By Zephyria “Jin Mu-hae. It’s morning. Wake up.”
A murmuring voice digs into his ear. Mu-hae, who had fallen into a deep sleep for the first time in a while, opened his eyes wide at the welcome sound.
Flickering red eyes. An upright face full of anticipation.
His mind slowly returns. The memory of wandering around the surrounding cities the day before and returning to Sakdal to find Joo-oh slowly surfaced.
Right. It was well past dinner time when he arrived. When he went downstairs and immediately washed his tired body, Joo-oh’s scent was particularly prominent.
A strange scent different from usual… It was definitely coming from Cheong. In an instant, he tensed up and grabbed the back of the guy’s neck.
‘Did you spray something like perfume?’
‘No.’
When he brought his nose close, he giggled as if tickled. The inside of the flipped-back hood was exactly as he had dressed him.
The pure white skin, without a single blemish, let alone a scratch, half-subsided his unpleasant mood.
Even so, while leaving Joo-oh in the bathroom and inserting the data chip, all sorts of thoughts crossed Mu-hae’s mind.
His appearance, particularly weak to human warmth, and the sloppy face that kept getting something every time he went for a walk.
The last time he saw Cheong, he was in perfect condition. Joo-oh handles things as he is told, so if he had laid a hand on him, he would have been wearing a splint somewhere.
Knowing that nothing happened, the reason he didn’t feel good must be because of his useless possessiveness.
He picked him up himself and took care of him this much, turning a drooling guy into a human being, so it’s inevitable that he feels greedy.
‘What are you doing? Do you do the cleaning?’
‘Why? I didn’t throw away the trash.’
As always, his thoughts didn’t last long. After grabbing Joo-oh, who was walking around with water dripping from his head, and scrubbing him roughly with a towel, there was no time to examine the data he had received from Cheong.
In the end, he went upstairs and lay down on the bed as he was…
“Haha. Sleeping in.”
Joo-oh, who had fallen asleep next to him, woke up regularly on time and shook Mu-hae.
The fatigue had long gone, but he was upset for no reason, and good words didn’t come out from the morning.
“…Annoying.”
“Not annoying.”
“If you’re hungry, take out bread or cereal from the cupboard.”
“Jin Mu-hae has to come.”
Having no choice, he got up, and Joo-oh excitedly got out of bed. Then, unexpectedly, he brushed past the side table, opened the stairs, and ran down.
It seems he’s going to the hideout. Mu-hae scratched the back of his head and followed him down.
As soon as he opened the basement door, a delicious smell tickled his nose.
“What is all this?”
“I brought it. To give to Jin Mu-hae.”
Fresh salad and various meat dishes on the table. The glossy food, made with expensive ingredients, was definitely something you could only get in Sakdal.
Did he secretly bring what Cheong gave him? How could he bring something so bulky intact?
Everything is piping hot, and when he pokes it with a fork, it crumbles softly.
There’s no way Joo-oh would have gone there early in the morning and stolen food. Thinking of him diligently going downstairs while he was asleep and warming up the carefully wrapped dishes, he laughed absurdly.
“Why are you laughing? I told you to eat?”
“Was it that delicious?”
“Jin Mu-hae will like it too. So, I packed it.”
He was full of expectations from the morning, so he must have wanted to show him this.
Seeing his sincerity, he put a piece of meat in his mouth and chewed, and Joo-oh sat across from him, resting his chin on his hand, and stared at Mu-hae.
“Aren’t you eating?”
“I’ll just watch.”
“Why are you watching someone else eat?”
“Jin Mu-hae does too.”
He really doesn’t lose a word. The fact that he’s losing his voice more and more seems to be evidence that Joo-oh’s mind is getting better.
“Looks like you ate a lot yesterday?”
“Cheong asked if you were human. He said he became a beggar because of me.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know. But after eating everything, stroke my head.”
He nodded, unable to resist his confident request. Only then did Joo-oh hum with a satisfied face.
After breakfast, he’ll look at the data chip with Jin Mu-hae, go out and buy something to eat… He mumbled and diligently recited a day’s plan that he had never even approved.
Well, there’s nothing he can’t include. Even if it’s questionable whether Joo-oh will properly understand what it is, there’s no information he needs to hide from him now.
There’s no way it’s a research report on the Experiments in Solar City. If it were such content in the first place, Cheong wouldn’t have readily handed it over.
“Jin Mu-hae, are you done eating?”
“Almost.”
“Then I’ll eat now too.”
After breakfast… He should open the data as the guy is eagerly anticipating.
It’s annoying, but he’ll stroke his head a little. It would be fun to tap his earlobe.
Jin Mu-hae watched the mumbling face, leaning back in his chair with a languid expression.
Ping-!
When he connected the data to the hideout’s system, a clear signal sounded.
After that, what floated up were unfamiliar names and personal details. Next to the names he had never met, dates from similar periods were written.
[xxxx year xx month xx day (Missing)]
This was a list of people who had disappeared within a certain period, specifically within the last year. Information on those who were reported missing in Goryeo City and could not be found.
The date is twenty-some years ago. Mu-hae instinctively realized that it was the time when the Return flight collapsed.
“…Missing persons.”
“Could the West Wind be here?”
It was a plausible guess for Joo-oh. Certainly, he had been properly understanding the given situation from some point on.
“Who knows.”
If the West Wind is among them, that person also disappeared. Did they get dragged to Central and evaporate without a trace? Or did they run away far away somewhere?
Missing persons reports are filed with the Public Security Forces every year, but most people are found and returned home unless they are people who lived in the slums.
The surveillance system works properly in every alley, and even if they run, they eventually end up in the Comfort zone, so they are found someday unless the person is determined to hide.
So, these people were either ‘disappeared’ or ran away far on their own.
Considering that the West Wind had been in contact with Dmitri until recently, the person Mu-hae is looking for is probably closer to the latter.
“Jin Mu-hae. Those are all old people.”
“Because they’re missing persons from over 20 years ago.”
“Then that man would be 90 years old by now.”
Hearing that, his eyes widened. The mainstays of the past Return flight who shared this hideout. They were probably young men of similar ages.
Fresh passion, friendliness that mingled without formality. When he narrowed down the list to his father’s age group, the list that had been endlessly long was reduced to only four missing persons.
“Shall we start from the top?”
“We have to.”
Joo-oh recited his inner thoughts perfectly, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly. Jin Mu-hae transmitted the information of the narrowed-down targets to the Link Watch and quietly recalled the schedule.
“Looks like I won’t be able to go to the grocery store today.”
“It’s okay. Anywhere is fine as long as I’m with Jin Mu-hae.”
Joo-oh laughed loudly and ran to the small room in the hideout. His clothes he took off yesterday must be there.
Mu-hae turned his shoulders to loosen up and slowly followed him.
Looking for a person who went missing a long time ago was a difficult task.
There aren’t many people who remember them, and aren’t they the ones who were left as unsolved cases because they couldn’t be found in the first place?
Still, giving money here and there allowed him to hear scraps of rumors.
He barely found a missing person’s family through mercenaries. Unexpectedly, it was in a residential complex in Jaegang District, not far from where he was staying.
“…Jun-woo? Why are you suddenly looking for that kid?”
When he mentioned the missing person’s name, a man with a shabby impression frowned. However, when he told him that he would be compensated for cooperating with the project, he slyly turned his eyes and showed interest.
“A missing persons countermeasures committee?”
“It’s private, but I have no doubt that it will help the development of Goryeo City.”
“You’re doing a good thing, but Jun-woo’s case won’t be that helpful.”
Only after seeing the voucher-based compensation did the man take a seat at a nearby cafe. The person who had been staring blankly out the window for a while opened his mouth with a bitter face.
“That kid is probably dead.”
“Pardon?”
“Missing doesn’t mean they’re alive. It just means they couldn’t find the body.”
The man sighed deeply and rummaged through his pocket to take out a pad. When he stretched out the rolled-up device and turned on the screen, an old newspaper clipping appeared on it.
[Another Aberrant attack… Already three times this year]
On the evening of the 25th, the appearance of a Class 1 Aberrant was reported in District 4 of the Cheolam Basin.
The reporter was a Kangyoung Construction official who was on a business trip to Seogyeong City, and he testified that he witnessed the attack while joining a group that had left earlier.
As Aberrant appearances and attacks continue to be reported on the road connecting Goryeo City and Seogyeong City, Central has decided to raise the risk level of the area…
“Bloodstains were found, but there was no body. It was probably taken away. An Aberrant doesn’t necessarily have to fill its stomach on the spot…”
The man closed his eyes for a moment, uttering terrible words. He thought he had become indifferent, but it wasn’t.
“Eventually, it was processed as a missing person. Probably because of the compensation. The consolation money from the company is bigger in case of death.”
“Ah.”
“Of course, my mother is still waiting for my younger brother. But my siblings and I already think Jun-woo is no longer in this world. We have no expectation that he will come back alive someday. That’s all.”
He doesn’t know what to say. He can’t easily comfort him with any words because he lost his family, and the man sitting in front of him doesn’t seem to want comfort.
When Mu-hae quietly handed over the voucher, the man accepted it and made a somber expression.
“Take care.”
After leaving a short greeting, the man strode away. Joo-oh smacked his lips and looked back at Mu-hae.
“Doesn’t seem like it, right?”
“It doesn’t.”