Chapter 77
Standing behind the headless body and lifting it by the sides, Hong Ye-ri's body struggled fiercely, trying to break free from me with all its might.
Struggle struggle struggle struggle-
"Whoa!"
Is a resisting woman such a troublesome and powerful being? I don't know where this strength comes from in a body without a head.
Maybe I'm just weak. Should I start doing strength training?
Until now, I've been relying on Yang Juhee for tasks requiring strength, but the problem is that when facing difficulties alone, I can't get help from anyone.
If this situation resolves well, I should start exercising too. But now that I've decided to exercise, I don't know how to begin.
Should I ask Yang Juhee or Bong Ji-yeon?
Yang Juhee said she learned Taekwondo as a child, and Bong Ji-yeon was a promising sprinter expected to become an Olympic athlete until middle school.
They both clearly know much more about physical activities than I do.
With these positive thoughts, I moved forward. The status window appeared in front of me.
『The item has been placed in front of the exit.』
『15 steps northeast.』
『13 steps northeast.』
『5 steps east.』
『1 step east.』
"This elevator seems to be the exit."
"This? How can you tell?"
The twin sister, Ms. Hong Mi-ri, frowned at the elevator.
I could sense a whirlwind of emotions in her eyes - doubt, fear, tension, and anticipation. Although I had made Ms. Hong Mi-ri promise not to harm me, I still felt a bit scared.
I imagined that if I didn't provide a plausible explanation, the mentally unstable Ms. Hong Mi-ri might attack me, strangling or beating me.
It wasn't an entirely unreasonable thought. Wouldn't it be more strange and abnormal if someone who had lived in this bizarre place for ten years with only a head remained normal?
"I can see things that others can't. That's how I know this elevator is the escape route. Trust me."
We boarded the elevator and pressed the button.
Whirr-
The elevator started moving.
Ding-
After a small vibration, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.
We could see the third-floor corridor of the building where Ms. Hong Mi-ri's office was located.
Fearing the elevator might change its mind and close, I quickly jumped out into the corridor.
"Phew!"
My pounding heart finally calmed down. Now it felt like I was alive!
"See! It's real, right? We really got out, didn't we?"
I turned around to look at Ms. Hong Mi-ri.
However, unlike her earlier determination to escape the deathly silent floor, Ms. Hong Mi-ri was hesitating to step out into the corridor.
Hong Mi-ri slowly stretched out her hand first.
"Outside..."
Her fingers swept through the air in the corridor as if trying to grasp floating flower petals.
After about 30 seconds had passed like this,
Hong Mi-ri decisively extended her red high heel, as if she had made a big decision.
Click.
The sound of the high heel echoed clearly in the silent corridor. Without time to get emotional about that clear sound, another step followed.
Click.
Hong Mi-ri had now completely left the elevator and was standing firmly on her own two legs in the corridor. I asked her,
"How does it feel?"
"...Huh."
Thud.
Hong Mi-ri sat down on the floor.
"I... I really got out."
And then she covered her face with both hands and started shaking her shoulders. I could tell she was crying bitterly.
It was sudden and bewildering, but it also felt natural.
A woman who had been unfairly confined for 10 years had found freedom and been released. As a mere first-year high school student, I couldn't imagine how that must feel.
"I got out. I... It was this easy... But... my life is already ruined. 10 years! The 10 years that should have been my most beautiful and brilliant won't come back!"
It seemed that while escaping was good, the reality of a 10-year gap in life was starting to sink in.
"...To think I'm already 27 when I didn't even graduate high school."
I had heard that men spending about 2 years in the military is considered a huge waste of life. If it's 10 years, it's certainly not an exaggeration to say one's life is ruined.
Flutter-
The butterfly birthmark flew freely between Hong Mi-ri's palms, face, and nape as she sobbed.
Hearing the woman's sobs made me a bit scared, and I felt I should say something, so I carefully chose words from my mind and spoke:
"Teacher. They say that when a caterpillar is inside its chrysalis, it completely melts into a state that's neither alive nor dead."
"......"
"Only caterpillars with the courage to cut their own flesh and bones and completely destroy themselves can become butterflies and beautifully fly in the sky."
"Butterfly...?"
Peek.
Swollen eyes peeked out between her fingers.
I thought I might have overstepped by saying something presumptuous to avoid the situation, but since I had already started, I decided to finish it clearly.
"Butterflies are confined in their chrysalis for quite a long time, but no one says that time is useless or meaningless. Similarly, you've now emerged from your cocoon and become a butterfly, teacher. Now you can fly freely wherever you want."
"...Are you trying to comfort me now?"
"Yes. You seemed so sad..."
I was worried that Ms. Hong Mi-ri, confused by mixed emotions, might suddenly exclaim, "Actually, all promises were lies, and I'll eat you!" Soon, Ms. Hong Mi-ri said,
"You said your name was Ha Young-won, right?"
"Yes."
"You don't have a girlfriend, do you?"
"What? Me?"
"Women sometimes cry even when they're not sad. To be honest, I'm happy to leave that horrible corridor. I'm also sad. It's just... like that. You don't understand women's hearts at all."
Women's hearts are such a pain in the ass. I lost out by worrying and trying to comfort her.
As I was thinking that when people offer clumsy kindness, it can sometimes backfire, Hong Mi-ri wiped her eyes with her fingers and laughed, "Hahaha-"
"A butterfly, huh. Yeah. That's nice. It was an awkward comfort, but it feels like you soothed my heart. I was being immature. I should be happy about what I've newly gained rather than regretting what I've lost."
No butterfly regrets the time it spent curled up in its chrysalis. Butterflies must shed everything.
Only then can they flutter their silky soft wings and fly in the sky with a light heart.
***
"Is it okay to put this here?"
Ms. Hong Mi-ri's office.
I laid Hong Ye-ri's struggling body on the foldable bed in the office and securely tied its hands and feet to the posts with cable ties.
Struggle struggle struggle-
Even after struggling for a while, the body became docile once tightly bound. It was still amazing to see.
"It's fascinating that it's alive even without a head. But what are you planning to do with this?"
Why did she want to bring this body out? This would be a hit if we made a MeTube video with it.
As I was thinking this, Ms. Hong Mi-ri said,
"I thought it would be good to keep it, but now it just seems to take up space. Ha Young-won. You can have it if you want."
"What?"
I was taken aback.
What would I do with this?
"Why? Don't you like it? You can use it as a punching bag when you're angry."
Squeeze-
Ms. Hong Mi-ri pinched the body's white thigh. The body squirmed. Seems it can feel pain even without a head.
"Or you could do naughty things you can't tell others about. Aren't boys your age overflowing with energy at the sight of a woman in a skirt? That's how 17-year-olds were in my memory."
"...No, it's still a headless body, you know."
I looked at the head too. Hong Ye-ri's head was placed on the desk, still glaring at me and Hong Mi-ri.
Its mouth was moving as if it wanted to speak.
Swish-
Ms. Hong Mi-ri placed a piece of women's underwear that was lying nearby on Hong Ye-ri's head. She seemed to want to cover that face.
Anyway. We successfully escaped the elevator and subdued Hong Ye-ri, who we thought was Hong Mi-ri.
What we gained was the enlightenment of the elevator urban legend. And the package I acquired through delivery from the shop window.
『Suspicious Pink Lipstick: A suspicious lipstick made with very suspicious ingredients. It makes you feel good when applied. It doesn't come off easily and lasts long.』
I acquired the lipstick. It was a very suspicious lipstick from the name alone.
It's a women's item. It seemed useless to a manly man like me. So after some thought, I decided to gift it to Ms. Hong Mi-ri to celebrate her return to society.
"Teacher. They say you'll feel good if you use this lipstick."
"You said you got this lipstick with your mysterious ability, right? And it's thanks to that mysterious ability that we could escape the elevator? That's really fascinating. I've never heard of such a thing."
"Really?"
"Seeing and hearing things others can't. If Kwon Oh-sung saw you, he would have been so interested in you that he'd lose interest in me. I've never seen someone with such high aptitude to become an Observer like you."
Observer aptitude.
I suddenly became curious. And Ms. Hong Mi-ri seemed to know enough to answer my questions like a real teacher.
"What exactly is an Observer?"
"You don't know? I thought you would. Maybe I expected too much."
Ms. Hong Mi-ri looked at me, narrowing her eyes slightly as if a bit disappointed.
I was a man. Of course, this kind of treatment would make me bristle.
"Actually, I do know something. It means someone who can see ghosts, right? Someone who observes. In English, it's like 'watcher', isn't it?"
"No. You really don't know. Ah... how should I explain this? My brain's been stiff for so long, I'm not sure if I can explain it well... Hmm. You're a high school student, right? Have you studied Plato?"
"Yes, to some extent."
"Do you know Plato's Allegory of the Cave? The story of prisoners who've been chained in a dark cave for a long time, thinking the shadows cast by torches on the cave wall are the real world, until they're finally set free."
Is she talking about that difficult Theory of Forms?
As I frowned, Ms. Hong Mi-ri added,
"How do you think someone who only saw rabbit shadows on the cave wall and thought they were real rabbits would feel if they were unchained and went outside the cave to see a rabbit in the sunlight?"
"Hmm... Happy...? Amazed...? Or, do they feel betrayed that what they knew all along was just shadows...?"
"Wrong. The correct answer is 'it's too bright'. For someone who's been trapped in a dark cave their whole life, suddenly going out into the sunlight would be so bright they couldn't open their eyes or might go blind. That's normal."
"Ah..."
Now that I heard it, it did make sense. It also felt a bit like wordplay.
"So you need to train to slowly get used to the light so you can adapt to that brightness and see the 'essence'. And after such training, the prisoner can become an Observer who sees the real rabbit."
"...So, in the end, what is an Observer? Someone who sees rabbits?"
"It means people who see the truth. This truth varies depending on the case. Some call it the afterlife that exists after death. It could be ghosts. Some call it nightmares."
"Hmm..."
"The orphanage director, Kwon Oh-sung, wanted to create Observers who could see this truth. He wanted to find the path to truth and obtain something. And the method of creating an Observer is... similar to a chrysalis."
"A chrysalis?"
"You said it yourself. The caterpillar in the chrysalis becomes neither dead nor alive. That's the state they create. They put people on the boundary between death and life by imbuing the body with some kind of strange phenomenon."
By strange phenomenon, she probably meant ghosts.
Suddenly, I could recall Hong Ye-ri becoming a ghost that devoured children in the nightmare.
Hong Ye-ri was both human and the Red Mask. What if that was the result of intentional surgery or experiments to create an Observer?
It made sense in many ways.
"But they said sometimes people are naturally born who can clearly see things in the bright sunlight without standing on that boundary. Kwon Oh-sung called such people 'Heroes'."
"Heroes?"
"Yes. People who can bravely leap towards the truth of their own will. They said Observers should aim to become such Heroes as their ultimate goal. Heroes can freely enter places like... the Night School or something. I don't really understand that part."
Ms. Hong Mi-ri said she didn't know, but I felt like I understood in many ways.
Heroes must refer to people who have the means to voluntarily enter the Nightmare Corridor.
Observers are people like Hong Ye-ri who can see the truth but can't enter the corridor on their own.
Broadly speaking, could I, as the Game Master, be considered a Hero too?
...Are there more people like me?
As I was thinking to myself, Hong Mi-ri applied the pink lipstick she received from me to her lips.
"How is it?"
To be honest, her lipstick application skills were clumsy.
She's 27 years old, but Hong Mi-ri's age was actually frozen at 17 when her neck was cut.
She must have been unskilled with makeup at 17. Well, only delinquents like Yang Juhee or Bong Ji-yeon are proficient with makeup in high school.
"It looks good."
But I didn't want to upset her, so I just said something vague. Hong Mi-ri frowned.
"You're lying, aren't you? I hate liars the most. In that sense, this teacher needs to punish you. Come here!"
Grab!
Hong Mi-ri approached me, grabbed me, and planted a kiss on my cheek. I felt my face heat up, my cheek tingling.
Hong Mi-ri said,
"I can't say for sure what this body has done, but that was definitely my first kiss. Ha Young-won. You saved me. You're my benefactor."