# 5
This was exactly what Dr. Jo Sung-hyun had warned Jin-ha about when he said to be careful not to be enchanted. Fairies loved to enchant people and play with them, but their concept of “play” consisted of activities that were extremely dangerous from a human perspective, which is why the mortality rate was quite high when fairy realm gates overflowed.
Of course, it was natural that ordinary humans would need more than three or four lives if they engaged in activities like jumping off cliffs, holding their breath underwater for 10 minutes, or dancing under man-eating flowers. What was fun for fairies required humans to risk their lives.
Jin-ha examined the man’s body. Seeing no injuries, he seemed quite fortunate for someone who had allegedly been with fairies for four days. Fortunately, it appeared the fairy had a fairly moderate way of playing, but the ending was the same—it had taken the person’s mind and disappeared.
Those enchanted by fairies temporarily perceived the fairy as their closest person, and while being dragged around as a plaything, they gradually lost their memories. The empty spaces of lost memories were filled with pleasant memories of the fairy. Then, when the fairy grew bored and left, they suffered from terrible feelings of loss.
And to relieve this sense of loss, they would cling to anyone.
In Korea, people called this condition “fairy sickness.” Jin-ha had heard that in the early days of the Great Cataclysm, there were numerous cases of people kidnapping those with fairy sickness and using them as slaves. After all, if threatened with abandonment, they would do anything.
Jin-ha took the hand that the man had just asked to be touched and firmly said, “I will save you.”
“You’ll save me?”
“The fairy will return soon.”
“The fairy?”
“Yes. Until then, I’ll protect you. I’m Lee Jin-ha from the Anomaly Management Agency. I’m a Hunter. You can trust me, I work for the government.”
Jin-ha pulled out his Anomaly Management Agency employee ID and Hunter license from his pocket to show the man. He wasn’t sure if the man would understand the meaning of these cards, but he hoped they would help reassure him.
Still, seeing that he wasn’t crying and rolling around despite the fairy’s absence, the symptoms of fairy sickness didn’t seem too severe. Or perhaps he didn’t yet realize he had been abandoned.
If it was the latter, there was no need to reveal the truth and worsen the situation.
Jin-ha gently persuaded the man, “No, instead of this, let’s go look for the fairy together.”
“…Shall we?”
The man, who had seemed unable to understand what Jin-ha was saying, finally nodded.
“Yes, let’s go find the fairy together.”
Jin-ha embraced the man who was leaning against him and stroked his back. Normally, such physical contact would be uncomfortable and unwelcome, but thinking of his current companion as someone with fairy sickness—an adult in body but practically a child in mind—Jin-ha felt nothing unusual.
There was also a selfish thought that increasing their intimacy would make things much easier going forward.
“Now, let’s get up. We need to get up to go looking.”
“Okay. Promise you’ll keep holding my hand.”
The man pleaded, reaching out his hand to Jin-ha, who had pushed him away and stood up abruptly.
“Hmm?”
“…”
The forest was dim with dense trees, and the man’s hair was disheveled and messy, covering his face.
The moment the man lifted his head to look at Jin-ha who was standing, Jin-ha finally faced the man directly and unconsciously closed his mouth. The face revealed as the man brushed his hair back was surprisingly handsome.
‘For a moment, he looked like a fairy.’
The man’s face was in a completely different category from the youthful, pretty faces of fairies, but the feeling that one could be enchanted if not careful was similar.
Clear blue eyes like the sky on a sunny afternoon when sitting on a lawn were staring at him. The jawline was sharp and the gaze was fierce, but the languidly relaxed eyes exuded a decadent atmosphere.
‘Could he be a celebrity?’
It wasn’t the kind of face that would allow for an ordinary life. Jin-ha, though typically indifferent to others’ appearances, found it difficult to look away. Perhaps the man was a famous celebrity that Jin-ha couldn’t recognize because he rarely watched TV.
He even thought the man might be a Hunter with a charm-related skill. He had heard such cases weren’t uncommon.
Either way, the fact remained the same—he was someone Jin-ha needed to protect and help escape from this place.
A person in need of protection. A rescue target. Someone to be rescued.
Disconcerted by these uncharacteristic distracting thoughts, Jin-ha deliberately repeated these facts to himself.
Jin-ha turned his gaze away and then glanced down at the man again. As soon as their eyes met, the man smiled with his eyes. Jin-ha unconsciously flinched, avoided his gaze, and then looked back at the man.
Looking at the man’s straight forehead and smooth bridge of his nose, a strange fluttering wrapped around Jin-ha’s heart.
Especially when the man blinked slowly as if tired, his long eyelashes fluttered, and the eyes revealed beneath were so profoundly deep, like sinking all the way to the ocean floor…
Before these strange thoughts could continue endlessly, Jin-ha roughly grabbed the man’s hand and pulled him up.
“Here’s your hand. I understand, so please get up now.”
The man, finally rising, smiled with satisfaction.
“Let’s walk around the forest a bit. Since we don’t know where the fairy is, it’s best to look around first.”
In reality, Jin-ha planned to wander in search of the gate’s exit while avoiding fairies. According to the information he had checked before entering, this gate was in a connected state. This meant it was accessible at any time. If he could just find the gate that must be somewhere in this place, they would certainly be able to return.
Jin-ha glanced at the watch on his left wrist. Though it looked like an ordinary watch, it was actually an artifact that doubled as a radar. Of course, it had the disadvantage of not being able to scan as wide an area as the gate monitoring radars installed nationwide by the Anomaly Management Agency, requiring him to search on foot. Still, its range was about 1km. The watch dial was designed to show a white moon shape when detecting strange magical responses, which would become a full moon as they got closer, but there was no response right now.
“Can I ask you something while we walk?”
“Yes, if you speak quietly.”
As Jin-ha demonstrated by speaking softly, the man stepped even closer to him and whispered in his ear.
“Then I’ll have to speak this close since it’s hard to hear otherwise. Right?”
The breath brushing against his ear was ticklish.
“How’s that? Can you hear me well?”
“I can hear you fine even if you’re a little further away.”
“Then I’ll speak even more softly.”
That’s not what I meant.
But there was no way to change the mind of a child who had already found enjoyment in whispering. Jin-ha, rolling his eyes in awkwardness, had no choice but to ask the main question.
“What do you want to know?”
“What should I call you?”
“You can call me Hunter Lee Jin-ha.”
“Hunter Lee Jin-ha.”
“Yes.”
A giggling voice brushed against his ear. What could be so amusing?
“I want to know about Hunter Lee Jin-ha.”
The voice whispering methodically in his ear was ticklish, and Jin-ha tried not to shrug his shoulders as he quickened his pace.
“What do you like? What do you dislike? What are your hobbies? What do you usually do?”
“You’re quite curious, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m curious about everything.”
“Even though I’m not your fairy?”
Jin-ha immediately closed his mouth, feeling he had made a slip of the tongue. Fortunately, the man didn’t cry but answered cheerfully.
“Yes. We should know each other well to have more fun later. When we meet the fairy, should we play tag together, the three of us?”
“Tag…”
“Playing tag on top of giant flowers would make your heart race with excitement.”
“…That…”
“Or we could jump from the ice waterfall over there. That would be fun, right?”
Jumping from an ice waterfall would result in death from cardiac arrest. Every activity he suggested as play was extremely dangerous.
Perhaps this man was a Hunter? Earlier, Jin-ha had thought the fairy was a unique type that preferred fairly moderate play, but hearing the man speak, it seemed more like the man had a particularly resilient body. Unless he had a skill that enhanced his defense, there was no way he would casually suggest such frightening activities.
Jin-ha was dumbfounded by these play methods that each sounded like a suicide declaration.
“How about playing more moderately instead?”
“Moderately? That’s no fun.”
“No, it’s possible to be both moderate and enjoyable.”
“How?”
“For example…”
Jin-ha rolled his eyes and said in a small voice, “Something like playing house.”
“Playing house…”
The man muttered as if he had heard something quite extraordinary.
There’s no way quietly sitting and role-playing family relationships would appeal to a fairy’s taste. Jin-ha stiffened his cheeks in embarrassment at his nonsensical suggestion.
Just then, he noticed a small animal trail. To change the subject, he moved in that direction.
“Let’s, let’s go that way.”
“Then Hunter Lee Jin-ha, you be the mother. I’ll be the father. We’ll make the fairy play our child.”
“Pardon…?”
As if not noticing Jin-ha’s shocked expression, the man continued with a smiling face.
“We’re a married couple out on a picnic right now.”
“Right now?”
“Yes. But our child has disappeared, so we’re looking for them together. Where could they be? Oh, I miss them so much.”
As he spoke, the man wrapped his arm around Jin-ha’s waist.
