Bloodline #1
The cat meowed and meowed. The white cat, Baek-seol, cried out nonstop, squirming in my arms like it hated being held. I carried the struggling creature up to the second floor anyway. The noise must have woken the housekeeper aunt who had been dozing in the hallway, because she snapped her eyes open and glared at me.
“You!”
Her face was downright menacing. Without warning, she grabbed my arm with surprising strength.
“Didn’t I tell you not to come down to the first floor after eleven? Why don’t you ever listen?”
Why did adults love scolding kids so much? It wasn’t like they lived such morally upright lives themselves.
“Auntie, you said there weren’t any cats on the first floor. I found this one there.”
“I don’t care about some shedding furball. From now on, answer my questions honestly. If you lie, you’ll regret it. Have you… heard piano music coming from the first floor?”
Her sharp tone made me shrink back a little. She was acting like a complete psychopath.
“Piano music? No, I haven’t.”
“You’re not lying, are you? Because if you are, it’ll feel like you swallowed a thousand needles.”
The aunt stared at me, studying my face as if trying to detect any hint of deception. I was pretty good at lying, but this time I was telling the truth. I really hadn’t heard any piano.
“Why do you ask about the piano, though?”
“None of your business. Go upstairs and sleep. And get that cat out of here. Hachoo—!”
She must have been allergic. Every time the cat got close, she practically had a seizure. The sneezing and runny nose looked pretty severe.
“Auntie, I have a question too. Before you started working here, did someone named Ha Chae-yeon work in this house? Do you know anything about this photo?”
I pulled out the picture from my pocket—the one of me and Mom taken on my entrance day at Yeongji High—and showed it to her. In the lantern light, her sunken eyes twisted strangely for a moment.
“I don’t know.”
“Auntie, you just said if I lied it’d feel like swallowing a thousand needles.”
After everything I’d been through these past few days—the endless string of events that felt like lies—I’d become a bit sensitive to when people weren’t telling the truth. This aunt was definitely lying. Adults were all liars anyway. I was already convinced there was some connection between this mansion and my mother, Ha Chae-yeon. But what exactly was it? Had Mom been the “auntie” who worked here before? The timeline didn’t make sense. According to Yu Da-hui, the previous housekeeper had worked here for nearly ten years. Yet Mom had been living with me in Seoul back then.
The next morning, I handed the cat over to Yu Da-hui.
Baek-seol walked toward her at first, then suddenly changed direction and leaped straight at Yang Ju-hui.
Yang Ju-hui, of course, freaked out.
“Hey! Go to your owner! Why are you jumping on me?!”
The cat liked Yang Ju-hui. Yang Ju-hui hated cats. Some kind of same-species repulsion, maybe.
“Also, I found this. Da-hui, isn’t this one of your drawings?”
I handed her the loose page from the sketchbook. It was the sheet I’d gotten after fighting Adam Smith’s ghost yesterday. The one that said Thank you, Aunt Ha Chae-yeon.
Thank you so much, Aunt Ha Chae-yeon.
Yu Da-hui’s eyes lit up with joy when she saw it.
“This looks like something I drew when I was seven. I used to love drawing back when I was still at the facility! Where did you find it? It must be one of the drawings the auntie kept!”
“Da-hui. Was the name of the aunt who worked here for ten years… Ha Chae-yeon?”
“Her name? I’m not sure. We just called her Auntie… But I drew this for her on Parents’ Day and gave it to her as a gift. Where did you get it?”
A single intuition hit me. It might have been nothing more than a guess, but I was certain my mother had worked in this mansion for ten years. Of course, ten years ago Mom had been living with me in Seoul, not in Gaeryong City… Even if I couldn’t explain how it was possible, it seemed Mom had existed in two places at once. Was something like that even possible?
It would’ve been best to ask Mom directly, but ever since she went missing and came back, her memories had been all over the place. I couldn’t expect much from her. That left Yu Da-hui as the only remaining option.
“Da-hui. Remember how you said if I went into the school basement with you before, you’d grant me one wish?”
I had already used that wish ticket inside the Nightmare Corridor to ask about her true identity. But Yu Da-hui had been eaten by a ghost back then and wouldn’t remember any of it. So as far as she was concerned, my wish ticket had been revived.
“There’s something I want to ask after school. Can you spare me a little time?”
“Mm… okay.”
We changed clothes, finished breakfast, and left the strange mansion behind. As we climbed into the car for the ride to school, the terrifying ghost-like aunt came out to the gate to see us off. The car window slid down, and she held out a small pouch.
“I baked some cookies. Eat them. But don’t open it here—open it at school. Otherwise a scary ghost might appear.”
She’d been nowhere to be seen all morning, and now she was suddenly giving us cookies? And why specifically tell us not to open it until we got to school?
“What? These are ginger cookies. I can’t eat ginger…” Yu Da-hui pouted slightly as she looked at them.
So that was it. The aunt had deliberately baked the kind of cookies Yu Da-hui hated. What a truly impressive woman.
That was how we arrived at school.
Bong Ji-yeon was full of energy from the start, squealing nonstop.
“Da-hui! Breakfast was so good and everything was amazing! Can I post the photos we took together at your house on my Insta and TikTok? Yeah? I can? Da-hui, I love you so much!”
She looked desperate to upload her experience in high society to social media and brag to everyone.
Then she came over to me.
“Hey. I could join that pirate crew thing if you want.”
She wanted in on our group, huh? Unlike the adults who lied through their teeth, Bong Ji-yeon’s intentions were so transparent they were almost cute. Easy to deal with.
Yang Ju-hui was shaking her head violently in clear disgust.
I couldn’t help but hesitate.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Hey, you’re funny. What’s there to think about? I’m offering to hang out with you guys.”
This was the problem with girls who knew they were pretty. They assumed every guy would fall for them. Sure, I’d had a brief crush on Bong Ji-yeon once, but it had lasted less than one percent of my entire life.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to hand this decision over to Jeong Seok.
“Jeong Seok. You’re my vice captain, but starting today you’re also the pirate crew’s personnel officer. Thoroughly test and verify Bong Ji-yeon before letting her join. We can’t just accept her because she’s a friend.”
“Me?” Jeong Seok looked completely dazed.
I whispered quietly in his ear.
“Dude, this is your excuse to spend time together and get closer. You’re the one holding the leash now, so use it. Bong Ji-yeon doesn’t want to get on Kwon Su-ho’s bad side and end up cast out either, so hanging out with us is probably her best move. She might even act cute around you. We’re going to accept her anyway, but don’t do it right away.”
“Isn’t that a little cowardly? I never even thought of that. Ha Yeong-won, you’re seriously amazing. I respect you. You’re actually a bad guy. I’ll handle it well.”
As expected, Jeong Seok had a talent for making compliments sound like insults. Still, the respect and admiration in his eyes when he looked at me were genuine. I’d set a fine example as a leader.
“We’re all planning to hike up Gaeryong Mountain this weekend. I’ll think about it until then.”
“Hey, Jeong Seok. What’s there to think about?”
The two of them walked off noisily into the distance. Yang Ju-hui poked me hard in the side.
“Hey. Are you serious? You’re really going to let Bong Ji-yeon in?”
“I don’t know. Jeong Seok will judge for himself. But the more allies we have, the better, right? You and Bong Ji-yeon were pretty close until middle school, weren’t you?”
I’d overheard the girls talking while we played the life game yesterday. Apparently Yang Ju-hui and Bong Ji-yeon had been very close in middle school. They’d spent every day together, just like me and Jeong Seok now. Their relationship had soured dramatically after Bong Ji-yeon started dating Kwon Su-ho.
“You seemed to have fun hanging out with her yesterday too.”
Yang Ju-hui was being subtly ostracized by the girls in Class D. In my opinion, girls were creatures who withered away like lonely hamsters if they didn’t have a group. Yang Ju-hui without a pack was truly pitiful. Even if they were in different classes, becoming close with female friends like Yu Da-hui or Bong Ji-yeon wouldn’t be a bad thing. Of course, she clicked her tongue in clear disapproval and headed toward the athletic field. Looked like she was going for another run.
“Da-hui. Come to the library after school then.”
“Okay.”
Class was as boring as ever. To fight off drowsiness I did every random thing I could think of until I remembered the cookie bag the scary aunt had packed for us. Might as well eat them. When I opened the pouch, a piece of paper fell out.
Hey kiddo, come visit and play again sometime.
“That’s creepy as hell.”
Had my mysterious charm somehow seduced even that terrifying aunt? It gave me the chills, but the cookies tasted surprisingly decent. Ginger cookies—definitely an old person’s preference—but they suited my palate perfectly. It felt like I’d discovered a new side of my own tastes.
Time flew by in that manner, and after school I headed to the library as the library committee member should. I swept the floor and organized the books. That was when I noticed a man with a messy beard hanging around in the library.
“Huh?”
“Oh. You’re Chae-yeon’s son. Yeong-won, right?”
It was Kang Ba-da. The guy who called himself Professor Snape. I felt a slight wariness. This man might be connected to the Watchers or Heroes who had experienced the Nightmare Corridor. At the same time, he could answer many of the questions I had.
“Uncle. You left that Morse code message, didn’t you?”
“Oh, you figured that out? Well, I suppose that much is basic of the basics. So did you understand what it meant? What do you think it says?”
“I’m not sure. Is it telling me to be careful of Teacher Kang Haneul?”
Be careful of the sky. It could have meant to beware of his younger sister, Kang Haneul, but… I had interpreted it as a warning to be careful of the Cheon family that ruled Gaeryong. Because sky and the character for Cheon () were the same. After visiting the Cheon family mansion yesterday, there were simply too many suspicious things. But I wasn’t reckless enough to blurt all that out immediately.
Kang Ba-da chuckled.
“You went to the mansion yesterday and met the chairman, right? So how was it? Is that scary aunt still warning people not to come down to the first floor after eleven at night?”
“…!?”
“You look like you’re wondering how I knew. Of course I know. I used to visit that place too, after all. It really felt like a house where ghosts might pop out at any moment. Perfect setting for a novel.”