By Zephyria Yohan finally realized that he might have to travel the world for the rest of his life, following the path of the Abyss’s movements. Unconsciously, he looked at Lee Hyun-muk. It seemed as if Lee Hyun-muk had already anticipated what he had just realized. He spoke with a smile.
“Don’t worry. Wherever you go, I and the team members will always be with you.”
The future that had not yet arrived was already a little scary and frightening, but hearing Lee Hyun-muk say that gave Yohan courage. If he could wander the Abyss, then the whole world was nothing. Especially now that he was a High-level Awakener, and the strongest Awakeners in the world would be with him, there was nothing to fear.
“…I like traveling!”
“My brave little lamb.”
Lee Hyun-muk said in a very affectionate and warm voice. Every time he called him by his pet name, Yohan felt much better. His chest tickled so much that Yohan’s hands became restless for no reason. He asked shyly,
“Can I play some music?”
“By all means.”
After much deliberation, Yohan chose a pop song playlist and played it. A gentle ballad singing of love flowed out. Having only heard the horrific screams from the Abyss, he thought that music was the essence of human civilization. Immersed in the music and atmosphere while watching the night view, Yohan suddenly looked at Lee Hyun-muk and froze.
His face, gazing at the sparkling night view, was expressionless and cold. His gaze, strangely eerie, was fixed intently in a certain direction. …What was in that direction? Or was he just staring blankly? Yohan asked cautiously.
“…May I ask what you are thinking about?”
“Of course, Yohan-ah.”
As if he had never been like a cold statue, Lee Hyun-muk gave a faint smile. His eyes, reflecting the city lights, were simply black.
“I was thinking that this scenery is very, very precious….”
And when he looked at Yohan, he was simply warm and gentle, like a human. Nevertheless, Yohan couldn’t shake off a strange, unsettling feeling. But he couldn’t pinpoint why, so he just dismissed it as his own mood.
The two-hour drive felt shorter than expected. Even after arriving at the house he had longed to see, Yohan lingered, his seatbelt still unbuckled, glancing repeatedly at Lee Hyun-muk.
“Um….”
“Why, Yohan-ah?”
“…Can I kiss you?”
His face flushed red, Yohan asked in a small voice. Even so, his hand was already resting on Lee Hyun-muk’s thigh, and his body was leaning forward. Lee Hyun-muk leaned in towards his brave and spirited young lover. And he whispered,
“I don’t mind, but your parents are watching right now, is that okay?”
“What? …Agh!”
He hadn’t done anything yet, but startled, Yohan quickly looked back. Only then could he see the silhouettes of two people lingering on the second-floor terrace. Yohan, his face even redder, moved in a fluster. Before the flustered Yohan could rip off his seatbelt, Lee Hyun-muk unbuckled it for him and said,
“Rest well at home, and let’s see each other again in a week. The construction of the new building should be finished by then.”
“Yes! …See you in a week!”
Yohan waved goodbye until Lee Hyun-muk’s car drove away. Then, he slowly turned his head and looked at his house. The house he hadn’t seen in a year was tearfully welcome. After cooling down a bit, he stood in front of the gate and pressed the doorbell. Immediately, a response came.
― …Is that Yohan?
“Yes! It’s me!”
As soon as he answered energetically, the gate lock was released. As soon as he opened it and entered, the front door burst open, and Yang Hwa-pyeong and Kim Ye-ju rushed out. Kim Ye-ju’s eyes were glistening with tears again, and Yohan felt the same. Seeing the familiar interior of his home, which he had only dreamed of for a year, felt so warm and good. The tension in his shoulders released, and a deep sigh escaped him.
“Home….”
While a year had passed in the Abyss, only about fifteen days had passed here, so his room was unchanged. After going in and out, he sat on the living room sofa, whimpering, when Yang Hwa-pyeong silently placed a firm hand on his son’s shoulder. He seemed deeply moved by the return of his child, who had safely returned from the Abyss, not just a Rift. Yohan sniffled and asked,
“You stayed up late, didn’t you?”
“How could I sleep when you weren’t back?”
Yohan, who had been lost in a fun company dinner, forgetting his family for a moment, felt a little guilty. It had only been a year in the Abyss, but everything before it felt so distant. He had even grown to feel almost as close to Lee Hyun-muk and the others as family. Yang Hwa-pyeong quickly asked Yohan, who was feeling guilty,
“So, did you have a good time at the company dinner with that Mr. Lee Hyun-muk?”
“You’ve become a bit friendly, right? Haven’t you?”
Kim Ye-ju also pressed him with a somewhat anxious voice. Yohan sensed a desperate tone in her voice, beyond simply being happy or expectant about forming a connection with the famous Lee Hyun-muk.
“What about Hyung? Is he sleeping?”
As Yohan asked this without a clear answer, worry flickered across Kim Ye-ju and Yang Hwa-pyeong’s faces. Yang Hwa-pyeong, whose nature was such that he couldn’t lie even if his life depended on it, spoke in a somewhat awkward tone,
“Your Hyung is out on an external assignment for work, so you won’t be able to see him for a while.”
“External assignment….”
Sensing his parents’ suspicious reaction, Yohan got up from the sofa and slowly walked around the living room. Then, his gaze suddenly fell somewhere below. A strange presence existed there. To him, who was sensitive not only to the presence of living things but also to the presence of Corruption, there was something else he could feel. Yohan looked up and asked his parents, who were secretly sighing,
“Hyung is down here? If the location is around here, is it the wine cellar?”
As Yohan pointed to the exact location, the two of them jumped in surprise and looked up sharply.
“H-how did you know…!”
So, his guess was right. I hoped it wasn’t… Deeply sighing, Yohan headed straight for the stairs leading to the basement. Kim Ye-ju, regaining her senses late, followed him in a hurry, calling his name.
“Yohan-ah!”
“I need to see Hyung.”
“Just a moment, Yohan-ah! Your Hyung is….”
Yohan, now an Awakened, moved too fast for ordinary people to follow. By the time Kim Ye-ju and Yang Hwa-pyeong arrived, Yohan was already standing in front of the wine cellar door. Unlike before, it had been replaced with a thick steel door that didn’t fit the house, and faint noises could be heard from beyond it. A cross was mounted on the upper part of the steel door, and a lock requiring a password was on the handle below. Kim Ye-ju grabbed Yohan with hands damp with cold sweat.
“Yohan-ah, Mom told you there’s nothing there.”
“I know Hyung is here. Please open it.”
Yohan said calmly, holding back tears. Yang Hwa-pyeong, who had been watching with a heavy gaze, soothed his extremely anxious wife in a grave voice.
“Let’s open it. Yohan needs to know anyway. Besides, Yohan isn’t the type to go around telling people things.”
“I know, but I’m just… worried. What if Yohan gets hurt too? He just came back, sob, sob.”
Yang Hwa-pyeong entered the password instead of his weeping wife and opened the door. Immediately, a foul odor wafted out. The smell, like something rotting alive, naturally brought to mind the air of the Abyss. Yohan could tell that his father, though trying not to show it, was finding the strong stench unbearable and held his breath briefly. Yohan, entering the dark room with no lights on as if it were nothing, sighed.
“Hyung….”
Even with the faint light seeping in from outside the door, Yohan could see clearly. On a mattress stained with an unidentifiable filth, there was a human shape. It was his brother, Yang Yosep, severely Corrupted. His contamination level was even more severe than Yohan had expected.
Disgusting-looking tentacles, sprouting from Yang Yosep’s fingertips and back, were rooted into the floor. They looked like plants grown from a human-shaped seed. He remained motionless in a hunched position, breathing raggedly. Food, barely touched, was placed around his head. His face, the only part that looked somewhat human, was unnaturally pale. He seemed almost unconscious, yet Yohan could tell Yang Yosep was in immense pain.
Kim Ye-ju, watching her son with a frightened face, turned away as if she couldn’t bear to look. Leaning on Yang Hwa-pyeong, she asked in a trembling voice,
“It seems worse, doesn’t it?”
“No. It’s the same as last time. It hasn’t gotten worse.”
“But, last time, clearly… No, no.”
Kim Ye-ju, in great distress, burst into tears and left the room. Yohan stood still, gazing at his brother, who showed no reaction to external stimuli. His heart ached as if it were being torn apart. He thought he knew how his brother had ended up like this.
“Could it be that Hyung… became like this trying to find me…?”
“When he first went missing… they said the sooner you find them, the higher the survival rate… So…”
According to Kim Ye-ju’s faltering explanation, as soon as Yang Yosep heard about Yohan’s disappearance, he entered a Rift with his guild members to search for his younger brother. A few days later, Yang Yosep returned, severely injured, wrapped in layers of sleeping bags and carried by guild members. He was clearly a severely Corrupted individual. Even in his delirious state, fearing he might harm his family, he had crawled into the basement and confined himself just a week ago.
Although he had expected it, it still pained him, and Yohan squeezed his eyes shut. Yang Hwa-pyeong sighed as if the earth would collapse, and Kim Ye-ju sobbed, saying,
“Mom knew that if the contamination level was this severe, she had to report it to the government… But… among those who entered the detention facility, no one has ever come back out…”
There is a reason for the current government’s, or more accurately, the National Land Safety Department and the Rift Management Agency’s, poor image. Their methods of subduing Corrupted individuals were often violent and brutal, resulting in fatalities, and no one who entered the isolation facilities had ever been released. Even if a Corrupted person maintained their sanity, they couldn’t be visited or contacted, making their status effectively unknown. Inquiries about their well-being received only automated responses.
Moreover, quite a few people had died, and even in those cases, their bodies were cremated without being returned or shown to their families. Therefore, no matter how severe the punishment, families, and even mildly Corrupted individuals, kept quiet and did not report them. The statistics for Corrupted individuals were also not properly compiled.
So, Yang Hwa-pyeong and Kim Ye-ju pleaded with the guild members to keep it a secret and then thoroughly hid Yang Yosep. Hearing that they had even planned to buy a deserted island to confine their son there, Yohan bit his lip in guilt. At that moment, a faint voice was heard.
I’m okay… I’m okay….