Chapter 12: So I Won’t Forget That I’m Human

Bright red fragments falling from Assistant Manager Son’s head splattered onto the tips of my shoes.

As I stared at the remains of my “fellow humans” scattered across the floor, I even forgot the nausea—the only means I had left to prove that I was still human.

Click. Click.

At that moment, the sound of shoes echoed out.

And all the noise in the lobby was abruptly cut off.

Manager Geum’s furious roaring, Supervisor Shik’s rough breathing as he dragged his chains, even the dust falling from the ceiling seemed to have frozen in midair.

A strange silence descended over everything.

From the far end of the corridor, a completely white light began to advance.

Tap. Tap.

The sound of footsteps echoed at perfectly regular intervals.

It was not Assistant Manager Son’s energetic stride nor Supervisor Shik’s heavy vibrations.

It was a perfect, mechanical rhythm, as though it had been drawn with a ruler.

The figures finally appeared.

There were five of them.

Monsters dressed from head to toe in immaculate white suits without a single speck of dirt.

Where their faces should have been were grotesquely deformed gas masks.

The mechanical sound of their breathing—shhhh, shhhh—produced by purification filters tore through the silence.

“Oh, just as we were talking about them, they arrived.”

Assistant Manager Son murmured beside me.

The fist that formed his head, which only moments ago had crushed a human skull while radiating a terrifying presence, tightened with barely perceptible tension.

When the monster at the front of the Order Control Department slightly raised a gloved hand, the dozens of monster employees gathered in the lobby moved aside as though the Red Sea had been parted.

“Situation under control.”

The voice that emerged from behind the gas mask was as sharp as metal scraping against metal, yet chillingly calm.

“The Order Control Department will handle the containment release incident. All remaining personnel must evacuate this area immediately.”

The gas mask-wearing figures pulled out white containment batons and strange spraying devices from within their clothing.

As they advanced toward the human corpses and dimensional entity remains scattered across the floor, it looked as though they were simply picking up trash that had been dropped in a clean hallway.

I watched the scene without reacting.

It felt as though the blood in my veins had turned to lead.

And just as the blood at my feet was about to be stepped on by those white shoes.

Just as the red lenses of one of those masks slowly began to turn toward me.

“Come along, little one.”

A cool, smooth sensation caught my wrist.

Manager Batori.

She was still smiling with her usual elegance, but the hand gripping me carried an impossible-to-resist strength.

Her red eyes swept across my pale face as she whispered softly.

“It is not a good idea to earn the displeasure of those very white beings.”

She led me away without looking back even once, heading toward the office.

Supervisor Shik followed behind her, rattling his chains as though he were her escort.

Manager Myeon and Assistant Manager Son also left the lobby with quicker steps than usual.

Behind me, I heard an unsettling hissing sound.

A white mist began to rise.

Human life, the smell of blood, and all the commotion were disappearing without a trace inside that mist.

Only after leaving the extraction room, crossing the corridor, and closing the office door behind us was I able to breathe again with difficulty.

“Hah… haa…”

As my chest rose and fell violently, Manager Batori leaned the upper half of her body toward me.

“Don’t be so afraid. No matter what happens, you are a valuable member of my lineage.”

Her whisper was so close it seemed to brush against my ear.

As I listened to her beautiful voice and felt the steady vibration of the fountain pen beating against her chest, I slowly regained my breath.

***

Several more days passed.

There are things one inevitably gets used to with the passage of time.

And there are things that become numb the more you get used to them.

And when that numbness grows too much, abnormal holes begin to appear inside your mind.

Before opening the door, I lightly bit my lip.

It had now become part of my routine.

When I open the office door.

When I stand in front of a containment room.

Or when I encounter an unfamiliar vibration in some remote corridor.

If I’m being honest, it seems like I do it every time something stops going the way I want.

I’ve gotten quite used to the job by now.

Memorizing rules and following procedures was always something I was confident in.

Looking at the manual displayed on the tablet.

Performing the extraction process step by step.

And immediately activating the restraint devices if a dimensional entity shows an abnormal reaction.

Now I can do all of that without any problems.

In fact, I even get praised for doing it well.

The dimensional entities I see for the first time are still grotesque.

But now, even if a dimensional entity’s arms split into tentacles or its back tears apart while it emits screams capable of bursting eardrums, after biting my upper lip once, I somehow manage to follow the rules.

I can’t deny that I’ve gotten far more accustomed to it than at the beginning.

The problem lies elsewhere.

Regardless of the work, my mind was filling with more and more holes.

A company where resigning means dying.

An environment where I have to survive every day by following rules and reading the atmosphere among dimensional entities and monsters.

And there was something else.

‘Is it okay that I look human?’

I had now literally become a human who could not behave like a human.

The moment Assistant Manager Son crushed a person’s head.

I watched that scene.

It shocked me deeply, but in the end, I walked away without screaming.

Perhaps it was from then on that a question began to arise inside me.

‘Am I really still human? And if I am human, why are they keeping me alive?’

Supervisor Shik still diligently looked after me as my direct supervisor.

When we went out together to perform extractions, he would pat me on the back with his heavy forelegs.

And whenever a dimensional entity acted threateningly, he would send it flying with his tail.

I’m grateful for that.

Truly grateful.

Of course, I’m still incapable of having a proper conversation with Supervisor Shik.

Even though he growls to say something, I always end up responding based entirely on guesswork.

“Have a good day today as well.”

“I’ll do my best, Supervisor.”

I simply say whatever seems appropriate for the situation.

Then he nods.

Even though I don’t understand what he’s saying, he seems to think we’re having a conversation and continues growling while rattling his chains.

But Assistant Manager Son is different.

Lately, I’ve been deliberately avoiding him.

‘I can’t look him in the face.’

Even though he doesn’t actually have eyes, a nose, or a mouth.

I no longer laugh with him over coffee like I used to.

I can’t erase from my mind the fact that he crushed a person’s head with that fist.

And I can’t forget the image of myself standing there doing nothing, like prey.

Assistant Manager Son still smiles.

He still tells me.

“Haeil, you’re doing well.”

And he still treats me kindly.

But even now, every time he says it, I feel a tingling sensation in my fingertips.

I’m holding myself together so I won’t collapse.

Repeating that fact to myself several times a day, today once again I enter the extraction room.

I engage in staring contests with horned monsters.

I wipe away the mucus of dimensional entities that cry sadly.

And I act like a true employee of this company in order to survive.

But.

I still haven’t forgotten that I’m human.

And so I won’t forget, every night when I return to my apartment, I write a sentence on the wall.

[I am human.]

That sentence was the last frontier of my sanity.

***

Gluuug.

At the same moment I heard the sound of water draining away, I lowered my head.

A few drops still remained on my hands.

My face was already wet, though I didn’t know whether it was from washing it or from cold sweat.

I slowly exhaled and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

“Am I going to starve to death?”

The words slipped out of my mouth on their own.

I avoid lunch because it gives me a bad feeling.

The excuse is always the same.

‘I brought lunch from home.’

Of course, I didn’t.

I had no food left.

The only things remaining in my apartment were half a package of expired ramen and a bottle of some mysterious vinegar-flavored probiotic drink.

I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping.

And more importantly, I had no way to do it.

The company was my home.

My home was the company.

And the distance between them was a single step.

Movement had been cut off.

The world was closed.

‘When will I live like a person again?’

There are no people around me at the company.

And when I return home, not even the monsters that fill the company are there.

The face reflected in the mirror grows paler every day.

I feel like one day I’ll truly disappear.

Not as a person.

Not even as Jeong Haeil.

I dried my gaunt face and slowly opened the bathroom door.

Click.

“Oh, you finally came out.”

Manager Batori was waiting on the other side, holding a thermal tumbler.

Her wrist was pale white.

Her nails were dyed red.

And a transparent straw protruded from the container.

Inside it swirled a dark reddish liquid.

“Ah, Manager Batori.”

“Fufu. Lunch break was almost over, so I decided to wait for you.”

Manager Batori’s eyes turned toward me as she slightly tilted her head.

A face without makeup.

Perfectly groomed silver hair.

And a strange smile that seemed to tear at the corners of her lips.

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Yes. Lately, homemade lunches sit better with me.”

That stupid lie slipped automatically from my mouth.

Manager Batori’s gaze slowly dropped to my hands.

Empty.

Without any lunch bag.

But she simply smiled without saying anything.

The corner of her eye curved slightly.

Beneath the opening of her shirt, against her snow-white skin, a small mouth moved as though it were laughing.

“If you don’t have an appetite, would you like a sip?”

she asked while gently shaking the thermal tumbler.

I tried to maintain my smile.

“Haha. You’re joking, right?”

“Who knows?”

Manager Batori slowly twirled the straw between her fingers while looking directly at me.

Her gaze moved through me as though she were swirling ice cubes inside a glass.

“Or perhaps you don’t like our food?”

“Huh?”

For an instant, it felt as though the air had stopped.

My heart skipped a beat.

I barely managed to keep my eyes from trembling.

Only then did Manager Batori let out a delayed laugh.

Her lips parted into a beautiful smile as she spoke.

“I mean the company cafeteria.”

“…Yes. A little.”

“Fufufu. Don’t be so nervous.”

The straw returned to her lips.

Thud!

Supervisor Shik’s footsteps echoed across the floor.

The sound of chains accompanied him.

The afternoon shift was beginning.

Manager Batori brushed her silver hair aside with one hand.

The movement was elegant and threatening at the same time.

I avoided her red eyes.

She remained smiling motionlessly.

But there was not the slightest trace of warmth in her gaze.

She tilted the straw between her lips slightly and stepped closer to me.

“Your face doesn’t look well. The color around your eyes, the tone of your skin—everything has lost the brightness it once had.”

I forced a smile.

“I’m fine, Manager. I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

“Sleeping?”

Manager Batori’s red eyes narrowed slightly.

She continued speaking slowly, as though savoring the aroma of an aged wine.

“One who cannot sleep does not suffer because of the rebellion of the body. It is the mind that is restless. And when the mind is restless, it means the abyss is calling to you.”

Her manner of speaking remained elegant.

As comforting and unpleasant as an old carpet in an ancient mansion.

I merely nodded.

I had absolutely no response to such incomprehensible words.

She gently swirled the thermal tumbler and spoke quietly.

“I’ll tell Manager Myeon to take care of your work this afternoon. I think it would be better if you talked with me for a while.”

“I’m really fine. If I just rest a little—”

“It will only take a moment. Have you visited the lounge? It’s quite quiet and comfortable, so don’t worry.”

Her chilling red gaze fell upon my face as though it wanted to crush it.

When she took a step toward me, I instinctively stepped back.

But I stumbled against the bathroom threshold.

There was nowhere left for me to run.

And that was when it happened.

Riiip.

With a tearing sound, the back of Manager Batori’s head slowly split open without any warning.

A writhing mass of red muscle emerged from within her long silver hair.

That flesh, bound together by blood vessels, coiled around my arm like a snake.

“…Ah… ah…”

Before I could even make a sound, I had already been captured.

My elbow and wrist were immobilized.

My feet partially lifted from the floor.

The tentacles dragged me slowly but firmly while a slimy sensation coated my skin.

“I’m really fine, Manager…! I-I really—!”

“Jeong Haeil.”

She softly spoke my name.

My body froze.

Her hand rested against my lips.

“Be quiet. Don’t you notice how much your voice is trembling?”

“……”

“You simply need a little time to calm the blood in your heart.”

I said nothing.

Or rather, I could no longer say anything.

Like a sheep being dragged to slaughter—helpless, docile, and without resistance—I was being pulled along.

The sound of my shoe soles scraping across the corridor floor left a trail behind me.

Manager Batori never made a scene.

She simply walked calmly and elegantly while dragging me toward the lounge.

Just before the lounge door opened, she spoke without even looking back.

“Don’t worry. We’ll only share a little blood.”

Blood?

The door closed.

And then.

Click.

I heard the sound of the lock engaging.

The lights flickered.

Even after the door closed and locked, the lounge remained silent.

So silent that I could clearly hear the violent pounding of my own heart.

“Sit down.”

She spoke quietly as she elegantly reclined in a high-backed chair.

Her silver hair brushed against her shoulders with a soft sound.

I carefully sat in the chair opposite her, the one she had pointed to with a finger.

The instant I sat down, an unfamiliar chill ran down my spine.

And when I raised my head to look at Manager Batori.

I felt it for the first time.

A sensation I had never experienced before.

An emotion that could only be named through the language of instinct.

An ancient fear.

Primitive.

Manager Batori was smiling.

The corners of her lips were gentle.

Her voice was calm.

Her posture was composed.

But behind that appearance, I could clearly feel an overwhelming hunger.

What a deer feels when standing before a predator.

The silence just before a rabbit recognizes a hawk.

The helpless realization of prey for whom even breathing is an act of betrayal.

I felt my mind splitting in two.

Had it always been this difficult to look directly at her?

My head burned.

A drop of cold sweat ran down my back.

“Are you afraid?”

Manager Batori’s eyes narrowed.

Red eyes.

Predator’s eyes.

A liquid crimson that seemed to absorb light into itself.

She closed her lips and then opened them again.

Her pronunciation was smooth.

Ancient words, like the aroma of aged wine.

But behind them hid the fangs of a beast.

“It’s alright. That fear is completely justified.”

Riiip.

The skin covering Manager Batori’s neck split open, revealing a massive mouth that slowly licked its lips.

“That feeling you experience while standing before me is precisely the proof that you are human.”

Ah.

She had definitely said the word human.

It seems this will be the form my death takes.

Manager Batori’s dessert.