Sentimental Shower

#010

The doctor who came running as soon as Yeon Tae-soo called examined Old Man Jang and then quietly pulled Yeon Tae-soo aside to talk.

Mr. Yoo felt helpless as he watched the scene from afar. His hands, which he hadn’t had a chance to wash in the commotion, were still stained with blood.

Since he first came to Haeya-dong, Old Man Jang had unnecessarily meddled and helped Mr. Yoo. Like the previous time, he would bring side dishes and introduce patients.

He probably hadn’t grown particularly attached. After all, he was still human. Mr. Yoo wasn’t foolish enough to get too close to someone who could become an enemy at any time.

He had just been flustered. When Old Man Jang came dripping blood, there was a limit to what he could do with his tools and medical skills.

Yeon Tae-soo talked with the doctor for quite a while. The doctor wiped his sweat several times during the conversation, but Yeon Tae-soo’s expression couldn’t be seen as he was turned away.

‘What could they be talking about for so long?’

After a long wait, Yeon Tae-soo finally came back into the hospital.

“What did he say?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. He said the treatment went well, so he just needs to rest.”

Even a child would know it was a lie. But Mr. Yoo didn’t ask further. He didn’t think he’d get an answer even if he did.

“For now, I told him to get treatment in Eden until he recovers. This place is too small, isn’t it?”

There was no need to ask why he was being so nice to Old Man Jang. He’d heard that Yeon Tae-soo was the type to definitely collect what was owed to him. He probably couldn’t run a huge monster like Eden otherwise.

“Are you okay, Mr. Yoo?”

So the following question probably didn’t have much meaning either, and he simply nodded in response.

“Just a moment, I need to make a call.”

He tilted his head to the side as he tapped his watch with his metal fingers.

“Yeah, did you check? The new kids coming in?”

He had come to the animal hospital a while ago and mentioned needing to hire new staff while sitting on the edge of a desk. This must be about that.

“F*ck, I said no androids. How many times do I have to say I don’t like those machine lumps?”

Mr. Yoo almost reflexively flinched, even though he already knew Yeon Tae-soo hated androids.

“Androids are enough as servers in my place. Just try bringing one of those machine bastards.”

Their eyes suddenly met. Those eyes that knew nothing. The wink with his blue artificial eye even had a hint of playfulness.

“If you bring one, I’ll smash it to pieces with a hammer.”

Yeon Tae-soo continued his call as he went outside. Mr. Yoo entered the bathroom inside the hospital. Only now did he think to wash the blood off his hands.

***

Though Yeon Tae-soo seemed extremely busy, he didn’t leave the Byeolbyeol Animal Hospital all day.

He received endless phone calls, answering sometimes gently, sometimes with curses mixed in.

From what he could hear, it seemed Yeon Tae-soo was trying to open a new restaurant, which struck Mr. Yoo as somewhat unexpected. It must be because the image of him as the owner of Eden was so strong.

Late in the afternoon, the police officer who had come before showed his face again.

The officer was about to enter but saw Yeon Tae-soo sitting inside the hospital and turned back in shock. If Yeon Tae-soo hadn’t noticed him, he probably would have disappeared.

“What’s this? Officer Kim?”

Yeon Tae-soo caught the visibly flustered officer trying to turn away.

“What are you doing here? Do you come here often?”

“Ah… well…”

The blue artificial eye scanned his hesitant appearance as if reading him. How many people could look directly into those eyes? Mr. Yoo didn’t want to be involved, so he deliberately fixed his gaze on his tablet.

“Officer Kim, do you have a lot of business with Mr. Yoo?”

“That…”

With a loud bang, this time even Mr. Yoo’s shoulders flinched and hunched.

A bullet was embedded in the floor.

“Y-You can’t do this to a police officer!”

“So what if you’re a police officer?”

As he aimed the gun again, the officer started cursing profusely, but when Yeon Tae-soo giggled and laughed out loud, the officer fled with a terrified expression.

“Anyway, f*ck, why do these weird guys keep hanging around? I think there’s something strange about this place, Mr. Yoo.”

Yeon Tae-soo twirled the gun handle with his finger as he looked outside.

“…That police officer asked if you’ve been acting suspicious lately.”

“I know.”

Mr. Yoo was inwardly surprised to see him respond so calmly after he had deliberated whether to tell him.

“You think I wouldn’t know about guys trying to stab me in the back right in front of me?”

“You’re quite confident. Yet you came in with a knife wound before.”

Yeon Tae-soo giggled again. His laughter, somewhere between a chuckle and a cackle, a bit frivolous, didn’t match his deep voice.

“Never mind about me, we should be more worried about you, Mr. Yoo.”

“Don’t concern yourself with me.”

He approached and leaned over the desk. The scent of his cologne brushed Mr. Yoo’s nose.

“I can’t tell if you’re fearless or just trying to look tough.”

Mr. Yoo frowned. Yeon Tae-soo’s finger touched the furrowed brow. His thumb gently rubbed the skin as if to smooth out the wrinkles.

“Do you still not know how people see you?”

“How could I not know?”

It was impossible not to know. Not after receiving those looks even once.

“I can take care of myself, so you don’t need to worry about me.”

There was no need to mention that he had a gun in the drawer. Of course, it was an old model, far inferior to the one Yeon Tae-soo was holding.

“I could make sure those scumbags don’t even dare to come near our Mr. Yoo.”

He said with a grin as he straightened up again. Mr. Yoo was suddenly struck by how tall Yeon Tae-soo actually was.

“Think about it. Is there anyone in this neighborhood who could protect you better than me?”

Mr. Yoo was about to retort, asking if he meant becoming his personal whore in exchange for keeping those small fries away, but he just kept his mouth shut.

It suddenly occurred to him that if it was Yeon Tae-soo, this man, he might be able to gain more than just becoming a personal whore.

In fact, if giving just this body was enough, the deal might be infinitely beneficial to him.

“Mr. Yoo, the sun has set.”

At Yeon Tae-soo’s words, he looked outside and indeed, the sun was setting. A crimson hue was overlaid on the hardware store, convenience store, and electric bike charging station across the street.

The crimson light overlapping the moldy, rusty, and dirty walls matched surprisingly well. Only at this time, when the narrow alley was dyed with the sunset, could he feel even a little love for this neighborhood.

Yeon Tae-soo stood up, squeezed Mr. Yoo’s shoulder once, then let go and walked towards the door. He was leaving.

The sunset also stained Yeon Tae-soo’s back as he left the hospital. Mr. Yoo watched his retreating figure until he disappeared.

***

There was a small bookshelf in one corner of the Byeolbyeol Animal Hospital’s examination room. Most were veterinary books, but among them was one large, thick book that wasn’t about veterinary medicine.

This book was about stars. In other words, astrophysics.

Mr. Yoo didn’t have many personal possessions as he had been wandering from place to place. If he were human, he might have counted PO11M, the medical assistant robot, as a possession, but as an android, he judged it an error to classify Popo as property.

Anyway, among the few things he hadn’t discarded despite moving so much, this book was one of them.

This was the first thing he bought when he became independent in the past. He had accidentally found it in a junk shop he visited for the first time in his life.

According to this book, all humans are made up of star components. Humans are, in a sense, fragments of stars. Then, could he, who most resembles humans, also be called a fragment of stars? Until he finished reading the book, he couldn’t find any mention of the composition of humanoid androids.

Probably not. Such beautiful materials didn’t suit him.

The book occasionally contained color photos of celestial bodies. While he didn’t have the same aesthetic sense as humans, he could imagine how magnificent it must feel to humans to see something shining alone against the backdrop of a distant abyss.

However, the stars in the photos were very different from the stars you could see in the sky. First of all, setting aside the fact that it was difficult to see stars due to severe air pollution, even if you managed to find a star, it just looked like a white dot punched into a black background with a needle.

Mr. Yoo, who had been blankly staring at stars less majestic than fakes, came to his senses at the sound of something tapping on glass and turned around. Popo was knocking on the closed glass door. It meant it was time to go in.

“…Popo, you’re also equipped with the door opening function. There’s no need to ask me to open it for you.”

“Walking good!”

Popo had once been badly broken, and because a quack engineer had tried to fix it cheaply by pulling in some AI from a companion dog robot, it sometimes acted like a dog like this afterward.

Still, since its medical assistance functions were intact, there was no particular reason to discard it.

When he opened the door, Popo rolled in first into the dark hospital. As he was about to follow, he suddenly turned back.

Several hologram billboards with bright colors were floating in the air. Fluorescent pink and light green. Colors so vivid they hurt the eyes flickered, and underneath, an old-fashioned cleaning robot from a public institution crawled along the street like a cockroach, flat against the ground.

When he looked up, he could see the old sky. Through the haphazardly strung electric wires, a golden building stood tall.

Even from this narrow alley, the splendid appearance of Eden could be seen. After all, Eden was much taller than any building nearby.

Yeon Tae-soo hadn’t been seen for several days.

It was true that he felt somewhat empty without seeing the face of the man who had been showing up almost every day.

He heard that Old Man Jang had fortunately recovered enough to return home. Even that news was delivered by one of Yeon Tae-soo’s burly followers, not Yeon Tae-soo himself.

Although there was no way he could see him from here, Mr. Yoo looked at the Eden building once more before turning away.