Chapter 181

I stood frozen in place, as if I'd been hit over the head with a hammer.

Young Chae Junhyeok had lived down here in the underground institute?

And right next to a lab, no less?

Chaotic thoughts whirled through me, but soon it struck me that standing there frozen might look odd to the others beside me, and I snapped to.

"Me? I don't really remember… Well, don't just stand there. You've got it open — read it."

I put on an offhand air and pushed him along, gruff.

Soon Kang Taemin's voice came.

[March 3]

I counted the square panels on the ceiling twenty-three times over again. Myu went to recharge, so I was bored. Mom gave me this and told me to try writing something called a diary when I'm bored. I don't know what a diary is, but Mom gave it to me as a present, so I'm happy.

Mom must be busy today too. Mom looks so cool in her white coat, but she's so busy it's kind of hard to see her. If I grow up and wear clothes like that too, will Mom stay with me?

[March 5]

Someone keeps yelling from beyond the wall. I asked Mom why they yell like that, but she just patted my head once without answering and left. Are they yelling because they're hurting a lot? Shouldn't someone give them medicine? I asked Myu too, but Myu said Myu doesn't know either.

[March 7]

A man and a woman in white saw me and said, "Poor little thing." I asked Myu if I'm pitiful, and Myu hugged me tight and said no. I have Mom, and I have Myu — why would I be pitiful?

Kang Taemin paused to steady his breath as he read, then added:

"There's a gap of about a month from here. The next entry is April."

[April 7]

Mom gave me a small cheesecake. There was a red cherry on top. It was the sweetest thing I've ever tasted in my life. I asked Mom and Myu to eat it with me, but Mom said she was busy and left, and Myu said Myu can't eat because Myu's a robot. To save the cherry for later, I hid it in the drawer.

[April 10]

The cherry I hid in the drawer went all wrinkled and started smelling weird. Myu said it had gone bad and I had to throw it out. I wanted to keep it for a long, long time. Watching it get thrown in the trash made me so sad I cried a little. From now on, when I get something pretty, I shouldn't save it — I should just eat it all.

[April 15]

Dad was on the square screen. Everybody was clapping for Dad because he's doing incredibly important research. Dad was smiling big on the screen. I wish he'd smile at me like that too. When I grow up, I'll be someone amazing like Dad.

[April 20]

The person who yells every day came into my room and cried and cried. I wanted to comfort them because they seemed so pitiful, but suddenly blue light flashed from their hand, and the lamp flew up on its own and hit the wall and broke. I was so startled I hid under the desk, and while I was down there, the white-coat teachers came and dragged the person away.

Mom said that person isn't well, so I have to be careful. If they're sick, shouldn't they be taken to a hospital and given medicine? They looked like they were in a lot of pain when they were dragged off — I really hope they weren't hurt.

Kang Taemin's calm voice was slowly sinking lower.

[May 20]

Dad called for me! I'm so excited! It's all thanks to that person who was crying. Maybe because I comforted them well! Dad smiled big and said from now on we're going to spend really fun times together! Fun times? What could that be? On the square screen, kids go somewhere called an amusement park with their parents — are we going there? Just imagining it makes me so excited. I think today can be my real birthday! But is that person who got dragged away okay now? I should ask Dad to let them come play with us too. Being hurt all alone must be so scary and lonely.

Kang Taemin stopped there, briefly.

[June 1]

It hurts so much. But because I gritted my teeth and endured it, Dad praised me and said I'm a brave son. Tomorrow I'll try to bear it even better! Because I'm a brave son.

[June 14]

It hurt so much I said, without meaning to, that I couldn't do it anymore.

Dad's face went cold. What do I do if I've disappointed him.

"…After this, there are no entries for over half a year. The next one is December."

The sound of a page turning, and then, as if the handwriting itself had gone to pieces, Kang Taemin haltingly forced the sentences out.

[December 3]

I want to stop hurting.

Dad, I'm sorry for everything.

"And then… another long stretch of blank pages."

But after that, his voice didn't come again for a while.

Unable to press him carelessly, I waited in the darkness I couldn't see through, silent, for the next words.

In the still quiet, I heard Kang Taemin draw a small breath.

[May 15]

If I kill all of them, I won't hurt anymore either, right?

After that skin-crawling line, a heavy silence descended again.

"…And after that? Nothing more? That's the last one?"

Silence.

Was he hesitating as he turned the page?

Or picking his words carefully because the content was so awful?

Leaning on the cane, I waited quietly for his next words.

But a minute passed, then two, and no reply came.

"Kang Taemin? Number Three?"

I called louder than before, but still not so much as a stir.

Something was wrong.

Just as Dokgomin had trained me, I poured every nerve I had into scanning the presences around me.

Huh…?

There was nothing.

Kang Taemin's steady breathing, always solidly there — gone. Dokgomin's presence beside me — gone too.

Even Lee Jinwoo's typing from beyond the corridor and the kids' murmuring, which should have been carrying over from further away, had vanished as if someone had cut the power.

An eerie stillness, as if I alone had been left in this vast underground space.

The first time since I'd lost my sight that I'd been truly cut off.

"C-cut it out. That's not funny. Kang Taemin! Dokgomin!"

My voice came out with a faint tremor.

I'd shouted hoping for an answer, but my voice only scattered dry and muffled, as if this bizarre space were swallowing it whole.

"Number One! Kids!!"

I frantically swept the cane in every direction and reached my free hand into the air, but in the end all I caught was cold air.

My pulse hammered abnormally loud in my ears.

"Somebody — answer me…"

Just as I was gasping under the extreme tension and starting to back away —

Vrrrr!!! Vrrrrrrr!!!!

The ebony cane clenched tight in my hand suddenly began to vibrate as violently as a thrashing snake.

"Aagh!"

Startled by the unexpected fit of shaking, I let out a yelp and dropped the cane before I could help it.

Thunk, clank! Clang—!

Drrrrrrrrr!

Slamming down onto the hard floor, the cane rolled off wherever it pleased, making a racket.

Even as it tumbled through the dark, it kept spitting out a whooong, buzz-buzz-buzz of nervy, jangling vibrations.

That skin-crawling scrape against the cold floor and the eerie buzzing sent the unseen dread past every limit.

"Wh-what is this?! Who's there?! Stop messing with me!"

Backing up in a panic, I hit the cold wall and slumped down, helpless.

Sure that something in the dark might snuff out my breath any second, I froze my whole body and held my breath.

That was when.

Pop—! Bang—!

Cracks of firecrackers tore through the silence, one after another.

"Aagh!!!"

[Ta-dahhh—!!]

A cheery fanfare hammered my eardrums.

And, utterly out of place in this grim space, a wildly bright, ringing mechanical voice boomed across the room.

[At last you've come, Junhyeok! I've been waiting on pins and needles!]

Whoo-hoo—! Clap-clap-clap-clap! Toot-toot—!

Manufactured cheers and applause pouring out loud enough to blow the speakers, plus a tinny toy trumpet on top — a full-blown, out-of-its-mind carnival in progress.

"What on earth is this—!"

Under the pounding of that ridiculous racket, my head — gone white with terror — was just barely coming back to its senses.

[Eek! Junhyeok, you've gotten so big! I almost didn't recognize you!]

The perky mechanical voice was ringing out fit to split the speakers.

"You — you know me?"

At my trembling question, from somewhere in the air a delighted "Kya-hahaha!" burst out.

[Of course I do! We're only the best of best friends in the whole world!]

Best of best friends. The moment that oddball phrase landed, a name flickered through my head like a snarled thread pulling loose.

The diary of Chae Junhyeok's that Kang Taemin had just been reading.

The mysterious robot that had appeared in it.

"Don't tell me… are you Myu?"

[Eek! You remember me! Yes, it's me — Myu!]

The moment I heard that giddy voice, the taut string of tension inside me went slack.

"Was that also you, the one who baked the cake for the kids that time?"

[Yes, that was me!]

So this was the kindly robot the kids couldn't stop praising.

I let out a sigh of relief and sagged against the wall.

"Hey, listen — could you help me up first? I got such a shock the strength's all gone out of my legs."

Barely had the words left me when a heavy creak, clunk! of massive wheels rolled across the floor, and the squeal of aged mechanical joints came right up in front of me.

[Of course! Up-up! Up-up!]

A cool, solid metal arm scooped around my waist.

My body was lifted clean off the ground, then set neatly, easily, back on its feet.

[This is yours, isn't it?]

A rattling mechanical hand kindly pressed something into my right palm.

A weighty texture that filled the whole hand.

The cane I'd flung away in my panic in the dark just moments earlier.

[You've really grown so much! Myu is moved. Kya-hahaha!!]

In front of a hulk of a machine one-sidedly overjoyed to see me, I froze up, awkward.

Since I'd transmigrated, this was the first being to show Chae Junhyeok this kind of blind, pure goodwill.

I was just fiddling with the cane, flustered, when a thought flashed through me.

If it was this robot, it might be the key to unlocking Chae Junhyeok's past.

I broached it carefully.

"So… my old memories are pretty fuzzy. Could you tell me a bit about me?"

[Of course! It's Myu's great joy!]

Excited, Myu began pouring out Chae Junhyeok's past, whirring away.

Astonishingly, the young Chae Junhyeok Myu described was a bright, thoughtful, kindhearted child.

This is the wretch of a Chae Junhyeok?

Even allowing for the rosy filter you'd expect from a caretaker robot, none of it matched the villain from the original.

[And when you were eight, you were like—]

"Ah, right — that's enough."

Cutting off what looked like an endless gushing session, firm, I went straight for the heart of it.

"Just one question. Something seems to have shifted starting May 20 — what on earth happened that day?"

[May 20 — oh, when you were ten?]

Whirr, whirr—.

The mechanical hum of data being searched sounded, and then an answer came back.

[The day you awakened and got called in by the Director!]

…!

Inwardly, I was stunned.

I really was an Awakened?

"Yes, that day! How on earth did I awaken? No — more importantly, what is my ability!"

At my urgent question, Myu answered, bright.

[Junhyeok, your ability is ■■■.]

"…What? I can't hear it. Say that again?"

[Come on, why can't you hear me? I said ■■■!]

Like an old radio drifting off frequency, or as if someone had deliberately censored it, a bizarre static garbled the ability itself out — that part alone falling into a hole.

What is this? Are my ears going, or is this robot broken?

Watching me flail in confusion, Myu tilted with a puzzled air.

[Junhyeok, can you not see?]

"Huh? Y-yeah. I can't. But more importantly…"

[That explains it! That's because of ■■■! It threw the balance of your core off!]

What was this now?

[I'll help you!]

Along with Myu's cheerful shout, a beep-beep, beep-beep — something like a warning tone — came through.

"What? Help how—! Guh!"

Jab—!

Something like a sharp syringe drove hard into the base of my neck.

[This should make using your ability a lot smoother from now on! Oh, and you'll be able to see again too!]

The bright, guileless mechanical voice hit my ears.

[But in exchange, you have to keep using your ability, at least a little bit, from now on. Got it?]

"!! What did you just put into—"

[Hmm… but as long as you have ■■■, the side effects won't go away completely. If you don't use your ability at all, you'll go blind again, so be careful! And if you use too much, you'll get sick, so be careful about that too!]

"Wait — listen to me! And what does that even mean? Use the ability and I get sick, don't use it and I go blind?"

[Yaaawn—.]

Ignoring my shouting, a long yawn drifted out of the speakers.

[I'm all out of energy, so it's time for me to go sleep. See you again next time, Junhyeok!]

"Are you kidding me! Myu!! Myu!!"

Then.

The strength drained from every part of my body.

Whether it was Myu's mystery injection or something else, my body felt like it was sinking into a bog.

Even as my consciousness blurred, that ringing voice stayed sharp in my ears.

"Just wish for it! Because you can do anything!"

Wish? What does that…

I had no strength left to ask back.

Whirr, click. The sound of a machine powering off, and Myu's presence receded into the far distance.

[Oh, right! The cherry cheesecake recipe you asked for — I'm leaving it on the desk! Make sure to make it!]

A cherry cheesecake recipe. At a time like this.

A helpless laugh slipped out of me, and I let go completely, falling into the thick dark rushing up to swallow me.