Chapter 103 |
“…It’s really quiet.”
Park Dayoung’s murmur was answered by her younger brother, Park Dahoon.
“Isn’t that better?”
“Why do you have to argue with everything I say?”
“I’m not arguing… No, d⋏mn it, why are you so sensitive?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry for being sensitive.”
Although the words were sharp, they didn’t seem to be spoken out of genuine anger or displɛasʊrɛ. Kang Mina, who had initially been bewildered by their unfamiliar tone of speech, could now detect the playful banter hidden within.
Kang Mina let out an awkward laugh as she pushed herself away from the tree trunk and opened her mouth.
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“Oh, no. The tree itself is thick… See, there’s room on all sides, front, back, and sides. Plenty of space.”
“That’s right, unnie. It would actually be harder to change places now. We might fall.”
“T-That’s true, but…”
Biting her lips, Kang Mina soon nodded.
“Okay, thank you. I’ll be able to rest comfortably thanks to you.”
“Not at all, it’s actually thanks to you, noona, that I made it here without getting hurt.”
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“That’s right, unnie, the way you swung that hammer was really awesome!”
“…Uh… Thanks.”
The gratitude didn’t quite resonate with Kang Mina, who had panicked and ended up dragging minors into a dangerous situation, but it didn’t feel right to reject the students’ continuous attempts to comfort her and be considerate of her.
Park Dayoung, who had been quietly observing Kang Mina as she swallowed a sigh, cautiously approached her and continued speaking softly.
“But… just now, over there, that. Did you see ahjussi?”
“Oh, yeah. I saw him.”
The place Park Dayoung gestured towards was none other than the cliff where Kang Mina had almost fallen. The cliff was filled with hundreds, thousands of flowers far below.
“That’s really dangerous…. I didn’t even know it was a cliff.”
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“Right, I didn’t know until I climbed up the tree. You wouldn’t be able to tell if you hadn’t seen from above, would you?”
“Is it because the trees are all so tall…? You can’t see it all at once, so you wouldn’t know there’s a cliff.”
As the siblings said, the trees in the park were all tall, and therefore, the group hadn’t realized there was a cliff when they were on the ground. No matter how far the trees stretched below, they were hidden by short bushes.
Park Dahoon’s face turned pale as if recalling the moment.
“I kept calling, but you didn’t stop… With a cliff right in front, I was shocked.”
“Oh, that. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to…”
“I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just, this place is a little…”
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Scratching his temple, he continued.
“There are too many strange things.”
Aside from simply being dangerous or not, things that were unimaginable in reality were happening as if nothing was wrong.
The sky had no color, no stars, no moon. The trees, impressively large to a degree rarely seen in Korea, had eyes embedded between their branches. Just breathing made one’s head ache and filled them with anxiety, and nightmares came unbidden, making it difficult to fall asleep.
It was as if everything in the world was a trap designed to catch them.
“I… I thought you were seeing a ghost, noona. You weren’t? It was the ahjussi you saw, so it’s not a ghost.”
“Right, the ahjussi was alive. Or maybe a real ghost was imitating him? Whoa, that’s crazy.”
“…Ghost….”
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As Kang Mina laughed awkwardly, Park Dayoung smiled brightly and asked. Her mischievous face was like someone who had found something to tease a close friend about, which made Kang Mina’s face turn even more uneasy.
“What, are you scared of ghosts, unnie? You can’t watch horror movies?”
“Um… not really.”
“Uh… You’re not? Really?”
“I don’t like them, but I can watch them.”
Surprisingly, she was quite strong when it came to the horror-thriller genre.
How should she put it? The existence beyond the screen, which couldn’t actually harm her, didn’t really affect her. No matter how good the directing and makeup were, she knew the efforts of the actors and directors behind it, so it wasn’t really scary. It was just a feeling of ‘This movie is well made.’
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“O-Oh. Then what about jump scares…?”
“I can kind of tell when they’re going to pop out, so that’s not a big deal either. No, it’s not that I don’t get startled at all, but it’s more like… just… you know.”
“Wow….”
After a short exclamation, the siblings huddled together and whispered.
“There’s a reason she grabbed the hammer.”
“No wonder she was the first to run….”
“…Ah, um. What does being good at watching horror movies have to do with that?”
Kang Mina wiped her nose as if she were pinching it then continued speaking.
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“But… Come to think of it, Mr. Inho doesn’t seem scared of horror movies either. Yeonseok said he enjoys them well enough. I don’t know about Yeonhee, though….”
“Oh, we like horror movies too.”
“We laugh when the makeup is weird.”
“That’s why we can’t go to the movies together, it’s annoying.”
“What? As if you’re some kind of gentleman or something.”
In any case, it seemed they had thought about going to the movies together or had already gone together. They pretended not to care for each other, but their affectionate behavior was quite like that person whose name started with ‘Jae’ and ended with ‘hun’. She was referring to that person who wasn’t here right now.
As Kang Mina wore a sorrowful expression, Park Dayoung, seeing this, bit her lip and spoke.
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“No… That’s not it, it’s just. There are a lot of strange things here.”
“That’s true. There are monsters and…”
“……”
“…Dayoung?”
Not scared, not anxious. Not nervous.
Just a calm face.
“Aren’t you worried, unnie?”
“Huh…?”
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“About your family.”
The voice of the student, soon to be an adult, resonated softly.
“Since you disappeared suddenly, wouldn’t they be looking for you?”
“……”
At those words, Kang Mina closed her mouth. Park Dayoung’s face as she spoke didn’t seem like she was projecting her own anxieties onto Kang Mina, but rather genuinely curious about Kang Mina’s story.
She felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort.
“…I’ve already moved out.”
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The reason she answered smoothly despite her emotions was simply because these students were young.
“My parents are at my family home… I mean, the house I lived in when I was young, and there are two cats there…. I didn’t bring them with me when I moved out.”
“……”
“My mom’s health isn’t very good, so I thought about bringing the cats with me, but she was against it. She said she’d be sad if I left and the cats left too. I’m a little relieved now. If I had brought them, who would be feeding them…”
“…I see.”
“Actually, I don’t contact them very often, so I’m not too worried, but I hope I can contact them within this month.”
Kang Mina fiddled with the end of her hammer and continued.
“If I get out of here…”
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“……”
“Uh, um. I’ll buy you dinner.”
One of the most common promises Koreans made was the promise of a meal, and Kang Mina seemed to be no exception. After saying it, she felt strange because it sounded like she was trying to bribe them, but the siblings’ reaction was quite normal.
“…Perhaps, meat…?”
“Let’s go for samgyeopsal, noona.”
“Will samgyeopsal be enough? Try again with bigger ambitions…!”
“Unnie, I want beef.”
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“Yes.”
Suddenly feeling cheerful, Kang Mina wrapped one arm around Park Dayoung, who was clinging to her side. Not to be outdone, Park Dayoung also snuggled in even closer. It would have been quite embarrassing if she hadn’t played along. Kang Mina, who was timid, was grateful for that.
Park Dahoon, watching the two women with an ambiguous look, eventually rubbed his temples with his wrist and opened his mouth.
“Um, sorry to interrupt the good mood, but….”
“If you know that, then shut up.”
“Fʊck, I wasn’t talking to you, so you shut up.”
His voice trailed off awkwardly.
“…When you two ran in front, I followed from behind, right?”
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“…T-That’s right?”
“I was wondering if I should tell you, noona. Ahjussi who was at the cliff earlier, but uh…”
“What is it? Spit it out.”
“Oh, will you please, just…”
Throwing a little tantrum, Park Dahoon glanced sideways at the cliff beyond and then at the path they had taken to get here. His gaze was quite heavy, so Park Dayoung and Kang Mina stared at him.
Park Dahoon rubbed his temples again and said.
“I think I saw a child on the way here.”
“……”
“About 6 or 7 years old… I think.”
He hadn’t seen clearly because he was running to catch up to them, but the child was quite short. He hadn’t seen well because the child’s back was turned, but it had been so long since he had seen a figure of that size, so that image didn’t easily disappear from his retina.
However, what bothered Park Dahoon was not the existence of such a child.
A short inhale was heard.
“…How was I able to see that?”
There was no light source at the time when he was running.
“When we got close, there was a fire in the distance, and now we can see because ahjussi gave us fire, but back then. Back then, we shouldn’t have been able to see anything. I clearly learned that in science class….”
“…Uh….”
“No, more importantly, how were you able to run all the way here, noona? How did you hit the monster that came out in front, dodge the trees, and… get all the way here? What did you see? What did you follow…?”
“……”
“…Am I overreacting?”
But hadn’t something similar just happened? Kang Mina had run towards the cliff as if possessed or lured by something. No, she had almost reached it. If Lee Jaehun hadn’t stopped her immediately, Kang Mina would probably be dead.
As the atmosphere quietly subsided after Park Dahoon’s words,
“…Ms. Mina?”
“Gasp.”
“Oh dear. I apologize. Did I startle you?”
Dr. Ha Sungyoon called out to them.
“Dayoung and Dahoon too. You followed Ms. Mina after all.”
“…D-Doctor?”
“Doctor, where did you go!”
“W-Wait, is that really him? What if it’s a monster imitating him?”
“Hey, no wa….”
Park Dayoung, who was about to say ‘no way,’ closed her mouth after seeing one of Ha Sungyoon’s eyes. The usual dark brown pupils had changed into something white and blue, making it difficult to deny it.
An unconcealed look of confusion appeared on the faces of Park Dayoung, Park Dahoon, and Kang Mina.
“…M-Monster?”
“Monsters can’t imitate properly, so it must be…!”
“N-No way…?”
“Seriously, these people.”
In the end, Dr. Ha Sungyoon had to explain his existence for over 30 minutes in his characteristic gentle voice, and even after that, he wasn’t allowed to climb the tree. Ha Sungyoon smiled softly at their caution but didn’t try to force his way.
However, it was only after a long while that they learned that he, too, had seen a young child on his way here. A boy who looked about 6 years old.
“…A child?”
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“There were two people I saw… a boy and an adult…”
“……”
“…A-As expected, a monster disguised itself as the doctor…!”
“Where is the real doctor!”
Kids these days.
Ha Sungyoon gave up on explaining himself.
* * *
“…So.”
Lee Jaehun asked with a tired face.
“There’s… a child in there?”
“Yes.”
“In that jungle teeming with monsters…? With only one guardian, and an unreliable one at that? Yeonseok found the child by chance while looking for something else?”
“Absolutely correct.”
“……”
At the gaze that clearly said, ‘Of course a kind-hearted person like you would try to save that child, right?’, Lee Jaehun muttered inwardly.
Making a living is fcking hard.