PAX 2

Go Yeonhyung approached me with a bright smile, and in a way only I could see, he held up three fingers against his stomach before lowering them. I moved only my eyes to look at him and gave a slight nod.

“Hello.”

I greeted them briefly as they got closer. Go Yeonhyung stood beside me, and the tourists gathered in front of us. The two jailers standing behind them were already watching me with bored expressions.

“Of course, he has a real name, but in the Nageon District, he is called ‘Pigeon.’ I’m sure some of you have already heard of ‘Pachulso,’ right? It is also mentioned briefly in the tour guidebooks you were handed.”

Several people flipped through their guidebooks, the sound of rustling paper echoing. Each page is laminated and stiff; they must be returned when you leave.

“You likely also know that this is not the kind of Pachulso where a police officer works, which you see in the cities you come from. Whether it’s a police officer or a Pachulso, they are not under any public authority; in this Nageon District, where we live completely autonomously with our own laws and rules, ‘Pachulso’ is the term used to refer to the organization this Mr. Pigeon belongs to.”

Go Yeonhyung pointed at me with both hands. I stood quietly and nodded.

“Pachulso is an all-around organization that handles everything the residents of the Nageon District request, from small tasks like changing a lightbulb to large-scale work like road repair within the district. And he is one of the main staff members of Pachulso.”

An ‘all-around organization’ and a ‘staff member’ of Pachulso. It’s a description that makes my skin crawl on its own. We don’t think of ourselves that way at all. We’re just the cleaning crew of Pachulso. And I am the Pigeon of Pachulso.

Anyway, since we are in front of tourists, I have to cooperate. This time, I put on a fake smile and nodded.

“When the residents of the Nageon District call Pachulso to notify them that they have a request, this Mr. Pigeon comes to the Nageon District to meet each client, listen to their circumstances, or grasp the situation. Afterward, he informs the other Pachulso staff, and they handle the work sequentially. The Pachulso staff members work hard with a heart to serve the local community, receiving only a modest service fee. Although they are not from the Nageon District, they are people who are absolutely indispensable to our Nageon District.”

It is roughly correct. I wonder if it would be easier to understand if he had added the background explanation that outsiders are reluctant to enter the Nageon District and the residents of the Nageon District ostracize and do not trust outsiders, which is how we dug into that gap and reached this position.

The restaurants, shops, hospitals, and markets inside here—none of them would function properly without us. Because the outsiders who supply and deliver goods to those places do not want to enter the Nageon District. Most of the items they dump in front of the entrance early in the morning are things we carry into the Nageon District.

“Where is Pachulso?”

One of the tourists raised a hand and asked. His gaze was scanning the map in the guidebook in his hand.

“Ah, Pachulso is not inside the Nageon District; it is a little ways away from here. It is not included in the tour course, but since the Pachulso headquarters is on the route the bus passes through when you leave after the tour ends, you can see it for at least a brief moment.”

“But why is it called Pachulso?”

Another tourist asked.

“Would you like to explain it yourself?”

Go Yeonhyung took off his head-mic and held it out. I took it and put my mouth close to the mic.

“All of our staff live together like family, and the first place we set up base was an abandoned Pachulso building. That’s why people around us started calling us the Pachulso people. Now, since the number of staff has increased compared to the beginning, we have left the Pachulso building and are living in a larger motel building, but because of our history, those around us—and we ourselves—continue to call it Pachulso. In any case, there is no actual Pachulso in this vicinity, so there is no room for confusion regarding the name.”

It felt a bit embarrassing to use the word ‘staff’ directly, but in front of tourists, it is better to use a method that is easy to understand.

“Yes, thank you for your words. Thank you, Mr. Pigeon, for taking time out of your busy schedule. Shall we give him a round of applause?”

People clapped. I returned the head-mic to Go Yeonhyung and greeted the people.

“Well then, we will now part ways with Mr. Pigeon and begin the tour in earnest.”

Go Yeonhyung pointed toward the outside of the square and sent the people off. After Go Yeonhyung, who exchanged a brief look, passed by my side, three bills remained in my hand.

The tobacco shop owner, who had arrived around the time Go Yeonhyung was talking about Pachulso and had been standing far away smoking, finally approached. He is one of the infected who can move about freely today, and one of his hands is a prosthetic. Perhaps because he was conscious of the tourists, he was wearing a dazzlingly white new shirt, which made his purple skin look exceptionally more purple.

“Hello.”

I greeted him first.

“Oh, you’re here.”

“I heard you need to have your chair repaired.”

“Inside here.”

The tobacco shop owner unlocked his shop door with a key, went in, and pointed to the swivel chair in front of the counter.

“It kept squeaking and wouldn’t adjust its height, and now it’s collapsed entirely.”

I examined the chair.

“I’ll send someone tomorrow. Does the same time as today work? 9 o’clock.”

“Can’t you just call someone right now and have them fix it?”

“You know how it is. It’s not possible to do it on the same day unless it’s an emergency.”

“Hmph.”

The tobacco shop owner clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“So, is 9 o’clock tomorrow okay?”

“Make it 9:10.”

“Yes. You have to pay half the cost now.”

“I’ll pay with cigarettes. That’s okay, right?”

“Yes.”

There are no smokers among the Pachulso family, but we can take goods like these and resell them elsewhere. I scanned the display case and pulled out a pack of cigarettes at a reasonable price.

“Are you going to pay the remaining balance with cigarettes too?”

“Hmm… I’ll see tomorrow.”

“I will come to collect the remaining balance on the morning of the day after tomorrow. Do not give it to the cleaning help. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work.”

I returned to my bike, put the cigarettes in the luggage box, and started off. In my head, I quickly organized the places I would stop at afterward. I have a schedule that includes collecting remaining balances, providing quotes for moving, discussing a 60th birthday party, and providing quotes for warehouse cleanup.

9:40 AM. I stopped in front of Building B of the 2-6 Street Apartments and looked up, and I saw the owner of Unit 101 standing by the window, looking out. When our eyes met, he grabbed the hand—no, the front paw—of the cat he was holding in his arms and shook it. It’s the cat that Yong-hee and Ga-young barely managed to catch and return from the park the other evening. It had gone missing after slipping through an open door, and we caught it a week later.

Considering it had been wandering around after running away from home for a week, the cat looks calm. Out of courtesy, I waved my hand at the cat as well.

The owner of 101 put the cat down and opened the window.

“I’d like to invite you in, but the house is a mess.”

“It’s fine. Please give it to me here.”

We talked with a net screen and a mosquito net between us. The windows of the house in 101 are all fitted with net screens so that the cats cannot tear the mosquito nets and get out. I could see the scene inside the house over the shoulder of the 101 owner who was taking out money. Just the cats I can see from here are five in total.

It is true that the house is messy because there are many cats inside, but I know that is not really the reason 101 doesn’t let me in. Some infected are obsessively careful to never have contact with anyone other than people who have the same purple skin as them. It is ingrained in them to define themselves as germs and hide on their own. It is said that even when 101 was talking to Yonghee and Gayoung about the cat, he stayed behind the window the entire time or stood a bit away, looking the other way while he talked.

When I see an infected person of the 101 type, I sometimes feel strange. A person this timid and gentle has bitten and eaten someone’s flesh? No, actually, it’s like that for any infected person, not just this type. Because aside from their skin color, they are all just too ordinary.

I’m curious about what they were like during ‘that period’ when they wandered around, their egos suddenly vanished, possessed only by the desire to eat the flesh of others. Back then, when they had the ‘zombie disease.’

“Tell them again, thank you so much.”