143 – 143. Amusement Park Date (1)
In many novels, the life of a possessed person is usually solitary and lonely.
The possessor.
They were thrown into a strange world by some sort of necessity, or for trivial reasons.
Of course, I was suddenly separated from my family and friends. Living in the skins of others, living surrounded by characters in novels that are clearly the product of fiction, how can that life be lonely?
That’s why the possessed in novels usually live with solitude and pain that they can’t tell others about. That is the bondage of the possessor.
But that’s a story from the beginning to the middle.
Unless you are a very cynical writer, the protagonists of ice water gradually adapt to the world in the novel and accept it as another ‘real world’. In the process, he gradually begins to form serious relationships with the characters he considered fake, and soon the possessed person finally escapes from loneliness.
That was the stereotyped plot and cliché of Poison Water. Therefore, most of the lives of the possessed were lonely at the beginning but not solitary at the end.
For example, Ahn Su-ho’s life followed such clichés as they were. Originally lonely, he met Ji Ye-won, Kang Ha-neul, and countless other people and accepted this world as another reality. I threw away the life of a lonely possessor like that. That is why Ahn Su-ho was no longer lonely.
On the other hand, Kang Ha-neul was still trapped in the bondage of the possessor. The curse of knowing that this world was fake constantly strangled her mind, her emotions, and her way of life.
However, she had the same possessor, Ahn Soo-ho. Ahn Soo-ho, who loved her and loved her, was the only real one in this false world. So, although she was still confined to the bridle of the possessor, she was not alone.
As I said before, the possessed person in the novel eventually escapes solitude, sooner or later. Ahn Su-ho and Kang Ha-neul have already done so, and the other two possessors will also accept this world as another ‘real world’ one day.
Because it was a stereotyped plot, a cliché of possessed water.
But.
“Ha ha. Ha. Ha.”
If there is a case that does not correspond to the standardized plot.
“Ha ha. Ha. Ha… !”
For example, what if a fictional character living in that world, not even a protagonist or possessor, notices the truth of the world?
“Ha ha. Whoops! Whoa… !”
Family too.
A friend too.
My colleagues too.
A lover too.
Everything in the world he has seen and experienced so far, even his life he has lived so far, is fake.
That everything is nothing but fabrication.
If you realize that even your ego, which suffers and suffers from that fact, is nothing more than a product of fantasy, just a piece of text.
The strange character who revealed the truth that should never be revealed.
I will probably live my whole life suffering in doubt, distrust, solitude and despair.
“Ha ha. Ha. Whoa, whoa.”
In a back alley where the lukewarm spring rain continues to fall.
Park Ji-hyun was breathing heavily on the garbage-covered alley between the old buildings.
On his body, instead of clothes, he was wearing only a piece of matting cloth, and even that was soaked in rainwater and lost its warming effect right away.
Her shadowy face, revealed through her skin, was haggard, and her tired lips and quivering cheeks, her blue, showed that she was suffering from hypothermia.
Park Ji-hyun is a superhuman who is several times stronger than ordinary people. But now, her physical condition was no better than that of a sickly normal person, let alone a superhuman.
‘Blood. I need to suck more blood.’
It was entirely due to lack of blood. Possessing the powers of a vampire, her diet was also similar to that of a vampire. She needed the blood of others not only to activate her psychic powers but also to simply continue her life.
However, during the month she was imprisoned by Min Chaeryeong, she was unable to drink even a single drop of blood. As she escaped, she drank every last bit of Kim Ho-cheol’s blood, but she still lacked it.
In order to regain her normal condition, she had to suck the blood of at least three or five people at least.
‘But so what? What am I going to do after that?’
A look of despair once again blooms on Park Ji-hyun’s face, who was struggling. A deep sense of helplessness spreads through her eyes.
When she just made her escape, her motivation was overflowing. In her head, a plan was quickly devised, starting with a raid on passers-by at dawn to restore her powers, to resuming her mission to steal her talisman and revenge on Min Chae-ryeong.
‘It’s all pointless.’
But I soon realized that it was all futile. It would be more accurate to say that she recalled rather than realized. Talisman, revenge against Min Chae-ryeong, even the ideology of the organization that he deeply sympathized with and believed in. She was all useless to her now.
That day. The moment she sucked Ahn Su-ho’s blood and peeped into her memory, she realized that everything that made up this world was a futile fake.
Park Ji-hyeon lost her life goal. Life itself is fake, but there was no way to have a goal in life. She collapsed against the filthy exterior wall of the building, feeling helpless as her legs were tightly bound.
-Shoot aaa…….
The falling raindrops coldly wet Park Ji-hyun’s body. There was no light from outside on the small alley between the buildings. There were a lot of people passing in front of it from time to time, but no one paid attention to Park Ji-hyun.
Jihyun Park thought they were like machines.
The cogwheels of the world that perform their assigned role according to a given order.
Those who do not know the truth did not pay any attention to Park Ji-hyun, the cogwheel that came out. The side road she was in and the alleyway beyond were a whole different world. Earlier, she too lived as a member of the other world, but now that she knew the truth, she couldn’t do that anymore.
A sense of disconnection and loss made Park Ji-hyun’s eyes watery. Warmer and slightly salty water than raindrops.
‘…… What to do now What should I do?’
Park Ji-hyun lost the will and meaning of her life. But she did, so she didn’t want to end her life by suicide. But she couldn’t figure out what to do. Her future was charred by the blackness of her doubts and mistrust.
“Ahn Soo-ho… ….”
Suddenly, Park Ji-hyun raised the name. The only true name in this false world, the name of a stranger from the outside world.
‘…… Okay. I have to go find him.’
I still haven’t figured out what to do after I go there. I just vaguely thought I had to go find him.
Vaguely, instinctively. It seemed that meeting Ahn Su-ho would give him a new direction in his despair-filled life.
When it’s dawn and there are few people, let’s go outside and hunt passers-by.
After recovering your strength like that, let’s go find Ahn Soo-ho.
And he let him ask him what he should do.
In Park Ji-hyun’s head, a new plan was being built step by step. Park Ji-hyeon hid himself in the shade of the building and wrung his limbs to keep his body temperature at least a little.
The dying pupils revealed under the mat gradually began to come alive.
***
The next morning.
Ahn Soo-ho was checking his belongings before leaving for an amusement park. However, in the worst case, he assumed that a battle would break out, so all the objects he looked at were completely unsuitable for an amusement park.
Commercial Defensive Coat and Taser Gun. And a folding stunblade for anti-personnel suppression.
Thanks to Min Chaeryeong taking out the guards equipment in case of an unexpected situation, the armed side was faithful. However, Ahn Su-ho thought that he would never be able to use them.
‘Because it is Ryu Tae-hyeon who fights in the end. All I have to do is sneak in and steal the original silver.’
Ahn Soo-ho, who finished preparations, reviewed the original content for the last time before leaving.
First of all, ‘Early Silver’ was a special artifact found in a Chinese dungeon. In China, when an artifact of level 1 or higher is discovered (in China, it is called an artifact), ownership is basically vested in the state.
In most cases, they would pay a small fee and hand them over to the guild they found, or sell them through auction, but in the case of truly outstanding artifacts, there were frequent cases where the country appropriated them as they were. Such was the case with the primordial silver.
However.
In the process of embezzlement, a secret deal was exchanged between Li Haoyu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and the Winter Alliance, an S-class guild in Korea.
Accordingly, the original silver moved from China to Korea, and today, at the amusement park ‘Neverland’ located in Seoul, a transaction was scheduled to take place between Chinese broker Xiao Mei and Winter Alliance hunter Garam Han.
However, the Chinese government already knew that the original silver was stolen. As a result, the hand of surveillance was extended not only in Korea but also all over the world, and Xiaomei, who was known as a skilled broker, was no exception.
For this reason, they chose an amusement park as the place of the transaction because they were concerned about the monitors. The reason Xiaomei came to Korea was to appeal that it was for tourism purposes, and it was also a psychological loophole that made her want to engage in smuggling in an amusement park where many people come and go.
The only problem was when the Dawning Corps obtained intelligence that a deal was being made between Li Hao Yu and the Winter Alliance. The Dawning Corps attacked Hangaram, who was heading to the trading place, and obtained information about the trading place and Xiaomei. She and she immediately attacked Shao Mei, who was waiting for Han Garam, and tried to take the primordial silver.
In the process, the Dawning Corps and Ryu Tae-hyeon’s party became intertwined, and after a series of battles, Ryu Tae-hyeon defeated the Dawning Corps and saved Xiao-Mei’s life. That was the main flow of this amusement park episode.
‘At that time, Mr. Gak, the heroine of Xiaomei, stood. In the comments window, it started with a lot of racist comments, starting with the ‘Chuckjjangjukjjang’ drip.
When the female character who blushed at Ryu Tae-hyun reappeared later, she was so dumbfounded when she came out saying that she was a lesbian. Ahn Su-ho let out a bitter smile.
‘Anyway. I just need to sneak up on Xiao-Mei and steal the original silver before the Dawning guys show up. As long as the story doesn’t get twisted, I won’t have to fight.’
Though he thought so, Suho Ahn couldn’t hide the creeping anxiety. It was already a daily routine for Ahn Su-ho that the progress of the case was twisted differently from the original story.
Fortunately, this time, prominent characters from the original work such as Ryu Tae-hyeon, Eun-sol Na, Seong-min Ha, A-ra Seong, and siblings Ryu Jin & Ryu Seol were together. Ahn Su-ho was reassured because they were all strong men who were never inferior to active hunters.
‘Let’s go out soon.’
Kang Ha-neul went with his friends, so he had to head to the amusement park by himself. After getting ready to go out, he opened the front door and stepped out.
“Good morning.”
“Huh?”
Then what happened? Ji Ye-won was waiting in front of the front door. At a moment when Ahn Su-ho was puzzled at the timing that was coincidental, Ji Ye-won shrugged his shoulders and answered as if he had read his psychology.
“I heard a rustling sound coming from the front door when I was taking out the trash. I was waiting to say hello. Where are you going out?”
“Yes. I want to leave now.”
“Where are you going?”
“Seoul.”
“Where is Seoul?”
“… ….”
A cold sensation passed through the back of Ahn Su-ho’s neck at Ji Ye-won’s strangely inquisitive attitude.
‘Come to think of it, I didn’t tell Yewon that I was going to play with Haneul today.’
It wasn’t something to hide, but it wasn’t something to show off. Ahn Soo-ho loved both of them equally, but it was all the more because he tried not to talk about his other lover in front of them as much as possible.
‘To tell you the truth, it’s a shame…… Won’t you lose?’
If the current situation were the opposite, Kang Ha-neul would surely have pouted. However, Ji Ye-won was more mature than her and was a woman who understood An Su-ho’s situation. The moment when Ahn Su-ho was about to tell the truth about his date with Kang Ha-neul.
“Go to an amusement park? With Kang Ha-neul.”
“Huh?”
Ji Ye-won entered first after hitting the ball. As if she had clearly read his mind.
“How did you know?”
“Haneul talked to me over the phone yesterday. I’ll be with you all weekend baby. Do you play at an amusement park on Saturdays and tour Seoul tourist attractions on Sundays?”
“He said it was…… ?”
“Yes. I didn’t mean to say it in a joking way. Rather, he apologized. Somehow, he said he monopolized you this weekend. Instead, he said to see me next weekend and have fun with you to your heart’s content?”
Ahn Su-ho was a little bewildered at the fact that she was in contact with the two women without her knowledge. On the one hand, she also thought that she was glad that the two of them seemed to have become close.
“But unfortunately, my part-time shift is already full for next weekend. So… ….”
After she was speechless, Yewon spread her arms to show off her outfit. Then, Ahn Su-ho was slightly surprised.
A boxy-sized blue sweatshirt with short hot pants that cut off at the bottom of the thigh. From the long black leggings underneath to neat Converse shoes.
Apparently Yewon Ji said she was out to take out her trash, but somehow her outfit was perfect for going out. She even looked back and saw that her face was covered with makeup and that her hair was perfectly set.
“Ji Ye-won. You can’t…….”
“So. Today, I’m going to wear a little ponytail on your date. After all, it’s not just the two of us meeting each other anyway. You said the sky goes with your classmates? It doesn’t matter if I have one more person there, right?”
“That’s…”
Ji Ye-won said with a mischievous smile, looking at Ahn Su-ho who lost her speech with her bewildered face.
“Why, don’t you like it?”
Ji Ye-won tilted her head slightly, and her finely trimmed hair flowed down. Her smile shines brightly in the warm sunlight beating down on her hallway.
In front of that bewildering smile, An Su-ho couldn’t bear to shake her head saying she didn’t like it.