FLIA 30

Lee Hyunmook, who had awakened in an instant and rescued Yohan from Yoon Seungryong’s grasp, casually brushed the back of Yohan’s neck where he’d been grabbed. After confirming there were no injuries, he greeted him as if nothing had happened.

“How’s your body feeling?”

“I-I’m okay. I think I slept really well… but, um, Mr. Yoon Seungryong is awake…”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

Lee Hyunmook didn’t even glance at Seungryong, who was still rolling around on the living room floor. His focus was solely on checking if Yohan was unharmed. Meanwhile, Yoon Seungryong, finally recovering from the blinding pain in his head, groaned and crawled across the floor.

“Aaargh… Shit, okay, yeah, it’s not a dream or a hallucination… Fuck… my head…”

Still ignoring him entirely, Lee Hyunmook walked over to the kitchen. He relit the burner and resumed stir-frying the ham Yohan had started. Yoon Seungryong clutched his head and groaned as he stared dazedly at the scene. He sniffed the air and muttered,

“What the hell? Why does it smell so good in here…?”

Yohan glanced at him and began scooping three bowls of white rice, opening a can of kimchi and setting it out. He added yesterday’s leftover grilled pork, ssamjang, vegetables, cucumber and carrot sticks to plates, quickly assembling a fairly generous spread. Lee Hyunmook brought the finished ham and onion stir-fry to the table in the pan itself and gestured toward Seungryong.

“Come eat first.”

Yoon Seungryong sprang up and stumbled to the table, then sat down and blinked at the food, at Lee Hyunmook, and then at Yohan. Dazed, he muttered,

“Did I finally die and go to heaven? This has to be a hallucination. There’s no way this is real. Fuck… That bastard of a leader must’ve killed me and now I’m in heaven.”

The insulted “bastard leader” aside, Yohan pitied him for being unable to accept reality.

“You must be hungry. Please, help yourself.”

Honestly, after gorging on that mountain of pork, he should’ve been full for a month, but apparently not. Yoon Seungryong picked up his spoon with a trembling hand and took a mouthful of warm rice. After a few chews, his eyes widened and he began gobbling it down.

But the second spoonful was chewed painfully slowly. He looked exactly like Lee Hyunmook had when Yohan had first offered him his emergency food supply, trying to savor the rare moment for as long as possible.

Yoon Seungryong wordlessly dipped a crunchy cucumber into ssamjang, added kimchi to his rice, and took a big scoop of stir-fried ham and onions. After finishing one full bowl of rice, he begged with pathetic sincerity.

“C-can I have just one more bowl… please…?”

Feeling deeply sympathetic, Yohan scraped together the rest of the rice and handed him a heaping portion. This time, Yoon Seungryong tore into it with barely contained hunger. For dessert, he opened and devoured a can of fruit cocktail. Not caring one bit about appearances, he licked his bowls clean and then leaned back, eyes closed, savoring the moment in complete silence. Like someone waking from a blissful dream, he let out a deep, satisfied sigh before speaking.

“…So I guess this isn’t a dream or a hallucination. …Team Leader. What the hell happened?”

“How much do you remember?”

At Lee Hyunmook’s question, Yoon Seungryong furrowed his brow, instantly looking more thuggish and threatening. It also didn’t help that he was still completely naked. Neither Lee Hyunmook nor Yoon Seungryong seemed to care about the nudity, only Yohan suffered internally.

“Hmm… maybe… thirty years ago? No, fifty? Eighty? I remember getting into a nasty fight with you and getting buried underground… My back bent backward and I was messed up for a while…”

Yohan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Bent backward? Was that even physically possible? Lee Hyunmook calmly corrected him.

“Must’ve been rough. You’re mixing things up pretty bad if you think something that happened three months ago was thirty years ago. Sounds like you’re confusing some other stuff too.”

“What? Three months ago? No way! It felt like thirty years! And my back did bend backward!”

When Lee Hyunmook flatly denied it, Yoon Seungryong looked even more confused, but quickly shook his head.

“Whatever. That’s not the point. Who’s he? Why are you and I totally fine? Don’t tell me… did we escape the Abyss? Were we rescued?”

Getting more and more agitated, Yoon Seungryong started breathing hard. It seemed he hadn’t seen the blood-red sky unique to the Abyss outside the window yet.

“No. Look outside.”

He flinched and slowly turned around. When he saw the murky, churning sky, his face went blank.

“…Ah. Of course. Right. That makes sense.”

His voice slowed to a crawl as he deflated like a punctured balloon. Unconcerned with Yoon Seungryong’s mood, Lee Hyunmook continued flatly.

“This is Yang Yohan. He fell into the Abyss recently and awakened as a purifier. That’s why he can cure corruption.”

“What the hell are you talking about? That’s insane, even if you’ve lost your mind, how can you say that with a straight face?”

Yoon Seungryong scoffed and shook his head, letting out a bitter laugh. His chuckle quickly turned biting.

“Like fuck something that good would ever happen in this goddamn place. You expect me to believe something that hasn’t even happened outside the Abyss is happening here?”

His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. Clawing at his scalp, he began to mutter feverishly.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, purification? Cure corruption? Bullshit, fucking bullshit. If that existed, I wouldn’t’ve had to eat mud in that fucking cave all that time. Drink and eat and drink and eat and fucking drink again, but I was still starving—”

Madness had returned. Yoon Seungryong’s muttering sped up. While Yohan froze in fear, Lee Hyunmook approached calmly and made a fist. Sensing he was about to strike, Yohan quickly stepped between them.

“N-no! He’s not well! If you hit his head again, it could get worse!”

“Yohan. When something’s broken, sometimes you just have to hit it to fix it.”

Lee Hyunmook said it with total seriousness. Yohan, defiant for once, stood his ground and shook his head. Then he quickly scattered some of his light onto Yoon Seungryong. His power was depleted from yesterday’s purification, so only a few faint sparkles emerged, but he gave it all he had. Yoon Seungryong, who had been pulling at his ears like he meant to tear them off, suddenly looked up. He blinked and, for the first time, seemed to really see Yohan.

“W-wait… your ability… what is this? It feels… so good…”

His eyes lit up as he gazed in awe at the shimmering white light. He reached out to gently catch a flicker of it. When it absorbed into his body, his eyelids fluttered and he sighed in bliss. Then, as he leaned toward Yohan with a dazed look.

Whack!

“AAH!”

Lee Hyunmook’s fist came down right on the top of Yoon Seungryong’s head, making Yohan yelp. Lee Hyunmook promptly picked Yohan up and set him down on the faraway couch.

“Probably best to keep your distance for now, Yohan.”

Then he approached Yoon Seungryong, who was writhing on the floor clutching his head, and spoke in a soft, almost gentle voice.

“If you don’t get your shit together right now, I can give you all the time you need to calm down, Yoon Seungryong. You like being buried underground, right? How about under the front yard? Wanna stay there for a week?”

The words were quiet, but the threat behind them was unmistakable. Sensing real danger, Yoon Seungryong instantly dropped to his knees. Staring straight at the floor, he finally used formal speech.

“N-no, sir…”

Groaning from the pain, he didn’t even dare lift his head. Yohan’s pupils trembled as he watched the man he’d only known as a calm and respected team leader on documentaries dominate his teammate. Whether Lee Hyunmook had always been like this or had become like this after falling into the Abyss, Yohan couldn’t tell.

Lee Hyunmook, having thoroughly silenced Yoon Seungryong, went to wash the dishes. While he clinked around in the kitchen, Yohan, feeling a bit awkward, quietly approached Yoon Seungryong and handed him a chocolate bar. It was a rare treat from the latest market run.

“H-huh…?”

Blinking in disbelief, Yoon Seungryong slowly unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth, letting it melt slowly. After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“…So are we really just gonna leave him like that?”

Lee Hyunmook, who had been discussing checking for nearby fruit trees with Yohan, glanced over. Yoon Seungryong, still looking nervous, kept stealing glances at Yohan, who, soft-spoken, gentle, seemingly fragile, looked like he’d fall apart at a breeze.

“If he really is a purifier, this must be his first awakening. So he’s probably high-level. But still, shouldn’t we put him somewhere safer?”

“Is there anywhere safe in the Abyss?”

With a chuckle, Lee Hyunmook gestured at Yoon Seungryong.

“That’s why I brought you back. You were nearby.”

“…Ah.”

Fiddling with the chocolate wrapper, Yoon Seungryong muttered with a small grin,

“Guess I’m lucky I was closest to the Team Leader.”

Then his attention turned back to Yohan. He approached with a beaming smile, which made Yohan instinctively lean back.

“So, your name’s Yohan? Yang Yohan?”

“Yes, Mr. Yoon Seungryong…”

“Aw, come on, ‘Mr. Yoon Seungryong’? Just call me hyung. We’re gonna be close, right? That meal earlier? It was amazing. Thanks. …And for making me look like a normal person again… I can’t tell you how long it’s been…”

Despite sounding like some thug trying to extort him, the gratitude in his voice was genuine. His wording, “look like a normal person again”, was unsettling, but Yohan didn’t want to spoil the mood. He smiled politely, then finally said what he’d been dying to say.

“But, um… even just underwear is fine… can you please put some clothes on…”