The Building That Devours People
Sumin had no desire to eat meat. She wasn’t hungry at all. She simply… wanted to go home and rest. Yet once again she said nothing. She still had no wish to speak. Anyone watching might have thought theirs a truly barren family.
She knew her parents were studying her. Her mother had even asked with careful glances, “Is this place all right?” Sumin had answered with a silent nod. It was a meat restaurant they had visited often before. It used to be her favorite, but today—perhaps because she had no appetite—she managed only a few pieces before she could eat no more. She left having consumed less than half her usual amount.
On the drive home the car was filled with a silence as heavy as a lead weight. When they arrived, the house felt steeped in cold. Sumin gave a faint shiver and went straight to her room. She closed the door, collapsed onto the bed, and lay there. Right now she wanted to think of nothing. She only wished everything that had happened was a dream. Yes—if only it had been a nightmare that would vanish after one night’s sleep. If only it would disappear the moment she opened her eyes.
A knock sounded. Sumin remained silent. After a brief hesitation beyond the door, the knock came again.
“Sumin, it’s Mom. May I come in for a moment?”
She still gave no answer, but her mother opened the door anyway. The woman hesitated, then approached the bed where her daughter lay. After a long pause she spoke.
“Later… the police will come.”
Sumin’s body flinched. For an instant the thought Why? flashed through her mind.
Her mother wore an extremely uneasy expression and could not easily continue. Behind her, her father was also radiating anxiety. Gathering courage once more, her mother said, “They’ll want to ask about that day… so I thought you should know in advance.”
At the words that day her body flinched again. The memories surged up without warning. Tragically, they remained painfully vivid. No—they were memories that could never be erased. The root of that terror, now lodged as a vicious trauma, had driven itself into her chest like a nail.
I want to forget. I never want to remember it again.
But… still…
“My friends…” A hoarse voice slipped from between Sumin’s cracked lips. “What happened to my friends?”
She asked carefully. In truth she had wanted to ask from the very beginning. She had fled from reality until now, but at last she scraped together the courage to face it.
Her mother could not answer at once. She hesitated, seemingly at a loss for the right words. Her gaze drifted to Sumin’s father behind her. He let out a heavy sigh and stepped forward.
“They still haven’t been found,” he said in her stead.
Sumin attended her university entrance ceremony. It was not particularly special. It was simply the time to learn which classrooms she would use, who her professors were, and what the school itself was like. A truly tedious affair. Naturally there were no lectures. The atmosphere was entirely different from the entrance ceremonies of elementary, middle, or high school. Perhaps this was what becoming an adult felt like.
That was not all. Sumin had begun living alone. Before enrollment she had searched for a room, signed the contract, and moved in. For a while her mother and father had gone back and forth, checking whether she needed anything, whether the room was comfortable, whether the contract was sound, offering advice and worrying endlessly. Sumin had forced a smile and exhausted herself repeating that everything was fine so they would leave. Her family remained full of concern. After all, a young woman beginning life on her own was bound to worry them. Even if their positions were reversed, Sumin knew she would have felt the same.
After the simple ceremony and all the formalities were finished, Sumin returned to her new room. The studio where she might live for the next four years was still almost empty. There was almost nothing inside, yet the fact that it was her own space stirred a tangle of emotions.
She stood before it a moment, finished preparing for the upcoming lectures, then turned on her phone. Ah… On the screen were pictures of her friends. Yeonji, Yongha, Jinsu… Tragically, their whereabouts had still not been discovered. That day… she still did not know what had happened to them, or why only she had been able to escape. She knew nothing. She had simply fled in terror. But her friends had not escaped. Sometimes she wondered whether they were still wandering inside that abandoned building.
Even now she occasionally dreamed of it. In those dreams she was always inside the building, walking its halls endlessly. She could never find the exit. Again and again… as though searching for someone… until something began to chase her and she woke. Perhaps she had been looking for her lost friends. And whatever had pursued her… yes, it must have been the bizarre thing she had seen that day.
Was what I saw truly real? Or was it only a hallucination?
These days such doubts rose unbidden. Had the things she saw been reality? Or had terror simply made her imagine something strange? The longer she thought about it, the more uncertain everything felt. Seeing ghosts, hearing voices—perhaps all of it had been a mistake born of fear. Whatever the truth, the fact that her friends had not returned was what hurt most.
What had become of them? Why couldn’t they come back?
Sumin sat thinking of her friends for a long time, feeling her heart slowly tear apart. Just then her phone rang. It was her mother. Still worrying, no doubt.
“Yes… Mom…”
As expected, the call was to ask whether she was eating well, whether anything was uncomfortable. Sumin smiled and repeated several times that she was fine. Then her mother suddenly fell silent. It seemed the real purpose of the call was yet to come. Sumin tilted her head. After a long pause her mother finally spoke.
“I think I have to tell you this.”
“What… do you mean?”
“It seems… they’ve found the bodies of your missing friends.”
“Where…?”
“They were inside that building.”
“Mmm… mmh…”
A seductive moan brushed Hwan’s ear. Full, crimson lips drew close and gently bit his earlobe, sending a shiver through him. Then her breath slipped into his ear, warm and teasing. Ah—he could not hold back the sigh that rose unbidden. His body trembled on its own. His breathing grew ragged.
Before long her tongue slid from between those bewitching red lips and flickered lightly inside his ear, adding another layer of stimulation. Ah! The excitement only swelled. A thrilling current raced through him. Meanwhile her slender fingers crept downward and wrapped softly around his cock. She began a slow, rhythmic stroke.
Hwan swallowed hard. His shaft, already painfully hard, twitched at the cool touch of her fingertips. Soon a sticky bead of precum welled from the flushed tip and tangled between her fingers, producing an obscene wet sound with every glide.
Again their lips met. Soft, enveloping kisses. Her tongue slipped out to coil around his, deepening the heat. The thirst that had been building was quenched for a moment as they shared saliva. Their bodies grew hotter, as though they were swallowing flame.
At last reason fractured. Hwan’s wandering hands slid down her smooth back and seized the resilient curves of her ass. The elastic flesh and the sleek thighs that seemed to go on forever offered a fatally sweet stimulus. Every inch of her supple skin was ripe and rich; refusal was impossible. Everything about her was a lethal weapon designed to seduce men, a witch’s curse from which there was no escape.
Ah—of course he could not resist. He became her captive with ridiculous ease. Not that he had any intention of resisting in the first place.
Still pressed tightly together, they changed positions. This time Hwan moved on top. Miho wore a languid, sensual smile. Their lips met again, sticky and hot. His mouth traveled from her throat, across her smooth shoulder, and down to her breasts, which rose proudly even while she lay on her back.
“Mmm… mmh…”
Seductive moans began to spill from her as well. Her soft flesh quivered, and her breath grew even hotter.
“Haah!”
At last his lips closed over her breast. He rolled the stiff, erect nipple with his tongue, lavishing it with attention. Her reaction grew stronger by the moment.