Sentimental Shower

#024

The first thing he noticed was the intense smell of blood. Behind Yeon Tae-soo, he could see the fallen android man. The pool of blood beneath him extended to the door, marked by Yeon Tae-soo’s footprints.

“Are you okay?”

There was blood on the dagger in Yeon Tae-soo’s hand. Seeing the dripping blood, he felt nauseous but managed to hold it back.

“Don’t worry, he’s dead now, dear.”

Yeon Tae-soo said with a grin, as if proud. As if seeking praise.

At that moment, Mr. Yoo realized that what he feared wasn’t just violence, but Yeon Tae-soo himself.

Perhaps due to extreme tension, even his emotion-reading function had stopped. Instead of emotion analysis results, warning messages about high heart rate and stress levels filled his visual display.

Yeon Tae-soo’s subordinates came to inspect and seal off the area. Some people passing by in the corridor glanced over, but not for long.

One subordinate, with a very tense face, whispered something to Yeon Tae-soo. Yeon Tae-soo nodded expressionlessly. The emotion analysis function was still not working.

“You’ve looked scared since yesterday. I guess it was because of that thing.”

He had been tense about his identity being discovered, but it seemed Yeon Tae-soo had misunderstood his fear as being about the android.

“Did you know him?”

Yeon Tae-soo asked. He tried to come up with an answer as quickly as possible in his mind. It wasn’t hard to conclude that if he said he didn’t know, it would raise more suspicion.

“…A long time ago, he came as a patient…”

He stumbled over his words, trying to connect his thoughts. It didn’t matter, as it would look to Yeon Tae-soo like he was scared and surprised.

“At that time, he threatened me, saying the drug I used was illegal.”

Of course, it was a lie. But the android was dead and couldn’t refute his lie.

“And then?”

Was Yeon Tae-soo believing his words? With his gaze fixed on the fallen android’s back, unable to face him, he stammered and opened his lips again.

“…For a while… I didn’t pay attention as he didn’t come back, but I happened to meet him here.”

“Dear.”

A voice cutting off his words. If he raised his gaze, he would meet Yeon Tae-soo’s eyes, and he felt he could read the anger and suspicion on his face even before his function could analyze it.

Yeon Tae-soo took a step closer. A drop of blood had fallen on his well-polished shoe tip. He heard the automatic door opening and closing repeatedly behind him.

“I never asked you to explain yourself. There’s no need for that.”

He unknowingly took a deep breath. He couldn’t hide his relief.

“Were you worried I might misunderstand?”

“I, I…”

He couldn’t answer right away. Guilt washed over him and he bowed his head deeply. Perhaps understanding this action, Yeon Tae-soo’s hand briefly covered the top of his head before falling away.

“It’s okay. You’re safe here. Because I’m here.”

He couldn’t understand what made him so affectionate. But he could be certain. As Yeon Tae-soo said, Eden was safe. As long as Yeon Tae-soo was here.

And if his identity as an android was discovered, he would end up like that man lying dead in front of the door.

As long as he wasn’t discovered, this place would truly become a paradise as its name suggested. Yeon Tae-soo wasn’t the type to easily let go of what was his.

“You must have been very startled. Get some rest. This bastard woke you up and you couldn’t sleep, right, our Mr. Yoo?”

His smiling face was full of composure. How could someone who could smile like this after killing a person have such a past?

“Can’t sleep? Should I put you to sleep? Want me to sing you a lullaby?”

It was jarring to see him making frivolous jokes while still holding the knife dripping with blood. It felt like facing something incomprehensible.

“I’m fine. But you, sir…”

He was about to say that Yeon Tae-soo should be the one resting, but the burly men behind started murmuring and urgently exchanging words among themselves. Their voices, telling someone they shouldn’t come here and to step back, were tinged with bewilderment.

“Shit, what now? Every time I try to have a conversation with our Mr. Yoo, something happens.”

Rubbing his face, which was dripping with irritation, Yeon Tae-soo pushed him into the room.

“Stay inside, dear.”

He tried to stretch his neck to look over Yeon Tae-soo’s shoulder, but the door closed. Mr. Yoo immediately pressed the view button.

Through the now transparent door, he could see Yeon Tae-soo’s back. The person facing him was a middle-aged man. He had a plump body and a dark complexion.

“Yeon representative, Tae-soo, what the hell is going on here? Huh?”

“Oh my, that’s right. You’re getting old, losing your morning sleep, and I woke you up.”

It was a sly voice tinged with laughter. The middle-aged man pointed with his chin towards the door where Mr. Yoo was, over Yeon Tae-soo’s shoulder.

“Who’s that kid who just went in? Who is it that you’re hiding so urgently?”

Along with a gesture of peeking in, the man’s gaze turned towards the door. Although there was no way he could see, Mr. Yoo felt a bit uncomfortable as if their eyes had met.

Yeon Tae-soo tilted his head to the side and then leaned his back against the door. His large upper body almost completely blocked Mr. Yoo’s view. As if he had guessed that he was right in front of the door. As if he was covering him with his own body.

“It doesn’t seem like the reason an old man gave up his morning sleep and came here is that.”

“You’re right, it’s not.”

Mr. Yoo stretched his neck this way and that, trying to see past Yeon Tae-soo’s shoulder blocking the door. The large body was covering almost all of the transparent part of the door.

“Ah, well, Major Yoon was talking nonsense. Saying an android had entered Eden.”

For a moment, Mr. Yoo held his breath, but he barely realized that the android referred to the man lying dead over there.

“Rumors spread damn fast. Did you old men pour all your dead vigor into gossiping?”

“I thought the Yeon representative I knew wasn’t the type to bring androids in here, but it turns out it’s true. I’m shocked.”

“Did it strain your heart? Oh my, I’m sorry. You should be careful with your blood pressure.”

Even though the man seemed to be of similar or higher rank than a major, given how Yeon Tae-soo was speaking down to the major, Yeon Tae-soo was still using informal speech and acting composed with this plump man.

“You must be more than a little worried. I know how you’ve built up Eden.”

“Our big brother is so caring.”

“The atmosphere has been quite unsettling lately because of the android that caused an indiscriminate assault incident not long ago. You don’t have many customers, do you?”

Yeon Tae-soo, who had been standing askew all along, corrected his posture. It was readable even from behind that he was starting to feel uncomfortable. At his gesture, the burly men who had been surrounding them like a protective wall all dispersed at once.

“At a time when android crimes are rampant, if rumors spread that an android stole money at Eden and even tried to harm people, wouldn’t it affect your business, Representative Yeon?”

Yeon Tae-soo didn’t answer. Mr. Yoo, who was watching, also held his breath.

“What do you want?”

“Black moonstone will do.”

The man pointed at the corpse lying behind.

Black moonstone is worth whatever you ask for it. Haven’t countless androids already been sacrificed because of its rarity? Mr. Yoo unknowingly brought his hand to his chest.

“Think about it. It would be quite difficult to dispose of that, wouldn’t it? It’s really hard to find a proper broker. I’ll take care of it a bit…”

That’s when it happened. Something seemed to move, and then bang, bang! Crash! There was a series of sounds as if something was collapsing.

When Mr. Yoo, who had crouched down covering his ears in surprise at the sudden loud noise, slowly raised his head again, in his view was the gun in Yeon Tae-soo’s hand, emitting a thin smoke.

“It’s gone now, the black moonstone.”

As Yeon Tae-soo spoke in a voice that had regained its composure, the man let out a groan as if shocked.

“You, you crazy bastard… Do you know how much that’s worth…!”

Blood flowed from the android, now more like a lump of meat than a corpse, soaking the corridor. Mr. Yoo couldn’t take his eyes off the pool of blood reflecting the yellow light, until he saw Yeon Tae-soo’s feet turning towards him, which snapped him back to his senses.

Yeon Tae-soo’s hand touched the door. His face, when looked up at, somehow seemed tired.

“Dear, I’m a bit messy today. I’ll sing you a lullaby later.”

Leaving only those words, Yeon Tae-soo disappeared. Not long after, employees came to clean up the corpse. Only after the pool of blood was completely wiped away could he return to his bed. Sleep still didn’t come.

***

Entering the office devoid of any decoration, Yeon Tae-soo let out a small sigh he had been holding.

He was about to bury himself in the chair right away but stopped in front of the bookshelf. When he pressed firmly on one of the inserted books, the narrow outer side of the partition supporting the books opened like a lid. Fingers that went into the slightly over 2cm space pulled out a small glass bottle.

The transparent liquid in the bottle, smaller than a pinky finger, was commonly called a deadly poison.

Although he had never told anyone, this was for himself.

He had no lingering attachment to life anymore. It wouldn’t be strange if he left at any time.

He was becoming numb. His exaggerated laughter and sly behavior in front of people were a rebellion against this.

In reality, things weren’t funny, angering, or enjoyable, but he pretended they were.

It was the same earlier. He wasn’t particularly angry at that pig bastard. He was just tired of it all.

For him, the only emotion left was hatred towards androids. That’s what he believed, but at some point, other emotions started to intrude recklessly.

Rolling the small glass bottle between his fingers, Yeon Tae-soo tilted his head quizzically.

“Why did he lie?”

It was a lie that the pretty one originally knew the android.