First Delusion - The Idol Hunt (6)
Still holding hands, Seoyun and Yuna made their way slowly inside.
The sound of water drew closer.
Slosh.
Slosh.
A water park with not a single person in it — and yet every facility was running exactly as it should. Water streamed along the lazy river; waves rolled in at even intervals from the wave pool in the distance; the slides poured out an endless cascade. Not one visitor anywhere.
Yuna looked around.
"Find what, in a place this size?"
"The exit, presumably."
"We don't even know where it is?"
Seoyun didn't answer. She didn't know either. This time there wasn't even a sign to guide them. All they could do was find a way out.
"Let's stick to the walls for now."
"Why?"
"Better than wandering around the middle. That way we won't lose our sense of direction."
Yuna nodded, and the two of them moved along the edge of the water park. They didn't set foot in the water — there was no telling what kind of mechanism might be lurking in it. After what they'd been through on the third level, even things that looked perfectly ordinary were hard to touch without flinching.
For a while, nothing happened.
Somehow, that was worse.
"Unnie."
"Yeah?"
"Isn't it way too quiet?"
"It is."
"And he's nowhere in sight, either."
Seoyun stopped walking. Yuna stopped at the same instant, and both of them swept their eyes over the surroundings.
He wasn't there. Ingong was nowhere to be seen.
"Don't tell me he's shapeshifted again?"
Yuna said it lightly. Seoyun immediately turned to stare at her.
"Quit looking at me like that."
"I never said 'unnie,' did I?"
"Your eyes were pointed right at me, though."
"Well, you never know."
"We already checked earlier, remember?"
Yuna laughed under her breath.
"It was a joke."
"Is now really the time for jokes?"
"I'm nervous, that's all."
They walked on. A little farther ahead, the path split in two — the left followed the lazy river, while the right led in beneath the water slide complex.
"Which way?"
"As long as we stay together, it doesn't matter."
At that moment—
"Oh, is that so?"
Both women froze at once. A man's voice. Right in front of them. They turned their heads slowly.
In the middle of the fork stood Ingong.
He wasn't doing anything. Just smiling as he watched them.
Yuna's grip on Seoyun's hand tightened.
"Back," Seoyun said quietly.
They took a step back. Ingong took a step forward.
"Why?"
Another step.
"You've done so well getting this far."
Seoyun and Yuna retreated together.
"There are only two of you left now."
"Stay back!"
"I'd rather not."
Ingong took yet another step.
Seoyun's eyes raced over the area. Behind them, the path they'd just come. The passage splitting left and right. If they kept moving as one, both of them could be cut off at the same time.
Seoyun let go of Yuna's hand.
Yuna whipped her head around.
"Unnie?"
"I'll draw him off first."
"What?"
Seoyun pointed at the right-hand passage.
"You take the left."
"We said we weren't splitting up!"
"If we stay together now, he takes us both."
"Still—"
"Yuna."
Seoyun's voice turned firm.
"When I bolt, you go the other way."
Yuna didn't move. Ingong went on watching the two of them, as if waiting to see what they would do.
Seoyun drew in a huge breath. And then—
she ran to the right.
"Unnie!"
Ingong's gaze snapped toward Seoyun. She didn't so much as glance back. Beneath the slide complex, she plunged into the maze of tangled passages.
Ingong moved. After Seoyun.
"Run!" Seoyun shouted, and only then did Yuna turn. Left. She sprinted full-out along the lazy river.
"Unnie!"
Seoyun's voice came through the phone.
"Just go!"
Yuna glanced back over her shoulder as she ran. Far behind, she could see Seoyun — and Ingong chasing after her.
"Seoyun unnie!"
"Don't look! Run!"
Seoyun was deliberately taking the more complicated route. Narrow corridors. Staircases. The gaps between the slide towers. Ingong was nearly on her heels.
"Unnie, behind you!"
Seoyun cut hard sideways. His hand swiped through empty air. It had been that close.
She kept going, cutting beneath the slides — and a shallow pool barred the way ahead. For a moment she hesitated. They hadn't set foot in the water once so far; there was no telling what kind of trap it might hold. But she had no time to turn back either.
SPLASH!
Seoyun plunged straight in. Knee-deep water exploded in every direction.
"Unnie!"
"Go! Hurry!"
Seoyun pushed through the water toward the far side, but nothing like her usual speed — every step, the water clung to her legs. And from behind came more splashing.
Splash.
He'd followed her in.
"You seriously won't quit, will you!"
Seoyun gritted her teeth. The moment she reached the opposite edge, she grabbed the railing and hauled herself up — and her soaked shoes skidded out from under her on the wet floor.
Wobble.
"Unnie!" Yuna's shriek burst out of the phone. Seoyun barely managed to keep her grip on the railing. Behind her, the sound of Ingong carving through the water drew closer and closer.
Seoyun ran again. Ahead of her, slide after slide tangled together — stairs, pillars, railings, narrow walkways. She threw herself into the middle of it, and Ingong followed right behind.
One level. Two levels. Seoyun leapt up the stairs two at a time, her breath scorching up her throat.
"Haah... haah..."
She looked back. Ingong was there — far, far closer than she'd thought.
"He's insane..."
Seoyun climbed on — then froze halfway up. Above her was the launch platform where the slides began. There was nowhere left to go. A dead end.
Ingong seemed to see it too. He slowed, unhurried.
Seoyun looked back. He was climbing the stairs toward her.
"Where do you think you're going now?"
She didn't answer. She looked to the side instead — at the enormous mouth of a slide, water streaming into it without pause, vanishing somewhere out of sight below.
Her eyes darted between Ingong and the slide.
"No way."
Ingong smiled.
Seoyun took a step back.
"Don't follow me."
And with that, she threw herself into the slide.
"Unnie?!"
Yuna's voice rang out through the phone.
FWOOSH!
Her body was sucked downward in an instant. The world spun. Left. Right. Speed piled on with every sickening drop.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
A few seconds later—
SPLASH!
Seoyun shot out into the pool at the bottom. She went under, then popped her head straight back up.
"Pwah!"
Bleary, she scanned her surroundings. The slide exit. Ingong didn't come out.
Seoyun hauled herself out of the pool at once.
"Unnie!"
Yuna's voice came through the phone.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah!"
Gasping for air, Seoyun started running again.
"Keep going! He could still be right behind me!"
Yuna clenched her teeth and fixed her eyes forward. She ran — then checked behind her once more. Seoyun was already slipping out past the far side of the slide complex. There was no sign of Ingong. His figure had vanished behind the structures, and Yuna could see no more.
"Seoyun unnie!"
The answer came immediately.
"Keep going!"
They were still connected. Yuna ran. She had no idea how far she'd come; the only thing that mattered was putting as much distance between herself and Ingong as she could. She turned this way and that, again and again, and only when the center of the water park had disappeared from view entirely did she finally slow down.
"Haah..."
She was winded. Yuna tucked herself behind a pillar and checked her phone. The call was still live. The names glowing on the screen — Seoyun, Yuna — unchanged. She pressed the phone to her ear.
"Unnie?"
No answer.
"Seoyun unnie?"
"Yeah."
Yuna let out a long breath of relief.
"Unnie! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm okay."
Seoyun sounded out of breath too.
"What about him?"
"I don't see him."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Barely managed to shake him."
Yuna peeked out from behind the pillar and checked around her. Nothing on her side either.
"I really thought he'd caught you."
"Honestly, so did I."
"You're not hurt anywhere?"
"Nope. You?"
"I'm fine too."
"Thank goodness."
Yuna leaned against the wall and took a moment to catch her breath. Through the phone came the sound of Seoyun breathing.
"Unnie, I'll head your way."
"How are you planning to manage that?"
"I'll just go back the way I came, won't I?"
"Do you even know where you are right now?"
Yuna glanced around. Nothing but structures she'd never laid eyes on before.
"...No, actually."
"Me neither. I ran so blindly I couldn't tell you where I am."
Yuna sighed.
"So what do we do?"
"For now, let's look for the exit on our own."
"Separately?"
"We're on the phone, aren't we?"
Seoyun said, "Whoever finds it first tells the other where she is."
Yuna hesitated, thinking it over. Wandering around searching for each other might only get them more lost.
"The second you find it, you tell me."
"Yeah."
"Don't you dare go out on your own first."
"Got it."
"I mean it."
Seoyun laughed.
"You really think I'd leave you behind?"
At that, Yuna smiled a little too.
"Then keep the call on."
"Yeah."
Yuna stepped out from behind the pillar and surveyed the water park once more. It was vast. There was no telling where the exit might be.
"Unnie."
"Yeah?"
"We get out of here together. Promise."
Seoyun answered without a beat.
"Of course."
Phone pressed to her ear, Yuna started walking again.
"I'm passing the lazy river right now."
"Then keep going. I'll check the other side."
"Okay."
And so the two of them began their search for the exit, calling out to each other whatever they saw. There was still no telling where any of it ended. But at least they were both safe. All that remained now was to find the way out.