Chapter 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Ghost Bridge Society 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
These people had saved her. And they seemed kind enough, at least on the surface.
But at the same time, they were suspiciously off. For starters, none of them looked like ordinary humans. The girl named Mina, sitting in front of her with an even number of hair strands—wait, no—she'd already admitted outright that she wasn't human at all.
Ibi had spent her whole life thinking she was the weirdest person in the world. After all, she could see ghosts that weren't supposed to exist.
But after being chased by one for a full month and barely surviving, here were these people right in front of her. Ghosts, yokai, monsters—they were all real.
"Where is this place?"
Aerin started to answer Ibi's question, only to clamp her mouth shut at the last second. Her lips, drawn like delicate brush strokes, curved slightly upward.
She just gave Ibi a meaningful glance instead. Eat first, it seemed to say.
"......"
So Ibi did as suggested. Truth be told, she'd asked the question, but she felt like she'd regret it forever if she didn't focus on this food right now. Mom, I'm sorry. This is better than anything you ever made.
The moment her tension eased, Mina would probably snatch it all away, so Ibi sped up her chopsticks. She was pretty impressed with herself—even sharing a table with someone who ate in such grotesque, unheard-of ways, her appetite didn't falter.
"...Thank you for the meal."
In the end, the lavish spread didn't last long before it was scraped clean.
Once Ibi finished wiping her mouth, a faint heat rose to her cheeks. Had she been too combative with these strangers?
After the cleanup was done, Aerin fetched a long wooden stick-like thing from the corner. It was a gombangdae pipe. She deftly packed it with tobacco and took a slow draw of smoke.
Is that okay indoors? The thought crossed Ibi's mind, but she quickly shook her head. It was her shop, after all.
"You asked what kind of place this is, right?"
"Uh... yeah."
Aerin exhaled a deep plume of smoke before speaking.
"It's not easy to explain. I'm no good with words."
Then her strangely gleaming eyes fixed on Ibi.
"Want to see for yourself?"
"Pardon? See what?"
Aerin pointed her pipe toward the back of the kitchen. Ibi walked over skeptically, and they followed behind.
With the pipe's tip, Aerin tugged open one of the cabinets. It was about waist height.
"Go on in."
"...Pardon?"
Ibi blinked in confusion, but Aerin just prodded the cabinet's interior silently.
"......"
Ibi had always thought she'd never meet anyone weirder than herself in her lifetime. Guess the world really is wide, after all. Still, she bent at the waist and poked her head inside.
It was surprisingly spacious. Even with half her body shoved in, her head didn't bump anything. But there was another issue.
"It's, uh, really dark in here. Hold on, I've got my phone in my back pocket... it's stuck."
Lately my pants have felt tight. Have I gained weight?
Before Ibi could fish out her phone, Mina—who was standing behind her—slapped her butt hard and shoved her the rest of the way in.
"Such a scaredy-cat. Just go in."
"Mommy!"
Ibi flailed and tumbled headfirst onto the floor. It was deeper than expected, so it hurt—a lot. She could've gotten seriously injured.
She whipped her head around and glared at the entrance she'd just come through. They feed me and then treat me like this?
"There's a light switch inside. Find it."
Groping along the wall, Ibi's hand found it. Click. The light wasn't blinding, but it was enough to see by.
With her vision clear, Ibi wrinkled her nose. The space was some kind of corridor. Stairs led downward into the unknown.
A hidden space inside a cabinet? Was this building even up to code?
On top of that, Ibi had extremely bad recent memories of corridors. Her stomach started churning. Or maybe she'd just eaten too much. Either way, she wasn't thrilled.
She glanced briefly toward the cabinet entrance, then turned away and headed down the corridor. Down the stairs.
"She's got guts."
Back at the cabinet, Aerin and Mina were still watching Ibi's progress. Once she vanished completely down the stairs, Mina commented.
"I thought she'd chicken out from fear."
Aerin just shrugged silently. Truth be told, it was a kind of test for Aerin too.
"But is that okay?"
Aerin took another draw from her pipe before replying.
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't it dangerous?"
"It is."
"What if she dies?"
"Doubt it."
"On what basis?"
"She survived the Guest. Eh, no real reason. Just a hunch."
Mina shot her an incredulous look.
"What if she really dies?"
Aerin gnawed on the end of her pipe, tilting her head gloomily.
"Then that's as far as her luck goes."
The stairs soon led to a spacious room. It wasn't spotless, but there were signs it'd been cleaned recently.
The door was open.
Ibi stepped inside and first examined the door itself. A metal nameplate was affixed to it. One line in English, one in Hanja. The top line had been violently scratched out.
Ibi frowned and stepped back from the door. Then she faced the room head-on.
It looked more like a warehouse than a room. Shelves lined the space densely. There were plenty of drawers, and several large wooden wardrobes stood against the walls.
And atop every storage surface, all manner of objects were crammed haphazardly.
Junk, antiques—they were jumbled together in plain sight, with no rhyme or reason. There were traces of attempted organization, but it didn't look successful. And the categorization? Ibi couldn't even guess.
"This place... not Hogwarts, that's for sure."
She wandered around like she was touring a museum, and sure enough, there was all sorts of stuff. In one corner of a shelf, boxes similar to the one that had tried to eat her were stacked up—she recoiled in horror.
They weren't exactly the same, so maybe they were different. Still, to Ibi's eyes, everything here screamed dangerous and supernatural.
They sent her down here when she asked what this teahouse was for. Was this their answer?
"A place where yokai gather to manage haunted objects?"
She wished those words hadn't come from her own mouth. But sadly, they had.
Then again, after years of being called a haunted freak, it was too late to lament now. Maybe she'd finally found friends who fit.
That's when it happened.
Rrring, rrrring. Startled by the loud noise, Ibi jumped like a cat. Whirling around, she saw an old rotary phone on a nearby shelf. The kind where you spun the dial with your finger.
Rrring, rrrring.
Something felt off. It looked like it wasn't even plugged in—just displayed there. Did cordless phones even exist back then?
"No way."
A chill ran through her, and she backed away from the phone. She'd seen enough. Time to head back up. Ibi turned toward the warehouse door.
Then the ringing stopped. Instead, there was a click. And the phone connected on its own.
Ibi spun back in surprise. But the handset lay still, unmoved.
"H-Hello? Hello! Can you hear me?"
It was a voice that sounded desperately urgent. Ibi forgot about leaving and found herself listening intently.
"Can you hear me? Please, if anyone's there, help me!"
It really sounded like... someone in danger?
"Please! I beg you! I'm trapped inside the mahogany grandfather clock right now! Get me out, please!"
Mahogany grandfather clock?
Ibi instinctively scanned the room. Her eyes landed on one nearby, and she froze. Of course, she had no clue if it was mahogany or not...
"Yes! That's the one! The one you're looking at right now!"
Perfectly timed, the cuckoo popped out from the clock. It was broken—one eye bulging, wing twisted grotesquely—but it was a cuckoo.
"Please open it."
Ibi tilted her head but walked over anyway. No way was there room for a person inside. What was all this?
Were these people messing with her? Sending her to this creepy place just to watch her freak out?
It was possible, but... Ibi reached for the clock.
"Yes. Just open that..."
The caller's voice brimmed with desperation. Ibi didn't know why, but she couldn't just ignore it.
It's just a clock. Let's open it once. Just once. If nothing's there, ignore it and go. If not...
If not, then what?
But her hands moved faster than her thoughts. Ibi flung open the clock's interior. The moment she did, she knew it was a mistake. Too late.
What was inside was...