Sitting on the chair, Ire leaned his head against the wall. He hadn’t slept since yesterday, and his eyelids felt heavy. He kept glancing at the ward entrance, wondering if any news would come from inside.
He dozed off, and the events of the graduation ceremony unfolded vividly in his dream. He woke up with a gasp at the scene of Matteo biting Anna’s neck.
He looked around, but everything was quiet. Kim Ha-yoon was gone, and Ire realized he was alone. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, a result of the nightmare, and saw Kim Ha-yoon talking to the doctor at the end of the hallway.
He watched them silently until the doctor left and Kim Ha-yoon returned.
“I left you alone because you were sleeping, but you woke up?”
“What did the doctor say…?”
“Fortunately, his levels are dropping. If it continues like this, he might be able to move to a regular room in a few days.”
Ire’s legs gave way with relief. He struggled to control the surge of emotion, took a deep breath, and lowered his head. Then, a large hand touched his hair.
“Let’s go home. Your stepfather won’t be at ease if you’re like this. And your siblings are waiting.”
The mention of his siblings brought him back to his senses. They must have been so shocked. How terrified they must have been. Remembering their pale, trembling faces, he knew he couldn’t stay here any longer.
He stood up and walked down the hallway, with Kim Ha-yoon following a step behind.
Outside, Kim Ha-yoon’s car was already waiting at the entrance.
“Get in. I’ll take you home.”
Ire got into the passenger seat without a word, and the car smoothly pulled away. He was relieved, but he couldn’t sleep. The road was congested, and the sun was setting, painting the sky orange.
Watching the scene silently, Ire turned to Kim Ha-yoon and cautiously spoke.
“Did I… cause you trouble…?”
Kim Ha-yoon scratched his front teeth with his tongue. He might be wondering about the sudden appearance of these strange symptoms. Was Ire too young to suspect anything? Or was Anna’s fabricated story convincing enough?
Of course, if Matteo woke up, they had planned to coordinate their stories. He would tell Matteo to actively participate in this charade since his stepson was traumatized. Knowing how much Matteo cared for Ire, he was likely to agree.
“It was troublesome. This is more serious than you think. If word gets out that an Infected has appeared, and it makes the news, it’ll be a headache.”
In fact, the last Infected in District A had appeared about 15 years ago. Back then, the Infected had been in Park Mu-jin’s house. The driver who worked at his house had been Infected, and the cause was later determined to be Drugs.
But where did the Drugs come from? Who injected them into the driver?
The prime suspect was Park Mu-jin’s father. At the time, he was under investigation for contract killing and tax evasion, but the incident at his residence shifted the media’s attention from Park Mu-jin’s father to the Infected. Moreover, he was temporarily excluded from the investigation because he had been in contact with the Infected.
“Is Captain okay…?”
“What do you mean?”
“When the accident happened, the soldiers seemed flustered, but you were the only one who wasn’t. You walked over with such a calm expression that I wondered if I was hallucinating.”
Kim Ha-yoon pondered for a moment, then turned the steering wheel. The car screeched to a halt by the side of the road, and he twisted his body to face Ire, resting his arm on the steering wheel.
“What exactly do you want to ask? I doubt you’re just trying to compliment my composure.”
“……”
“Speak. I’ll answer.”
Ire bit his lip. Even if he went to Park Mu-jin, there was no guarantee he would know the truth. He had given vague answers that day, claiming he didn’t know the details. But Kim Ha-yoon definitely knew. The question was whether he would tell the truth or not.
“Matteo’s heart surgery… did he really have it?”
Kim Ha-yoon frowned.
He looked as if he was hearing the strangest thing.
“Someone said… it wasn’t surgery, just a pretense…”
“Who?”
No matter how much he disliked Park Mu-jin, he couldn’t say it outright.
Kim Ha-yoon chuckled in disbelief at his hesitation.
“So that’s why? That’s why your eyes were full of suspicion when you looked at me.”
When he pointed it out so directly, Ire was speechless. It wasn’t exactly suspicion, but he wanted to hear the truth from Kim Ha-yoon. However, seeing Kim Ha-yoon’s hurt expression, he felt guilty for misunderstanding. He should have just asked Matteo when he recovered. Whether he really took the Drugs. Why he had those feelings of anxiety and depression.
“I’m sorry for misunderstanding… I was overthinking things…”
Kim Ha-yoon crossed his arms on the steering wheel and leaned his upper body against it.
“I’ve lost your trust, haven’t I?”
“……”
“Well, I’ve done things to deserve it. It’s my karma.”
After that, he started the car as if nothing had happened. He didn’t say a word the whole way, and Ire felt genuinely sorry. As soon as they arrived home, Kim Ha-yoon dropped him off and left. Ire couldn’t bring himself to apologize, and his steps towards home felt even heavier.
Instead of Anna, there was a new employee at home, and the children’s faces were gloomy. Some of the younger children were crying and making a fuss. After finally calming the children down, Ire went to Matteo’s bedroom under the pretense of taking a shower and locked the door.
He searched Matteo’s desk, and the last drawer, which was always locked, was open. He pulled the drawer open and found it full of medicine bottles. Ire took out the bottles and squeezed his eyes shut. They were psychiatric medications, and the effects and side effects were written in tiny letters.
He collapsed in despair and buried his face between his knees. His throat kept tightening, and he couldn’t even make a sound.
What had been troubling Matteo so much…? Was it because they had moved here…? Was it because Ire had disobeyed him and become a soldier…?
His thoughts spiraled out of control, and he felt like it was all his fault, sinking his mood to rock bottom.
Kim Ha-yoon picked up the teacup in front of him and brought it to his lips. After savoring the tea, he harshly judged that the taste was awful. Kwon So-young, seeing this, was dumbfounded and said,
“Can you even swallow the tea?”
“Should I spit it back out?”
Kwon So-young shook her head and kept twirling a pen between her fingers. It was a habit she had whenever something troublesome happened.
“Who on earth did he hear that from?”
“Someone connected to someone who was in the operating room, I guess.”
“So you denied it?”
“Yeah.”
“Did he buy it?”
“I took care of everything beforehand, so he has no choice but to believe me. He’s still young, so he’s more naive than he looks.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“What about me?”
“You have an uncharacteristically uneasy look on your face. For a psycho who lies like he breathes.”
Kim Ha-yoon scoffed at his close friend’s scathing criticism and put the teacup back down.
“There’s a more screwed-up problem than that.”
He took out a photo from his pocket. It was old and faded, and the people in the photo, of various ages and appearances, were smiling brightly. He showed it to Kwon So-young, who tilted her head in confusion.
“Who are these people? Their clothes are strange… Are they from District B?”
The photo had been found in Ire’s house. To be exact, in the back corner of his stepfather Matteo’s drawer. The new employee had been putting the medicine bottles in the drawer as instructed when she found it, and judging it to be unusual, she had reported it to Kim Ha-yoon.
“I scanned all the people in it this morning.”
“……?”
“And I found something very interesting.”
Kwon So-young frowned and examined the photo closely. Anyone could tell that they were people from another district. Considering that Ire and his family had come from District B, it wasn’t that strange.
“What did you find?”
Kim Ha-yoon pointed to the center of the group in the photo.
“See?”
Although he was small in stature, the man had such intense eyes that his energy seemed to radiate even in the photo. Before she could ask who he was, Kim Ha-yoon continued,
“The founder of the Goblin Clan.”
Kwon So-young’s eyes widened in shock. She knew very well about them. The Goblin Clan, with its childish name, had been a rebellious force that had grown to a troublesome size decades ago. A large-scale suppression had wiped out most of its members, but the escaped remnants still clung to their futile dreams and dreamed of a new world.
“And this is the real key.”
This time, Kim Ha-yoon pointed to a different spot. It was a young boy in his mid-teens, who was the only one with an awkward expression among the smiling people. But his face looked familiar.
She snatched the photo and examined it closely, her expression gradually turning to horror. He had aged, but his current appearance was clearly recognizable.
“Oh my god…”