Chapter 22 – The Tracker
“Ah, yes Dad, I’m sorry, I’ll be sure to contact you next time. Uh.”
Thanks to the Pollack soup I ate at my sister’s house, I hang up the phone while rubbing my throbbing hair, unlike my comfortable stomach.
“…Woju, I’ve never seen you so frightened. Is your father very strict?”
“It’s not that strict… But every time I nailed her mom to her chest, I always got hit with a billiard cue.
When I lied and skipped school when I was a student, or when I took a sip of alcohol from the refrigerator out of curiosity.”
“Um, it seems your father cares about you very much.”
“She probably cares for her mother more than me. Even as a child of hers, she’s close with the two of them.”
On campus, in front of an old smoking room that doesn’t catch people’s eyes, he chats with his older sister.
Hyemi noona, who casually takes a mask from my bag, offers her ‘alcohol’, while she squats on the floor instead of a dirty bench and smokes.
She spat out thick, clear liquid from her mouth. I was a little surprised that I was still chatting with them even with this sight in front of me.
“Umm… Fuha, it’s done. If you smoked too, shall we go now?”
“Ah, yes. But I’m sorry. My sister doesn’t even smoke, so I made her wait.”
“You care about that. Anyway, we don’t get sick or anything like that just because we inhale some cigarette smoke.”
“…Is that so?”
I put the mask I got back from my sister into my bag and walked out of the shady smoking room.
Hae-mi sister, yes. When I hurriedly washed up and came out of her room, even though she was floating in the middle of the sky, after listening to her lecture, she was a little slanted.
My eyes go to the sunset dyed in pale orange at the end of the blue sky hidden behind the distant buildings.
“Ah, did you meet Sol-Yun today?”
“No, Yun-Sol won’t be at school today… I heard that the Reading Association club debate is until today.”
“Then there’s nothing we can do about it. As long as the circumstances are circumstances, they’ll understand that mask, too. I can’t believe I skipped a day…”
“The best universe!”
The voices of students walking down the street on campus, and the engine sound of cars passing by.
I look back like Hyemi noona at the familiar voice calling my name accurately through the loud white noise.
“…Uh, Park Jae-hyuk, what’s going on?”
Jae-hyeok runs from afar and stands in front of me, breathing heavily.
He looked so impatient that the sweat running down his forehead was beading on his chin.
“Ha, ha… Hello sister.”
“Oh, is it Jaehyuk? Hi~”
Jaehyuk wiping the sweat with his sleeve, letting out a long sigh, and greeted Hyemi with a smile.
“You bastard, you bastard… Why didn’t you answer the phone yesterday, what did you do yesterday?”
“Ah…”
Jaehyeok, who had been gasping for a while after exchanging greetings with Hyemi’s older sister, let out a short sigh at the words that Jaehyuk uttered and met her eyes with her older sister.
Come to think of it, in addition to my mother yesterday, there was also a missed call from Park Jae-hyuk. Did her mother contact Jaehyuk?
“Ah, sorry. I drank a little yesterday… My memory is a bit hazy.
It’s okay because I just called my mom. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“…You drank until the film ended? Alone?”
“…Uh?”
I laughed and patted Jaehyuk’s shoulder lightly, but the response that came back was something hard.
As usual, what would return would be a playful snort and a light punch to my chest.
But what really came back was an expression that seemed disturbed and a question that had no meaning.
I slowly drop my hand at the awkwardness I feel for a friend I’ve known for over 10 years.
“…Uh, that Hyemi noona. I want to talk to Woojoo alone, but would it be okay for a while…?”
As if he had never done that, he relaxed his stiff expression and looked sideways at Jaehyuk, who was asking Hyemi noona for a favor with a cool smile.
The only time this bastard did this was when he was deeply concerned about something. He became uncharacteristically serious and always asked me ‘what should I do?’ The look of Jaehyuk who asked.
Is there anything important to talk about? If it’s trouble counseling, it’s the first time I’ve been over 20 years old.
“Huh? Still…”
“It’s okay, sister, go first. I’ll just talk to Jaehyuk and then I’ll be right there.”
“…Well, then I’ll wait in front of you, so come when you’re done.”
“Thank you, Hyemi-sister! Go in!”
Jae-hyeok bows down politely to greet Hye-mi and takes out her pack of cigarettes again.
He takes out two cigarettes from there, puts one in his mouth, and holds out the other to Jaehyuk.
“Do you want to?”
“I quit smoking after being discharged… It’s okay, you bastard.”
As Hye-mi noona moves so far that we can’t hear our voices, Jae-hyeok brushes her hair and pushes my hand away from my cigarette.
As if to show that his head is complicated, Jaehyuk tousled his hair with both hands and let out a big sigh before raising his voice without even looking up at me.
“…Since when have you been close with Hyemi-noona?”
“What are you talking about? After entering school, we somehow became close.”
“Aside from that, when were you and Hyemi noona close enough to stick together?”
He removes his cigarette from his mouth and slowly lowers his head.
With his head still on the floor, he throws down his cigarette while looking at Jaehyuk, who is calming his trembling voice.
“…Why are you asking such a thing? What kind of form are you suddenly holding on to?”
“Yes, if it is difficult to answer because it is private, please answer this at least.”
His attempts to change the mood by stepping on a cigarette with his foot to put out the light and laughing for nothing failed.
It was the first time I had seen the expression of a friend of 20 years standing up and looking straight into my eyes.
Confusion and confusion, mixed with sadness and worry and a little anger. I couldn’t help but lower my eyebrows.
“…You, are you okay?”
I was speechless at Jaehyuk’s question, which seemed like a simple regards but asked something else.
* *
“Have you ever seen this person?”
“…Yes?”
The photo the black-haired woman held out to me showed the universe.
A top view shot of the universe sitting on the street and smoking a cigarette.
A closer look revealed that the picture was captured from a CCTV camera.
She couldn’t even close her slightly open mouth and only turned her eyes to look back at the two women standing in front of her.
What on earth are these people pointing at me with CCTV footage of the universe?
“…Uh, I’m not sure? Are you a student at this school…?”
The universe I knew wasn’t the kind of thing that could cause a big accident.
He may not be a bit rude, but he doesn’t disappoint his family, and he’s generous with his friends.
On the day my parents and teachers gave up when I was in high school, I’m a kid who helped me just because ‘we’ve been close since childhood’.
I don’t know why the two women in front of me are looking for space, but I feel something strong.
“… Um, don’t you really know?”
“Yes, I have never seen it …”
“They say they don’t know. Unni, please check.”
“Ha…”
The black-haired woman holding the photo spoke in Korean to the foreign woman, who crossed her arms and glared at her.
The woman sighed deeply, probably understanding Korean, and glared at me with her silver hair flowing.
Then ─
“…Eww…”
“Oops, if you said you were going to do it, you almost tripped.”
The silver hair that knocked her body to the floor while releasing the power she had been giving to her eyes in an instant.
Black hair, which supports the body of a foreign woman who is almost hit by her head on the floor, hugs the silver that is unconscious as if she is familiar.
“I … Is that person okay?”
“Ah, yes! It’s fine, so please sit still. You’re ‘confirming’ right now.”
Check? What are you checking in that state?
The state of a foreign woman who thinly opened her eyes and opened her lighter mouth seemed strange.
She looks like a person who has lost her mind, and she is looking at this side with her consciousness.
No matter how much it is, I wonder if I should help first, so I try to get up from my seat…
“It’s over.”
“Oh, it’s fast. So how are you?”
As soon as I woke up on the bench, I regained my strength to her eyes and pushed the black hair that was hugging myself.
I knew how to speak Korean, but it is a pronunciation that is no different from Koreans.
“You, don’t lie.”
“…Yes?”
As if I saw me, I looked down with a lot of disgusted eyes and muttered short.
“You’re close to the man in this picture. Why are you catching it? Jung? It’s funny … This country’s men.”
“… What? What do you say now …”
“Oh, I’m sorry! This sister is just about eating foreign goods.
It looks pretty though, but please calm down and look at it once ~ “
Let’s build a voice that is unknown to the woman,
Also, in an instant, I came to me and looked up at the black hair that blocked the silver and me.
“Rather than that, you knew people in the picture? Are you a friend?
I think it’s not usually close if you wrap it like this, but since I was young? “
“… What are you? What are you doing to me?”
I forgot because the heat was supported, but that foreign woman quickly revealed that my words were a lie.
What is it? Are these two, psychologists like that? But why are you looking for the universe?
“Ah ~ We don’t really want to do this for good students.
We can’t see your face in this picture. Even if this person is close, I can’t recognize it. ‘
“What the hell are you talking about … I don’t know.”
Sweet her chin on her stress, packing her bag on her bench, and passing the black hair.
The moment she deliberately expands her stride and quickly tries to pass her silver.
I tried to shake off my hand, but it was already hardened like concrete. What kind of woman’s power…
“Think carefully. Even while you’re doing this, your friend is dying.”
“…What?”
A black-haired voice echoes the silver-haired voice from behind.
“Yes, that’s right. We’re trying to save the man in this picture.
It’s the third day since we started the investigation, so I guess we have about two days left.”
“What the hell are you guys talking about!”
As I shouted in confusion, anger, and bewilderment, the silver-haired woman handed me a picture without saying anything.
“This is… Ugh…!!”
In the photo, the corpses of different men were taken.
A strange liquid leaked from its eyes, nose, and mouth, and it dried up and twisted, leaving only bones.
And next to it was a picture of something white made of old wood.
“Your friend picked up something he shouldn’t have picked up, and the man who picked it up dies on average after five days.”
“You’ll believe it now…”
“If you don’t want to believe it, keep your mouth shut like now, because I don’t care.
It won’t be too late to retrieve the item after your friend dies.
Rather, I like it because it’s easier and simpler.”
“You really…!”
The moment I felt the veins build up in my neck and dropped the bag on the floor and grabbed the woman’s wrist,
“Ay, ay! Stop fighting… Then shall we do it this way?
We just need to be able to talk to the guy in this picture.
If you have any doubts, you can watch us chat with your friend. Therefore…”
A black-haired woman suddenly appears and hands me a needle.
“Poke her friend on the back of her hand with this. Then we can meet that friend too.”
“…”
I look at the thin needle on my palm.
“Wouldn’t it be embarrassing?
I’ll slowly explain what happened to my friend, so I’ll ask you just once.”
Her tongue piercing sparkles in the dark-haired woman’s mouth, smiling as she loosens her narrowed eyes.
Perhaps I was deceived by the light, and I was led by the black-haired hand and listened to all the stories.
* *
“…Of course my body is fine. Why are you like that?”
“…Universe, do you believe me?”
The unusual atmosphere, Jaehyuk’s expression as he grabbed my hand seemed to be desperately hanging on somewhere.
“So what’s going on, I trust you, so tell me—”
“Thanks.”
Jae-hyeok greets her briefly and at some point pulls out the hand she had put in her pocket.
Then he poked the back of my hand with something small and slender in his finger.
“Ahh…! What, what are you doing all of a sudden?! Hey-san… You’re bleeding!”
I pull my hand out of Jaehyuk’s hand at the stinging pain I feel on my skin.
Small droplets of blood formed on the back of the hand, which soon burst and red liquid flowed down the back of the hand.
He holds his bloody hand and shouts at Jaehyuk, but he just hangs his head without saying anything. How…
“You did a good job, Jaehyuk.”
“──?”
When I turned around at the cheerful voice that came from behind her, there were two women standing there.
These two must have met somewhere… Ah, that mysterious silver hair…
A foreign woman glaring at me precisely, her silver hair shining golden in the reflection of the sunset.
The woman came up to me and held out a gold badge.
“Isabelle Kang of the Special Phenomena Task Force, UK branch. You’re the one who picked up that goddamn mask.”
——A woman who introduces herself in English.
“…Yes?”
So I also responded in short English.
* *
