Healer

“How about a machine that blocks electromagnetic waves? Cacti blocks it too! Charcoal! Buy charcoal too!”

Morphine shouted out from the alleyway. Yaba replied:

“Don’t play around. It’s such an unpopular item that they swindled to sell it.”

“I’m not even escaping in search of freedom, and I don’t want to leave the world while drying my hair! Boss bastard! Someday I will kill him with my own hands!”

“He’s mine. Don’t touch him.”

“Someone would misunderstand?”

Morphine pouted. Meth was terrified because he couldn’t overcome the two of them and joined them.

“Guys, let’s not get excited and think again. They will flip out when they find out that we’ve thrown away the things in the new accommodation.”

Preoccupied with the house raid and moving, they forgot the dangers of the chip for a moment, and then they were agitated. After the x-ray picture was taken, Yaba didn’t even go near electronic products, and he stopped going out except to go to Cha Myunghwan. He didn’t turn on the fluorescent light in the bathroom, and at night he showered with candles. He heard that electricity flows through water. Did the shower have electricity? What about the car? He made a list of dangerous elements and narrowed the scope of action as much as possible. Still, he’s not sure about the audio, the stand, the humidifier… When he threw them out, Morphine bubbled up and went mad.

Yaba was forced to speak. The chip might cause tumors, there was a risk of an explosion in everyday life, and it’s hard to operate because of its position, etc… Of course, the fact that X-rays were taken was omitted. At the end of the ten-minute speech, Morphine’s face turned dark. He was easily convinced, so he readily participated in Yaba’s long-awaited project.

He took care of what was in the room and was on his way to the back door of the apartment to throw away the items in the living room. At this time, the rest of the eunuchs were on a business trip. Yaba was in charge of the computer, while Morphine and Meth whined while holding the TV on either side. It was not safe to be on the street, so he had the group cover their heads with a white towel.

“Lunatic. Let’s get this straight. We’re only guilty of doing what you told us to do?”

Morphine wasn’t particularly annoying. Morphine had his own way of survival, and Yaba quite liked that way. Yaba retorted coldly.

“Go away. You too, don’t come within a metre of me.”

It was said that microscopic electricity flowed through the human body, so he should add it to the list. After the X-ray picture was taken, there was no contact from Cha Yiseok. He did not answer the phone and did not come to Cha Myunghwan’s house. He was the reason why Yaba couldn’t throw away his cell phone even though it had a bunch of electromagnetic waves.

At the very least, he had a yacht, a machine, and a bunch of drug lords, but was he upset because he refused to have surgery? Did he check the DVD and dive into shock? Was the video immediately destroyed? Did Cocaine tell him about the poison thing? Even so, if he had something to say, he’s not afraid to say it. If not… was he sick…

All sorts of thoughts stretched out and lost their direction and wandered. In the end, it was what Giha said that reached the end point.

‘Cha Yiseok handed over all his shares. That means he’s going to clean up everything at Paradiso. It’s a good thing because I was going to do it myself if he didn’t.’

‘No. He didn’t tell me that.’

‘You still haven’t gotten your head out of your ass. Do you think he’ll even say goodbye kindly? He’ll be distracted by a new plaything by now. That’s what the shares mean.’

Yaba refused to believe it. Because Giha’s words were a leech that sucked reason. However, from time to time his chest had tightened, and he awoke to hear an unstable heartbeat. Antidepressants were running out now, so he would have to ask where to get them. Yaba said abruptly.

“What is grooming?”

Morphine answered.

“Taking care of cats. Cats lick their face and paws with their tongues and lick their assholes, right? But why ask all of a sudden? You’re not trying to catch a stray cat and kill it, are you?!”

“…”

Yaba shook his head and bit his lower lip. Morphine groaned out of nowhere.

“Right! Let’s bring this to Sejun hyung! Hyung’s living space is meagre.”

“I’d rather throw it in the trash can.”

“You poison-like bastard. He’s good to Cocaine, but how good is he to you, and you won’t let him come near you. Why are you so mean to him? Stop squabbling and follow me!”

Morphine went over the low wall of Jang Sejun’s house and opened the door from inside. It looked quiet, and it seemed that the landlord had gone to work. A yellow tape was stuck to the door that Cha Yiseok had hit before. Jang Sejun would come by with bread and milk once every two days, to clean the dormitory or take care of chores. The eunuch singers could not refuse, and even the thugs considered Jang Sejun a neighbourhood idiot.

Sometimes Jang Sejun looked at Yaba with eyes on the verge of tears. He was pitiful and persistent, like a puppy waiting for his master’s touch even when he was being kicked. If Jang Sejun had listened to Yaba’s song to the end on Christmas day, if only he had spent the quiet night together in prayer for his mother’s rest… When he came to his senses, he saw himself trying to give him leeway.

Morphine and Meth put the TV on the floor.

“Sejun hyung will be surprised when he sees it later. By the way, he said he was a gardener for a wealthy family, but the atmosphere in the yard was a bit eerie.”

In the yard, there were grotesquely stretched bonsai trees. Morphine locked the door from inside and climbed over the wall. Meth fell off the wall with a loud noise.

“Why are you so athletic? Uh? Uh? You have a nosebleed! Lunatic! Meth has a nosebleed, we’re leaving first!”

Their footsteps faded away. He tried to open the locked gate because he was not physically fit to climb the wall like them. Then a strong wind blew and snatched the towel from his head. Yaba clicked his tongue.

He walked to the back of the house to pick up the towel that had been blown away. Under the back floor, something wrapped in a newspaper poked out. It was a baseball bat. As the years had passed, the tree had withered, and the trunk was covered with blood and hair.

Yaba thought this must have been used the day the hostel was attacked, and it was used when Cocaine had been attacked. The pattern of the bat was unusual, and the scene of that day remained as a strong image, making it an unforgettable item even if he tried to forget it. It was just like that bastard to keep things like this.

However, upon closer inspection, what he thought was an unusual pattern was in fact a dry black stain. Something was splattered on the bat and looked like a very old stain… An unfamiliar feeling of vomiting was stinging his throat. As he searched, he found something else wrapped in a cloth in the corner of the floor. It was something that Jang Sejun was fond of. Yaba’s heartbeat grew louder.

He was not particularly curious, but he wondered what made Jang Sejun’s eyes change suddenly. He looked everywhere and untied the knot. As the sealed fabric slipped, Yaba’s eyes widened. It was a human figure. It looked like it was made from a special clay because it was slightly soft and transparent. From the hair, to the veins on the nape of the neck, to the clavicle, the face was in the process of being completed, it looked like it was elaborately sculpted. Yaba looked at the statue and fell down with shock.

Dim eyes facing the air, sharp nose and chin, but the incompleteness cannot be overlooked. It was obviously the pale man. How did Jang Sejun know the pale man? Why did he sculpt this? Why?! Perhaps he himself touched the taboo. He wanted to break the figure, but he was finding it hard to breathe.

It was then. The sound of the rusty gate opening could be heard in the distance. The sound of unfamiliar footsteps roamed the yard. Yaba wrapped the terrible thing back in the cloth and hid behind the building. A shadow crept up from the opposite wall. Jang Sejun, who turned his back to the sun over the edge of the wall, appeared. He set up pruning shears and equipment against the wall. And he sat down in front of the statue wrapped in cloth. His hand, which had been holding it for quite some time, trembled. What Jang Sejun was staring at was a cloth knot. He was in tears.

“I didn’t tie it like this…”

At that moment, an eerie light flashed in his dark eyes. Jang Sejun picked up pruning scissors and looked around. Yaba covered his mouth and hid deeper. Cold sweat was dripping down his back. Dark shadows and heavy footsteps narrowed the distance. Yaba gathered all the nerves in his heels and stepped back. He was paralyzed, so he didn’t know whether he was caught or not, or how he got out. It was just a cry that everything he saw there had to be erased.