The Elevator That Shouldn't Exist
“Our building doesn’t have an elevator.”
The 「Taegwang Villa」 where I lived was so old that its exterior was covered in brown bricks. The top floor was only the fourth. There was no way something like an elevator existed here. If Mom ever sent a message like 「Mom is Mother: Yeong-won, bring the rice up lololol there’s a lot though 」, my thighs would have to scream in protest.
So what exactly was Jeong Seok pressing the button on?
“...Hey. Jeong Seok. I don’t know what that is, but we should probably get away from it.”
I suggested this to Jeong Seok, who had his hand on the 「Down」 button. After reading the expressions on my face and Yang Ju-hui’s, he slowly backed away from the elevator.
Swish—
The elevator, which hadn’t received any input, eventually closed its doors. The floor display still showed the fourth floor.
A sudden intrusion of the abnormal. My pleasant plan for the day—walking to school with my friends, spotting dandelions blooming on the street, and maybe taking a shortcut—felt like it had been tied to a cold lead weight and dropped into the sea.
“Ha Yeong-won. Are you sure your house doesn’t have an elevator?”
“I’m telling you it doesn’t! Even if I only moved here recently, I definitely know whether there’s an elevator or not! Yang Ju-hui, you should remember too!”
“There wasn’t one. Can they just build an elevator in a single day? If there had been construction, we definitely would’ve heard it.”
This was absurd.
“Hey, Jeong Seok. You were complaining yesterday about having to climb the stairs to the fourth floor, remember? You don’t recall struggling up because there was no elevator? I even joked about carrying you on my back.”
“......”
Jeong Seok fell silent. He stared at the closed elevator doors, lost in thought. After about ten seconds, he let out a groan and spoke again.
“No. I’ve been seeing this elevator since yesterday, when we first came here. When I asked you guys if we had to take the stairs, I was asking why we had to use the stairs when there was an elevator.”
What was he talking about? A chill ran down my spine.
“I thought maybe it was under construction or broken. After leaving the front door today, I pressed the button and it worked, so I figured it must’ve been fixed.”
Jeong Seok had been seeing this suddenly appeared elevator since yesterday...?
After everything we’d been through recently, I had no doubt this was connected to the incidents and accidents we’d survived.
“Weren’t we supposed to be able to live in peace for a while after spraying the 『Faint Perfume』? What the hell is this first thing in the morning! I’m seriously going insane!”
I felt like foam was about to bubble out of my mouth from sheer frustration. Was the capsule draw a scam after all?
Then Jeong Seok, who had been maintaining his composure, explained as if trying to calm me down.
“The perfume’s effect drastically reduces the chance of being discovered by monsters. Even if it lowers the discovery rate from 99% to 1%, the possibility still exists. It doesn’t eliminate it entirely.”
“I know that much.”
I understood, but the frustration remained.
“Or maybe we can’t escape from monsters that have already found us. This elevator was something I discovered before you even obtained the perfume. It’s been active since then.”
He had a point. Yang Ju-hui, who had been quietly observing the situation, chimed in.
“Should we try riding it? If we get on, we’ll know exactly what it is, right?”
“Wait, you want to ride this thing?”
Both Jeong Seok and I flinched at her suggestion. Did Yang Ju-hui have no fear? She was casually suggesting we board this suspicious, bizarre elevator. I suddenly remembered that her player trait was 「Bravery」. Even in the same situation, people could react completely differently depending on their traits and personality.
What should we do here?
Jeong Seok looked at me.
“Ha Yeong-won. You’ve got the most experience with this kind of thing, don’t you? You decide. Personally, I’m against going inside.”
There wasn’t much to decide. I had no desire to step into this suddenly appeared elevator either.
“Let’s never go inside this elevator.”
However... since there was no guarantee that only we could see it, I went back into the house, grabbed some tape, a pen, and paper, and wrote 「DO NOT USE!」 in large letters before sticking it on the elevator doors.
“Maybe this will count as clearing it.”
The method to deal with the sudden elevator was to choose 「Don’t ride it」. I had a small hope, but no 「Congratulations」 message appeared in the status window. That meant it hadn’t been cleared.
“Hmm.”
I thought for a moment. Unlike the 「Crow Auntie」, 「Ancestral Ghost」, or 「Feng Shui Ghost」 that had directly tormented and followed me, this elevator was quiet. At least it wasn’t following me or making terrifying noises.
“...Should we just ignore it for now? We have to go to school anyway.”
Just in case, I covered the elevator with even more tape. I also sent Mom a message: 「Don’t ride the elevator even if the villa has one」. At the building entrance, I posted another note: 「Warning! Do not board the elevator. Risk of falling.」
“Wow. Your handwriting is really good.”
Yang Ju-hui admired the warning notice Jeong Seok had posted. She seemed impressed by how neat it looked, almost like it had been printed by a computer. Jeong Seok’s proper handwriting carried a certain authority, so people would definitely listen.
# # #
Even after arriving at school and class starting, my mind felt completely empty. It was like I’d left the gas stove on at home. I couldn’t calm down because of the elevator that had suddenly appeared in the villa. I was seriously anxious as hell. If it had been a ghost that attacked us, I could’ve dealt with it somehow and gotten rid of it. Maybe we really should’ve ridden the elevator like Yang Ju-hui suggested?
“What day is it today? The 14th? Then it’s not number 14... it’s number 24! Stand up and interpret this sentence.”
Number 24. Number 24 was me, wasn’t it?
Swish—
I stood up and looked at the blackboard. But I had no idea what sentence I was supposed to interpret, so I could only stand there blankly. As I hesitated, Hong Miri, our English teacher, frowned deeply.
“Number 24. Ha Yeong-won. You’re not paying attention. Hai... seriously. Class D has been weird lately. Did something happen? Is there anything going on in the class these days? Kim Geon-ho is late again for first period.”
As Hong Miri said, the atmosphere in Class D wasn’t the same as before. Lately, the class mood had generally been unsettled.
Ding-dong-ding—
Break time arrived. Just as I was thinking about calling Mom, something smacked the back of my head. When I turned around, a guy with dyed red hair was grinning at me.
“You little shit. The English teacher asked you a question earlier, so why didn’t you answer? Since Geon-ho hasn’t been keeping you in line, you think you can do whatever you want? Not even listening properly in class.”
It was Kim Yeong-ho, one of Kim Geon-ho’s lackeys. He’d dyed his hair red and was the type who always chimed in and acted cocky next to Kim Geon-ho. Kim Geon-ho and Kim Yeong-ho—their names were even similar, these bastards. Things had been quiet for a few days, so were they starting up again? When the tiger is away, the fox plays king. Since Kim Geon-ho had calmed down, Kim Yeong-ho, who was beneath him, seemed to want to pick on me now.
At that moment, Yang Ju-hui, who was sitting behind me, spoke up.
“Hey. Kim Yeong-ho. Get lost. I’m trying to take a nap, so stop making noise.”
“What? Get lost? Our Ju-hui’s got a sharp tongue. The loudest one in this school was your mom, though.”
The atmosphere was getting intense right from the first break. Class D went quiet for a moment, as if a storm was about to hit. While everyone was glancing around nervously, Kim Yeong-ho added more.
“Yang Ju-hui. You better watch yourself. Bong Ji-yeon from Class C is grinding her teeth saying she’s going to get you. Without Kim Geon-ho’s protection, what are you going to do alone? If you mess with Bong Ji-yeon and the seniors, you’re really in for it.”
“Funny. If someone heard you, they’d think Kim Geon-ho was protecting me like crazy. If you’ve got something to say to Bong Ji-yeon, tell her to come to me directly. Oh right, that bitch is too scared to even look me in the eye.”
“Wow, Yang Ju-hui’s got some serious guts.”
“More guts than you, Kim Yeong-ho, who used to hang around Kim Geon-ho and now does errands for Bong Ji-yeon. Aren’t you ashamed as a guy to be running errands for a girl shorter than you?”
“......”
Kim Yeong-ho couldn’t respond, as if he’d been hit where it hurt. For some reason, my own chest ached too, but Yang Ju-hui kept tearing into him like a shark that had tasted blood.
“Bong Ji-yeon does queen bee stuff, replies to your texts, and smiles at you sometimes, so you feel like she likes you? There’s a truckload of guys like that around her, you idiot. Kim Yeong-ho, you’re just a goldfish in her fish tank.”
I recalled the time Jeong Seok and I got beaten up in the back alley. There really were quite a few Class C guys around Bong Ji-yeon. Her pretty appearance was power and authority in itself. Bong Ji-yeon was a bully who knew how to wield her weapon to control people.
“Hey. Kim Yeong-ho. When you text Bong Ji-yeon, does she reply? She doesn’t, right? Even when she was getting beaten by me, she wouldn’t drop her phone. Why is her reply so slow for you?”
“This fucking— Who’s the goldfish in a fish tank! You wanna bet? Let’s make a bet! Fuck! If I text her and she replies, what are you gonna do, Yang Ju-hui? Let’s bet!”
I could feel a madness-like emotion flickering in Kim Yeong-ho’s eyes. I recalled the quirk that had appeared on Kim Yeong-ho recently.
「《Gambling Addict》: For some people, gambling isn’t a means or method—it becomes everything.」
Now Kim Yeong-ho’s behavior made sense. He’d always liked illegal sports betting, so this quirk suited him perfectly. Maybe quirks weren’t completely random but manifested based on a person’s constitution or aptitude. It was a hypothesis worth considering. I’d have to discuss it with Jeong Seok later. But first, I needed to end this dangerous situation. If things got too noticeable in class, we might get discovered by those 「Watchers」.
“Hey, Kim Yeong-ho. I’ll take that bet. If you text Bong Ji-yeon and she replies within five minutes, I’ll do whatever you say. But if she doesn’t reply, it’s the opposite.”
“Fuck, who the hell are you to butt in, Ha Yeong-won?”
“Why? Scared? Afraid Bong Ji-yeon won’t reply?”
“Wow. I’ve seen everything now. Fine. Let’s do it, you bastard. Ha Yeong-won, you fucking piece of shit, you’re dead.”
With bloodshot eyes, Kim Yeong-ho picked up his phone. He sent a message to someone—probably Bong Ji-yeon.
Five minutes. Would Bong Ji-yeon, the Class C bully, reply within five minutes?
No, I didn’t think so. Bong Ji-yeon also had a quirk.
「《Androphobia》: She feels an unbearable revulsion just from seeing or being in the same space as them. What does it feel like to fear half the world...?」
The power of quirks was almost absolute. There was no way she’d reply to someone she feared.
One minute, three minutes, four minutes passed—
Kim Yeong-ho looked almost insane, with veins bulging on his forehead.
He looked completely crazy. If he spammed messages like that, of course she wouldn’t want to reply.
“Hey. Yeong-ho. Five minutes are up.”
The promised time had passed. Kim Yeong-ho’s face was flushed red and purple. The bet was that Kim Yeong-ho would become my slave, so how would he react now?
“Fuck off. It was just a joke anyway. Bongji said she wasn’t feeling well lately, so she’s probably sleeping. Let’s pretend this never happened.”
Of course. Even with the 《Gambling Addict》 quirk, there was no rule saying he had to properly follow through on the bet. Still, Kim Yeong-ho’s behavior was infuriating. If I had lost the bet, would this guy have let it go so easily?
I thought for a moment and came up with a pretty interesting idea.
“Hey. Kim Yeong-ho. Let’s make another bet. Whether you’ll accept the result of the slave bread bet we just made or not. I bet that you won’t accept it—which means you won’t become my slave. You should bet the opposite, that you will accept it. How about 50,000 won?”
“Uh... well...”
If Kim Yeong-ho wanted to win this bet, he’d have to choose to become my slave. If he didn’t want to be a slave, he’d have to lose this bet and pay me 50,000 won. How would 《Gambling Addict》 Kim Yeong-ho bet on this dilemma?
“Uh... well...”
Honestly, he could just refuse to participate in such an absurd bet. The surest way to win at gambling was to not gamble at all—I’d seen that in the movie Tazza. But could Kim Yeong-ho, who was addicted to gambling, resist making a bet? Even if it was a rigged game he was destined to lose, would he still stick his head into the lion’s mouth?
“Uh... well...”
Kim Yeong-ho was sweating coldly like he had the flu, his shoulders and arms trembling. Just as it was starting to look serious, the classroom door slid open and Jeong Seok and Jeong Sojin walked in.
“Hey! What are you guys doing over there! Are you bullying Yeong-won again? Yang Ju-hui! Kim Yeong-ho! Stop picking on Yeong-won! If you keep this up, I’m going straight to the principal!”
Thud thud thud—
Jeong Sojin approached me and scolded Yang Ju-hui and Kim Yeong-ho. Of course, Yang Ju-hui frowned deeply.
“What’s her problem? So annoying.”
Beep—
Just then, a phone notification went off. Kim Yeong-ho’s expression brightened instantly.
“Did Bongji reply!?”
“No, that’s my phone.”
The moment I checked the message, my vision went dark.