Free Web NovelAt the top of the article were several high-quality photos. There was even video footage taken from the helicopter that day. The images clearly showed Lee Hyunmook, the other companions, and the Special Suppression Division. Thankfully, Hyunmook had shielded him in advance, so Yohan’s face was not revealed.
The article laid out a logical timeline of the brilliant achievements, disappearance, and eventual return of Lee Hyunmook and the Sunrise team, speculating on their current condition. It also expressed curiosity about the identity of the other returnee whose face had not been disclosed. Yohan was relieved that his own identity had not been exposed and tapped to check the comments.
yout***:** Lee Hyunmook, Lee Chanha, Seo Yakrin, Yoon Seungryong, Joo Hoyoung. Thank you so much for returning to Korea.
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└Who the hell are the ones pressing dislike here
└What are we supposed to do about the contaminated ones, they’re just monsters, need to be killed quick
└They look fine to me, and it’s not “what are we supposed to do,” it’s “how.”
└Yeah well, serial killer Lee Jungdong looked fine on the outside too~ fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
└Even if they were killed, people die every day—what about the manpower shortage? lol
└Even when Hyunmook was gone, God-Siyoung handled everything just fine, no problem
└That God-Siyoung is already at dangerous contamination levels, you idiot
ilov***:** I’m family of someone missing in the Abyss—can I dare to have hope? I really wish my dad will be safe.
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└Praying for safe return
└Praying for safe return 22222
└My sister is also missing in the Abyss, but I believe she will definitely come back...
ulta***:** Why is Lee Hyunmook’s hair like that? Is it because of contamination? ㅠㅠ
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└He probably went through a lot of stress
└Looks like contamination symptoms, ffs is our country doomed now?
└If he’s that contaminated he shouldn’t have come back, now everyone’s going to die hahahahahaha
└Send him to another country lol
└Hyunmook’s fans dragged it out for three years with their mourning nonsense, now they should stop, sick of it
└Can’t even congratulate him on safe return, so many twisted bastards—then leave Korea if you don’t like it
eeev***:** Who exactly is the other returnee? If they managed to come back safely, shouldn’t we be sending in search teams into the Abyss? There could be other survivors.
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└Search team? No sane person would go in there
└Even Hyunmook barely came back after three years, impossible
└There could be survivors, who knows
└The others who returned only survived because of Hyunmook, 100%—he’s a high-tier Awakener, no way a mid-tier scrub would last
└Calling people mid-tier scrubs lol, funny how it’s always the unawakened who say that
It had been a long time since Yohan had last used the internet, and he °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° became absorbed, losing track of time. Just skimming news articles and comments alone, he suddenly realized it was already mealtime. Even while he ate hungrily, he could not bring himself to set the phone down.
Many people were celebrating the return of the Sunrise team, but at the same time a large number were worrying about how white Hyunmook’s hair had become and speculating on his contamination. In fact, “worry” was putting it kindly—there were calls to isolate him immediately, even to summon foreign high-tiers to kill him.
How could they say such things about people who had saved countless lives, who had endured unthinkable torment in the Abyss and somehow returned? Couldn’t they see at a glance that he was fine? He had gone along quietly with the Special Suppression Division without resistance—could anyone heavily contaminated do that? Boiling with anger, Yohan gnashed his teeth and kept scrolling endlessly, when—
Tap tap. A light rapping on the glass startled him. Looking up, he saw Seo Yakrin and Joo Hoyoung smiling and waving. Yohan leapt to his feet, and the Special Suppression Division soldier who had come with them opened the double glass doors. The soldier said nothing, but his eyes were warm with goodwill.
“Yakrin noona! Hoyoung!”
Beaming, Yohan greeted them joyfully, then froze. Out of habit he had called Joo Hoyoung by name. But now he knew the truth—that Hoyoung was far, far... older than him. Hesitantly he corrected himself.
“Hoyoung hyung....”
His attitude grew instinctively more respectful. Thinking about it, was “hyung” or “noona” even enough, when the age difference was so vast? Yohan suddenly recalled how they had treated him like a little nephew or child. At twenty-three, he could not even imagine what it felt like to look at someone so much younger. Nervously, he tried:
“Noonim...? Hyungnim...?”
Raised in a strict, conservative household and always disciplined by his older brother, Yohan was now sweating. Not uncle or aunt level—by age difference, they could be great-grandparents... maybe even higher. Before he could calculate further, Seo Yakrin swept him into a hug and exclaimed:
“No, Yohan! Call me noona, please. ‘Noonim’ feels so distant.”
“I’m against ‘hyungnim’ too! Just keep calling me by name, it’s fine!”
Joo Hoyoung also pulled him into a hug. Since they were so adamant, and given the odd distance the honorifics created, and above all because their faces showed no sense of dissonance at all, Yohan had no choice but to promise he would call them as before.
“How’s your contamination?”
“It’s not the Abyss. Whether it’s one year or ten, I feel perfectly fine.”
Seo Yakrin answered in a voice brimming with joy. When Yohan purified both Joo Hoyoung and Seo Yakrin, just like with Yoon Seungryong, he felt no buildup of contamination at all. Still, he poured in purification, and their expressions melted into relaxed smiles as if they were soaking in a hot spring.
“You were looking at online reactions? Take it from experience—it’s better not to read that stuff.”
Catching sight of Yohan’s phone screen, Joo Hoyoung closed the news app for him. Embarrassed, Yohan obediently set the phone aside.
“How is everyone else doing?”
“We’re all in isolation in similar places. But since no notable contamination symptoms are appearing, they won’t be able to keep us locked up much longer.”
Seo Yakrin spoke as if the government actually wanted them kept isolated. But why would the government try to hold them, when there were no obvious symptoms? As Yohan wondered, Seo Yakrin stroked his hair fondly, like handling a child.
“Our Yohan, just rest well. We’ll handle the hard parts.”
They were treating him like a clueless kid. Maybe that was also why they wanted him to hide the fact that he was a purifier? He was burning with curiosity but sensed he should not speak freely within a government facility, so he just nodded. Joo Hoyoung quickly changed the subject.
“Tonight’s dinner is fried chicken.”
“Gasp, chicken? That sounds so good.”
They chatted like that until the Special Suppression Division soldier said it was time for the two to return to their rooms. After they left, Yohan hesitated while opening the news app again, then gave up and watched endless cute animal videos instead. His eyes, tormented in the Abyss, felt purified....
And that night, Lee Chanha visited his dream again.
‘Yohan.’
Amid the yapping puppies and mewling kittens that had delighted him, Yohan turned his head and saw Chanha seated beside him. Chanha reached out cautiously to pet a puppy, as though seeing a strange creature for the first time. He looked like someone who had not seen a dog in centuries—and in truth, that was probably so. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
‘Chanha hyung! Look at them, aren’t they just so cute...?’
‘Yes. They are cute.’
‘...?’
But instead of the puppy, what he was patting was Yohan’s head. Holding a fluffy kitten that climbed into his arms, Chanha said:
‘Soon, the government will approach you with an offer. They’ll try to persuade you to work for an agency under their control. No matter what conditions they propose, you must not agree.’
‘Even if they offered a hundred billion, I wouldn’t.’
‘Ha ha, don’t reject them too bluntly. Pretend to consider it a little, and say that the Abyss was too exhausting, that you need time to rest. That excuse will serve you well.’
Trusting the Sunrise team deeply, Yohan nodded vigorously. Chanha lingered a long while, stroking the kittens and puppies, before leaving. The moment he departed, Yohan awoke and realized only then that it had been a dream. Closing his eyes again and feigning sleep, he mulled over Chanha’s words. Then, instinctively, he began to suspect:
Perhaps the government itself had something to do with why the Sunrise team fell into the Abyss.
