First Delusion - Idol Hunting (3)
First Delusion - Idol Hunting (3)
Harin ran without looking back.
“Sis!”
She shouted, clutching her cell phone tightly.
“It’s him!”
“I know! Keep running!”
Seo-yoon’s voice came through.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know!”
Harin had no way to explain it either.
Right.
Left.
Right again.
She turned at every fork in the road she saw.
Just a moment ago, she’d been afraid of getting lost, but now she didn’t have the luxury of thinking about that.
It didn’t matter where she went.
As long as she could get away from that guy.
“Harin, can you see him behind you?”
Yuna asked.
Harin glanced back over her shoulder as she ran.
There was no one there.
“I don’t see anyone.”
“Then don’t stop—just keep coming.”
“Which way should I go?!”
“What do you see around you?”
Harin scanned the area ahead.
The same wall.
The same passageway.
“Nothing—”
At that moment.
Someone suddenly appeared at the fork ahead.
“Eek!”
Harim screamed and stopped abruptly.
It was In-gong.
“How…?”
He had definitely been behind her.
But now, he was blocking her path.
Harim immediately turned in the opposite direction.
In-gong didn’t chase after her.
“Harim?”
Seo-yoon’s voice came through her cell phone.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s right in front of me!”
“What?”
“He just suddenly appeared in front of me!”
Harim turned back toward the fork in the path.
Then she stopped.
In-gong was standing there.
“……”
This time, she couldn’t even make a sound.
She turned around and ran.
Another fork in the path.
In-gong.
She changed direction again.
In-gong.
It was as if the entire maze was moving just for him.
“This is cheating!”
Finally, Harin shouted.
In-gong smiled.
“When did I ever say this was a fair game?”
“I really hate this!”
Harim started running again.
Se-ah shouted through the phone.
“Don’t just run anywhere—tell me which way to go!”
“I don’t know either!”
“Harim!”
It was Seo-yoon’s voice.
“Just keep the call going. Don’t hang up.”
“Okay!”
Harim gripped her phone even tighter.
Then she rounded another corner.
A dead end.
“……Oh.”
Harin’s face froze.
She heard footsteps approaching slowly from behind.
Click.
Click.
Harin felt along the wall.
There was no door.
She couldn’t see any hidden passageways either.
“Sis.”
Her voice trembled.
“It’s a dead end.”
“Come back out!”
“I can’t get out.”
Harin slowly turned around.
On the other side of the passageway.
In-gong was walking toward her.
“Harin?”
“Sis…….”
Harin backed away.
Her back hit the wall.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
In-gong approached right up to her.
Harin made one last attempt to slip away to the side.
But—
“Got you.”
“Aaaargh!”
Her cell phone fell to the floor.
“Harin!”
“Harin!”
The voices of Seo-yoon, Yuna, and Se-ah poured out all at once.
And a moment later.
The call disconnected.
....
By the time Harin came to, she was already lying on a large, plush bed.
A strangely sweet scent lingered in the room,
and the walls were entirely adorned with lace decorations, the sort you’d find in a maid café.
Standing before her was Artificial, with a wicked smirk on his face.
“Uh…?”
Harim tried to sit up but was startled.
Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound to the headboard with soft silk ribbons.
She was still wearing the same stage costume from earlier.
“Hey, untie me. I can’t breathe.”
Harim frowned and grumbled.
Although she was frightened, she didn’t seem to fully grasp the seriousness of the situation, and her voice still carried a hint of playful whining.
In-gyeong chuckled softly and perched on the edge of the bed.
“Looks like you still haven’t quite figured out what’s going on.”
“Figured out what…? The other members must be looking for me right now, right?
My older sisters are really scary, you know?
When Yuna’s mad, she won’t even make eye contact.”
Harim’s eyes widened as she issued a stern warning.
It was the most menacing warning she could muster,
but from In-gong’s perspective, it was nothing more than a cute tantrum.
In-gong reached out and gently stroked Harim’s thigh.
“Huh?”
“I prepared a specially cozy bed at Chae-rin’s request, so you should be grateful.”
Harim’s body jerked upward.
The moment the cold touch slipped under the hem of her skirt and touched her bare skin, her outburst vanished.
“H-hey, stop it! Why are you touching me there?”
“If you’re a maid, you have to act like one.
Have you already forgotten?”
“Who said I’m a maid! I’ve only been in the industry for a short time—why am I suddenly a maid? We didn’t even sign a contract!”
Harin squirmed and protested,
but her bound wrists only caused her body to sway even more provocatively.
In-gong didn’t miss that reaction and pulled her skirt all the way up, exposing her white thighs.
“We can sign the contract right now.”
“No, wait a minute! Why won’t you listen to me?
I’m hungry right now—let’s eat first and then talk....”
She didn’t even get to finish her sentence.
Artificial’s palm lightly smacked Harin’s cheek, then plunged deep into her sensitive spot below.
“Huh…!”
Harin’s eyes widened like bells.
Her mouth, which had been spouting nonsense, shut tight,
and instead, a shrill moan burst out.
“All you ever say is nonsense.”
“Haa, wait a second… Take that out, hmm, this feels weird…!”
“From now on, I’ll make sure that mouth of yours can only say ‘Master,’ so just wait and see.”
In-gong moved his fingers, picking up the pace.
Overwhelmed by a strange pleasure that pierced deep into her stomach, Harin could no longer even resist, and tears welled up in her eyes.
In the clueless youngest member’s mind, any worries about the other members were completely erased,
and her entire being began to be dominated by nothing but In-gong’s every gesture.
And finally, the moment In-gong’s member entered Harin’s insides
“Waaah… Wait a second, this is really weird…!”
Harin struggled while tied to the headboard, but In-gong paid no heed, filling her completely and thrusting deeply.
A hot sensation rumbled heavily through her stomach, and a tear fell from Harin’s eye.
“You said we didn’t even sign a contract earlier.”
Artificial smirked lowly and picked up the pace of his thrusts.
“Haa, huff……! That was just a joke, hmm! Please, it’s too deep……!”
“All you ever do is make excuses.
I’ll have to engrave the fact that you’re my maid right into your body.”
Unable to resist In-gong’s rough movements any longer, Harin trembled all over.
The pleasure felt as if it were burning her brain white.
As a surge of heat poured deep inside her, Harin gasped for breath and let her head fall onto the bed, her eyes completely glazed over.
A moment later, as In-gong slowly withdrew, Harin clutched at her now-empty insides with a dazed expression.
In-gong tilted his chin up slightly, smiled, and asked.
“So, have you come to your senses yet?
What are you going to do about the contract?”
Harim wiped her reddened eyes and looked up at In-gong with a dazed expression.
Her lips trembling slightly, Harim managed to speak in a choked voice.
“……Master.”
“What did you say?”
“……There’s nothing we can do about it now.
You’ve already written the entire contract on Harim’s pussy……. ”
In-gong chuckled at that absurd yet blunt remark and stroked Harin’s cheek.
“Right, the contract is definitely finalized.
So, shall we start with the first command?”
“We should clean Master’s thing, which got dirty because of Harin, first, right?”
---
The three of them were speechless for a moment.
This was the second time.
Chae-rin.
And Harin.
Seo-yoon clenched her teeth.
“Keep going.”
Se-ah looked at Seo-yoon.
“What about Harin?”
“Can we go back and find her now?”
She couldn’t answer.
“Find the way up first.”
Seo-yoon’s voice was cold and subdued.
“We’ll find them both after we get out of here.”
Yuna nodded silently.
The three of them started moving again.
This time, they absolutely refused to let each other out of their sight.
They turned back from dead ends several times.
They avoided the moving passageways and found their way again.
How much time had passed?
“Over there.”
Se-ah pointed ahead.
It was a staircase.
All three of them quickened their pace at once.
“Is this the third floor?”
“Let’s just go up for now.”
Seo-yoon stepped onto the stairs first.
Se-ah.
Yuna.
The three of them followed in turn.
Just as Yuna, the last one, reached the top of the stairs—
A dull thud sounded from behind.
Thud.
The three of them turned around.
The stairs they’d just climbed were disappearing.
“…This is crazy.”
Se-ah muttered.
A wall was descending, completely blocking the way back to the second floor.
Now they couldn’t go back either.
And straight ahead.
A large sign was waiting for the three of them.
There was only one sentence written on it.
Avoid pink.
“……What?”
Se-ah read it aloud.
“Avoid pink?”
Yuna looked around.
“Is that all the explanation?”
There was nothing.
Why they had to avoid it.
What they had to avoid.
How they had to avoid it.
There was absolutely no explanation.
Seo-yoon scrutinized the sign.
“Just take it literally for now.”
“So we’re not supposed to step on anything pink?”
“Don’t even touch it.”
Se-ah looked down at her clothes.
“Wait a minute. Does anyone here have anything pink on?”
The three of them looked each other over.
Fortunately, there was no pink in sight.
“Surely they wouldn’t treat our clothes like a trap, would they?”
“With that guy, you never know.”
No one could argue with Yuna’s words.
The three of them moved forward cautiously.
The third floor was different from what they’d seen so far.
Narrow corridors.
Low walls.
Obstacles set up everywhere.
It was less like an amusement park and more like a giant obstacle course.
“Look at the floor.”
Seo-yoon said.
The three checked their surroundings every few steps.
Pink.
That’s all they had to look for.
At first, that’s what they thought.
“It’s not here.”
Se-ah went ahead first.
She crossed between the narrow footbridges.
She climbed over a waist-high obstacle.
Yuna followed behind.
Seo-yoon also moved cautiously.
Nothing happened for a while.
“It’s not as big a deal as I thought, is it?”
Se-ah said.
“Don’t say that.”
“Why?”
“It’s like, right after you say something like that—”
Click.
The three of them froze.
“…….”
Se-ah slowly looked down.
The floor beneath her feet had dropped slightly.
“Sister.”
Yuna said.
“Don’t move.”
“I wish I could.”
Clank.
This time, the sound was louder.
Se-ah’s face froze.
“This doesn’t feel right—”
The floor vanished.
“Aaaargh!”
Se-ah’s body plummeted straight down.
“Se-ah!”
Seo-yoon reached out, but it was too late.
Below them was a long, slide-like passageway.
Se-ah slid down it at breakneck speed.
“What the—!”
Her voice grew fainter and fainter.
And then it vanished.
Seo-yoon and Yuna froze.
A moment later.
Se-ah’s voice blared from the cell phone.
“Oh, for real!”
Seo-yoon immediately picked up the phone.
“Se-ah!”
“I’m alive.”
“Where are you?”
A brief silence.
Then came an exasperated reply.
“……First floor, third level.”
“What?”
“I said in front of the information board!”
Seo-yoon and Yuna looked at each other.
Yuna muttered under her breath.
“It’s a trap that sends you back to the beginning.”
They heard Se-ah grumbling.
“I’ll go back, so wait for me.”
“Hold on.”
Seo-yoon looked at the spot where Se-ah had just fallen.
The floor had already returned to normal.
No matter how she looked at it, it seemed ordinary.
There wasn’t even any pink.
“That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“There’s no pink here.”
Yuna also stepped closer.
Then she pointed to a spot on the floor.
“Sis.”
“What?”
“That.”
Something very small was stuck there.
A sticker smaller than a finger joint.
It was a pink teddy bear.
“……Are you telling me to look at this?”
Seo-yoon made a bewildered face.
Yuna crouched down and examined the sticker.
“Well, it is pink, though.”
Se-ah spoke from the other end of the phone.
“Did you find anything?”
“There’s a pink bear sticker right next to where you stepped.”
“What?”
“It’s super tiny.”
“Ah, that’s so mean!”
Se-ah’s voice echoed down the hallway.
But now they knew what to do.
Seo-yoon said.
“From now on, check everything, even the tiny stuff.”
“Okay.”
“If there’s even a hint of pink, don’t touch it.”
A moment later, Se-ah rejoined them.
The three of them moved much more slowly than before.
The wall.
The floor.
The ceiling.
Obstacles.
They checked each one for any trace of pink.
That’s how they managed to avoid a few traps.
“Here.”
Yuna spotted a small pink line.
The three of them went around it.
This time, nothing happened.
“You’re right.”
Se-ah said.
“We just have to look for the pink markings, right?”
The tension eased a little.
They thought they’d figured out the pattern.
Just then.
A new passageway appeared in front of the three of them.
“……Are we supposed to go through that?”
Se-ah looked horrified.
The ceiling was far too low.
They couldn’t even get through by simply bending over.
They’d have to lower themselves to the floor and crawl through.
Seo-yoon let out a sigh.
“Is there another way?”
There wasn’t.
Yuna crouched at the entrance and peered inside.
“Wait, what’s this?”
The entire floor and walls were covered in text.
Countless sentences.
They were familiar lyrics.
“Aren’t those our songs?”
The lyrics from every song Lunatic had released since their debut were densely packed across the walls.
Their first album.
The second album.
Hit songs.
Track listings.
Even songs from their promotions a few years ago.
Se-ah laughed in disbelief.
“They’ve gone and made all kinds of things here.”
Seo-yoon didn’t laugh.
She began examining the floor of the passageway closely.
“Start by looking for the pink.”
The three of them grew serious again.
But all the writing they could see was black.
White floor.
Black writing.
There was no pink in sight.
“I don’t think it’s here,”
Yuna said.
“Still, let’s take it slow.”
Seo-yoon was the first to crouch down on the floor.
Because of the low ceiling, she couldn’t even lift her head freely.
She stretched both arms forward, braced herself against the floor, and crawled forward little by little.
Yuna followed behind her.
Se-ah was the last to enter the passageway.
“Ah….”
Se-ah grumbled.
“Are we supposed to crawl all the way to the end of this?”
“Be quiet and watch the floor.”
“I’m looking.”
The passage was longer than they’d expected.
With every move, the three of them checked where to place their hands first.
A pink sticker.
A pink line.
They did this so as not to miss even the smallest mark.
Just as they were moving forward bit by bit…
Yuna reached out with her right hand.
Her palm touched some black writing.
Click.
All three of them froze at the same time.
“……What is that?”
Yuna looked down at the spot beneath her hand.
There was no pink.
Just a white floor.
Only black letters.
Click.
This time, the sound came from above their heads.
Yuna instinctively tried to look up.
But the low ceiling prevented her from turning her head properly.
“Yuna!”
Just as Seo-yoon shouted,
a section of the ceiling opened.
A device descended rapidly.
Thud.
“Ouch!”
The device landed on Yuna’s lower back.
The impact wasn’t strong enough to injure her.
But her lower back was firmly pinned between the floor and the device.
Yuna tensed her arms, trying to move forward.
She didn’t budge an inch.
The same thing happened when she tried to step back.
“Yuna!”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t hurt, though….”
Yuna tried to move again.
With her waist pinned, she couldn’t go forward or backward.
“We’re completely trapped.”
Se-ah scanned her surroundings inside the narrow passageway.
“But where was the pink color?”
“It wasn’t there.”
“Then why is it working?”
Seo-yoon examined the spot where Yuna had placed her hand a moment ago.
A white floor.
Black letters.
The lyrics to an old Lunatic song.
And—
Seo-yoon’s gaze came to a halt.
“……Wait a second.”
“Why?”
Seo-yoon pointed to a single word.
The color was black.
But the letters were—
pink.
All three of their expressions froze at the same time.
Se-ah said, sounding disheartened.
“……No way.”
The message at the entrance came back to her mind.
Avoid pink.
Nowhere did it say to avoid anything painted pink.
Yuna, her waist still restrained, looked down at her hands.
“Do we have to avoid letters written in pink, too?”
At that moment.
Beep.
A faint electronic beep sounded from the device securing Yuna’s waist.
A number appeared on one side.
04:59
04:58
04:57
Se-ah blinked.
“…Five minutes?”
The number kept counting down.