B | Chapter 3

Running almost as if I were flying, I arrived in front of the office building at five in the morning.

On the first floor of the building, there was a fried food pub and a coin laundry, and from the second floor up, it was the Jinhan Mercenary Office.

As I reached the elevator and pressed the up button, I suddenly worried about the smell. Having been out collecting monster remains for over ten days, I was sure the stench had seeped into my pores.

I didn’t have time to wash, and there wasn’t a suitable place nearby, so I used half a bottle of 500ml water from my work clothes pocket to quickly rinse my hands and face.

With my hands and the tips of my sneakers damp, I got on the elevator and pressed the buttons for the 2nd and 5th floors in succession. As soon as the door opened on the 2nd floor, I craned my neck toward the visible desk.

“Song Morae here. Which room should I go to?”

The desk clerk glanced at me, then at the whiteboard on the wall, and said, “Go up to room 501.”

Instead of replying, I firmly pressed the close button. I unzipped my work clothes, which were zipped up to my chin. When the door opened again, I was in a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. Unlike before, the dimly lit hallway was revealed. With a deep sigh, I crossed the musty, moldy-smelling corridor.

As soon as I opened the door to room 501, my mood sank even further. In the center of the narrow room, with only a low sofa and a stand on the floor, Han Geon was standing with his legs fully exposed, wearing just a sweatshirt and underwear.

The pervert was at it again.

“Hey, hyung?”

He laughed, grabbing his crotch over his loose underwear. His awkward steps, as he approached me, made his skinny legs look like a crab.

“It’s been a while since we met… Are you going to make that annoying face?”

Han Geon shamelessly continued to pleasure himself, his gaze fixed on my face. With just a few crude gestures, his front bulged. His face flushed, and a silly smile spread, but his happiness was short-lived. As soon as he stood on tiptoe to meet my eye level, his face crumpled.

“Ah, damn…! What’s that smell?”

Han Geon stepped back, pinching his nose with one hand.

I briefly considered turning around and leaving, but quickly dismissed the thought. Running away wouldn’t help at all.

I suppressed my anger and closed the door behind me. In this outdated mercenary office, Han Geon was the only Newtype with a promising future.

He was the only C+ grade among the mercenaries and had great potential for growth due to his young age. Judging by the medical bands plastered on his jaw and wrists, it seemed he had just completed a big job.

If I couldn’t handle even one Newtype, there was no reason for the office to keep me around.

Especially since the mercenary leader was very fond of Han Geon. The affection went beyond seeing him as a mere money-making tool, stemming from Han Geon’s pretty appearance.

The problem was that Han Geon was a filthy pervert who didn’t know how to live up to his looks.

“Ah, geez… Hyung, why don’t you go to the bathhouse?”

No doubt, the mercenary leader had promised him a better-skilled, higher-grade guide. Yet, Han Geon stubbornly insisted on me, not out of humility or loyalty. From the moment he first met me, he wanted to sleep with me.

“Hmm, never mind! It’ll get dirty anyway. I’m in a hurry, so come here. Quickly.”

Muttering to himself, Han Geon reached out his arm. One thing to remember when facing a newtype is never to judge their strength by appearance alone. Han Geon was no exception. To shake off the grip of his skinny little hand, I had to swing my fist hard.

“Ouch.”

Even though I only hit the back of his hand, Han Geon exaggerated his pain. He frowned deeply, seemingly upset by the small rejection, and sneered.

“Hyung, are you even an A-grade guide? How are you going to guide without holding hands? If you don’t kiss, don’t jerk me off, don’t have sex, damn!”

His unclear mumbling ended in a sudden outburst of profanity. As usual, I acted the same in front of him, waiting for him to calm down on his own.

Han Geon’s downside was that he liked me, and that was also his advantage. He wanted more than I could give, so he’d whine and cry, but for the same reason, he’d quickly calm down and flash a bashful smile.

“Hyung. Morae hyung… You should be grateful to me. Don’t you know? I stopped the leader from firing you, saying you seemed more useless. I told him it’s pitiful how you come running like a puppy when called, and he said, ‘That’s true.'”

It wasn’t something I didn’t know. It was just something I didn’t need to acknowledge.

“Actually, hyung’s best trait is, ha… that your looks are my type.”

After listening to his nonsense, I usually had a chance to calm him down. Like handling a puppy or a kitten, I’d pat his head, nod at his grumbling words, and take him to the narrow sofa to hold him. It was both a tragedy and a comedy for me that what he wanted wasn’t just sex with me. He wanted love from me, but I couldn’t find such a feeling within myself.

Then suddenly, there was a loud thud. My head whipped around, and my ears rang. Half of my face burned as if it were on fire. He had punched me in the cheek. Looking up at me with a twisted smile, Han Geon didn’t seem to realize he had swung his fist.

There was no way to stop him as he took a step closer. I could only quickly dodge his incoming punch. The dull vibration echoed from the wall where his missed punch landed.

Where the hell did this guy come from? I hadn’t heard he was in such an excited state.

“Han Geon. This won’t work. Call another guide for help.”

As I said that, I reached back. As soon as I opened the door by grabbing the doorknob and pulling it inward, Han Geon stretched his leg next to my waist. Then, with a kick, he slammed the door shut with a bang.

There was no need to hesitate anymore. I punched his pretty face.

“Get a grip.”

Even when I hit him hard to wake him up, Han Geon just laughed with a red face. Like a madman, like someone intoxicated, he shook his shoulders and then quickly twisted his face. He muttered.

“Hyung. Why can’t I?”

“What?”

“I know everything. I heard it all. Before you took me, you were screwing some old mercenary, calling him ‘uncle,’ ‘uncle,’ and following him around… Don’t tell me you prefer older guys?”

I was dumbfounded by his nonsense, spewed with a furrowed brow. It was something I had tried hard to forget, pretending it never happened. He brought up my past, which I had painstakingly covered, as if it were some great betrayal. His attitude was not only ignorant but also arrogant.

No matter what I did in the past or who I associated with, my past was entirely my own. It was something I had to bear and the debt I had to repay. I was always alone. No one had ever offered me even a grain of help for my survival.

But now, in this outdated mercenary office, as a newtype and guide, Han Geon acted as if he had the right to interfere in my life.

“How did you do it with that ‘uncle’?”

Han Geon asked me. It seemed his mouth was watering. His voice was smacking.

“What’s so hard about doing the same thing with me?”

Then he took another step closer. I let him wrap his arms around my waist and lean his head on my shoulder. Not because I liked him or had any intention of giving in to him. It was because I felt so empty and angry that I thought I might really commit murder.

As I tried to calm my anger by taking slow breaths, Han Geon was oblivious. Just as he was about to press his body against my groin, he suddenly looked up at me. His pale hand groped my center.

Blood rushed backward.

“Oh? It’s bigger than I thought, hyung….”

At the end of his words, Han Geon let out a ‘ugh’ sound and fell backward. My fist was on fire. After punching his pretty nose, I kicked his leg hard.

“Shit, shit…!”

With a muffled voice, Han Geon made a clumsy sound and retreated to a corner. Even then, he hurriedly reached out and clung to my thigh.

“Why! Why!”

His words were unclear, making it hard to understand. He seemed to be complaining and pleading with me, then suddenly lunged at me, trying to choke me. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I punched him in the side and forcibly threw him off me. As a result, Han Geon rolled on the narrow floor, leaving three scratch marks on my neck from his nails.

“Huff, damn….”

It wasn’t easy to shake off a newtype who didn’t know when to give up. The physical fight with him was nothing more than a one-to-one exchange, hitting and getting hit. Luckily, I was strong enough; otherwise, an ordinary person would have been knocked out by now.

“Ugh, damn, damn! Are you really a guide? Aren’t you actually a newtype…!”

Han Geon shouted as he charged at me. With a brute-force tackle, I rolled on the floor. He didn’t miss the opportunity and hugged my waist tightly. Burying his face in my chest, he breathed heavily, and I could feel my clothes getting wet with either tears or saliva. I thought he might have come to his senses, so I tried to calm him down.

“Geon-ah.”

Then Han Geon lifted my waist and moved me to the sofa. As soon as my back hit the hard cushion, the disgust turned into nausea. My uneasy prediction was spot on. Han Geon climbed on top of me and hurriedly took off his underwear.

‘This little brat!’

His bony butt felt almost sharp as it rubbed against my center. His exposed member was already wet. With his pink organ half-erect, he fumbled with my pants buckle, focusing stubbornly on taking them off even as he got hit on the head, chest, and shoulders, like a ghost starving to death.

The sound of the zipper sliding down my hips felt particularly sharp. It was like a knife scraping inside my head.

“Ha, hurry… Put it in.”

Sitting on top of me, who was on the verge of vomiting from disgust rather than arousal, Han Geon made an impossible request. My whole body was covered in goosebumps, and I shivered with rage, but he kept groping my chest and stomach muscles.

“Hyung….”

And then there was a loud ‘bang.’

It was such a loud noise that I momentarily thought a bomb had exploded. My mouth opened in surprise, and my body froze.

All I could see was Han Geon turning his head toward the door. The light from the hallway cast a straight line on his profile.

In the next moment, Han Geon’s face was grabbed by a large hand.

The intruder who suddenly walked in moved too quickly for me to see his face properly. All I saw was Han Geon, dangling like a rag doll with his head caught in the man’s grip, and the man’s back as he went to the only window in the narrow room and threw Han Geon outside.

That was all.

Han Geon, who fell from the 5th floor, made no sound. After two seconds of silence, only the beeping of a car’s anti-theft alarm echoed sharply.

I couldn’t even be surprised. My ears were buzzing from the sudden turn of events. The weight of Han Geon, who had been on top of me, hadn’t even faded yet.

The silhouette of the unfamiliar man standing in the center of the narrow room, three steps away, was intensely surreal. He was so large that his shadow reached the ceiling.

He was tall, and his build was even bigger. His hand, which he lightly shook in the air, was large, and his feet in black shoes were large too.

He turned around and looked at me.

“Is that your partner?”

He gestured toward the window with his chin and spoke. Even his voice felt dreamlike. Not a beautiful dream, but a nightmare where disaster rises from the end of twilight. His voice was so low and cold that it naturally evoked such thoughts.

“He just died. Now it’s time for you to get a new partner, huh?”

Even as I strained my eyes to see, I couldn’t make out his face. The only light, a stand, was left dangling on the floor, casting a curve of light only on his lower jaw, leaving his face in complete darkness. Like wearing a black mask, he walked toward me with a pitch-black expression.

I could only watch him quickly approach; I couldn’t stand up. Instead, I pressed my back deep into the sofa, clamping my mouth shut.

And I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I did it instinctively. It was almost like playing dead in silence.

Soon, my body swayed left and right with a creaking sound. The unfamiliar man had stepped onto the sofa. His shoe was placed next to my side.

His head, high enough to touch the ceiling, slowly, very slowly, lowered toward me. He took his time bending over me, past 90 degrees.

Finally, I saw his face. The first thought that came to mind was a stupid worry that his sharp nose might pierce my face.

Next, I admired the depth of his eyes, framed by long eyelashes, and I was convinced that the black eyes, holding the oval frame of the cheap stand light, belonged to a monster in human disguise.

The lack of emotion or expression in his eyes, nose, and mouth felt unsettling.

And the fear of ignorance that had been occupying me vanished.

I immediately recognized who he was. And the fear of knowing made my hands and feet cold.

Standing tall above me, looking down at my face horizontally, he took a deep breath. And he smiled. Even with the monster’s scent buried from the ruined gate, the smell of blood and sweat, and the scent of humiliation covering me right in front of him, he smiled.

“Your scent…. I really like it.”

I couldn’t say anything. The words that lingered in my mind were just three letters,

Jae Chaeui.

Only his name.