episode_0014

“Forgive me, forgive me…please forgive me…”

One late night, a young woman was crying and muttering incessantly in front of a crock pot that reached up to her waist.

The woman’s face was full of worry and sadness, and it was a face that would sincerely comfort anyone passing by, thinking that this woman had gone through something sad.

The woman, who was crying sadly, slightly opened the crock pot, placed a piece of meat in front of it, and picked up a razor-colored knife. The hand that picked up the knife trembled as if representing the woman’s concerns, but soon stopped.

“Never forgive me…”

The sound of pieces of meat being chopped shattered the silence of the night. The woman’s sad expression slowly changed into a cute smile as she cut into pieces of meat, and it soon became an expression that no human could make.

“Never, never…!”

“Huh!”

It felt like I had an extremely disturbing nightmare. My whole body was covered in cold sweat, so much so that all the clothes I was wearing were damp.

The only thing I could remember about the important content of the nightmare was the sound of meat being chopped, so it seemed like it was something important, but I felt frustrated.

“I’m definitely on the 4th floor…”

As I looked around, holding my pounding head, I saw an unfamiliar room that I had never seen before. However, it was not a hospital room like I had seen so far, but a typical room with a computer, closet, and bookshelves.

I looked at the clothes I was wearing, out of curiosity, and for some reason, I saw that they were not in patient clothes, but in the casual clothes I wore when I entered the hospital.

Apparently, my last memory was falling into a pool of blood and losing consciousness, but I couldn’t figure out how or why I ended up in this room.

It was difficult to move quickly because I couldn’t tell whether this room was inside the hospital or outside. While I was looking around to get as much information as possible, the door opened.

“Sihyeon! You’re finally awake!”

As I was nervously watching the door, a very familiar face walked out. A senior, a senior I had not seen since entering the hospital, appeared in front of me.

“You’re really making people worry!”

In such a sudden situation, I couldn’t say anything. Even though my senior immediately ran to me and hugged my face with his soft chest, I couldn’t tell if this was reality or just another hallucination that occurred at the hospital.

“Senior, are you… really a senior?”

I couldn’t believe it, so I cautiously asked my senior, and he looked at me with pitiful eyes. The senior who was stroking my head with his hand carefully opened his mouth.

“You must have a lot of questions, Sihyeon. The answer is – those people will give it.”

My senior’s gaze turned backwards and my gaze naturally followed him. Two people walked out of the open door. It was a tall beauty who looked to be over 180 cm tall and an old man with a small build.

The wrinkled old man was dressed in a shaman’s uniform, and his eyes were so powerful despite his age that he could not possibly be seen as an ordinary old man.

The old man approached me, who was being hugged by his senior, and without hesitation opened my chest and took it away. Without any time to panic, I followed my gaze and looked at my chest – there was a pocket I had never seen before, hanging like a necklace.

“Tsk tsk, I’m still singing.”

What was inside was a blocky pouch with unknown Chinese characters written on the outside, and smoke was coming out of the Chinese characters as if it were burning.

However, I didn’t feel any particular sensation or pain, so I had no idea how long it had started and how it had become like this.

“You have received an order. I went to that hospital that shamans like us never go to and got cursed.”

The old man’s harsh gaze glared at me. When I flinched slightly from the gaze that made me feel like I had made a big mistake, my senior hugged me a little stronger.

“I don’t know how you survived in that hospital for several days without your soul dying, but even now, your soul is being drawn to that hospital. If you don’t have that amulet right now, it’s not strange at all if you get dragged back in at any time.”

As the old man held out his hand behind him, the tall woman standing handed him something. The old man tore what was handed to him into small pieces and poured it all into a cup of water that he didn’t know when he had brought it.

“Drink! It’s a temporary solution, but the hospital will hide you for now.”

When I looked at the cup the old man held out, I saw that there was something inside that looked like torn paper. It looked pretty unpleasant to drink, but with three pairs of eyes staring at me, I had no choice but to close my eyes and drink the whole thing.

The extremely bitter tasting water made me nauseous. I felt like I wanted to vomit it out, but I barely held it back and when I put it down my throat, I felt something heating up inside my stomach.

“It was a good drink. Listen, if you want to get out of that hospital, you either have to keep drinking that amulet or you have to resolve the order you received.”

After a brief pause, the old man looked briefly at the senior who was hugging me tightly and continued talking.

“If it were a curse from a normal ghost or place, my daughter and I would be able to resolve it, but that hospital is an exception. This is a place where countless evil spirits, curses, and resentments of the living overlap and become the devil’s den of the other world.”

Magul… the faces of the patients I saw at that hospital came to mind. Hayun’s mother, Arin, and an unknown patient on the 4th floor.

Besides that, do all the nurses who work around the hospital have to suffer forever in that hellish place?

“I don’t know how you got in, but… that hospital is a place that has been blocked by the government because countless people have gone missing since ancient times. So, think of eating the amulet as a bad karma and endure it. The lady agreed to give all the money, so don’t worry.”

When I looked at my senior, he looked at me with a face full of regret. The reason I went to that place was my senior, but I was the one who made the decision and decided to go, so it’s okay if you don’t go to that extent.

I decided to talk to my senior again and asked the shaman the most important thing.

“Should the people suffering in that hospital be tied to that place forever? Is there no way for those people to get out of the hospital or become Buddha?”

No matter what happened, I wanted to get the suffering women out of the hospital. What a terrible punishment it is to repeat forever alone in a place that is the source of their nightmares and traumas.

Moreover, as I realized that all of them were kind-hearted people who could easily talk to each other if they opened their hearts and had a conversation, I could never pretend not to have seen them.

I don’t know about the girl on the 4th floor yet, but she also knew that something was hurt, so if we talked openly, maybe we could find a solution. You might say that I’m talking leisurely after getting over the danger of death, but…

When I spoke, the old man looked at me in surprise. The old man stared at my face intently for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“Kkkk! You must have received countless threats to your life in that magic cave, so your courage is incredible! I liked it. It’s not that there is no way, it’s that there is no way…”

The old man, who was trailing off, looked at the distant mountain for a moment and continued speaking again.

“There is a god that I used to worship, but I am old and can no longer serve him, so I placed him in a good place. I was giving up on this god because I couldn’t bear it even for my daughter, but maybe there will be a way for my daughter to worship that god.”

As I looked behind the old man, a tall, beautiful woman waved a small hand at me and smiled brightly.

When the sharp-eyed girl smiled, her expression instantly changed to a softer one, and I felt her face blush slightly through the gap. At the same time, I can feel the sharp gaze from the side.

I barely ignored the gazes shooting at me from the side and looked back at the old man’s daughter.

Unlike the old man, she does not wear a shaman’s uniform and is dressed in casual clothes, and her age appears to be at least five to sixty years older. She is not a granddaughter, but a daughter. I had more questions, but that wasn’t the important thing.

“So, if your daughter can serve that god, is it also possible for ghosts in the hospital to attain Buddhahood?”

“Am cancer. If you can serve that God, hospitals like that won’t be a problem. However, the help of a man loved by a ghost like you is inevitably needed. Maybe something more dangerous than that hospital might happen.”

“You can’t do that!”

The senior who had been listening to the story shouted sharply and hugged me even tighter. My face was blocked by my senior’s large chest, making it difficult to breathe.

“I barely, barely, came back alive and met you like this… I absolutely cannot allow myself to be in danger again! I’ll pay as much money as I can, so please don’t put Sihyeon in any more danger…”

The senior who spoke while hugging me looked very pathetic. I wonder if my senior feels a great sense of guilt because he said I was cursed at the hospital he asked me to go to.

“Sir, I’m fine..”

I hugged my senior’s trembling body tightly. When I barely pulled my face out of my senior’s chest and looked up at him, my pretty face was stained with tears.

“It was my choice to go to that hospital, and it was not my fault that I received the order.”

“Ha, but there’s no reason to get involved with that hospital again…”

“I made an appointment at that hospital. A very important promise. If it’s something I can do – I definitely want to protect it!”

When I looked straight into my senior’s eyes and spoke directly, he looked shocked. The senior looked into my eyes for a moment, then sighed as if resigned and hugged my face to his chest again.

“…You were that kind of boy. But if it’s dangerous, be sure to give up and put your life first…”

I also hugged my senior and looked at each other. Their moist gazes intersect and their lips gradually become closer. When we finally got close enough to feel each other’s sighs – .

“Keohum. Is the story over?”

“Oh my. Kids these days are bold.”

We returned to reality.

“Uhmmm. Anyway, I will do whatever I can!”

“I don’t know what the hospital promised, but good eyes. I’m sure you’ll be a good man. I guarantee it. And if you’re worried, you can follow me too. You don’t have to do anything dangerous.”

After finishing speaking, the old man turned around and made a gesture to follow. I got up from my seat and tried to walk after the old man, but my head felt dizzy and I stumbled for a moment.

A senior who was watching me next to me worriedly supported me. I walked out with the old man supported by my senior, and the old man continued walking and soon headed out the door.

Outside the door was a black van with pitch-black tint. The old man’s daughter opened the door and skillfully entered the car and started the car.

“All preparations have already been completed. Even if it wasn’t you, I had to do it at some point because it was like my long-cherished wish… If you help me, things will go smoothly. ”

The old man made a gesture as if to open the door to the back seat and get in. The senior went in first, then I went in, and the old man went in next to me, so I was stuck in the middle.

“I promise that if my job goes smoothly, I will solve that hospital problem without needing a belly band.”

Even if it means sacrificing my old life…

The old man’s last words were so quiet that they were quickly drowned out by the sound of the car starting. After making sure everyone was wearing their seat belts, the car started.

“I said it was clear weather today…”

As I followed my senior and looked outside together, it started to rain. As the car accelerated, the rain became thicker and thicker until it turned into a heavy downpour, making it difficult to see clearly in front of the car.

I had an ominous feeling for some reason, so I held my senior’s hand, and he also held my hand. Just holding each other’s hands made me feel safe and my heart warmed.

“Ah! And this is junior’s stuff, right?”

He started rummaging through his pants pockets as if he remembered his senior. The senior, who was looking for something for a moment, eventually took out a notebook and handed it to me.

“You can’t lose it, it’s an important item.”

The notebook–it looked very familiar. When I looked at my senior, he smiled and looked at me.