Ch.26026 – There’s Space Behind the Pillar 3

# 026 – There’s Space Behind the Pillar # 3

“Does she seem okay?”

I asked Jeongseok with the mindset of a researcher conducting an experiment.

Jeongseok nodded as he observed Yang Juhui inside the elevator.

“She seems fine for now. What are you going to do, Ha Yeongwon? Are you going to enter that elevator too? There’s no guarantee that the fourth floor space where your mother is has any connection to that elevator.”

Jeongseok was right.

There was absolutely no guarantee that the place where my mother disappeared and the fourth floor this elevator would take us to were the same place.

But I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing either.

“Seok. You said it yourself. Even if this perfume reduces the probability of being discovered by ghosts from 99 percent to 1 percent, as long as it’s not exactly 0 percent, the possibility still remains.”

“Well, that’s true…”

“Just like there’s no guarantee that the fourth floor this elevator bastard is talking about is where my mother disappeared, the opposite could also be true.”

What would be the probability that my mother disappeared into this elevator’s space?

90 percent?

1 percent?

The important thing was that regardless of the percentage, I needed to cling to that possibility.

I was still not used to being called the kid without a father, and if my mother disappeared too, I’d be no different from a real orphan.

“I’m going in, Seok. I won’t force you to come with me.”

Entering that elevator was like walking into a lion’s den.

Perhaps even more dangerous and bizarre than that.

It could be life-threatening.

That’s why I didn’t force Jeongseok to come with me.

“Hoo… Hoo… Hoop, hoo…”

Jeongseok took several deep breaths.

He slapped both his cheeks with his hands and said to me.

“Just be honest and ask for help. If you ask for help, I’ll help you. Because I promised. Actually, I’m personally interested too. I’m coming too. Into that thing.”

“Shit, help me! I’m fucking terrified!”

Seeing Jeongseok willing to risk danger, I was deeply moved and my true feelings burst through my lips.

“I want to live too! Let’s go together! Together!”

Honestly, I didn’t want to enter that elevator.

But I had to save my mother.

If I had to go in regardless…

I’d rather go with friends than alone!

Even if it felt like a water ghost leading us to death, having others with me was better than going alone!

Pat-.

Jeongseok and I entered the elevator.

Yang Juhui, who had been watching this little drama from inside, said to us:

“Geez, you cowards. Why so much talk just to get into an elevator?”

…No.

In this case, isn’t Yang Juhui being too calm and fearless?

Can a person really be this brave?

Maybe Yang Juhui would only get scared in a place like the “Nightmare Corridor.”

“There really is only the fourth floor. For now, let’s keep pressing the open button just in case.”

Jeongseok said as he looked around.

Except for the open and close buttons, all the floor numbers in the elevator were plastered with the number “4.”

There were about 100 switches.

Where there should have been numbers from the 1st to the 100th floor, every number was written as 4, which was bizarre.

“What could this mean? What’s the significance?”

Before pressing any buttons, I asked Yang Juhui and Jeongseok for their opinions about the elevator covered in 4s.

From my experience with supernatural incidents so far, even the smallest details could provide solutions or hints.

Yang Juhui said:

“I don’t know!”

Yang Juhui didn’t seem to know.

Though she was said to be good at studying for a bully, academic intelligence and this kind of thinking were different matters.

What about Jeongseok then?

“Seok. Do you think there’s some meaning to this?”

“In East Asian countries like Korea, they sometimes remove the number 4 in elevators. This is because the number 4 in Chinese characters reminds people of the character for death (死).”

“Oh.”

“That’s why they sometimes represent the 4th floor as ‘F’ instead. This trend has decreased now, but it was common in the 90s and early 2000s.”

Jeongseok was looking at his phone.

He seemed to be reciting information he had searched for on his phone.

At least this meant that phones worked normally inside this elevator.

Swoosh-.

Just then, someone entered the villa.

It was the lady from the apartment across from us, the manager of Tae-gwang Villa.

She got angry seeing the papers and tape scattered in front of the elevator.

“Oh my, what is all this! Who left this trash! ‘Don’t ride the elevator’? What elevator? We need to install CCTV or something! Good grief!”

“……”

Jeongseok and I were bewildered by the situation.

Only Yang Juhui was brave enough to vocalize what was happening.

“Can’t she see us? The elevator door is open. Ma’am! Ma’am!”

The manager on the fourth floor acted as if she couldn’t see the elevator with its doors wide open on the first floor, or us inside it. Even though Yang Juhui shouted loudly.

Soon, Jeongseok muttered quietly.

“Maybe…”

Does he have some insight!

Just as I wanted to ask what was going on, he started explaining.

“Anyway, the meaning of the 4th floor in elevators is the Chinese character for death (死). It means death. This elevator has every floor number meaning death. It’s literally a death elevator.”

A death elevator.

And we were currently riding in it.

Guys, let’s just get off-.

In less than ten seconds, these words rose to my throat and went back down several times.

Swoosh-.

Just then, Yang Juhui moved her hand and pressed the 4th floor button.

Both Jeongseok and I were surprised by this bold and reckless action.

Jeongseok even frowned and got angry.

“Hey! You can’t act so recklessly! If you’re that careless and rash, we could all really die!”

“Then what do you want to do? Just stand here pressing the open button forever? We won’t know exactly what’s there until we go to the fourth floor!”

Jeongseok’s opinion was right, and so was Yang Juhui’s.

Yang Juhui continued to express her opinion.

“Yeongwon’s mother got trapped in a strange elevator. What’s to say it won’t happen to our families or mothers? What if the elevator keeps appearing around us and making people disappear?”

“That’s… There’s no guarantee it will… but there’s also no guarantee it won’t…”

“I can’t bear to see my mom or dad go missing too.”

Yang Juhui had personally experienced family breakdown due to her sister “Yang Dohui’s” disappearance. She couldn’t stand the thought that an elevator that devours people might target her family.

“Maybe my sister is on the fourth floor. I’m going. If you’re scared, get off now. I’m pressing the close button in 5 seconds. I’m counting. 5-. 4-.”

As Yang Juhui began her death countdown to 4 (死), Jeongseok and I looked at each other. We had a lot to say to each other, but Jeongseok was the first to move his hand.

Swoosh-.

He reached out and pressed the close button.

“Shit. Let’s go. Go.”

His voice was trembling.

After all, despite being the mayor’s son and smart enough to dream of becoming a prosecutor, he was still just a first-year high school student.

We all were.

We weren’t so young that we needed to rely on adults’ protection, but we weren’t adults either—we were friends at that awkward in-between age.

Honestly, we were scared and frightened.

Even so, being together gave us strength…!

# # #

Ding dong-.

We finally arrived at the 4th floor.

“The doors are opening.”

Swoosh-.

As the elevator doors opened, there was nothing but pitch-black darkness beyond.

Jeongseok asked.

“Yeongwon, what does your advice function say?”

I had been saving my advice function as much as possible lately.

I was preserving it to use only in important moments.

“Advice.”

『Advice from ‘The Broken Clock’: Where there is an entrance, there is also an exit.』

It was a simple piece of advice.

But the brightness of hope contained in the sentence was quite bright.

“It says where there’s an entrance, there’s an exit. It seems to mean that if we enter this place, we’ll definitely be able to get out somewhere.”

“Hey, Ha Yeongwon. Look at this.”

Yang Juhui pointed at the floor panel with her long finger.

Below the number “4” were the words “Capacity Exceeded.”

It was exactly the same as the photo my mother had taken.

“None of the buttons work except for open and close.”

Jeongseok’s observation snapped me back to attention.

Now we had two options left.

“We have two choices. Either stay in this elevator, or go outside.”

“I’ll go first.”

Hoo-.

Yang Juhui took a small deep breath and extended her foot into the darkness.

Jeongseok and I carefully watched her, and after confirming there was no problem, we slowly followed behind her.

“The doors are closing.”

The elevator doors closed.

As the light emanating from that rectangular box disappeared, the “4th floor” was completely engulfed in darkness.

This darkness that clung to the skin like sticky ink.

Just as I thought it felt somehow familiar, a dazzling light hit my face.

Jeongseok had taken out his phone.

“We’re out of service range. Plus, my phone screen is completely glitching. The time is weird too. I can’t even operate it. How about your phones?”

Yang Juhui and I also took out our phones.

Like Jeongseok’s, our phones were out of service range and the text was corrupted.

They seemed broken.

Uweeeeeck-.

Chizizizizi-.

Just then, a terrible noise came from our phones.

It sounded like someone deliberately breaking a radio, letting out an unpleasant death rattle.

Everyone was startled.

Clatter, clack. Clatter. Clack-.

From beyond that dark corridor, something like a presence was felt.

A person?

Could it be my mother?

Jeongseok and Yang Juhui said:

“I think something’s coming from over there?”

“Could it be Yeongwon’s mother? This sound is like high heels.”

I was about to call out loudly when I felt an ominous premonition. My mother wasn’t the type to wear high heels.

My mother preferred sneakers and flats.

─The phone was dead and kept making scary noises, so I threw it away.

I suddenly remembered what Jeong Sojin had told us in the Nightmare Corridor.

This darkness and the presence felt in the distance were not unfamiliar to me.

“Hey. Let’s look for lockers or boxes around here. Quickly! We should get away from here first! We need to find a place to hide! There must be something! Like boxes or lockers! Throw away your phones!”

I pushed Jeongseok and Yang Juhui’s backs.

And incredibly, we found a trash can large enough for the three of us to fit in.

It was a large capacity trash can like those found on street corners.

As we struggled to get inside, I could see talismans haphazardly attached to the interior.

Just as I thought my nose would twist from the terrible garbage smell-

Crack, crunch, crack-. Click. Click.

Something making sounds like joints and bones unnaturally bending and colliding began to pass by the trash can where we were hiding.

“Wh-what is that…”

“Shh. Jeongseok. Be quiet.”

At that moment, I realized.

This death (死) floor.

This place was a nightmare intertwined with reality.