The Butterfly in the Cocoon Dies Only Once

I stood behind the headless torso, grabbed its side, and lifted it up. Hong Ye-ri’s body thrashed wildly, desperately trying to break free from my grasp. It flailed and flailed and flailed—

“Whoa!”

So this was how annoying and powerful a resisting woman could be? I had no idea where all that strength was coming from in a body without a head. Maybe my own strength was just that pathetic. Should I start lifting weights? Up until now I’d always left anything that required raw power to Yang Ju-hui, but the problem was that when I faced trouble alone like this, there was no one I could ask for help.

Once this was all over, I really should start working out. But the moment I actually made up my mind, I realized I had no clue where to even begin. Maybe I should ask Yang Ju-hui or Bong Ji-yeon? Ju-hui had said she learned Taekwondo as a kid, and Ji-yeon had been a promising sprinter who was expected to make the Olympics until her injury in middle school. Both of them clearly knew way more about using their bodies than I did.

With those optimistic thoughts in mind, I kept walking. A Status Window floated in front of me.

“This elevator looks like the exit door.”

“This thing? How can you even tell?”

Hong Miri, the twin sister, frowned as she stared at the elevator. I could feel a whirlwind of emotions swirling in her eyes—suspicion, fear, tension, and anticipation all mixed together. I had already made her promise she would never harm me, but I still felt a little scared. If I didn’t give her a convincing explanation, I could easily imagine the mentally unstable teacher lunging at me, choking me, or beating me senseless. It wasn’t entirely unreasonable. If someone who had spent a full ten years with only her head left alive in this bizarre place was actually normal, that would be the truly strange and abnormal thing.

“There are things only I can see that others can’t. That’s how I know this elevator is the way out. Just trust me.”

We stepped into the elevator and pressed the button.

Vrrrrrm—

The elevator hummed to life.

Ding-dong—

After a small vibration, the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. The third-floor hallway of the building where Hong Miri’s office had been came into view. I quickly jumped out into the corridor, afraid the elevator might suddenly change its mind and close its doors again.

“Haa!”

Only then did my pounding heart finally calm down. I felt like I could finally breathe again.

“See? I told you! It really worked, right?”

I turned around to look at Hong Miri. But unlike the strong determination she had shown earlier about wanting to escape the silent death floor, she couldn’t easily step out into the hallway. She slowly reached her hand out past the elevator doors first.

“Outside…”

Her outstretched fingers brushed through the hallway air as if trying to catch floating ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flower petals. About thirty seconds passed like that. Then, as if she had made a huge decision, Hong Miri firmly stepped forward with her red high heels.

Click.

The sharp sound of heels rang clearly and distinctly through the quiet corridor. Before the clear sound could even stir any emotion, another step followed.

Click.

Hong Miri had now completely left the elevator and stood firmly on the hallway floor with both legs. I asked her,

“How does it feel?”

“…Hah.”

Thud.

She collapsed to the floor.

“I… I really made it out.”

Then she covered her face with both palms and began to shake. I could tell she was crying bitterly. It was sudden and awkward, but at the same time it felt completely natural. A woman who had been trapped so unreasonably for ten years had finally been set free. I, who was only a first-year high school student, couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must feel like.

“I made it out. I… It was this easy all along… But… my life is already ruined. Ten years! The ten years that should have been the most beautiful and brilliant of my life will never come back!”

Escaping was good, but it seemed the ten-year blank in her life was finally hitting her as reality.

“…I never even graduated high school, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and now I’m already twenty-seven.”

I had once heard that men wasting two years in the military was considered a huge loss in life. If that was ten years, it was more than enough to say her life was ruined.

Flutter.

Between Hong Miri’s sobbing palms, face, and neck, butterfly markings flew around with surprising freedom. Listening to the woman cry made me feel a little scared, and I thought it would be good to say something, so I carefully picked out the words floating in my head and spoke them aloud.

“Teacher. They say that when a caterpillar is inside its cocoon, it completely melts into a mushy state—neither fully alive nor dead.”

“……”

“Only the caterpillars brave enough to carve away their own flesh and bones, brave enough to completely destroy themselves, can become butterflies and fly beautifully through the sky.”

“Butterfly…?”

Her swollen, puffy eyes peeked out from between her fingers. I wondered if I had said something presumptuous just to cover the awkwardness, but since I had already started, I decided to finish it cleanly.

“Butterflies stay trapped inside the cocoon for quite a long time, but no one ever says that time was wasted or meaningless. In the same way, Teacher, you have now shed your cocoon and become a butterfly. You can fly wherever you want from now on.”

“…Are you trying to comfort me right now?”

“Yes. You just looked so sad…”

I was worried that Hong Miri, whose emotions were all jumbled up in confusion, might suddenly shout, “Actually the promise was all a lie—I’m going to devour you!” and go berserk. Soon after, she spoke.

“Your name was Ha Yeong-won, right?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”

“Huh? Me?”

“Women sometimes cry even when they’re not sad. Honestly, I’m happy I could leave that horrible corridor. I’m also sad. It’s just… that. You really don’t understand a woman’s heart at all.”

A woman’s heart really was an incredibly annoying thing. I regretted worrying about her and trying to comfort her. I was thinking that giving clumsy goodwill could sometimes become poison instead, when Hong Miri wiped the corners of her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes with her fingers and burst out laughing.

“Butterfly, huh. Yeah. I like it. It was a clumsy attempt at comfort, but it feels like you soothed my heart. I wasn’t being very mature. Instead of regretting what I lost, I should be happy about what I’ve newly gained.”

There is no butterfly that regrets the time it spent curled up inside the cocoon. A butterfly must shake everything off. Only then can it flap its soft, silk-like wings with a light heart and fly through the sky.

“Should I put this here?”

Inside Hong Miri’s office. I laid the thrashing body of Hong Ye-ri on the office’s raccoon-shaped bed and securely tied her hands and feet to the bedposts with cable ties. After struggling for a while, the body finally quieted down once it was tightly bound. It really was fascinating no matter how many times I looked at it.

“It’s amazing that it’s still alive without a head. But what are you planning to do with this?”

Why had she told me to bring this torso out anyway? If I filmed a MyTube video with it, it would definitely go viral. As I was thinking that, Hong Miri spoke.

“I brought it out because I thought it would be better to keep it with me, but now that I look at it, it just seems like extra baggage. Ha Yeong-won, if you want to take it, you can have it.”

“Huh?”

I was taken aback. What would I even do with this thing?

“Why? You don’t like it? You could use it as a punching bag whenever you’re angry about something.”

Squeeze—

Hong Miri pinched the torso’s pale thigh. The body immediately began to thrash again. Guess it could still feel pain even without a head.

“Or you could do all sorts of naughty things to it that you couldn’t do with other people. Boys your age get all worked up just seeing a girl in a skirt, right? That’s how the seventeen-year-olds I remember were.”

“…No, no matter what, it doesn’t have a head.”

I glanced toward the head as well. Hong Ye-ri’s head was sitting on the desk, still glaring at both me and Hong Miri. Her mouth kept opening and closing as if she wanted to say something. Hong Miri casually picked up a pair of women’s underwear that had fallen nearby and placed it over Hong Ye-ri’s head. She must have wanted to cover that face.

Anyway. We had safely escaped the elevator and safely subdued Hong Ye-ri, who we had thought was Hong Miri. What we gained was the resolution of the elevator ghost story, and the package I had ordered through the shop window.

I had obtained the lipstick. The name itself was extremely suspicious. It was a women’s product. It probably wouldn’t be of any use to a manly guy like me. After thinking about what to do with it, I decided to give it to Hong Miri as a gift to celebrate her return to society.

“Teacher. They say putting on this lipstick makes you feel better.”

“That’s the lipstick you got with that mysterious ability of yours, right? The one that let us escape the elevator was thanks to that same ability? It really is fascinating. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

“Really?”

“Seeing and hearing things others can’t. If Kwon Oh-sung had seen you, he would have lost all interest in me and focused entirely on you. This is the first time I’ve seen someone with such high aptitude to become a Watcher.”

Aptitude for becoming a Watcher. That suddenly made me curious. And Hong Miri seemed knowledgeable enough to answer my questions like a real teacher.

“What exactly is a Watcher?”

“You don’t know? I thought you obviously would. Did I expect too much?”

Hong Miri looked at me and narrowed her eyes slightly in disappointment. I was a guy. Being treated like that naturally made me want to snap back.

“I do know, actually. It means someone who can see ghosts, right? A person who watches. In English, it’s like a ‘watcher,’ yeah?”

“No. Looks like you really don’t know. Ah… how should I explain this? My head’s been stuck in one place for so long that I’m not sure I can find the right words… Hmm. You said you’re a high school student, right? Not Plato?”

“Yes. More or less?”

“Do you know Plato’s Allegory of the Cave? It’s the story of a prisoner who has been tied up in a dark cave for a long time, believing the shadows of torches on the cave wall are the real world, until he is finally set free.”

Was she talking about that difficult Theory of Forms? As I frowned, Hong Miri added,

“If someone who had only ever seen rabbit shadows on the cave wall and believed they were real rabbits was freed from his chains and went outside the cave to see an actual rabbit under sunlight, how do you think he would feel?”

“Um… happy…? Amazed…? Or maybe betrayed that everything he knew before was just shadows…?”

“Wrong. The correct answer is that it would be overwhelmingly, blindingly bright. It’s normal for someone who has spent their entire life trapped in a dark cave to suddenly step into sunlight and be unable to open their eyes—or even go blind from the brightness.”

“Ah…”

Now that she put it that way, it made sense. It felt a bit like wordplay, though.

“That’s why you have to train slowly to get used to that brightness so you can see the ‘essence.’ And after that training, the prisoner can become a Watcher who sees the real rabbit.”

“…So, what exactly is a Watcher then? Someone who sees rabbits?”

“People who see the truth. That truth can differ depending on the person. Some call it the afterlife after death. It could be ghosts. Some call it nightmares.”

“Hmm…”

“The orphanage director Kwon Oh-sung wanted to create Watchers who could see that truth. He wanted to find the path to truth and obtain something. And the method to create a Watcher… is similar to a cocoon.”

“A cocoon?”

“You said it yourself. The caterpillar inside the cocoon becomes neither dead nor alive. That’s the state they create. They place a person on the boundary between life and death. By implanting some kind of grotesque into the body.”

Grotesque probably meant a ghost. Suddenly I remembered how Hong Ye-ri in the nightmare had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠become a ghost that devoured children with crunching sounds. Hong Ye-ri had been both human and the Red Mask. If that was the result of intentional surgery or experiments meant to create Watchers, then it made sense in many ways.

“But occasionally, there are people who are born naturally able to clearly see things under the blinding sun without even standing on that boundary. Kwon Oh-sung called those people Heroes.”

“Heroes?”

“Yes. People who can bravely rush toward the truth of their own free will. I heard that Watchers must ultimately aim to become Heroes. Heroes can apparently enter places like… a school at night freely. I don’t know much about that part.”

Hong Miri said she didn’t know, but I felt like I understood quite a bit. So Hero was the term for people who had the means to willingly enter the Nightmare Corridor. Watchers were people like Hong Ye-ri who could see the truth but couldn’t enter the corridor themselves. If I looked at it broadly, could the Game Master—me—also be called a Hero? …There were others like me?

While I was lost in thought, Hong Miri applied the pink lipstick I had given her to her lips.

“How does it look?”

To be honest, her lipstick application was clumsy. Even though she was twenty-seven, Hong Miri’s actual age had stopped at seventeen when her head was cut off. She must not have been good at makeup back then. Well, only delinquents like Yang Ju-hui and Bong Ji-yeon were skilled at makeup as high school students anyway.

“It looks good.”

But I didn’t want to upset her, so I answered vaguely. Hong Miri frowned.

“You’re lying, aren’t you? I hate liars the most. In that sense, this teacher has to punish you. Come here!”

Whoosh—!

Hong Miri came close, grabbed me, and planted a kiss on my cheek with a loud smack. My face grew hot from the burning sensation on my cheek. Hong Miri said,

“I can’t say for sure what this body has done, but that was definitely my first kiss. Ha Yeong-won. You saved me. You are my savior.”