Chapter 39
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Gwigok Lodge Special (6)
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If I'd known it would be like this, I should've popped a calming pill before heading to the schedule.
Cha Jae-hyun, standing next to me, was frozen stiff, barely moving.
“You okay, hyung?”
Cha Jae-hyun blinked a few times before slowly turning his head toward me.
“I'm... I'm fine.”
He didn't look fine at all.
“You can head back down to the first floor if you want.”
“Nah. The production team went through all this trouble to set it up. Least I can do is stick my foot in.”
I watched Cha Jae-hyun brush past me and step into the room, then followed suit.
The first impression upon entering was that it was creepy as hell.
Pink wallpaper, cute and whimsical decor. And contrasting with that, these grotesque dolls.
A mobile with just doll heads spun lazily in the air.
It's a universal truth that mixing horror into something cute makes it even scarier.
And the production team knew that all too well.
“How many of these things are there?”
Cha Jae-hyun grimaced as he scanned the room full of dolls.
A rabbit doll missing one eye, a monkey doll with broken cymbals, and a singer doll blaring static-filled noise from its busted speaker.
It was the perfect spot for that word: unsettling.
“Let's find the talisman quick and get out.”
“Yeah. I don't wanna spend even a second longer in a place like this.”
While Cha Jae-hyun rummaged through the dolls looking for the talisman, I decided to check the furniture.
First, I opened the toy box.
“......”
I quietly closed the lid.
‘Feels like I just saw something I shouldn't have.’
I moved on to somewhere else.
I headed to the desk and flipped through the books on top.
It was a picture diary.
[20xx, Month X, Day X]
Lately, a sister in a white dress keeps showing up in my room. I told Grandma about it, and she brought me this paper with weird writing on it. She said to put it inside a doll.
‘Paper with weird writing... that’s gotta be the talisman, right?’
I turned the page, and there was a drawing of Grandma sewing the talisman into the doll’s belly.
According to the diary, the kid had stuffed the talisman inside a doll.
“Jae-hyun hyung. Come check this out.”
Cha Jae-hyun, holding a doll like it was a phone that fell in the toilet, turned and walked over.
“What?”
“There’s a diary here. I read it, and it seems like the talisman’s stuffed in a doll’s belly.”
Cha Jae-hyun flipped through the diary pages and let out an impressed whistle.
“Whoa. Awesome. Feels straight out of a horror flick.”
Every time we played one of these games, you could tell the production team had put real thought into it.
In that moment, my gratitude for their hard work outweighed any fear.
“Hmm. So what now?”
“We’ll have to cut open the dolls’ bellies, I guess.”
Cha Jae-hyun picked up a doll from the floor, grabbed its arms, and tugged.
“Rip it open with brute force?”
“Wait!”
I desperately stopped him.
If Cha Jae-hyun set his mind to it, tearing a doll apart would be no problem—but that would just waste all the production team’s effort.
I glanced around.
“The production team must’ve left some tool around to cut the dolls open.”
Was it in this room?
I had to search everywhere I could reach.
Cha Jae-hyun started scanning the room with a focused look too.
“What about in here?”
He opened a drawer.
“I already checked that earlier.”
Drawers, under the desk, toy box. I’d even swept the walls and floor just in case.
“Ha...”
Nothing.
Exhausted, I slumped to the floor and leaned against the wall.
“Maybe it’s in another room.”
“You think they’d make it that tricky?”
He had a point.
We weren’t filming a pro detective variety show or anything.
This was self-produced content aimed at idol fans. They wouldn’t make it that hard.
“No spots we haven’t checked?”
“I think we’ve looked everywhere.”
I started to say more but paused.
My eyes landed on the drawer attached to the desk.
As I walked over to it, Cha Jae-hyun spoke up behind me.
“Didn’t you check that already?”
“No. There’s one spot I missed.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
Clunk—
I pulled the handle, sliding the drawer out.
Something shiny gleamed inside.
“Whoa! Found it?”
“Yeah. Scissors.”
After all that fumbling around, we finally had a win.
Cha Jae-hyun and I shared a quick high-five.
“Now we gotta find the talisman, right?”
To do that, we’d have to slice open the bellies of every doll in here.
It was horrifying.
Even touching these creepy dolls was repulsive, and now we had to cut them open ourselves?
Worst-case scenario.
“There’s only one pair of scissors. Who’s doing the cutting?”
I turned, and there was Cha Jae-hyun, already standing way back with his hands behind his back.
“Hyung.”
“Go for it, Eun-ho!”
Typical.
Wordlessly, I picked up the scissors and started cutting into a doll’s belly. White stuffing spilled out with each slice.
It felt weird.
“This hurts my heart.”
“It’s fine. They’re cursed dolls.”
We sliced open dozens of dolls like that, but it was all for nothing.
“How can there be nothing?”
I even checked the heads, wondering if it was in the body somewhere.
Still nothing.
“Why can’t we find it?”
“We’ve cut open all the dolls. It has to be here somewhere.”
I looked around the room.
No unchecked dolls in sight.
“Ugh, this is tough.”
That’s when it hit me.
“Hyung. Remember when we first got here?”
Before entering the lodge, Cha Jae-hyun had screamed and pointed at a doll on the windowsill.
I yanked the curtains aside, revealing the doll that had been hidden.
“This is it.”
The moment I pressed the scissor tip against its belly,
[I IOVE U]
A chilling doll voice echoed. Probably from a speaker inside.
[I IOVE U]
It spoke every time I pressed down. I glanced over—Cha Jae-hyun was grimacing with his ears covered.
The second I fully cut the belly open, a talisman tumbled out.
“Whoa.”
We did it.
That made four talismans total.
“Just one more to go.”
As we turned to leave—
Clunk—
The doorknob turned.
‘No way!’
The door swung wide open.
“Gahhh!”
The instant it opened, Cha Jae-hyun thrust a giant doll forward like a shield and yelled.
“Hyungs?”
Peeking through the gap wasn’t a ghost—it was Eun Hae-sol.
Cha Jae-hyun sheepishly set the doll down, looking embarrassed.
“Where were you?”
“Down on the first floor.”
“Find anything?”
“Nope, nothing. Looks like the last talisman’s up here after all.”
One left.
‘Where’d they hide it?’
I sank into thought.
Time was running out.
Once they realized we only had one left to find, they’d ramp up the hunt.
If I were on the production team, where would I stash a talisman in this huge lodge?
“Let’s get out for now.”
We followed Cha Jae-hyun’s lead and stepped into the hall. Lingering in one spot wasn’t smart anyway.
Cha Jae-hyun stood in the corridor, looking between us.
“Any rooms we missed?”
“Probably not.”
We’d checked every room, but coming up empty left a knot in my stomach.
Maybe we overlooked something,
or it was hidden somewhere we’d never think to look.
Either way, one thing was clear: I was starving.
“Wanna sweep again?”
Cha Jae-hyun’s voice trembled. He looked like he might hurl any second.
“You sure you’re okay, hyung?”
Cha Jae-hyun nodded silently.
“Jae-hyun hyung. Should we skip the room where we found one? They probably didn’t put two in the same spot.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Eun Hae-sol, who’d been eyeing us like he wanted to say something, finally spoke.
“Uh, the talisman might not be in a room.”
“Then where?”
“Maybe in the hallway.”
“But all the ones we’ve found so far were in rooms.”
“Oh. Right.”
My head was starting to hurt.
“Let’s split up to save time and search.”
Just as we were about to scatter, a whistle echoed from afar.
“They’re coming.”
We spotted the ghost figure heading our way.
“Scatter!”
Cha Jae-hyun ducked into a room, while Eun Hae-sol and I hid under the stairs.
The closer the ghost’s footsteps got, the louder my heartbeat thumped.
‘Man. Why am I shaking like this?’
Then—
Creeeak—
A door opened.
‘No.’
Were they checking rooms one by one again?
‘Cha Jae-hyun, that’s dangerous...’
Moments later, Cha Jae-hyun’s scream rang out.
“Ha.”
Huddled up, I whispered to Eun Hae-sol.
“Jae-hyun hyung’s done for.”
“......”
“So it’s just us now?”
“Looks like it.”
We stayed hidden under the stairs until the whistling faded.
“......”
In the silence, we both awkwardly stared into space.
This was variety show stuff—shouldn’t it be flowing more entertainingly? Timing-wise, we needed some gag to break the tension.
I racked my brain and spoke up.
“Aren’t we the dream team? Jeong Dae-sam and Eun Sang-chu.”
Silence stretched on.
My attempt at a joke to lighten the mood only made things more awkward.
‘Damn it. I don’t wanna act buddy-buddy with you either. It’s for the cameras—laugh a little, dude.’
Maybe he read my eyes, because Eun Hae-sol gave an awkward smile.
The whistling finally grew faint.
“Let’s go.”
As we started to stand—
“Hm?”
I spotted something odd on the wall right across from us.
“This part’s a different color.”
One brick stood out, darker than the rest.
“Should I press it?”
I pushed the brick in. With a mechanical whir, the attic hatch in the ceiling popped open.
We exchanged looks.
“This...”
“Gotta be here, right?”
We hurried up into the attic.
“Whoa.”
The moment my foot hit the attic floor, I was speechless.
“No way.”
The walls were plastered floor-to-ceiling with talismans.