CH 2.2

cw: some gore towards the end

The desperate eyes of the men moved one by one. A strange excitement pounded throughout his body. The child’s chest had been cold for a long time, and blood and pus flowed from the open wound. There was only one belief that this would be the only way to get out of this pain.

“… My friend told me that his mom’s back problem was solved after going to that kid’s house… Not only that, I heard that sick people never went to the hospital and only went to see him. Apparently people have sacrificed their salary and even their belongings to listen to his songs… So he even changed his name and moved here.”

Sejin lowered his gaze to the bottom of that darkness. The tears that had been welling up fell together.

“The kid who lived in that house earlier… He must be the person you are looking for…”

At that moment, Imsoo and Giha’s eyes met. Giha fell into a deep thought and then spit out his cigarette. He pretended to slash with a sharp knife in front of Sejin.

“If you talk nonsense, I’ll cut your dick off.”

An unrecognisable amount of time passed. Sejin was hugging his shoulders and legs as if he was the only one in the world. His body was trembling with fear. The reason he kept feeling something was wrong was because of the two men on one side of the office earlier. One was an old man, and the other looked young enough to be that old man’s son, all dressed in white. To be precise, the black bag they brought doubled the fear.

Then Sejin heard someone coming. When the door opened, Imsoo and a child in his hand entered. Chaewoo. It was a face that was filled with something other than the fear of this situation. And his whole body was covered in blood. Imsoo threw Chaewoo on top of Sejin like a piece of luggage.

Imsoo, who looked tired of something, approached Giha and whispered in his ear for a long time. Giha’s expression, which had been silently listening, became contemplative. Giha asked Chaewoo a simple question and then made him sing. He slapped the boy on the cheek several times, and Chaewoo barely began to sing.

As the song stopped, Giha’s hands trembled. The scar on his palm he had carved with a knife earlier had disappeared without a trace. Imsoo, who had not believed it until now, was astonished. He repeated his confirmation by turning his hands back and forth. It was as clean as if there were no wounds from the very beginning. This is a miracle, a miracle!

Giha took his hand to the corner of his twitching mouth. It was like his first orgasm that he had when he was young. It was like he didn’t know what to do because he was flustered and thrilled at the same time. Giha stopped the laughter that came out and sat down in front of Chaewoo. The blood-stained child had unfocused eyes. Giha lifted his chin and made eye contact.

“Do you know the tale of the Old Man With a Lump on His Neck?”

It wasn’t a question he was trying to get an answer to in the first place, so he continued speaking without hesitation.

“He had a heavenly voice that even goblins were attracted to. The old man tricked the goblin to get rid of the annoying hump, but I believed that the secret of the voice was in the hump. You are similar. Because my father also believed that the secret of your voice was in the balls.”

Chaewoo looked at the man with calm, filled eyes. Perhaps his soul was gone and he felt no fear. Giha stood up, leaving a satisfied smile.

“Start.”

He said to the two men who were waiting. An old man and a young man walked up to Chaewoo with black bags. Giha handed an ear plug from his inner pocket, threw one at Imsoo, and inserted it deep into his ear hole.

“It has a high-frequency filter and a sound isolation function. It is said to be capable of isolating up to 160 decibels. It would be good to put it on just in case.”

“Why all of a sudden…”

“If you don’t wanna regret, just use it.”

At the command of his superior, Imsoo put on the ear plug with a confused expression. Giha gave the rest to the men.

“You’d want to do this too.”

“No thanks. We won’t be able to hear each other, so it would be inconvenient to operate.”

“I think it’s better to use it?”

“It’s fine.”

“Use it.”

The old man pretended not to win and took the ear plugs and put them in his pocket. The assistant didn’t seem to want to wear earplugs either.

“Well, if you don’t want to.”

Giha snorted. Imsoo asked with a frown towards the bag the medical equipment was carrying.

“Are you going to cut the whole thing off? … Like a eunuch.”

The old man answered, showing his golden teeth.

“If you leave the genitals as they are and remove the testicles, the secondary sexual characteristics will stop as hormones cannot be produced. Please prepare the balance in cash by the time the operation is over.”

“I heard that the testicles will regenerate if they are not completely cut, so don’t leave a clumsy root.”

The old man gave an indifferent glance to Giha and started preparing for the operation. He did not have a formal license, but he was known in the back alleys. He was also the one who put beads on Giha’s penis. Giha took out money from his wallet and glanced at Imsoo.

“Isn’t it funny that even a heavenly voice can’t win in the face of puberty? When puberty comes, the abilities that God has given you will deteriorate. Kids these days are growing up so fast, so puberty may come tomorrow morning.”

“But what about that kid? He doesn’t have anything to do with this, so we should send him back…”

Just then, Giha looked at the child named Sejin. Giha looked at the tearful child, then pulled out all the remaining money from her wallet.

“Just do both. Because I need some extras anyway.”

“But… hyung.”

Imsoo looked at his superior with astonishment. Giha looked at the snitch, fiddling with his chin, hoping for his last hope.

“No. I like that guy. His voice sounded pretty good when he spoke earlier. It’ll be good if he sings.”

“Look here.”

Giha pointed at Sejin with his finger and sent a signal to the old man. The old man and the assistant separated Sejin from Chaewoo. Sejin sighed as he took a deep breath. He thought he would let him go, but the man locked the door tightly again. Sejin couldn’t take his eyes off the old man’s scalpel. He stares desperately at those who hold the key to his fate, but the man only smoked leisurely.

On one side, Imsoo and an old man grabbed Chaewoo and pressed him to the floor. The old man bled the air from the syringe and poked it straight into Chaewoo’s arm. Beside the old man, a dark scalpel and a transparent hose were ready. His wrinkled hand peeled off Chaewoo’s underwear, while the other held the scalpel.

Chaewoo was still with a bemused face, there was no rebellion. Chaewoo and those men were acting weird. Testicular surgery? Was he insane? Sejin had no idea what he was going to do. The assistant pressed Sejin’s arm with his knee and inserted his needle. The drug came in immediately.

“Ugh… ! Help me! Help me!!”

Sejin kicked with all his might. No matter how much he shouted, no one listened to his cries. The medicine instantly circulated through the blood vessels, causing the body to sag. It was filled with a gradual blur of vision. Sejin stretched out his hand towards Chaewoo. But he was too far. Whose blood soaked Chaewoo? Suddenly, through his cloudy mind, a wicked curiosity arose.

The assistant pulled Sejin’s pants and underwear down at once. His legs widened and something cold touched his testicles. As the tip of his sword pierced his tender skin, blood gushed out. Each and every scene was shattered and stuck in my eyes. He was deaf, like a state of weightlessness, and only the shape of the man’s mouth occupied his field of vision. It was then that Sejin realised what they had done to Chaewoo. He knew what they were going to do. For a moment, there was a spark in his black eyes.

“Uh…”

UWAAAAHHHHHHHH—!!! AAAAHHHHHHH—!!!

Sejin rolled his eyes and started screaming. It was a cry close to instinct. The sin for longing for what you couldn’t have was worse than being burned at the stake. His tear-soaked face was covered with fear, and screams poured out. Chaewoo’s eyes, which had been droopy, slowly fluttered. At that point, Chaewoo also began screamed.

AAAAAHHHHHHH—!!! UWAAAAAAAAAAHHH—!!!

The soaring scream was a voice that stabbed the nerves. He raised his voice as if to warn God of this extreme fear and danger. As the bloody screams reached the air, Giha felt tremendous pressure on his head and ears. A shapeless attack pierced the ear plug. It felt like hundreds of sharp needles were piercing the eardrum and head.

“Fuck… !!”

Giha clenched his teeth and tightly covered his ears. It was painful as his eyeballs were squeezed and twisted. It was disgusting enough to upset the spleen, and the sound was so cruel that it made one faint. The sound was amplified and swept through the space, creating cracks. Fluorescent lamps exploded, plunging the room into darkness, and glass windows containing the night view of the city were shattered and attacked Giha. The sound that came through the ear plug made even the cells tremble. The old doctor clasped his head and crawled on the floor. The assistant also wrapped his head and twisted his body.

That was the moment. Blood spewed from the old man’s eyes and nose, and his head shattered to pieces. At the end of the flu, the assistant’s skull split and brain water leaked out. Unknown screams mixed with the owner. At an unpredictable moment, the screams of the children disappeared. Imsoo covered his ears and crawled on the floor, bleeding from his nose. The space where the smell of blood vibrated reached a moment of silence. Blood clotted on the floor and walls, and the headless body convulsed. In purgatory, where screams echoed, Giha was engulfed in astonishment.

Giha was unable to move at the scene that seemed to have returned to the past. Although it was known that his father’s death was a mysterious death with no witnesses, there were definitely witnesses. It was himself. The day he went to the lab to deliver his mother’s divorce papers, the boy suddenly screamed while singing. At that moment, his father’s skull exploded beyond recognition. The boy didn’t hit him with a blunt, he didn’t push him against a wall, he just screamed like a madman.

Giha raised his trembling legs and leaned against the wall. He wiped his nosebleed and stared at Chaewoo, who had fainted. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the anaesthetic or if he fainted because he couldn’t handle what he had done.

I-I found it. This guy is the real thing! Really…!

Giha recalled the words written in his father’s diary.

They have different cries when they are born.

The third voice that invades the human subconscious and shakes the sanctuary,

A voice where angels and demons coexist.

Their singing shows heaven, and their screams show hell.