“Using this well won’t get your identity handed over to the bureau or anything like that. I swear on the dokkaebi.”
He could swear any which way he liked.
They weren’t going to use the well anyway.
‘…Did he catch on?’
It was possible. This damn hoobae had a filthy knack for catching on, and only at monts like this…
Really, he was born to be an agent.
‘Please.’
The way that director Ho just stood there also bothered him. He’d expected him to try sothing, to interfere, or pull so trick to take the company employee back. But strangely, he kept quiet and behaved.
And Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae following along didn’t feel great either.
But he couldn’t tell them to quit it. He couldn’t risk tipping anyone off that sothing was off.
Agent Choi moved with his nerves wound taut.
Behind him, Ryu Jaekwan would be getting his own makeshift Glass Prison ready.
‘Thanks, Jaekwan-ah.’
So part of his heart broke seeing his hoobae—who had no talent for lying, and who had just now made it out alive—was moving fast to back him up however he could.
Agent Choi kept walking.
Step.
Step.
With the sound of footsteps, the well drew near…
“Here.”
Ryu Jaekwan quickly pried off the blocked top of the well.
…The trapped, damp air exhaled out and left a strange sll.
Drawing a breath, Agent Choi turned to 130666… No, to Kim Soleum, with a smile.
“…It’d be hard for you to go first, right? I’ll go in and show you it’s safe. See? There might be other things down there.”
The gas mask stared at him in silence.
Agent Choi flashed a grin and set a foot into the well.
‘The footholds… luckily, they’re still there.’
They hadn’t caved in.
Carefully wedging his feet against the well wall, he climbed down as fast as he could.
To lure the other in with no variables.
And when his feet finally touched the bottom…
“Oh! Looks like this’ll work! Co on down.”
At his shout, the horned one peered inside.
“…As soon as you’re down, I’ll try sending the transport signal.”
Please.
……
Tap.
Black work boots walked down the well wall, descending.
The smoke drifted down and pooled at the floor, but true to a supernatural phenonon, 130666’s body arrived inside the well in a way that ignored physical norms.
‘Ha…’
A surge rose up Choi’s throat. Nausea or sothing else, he couldn’t tell. But right now, there was no ti to dwell on it.
‘I have to do this.’
To make the act more convincing, he reached through the black smoke and set the dokkaebi lantern on the exact center of the well floor.
As if he were really about to send the transport signal.
In truth, it was a different, tacit signal.
One for Ryu Jaekwan.
“Alright, then…”
Jaekwan had to, right now, help him capture this thing.
But, at that mont.
Light burst out of the dokkaebi lantern on the floor.
“…!!”
Wait.
‘This is…’
Sothing you only saw when a transport signal actually activated at a true ley-line node.
Was this really going to transport them?
‘To where?’
And the strange things didn’t stop there.
Amid the black smoke, sothing akin to the lantern’s light glead from 130666’s body.
A small rectangle glowed inside an inner pocket.
“…?”
As if to check it himself, 130666 took it out.
It was… sothing in the form of an employee badge. But not Daydream’s.
The company na printed there was…
‘Cheerful Research Institute…?’
In that instant.
The light grew stronger.
“…!”
Those watching from above realized entirely what was happening.
‘Damn!’
Ryu Jaekwan hesitated for a beat, then gritted his teeth and hurled himself down into the well. He couldn’t let just those two be transported.
And peering in after them, Lee Seonghae did the sa.
“Oh.”
Sensing the situation was unusual, and in order to ‘help’ good people, she jumped into the well.
She had taken a vacation day today, so she had plenty of ti!
Thus, a mont later.
When Ho Yoowon quietly approached the well and looked down, he saw this.
“Ah.”
There was nothing in the well.
Hands tingling with rapture, Ho Yoowon gripped the stones at the well mouth tight.
* * *
……
It’s dark.
Loud.
Muscle aches, bones sore from sleeping on sothing cold. Such sensations wore a person down.
I was definitely sprawled on a concrete floor… But I was so damned tired and heavy-lidded I couldn’t even open my eyes and—
Tired?
“…!!”
I snapped my eyes open.
Sothing clammy ran down the back of my neck, like from a goosebump-inducing dream. I wiped away the cold sweat with my hand and let out a breath.
“Huu.”
……
…Wait a second.
‘…My voice.’
I just… used my voice.
“…!!”
And my hands, my hands are bare. Fingernails and knuckles and fingerprints—my ordinary hands. I feel around with them. There’s hair, and cold sweat, and a face…
I lifted my head and looked around.
Right beside , a silhouette reflected in a dark window.
“…Human.”
It was .
I stared blankly at my human reflection in the glass.
I had no idea what on earth was going on.
So I realized a beat later,
That several familiar people were collapsed around .
And that…
This place was a subway platform.
“……”
I staggered to my feet. The station na, hidden behind a column, slid into view…
Sekwang Transit Authority
SEKWANG STATION
“…!!”
And then I understood.
This place.
It’s the subway of Sekwang Special tropolitan City.
goblin note:
I should have explained when it was first ntioned (oops) but the ‘special’ in Sekwang Special City is supposed to be, uh, special (badum-tss) (ty btw for kirinki’s correction). In real-life Korea, Seoul is called ‘Seoul Special City’ or ‘Seoul Special tropolitan City’ because it’s the capital city. So for Sekwang to just go poof and disappear like that ans a major city vanished just like that.
In Korean, it’s just called ‘Special City’, but the official designation in English (for Seoul) is tropolitan City, so I kinda combined the two. From here on out, I might just call it simply Sekwang Special City or Sekwang City throughout the dialogues or narrative to keep things short.
AuthorRecent Posts
Salt Goblin
Latest posts by Salt Goblin (see all)
Reviews
All reviews (0)