Chapter 2

“…What?”

Jaekani muttered blankly, and the figure behind the bars repeated it with amusement before breaking into a soft laugh. The swirling dust and rolling chunks of displaced concrete created an eerie noise, but the sound of that laugh was oddly clear and sharp, cutting through the ominous atmosphere.

“A zombie? Me?”

What emerged next from the shadows was a straight nose and lips so red they looked like crushed petals.

In the village, young women painted their lips red during festivals, the artificial gloss and bold color stark against pale skin. The figure’s lips brought that memory to mind—an unreal shade of red that seized Jaekani’s attention.

“Isn’t that a bit rude for a first meeting?”

Jaekani realized something in that moment: when you’re truly shocked, your body goes stiff, leaving no room for trembling. Slowly, he began to rise, favoring an ankle that throbbed from his earlier fall. He shuffled back as if being dragged by invisible strings.

“…Are you human?” he asked cautiously.

“Not a zombie, that’s for sure.”

The playful tone carried a teasing lightness, and Jaekani’s racing heart began to calm. Bowing his head slightly, he focused on the person behind the bars. Despite it being midday, the semi-basement was dark, and the building’s shadows obscured the man’s figure.

All Jaekani could make out were vivid green eyes and pale fingers curled around the rusted bars. The rest of the man—his clothing, his surroundings—was swallowed by shadow.

“What are you doing in there? Are you trapped? What kind of crime did you commit to end up here?”

Taking a few steps back, Jaekani examined the exterior of the building he had stumbled upon. Retracing his path confirmed it—this was the abandoned maintenance building on the edge of the village. Few villagers even knew of its existence, given how isolated it was.

The village occasionally dealt with criminals or intruders, but those people were taken to the prison, not some forgotten ruin. Everyone, including Jaekani, knew where the prison was located.

The man didn’t answer Jaekani’s questions. Instead, he gave a faint, unreadable smile, one that seemed to suggest he knew far more than he was letting on.

What would I even say if he asked me to let him out? How would I refuse?

As Jaekani wrestled with his thoughts, the man tilted his chin up slightly.

“What’s your name?”

“…Me?”

“Who else is here besides you?”

“You.”

“Me? You’re asking for my name?”

“Tell me yours first,” Jaekani countered.

If he wasn’t a zombie, he should at least have a name, Jaekani figured.

“Huikyung.”

“Hu… what?”

“Huikyung.”

The name rolled off his tongue too smoothly to be a lie, though it sounded like a foreign word to Jaekani. It softened his suspicion, if only slightly.

“Hui…kyung. Why are you locked up here?”

“Just call me Hui.”

The man replied, his tone dripping with the assumption that Jaekani couldn’t pronounce it properly.

Irritated by the condescension, Jaekani pursed his lips stubbornly, determined to say it correctly. His lips formed a round shape, preparing to let out the soft sound.

“Hui.”

“Hu-i.”

Although Jaekani heard it repeated several times, he couldn’t distinguish the subtle difference.

Still, it was someone’s name, so he had to get it right.

After multiple attempts, Jaekani finally managed to produce something close to “Hui.” Satisfied with the improved pronunciation, he pressed the man again about why he was imprisoned here.

“If you tell me your name first, I’ll tell you.”

Huikyung bargained with a faint smirk.

That’s petty, using my own tactic against me.

Exchanging names was a fair trade, yet something about the way the conversation was flowing—how Huikyung seemed to subtly control it—left Jaekani unsettled.

“…Jaekani.”

“Unusual name,” Huikyung remarked.

Coming from someone with a name as hard to pronounce as his, Jaekani couldn’t help but find the comment ironic.

“It’s not that unusual.”

In the village, unusual names weren’t uncommon. Jaekani’s father, for example, had a name that stood out as well. With a shrug, Jaekani found himself mentioning it offhandedly—that people in the village called his father ‘Jigi’ because his real name was just as peculiar, and it was easier to differentiate that way.

Realizing he had let that slip, Jaekani quickly lowered his gaze and glanced at Huikyung. The man didn’t seem particularly interested, his green eyes showing no calculated effort to lower Jaekani’s guard. If anything, his demeanor suggested complete indifference to Jaekani’s personal life.

Jaekani wasn’t normally talkative, and it felt strange to hear himself rambling about his father’s name without being prompted. Yet, because Huikyung’s expression was light and uninterested—simply listening without judgment—it was easier for Jaekani to relax his guard.

“Why are you locked up here?” Jaekani asked again.

This time, Huikyung chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders.

“Good question. I’d like to know too.”

But there was no curiosity in his tone or expression, and Jaekani was certain the man knew perfectly well why he was imprisoned.

‘Anyone locked up, whether in a prison or elsewhere, is bound to be dangerous,’ Jaekani thought.

‘That’s common sense.’ He didn’t know if it was the village council or patrols who had put Huikyung there, but he trusted there was a good reason for it.

Rebuilding his walls of caution, Jaekani took a step back. There was no reason to linger near someone dangerous.

“Well then…”

He still had work to do, after all. The blasted drainage pipes weren’t going to fix themselves. He needed to go into the crumbling maintenance building and do something about it.

Before turning away, Jaekani’s eyes fell on Huikyung’s fingers gripping the bars. They were unnaturally clean, without a single scratch—hardly what one would expect from someone imprisoned.

Scratching the back of his neck, Jaekani wondered.

‘What kind of farewell do you even say in a situation like this?’

“… Well, stay locked up safely.”

At the awkward remark, Huikyung smirked, easily reading Jaekani’s discomfort.

“Sure. I’ll stay safely locked up.”

With that, Jaekani turned away, heading toward the entrance of the maintenance building. Inside, he began inspecting the ancient pipes and crumbling concrete, trying to figure out the drainage system. As he worked, the brief encounter with Huikyung replayed in his mind.

‘Calling my name unusual when his is that hard to pronounce… Seriously.’

Pursing his lips, Jaekani mumbled Huikyung’s name under his breath, trying to perfect its pronunciation.

‘Huikyuung. Huiikyoung. Huiii… gyung.’

‘It sounds fine to me,’ he thought, lips forming different shapes as he repeated the name. While not perfect, the repetition helped him get used to the name until it no longer felt so alien. Eventually, saying it over and over, it even started to sound like a melody.

But as he practiced, a loud crashing noise snapped him out of his thoughts. Straightening up, Jaekani realized part of the concrete structure had collapsed. The building was so decrepit that it wasn’t surprising.

‘It won’t collapse completely… right?’

As he glanced around, Jaekani noticed a trail of fresh footprints nearby. Someone had been through here recently. Squinting, he could see nothing but the shadowy stairwell in the distance.

‘Am I even in the right place?’

He wondered. There was no guarantee the drainage issue was related to this maintenance building.

After an hour or two of fruitless searching, Jaekani sighed and stepped back outside.

The crunch of concrete rubble under his boots felt strangely self-conscious, like it was drawing attention to his presence. He froze for a moment, then turned his head.

The half-submerged bars and shadowy basement he had seen earlier were still there. Huikyung’s pale fingers, which had clung to the bars before, were now gone.

‘If he’s really locked up, he’s still in there somewhere.’

For a moment, Jaekani considered calling out to say goodbye again, but he hesitated. After a moment’s pause, he turned away.

Reality was more pressing than idle chatter. He still had to return to the slaughterhouse and figure out how to explain his wasted time. The thought made his head ache. ‘If I could,’ he thought, ‘I’d shout that this isn’t my job and tell them to go find my drunk father instead.’

But that would likely result in his father being the one locked away in a place like this.

Half an outcast in the village, Jaekani knew all too well what the villagers whispered about him and his father. Even he could see there wasn’t much resemblance between the two of them.

‘But in a world like this, does it even matter?’

Jaekani thought, brushing aside the village gossip. There were more immediate problems to deal with—like all the work left unfinished because his father was too busy being a drunken nuisance.