FLIA 96

At the top of the article were several high-resolution photos. There was also footage taken from the helicopter that day. The images clearly showed Lee Hyunmook, the rest of the party, and the Special Suppression Unit. Fortunately, Lee Hyunmook had blocked the view in advance, so Yohan’s face had not been revealed.

The article laid out a logical timeline detailing the activities, disappearance, and return of Lee Hyunmook and the Sunrise Team, speculating about their condition. It also expressed curiosity about the identity of one returning survivor whose face had not been shown. Yohan felt relieved his identity had remained hidden and tapped into the comments.

yout*****: Lee Hyunmook, Lee Chanha, Seo Yakrin, Yoon Seungryong, Ju Hoyoung. Thank you so much for returning to Korea.

Likes: 13,890 Dislikes: 4,492

└Who are the idiots hitting dislike

└How are we supposed to subdue the corrupted ones? They’re just monsters. We should kill them before it’s too late.

└They look totally fine though, and it’s “eotteoke,” not “eotteokhae”

Contraction of 어떻게 해 (“how do [you] do [something]”) It’s mostly used in spoken Korean. But when it’s used before another verb, like “제압하다” (to subdue), the correct form is 어떻게 (eotteoke).

└Yeah, and that serial killer Lee Jeongdong looked fine on the outside too~

└Even if you kill them, we already don’t have enough manpower with people dying every day

└Even without Lee Hyunmook, Goddess Siyoung handled everything just fine

└That Goddess Siyoung is also at dangerous corruption levels, idiot

ilov*****: I’m a family member of an Abyss missing person… can I have hope now? I really hope my dad is alive.

Likes: 5,690 Dislikes: 229

└Wishing for his safe return

└Wishing for his safe return 22222

└My sister went missing in the Abyss too… I still believe she’ll come back

ulta*****: What’s with Lee Hyunmook’s hair color, is that from corruption?

Likes: 3,146 Dislikes: 1,329

└Probably from stress

└Looks like corruption, shit, is our country finally doomed?

└If he’s that corrupted, he shouldn’t have come back. Is he planning to kill everyone, haha

└Just ship him off to another country lol

└Lee Hyunmook stans were sobbing for three years straight, now they won’t shut up, so annoying

└Can’t even congratulate a safe return without people being dicks. If you hate it so much, get out of Korea

eeev*****: Who’s that other returnee? If they got back safely, shouldn’t we send a search team into the Abyss? There could be other survivors

Likes: 2,353 Dislikes: 1,798

└Search team? No sane person would go in there

└Even Lee Hyunmook only made it back after three years. Not happening

└They could still be alive, who knows

└The other mid-level nobodies probably just rode on Lee Hyunmook’s coattails. Only high-level awakener like him could survive

└Look at this guy calling others “mid-level nobodies,” lol. The ones who haven’t even awakened always talk the loudest

Yohan had been on the internet for the first time in a while and completely lost track of time. All he did was skim the news and read a few comments, but when he finally snapped out of it, it was already mealtime. Even as he ate, he couldn’t put his phone down.

Many people were celebrating the Sunrise Team’s return, but just as many were looking at Lee Hyunmook’s grayed hair and were worried about how corrupted he might be. Calling it “worry” was being generous. Some were calling for immediate quarantine or demanding foreign high-level awakeners be brought in to kill them.

How could they talk like that about people who had saved countless lives and barely made it back after enduring the Abyss? Look at them. Don’t they look totally fine? They didn’t even resist when the suppression unit came. Would truly contaminated people behave that way? Yohan scrolled furiously, teeth clenched.

A light knocking sounded on the glass. He looked up, startled. Seo Yakrin and Ju Hoyoung were standing outside, smiling and waving. Yohan jumped up from his seat, and the Special Suppression Unit member who had come with them opened the double-glass door. The soldier didn’t say anything but wore a surprisingly friendly look.

“Yakrin-noona! Hoyoung-ah!”

Yohan greeted them with a big smile, then froze. He had called Ju Hoyoung by name out of habit. But now he knew the man was much, much older than him. Hesitating, he corrected himself.

“Hoyoung-hyung…”

His attitude automatically became more respectful. Come to think of it, weren’t they way too old for him to be calling them hyung or noona? He suddenly remembered how they had treated him like a “kid nephew”. At twenty-three, Yohan couldn’t even begin to imagine how it felt to talk to someone much, much younger than him. He opened his mouth carefully.

“Noonim…? Hyungnim…?”

Yohan, who had grown up in a strict, conservative household and had always been kept in line by his older brother, started sweating nervously. They weren’t just aunt or uncle level. If you went by age, it was great-grand… no, great-great-grand… should he go even further back? Before he could finish the calculation, Seo Yakrin pulled him into a hug and cried out,

“No, Yohan-ah! Please call me noona. Noonim is way too distant.”

“I vote no on hyungnim too! It’s totally fine to keep calling us by name!”

Ju Hoyoung also pulled him into a hug. With both of them so firmly against the change, and the distance suddenly feeling real, and their faces still looking young enough to match, Yohan had no choice but to promise he’d keep calling them the same as before.

“How’s the corruption?”

“This isn’t the Abyss. Whether it’s been a year or ten, we’re doing great.”

Seo Yakrin replied in a joyful voice. Yohan checked their conditions with purification and found, just like with Yoon Seungryong, no buildup of corruption. But Yohan still continued to purify them. Their expressions loosened like people soaking in a hot spring.

“You were looking at reactions online, huh? In my experience, it’s best not to.”

Ju Hoyoung glanced at Yohan’s phone screen and closed the news app for him. Yohan smiled sheepishly and set the phone down.

“How’s everyone doing?”

“We’re each quarantined in similar places. But since there aren’t any major symptoms, they won’t be able to keep us much longer.”

It sounded like the government actually wanted to keep them locked up. But why, if there weren’t any major signs of corruption? Yohan looked puzzled, and Seo Yakrin smiled and patted his head affectionately.

“Our Yohan should get some rest. Leave the hard stuff to us.”

She treated him like a clueless kid. Maybe that was why they told him to keep his identity as a purifier a secret too. He was dying to ask but felt he shouldn’t say anything while still in a government facility, so he just nodded. Ju Hoyoung quickly changed the subject.

“They say we’re getting fried chicken for dinner tonight.”

“What, really? That sounds amazing.”

They chatted like that for a while, but eventually, the Special Suppression Unit member said it was time to return to their rooms. The two headed back. Yohan opened the news app again, hesitated, then gave up and watched a bunch of cute animal videos instead. It felt like his eyes were being purified after the torment in the Abyss.

That night, Lee Chanha visited him in a dream again.

“Yohan-gun.”

Surrounded by barking puppies and mewling kittens, Yohan turned his head. Lee Chanha was suddenly sitting beside him. He was reaching out cautiously, as if touching a strange creature, and petted a puppy. He looked like he hadn’t seen a dog in centuries. And indeed, he really hadn’t.

“Chanha-hyung! Look at these. Aren’t they just the cutest?”

“They are. Adorable.”

“… …?”

And his hand ended up somehow petting the top of Yohan’s head. Lee Chanha said, hugging a fluffy kitten that had crawled into his arms.

“Not long from now, the government will probably approach you. They’ll try to recruit you into one of their agencies. No matter what offer they make, you must not accept.”

“Even if they offer me 100 billion, I won’t.”

“Haha. Don’t refuse too bluntly. Pretend to consider it. Say the Abyss was too hard and you need to rest for now. That’ll be best.”

Yohan, who trusted the Sunrise Team more than anyone, nodded eagerly. Lee Chanha continued petting the cats and dogs for a while longer before vanishing. When he disappeared, Yohan woke up and finally realized it had all been a dream. He closed his eyes again and replayed everything Lee Chanha had said. And he had a gut feeling.

Maybe the government had something to do with why the Sunrise Team fell into the Abyss in the first place.