#190: Home 3

“Four years have passed,” Hyeon Yi-jeong said.

“And the child’s father, is he still out of contact? Wandering around, not even knowing his own child died.”

“He’s someone who left without knowing I was pregnant. If he had known, he wouldn’t have left.”

“I can’t listen to this without tears.”

Raphael replied curtly, but it seemed he was genuinely worried about Hyeon Yi-jeong. He pulled out a glass bottle containing plump seeds from his pocket. Hyeon Yi-jeong stared at it for a moment, then took it. She said gloomily,

“The purification work for Phlegethon and Cocytus is in its final stages. If there’s no suitable place to go next, please come to Seoul. The security is good, and there are many talented researchers. I’ll find you a place to stay.”

“With that deathly pale face, you certainly...”

Raphael, scoffing caustically, turned abruptly and went down the hill. The crow on Yoon Tae-ha’s shoulder warned her to prepare.

“Time and place will change. Be ready.”

The bleak early winter hill soon transformed into a familiar place for Yoon Tae-ha: Ark’s research lab in Korea.

There, Raphael reunited with Hyeon Yi-jeong. Fortunately, her health seemed much better than before. At least her complexion wasn’t bluish like someone who had just emerged from a coffin.

The two sat on a bench under a tree where flower buds were sprouting. Hyeon Yi-jeong was happily chattering about how cute and kind the children she cared for were. Raphael, looking utterly disinterested, kept yawning.

“I’ll soon meet my friend’s child here too. They were cute just from the photos, but how beautiful will they be in person... Can you imagine?”

“Children are most beautiful in photos and drawings. The moment you face them in reality, they turn into demons. Remember, they are beautiful only when silent.”

Hyeon Yi-jeong remained undeterred by Raphael’s negative advice. She seemed to feel alive again while living with the children at the research lab.

“She was a child with a weak body since she was young, I heard. My friend says it’s all her fault. Like it happened because she lived an unconventional life. Just like me... So I want to see that child grow up healthy.”

“You seem close with this friend.”

“We’ve been friends since we were little. In high school, after classes, on our way home, we got swept into the same gate and fell into another dimension, then came back here together.”

“You experienced incredible luck.”

“We often say that ourselves. That we wouldn’t have made it home if we were alone... Especially me, I relied a lot on my friend.”

Hyeon Yi-jeong, with a faint smile, drank the leftover coffee on the bench with a straw. It was a dark color, similar to Yoon Tae-ha’s preferred coffee with extra shots.

How wonderful it would be if I could capture this moment in a photograph.

It was painful to think that Hyeon Yi-jeong’s vibrant presence would one day disappear. Yoon Tae-ha felt like crying out loud as she looked up at the branches covered with charming, profusely blooming flowers. The clustered white flowers looked heavy, like water-soaked clouds.

The crow muttered, “You cannot save them.”

“I know.”

As Yoon Tae-ha turned her gaze from the blooming flowers, the vibrant outdoor scenery changed to a murky teal. This time, it was inside an unfinished tunnel.

“Not many memories left.”

“If I leave this memory, will I never see it again?”

“Do not be entranced by the faces of the dead.”

Yoon Tae-ha, staring at the opposite end of the seemingly endless tunnel, spotted a black car approaching. Hyeon Yi-jeong and Raphael got out of it. Hyeon Yi-jeong, who roughly closed the driver’s side door, was utterly terrified.

She walked back and forth in front and behind the car multiple times, repeatedly confirming that no one was nearby. Unable to bear it any longer, Raphael quietly recited a spell.

<“That’s enough. Now, speak.”>

<“...Is that a spell to prevent eavesdropping?”>

<“Yes. Now, spill it all. What do you want to ask that you kidnapped someone trying to go home and dragged them all the way here?”>

<“Can you do a paternity test with magic?”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong, who had been agonizing with her head in her hands, lowered her arms and abruptly asked. Raphael, leaning casually against the car’s trunk, countered,

<“What are you talking about?”>

<“I’m asking if you can confirm the relationship between parent and child with the power you possess.”>

<“If you put genetic information into Gaia, you’d get results in the blink of an eye, so why bother asking me...?”>

<“Don’t mention Gaia’s name!”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong retorted defensively.

<“It’s not that I don’t know how to ask official organizations for help. Don’t you know my friends work in research labs around the world? But I won’t ask them. No, I can’t.”>

Raphael seemed genuinely surprised by her extremely aggressive reaction. He stroked his chin and then sighed.

<“There is a way.”>

<“R-really?”>

<“But blood must be shed.”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong’s expression instantly stiffened like a wax figure.

<“The blood of both parent and child is required. It must be a large enough amount to cause dizziness. Pre-collected blood won’t do. It must be fresh blood drawn from the veins right in front of me, at the same time as the magic is cast.”>

<“...That’s not possible.”>

<“It’s a tricky magic, and it will leave scars on the body.”>

<“Will it leave scars on the child’s body too?”>

<“Permanent scars will remain on the part that’s cut with a knife to draw blood. Of course, it will also remain on the child’s body.”>

<“Can’t I bring the child’s instead? Is it impossible for the parent to bear the curse or whatever, instead?”>

If it were possible, Hyeon Yi-jeong seemed as though she would kneel before Raphael. Raphael, sensing the gravity of the situation, walked up to Hyeon Yi-jeong and firmly grasped her arm.

<“Pull yourself together. Explain properly.”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong shook off Raphael’s arm and quickly walked to the opposite end of the tunnel, but she didn’t get far before turning back. She seemed half-mad with self-loathing and extreme anxiety.

<“He tricked me! My father, he tricked me!”>

Yoon Tae-ha heard the bitter cry and covered her mouth with her hand, a sudden surge of anxiety welling up.

Until now, Hyeon Yi-jeong was the only woman who had appeared in Raphael’s memories. Why would she appear in the memories he had gathered to tell her about her mother? Her heart pounded just below her throat.

<“My daughter was alive!”>

Even a soul burning alive in hell couldn’t scream like that. Hyeon Yi-jeong cried out. She collapsed as if her whole body had been torn apart. Raphael quickly approached and supported the woman. Hyeon Yi-jeong, clinging barely to his clothes, trembled.

<“She was alive. The child I gave birth to wasn’t dead from the beginning.”>

<“...What are you talking about?”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong sobbed, making gasping sounds.

<“Dad took my daughter! He took her to perform horrible experiments on her! He tricked me. How could he, how could he do that to me, Dad...”>

Raphael’s hand went up to the sobbing woman’s shoulder. His expression, too, had become considerably grave. The desperate cries echoed endlessly through the dark tunnel.

Hearing that, Yoon Tae-ha sank to her knees on the tunnel floor. She didn’t even have the strength to sit upright, so she lay prostrate with her elbows on the asphalt. She curled her body as small as possible and covered her ears with her hands.

All predictions had been wrong. Her family hadn’t abandoned her, hadn’t given her up due to unavoidable circumstances, nor had she died in a tragic accident. Yoon Tae-ha barely parted her lips and muttered in a choked voice,

“I want to stop.”

“Not much left.”

“I want to stop. Let me out of here.”

“The memories will change whether you want them to or not.”

The heartless crow flapped its wings. Then the dark gray asphalt floor turned into the bright white floor of a research lab. The world was reconstructed.

“This is a memory from a few days after the previous one. It’s the last memory.”

Only after the dismal tunnel transformed into a clean, modern research lab did Yoon Tae-ha get up.

Raphael was walking somewhere down the right corridor. Her mind refused to move, but Yoon Tae-ha’s body reacted.

She sprang to her feet and followed Raphael. Raphael, carrying a thick book, crossed the corridor and arrived at Hyeon Yi-jeong’s lab.

Raphael was about to press the call button in front of the transparent door, which required approval from the inside to open. But he quickly hid behind the wall when he saw Hyeon Yi-jeong talking to someone.

Yoon Tae-ha stood next to Raphael and peered into the lab. Yoon Jung-hoon, holding a cane, was sitting in a chair, and Hyeon Yi-jeong was standing a short distance from her father, in front of a reagent storage refrigerator. A constant, grating sound came from the refrigerator, which stored various solutions. The atmosphere was ominous. Yoon Jung-hoon, gripping the handle of his cane tightly, sighed deeply.

<“Lately, you’ve been associating with foreigners so often that you’re saying things even I find hard to accept. Stealing my granddaughter away... Does that mean you tried to use the child my daughter gave birth to?”>

Yoon Jung-hoon’s voice was eerily calm. Hyeon Yi-jeong, confronting him, looked as if she was suffocating with every word her father spoke.

<“Then there’s no need to stop the test I’m trying to do.”>

<“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”>

<“Gaia is reporting false results to me.”>

<“Then you should go to the technical staff. Not argue that your dead granddaughter is alive. You yourself confirmed that the child’s heart stopped. You’re making me recall difficult memories too.”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong, overcome with emotion, took a step forward.

<“How dare you say it’s difficult in front of me?”>

<“Yi-jeong. Let’s stop. I’ll prescribe you some medicine; it’s best you go home and rest. Too much work can lead to paranoia. I’ll forgive what you’ve said so far, so you stop too.”>

<“Tae-ha is my daughter!”>

Hyeon Yi-jeong cried out in a voice filled with unfathomable pain. Yoon Jung-hoon merely stared at his daughter, showing no other reaction.

<“You quickly had my brother adopt her because if she was left an orphan, the government would arbitrarily appoint a guardian, right? That way, you could continue to exert influence!”>

<“I can’t believe my daughter is repeating what conspiracy theorists say. Yoon Tae-ha is the child your sister-in-law personally chose. She said she felt a special connection to the child and wanted to be her guardian since she herself had no children.”>

<“My sister-in-law must have been blackmailed too.”>

Yoon Jung-hoon, leaning on his cane, rose from the chair and sighed deeply.