Chapter 34: Courage Test (3)

Jung-seok said that Dahee had been involved in some big incident during her elementary school days, and this seemed to be a different case from Juhee's sister's disappearance.

"I don't feel comfortable talking about it myself."

Jung-seok, who usually liked explaining things, was being unusually reticent this time.

I wanted to probe further in many ways, but I thought there must be a good reason for Jung-seok to say this.

Everyone has their circumstances, after all.

Beep beep-

When I opened the door lock and entered, Dahee had already packed all her things.

"Guys. I think I'm just getting in the way. Sorry. I should go now."

Is she thinking of going home?

Certainly, given the current atmosphere, it didn't seem like we could continue playing games or anything like that.

In the end, Dahee left too. Only Jung-seok and I remained.

The house that had felt noisy and cramped until just now suddenly felt spacious.

"So many strange things happen. I didn't expect Juhee to yell and leave like that."

Jung-seok commented.

It seemed Jung-seok hadn't known about the situation between Juhee and Dahee either. I briefly explained what I had heard from Juhee, and Jung-seok was greatly surprised.

"She gave false witness testimony? No wonder Juhee was angry. But why would she do such a thing? What did Dahee gain from lying to the police?"

It seems Jung-seok has hit the same wall as me.

Why on earth would she do that?

It's natural to be confused since it doesn't make sense.

"Maybe because she was in elementary school, she had the urge to lie and deceive adults. Kids pull all sorts of pranks in elementary school. It was a child's innocent malice."

That was as far as I could guess. However, Jung-seok, who attended the same private elementary school as Dahee, had a different judgment.

"From what I remember, Dahee was... the one who took care of the school rabbits and hamsters most diligently."

"Really?"

"She suddenly retracted her statement... I think there might be a point here."

Sudden retraction… Suddenly unable to remember...

Come to think of it, isn't there someone around me experiencing a similar situation these days?

It was my mom.

My mom's whereabouts were unclear during the three days she was missing, and her memory and mind were so unstable that she even forgot about me, her son.

Dahee's retraction of her testimony about Juhee's sister's disappearance, and my mom's memory loss.

What if these incidents, which seem completely unrelated, were actually similar situations?

"Jung-seok. When was that big incident you mentioned? You said Dahee was involved in a pretty big incident when she was in elementary school. Can you at least tell me when it happened?"

"...It was summer of 6th grade. After that, Dahee started coming to school in a chauffeur-driven car. I didn't know she still came to school by car until now."

Summer of 6th grade.

I felt like I could hear cicadas in my ears, and an unpleasant feeling came over me as sticky sweat ran down my back.

To shake off the feeling of being thrown into midsummer, I spoke with feigned seriousness.

"Juhee's sister was attending Yeongji High School when she disappeared. Even if it was 4 years ago, a high school girl's disappearance would have been big news, right? Wouldn't it come up if we search?"

We searched the internet for missing person cases in Gaeryong City and high school girl disappearances.

And... quite a few cases came up.

Just at the beginning of this year, a Yeongji High student went missing.

And 5 years ago, there was a student who was found with only her head missing after disappearing...

Another one went missing 4 years ago.

"Series of High School Girl Disappearances in Gaeryong City"

"Police Still Struggling with Investigation..."

"This seems to be about Juhee's sister. The article was written in spring. Juhee's sister disappeared in spring. But according to you, Jung-seok, the incident Dahee experienced was in summer. The timing doesn't match."

I thought Dahee had experienced a big incident, lost her memory, and retracted her testimony about the disappearance case.

But the big incident Dahee experienced was much later than the retraction of the disappearance testimony.

I don't know. It seems we'd know for sure if we asked them directly, but it's such a sensitive matter that it would be difficult to talk about easily.

***

"More importantly, why are there so many disappearances in this city?"

It was an ominous city in many ways.

Is it because the city itself is on a large water vein?

"Are they the work of the same perpetrator?"

"No. I don't think so. This headless case. They caught a suspect who was presumed to be the culprit. He even confessed to committing the crime. But it wasn't related to the other cases."

Jung-seok pointed to an article about the 'headless high school girl' case from 5 years ago.

He seemed to know quite a bit about it.

"But the culprit was released due to lack of evidence."

Someone who even confessed was released due to lack of evidence?

As I felt puzzled, Jung-seok said,

"I think it's impossible too. Back then, my father was known as an undefeated prosecutor. But after handling this case, my father changed."

I remembered that Jung-seok dreamed of becoming a prosecutor.

He joined the 'Ha Young-won Pirate Crew' to exorcise ghosts in order to become the world's strongest prosecutor who could take down all criminals.

When I first heard about his future dream, I didn't understand much. But now, it seems Jung-seok has quite complicated circumstances too.

"And they still haven't found the head that disappeared then. Remember when I fell over in shock after seeing that rolling head in the elevator? I thought it might have been that head."

"Was the head we encountered in the elevator from this high school girl?"

"No. It looked different. This high school girl. She was a big sister who lived next door to us. If it had been her face, I would have recognized it for sure. It was someone else."

So Jung-seok experienced his next-door neighbor being murdered with only her head missing.

His father, who was a prosecutor, handled the case, but the culprit was even released.

How should I put this...

We just had four people gather at my house today, but I've learned so much unexpected information that my head is starting to throb.

We were just planning to play games, eat chicken, and talk about the "Nightmare Corridor."

A severed head…

Suddenly, something clicked in my mind.

"Oh right. Jung-seok. About Ms. Hong Mi-ri, the English teacher. Don't you think she's a bit suspicious?"

"The English teacher? She does drive a sports car that's hard to afford on a teacher's salary. It's definitely suspicious no matter how you look at it. She could be from a wealthy family, though."

"No, not that."

I told Jung-seok about what happened recently.

The blood flowing from her neck, and the different colors of her face and body.

Swish-

Jung-seok quickly pulled out some documents from the bag he brought today.

"Are you saying it might be related to... the twin experiment?"

[Document excerpt omitted for brevity]

"The sisters' names are Yeri and... Mi-ri? Hong Yeri and Hong Mi-ri? Young-won. This sounds quite plausible. They usually write the older sister's name first. The younger sister mentioned here is Hong Mi-ri..."

Jung-seok seemed to be deep in thought.

Then he came to a conclusion.

"It says here that the younger sister has a unique birthmark on her body. If we could check directly, we might be able to confirm her identity for sure. Since it says 'unique birthmark,' it must be distinctive enough to notice."

Let's check if Ms. Hong Mi-ri has a birthmark on her body...

Is that what we're talking about now?

"How? How do we check that?"

How do we check for a unique birthmark on a female teacher's body?

Jung-seok couldn't come up with a plausible method for this either.

Then Jung-seok said,

"You know the rumor about Kim Geonho wandering around the motel district with the English teacher? If it's true, wouldn't Kim Geonho know whether Ms. Hong Mi-ri has a birthmark on her body?"

"Come on, that rumor seemed fake."

"Are you 100% sure it's fake?"

Am I 100% sure? If you ask like that... I couldn't be certain.

"You said Kim Geonho isn't coming to school now. No. Even if he was, asking him if the English teacher has a birthmark on her body is a bit... difficult. Anyway, since we're on the topic..."

I took the opportunity to tell Jung-seok about the Nightmare Corridor.

Jung-seok was my trustworthy friend and he was smart.

"Is that real? You can put people into a place like the elevator death floor? Like party players entering a dungeon?"

It's nice that he understands quickly.

I also told him that if you die in the corridor, you get a 《Quirk》. And that if you get two 《Quirks》, you die.

"Quirk... Is it related to my cousin Jung Sojin not attending class because she was freaking out about her body smelling?"

Jung-seok's deduction was accurate.

Did he guess that Sojin was a player just from me mentioning quirks?

I wondered if he'd get angry that I put his cousin into a terrifying urban legend... As I was thinking this, Jung-seok said,

"It's an interesting story. Maybe everything we're experiencing is related to that 'Nightmare Corridor.' If we keep raising that 'progress' thing, we might see a clue."

Jung-seok didn't seem to care much about his cousin being put into the corridor, but he seemed concerned about something else.

"That corridor thing. Can anyone enter it? Or is there a criteria for appearing on the player list? Am I on it?"

"You... are. I can see you on the list now. Some people are on it, some aren't. I'm not sure what the criteria is. Yoo Dahee was added today too. Maybe it's based on people I've met."

Looking at the player list again, I saw that Ms. Hong Mi-ri had been added too.

As I was thinking how strange this was, Jung-seok got excited.

"Do you not realize how incredible this is? You've become someone who can kill people without leaving any evidence in this world. Have you seen the manga Death Note? You're like the protagonist in that!"

"Death Note... where you kill people by writing their names in a notebook?"

"Yes! If you were to become friends with the U.S. President, you might be able to put him in that corridor and kill him. And there would be no evidence!"

Thinking about it that way... it certainly seemed possible.

"I guess we were right that we're more like the mafia in a mafia game or the impostor. And Young-won, wouldn't you be able to secretly kill the culprit from this case 5 years ago?"

Jung-seok pointed to his next-door neighbor's case on the monitor.

"It's about passing judgment on those who slipped through the legal net. It's not right for someone who clearly committed a crime to live proudly just because they repented a bit in church, even when the victim hasn't forgiven them."

I started to imagine what would have happened if Jung-seok had gotten this status window instead of me. Would people have started dying suddenly?

"Hey, Jung-seok. That's going too far. What if, hypothetically, you killed people like that and their ghosts all came after me? That would only screw me over. Are you confident you could handle it if the U.S. President's ghost threatened me with the nuclear missile button? If a murderer's ghost chased me, I'd seriously pee my pants."

"...That's... that's true. Ghosts..."

Jung-seok nodded as if he understood what I was saying, but his eyes still looked troubled with various thoughts.

I spoke up, as if to preempt Jung-seok from saying something ominous again.

"We were originally planning to explore the corridor today. Given how the atmosphere has turned out, it might be better to pass on that for now."

Buzz-. Ding-

Just then, my phone rang. I wondered who it could be, and it was Yoo Dahee.

「Yoo Dahee: I'm going to the old school building now because I think I might remember things if I go in」

「Yoo Dahee: But I'm a bit scared to go in alone, will you come with me?」

The old school building...

She's not talking about entering the Nightmare Corridor, but actually entering the real old school building?

「ㄷㄷ That's a bit ㄷㄷㄷ」

This is crazy.

Why should I go to a place where ghosts might pop out anyway? Do I look like someone who would unconditionally agree to a pretty girl's request, even though I'm Ha Young-won who could even influence the U.S. President?

「Yoo Dahee: If you come with me, I'll grant you one wish」

"Hey, Seok. Want to do a courage test today?"