I Thought It Was a Fairy Tale but the Genre Is Strange

Episode 49 – Hansel and Gretel (3)

I was walking along a deserted road. I knew where I was going. This was my way home from school. Familiar scenery came into view, and the setting sun dyed the world a twilight hue.

Yeah, that’s right. I need to go home. I’ll just go home and rest without doing anything. Today was a really tiring day.

I’ll hurry home, lie on my bed, and as a reward for the exhausting day, I’ll munch on some snacks and relax. It’d be good to have some cool ice cream too.

But what is it? I feel like I’m forgetting something. There was definitely something important, but what was it?

I stopped dead in the middle of the street for a moment. Déjà vu. I felt like I had met someone around here. But I haven’t met anyone here. Have I?

I always went home safely. Not a single day that I didn’t go home. It’s the road to my comfortable, cozy home, so why am I stopping? I couldn’t understand myself. My steps felt strangely heavy. I need to go further to get home, but my gaze and my heart felt uneasy. My legs were heavy as lead, and my eyes kept squinting as if trying to see the invisible.

Why am I doing this?

I need to go home. I want to go home. How tired and exhausted I am. How tormented and frustrated I’ve been. Getting out of that horrible world and going home is my goal.

Wait a minute.

A horrible world?

I scratched my head and stared at the mountain that was visible nearby. It was a familiar mountain, but somehow it also emanated an ominous feeling.

“I must be feeling weak today.”

I shook my head, brushed off the stray thoughts, and continued walking. Thinking about it like this just makes my head hurt. Let’s hurry home and rest. I’m going to my cozy home. I’ll eat dinner with my family, play computer games, and relax comfortably without having to worry about dying.

So let’s go, quickly.

In the distance, an apartment building soared skyward, towering high. That’s my place. Unit 904. Just getting inside there meant going into a comfortable home. Thinking about finally going home after so long made my heart feel strangely fluttery. So long? It’s weird how I keep thinking that.

It’s always like this. Not so long at all.

That was the moment I reached the entrance of the apartment. Suddenly, a poignant feeling washed over me, and a hot, surging sensation rose up.

A blurry field of vision. Even the corners of my eyes grew damp. I wiped away the tears with my sleeve, bewildered.

And what appeared before my clear vision was…

A girl with vibrant blonde hair. Like a sunflower in full bloom, a girl with a clear and beautiful golden aura was smiling gently at me.

I’d never seen her before. It was astonishing that someone could pull off blonde hair so well in Korea. Gazing at her exquisite face, one side of my chest ached terribly. A searing pain like someone was not just pricking my heart with needles but hacking it to pieces.

And at the same time, an indescribable longing surged forth.

My vision blurs again. Tears pour down like a waterfall, far more than before.

Why? It’s like seeing someone I can never see again, my heart aches with a painful yet welcoming sensation. But I’m meeting this girl for the first time… or am I?

First?

Is this really the first time?

Crack.

A sound of something splitting. As if a crack was forming in a pane of glass, a massive fissure appeared in the world that surrounded me.

It’s not the first time. It can’t be the first time. I’ve met this girl before. I know her name, her past, and her ending. This girl is my first girlfriend and my first love. Even after dying for me, she’s a fool, always so kind and helping me.

“Well, I’ve gone and shown you a foolish side of myself.”

I smiled through my tears. Rapunzel giggled, then scattered into golden particles and vanished.

………………

*Thump.*

I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a ceiling made of colorful candies. The events of the last while flashed through my mind. Hansel and Gretel. The candy house. Tea. My brain finished processing the situation and reached a conclusion.

Gretel drugged the black tea.

The gold bracelet on her wrist glinted. Rapunzel, you still protect me even in death. Thank you, Rapunzel.

I jumped up from my seat. But strangely, my legs felt heavy. Checking my ankles, I found a chocolate ball shackle the size of a watermelon. Looking around, I spotted Alice and Ariel, similarly shackled.

“Alice, Ariel! Wake up!”

I grabbed and shook their shoulders, but strangely they wouldn’t wake. Like people deep in sleep. Or, like they were smiling, lost in a happy dream. Most shocking of all was seeing Alice with such a serene smile.

“Everyone, wake up!”

I was wondering if I should slap their cheeks when I heard a bizarre chuckle from the side.

“Heh heh heh! Hey, kid, it’s no use.”

I turned to find a middle-aged man I hadn’t noticed, sitting in the shadows of the corner. He was very short and frail. And fat. His stomach bulged out like my father’s “Namsan-sized” belly, built up from years of office life, his arms and legs plump.

His beard was lush, but his hair was sadly lacking. The man stroked his belly and yawned widely.

“Who are you?”

“hhhaaam. Can’t you tell? I’m a senior who got trapped here first. Anyway, the damn witch didn’t even wake you, and you got up on your own. You have a strong spirit.”

“Witch? Are you talking about Gretel?”

“Ah, yeah, Gretel. That damn witch. Heh heh,”

The middle-aged man smirked and then scanned me from head to toe.

“Well, while we’re at it, let’s introduce ourselves. My name is Adel. The sixth dwarf.”

The sixth what? I wondered, but introduced myself anyway.

“I’m Siyu.”

“Nice to meet you, Siyu. As a senior who arrived here first, let me give you some advice. Don’t eat the food the witch gives you, as much as possible. Well, it’s too late for me, haha!”

Adel spoke with deep meaning. Don’t eat the food the witch gives you. It made me think of the scene in the original story where Hansel, in order not to be eaten by the witch, stuck out a bone from the jail to trick her into thinking he wasn’t getting fat.

“More than that, I want to wake up my companions. Is there really no way?”

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s useless. They’ve been hit by the witch’s potion. I was too. Right now, they’re probably dreaming their most desired and desperate dreams. Unless they’ve got the kind of outstanding willpower to recognize they’re dreaming and escape, like you, waking them is impossible.”

“How do you know all of that?”

At my question, Adel gave a meaningful smile.

“Because we weren’t the first ones captured here. When I was captured by the witch and woke up in this place, there were already guys captured before me, sleeping. I slapped their cheeks, used all sorts of methods to wake them up, but they just kept laughing and sleeping. Eventually, they only woke up after that damned witch woke them herself. The witch looked surprised when she saw me awake.”

He clenched his fist, the unpleasant memory making his face twist.

“And then, she kindly explained. That it’s impossible to wake up unless you’re someone with great willpower, and that it’s audacious for a dwarf to wake up. You know what else? The reason I’m the only one left here is that she didn’t want to eat me! She said I wouldn’t taste good because I’m a dwarf! That damn hag.”

Wouldn’t taste good? A bad feeling washed over me.

“…Then what happened to the others that aren’t here now?”

“Heh heh, didn’t you see? They were all eaten and turned into their flesh.”

Crazy. They kidnapped people and ate them like this? No, this is too different from the original! Cannibalism. I’m already feeling dizzy.

Hansel, who’s having fits and looking strange, I don’t know, but Gretel has become a witch who kidnaps people and eats them. Clearly, the story she told me was made up too.

She’s meticulous. She didn’t show us hostility, and there was nothing wrong with the food we ate, so we felt safe, trusting them. A cowardly tactic of putting us at ease before betraying us.

She must have eaten countless people like this. How many people have been eaten in this place?

If it weren’t for Rapunzel, we would’ve ended up inside Hansel and Gretel’s stomachs like the other victims Adel mentioned.

But now I know what to do. The direction of the happy ending for this story.

I approached the bars in front of me. A sweet scent stung my nose. Is it candy?

“Ah, don’t do useless things and make the witch come. Those are candy bars with a special magic on them. They don’t melt and they’re so hard that they won’t break. So, if you want to live even a little longer, just stay put. It’s for your own…”

A loud metallic clang echoed, metal striking the floor. Adel’s jaw dropped seeing the bars cleanly cut open by a scythe.

I casually snipped through the shackles on my ankle and said,

“You should come with me, mister.”