ANTITOXIN Chapter 8

“Here, today’s lunchbox. For your information, it’s a new arrival. It’s the work of a Japanese chef, and they say the high hits a bit late. That’s why it’s not very popular among the nakamas [Middlemen]. But I brought the goods because I thought it would suit you well.”

If it was a new arrival… it meant it wasn’t the drug he normally traded.

Seolwon furrowed his brow.

“Is it safe to take?”

“Of course. Hey, man, I’m an expert, despite how I look. I don’t handle low-quality wild apricots. Take it on faith and try it once. It’ll blow your mind completely.”

Fewer side effects but great efficacy? By the nature of illicit drugs, it was a contradiction. Nevertheless, Seolwon nodded his head in acceptance. What else could he do when a self-proclaimed expert was guaranteeing it? If it was true, it was indeed a better medicine for him, so trying it out as a test wasn’t a bad idea.

“How many are there?”

“Three lunchboxes, and one large box of nutritional supplements.”

Nutritional supplements. The original name was Betadone. In this underworld, it was known as a neutralizing agent that reduces withdrawal symptoms. Since it was an illegal drug replicating the ingredients of Methadone—which is famous as a treatment for drug addiction—it was naturally impossible to obtain on the market, and it was an item that average dealers didn’t handle. If they wanted to keep selling and making a profit, they would induce addiction in the buyer rather than prevent it.

Even so, the drug dealer provided it specially to Seolwon alone. He knew about Seolwon’s circumstances where he had to keep buying the drug even though it wasn’t due to addiction symptoms, and he also owed him a debt. Instead, the problem was that he charged more for the neutralizing agent than for the illicit drug.

“As you know, for the nutritional supplements, I’ll take five sheets per piece, and for the lunchboxes, I’ll just take two sheets. The market price is three sheets, but I’m giving it to you specially cheap. You know it’s upfront payment, right?”

After nodding his head, Seolwon immediately turned on his cell phone and deposited the money into the account. 500,000 won for the neutralizing agent and 600,000 won for the drug. A total of 1,100,000 won. An amount that was by no means small left his bank account in less than a minute. It was an amount equivalent to three months’ rent. His heart ached, but since it was an unavoidable expense, Seolwon forced himself to shake off his lingering regret.

When he showed the deposit result displayed on the screen, the drug dealer playfully spouted, “Arigato,” and slid the paper bag forward.

Seolwon quickly took it, checked the contents inside, and placed it on his lap. Seeing this, the drug dealer spouted as if it were fresh and fascinating all over again.

“Hey, but seriously… you’re unusual. Reaaally unusual. I’ve dealt with all kinds of psychos while selling lunchboxes, you know? But I’ve never heard of or seen a psycho who pops dru… no, eats lunchboxes because he doesn’t want to work as a shaman. And in the midst of that, you even take nutritional supplements because you’re afraid of becoming a patient. Go talk about it somewhere else. They’ll laugh their damn heads off. You know it’s thanks to me that you’re eating lunchboxes healthily without flipping your lid, right? If it were any other guy, it’d be out of the question. Originally, this all goes only to the people high up there.”

It started last year. On a certain day when the early spring cold snap was rampant, the divine illness that began abruptly along with the sound of brass bells always brought extreme anxiety and pain. Still, the first few times were bearable. Since the symptoms were about the level of a severe cold, he could hold out with painkillers. However, the intensity gradually worsened, and from a certain point, it reached a point where shoving down dozens of painkiller pills was of no use.

It was a pain as if someone were gouging out every single joint with an awl, rubbing his skin with coarse sandpaper, a blazing ball of fire were sitting inside his head, and a biting wind were incessantly battering his body. Enduring a pain that made him think it would be better to just die with a sober mind? It was impossible.

Because it is a disease called by a deity, it is a divine illness. Because it was inflicted because he rejected the deity, it is also called a divine punishment. A hospital? Medicine? It was useless. Psychogenic somatoform disorder, autonomic neuropathy, conversion disorder, fibromyalgia, and so on… every place he went gave a different diagnosis and prescribed a different medicine.

Just in case, he took the medicine he received regularly. Holding onto a shred of hope that maybe this time he might get better. Regrettably, the result was always the same. He had merely realized poignantly that this terrible illness could not be subdued by any medical product existing in the world.

Hospitals didn’t work, and even going to look for a shaman who was said to be effective didn’t work… The place he finally reached after searching and searching for a method was precisely a pharmacy—to be exact, a social media account run by a user named Han River Rider. The photos on the social media page, which put forward the introduction text ‘A gourmet restaurant where you can forget all the world’s worries and become happy,’ really looked like lunchboxes at a glance. But Seolwon could notice right away. That the lunchbox meant illicit drugs.

Of course, he knew. Illicit drugs were ultimately nothing more than another poison. Nevertheless, after agonizing over it, Seolwon sent a DM. Saying he wanted to buy a lunchbox. He had chosen another poison to suppress the painful toxin.

It has been nearly half a year since he began using it like that. It was by no means a short period. Of course, although he only used it when the divine illness came, by now it would be normal for the side effects to be visible to the naked eye. However, Seolwon only looked haggard from fatigue; he was functioning perfectly fine as a human being. Just as the drug dealer said, it was thanks to the neutralizing agent he was taking along with it.

“If you had only eaten lunchboxes like the other kids, by now your hands and feet would be, uh? Shaking like this, and you’d be dying for a shit like crazy.”

The drug dealer exaggeratedly shook his hands, imitating an addict who couldn’t even function properly due to suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms. Mockery was full in his gestures and facial expressions. He was looking down on them, despite making a living off of such people.

In fact, when Seolwon first took the drug without the neutralizing agent, he had suffered from withdrawal symptoms and his hands and feet had shaken for several days. As a result, he screwed up the work he was working on at the time.

Fortunately, Mr. Park Moonhyuk overlooked the situation, but that was only once or twice. If he kept leaning on the drug, his end was obvious. Losing his hard-earned livelihood, turning back into a homeless person, and ultimately dying on the street. Struggling to live only to end up dying uglily. Therefore, when he deliberately explained his situation and inquired if there was a drug with even slightly fewer side effects, the drug dealer said this:

‘The world changes real fast. You don’t know that, right? This field is like that too. These days, the psychos living in grade-one clean water pop drugs healthily, I mean.’

He was talking about the neutralizing agent. From then on, he began to use the drug and the neutralizing agent in tandem. The effect was certain. The withdrawal symptoms subsided noticeably, and although the aftereffects remaining in his body might not have completely vanished, the recovery speed became much faster. Instead, the hit to his bank account was tremendous. Still, it could be said to be reasonable for a cost that had to be paid to avoid deviating from the orbit called daily life.

In any case, because he had suffered like that once before, Seolwon couldn’t help but find the drug dealer’s mockery unpleasant.

“Is it funny to you?”

When he couldn’t hold it back and threw a word out, the drug dealer felt awkward and smacked his lips.

“No, I don’t mean it’s funny… it’s just that a case like yours is a first, so it’s fascinating.”

That it was a matter to be fascinated by was something Seolwon also agreed with. Would there really be another person in the world besides him who looks for illicit drugs because of a divine illness? Mostly, they wouldn’t be able to endure it and would receive the deity, or evade it even temporarily through a Nureum-gut (a pressing ritual). But he hated the former to death, and for the latter, all the shamans he had visited so far waved their hands, saying they couldn’t do it. Therefore, in the current situation, there was no other way but to lean even on illicit drugs.

“You said you have a favor to ask.”

Feeling no need to converse further on a meaningless topic, Seolwon changed the subject. Snap! The drug dealer snapped his fingers in agreement.

“Right. That was my main point.”

“What is it?”

He asked, but frankly, Seolwon wasn’t curious. It was because he already guessed what kind of favor it would be. Sure enough.

“Just a moooment… here, take a look.”

The drug dealer, who was toying with his cell phone, abruptly shoved the screen in front of Seolwon’s eyes. On the screen, the face of a woman who was smiling brightly was reflected.

“How does she look? Do you think she matches well with me? Should I get a diamond ring ready?”

In other words, check their marital compatibility, it meant something like that. Leaving just the favor itself, it was not different from his expectation. Nevertheless, Seolwon was puzzled. Why, because of the identity of the woman in the photo.

No matter how one looked at it, the woman was not the drug dealer’s lover. She was a blood relative. Yet he was showing a photo of a blood relative and asking to see how their marital compatibility was. It didn’t make sense. That is, it was a question with another scheme behind it.