By Zephyria 
A place where darkness decorated every corner without a single gap. Fearing that someone might notice a light being turned on, Eun-myeong didn’t dare flip the switch. Instead, he relied solely on the flashlight of his cell phone.
Leaning on the small blue light, his hands moved busily. He opened and searched through every drawer and checked every book one by one. Just in case, he even looked inside the golf bags.
He lay flat on the floor to search the sofa thoroughly, but it was empty. Nothing. It wasn’t anywhere.
I feel like I’ve searched as much as I can; where on earth is it? Eun-myeong stomped his feet in frustration. His heart raced with growing urgency. At the same time, a sudden surge of fear that someone might come looking for him made him keep glancing out the window.
Since it was the sunrise festival, they wouldn’t return until after dawn, but the lingering anxiety continued to gnaw away at him.
Where could the aphrodisiac possibly be? Was it even here? Eun-myeong frantically scanned the room with his eyes, picking at the dry skin on his lower lip.
“…….”
At this point, he wondered if Jjangja was playing with him, just as he had back at the orphanage. He was a man who had treated him like an ant his entire life. Tearing off limbs at will, burning him to death with a magnifying glass. After doing such things, he would probably hold his stomach and cackle, saying it was all just a joke.
Eun-myeong stood blankly in the director’s office. Just as it had been then, all the furniture around him looked oversized and terrifying. However, since it felt the same now—even though he was slightly taller than before—he wondered if this was perhaps a psychological weight.
Suddenly, the boiler room caught his eye. It was a space he had never once entered on his own accord.
Could it be in there…?
It was a place where one could not easily set foot unless they were the Director, and there wasn’t a separate safe in the room.
Furthermore, for the children who had once been locked in there, it was nothing short of a space of horror, so it was certain that no matter how mischievous a child was, they would never dare enter.
A strong intuition guided Eun-myeong. Unable to resist, he slowly took a step forward. Then, he took a step back. In the end, he was just pacing in place. He stared blankly at the closed door.
Fear gripped his ankles. Could he really go in?
If he didn’t go in and find it, Jjangja would use Noona to threaten him again.
The image of his Noona flashed before Eun-myeong’s eyes. Her neatly trimmed short hair, the gold name tag, the post-it notes filled with her future plans, …her limping gait.
He slowly began to move. Then another step. Feeling every stride he took, Eun-myeong slowly advanced toward the boiler room.
And finally, he arrived before the door. He grabbed the handle and opened it. Screeech, the handle turned with a chilling sound.
As he opened the door, the first thing that hit Eun-myeong was a thick layer of white dust. Cough, cough, cough! He broke into a fit of coughing.
“…Huuph.”
Unable to see clearly, he held up the cell phone the man had bought him to light the way. A stark, bluish-white light flashed.
It was a truly cramped space. Just enough for one person to fit. If it was an adult, they would have to fold their body halfway to get in. It was old and filthy, covered in dust.
As he looked around, a vision of his younger self curled up in the corner flashed before his eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away.
A boiler tank was attached to the side wall. Though it was impossible, he felt as if he could hear a whirring sound.
Eun-myeong approached little by little, very slowly, and felt around the area. As he pushed his hand deep behind the tank, his fingertips touched something soft.
It was then. He heard the sound of a voice from somewhere.
“…….”
Whether it was echoing in the hallway, he couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, but it was definitely a human voice. Thump, it felt as if his heart collapsed.
Eun-myeong panicked. He hurriedly grabbed the aphrodisiac with both hands and stuffed them into his pockets. Even as he did, the voice grew louder and approached. If he went out now, he would certainly be caught.
W-what do I do?
He hated the idea of being trapped in the boiler room more than death, but the outside was as exposed as an open field. This was the only place to hide perfectly.
I’m really screwed….
With no other choice, Eun-myeong gently pushed the boiler room door shut. Biting his lip hard, he turned off the cell phone screen that had been his only sliver of light. Eun-myeong was instantly plunged into complete darkness.
Soon, creeeak, the door opened. A chill ran down his spine, giving him goosebumps. Could it be the Director? His heart hammered against his lower abdomen like a pestle. They say “when it rains, it pours,” and as he realized this was the anxiety that had been haunting him, it finally made sense.
Eun-myeong squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to hypnotize himself as much as possible. This is not the boiler room, this is not the boiler room….
Amidst his consciousness, which seemed to be fading into white, a voice floated up.
“Is that so, Chairman.”
It was by no means an unfamiliar voice. A husky tone that sounded as if it were filled with cigarette ash. And a man who used an incongruously gentle manner of speaking with such a rough texture.
It was CEO Kang Pyeong-won. Eun-myeong’s eyes snapped open.
Uh, why is the Boss here? The question surged up. He had definitely been lying in bed until just before Eun-myeong left; why on earth had he suddenly appeared at the orphanage?
Next, he thought of the medicine in his pocket. Feeling a burning sensation near his thigh, Eun-myeong deliberately lowered his breath.
This was a man who acted exceptionally sensitive toward this medicine. It wouldn’t be good if he found out it was in Eun-myeong’s hands. Moreover, he had even lied about going to earn money before leaving. In every way, the situation was the worst.
The man’s voice could be heard intermittently.
“Our baby Eun-myeong is pretty and cute, isn’t he?”
Talk about him leaked out. He seemed to be on a phone call, as the other person’s voice wasn’t audible. But he had definitely called the other person “Chairman” earlier.
The scene he had witnessed in front of the elevator flashed before Eun-myeong’s eyes. CEO Kang Pyeong-won standing next to Chairman Go. Those two were talking about him right now. Eun-myeong’s senses became as acute as if he had antennae on his ears.
“Ah, his forearms are cute? I suppose you took the opportunity to touch them.”
Haha, the man laughed. It was a laugh that lacked any pitch, sounding incredibly cold and hollow. Eun-myeong shifted his body. Then, a thud was heard. One of the drug packets, which had been precariously poking out of the pocket opening, fell to the floor.
“He’s very obedient and docile. Even if he had been born as a puppy, I think he would have grown up being loved in a wealthy home….”
The man’s flowing voice cut off exactly at that moment.
For a second, Eun-myeong froze all movement, like a fish whose head had been chopped off on a cutting board. Every peripheral nerve was directed toward the door.
Did he… hear it? The question lasted only a moment.
“Ah, one second.”
Fortunately, the man continued speaking.
For a moment, Eun-myeong felt as if his chest would burst. He gripped his heart tightly. It was beating so loud and fast that, out of sheer terror, he felt he might run to the man, apologize, and beg for his life.
“No, I just heard a rustle and wondered if there was a rat.”
Hmm, the man let out a gentle hum in his throat and then hung up the phone.
“Then, I will see you on Monday.”
And then the call ended. Eun-myeong knelt against the wall with his heart pounding. Soon, the sound of clicking shoe heels was heard. They weren’t getting closer; they were gradually moving away.
Is he leaving?
Even after the presence had completely vanished, Eun-myeong did not go out immediately. He calculated a generous amount of time for a person to have left the orphanage. During that time, he couldn’t even breathe comfortably.
After about ten minutes had passed, Eun-myeong panted for a long while. Because he had held his breath, the suffocating feeling seemed to overturn his internal organs.
Deciding it was enough, Eun-myeong quickly crawled out of the boiler room. Crossing the darkness, he slid open the door to the director’s office. The darkness of the hallway illuminated Eun-myeong.
Phew… there’s no one—
The moment he thought no one would be there, Eun-myeong felt a presence. Or rather, to be precise, he smelled it.
With a click sound, a light flickered on in the darkness. A large thumb was pressing the wheel of a tiger lighter to ignite a flame. Then, the jaw, lips, and firm lower face were lit up.
A mouth, curving into a terrifying arc, twitched.
“You always pop up in the most unexpected places.”
A chilling tremor swept through his entire body. His heart rate went into overdrive, beating fiercely—thump, thump, thump—at a pace Eun-myeong couldn’t possibly keep up with.
Lips stretched wide into a deep smile murmured low.
“You told me you went to dry the nets….”
The illusion that the ground beneath his feet was collapsing made his vision dizzy. Eun-myeong squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
“I’m pretty sure the baby blabbered something like that with his mouth.”
Fuu, acrid smoke scattered fiercely into the air. And the emanating scent of a savage wilderness pierced through Eun-myeong’s chest.
The man he thought had left was standing in the darkness.