First Delusion — Idol Hunt (2)
"Chaerin?"
Seoyun stared down at her phone. Only four names remained on the call screen. Seoyun. Yuna. Sea. Harin. Chaerin's name was gone.
"...The call dropped."
Harin's face went ghost-white. "She got caught, didn't she?"
No one could answer.
The scream from moments ago. And then a man's voice. Got her. They had heard even those words, crystal clear.
Sea bit her lip. "Try calling her again."
Seoyun dialed Chaerin right away. It didn't connect. She tried again. And again. The result was the same.
"She's not picking up."
Harin looked anxiously back the way they'd come. "Then Chaerin unnie..."
Seoyun forced her voice to stay level. "Let's keep moving for now."
"Unnie."
"Standing around here is more dangerous than moving."
She wasn't wrong. The four of them started toward the stairs leading to the upper floor.
But they hadn't gone far when Seoyun's phone rang. All four of them stopped at once. The name on the screen: Chaerin.
"Unnie!" Harin shouted.
Seoyun snatched up the call. "Chaerin!"
For a moment, nothing but silence. "Chaerin, are you okay?"
And then—"Yeah." It was Chaerin's voice.
Harin let out a burst of relieved breath. "Unnie!"
Sea leaned in close to Seoyun's phone. "Hey! What happened? Weren't you caught?"
"I was."
"...What?"
All four faces hardened at the same time. Chaerin's voice was calm to the point of being uncanny. "I got caught."
Seoyun asked, "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No."
"What about him?"
A brief silence. Then Chaerin answered. "He's right beside me."
"...Beside you?"
Yuna's brow furrowed. There was something off about the way she said it. Seoyun had felt it too.
"Chaerin."
"Yeah."
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm not supposed to tell."
"Says who?"
Chaerin answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Master."
Their faces froze.
"...What?"
"I passed."
There was a lilt of laughter in Chaerin's voice. "I'm Master's maid now."
"Hey." Sea stared at the phone in sheer disbelief. "Is this really the time for jokes?"
"It's not a joke."
"You were running for your life until five minutes ago, what the hell—"
"It's true." Chaerin sounded almost puzzled by their reaction. "Master's right here next to me, you know?"
Right after that, a man's voice came through. "You're doing well, making your way up."
"...!" It was Ingong. Harin grabbed Seoyun's arm on pure reflex.
Ingong's voice went on. "I'll take good care of Chaerin, so don't you worry."
"What did you do to her?" Seoyun shouted.
A low chuckle. "Get caught yourself, and you'll find out."
"Wait—"
Click. The line went dead.
Seoyun called back at once. It didn't connect. Harin stared at the phone with mounting dread. Chaerin—who had been running for her life right up until the moment she was caught—had suddenly started calling herself Master's maid.
Sea bit her lip. "What the hell did he do to her."
No one had an answer.
Seoyun stared at her phone for a long moment before lifting her head. "Let's keep moving for now."
"Unnie..."
"We'll come back for Chaerin once we've found a way out of here."
It wasn't a decision Seoyun liked either. But there was no other way, not right now.
"And nobody moves alone. Ever."
The other three nodded. The four of them set off toward the stairs to the next floor.
Floor 2.
The atmosphere changed completely the moment they came up the stairs. The wide, theme-park openness was gone—tall walls hemmed them in on every side, and faint lights overhead flickered at even intervals. Somewhere, a low mechanical hum droned on. Even knowing they were still inside the theme park, this floor felt like they had stepped into somewhere else entirely.
Sea muttered, glancing around. "This place feels way creepier than before."
"A maze?"
Sea knocked on a wall. Solid. Yuna tipped her head back. The walls were far too high to climb over.
"So we're supposed to get through this."
Seoyun scanned their surroundings. The paths branched off in several directions.
"Stay close. All of us."
They moved within sight of one another at all times. When they reached a fork, only one person would check a branch; if it dead-ended, they doubled back together. Slower that way, but safer.
"Here." Yuna pointed at a section of wall. A small mark was scratched into it—Sea's fingernail work.
Sea scowled. "We're back here again?"
"Are we going in circles?"
"No." Seoyun surveyed the area. "There was no path on this side before."
Every head turned right at the same moment. Where a wall had most definitely been, a narrow passage now gaped open.
For a few seconds, nobody moved. Harin's face stiffened. "Is the maze... moving?"
No one could deny it.
"Even closer, then," Seoyun said. "And no more checking paths on your own."
Cautiously, the four of them filed into the newly opened passage. That was when it happened.
A heavy grinding sound rolled out behind them. All four spun around. The wall of the passage they had just walked through was slowly sliding shut.
"What the—?" Sea hurried back, but the wall had already swallowed more than half the passage. "Wait—!" The instant she thrust out her hand—Thud. The passage was gone.
They stared at one another.
"It's not just rerouting the paths," Yuna said, her face tight. "It feels like it's steering us wherever it wants us to go."
Seoyun was thinking the same thing. This was no ordinary maze. The paths themselves were moving ahead of anyone trying to find their way through.
"As long as we don't get split up, we're fine," Seoyun said. "Nobody goes past the point where they can see the others. No exceptions."
After that they grew even more careful. Even at forks, no one strayed far. A few steps. Check. Regroup. Nothing but that, over and over.
But the maze refused to allow even that.
"Dead end here." Sea stepped a few paces in, then turned around. The instant she moved to go back to Yuna, who had been standing right behind her—a grinding sound. The wall between them shifted.
"Huh?"
"Sea!"
Sea bolted toward her, but the passage sealed itself right before her eyes. Thud.
"Hey! Yuna!"
No answer came through the wall. Instead, Yuna's voice arrived through the phone. "I'm here. I'm fine."
Sea looked down at her phone. The group call was still connected. "It's deliberately pulling us apart."
This time, no one could deny it.
The same thing kept happening. Walls slid shut between them after only a few steps apart. Turn to retrace their steps, and a fork that hadn't existed a second ago appeared. They thought they were all heading the same direction—until, at some point, they couldn't even hear each other's actual voices anymore.
In the end, the only thread connecting the four of them was their phones.
Seoyun checked her screen. All four were still on the line. "Nobody hangs up."
"Yeah."
"Got it."
Only after Harin's answer came through did Seoyun start moving again.
"Sea."
"Yeah."
"Where are you?"
"Left passage. Dead end. Coming back."
"Yuna?"
"I came out somewhere that slopes down like a staircase."
"Harin?"
No answer.
"Harin?"
A moment later. "One second." Harin's voice.
"What's wrong?"
"I... I think I'm lost."
"Don't move," Seoyun said immediately. "What do you see around you?"
Harin looked around. The same walls. The same floor. And one long passage stretching away ahead of her. "Nothing."
"Then stay right there. We'll—"
"Huh?" Harin cut off.
At the end of the passage, someone was standing there.
Harin's face lit up. "Unnie!"
"What is it?"
"There's someone here!"
"Who?"
Harin ran a few steps forward. A familiar silhouette. The clothes. The hair. She knew it beyond any doubt.
"Seoyun unnie!"
The call went quiet.
Relief flooding her face, Harin ran toward the figure. "Unnie! You were here all along?"
The Seoyun standing at the end of the passage turned around slowly. It was unmistakable. Lunatic's leader. Seoyun.
Harin beamed. "Thank god. I seriously thought I was lost back there." She lifted her phone to tell the others. "Guys, I found Seoyun unnie!"
Silence. No one answered.
"What's going on? Unnie, say something too—"
Then it came. Seoyun's voice, from the phone. "Harin."
Harin stopped dead.
Something was wrong. The Seoyun in front of her hadn't opened her mouth. And yet Seoyun's voice was, unmistakably, coming from the phone.
"...Yes?"
"What are you talking about?"
The smile drained from Harin's face. The Seoyun on the other end of the line said, "I'm with Yuna right now."
"..."
Harin slowly raised her head. She looked at the Seoyun in front of her. Seoyun was smiling.
"Unnie...?"
She took a step back. "Then... that means..."
The Seoyun before her tilted her head slightly. Her face blurred. Her hair changed. Her frame shifted. It took less than a few seconds. The person standing there was no longer Seoyun.
It was Ingong.
Harin's face drained bone-white. Ingong smiled. "What's the matter?"
He took a step closer. "Do I still look like your leader to you?"
"...!" Harin stumbled backward.
Ingong looked thoroughly pleased with himself. "This kind of thing." Another step. "I've always wanted to try it at least once."
Harin whirled around. And ran, with everything she had.