Chapter 55
The moment I came to my senses, I coughed and spit out the water I had swallowed without realizing it.
A hand patted my back.
“Where… am I?”
I slowly lifted my head and saw friends around me, coughing as if they, too, had just regained consciousness.
“You did well.”
I had guessed that there was only one person who would pat my back like that.
“Dan Seohyeok.”
Hadn’t he been trapped in another dream? How had he returned to reality?
Questions swirled up inside me.
There were so many things I wanted to ask, but my throat hurt, and I could only look at him. He spoke first.
“You pushed the nightmare onto someone else, right? I don’t know if it’s because of that, but I suddenly got out too.”
It’s useful to be observant at times like this.
I nodded to indicate I understood, and Tak Yeonho, catching his breath, looked at us.
“So… we safely escaped from the dream? We won’t be dragged back in?”
I glanced around. We were in the woman’s room—the same room where she had swallowed Yuchae-song and Tak Yeonho.
“I think so. But what exactly happened?”
“I don’t know in detail… It all happened after we all entered the water at the same time.”
“The woman we were looking for stopped me from ending my own life.”
Yuchae-song, pale from holding her breath underwater for so long, explained.
“Strictly speaking, it must have been perceived that way because I was trying to retrieve the woman’s object that I had in my mouth.”
“Object?”
“It was something Choyeon gave me—a postcard and an ex-boyfriend’s ID photo.”
“Hmm. My guess is that her twisted affection and obsession with her boyfriend caused this.”
I stared at the photos stuck on the wall. Her body was full of wounds, but her face was untouched in the photos.
“Maybe the male face stuck to her belly was also something she wanted. That much emotion can’t have been just resentment.”
If that was her feeling, she wouldn’t have overlooked items that could be considered memories.
“Even though Chaesong didn’t give much explanation, I was glad she noticed and helped.”
Hearing my murmured words, Yuchae-song winked at me. I smiled slightly, and Dan Seohyeok let out a small, impressed sound.
“Thinking of pushing it onto a ghost—either that’s gutsy or… something else.”
Was that admiration or sarcasm?
“Aren’t you worried about retaliation?”
“Even if they don’t do anything, we’re already suffering. Might as well do something.”
“That’s right. Even if the method didn’t work, if the ghost was even a little upset, I wouldn’t regret it.”
Yuchae-song added, as if agreeing with me.
“You two are amazing…”
Tak Yeonho clicked his tongue, partly impressed but also a little exasperated.
“Anyway, I’m glad it’s resolved. Let’s get out of here. We can’t stay in such a grim place forever.”
“Should we report this to the police? Those photos need to be handled.”
“Leave it. If anyone asks how we got in, it’ll just cause us trouble.”
Dan Seohyeok spoke firmly at Tak Yeonho’s concern. Harsh, but not wrong.
Dan Seohyeok left the room first, and the kids followed one by one.
“Huh?”
I was the last to follow and couldn’t help but widen my eyes at Dan Seohyeok’s back.
I was so surprised that I covered my mouth and slowed my pace.
“Millie.”
I quietly called Millie as the others went down to the first floor.
Millie, who had been hiding, appeared beside me.
“You said earlier green is relatively safe, yellow is a little dangerous.”
I looked at Dan Seohyeok’s back again. Smoke rippled around his large figure.
Unlike the white smoke around Yuchae-song and Tak Yeonho, this was a deep crimson.
Almost ominous.
“…What does red mean?”
[Danger. Warning.]
“But Dan Seohyeok is human.”
Millie didn’t answer.
What could it mean?
Just when I thought one problem was solved, another arose.
Inside Eden-dong Police Station.
Working with little sleep because cases never stopped, the officers were unusually bright-faced—though whether it was truly something to celebrate was still questionable.
“You found the missing man’s body, right? And the woman who reported it disappeared, so I thought maybe they went missing together as a couple.”
The man being questioned nodded with a smile.
“Yes, we haven’t found the woman yet, but the man was located. The café owner, Piorum, reported it.”
“He went into the empty house following a cat, right? That place was creepy… ugh.”
The officer shook his head. Taking a sip of his coffee, he continued.
“Between us, I think the reporting woman might have been the culprit. Looking at the photos on the wall, it seems she killed and ran.”
“Were they not lovers?”
“According to acquaintances, they were. But the woman was overly paranoid and obsessive.”
“I see.”
“Sad, really. Because of her shy personality, she helped the girl alone, and it developed into a relationship. Who would expect gratitude to be repaid with vengeance?”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“There are plenty of crazy people in the world who think the person they love is their property. Be careful.”
The man smiled slightly at the officer’s warning.
The officer’s speculation—that the woman might be the culprit—made sense.
The wall full of corpse photos, and the bloodstains left behind, were all confirmed not to belong to the man. Evidence stacked up without escape.
“I wish other missing person cases had such clear evidence…”
Then the police could do something, but now, there was virtually no evidence, as if it had vanished into thin air.
The officer groaned, and the man said calmly,
“They said it wasn’t even caught on CCTV, so people said it was the work of a ghost.”
“Exactly! That’s how Eden-dong got its nickname as a ghost town! Ugh, I can hear the housing prices dropping already!”
“Haha.”
Though joking lightly, the man knew the officer cared deeply about the missing persons’ safety.
He placed the drinks he brought on the desk.
“Don’t just drink coffee, have some of this too.”
“Ah, thanks. By the way, are you still searching for that person?”
“Yes.”
“You said they saved you as a child, right? But even investigating based on your info yielded nothing.”
The officer looked aggrieved, and the man nodded.
“I know. My grandfather worked hard, too. I just have lingering feelings, so don’t take it too hard.”
“Tsk… I hope something comes up. But is it true she lives in Eden-dong?”
“I… don’t know.”
The man, wearing a shirt and pants down to his knees, smiled softly.
“I recently dreamed of the old days, and since then, Eden-dong keeps coming to mind. Strange, isn’t it?”
He habitually glanced at his legs. Old burn scars remained deeply.
“Huh, really.”
The officer looked at his legs and clicked his tongue.
“Ghosts are unbelievable. Anyway, not for me to lecture as a local, but don’t go alone. It’s dangerous.”
“Yes, thank you for your concern.”
“Inseok, you keep coming here like it’s your grandmother’s friend’s place. You think this is a playground for kids?”
“Well, I do bring lunch sometimes.”
“Don’t be sly with that innocent face.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Tsk, tsk.
The officer clicked his tongue. The coffee tasted particularly bitter.
“Anyway, Dageum.”
At the officer’s call, the man, Hong Dageum, smiled.
“Not joking—be careful. You don’t live here now, so it may not feel real, but adults have been disappearing more suddenly.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful.”
Memories of nearly dying in a fire, followed by his grandmother’s overprotectiveness, resurfaced.
Though the officer, a friend of his grandmother, scolded him for being overdramatic, to Hong Dageum, it wasn’t much different.
Hong Dageum had grown up surrounded by overflowing affection.
Even so, his grandfather couldn’t understand his quest to find the woman who saved him from the flames as a child.
“Someone! Someone is hurting over there!”
Because, although the fire was put out and the debris cleared, no body had been found.
At the time, people called it a miracle, aided by ancestors, but…
“I saw the face in a dream.”
Though he barely remembered the face from childhood, this time he saw it clearly.
Back then, it seemed huge, but as an adult, the face was small, the body tiny.
Yet, she moved with determination to save someone smaller than herself—a truly impressive person.
“I want to meet them.”
Impressed by her, he became a firefighter to save people.
“If I meet her, I must thank her properly.”
He wondered what she was like now.
Hong Dageum smiled as he left the station.
Somehow, it felt like it would be a good day.
