The Devil Came With Him

“Have you ever seen that man before?”

Gaon asked Gayoung the moment she returned to the room.

Gayoung only stared blankly at the corner, offering no answer. Gaon sat down in front of the child and matched her eye level.

“Were you scared of that man? The person you just saw is the new doctor’s nephew. He’s unwell too, so he’ll only stay here a few months to recover before heading back to the mainland. There’s no need to be afraid of him, or to spare him another thought.”

Even as she spoke gently on, Gayoung would not look at her. From that expressionless white face Gaon felt an invisible wall. She was right here in front of her. Where had that wretched illness taken Gayoung?

“Does ‘devil’… mean that person?”

Only then did Gayoung’s gaze return to Gaon.

“Hmm? With who?”

Gayoung looked away again. Frustration welled up in Gaon. She bit her lip lest she end up pressing the child.

“How’s your body? Are you all right?”

She felt carefully over the child’s limbs. Would she need a stronger medication? Anti-anxiety drugs were toxic, and long-term use was forbidden. She resorted to them only occasionally, for acute episodes like this one.

“Why is the doll’s dress like this? Is that paint?”

“…….”

“Lucy wouldn’t like dirty clothes. You said you’d make her pretty ones, so what’s this? Should Unnie wash it clean for you?”

Lucy was the doll’s name. Gayoung still cherished a toy that no longer suited a thirteen-year-old.

Then Gayoung pointed somewhere with the hand that held the doll.

Gaon’s gaze was briefly stolen by the doll’s tangled hair, the dress stained with red blotches, the soulless brown glass eyes. The doll’s face, smiling as if it were mocking her, got under her skin.

She forced her eyes away and looked where Gayoung was pointing — the same direction the child had been staring at all along.

!!!

And Gaon could not even scream. She simply clamped a hand over her mouth.

In one corner of the room, a red mass had been torn apart in a ruinous mess. Through the thick belly skin ripped wide open, entrails and clots of blood were tangled together. Only the long tail and the small head hinted that the red pulp had once been a rat.

“What is that?!”

Instinctively covering the child’s eyes, Gaon stumbled back.

Who on earth would do something so horrific? Gaon shuddered.

“It wasn’t me, Unnie.”

Then, in an excessively calm tone, Gayoung spoke. Her eyes were still covered by Gaon’s hand.

“Who did that?! Huh?”

“I don’t know either.”

Unable to keep looking at the carcass, she took Gayoung and left the room. Her heart pounded so hard it was difficult to settle.

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it.”

Gayoung insisted again and again on her innocence. Her tone was excessively calm — unlike Gaon herself, who had lost all composure at the sight of the rat’s horrific remains.

That demeanor only made Gaon feel more alienated.

She hadn’t slept properly all night, and her head was foggy. Whenever she drifted toward a light doze, the image of the rat’s carcass — torn apart in the corner of Gayoung’s room — would surface and drive sleep away.

The child was definitely strange. She had always been strange, but she had gotten stranger. Even looking only at the recent seizures, something was off — and this was the first time she had harmed an animal.

It might not have been Gayoung.

Even though the person involved said it wasn’t her, instead of believing her little sister’s innocence, she kept suspecting her.

But Gayoung was a child who could act out unpredictably at any moment. Especially these past few days, her strange words and behavior had been increasing.

Or was it someone else?

While disposing of the rat’s carcass, Lee Yong-hoon kept frowning the whole time. Kim Ju-yeon’s expression was stiff as well. If they had done it, what reason would they have had?

Kim Ju-yeon in particular seemed firmly convinced that Baek Gayoung was the culprit. You could tell from the tone of her voice as she sighed and reprimanded Gaon.

Gaon’s insides churned the whole time.

Unlike Gaon, Gayoung appeared peaceful. The seizure that had brought her all the way down the stairs had vanished without a trace. She finished the lunch Gaon brought her, played with Lucy, and hummed a children’s song.

Small hands laid out several doll dresses and changed them one by one. Gaon had already thrown away Lucy’s dress with the red stains. She did not even want to think about what those stains were. Every piece of evidence pointed to Gayoung as the culprit, yet Gaon tried hard to ignore reality.

Gaon’s counseling session was set for five in the afternoon. She stayed by the child’s side the whole time, then went downstairs when the hour came.

The thought of having to report that the child had suffered another seizure today, and that a rat carcass had been found in the room, weighed heavily on her. Every doctor’s reaction differed, but none of them welcomed these abnormal phenomena.

At the end of the first-floor hallway, on the way to the counseling room, something caught Gaon’s eye.

There he is again…

Through the hallway window, a man stood tall in the garden. Black T-shirt and jeans. Disheveled black hair and glasses. She saw him looking at orchids with an expressionless face.

She tried to ignore him and keep walking. The shade of the pines stretched long into the house, so the hallway was dark even in late afternoon. Moving briskly, Gaon suddenly stopped midway down the corridor and turned back.

I just can’t leave it alone.

The garden was thick with damp moisture from the rain of the past few days. The smell of grass and earth mingled and filled her nose. At the far end of the garden, a small path led toward the hallway that connected to the first-floor counseling room, and beside it lay a clearing where the man had made a little space of his own. It was a small clearing no one usually paid any attention to.

“Are all of these orchids?”

Gaon asked, peering at the long-leafed plants in each pot.

The man who had not given her so much as a glance — even though he must have heard her approaching — lifted his head. He was squatting in front of a blue porcelain pot. His black T-shirt stretched, briefly revealing the large muscles of his back. It looked like a giant beast crouched before a flowerpot.

Pitch-black eyes looked up at Gaon. The more she saw it, the more unpleasant that gaze was, she thought. She was glad he wore glasses. She was glad she did not have to take that gleam head-on.

“I’ve heard orchids are difficult to grow. It’s fascinating.”

“You just need to water them moderately. Excess moisture suffocates the roots. Temperature, humidity, ventilation. As long as you maintain those three things, you’re fine.”

The man’s low voice resonated through the air. She had thought the same when she first heard it — a bass that settled so low it almost tickled the ears.

Gaon mulled over the man’s explanation.

Worst possible conditions.

This mansion was always thick with humidity. It rained often. Surrounded by sea on all sides, fog rolled in frequently. The wind was often fierce as well. Considering every factor, it was an absolutely terrible environment for orchids to grow.

“It won’t be easy to grow them here.”

“Can’t be helped.”

Cha Taekyung remained composed throughout. Even though this was their first time speaking alone, he was natural, as if dealing with someone he had known for a very long time.

It was probably just his personality. Emotions never showed on his face in particular. Looking at that cold face where you could not tell what he was thinking, she guessed that his compliment on the first day — that the name Baek Gaon was nice — had not been some particularly special event.

In the damp air, the man’s cool scent mixed and drifted over. A familiar space with an unfamiliar outsider. It was a combination Gaon did not particularly like.

“Just as you maintain those three things — temperature, humidity, and ventilation — when caring for orchids, there’s something you need to observe in this mansion.”

Judging that they had made enough small talk to ease the atmosphere, Gaon got to the point. There was a reason she had turned back from her path to counseling to stand before this man.

“I assume you know my sister, Gayoung, is ill. You… saw her yesterday, didn’t you?”

The man gave no answer to Gaon’s question. He simply looked up at her fixedly with that expressionless face. Even though her gaze was clearly above his, she somehow felt overwhelmed.

“I don’t think a stranger will have a good influence on her. How about setting specific times for when you go outside? Then I can make sure Gayoung doesn’t run into you during those hours.”

It was perhaps an unreasonable proposal — a distinctly dictatorial request to restrict his outdoor hours.

“Ah, of course you can move freely inside the mansion except for the second floor. I’m talking about the garden. Gayoung doesn’t leave her room upstairs. But you can see the garden clearly from her window, so it bothers her.”

But when it came to Gayoung’s affairs, Gaon was always self-righteous and selfish.

Wasn’t he an unwelcome guest? This mansion was Gaon and Gayoung’s domain. The one who had invaded without permission was that man. As long as Gayoung called him a devil and was afraid of him, Gaon could set aside reason and common sense and pressure him.

Silence stretched.

The man still had no answer.

Just as she was about to urge him again — Why won’t you say anything — Cha Taekyung slowly rose to his feet.

Even though Baek Gaon was not particularly short, when the man stood up, Cha Taekyung was so tall she almost felt a shadow fall over her head.

And Cha Taekyung answered.

Calmly, and firmly.