Blue Summer

Chapter 25: When the veils fall

Misao had her eyes closed when they landed. Uno woke her up, and she pulled her luggage and followed him. They had arrived in the German city of Munich. The city looked gorgeous in the evening sunlight. It seemed that before Misao had arrived, it had rained there. The buildings were marvellous under the evening sky. A fresh cold breeze blew across, carrying the smell of wet grass after the rain. The streets were bustling, the markets were lit, and overall, the atmosphere felt calm and serene.

An expensive-looking black car arrived to pick up Misao, Uno and Yun-Ji. They were taken to a house Yun-Ji had bought there. The house lay in a vast landscape of green grass, parallel to the Alps in a magnificent view. The house wasn't very big, something akin to a mansion. But it was gorgeous, nevertheless. It had only one floor with three bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge, a personal bar, a games room, a study and a small library. Clearly, Yun-Ji had put a lot of effort into creating this house. She was intending to stay there for the rest of her life with Uno.

Misao was taken to her bedroom, which was pretty spacious. There was a Queen-sized bed placed perfectly in the corner of the room. Right next to it was a glass panel sliding door that opened to a veranda. On the other corner of the glass door was a small shelf to keep any decorative items Misao wished for. Then, turning from that corner, there was a couch behind which was a window that gave the view of the city skyline. In the corner of that wall was a study desk with shelves in front of it for books and other essentials. That corner bent at an angle roughly forty degrees with an extended wall at the same angle. This wall had a wardrobe for Misao's clothes. Then, the wall straightened to lead to the bathroom. The washroom was fairly small enough for a single person. It had a shower area, a toilet and a sink. The room looked cozy and beautiful.

Misao unpacked her stuff and went to take a bath. The water had been kept warm. After taking the bath, Misao went to have dinner. She was feeling tired and wanted to rest as soon as possible.

The dinner was ready at the dining table. The dishes were mostly Korean. Yun-Ji wanted Misao to slowly adjust to German dishes. The dinner happened in silence. No one uttered a word. After the dinner, Misao went straight to bed and slept. She was so tired that she forgot to call home and let them know she had arrived safely. Rui then called Uno to confirm the trip went well.

For the next coming days, Misao was to explore Germany till she could navigate easily around and it would feel familiar. Uno would take her around, acting as a guide, having been there with his mother often. The entire month of July went into exploring the city. Misao had gotten familiar with many places, including convenience stores and department stores. She would now occasionally go to buy essentials herself and not ask Yun-Ji's servants or Uno to help her. One of the days, she went for a campus tour of her university. It had an expansive campus with various academic blocks, laboratories and sports and arts buildings. Misao was satisfied with the university and was happy to begin her journey there. She even met a few others from her batch there and quickly became friends with them.

As it was by the end of July, Misao's mind had drifted away from Ibuki. Occasionally, she would call home to ask about her well-being but never asked if the police had any intel in Ibuki. That was until somewhere in mid-August, Misao stumbled upon something that left her terrified and perturbed.

It was a bright, sunny day in August. The weather was fine. Misao was outside on the lawn of the house talking to a servant, a German lady who had been working for Yun-Ji for a very long time. The lady was sharing stories from her youth in her hometown in a village on the outskirts. Misao listened to the stories keenly and was immensely involved in them. The lady kept narrating as she trimmed the grass and Misao watered it. The stories went from how she had fought a bear barehand to how she dealt with her drunk husband. Misao felt she was overexaggerating the stories, but she figured that was what made her a great storyteller. A storyteller is one who exaggerates how an ant fought an elephant.

The lady stopped midway through a very interesting telling of a harsh winter. She said she had forgotten her glasses inside the house in Yun-Ji's room and needed them to cut the grass. She was so involved in telling the stories that she hadn't realised the lack of glasses. Misao insisted she would get it and probably a glass of water, too, for the lady to take a breath and refresh. Misao went in to get the glasses. She hesitantly entered Yun-Ji's room and searched for the glasses. She looked about again and again, but there was no sign of glasses.

"I guess the memory of an old lady cannot be trusted. I don't think she has kept it here," thought Misao. As she was about to leave, she figured she would check one last time in the drawers. Although that would be an invasion of privacy, she wasn't stealing anything, and the old lady would do the same to look for her glasses. So Misao opened drawer after drawer until she tumbled upon the glasses in one of the drawers next to Yun-Ji's desk. It was slightly surprising, but she guessed that the lady to protect her glasses from being broken would keep them in drawers.

"Explains why she forgot." As Misao was about to close the drawer, her eyes caught notice of a picture. She opened the drawer again and dragged the paper the picture was on out. It was Ibuki's picture with all his personal details, more specifically, his medical and physical details. On the top of the paper was written: "Drug Test Subject No. 90"

Misao went through the paper and realised in horror that Ibuki was a test subject for a drug that, as the paper suggested, Cheongug Research Centre was working on. Her heart was shattered into pieces.

Ibuki woke up with a jerk as the men threw water on his face. He had been held inside now for way too long. It was becoming unbearable, but he held his nerve. Chang came in to check on him, and seeing him still adamant about his word left him disappointed.

Ibuki, however, knew he could not bear this torment for much longer. At some point, his survival instinct would kick in, and he would give way. Therefore, he had to find a way to end this. However, there was no sign of this ending anytime soon. The longer he held his nerve, the longer the torment would continue.

So, Ibuki made a mighty decision: inflict self-torture. The idea was that if Ibuki inflicted self-torture, it would take the agency of torturing him away from Chang's men. Chang would then think that Ibuki indulges in such action because it gives him satisfaction, something Chang does not wish for. Therefore, he would take the decision to stop the torture.

It was a very dangerous task. Ibuki had to inflict pain on himself but also ensure that he would not end up going too far. He also wasn't sure how much the plan would work. He just hoped for the best.

So, when Ibuki was given his first meal of the day, he would eat it and induce vomiting. Then, he would be given medicine. Once that was done, he would induce vomiting again for his second meal, then the third and repeat again for the next day. On the third day, his nose began bleeding, and he was admitted immediately. The doctor at the facility advised him against the self-inducing vomiting or else his body would undergo immense damage. So, Ibuki stopped the vomiting.

His other attempt at self-harm came by forcibly overdoing himself with the drugs he was given. He would take his regular shot, and as he was asked to go, he would sneak in two to three more doses of the drug. Due to the overdose, he would hallucinate weird things. He would go crazy before the doctors would put him to sleep. He did this for the next four days before again the doctor warned him of an overdose. So he stopped.

So far, the plan hasn't worked as he thought it would. His body, too, could not hold on to much more pain and physical damage. His left arm had gone completely numb due to the constant injections he was administered.

Finally, he decided at the last self-harm attempt: suicide.