Chapter 98: Warning

I racked my brain like a protagonist who transmigrated into a detective manhwa.

This doll…

The mark on the calendar about the fencing competition…

All these things were definitely connected somehow…

Maybe this shabby doll was the prize from the competition…

And that left us with a question, why was this doll’s eye missing?

That question was probably the key for us to escape from this place.

“Oppa, did you think of something?”

Doah, who was standing next to me, picked up the box and shook it gently, curious about its contents.

I could hear the rattling sound of small pieces of metal coming from inside.

No doubt about it. The key was inside the box.

“Doah. Hear me out.”

After calling out to her, I explained my take on this game to her.

In my opinion, this theme contained the story of an adulterous couple, and this doll was meant to be given to the woman’s daughter, not the woman herself.

“Ohh… That makes sense! Oppa, you’re amazing!”

My girlfriend’s sincere praise gave me a lot of confidence.

Guess you’d need this level of deductive capabilities to get a step closer to the truth, huh?

“If we keep this in mind while we’re trying to find all the clues…”

Suddenly, the Fumurin Couple who had been absorbed in their own world, giggling to themselves regardless of what we were doing, exclaimed loudly.

“Oh…! It opened!”

“…What?”

I unintentionally blurted that out.

But even that wasn’t enough to fully express my feelings.

What the hell? Those two idiots actually solved that? How?

The two idiots who went on and on about stars just because they saw a drawn star unlocked the thing…?

“Unnie! We solved it!”

Fumurin, who succeeded in cracking the safe’s password, joyfully clasped Doah’s hands.

“Huh? How did you solve it?”

“Um, we just entered the page number where there was star written in English, then it just opened…”

No. What the fuck. Wait a minute.

That was all they needed to do?

I don’t know what to say anymore…

It really was just star? That was the whole hint?

When I reached for the smartphone where we could see the hints, I sunk further into despair.

[What is star in English?]

This… was a hint…?

“Honey, you’re so smart!”

“Elementary, my dear! I got a good eye for these things!”

No you don’t! Hell no!

I swear, I’ve played so many mystery games!

All those meticulous foreshadowing and storytelling…!

The shocking truths and the ending…!

But, no matter how much I tried to deny reality, the opened safe and the hint column on the smartphone was enough to disprove all my conjectures, making me feel dejected.

“Ah! Let’s quickly do the next one too!”

Meanwhile, the excited couple on the other side fiddled with the postcard. As for Doah, she was looking at me, who was melting into a puddle, with eyes full of pity.

“…I believe that your explanation made a lot of sense though, Oppa.”

Don’t.

Don’t even try to comfort me, Doah.

Your sympathetic consolation would only make my heart ache even more…

These bastards. Look at the mess they’ve made.

How dare you call this kind of bullcrap a detective game!

I swear, I’m giving you guys a 1 star rating!

After that, the Fumurin couple continued to hit the mark with their answers.

In the end, we managed to escape the room in less than an hour.

“Ehehe! Whoopsie, we solved everything a little too quickly.”

“Don’t worry about it! We had our fun as well.”

Doah forced a smile and linked her arm with mine.

“Right, Oppa?”

All while grabbing my soul, which was trying to escape, back down to earth.

“Ah… yeah, we had fun…”

“Haengnim! You look hungry, so why don’t we get something to eat?”

Changjin seemed to notice that I wasn’t in a good mood and tried to be considerate. But you’ve got the wrong idea, you punk.

I wasn’t hungry at all.

I was having a reality check.

“Thank you!”

By the time we finished and came out, it was already past 3.

It was a rather awkward time for a meal.

As we were walking down the street, we stopped at a coin karaoke.

“Huh~ Going to a karaoke with idols would feel great, wouldn’t it?”

“Noo~ Honey! What if other people hear!”

…I want to go home.

Please let me go home.

I didn’t think I could endure any longer.

“Luka unnie! Do you want to sing first?”

Now holding the remote control, Doah blinked with a blank expression before turning to the popular charts.

She scrolled down the pages quickly.

Which meant, she must have had a song she often sang. As soon as she found it, she immediately pressed the start button.

It was a gentle love song reminiscent of those released in spring.

“Haengnim, you aren’t reserving a song?”

“Uh… I don’t sing…”

“Jeez, don’t be shy! Let’s do this together!”

Doah! I’m being bullied by him!

I wanted to send an SOS to her, but there was no way that my cry would reach my girlfriend, who was in the middle of singing the chorus.

“Me next!”

Miss Fumurin, my savior…

Thank you…

After Doah was done, Fumurin grabbed the mic and belted out a Japanese song without any hesitation.

Huh, I thought normies would sing other types of songs…

Anyway, I knew this song, so I diligently played the tambourine on the side.

“Does your boyfriend like Japanese songs too?”

Doah shot her a question about Changjin.

“Ah, of course! We’re total otakus!”

“You see, our concept is kind of like a loner otaku vibe~”

They even took the word loner away from me now…?

Or maybe, I had grown too old, and the definition of a loner had changed…?

I never thought that the gap between my twenty four in age and their twenty would be this big…

“Ahaha… I see…”

Doah nodded as if she understood.

“Alright I’m next!”

Changjin went in next, singing a hip-hop song that seemed to be popular these days.

The guy started rapping coolly with a deep voice.

Oi, loner my foot, how dare you call yourself that!

Loners couldn’t do this kind of shit, you bastard!

“Say Yeah~”

This guy suddenly shouted ‘Yeah’ and held the microphone out to me.

Stunned, I responded to his song a beat late.

“You still look stylish even when your rhythm is off-beat~”

Oh shut up, just finish your song!

Like that, Fumurin, Luka, and Changjin all took turns singing, and we spent about two hours at the karaoke.

“Now we’ll sing our last song!”

The last remaining coin.

The song the couple over there chose was a famous male-female duet song that even I knew.¹

“Don’t stay out too late~”

Doah’s lips quivered as she watched the two of them.

As if she was envying them in a way.

I knew that not singing because you weren’t good wasn’t considered a sin, but at this moment, I felt a little guilty…

“Huu!”

The song ended with Fumurin’s chorus.

Finally, I was freed from my role as a tambourine bot.

“Ah~ It was really fun hanging out with you, Unnie!”

“Really?”

“Of course! Don’t you think we match each other really well?”

How did you even arrive at that conclusion, Fumurin?

The one who matched well with Doah wasn’t you! It was me! Me!

Also, Doah didn’t swing that way!

Anyway, even though she kept going along with those two, Doah also started to look tired.

“I guess so.”

“It would be nice to hang out together again! Oh! What if we go on a trip together?”

Hell no. If you wanted to go on a trip or whatnot, go without me. Or actually, just go with the CLOSER members instead.

“We’ll see…”

Unwilling to give a definite answer to that, Doah gave out a vague response.

“Now that it’s about time for dinner, I know a really good pork galbi place around here. How about there, Unnie!”²

“Haengnim, that place is to die for! You really gotta try it!”

Honestly, disregarding their habit of exaggerating things, when they spoke so enthusiastically about it, even I would become curious.

“Shall we go there?”

I asked Doah that and she didn’t seem to have any objections.

“Sure, it sounds like a good place.”

“Ah, you are wise! Haengnim! Noonim! There are those who have never tried this, but none who have only eaten it once.”

“It’s soo fricking tasty Unnie. Look, the photos turned out great too!”

Fumurin showed her Instagram page.

From the pictures, the seasoning did indeed look fancy.

“Let’s go quickly, we’ll have to line up if we’re late!”

And so, we went to the galbi restaurant.

If we hadn’t entered at this time, we would’ve had to wait a bit outside.

“Do you mind if we order a combo we recommend for all of us?”

“Ah~ Sure! You two know better what to order anyway, since you’ve been here before.”

“Boss! We’ll have 4 servings of pork galbi with cheese and…”

After finishing the order, the staff brought out a table full of vegetables and side dishes.

“Haengnim! We can’t miss out on drinks at a fun occasion like this, right?”

“Right, right! Unnie has to drink too!”

Well, actually, I didn’t think that drinking was part of today’s plan…

Also, no, I didn’t want to drink.

First, I wasn’t a big fan of alcohol, also, I was worried that I might cause trouble again if I drank.

I was going to tell Doah about that, but…

“No.”

Before I could say it, a firm answer, as sharp as a knife, came out of her mouth.

Startled by her cold reaction, Doah tried to persuade her again with a smile.

“Aw~ Unnie! Don’t be like that! Juuuust a little, please!”

“Gahee.”

Until now, Doah had been smiling and going along with whatever they said, but now…

Her eyes had turned icy cold.

Both her eyes were firm, as if trying to tell Fumurin to not speak about this any further.

“Oppa can’t drink, so let’s refrain from drinking tonight, shall we?”

My Doah had grown…