Chapter 43
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 43
Her gaze met mine, pressing down on me.
It wasn’t the same feeling as before, the one that had crushed me with terror.
This was different. If I had to describe it, it was the haughty glare of a superior looking down on an inferior.
Her exhausted, sunken eyes stared at me.
As Dokyun stared back blankly, her lips parted once more.
“You.”
I flinched.
My body trembled instinctively at her low, heavy voice.
Swallowing dryly against the slowly rising tension, Dokyun answered.
“...Yes...”
“I asked what you were looking at.”
Her gaze, her tone—they pinned me down.
The terror that had yet to wash away, layered on top of my still-pounding heart, forced my eyes to the floor.
My gaze fell, dropping all the way to her waist.
A moment later, I heard a click of the tongue from above my head.
“Tsk, pathetic wretch.”
A surge of anger welled up at her mutter, but I didn’t have the strength left to voice it.
My mind was already torn to shreds, having lost all will to resist.
I just felt my head spin, unable to comprehend the situation, unable to understand the woman before me.
The tremors that had seized my body still lingered, shaking my fingertips. The thick scent of blood filling the room clung to my nostrils, tormenting me.
Amid the silence, she let out a sigh and began to move.
A small key emerged from her waist, where Dokyun’s gaze had landed. Key in hand, she moved slowly and began to unlock the restraints binding Dokyun’s body.
Click—!
A faint sense of liberation washed over me.
When Dokyun lifted his head to look at her, she shot him a sidelong glance before standing up and leaving the room, as if she had no interest in him whatsoever.
Creeak—.
The hinges groaned as the door moved, followed by a brief silence.
Left alone in the room, Dokyun finally registered that he was by himself and let all the strength drain from his body, going limp.
“Huuuh...”
A moan that was nearly a sob escaped his lips. His heart wouldn’t calm down. His hands were still shaking, and his eyes burned.
What the hell...
Too much had happened in an instant. He covered his eyes with a trembling hand, trying to calm his roiling insides.
He had to get a grip. He had to understand the situation.
He had to go over it all from the beginning and draw a conclusion.
Gathering his shredded thoughts and awakening the reason that had been cowering within, he retraced the events of the past day.
First of all...
The study.
She had noticed that he’d gone in there. She must have realized it while she was out and rushed back.
After coming home, she must have found me reading the diary, knocked me out with a blow to the back of the head, and tied me up here again.
And next...
The eyes I met when I regained consciousness.
Shudder—.
Goosebumps rose on his skin again. It was a gaze that made it hard to breathe just by remembering it.
The expression on her face as she choked him. The wrist that had dripped crimson saliva from her gaping maw. The short laugh that echoed in his ears.
He squeezed his eyes shut, but the sensations only grew more vivid. He took a long, deep breath to calm himself.
Get a grip...
He had to get a grip. This was no time to be trembling.
He pushed aside the chilling moment and focused on what had happened immediately after.
The atmosphere that had changed the instant she’d slit her wrist again.
—Shit.
He recalled the curse spat out over the altered mood, the look in her eyes he had just seen.
An exhausted, sunken expression caked with irritation and weariness.
A different person...
That expression, which made her seem like a completely different person, was seared into his mind. A continuous thread of thought presented a single possibility.
Multiple personalities.
To be precise.
Dissociative Identity Disorder.
A disorder where one’s personality splits, causing multiple identities to inhabit a single body.
“Ha...”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Finally, the source of the dissonance that had surrounded him was explained.
—Ah, whoops...!
The reason she acted so ditzy despite having prepared such a meticulous confinement. The strange looks she sometimes gave.
—She must be filthy rich.
The reason she had so many clothes in her closet but only ever wore a few of them.
[Die.]
The word written in a different handwriting on the last page of the diary.
Everything made sense.
The pieces that had refused to fit together now aligned perfectly upon this one possibility, revealing their true form.
Which means...
The woman who just walked out.
...The ‘sister.’
They were the same person all along. She never had a sister.
And he dared to guess that this ‘sister’ personality had been involved in preparing this space of confinement, as well as in finding and kidnapping him.
If that’s the case...
She was probably not an ally.
That was as much as he could figure out for now.
He continued to think, but not all his questions were answered.
What about those eyes?
Those terrifying eyes he had seen. What in the world were they?
No, before that.
Why did she, why did Eun-ah, speak of this ‘sister’ as if she were a separate person?
He recalled what he had said when he first learned of the sister’s existence.
—Then I can say hello to her next time she comes.
Her response to that had definitely been positive. Her response to the word ‘together’ had been positive.
The only thing he could think of was...
That woman thinks the ‘sister’ is a separate person.
It was possible that multiple personalities wasn’t the only mental illness she suffered from.
...Or if not that.
It was possible that the ‘sister’ was the real one.
Shit...
His head was getting more complicated. He had solved one puzzle, only to be handed not a sweet reward, but a new, more complex one.
He couldn't solve this new puzzle with the clues he had now. There was too little to go on.
Dokyun lifted the head he’d been clutching and looked at the door.
To find out, he had to leave this room.
His mind made up, he started to get up, but a sudden wave of dizziness made him lose his balance and stagger.
“Ugh...!”
A sharp pain flared from the back of his head.
It throbbed enough to make his skull ring; he must have been hit hard.
It wasn't easy to stand properly. The trembling in his fingertips remained, and he could feel his legs shaking slightly.
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, trying to force himself upright, but it was difficult.
Dokyun knew why he was so consumed by fear.
Outside the door...
The ‘sister’ was there. And there was a high probability she was not on his side.
“Hooo...”
He let out a long breath, calming his nerves.
She probably wasn’t someone he couldn’t reason with. Although she had a very haughty and dark aura, they had at least been able to have a conversation.
He recalled the attitude she had shown him.
Probably indifference.
An attitude that suggested he held no great significance to her. If he played his cards right, if he did it really well, he might be able to win her over to his side.
He could fill in the blanks, the parts that remained a mystery, through this ‘sister.’
Steeling his resolve, Dokyun pinched his thigh to focus his mind and stepped out of the room.
Unlike the dark room, the living room was brightly lit. In the center of it, he saw the ‘sister’ sitting on the sofa, reading a book.
Halt—.
Dokyun’s steps stopped the moment he saw her.
It wasn’t fear that brought him to a standstill.
What stopped Dokyun in his tracks was her attire.
A different person?
She was dressed so differently it felt that way.
Her hair was tied back neatly in a single ponytail, and she wore stylish, black-framed glasses, a turtleneck sweater, and black slacks.
The woman in Dokyun’s eyes was dressed not in the white dresses he had always seen, but in neat, formal attire that was closer to a suit.
Her features and build were the same.
However, the expression on her face and her clothes made her look like a complete stranger.
As Dokyun stared blankly at her, her gaze, which had been resting on her book, shifted toward him.
Their eyes met, and Dokyun, after a brief shudder, clenched his fists. Just as he was about to say something, her lips parted first.
“20061024.”
An eight-digit number.
As Dokyun stood there dumbfounded by the contextless statement, she looked at him and spoke again.
“That’s the front door passcode.”
“Ah.”
Bewilderment washed over him.
Suddenly?
His eyes widened in utter confusion as he stared at her. She let out a sigh and continued.
“I’m telling you to leave.”
It felt as if every hypothesis he had just constructed had been wiped clean.
He had thought she wasn’t an ally. Of course. No matter how he thought about it, ‘Go Eun-ah’ didn’t have the meticulousness to imprison him like this.
She was a woman who seemed to have a screw loose; there were always gaps in her actions.
That’s why he had concluded that this woman was the one who had locked him up here.
But...
She’s letting me go, just like that?
His lips parted and closed. He had to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out.
He stood there for a moment, frozen. Her expression soured as she opened her mouth once more.
“Are you not leaving?”
Her words urged him on. Flustered, Dokyun voiced the question that had risen within him.
“...Why are you letting me go?”
He didn’t know what kind of person she was, but judging by her demeanor, he knew he had to maintain a polite attitude.
As Dokyun spoke and looked at her, she frowned slightly before answering his question.
“Is that important?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t you have to leave?”
She said this and watched him for a moment. When he didn’t respond, the frown on her face deepened as she continued.
“Are you going to stay here forever?”
It felt like he’d been struck on the head.
The moment he heard those words, Dokyun forgot everything he had prepared to say.
He felt the reality he had been ignoring rush into his empty mind all at once.
Her voice continued in his ear.
“You have a family, don’t you?”
Family. He had a mom and a dad. He had a cat, too. He didn’t contact them often, but if he disappeared, they would be the ones to worry more than anyone.
“And a job.”
He did. A job he had clung to so tenaciously, though he might have been fired by now after being absent without leave for over two weeks.
“And a life.”
He had his own apartment. His life was there, too. He had hobbies and friends to meet. There was the convenience store he frequented, the park he walked in on weekends, and even neighbors he greeted when they crossed paths.
“You should leave, shouldn’t you?”
His mouth closed on its own. His head turned to face the front door.
If he just crossed that threshold, he could get out of here.
He could see the end of this suffocatingly oppressive confinement.
When he looked at her again, he saw a smirk, one corner of her mouth lifted.
“You don’t have to worry about being kidnapped again. That bitch can’t do anything on her own.”
Her words hammered the final nail in.
I can leave.
The thought made his chest tighten. A heavy emotion filled him.
Then, the moment he took a step toward the door.
The image of a small figure who had clung to him so tenaciously came to mind.
The foolish face of the girl who had stuck to his side all day, never thinking of leaving him for even a moment, surfaced in his thoughts.
He shouldn’t be thinking of it. It would all be over if he just walked out that door.
But that smile rose up to torment him.
His feet wouldn’t move.
Even after seeing such a horrible sight just moments ago, he was stupidly remembering that smile.
Pausing for a moment, Dokyun kept his eyes fixed on the floor and spoke.
“If I leave...”
“Hm?”
“What happens to Eun-ah-ssi?”
Pfft.
A small laugh escaped her, followed by her words.
“Is that important?”
After a brief silence, she continued.
“Seeing as you’re bothering to call her ‘Eun-ah-ssi,’ it seems you’ve more or less figured things out...”
Her deep tone carried on, laced with a question.
“But I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
The feeling was mutual. He didn’t know why he was asking such a stupid question either.
“And even if you find out, can you handle it?”
Her words struck his chest again.
“Get a grip. She’s a woman you’ve known for barely two weeks. Isn’t she a stranger?”
A stranger.
The word felt like it was gouging out his insides. He didn’t know why. It just felt that way.
The ‘sister’ continued to state the plain truth.
“It’ll all be over once you cross the threshold, so why bother asking something like that?”
Then, in a voice tinged with amusement, she added.
“Right, what do they call it? The type to fall in love at first sight? The kind that catches feelings the moment they see someone. Are you one of those?”
He flinched.
His body trembled.
Love? He didn’t know if it was right to call this love. Frankly, the only thing he’d done with her was sleep with her.
Thinking rationally, the best you could call it was affection born from sex.
And yet, he remembered the smile she directed at him. He remembered the warmth of her body as she clung to him desperately, as if he were her entire world, as if the world would end if he disappeared.
“Get a grip. Next time, it could be your wrist.”
Then, the memory of those terrifying pupils and the wrist being slit brought back the fear.
“It’s over if you leave. You can say goodbye to this crazy bitch forever.”
She was right. She was absolutely right, but...
This is fucked.
It was fucked. That was the perfect expression for it.
He lifted his head and turned around. He saw a smirking, condescending face.
The reason for this fucked-up feeling was probably anger, because it felt like she was mocking him.
He changed his course from the front door and walked toward her.
“Not going?”
“I’ll decide that for myself.”
He caught his breath and spoke again.
“If I leave like this, I don’t think I’ll be able to rest easy, so I need to know a few things.”
Yes, that was a good reason.
As the aggrieved victim, he needed to know the details of the incident.
He needed to know what kind of fate would befall the perpetrator.
Not because of the smile that tormented him, or the warmth that felt like it would fade away, or the sound of her silly laughter—but as a victim.
“Please tell me.”
He needed to know, so he could finally be at ease.