“……Daddy won’t come rescue us, right?”
He murmured as he stroked his lower belly. The baby, who had been kicking thump thump, was unusually quiet today. Wondering if it was because of his own sunken mood, Eunho forced himself to sound cheerful.
“It’s okay. I’ll figure something out somehow.”
Despite his words, Eunho’s hips slowly scooted sideways.
“T-this is.”
“……”
“Th-the blanket’s uncomfortable. So…… no, it’s just warm, the down feathers……”
Before his clumsy excuse even ended, Eunho burrowed deep into Yi-beom’s jacket.
Sniff sniff—his little ㅅ-shaped nose twitched busily.
“Ahjussi’s scent.”
The faint woody fragrance calmed his heart. The baby seemed to feel it too, pressing gently against his belly.
“Do you like Daddy’s scent too?”
Looking down at his lower stomach, Eunho fiddled with the jacket. Maybe he would never be able to smell Yi-beom again.
“N-no.”
“……”
“I’ll give the baby something else. This one’s Mom’s.”
Just as he muttered quietly, he heard movement outside. Gasping, Eunho quickly hid himself beneath the jacket.
With a creak, the door opened. A dark shadow fell across the jacket.
“Who’s there?”
Sensing someone, Grandma rubbed her sleepy eyes and sat up. The staff standing at the door bowed slightly.
“We’ve received all the materials we needed. You may return home now.”
Standing at the front, Sobin spoke with a pleasant smile.
“Thank you for participating all this time. The support funds we promised will be deposited into your account every month.”
“Well, even so, at this hour of the night?”
“We thought it would be better for you to leave as soon as possible, Elder.”
A bad feeling crept in. Among the victims attacked by carnivore Beastmen were not only pregnant women but many elderly people like Grandma.
No. Trying not to make it obvious, Eunho slipped a foot out from the jacket beneath the blanket and grasped the back of Grandma’s hand.
“Hm?”
Feeling the warm touch, Grandma let out a puzzled sound.
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
“N-no.”
Shaking her head, Grandma pointed to the part of the blanket that was slightly raised.
“With all this chaos going on, it’s amazing that the rabbit’s sleeping.”
Grandma, who had already lived through war, felt her instincts stirring. These bastards had clearly come to kill her.
Trusting government bastards. Guess my time’s come.
Even after being deceived during the war, she had been fooled again. Thinking of the rabbit trembling inside the jacket made her chest feel tight. She herself had lived long enough, but that tiny thing carrying a baby kept weighing on her mind.
“Oh well, I was sick of that brat’s snoring anyway. Good thing. I’ll sleep better at home.”
Groaning as she held her back, Grandma got up and tidied the blanket. Then she picked up the jacket—inside which Eunho was hiding—from one side.
“I didn’t really bring any luggage, but after taking care of that rabbit, I oughta take at least this jacket. Looks expensive too—must be from a rich house, huh?”
Once she died, he’d be able to sneak away. Everyone would be too distracted with their own reasons by then. Hugging the jacket tightly, Grandma waved her hand at Sobin.
“What, you not moving?”
Only then did Sobin tear his gaze away from the jacket.
“You’re not coming?”
He glanced into the room. The blanket still bulged just as before—no smaller, no flatter than earlier. After staring for a long moment, Sobin turned around.
“Let’s go.”
“Hurry up. I gotta harvest my peppers when I get back.”
Inside Grandma’s arms, Eunho held his breath.
***
The sound of an engine rumbled. Each time Grandma’s body jolted, Eunho clamped his mouth shut to keep from screaming.
A fear unlike anything he had felt when running from Yi-beom swallowed him whole. Perhaps sensing his trembling, Grandma wrapped the jacket tighter around him.
What do I do?
At this rate, Grandma might end up on the news too—this time as a victim of a horrific incident.
I can’t just wait for Ahjussi.
Usually Yi-beom solved everything that suffocated him, but not this time. Eunho pinched his own shaking body, forcing himself to steady his mind.
There’s no time. I have to do something. Ahjussi……
He won’t come. Remembering how he had coldly told him to leave, Eunho bit his lower lip.
Slowly moving closer to Grandma, he rustled the jacket. Grandma, who had been staring straight ahead the whole time, glanced inside.
Grandma……
You tiny thing. Shaking her head, Grandma slowly rubbed Eunho’s chin. Then, with careful hands, she pushed him deeper inside. At that moment, a small whimper slipped out of the jacket.
Sobin, seated across from them, looked down at it. Startled, Grandma quickly wrapped the jacket tighter and shifted the attention elsewhere.
“This doesn’t look like the road to my house?”
They had changed direction long ago—ever since leaving the village, they had been heading the opposite way from where they first came. Thinking she wouldn’t notice in the dark, Sobin’s expression stiffened.
“What’re you getting startled for? What could an old woman do even if she knew?”
“……”
“Hah, sitting folks all around and you’re still scared. Some man you are.”
Grandma let out a dry laugh as if it were ridiculous. The vehicle they were in was already a twelve-passenger van.
“You modified the seats like this in case someone tried to run, didn’t you?”
She glanced around the interior. Unlike ordinary vans where seats lined up facing forward, this one had been altered so the seats faced each other like a military transport.
Not information an ordinary grandmother would usually know. Sobin studied her and asked,
“……Did you work in this kind of field before?”
“You’d have to be crazy for that. Why would I do something so filthy?”
Clicking her tongue as if looking at something disgusting, Grandma shook her head.
“Nah, life’s just had plenty of twists, and I’ve met a lot of bastard sons of bitches. Damn it, didn’t think this crap would be waiting for me at the end though.”
If she’d known things would turn out like this, she would’ve brought in the peppers she’d laid out at home. The peppers given by old Mrs. Park from the upper neighborhood had such good color and smell. Thinking about peppers of all things right before dying made her scoff at herself, yet she couldn’t stop thinking about them.
The hillside neighborhood was the kind that made curses spill out with every step up the stairs, but because it was so steep, it got plenty of sunlight. Spread peppers out on black plastic sheets and they’d dry nice and crisp. Remembering how that little rabbit had once run across the peppers and gotten scolded, a smile tugged at Grandma’s lips.
“Hope whoever survives puts those peppers away. There’s money in the wardrobe in the main room too—take it. I even planted cucumbers and lettuce in the back garden for you…… make sure you pick them in the summer.”
“What are you even talking about right now……?”
Grandma smacked the jacket once with a thwack and muttered,
“The one who lives has to live well.”
You hear me, you brat? You better remember and come get it later. But inside the jacket, it was quiet—no response at all.
Just then, a beep-beep-beep notification sounded, and a voice came through the radio. Sobin hurriedly whispered into it.
“What is it?”
“The cheetah Beastman we had on standby has disappeared!”
“What?”
“H-he vanished completely. He was definitely waiting at the location with us……”
More important than the fact that Grandma could hear the transmission was that the cheetah Beastman had vanished. Damn it. Cursing under his breath, Sobin turned to the staff member beside him.
“The drug—you delivered the one we prepared, right?”
“Yes, we handed over the syringe that doctor gave us.”
“What are you talking about? The one I left was completely sealed!”
Things were going very wrong. If they realized the problem had been caused by the drug, he might be removed as the chief overseer. After all, the main reason they had put him in this position was because he was a veterinarian.
Sobin’s role here was to fabricate crimes committed by carnivore Beastmen. The government wanted Beastmen with different diets to turn against each other and began painting the relatively small carnivore population as dangerous. When carnivore Beastmen didn’t cause as many incidents as expected, they decided to fabricate crimes—framing them as predators who attacked the weak.
It had worked more smoothly than expected. People began to shun carnivores, and as fear grew, the government swept up votes.
“Find a stimulant or something! Feed another carnivore anything and keep them contained!”
And now the drugged cheetah Beastman had disappeared—unacceptable.
“Track the cheetah too! If he wakes up from the drug and reports anything, we’re screwed.”
“Y-Yes! Understood!”
Just as Sobin was about to add another scolding to the weak reply, noise crackled through the radio.
“H-huh!?”
Everyone’s attention was fixed on the radio when suddenly something pale pink shot out from inside the jacket. It moved too fast to catch.
Before anyone could even figure out what it was, the pink fluff leapt straight toward the driver’s seat—tiny rice-grain teeth gleaming sharply.
“Kyaak!”
“Aaagh!”
Eunho bit hard into the back of the driver’s neck. He couldn’t take a life in one strike like a carnivore, but even a rabbit’s teeth could crush flesh.
I chew carrots like I’m going to war!
Clinging upside down to the man’s face, Eunho gnawed furiously at his neck as if he were tearing into a carrot. He didn’t forget to kick the man’s face repeatedly with his hind legs. All that digging practice up until now must have been training for this very moment.
“You fucking—!”
As the hind legs struck wildly, the man screamed and grabbed the rabbit tightly. At that instant, the steering wheel jerked sharply to one side.
With a loud CRASH, Eunho’s body lifted into the air. The van flipped, people tangling together in chaos. Bracing himself for the pain about to come, Eunho squeezed his eyes shut.
Ahjussi……
