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Chapter 5
“Hey.”
How long had I been asleep?
“Wake up.”
At someone’s urging, I slowly opened my eyes. My mind was still foggy and disoriented.
“…The sun’s already up.”
A calm voice informed me of the situation.
Realizing what that meant, I opened my eyes wide.
“Already?”
The sleep vanished instantly.
“We really made it until morning?”
“Yeah.”
“Here, in the elevator? Nothing came after us?”
“Nothing came. I brought the phone with me.”
The phone Dan Seohyeok held out was completely dead. Poor thing, it had worked hard. My precious phone!
“Is Eden Villa safe in the morning?”
“We became safe by surviving the night. If we leave and come back in, or if evening comes, it goes back to how it was yesterday.”
I see. That was… not very welcome information.
“So this is the first time I’ve survived like this…”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
No, if it was nothing, then maybe I should not have muttered it in the first place…
The elevator floor was clean, as if nothing had ever happened. It was like everything had been a dream.
“Oh, right! I have to find my brother!”
“I already looked around while you were asleep.”
I jumped up to get out of the elevator, but Dan Seohyeok’s words stopped me.
He had already searched everything?
“…But you were alone.”
“There were no people upstairs.”
“Liar. Do you know how much I suffered to get here, scared out of my mind?”
I looked down at the strand of hair tied around my wrist.
I had come into a place like this, believing the words of a ghost I hated, and endured all those terrifying events last night just to find Chohae.
And he wasn’t here?
“Did I get fooled?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll go check myself.”
“Hey.”
Dan Seohyeok grabbed my wrist as I tried to go up the stairs. I jerked his hand away irritably.
“Why are you stopping me? He’s my brother! I’m the one who should find him!”
“Calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down? What if my brother went through the same terrifying things I did yesterday? What if there was no one to help him, no way to escape, and he got hurt because of it… then what?”
The tears I had been holding back finally spilled over.
“When Mom and Dad aren’t around, I’m supposed to protect Chohae….”
I knew perfectly well that this kind of emotional outburst did nothing to solve anything. But what was I supposed to do about the tears coming out anyway?
“You go first. I’ll stay and keep looking. You don’t have to help me.”
I waved my hand, muttering for him to go ahead.
Dan Seohyeok stared at me for a long moment, then let out a sigh.
“My parents are missing too.”
I flinched and stopped moving at words I already knew.
“It’s not just a simple disappearance.”
Dan Seohyeok had witnessed his parents vanish right in front of him. I had read that scene in the novel.
“So I understand how you feel right now. I didn’t just carelessly look around.”
The novel also mentioned how hard it was for him after losing his parents.
‘Later, even when he got companions, he only talked about his parents much later.’
Was he telling me because we were in the same situation?
Dan Seohyeok held out his hand.
“You’re in danger if you stay alone. There might be some variable.”
I couldn’t ignore his hand.
‘Even though it was only a short time, he kept protecting me while we were together, even with that sharp mouth of his.’
He had even tried to sacrifice himself in an emergency for me—someone he had only just met.
“…Okay.”
In the end, I had no choice but to nod.
The hot, boiling panic in my head gradually cooled.
Dan Seohyeok was right. For now, I needed to get out of here and look for clues about Chohae’s whereabouts again.
The front door handle was visible again, and unlike before, I could open the door normally.
When I stepped outside, the cool, clear dawn air greeted me.
‘Ah… I only asked permission for a night out from the dorm.’
I was definitely going to get scolded badly for staying out overnight without permission.
“You’re going straight home?”
“I live in the dorm, so I have to go back to school.”
I fiddled with the strand of hair tied around my wrist as I answered.
“I’ll try to deal with this using the method you told me too.”
[Noona.]
A sudden uninvited guest joined the conversation.
Dan Seohyeok and I both looked down at once. Red was standing between us, when it had gotten there, I didn’t even know.
[It’s still okay.]
“…Huh?”
What did that mean? Still?
[Don’t undo it.]
[Because I need to come find noona later.]
Then that only made me want to undo it more….
Red pointed at me while saying something eerie with such an innocent face.
‘Still, he doesn’t seem like a dangerous ghost. He’s scary, but…’
While I hesitated, Dan Seohyeok made a face like he wanted to ask why I was even bothering to listen to it.
No matter what, how was I supposed to flat-out say “I don’t want to hear what you have to say” to a child… no, a ghost, who had such a pure-looking face?
[Noona.]
[I’ll help you.]
[So noona should help me too.]
“…Help you with what?”
From the context, it sounded like Red was saying he’d help me find my brother.
But did ghosts usually ask humans for help like this?
Just as I started worrying he might ask for something dangerous, Red said tearfully,
[Please find my mom.]
[I miss my mom.]
He sounded so heartbreakingly sad, just like a child who had gotten lost.
For a second, I almost hugged him out of pity.
“Don’t be fooled.”
Dan Seohyeok warned me quietly. I understood that in my head, but…
[If noona helps me, I’ll help noona! I can do it!]
“Does that mean you can help me find my brother?”
[Yeah! There’s a reason people who disappear around here vanish.]
Red hurriedly answered, worried I might reject his request.
[That trafficker ghost uncle.]
So the original novel’s ghost really had shown up here.
[He’s been active around here lately.]
I had desperately hoped my brother hadn’t gotten mixed up with that thing.
“Are you sure?”
At Red’s words, Dan Seohyeok frowned. Red’s answer did not come right away.
Was he doubting the source of the information because the being linked to my parents’ disappearance had appeared?
“Don’t speak carelessly about things you’re not sure about.”
[But it’s true that that uncle has been active in Eden-dong lately!]
Red looked wronged, but under Dan Seohyeok’s cold stare, he became sullen.
Even though he was young, to suppress a ghost with sheer presence like that… as expected, the protagonist was on another level.
“How much do you ghosts even know about how much your careless words can shake the victims?”
Dan Seohyeok seemed to be speaking both for me and for himself.
He looked like he might start fighting the ghost any second, so I quickly blocked him with my arm.
“Hey, calm down.”
“What am I calming down for?”
“Whether what he says is true or not, we can at least check it out like a search.”
As his expression darkened, I hurriedly added,
“All we’d be doing is looking for the mom he mentioned….”
As I said it, I worried I might be overstepping, so my voice trailed off.
“You…”
Dan Seohyeok frowned deeply.
“How stupid are you?”
Hey, who says something like that right to someone’s face?!
“Have you forgotten all the trouble you went through just getting here?”
Dan Seohyeok pointed at my wrist and then at Eden Villa in turn.
“And you still want to trust a ghost?”
By now his face wasn’t just frowned—it was downright contemptuous.
“Not stupid. Crazy.”
What a harsh bastard….
“I know it sounds strange coming from me.”
I answered, pressing my temple as hard as I could to stay calm. Normally, I’d have exploded by now.
“But after what I went through last night, I’m considering it more carefully.”
This involved my brother. I couldn’t back down here.
“I’ve seen with my own eyes that ghosts really do exist, so why wouldn’t there be a human-trafficking ghost? The number of disappearances has been increasing lately, and there are tons of people who still haven’t been found. There’s a good chance my brother was kidnapped by that ghost.”
“……”
“I understand that ghosts are not beings you can trust. But if I don’t believe even this kid in this situation, then what am I supposed to do?”
This time I said it seriously.
“Should I leave it to the police? To adults? Do you think anyone would believe me if I said a ghost kidnapped him?”
“Machoyeon.”
“And your parents are missing too. Isn’t this related?”
Dan Seohyeok clenched his fist.
“If there’s still no news, you’d probably suspect they were kidnapped by that trafficker ghost too.”
“That’s enough. I get it, so stop.”
“That’s why you’re rummaging around in a villa full of ghosts in the first place.”
I hadn’t meant to say that much.
His tightly shut eyes and strained face showed how much it hurt. I felt guilty, like I had poked at a wound.
Still, I wanted him to understand even a little of how desperate I was.
I hadn’t made this decision lightly either.
“If you back away just because you’re scared and can’t trust ghosts, how are you supposed to find your brother in a situation like this?”
“He could ask you to do something dangerous while pretending to look for his mom.”
“I know.”
I looked down at my wrist. The hair I hadn’t untied was still wrapped there.
“…I was prepared for that from the start.”
Even coming to Eden Villa.
Even without saying it, the meaning seemed to get through, and Dan Seohyeok kept his mouth shut.
