Chapter 30: CUT. I’d Rather Be Smiling (1)
by fnovelpia
There’s no cut.
No matter how much he looked, it wasn’t there.
He’s talking about the videotape.
The tape that showed the original 1980s American axe murderer.
Yeoreum had safely kept it under the bed as if it were a treasure, but it disappeared like smoke.
Even after searching under the mattress, Yeoreum couldn’t find it.
There’s only one suspect.
Yeoreum tore at his hair and shouted.
“Yuna Yeon… That damn woman…!”
Anger surged to the tip of Yeoreum’s head.
It must have been Yuna Yeon who sneaked into the house and took it.
Yeoreum has endured countless instances of her s*xual harassment and attempted rapes.
But couldn’t stand it anymore.
That videotape was a portal to his original world.
It was the only hope to return from a frail boy to the body of a brutal serial killer.
And she took it.
She crossed the line.
He ran out of the house.
Yeoreum banged on the neighbor’s door forcefully.
“Yuna Yeon! Open the door!! Yuna Yeeeeon!!!!!”
No answer came.
Yeoreum opened the cover of the door lock keypad.
The password is four digits.
He tried random numbers.
Beep- The wrong number.
Beep- The wrong number.
Yeoreum tried Yuna Yeon’s birthday.
Again, beep- The wrong number.
“…Could it be……”
He tried his own birthday.
Ding-dong-♪
With a cheerful sound, the door unlocked.
Chills ran down his spine.
Ignoring the creepy feeling, Yeoreum stepped inside.
He could smell Yuna Yeon.
A soft fragrance, but it automatically brought back memories of Yuna Yeon’s forceful harassment, triggering PTSD.
He walked past the entrance hall to the room.
The quilt on the bed was bulging.
“Damn b*tch…! Get up!!”
Yeoreum yanked the quilt away.
But Yuna Yeon wasn’t there.
Instead, there was a gorilla.
“Uh, Aaah!!”
Yeoreum screamed and fell backward.
He landed on his butt, but he was too shocked to feel pain.
“Hahahaha!”
The gorilla burst into a clear laugh.
The gorilla’s face was a mask.
Removing the mask, a red-haired female student appeared.
Jung Joo-Yi.
She was the president of the ‘Horror Film Club’.
He got entangled with her because of a zombie incident that happened in the club room.
Seeing her lying on Yuna Yeon’s bed, Yeoreum was dumbfounded.
“President. Why are you coming out from there?”
“Na Yeon went out. I came here to rest for a bit. I, had a car accident.”
A car accident?
She looked fine for that.
At least, she didn’t seem injured.
The president had the videotape in her hand.
“Where did that videotape come from?”
“Under your bed. I didn’t want to wake you up, so I just took it without permission.”
It wasn’t Yuna Yeon who stole the videotape.
It was this shameless president’s doing.
Yeoreum clenched his fist. He wanted to hit her.
“Give it back.”
“No way. I killed one of the zombies that came out of here, didn’t I? So, I have some rights to it too.”
She was spouting nonsensical arguments.
She didn’t seem willing to return it easily. Then, Yeoreum had no choice but to take it by force.
The president wasn’t as big as Yuna Yeon.
The height difference between Yeoreum and her was just 1~2cm.
The strength should be similar, so if Yeoreum used ‘full power’, he could overpower her.
He charged towards the president lying on the bed.
His target was the tape in her hand.
But just before Yeoreum’s hand could touch the tape, the president wrapped her two legs around Yeoreum’s waist.
It was an elastic and flexible movement.
“I did Brazilian jiu-jitsu in high school.”
“Ugh…”
Yeoreum became immobilized on the bed, feeling as if an anaconda had wrapped around his entire body.
The president grabbed Yeoreum’s collar and skillfully pulled his upper body closer.
Their faces got closer.
A mix of soft and fresh scents.
“You smell like a virgin.”
“What, what?”
“You haven’t even kissed Na Yeon yet, have you?”
The president’s eyes formed crescents.
“When are you two going to mate? You should lose your virginity soon.”
“Such… vulgarity…!”
“Ah, I’m not rushing you. But you’ll probably be eaten by Na Yeon sooner or later. Why not practice with this sister before that?”
She spoke playfully while tightening her legs around his waist.
Somehow, after struggling, Yeoreum managed to snatch the tape.
The president let her legs go with a smile.
“Na Yeon, she talks about you all the time, you know?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to know.”
“She’s a real Yandere. Be careful. You might end up squeezed to death before you even get married~”
“I’m leaving.”
Yeoreum took the videotape and left.
He wanted to return before Yuna Yeon came back.
But the president grabbed Yeoreum’s shoulder.
“Wait a moment.”
“……”
“Something’s weird. Wouldn’t you normally smash it?”
“…What do you mean?”
The president crossed her arms.
“Think about the incident a few days ago. The zombie from the video in the movie came into reality.”
“And what about it?”
“It’s an unrealistic event that can’t be logically explained. Normally, feeling uneasy and destroying the tape would be the natural reaction. But you’re bringing it back home?”
Of course.
The videotape must not be destroyed.
It was the only hope of returning to his original world.
Whether zombies or monsters come out, Yeoreum must protect the tape.
“Could it be that you…”
The president narrowed her eyes. At that tense moment-
“…thought it couldn’t be destroyed?”
“Huh?”
“If you’ve seen <Evil Dead>, <The Babadook>, <Madness>, you’d know. Cursed books can’t be destroyed. Even if they are, they’ll come back. The videotape is probably the same.”
“Yeah… I thought so too.”
Phew.
Yeoreum inwardly sighed in relief, thinking he had been discovered.
The president continued.
“So, what do you think about the zombie from the video coming over?”
What is there to think?
The very idea of a 1980s American being possessed by a 2020s Korean body is nonsensical.
Yeoreum considered the appearance of zombies an extension of that.
“My theory is this: the moment the video was played, a hole between that world and this world was created, and through that hole, zombies came over.”
The president made an O shape with the thumb and index finger of her left hand and moved her right fingers in and out.
Despite the odd gesture, her theory sounded plausible.
As expected of the president of the ‘Horror Film Club’.
“A hole connected to the world in the video… So, president, can one also go into the video through that hole?”
“Um. If they can come here, I guess you can go there too. But who would want to go into such a terrifying horror movie world?”
Yeoreum didn’t say it was him.
“We need to prepare. The zombie family won’t be the end of it. If monsters come over in the order of the scene numbers, next in line is a clown.”
“A clown?”
“Yes. After S#1 comes S#2, and in that episode, a murderous clown appears.”
“Wait a minute. Wasn’t S#1 the end?”
“There are up to S#5.”
“How do you know that?”
“I watched them.”
The president said it as if it was obvious.
“After taking the tape from under your bed, I watched it all night. Thanks to that, I could analyze it.”
She claimed she could now respond to any monster attack from the movie.
The video served as a cheat sheet or answer key.
Suddenly, the house was enveloped in darkness. Clouds covered the sky.
Rain started pouring down.
The conversation between Yeoreum and the president paused for a moment.
The sound of rain drifted over the lapping silence.
Now, Yeoreum noticed bloodstains on the president’s clothes.
“President. But what’s with the blood?”
“I told you I was in a car accident. There were injuries.”
“Injuries?”
“Not me, the person hit by my car. I was driving at 60 km/h.”
She’s really crazy.
“It’s a hit-and-run. The person hit is in the trunk of my car.”
Yeoreum quietly moved to the phone.
He picked up the receiver and dialed 112, intending to report her.
“Yeoreum, you should listen to the end!”
“There’s nothing to listen to. You psycho…”
“To be precise, the one hit by my car wasn’t a person.”
“What do you mean?”
“After S#1 comes S#2.”
The president smiled slyly.
“There’s a clown in the trunk.”
Here’s the story.
The president said she saw a clown while driving past a sewage treatment plant.
It was the clown from videotape S#2.
She couldn’t just pass by, so she floored the accelerator and charged at it.
After hitting it, the clown fell down.
She then loaded it into the car’s trunk.
Originally, the reason she went to Yuna Yeon’s house was to deal with the clown stuffed in the trunk.
It was an absurd story.
“Follow me. I’ll show you.”
Yeoreum followed the president outside.
The rain was pouring down heavily.
They headed to the parking lot.
In front of a Hyundai Avante with its hood crumpled like a ball of paper, the president stopped.
“The repair costs are going to be huge. Lucky it’s not my car.”
Saying this, she opened the trunk.
Inside, crammed in, was a gigantic clown.
It seemed to be at least 2 meters tall.
Its limbs were twisted, showing clear signs of being hit by a car.
Moreover, its head was completely missing.
“My God. Where did its head go…?”
“That wasn’t my doing. Ellen Strode blew it off with a shotgun.”
“Ellen Strode? Who’s that?”
“The heroine’s mother. A mature beauty boasting a MILF rating of 1000%. You’ll know if you watch the video.”
Yeoreum picked up a branch and poked the clown’s body.
It didn’t move at all. It was almost like a piece of large trash.
“Is this also a zombie?”
“Rather than a zombie, it’s more of a transcendental being from urban legends. You’ve seen Stephen King’s <It>, right? Similar to that.”
“So… it doesn’t die?”
“It should be considered an immortal being.”
It seemed as if its life was cut off, but it was still alive?
Yeoreum stepped back to create distance from the trunk.
“Scared, huh~. Don’t worry. Even if it’s an immortal being, there’s a way to get rid of it.”
“A way to get rid of it? Like throwing it into a blender or burning it with fire?”
“Not such a crude method, but a more elegant one. Like…”
At that moment.
A long leg stretched out from the trunk.
It was the clown’s leg.
Its foot struck the president directly.
The president’s small body flew like it was hit by a truck.
After hitting the parking lot wall with her back, she collapsed and didn’t get up.
“Uh-oh.”
Yeoreum felt as if time had stopped for a moment.
The clown in the trunk, who had kicked the president, slowly stood up.
The missing head.
Above its neck, there was only a rattling jaw.
Its grotesque tongue wiggled.
“…Who is the moth’s mom?”
[raei: In case anyone is confused, the president calls yuna yeon, na yeon]
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