episode_0127

People look at us with expectant eyes and ask:

“I, I, I… … .”

People who are so excited that they can’t even speak properly.

“How did you two get in here?”

“Do you know about the entrance, Sister?”

“Please.”

But I can’t give people the answers they want.

“Dabin. What should I do?”

“We don’t know either. The last thing I remember is being chased by some kind of slime-like monster.”

“?”

Yebin gave him a look full of doubt, but it only lasted for a moment.

“Ah… … .”

Sighs are heard here and there, and some who still have not lost hope ask the question again.

“So you passed out and when you opened your eyes you were here?”

“Or maybe he ran away and ended up here by chance.”

“You guys came here on your own, right? Right?”

“Well, I don’t know. I… … .”

I shook my head as if I knew nothing.

To someone who doesn’t know the situation, it looks like a bunch of people gathered together and harassing an innocent girl.

“I think I got caught by a monster at the end.”

“So? Do you remember what happened after that?”

People who want to catch even the smallest clue keep asking questions.

“Wait, hoo. Wait a minute. Suddenly.”

This time too, of course, acting.

In times like this, an innocent face helps. Although it’s not a very pleasant impression.

He gasped for breath as if recalling a painful memory, then raised his head with dead eyes.

“It occurred to me.”

“What? Remember?”

“Yes… … . I… … am definitely dead… … .”

Hope fades from people’s eyes.

“I was living in a parking lot with other people, and they all died. I was caught while running away, and my body melted in the mucus.”

“No.”

People who sigh.

I looked back at the audience with blank eyes.

“But why? Why did I wake up here again?”

Only silence fills the dark space.

“Yeah. I can’t help it.”

“It was a vain expectation.”

People filled with disappointment left, leaving only one person behind.

A timid looking boy. He looks like an elementary school student at best.

“Hey, hello.”

A guy who greets people awkwardly first.

“Everyone else is just doing it this way, so I think I should explain it.”

Then he takes a deep breath and prepares what to say next.

“They’re probably dead.”

“… … .”

A moment of silence.

After waiting a little while, I opened my mouth first.

“So this is the afterlife?”

“Yes. Other people have been like that. Reading a strange book and having their head explode, or taking a wrong turn in a maze and having their body melt.”

“They all died in the apartment.”

“Yes.”

The afterlife is needed everywhere.

The same is true in apartments, which are isolated spaces and times.

Because souls that have lost their flesh have no choice but to gather in one place.

“Everyone seems to want to get out of here. Why is that?”

“That’s it.”

The boy rolls up his sleeves and shows off.

A faucet is sprouting out from under the pure white skin like a sprout.

“If you stay here long enough, furniture will sprout from your body.”

“I see. Are there any people like that?”

“No. Everyone is acting weird… … .”

The boy looks around and then changes his words.

“Yes. Everyone is acting weird here. So we have to get out of here quickly.”

“Just a minute.”

“I’m sorry!”

A child who quickly disappears after leaving only those words behind.

The two of us were left alone in the hallway again.

“It was a good thing that just the two of us came.”

I spoke to Yebin in a bitter voice.

An afterlife located in the basement of a hotel. All those who died in the apartment are likely to gather here.

If you put your mind to it, you may even run into someone you know. Many survivors have died and new ones have come in repeatedly.

I also remember the faces of the men who initially led the survivors.

People who lost their lives in vain, hoping that they would be able to leave their apartments.

But even after death, he was suffering in a place like this.

No one should know this truth.

If you must know, the fewer people the better.

It was a kind of intuition that I had felt from the first time I came here.

“Dabin.”

Yebin quietly grabs my sleeve.

Even his usually expressionless face is showing complicated emotions this time.

“Why did you lie earlier?”

“… … .”

“We came in through the emergency exit.”

“Because of faith.”

“Faith.”

Yebin repeats what I say as if she doesn’t understand.

“I don’t know.”

Yebin adds a word just as I am about to start speaking.

“Still, I believe in Dabin.”

“… … Yeah.”

“People here. Can we go out?”

“Maybe.”

The afterlife takes the form of an apartment.

The dead are still unable to escape the space filled with strangeness and anomalies.

Emergency exits, staircases, and endless corridors and houses.

The apartment was such a harsh place that everyone who was dying believed they could never escape.

I sighed and sat up.

An endless, cold cement floor. Abandoned furniture is strewn about in the empty space.

The most striking thing is that chair.

“Yebin, can you come up here for a second?”

“Huh?”

Yebin hesitates and then climbs onto the chair.

“Okay. Stay as is.”

I kicked the chair with all my might.

Yebin naturally falls to the floor and stops after tripping on something.

A rope that has already wrapped around my neck.

Ugh-

With a snapping sound, Yebin’s feet hang in the air.

There wasn’t even time to raise one’s voice.

Yebin closes her eyes comfortably as if she has lost consciousness for a moment.

But there is still a look of confusion on his face.

“I’m sorry.”

Yebin doesn’t answer.

“I couldn’t help it.”

My hands are shaking as I speak.

Even though I had told myself this over and over again, it was still a great shock.

Because I was killing a person, and Yebin at that, with my own hands.

“I’m sorry.”

So I repeated to myself.

“Where do you think you’ll go if you die here?”

Dead but not dead.

No matter how much you deny it, Yebin will still be hanging in the air, but the guy is gone.

Further up.

Everyone’s faith. To the heaven above, where ideals come together.

Even though they had given up on escaping, they believed.

There must be a safe space somewhere in the apartment.

***

“Dabin!?”

Oh my.

Yebin took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

I instinctively felt my neck, but I couldn’t feel anything.

If I got a bruise or a break somewhere, it would hurt a lot. It just feels like touching the flesh.

“… … .”

The surroundings are where they were at first.

This was the hotel hallway before going down the stairs.

Yebin got up without saying a word. There was still something left to check.

Knock knock.

I knocked on a door halfway down the hallway and it opened right away.

“What is it? Yebin?”

Yoon Da-ju holding the doorknob with sleepy eyes.

His eyes are half-closed, as if he is still half asleep.

“Why. What happened?”

“… … .”

“Why?”

I’m back.

Escape the endlessly repeating emergency exit stairs and dark spaces, and return to the hotel where we started.

With so much to think about, Yebin couldn’t show any reaction.

Dying.

Death was the only way to escape the afterlife.

So, does Dabin intend to kill everyone trapped underground?

Did you send me here because you thought I wasn’t strong enough on my own?

Did you send him to bring other people?

Thoughts that follow one after another.

Yebin focused on her memories.

I remember what Dabin said right before we broke up.

“It was a good thing that just the two of us came.”

Now that I say that, I don’t think you’re asking me to bring other people… … .

“What? Where does it hurt? Hey. Im Ye-bin. Hey! ”

“… … .”

“Are you sleeping? Your eyes are closed.”

Dazhu keeps shaking his body.

Instead of answering, Yebin just closed her eyes.

So that the other person can understand without any explanation.

“Is it sleepwalking or something? This kid suddenly has a habit of sleeping.”

Now Dazhu will shake you awake, and you can pretend to be asleep and just woke up.

“Wow… …. You sleep so strangely. Stay still, I’ll take you there.”

“Huh!?”

While your eyes are closed, your body is lifted in an instant.

Yebin was so flustered for a moment that she ended up losing her voice.

“Huh?”

“… … .”

Keep pretending to sleep.

Let’s pretend to sleep and think.

What on earth is Dabin thinking?

Please explain it properly.

***

Even now, when I raise my head, I can see Yebin’s fingertips shaking limply.

I thought I had become mentally stronger, but I guess not.

The commotion is more severe than expected.

Even if I just stay still, my breathing becomes short and my vision becomes dark.

It was something that couldn’t be avoided anyway.

The moment you set foot here, the only way to escape is to die.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve heard of that.

So, Yebin wanted to send it as quickly as possible without fear.

Even if you come back to life, dying is a scary thing, so I did it without telling you in advance.

Now it’s my turn.

But my hands don’t move as I want them to.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Is it because of mental shock?

Or is it because of the trauma that has built up over time?

Yebin is still hanging on.

When I see that, my eyes go dark and I can’t do anything, so I have to move to a place where Yebin is not, but I can’t do anything anymore, so I can’t move, and Yebin will continue to float in the air, and I will have no choice but to spend eternity under the corpse that is gradually shrinking, and the cycle will repeat itself.

“After… … .”

He raises his head and slaps his cheek with a slap sound.

There’s still a little bit left.

Just don’t think about anything else and just think about your goal.

Don’t look for reasons, just move your body.

Strangely enough, my legs wouldn’t move, but I was able to move forward somehow by holding onto the wall.

It felt like a miracle.

Now towards death.

I knocked roughly on the apartment door and it opened slightly.

A pair of eyes stare at me from the darkness.

I take a deep breath and speak as clearly as I can.

“I know how to get out of here.”

The faith that will save the people here.

“And you can never escape this hell.”

The door opens.

He holds the doorknob with his protruding hand and sheds tears.

“Not even for a moment. I can’t rest.”

Kindness, huh?

We simply misunderstood the Creator’s kindness.

The world does not exist for us.

Just one moment. Even in a split second.