Chapter 1

Born in Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, Kim Yong Nae was an extraordinary child with a talent unlike any other.

 

His sense of smell was better than most people’s, and it wasn’t just that he had a dog’s nose, but that he had an extremely developed sense of smell that was comparable to that of a real dog.

 

This special ability showed signs even before Kim Yong Nae was born, and when his mother, Kim Yong Eun, was pregnant with him, she briefly developed the uncanny ability to smell and guess what food was in her husband’s hands as he was leaving work from the hallway of their apartment. Of course, after she gave birth to Kim Yong Nae, that ability disappeared entirely, so it was Kim Yong Nae who had the sense of smell in the first place.

 

In any case, Kim Yong Nae’s parents didn’t realize that Kim Yong Nae was a special child because, unlike his extremely developed sense of smell, he was not sensitive and didn’t cry much.

 

But when Kim Yong Nae was able to express himself, they slowly realized that he was different.

 

The baby, who had just begun to babble and stand, would jump up when he realized that his mother would feed him if she opened the container of formula, and when his older brother, Kim Yong Ri, who was a year older than him, would poop in his diaper, he would point his finger to let her know.

 

There were many incidents, big and small, that happened to Kim Yong Nae, who had such an unusual sense of smell, and among the small ones was this.

 

‘Mother, I smell the same scent on Young Shik’s father as on Kyung Ho’s mother.’

 

‘What do you mean?’

 

When Kim Yong Nae was eight years old, walking home from elementary school holding his mother’s hand, he told her about a situation that his tiny mind couldn’t comprehend.

 

‘Just as mother and father have the same scent, I smell the same scent from Young Shik’s father and Kyung Ho’s mother. Is it possible to smell the same scent on someone you have no connection with?’

 

‘…… Maybe they both use the same shampoo.’

 

‘No. Young Shik’s mother is not wearing that scent.’

 

‘……Young Shik’s mom must use a different shampoo.’

 

‘Is that so? It’s a bit strange to have different shampoos in the same house.’

 

‘……Yes. Do you want some ice cream?’

 

That could have happened. But his mother, Kim Yong Eun, instinctively sensed something and, before anyone could hear, hurriedly sealed Yong Nae’s mouth with ice cream.

 

‘…….Yong Nae, don’t tell anyone about this.’

 

‘Why?’

 

‘Just…… it’s mom’s wish……’

 

‘Okay. I understand.’

 

Yong Nae was a good child who listened to his mother, so he didn’t tell anyone, as his mother wished. It could have been a big deal to someone else, but Yong Nae and the rest of the family never found out what happened after that, so let’s just call it a small hiccup.

 

Then there was the time that Yong Nae’s extraordinary sense of smell prevented a major incident from happening, an incident so major that Yong Nae was featured in the local newspaper under the headline, “Apartment Residents Saved from Disaster by an Exceptional Child’s Sense of Smell!”

 

‘Mother, father.’

 

‘…What? Aren’t you sleeping?’

 

‘Please wake up.’

 

One day, when Yong Nae was in the first year of middle school, an intruder entered Yong Nae’s parents’ bedroom at 2 a.m., when everyone else was deeply asleep. It was Yong Nae, the youngest, with small eyes and heavy eyelids, as if he had just woken up.

 

‘I smell gas.’

 

‘Huh? Gas?’

 

‘Yes.’

 

Yong Nae shook his parents awake in the middle of the night and suddenly said that he could smell gas. His parents jumped up and ran around the room, sniffing everywhere, but there was no smell of gas in the kitchen, in Yong Nae’s room, or out on the veranda.

 

‘I don’t smell gas.’

 

‘It’s not in our house.’

 

‘Huh? Then where is it coming from?’

 

Yong Nae’s family lived on the fourth floor of a 30-year-old apartment building, and he dragged his parents, sniffing around, through the front door, down the hallway, and down the stairs to find the source of the gas smell: the buried gas pipeline in the apartment’s exterior wall.

 

‘Oh my, what is this?’

 

‘Why is that broken?’

 

When Yong Nae’s father got closer to the pipe and looked at it, he realized that the old pipe had cracked after enduring the expansion and contraction caused by winter.

 

Yong Nae, who was sleeping on the fourth floor, smelled it and realized it, and it was truly a heaven-sent discovery at dawn. Because the piped area was so remote from the apartment building, the neighborhood thugs always gathered there during the day to smoke.

 

Now, with a gas leak of this magnitude, even a small cigarette spark could have led to a huge explosion, and in a multi-family apartment building like this, there was a very real possibility that it could have caused a devastating casualty.

 

Yong Nae’s face was in the local newspaper and he was hailed as a hero in his neighborhood for months. This was back in the day, so it was just a one-time story and a local hero, whereas if it happened today, the media would be all over it as “Legendary sniffing dog who saved all the residents of an apartment building by identifying the smell from a kilometer away”.

 

Anyway, when that happened, Kim Yong Nae was determined. He decided to do what he could with his sense of smell,

 

But he couldn’t become a perfumer, which is the most typical profession that uses the sense of smell. It was a deadly profession for him.

 

Although he had a good sense of smell, he was vulnerable to artificial scents like perfume and cosmetics. If he smelled too much of it, his nose would go numb, a weakness that came from having such an excellent sense of smell.

 

Anyway, unless he was a perfumer, there were no jobs for him that used the sense of smell. If Yong Nae were a dog, he would have been a drug detection dog, just like his gray puppy, Gamyi, at home, but unfortunately, since he was a human, he couldn’t do that.

 

One day, while browsing the Internet, he found a job as an air odor analyst, which was a sixth-level research civil service position, so the competition was fierce, but Yong Nae instinctively knew this was his path. It was the perfect fit for his uneventful, quiet life.

 

Luckily, there was a research center in Imsil, close to Jeonju, where he lived, so Yong Nae began preparing and deciding on his career path as a high school student.

 

However, the competition rate for health and environment researchers in Jeollabuk-do was 200:1, which was not an easy target. However, Kim Yong Nae persevered and got it done.

 

Kim Yong Nae, who studied since his freshman year at a university called Jeonju University and earned a total of five certifications: air environment engineer, water environment engineer, noise and vibration engineer, soil environment engineer, and waste disposal engineer, graduated from school with a total of 105 points out of 100, which included five points for additional certifications.

 

And finally, Yong Nae had to take the olfactory assessment test, which was too easy for him.

 

He passed with flying colors and became an odor analyst.

 

Kim Yong Nae thought he would become the pride of his parents and continue a normal life as a sixth-class civil servant.

 

Swish, swish-

 

But now he was in the center of a storm, facing an event that was far from normal.

 

“Ah……?”

 

Clunk, clunk-

 

Blinking slowly, Yongnae stared at the black mass for a long moment.

 

Swish, swish-

 

When he finally realized perfectly what it was with his 0.9 vision,

 

“Ah……!”

 

Yong Nae let out a shriek and shuddered violently.

 

Shwish- Thud

 

It was a corpse. A corpse covered in blood.

 

“Ahhhh…!”

 

Yong Nae screamed and instinctively tried to move away from the corpse, but his body wouldn’t budge. His arms and feet were tied behind his back.

 

The extreme horror made Yong Nae’s head dizzy, as if someone had poured a bottle of perfume into his nose. Yong Nae screamed frantically and tried to wriggle free, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break free.

 

“You’re awake?”

 

Yong Nae’s head turned in the direction of a voice that suddenly came from nowhere.

 

“Why the hell is a Jeollabuk-do official hanging out with a bunch of drug addicts?”

 

The sound that sounded like a hissing noise earlier turned out to be the sharpening of an axe blade, and he came face to face with the man who had risen to his feet with the blade flashing.

 

“How the hell did you find me, you piss me off.”

 

The out-of-place, pint-sized vision made him feel even more uncomfortable.

 

“You know I can spot an uptight asshole when I see one?”

 

Where he pointed with the axe, there lay the bloodied head of a man, more like a corpse than anything else, and next to it, the hammer that had likely been the tool that had done it, lying with its handle broken.

 

“I guess this is the last time you’re going to do this, huh?”

 

The hammer was broken, so he picked up an axe. To strike Yong Nae down with it.

 

“……like this.”

 

“I’ve never hit anything alive with an axe before, this will hurt.”

 

“I don’t like……!”

 

The man didn’t even bother to listen to Yong Nae’s voice, and he began to march toward him, the axe in his hand. His eyes twinkled with glee, as if he were savoring this moment, this potentially final kill.

 

Shit-

 

Resentment filled Yong Nae’s heart for the man who had stunned him at the sight of the pistol and was now nowhere to be seen, and who had never shown him his true identity until his dying moments. 

 

Who the hell did that man think he was to get him into this situation……

 

Just once.

 

As the axe shadowed over his head, Yong Nae’s eyes squeezed shut. He tried to picture the man’s face one last time, but the terror was so overwhelming that no matter how tightly he closed his eyes, he couldn’t see it.

 

If only he could see that man’s face just one more time-