Chapter 7

Wina, regaining consciousness, instinctively looked around and then froze.

This is bad.

Wina quickly closed her eyelids, pretending not to notice the swirling colors around her. Despite the noise inside her head, only the faint hum of an air purifier reached her ears.

The place she had briefly seen when she opened her eyes moments ago resembled a medical room. She was lying on a bed.

The colors, initially distant, were now approaching with firm steps. A shadow fell over her face.

“Change into the clothes left here later.”

A businesslike voice said, and she felt something being placed beside her head. She couldn’t keep pretending for long, recalling the startled expression of the man whose eyes she had briefly met.

“Did you see?”

Wina asked. There was a creak, as if the doctor had returned to his chair.

“Yes.”

As soon as the doctor responded, Wina stopped pretending to sleep. She moved her head from side to side, reading the colors she could sense beyond her closed eyelids. Then she asked,

“Are you going to kill me?”

“I have a duty to save any life, so not with my own hands.”

The doctor replied, observing Wina, who had suddenly sat up, as if she were a rare animal. He had heard rumors about her, so he thought he would be indifferent.

However, the impact of seeing her in person shattered his complacency.

Staring blankly at her pale face, bruised and bloodied, he was genuinely shocked when their eyes met.

He wondered how he would have reacted if Wina, instead of pretending to sleep out of embarrassment, had continued to confront him.

The man who had inwardly dismissed the soldiers’ crude jokes about Wina’s appearance realized they weren’t entirely exaggerated when he faced her directly.

“What happened?”

So it was true that her tongue was half-severed. The doctor pulled a pen from his pocket.

“You collapsed an hour ago and was brought to the infirmary”

Wina grabbed a strand of her hair and sniffed it. The smell of bean sprout soup was gone. She picked up the clothes the doctor had left by the bedside.

“Your body temperature dropped rapidly. Does this kind of sudden drop happen often?”

Wina quickly stripped off her dirty clothes over her head, then removed her pants in one swift motion and changed into the clean clothes. She pulled her tangled hair out from under the shirt.

The doctor’s startled gasp was audible.

Even with her eyes closed, Wina could sense the presence of people, though not their expressions. She could only infer their emotions through their voices and breaths.

The doctor seemed excessively flustered, so Wina tilted her head in confusion. She realized belatedly that drawing the curtain or at least turning around would have been more appropriate.

“If you keep acting so defenseless, you’re going to find yourself in trouble soon,” he warned.

Something flew towards Wina’s chest—an ointment.

“The broadcast was ambiguous. It said not to touch you, but it also seemed to suggest some leniency. Judging by your condition when you were brought in, it looks like you already had a rough initiation.”

Wina applied the ointment to the wounds on her lips and cheeks. She hadn’t been told to, but she figured using the ointment was fine. The doctor squinted.

“Don’t provoke the soldiers unnecessarily. They’re already on edge,” he advised.

The soldier who had brought Wina to the infirmary was Seok Do-Hwi. After receiving orders via radio, he carried her in, his face flushed like a rookie.

Even after laying her on the bed, he stared down at her face for a while before saying, “I’ll wait in the corridor,” and left, his ears burning. His expression had been odd, as if he had wanted to say something but held back.

There were plenty of soldiers more depraved than Seok Do-Hwi in the unit. Watching Wina nonchalantly fold her discarded clothes, the doctor felt uneasy.

“We haven’t fully gathered enough data on you yet. Do you know why you fainted?”

The doctor asked, changing the subject. Wina nodded and tucked her legs under the blanket.

“Yeah. I was exhausted because I haven’t slept since yesterday.”

It was such an ordinary reason that there was a moment of silence. The doctor scratched his head with his pen and asked,

“Your body temperature dropped abnormally. Is that also because you were tired?”

“No, it’s because I drank cold water continuously. It should have been lukewarm water.”

“Why do you need to drink lukewarm water?”

“If the water is too hot or cold, it makes my body ache. Even my eyes hurt.”

Wina explained, rubbing her eyes with both hands.
So she meant that her eyes were hurting now as well. The doctor noted this peculiar detail and picked up the phone to report that Wina had awakened.

“Where is Shin Hae-Gon?”

Wina asked. As the doctor let out a faint laugh, the sound of military boots approached, and someone entered the infirmary. Wina’s head turned. The doctor set down the phone and stood up.

“Lieutenant.”

It was Shin Hae-Gon. He made a slight nod to signal the doctor to sit back down and approached the bed where Wina was sitting.

“……”

Wina’s hand gripped the blanket so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

As expected, it wasn’t an illusion. It felt like a black curtain was drawn over his eyes, plunging into complete darkness.

How can a living person have such eyes?

Wina’s cheeks stiffened. No, I have to see. She steeled herself and looked up at him again. While she could perceive his shape, his empty eyes were chilling.

Wina tried hard to see every color emanating from him. Meanwhile, the doctor reported Wina’s peculiar details recorded on her chart. As soon as the report ended, Shin Hae-Gon spoke.

“Get up.”

Without a word, Wina threw off the blanket and stood up.

As they exited the infirmary, Do-Hwi, who had been standing guard at the door, snapped to attention. He had been eavesdropping and was sweating nervously.

Shin Hae-Gon stared at Do-Hwi for a moment before passing by.

No, just as he seemed to be passing, he swung his hand and flicked Do-Hwi’s forehead with a loud crack. Wina’s shoulders twitched at the sound, like a stone breaking.

“Ouch!”

Do-Hwi cried out, quickly shutting his mouth and saluting hurriedly.

“Go train.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rubbing his reddened forehead, Do-Hwi walked off in a different direction from them.

Wina hurried to keep up with Shin Hae-Gon’s long strides. After rounding a corner in the corridor, they entered an elevator side by side. For a moment, Wina felt like they were slowly plummeting.

After what seemed like an eternity, with a creak, the elevator doors opened. He stepped out first, and Wina followed. They walked down another long corridor.

The cold and damp air seeped into her skin. The sound of military boots changed. The worn-out soles of Wina’s sneakers gradually became wet. It felt as if they were walking through a rain-soaked cave.

Wina’s pupils darted around beneath her closed eyelids. Soon, the sound of a rusty iron door opening echoed.

“Where are we going?”

As Wina couldn’t hold back any longer and asked, a large hand grabbed her wrist.

The grip felt like it was crushing her bones. Shin Hae-Gon pulled her body and shoved her somewhere. As soon as he let go of her arm, Wina stumbled and fell to the floor.

She propped herself up on the wet patches of the floor and raised her torso. Shin Hae-Gon spoke coldly.

“Open your eyes.”

Wina opened her eyelids wide.

And immediately, she froze at the sight of a man lying prostrate in front of her like a sacrificial offering. The man’s closed eyes made it hard to sense his presence.

His skin was in such bad condition it was hard to find an unscathed area. His limbs were shackled. His face and clothes were soaked in blood, making it unclear whether he was asleep or dead.

As if to clarify Wina’s doubts, Shin Hae-Gon began to explain.

“You’re lucky. We caught another one just a few hours before we caught you. It’s a good thing we put him to sleep before he could die on his own.”

Finally, everything in the basement became clear. The only light came faintly through the cracks of the iron door, revealing a prison cell with bars. It was both a prison and a torture chamber.

The man’s fingernails were all dangling from his five fingers. Not only that, but his fingers were twisted in grotesque shapes as if they had been forcibly bent.

“There seems to be something about those eyes of yours.”

The smell of cigarette smoke drifted over. Shin Hae-Gon, kneeling on one knee, blew smoke towards Wina’s face. The acrid smoke passed over her slightly dazed red eyes. Staring intently at the eyes under the smoke, Shin Hae-Gon said,

“You’ve hidden a secret that no normal person could know.”