Chapter 5
Chapter 5
‘Fuck…’
‘It’s scary. It’s fucking scary.’
The moment my vision was blocked by her wavy hair and my eyes met that woman, I feared my heart was about to stop.
‘If you’re going to have your hair like that, at least tie it up or something!’
It was not a Hometown Legends, so why was her hair like that? After calming my surprised heart, I greeted her by a forcing a smile on my lips.
[TN: Hometown Legends is the continuation of a classic Korean series of Korean ghost stories which first aired on KBS between 1977 and 1989 and later between 1996 and 1999. Of course, I google it, I too didn’t know that too.]
“Haha… are you here?”
‘Can’t you come a little later…’
I hadn’t found a single clue to escape yet.
Eun-ah, who had left the room, came back before I could even try to do anything, so I was just miserable.
She approached me and opened her mouth with a shy smile as if she knew my thoughts.
“Hehe… Here… here…”
She stretched out her arm and held out a wad of paper in front of me.
“It… It’s a manuscript…!”
Even at first glance, I could feel how thick it was.
I opened my mouth while looking at Eun-ah, hiding as much tension as possible.
“Eh, from episode 47?”
“Yes…yes…!!! From episodes 47 to 86…!”
Eun-ah’s expression was filled with pride that anyone could see.
“Um…I, I brought it out like this…because, because Mr. Bee can’t use his arms now…!”
Saying that she began to stare at me with shining eyes as if expecting something.
Seeing her like that, I thought to myself,
‘That’s because you tied me up bi*ch!’
I cursed in my mind, as I couldn’t bring myself to say any curse words out loud. My teeth were clenched.
I wanted to lash out and curse until I felt better, but the thought of her tearing my skin apart with her fierce expression made me too scared to say anything.
The only thing I could do was curse at her inwardly and not go against her as much as possible.
I calmed myself down. I had to follow her mood as much as possible now. With that thought in mind, I suppressed my emotions.
I closed my eyes, and silence hung over the room.
“Uh…”
Seeing I did not respond to her words, Eun-ah slightly raised her eyebrows, frowned, and opened her mouth in a slightly calmer tone than before.
“I… I did well, right…?”
Her eyes began to sparkle dangerously. I, who had been looking at her, was taken aback and shouted in surprise.
“That’s great!!”
I blurted out in a hurry, but it seemed like the danger was passed. Because wrinkles disappeared from her face.
“Hehe…”
Eun-a laughed at my courageous answer, and after moving her body up onto the bed, she squeezed herself into the narrow space between the spot where I was lying and the wall and began to moan in discomfort.
“Mmm…”
I felt my body shivering and curl up in response to the weight that was weighing me down, the texture of her skin touching me, and the rustling noise.
My eyes were tightly closed.
In a short period of time, I faced the woman and realized that she was terribly reluctant to separation from me. This woman had an obsession with me.
A few hours from the beginning until now…
No, considering that she was already on top of my body when I came to my senses, she must have been stuck for a much longer time than I expected.
Even after being attached to me like that, when she left for a while, she tried to cling to my body again as soon as she came back, I was able to grasp, at least roughly, the woman’s obsession with me.
‘What did I do so wrong to deserve this?!’
I was scared to death. What if she suddenly turned around and dug her nails into me? Or what if she pounded me with the manuscript she was holding? All sorts of imaginations stirred up fear in my mind.
“…Ssssssscha!”
While I was trembling in fear with all sorts of negative imaginations, after she was completely settled down, Eun-ah, lying down in a comfortable position next to me, pushed the manuscript in front of me with a squirming movement and said.
“I… I will… I’ll turn the pages one by one!”
‘Fuck…’
It was a dead end. I had been waiting for the timing to ask Eun-ah if she could loosen my grip to turn the manuscript pages since she walked in with the manuscript in her hand. But Eun-ah had anticipated this and blocked any possibility before I could even say it.
‘You clever b*tch.’
There was no choice. I had to go along with her for now. With that in mind, I opened my mouth towards Eun-ah to create the minimum conditions for me.
“Hey… it’s too dark to see the text?”
“Ah… ah…!”
-Rattle.
The bed the two of us were lying on shook. It was the vibration caused by the movement of the embarrassed Eun-ah.
I could feel the heat rising from Eun-ah’s body through the skin that touched me.
“Cha… Cha-am… get a hold of yourself…”
Eun-ah muttered to herself. Afterward, she slowly moved her body and extended her arms over my head, as if searching for something, waving them around.
– Click.
Soon, the sound of a switch being pressed was heard.
After the sound, a dim light filled the dark and gloomy room.
“Um… uh… just a little more… I might be…?”
Was she suggesting we switch positions? Eun-ah said in a joking tone that didn’t really make sense. Although it was a situation where a fake laugh was appropriate, my mind was focused on something other than her playful tone.
‘Was there a room behind the bed?’
I didn’t know for sure. Due to the frame of the bed blocking the back of my head, I couldn’t confirm that direction in my current bound state.
‘Next. Let’s somehow confirm that direction when this woman leaves the room.’
A small, perhaps fanciful, hope sprouted. There was still something in this room that I hadn’t confirmed.
The chance that the woman had made an escape hole for herself in this room was very low, but it seemed impossible to endure the current situation without even relying on such a small possibility.
The small hope that settled in my heart gave me a bit of courage to endure the current situation.
‘I can do it! It hasn’t even been a day since I was kidnapped! I can do this!’
I was filled with confidence and strengthened my resolve. I, who claimed my heart, lifted my head slightly. The light that lit up a corner of the dark room drew Eun-ah’s face in more detail, caught at the end of my gaze.
Unlike when I looked at the traces in the dark, her distinct features under the light were so elegant that if it weren’t for this situation, I might have just gazed at her dumbfoundedly.
However, the dark gloominess settled down on her face in a feminine manner, and the pale skin to the extent that the blue veins were visible, gave a chilling feeling that made her look like the skin of a dead corpse first rather than the impression that it was immaculate.
It was gloomy, but it was a face that could definitely be called a beauty depending on the look. If she went around with a face like that, she would be able to make a good impression on people in quite a few cases.
It was a face that was not only gloomy but also certainly beautiful to look at. Even if someone was out of their mind, there would surely be someone willing to comfort her.
Certainly, there must have been someone around her who wouldn’t let her fall to such a state.
Lost in such thoughts, I soon shook my head, dispelling such stray thoughts.
‘No, what does that matter? What’s important is that this woman is crazy.’
Whether her appearance was beautiful or if there were many people who would be nice to her if she went outside, it was all useless thoughts. What was important was that I was currently kidnapped and confined by this woman, and I had to read the manuscript that she brought one page at a time and tell her my thoughts on it.
My gaze turned to the direction where the manuscript was.
‘There’s a lot of confusion.’
From episode 47 to episode 86. Even when considering the length of a single volume, it was nearly half the length. From now on, I had to read that long text in front of that woman who was watching over me.
‘Fuck… It’s an appraisal that’s out of place…’
While I was lost in such thoughts. Eun-ah, who had returned to her seat before I knew it, moved her lips as her eyes narrowed.
“Then… Shall we begin…? This… F*ck this is… heaven…”
– Hehe
She spoke with the same shallow and hesitant tone as before. Whether it was a joke, playful, or an exaggerated tone, it did not fit her.
I felt something strange about the two consecutive words.
‘Huh?’
From this woman’s tone, I felt a sense of deja vu.
‘Where? Where have I heard it before?’
I heard somewhere a tone familiar to her.
‘My tone?’
‘My own speech.’
It was the accent I used to talk nonsense.
A word that was used recently, apparently until yesterday. In a corner of my mind, a scene was still vaguely replayed.
‘For sure…’
I did it the previous evening after work and saw the open door of the house.
‘Maybe I’m a little sloppy.’
And I did it while sitting at the table.
‘Fuck it! This is heaven!’
‘Uh?’
A shiver ran down my spine and spread throughout my body.
I realized why my front door was not locked.
‘It’s not that I forgot locking it.’
My eyes contracted in surprise.
I was out of breath and couldn’t control the trembling in my hands.
I broke out in a cold sweat and started absorbing body heat.
All my thoughts converged into one thing, a single idea.
– Trembling…
My gaze turned toward Eun-ah’s direction. At the end of my gaze, I saw a pair of eyes shining like fire, drawing a vertical line.
Last night, when I was kidnapped, that woman was already there before I came home.
She was waiting for me.
My fists, which were tied behind my back, clenched tightly. I couldn’t look at her anymore. My gaze slowly lowered.
I had been wrong. I had been wrong for a long time.
I had thought that when I left my house, I left the door unlocked and she had come in.
She broke it and came in.
Thinking about it, it was a small room, and the only place to hide was under the bed. Yes, this strange woman could have hidden there, but would she wait for hours until I arrived? Was it logical to wait for me to come through the narrow gap?
Other than that, even after I came home, I received the chicken, set it up, charged my phone, and did not feel anyone’s presence during the various processes. That was why I didn’t even think about the fact that she had come in beforehand.
However, with just two sentences from that woman, everything I had thought was destroyed.
‘She had been watching me… all along’
As her actions continued, the fear and dread I had felt grew stronger and stronger, swallowing my thoughts whole. The hope I had previously held was now gone, leaving me feeling empty and betrayed.
This woman was a much, much crazier person than I thought.
At this moment, I tried to look for a god I had never looked for in my life.
At this moment, I couldn’t help but search.
‘Please, please… God, Buddha, The Jade Emperor, please…’
Desperation… The most primitive desire, the strongest instinct that every living being held in their heart, filled my mind.
‘Help me…’