By Zephyria 
He had never heard of an Ability User who could make men pregnant. The idea of superpowers causing male pregnancy was absurd.
Still, Hae-jun had to ask. The question, which he had dismissed the first time he heard it and which had bothered him like a growing thorn the second time, was about Seo Ji-hoon asking if he knew Lee A-gon’s ability. Hae-jun thought he knew what it was, so he had naturally answered yes.
But did he really know what it was?
“……Did I?”
Seo Ji-hoon answered slowly, lighting his cigarette.
“Yes. You did. Why did you ask twice?”
“Hmm. I don’t remember.”
Seo Ji-hoon replied and pretended to check his watch. Hae-jun forcibly pulled Seo Ji-hoon, who had turned away from him, back. He absolutely had to get an answer.
“Seo Ji-hoon. I’m not joking right now. Something seems to have happened to me, and I don’t know why. Tell me. Why did you ask if I knew about Lee A-gon’s ability?”
Seo Ji-hoon avoided his eyes. This time, it was certain. He was hiding something.
“Tell me. Tell me!”
He grabbed Seo Ji-hoon by the collar and shook him. He had put so much force into it that Seo Ji-hoon swayed precariously. Seo Ji-hoon raised his hands as if to calm him down and let out a resigned sigh.
“It might be better if you didn’t know.”
“Tell me.”
“You won’t regret it?”
Hae-jun could feel pity in Seo Ji-hoon’s voice. He looked at Hae-jun as if he were a very young, fragile creature. The more he acted like this, the more Hae-jun’s fear grew.
Hoo, Seo Ji-hoon exhaled smoke and asked slowly.
“Park Hae-jun, do you know what Lee A-gon’s ability is?”
“To control bodies at will.”
“Whose bodies?”
“……? What do you mean, whose bodies?”
“Who is the subject of the body Lee A-gon controls?”
“Well, obviously his own body……”
Hae-jun couldn’t finish his sentence. Seo Ji-hoon’s expression became even more sorrowful.
“You’re wrong. It’s not his own body. No, Lee A-gon’s ability is to control not only his own body but also the bodies of others.”
“Control other people’s bodies?”
“Yes.”
Seo Ji-hoon threw the cigarette he hadn’t properly smoked onto the ground and took out a new one. In the meantime, Hae-jun numbly repeated the words.
Lee A-gon can control bodies. Hae-jun had seen Lee A-gon fracture his own wrist and then pull his arm out and put it back in. He had also said he could stop his heart and maintain his body temperature in the freezing cold filming location.
What had Lee A-gon said when he envied that?
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m… sorry I can’t raise your body temperature right now…”
What had he said then?
“Using your ability to control another person’s body… isn’t that a bit creepy?”
“It means someone is controlling me without my permission. I find it scary and I don’t like it.”
“……”
Hae-jun covered his mouth. He was confused. His head was spinning, and he felt like he was going to vomit. His chest, wrapped in multiple layers, felt suffocatingly tight. Hae-jun leaned against the wall and crouched down.
“I told you. I joined Umyung as Lee A-gon’s playmate. Back then, Lee A-gon’s ability was growing by the day. If he told me to hit myself, I would do it. If he told me to slip, I would slip, and if he told me to cry, tears would stream down my face even though I wasn’t sad. They were truly terrible days.”
Seo Ji-hoon crouched down beside him. Hae-jun held his breath, covering his mouth with his hands.
“I was okay with it, though. My home was destroyed, and I had nowhere else to go but Umyung. Although it was a bit scary, I decided to think of it as severe bullying. My life wasn’t in danger, after all. About a year passed like that. Then something happened that made it impossible for me to stay in that house any longer.”
“……”
“Lee A-gon was going mad. I provided him with assistance, but the transmission rate was terrible. He became increasingly delusional. He believed someone was trying to kill him. Lee A-gon’s mother decided to send him to a villa on Mars. That house was built with red bricks and had a strange structure where the doors could be locked from both the inside and outside, but there’s no need to explain all that…. Anyway, I, Lee A-gon, and a man who would look after us ended up living there together. We called that man Uncle Jo.”
Hae-jun looked up at Seo Ji-hoon with bloodshot eyes. Seo Ji-hoon continued speaking with a languid expression, characteristic of someone recalling the past.
“One night, I woke up to a strange sound. Lee A-gon was standing in the middle of the living room on the first floor, and in front of him was Uncle Jo, lying face down. Uncle Jo was twitching his limbs and gasping, alternating between stiffening rigidly and moving with tremors every few minutes. Lee A-gon wasn’t trying to save Uncle Jo; he was clenching and unclenching his fists. I knew I had to step in and save Uncle Jo, but for some reason, I couldn’t approach him.”
“……”
“Then I realized. When Lee A-gon clenched his fist, Uncle Jo became rigid, and when he released his hand, he moved again. Lee A-gon was stopping and restarting Uncle Jo’s heart.”
Seo Ji-hoon threw away his second cigarette. He was about to take out a third when he heard someone calling him from upstairs. It seemed filming preparations were nearing completion.
“I left there immediately. It was a place where you couldn’t make phone calls or access the internet. I just started walking towards Seoul and called home from a public phone.”
Seo Ji-hoon stood up. Hae-jun also got up awkwardly.
“I don’t know how it’s possible, but Lee A-gon can control other people’s bodies as he pleases. I didn’t want to be next to a paranoid patient who had the ability to stop someone’s heart anymore. I declared I wouldn’t return to Umyung, and Umyung didn’t try to keep me. The torment was over. Finally.”
“Seo Ji-hoon. Something’s wrong with my body.”
Hae-jun said softly, like a whisper. Seo Ji-hoon sighed.
“I expected this when you came to find me. Something must be wrong with your body, whatever it is. But it’s too late. You can never leave Lee A-gon now. You’re the only Assistant he can rely on. I don’t know why, but it’s just how it is. Look at what they did to me. And what they did to the other Assistants. I’m sorry, but you can’t escape. Just give up, Park Hae-jun.”
Having said all he wanted to, Seo Ji-hoon started to head towards the set. Hae-jun grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“What do you mean, ‘what they did to me’?”
“You don’t know?”
Seo Ji-hoon’s eyes widened.
“Weren’t you also a victim of Umyung?”
“Victim of… Umyung?”
Hae-jun’s eyes widened too. His heart pounded violently with a sense of unease. Seo Ji-hoon, with a troubled expression, tried to pull Hae-jun’s hand off his clothes. Hae-jun held on even tighter.
“What does that mean? Explain.”
“I don’t think that’s something I can tell you. Ask Umyung.”
“Ji-hoon-ah……”
“Sorry.”
The hand holding his clothes was pulled away. Seo Ji-hoon turned his head.
“Don’t look for me again. I’ve told you everything I can.”
And Seo Ji-hoon ran off towards the set. Hae-jun could hear him apologizing for being late.
The door to the accommodation closed. There was nothing more Hae-jun could do.
“Where did you go?”
As soon as he arrived home, Hae-jun ran into Lee A-gon. Hae-jun stared blankly at Lee A-gon and walked past him.
“Where did you go? Why aren’t you answering? Can’t you hear me?”
“I told you I was going to watch a movie.”
“A lie. You just came back from Suwon, didn’t you?”
At that, Hae-jun spun around. Lee A-gon, suppressing the urge to boil over, forced a friendly expression. But his eyes were too fierce, and the corners of his smiling lips were on the verge of turning down.
“How did you know?”
“Why did you lie?”
“I asked how you knew?”
“Why did you go to Suwon?”
“……”
“Why did you turn off your phone?”
“……”
“Why did you ignore my calls?”
With each repeated question, his voice grew more ominous. Lee A-gon clenched his teeth once, then forced a smile again.
“Hyung.”
His voice was soft and gentle. If Hae-jun hadn’t seen his face, he would have believed it.
“You don’t know anyone in Suwon. Who is it? Who did you lie to me and go meet?”
“Did you track my location?”
“Is it Yang Hyun-tae? No. He should be filming a movie in Busan right now.”
“When did you start tracking me?”
“Then is it Jin Ah-reum? I heard that woman was starting a drama, but was it now?”
“Is there anywhere else besides my phone?”
“Could it be Seo Ji-hoon? Did you two contact each other?”
“……”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? It’s Seo Ji-hoon, isn’t it?”
Hae-jun walked into the bathroom without a word. Lee A-gon followed him to the door and slammed it shut with a bang right in his face, then locked it.
As he filled the sink with water, Hae-jun stared at his reflection in the mirror. He splashed water on his pale, listless, bloodshot face.
After slapping his cheek with a sharp sound, Hae-jun took out a pregnancy test he had hidden in the cabinet and opened the lock, holding the result line.
Lee A-gon was still standing in front of the door. As soon as he saw Hae-jun, he was about to bombard him with questions again, but then he spotted the pregnancy test in Hae-jun’s hand and fell silent.
“……Hyung?”
After a long moment, Lee A-gon asked in a trembling voice.
“What is that? Is it… what I think it is?”
“Did you get me pregnant?”