CH 76

“Why do you like that fool who can’t even feast on a ready-made meal?”

“…”

“I just can’t understand.”

I walked over to Hyehyun. Then, I snatched the phone from his hands.

On the screen wasn’t the tycoon game that I was familiar with. His photo gallery was open. On Yeonseon’s phone, there were pictures of food and pictures of me. Hyehyun’s gallery was the same. It was filled with pictures of me and Yeonseon, including a recently saved video.

I stared at Hyehyun, and he simply shrugged. He seemed to be challenging me, asking what I would do about it.

I took the phone to the bathroom and threw it in the toilet before stomping out of the room. Hyehyun laughed and shouted at me as I bolted out of the room, “Do you have anyone else to ask but me? You guys can’t even do anything without me!”

I thought Hyehyun Ham hated me.

Horrifyingly… that didn’t seem to be the case.

Something more terrifying awaited me a few days later.

The recording studio urban legend.

Despite the events at the motel, Yeonseon and I acted as if nothing happened and got along as we used to. Although, I ended up being overly conscious of Hyehyun’s gaze. On the bright side, Yeonseon seemed reluctant to touch me in front of others now, so he didn’t kiss me in front of Hyehyun anymore.

Uneventful days went by.

That was until I saw Yeonseon’s black eyes in the recording room.

…Since I completely gave up working on our album and tried to avoid Yeonseon as much as possible, Yeonseon became extremely insecure and anxious. Yeonseon respected and loved me, so he readily went along with my wishes, but I could clearly see that he was becoming a nervous wreck.

But I also felt the same way. The future looked bleak.

I truly loved Yeonseon. I felt like I would never love anyone more than him. Seeing Yeonseon with those black eyes was such an indescribably immense shock, especially since the people who had those black eyes always met their fates not long after.

I didn’t know which was more shocking—the fact that Yeonseon had those black eyes or the fact that Yeonseon would die soon. I felt tormented because I didn’t know which I feared more. The best I could do was stay as far away from him as I could.

I prayed that his death wouldn’t make the news.

Time passed. One day, Yeonseon came to my house.

Alone.

Act 11

“Excuse me, do you have some time?”

There was something that Woorim didn’t know. It happened before we went downstairs with the black key. People were getting ready to go downstairs, and Woorim was no exception. He had gone to his room to change his clothes.

I was staring at the elevator door, vibrating ominously, and the chairs that blocked them. The subtle quivering looked like nothing at first glance, but it was significant to me. I frowned at the door, watching it warily in case the doors opened even just a crack.

Someone tapped my shoulder from behind me. “I have something to tell you about Woorim.”

It was Seohang.

This was the first time he tried to talk to me. It just meant that there wasn’t an occasion for us to meet. He mentioned Woorim, but I still thought his actions were unexpected.

Seohang looked nervous as he glanced at Woorim’s door and said, “Be careful of Woorim.”

“Sorry?”

“I’m just telling you because he seems to be interested in you.”

I recalled the first time I met Woorim and mumbled, “I heard he was a fan. There was one song of mine that was in Yeonseon’s album, and he said he really liked that.”

Seohang then pressed his lips together. I thought for a moment that I misspoke. However, he agreed, which made me more confused about his intentions.

“That’s true, but that guy… He suddenly became a different person. He always used to say that we should all debut quickly and become popular, but now he acts as if he had never felt that way at all. Plus, he was quite introverted and made a lot of mistakes on stage. But that also suddenly changed. I don’t think he’s the guy I used to know.”

“…”

“So be careful. That guy pushed one of the group members from the top of the stairs because, apparently, he was being bothersome. He was smiling like it was nothing. The reason we’re not very active is partly that we’re not popular, but it’s also because the rest of the group hates and fears him. They don’t like being with him.”

That seemed to be the root of the conflict between Seohang and Woorim.

It was truly an odd thing to say. The Woorim that I knew so far didn’t seem to have the best personality, but he didn’t seem as violent and rough as Seohang said. Because he mentioned that the other members feared him and disliked being with Woorim, I tilted my head in confusion. “What about you?”

Seohang frowned as if he didn’t expect that question. He was quiet for a moment, then he answered like he was confessing something grand, “Well, I’m Woorim’s… old friend.”

“An old friend.” Those words felt oddly poignant, at least to me. Because…

I recalled the classmate who committed suicide in front of my eyes and the friends of the classmate who came to pick on me after. I remembered their statement that he always used to confront me with. ‘He became weird because of you!’

“…I’m sorry,” I said. Seohang looked surprised at the sudden apology.

“What?” He seemed to want to know why I was apologizing. However, I smiled with a twisted, frowning face.

I looked back at the elevator and murmured, “Because of an incident I experienced as a child, a goblin started to hang around me. It’s all my fault.”

Creak, screech.

The noise was jarring, the fingernails seemingly not breaking.

“I came here to murder. You don’t need to worry about me.”

* * *

First, there was an abandoned school, then a hospital, and third was a supermarket.

Fourthly, there was the room of dolls and cookies—stuff meant for children.

Separately, they seemed unrelated, but under a common theme, they seemed to be connected. Perhaps this was planned without thinking to shock people and to shock me.

After the horrid room that looked like my old living room, the next door we chose to open had a Christmas-sy poinsettia garland. The red door had a Santa Claus decoration and red berries. It looked very familiar.

“It’s the door from your story, Haeseo-sunbae.”

It looked like it was based on the door from the urban legend that I wrote. Woorim grabbed the door handle, saying that it looked harmless. I was happy with anything as long as it wasn’t the first room we saw.

Beyond the red door was a large Christmas tree. The yellow star on the top and the multicolored ornaments hanging below were flamboyant, unbefitting of the place.

Underneath the tree were present boxes that I couldn’t tell were real or fake. The wrapping and ribbons were all different. There were eight boxes in total. I watched Woorim unwrap one of them, and I crossed my arms.

The clown doll and the pink angel bunny doll hanging on the wall felt creepy.

“Can you stop calling me sunbae? I was never really a singer.”

Honestly, from the moment he started calling me sunbae, I wanted to point it out to him. I kept missing the right moment to mention it each time. Woorim handed me the teddy bear he unwrapped and smiled. It was wearing an extravagant wedding dress.

“Then, Haeseo-hyung?”

“…”

“I like that. I’ve never called you hyung before. Haeseo-hyung.”

I just meant that he should refer to me as everyone else did, but it seemed like I underestimated his friendliness.Woorim took the teddy bear’s veil and placed it over my head, saying, “You can talk informally with me since I’m younger than you.”

“…I’d rather not. You’re someone I haven’t known for very long.”

Woorim frowned slightly and turned around to look at me. It was written all over his face. I felt a bit sheepish and handed back the veil and said, “Don’t fool around like this.” He lost interest and tossed the veil and the bear to the corner of the room.

“You seem to have known that manager for a long time. You didn’t seem close though.”

“Since he’s Yeonseon’s younger brother.”

“I see, being the younger brother is special.”

Well, that was true. If he wasn’t Yeonseon’s brother, I would have never engaged with him willingly. Before, Woorim said that he didn’t want to get close to Hyehyun. I felt the same way.

Woorim came out from under the tree and spun around. He muttered, “What can I do to make you feel closer to me? Kissing didn’t work. This is hard. Do we need to do something more than kissing?”

His good-natured voice had a sweet lilt to it.