"I want you, Hyung."
Their eyes met, and Cha Eui-jae forced a smile. What? An unknown person? No one knows I exist? Cha Eui-jae recalled the educational comics featuring caricatures of himself and the documentaries he had glimpsed. There couldn't be anyone as famous as him, this guy....
"A skilled person who doesn't belong anywhere and is not known to the public. The fewer people who know, the better."
"..."
"Is that too demanding?"
Lee Sa-young silently moved, slowly circling around Cha Eui-jae. It felt like a snake slithering through the underbrush.
"I was about to give up finding the right person, but then you showed up."
"..."
"Like destiny."
"Are you a believer in fate?"
"I never believed in such nonsense, but now I'm thinking of starting."
Suddenly, Lee Sa-young was right behind Cha Eui-jae, bending slightly at the waist.
"I've learned a bit about you."
Black fingers wrapped around Cha Eui-jae's shoulder, and the owner of those fingers whispered gently.
"The high school you attended, and even the area around your home, was entirely swallowed up by a rift, leaving nothing to find... Both parents died on the Day of the Rift, and you have no remaining relatives to investigate... If you had a job, there would be contracts, but there are no contracts, no bank transaction records, and your first phone activation was only a few months ago. There are no records before that."
"..."
"The owner of this place and her niece aren't your real relatives, are they? They're complete strangers."
Cha Eui-jae remained silent. Lee Sa-young continued speaking, undeterred.
"There's really nothing."
That was only natural. While he was active as J, Cha Eui-jae lived entirely as J, not as Cha Eui-jae. It was no wonder Lee Sa-young couldn't find any trace of 'Cha Eui-jae' that he was searching for. Lee Sa-young let out a long sigh.
"I initially planned to scout you nicely, meeting any conditions you had. But..."
"..."
"It seems like this shop is the only thing that matters to you now."
The voice, which had been soft and pleasant, moved closer to Cha Eui-jae's ear. Cha Eui-jae involuntarily held his breath for a moment.
"Is there anything you want?"
Want?
No one in the world wants nothing.
Whenever he closes his eyes, he still hears the desperate screams and cries. The hands clinging to his feet, begging to be saved, and the stench of blood lingering at the tip of his nose intrude on him unexpectedly. The slimy sensation of desperately digging through the piles of corpses to retrieve even a piece of flesh or bone is vivid.
Cha Eui-jae wished he could retrieve the bodies left behind in the West Sea rift. Though he had escaped and hidden here, that feeling was genuine. He wanted to send them back to where they belonged. He wanted to fulfill the last duty of the survivor. Because that place... is too lonely.
But he knew it was impossible.
So, Cha Eui-jae could only say he wanted nothing.
"Nothing."
