Chapter 173
Chapter 173
For the first time in ages, the whole crew was together at the mansion.
By 'the crew,' I meant me, Ha-neul, Su-a, and So-hee. Yang Hye-in was here too, of course, but she wasn't someone who'd normally hang out in the room with us.
We'd left the mansion unattended, but it hadn't even been two full weeks, so the place hadn't exactly fallen into ruin.
Didn't look like anyone had broken in, either.
Well, sure. The household staff had all been dismissed except for Yang Hye-in and So-hee, but a private security firm was managing the place now.
Still, that didn't mean the mansion was completely unaffected.
So-hee had gone back to her own place while I was away, which left Yang Hye-in as the only person looking after the mansion.
I'm only human. I'm not cruel enough to expect Yang Hye-in to clean this entire enormous mansion by herself, so I did tell her it was fine to just leave the unused areas alone. But did Yang Hye-in seem like the type to hear that and actually leave them alone?
The rooms we weren't using had been covered with white cloths so that any dust buildup would be easy to deal with later, and the storerooms were firmly locked. She'd still been cleaning the lobby, at least.
Even so, the mansion had grown far more desolate than when people were actually living here.
The number of people before was never enough to fill the place anyway... but thinking that this enormous mansion held only five people, not counting the guards patrolling outside, gave me a strangely eerie feeling.
It's a different feeling from being home alone.
That makes sense. The places I'd lived before were either the villa with my parents and younger sibling, or the monthly rental I leased on my own. Even being alone never really felt empty there, and above all, if I just opened the door and stepped outside, the neighbors were right there, and the faint sounds of TV noise and voices drifted through the hallway.
...All of which is to say, those places were fundamentally different from an enormous building with far more dark, empty rooms—starting with sheer size.
Even though you have no intention of leaving this room anyway.
Well, that's also true.
I had taken a look around the mansion, but there wasn't anything amazing to see. Though if I had to pick something, the sheer size of the building was pretty amazing.
...Still...
"Should we call Yang Hye-in in, too?"
"Huh?"
The first to react to my muttering was Ha-neul, who was closest to me.
I was sitting cross-legged on the enormous bed I usually used. Ha-neul had settled on the edge of my bed, and So-hee was rummaging through the storage compartments under her own bed. Su-a was at the table, searching for something on the laptop she'd brought with her.
...Huh. It kind of felt like some common studio apartment.
Granted, I'd never been to a girl's studio apartment, and back in my college days I lived alone and only occasionally had friends over to hang out, so I had no experience sharing a place with anyone either. But this atmosphere was exactly that.
So-hee had originally been staying here, and Su-a, honestly, had been sleeping in my room more often than at her own place anyway. Ha-neul was gradually racking up more nights sleeping over in my room, too.
And most telling of all, their belongings had been quietly multiplying, one item at a time.
So-hee was actually living here, so I had no room to talk even if she dragged in several suitcases and set up camp. But even Su-a had stashed a laptop, clothes and underwear, even cosmetics. And in the empty spots in the wardrobe, Ha-neul's clothes had been stealthily increasing.
So if this isn't a shared apartment, what else would you call it?
Well, still, it was a pretty large place even by four-person apartment standards, so it wasn't uncomfortable.
"Why Yang Hye-in? Is there something we need her to do?"
Ha-neul tilted her head and asked, and I shook my head.
"No, nothing like that. It's just, right now there's no one in the building except us and Yang Hye-in. Even the security firm staff are all in the guard post at the main gate."
Which meant that outside this room, Yang Hye-in was all alone, right?
No matter how you looked at it, being out there by herself felt a bit much. This building was fundamentally never meant to be lived in, so other than right here where we were staying, it lacked any lived-in atmosphere. Walking down the hallways in the middle of the night would feel pretty eerie.
"Ah, that's not true."
So-hee, who had finally found what she wanted in the under-bed storage, straightened up and spoke.
The thing rustling in her hands was a bag of chips.
...When did she buy those?
Having pulled out several bags of snacks, So-hee carried them over to the table where Su-a was sitting. As So-hee piled the snacks onto the table, Su-a closed her laptop and moved it aside.
"But the servants were all dismissed, weren't they?"
"Even if the servants were dismissed, there still have to be guards patrolling inside the building. It's so huge, you know? Someone could be secretly living in a corner of the top floor, and it might go unnoticed for ages."
I imagined that scenario and shuddered.
If this were an apartment or a villa, it'd be normal to have people right next door, but there was this awareness that this place was 'my private mansion.' The idea of people I didn't know sneaking in without permission bothered me, and I couldn't imagine anyone who'd do that would be normal, either.
If homeless people or runaways hid out here, that'd be a massive headache in its own right.
Once a place goes undetected, the very fact that it went undetected becomes a rumor. Then the groups sneaking in get bigger and bigger... and eventually, the place might end up looking like some abandoned mental hospital somewhere.
Well, this building isn't just a privately owned mansion—it's a registered cultural property in its own way, so it probably wouldn't go that far.
"Anyway, that's why the guards do periodic hallway patrols. The security force is even bigger than when we directly employed them before, and far more extensive."
Tearing open a snack bag as she said this, So-hee, and I felt a bit sorry for thinking this, seemed slightly at odds with her usual image.
Hadn't So-hee been the very first person to breach this building's security? And without any amazing skills or equipment, at that, just a ladder she'd brought to the storeroom.
Or maybe, since So-hee was the one who'd exploited a security gap like that, she was actually more credible?
"But even so..."
No matter how punctually the guards walked the halls, they were still strangers in the end. They were paid to do the job, and since we'd contracted one of the most famous firms in the industry, nothing major would happen. But still, wasn't it incredibly lonely, the fact that the only people you saw late at night were strangers you didn't know?
That's a remarkably generous assessment, coming from someone who thinks Yang Hye-in deserves punishment.
Sara wasn't wrong.
I still firmly believed that Yang Hye-in's past actions needed to be addressed and settled.
But even so...
This is a bit of a personal feeling, but... Yang Hye-in had come running to save me, after all.
Even if Choi Na-kyung hadn't actually intended to kill me in that moment, the situation was that she was covering my mouth and suffocating me. Which meant it was a situation where, by accident, she could have killed me.
And if I had died, Sara would have died too. We were both using the same body, after all.
Even if this was a body that had already come back from death once, there was no guarantee such an opportunity would come again.
I'll give you credit for learning to cling to your own life now.
At Sara's words, I cracked a smile inwardly.
"If we call her in, would she be staying here with us?"
So-hee asked.
Uh...
She had a point.
That was a separate issue. No matter what, having her sleep in here with us was a bit much, wasn't it?
Aside from being spacious, this room didn't really have any more suitable places for sleeping. If Yang Hye-in came in, she'd probably have to sleep on the floor.
But since this room was originally used as a 'department store,' it didn't have the kind of flooring a normal home had. It was a hard marble floor, so even if she used the sleeping bag So-hee had brought, it would be incredibly uncomfortable.
...Wouldn't that make it an even bigger nuisance? No, not just a nuisance—wouldn't it be bordering on absurd?
"..."
Still, I felt deeply unsettled.
"If it bothers you that much, just do whatever feels right."
Seeing me lost in thought, Ha-neul smiled and said.
"Yeah, she's right. This is your home, after all."
Su-a also smiled and agreed.
My home, huh.
Could I really call this place Sara's home?
...
Sara had nothing to say either, so it seemed she couldn't readily agree with that statement.
...But still.
This place had felt like nothing but a prison until just recently.
Now it felt a little different.
Because this room, which used to feel so cavernously empty, was now filled not just with me and Sara, but with three other people, and packed with belongings full of the traces of daily life.
"Let's just eat first and think about it. Just sitting here worrying won't solve anything, right?"
So-hee, who at some point had torn open a pile of snacks and spread them across the table, said.
Was she saying that if we think about it while eating, it'll get solved?
...Maybe?
I knew it was really just postponing the decision, but I got to my feet.
Say what you will, but I knew all too well how painfully awkward it is to be the only one not eating while everyone else is.
Still, it did seem like I could eat a lot more of all sorts of things now. That, at least, was a genuine relief.
Thanks to that, I'd put on a little weight, too.
...You were the one who put on that weight, not me.
Hearing Sara grumble, I burst out laughing.