NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - B
He has a great body.
Encased in a suit, his physique wasn’t just flawless; it was like a meticulously crafted masterpiece. From the neck down, he was an incredibly attractive man. However, above the dress shirt collar… where his face should be… there was a bundle of tentacles. And they weren’t just sitting still; they were wriggling in real-time.
No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t human.
“Honey?”
The monster wriggled its second tentacle quizzically and called her honey.
Irae felt faint. Her heart raced, a chill ran down her spine, and her survival instinct roared to life with an intensity she’d never felt before.
She had to get out of this room somehow. Without provoking the unidentified monster in front of her.
“I need to use the restroom for a second…”
“Ah, I see. Should I help you up? “
The tentacle monster offered her unexpected kindness that didn’t match its grotesque appearance. Irae shook her hands and her head vigorously.
“No, no! I can go alone.”
Carefully getting out of bed, she walked towards the door at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow. Who knows, the monster might lash out with its tentacles and grab her if it realized she was trying to escape.
The short distance to the door felt like a thousand miles. Breaking out in a cold sweat, she finally reached the door and looked back. The tentacle monster was standing still in its spot, watching her. Actually, she wasn’t sure if it was watching her because it didn’t have eyes. She just assumed it was since its body was facing her.
At that moment, the bundle of tentacles swayed gently. As if waving goodbye.
Horrified at the sight, Irae quickly slid the door open and closed the door behind her as if nothing had happened. She immediately searched for a hospital staff member. Just then, she saw a nurse approaching from the opposite direction. She ran frantically towards the nurse like she’d found a lifeline sent from heaven.
“Nurse! H-help me!”
“Yes, how can I help you? “
“There’s a monster in my room.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s pretending to be my husband, but it’s not him. I mean, it’s not even human. Please call the police. No, I don’t think regular police will do… We need a special forces unit…”
“Please calm down. So, you’re saying there’s someone you don’t know in your room?”
“I’m telling you, it’s a monster! A tentacle monster!”
Irae raised her voice, then quickly lowered it, worried others might hear.
The nurse looked at her with a ‘I’m only doing this for a living, why am I listening to this nonsense?’ expression. Irae felt a lump in her throat.
“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. Please, just call the police.”
“Before we do that, how about I take a look at the room first?”
“But… it could be dangerous… Just peek inside through the gap in the door. Okay?”
Seeing that the nurse wasn’t taking her seriously, Irae had no choice but to compromise. Once the nurse saw it with her own eyes, she’d have to believe it.
Taking the apathetically smiling nurse with her, Irae returned to her room. The closer she got, the more nauseous she felt, picturing the ‘thing’ waiting inside.
“It’s here. Just push the door a little and look inside…”
Before Irae could finish her sentence, the nurse slid the door wide open.
Hey, that’s not what we agreed on!
She screamed internally and chased after the fearless nurse who entered the room. The nurse, face to face with the tentacled monster, covered her mouth with her hand, eyes wide as saucers.
“How…”
Just as Irae was about to tell the dumbfounded nurse they didn’t have time for this and needed to run away quickly, the nurse continued in a daze.
“How can a human being be this handsome?”
Excuse me?
Irae couldn’t believe her ears.
“Is he a celebrity? No, I would’ve recognized him. With a face like that, how can he not be famous?”
Are tentacle monsters celebrities now?
While Irae was baffled by the blushing nurse, who seemed mesmerized by the bundle of tentacles…
“Honey, what are you doing out there? Come on in.”
The monster spotted Irae and waved its second tentacle in greeting. The nurse covered her mouth again.
“No way. His voice is perfect too.”
…Irae had to admit, his voice was nice. A sweet, seductive, and attractive tone, as if coated with honey. However, the fact that he had tentacles where his head should be only amplified her fear. Think about it. A snake speaking in an actor’s voice wouldn’t be cool, it would be creepy.
Irae desperately gestured to the spaced-out nurse.
“What are you doing! Come out here, now!”
“Why should I leave? This is heaven.”
The nurse responded dreamily.
That was not something a sane person could utter! Irae came to the conclusion that the tentacle monster must’ve done something to the nurse. Brainwashed her with some unknown power, or cast some sort of illusion magic. It was a rather unrealistic thought for a civilized person, but with a tentacled monster in a suit standing right there, who cared about being realistic?
Deciding that she couldn’t risk getting caught as well, Irae ran away without the nurse.
When infected with a zombie virus, you have to abandon your companions without mercy, even if it breaks your heart. If you’re driven by emotion and try to bring them along, you’ll only end up bitten and turned into zombies together.
Making a swift escape, Irae this time grabbed a doctor walking down the hallway and exclaimed desperately.
“D-Doctor! There’s a monster! A tentacle monster in my room!”
* * *
“It seems to be an aftereffect of the accident.”
Staring blankly at the ceiling, Irae recalled her conversation with the doctor.
“So, to put it simply, because I hit my head during the accident, something went wrong with my brain, and that’s why my husband looks like a tentacled monster? So, to your eyes, does he look like an ordinary person? Like he has a normal face above his shirt collar instead of a bundle of tentacles?”
“Yes. To me, he looked like a perfectly normal man with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I’ve never seen a case like this so it’s difficult to predict the course of it, but it could be a temporary symptom. For now, you…”
Lowering her chin, she glanced to the side. A tentacled monster with a fantastic body was sitting there. With all its tentacles drooping down, it looked quite dejected.
She took a picture with her phone. The tentacle monster was on the screen until she pressed the capture button. But when she checked the photo album, the tentacle monster was gone, replaced by a handsome man with a heartbroken expression.
The nurse wasn’t brainwashed by an evil tentacle monster. She’d simply been exposed to such unreal beauty that it sent her into a lovestruck daze.
The first thing that caught Irae’s eye was his jet-black hair and eyes. Some might say, “Aren’t all Koreans supposed to have black hair and black eyes?” but the man’s color was so intensely black that it reminded her of a black hole absorbing even light itself. It could have been the lighting in the photo, but looking at it, she felt like someone had cut out a piece of darkness and pasted it there.
Then, his sharp gaze. Even though his eyes were downcast, they couldn’t hide the arrogance and coldness within, giving off the impression of someone who’d lived his entire life with no one above him.
How on earth did I end up marrying such a breathtakingly handsome man?
No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t understand how this man had become her husband.
“Um…”
“Yes, honey?”
Looking away from the photo, she saw the tentacle monster, attentively raising its fifth tentacle in response. Quickly averting her gaze, she continued speaking while looking down at the picture.
“How did we get married? Did I blackmail you with your weaknesses or something?”
Otherwise, this didn’t make sense. How else could this severe visual imbalance be explained if not for blackmail?
Honestly, she wasn’t particularly beautiful herself. Not that she was unattractive, but compared to this unbelievably handsome man in the photo, she was nothing but an ugly potato.
“Blackmail? You? Blackmailed me?”
As she raised her head at his amused tone, her eyes met a bundle of trembling tentacles. It was hard to tell with his form, but judging from his reaction, he seemed to be laughing.
“What if it was the other way around?”
Irae paused at his absurd words. Although he appeared as a tentacled monster to her eyes, in reality, this man was stunningly handsome. And such a handsome man threatened to marry her? Was that even possible in real life?
“Did I perhaps become rich overnight from crypto or stocks?”
It had to be money. If the situation defied all logic, the answer must be money. For a man like him to willingly become involved with her, she must’ve become some kind of insanely wealthy heiress.
“I have more money.”
The tentacle monster, no, her husband declared firmly. Irae stared blankly at the photo.
Not only was he outmatched in looks, but in wealth as well. Just what kind of deal was this marriage based on? No matter how she looked at it, it seemed like a one-sided deal where this man was at a disadvantage.
“Then why did you marry me…?”
“Because I pursued you.”
“Excuse me?”
“I pestered you to look at me just once, chased you around asking for a date, tried every trick in the book to get your attention, and acted cute to win your affection until I finally swept you off your feet. And then we got married. Does that answer your question?”
At his unbelievable reason, Irae looked towards where he was sitting. His seventh and eighth tentacles curled and intertwined, forming the shape of a heart.
Is that supposed to be a heart? Or a threat to crack open my skull and eat my brain?
It looked distorted as tentacles to her eyes. Was he actually doing that with his hands?
As she stared, transfixed by the bizarre sight of the tentacle heart, he spoke first.
“You said I look like a tentacle monster.”
“Y-Yes.”
“How exactly do I look?”
“Well…”