Rainbow City

“I don’t need to go.”“I do.”It was when they entered the green zone. Kwak Soohwan stopped the car and got out. Seokhwa turned his attention back to the report.[It seems that Adam has finally started to speak. My …… has started to speak.]Could he not bear to write down the name?Seokhwa could easily infer who the speaking Adam was. It would be Oh Yangseok’s son, and his own Sunbae.[The amazing truth about Eden. The higher-ups don’t want it.]He couldn’t understand what that meant. He turned to the next page, but there was no further mention of it.When Kwak Soohwan, who had gone out, got back into the car, he was wiping his hands with a wet tissue. Usually expressionless, Seokhwa blinked rapidly this time.A person who relieves himself anywhere wipes his hands afterward…As he stared blankly, he saw the Adam retrieval team vehicle passing by in the opposite lane. The headlights they shone cast shadows on Kwak Soohwan’s smooth face.“It seems that the injection Dr. Seok researched has side effects.”All the researchers would unanimously say that while his personality was terrible, he was handsome. Seokhwa suddenly understood why. Holding the steering wheel lightly, Kwak Soohwan continued talking to Seokhwa.“It keeps causing erections.”Seokhwa slumped his shoulders as if he was exhausted. It seemed like it was the end of the day for him.“Major Kwak Soohwan.”He closed his eyes and squeezed out his voice with effort.“Don’t bring it to my mouth…”He placed his hands on his backpack and soon fell asleep with his mouth open. Kwak Soohwan, who was watching Seokhwa with his arms resting on the steering wheel, let out a short laugh.Cars have various fuel efficiencies. Some looked great but had poor fuel efficiency, while others, though not stylish, saved fuel. The jeep Kwak Soohwan drove was a military-issued one with excellent fuel efficiency. Even in an era of extreme fuel and power conservation, there was little inconvenience. At least, that was the case for those living in the green zone.“In that sense, Dr. Seok is like a gas guzzler.”A car that consumes a lot of fuel but is breathtakingly beautiful.Even when they arrived at the shelter parking lot, Kwak Soohwan did not turn off the engine. He admired Seokhwa, who was quietly asleep with his arms on the steering wheel. The jeep didn’t have air conditioning that used fuel, but the heater worked fine. The car’s interior gradually fogged up with the heat inside, the cold of the underground parking lot, and their breaths.His gaze lowered gradually to Seokhwa’s thigh. He thought Seokhwa only cared about rocks, but he was holding the report dearly. It wasn’t a research report taken from Oh Yangseok’s study but a document from the basement where Adam had emerged.“Are you going down?”Kwak Soohwan confirmed once again that Adam’s body was completely motionless. He stabbed the other eye with a knife, twisted it, and flicked the blood off the knife. Seokhwa visibly turned pale, but that was just how the scene was.“Dr. Seok?”Seokhwa, who looked like he might collapse any moment, approached Kwak Soohwan, leaning against the wall. He avoided looking at the sprawled body, wanting to be far from Adam.“I have to go down… and check.”Kwak Soohwan, holding the flashlight again, illuminated the basement stairs where Adam had leaped out. If there were more of them, they would have attacked by now, but to ensure safety, Kwak Soohwan descended first. The basement was filled with the stench of rotting flesh, so Seokhwa, following behind, breathed only through his mouth.The basement floor illuminated by the flashlight was stained with dried blood, and at the far end were broken chains. The desk lamp was off, but it looked as if someone had just been there, with a pen and papers on it. However, the pen, left uncapped, had long dried up like the blood on the floor.Seokhwa approached the desk and quickly packed the research materials back into his backpack. He hurried because he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.Was it really Adam? After the Doctor died, had his Sunbae, trapped in the basement, gone mad from hunger and seemed like Adam? He had definitely spoken, right?Perhaps… he had killed a Sunbae who was a human.When Kwak Soohwan Major asked if it was Adam, Seokhwa had nodded, making him a co-conspirator. His head throbbed as he tightened his grip on the backpack straps.“Let’s go up now.”This time, too, Kwak Soohwan led the way, and Seokhwa followed. The question of whether it was a human or Adam repeatedly crossed his mind. Seokhwa approached his fallen Sunbae to collect a blood sample.“There was a rumor.”Kwak Soohwan grabbed Seokhwa’s arm.“A rumor?”“That the old man’s son had become an Adam. After visiting the violet zone, the son never appeared in the lab again. People kept asking the old man where his son was. Every time, he said his son was sick. Seeing this, I understand why. The Doctor couldn’t kill his son who had mutated into an Adam and locked him up instead.”“It might not be Adam…”“Really? Then I’ve gone from a liquor thief to a murderer?”Kwak Soohwan’s indifferent tone made Seokhwa feel he was certain the Sunbae was an Adam. This reassurance eased Seokhwa’s anxiety a bit.“The Adam retrieval team is coming, so we’ll find out if I’m a murderer or not.”“If the Sunbae is…”“Dr. Seok.”Kwak Soohwan cut him off.“Even if Dr. Seok had told me not to kill him, I would have done it anyway, so the result would have been the same. If this is a crime, it’s my solo act.”As he lifted the backpack strap, he started walking on tiptoe. He went down to the jeep in that state, and on the way back, he confirmed that Kwak Soohwan’s words were probably correct by looking at the materials Oh Yangseok had left in the basement.Then, with his body exhausted, he dozed off and had a dream about Oh Yangseok for the first time in a while.In the dream, Oh Yangseok was hurriedly packing something into a briefcase. Looking nervously around the lab, Oh Yangseok quickly turned around a pillar to head outside.Bang! A single gunshot rang out, and the Doctor collapsed to the floor. Dark red blood gradually spread around him. A man in black clothes and black shoes approached Oh Yangseok’s body and casually took the briefcase from the Doctor’s hands. After wiping the blood off the briefcase, the man finally pulled down his black mask.It was none other than Major Kwak Soohwan.“Ugh!”Startled awake, he saw another hand trying to take the document from his grip. It felt like that hand was stained with dark red blood, but it was just a black leather glove.“…What are you doing?”Seeing the image of Kwak Soohwan taking Oh Yangseok’s briefcase in the dream made him wary.“I just thought I’d take a look at what this is.”Seokhwa slowly closed and opened his eyes, trying to shake off the drowsiness. Although it didn’t matter if Kwak Soohwan looked at it, the dream left him feeling uneasy. After all, it was just a dream, right? There was no need to insist, so he handed over the research materials to Kwak Soohwan.Contrary to his actions, Kwak Soohwan didn’t look at the documents but turned off the engine. It was almost midnight. Since there was no traffic, he hadn’t woken Seokhwa even after arriving. Seokhwa followed behind Kwak Soohwan, who had gotten out first, and spoke up.“Major Kwak Soohwan.”Kwak Soohwan turned around as if asking why he was being called. Seokhwa hesitated, looking like he was going to say something like “Thank you” or “You worked hard.”“…I will also become an accomplice.”What kind of nonsense was that?“Dr. Seok, while you were asleep with your mouth open, we got a radio call from the Adam retrieval team. Given that the Military Police didn’t arrest me, isn’t the answer clear?”“They confirmed it was Adam?”“More than that, they questioned if the two of us are sane. They wondered how Adam could speak.”Right. Even he wouldn’t have believed it if someone said Adam had spoken.Before getting into the elevator, they were checked for identification, and Kwak Soohwan pressed the button for the floor where their rooms were. But Seokhwa also pressed the button for the research floor. With a low sigh, Kwak Soohwan canceled the floor he had pressed.“After all the sleep, you still want to go to the lab.”[Opening at the 18th floor.]It was simultaneous with Kwak Soohwan’s words. The elevator stopped at the 18th floor, and the door opened.“Huh?”A uniformed Major stepped in, then paused with a surprised look. He then laughed heartily, reeking of alcohol. It was Yang Sanghoon, an army Major and Kwak Soohwan’s colleague, who was off duty from today until tomorrow.“Well, if it isn’t Major Kwak Soohwan.”Yang Sanghoon pressed the button for the 27th floor and then blew his breath in Kwak Soohwan’s face.“Smell that alcohol?”Want a drink? He drunkenly rambled. Kwak Soohwan felt the urge to punch him in the mouth, but fighting in this cramped box could scare Seokhwa to death. Even if he wasn’t a freshwater crayfish, hitting him in the wrong place would bring Colonel Jang’s nagging.“Dr. Seok, do you have a stone among the ones you’ve collected that could be used as a gravestone?”“I don’t have anything that big.”Seokhwa just shook his head once.“Then we’ll have to use a pebble for this guy’s tombstone. Yang Sanghoon the shorty, dies here after picking a fight with Kwak Soohwan while drunk. His thing is pebble-sized, so that should be enough.”“What? You brat! Want to see how big it is?”As he said that, he unzipped his pants and flashed his lower half. Kwak Soohwan quickly lifted his boot to stomp on the dirty sight.“It’s bigger than a pebble.”Seokhwa replied expressionlessly, making Yang Sanghoon shake his thing as if wagging a tail.“Right? Mine’s like a rock, huh? But you acknowledge my size, right? No! In our shelter, with this face!”As Yang Sanghoon leaned in, Kwak Soohwan stepped in front of him, and the elevator door opened simultaneously.“When a rock breaks, it turns to sand, right?”Kwak Soohwan pushed Yang Sanghoon’s lower half out of the elevator with his boot.“Aargh! Damn it! Hey! Aargh!”Yang Sanghoon, clutching his stomped lower half, tried to charge back in, but the door closed just in time. The smell of alcohol still lingered heavily inside.“Dr. Seok, that’s how people become when they drink. Not me.”“Major Kwak Soohwan.”As soon as they arrived on the 34th floor, Seokhwa called him.“Forget telling me to sleep first. I have to escort you to your room anyway.”“When a rock breaks, it becomes a stone. When a stone breaks, it becomes a pebble.”Seokhwa, who had been hiding behind him in the red zone, now walked ahead confidently in the research wing.“Damn, he really is a stone Doctor with all this stone talk.”Although there had been a minor commotion in the elevator, Seokhwa still felt uneasy.He had requested confirmation from the Adam retrieval team once again and was waiting for their response. He took a pill from the second compartment of the pillbox on his desk.[Clinical Trial 2 for Stamina Enhancement]There were six bottles of stamina enhancement clinical trial pills on Seokhwa’s desk. However, his stamina never improved as much as the soldiers’.Oh Yangseok’s research notes.Specifically, the 7th Adam mutation journal had bloodstains here and there, making some parts hard to decipher. He didn’t know whose blood it was, but he speculated it might be his senior’s. If it was Adam’s blood, it would be troubling, but dried blood did not transmit the infection.The Adam virus was an antigen that actively spread only in living organisms, meaning it only spread when the body was functional. Eating Adam’s blood didn’t cause infection; it only happened if the virus penetrated the bloodstream. Moreover, Oh Yangseok had been conducting mutation research with him. They had been studying soldiers with peculiarities, but oddly, there were no records of Kwak Soohwan.Seokhwa, having missed dinner, was eating a soy sandwich when he noticed the phone ringing.“Yes, this is Seokhwa from the research wing.”[Ah, Dr. Seok? Regarding the body recovered from the 13th Red Zone. You asked if it was really Adam?]“Yes. Is it really Adam?”[It’s confirmed. The blood coagulation reaction alone indicates it’s Adam’s blood. But did Major Kwak Soohwan also ask if Adam spoke?]“…It seemed that way.”[It seemed that way?]There was a doubtful tone from the Adam retrieval team.“If it’s confirmed to be Adam, I’ll hang up now.”[Wait a moment!]Hearing the urgent shout, Seokhwa paused and kept the phone to his ear.[Oh, it seems he hung up. But you said the Doctor is a different story compared to Major Kwak Soohwan.]Thinking the other side believed he had hung up, they continued speaking freely.What did they mean by saying the Doctor is a different story compared to Major Kwak Soohwan? Seokhwa pressed the receiver closer to his ear, but all he heard was the click of the other side hanging up. Staring at the receiver for a moment, Seokhwa then returned it to its original place.He rolled a pearl-like, mysteriously colored stone in his hand on the desk. He thought it was best to organize the mixed-up journals in order, so he began reading the countless papers one by one.Though his stamina was lacking compared to others, fortunately, anything he read was stored in his brain like a photograph. Since Oh Yangseok’s journal was neither sequential nor complete, he expected it would take some time.Even thinking about it, the idea that Adam had spoken seemed like madness, just as Kwak Soohwan had suggested. However, the voice of his senior calling his name wouldn’t easily fade.Ring, ring, ring-Seokhwa looked up from the journal. Someone was repeatedly pressing the bell outside the lab. He got up from his seat and walked to the central pillar. Looking out through the transparent glass, he saw Kwak Soohwan in uniform. Instinctively, he lowered his gaze to Kwak Soohwan’s hands, wondering if he was holding a gun— a remnant of his lingering dream.Instead, Kwak Soohwan was holding a whiskey bottle in one hand and a glass in the other. When Seokhwa looked at him, puzzled, he grinned and gestured for him to open the door.Instead of opening the door, Seokhwa spoke into the intercom speaker.“What’s the matter?”[I brought some whiskey to cheer you up.]Kwak Soohwan shook the whiskey bottle behind the glass.“I don’t drink.”[I went through a lot to get this from Major Yang. Won’t you join me?]Seokhwa lowered his gaze for a moment.“Major Kwak Soohwan, please verify your identity first.”He placed his five fingers on the glass door.<32-year-old Major Kwak Soohwan, Rainbow City>‘Do you permit entry?’ appeared on the intercom display. When Seokhwa permitted, the double glass doors opened sequentially.“Dr. Seok, you’re really cold. You could’ve just let me in without the ID check.”Though he seemed to walk loosely, the sound of his boots was clear.“That’s because Oh Yangseok also died here.”“Well, being cautious isn’t a bad thing.”“But why did you want to come in?”“I told you, I really brought the whiskey to cheer you up.”Seokhwa glanced around the lab and then pointed outside.“Then let’s move somewhere else, not the lab.”“Weren’t you planning to work?”“Yes.”Unable to wait, Kwak Soohwan opened the whiskey bottle, filled the glass, and handed it to Seokhwa while he drank straight from the bottle.“Work. I’ll drink using you as a snack.”So much for cheering him up. It seemed he intended to use him as an excuse to drink freely. Seokhwa considered sending him away but turned back to his desk since he had let him in. At that moment, there was a click—the sound of a gun being loaded. Though it was a single click from a semi-automatic pistol, Seokhwa felt a sense of defeat as he remembered where he had put his gun. It was neatly stored in the drawer since he had returned.Seokhwa didn’t know why Kwak Soohwan had loaded his pistol. That was likely the same for the murdered Oh Yangseok. The difference was that there was an access record of Kwak Soohwan entering this place. The CCTV aside, the main server, Mother, which managed access, had never shut down. It was the core system of the shelter.Therefore, even on the day Oh Yangseok was murdered, the access records were intact.Seokhwa took a deep breath and turned around. He was worried that the muzzle might be pointed at him, but in Kwak Soohwan’s hands, there was only a bottle of whiskey and an empty glass.“Major Kwak Soohwan.”“What?”Kwak Soohwan licked his whiskey-wet lips with his tongue.“Why did you just load the gun?”Seokhwa asked directly, as he always did.“The gun?”“Yes, I heard the sound of a gun being loaded.”Kwak Soohwan frowned slightly and then drank more whiskey.“This is technically a gun too.”He pointed to his lower body, specifically his unbuckled belt. Seokhwa had mistaken the sound of him unbuckling his uniform belt for loading a gun. Feeling slightly embarrassed, Seokhwa walked to his desk without making any further excuses. Kwak Soohwan followed slowly, laughing incredulously.“It turns out Dr. Seok has paranoia too.”“I had a dream. A dream where Major Kwak Soohwan killed Oh Yangseok.”“A nonsense dream.”“Seems so.”Seokhwa admitted plainly and put the whiskey glass down on the desk, staring at the untouched drink.If it really was a consolation drink, maybe Kwak Soohwan was kinder than he seemed. He seemed different from the other soldiers Seokhwa had seen before heading to Jeju Island.Soldiers were said to be inhuman, but they had to mercilessly kill those who were once human. Because of this, some suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or couldn’t endure and were discharged. Being discharged was effectively expulsion from the Green Zone, so many remained in the military reluctantly.Seokhwa picked up the glass instead of checking Oh Yangseok’s journal. He tasted the drink with the tip of his tongue, finding the taste still unfamiliar and strange.“Who’s calling whom a dog?”Kwak Soohwan pointed at Seokhwa, who was tasting the drink with his tongue.“Major Kwak Soohwan, you drink it all. I’m done.”Seokhwa offered the glass, but Kwak Soohwan drank only from his bottle. He sat on Seokhwa’s desk, looking down at the scattered journal.“I gave you access permission, but….”He trailed off and chewed on the leftover soy sandwich.“Even if I grant permission, you can’t enter without approval from the central control system.”Even soldiers affiliated with the shelter couldn’t freely enter research labs with critical data. But Kwak Soohwan was one of the soldiers allowed entry.“Is that your way of saying I’m a superior officer who gets special treatment?”If he kept drinking like that, he’d soon be drunk. Half of the whiskey was already gone.“No, I just find it intriguing.”“It means I’m an exceptional talent, so finish that disgusting protein sandwich.”“I just spoke with the Adam retrieval team. They confirmed it was indeed Adam….”“It looks like both of us will be treated as crazies.”Kwak Soohwan twirled his finger by his temple.Seokhwa was about to mention something odd he’d heard but stopped. He couldn’t have misheard, but without fully understanding the context, it was pointless to bring it up.“It’s certain that Oh Yangseok’s son was Adam, and he spoke. That’s why Dr. Seok is troubled and still uneasy.”He gave a knowing smile.“Did you know him well?”“We only had a few meals together. We weren’t close.”“Dr. Seok prefers stones over people, right?”“That’s not true.”Seokhwa didn’t expect a response but said he liked people more than stones.Kwak Soohwan looked away from Oh Yangseok’s scattered journal. He was certain it was Adam, so he killed him, but there was still a nagging feeling. Despite having killed enough Adams to fill the shelter with their corpses, none had ever spoken like a person. If the Adam virus had mutated again, distinguishing between people and Adams would become extremely difficult.“When someone you know dies in front of you, it’s normal to feel unsettled. So drink that in one go and forget it.”Seokhwa just held the glass tightly with both hands at the unexpected consolation. The liquid in the round glass rippled like the calm sea of Jeju Island. Only then did his hands begin to tremble.Was he scared? Yes. Was he sad to see his senior die like that? Yes. But his expressionless face showed no emotions.“Major.”“Yes?”“I might pass out.”Kwak Soohwan tilted his head, wiping the spilled drink from his mouth with the back of his hand.“My liver doesn’t process alcohol well.”He didn’t add that this was why he didn’t drink, but Kwak Soohwan understood. Here is the translation of the provided Korean text into English:“Dr. Seok, life must be pretty boring for you.”Seokhwa looked back down at the glass of amber-colored liquor. Talking with Kwak Soohwan had somehow stopped his hands from trembling.“Yeah. My life is not very interesting.”Seokhwa downed the contents of the glass in one gulp. Without taking a breath, all that remained was a sharp sensation on his lips and tongue. The last time he had drunk alcohol was when his mother had passed away. Still, drinking like this wasn’t as bad as he had expected.“Are you okay?”Kwak Soohwan looked at Seokhwa with surprised eyes.“Better than I thought.”Apart from the burning sensation in his throat, it was tolerable. Kwak Soohwan leaned in closer to check Seokhwa’s condition. His gaze seemed to ask if he was going to die.“Major Kwak Soohwan.”“What? Do you feel like throwing up?”“No.”Shaking his head made him feel a bit dizzy. Seokhwa took a deep breath and exhaled a hot sigh.“Fortunately, the third clinical trial drug seems to be effective. Major, have you ever heard of milk thistle? It has some amazing medicinal properties. I wanted to try drinking, so I extracted silymarin from milk thistle seeds and made a liver regeneration drug. Considering I drank this much whiskey and I’m still fine, it seems to have worked.”Seokhwa was speaking at 1.5 times his usual speed. However, contrary to his words, his face was gradually flushing, and his eyes were becoming drowsy. Whether it was the milk thistle or whatever, it was clear that the drug Seokhwa made was of little use. His body, seated on the chair, was slowly slumping like melted jelly.“Dr. Seok, are you really okay?”Seokhwa managed to get up, drag his chair to the desk, and grab a pen. Holding a container labeled [Liver Support Clinical 3] in one hand, he began scribbling something.Wondering what he was doing, Kwak Soohwan watched as Seokhwa’s pen suddenly trailed upward. Seokhwa then collapsed onto the desk.[Whiskey approximately 150ml, lasted about 5 minutes….]It looked like a dying message.Worried that Seokhwa might really be dead, Kwak Soohwan extended his index finger to feel for breath under Seokhwa’s nose and used a cold towel to wipe the burning forehead and face. Despite his efforts, the fever didn’t subside, so he unbuttoned Seokhwa’s shirt.For someone who roamed around under the sun looking for stones, his skin was remarkably untanned.The skin under his fingertips was excessively smooth. He slid his hand down to the hollow of his navel and then clenched his fist.When he saw Seokhwa on Sehwa Beach, he thought Seokhwa was his type but gave him only socks because he seemed like a fool. Yet he turned out to be a genius worthy of replacing the chief researcher. Touching him would only cause trouble.Kwak Soohwan went to the bathroom, soaked a towel in cold water, came back, and finished taking off Seokhwa’s shirt. He raised Seokhwa’s arm to tuck the towel under his armpit and let out a chuckle. He touched the smooth part of Seokhwa’s skin and placed the towel. The sudden cold made Seokhwa frown and try to remove the towel, but Kwak Soohwan crossed Seokhwa’s arms to restrain him and waited for the fever to subside. Seokhwa finally opened his eyes slowly.“Are you feeling a bit better? Want some water?”As he released his grip and went to get water, something flew and hit him from behind. It was the wet towel he had placed under Seokhwa’s armpit.“Your fever is quite high,” Kwak Soohwan started to say, but then scratched his eyebrows awkwardly. Seokhwa, lying on his back, began wriggling and shedding his clothes.He took off his shirt, pulled down his pants and briefs, and spread his limbs wide open. This slow process of undressing was like watching an animal shedding its skin in real-time. Now completely naked, Seokhwa lay with his arms and legs spread out. Kwak Soohwan didn’t know that this was one of Seokhwa’s sleeping habits due to his high body temperature.Kwak Soohwan pressed his hand against his forehead and turned away. He had brought Seokhwa to his room since he couldn’t leave him alone.“Look. Who’s the real dog here?”Leaving Seokhwa there wasn’t an option either; he feared he’d find a corpse the next morning. Although Seokhwa was older than him, he seemed insecure. Maybe it was because his physical condition was so poor, or perhaps the sight of his pale face when he killed Oh Cheongwoon was still fresh in his memory.Kwak Soohwan soaked two towels in cold water again and approached Seokhwa. He spread the towels over Seokhwa’s upper and lower body and pulled up a chair to sit.Suddenly, he craved a cigarette intensely. With no cigarettes at hand, he just kept drinking the remaining whiskey. Suddenly, the mood light flickered, signaling a power supply issue. Even in the safest and most affluent shelter, power outages were not uncommon.“My life is pretty boring too, Dr. Seok.”The towels quickly heated up with Seokhwa’s fever.