MGP 08

Chapter : 08

“No. It was a tragedy. People wanted more and more pieces.”

If you were to grasp such unexpected good fortune, it would be nice to simply be grateful for it. But ordinary people tend to want more than what they have obtained. As though it had belonged to them from the very beginning, they stubbornly demand more.

“They weren’t satisfied with simply not aging. They wanted to become gods. In the end, they devoured the god. Alive, chewing him up until not a single bone remained.”

The atmosphere stiffened slightly.

If it had been a real god, it would never have been fooled so stupidly. Harang had thought that ever since the day he first heard the story. In the end, the reason that false god had been devoured by human greed was probably because he had been unable to completely give up even the slightest hope for humanity.

“But it turned out that what they had eaten wasn’t the real Moon God. It was the god’s child, who had imitated its father and been curious about humans. When the Moon God learned the truth too late, he placed a curse on them. ‘Until you vomit up everything you swallowed, you will be hungry forever.’”

The faces of those who had unexpectedly been subjected to such a disgusting story showed faint signs of discomfort.

Harang deliberately looked straight at Kim Hyun. If Kim Hyun was going to bring up the orphanage story when there was no need to, ruining everyone’s mood, Harang hoped at least some of that filth would splash back onto him.

“After that, a hole that could never be filled appeared inside the human body—a ‘Gap,’ as they called it. No matter how good a person ate or what they applied to their body, life force would continually leak away through that gap. In the end, their own greed came back as a monster that devoured them from within.”

The only sound was the sizzling of the remaining pieces of meat cooking helplessly on the grill.

“……Wow. That sobered me up instantly.”

“You told little kids stories like that? Are you sure the place you came from was okay, Mr. Harang?”

“That’s too cruel.”

“Exactly. The teacher was way too harsh.”

The employees laughed awkwardly as they raised their glasses.

Only Kim Hyun did not laugh. He tilted his glass and stared intently at Harang.

“That’s quite educational.”

Kim Hyun set down his glass and spoke.

“Greed comes with a price. Is that what it means?”

“I interpreted it as meaning that one shouldn’t covet something beyond one’s station, Team Leader.”

As Harang shot back, the corners of Kim Hyun’s lips slowly curled upward.

Glug, glug, glug.

Red liquid once again poured from the small-mouthed liquor bottle into Kim Hyun’s glass.

“But, Mr. Harang.”

With a voice that had grown considerably gentler, Kim Hyun leaned closer to Harang. Ignoring the startled looks of his team members as though they were invisible, he whispered into Harang’s ear.

“Isn’t there another way to interpret that story?”

“Another…… interpretation?”

“Perhaps people didn’t devour the god simply because of greed. What if they did it because they loved the god too much?”

“……What?”

“Because they wanted to become one. To swallow him into themselves and possess him forever.”

Only then did Harang realize that warm, damp breath was brushing against his ear. Unable to hide his disgust, he recoiled and met Kim Hyun’s strangely gleaming gaze.

There was a hunger flickering in his eyes, like the appetite of someone looking at the piece of meat burning on the grill in front of them.

“Perhaps the god’s child who was devoured even wanted to be eaten willingly. As proof that it had been loved. As a way to avoid returning to the god.”

Harang felt his breath catch.

“Your tastes, Team Leader…… are quite destructive.”

His head instinctively shook from side to side. When he finally pushed Kim Hyun away after the man had repeatedly leaned toward him, Kim Hyun looked at Harang’s hand and laughed aloud.

“Really? I thought it was romantic.”

Kim Hyun straightened his posture, picked up a perfectly grilled piece of meat, and held it up to Harang’s lips.

“Ah, open up.”

“…….”

Harang’s brow furrowed.

“Come on. My arm is getting tired.”

Everyone was staring at Kim Hyun and Harang. If Harang refused, the atmosphere—which he had already ruined by bringing up such a strange story—would become even more awkward. Besides, he had just said things he normally would never have brought up while drinking.

The cold atmosphere was enough to sober him up on its own. Feeling as though the food might make him sick, Harang opened his mouth and accepted the meat.

Perhaps because of the juices spreading throughout his mouth, or because of Kim Hyun’s persistent gaze, it felt almost as though he were swallowing the ‘Child of the Moon’ himself.

“Is it good?”

At Kim Hyun’s innocent question, Harang forced himself to nod.

“……Yes.”

“You’re pretty when you eat so well.”

As though satisfied, Kim Hyun gently stroked Harang’s hair.

It felt like someone praising a pet dog they had raised, while at the same time carrying the strange sensation that this was something no one should be witnessing. Feeling that way, everyone desperately turned their gazes elsewhere.

The dinner gathering desperately returned to its lively chatter. Watching the team members who were doing their best to lift the mood, Kim Hyun quietly murmured,

“So be careful too, Mr. Harang. Someone like me might swallow you up in one gulp.”

The dinner gathering finally ended after ten at night.

Because wine, beer, and soju had all mixed together in his stomach, Harang staggered as he walked.

He rarely drank normally, so he had never known his limits. Apparently, he wasn’t particularly good at holding his liquor.

“Mr. Harang, get in. I’ll take you home.”

Kim Hyun rolled down the window of the black sedan waiting in front of the restaurant and called out to him from the back seat.

He clearly seemed to have drunk more than Harang, yet he looked perfectly fine without the slightest sign of intoxication.

“Ugh…… No, thank you. I’ll take a bus or a taxi.”

Harang waved his hands dismissively. Even putting aside how uncomfortable he felt around Kim Hyun, it would be disastrous if he happened to vomit inside that expensive car.

“Hm. The buses should have stopped running by now.”

“I’ll take a taxi. A taxi! See you tomorrow!”

Harang bowed hurriedly as though fleeing, then ran into an alley. Even as he did, he felt Kim Hyun’s gaze boring into the back of his head, making him hurry even faster into the alley.

Fortunately, the night air was cold.

Harang walked through the back streets of Gwanghwamun, cooling his flushed cheeks in the breeze.

Unlike the brightly lit main streets, the side roads with their lights turned off were dark and damp.

“Phew…… Freedom.”

At last, Harang reached a place where there was no sign of anyone and loosened his tie.

Kim Hyun.

The man who suspiciously kept approaching Harang was becoming an enormous burden.

Baektaek might not care much about people, but they never handled their work carelessly. They were an organization that had existed for several hundred years. Those people had sent Harang to Eaton Company, and almost immediately after Harang appeared, the son of the owner’s family had taken an interest in him.

“What the hell are they plotting?”

Kim Hyun and Baektaek.

Would it feel better if he could split open their pitch-black hearts and see every little thing inside?

Hoping the uneasy feeling in his stomach would settle down, Harang let out another long sigh.

Whoosh.

A familiar foul odor rode upon the wind.

Perhaps it had been masked by the smell of alcohol and food until now. It was faint, but unmistakably the smell of decay.

Harang came to an abrupt stop.

The dullness in his alcohol-clouded eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by sharp clarity.

‘A Gap.’

The smell wasn’t coming from Eaton Tower, but from a small vacant lot abandoned behind it.

His body instinctively tensed.

He was about to dash toward the vacant lot when he suddenly stopped and blinked.

He had abruptly wondered, ‘Why?’

‘Should I just leave? It’s not even my assignment, anyway.’

He was exhausted, and if he investigated the Gap, there was also a risk of encountering Eaton employees who might still be around the area.

But if he left it alone, someone passing nearby that night could be enchanted or eaten by a monster that emerged from the Gap if it opened at precisely the wrong moment.

They could even become trapped between the two sides of the Gap itself.

When the images of people who had suffered such fates flashed before his eyes, he simply couldn’t make himself walk away.

“……Damn it. This is my lot in life.”

Grinding out the curse between his teeth, Harang ran.

The terrible smell was getting closer and closer.

He quickly reached the vacant lot, where the atmosphere was bleak and eerie.

Perhaps because of a dispute over the right to possess the property, or perhaps for some other reason, development had been halted. Between the abandoned buildings overgrown with weeds stood a place where one of the pillars seemed grotesquely distorted.

To most people, it probably wouldn’t have looked any different.

Harang caught his breath and slowly approached.

Fortunately, thanks to the overgrown weeds, even the sound of his footsteps could not be heard. Instead, the sturdy grass was being crushed beneath his feet, and the fresh, sharp scent released from the plants’ wounds made his stomach churn.

When he reached toward the distorted space, he saw a small ‘Gap’ opening up, about the size of his palm.

Black smoke—known as janggi, or miasma—was pouring out from it, causing the surrounding grass to wither.

Fortunately, however, it seemed that the Gap had only recently opened.

“……What a stench.”

Covering his nose as he approached, Harang rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a sheet of traditional Korean paper for a makeshift sealing ritual.