Checking Into the Doll's House
Gulp.
The atmosphere grew instantly heavy.
Perhaps to break the tension, Deokhu suddenly asked an unexpected question.
"Hey, Hyung, I'm actually really curious about something."
"What is it?"
"If—and this is a big if—you manage to resolve all of these scenarios, like all dozens of them, do you get anything out of it?"
Minhye scolded him for the random question.
"Oppa, is this really the time for that? Our lives are on the line here."
"No, think about it. Seriously!"
Deokhu raised his voice defensively.
"This is a total curse! You can't even sleep properly, and if you do manage to get some deep sleep, you have to stop a disaster all by yourself. You're risking your life every single day. If you're going through all this suffering, shouldn't there be some kind of reward? Like..."
"Like what?"
Deokhu's eyes began to sparkle, and he started babbling excitedly, as if imagining the future of a shonen manga protagonist.
"Hyung, you basically know about future disasters before they happen. Doesn't that make you a modern-day Nostradamus? Once we predict a few more, our team can walk right into the Blue House or the UN and say, 'A disaster is going to strike at this exact location in a few days!' They won't believe us at first, but once it actually happens, the whole world will hang on your every word!"
His wild imagination showed no signs of stopping.
"And then what happens? You won't just be a prophet; you'll be the fixer who stops the disasters. Presidents from all over the world will come kneeling to you, begging you to save their countries. Hollywood will want to make movies about you! Money and fame will just fall into your lap. You might even become the president of the entire world! People will treat you like the second coming of God!"
Deokhu shouted, "Team Minjun Forever!" and laughed, completely swept up in his own fantasy.
Minhye and Seyeon smacked him on the back, calling him immature, but his ridiculous daydreaming succeeded in lifting the heavy mood.
Just as everyone was about to chuckle and brush off Deokhu's nonsense,
"...No, Deokhu might actually be onto something."
My quiet murmur drew everyone's eyes to me.
"What? Don't tell me you actually want to be president?"
Seyeon asked, dumbfounded. I shook my head.
"Not that. I'm talking about the true nature of my ability."
I recalled the voice I had heard in my dream on the very first night this madness began.
Live in the world you created. Prove your story.
"That bastard who calls himself The Judge said it. 'Live in the world you created. Prove your story.' Until now, I thought this was just some kind of curse. A punishment forcing me to suffer inside the disasters I wrote."
I continued, my gaze drifting to the countless scenarios plastered across the wall.
They were a dense record of my frustrations and failures.
"Every single one of these scenarios is a 'failed story.' Rejected at pitches, dropped from contests, never acknowledged by anyone. But what if I complete these failed stories with my own hands? What if I prove their worth?"
"If you prove their worth...?"
Minhye swallowed hard and asked.
A faint ember of hope began to kindle in my chest.
"Maybe then, I'll be given the chance to write a brand-new story."
"A brand-new story?"
"Not to be a president, or a god. Something I actually want. The real reason I wanted to make movies in the first place."
My voice no longer held despair, but a quiet conviction.
"To create the world I want through my own stories. Maybe at the end of all these trials, I'll be granted the true 'authority' of an author—the power to write a happy ending for my own life."
"Oh, that's pretty philosophical... but world president still sounds way cooler."
Deokhu snorted, trying to hold back a laugh.
Thanks to him, the stiff atmosphere dissolved completely.
I chuckled and gave Deokhu a playful shove on the shoulder.
"Fine. If I'm going to become president like you said, I'll have to beat this next stage first."
I stood up and walked over to the wall covered in scenario titles. The team's eyes followed my back.
The scenario I had rated a single star, deeming it the most boring—and thus, the one I had an ominous feeling would trigger first.
"Alright, let's begin the briefing as planned."
I sat back down in front of my laptop. Everyone gathered around me. On the screen, a scenario file I had written years ago was open.
[Urban Legend: Citing 'Lost Suzy']
Long ago, in a certain village, there was an old doll named Suzy. An urban legend claimed that, unable to forget her owner who died of an illness, she moved on her own every night in search of a new master. The child who found the doll would become her new owner, but before long, they would waste away from an unknown illness and die. A classic urban legend of the 'cursed object' variety.
[Adaptation: Contagious Guilt]
I twisted this classic setup with a modern angle. The true essence of the curse is the child's guilt over abandoning the doll.
1. Birth of the Curse: Forced by their parents, a child discards their beloved doll. That night, the child suffers from terrible nightmares, consumed by guilt. This intense emotion awakens the dormant spirit of the 'Suzy' legend, forming a parasitic relationship. The spirit feeds on the child's guilt to gain strength, while the guilt gains physical power through the spirit.
2. Method of Transmission: The curse spreads through 'free giveaway' posts on secondhand marketplace apps or parenting forums. The parents of the first child, desperate to get rid of the doll, upload a post. The curse is already embedded in the photos and text of that post.
3. Symptoms of Infection: The child who receives the doll begins to have nightmares every night. In their dreams, the worn-out doll appears and whispers, "Are you going to abandon me too?" Infected by guilt, the child slowly begins to change. They stop recognizing their parents, lose the ability to speak, and eventually, their faces freeze into expressionless masks with hollow eyes, just like the doll.
4. Final Stage: Completion of the 'Doll's House': The ultimate goal of the curse is to build a 'family.' As if drawn by an unspoken promise, the infected children gather in one place at night. They decorate their home into a new 'Doll's House' for the spirit, becoming a collection of living dolls to serve her for eternity.
As the scenario briefing ended, the faces of the other three turned pale.
"...This is insane."
"This is your lowest-rated one? Why did you undervalue it so much?"
Minhye muttered in a low voice.
"Targeting kids is just cheating, isn't it?"
"And you think this will be the next disaster?"
Seyeon asked, her voice calm but trembling.
"I can't be certain. But it's the most likely candidate. It's the story I dismissed the most."
"Why?"
"Well, for starters, it didn't feel intuitively scary to me. That's why I lacked confidence in it. It felt like it lacked logical plausibility..."
"Hmm..."
I stood up and looked back at the wall.
"Alright, from here on out, it's the real deal. Everyone, get to your roles."
At my words, everyone snapped out of it and began to move.
"Understood."
Seyeon was the first to open her laptop.
"Since guilt is the core emotion and secondhand marketplace apps are the medium, I'll dig through all cases of child disappearances or children showing signs of mental illness in the metropolitan area over the past three months. I'll cross-reference them with secondhand doll transactions to pinpoint the 'first child' who started the curse."
"Good."
I turned to Deokhu.
"Deokhu, what about the solution?"
"You already wrote it in the scenario, Hyung."
Deokhu showed me his laptop screen.
Written there was the weakness of the curse I had established in the script.
The opposite of guilt. Unconditional, pure love. A parent's heartfelt lullaby sung to their child cancels out the frequency of guilt and weakens the spirit's power.
"The problem is, it can't just be any lullaby," Deokhu said, adjusting his glasses. "According to your settings, it can't be a commercial recording. It has to be the parent's actual voice, recorded specifically for their child—even if it's a bit clumsy and off-key, as long as it carries sincere emotion. This is going to be incredibly hard to find... but hey, isn't sound my major? I can handle this much."
"Find it, no matter what. Once Seyeon tracks down the first child, we have to convince the parents to record it if we have to. That's our only weapon."
"Got it, Hyung. I'll make it happen somehow."
Finally, Minhye looked at me.
"Sunbae, what about me?"
"You stay with me. When I fall asleep, this place needs to be a perfect safe zone."
We designated one of Minhye's rooms as our situation room and my bedroom where I would sleep.
We covered the windows with blackout sheets to completely block out the light and sealed the door cracks with soundproofing material.
All preparations proceeded rapidly.
Before long, the living room had transformed into a literal operations base. Maps and case summaries were pinned to the walls, and laptops and various equipment began to clutter the space. Watching this unfold gave me a strange sensation.
Just a few days ago, I was worrying about my graduation project pitch. Now, I was leading a team with the fate of the world on the line.
I lost track of how much time had passed. Outside, the sky grew dark.
Seyeon and Deokhu were completely absorbed in their work, looking ready to pull an all-nighter.
I watched them for a moment before speaking, having made up my mind.
"Let's get started."
Everyone froze at my words.
"What? Already, Sunbae?"
"We found some lullabies, but we haven't fully gathered all the information yet..."
Minhye asked in surprise, and Seyeon's voice trailed off.
"I've been thinking. If the curse starts encroaching on reality, there will be irreversible damage, just like during the Jayuro incident. It's better if I enter a state of Full Synchronization first and resolve the disaster before it can even manifest. That's the best we can do right now."
"I... I guess so. Come to think of it, we aren't one hundred percent sure which scenario will manifest next anyway..."
"Exactly. That's why I need to make the first move."
I walked into the prepared room and took out the sleeping pills I had readied beforehand.
"Just one pill is enough. I only need to sleep for a little while."
I lay down on the bed. I could see the tense faces of the three standing by the doorway. I flashed them a faint smile.
And then, I closed my eyes.
"Alright, team. As of right now... we're checking into the Doll's House."