# Chapter 60
My breath came in gasps.
Huff, huff.
My heart pounded rapidly, making loud, thumping sounds. While my mind was frantically thinking I needed to run away, my limbs wouldn’t move at all. The dark thing was still looking at me from the base of the tree. Quietly, without moving, staring intently.
“Whew…”
I exhaled deeply, trying to calm my rapid breathing. My heart was still pounding so loudly it made my ears throb, but having steadied my breathing, I could at least move my body. However, the dark thing was still hiding at the base of the tree, facing me. I slowly moved my feet while staring at it. If I ran away now, would it chase me? I was afraid it might be crouching under that tree, ready to pounce. I wondered if even in daylight, even outside of deep shadows, they were unaffected as long as they didn’t touch light. Where was a place with a lot of light, with a lot of sunlight?
I frantically rolled my eyes around. The only somewhat open area was near the building. From the corner of my eye, I could see people continually leaning out of the windows of the building. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have noticed me, as there wasn’t much commotion. Could I survive if I ran there? Since Jang Jae-gyeong was also there, that was the only place to flee.
But the distance was considerable, so there was no guarantee I’d be safe from the monster until I reached the building. If it pounced on me from behind while I was running, it would be over. And above all… if Jang Jae-gyeong had gone into the building, I worried about being caught by the men. I knew Jang Jae-gyeong was an amazing person from seeing him catch monsters. But still, what if something went wrong? If he got hurt trying to help me…
Unable to decide what to do, I just shifted my feet anxiously. Fortunately, the monster was still just staring at me without moving. As I let out a long sigh of relief, I noticed something strange. For a monster, that small thing hadn’t made any crying sounds. Since it looked different from the other monsters, it might not be strange that it didn’t make sounds… but something felt off.
As I frowned and stared intensely at the monster, I saw it move slightly. Thinking it might be about to attack, I tensed up, but no attack came. It was becoming even more strange.
“What is this…?”
After staring for a while, I unconsciously took a step forward. I must have been too focused on finding what was unusual about the monster. I was surprised by my own action, but the small monster’s reaction was even more surprising.
“Ah…!”
It was a child’s voice. A child’s voice coming from a monster? With wide-open eyes, I hurriedly took another step forward. The small thing was even more startled and jerked its body. What I had thought was the monster’s skin wobbled here and there. No, that’s not a monster, could it be…
“Dammit, we’ve been caught! Hey, get inside!”
I ran toward the tree with all my might. The child who had been hiding their face with hair, pretending to be a monster, screamed when they saw me running and quickly disappeared into the base of the tree.
“Kid, wait!”
“Get lost!”
…The child had quite a foul mouth.
I arrived at the base of the tree and caught my breath heavily. There were so many vines and branches spread like cobwebs at the base that I hadn’t noticed there was a hole there. I sat down, pushed aside the vines, and lifted the branches. There was a small hole, just big enough for an adult to barely enter, stretching inward. Should I go in or not? Should I wait until the other two arrive? As I was considering, I heard a small sob, “Hueeeeng,” resonating faintly from inside the hole.
Was the child hurt? That child seemed to match what Jang Jae-gyeong had mentioned about the family’s child. Otherwise, there would be no reason for a child to be here. But where were the parents, leaving the child alone like this? I paced anxiously in front of the hole. I had intended to wait until the two men arrived, but I couldn’t leave a crying child alone. After swallowing hard, I squeezed my body into the narrow hole. It was tight but not impossible to move. If it’s this tight for me, Jang Jae-gyeong and Kim Doyun probably couldn’t even enter.
I crawled forward on my arms through the dark hole. After crawling for quite some time while muttering curses under my breath, I saw a faint light at the end of the hole. Hueeeeng, hueeeeng. The sound of a child crying grew louder.
“You’re so noisy! What did hyung say if you don’t listen?”
“Waaaaah! He said he won’t give me food…”
“What did Mom and Dad say?”
“Huuuu, uuung! Not to make any, any sound.”
“Then why do you keep crying! We got caught earlier because you made strange noises!”
“But… someone came this way… Waaaah!”
“I really can’t live with you!”
There seemed to be more than one child. Judging by their conversation, they were definitely the children of the couple Jang Jae-gyeong had mentioned. I felt both happy and puzzled. I hadn’t seen anyone coming or going this way since last night. They might have moved while I was asleep, but I felt uneasy. Didn’t Jang Jae-gyeong say they were a nice-looking couple? I prayed that the children weren’t left alone.
“Hyung! Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!”
“Ahhh! Go away! Get lost!!”
As I reached the end of the hole, the children screamed and threw things at me. Among them were tissues and spoons. When a spoon hit me, it hurt quite a bit, so I rubbed my forehead and pulled back a little. I had expected it to remain narrow, but the end of the hole was quite spacious. There, the children stood guard with chopsticks and scissors in their hands.
“Wow… this is…”
“No! Don’t take it! Mom and Dad found these things!!”
As I looked around the hole with exclamation, the older child screamed and lunged at me. I barely caught the scissors they were trying to stab me with. Then the child struggled wildly, kicking and biting me.
“Ouch, ouchie. Kid, hold on.”
“Get lost! I said get lost!”
“Hyungaaa!”
Seeing the older child’s struggle, the younger one also joined in and hit me. Being jabbed with chopsticks wasn’t too painful, but it was a different story when they aimed for my face. Breaking into a cold sweat, I hugged both children tightly.
“Let go!! I said let go!”
“Waaaah, waaaaaaah!!”
The children’s screams and cries echoed loudly through the hole. The commotion, loud enough to hurt my ears, filled the cave for quite some time.
* * *
“Huuuung… hueeeeeng.”
“Were you really scared?”
“Waaaaaah… yeeeees.”
The small child, probably about six years old, held my hand tightly with their small hand and streamed tears and snot. Unable to wipe it with my hands, I looked around and found the tissue that had been thrown at me. As I opened it and diligently wiped the child’s eyes, nose, and mouth, the child, who had been crying continuously, opened their mouth and smiled brightly.
“Daddyyy…”
“That’s not our dad!”
The older child, who was sitting at a distance, shouted loudly. After I had hugged both children, the younger one had calmed down, but the older one remained vigilant. The older child seemed to be around ten years old. The way they glared at me, firmly gripping the scissors they had tried to attack me with, was quite fierce. What on earth had happened to make the child act this way?
“Where are your parents? Why are you two alone?”
There was much I was curious about, but I asked the most important question first. The older child just glared at me without answering, while the younger one fidgeted with their hands before gently leaning against me. The child moved their small mouth slowly before speaking.
“Mom and Dad went out together… but only Dad came back. Where’s Mom?”
“Huh?”
“Why did Dad come only now?”
The child, nestled in my arms, held my hand and gently shook it while smiling at me. As the child whined that they had been scared because Dad hadn’t come, asking Dad not to leave again, I couldn’t respond and just kept my mouth shut. The young child was mistaking me for their father. At this age, they shouldn’t be too young to recognize their father’s face, so I couldn’t understand what was going on. I also couldn’t tell the now-calmed child that I wasn’t their dad.
Hearing the younger child’s whining complaints, the older child shouted loudly.
“I told you he’s not our dad! Stupid!”
“I’m not stupid! This is Dad, you’re saying he’s not! You’re always angry at me! Yelling! I really hate you, Hyung!!”
“K-kids.”
I fidgeted anxiously between the shouting children. I saw the older child grit their teeth after slapping my outstretched hand that I had extended to comfort them. Tears gradually welled up in their eyes, and their nose and cheeks turned bright red.
“Stupid! Junwoo, you’re stupid!”
“I’m not stupid!”
“Because you’re stupid, you call this person Dad! Dad, our Dad…”
Tears suddenly fell from the older child’s eyes as they shouted. As if that was the trigger, the child’s mouth twisted and wrinkles gradually formed on the bridge of their nose.
“Dad… Dad… those bad guys… those bad guys!!”
The older child curled up on the floor and burst into tears. The younger child shouted loudly that Dad was right here and clung to my neck. While comforting the younger child, I also gently patted the older child’s back. The child, with a face wet with snot and tears, looked up at me and pouted for a while. Seeing their contemplative expression, I slightly extended one arm. The older child’s eyes went from their crying sibling in my arms to my awkwardly smiling face. The child’s eyes contorted even more.
“Waaaaaaah!”
In the end, I adjusted my hold on the older child who had jumped into my arms, and let out a deep sigh as I listened to both children’s wailing. I had suspected something like this when I saw the children alone without parents… but my mouth felt bitter.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
