Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 254
As I looked around for a place to hide, all I could see was a steep cliff.
‘If I jump from here…’
I had an experience of being drowned here against my will. I don’t know what happened to my corpse and how it was handled afterwards.
But surely the corpse that looked like a slip-and-fall death wasn’t. They wrapped it up as a simple fall. I could tell without seeing how they dealt with the local police.
‘I don’t think I’ll die.’
The letter was sealed with vinyl so that anyone who found it would have to tear the package to check the contents.
The cara was waterproof too… I thought about jumping, but then.
‘Oops.’
I rembered too late that the laptop wasn’t waterproof.
Besides, it wasn’t mine, I borrowed it, right. And rationally speaking, jumping into the sea and running away was a last resort that was no different from suicide. I pondered for a mont.
There were only two people who looked like rcenaries. Maybe I could hide in a blind spot where they couldn’t see from outside.
As I hesitated, one of the rcenaries shouted.
“He couldn’t have gone far. Go out and look for him!”
Damn, I could have erased all the traces if I had more ti. I couldn’t help it because they ca in so suddenly.
What do I do now? I had no ti to think when I heard soone opening the balcony door.
There was no way out. I stretched my legs over the cliff and caught my toes on a protruding part. I grabbed a clump of grass roots that hung like vines and stepped on the protruding part of the cliff with my feet.
It was an uncomfortable posture, but it was the most stable one to hang on. If I tried to change to a more comfortable posture here, I felt like I would fall down the cliff. 𝘳
‘Ah… what the hell…’
What am I doing, like a spy movie hero. I flattened my body against the cliff and held my breath as I heard soone running around above .
“There’s no one here!”
“Did he run away?”
This area was invisible unless you ca over the fence, so they couldn’t find from the backyard.
‘Please, just go!’
I prayed fervently in my mind. They were just doing their job for money, so they should just look around and go report.
As I held on with an unstable posture, sweat started to form on my palms. How much longer could I hold on? As the realistic fear crept in, the old man who looked like the leader sighed.
“He’s gone. He was already out when we got here.”
“Damn it, why did he set up the door lock to send an open alert ssage? It looks like a burglar ca in and left, but there’s nothing to steal anyway.”
The man’s grumbling voice was followed by the sound of the rcenaries walking towards the car they had parked.
Just as I was about to relax, one of the younger ones asked.
“What… you don’t think he ran away over there, do you?”
Damn. He didn’t seem to have said it with much conviction, but the sound of their footsteps walking towards the car stopped for a mont.
“If you’re worried, go and check it out yourself. I’ll start the car.”
And then the sound of their footsteps ca closer to this side again.
‘I’m screwed.’
Should I jump now? My heart was pounding as I heard the voice again.
“Hey, there’s no one. It looks like a burglar ca in. We should report that, right?”
Luckily, he only peeked over the fence from the outside. His laziness saved .
‘Ah…’
I felt like I had endured ten years as I waited a little longer. Soon, I heard the car moving away.
I still waited for another five minutes, just in case, and then pulled myself up over the cliff. My whole body was covered in sweat.
The letter, the cara, and the laptop I borrowed were all safe. I flopped down on the ground, hidden from the road, and gasped for breath. That’s when I relaxed.
“I thought I was going to die again.”
I’ll probably die again in a week anyway. I lay down and scratched my head, and everything was blurry.
It would be easier to just give up. A mont of impure thought crossed my mind. If everything goes to nothing when I die, isn’t revenge a futile thing?
I won’t rember anything when I’m broken down and beco sothing new.
I closed my eyes and the negative thoughts lingered for a while. I forced myself to get up.
‘I can think about that after I fail.’
I had to move my body instead of lying down and making gloomy noises.
I had to do my best until the end for the abandoned Climax mbers.
I called a taxi again and the driver looked at with a nervous expression.
“Kid… what did you do to end up like that?”
It was no joke to say what I looked like. I was covered in dirt from head to toe, from my clothes to my shoes, because I was clinging to the cliff.
I see.
“I’m sorry.”
I muttered an apology without any spirit and headed to the terminal. It was still before 10 a.m., even though I had left early and caused such a commotion.
“Is there a broadcast today?”
It was the last week of their activities, so they must have been busy preparing for their goodbye stage. I wondered if I should ask Yu-geon what ti the recording was, but I didn’t know when their rehearsal was scheduled, so it felt awkward.
‘He’ll probably contact first if he gets bored during the waiting ti.’
And sure enough, a few monts later, I received a ssage from Yu-geon.
[Yu-geon] I’m at work. The chaos is over and I’m waiting. 10:38 a.m.
He also attached a selfie that he seed to have posted on their official account. It was so cheeky that it made annoyed.
Yu-geon was smiling and making a V sign with his fingers towards the lens, while the other mbers of Offbeat were sitting behind him with various expressions.
Seon-woo was sleeping, Yi-jun was eating sothing, and Seong-won was listening to sothing with earphones plugged in his ears.
Hwijin, Naru, and Kyunghwa were aware of the lens and posed casually.
‘They all look fine.’
I felt bitter that there was no place for among those people.
‘…Forget it. Let’s go back to the shelter.’
I had to check the cara SD card first, then wash up, take a nap, and deal with the backlog of work and call Jinwoo.
The key was whether there was anything on the cara that could serve as evidence.
I got on the bus to Seoul and just before I fell asleep, I saw the familiar status window faintly.
[Remaining quest duration: 121 hours]
Ti was passing by frighteningly fast.
‘I can’t waste ti like this.’
I rubbed my stiff eyelids and turned on the laptop. Then I connected the cara to the laptop and placed it on my lap.
Ding, a ssage popped up saying that the driver installation was complete and the file storage folder opened.
‘Please…!’
When I entered the folder where the recordings from last year were stored, there were no monthly folders created after June. I opened the May folder with a hopeful expectation and clicked on the last video that was fild. There was a scene of soone wandering around near my house and entering inside.
It was my half-sibling who ca out with a bunch of books and stuff and loaded them into the car.
‘He must have done this himself without anyone’s help.’
I was watching him destroy the evidence in real ti, but I wondered if I could use this as evidence. But this video alone looked like he was just sorting out the family’s belongings.
And the video abruptly cut off at a certain point. It seed that the power was cut off when he turned off the main switch and went inside the house.
The chanism of this device was simple. It deleted the old videos sequentially to make room for the new ones.
The fact that the storage stopped here ant that there were no videos fild after that, and that ant there was a good chance that the video of that day was still there.
My heart was pounding and my stomach was turning.
Please, please…!
I opened each file with a desperate prayer and finally found a video with in it.
It was coming out to the balcony and getting so fresh air. I hadn’t seen this familiar back of my head for almost a year.
Soon I went back inside and I didn’t show up for a long ti.
‘Is it coming soon…?’
And after fast-forwarding for a while, the scene I was waiting for finally appeared. I was thrown off the cliff by my half-sibling, limp and lifeless.
He didn’t forget to take off one of my shoes and adjust the position to make it look like I tripped and fell because of my shoe. He also broke a fence to make it more convincing.
The sign of the person who had been writing a suicide note with guilt and remorse for his family was an accidental death.
It was a suspicious situation to anyone who saw it, but the investigation didn’t even start properly and it was concluded as a suicide without much fuss.
‘I have to back up this file by email.’
Just in case sothing happens to the laptop, I could still report it to the dia.
If I can’t report it, I could at least upload it to a video platform. There was no way this provocative video wouldn’t spread like wildfire.
It would be impossible to cover it up with his palm. For now, this was the hidden card I could use.
I went back to the shelter with a lot of tension and saw the guys who dragged to the busking venue last night lying on their beds and sleeping.
‘They didn’t even eat breakfast.’
I glanced at the guy who said he was a fan of Yu-geon and confird that he was sleeping well. Then I went to the shower and washed up.
I was exhausted from sweating a lot since early morning and I felt sleepy after soaking in the hot water.
‘Should I lie down and sleep for a bit?’
As I was pondering, the fan of Yu-geon caught my eye and made a noise.
“Hey, hyung, you’re awake?”
It was dawn when I woke up. I didn’t answer and smiled faintly.
“Oh, right. I have sothing to show you, hyung.”
He unplugged his phone from the charger and ca over to . He found a captured image and handed it to .
“This is from the pre-debut promotion event where they asked us to pick our debut pick. I would have bought a lottery ticket if I could when my debut group was confird.”
I looked at the image that was sent to , thinking it was so nonsense. But it turned out that I had a 60% accuracy rate in an event where I had to guess the nine mbers of the debut group.
“Wow…”
As I scrolled down, I saw the profile images of Yu-geon, Hwijin, and Naru lined up.
This was sothing to be proud of in my own prediction. I smiled involuntarily at the expression of pride on my face. There must be fans who supported Climax from the beginning like this.
I rembered the middle school students who ca all the way to that remote place and waved their placards when I went to the corn festival.
‘I have to repay them as much as I can.’
I felt the energy that had drained out of co back. Let’s work! I sent a ssage to Jinwoo first and then headed to the cafeteria with my laptop.
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