Retire 317
by Cristae317 The Duty of a Younger Sibling (2)
Life is not fair.
The children of the laboratory, including Woo Irok, learned that lesson quickly.
So, did they rage against that fact?
Well, if you asked, I could only answer no.
Even anger is not distributed equally.
The children didn’t know enough of the world to understand that feeling.
Those with numbers ahead of Woo Irok, the older brothers and sisters, must have felt differently. They were the ones who had lived outside, like Kang Taewoo, before coming here. But the younger children didn’t understand. When all you know of the world is concrete walls, what more could you expect?
So, the reason Woo Irok was able to understand, even a little, the few words his brother so often spoke…
Ironically, it was only after his brother disappeared.
‘Mom!!!’
‘I miss my mom…’
‘Dad’s going to come looking for me.’
The children who had come from the “outside,” crying out for their mothers and fathers.
He couldn’t stand the sight.
When he was a little older, Woo Irok would realize that what he’d felt back then was jealousy.
But at eleven years old, he mistook that feeling for scorn toward those even younger than himself.
Look and see.
Life is not fair.
That’s why even the children who had eaten well and slept well outside ended up here.
Again, the older Woo Irok would be embarrassed at himself for spouting such nonsense, even though he was just a child.
In any case, that Woo Irok and this Woo Irok walk different paths. Those paths will never cross again. Once split, they cannot become the same.
This eleven-year-old Woo Irok had regained the brother that the other could never reclaim. Whether that brother was truly his brother or not was a secondary matter; Woo Heejae had decided to be Woo Irok’s brother, and in that sense, there was no problem.
So it was time to think about other problems.
Did Woo Irok think of Woo Heejae as his brother?
“Irok, you said you had a brother, right?”
“Irok’s brother is a Hunter!”
“A Hunter? Really?”
“Yeah.”
Even before Irok could answer, the kids around him were already chiming in with testimony about his brother.
“I saw him when he came to pick Irok up last time.”
“Yeah! He’s super tall, too.”
“Irok, are you going to be a Hunter too?”
“I’m not sure…”
“Hey, you think you can just become a Hunter because you want to? You have to Awaken first!”
Woo Irok let his friends chatter among themselves.
He didn’t want to join in when it came to talk about Hunters. Not only his brother, but even that man was a Hunter, and the men who came to look after him when his brother was busy were also Hunters…
But being familiar with Hunters was one thing; Woo Irok didn’t like Hunters. More precisely, he didn’t like Awakened people.
After all, the lab had been trying to create Awakened, hadn’t it?
He’d never told his brother, but Woo Irok didn’t want to become an Awakened…
‘Irok.’
But his brother—
‘If you ever see something strange, you have to tell me.’
‘Something strange?’
‘If you ever see blue dust floating in the air… You understand?’
‘Blue dust? What’s that?’
‘It’s a thing. I’ll explain it to you later.’
‘Explain it now! I need to know what it is so I can avoid it or not! Is it bad? Is it weird?’
‘No, it’s not like that… Just don’t try to touch it by yourself.’
‘So I just have to tell you?’
‘Right. You might have Awakened.’
His brother was waiting as if he might Awaken at any moment.
‘…There must be a lot my brother hasn’t told me.’
He knew.
Life was just as unfair for his brother.
In this unfair life, Woo Irok had learned to imitate adults faster than most.
He didn’t ask about things his brother didn’t want to talk about, and he pretended not to notice when his brother wished he didn’t know something.
That was fine. Because his brother was his brother.
Because his brother kept his promises.
In this unfair world, that alone was enough for Woo Irok.
“But do you guys want to Awaken? I don’t.”
“Why not? Hunters are so cool.”
“Ugh, no way. You have to fight monsters. Didn’t you see that news about the monster in Busan?”
“What? Which one?”
“The rat! If someone told me to catch a rat that big, I couldn’t do it.”
“A rat? That’s nothing.”
“That rat was as big as my dad’s car!!”
Even the friends who thought Hunters were cool hesitated when it came to actually fighting monsters.
“I’m okay with rats…”
Even the kid who started the conversation looked uneasy.
“I don’t like the one from that report.”
“Which one?”
“That mosquito dungeon in Japan…”
“Oh, I really hate that!!”
“Totally disgusting!!!”
No matter the country, insect-type monsters are never popular.
Woo Irok shook his head as he saw the topic drift far from his brother. He found it bothersome when his friends asked about his brother. And if family came up, and someone mentioned mom or dad, he had nothing to say.
“…But some monsters are supposed to look like puppies.”
“Don’t they just eat people with their cute faces?”
“They’re monsters, of course they do!”
“That’s why I say, no way to being a Hunter.”
“But it’s still cool! And they make a lot of money!”
“You only have one life!”
Woo Irok half-listened to his friends’ chatter. Today wasn’t a day for taekwondo. His brother had said he wouldn’t be able to come in the morning, so probably one of the Hunter men would pick him up.
If he went to the convenience store and bought a snack, the timing would work out. The only convenience store nearby was across the street…
“……”
As he turned his head, Woo Irok caught a faint blue glow.
At first, he hadn’t noticed it, hidden in the shadows of the alley. But it was the same color as the glow from his phone screen under the covers at night, when he watched it in secret from his brother. An artificial blue.
Woo Irok narrowed his eyes.
Beyond the blue glow, he thought he saw something that looked like a person in the shadowed alley.
He tried to focus on the alley, but passing cars blocked his view. Woo Irok looked at the crosswalk. Since he was heading to the convenience store anyway, if he crossed the street, he could check it out…
‘If you see anything strange, tell me or one of the Hunter men right away. Got it?’
Hmm.
His brother’s warning came to mind.
He didn’t think of his brother’s words as nagging, unlike some of his friends. He knew his brother worried a lot and nagged a lot, but he also knew it was all for his sake.
Especially since a suspicious person had recently appeared, calling himself Jeongmin.
‘But what could happen in broad daylight, right in the middle of the street?’
If there really was a suspicious person, the Hunter men would have taken care of it already.
Just because his brother didn’t say anything didn’t mean he didn’t know about the Hunters watching over him. It wasn’t that the Hunters were so clumsy that an eleven-year-old could spot them… Just think about it logically.
Would they let a man who shouted his dead mother’s name and tried to rush him keep attending school?
The brother he knew wasn’t that careless.
If he knew someone was watching him and wanted to find them, the rest was easy.
Woo Irok shrugged.
If the Hunter men weren’t doing anything, it probably wasn’t a big deal. At most, maybe it was just a convenience store clerk.
He’d check it out on his way to the store.
If Woo Heejae knew what he was thinking, he’d probably be horrified.
The conversation among his friends had already shifted from Hunters and monsters to the latest game craze among kids.
“That game’s not that great.”
At that grumbling voice, Woo Irok smirked and replied.
“Isn’t it just because you’re bad at it?”
“No!”
“Kids who are bad at games always say that.”
“I said I’m not!!”
“Not everyone can be good at games.”
“Ugh, I really said I’m not!!”
Talking like that, they soon arrived at the convenience store.
Just before going in, Woo Irok glanced at the alley, trying to look casual. The narrow gap between buildings, usually filled with empty bottle crates from the store.
In that space, a faint blue glow drifted. Clumped together in a round shape, it almost looked like a person at a glance.
‘So that’s why I thought I saw wrong.’
Chasing the slow-floating blue dust, Woo Irok tilted his head.
Blue dust…
‘Is this what my brother meant?’
When his brother told him to report if he saw blue dust, he’d scoffed inwardly—who’d ever see such a thing? But what was in front of him now was truly blue dust, nothing more and nothing less.
But something else bothered him even more.
This was supposed to be a sign of Awakening?
Usually, Awakening meant… getting stronger or something, didn’t it?
Woo Irok tilted his head. The older kids he’d played with at the pension had said as much.
They’d said they’d broken a thing or two without meaning to.
Woo Irok looked at his own hands. Didn’t seem like anything special.
Sss…
“Irok? What are you doing, just standing there?”
“Huh? Wait a second.”
Still, since his brother had told him to say something right away, he should. Woo Irok took out his phone, but then looked up, sensing something strange.
Ssssss…
The blue dust was gathering. The glow grew stronger than before. Each particle was barely visible, but as they clustered together…
It looked more and more like a person.
The head and torso became distinct. Arms stretched out from the shoulders, blunt fingers beginning to form.
If it were just blue dust, maybe it wouldn’t be so strange. But this? What was this?
Anyone who could see this would know it was no ordinary event.
Woo Irok quickly stepped back. Moving toward his friends waiting at the convenience store entrance, he pressed the call button.
The phone rang only a few times before the other side picked up.
—Irok? What’s wrong?
“Hyung!!”
Woo Irok called out to his brother in a desperate voice.
At the same time, the human-shaped figure of blue dust stepped out of the alley. With each step, each movement, the form flickered and threatened to collapse. But the dust clung together, somehow maintaining its shape.
In the bright light of day, in the middle of the road, nothing was supposed to happen. But right now, only Woo Irok could see what was happening. His friends were still joking and laughing, and the passersby didn’t notice what he saw.
The wavering figure was drawing closer. Its hand, which seemed about to fall apart but didn’t, stretched out straight toward him.
Woo Irok stumbled backward. When his friends saw his pale face, they stopped talking.
“What’s wrong?”
Woo Irok didn’t know what to do.
—Irok? Are you okay?
So when his brother’s voice, always warm and comforting, came through, he clung to it.
Woo Irok gripped his phone as if it were a lifeline.
“Hyung!!!”
—Irok! What’s happening!!
“I—I see something weird, something weird and blue! It looks like a person!”