Naturally, he had turned down every offer to collaborate on GemTube, and he had no one he could really call a friend. For the same reason he'd kept his work and personal phones separate.
"He also owns a small house. It isn't worth much as an asset, though."
There was a country house, a small mountain property, and a field that the ginseng-gathering couple had left him. He wasn't making any particular use of either the woodland or the farmland. The studio apartment he currently lived in was rented, and he had four vehicles registered in his name.
"We couldn't find any medical records. Most people at least get a flu shot every year, but there's no record of even that. He's skipped every national health screening, too. His last physical examination was at school, when he was in middle school."
According to that last record, he'd been 163 centimeters tall and weighed 48 kilograms.
Now... he appeared to have grown another five or six centimeters, but he'd actually lost weight. Definitely lost weight.
"If you're curious about the inside of the place he's living in, I can have someone break in. Install cameras, too."
"No, that's okay. Tell them to leave his home alone."
Hae Dam would be going back and forth between his human and weasel forms in the privacy of his home. Jeongwon couldn't allow that to be recorded.
"Weren't there any pictures of a white weasel among the materials from his childhood?"
"A weasel? Hmm. I don't remember hearing about one."
"Could you ask? I'm sure there must be some."
"All right."
Ji Haeri immediately contacted one of her subordinates, wondering,
Why is he looking for a weasel? I heard he's been keeping one lately. Is it related? Don't tell me this Hae Dam fellow used to keep a weasel, too. Is that how they ended up meeting?
Jeongwon could practically see the question marks floating around his sister's head, but he said nothing.
"Apparently, there was something. They didn't include it because Hae Dam wasn't in it. I'll have them send it to your email."
"Thanks."
The email arrived almost immediately. Jeongwon opened it at once.
It was a video.
On the wooden porch of a country house in the middle of summer, a tiny weasel, pure white all the way to the tip of its tail, lay sprawled on its back with its belly exposed.
The wife of the ginseng-gathering couple held a small ice pack against the weasel's head. There was an unmistakable smile on her face. The man holding the camera let out a quiet chuckle as well.
They were worried about the little weasel suffering in the heat, but at the same time, the sight of the tiny creature lying on its back, stretched out to its full length with its belly in the air, was simply too adorable.
Too precious.
"Dam."
The weasel's ears twitched at the man's voice. Its eyelids fluttered, and the video ended.
Apparently, the video had been found in the man's phone album at the country house.
Hae Dam had never transferred it to his own phone.
"Now, tell me. How on earth did you meet this Hae Dam? You didn't go to the same school, and I can't find anything connecting the two of you."
"I saw a video. After I started keeping a weasel, I was looking up related videos, and the algorithm recommended one about an animal detective."
"And you only found out he had supernatural powers after meeting him in person?"
"That's right. I was surprised, too."
"What sort of powers does he have?"
"He understands what animals say, and animals understand him. They can communicate even without speaking aloud, so I think he can read animals' minds."
He didn't mention that Hae Dam could transform into an animal.
Or that, before the age of four, he'd actually been one.
"I see. Well, there are people who can read human minds, so there's no reason someone couldn't read animals' minds, too. How extraordinary. Perhaps there are more people with supernatural abilities out there than we realize."
Jeongwon nodded.
His sister continued.
"Congratulations, little brother. You've finally found yourself a friend. He seems like a genuinely good-hearted young man, too. We're all very happy for you." Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
"Thanks."
A faint smile appeared on Jeongwon's face.
Ji Haeri stopped there, but her mind was crowded with worries. She didn't voice them, yet Jeongwon answered one of the countless questions she was holding back.
"I submitted a leave-of-absence request to the university."
A leave of absence, not a withdrawal.
Ji Haeri let out a breath of relief.
"Good. That was a wise decision. Should we try recruiting this Hae Dam to our company? Or perhaps arrange for him to move into the apartment next to yours..."
"I want to take things slowly. He's very guarded. You know how people with supernatural powers are..."
"Well, of course. It's an unavoidable survival instinct."
"Yeah. I'll try approaching him on my own for now. If I need anything later, I'll ask."
"Just say the word. We're ready whenever you need us."
"Thank you."
The siblings exchanged warm looks.
Having shared everything from the details of one person's entire life and financial circumstances to his deepest secrets, they proceeded to strengthen their sibling bond without the slightest twinge of guilt, then began their meal.
Jeongwon was chewing a piece of steak that practically melted in his mouth when something suddenly occurred to him.
Among the information he'd just read about Hae Dam was a note describing him as a vegetarian.
He didn't eat meat.
Apparently, when he was in middle school, a classmate had played a prank on him by making him eat some meat from the school lunch. Hae Dam had immediately thrown it up on the spot.
Of course he had.
He had originally been an animal, and even now, he could communicate freely with animals.
From a human perspective, eating meat must feel something like eating human flesh.
Is that why he only eats ginseng?
Because it was one of the more nutritious vegetables...?
But Jeongwon had never once seen him eat any other vegetables.
That was something he would have to investigate further.
By the time they finished eating, Ji Seokwon had wrapped up his work and joined them. They talked until late before finally calling it a night.
His sister and brother went home, but Jeongwon didn't return to his apartment. Instead, he headed to one of the guest rooms reserved for the Ji siblings.
He knew from the contents of the cloned phone that the weasel wouldn't be coming home.
Now that he thought about it, the situation struck him as rather strange.
Whenever he'd been away from home before, he'd spent the entire time counting down the minutes until he could shut himself away in his apartment, alone.
And now...
He didn't want to go home because the weasel wouldn't be there.
He took a seat by the window, holding a cup from a limited collection by a renowned ceramic artist, reserved exclusively for room service in accommodations above the suite level.
When he raised the blinds, a glittering nightscape appeared beneath the black sky.
He knew that the beautiful, multicolored scenery across the dark water was the product of the blood, sweat, and tears of workers who hadn't been able to leave their offices.
Why do they keep working at jobs that won't even let them go home? Why don't they find somewhere else to work...?
The youngest son of the Ji family, who had never performed a single day's labor in his life, pondered this question as he stepped onto the terrace.
Until just last week, temperatures had easily dropped below minus ten degrees Celsius. Now they were back up to ten degrees above zero.
The air was warm for winter, yet still too chilly to call it spring.
Even standing outside in the middle of the night, he didn't feel particularly cold.
Contrary to what many people assumed, that silent, solitary country was apparently quite warm much of the time.
However, the place he'd chosen to spend the rest of his life was a cold region where the average temperature hovered around two or three degrees below zero.
He'd chosen it because the colder a place was, the fewer people there tended to be.
His rental agreement was still in effect.
He hadn't canceled it, so starting next month, he would be paying rent on an empty house every month.
After two years of that, the house would become his.
If I asked Hae Dam to come to Iceland with me... would he?
Hae Dam seemed like someone who worked hard at life.
An ordinary young man who worked diligently to earn money, maintained a social life, and even prepared for his retirement.
But someone with supernatural powers could never be ordinary.
No matter how hard he tried, he would eventually find himself lonely among all these people.
And there was no way someone with supernatural powers wouldn't know that.
No matter how much he tried to ignore it, the day would come when he had to accept that reality....
I'll stay by Hae Dam's side, and when that day comes, I'll take him to Iceland.
The problem was figuring out how to secure a place beside Hae Dam the human, rather than Hae Dam the weasel.
No suitable approach came to mind.
After thinking about it for a long while, he went back inside.
Hae Dam's cloned phone lit up on the table.
February 10
10:48 p.m.
Sir, you said you were going to introduce me to someone who wanted to work as an assistant, right??
10:49 p.m.
I think I really do need to hire an assistant after allㅠ Do you know if they're still looking for work?
"Welcome to ○○ Café!"
"Hello. An iced chamomile tea, please. For here."
"Of course. One iced chamomile. It'll take a little while to steep."
"You can just give it to me now. I'll steep it in the cold water myself."
"Oh, all right. We'll let you know with a buzzer when it's... Oh, no, I'll give it to you right now."
"Thank you."
Hae Dam took his cup of cool water, in which the tea hadn't steeped at all, and hurried over to a table tucked away in the corner.
The moment he sat down, he removed the tea bag.
Because of his unusual constitution, his body couldn't tolerate liquid fructose at all, but he could consume small amounts of caffeine, alcohol, and tea leaves.
He even kept a supply of chamomile tea bags at home.
However, on days when he wasn't feeling well, drinking the wrong thing could leave him nauseated all day.
Today happened to be one of those days, so he'd decided to stick to plain water.
Twenty minutes left.... I'm nervous.
He was about to conduct his very first job interview.
Of course, he'd been interviewed as a prospective employee more than ten times when he was fifteen.
But today, for the first time, he would be the one doing the hiring.