Anomaly - The Backrooms (2)
As my ragged breathing finally eased and my scattered mind began to return, the heart that had been pounding like mad now began to race again—for an entirely different reason. The space left empty by fear and tension was rapidly filling with shame. To think that in front of an acquaintance, and not even a particularly close classmate at that, I had mistaken her for a monster and tackled her. It wasn’t tension or fear holding me down. It was pure, burning embarrassment that kept me glued to the floor.
“Hahaha! Ow, ouch… I laughed too hard. My stomach hurts.”
Do Ga-bin, who had been pinned beneath me, had already slipped free. She stood clutching her belly, laughing so hard she could barely breathe as she looked down at me sprawled on the floor.
“Aww, was our Ga-in that scared? You always act so serious, yet the second you drop into an anomalous space you start crying your eyes out?”
I wanted to protest that I hadn’t been crying, that it was just a physiological reaction—tears welling up once the tension broke—but the words wouldn’t come.
“Ah, I was pretty annoyed about getting dragged in after so long. But seeing this makes me glad I did. That was genuinely fun.”
Wait. What did she just say?
I had been trying to swallow my embarrassment and stand up, but her last words made me freeze. A phrase I couldn’t possibly ignore had lodged itself in my ear. Forgetting my shame entirely, I lifted my head and stared at her.
“Dragged in after so long? You’ve been pulled into places like this before?”
“Hm? Well, it’s been a few years, but I have a rather peculiar constitution. It drags me into these anomalous phenomena from time to time. That’s why I avoid walking around late at night or visiting unfamiliar places. I was being careful, but who would’ve thought I’d get sucked in during a daytime major lecture?”
Constitution? What kind of constitution drags someone into a place like this? Anomalous phenomena? The words sounded insane, yet the endless hallway stretching before my eyes proved that madness true. More than anything, her attitude—showing not a trace of tension or anxiety despite being dropped into such a bizarre place—felt like a single ray of light.
“How can you be so calm after being dragged into a place like this? Do you… know how to escape?”
At my question, Do Ga-bin laughed as if I had asked something obvious.
“Of course. I did say it had been a while. If I hadn’t escaped every time, would I still be alive? Besides, these… what do people call them nowadays? Ah, right. The Backrooms! Anomalous spaces in this Backrooms format are easier to escape than most others.”
I asked her desperately, like a man clutching at a rope while dangling over a cliff.
“How do we escape?”
“The escape method is simple! You just… um, what was it again? Hey, have you finished that literary criticism assignment due tomorrow? Help me with it and maybe my memory will come back.”
For a moment I heard the distinct sound of reason snapping inside my head.
An assignment due tomorrow? When we might not even survive today? My nerves were still razor-sharp after barely escaping extreme terror. At her attitude of treating this horrific situation like light banter, hot anger surged up my throat.
“Are you seriously treating this like a joke right now?!”
My voice burst out louder than I intended, almost a shout.
“You might be used to this, but I’m terrified! I feel like I’m losing my mind! I was shaking because I thought I might actually die, and you’re cracking jokes?”
Do Ga-bin watched me panting, chest heaving, and the playfulness vanished from her face. She shrugged with a slightly sheepish expression and apologized.
“Sorry, sorry. This is the first time I’ve run into someone I know while getting dragged in, even though it happens to me fairly often. Plus, you’re usually so stoic and expressionless. Seeing you react in such an unexpectedly cute way got me a little excited. I’m sorry. If I tease you any more you’ll probably get sulky and stop talking to me at school, so I’ll explain properly.”
She offered me her hand, pulled me up by force, brushed the dust off my clothes, and took the lead.
“The explanation might take a while, so shall we walk and talk? Right, so… these Backrooms-style anomalous phenomena usually let you escape by repeating the exact same action you were doing right before you were pulled in. Since both of us were dozing off in class, it means we can escape by falling asleep again.”
Fall asleep? The moment I heard those words, I lay flat on the floor without a second’s hesitation and squeezed my eyes shut. Embarrassment could wait; escaping this place came first.
“Puhahahat! Oh my god, that’s hilarious.”
The instant I lay down, Do Ga-bin’s bright laughter rang through the hallway once more.
“Why does someone this funny stay so quiet normally? If you showed even half that personality, you’d be a superstar in the department.”
She giggled and nudged my side with her toe.
“Hey… stop fooling around and get up. Of course you can’t escape just by sleeping anywhere. You have to find the right room among all these countless ones and sleep there. While you were searching through the lecture rooms alone earlier, didn’t you notice anything strange?”
I opened my eyes, stood up awkwardly, and brushed off the dust. Do Ga-bin asked in a much more serious tone.
Strange? The unpleasant sense of alienation I had felt every time I opened a classroom door before running away came to mind. I told her about my gut feeling.
“Oh, your intuition is pretty sharp, huh? That’s a relief. Even if you get caught alone later, you probably won’t die for nothing.”
Do Ga-bin nodded, looking satisfied.
“Exactly. Among these infinitely replicated places, you have to find the Original Space—the real lecture room where we first fell asleep. Then if you fall asleep there again… you return to the real world. Simple, right? No big deal.”
Following Do Ga-bin down the endless hallway, we stopped in front of a lecture room with its door half open. On the surface it looked exactly like one of our department’s major classrooms. But the moment I tried to step inside, a creepy sensation crawled up from my toes. It was the same unpleasant sense of alienation I had felt earlier while searching the empty rooms alone. Unable to describe the subtle chill, I unconsciously stepped back.
“This one… doesn’t feel right. Something’s off.”
Do Ga-bin’s eyes widened at my words, then the corners of her mouth lifted in satisfaction.
“Oh, you really do have good instincts. Correct.”
She lightly grabbed the back of my neck and nodded toward the gap in the open door.
“I’ll show you what that intuition you felt really is. Look. First, the clock.”
It was as if something not human had tried to copy the space, replicating only the outer shells of objects while failing to grasp their true nature. The subtle wrongness made my stomach turn. I quickly looked away. Do Ga-bin clicked her tongue lightly and closed the door.
“Hmm~ This one’s a failure. Let’s keep looking for the next room.”
In the next room we entered—
“This one feels strange too…”
“That’s an integrated desk. Next.”
In the room after that—
“Is this the one?”
“The blackboard eraser is blue. Our school uses green. Next.”
In yet another room—
“This seems right?”
“You think? Hey! There’s a whole row of desks missing! Next!”
Even though we checked room after room without any real success, it no longer felt terrifying. Because I wasn’t alone anymore.
“By the way, you have incredibly sharp eyes. You even remember the exact number of desk rows? I thought you took two years off like me. Since I came back from military service, I barely remember the lecture room details.”
She simply smiled lightly at my words.
“Hm? Oh, that? It’s not that my eyes are sharp. I just make sure to memorize everything because I get dragged here sometimes. You never know when it might happen again.”
Her answer brought back memories of her carefully scanning her surroundings during department dinners or drinking parties. Back then I had thought she simply enjoyed people-watching. Now I realized every one of those actions had been her own survival strategy, her way of easing anxiety. Her casual attitude even in this grotesque space was probably just calluses built from countless experiences. Realizing that made me feel heavy. I regretted snapping at her earlier.
“Um… sorry for getting angry before. You must have been scared too, in your own way.”
Her eyes widened at the sudden apology. Then she laughed playfully.
“What’s that about? It’s okay to be scared. Even our usually serious and blunt Ga-in can find a place like this frightening. Hahaha! Ah~ Thinking about it again, you really were hilarious earlier.”
After laughing her fill, she added with a strangely chilling smile.
“More importantly, you should start getting into the habit of observing your surroundings carefully like I do. Once you’ve been dragged in once, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen again.”
“What?!”