Even Tentacles Want to Be Seen [Horror Anthology]

Lu Jin'an has a weak constitution and gets sick easily. Worse still, he is blind. But on his eighteenth birthday, Lu Jin'an disappeared on a rainy night. His parents thought he had hanged himself from a tree because of his miserable fate. Yet he came back unharmed, and, miraculously, he could see again. He even got into college. Everyone called it a medical miracle, but only Lu Jin'an knew what had happened that night: a clown had taken up residence inside him. The clown called itself “Deadlights.” It seized Lu Jin'an’s hand in the sewer, transformed into an eyeball with tentacles, and crawled upward. Then… it took up residence in his eye. Deadlights fed on people’s “affection points,” so it ordered the socially anxious Lu Jin'an to make friends. [That kid up ahead. Go give him a piece of candy.] “Can’t I skip it? I’m not very good with kids.” [If you can’t even handle a child, what use are you to me?] Lu Jin'an walked over awkwardly, smeared the cotton candy he’d bought across the boy’s face, then scampered off. The boy’s wails echoed through the heavens. [See that guy walking into the library? He mentioned you on the campus confession page. He’s in the School of Management, too.] “So?” [Follow him and sit beside him.] Lu Jin'an hesitantly sat down beside the guy, lifting his book in front of his face. [Ask him an accounting question.] “Um… hello, can I ask you a… a question about… cough, cough, cough. I can’t do this!” The frail Lu Jin'an bolted out of the library, leaving the bewildered guy to face the disdain of everyone inside. [Lu Jin'an!!!! What can you even do?!] Deadlights was starving inside Lu Jin'an. At last, one rainy night, it couldn’t hold back any longer and crawled out through Lu Jin'an’s blind eye. Deadlights looked at Lu Jin'an in exasperation. Its black tentacles stroked his brow, then slid down to his blind eye. “Since you can’t meet my demands, you’ll have to produce affection points yourself to fill the tank.” “I want you to love me!” Who would have thought that four years into their symbiosis, Lu Jin'an would become an office worker with affection points through the roof? Deadlights began to feel sick and dizzy. It explained the symptoms as: Eating too much. It had to get rid of the people fluttering around Lu Jin'an to ease its suffering. It started making unreasonable demands. [Dump your coffee on your boss. Don’t just stand there!] Lu Jin'an clumsily bumped into his boss and spilled coffee all over him. His boss appeared calm, but his thoughts were in turmoil: Is Lu Jin'an trying to get my attention? Deadlights: Aaaaah! I’m furious!!! [Hot-tempered nonhuman top × socially anxious, sickly bottom] *Some elements are borrowed, but the story is mostly original. You can enjoy it even if you haven’t seen the source material! Theme: People keep growing, one step at a time, and move toward a better life.