an unfortunate change in genre

Part 53

Memories were a queer thing.

Kim Rok Soo reflected that there was a whole lot to the entire memory thing that couldn't be made sense of using mere common sense or brain chemistry. Perhaps there was a soul or perhaps there were god's but none of that really mattered to him in the specificity of it.

Kim Rok Soo was a pure agnostic. It wasn't that he had any particular belief or disbelief in a higher power, it was that he quite frankly didn't give a fuck. He could be presented with irrefutable proof of the supernatural and still remain consistent in his way of life.

What defined him far more than anything of a spiritual nature would be all of those formative memories that made him just the person he couldn't help but be.

But beyond theology or the life experiences which had built him into the person he was, there was something deeply intrinsic about Kim Rok Soo that just didn't change no matter what happened.

He was a static person in that way. Lacking in development because he stubbornly moved forth with the absolute inability to be anyone else but himself.

All of this was perhaps why Kim Rok Soo didn't stagger when quite suddenly, all sorts of incongruent memories made themselves at home in his mind.

He recognized this strange hyung as his older brother, Cale Henituse, and he also recognized Alberu as his good friend for years now.

But those memories were shattered inside of him, as though only the barest shards of glass that could hardly be puzzled back together again.

The fact was that despite the strange and incongruent memories that Cale brought with him, Kim Rok Soo still had to deal with the unranked monster.

You did the job in front of you.

And more importantly, there was the weighing knowledge that if Kim Rok Soo wasn't able to do it, then someone else would have to and that someone else might not survive. Kim Rok Soo quite disliked having to live with other people's lives on his conscience. He craved a peaceful slacker lifestyle, after all, and he already had more than enough people to mourn to make that a difficult task.

He really didn't want to deal with even one more corpse forever embedded into his memory.

A tentacle swept out again and nearly sliced the three of them in half. Alberu was able to drag the other two away in time, grimacing as it crashed into a building instead.

While it might be only a memory inside of Kim Rok Soo's broken soul, the details of people screaming were unfailingly realistic.

It really left a person to wonder how many screams were permanently echoing in Roksu's memories.

Alberu didn't have the time to ruminate on that though. The screaming meant there were victims and there was no possible way that Roksu wouldn't rush to the rescue.

He was right. The collapsing building offered nothing but danger but Roksu was already beyond the threshold with Cale hot on his heels.

It was going to be painful.

They'd played this endless game for long enough that Alberu knew how it would end. Roksu with his unfailing reliability would indeed be able to rescue as many people as possible–and then, with merciless consistency, the monster would simply change it so that he actually hadn't.

It was exhausting. Not just physically, but down to the very soul. The number of people Alberu had seen ripped to shreds over the course of the past few hours was crushing.