Chapter 112: CUT. Love and Murderers (3)

“Welcome. I’ve been expecting you.”

Jung Joo-Yi said.

She’d anticipated uninvited guests barging into the studio.

Yuna, pinned down by the werewolves and narrator, muttered a curse.

“Sh*t…”

“Why so surprised? You knew I’d welcome you, didn’t you?”

“…I didn’t expect this kind of welcome.”

Yuna and Nancy were bound tightly. Joo-Yi dragged them off somewhere.

Nancy was terrified, on the verge of wetting herself again. Yuna, surprisingly, kept her cool.

A means of escape – a box cutter hidden in her sleeve.

Joo-Yi took them to a spacious room.

One wall was covered by a massive screen. Various video equipment lined the space.

Nancy felt déjà vu. This place mirrored the creepy secret room behind the garage.

It was a situation room for observing 1980s America.

Joo-Yi brought two wheeled chairs.

“Here, VIP seats for our heroines. Have a seat.”

The narrator seated Yuna and Nancy.

She then pressed a remote. The screen flickered to life.

Summer and the Strode mother-daughter pair appeared.

They were lying in a cramped tent.

Listening to their conversation, Yuna realized her hunch was right.

Nancy and Yeoreum had indeed switched bodies.

Yeoreum, in Nancy’s form, was fast asleep. Tucked into the sleeping bag, she looked like a doll in its packaging.

After confirming Yeoreum was asleep, Summer and Ellen exchanged a few words, then suddenly began kissing passionately.

It was an intense kiss, with visible exchange of saliva.

“M-Mom…!”

Nancy squirmed in shock.

But she couldn’t budge, tightly bound as she was.

Joo-Yi gently stroked Nancy’s head.

“Nancy Strode. You’re into this kind of thing, aren’t you?”

“W-What are you talking about…?!”

Nancy bristled.

Yuna, seated next to her, also snapped at Joo-Yi.

“Don’t touch Yeoreum’s body!”

“This isn’t Yeoreum, it’s Nancy. Remember?”

On screen, the muscular hunk and beautiful widow continued their kiss.

Nancy gritted her teeth in frustration. But she couldn’t hide the flush on her face.

The narrator and Yuna looked at her incredulously.

The kissing pair heard a strange noise and left the tent.

A twilit forest, dense with bizarre trees.

Octopus tentacles reached out, grabbing Ellen. An unexpected turn of events.

Summer set out to find Ellen, who was captured.

At the end of the chase, they encountered Ishikawa Reiko.

Reiko’s identity and Yeoreum’s origins were revealed.

Summer’s group clashed with Reiko.

Yuna, eyes glued to the screen, asked:

“So Reiko was indeed the director of that reality. But why is there a narrator in this reality? Shouldn’t the director do the narration too?”

“The narrator must always be on the opposite side of the camera.”

“……”

“Think about it. That reality affects this one through retrograde phenomena. In return, this reality must also interfere with that one to some extent. That’s the narrator’s role.”

Joo-Yi answered.

The fight on screen intensified.

Ellen was being strangled by tentacles, while Summer was injured by Reiko.

Unable to bear it, Nancy screamed.

“Send me back…!”

“Calm down. Even if you went there now, what could you do?”

Joo-Yi smiled slyly.

“By the way, it’s thrilling to meet the actress you admire like this. How about an autograph before you go back?”

“You’ll… send me back?”

“No.”

The battle reached its climax.

Reiko stabbed Summer in the chest with a tree branch.

Summer, skewered like a muscle kebab, fell into the mud, battered and broken.

“I met Director Reiko in person recently. I hoped to collaborate, but she said we were already collaborating.”

Joo-Yi said.

Yuna discreetly pulled out the box cutter hidden in her sleeve.

She began cutting the rope binding her wrists. She couldn’t get caught.

Now all that remained was distracting Joo-Yi while she cut the rope.

“Senior Joo-Yi, please. Send Nancy back.”

“It’s because of Yeoreum, right?”

“…Obviously.”

“I don’t get it. Yuna, the Yeoreum you first liked is Summer rolling around over there, isn’t he? Isn’t that boy what you want?”

“At first, yeah. But not anymore.”

On screen, Yeoreum appeared carrying the unconscious Ellen.

He pulled Summer out of the mud. He strained to lift the man twice his weight.

That effort was always good to see.

“My Yeoreum is that Yeoreum,” Yuna said.

The soul dwelling in Nancy Strode’s body from 1980s America…

Yeoreum, who first spoke to her in the hallway and lent her the Blu-ray disc.

Yeoreum, with who she did assignments, watched movies, ate meals, and went on dates.

Yeoreum, rolling and running around everywhere.

Yuna’s Yeoreum was there.

“By the way, Senior Joo-Yi.”

“What?”

“Open your mouth.”

Snap – the rope cut by the knife. Yuna sprang out like lightning.

She shoved the box cutter between Joo-Yi’s slightly parted lips.

The blue blade touched the inner cheek. A slight force would slice it open.

With the director’s life in her hands, neither the narrator, werewolves, nor anyone else dared move.

Joo-Yi mumbled with the knife in her mouth.

“Mmph, mmhm, mmm.”

“I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

She moved the box cutter from the mouth to the neck.

Joo-Yi asked, “Did you even sterilize that box cutter?”

“Sterilize? Of course not.”

“Ptoo ptoo… I’ll get sick.”

Holding the box cutter near the carotid artery, Yuna threatened to kill her before she got sick if she didn’t switch Yeoreum and Nancy back.

Joo-Yi nodded slowly.

“Alright, alright. I’ll send her back. But on one condition.”

“Condition?”

“You, Yuna, must grant me one favor.”

“A favor……”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

In exchange for sending Nancy back and retrieving Yeoreum, she had to grant Joo-Yi’s favor.

It was called a favor, but she’d likely demand something outrageous.

Yuna hesitated briefly.

“Yuna, don’t pretend to think it over. You know it’s an offer you can’t refuse, right?”

There was no time for deep consideration. Reluctantly, she agreed.

Then the werewolves and narrator brought oil drums.

They poured gasoline on the corridor floor and suddenly set it on fire.

Hot flames spread through the space. A wave of heat washed over them.

Is she truly insane?

Nancy writhed.

“W-What the hell are you doing…?!”

“It’s a bit hot.”

“If it’s hot, why are you setting fires and going crazy?!”

“Fight fire with fire. Oh, you might not know the saying since you’re from America.”

Joo-Yi said.

Yuna pressed the box cutter closer. The blade tip pricked Joo-Yi’s skin, drawing blood.

“Senior, what are you thinking?”

“I just set a fire.”

“The videotapes we had are destroyed. If this place burns down too, the audience will disappear. Then that reality will be destroyed…”

“No, don’t worry. We’re not the only audience watching Summer’s journey. Quite a lot of people are watching.”

The on-screen video had already reached its climax.

In the middle of the forest. Yeoreum facing off against Reiko. The setup of a killer versus the final girl.

Yuna was on pins and needles.

Summer had been taken down, so Nancy Strode’s frail body had no chance against Reiko.

Sure enough, Yeoreum immediately started fleeing into the underbrush.

Reiko pursued leisurely.

But there was a counterattack. Summer and Ellen, lying in the mud pit, ambushed her.

A bomb throw. Followed by Yeoreum’s gunfire.

They managed to take down Reiko and decapitate her.

But there was no time to celebrate victory.

The beheaded Reiko quickly recovered and stood up.

Then she hypnotized Yeoreum.

Saying it was awkward to kill with her own hands, she ordered him to commit seppuku.

“Ah… no…”

Seeing Yeoreum move like a puppet, Yuna’s pupils shook.

Nancy was equally anxious. Her body was about to be gutted.

Just as Yeoreum on screen picked up a stone for seppuku, Joo-Yi spoke.

“Yuna. Want to help Yeoreum?”

“You call that a question now…?”

“Then help.”

She handed over a microphone connected to the equipment.

“Become the narrator.”

Narrator.

Taking the microphone, she felt a sense of unity with Yeoreum on screen.

She cleared her throat. She spoke into the mic.

“…Yeoreum.”

It was a voice that pulled Yeoreum’s consciousness from deep hypnosis.

Yeoreum’s hand, about to slash his abdomen with the stone, stopped.

“Don’t worry, Yeoreum. I’m watching over you.”

She aided the fight through narration.

Summer’s charge succeeded in smashing the witch into the mud pit.

An intense battle ensued in the swamp. Fortunately, the tide turned in Summer’s favor.

Though the fallen Reiko was rescued by octopus tentacles… at least Summer’s group managed to escape the forest safely.

“As promised, I’ll send Nancy Strode back. Yeoreum will return.”

For some reason, Joo-Yi unexpectedly agreed to send Nancy back without a fuss.

Instead, she asked for one favor. What could that favor be?

There was no time to think about it now.

Yuna said her final goodbye to Nancy.

“Nancy… it’s time to part ways.”

“Yeah. It was brief, but I enjoyed meeting you.”

“Me too.”

They shared a quick hug.

Joo-Yi and the narrator pressed buttons on the situation room console.

Nancy closed her eyes and lowered her head.

When she raised her head and opened her eyes again, Nancy was gone.

“…Y-Yuna…?”

It was Yeoreum.

Yuna burst into tears.

“Hic…!”

“Why… are you crying?”

“Idiot. Why do you think…!”

The screen showed Nancy and Summer reuniting.

They kissed.

Yuna leaned in too.

She kissed her beloved.

—