Ch.69MOTHER

“Ah! That’s right!”

Heo Yoon suddenly regained her energy and said.

“Our baby. Should I show you?”

***

I returned to the living space that guaranteed some safety in this hellish apartment.

The 7th Floor. Due to the influence of the Reality Anchor, this place looks like an ordinary apartment.

This is a home located in the middle of the 7th floor corridor.

It’s the space where Heo Yoon and Seok Hyunmin had been living.

Without any particular distinguishing features, it’s moderately spacious, with a reasonable amount of furniture, and moderately comfortable. That kind of home.

Choi Serim flopped down on the sofa and fell back asleep, while Jung Haewon stretched extensively.

Yoon Daju stuck close to Heo Yoon, chattering away.

“What have you been up to, Yoon? You look really tired.”

“No. I just… existed.”

And the one person remaining is Seok Hyunmin.

He said he went to the storage room to get something, so he should be back here soon.

As I was quietly looking around the house, Jung Haewon spoke up beside me.

“It feels like it’s been a really long time, doesn’t it?”

“Hm? What has?”

“All of us being together like this.”

“…I guess so.”

Though it had only been a few days since I was at the library, it really did feel that way.

Maybe it’s because I’d been in a completely different space before coming back. Returning to “reality,” everything I’d seen before felt like a lie. I wished I could forget everything that happened before, like it was all just a dream. Give up on escaping. It would be nice if we could just live normally here on the 7th floor.

But I knew all too well that we couldn’t.

The librarian’s authority I gained at the library revealed several new facts to me.

First, what will happen in the future.

This apartment won’t last long. From the beginning, this place has been an unstable space created by numerous entangled incidents. It will soon disappear. It probably won’t even last a year properly. Depending on how things go, it could collapse even sooner. And when the apartment collapses? We who are inside won’t be able to survive either. I’m not simply talking about the building falling down, but about existence itself collapsing, becoming something that never existed in the first place.

Our task is to escape from here before that happens.

And the current situation is also problematic.

The power to organize and manage infinite information. The newly acquired “insight” has presented countless pieces of information before me.

How the breathing of people around me flows.

Where a speck of dust moves.

And even which country the table in the living room came from.

Wooden table

– Processed plywood from Indonesian timber

When I focus my mind, information appears before my eyes wherever I look.

Including information about Heo Yoon, whom I’m meeting after a long time.

“Have you been well, Dabin? Your sister has missed you so much!”

Heo Yoon approached me with a bright smile.

Though her face was smiling, she seemed somehow drained. Her eyes were sunken, and her cheeks were gaunt.

Above all, there was a distinctly unsettling feeling coming from her.

This must be the ability of “insight.” The others didn’t seem to notice anything strange at all.

I tried to hide my expression as I answered.

“Yes. But you look a bit tired, sis.”

“Ah, this? There were only two people here, so the workload suddenly increased.”

On the surface, she doesn’t seem to have changed much…

What is it exactly?

She doesn’t appear to be affected by a memetic kill agent or supernatural phenomenon. But there’s a feeling that Heo Yoon herself is somehow overshadowed.

“Just wait. Why isn’t Seok Hyunmin coming?”

Heo Yoon got up and headed to the kitchen.

Seeing her open a drawer and rummage through it, she’s probably thinking of serving some tea or something.

“It would be nice if we had coffee or something at home. I wonder if we ran out last time?”

“No, it’s fine…”

“We’re meeting after so long, I should at least do this much.”

Her eyes, with dark circles deeply shadowed beneath them, curve like crescent moons.

Yoon didn’t used to smile like this.

“Oppa.”

Yoon Daju, perhaps noticing something strange too, came closer to me and lowered her voice.

“Doesn’t unnie seem a bit strange?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe,”

“But I’m not sure yet.”

“What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing. Just useless chatter. You know how Daju is always talking about random things. Haha…”

Was my acting too awkward?

Heo Yoon stopped speaking abruptly and stared at me intently.

“I asked what you were talking about.”

“Well, that’s…”

Just as I was about to be interrogated,

“Oppa!”

“Y-yes?”

“You have to keep your promise! Why are you pretending not to know?”

Daju jumped in with perfect timing.

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“You’re pretending again. You know! That thing. We agreed you’d wear it one more time. Hehe. I wonder if it’s still in the storage room?”

Ah. So that’s what she meant.

She was talking about what happened at the library.

“If you’re grateful, later on… You know that outfit, right?”

“Yoon Daju. You. Blood.”

“That’s exactly why I’m mentioning it.”

I thought she was crazy back then.

I’m grateful for her help, but I’m not thrilled about the outcome.

As I just listened quietly, Daju poked my side and whispered.

“Hurry up.”

She meant I should respond according to the topic she’d shifted to. So Heo Yoon wouldn’t be suspicious.

But I’m not good at acting.

Suppressing my awkwardness, I spoke up.

“Ah… This is really embarrassing… Do I really have to wear that?”

When I delivered my line, albeit awkwardly, Heo Yoon turned her attention this way.

The tense atmosphere dissipated in an instant.

“What? What did you two agree to wear?”

“Yes! A maid outfit! Don’t you think it would suit Dabin oppa perfectly?”

This time, Heo Yoon smiled slightly.

The unsettling aura was still there, but less apparent than when she smiled broadly.

At a glance, I might think I was mistaken.

“How did Dabin end up making such a promise? Anyway, good luck! Show me pictures when you take them!”

“I won’t show you. Absolutely not.”

I shook my head while trying my best to manage my expression.

Very casually. Acting as if I was just responding to a joke.

“Hmm. Really? That might depend on how cooperative oppa is, don’t you think?”

And as Yoon Daju naturally took over the conversation,

I saw something.

Strange “items” placed around the house.

Diapers. Baby bottles. Even small, cute blankets.

All items needed for raising a baby. And yet, among the people I’ve seen, there’s neither a baby nor a pregnant person.

There’s another strange point.

Even if, giving them the benefit of the doubt, there really was a baby, wouldn’t baby items normally be managed with more care?

Those items, which are usually washed clean and stored properly, are scattered carelessly in the corners of the room.

The ominous feeling grows stronger.

What should I do?

Yoon Daju and Jung Haewon are very tired but can move quickly if needed. The problem is Choi Serim.

Unaware of anything, Choi Serim is asleep on the sofa.

And there’s one more person whose condition needs to be checked.

Clunk-

The door opened and another person entered the house.

“Oh, Hyunmin is back?”

“Yes, noona.”

Seok Hyunmin looked at Heo Yoon with a sad face for a moment, then turned his head toward me.

“Oh, Dabin is here too. And everyone else.”

Seok Hyunmin’s appearance hadn’t changed much, but he also looked tired.

Plus, like Heo Yoon, his voice seemed drained of energy.

“…Is everyone safe?”

“Yes.”

“That’s good then.”

“But hyung.”

I spoke up, trying to suppress my trembling voice.

“What’s in that bag?”

“Ah.”

Rustle.

Seok Hyunmin lifted the black plastic bag he was holding slightly.

“This?”

“Yes.”

“It’s food. Something noona likes.”

Food?

It seems to be food that was kept cold, as water droplets have formed on the bag.

The condensed droplets gather and drip down to the floor.

But that’s not all that’s dripping.

Dark red droplets formed at the pointed end of the black plastic bag.

Drip.

Drip drip.

Meat juice with a pungent smell fell to the floor.

“Ah, Seok Hyunmin, what are you doing! That’s a waste!”

“Yeah. Sorry, noona.”

Seok Hyunmin replied weakly, then headed to the kitchen with the bag.

Heo Yoon suddenly jumped up, got down on the floor, and started licking up the fallen meat juice.

Slurp. Slurrp.

“Huh.”

Chomp chomp chomp.

“Huk. Huuuk. Keh! Kup.”

As if she couldn’t afford to miss even a single drop, Heo Yoon licked the floor while holding her breath.

“U-unnie, what are you doing?”

“Noona!”

Yoon Daju and Jung Haewon rushed over to stop her, but Heo Yoon shook them off and got back down on the floor.

“Delicious. So delicious. There’s no way this could be strange food, right?

There’s no way what our baby eats could be strange food!!!!!!”

“She’s gone crazy…”

Daju muttered, seemingly in great shock.

In the kitchen, Seok Hyunmin was removing the bag and taking out what was inside.

“Phew.”

After letting out a big sigh, Seok Hyunmin picked up the contents.

Soon, a large chunk of meat was placed in the kitchen.

Drip, drip, drip,

Dark red blood endlessly flowed between Seok Hyunmin’s fingers.

Swoosh-

He turned on the water in the sink to wash off the blood, but even that wasn’t enough.

Drip, drip.

Blood continued to fall from the meat.

Thud!

Now the large chunk of meat is placed on the cutting board.

Just from a glimpse, I could be certain.

That’s neither pork nor beef.

Then.

What kind of meat could it be?

The moment I questioned it, my “insight” activated.

“Ugh!”

I couldn’t help but retch.

“Oppa!”

“Yoon Daju. Just stay still for now…”

I raised my arm to push away Daju who was approaching.

Suppressing the rising nausea, I barely managed to continue speaking.

“We can’t… we can’t lose this place.”

“What?”

“If we lose the 7th floor, we’ll have nowhere to rest or regroup. So, we can’t run away.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s a monster.”

Lick. Lick.

Heo Yoon continues to lick the floor with her eyes rolled back.

“…There’s something on this floor.”

The frightening thing is that there was no external influence on her mind.

The monster doesn’t operate that way. It’s even more horrifying.

Both Heo Yoon and Seok Hyunmin lost their sanity purely through their own thoughts.

In just a few days since we left the 7th floor.