Arcane

THREE

"You're nearsighted? Is anyone in your family even nearsighted?"

"And only in one eye, too." Jisung shakes his head. "The wonky one."

"Whatever the hell happened to it? Are you sure there's nothing else to be worried about?"

"They said they would be reexamining my MRI scan in the meantime, and to come back immediately if I experienced any more headaches."

"And have you?"

"Thankfully not. They gave me some painkillers for it, but I didn't need them. Especially after they got a prescription contact lens made for this eye."

"I honestly cannot tell that it's discolored at all when you're wearing it," says Mark. "They did a good job with the color. Really matches your other eye."

"As long as I wasn't walking around with one blue, one brown eye, I wouldn't even care if it didn't match exactly," Jisung says. "I'm fine, hyung, seriously. I wasn't going to tell you guys because I knew you'd worry."

"Like hell. You should have asked Jeno to drive you to the hospital. Did you go alone?"

"I—yeah. It's okay, I would have scared him shitless in the state I was in if I called him at that hour."

Mark sighs, exasperated in the way that people are when they're angry-concerned. "Please take care of yourself, Jisung. We only have one of you on this earth."

"Aw, hyung."

"Now, that information about Chenle Zhong you asked about. What has you so interested, anyway?"

"I saw his name mentioned somewhere. And uh, the Internet doesn't have all that much about him, so I wanted to ask if you could find anything."

"The Internet, not have something about someone? You're not looking hard enough," says Mark, tsk-ing, pulling a crisp manila envelope from his bag. "Here are some of the things I found in the archives, some from the library database, and some things from historical newspapers. Fair enough, there wasn't a whole lot to go off of."

Jisung undoes the gold brad holding the envelope closed. "Did a quick skim of the things I printed out for you. You saw this guy's name, and suddenly needed to know his life history? But I suppose unsolved murders are pretty fascinating. No judgment."

"Unsolved?" Jisung says, raising his eyebrows. "So he was murdered?"

"Says in one of the chapters I pulled from an anthology about unsolved crimes in the history of East Asia," Mark says, fishing the poached egg yolk out of his soondubu pot. "Something about him being murdered on an estate, the killer was never found, and no other crimes were linked to that one."

Jisung flips through the packets of information, having a flashbacks to university at this wholesome family restaurant, until he arrives at a stack that looks photocopied from a textbook. "Do you remember when he died?"

"Dude, you're looking at it. Just read it."

"I hate reading, hyung."

"Oh my God. Reading is what keeps us alive as h—"

"Hyung."

"Sorry."

"I know you've read it."

"I did, ok! I did. I think it was 1927. I can't be sure, honest. Read it more closely yourself later."

"Thanks, hyung."

"Is that enough to quench your curiosity?"

"If you can find anything else, I'd love it."