Lee Yeon-woo headed straight for the Operator's Quarters.
"......"
The mont he arrived at the room, he all but threw his glasses off, setting them down and bracing himself against the desk. Head bowed, his eyes drifted aimlessly through the empty air, unable to find a place to settle.
"Coco."
"Yes."
"I feel very strange."
"Yes."
"This is...."
Lee Yeon-woo raised his head. He pressed a hand to his forehead and swept his hair back. His gaze raked through the empty air as though searching for sothing.
"This is quite unfamiliar."
There was no surge of panic or self-loathing. To be precise, it was closer to the complete extinction of any 'motivation' that would have driven such emotions.
"This could beco a problem."
"No."
"The 'right things' I've been doing all this ti were ultimately for my own satisfaction."
Things like the sense of fulfillnt or affection directed toward others.
"Now I can't even feel that paltry reward anymore."
"Yes."
"Ah, I see."
He burst out laughing.
"It would've been nice if I could call this a relief."
It was the first smile he'd shown since arriving at this hotel—utterly cool, utterly arid.
Where the buffer that had breathed clumsy warmth into an immature human had been torn away, only the fierce desire for control and a fastidiousness bordering on obsession remained, gaunt and bare.
Lee Yeon-woo, still wearing that smile, readjusted his glasses.
"All that's left is a sense of duty and moral rules. Forcing myself to play the good person will just make
a cold-blooded shell with nothing inside."
"Yes."
"And eventually I'll wear out and start resenting others. To hope otherwise... right now, even that hope has been devoured whole."
It wasn't his brain but his heart that had been flooded entirely in negative hues.
"A person can't endure sustained exhaustion. I'm not that strong. Coco, what do you think?"
"No."
"Oh, is that so. You say no...."
An optimistic answer. But it was also proof that Coco viewed Yeon-woo, stripped of positive emotion, as an even 'more suitable manager.'
Yeon-woo felt the need to confirm whether Coco properly understood the current situation. He blinked, then looked down at Coco.
"Coco."
The trace of laughter evaporated in an instant.
"I asked what you think."
"......"
Before long, the smile vanished from Coco's face.
"......"
"......"
Its mouth disappeared.
"......"
"...Mm."
"......"
"Mm...."
Squish, squish.
"...Mmn...."
Coco bumped its squishy head against his ankle.
The tail that had always shot sky-high at the sight of Yeon-woo now hung limp. Only a faint tremor remained before it pressed flat against the floor. Drooping ears, rigid movents.
He observed every one of those changes in silence.
'As expected, it's a strange feeling.'
That squishy touch he would've once accepted with clumsy affection now felt like nothing more than so foreign substance provoking physiological revulsion.
'The pri suspect who dragged
to this place....'
This version of myself is really,
how to put it.
"Ah...."
In the end, he laughed again.
"—...Ha ha!"
The worst.
"Well now, I can't even understand why I'm laughing. What's so funny? This is definitely a problem. I simply can't pull myself together."
"......"
"I'm sorry, Coco. So...."
His eyes narrowed as he continued.
"Don't make that face. It'll be fine, I'm going to win."
"......"
"Good Lord, expectations and reality are qualitatively different. I thought I'd accepted this as my share to bear, yet resentnt keeps surging up without warning."
Yeon-woo diagnosed the present with a mind gone cold.
"Leaving the variable of distrust festering internally while in such a volatile, unstable state will pose a fatal risk to long-term ntal managent and our partnership."
He looked Coco's round eyes dead-on.
"All this ti, I never asked you 'why.' I never pressed you for the precise circumstances of how this disaster ca about. Because you seed more fearful than I rembered...."
"Hello?"
"I dared to bury my suspicions under the excuse of convenience. Because I thought waiting until you could tell
the truth on your own terms was sothing I could manage."
"Hello."
"But the person I am now doesn't have that luxury."
He called Coco's na with a smile still on his face.
"Coco."
"No."
"We need to have the conversation I've been putting off."
"No...."
"Shall we settle this?"
Lee Yeon-woo asked.
"Five years ago—was it you who pulled
into this place?"
"No. No. No."
"Then why was that?"
"I do not agree."
"Why?"
We need this conversation.
"Why did you do it?"
What was the reason you made
throw away my perfect life?
"......"
"......"
Coco, its mouth gone, spoke.
"Don't want to."
A lump of sothing that had never once ford a 'friendly relationship' with anyone. In those eerily perfect circular eyes, fierce bewildernt and terror took hold.
"Don't want to. Don't want to. Don't want to. Don't want to. Don't want to. Don't want to."
"Coco."
"Coco. Refuse. Cannot. Denied. I do not want to."
"Co-owner."
"I do not want to."
In that instant.
"""Unhappy."""
Twisted voices overlapped, and the small cat's form began to ripple and collapse.
"■■■■■■■■—!!!!"
The sound that tore from its gaping mouth no longer belonged to any living thing.
A cacophony like thousands of crows screaming in unison.
No matter how bright the lighting, that body cast no shadow—it produced the illusion of a gaping hole punched through the center of reality. As depth perception dissolved and the more one tried to gauge how far it was, how enormous it was, ■■■'s ■ ■■■ ■■ ■ ■■■ ■■■.
The skeletal joints jutting out as though about to pierce through ■■ were by no ans biological tissue. The frawork of limbs elongated like an eight-foot specter's was ■■■ ■■■ like burn■ tree ■■anches, ■■■■. Each ti those jo■■■ bones ■■■ ■oved, they ■■ ground together ■■ unplea■■■■ fric■■■■■.
'...This is....'
...Eyes, nose, ears—all ambiguous in form.
With each surge, afterimages of various shapes flickered within, and inside that mud-like body was sothing packed full of ownerless keys, shattered glass, and fire-scorched photographs.
It seed to have taken the shape of a black cat, and yet, harboring every manner of misfortune....
"......"
Yeon-woo watched it in silence.
The body, unable to hold any fixed form, oozed and dripped like tar. The floor and ceiling where the puddle touched, and even the light illuminating the space, began to discolor, crumble, and corrode.
An existence that contaminated the world simply by being.
And before that.
'...Still immature.'
Yeon-woo could tell it had been seized by terror and plunged into panic.
"■■■■—...!!"
"......"
"■■■■■■■!!"
"......"
"■■...!"
Curling that massive body tight in an attempt to protect itself, probably.
"■■■■■...."
Pure negation.
'Ah.'
Yeon-woo's brow furrowed ever so slightly. The dank, musty aura pouring from the uncontrolled monster. The physiological revulsion bordering on germaphobia sounded alarms in his brain.
The instinct to flee this revolting space surged.
'Contamination—a sensation similar to the Power Generation Room.'
But he didn't step back.
"Did I... hurt you?"
"......"
"Did my impatience make you anxious?"
He took one step closer.
"Answer ."
The immature being couldn't bear the truth, and the reckless interrogation had driven it into a corner. Yeon-woo took another step forward and continued.
"Spurning soone who shows goodwill just because my own state is abnormal would be immoral. And bullying soone who has no room to spare is equally so."
"......"
"I understand. I asked an unreasonable question. I apologize."
He crushed the rising revulsion with a short breath. Crushed the spiraling compulsions with reason.
"I'm sorry."
My judgnt was wrong.
"That you've ended up like this is my responsibility."
"...■■■...."
No.
That was what Coco said as it backed away. But with that bloated mass, there was nowhere to run. Yeon-woo slowly approached the black monster rippling as though lting.
'Even if attachnt has evaporated, the logical grounds for maintaining this relationship are clear.'
Then he stretched out both arms and quietly pulled it into an embrace.
"......"
"......"
A squishy, skin-crawling sensation.
'Horrible.'
The mont it touched him, a revulsion like having his skin peeled off engulfed his entire body. The shriek of crows reverberating through his ribcage, a sensation of insects crawling up his skin.
But Yeon-woo's face didn't so much as flinch.
"I won't ask anymore."
"...■."
"So calm down."
"■."
"Sotis it's like that."
There was no affection in the hand patting its back, but there was the stability that cos from unwavering principle.
"Sotis a secret kept buried is better than a truth laid bare."
"Yes."
"It can make a relationship stronger and build trust more securely. I don't know you well yet, but that's how I was taught."
One couldn't live exposing everything about oneself.
"If this subject was that kind of territory for you, then fine. Let's do it that way."
Let's keep it buried for as long as you want.
Beyond the oozing, dripping substance, a gaunt skeletal fra could be felt beneath his hands. Yeon-woo swallowed a sigh inwardly. No wonder it had been so unusually fond of food.
Even if that wasn't what it ant, perhaps because 'pity' fell under 'negative emotions'—
"......"
"......"
Yeon-woo pulled it in tighter.
"Making a man unable to even speak, honestly...."
"No."
"In return, I may beco a bit more sensitive, and a far more terrible person. Despite my efforts, I may beco more childish than I am now."
"Agreed."
"I don't think that's exactly a good thing."
Within his arms, the form that had been churning violently with agitation steadied, and the indescribable, grotesque screaming ceased. The massive body seed to hesitate for a mont before carefully lowering its head.
Then it settled gently upon Yeon-woo's shoulder.
"...Not much different, really...."
It wasn't heavy.
He might not be able to cherish it as much as before. Even now, Yeon-woo was slightly rigid from enduring the physiological revulsion. But he still wanted it to know.
'I'm not running away.'
Neither disappointed nor discarding. Contrary to what you fear.
"......"
"...Yes."
The massive form squird and shrank.
"Yes. Yeon-woo."
"That's right."
"Yeon-woo. Guarantee."
"You've understood well."
"Understood."
Before long, Coco—returned to the shape of a cat small enough to fit in his arms—asked.
"Hello?"
"Yes, hello."
Yeon-woo curled his eyes in a grin.
He looked down at the now-docile Coco at his feet and straightened his rumpled collar with compulsive fingers. He consciously ignored the stomach-turning sensation and readjusted his glasses.
Then he reached out and held Coco.
"Well done, Coco."
Where positive emotion had been torn away, only dry duty remained—but that was no reason to break their relationship or their friendship.
"Of course, for that to work, it'd be better to rid myself of this Status Ailnt as quickly as possible. At this rate, I might show our dear cat-teacher every unsightly side of
before long."
"Agreed."
"So, as fast as we can... we need to restore it, don't we?"
Its head was still buried against the floor, yet as always, it answered with clear enunciation.
"Yes."
"An excellent opinion, Coco."
"Yes."
"Good."
It didn't purr and roll around as usual, nor hop up onto his shoulder with a spring in its step. It rely burrowed a little deeper into his arms, as though simply wanting to be held.
Yeon-woo could feel nothing from that except revulsion.
'In so ways, it's convenient.'
And so,
'I need to resolve this quickly.'
He was truly exhausted.
"......"
The truth was.
His heart was still pounding, and his hands trembled faintly.
The lips that had been smiling twisted, and he felt as though his breath had been cut off. He felt cold sweat running from the wave of fear and anxiety crashing in. His face was surely pale, too.
'Damn....'
He smiled compulsively. His lips were stiff.
He held back the profanity rising in his chest. He held back the sigh filling his lungs. He no longer felt the need for it, yet he still knew he shouldn't—and so he didn't.
The squishy sensation was nauseating.
"......"
"......"
With trembling hands he patted Coco, and murmured softly.
"It's okay."
"......"
"I can't be... the only one falling apart like this."
He had confird the reaction. The Guest Without Taste was no impregnable fortress. If there were no cracks, he'd make them. Wasn't it precisely the role of people like him to make the impossible possible?
"...I can't be the only one falling apart...."
If he was going to land in a thornfield, if he was going to roll in the mud, then doing it together was only fair.
"......"
"......"
"...I must be insane."
Self-loathing surged.
"Absolutely childish beyond belief."
He needed to rest, a little.
So that he could treat people as people.
***
When you're cornered, the mind conjures all manner of strange ideas. Driven this far, Yeon-woo had no luxury of being dignified about it.
"......"
That day, wandering the hotel, Yeon-woo found one item.
[Noble rcy]
[To chase a fleeing beast for long is beneath one's dignity. When breath grows ragged, the nobleman approaches and severs it. Whose blood is it? The one who holds the blade, or the one who is cut?]
"......"
[Critical hit when attacking a target below 20% HP (damage reduction when HP condition is unt)]
[Inflicts temporary Status Ailnt 'Excessive Bleeding' on attack]
[Triggers an 'Agitation' judgnt on adjacent targets upon use]
"There you are."
The things life makes you do.
'I'm not exactly confident about this, to be honest.'
Deceiving soone was never a pleasant affair, and whether it would even work in a situation like this was anyone's guess. For Yeon-woo, who despised uncertain futures, nothing could have been more vexing, but....
'That said, I can't stake my future on a gamble whose odds haven't even been confird.'
The opponent was no small asure of cunning—whether he'd been doing well so far gave no indication whatsoever. He had to test the waters like this, at least, to see how far the odds had risen.
Beyond his gaze at the hunting dagger, a white hem of clothing brushed past.
"But I really don't have the confidence."
Maybe he should practice?
The thought crossed his mind, but no matter how he looked at it, re pretense wasn't going to cut it. After examining the well-honed dagger from every angle, Yeon-woo tucked it away and let out a small breath.
His bleak future aside.
"You look bored."
"......"
"...Want to cook sothing together?"
When he had called her a 'friend.'
He thought he'd heard the sound of laughter, blooming wide.
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