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At first, it was just a mission.
An alien born on a spaceship thousands of light years from Earth was tasked with learning about humans by infiltrating their society under disguise. That was the true identity of Lee Jaheon. After a year of living on this planet as a modern, well-mannered man, he had collected a lot of information about this particular species, that they were much weaker than his kind and valued their short, fragile lives greatly.
However, there was an exception. At some point, Jaheon had discovered a company where countless people had thrown away their lives for the sake of an almighty wish ticket. This record went against what he planned to report to the Coalition, so he had the responsibility to do more research and clarify his intelligence before sending it. Therefore, he embarked on a journey of self-immolation for his non-existent wish and became an employee of Daydream Co., Ltd.
It was an easy journey. His superhuman strength helped him solve hundreds of ghost stories without serious injury, allowing him to climb up the corporate ladder fast. But his work at the company wasn’t something he was interested in. What mattered most was that he had the opportunity to observe and interact with the special individuals who had caused an anomaly in his report. As people went in and out of his sight, he tried to analyze them in the utmost detail.
These humans were complicated, Jaheon couldn’t help but think. He still didn’t fully understand how this species communicated with one another, especially the hidden meanings behind their words and facial expressions, so what he had been seeing until now didn’t make much sense to him. Having said that, he was able to come to a temporary conclusion, or rather a hunch, that emotions were more important to humans than he had thought.
It was all thanks to emotions that they could breathe, live and even die. He then stopped typing and stared at the cursor on the computer screen. Unfortunately, this was all unclear and unverified information. It seemed he needed to learn more about this aspect of humans, starting with those close to him in proximity.
“Squad Leader, do you smoke?”
Eun Haje, the short-haired woman who had been assigned to Squad D a month ago, held out a pack of cigarettes in front of him. Most of the time, she maintained an irritable demeanor, but Jaheon noticed that she’d relax and open up a bit more when around people she could trust. And though he didn’t know how it came to be, he was one of them.
“No,” he replied shortly.
“I figured,” she said and lit a cigarette. “You must’ve taken good care of your extraordinarily strong body.”
“Yes.”
After that, both of them turned silent for a while. Haje exhaled a puff of smoke, staring into space with absent-minded eyes. Since today was a slow day with only paperwork, Jaheon thought this was the right time to do what humans called “small talk” in order to know them better.
He looked at his subordinate, and after a few seconds, he asked, “Why do you smoke?”
“Wow, this is the first time you’ve asked me something unrelated to work.” Haje blinked, not hiding her surprise.
Jaheon gave her a nod. He hoped that he was conducting this conversation in the right way. Meanwhile, the woman felt relieved inside because she was finally able to confirm that her superior was human and not some kind of corporate robot. Since she was in a good mood right now, which was rare, she guessed there wouldn’t be any harm in answering his question.
“Well, I started smoking to relieve my helplessness and anger. I was pissed at the situation I was in. Now, it’s to get through terrible days.” She paused, then let out a dry chuckle. “Which is everyday thanks to this goddamn company.”
“I see,” the man said as if he was listening to the daily weather forecast.
“You’re truly not good at socializing, are you?” Haje’s eyes lit up for an unknown reason. “But don’t worry, I like it better that way.”
“Thanks?”
Anyway, despite some awkward moments, Jaheon managed to hold a human-to-human conversation that lasted more than a minute. And from that, he was able to make his first observation about emotions.
The alien learned that humans were capable of sadness, and through sadness they became strong.
Park Minseong, the newest member of Squad D, finally had the courage to break the silence between him and his superior.
“Um, you’ve been staring at me for a while now…”
At the moment, the two of them were in a fairly safe Darkness and were in the process of choosing their gifts after the horror story had been solved. However, Minseong became worried when he felt the intense gaze from his superior, thinking that he might’ve gotten contaminated somehow and the other man would use physical measures to restrain him.
Of course, the person in question didn’t even notice his subordinate’s pale face and responded with just three words, “The music box.”
Minseong’s shoulders relaxed right away. “Oh! You’re wondering why I’m taking this?” he then asked with his usual bright voice.
Jaheon nodded. His eyes scanned the small object in Minseong’s hand, trying not to look at the dumbfounded expression on the face across from him. Was he really acting out of character? He had calculated that it’d be normal to start a conversation between colleagues here, though his true goal was to analyze this person’s feelings. Fortunately, his human cover wasn’t blown as the other man smiled in relief, perhaps thinking that his squad leader wasn’t as cold as he had thought.
“This music box is for my younger sibling,” Minseong said. He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling a personal memory from long ago. “I hope one day that kid could wake up to the sound of it.”
“I see,” Jaheon uttered.
Hearing that monotonous reply, Minseong burst into laughter, even though he knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. He was just very grateful for his one-of-a-kind boss. “I’m glad to be assigned here, Squad Leader. I want you to know that.”
“Okay.”
His subordinate laughed again. While Jaheon didn’t understand the reason for that behavior, he thought it was nice to have this kind of relaxing atmosphere inside a Darkness. By the way, he now had the information he needed.
The alien learned that humans were capable of happiness, and through happiness they could overcome any situation.
Kim Soleum was a genius, the entire Squad D knew this from day one.
Sharp, intelligent and even kind. He was soon liked by the other two members due to his skills and personality. In addition, he was the factor that helped balance brains and brawns in the squad. The perfect employee.
But Jaheon knew no human was perfect. This species simply hadn’t evolved to the point where they could select only good genes for an individual yet, so each of them must’ve possessed both strengths and weaknesses. That said, it was hard to see Kim Soleum’s true self, as the young man actively kept a distance from him for some reason and Jaheon had never been good at reading people. It seemed he had no choice but to skip this one.
Or so he had thought. One day, behind a ruined stage, Jaheon read aloud the words Soleum had told him.
“This talk show scares me. You know that—my personality.”
There might’ve been multiple times when Soleum had shown his fear in the past, but Jaheon hadn’t noticed this side of the man until this month-long disappearance incident. Soleum might’ve been scared when faced with every ghost story assigned to him, especially in the Darkness where he had tried to talk to Jaheon for hours in order to ignore the ghosts.
All of his previous confidence was a sophisticated and sturdy mask. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter. The fact that Soleum had solved many ghost stories and saved a large number of people didn’t change because of the truth he wanted to hide, and he was even befriending a dangerous entity at this moment. Jaheon found those results impressive, even at the risk of his own secret being exposed.
“Thank you. Truly, sincerely…thank you.”
“Yes.”
In the end, with only words, Soleum made his worries disappear. Or perhaps he had always trusted him. Jaheon then returned to his reporting work, feeling at ease.
The alien learned that humans were capable of fear, and through fear they achieved the impossible.
“When is your birthday, Squad Leader?” Minseong popped a question out of nowhere.
“□□□ □,” Jaheon answered with the fake date written on his fake identity card. He didn’t know his real one because the date of one’s coming into existence wasn’t celebrated in his kind’s society.
“Alright, let’s make sure to have a surprise party that day!”
Soleum looked like he was about to sigh. “Can you call it ‘surprise’ when you already said it out loud, Supervisor Park?”
“Wait a second. Roe, you finally learned how to talk back to us,” Haje noted with a proud smile on her face.
“Oh. I’m sorry…”
The office became filled with laughter. Jaheon continued to listen to his subordinates’ conversation in silence. He didn’t feel the need to join in, but it’d be a lie to say he wasn’t looking forward to the party.
But as human life went on, there’d be changes and partings along the way.
His so-called birthday was spent alone in the office. All the lights were off except the one above his desk. There was no sound other than his computer running. This was a scene he should’ve been familiar with long ago, but he was not.
The alien learned that his kind were capable of loneliness, and through loneliness he wanted to do something just for himself. It was a strange, strange feeling.
For the first time, Jaheon felt the urge to focus on something other than his mission. Looking at the elite Squad D that had only one member left, he thought of a certain wish ticket. At last, humans and their emotions no longer seemed incomprehensible to him. Humans were driven by such powerful yet beautiful things, which were also extremely contagious.
Having made his decision, he typed out his report and saved it in a folder without doing anything further. Before he returned home, he’d stay in this empty office, waiting for the day when the three people important to him would return.