Episode 308: Boundary Line

◄

☰

►

Lee Sa-young couldn’t possibly be here.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

I know that.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

But he couldn’t stop his legs from running. Cha Eui-jae chased after the faint trace of Lee Sa-young’s energy, as if possessed. It led him deep into the facility. He passed through several long corridors and descended many flights of stairs. Since a gathering was in progress, he didn’t run into anyone.

Eventually, a corridor filled with iron bars— strikingly similar to the one he had seen at Prometheus’ headquarters— came into view.

“…”

Cha Eui-jae walked slowly. Unlike the other place, this prison held mutated humans instead of test subjects. Some were completely transformed into monsters, while others had only partially mutated— like a human with an animal’s limb. Most of them seemed to have lost their minds, blankly staring up at the ceiling.

‘They must have been drugged…’

He felt sick. Cha Eui-jae closed his eyes and focused on the energy. It was coming from behind a thick reinforced door. Blasting through it would draw too much attention. As he felt around the door for some kind of mechanism, it happened.

“…Who are you?”

A small, cautious voice asked. Cha Eui-jae turned his head. A boy, his body partially turned white, was gripping the bars. His right leg had transformed to resemble that of a carnivorous animal, signs of advanced mutation. The boy glared at Cha Eui-jae through the bars.

‘…Should I say anything?’

The test subjects wrapped in white cloth never spoke. Cha Eui-jae kept silent and continued what he was doing. The boy spoke again, suspiciously.

“You’re not a guard. Guards never come this far.”

“…”

“And they’re not small like you.”

“…”

“If you don’t say anything, I’m going to call someone.”

The boy looked slightly older than Park Ha-eun. Kids these days were sharp. Cha Eui-jae let out a small sigh and squatted in front of the cell.

“Come on, it’s obvious I’m not with the people who locked you up. Just look the other way, yeah?”

“What do you do?”

“Hunter.”

“You’re a Hunter?”

The boy’s voice rose. Cha Eui-jae quickly reached into the cell and covered the boy’s mouth. The narrow bars bent to fit the shape of his hand.

“Be quiet. I’m sneaking in. Help me out, yeah?”

The boy nodded. Cha Eui-jae withdrew his hand and bent the bars back into place. The boy pressed close to the cell.

“H-Hunter, then you came from outside, right? Right?”

“Yeah. What happened to you? Why are you here?”

“My mom brought me… said I needed treatment. They said they could cure the whitening disease if we prayed hard enough. So we kept praying…”

The boy’s shoulders trembled. Fear filled his black eyes. He suddenly gripped the bars and shook them.

“Please, please get me out! I don’t want to be here! I’m scared. It hurts!”

Cha Eui-jae’s lips parted slightly. The boy, overlapped in his mind with the bandage-wrapped young Lee Sa-young, was crying, his small hands trembling with tears streaming down his face.

“Mom… I want to see Mom… it hurts too much here, I’m scared… all they do is hurt me… I want to go to Mom…”

Lee Sa-young hadn’t even been able to say it hurt. He could only express it through tiny finger movements.

[When will you come again?]

Cha Eui-jae reached out and gently stroked the boy’s hair. The boy sobbed, tears falling freely. Cha Eui-jae stared at him quietly, at this boy, this younger Lee Sa-young. Had Lee Sa-young cried alone too? Because it hurt, because he was scared?

Had he cried… because he missed me?

Cha Eui-jae nodded slowly.

“…Alright. I got it.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. But first, I just need to check what’s behind that door. Do you know anything about it?”

The boy wiped his tears with the back of his hand.

“I don’t know… but the people who go in there wear weird clothes. Like space suits.”

“Space suits?”

Probably hazmat suits. The boy continued in a shaky voice.

“Yeah… and then the door slams shut… and I hear screaming sometimes.”

“Did you see how they open the door?”

“There’s… a thing on the wall. You press it, and then pull something. On the right wall.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

Cha Eui-jae grasped the boy’s hand through the bars and whispered,

“I’ll be right back. Wait for me.”

The boy nodded quickly. Cha Eui-jae began feeling along the wall next to the iron door. Then, he felt a slight misalignment. Pressing on it with force, a panel slid down, revealing a red lever. Without hesitation, Cha Eui-jae pulled it.

Clunk.

The heavy door began to rise slowly. A dizzyingly sweet and pungent scent hit him like a wave.

“…”

It was Lee Sa-young’s scent. Cha Eui-jae slowly stepped past the door. Beyond the corridor was another door, half-open.

The room inside resembled a dark laboratory. The first thing that caught his eye was a massive glass tube. The violet liquid inside bubbled and boiled. Cha Eui-jae stared at it, dazed. He could tell right away— it was poison. The source of the sweet scent was that tube.

‘It looks like the antidote Lee Sa-young gave me…’

On the front of the glass tube, a sheet of paper was stuck, with a bright red skull symbol stamped on it.