episode_0113

Yoon stood there holding the phone for a long time.

He nodded occasionally, or tilted his head back as if his throat was choking up.

“Yeah. Nothing happened. I’m always the same.”

There is an incomprehensible conversation on the other end of the phone.

“No~ I called from the hospital. I just wanted to see you.”

“… … Yeah, yeah.”

Perhaps it was just a mother asking her daughter how she was doing.

“I’ll go home later.”

A single word spoken in a trembling voice.

With those words, Heo Yun hung up the phone.

“Did you get through?”

“Yeah. I can get through on the phone.”

“Are you really going down to your parents’ house?”

This is a question that doesn’t necessarily need to be asked.

But, I couldn’t just let it go without doing it.

This is the exact time period in which Heo Yun lived. This is the exact area in which Heo Yun lived.

Of course, it is just a point in space and time that someone created, but it is exactly the same as reality.

“… … .”

Heo Yun avoids answering.

“This is not reality. It is a point where time and space are cut off, so the same time will keep repeating. I don’t know how much time is cut off, but when it ends, it goes back to the beginning.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Then… …. What do you plan to do, sister?”

I ask, fidgeting, as if I owe you something.

“I don’t know. Even if it’s not real, I should go see you once, or should I stay here.”

After being trapped in a space where you don’t know when you’ll die, you get a chance to meet your family.

Of course, it’s natural to want to go.

I’m trying to stop it somehow.

What if I let her meet her family and Heo Yoon changes his mind?

What if you decide to stay here even if it means repeating time forever?

Heo Yun leans towards me.

He raises his head while placing his hands on his knees and makes eye contact with me.

“Hey. Im Da-bin.”

Just hearing my name called gave me a start.

“Huh?”

“You’re so cute. Call me unnie.”

My head went blank for a moment at the sudden request.

“Hey, Sister?”

“One more time.”

“Sister Yoon?”

“Yeah.”

Talk.

A hand is placed on the head.

“Im Da-bin, you are family too. Seok Hyun-min too. If you ask him to call you, he will say the same thing.”

Just like Se-rim did.

Heo Yoon quietly strokes my hair, then looks embarrassed and lets it fall down again.

“And you. Are you crazy? Do you think I’ll stay here?”

“Ah… … .”

“Let’s go.”

Heo Yun shakes his hands off and walks ahead with brisk strides.

“What? You’re not going?”

“Just a moment.”

A street paved with purple and turquoise pavement blocks.

Behind the sycamore trees over there, something is shaking.

“Just wait a minute.”

I walked there as if possessed by something.

A piece of cloth appeared for a moment, then was obscured by a tree.

Sway sway. Moves with the spring breeze.

“What is it? Is it dangerous again?”

“… … No, it’s not dangerous.”

It’s not dangerous.

You can figure that out just by looking at it.

This feels a little different.

Just getting close to it makes me feel creepy and uneasy, but it feels like I absolutely cannot pass it by without checking.

Without realizing it, I lowered my voice and approached him.

Cross the street.

Passing each tree, forward.

Even though I’m basking in the spring sun, my body feels cold.

Even a gentle breeze that used to feel pleasant now makes me flinch.

A bright and refreshing spring day.

The horror beneath.

Before I knew it, I had unconsciously crossed my arms.

“What the hell is that?”

“Here it is.”

When we arrived, there was nothing.

There is just a large piece of cloth hanging from a tree branch.

A red cloth fluttering in the wind. Probably a torn T-shirt hung up.

It’s just a plain piece of cloth, so even if you look at it with the naked eye, there’s nothing special about it.

“… … I guess I was confused.”

Is it because I’m tired?

I’ve become too sensitive.

“Let’s go back.”

Just as I was about to turn around.

Heo Yoon grabbed me tightly.

“Yes!?”

“No. Look closely.”

Heo Yun holds my wrist tightly and points to the tree with his other hand.

“There’s a knot in the branch. It didn’t just get caught in the wind, someone climbed up there and tied it there.”

“Huh? Seriously. How did you get there and tie it up?”

The piece of cloth is ‘tied’ very high up.

As if it were a flag signaling something.

Heo Yun looks around, lost in thought for a while.

“Dabin. Over there. Help me.”

This time, Heo Yoon heads to a rusty hardware store on the inside of the road.

Just an ordinary hardware store.

Judging by the shutters being down even in broad daylight, it seems like it’s been closed for a long time, but Heo Yun seems to sense something there.

“One, two, three, then the shutter goes up. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. One, two, three!”

Drrr-

The shutter was lifted at Heo Yun’s signal.

“Phew… … . Now shine the light.”

“… … .”

“Dabin?”

I couldn’t say anything.

I have already seen what is inside that narrow room, dark and dry and filled with the smell of iron.

Like a flag hanging from a high tree branch. The rope hanging from the ceiling sways.

Something hanging from a rope appears in the sunlight, then disappears into the shadows behind the dresser.

“Over there, over there.”

“What is it?”

“It’s over there.”

I pointed toward the dresser, suppressing the urge to vomit.

A chest of drawers that once stored hardware.

The empty chest of drawers was so large that it reached the ceiling, which seemed to be over 3 meters high.

“What is there? It’s dark so I can’t see it well.”

The clouds clear and the sun comes out.

I could also hear Heo Yoon gasping for breath next to me.

Between dusty old shelves.

Someone was hanging himself from a rope secured tightly to a heavy tool box.

“Is he already dead?”

“… … Yes. I think so.”

Clank!

We closed the shutter at the back as if we had made a promise.

Because there were things to look at before other people’s eyes caught on it.

I took out my cell phone and shined the light on it.

Man hanging from a shelf.

The ashen wall upon which his shadow rests is etched with red spray paint.

[There is no hope]

Large letters with clear angles.

It’s so neat that it looks like it was printed rather than handwritten.

“It’s strange. The handwriting is too straight, like it was printed by a machine, and above all, it gives me a really bad feeling… … .”

“This is how I wrote it.”

I pointed to the floor.

There are a bunch of red t-shirts on the floor. No, white t-shirts.

Above it, an empty red spray can rolls around.

Lifting one of the T-shirts and unfolding it reveals a gaping hole.

“I made holes in the shape of letters on a white t-shirt, put it against the wall, and sprayed red spray paint over it.”

“Did you tie one of them to a tree?”

“Yes.”

The so-called masking technique.

This method is also used for painting work that requires precision.

“Then he wrote the words first, climbed up the tree, tied one of his t-shirts to it, then returned to the hardware store and killed himself. That’s it.”

Heo Yoon sorts out the situation by tapping the shelf with the tip of his fingernail.

“Is this related? You said something. Someone twisted space and time for some purpose.”

“There’s no evidence. This time, it’s just my gut feeling.”

“… … .”

“Me too.”

Heo Yun lowers his voice.

“Now that. The body, let’s check that person.”

Although he appears calm at first glance, Heo Yun is also very agitated.

He somehow maintains his tone of voice, but he stutters badly, which is unusual for him.

“Yes.”

I turned the light from my cell phone that was pointed at the wall and shone it at the hanging man.

“Dead, is it really dead?”

“Yes.”

slowly.

Light shines upward from the tips of the feet.

Until the outline of the face is revealed.

When the face was finally fully revealed,

Heo Yun screamed sharply.

“Sister!?”

“Ugh, gasp. Ugh… … .”

Fortunately, no one was passing by on the street, and no one came inside.

The problem is Heo Yun’s condition.

The moment I saw the face, I immediately panicked.

“Are you okay, Unnie? Why are you like that all of a sudden?”

“I know you. I know you, so why are you here? Why are you here?”

“Do you know him?”

Heo Yun nods roughly.

Her hair flutters back and forth in a messy manner.

“Why are you here? How!”

I don’t know, but Heo Yoon knows.

If Heo Yun didn’t tell me directly, I wouldn’t even be able to guess who it was.

He calmly held onto Heo Yun and looked him in the eye.

“Tell me who it is. Is it the person you knew when you were in the apartment?”

“… … .”

Heo Yun wiped away her tears and confessed what she knew.

“It’s Mr. Chen.”

“The man who saved me from the apartment. Back in the old days.”

“We were living together when he went missing one day, and we had something to say before that. When people go missing in an apartment, it’s often the case that they go missing while investigating, but that wasn’t the case. I think he probably pressed the elevator button himself and went to a different floor.”

Heo Yoon, who was forced to swallow her tears, spoke intermittently.

I had to calm Heo Yun down while also organizing the contents in my head.

1. The man hanging here now is named Chen.

2. Chen was a former acquaintance of Heo Yun and was one of the survivors who had been living together in the apartment.

3. Chen got into the elevator by himself, left Heo Yun, and disappeared.

“The ‘other floor’ that person arrived at could have been right here.”

“I don’t know about that. It was so long ago. I might have kept wandering around.”

Heo Yoon takes a deep breath and shrugs his shoulders.

Then he continued to mutter as if he had some doubts.

“But why here?”

“What does that mean?”

“Why? The place where the old man lived was not here, but Hong Kong. Why did the place where I lived come up? Why?”

Heo Yun’s words sound as if Chen himself can decide the location.

“Sister. You need to calm down. Slow down and explain from the beginning.”

“Ugh. Okay. I know. ”

I waited for a moment for Heo Yun to regain his composure.

“… … Okay, that’s enough. Where should I start?”

“What Chen said right before he left. I think that’s important.”

From a while ago, Heo Yoon seemed to have something on his mind.

And that’s because I remember the words left behind by a man named Chen.

First, we need to know what kind of person Chen was.

Heo Yun wiped away her tears once more and opened her mouth.

“The old man kept saying this a few days before he left. There is a floor where wishes are granted, and he will find it.”

“A floor where wishes come true? Is there really such a thing?”

“I don’t know. It was the first time I heard about it. But the old man kept saying he was going there.”

“Eventually, you may find a layer with similar characteristics. For example, you may want to change the landscape of the layer to a desired location.”

“I think so too. But why.”

Heo Yun can’t hold back his emotions and starts asking questions that no one is listening to.

“Why did it turn out like that? Why did you decide to live where I used to live?”

“Why did you go to a strange place alone?”

“Why is there no hope? Why!!!”

[There is no hope]

Heo Yun screams wildly as he stares at the letters written in Korean.

Perhaps, it was someone who was like family to me.

A person like that is hanging on a rope, having taken his own life.

He left behind not a single line of his will, only a message that there was no hope.

‘There is no hope.’

Does that mean he was that pessimistic about the situation?

He may have taken his own life because he was trapped in his apartment and couldn’t get out.

no.

There’s no way they left nothing behind.

I shook my head vigorously.

If I really thought there was no hope, I wouldn’t have bothered to tear up the t-shirt and write neatly.

They wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of climbing up a tree and marking it with a red cloth.

So then what is it?

Although we only found out a few things from our conversation with Heo Yun, we were able to make enough inferences.

First, the appearance of this floor.

It is highly likely that the fact that one floor of the apartment was made like this was intentional on the part of a person named Chen.

April 11, 2011, Korea. Just one district.

The time and space there were torn apart and left here.

Maybe Heo Yun was calculating that he would come here.

The place where Heo Yun lived. It’s hard to believe that the time zone matches just because it’s a coincidence.

then.

Was this guy named Chen seeing the future?

What on earth was Chen trying to leave behind?

In the midst of the endless questions, the message written on the wall caught my eye again.