The Formless Special Division.
An unauthorized special agency under the government.
Its original purpose of establishment was simple.
'To monitor the spiritual entities existing within the country and minimize their influence.'
But at some point, alongside spiritual entities, a strange phenomenon called the Ghost Story began to run rampant.
After that, the Division's jurisdiction naturally expanded from 'spiritual substances' to 'anomalous phenomena in general.'
Which created a very large problem for them.
Namely, that they were short on people. Far too short.
They were undermanned to begin with and the workload had grown, so how could things ever have run smoothly?
Perhaps for that reason, a look inside the Division reveals one conflict after another.
In particular, clashes between the so-called 'old hands,' who had been working since before the expansion, and the 'newbies' hastily brought in after it, had long since become routine.
Into this unsettled atmosphere came a new recruit.
Her name was 'Hong Yeon.'
Most agents had the same thought when they first saw her.
'...... Isn't she far too young?'
A face too childlike to pass for an adult, and a small frame.
On top of that, the round glasses made her look like a student, plain and simple.
But that first impression was overturned entirely by what Hong Yeon did on her first mission.
Was there another person the word "shred" fit so perfectly?
Force like a cheat code, capable of tearing an Anomaly itself apart.
Three years on, when red energy surges in Hong Yeon's pupils, even agents famous for their arrogance drop their eyes.
So much so that people say the department has become oddly 'quiet and peaceful' since she arrived.
Some agents even wondered whether she was really human.......
But information about her was strictly classified even inside the Division.
And now that same woman is looking at a certain door.
Beyond it was 'him.'
She had wanted to go in too, but her senior wouldn't allow it.
Dealing with people was not her job, that was his argument.
When she heard that, a question came to her.
Could 'he' really be called entirely human?
But she did not voice it.
Swallowing questions, doing only what she was told.
Because that was her father's teaching.
***
This dawn has gone on far too long.
No, is it even fair to call this hour dawn anymore?
The clock on the wall says a little past six.
I'm sitting on a cramped, uncomfortable chair.
The gray walls surrounding me hold nothing but that one clock.
The room I'm in is a little over thirteen square meters.
All it holds is a steel table and two chairs.
Like an interrogation room out of a movie.
Of course, it isn't a real one.
This is the first basement level of the officetel building, a room inside the management office.
About an hour ago, Hong Yeon and the man dragged me down here.
And for that entire hour and more, I've been thoroughly left alone.
Nobody to bark at me, nobody to untangle the questions pouring in hard enough to blow my head open.
It's like they've forgotten they brought me here.
The sober weight of reality hits me.
What the hell am I even doing.......?
What the hell kind of situation have I been dragged into.......?
What the hell did that man Gap-o mean by any of it.......?
And Mom, what the hell did you leave me.......?
As I sat there with these self-mocking thoughts, the door opened.
And in came a huge man.
He sets a file binder on the table and sits down across from me.
"My apologies. We needed to get a handle on the situation ourselves."
I don't have the energy to answer.
He glances at me slumped there and opens the binder.
The sound of pages turning, and between them, a great many photographs.
Faces I've never seen, shots that look like scenes of incidents.
His hand stops on one page.
He pushes the binder toward me.
There was a woman on it.
A woman smiling brightly in the photo.
But her hands and feet are bound.
What caught my eye more than that eerie contrast was—her face.
A face far too familiar.
"That is your mother, isn't it?"
It is. My mother.
Somewhat younger than the face I remember, certainly, but unmistakably her.
When I nodded weakly, he leaned toward me.
"Do you know where she is now?"
Only then did I raise my head and look at him.
He was watching me with no expression at all.
Looking at that face, my head suddenly goes hot.
Why do I have to be treated like this?
Fuuuck, what did I do that was so wrong?
Why is everyone giving me shit?!
My cuffed hands slammed down on the table of their own accord.
It burst out of me; I couldn't have done anything else.
"Take these off. Now."
The man doesn't move.
He watches me quietly, then lays a hand on the cuffs.
CLICK.
And the cuffs come open on their own.
"I did not want to be this heavy-handed either."
He says it like an excuse and closes the binder.
"Haa...... this really is awkward."
He leans back against the chair and goes so far as to cross his legs.
"Mr. Do-yul, have you ever worked a job?"
"......?"
The sudden change of subject loosens my expression despite myself.
"Or the military?"
The out-of-nowhere questions keep coming.
"I served, yes...."
He goes so far as to pull a cigarette from his coat.
He puts it in his mouth, flicks his lighter on, and only then looks at me.
"You don't mind if I smoke?"
"Yes, well......."
He lights it, takes a drag, and settles back into his seat.
"If you have served, you will understand......."
He grinds the cigarette out in the ashtray with most of it left.
"There are things you have to do whether you want to or not, aren't there?"
What does he keep going on about?
"So please, understand."
Suddenly he lunges at me like a beast.
His iron grip seizes my head.
"Wh...... what are you......?!"
Before I can finish, his hand forces my mouth open.
And then, 'it' came into my mouth.
I can't see it, but I can feel it clearly.
Dozens of pairs of legs digging into my tongue, and with them, a damp, elongated body.
The shape my tongue reads is unmistakably a centipede.
It starts crawling fast toward my throat.
I thrash, but I can't get free.
Because of the man's inhuman strength.
Soon the bug reaches my throat.
It brushes past my uvula and burrows deep into my body.
I retch, and tears well up.
All I can do is glare at the man in front of me.
His face, watching me, is nothing but calm.
Calm enough to make me feel like I'm the one overreacting.
Only once the bug is all the way down does he let go.
He returns to his seat as if nothing had happened.
"Honestly, I did not expect the higher-ups to order this much."
I retch and glare at him.
With every bit of resentment I have.
"I do not expect you to understand. But this is the only way we can trust you, Mr. Do-yul."
"Fuck, are you insane?! What is this bullshit?!"
My shout rings around the narrow room.
He waits quietly for the echo to die.
When it's quiet, he speaks.
"From now on, you have no choice but to obey me, Mr. Do-yul."
"What, is this some cult thing? What kind of bullshit......?!"
"Be quiet."
The instant he finishes, my mouth shuts like magic.
"You can no longer hide anything from me, Mr. Do-yul."
My lips won't part, as if glued shut.
Rage with nowhere to go circles inside my mouth.
Fuck.
I really don't want to cry in front of that bastard, but my eyes go hot anyway.
What the hell is this?
Does any of this make sense?
What the hell is this?!
Why?! Why do I have to go through this?!
"Again, I do not expect you to understand. You will be angry, if anything."
You know that perfectly well, so why are you doing this to me?!
"Again! As I said, I am not doing this because I want to, either."
He lets out a small sigh.
"I will let you speak, so please do not get worked up. It will only drag things out."
I glare, and he asks again.
"Understood?"
I forced myself to nod.
"You may speak again."
My mouth comes unstuck at the same moment.
"What did you do to me?!"
"As I explained, you have no choice but to follow my orders."
"Because of that bug?"
He nods.
"And if I don't?"
"You just experienced it."
He leans slowly toward me.
"Do not think about running, either. I can issue orders remotely as well."
"Is this...... is this allowed? In this day and age?"
"It is not. How could it possibly be?"
"Then why are you doing it to me?"
"I will make you a promise. If you answer my questions in good faith, I will use every bit of authority I have to petition my superiors."
"For what?!"
"To have the restriction placed on you lifted."
"......."
"So please cooperate with the investigation in good faith. Understood?"
Rage boils up in me at this whole situation, and I'd rather die than do what he says, but.......
There's no choice.
I don't know what on earth that damn bug is, but I've felt it.
What happened a moment ago was definitely real.
Better for me to go along with him while he's still being polite.
But...
I know that, I really do!
It's so unfair.
I've barely cried in my life, yet I'm so wronged I want to bawl my eyes out.
"Mr. Do-yul."
When my deliberating drags on, he calls me again.
"My name is Dae-ho. Jang Dae-ho."
He introduces himself out of nowhere and offers his hand.
When I only stare at it, he withdraws it, looking embarrassed.
"You are twenty-two now, correct, Mr. Do-yul?"
"......."
"My younger sibling would be about your age, had they lived. So treating you this way does not sit well with me either."
What is this, stick and carrot?
What kind of show is he putting on now?
Do you know that horrible feeling of swallowing a bug?
While completely overpowered, no less?
"Going forward, I will have no reason to give you orders outside of specific circumstances. Once this investigation is over, you may simply live as you always have."
I know his behavior is an act, but seeing it does soften me a little, I can't deny that.
I force a nod, and he smiles faintly.
"Good. Then, until you leave this room, answer my questions truthfully as far as you can."
He opens the binder again.
And there's my mother's photo again.
"This is your mother, correct, Mr. Do-yul?"
I gave a short nod.
"Her name?"
"Kim Chae-ryeong."
"Do you remember her date of birth?"
"I don't know...... I lived without thinking about her......."
He records my answer in a notebook.
"Do you know where your mother is now?"
"No."
"Then what brought you to this officetel?"
"My mother......."
Strangely, the answer doesn't come out smoothly.
The words catch in my throat.
"Because I heard my mother had died and left me the officetel."
He must notice the state I'm in; his eyes narrow.
"In that case, isn't that a little strange?"
"What is?"
"If you believed your mother was dead, then when asked where she is, you would not, at the very least, have answered that you do not know."
In that instant, several thoughts flash through my head.
The man called Gap-o, whom I met before coming to this room.
And everything he poured out at me.
Would it be to my advantage to lay all that out honestly?
No. I don't think so.
The photo of my mother he showed me.
The one where she was bound.
His organization was clearly hostile to my mother.
And according to that man Gap-o, I.......
Hard to believe, but.......
I've inherited something of my mother's.......
And most important of all!
I can never trust the organization that ordered a suspicious bug fed to me, nor the man who belongs to it.
"I know you are telling the truth. You are in no condition to lie."
He closes the notebook and leans further toward me.
"In a case like this, it means you yourself are confused about what is true."
His steady eyes fix on me.
"Why did you come to doubt your mother's death?"
"Doubt......."
"I remember your face the first time you came into this building. I was sitting in the security office then."
"......."
"Flushed, like a freshman who had just come up to Seoul, I believe?"
"What are you getting at?"
"You came to the officetel without a shred of doubt about her death. In a rather good mood, too. Why did that change?"
"I'm not convinced my mother is alive."
"Then?"
"It just feels strange."
"Strange?"
"You know, don't you? What I went through today."
He looks at me without answering.
"After all that, I got home and felt confused. And then I started wondering why I came here at all."
The answer comes out smoothly.
I'm telling only the truths I'm allowed to tell.
Strictly in the direction that favors me.
Even at a glance, his instincts are no joke.
I have to be careful, like walking a tightrope.
"I couldn't remember anything. Who told me my mother was dead, how I ended up here."
Hearing my answer, he leans back in his chair.
"Cannot remember, is it......."
He shifts in his seat again.
"Yeon said she felt some kind of suspicious aura while seeing you home today."
"A suspicious aura......?"
"After you parted from Yeon today, did you meet anyone, no, any being possessing intelligence, in any form?"
This one I have to answer honestly.
The truth is I can't trust the man called Gap-o either.
What I have to hide here is strictly information about myself.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"A man called Gap-o."
At the name Gap-o, his face twists.
He flips through the binder and holds it out to me.
"Is this the man?"
It's a photo of a clean-cut young man.
He certainly resembles the man called Gap-o.
But comparing the two feels like looking at a father and a son.
"The man I met was much older, but the resemblance is definitely there."
"That bastard...... no, that man, what did he say?"
"That my mother is alive...... It wasn't a long conversation. I was unconscious for a good while, too......."
"Anything else......."
I got ahead of him before the questions could stretch out.
"And the man talked about a rite."
That gets his interest.
"That my mother performed some rite on me. And that's why I can't remember the past......."
He records my answer meticulously.
"And that the rite's effect would run out soon......."
His pen stops.
He lifts his eyes from the notebook to me.
"You have become very forthcoming all of a sudden."
"What?"
"If I were in your position, I do not think I could take this forthcoming attitude......."
In that instant, an emotion flares up.
Not panic.
This is plainly rage.
"Do you know a thing about my circumstances?"
My voice rises before I know it.
"You shove a centipede in my mouth so I can't even lie, and now you're griping that I talk too much?"
"All right."
He raised both hands in a gesture to calm me.
"Let us stop here for today. I cannot keep holding a man who says he does not remember."
For today? So there's a next time?
"Sleep well today, and we start again the day after tomorrow."
"I have to keep doing this?"
He stands, stops midway through tidying up, and looks at me.
"Your memory is not whole yet, is it? Then we keep checking until it is."
I had nothing to say to that.
"Then, the day after tomorrow, we will come to your unit. Rest well until then."
He rises and holds the door open for me.
For today, at least...... Am I supposed to count getting off like this as lucky?
***
I came home.
With not a scrap of physical or mental strength left.
First I went into the bathroom.
I splashed my face and looked in the mirror, and saw myself, without a trace of color in my face.
It had been such...... such a brutal day.
I'm dying to sleep.
Sleep first, right now.
I rinsed my mouth and, the moment I turned off the tap at the sink, something appears in the drain.
Eyes.
A pair of long eyes, like a snail's, juts out of the drain and looks up at me.
And a voice rings in my head.
'Young Master.'
The moment I hear it, my mind goes white.
Now what is that?