A few seconds after the disaster alert alarm went off, everything around me fell silent in an instant. The Anomaly Control Department bastards who had just been talking about cutting off my limbs all shut their mouths.
I had no idea what was happening, so I used my core strength and hauled myself upright. Only after flopping around in the restraints like a live fish that had just been caught did I finally manage to sit up.
“Mmffph, mmph.”
I had only managed to raise my upper body, and with a gag still jammed in my mouth, there was nothing I could actually do, but...
If someone who had supposedly been unconscious sat up while wearing restraints, there should have been some kind of reaction. But it stayed quiet around me. I tried mumbling for them to untie me until spit dripped through the gag, but no one offered a helping hand.
I gave up struggling and flopped back down. Thanks to having gone through all kinds of eventful shit in childhood, I could stay calm even in a situation like this. At least my limbs seem safe for the moment.
If a disaster alert had gone out, then something had definitely happened. Compared to some natural disaster like an earthquake, “Minsu” showing up in reality would be a lot more helpful to my survival right now.
“Mmph...”
With the gag still in my mouth, I thought of “Minsu.” “Minsu”! Since you came into reality anyway, come save me!
In movies and novels, that was usually the moment when the other person appeared in reality. Unfortunately, “Minsu” was a little slow.
It wasn’t a few seconds later that “Minsu” saved me.
It was three hours later.
***
When I saw “Minsu” again, he was the same as ever. He was, of course, much taller than an ordinary person, and beautiful enough that if a plastic surgeon ever saw him, they would burst into tears of emotion.
Jeon Jiho had said that the current “Minsu” resembled what he had been like before becoming a special entity. But in my opinion, “Minsu” had just mutated in the direction of becoming prettier instead of growing tentacles.
But then how did Jeon Jiho know what “Minsu” had looked like when he was human?
I was curious whether Jeon Jiho and “Minsu” had originally known each other or not, but it was not the kind of situation where I could ask. I still had a gag in my mouth.
“Mmph.”
“Just a moment. I’ll take it off soon.”
“Mmph.”
With a simple flick of his hand, “Minsu” removed the restraints, the gag, and the blindfold. I had finally gotten my freedom of movement back, but it was hard to feel happy about it.
I had wondered why things had been so quiet after the disaster alert alarm, and it turned out every human from the Anomaly Control Department had been knocked unconscious. At first I was horrified, because I thought “Minsu” had killed them all. If “Minsu” leaves and I’m the only one left here, that makes me the only murder suspect!
I was so flustered by the sight of all those collapsed bodies that I missed my chance to ask “Minsu,” “Do you know Jeon Jiho?” And true to form for someone who forgets one philosophical school of thought every time he memorizes a philosopher’s name, once I missed the timing for the question, it vanished completely from my head.
Anyway, it was good news that even though “Minsu” had shown up with the disaster alert alarm blaring like a siren, he had not killed anyone. If the Anomaly Control Department heard about the relationship between me and “Minsu” and tried to pin his appearance on me, I would have no defense.
He really was, compared to what I had imagined, a more reasonable monster. Should I say he was extremely gentlemanly compared to the tentacle teachers I had met? If it had been the tentacle teachers, they would not have merely knocked people out. They would have butchered them.
“I’m sorry. I really didn’t intend to break our promise, either...”
“Minsu” went on and on making excuses, saying that he had planned to come into reality only after finishing the business of Dowon High School, just like he had promised me. He added that even though he had not yet managed to recruit new teachers, it seemed like something had happened to me, so he had forced his way out.
“How did you know I was in danger?”
“You kept talking about me. Calling me ‘Minsu.’ And in the end, you asked me to save you...”
According to “Minsu,” anomalies and reality were normally separated to some degree, so it was impossible to know what was happening in reality from inside an anomaly. But because I had given him the name “Minsu,” calling that name had ended up summoning him.
In other words, I had called Hong Gildong Hong Gildong, and then Hong Gildong had appeared saying, “Yes, did you call me?”
I had spent the entire interview with Jeon Jiho talking about “Minsu,” and at the end I had been stuck in restraints, unable to get the gag off, thinking at him to save me. So if you really got down to it, “Minsu” appearing in front of me actually was my fault.
So I opened my mouth with a trembling heart.
“You came out alone, right?”
“......”
“Right?”
Tell me I haven’t become the ultimate traitor to the nation.
But “Minsu” avoided my gaze slightly, like a dog that had done something very wrong.
“There’s no immediate danger. It’s class time right now, so they should all still be inside the school building.”
“That sounds completely dangerous. You’re saying the tentacle teachers are crawling around inside the abandoned school right now.”
“......”
“I’m grateful you saved me when I almost had my arms and legs cut off, but go back. Finish all the school’s business first, like you promised.”
“Minsu” did not put up much resistance when I told him to go back quietly. So promises and swears really did function as an important mechanism. It looked like the fact that he had come into reality without finishing the school’s business was acting as a control device that could send him back.
“And next time, no matter what you do, come out alone.”
“That is theoretically impossible.”
“Hey, we promised to go on a date.”
“That was the promise.”
“You’ve never dated before, have you? A date is usually one-on-one.”
“......”
“A date and a duel both basically happen one-on-one. If you drag your whole school family along, is that a date? That’s group tourism.”
I kept stubbornly insisting, with completely ridiculous logic, that if he did not come out alone, then we could not go on a date. I was nervous that “Minsu” might change his mind at any moment and drag me back to Dowon High School, but whether they are monsters or humans, it is hard to beat someone who just keeps insisting.
“Hurry up and promise. Promise you’ll come out alone, no matter what.”
“......”
“You said you were sorry for breaking the promise, right? So make up for it with an additional promise.”
“Minsu” reluctantly nodded. At first he had looked troubled, but when I told him to make up for breaking the promise, he even smiled faintly.
The moment I got that extra promise out of him, I started pushing him toward the door and telling him to hurry back to Dowon High School. If he delayed even a little, the ordinary entities inside the abandoned school might end up roaming around downtown.
What I really wanted was to demand that “Minsu” wipe everyone’s memories here clean and take me safely home. But if I chased only my own safety and people ended up getting killed, I would never be able to sleep with both legs stretched out.
“Minsu,” who had let himself be pushed along as obediently as I pushed him, suddenly stopped in front of the door and turned back to look at me.
“May I call you by your name too?”
“You know my name?”
“Yes. Kang Iru. It was written on the student ID you gave me.”
“Right. I did give you my student ID.”
“May I call you by your name too?”
“Why are you even asking that? If you know it, just call me.”
I told him to go ahead, because if I said no, it felt like he would just repeat the same question over and over. It was not like “Minsu” did not know my name. And if he knew it, I could not exactly forbid him from saying it. Names existed to be called by other people in the first place.
At that simple permission, the faint smile on his face bloomed wide like flowers in full blossom. Without even trying to hide how delighted he was, “Minsu” said goodbye to me.
“See you again, Iru.”
“Uh, yeah.”
It had taken him three hours to appear, but disappearing took less than a few seconds. Only after “Minsu” had vanished completely did I slump carelessly into a chair that I could finally see. I had definitely escaped Dowon High School properly, but maybe because I had seen “Minsu’s” face, I felt like I had been trapped inside an anomaly all over again.
“Kang Iru.”
I was getting up to look for my phone or something in this Anomaly Control Department full of unconscious people when a familiar voice called my name. It was Jeon Jiho.
It was his own blood, sure, but standing there in a bloodstained shirt and staring at me with bright eyes, Jeon Jiho had a presence to him, even if he was not on the level of the tentacle teachers. I froze halfway through standing up in an awkward crouch.
“You...”
“I wasn’t the one who did this to the people lying here.”
“......”
“I’m serious. It wasn’t me, it was Min... no, the chairman.”
Since the disaster alert alarm had gone off so loudly, Jeon Jiho would believe that “Minsu” had come and gone. And if he did not, I could just tell him to check the security footage. Though I had no idea whether machines would be working properly in a situation like this.
But Jeon Jiho had no interest in my excuses.
“You. Become a controller.”
“What?”
“You’re not just first-rank. You’re a special-rank controller.”
“Out of nowhere?”
I turned down a teaching position, and now they’re telling me to become a civil servant.
I thought I’d end up jobless after graduating from the philosophy department because I couldn’t find work, but suddenly I’m drowning in career paths. Are you watching, my philosophy department friends? I think I might actually become the greatest output our department has ever produced.