#191: Home 4

“I can’t listen to this anymore. I know you’ve been through a lot since the incident of losing your child. So I’ll forgive you just this once.”

Yoon Jung-hoon tried to leave the lab. But Hyeon Yi-jeong manipulated the panel and locked the door so he couldn’t get out. Yoon Jung-hoon pressed the button to open the door, but the glass door didn’t budge. Her eyes, filled with malice, blazed like torches in the darkness.

“To deceive me to the very end... You were so confident you must have even deceived Chairman Cheon Seong-beom.”

It was then that Yoon Jung-hoon, standing by the transparent door, leaning on his cane, had a change in expression. However, Hyeon Yi-jeong couldn’t see it because his back was turned.

But Yoon Tae-ha, having entered Raphael’s memories, could see it clearly. A hint of annoyance. A cruel emotion, unbelievable for one directed at his own flesh and blood daughter. Hyeon Yi-jeong didn’t know what expression her father was making.

“There was a different version of the Galatea Project at Ark than what I knew. Not a project to heal inherently sick children and teach them to use their powers correctly, but something absolutely unforgivable.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Father, you were extracting genetic information from children to create monsters! From Na Young-gyo to Moon So-eun, how many people are deceiving me, exactly? Does Chairman Cheon know? That his grandson’s genetic information is being used to create biological weapons? Would he really maintain donations to the lab if he knew about your schemes?”

“Yoon Seo-hyun.”

“Don’t call me by that name! That’s the name Mom gave me! I gave up my family and my name for Dad, became a non-existent person in the world, and how could you do this to me!”

The old man turned around. Tears streamed down Hyeon Yi-jeong’s gaunt cheeks.

“Why did you become like this, exactly? You weren’t like this at first! You told me to study hard and become an adult who could help people. Is this what you consider help, Dad? Grafting monsters onto humans!”

“Creating high-perfection psychics is a noble endeavor. Something someone has to do.”

At Yoon Jung-hoon’s words, affirming his purpose, Hyeon Yi-jeong’s face turned pale. She staggered and leaned her back against the reagent refrigerator.

“Your daughter was born against very narrow odds. I couldn’t ignore the reason why the gods sent such a child to my side.”

“So you even used my child?”

Hyeon Yi-jeong, full of indignation, swept away the experimental tools on the desk in front of her. They shattered with a tearing sound. Not stopping there, Hyeon Yi-jeong grabbed a broken flask. But Yoon Jung-hoon’s back didn’t flinch.

“The number of test subjects is small, and there are many experiments to be done. And you can’t bring the dead back to life. I don’t intend to deny your great contribution. Many researchers were moved by my sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?”

“Even using my beloved granddaughter as a test subject for the project.”

“Dad!”

Hyeon Yi-jeong’s anger and sorrow, exceeding their breaking point, burst forth. Hearing her scream, Raphael peeked his head slightly over the wall.

At that moment, Hyeon Yi-jeong and Raphael’s gazes met in the air. And for whatever reason, she pretended not to see Raphael.

“I’ll tell the media myself. And I’ll get Tae-ha back.”

“Seo-hyun.”

“Don’t ever call me by that name again!”

“I’m sorry.”

Yoon Jung-hoon, who had been staring at his daughter, turned his head slightly. Simultaneously, a human silhouette appeared next to Hyeon Yi-jeong. As Raphael was momentarily startled by the sudden appearance of a third party, the reagent refrigerators lining the wall exploded.

In the blink of an eye, Yoon Tae-ha fell to her knees on the floor. A sound like a hunted beast’s moan escaped Yoon Tae-ha’s lips. The crow gently tapped her cheek with its soft wing and murmured,

“Pull yourself together. This isn’t real. If you lose the memory, the clue will disappear.”

Yoon Tae-ha was crying without realizing it. Her face was completely wet. Loss and guilt pierced through her entire body. The void felt like it could not be filled by anything.

Meanwhile, what emerged from the grey smoke was Kali. She looked down at Hyeon Yi-jeong, whose lower body was crushed by debris that human strength couldn’t move.

“You should have always meticulously checked the reagents in the bottles.”

“We need to clean this place up.”

While Kali and Yoon Jung-hoon conversed, Hyeon Yi-jeong subtly shook her head towards Raphael, who was about to rush into the lab.

Don’t come.

Raphael, reading her mouthing lips, murmured a low incantation, and his form became translucent. Kali sharply scrutinized the area outside the lab, but she didn’t notice Raphael’s presence. Soon, Kali and Yoon Jung-hoon disappeared with a teleportation.

As they left, explosion sounds began to be heard from the end of the research lab corridor. Raphael urgently broke the glass and knelt beside the fallen Hyeon Yi-jeong. The sound of the building collapsing was getting closer.

“Wait. I can heal you with magic.”

Raphael sweated profusely as he chanted a spell. But Hyeon Yi-jeong, as if sensing her end, moved her only uninjured left arm to point at a nearby desk.

“Second drawer, for my daughter...”

The anxious foreigner didn’t answer and chanted the spell again. The shattered fragments of the reagent bottles uniformly floated in the air and trembled. A white light from Raphael’s hand entered Hyeon Yi-jeong’s body. But it seemed useless. Hyeon Yi-jeong desperately grabbed his sleeve with her uninjured hand and said,

“Give it to her when the child grows up.”

With those words, she drew her last breath, her eyes still open. Only then did Raphael, who had been attempting resuscitation with magic, firmly close his lips. He stared blankly at the dead woman’s hand, which had fallen limply, then stood up.

Raphael, grabbing a bag and sweeping all the items from the desk drawer into it, returned to the dead woman’s body. He carefully closed her eyes.

This is the end.

Yoon Tae-ha, realizing the memory would end, didn’t take her eyes off Hyeon Yi-jeong’s face. Longing streamed hotly down the corners of her eyes. It felt as if her flesh was melting wherever it flowed.

Raphael, who had stood up, heard the distant fire alarm and vanished from his spot. Then Yoon Tae-ha was also expelled from the space she had been inhabiting.

________________________________________

Afterwards, a few fragmented memories were laid out.

Raphael left Korea under the guise of research. Following Hyeon Yi-jeong’s request, he placed her belongings at a designated location. Having completed his task, Raphael ascended a hill with a peaceful landscape and looked down at the red-roofed house where he had hidden the belongings.

Just then, time, which had been flowing, stopped.

A bird crossing the cloudless sky froze in its descending posture. Even the foreigner’s white hair, swaying in the wind, stilled. The crow, which had naturally settled on Yoon Tae-ha’s shoulder, said,

“This is the end of the memory. My master also seems to have finished his work in other memories.”

Water began to leak in from a corner of the world where time had peacefully stopped. A tremendous amount of water poured over the hill, as if a dam had burst. Yoon Tae-ha did not resist and was swept away by the current.

________________________________________

Yoon Tae-ha opened her eyes. The sound of lapping water was loud. She couldn’t tell what had happened. A green light flickered before her eyes. As she blinked, she finally saw white too. It seemed to be clouds. Her arms and legs hung limp below the surface of the water.

I’m floating on the water.

That much was certain. She had no energy to move even a finger, yet her body was moving on its own.

The water pushed her out. Soon, the back of her head and shoulders touched the ground, tangled with weeds and stones. Then, as if its task was done, the water receded.

Yoon Tae-ha, lying on the wet ground, tried to force herself up, but her back ached as if it would break. Just then, the sound of animal hooves was heard. Was it a hungry monster? She knew it was dangerous but the pain in her back was too severe to move. Tipping her head slightly back was all the reaction she could manage.

The very moment she touched a wet pebble with her fingertips, trying to somehow respond to an attack, a soft ball of fur jumped onto her chest.

“Kua!”

As soon as she heard the animal’s cry, her tension immediately released. Huff. She quickly inhaled, then coughed dryly due to the pain in her chest.

“Kua?”

Kuakua, whom Raphael had taken with him, curled into a small ball on her chest and began to roll around. Seeing its bluish horns, it didn’t seem to have any plans to grow larger and crush people.

A moment later, another animal appeared in her sight after Kuakua. It also had horns.

“Are you alive?”

It was Amducias. The silver-maned unicorn lightly bowed its head to indicate it would not attack. But the horn on its head was intimidating, so Yoon Tae-ha squeezed her eyes shut. The horse retreated as if it had been rude.

“Looks like you can’t move. A guardian is coming, so wait.”

A guardian? Yoon Tae-ha frowned, and Amducias added,

“The leader of the red-eyed crows.”

It was news that the foreigner who had plunged a sword into her heart was coming. As soon as she heard that, she tried to move with all her might. But her back and abdomen had no strength at all, as if she was severely injured somewhere. Meanwhile, Nox approached.

“Has the paralysis not worn off?”

He knelt beside Yoon Tae-ha and slowly chanted a spell with his outstretched hand. Then a magic circle was drawn in the air about a handspan away from her body. It seemed similar to the magic Raphael had used on Hyeon Yi-jeong. A white light slowly permeated her body.

“It’s miraculous that you’re alive. Is your blood mixed?”

“Perhaps.”

Nox completed the magic. A sharp pain, like dislocated bones snapping back into place, coursed through her spine.

As soon as the magic circle disappeared, Yoon Tae-ha rolled half a turn to the side and gasped, burying her face in the weeds. Sensation was returning to her tingling skin. Also, the scenes she had seen in the memories were steadily organizing themselves in her mind.

The peaceful hill with the red-roofed house standing alone. Her belongings were there. Items left by a daughter betrayed by her father, for her own daughter. Hyeon Yi-jeong’s desperate and fervent cries from the memory were etched in her mind.

She called me her daughter. Yoon Tae-ha’s hand, gripping the grass, clenched tightly. Could she call her “Mom”? The thought of that word made her feel as fragile as glass.

“Time to move.”

Just then, Nox, who had been looking at the opposite side of the lake, spoke to her.