Chapter 7: Ominous Silence

Betrayer.

“Ha…”

Betrayer, betrayer, betrayer.

Hearing the echo in my head, I lowered my eyes and then closed them.
As I reached out and wrapped my arms around his neck, our lips pressed deeper, then separated, and then gently met again.

Perhaps the only reason I didn’t push him away was because I was having a shitty day.
I knew well enough that a man’s body could feel good.
Besides, this was also an act to test the CCTV, just as Zakar had said.
Unseen eyes were watching.
My chest tightened with a strange ache.
Ian was dead.
He didn’t send that email either.
But…

The knee rubbing between my legs sent a surge of arousal through me.
As our lips parted, I let out a heated breath, and the large hand that had been holding my chin slid down my waist and squeezed my butt.
Gasping, I looked up with loosely focused eyes, and a strand of short hair fell and touched my forehead.
Meeting his gaze directly, Hannah’s lips parted.

“…Did you run into the woman next door?”

“The woman next door?”

“The timing when you left the shower seems about right for you to have run into her in the hallway. A small, pretty blonde woman.”

“Ah, the one who offered me tea at this hour.”

“If you were in heat, why didn’t you just go in there? Isn’t it your style not to turn away a willing woman?”

“Not really. It’s more fun to mess with a woman who’s emotionally vulnerable.”

“You piece of trash.”

Zakar’s lips curled up as if he had received a compliment.
Looking at that arrogant face made my stomach turn.

“Let me correct a misunderstanding. There’s no one weak here.”

“Really?”

“You just mistook my bad mood for something else.”

“Then why were you crying?”

“……”

I almost told him to stop talking nonsense.
I opened my mouth, then slowly closed it as I looked into his black pupils, which held no trace of falsehood.
Crying?
Me?

“Do you want me to really comfort you this time?”

He asked, his lips brushing against mine as if to crush them.
His voice was low, his eyes playful, as if this were a game.

“I won’t get hurt. Just enjoy it and forget about your bad mood.”

The shadows drawn by the dim light were darker than usual.
No, it might be because he was standing with his back to the light.
The truth is, I know.
After sleeping with Zakar, I’ll probably feel better for a while.
The temporary pleasure of s*x is both the enemy and friend of emptiness.
That day, too, I had embraced him with that expectation and kissed him.
But…

“No, that’s enough. I’m not in the mood anymore.”

When that warmth dissipates, the emptiness doubles.
It’s like a sandcastle.
A meaningless relationship that, no matter how elaborately built, will soon be washed away without a trace.
We made eye contact for a moment, then I pushed his hard chest with force, and Zakar readily removed his hands from the door.
He probably thinks this is enough of a show to test the camera.
His gaze lingered on her glistening lips.

“And I told you before, I don’t need your help.”

Hannah threw the door wide open and was about to step into the long darkness, but then she turned her head.

“Come in. We have a separate problem to deal with.”

The entrance light flickered on, faintly revealing the inside of the house.
This was the second time she had let him into her home.
If she were a teenager, she might have been embarrassed.
To show a well-bred man a one-room house that was no better than a motel room.
When she turned on the stand, the large bed by the window, the small table used for dining, two chairs, a built-in closet, a refrigerator, a countertop, and a shelf became clear.
Hannah calmly walked over and first put the clothes that needed to be washed into the washing machine in the bathroom.
The money she earned, except for living expenses, was all donated to conflict zones.
Because she knew the value of the money for a single piece of clothing to the children there.
The heatwave had already caused hyperinflation, and prices were a mess.
The world had been limping along in a state of disrepair for some time, but people, focused only on progress, lived their days peacefully.
With the belief that today would be the same as yesterday, the baseless belief that tomorrow would naturally follow just as today had.
It’s a mystery how they can live relying on such a reckless conviction.
A deer with a bullet in it is bleeding right in front of them, and they say, ‘It didn’t die then, even when they said it would. You never know what will happen. Someone will invent something.’
Until the deer finally collapses.
Like a game of Jenga, passing the turn to the next generation.

“Ian Somerset’s email account is inaccessible.”

At that moment, Zakar, who had walked in behind her, leaned against the bathroom doorway and spoke.
He seemed intent on keeping his promise from the dart game.
Hannah, who had paused, put down the basket and looked at the man who was literally as tall as the door.

“From what I’ve found, it can only be accessed by someone with a rank of at least a General.”

“…A General? Are you kidding me?”

“If this is a joke, my sense of humor is trash that can’t even be recycled.”

“Why would they need Ian’s account?”

A General.
The rank was so unrealistically high that Hannah even felt baffled.
Zakar just casually flicked his eyebrows as if to say he felt the same way.

“Yeah, it’s not normal.”

“……”

“There’s a high probability that the military’s top brass is involved in this.”

A chill that she hadn’t felt even while climbing over all sorts of gruesome corpses crept up her spine.
Something was wrong.
Hole, stench, covered pit.
The 13th Research Institute.

“Are you starting to feel like handing it over to me?”

He asked indifferently as she stood there stiffly.
The military’s top brass…
Hannah straightened her back, as she always did when faced with an obstacle in life.

“Interesting. Is that the topic you’re interested in?”

“Because my goal happens to be to climb to the top of the military.”

“Ah, that’s right. Your Oedipus complex, trying to overcome your father. But come to think of it, it’s only natural that the military’s top brass is involved. According to the ghost story, ‘it’ is in the 13th Research Institute. The captured creatures from the Abyss, I mean.”

In return for the information, she provided information, though not of equal value.
Zakar’s expression twisted slightly, as if this was the first he had heard of it.
Taking the opportunity, Hannah pushed past his large body and came out of the bathroom.
She took a beer from the refrigerator, opened it, and changed the subject.

“I get the account issue, but what about the civilian who fainted? Did she wake up?”

“She woke up, but as for her memory, you’ll have to ask her again after some time has passed. Right now, she thinks a woman with a gun shot and killed her boyfriend.”

Zakar, who had approached, held the closing refrigerator door and bent down.
He casually opened a can of beer in someone else’s house.
Thump.
The old refrigerator closed with a modest sound.
Hannah sighed, imagining the panicked woman.
This has become a problem.
Come to think of it, civilians would have no way of knowing that Abaddons can enter human bodies.
It’s only been two years since the Abaddons started coming up from below.
And since it only happens in certain areas, only a hundred special forces soldiers were handling this situation.
Some conspiracy theorists even claimed that the whole world was being deceived.
That there were no such things as monsters, that the occasional tentacle footage was all just CG, and that this was all a black lie created by a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who had retired and entered politics.
In a world where a cult that worships a hole in the middle of the earth as a god is rampant, it was ridiculous not to believe the government.
Of course, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that she herself was blinded by professional loyalty.
Hannah looked up at the man who had casually clinked his can against hers and was now drinking his beer.
His outstretched body, the bobbing of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed—Zakar Kairos seemed to exude masculinity from his entire being, and just being next to him was enough to set her on edge, which was unpleasant.
It was probably a natural instinct, as humans are also creatures.
But there are certain aspects of humanity that I don’t want to see.
Like the subtle favor and goodwill that older men and women unconsciously bestow on young people of the opposite s*x.

“Why?”

“What?”

“You were checking me out.”

“I was just copying what you did to me in the hallway earlier.”

As she said it casually, Zakar, who had finished a can of beer in one go, crumpled it and threw it in the trash, then took a step closer.
The space was so small that he was suddenly very close in just one step, but Hannah didn’t move away.
Because she knew that the man’s gaze, as he reached out his arm, was fixed on the shelf over her shoulder.

“Kieran Jaxx?”

Zakar murmured lowly, picking up a CD album.

“If you’re going to comment on my taste, calling it old-fashioned or whatever without even knowing, then I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Your taste? This?”

He smiled faintly, his lips curling as if in disbelief.
Hannah was about to snatch the album away, but she paused at his tone, which suggested he knew about the obscure singer from that era.
Even though it was impossible.

“Don’t tell me you know who he is?”

“How could I not? He’s the great man who decorated my rebellious teenage years.”

“……”

“He wrote nothing but masterpieces, but his 9th album is a bit ambiguous. ‘Night’ is trash that he vomited up while high on drugs.”

“Because ‘Night’ sounds like he was high on drugs?”

The last words were spoken in unison.
They both fell silent for a moment, and a strange silence hung in the air.
This was the first time she had met someone who knew Kieran Jaxx, and the first time she had met someone who had the same speculation about the song.
‘No way.’
She hadn’t known because she had never had the chance to have this kind of conversation.
No, how could there have been a chance?
She was dumbfounded, but also slightly excited.