Chapter 1
It all began with an accident caused by my guard slipping.
“Catch her!”
At the shout that seemed to strike my ears, I started running without thinking. Beneath the widely spaced streetlights, a slate roof torn apart by an excavator and a cement wall riddled with holes, wrapped in creeping ivy, flashed rapidly past my vision.
“Stop right there!”
I darted swiftly over piles of cracked concrete. Crazy bastard—do you think I’d just stand still for you?
A life where being chased is routine… Even running away has become second nature. It’s a bitter way to live.
My father, who used to blow a puff of breath onto the dice clenched in his hand, was a man who dreamed of striking it rich at the gambling table.
“Huio, people have to dream big. Got it?”
The result my father brought home after watching those dice roll with shining eyes was far too much for a child like me to bear.
Crash!
Bowls and furniture thrown violently by adults with menacing faces.
Should I have been grateful that they never laid a hand on me?
At first, I would burst into tears from fright. But after it happened over and over again, even that became familiar.
“Where’s your father?! Tell him to come out!”
There was almost nothing a minor exposed to such threatening adults could do.
Except run.
“Haah… haah…”
Even now, at twenty-five, my only option is still the same—run until my lungs feel like they’re about to burst.
I leaned my back against the wall, suppressing my ragged breathing.
‘That bastard Assistant Manager Jang actually did me a favor.’
Unexpected overtime. For some reason, Assistant Manager Jang had dumped even more work on me today, making my shift drag on late into the night. Because of that, I came home later than usual, noticed the unfamiliar presence, and managed to get out quickly.
The moment I peeked my head out slightly and glanced beyond the alley, a silhouette under the streetlight pointed straight at me.
“Over there!”
Damn it! They weren’t far at all.
I hurriedly looked left and right and spotted a narrow gap. A space so tight it seemed impossible for an adult to squeeze through.
Can I make it?
There was nowhere left to retreat. Without hesitation, I shoved my body into it, inching deeper inside.
But to my dismay, there was no space at the end of the gap.
Startled, I stretched my head out. On the corner of the wall to the left, I could see a section of the floor that had broken away and hung long and uneven.
This looks really unstable…
But there was no choice. There wasn’t enough time to crawl back through that narrow gap and run. I had to try.
My hand gripping the wall tightened. The moment my strength failed, I’d fall straight down.
Gulp.
I swallowed my dry saliva. Wiping my sweat-soaked fingers on my pants, I firmly grasped the edge of the wall.
Carefully. One step at a time.
The tips of the fingers holding the wall turned pale white.
The foot I had barely placed down soon began to tremble.
Please… just pass by. Go past… please…
“Did you find her?”
Voices sounded nearby.
The sound that slipped through the crack in the wall right before my nose wrapped around my entire body like chains.
The metallic taste of blood rose in my throat, yet I couldn’t even breathe properly.
“It’s too narrow here. I doubt she’d think to squeeze in… Looks like we lost her.”
“She’s damn quick on her feet. We have to catch that girl somehow…”
“Did you stamp the contract?”
“What choice did I have? The guy never leaves the gambling table. Besides, his daughter has grown up pretty well.”
Unbelievable.
He hadn’t come home for two weeks already. When I first sensed someone’s presence after so long, I felt a flicker of relief—but also fear.
And what I ended up facing was a noose tightening around my ankle.
I knew there was no cure for gambling addiction…
‘You really went all the way to the bottom.’
Why are bad premonitions never wrong…?
Through my blurred vision, I tightly shut my burning eyes and opened them again.
This desolate place—filled with half-destroyed buildings in a redevelopment area and the abandoned belongings of people who once lived here—felt like a physical manifestation of my heart.
‘If Dad abandoned me… then I have no choice but to abandon him too.’
The salty taste of tears slipped between my tightly pressed lips.
In my past life and this one, it seemed I had no luck with parents.
‘I won’t let it end like this.’
I had to stay calm. This wasn’t the time to cry like an idiot.
Even after the sounds of the men chasing me faded, I clenched my teeth and endured for a long time.
Sweat dripped from beneath my chin.
Now… are they gone?
One eye stung from the sweat clinging to my lashes as I cautiously leaned it past the wall. There was no one visible at the end of the alley.
Are they… gone now?
The moment I let out the breath I had been holding—
“Ah?!”
The tension that had burned so fiercely suddenly loosened.
Crash!
Something broke, and my vision went pitch black.
Poke. Poke. Poke.
Damn it, that’s rude!
I slapped away whatever was jabbing into my side and forced my eyes open.
Two girls who looked about fifteen or sixteen were crouching beside me, gripping wooden sticks as they stared at me.
“I thought you were dead, but looks like you’re alive after all?”
A freckled girl with a mischievous, slightly mean-looking pair of eyes pinched her nose and smirked.
What’s with her?
Rolling my eyes to the left, I saw another girl with drooping eyes and a gentle, cute expression. She too was pinching her nose while looking at me.
‘Who are these kids?’
After blinking several times, I tried to sit up and placed my palm on the ground.
“Ah!”
At that moment, my hand slipped as if on something slick, sliding forward and sending me sprawling face-first.
The instant my face hit the ground, a nauseating stench rushed into my nostrils.
“Ugh—ptooey! What the hell is all this?!”
The entire floor around me was covered in filth.
Was I lying in that just now?
I hurriedly scrambled backward until I reached a spot free of the mess.
“Ugh…”
The awful smell churned my stomach as bile rose up my throat.
“What else would it be? It’s the pile of dung you fell into. But how on earth did you even get up there?”
“A pile of dung?”
The freckled girl’s expression hardened.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you? You were the one who went to pick up branches.”
“Chuseol, stop scolding her.”
The droopy-eyed girl tugged on the freckled one’s arm and turned to me.
“Sansan, are you feeling okay?”
“Who’s that?”
I turned my head, wondering if someone was behind me.
But there was no one there.
“Isn’t she acting weird?”
Strange objects entered my field of vision.
A straw mat spread on the floor.
Straw huts surrounding the area.
Do people still use things like this?
As I looked around in confusion, something tapped my shoulder. I turned my head.
It was the droopy-eyed girl.
“What do you mean, ‘who’? Sansan is your name.”
“Me? My name is Sansan?”
When I asked with a baffled expression, both girls’ eyes widened.
“Sansan or whatever—where is this place? And what are those clothes you’re wearing? They look pretty detailed… is this some kind of cosplay?”
At my question, the freckled girl pressed her lips into a straight line before suddenly jumping to her feet.
“Hey, this isn’t good. I’m going to tell the Head Steward right now. Dan-so, you!”
“Huh?”
She jerked her chin toward me.
“Watch her.”
“Watch her how?”
“Can’t you see the state she’s in? She reeks. At least splash some water on her.”
Is this some kind of drama set?
I tried to recall the ruined buildings I had seen just before everything went dark.
Wait… there—
Splash!
“Eek!”
“Wait here. I’ll bring more.”
The sudden dousing of cold water made my shoulders scrunch up instantly.
“Puh—hey! What the—!”
Before I could even protest, another bucket of cold water was poured over me.
She was so quick that before I could argue, water was splashed over me several more times, leaving me shivering uncontrollably.
Still, the foul stench clinging to my body seemed to fade a little.
“It’d be better if you could take a bath, but you need to see the Head Steward first, so it can’t be helped.”
Clutching my trembling body, I shot her a resentful glare. The girl called Dan-so suddenly looked apologetic.
“Ah, you’re cold, right? I’ll go get you some cloth to wrap yourself in. Stay right here and wait!”
As soon as Dan-so disappeared outside, I hurriedly got to my feet.
Wait for what?
The debt collectors would soon barge into the house. They knew I’d return eventually.
‘Before that, I should grab the emergency cash I hid under the floor.’
I stepped out of the straw hut and looked around.
“First, I need bus fare… bus… fare…”
Roofs covered with neat rows of curved tiles.
Wooden window frames covered with white paper.
“Was there always a tiled house here?”
Turning around, I saw the small straw hut I had just come out of.
I definitely walked out from there… right?
“What is this?”
Scratching at my strangely itchy body, I surveyed the surroundings.
A forest to the left.
A long wooden building to the right.
“Were there houses here I didn’t know about?”
When I turned the corner of the building on the right, elegant traditional buildings lined up one after another.
A small pond decorated with ornamental stones along the edges.
An arched red wooden bridge crossing over the pond.
People wearing the same clothes as those girls.
“What the hell is all this?”
