When Min Yugeon opened up to me with genuine emotion, it became one of the most shocking moments of my life.
“I like you.”
The feelings that surged within him, so overwhelming they seemed ready to burst, shimmered in his eyes. His gaze, damp and fragile, gleamed with heartbreaking clarity. His tear-streaked face was twisted with emotion, betraying just how utterly out of control he was.
Most of all, it was his eyes when he looked at me.
No word seemed adequate to describe the trembling intensity in Min Yugeon’s gaze—it was powerful enough to scare me a little. His eyes, filled with something utterly different from the feelings I had long recognized, conveyed more vividly than any spoken words what was in his heart. And for the first time, those eyes felt unfamiliar to me. The moment he saw my reaction, the light in his gaze flickered out instantly.
“……”
I closed my eyes slowly and reopened them. The lingering image of that day faded, and I could finally see Sun Woosung clearly in front of me again.
Like a child just beginning to learn how to speak, I silently echoed Sun Woosung’s words in my mind. Words that had, involuntarily, brought back memories of Min Yugeon.
So he’s just interested in me?
A suffocating silence stretched between us. It felt like I had waited too long to respond, so I moved my lips—but in the end, I couldn’t form a single word, and fell into silence again. Those unreadable black eyes simply watched me.
How had I reacted in front of Min Yugeon? That raw emotion, too deep to measure, had hit me like a wave and made my throat tighten as if it had taken hold of me too.
But now…
No, first, I needed to fully understand what Sun Woosung meant.
I inhaled sharply, exhaled, and asked,
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
As if he had been waiting for the question, Sun Woosung immediately opened his mouth.
“Exactly what I said.”
He loosened the grip on my wrist slightly—but didn’t let go.
“I keep thinking about you, Seo Suho.”
“……!”
“When you look unwell like today, I want to know if you’re sick or if something happened… And when it seems like you don’t take care of yourself, I get angry.”
I stared at Sun Woosung in a daze. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
“…That’s why I said something inappropriate. I apologize.”
“……”
Sun Woosung isn’t the kind of person to speak thoughtlessly. But it also didn’t seem like he meant the kind of feelings that could be misunderstood. He was composed, showing no signs of nervousness or trembling.
Do people just naturally have this knack for saying things that confuse others? I briefly thought of Yeo Wonjin, then dismissed it. Still, no matter how you phrase it, a confession of personal interest from one person to another tends to sound peculiar.
After organizing my thoughts, I nodded.
“I know, Colonel, that you’ve been looking out for me.”
Sun Woosung stared at me in silence.
“Thank you. For everything you’ve done.”
He had kept a close eye even when it seemed like someone might be following me, and rushed to help without hesitation when I injured my ankle. Even if someone held personal concern, it wouldn’t be easy to act as Sun Woosung did.
And to that kind of person, I had drawn a line in the heat of the moment.
“I think I may have spoken too harshly just now.”
I offered a sincere apology, but Sun Woosung’s response was hard to read.
Was it disillusionment? Disappointment? His expression didn’t quite fit the situation.
“……”
His eyes, which had been as still as a statue, slowly drifted downward.
I thought I heard the faint sound of a sigh.
“Colonel?”
“Yes.”
When I called him, puzzled, he responded right away. He gently released my wrist. As I rubbed the spot still warm with his touch, I cautiously asked, wondering if I had said something wrong.
“Did I… make a mistake?”
“No.”
Sun Woosung denied it instantly.
“It’s just… I think I finally understand now. Why the Captain was so blatantly obvious.”
“……Excuse me?”
“Do you really not know, or are you pretending not to?”
His eyes locked onto mine as he asked, utterly serious. I almost wanted to ask him the same thing: How am I supposed to understand if no one says it clearly?
***
Sun Woosung had supposedly returned to the base around lunchtime, but he came back to the lab because he had been worried about me—I had seemed out of it since morning. When I shook my head and said I was fine, he didn’t press further and left quietly, a gesture that spoke of his consideration.
After seeing him off, I returned to the observation room in Building A. Lee Shin was lying on the bed, propped up on his arm, staring at the ceiling.
His lower lip jutted out, clearly showing he was in a bad mood.
Do you not think he’s trying to lower your guard?
That was Sun Woosung’s cool, calculating response when our conversation had turned to Lee Shin before he left.
If he really were as dumb as he acts in front of you, he wouldn’t have survived on the surface for long. Don’t trust him too much.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t considered the possibility. But still…
I watched Lee Shin with furrowed brows, then slowly stepped closer to the partition wall. Like a beast with a sharp sixth sense, Lee Shin instantly picked up on my presence and sat up, fixing his gaze on me.
“……”
“Suho?”
He stepped down from the bed and tilted his head as he approached me. He looked puzzled that I wasn’t coming in right away.
I looked at Lee Shin standing behind the barrier.
“Lee Shin.”
His eyes went wide as he stared at me. I hesitated, then spoke.
“Back where you used to live… did you have any family?”
He could speak fairly well by now, so he should be able to answer.
I had wondered why he had been so overwhelmed by fear and rage when he was first brought here. Sun Woosung said no other survivors had been found, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any they had missed.
“Family?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Shin’s face went blank with confusion. I added quietly,
“It doesn’t have to be blood-related. Just someone important to you.”
“Umm…”
He rolled his eyes and chewed on his lip. After a long moment, he finally answered.
“Yeah. I had family.”
Lee Shin blinked and nodded.
“But not anymore.”
“What?”
“Noona’s gone. It’s been a long time.”
I fell silent as I watched him speak without a trace of sorrow.
It seemed like the last family member he had survived with was his older sister. He didn’t seem to have a clear concept of time, so he probably didn’t know exactly when she died.
“Noona protected Lee Shin. That’s why she fell instead.”
His voice grew faint as if he were rummaging through old memories, and then he looked at me.
“Suho… why are you asking that?”
“……”
I couldn’t bring myself to say that I had momentarily suspected he might be clinging to some hidden reason for returning to the surface—that he might be trying to manipulate me into letting my guard down to escape.
I hesitated, then turned and stepped inside.
As I entered the space where Lee Shin was, his tall, bare frame sauntered over. Sniffing the air, he tilted his head slightly, then leaned in and pressed his nose to my neck.
“Smells like a strong one.”
I pretended not to hear him and wrapped my arms around his broad back. I could feel him stiffen at once.
“Sorry for asking.”
“…Why?”
“Because it made you remember something painful.”
Lee Shin stayed silent for a while.
He stood there, just breathing, and then slowly returned the hug. His thick, muscular arms tightened around my shoulders and back. He seemed to be controlling his strength—it didn’t hurt.
“I’m not sad.”
Lee Shin spoke clearly.
“If I’m sad, Noona gets mad.”
He told me how scary his sister was when she got angry. How she’d hang him from trees or bury him completely in sand. He even said there were times he nearly died, and I pulled away from the hug in shock.
…Apparently, when it was really bad, she even threw him at monsters.
The more he talked, the more I realized his sister had likely been just like him—not very articulate but physically superior.
Surprisingly, he said they even managed to catch monsters now and then, using them as food. If the monsters were isolated and not too intelligent, the two of them could take them down together.
Right. No matter how angry she was, she wouldn’t have thrown her little brother at a monster without thinking.
But… they ate the monsters?
“Tastes bad.”
Lee Shin made a grim face as he described the flavor of monster meat. Just remembering it seemed to make him crave a palate cleanser—he pulled out a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth.
The idea of eating monsters wasn’t something even the researchers here had ever considered. No one knew what side effects it might have. To confirm the safety of such consumption, they would have to conduct trials on live humans. But no one would willingly take that risk.
Unless something catastrophic happened to the ship’s agricultural systems, or there was an absolute necessity to consume monsters, research into making them edible wouldn’t even begin.
Still, the fact that the siblings had eaten monsters made me wonder if it had caused some unique effect in their bodies. Absentmindedly, I ran my fingers over the data pad tucked in my pocket. I would document what I’d heard—but I had no intention of reporting it.
Because keeping Lee Shin in this lab might no longer be about protecting him.
