Episode 352
“We’ve been here… for several days.”
Woo Joo-young answered Kim Ki-jeong’s helpless question with a despondent look.
“…4 days… It seems like it’s almost over.”
“Going crazy.”
At the answer, ‘4 days,’ Kim Ki-jeong fell from the chair he was sitting on.
Han Do-yoon chuckled at the sight of the semi-solid figure and poked Kim Ki-jeong on the cheek. Kim Ki-jeong said, pushing Han Do-yoon’s hand away in a playful manner that made it seem as if he was poking a stuffed toy.
“What on earth did we miss?”
When I first entered room 403, the process was quite easy. It was nice to find the key to young Kim Ki-jeong’s room in the kitchen, play the piano, and use the key obtained as a reward to enter the master bedroom. The problem is that there has been no progress since then.
“Even though I want to go out, the front door still won’t open…”
“The veranda door is still locked, so it would be right to find a clue in the master bedroom and open the veranda door.”
“The problem is that we can’t find any clues in the master bedroom.”
Yoon Garam, who was quietly listening to the conversation between Kim Ki-jeong and Woo Woo-young, glanced at Kim Ki-jeong, and Kim Ki-jeong, who realized what the look meant, shook his head and said.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. To begin with, I was young so I don’t remember much, and especially in the living room, there was nothing worth mentioning. “I couldn’t even come into the living room.”
“Oh, you didn’t mean to scare me?”
“Ugh….”
Kim Ki-jeong frowned at Yoon Garam’s joke. Even though he denied it so vehemently, he knew that Kim Ki-jeong’s own efforts were desperately needed to escape this damn room 403.
‘…What is it really? Mr. Ha, I really don’t remember anything…’
This space was created based on room 403, where Kim Ki-jeong lived when he was an elementary school student. To that extent, I had to do something related to Kim Ki-jeong when I was young to get a clue to move on to the next step. Like opening the door with the key his mother hid in the kitchen, or being able to go to the next room by playing a song on the piano, which he found terrible.
However, elementary school student Kim Ki-jeong really did not have much memory of the master bedroom.
‘They didn’t even let me in, so what would I know?’
To help his son develop independence, his parents forbade him from coming into the bedroom to ask for help, no matter how scary his dreams were or whether he was in pain. This means that Kim Ki-jeong in real life, before learning about the behind-the-scenes world, was not sensitive to his own losses and gains without any particular reason. He grew up to survive by tenaciously doing his part.
Of course, as he got older and realized that his parents were definitely abnormal and that he also liked music, he became attached to the industry and his selfish side gradually eased… but he denies that the memories of his childhood left an unpleasant trace on him. I couldn’t do it.
“Hmm…”
Nevertheless, Kim Ki-jeong had to constantly reminisce about his past.
Because I knew that only then could these innocent people, including me, escape the building safely. Or because he hoped so.
‘Calm down… and think again.’
The calm I had maintained until I first entered this house quickly volatilized during the four days I stayed in room 403, which was already a bad memory, so I may have been unable to remember anything.
Kim Ki-jeong took a long breath and calmed his pounding heart.
“…Have you searched all the places you need to search?”
“There was no place I didn’t search and nothing came out. “It’s full of things you might find at home.”
“….”
When Kim Ki-jeong was young, he rarely went into the master bedroom, and as he got older and his parents’ restrictions eased, he had already left room 403 and moved to another house, so he really couldn’t remember the master bedroom here. It was only after opening the door and entering that I vaguely thought, ‘Oh, this is what it looked like.’
In that case, it may be that something related to the ‘home room’ happened outside, rather than something that Kim Ki-jeong personally experienced or witnessed inside….
“You look like you have something on your face.”
“Ah…”
Kim Ki-jeong nodded weakly at Yoon Garam’s words.
“Well… I don’t remember, but I got scolded a lot when I lived in this house.”
“What kind of sad story is coming out this time?”
Kim Ki-jeong responded to Do-yoon Han’s bitter words with a tired face.
“It was just a little unfair. I can’t remember exactly what he said… but there was a time when he misunderstood that I was stealing. “My parents.”
“Stealing?”
“He stole the coins I was saving in the master bedroom.”
“coin…?”
When Han Do-yoon and Yoon Garam looked at Kim Ki-jeong with a look of ‘Why do you keep the coins in the living room?’, Kim Ki-jeong and Woo Woo-young looked at them with strange expressions. In this turbulent era, there was bound to be a strange gap between people in their 20s and 30s.
Woo Woo-young said with a shy smile.
“Nowadays, everything is done with credit cards, so we don’t often use bills, let alone coins, but in the old days… um. In the past, we often used cash. That means you have a lot of change, and among the change you usually have coins… so there was a coin box to keep those small coins in one place. At least that’s how it was at my house.”
“What Woo Joo-young said is correct. My house had coins collected in a small box, and I think the box was in a drawer in the master bedroom. “To be honest, I’ve only seen the coin box a few times, so I can’t remember for sure.”
Even as Kim Ki-jeong said that, he felt that he was getting closer to the answer.
“…But there’s no coin box in this master bedroom right now, right?”
Clues can be found by looking for them, but rather, their existence could have been noticed because they were not there. Kim Ki-jeong remembered the empty space in the coin box that must have existed in this master bedroom.
“Then at best, what comes out will be numbers. “What can you solve with numbers?”
Yoon Garam opened his mouth in response to Kim Ki-jeong’s muttering.
“Lock.”
“oh.”
“There’s a lock that opens by turning the number plate.”
“…But…”
Seeing Kim Ki-jeong frowning as if he was still unsure, Han Do-yoon, who was standing next to him, left the master bedroom, checked the veranda, and returned. His expression brightened considerably, as if he had found hope.
“I got a lock! 4 number lock! “Hanging from the balcony handle!”
“Oh shit.”
“…? Mr. Kim Ki-jeong…?”
“No, I just feel bad.”
“yes?”
“eww.”
“….”
Han Do-yoon blinked and asked at his reaction.
“Even if it’s a bad memory…?”
“Do we really have to go to the veranda?”
“…Kim Ki-jeong, you can stay here.”
“….”
Kim Ki-jeong, who had been thinking for a while with his mouth shut, shook his head and stood up.
“No, I’m more scared of being left alone.”
Before I knew it, Kim Ki-jeong’s face had become quite pale.
In fact, it was a bit strange that the door to the veranda at the back of the house, which was used as a utility room, was locked with a lock. Kim Ki-jeong probably recalled unpleasant memories related to that veranda. They looked at Kim Ki-jeong with worried eyes and moved to the veranda door.
Kim Ki-jeong said, covering his mouth with his hand as if he felt even worse after seeing the lock.
“1400 won.”
“…ah.”
“This is the number of money I was scolded for stealing. Please open it.”
“Oh my, thank you for your hard work.”
1 4 0 0.
The lock opened with a small clicking sound.
“….”
“….”
What lies beyond the carefully opened door is…
“…!”
It was a small-sized monster.
“Back, back…! “Everyone, come back!”
“Raise your weapons!”
“We have to close the door first…!”
Han Do-yoon, Yoon Gar-ram, and Woo Joo-young talked urgently, but Kim Ki-jung stood there without saying anything.
Only then did Do-yoon Han, who noticed that Kim Ki-jeong’s reaction was strange, shake his shoulder and call him out.
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong? Are you okay?”
“….”
“Over there.”
“I think I know how to get out.”
“…yes?”
Han Do-yoon looked into Kim Ki-jeong’s eyes.
“….”
The pupils were dilated.
Naturally, it was not a good sign.
“…Wait a minute.”
Despite Han Do-yoon’s dissuasion, Kim Ki-jeong approached the monster and grabbed its wrist, which was curled up in a ball, and roughly lifted it up.
Whoop!
“….”
“…Oh there.”
Woo Woo-young, who felt strangely uncomfortable, called Kim Ki-jeong, but was speechless for a moment when he saw the monster that staggered to his feet at his gesture. The same was true for the other party members.
A monster wearing a pitch black children’s tailcoat. What hung on the skinny child’s body was not a head, but two colorful hands, the ends of which were covered with slightly red bandages. The musical staff pattern drawn on the clothes did not stay still, but moved around, disappeared, and even shook.
“….”
“….”
It was definitely a bizarre sight, but….
“…I wonder if that….”
“….”
“Ah….”
That was Kim Ki-jeong’s childhood. It was definitely a monster that was reflected.
“….”
Do-yoon Han felt sorry for ‘Kim Ki-jeong’, that monster.
It was twisting its body this way and that, trying to get away from the adult Kim Ki-jeong, who was holding its wrist. The hand he was holding was trembling, and his body was whining and turning over and over again, like a dog trying to escape from a leash. Even so, the monster as skinny as a toothpick could not escape from the hands of a grown man.
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong.”
“When I was a kid.”
Kim Ki-jeong interrupted Han Do-yoon.
“If I didn’t listen, my parents would kick me out the front door.”
“Kim Ki-jeong, calm down.”
“The veranda was the space where I hid because I was afraid. All other places had locks, and if you hid in those places, you could have been trapped for a long time. I knew I would get caught anyway, so I hid in a place that couldn’t be locked. Fucking stupid. “I will try to avoid it even for a moment.”
“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong.”
“If you kick this out, the door will open.”
Kim Ki-jeong paid no heed to Do-yoon Han’s call and dragged the monster toward the front door. The eyeless and mouthless monster did not cry or scream, but instead of being unable to speak, the stave pattern on its tailcoat flashed rapidly as if it was making noise. I showed fierce resistance by stomping my feet as if I didn’t want to be dragged away and hitting Kim Ki-jeong, who was holding me with his hand.
But it didn’t hurt at all. There were no hits.
“What an asshole.”
The parents who took Kim Ki-jeong with him when he was young were probably like that too.
Kim Ki-jeong felt as if maggots were crawling from the hand holding the monster. I had a miserable imagination that it would eat my palm, lay an egg inside it, and then it would hatch and eat my arm. He didn’t even have time to take out a handkerchief and wipe himself, so he scratched his neck and ears with his remaining hand.
‘dirty.’
It’s scary. It tickles. it’s annoying. stuffy. I want to breathe. Oh really really.
dirty.
“What the fuck, you stupid bastard is just calling this a rebellion…”
I can’t hear the surrounding sounds. I couldn’t even hear myself saying anything.
I’m just struggling, consumed by my thoughts.
‘…If you do this, the door will open. Because you have to kick me out. No, this isn’t me. Still, Kim Ki-jeong needs to be kicked out. You didn’t listen. An idiot who can’t even resist properly. We have to kick them out. The door will open. ‘Go outside…’
My thoughts are cut off.
‘…Go out…’
Maybe it was a line of reason.
‘Go out.’
‘also.’
‘like that.’
Kim Ki-jeong, standing in front of the front door, pressed the button on the door lock.
‘Is that what happens?’
Unlike just before, the button worked flexibly and a mechanical sound announced the unlocking, and Kim Ki-jeong felt nauseous at the change that seemed like he had been waiting for it. I wanted to peel off my skin and dry it in the sun.
However, Kim Ki-jeong will be thrown into a dirty and damp room. You’ll roll around in the mud, be chased by bugs, get scared by the sounds of flying animals, and then run away here and there and be dragged away by a crazy old man. Saying no will be useless, and telling the truth will not work. Kim Ki-jeong will eventually return to his damn parents and live half his life suffering from their bullshit, and then I will.
Go outside….
“―Hey Kim Ki-jeong!!”
“Yah?!”
Kim Ki-jeong looked back at Do-yoon Han with a grim face at the sudden informal speech.
“hey? Did you say hey now?! “No matter how much of an asshole I am, I’m older than you…!”
“No, please! Come to your senses! How many times did I say that!?”
“….”
Kim Ki-jeong blinked at Do-yoon Han’s loud voice.
“…Ah….”
I lost consciousness
for a moment .
“….”
“….”
The monster caught in my hands was still busy struggling.
“…Ugh!”
grasp!
Kim Ki-jeong reflexively let the monster go roughly.
“Like this”
“Kim Ki-jeong.”
“I didn’t mean to do this. “It wasn’t.”
Contrary to my desire to answer something properly, the voice that came out in a hurry was harsh and unsightly.
The hand that was holding the monster trembled. The itch and disgust that was eating away at my elbows are eating up my heart and digging into my brain, making me dizzy. I got goosebumps and gasped at the horror, as if the mucus from my brain was about to pop out of my eyes.
“…really.”
The monster released from Kim Ki-jeong did not run away but was just looking up at me.
“It’s not this…this.”
Kim Ki-jeong, whose legs lost strength, collapsed into his seat.
The cold temperature of the floor of the front door reminded him of the nightmarish reality and soon reminded me of what I was trying to do.
“This is…”
I tried to do the same thing as my parents.
“….”
Because
I too was desperate for ‘Kim Ki-jeong’s’ sacrifice.
* * *
I cried.
(Continued in the next part)
