HERO? or MONSTER?
(Author's perspective)
At the time when most regular stores were closing, in a building on the outskirts of the city where old houses were closely packed together and the dark alleys were lit only by a few streetlights with an orange glow, a man who resembled a rabbit wearing a black shirt with a couple of buttons undone and black pants with a colorful cardigan over them, roughly swept the dust with a broom, went back inside, and changed the sign that had said ``closed`` to ``open``.
As he entered, a bright red neon sign reading "Undead" lit up on the pristine white building, as if it would be stained with the slightest touch.
Then, after some time, a man dressed similarly to the man who had entered the building earlier walked in, seemingly annoyed. Following him, five other men dressed similarly, along with a woman wearing a tight-fitting black turtleneck and black leggings with two thick white stripes around her right ankle, over which she wore an oversized, flashy cardigan that was much larger than her body, entered the building.
(Yeoju's point of view)
"Yool- Kim Yeo-ju, it's been a while?"
"Of course. The college entrance exam is over now."
I went in, took off my cardigan, and threw it on a random chair nearby. It was like coming to a company headquarters, a place I hadn't been to in half a year. Until half a year ago, I was living like a dead person, unable to go to school or use any of the amenities.
Then, suddenly, six months ago, he told us that if we made the weapon he asked us to make, one of the eight of us would be made alive, so we made the weapon, and as a result, I became a living person and returned after taking the high school equivalency exam and the college entrance exam for the past six months.
In fact, when I became a living person, I felt the most sorry for Jungkook, even though my other brothers were still my brothers. He was dead only on paper, and he was the first friend and colleague I met, the one who was always there for me through the hardest times, a reliable peer. Jungkook, too, had relied on me. We had struggled, relying on each other to survive, but now that I was suddenly alive and gone, he must have felt incredibly bad.
"Jjuya... I missed you..."
I don't know if I should call it a blessing, but contrary to my worries, Jungkook didn't seem to resent or dislike me. Instead, he came over to me and hugged me. At first glance, Jungkook was taller than me, so it seemed like I was the one holding him. However, I couldn't look him in the eye. I think it was because of the guilt of leaving him alone.
"Jjuya, let's talk for a moment."
"Okay, Kook-ah."
Jungkook must have seen me turn my head, so he asked me to talk for a moment and headed to the break room. I followed him without saying a word. When we arrived, Jungkook offered me warm chamomile tea. I was surprised he remembered that I always drank this tea.
"Here, this is what you drink every day."
As I took a sip of tea and set the cup down, Jungkook's mouth moved like a rabbit's. It was his unconscious behavior when he had something to say but couldn't easily articulate it for some reason. I didn't know why he couldn't speak, but I thought there must be a reason, so I waited. After a while, he finally spoke.
"Jjuya... Are you angry at me for something?"
"Huh? No, why?"
I'd been blankly staring at him for a moment, and then turned my head away when he hugged me. Perhaps it seemed to him that I was angry. I was momentarily taken aback by Jungkook's question, but denied it. Then, Jungkook smiled brightly, as if relieved. How did such an innocent and adorable child end up here? Going out into the field is a bloody affair, and if you're not careful, you could die, not just on paper, but in real life. This is the world.
Some people even call us "monsters" and others "devils." But we didn't become like this by choice. We all have our own stories, but most of us don't talk about them for fear of causing any emotional harm or hurting others. Or, like me, all our memories, except for the basics, have disappeared since "that day."
We all know this: that day, we each suffered different accidents in different places, and that we each acquired supernatural powers related to those accidents. But those accidents were nightmares, hurting those dear to us and those who had no connection to us, and creating the very selves we are today. Those of us who possessed those powers considered ourselves "monsters" and "devils."
Those incidents weren't caused by our superpowers, but we're working to eliminate the villains of this world to prevent such incidents from happening again. I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but to reduce the number of victims like us, we became monsters, not heroes, who kill villains. Killing people isn't easy, so we created invisible masks and tried to pretend to be okay. But when we took those masks off, we were just ordinary people, lonely and wounded.
We're not dead, but we live as if we were, each with our own story. We just hold onto the faintest hope that things will get better someday...