Waiting For Your Reincarnation

I slammed the door and rubbed my eyes.

 

What I saw when I opened the door was not the usual fire escape, but a dank, cavernous room where anyone could go missing.

 

But the surprises didn’t stop there.

 

As the door closed, the fire exit sign and door slowly disappeared, revealing another room.

 

Soon the emergency exit was gone, leaving only the elevator. The numbers on the elevator lights stood and rose, and it looked like someone was taking the elevator up.

 

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor, where the chairman’s office was located.

 

I didn’t want to see the same cavernous room again unprepared, so I opened my eyes and peeked inside the elevator.

 

As if on cue, a reasonable view of the inside of an elevator appeared.

 

And not only was it an elevator, but there was a boy with mint-colored dreadlocks.

 “Mint dreadlocks?” 

His hair was the color of crystal clear water, and his eyes and mouth were sweet and clean.

 

He looked like a fairy guarding a very deep mountain lake.

 

If I didn’t know that this was an elevator, I would have thought I was in a fairy tale just by looking at the boy’s face.

 

Ryu Won was also well-groomed and friendly, but only when he smiled. When he wiped the smile off his face, he looked quite sharp.

 

However, even with a slight frown on his forehead like now, the boy didn’t look threatening.

 

At the appearance of the mysterious figure, I cocked my head.

 “Hey, hold the open-button, I’ll get back on again.”

He said then got off the elevator.

 

The dreadlocked boy said the exact opposite of what he looked like. He gave me a half-verbal command, which I didn’t hesitate to follow, and got on the elevator.

 

He looked familiar as he walked around in front of the chairman’s office, looking up and down as if looking for something.

 

I grabbed the elevator button on a whim, then pressed the close button over and over, wondering why I was holding it.

 “Is he crazy?”

I mumbled.

 

That was my second impression of the boy. Crazy.

 

If Ryu Won had come back subtly, the boy would have come back fully. I guess the law of conservation of quality and quantity is true in life and death.

 

I fought to control my anger. I didn’t want to get into a verbal fight with the boy.

 

As I watched the elevator doors slowly close, the idiot boy stuck his foot through the gap and the elevator doors reopened.

“Hey! I said grab the door, don’t you understand me?”  “Do you know me?”

I asked.

 “What?” “You’re giving orders to a stranger you don’t even know, and you’re doing it half-assed. Rude.”  “That’s a slap in the face. How about you, don’t you know me?” “Why do I have to deal with your attitude?” 

The boy pushed me into a corner of the elevator, looking incredulous.

 

I was already angry to the brim. At some point I would have let it go, thinking that a good thing is a good thing, but not now.

 

I was pushed back by the boy’s strength, but his eyes never left mine. 

 

Even when he pushed me all the way into the corner of the elevator wall, he was still only about a foot taller than me.

 

As we stared at each other without saying a word, I turned my head and saw an employee ID card around the boy’s neck. The name Jung Jaeho was written on it.

 “Jung Jaeho?” “Who told you to call me by my name?” 

The boy with the mint-colored dreadlocks, or rather the mad scientist, Jung Jaeho, jammed his index finger into my right shoulder blade. 

 

It’s enough to know that he created a tentacle monster that roams the fields, to know that he’s not normal.

 

A headache washed over me and I quickly lost the will to fight. Society had taught me that fighting was only for people with common sense.

 

Unfortunately, the boy standing in front of me with a smug look on his face had no common sense.

 

I pushed Jaeho away and pressed the elevator’s open button. The elevator doors opened and closed.

 “What are you, a soul subject without blood in your head? Get off while I’m still in a good mood.” “You get off, kid.” 

For the first time, Jaeho’s face froze completely when he heard the word

“kid”

. 

 

He stammered out half a sentence to gauge my reaction, and then I saw him mentally collapse at that one word.

 “What did you say?” “I told you to get off. Why are you offended?” “I was in a really good mood because I fucked up Ryu Won today. You dug your own grave, do you know that?” “What?” 

I gagged at the sudden stream of water that fell on my face. Of course, my hand that was on the elevator button went to the stream.

 

The stream turned into thorns and wrapped around my neck. A groan of pain escaped my lips. 

 

The pain felt like thorns piercing my entire body and I couldn’t move.

 

My body was slowly lifted into the air. My whole body was being squeezed by the water and I felt like I was about to burst like a balloon.

 

I felt like I was going to die.

 

I wrapped my hands around Jaeho’s neck and nudged him, and he shrugged with an easy smile.

 “How does it feel to be pushed around by a kid? Are you gonna apologize now?” “Fuck off…” “Hmm?” “Fuck off.” “Ha ha. Where did that come from?” 

When Jaeho’s laughter stopped, a force unlike anything I had ever known pressed down on my neck. It felt useless to try to exert any more physical strength.

 Thud, thud, thud. 

As I strained my body, the glass bottle in my hand clattered to the ground. Jaeho grabbed it with his foot and lifted it up.

 

Jaeho looked at it intently, as if he wanted to be sucked into it. The water that surrounded me disappeared in an instant and my body fell to the ground.

 

My whole body ached from hitting the bare ground without any protection.

 “This is crazy. I’ve never seen a soul fragment of this color before. Where did you get it?” *Cough, cough* 

My first thought as the fresh air entered my nostrils was to pass out. I was out of the water, but I couldn’t move a finger.

 

I could feel Jaeho’s face over mine. He murmured something in a very low voice, like the rustling of leaves in the forest.

 

The more I concentrated on his voice, the heavier my eyes became.

  

***

  

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting on a chair in a laboratory. In front of me was Jung Jaeho, the man I never wanted to see again, smiling at me. 

 

It was such a gentle face, unlike his unethical personality.

 

He looked at me curiously, his bright mint eyes twinkling, no longer the poisonous glare I’d seen in the elevator.

 

He alternated between the computer screen and the video, giggling and chuckling uncomfortably.

 

The laughter seemed to attach itself to my back like leeches.

 

They say don’t touch a madman, child or adult.

 

I swayed back and forth, trying to get up from my seat but failing. I was bound by a film of water that looked like a rope.

 

I could hear Jaeho humming, he seemed to like the situation quite a bit.

 “Kidnapped by a madman.” 

As soon as I realized my hopeless situation, I looked around for a way out of this place.

 

There was a desk in the middle of a rather large room with shelves lining the walls.

 

The shelves were filled with experimental specimens that I didn’t recognize, but I didn’t want to know more about them.

 

The room was covered in black wallpaper, which was unusual because when I think of a laboratory, I usually think of pale ivory tones, but here it was all black. Without the lights on, it was hard to see what was where.

 

In Jaeho’s hand was a glass vial.

 “How did this soul come out? It’s not even there.” 

While I was stunned for a moment, Jaeho acted carefully and had a very sympathetic look on his face, as if he had been shot in the head.

 

But he couldn’t help but be harsh.

 “So, in the privacy of this room, why don’t we continue what we couldn’t talk about earlier?” 

Jaeho stretched out his hand and puffed out water droplets that resembled the color of his hair. 

 

At first glance, they even looked like raindrops. The droplets floated in the air and naturally lifted the glass bottle in Jaeho’s hand.

 

If Ryu Won’s ability was wind, Jaeho’s ability seemed to be related to water.

 Drizzle-! 

He asked, rolling the wheels of his chair and immediately closing the distance between us.

 “Where did you get this soul fragment?” 

I bit my lip and looked at Jaeho. 

 

Jaeho’s eyes were so bright that it made me even more nervous.

 

The water droplets jumped a little higher into the air as if they were demanding an answer.

 

If the answer was not what Jaeho wanted, there was no telling when this peaceful scene might turn into a murder scene.

 

Jung Jaeho could hurt me if he wanted to.

 “It’s mine.” “This beautiful thing is yours?” “The Chairman took a piece of my soul and told me to give it to you.” “Do you have a picture of the Chairman?” “What?” “Have you heard anything else about it?” “What else should I hear?” “Hmm…, none of this has anything to do with me, but don’t talk about it anywhere. I don’t like assholes. A gift from the color of your soul.” 

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

 

The water drops burst one by one and disappeared. Luckily, my answer caught Jaeho’s interest.

 

Jaeho put the airborne soul fragment into his pants pocket. I felt lighter, the water that had weighed me down was gone.

 

I couldn’t get used to his suddenly favorable attitude.

 

I let out a small breath, releasing the tension in my shoulders. Just then, a small hand suddenly appeared in front of me. He asked me to shake his hand.

 

Jaeho took my hand on his own and shook it then he spoke.

 “It’s good to see you, test subject. Donate a soul fragment to me whenever I need it in the future.” 

I was not out of the woods yet.

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