At the staff mber’s question, the writer checked the ti.
“It’s a little past six, so I suppose it’s about ti for it to get dark.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? It was already overcast, and now that the sun’s going down it’s even darker.”
“...To be honest, I’m starting to get nervous too. Did we leave too late?”
They were in a remote place, far removed even from central Gapyeong. The downpour blurred everything around them into muddy sars, and the air inside the car had grown damp and stifling.
“...At this rate....”
The writer looked at the director.
“We won’t get there until it’s fully dark.”
“Oh dear, I got greedy and booked a place that was a little too far out, and now we’ve run into this problem again. We left late too. We could’ve just moved out tomorrow morning.”
“The terrain here is so rough that it probably took longer because of that.”
“It’ll be great for atmosphere, sure... but it’s still troubleso.”
“Still, we chose that lodging together, didn’t we? The location itself was reasonable.”
“Well, since we had to look through all those villas, staying nearby did make sense.”
They had arranged access to seven private villas in Gapyeong for the shoot. To ask the owners for filming permission, they needed to decide on the candidates quickly.
“You know all this ca from my connections, so be grateful, all right?”
“I feel as though I’ve already heard that at least thirty tis.”
“That’s because it was a hard-won opportunity. Do you know how fussy those people are? I had to mobilize every connection I had, and every one I didn’t, just to barely secure seven places.”
“The fact that you secured seven places like that is impressive in itself.”
“What else are personal connections for, if not monts like this?”
But it truly was an opportunity obtained through nothing but connections. There was no benefit in delaying. If they mishandled things, they could very well offend those demanding owners.
That was why they had forced the schedule even in such rugged terrain. They had thought that if they left straight from Seoul, it would take no ti at all. Even in sumr, they had believed the daylight would last.
And this was the result.
“...Ugh....”
Rain, in the most literal sense, was pouring down.
Even the director’s deliberately bright voice soon fell.
“My ears hurt. My ears hurt.”
“You can say that again.”
“Was the schedule too tight?”
“Not especially....”
“Should we have waited until the rain let up before moving?”
“We’re fine, so please don’t worry too much.”
“Mm, well, all right. Let’s call it that.”
The director laughed aimlessly.
“But isn’t this atmosphere incredible? Look at it. What do you think of this background?”
One of the staff mbers laughed and played along.
“It’s the perfect weather for a serial murder~”
“I started it first, but that line is a little too chilling, isn’t it?”
The car rattled endlessly over the unpaved road, while thick brush rose around them like waves. The sky, gloomy from the mont they set out, was now being steadily devoured by darkness as the sun disappeared.
“You know, guys.”
That was when Director Lee Seon-hae spoke up awkwardly.
“Yes, Director.”
“I think we may have taken the wrong road....”
“...What?”
“I only just realized. Sorry.”
The director looked sheepish as she glanced at the navigation screen. The marker sat planted in the middle of a mountain.
“I thought this was a road that crossed over the mountain, but the more I look at it, the more I think it isn’t. We just keep going up, and there’s no sign at all that we’re coming back down.”
“W-What?”
“Oh dear, I should’ve updated it ahead of ti.... This thing’s gone bad. We’re just circling around in the mountains. What are we supposed to do?”
“Uh, uh... no, but why is it doing this? We were moving, so I thought we were going the right way.... Navigation gets affected by signal problems too, right? Is it because we’ve co in too deep?”
“We shouldn’t have cut through these complicated mountain roads. If this were a proper paved road, there’d at least be signs, but there’s nothing here. Are we being punished by heaven for trying to take a shortcut?”
“Who on earth would find that offensive? Is taking a shortcut really sothing that earns divine punishnt?”
“How should I know? In any case, life really does throw you days like this. This is the first ti I’ve ever seen my navigation go this wrong. Though, just in case, I did bring the bigger car....”
The director looked over her shoulder.
“You’re all right roughing it overnight if we have to, right?”
“Ah, Director, please.... You said at least we’d get to sleep in a bed.”
“Oh, I knew sothing like this might happen, so I brought blankets. Don’t worry.”
“You said we’d sleep under soft blankets, Director...!”
“I’m joking, I’m joking. Haah, what do we actually do?”
The director looked troubled.
All of them were Seoul residents. None of them knew the roads in Gapyeong. In other words, they were lost. They would stay that way until the navigation ca back to its senses.
“We’re deep in the mountains and it’s raining, so I think that’s part of it, but this really looks like the GPS has gone dead. Does anyone’s phone map still work?”
“...Mine can’t get the location properly either.”
“Tch. If we at least had a paper map, we might’ve been able to muddle sothing together. Writer Hong could tell
where to go from the passenger seat, and I’d just follow it.”
“The location isn’t loading, but the map itself is.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Ah, just a mont, though. The data signal’s bad....”
Only after quite a while did the resolution on the online map improve enough to be legible. The writer adjusted his glasses and examined the map closely, narrowing his eyes.
“Did the navigation stop here? Is this where we are?”
“Sothing close to it, probably? I was driving perfectly fine until now. I only realized just now that the navigation was acting weird, but well... I don’t imagine it’s far off.”
“...Ah, I think I’ve got the rough idea. We’ve been going up this road for quite a while, haven’t we?”
“For about ten minutes?”
“Then I think this is where we are.”
The writer showed them the map.
“As you can see, if we keep going, it turns into a dead end. Did they start building a road and then stop?”
“If they were going to open a road, wouldn’t they usually cut a tunnel?”
“That’s for Gapyeong to decide. In any case, it looks like they either started building sothing and stopped, or there’s an empty clearing there... sothing like that.”
“Oh, there’s a clearing? Ah, there it is. There’s so space, isn’t there?”
The director brightened at once.
“Well, that’s a relief. The car is sturdy as hell, but the road is ridiculously narrow, so I was wondering how I was supposed to turn around and head back down. At this point, it might be better to go up a bit farther, turn the car around there, and then go back down.”
“Won’t that take too long? Judging by the distance, it looks like it’ll take a while to get up there. We booked a guesthouse, and if we get there too late, there may not be anyone left to check us in.”
“Either way, it all ends in sleeping rough, doesn’t it? We didn’t bring that much luggage, so there’s enough room for four people to sleep sohow. The trunk is huge, right?”
“It gives a camper van a run for its money.”
“This is why I like big cars.”
The director grinned.
“There might be a house up there.”
“A house? In a place like this? All of a sudden?”
“A mountain lodge, maybe? Weren’t all the places we planned to scout in locations like this? Quietly staying the night in so ownerless place and moving on.”
“...Doesn’t that sound a little like the plot of our movie?”
One of the staff asked uneasily,
“I like fictional stories. I don’t want them becoming real.”
“Oh my, listen to the filming crew talking weak. Isn’t it our job to bring fictional stories into reality?”
“That reality and this reality are different.”
“The odds of there being anything up there at all are low. There were no signs blocking the road on the way up, so it’d be hard to expect a lodge, and naturally there wouldn’t be any other building either.”
“That may be true, but this still....”
“And even if there really is so villa or whatever, trespassing would be illegal.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not planning to walk into so ownerless place. I was only joking, so relax, darling.”
“When you say things like that, Director, it doesn’t sound like a joke.”
“That’s one of my charms.”
The director started driving again.
The road was still awful. The rain blocked everything outside the windows from view. Even though it was a single-lane road, she kept tapping the brakes and hesitating.
They nearly got into an accident more than ten tis, simply because they could not see ahead.
“…….”
“…….”
The longer the uncomfortable ride dragged on, the deeper the silence inside the car beca.
“...Why does it feel like the rain’s getting worse...?”
“...I’m genuinely starting to get scared.”
“Writer Hong writes things far worse than this, so why are you scared by sothing like this?”
“Is writing it the sa as living through it? Am I not allowed to be scared?”
“Honestly, shouldn’t the original creator be the one with the strongest nerves?”
“No.”
“Look at how much you hate the very idea.”
The mountain was steep, so the road wound endlessly, and above all, it was long. So much ti passed that the fact they could not turn the car around because it was so large began to feel like a curse.
And then it appeared.
“…….”
“...Why can I see light?”
“No, what is that...?”
“Is that a building?”
Through the rain, a vast outline erged. The shape of an imnse high-rise thrust up through the darkness.
“...Hotel... One?”
Hotel One.
It was a gigantic hotel.
“Why is a hotel this big in a place like this?”
“…….”
“Writer, say sothing.”
“...I’m genuinely frightened now.”
“You an I’m not hallucinating?”
“It’s not as though I’ve gone through sothing dramatic enough to hallucinate.”
“This is so completely out of nowhere....”
A villa, perhaps, she could have understood. All the places they had intended to scout were in locations like this too—secretive retreats for people with money, hidden in places one could not easily stumble upon by chance.
But this was not so two- or three-story mansion. This was a large-scale lodging facility buried deep in the forest. Who would ever co to a place like this? And it was not just any lodging facility, but a towering hotel that rivaled a corporate landmark.
It was strange. Suspicious, too. Extrely so.
“I just had a thought.”
“What is it?”
“What if we’ve co sowhere we were never supposed to co?”
“...Turn the car around, please....”
“…….”
“Director?”
The writer sensed sothing was wrong. No, more than wrong—sothing closer to danger. It was survival instinct.
“Director, Director. We need to go back.”
“Y-Yeah, I know.”
“The front yard is wide enough. Let’s turn the car around and leave.”
“I know, I know, but....”
“But what? What do you an but? Why are you doing this?”
“Honestly, aren’t you curious?”
“Please don’t do this.”
“Writer Hong.”
The director looked at her partner with a grave face.
“What are we?”
“Please don’t rope
into this all of a sudden.”
“Fine, then what am I, and what are you?”
“A director and a writer....”
“And what did a director and a writer co all the way here for?”
“...A film....”
“And whose film is it?”
“...Our film.”
“No, I an, this is exactly the sort of thing we ca to see in the first place.”
The director looked terribly proud of herself.
“Dangerous, suspicious things. Strange things full of dissonance. Chilling horror and dizzying thrill. Isn’t it our calling to deliver those sensations and fantasies that audiences could never experience in real life?”
“…….”
“You were just thinking, Did we really have to risk our lives for that? No. Be realistic. If this isn’t a hallucination, then it’s a real hotel. And what actual danger could there be in a hotel this big?”
“There could be.”
“Right. There’s no such thing as absolute certainty in this world.”
“So?”
“But I’m curious, that’s all.”
The director parked the car smoothly.
Then she got out.
It happened with alarming naturalness.
“…….”
“...Ha ha.”
Leaving the others staring in stunned confusion, the director smiled benevolently.
“W-Wait!”
Before the writer, who had just co to his senses, could stop her, Lee Seon-hae ignored him and dashed into the rain, shouting,
“Sorry, everyone! I need to know what kind of place this is!”
“Director, please!!”
“I’m really just going to check!”
He was the original creator, so why the director was the one making the bigger fuss, he had no idea.
The writer and the two staff mbers scrambled after her, but naturally it was Lee Seon-hae who reached the door and opened it first.
The door opened with eerie smoothness. The instant her hand touched the handle, the door itself yielded inward lightly, as though drawing her inside.
As though it had been waiting for her.
“…….”
The mont she stepped inside, an atmosphere utterly different from the humid outdoors pricked at her senses.
It was beyond comfortable. The silence was so dry and cool it bordered on bizarre. A perfect stillness, as though not a single living thing existed within.
‘...The atmosphere is strange.’
Lee Seon-hae hesitated, then opened her mouth.
“E-Excuse ....”
“…….”
“...Is anyone here?”
And then—
“Welco.”
Amid antique, extravagant decorations,
at the center of it all stood a young-faced man.
“Thank you for visiting us.”
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