration.
〈I am Jeong Ing-bar, Captain of the Annihilation Execution Department’s 2nd Response Unit.〉
That man, whom he had assumed was the Waveform of an Aberration possessing one arm.
Jeil Heon rushed back to the car and made a call. It was time the boy would have arrived at Pilgyeongdang. Nothing bad would happen. It would be fine. Fortunately, the call connected quickly.
“Jiha! You’ve arrived home, right? Is Teacher Yeo-song there? I’ll tell you the details when I get back, so absolutely do not leave the hou—”
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve heard your voice, Sunbae!
Jeong Ing-bar laughed over the phone. No, it wasn’t Jeong Ing-bar. The seasoned experience and honed instincts of a lifetime chasing anomalies detected the abnormality from just a fragment of conversation. Something that possessed Jeong Ing-bar’s voice and moved Jeong Ing-bar’s body, but was not Jeong Ing-bar.
“……Nam Hyeon-woo!”
* * *
“But the timing was great, we ran into each other right in front of the bus stop. Did you have some business near my school?”
He had hitched a ride in Jeong Ing-bar’s car several times already. Since it had become easier to deal with him than at first, they had been chatting amiably, but the moment this question was asked, the atmosphere changed.
“You live with Sunbae, right? I just couldn’t find a way to break through.”
“What?”
“Even if some damn ghost is recognized as the master of that land and an old fox set up the entrance, isn’t it too stubborn? It’s harder than tearing into an Aberrant Realm. My pride is seriously wounded. Kid, you really live in an amazing and unlucky place.”
……Was his way of speaking always like this? Setting aside the fact that the terms he used to refer to himself and Jeil Heon had changed, instead of the strong Swedish accent, an old Seoul dialect similar to Jeil Heon’s seeped through.
The Jeong Ing-bar driving the car remained the same. However, there was a sense of incongruity in his gaze, his tone, and his gestures. Everything except for the appearance pointed to a different person.
He had checked with his true eye, but he couldn’t read anything. There was a high possibility that the entity was contaminating and moving Jeong Ing-bar. As a member of the Enforcement Division, Jeong Ing-bar would normally be prepared for anomalies, so he couldn’t even guess how strong the entity that bypassed those defenses and contaminated him was. And an entity that dangerous was within arm’s reach. His heart tightened coldly.
“Ah, ah! Right, I forgot I have a place to stop by before going home. Please pull over by the roadside.”
He barely swallowed his fear and made an excuse, but Jeong Ing-bar—or whatever was moving him—didn’t even pretend to listen. Instead, the car was speeding past the city center toward a deserted road. With trembling hands, he tried to pull the car door handle, but of course, it was locked.
He fumbled for the phone in his jacket pocket to contact Jeil Heon, but the other’s hand was faster.
“I thought you were just a mindless idiot, but your intuition is pretty quick, huh? This is a phone, right? It’s so different from the ones used in the old days that I didn’t recognize it.”
At some point, the entity had completely let go of the steering wheel and leaned diagonally toward the passenger seat. The phenomenon of a car speeding down the road in the dead of night with no one driving it struck him with a new wave of terror.
“Wh-who are you?”
“Me? Would you know me just by hearing my name? A kid who hasn’t even been with the Management Bureau for a year? Aha! Come to think of it, you were there when I tore through the Aberrant Realm to send a message!”
Only one Aberration came to mind that would send a message from an Aberrant Realm and target Jeil Heon. Yoo Jiha clenched his fists to keep from shaking.
“……The Smiling Man?”
“Oho. You actually know how to use your brain?”
Smirking mockingly, the entity leaned in deep. The incongruity of having the familiar appearance of a person like Jeong Ing-bar while exhibiting strange behavior made his spine stiffen.
“Hmm, you’re just a nothing kid, so why aren’t you contaminated?”
Tilting its head in curiosity, the entity seemed to realize something and pulled out the necklace hidden inside Yoo Jiha’s collar.
“Aha, haha! Hahahaha! Wow! What is this? This is a collaboration between that damn ghost and the fox, isn’t it? You’re really loved by Sunbae! As expected, it was worth choosing you! I agonized over whether to pick one of Sunbae’s siblings or the kid he keeps by his side.”
The corners of the laughing Jeong Ing-bar’s mouth ripped open, and droplets of blood formed. Bursting into loud laughter, the entity answered the phone that was currently ringing. It was Jeil Heon’s ringtone. However, before Jiha could scream for help, the entity grabbed Yoo Jiha’s neck with one hand and continued speaking.
“Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve heard your voice, Sunbae!”
As his neck was violently squeezed, oxygen rapidly depleted. Haa, haa. Unable to even scream due to the powerful grip, Yoo Jiha struggled desperately, but the tightening grasp did not budge. Through his rapidly fading consciousness, the entity’s excited voice flowed in.
“That’s right, it’s me. Hyeon-woo! I’m so happy that Sunbae still remembers me. I’ve never forgotten Sunbae once in seventeen years. To celebrate our reunion, I’ll try a villainous line! If you want to get your doll back safely, your mother’s Prayer Chamber……”
Even after regaining consciousness, Yoo Jiha could not immediately recover clarity. A dull pain remained around his neck, conveying a burning sensation of heat. Barely gathering his blurred thoughts and turning his gaze, he saw Jeong Ing-bar collapsed beside him. The place he had been moved to while unconscious felt like an old, small country house.
「Are you awake?」
The voice was heard from beside his head.