By Zephyria Several high-quality photos were visible at the top of the article. There was also footage taken from the helicopter that day. The figures of Lee Hyun-muk, the other companions, and the Special Suppression Unit were clear. Fortunately, Lee Hyun-muk had covered for him beforehand, so only Yohan’s face remained unknown.
The article presented a timeline logically organizing the brilliant activities, disappearance, and return process of Lee Hyun-muk and the Sunrise Team, speculating on their condition. It also wondered about the identity of another returnee whose face was not revealed. Yohan thought it was fortunate that his identity was not revealed and clicked on the comments.
yout: Lee Hyun-muk, Lee Chan-ha, Seo Yakrin, Yoon Seung-ryong, Joo Ho-young. Thank you so much for returning to Korea.
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└ What the hell are the guys pressing dislike here?
└ How will you suppress the corrupted ones? They’re just monsters, they should be killed quickly.
└ They look fine at first glance. And it’s ‘how,’ not ‘how to.’
└ Yeah, Lee Jeong-dong, the serial killer, also looked fine on the outside~
└ Even if you kill them, people die every day, so what about the manpower shortage? ㅋㅋ
└ Even without Lee Hyun-muk, God Si-young handled everything.
└ That God Si-young is also at a dangerous contamination level, you idiot.
ilov: I’m a family member of a missing person from the Abyss. Can I hold onto hope? I really hope my dad is safe.
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└ Wishing for a safe return.
└ Wishing for a safe return 22222
└ My sister is also missing in the Abyss, but I believe she will definitely come back…
ulta: Why is Lee Hyun-muk’s hair color like that? Is it because of Corruption? T_T
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└ He must have been very stressed.
└ Those are Contamination Symptoms, damn it. Is Korea finally doomed?
└ If they’re this contaminated, they shouldn’t have come back. Who are they trying to kill? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Let’s just send them to another country lol
└ Lee Hyun-muk’s fans dragged it out for 3 years with mourning and whatnot, I wish they’d stop making a fuss now. It’s sickening to see.
└ There are so many people with bad intentions who can’t even congratulate a safe return. Then leave Korea and live elsewhere.
eeev: Who is the other returnee, anyway? If they returned safely like this, shouldn’t we send a search party into the Abyss? There might be other survivors.
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└ A search party? Would anyone sane go in there?
└ Even Lee Hyun-muk only barely returned after 3 years. It’s impossible.
└ They might be alive, who knows?
└ The others who returned with him definitely clung to Lee Hyun-muk. He’s a High-level Awakener, after all. How could an intermediate-level one survive?
└ Calling them intermediate-level lol. People who haven’t even Awakened always say things like this.
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t been on the internet in a while, but Yohan became so engrossed that he didn’t notice time passing. Even though he had only skimmed through internet news and comments, when he came to his senses, it was already time for dinner. Even while eating diligently, Yohan couldn’t put his phone down.
While many were celebrating the Sunrise Team’s return, a significant number were also worried about how contaminated Lee Hyun-muk might be, seeing his hair had turned white. In fact, “worried” was a mild term; there were even discussions about him needing to be immediately quarantined or about summoning High-level Awakeners from other countries to kill them.
They’ve rescued countless lives, and they endured hardships in the Abyss to return, yet what are people saying? No, they look fine, don’t they? They went with the Special Unit without any resistance! Would severely contaminated people act like that! Angered, Yohan gnashed his teeth and scrolled endlessly.
Thump, thump. A light tapping sound on the glass was heard. Startled, he looked up to see Seo Yakrin and Joo Ho-young smiling and waving. As Yohan practically leaped from his seat, a Special Unit member who had accompanied them opened the double glass doors. The member said nothing but had a very friendly gaze.
“Yakrin Noona! Ho-young-ah!”
Yohan greeted them with a wide smile, then paused. He had habitually called Joo Ho-young by his name. Now that he knew the other person was much, much older than him, he hesitated before speaking.
“Ho-young Hyung…”
His demeanor naturally became polite. Come to think of it, wasn’t the age difference too vast to call him Hyung or Noona? Yohan was reminded of their attitude, treating him like some kind of ‘youngest nephew-like child.’ Being only twenty-three, Yohan, who had no idea what it felt like to look at someone much, much younger, spoke cautiously.
“Noona…? Hyungnim…?”
Having grown up in a strict and conservative household and always being disciplined by his older brothers, Yohan was sweating profusely. They weren’t even Aunt or Uncle age. Based on the age difference alone, they were great-grand… no, great-great-grand… …Do I need to go higher? Before he could even calculate properly, Seo Yakrin hugged him tightly and exclaimed,
“No, Yohan-ah! Please call me Noona. What do you mean, Noonim? It feels too distant.”
“I’m against Hyungnim too! It’s fine to keep calling me by my name!”
Joo Ho-young also hugged Yohan tightly and exclaimed. With both of them so adamantly opposed, and the newfound sense of distance, and most importantly, their faces showing no incongruity, Yohan had no choice but to promise to call them as before.
“How is your Corruption?”
“It’s not the Abyss. No matter if it’s a year or ten years, we’re incredibly fine.”
Seo Yakrin replied with a voice full of joy. Yohan purified Joo Ho-young and Seo Yakrin respectively, and like Yoon Seung-ryong, he felt no accumulated Corruption. Nevertheless, Yohan poured in ample purification. The faces of the two relaxed as if they were enjoying a hot spring bath.
“You were looking at the internet reactions, weren’t you? From experience, it’s better not to look at this stuff.”
Joo Ho-young glanced at Yohan’s phone screen and closed the news app he was viewing. Yohan sheepishly put his phone down obediently.
“How is everyone doing?”
“We’re being quarantined in similar places. But since there are no significant Contamination Symptoms, they can’t keep us isolated any longer.”
Seo Yakrin spoke as if the government wanted to isolate them. But why would the government insist on quarantining them if there were no noticeable Contamination Symptoms? As Yohan looked bewildered, Seo Yakrin smiled and stroked his head as if he were cute.
“Our Yohan should just rest well. We’ll take care of all the difficult things.”
It was an attitude of treating him like a child who knew nothing. Was hiding the fact that he was a Purifier for a similar reason? He was very curious, but he felt he should refrain from speaking in government facilities, so Yohan just nodded. Joo Ho-young quickly changed the subject.
“They say we’re having chicken for dinner tonight.”
“Whoa, chicken? That sounds delicious.”
As they were having such a conversation, a Special Unit member said they had to return to their isolation rooms, so the two left. Yohan opened the news window again, hesitated, and then just watched cute animal videos to his heart’s content. His eyes, which had been overworked in the Abyss, were purified…
And that night, Lee Chan-ha visited him in his dream again.
‘Yohan-gun.’
Yohan, who had been happily surrounded by yapping dogs and kittens, turned his head to see Lee Chan-ha sitting beside him. He was cautiously reaching out a hand, as if touching a creature he had never seen before, to pet a puppy. He looked like someone who hadn’t seen a dog in hundreds of years. And indeed, he probably had.
‘Chan-ha Hyung! Look at them. Aren’t they so cute…?’
‘They are. They’re cute.’
‘……?’
As he said that, it was Yohan’s head that was being stroked. Lee Chan-ha hugged a fluffy kitten that was crawling into his lap and said,
‘The government will likely make you an offer soon. They’ll try to persuade you to work for an agency under the government, but no matter what conditions they offer, you must absolutely refuse.’
‘Even if they offer ten billion, I won’t accept.’
‘Haha, don’t refuse so resolutely. Pretend to consider it for a bit, and use the excuse that the Abyss was too difficult and you need to rest for a while.’
Yohan, who had high trust in the Sunrise Team, nodded diligently. Lee Chan-ha petted the cats and dogs for a while longer before leaving. As soon as he left, Yohan woke up and realized that what had just happened was a dream. He pretended to be asleep again, closed his eyes, and mulled over what Lee Chan-ha had told him in his dream. And he intuitively guessed.
Perhaps the government also had a hand in why the Sunrise Team fell into the Abyss.