Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: If You Fall Asleep, You Die (7)
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But after quitting her job without consulting Min-seong and becoming a reporter for an internet news outlet, Na-rae couldn't even look him straight in the face.
On top of that, lately she'd been pulling all-nighters and going on frequent assignments.
Everything had gone to hell once she got assigned to the religion and science team, chasing after absurd, utterly ridiculous supernatural phenomena.
It was all because of that nutjob reporter Kim Byung-su.
She felt constantly guilty toward her young daughter and husband Min-seong on days she couldn't make it home.
"I won't be able to come home tonight."
Na-rae said it to Min-seong as she headed out the front door for work on a Saturday.
Min-seong's expression was impassive.
Feeling even guiltier for no reason, Na-rae tried to lighten the mood.
"Tomorrow's Sunday, so I'll have time off. Let's go to the park or something. Sorry."
"Yeah, sure."
Min-seong's expression remained impassive.
There wasn't even a hint of emotion in his eyes.
Embarrassed, Na-rae turned and stepped out the front door.
The door locked with a beep, as if telling her not to come back.
After finishing their briefing, Na-rae and the team headed toward Pocheon in Gyeonggi Province.
They parked in front of a convenience store near the destination and took a short break sitting under a parasol.
A luxury foreign car drove past the group.
The car pulled up right next to them, in front of a motel.
A voluptuous middle-aged woman got out and opened the passenger door.
A young man in a sleek suit stepped out from the door she'd opened.
The man and woman wrapped their arms around each other's waists and disappeared into the motel.
"Heh, in broad daylight... Gotta be an affair, right? Looks like the woman's loaded. She's up there in years, but damn, what a figure. She could pass for my age."
Byung-su said it as he sat down next to Na-rae.
Na-rae couldn't bring herself to respond.
The man's profile looked way too much like Min-seong.
She wanted to check, but she didn't have the guts.
The shoot that day wrapped up late, and she didn't get home until nearly dawn.
The house was quiet when she entered using the number pad.
Min-seong and her daughter must already be asleep.
She quietly entered the bedroom and gazed at Min-seong lying in bed.
He was wearing sexy underwear she'd never seen before.
'No boxers, but a thong? So that's what guys' thongs look like.'
She watched Min-seong sleeping soundly, then lay down beside him and tried to sleep.
Her heart felt heavy.
Na-rae, who thought she wouldn't fall asleep easily, drifted into a deep slumber before she knew it.
She woke to the sound of the TV and stepped out of the bedroom. There was her young daughter.
No sign of Min-seong anywhere.
Glancing at the clock, it was nearly noon.
Lunchtime was approaching.
She sat down next to her daughter and stared at the TV.
It was something kids would like.
Her daughter was so absorbed that she didn't even notice her mom sitting there.
"Hey sweetie, where's Daddy?"
Even to Na-rae's question, the girl just kept staring at the TV, saying nothing.
"What should Mommy do for you? What do you want to eat?"
She got up from her daughter's side and headed to the kitchen as she asked.
Only then did her young daughter turn around and speak.
"Daddy says we don't need Mommy anymore."
There was no emotion in her eyes.
The girl turned back to the TV, speaking calmly and without feeling.
Innocent words from a pure child, devoid of malice.
Pure evil.
At her little daughter's single sentence, Na-rae felt all the despair she'd been holding back come flooding back.
It felt like her whole body, everything, was shattering.
The one person she'd trusted and relied on.
Min-seong had spoken through their daughter's mouth.
Na-rae went to the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife, and headed to the bathroom.
She slashed her wrist.
Lacking the courage to cut deep, she only felt pain.
She clenched her teeth to stifle the scream trying to escape.
She didn't want to scare her young daughter, so she endured the pain.
Cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
She slashed again.
Blood splattered.
This time she cut deep; blood pooled on the floor.
Pain overwhelmed her.
"Mother."
Such a longed-for word.
As Na-rae lost consciousness, a woman's gentle voice reached her ears.
An infinitely soft and loving voice.
The warmth Na-rae had always yearned for.
"Are you having a hard time?"
"Yes... It's so hard. So incredibly hard."
Na-rae answered quietly, enduring the pain.
"It's okay. It'll be okay. You'll wake up just fine, like nothing happened."
As the kind, warm voice faded, the pain stopped too.
It felt peaceful.
When Na-rae opened her eyes, a beautiful woman was looking down at her.
"Mother!"
Overwhelmed with emotion, she threw her arms around the woman and sobbed like a child.
"Hey! Why am I your mother?"
Embarrassment colored the woman's gentle voice.
Na-rae came to her senses and looked closely. It was the red-haired woman, Emel.
"Was it a dream? A dream about Mother?"
Byung-su asked worriedly from beside Judge Choi.
"In the dream, my husband Min-seong said... he doesn't need me anymore. I tried to slit my wrist, but my late mother appeared and saved me."
Byung-su stared blankly at Na-rae as she spoke through tears, then said clearly, word for word.
"Reporter Eun, you're a twenty-eight-year-old single woman who hasn't even gotten married yet."
"I... I'm not married?"
Byung-su sighed at Na-rae, who foolishly asked if she was married or not.
"Yeah, you haven't. And your parents are alive and well at home with you, so why are they dead? Where'd they go? Dreaming weird stuff because you can't get married? Is that it?"
At Byung-su's words, Na-rae realized it had been a distorted dream and broke down in sobs, her face going slack.
"Waaah, I almost died in the dream. Waaah."
As Byung-su said, Na-rae was just an unmarried young woman, not even close to having kids.
On top of that, she lived with both her parents and her younger brother.
Now that she'd snapped out of it, Na-rae realized she'd never even dated a guy named Min-seong.
Her childhood dream hadn't been to be a doctor—it was to become a transforming robot.
Of course, as she grew up, she learned humans couldn't become transforming robots, so it shifted to the perfectly ordinary dream of hitting the lotto jackpot.
"Tell me about your dream."
Emel asked, sensing something from Na-rae's behavior upon waking.
Her expression was deadly serious.
"My dream was to be a transforming robot, but it changed to winning the lotto big."
Na-rae's expression was serious as she answered Emel.
That wasn't the kind of dream Emel wanted to hear.
"This woman, seriously!"
As Emel furrowed her brow in disbelief and started to snap, Byung-su chimed in.
"Hey, Reporter Eun. Not your childhood dream—talk about the one you just had while sleeping. The one where you got married, right?"
With Byung-su's explanation, Na-rae realized what she needed to share and recounted her dream.
As soon as Na-rae finished her dream story, Emel said curtly.
"It's Pan."
"Pan?"
Na-rae asked blankly.
"Pan, the dream demon, a subordinate of Beelzebub. He's the demon who designed your dream. Pan crafted that nightmare to kill you. If it had been the female dream demon Lilith instead, you'd have died in ecstasy."
Emel's expression darkened as she explained.
Pan seemed to be quite the concern for her.
"Ecstasy?"
To Na-rae's question, Emel answered flatly and warned the group as well.
"Lilith is a lewd demon. Ecstasy means dying after getting your energy sucked out in an erotic dream. Everyone, don't fall asleep. It won't be easy holding out until dawn now that Beelzebub's called in Pan. If you sleep, you'll die in the nightmare. Pan can force you to sleep, so stay sharp."
"Who'd fall asleep in a situation like this, forced or not?"
Hong Sang-in replied to Emel's warning from beside the old woman.
But as soon as he finished confidently, he looked down at the old woman who'd suddenly collapsed unconscious on the floor.
'No way? This old hag?'
"I said don't sleep!"
Then Emel's sharp shout rang out, followed by a smack—Byung-su, who'd dozed off atop the coffin, tumbled to the floor.
In the midst of it all, Byung-su had fallen asleep and gotten slapped down by Emel.
Pan had forcibly put Byung-su to sleep.
* * *
By the time Byung-su stood up, his cheeks swollen, the darkness on this floor was gone.
Dawn was breaking, or so it seemed—the windows glowed red.
Na-rae, Emel, his friend Sang-in—none of them were around.
Not the old woman or Judge Choi either.
The only thing beside him was the black coffin Judge Choi had been sitting on.
He scanned around, avoiding the ominous black coffin.
"Where the hell did everyone go? Has dawn already come? Did we win the bet? What's going on? Sang-in's a backstabber, fine, but Reporter Eun wouldn't leave me behind."
He pulled out his phone to check the time as he looked around.
It was 7:10 p.m.
The red light from the windows wasn't the dawn—it was the sunset of dusk.
"Did I sleep that long?"
The sun would set soon, and darkness would fall again.
The stairs, dark without light, seemed like something could leap out any second.
"Reporter Eun! Reporter Eun!"
He called quietly for Na-rae, as frightened as he was to be alone, but his voice echoed loudly through the floor.
The sound circled back and whispered in Byung-su's ear.
"Reporter Kim! Reporter Kim!"
Something was off.
Whether from the echo or not, it sounded strangely different from his own voice.
No other response besides the echo.
This floor was clearly empty.
Byung-su cautiously stepped toward the stairs.
Remembering how Beelzebub had lingered there last night tormenting them, he moved silently.
Beelzebub probably wasn't still on the stairs.
Creak, creak. Even moving quietly, the floorboards made creepy noises.
He relaxed his legs and stepped even more carefully.
Creak, creak.
The floorboards let out eerie sounds in rhythm.
He relaxed his body and took another step.
Creeeak. Still the same noise.
If Beelzebub was on the stairs, it'd have noticed Byung-su by now.
The darkness on the stairs writhed.
The pure black was unchanged, but he could feel the wriggling.
Something in the darkness was watching him.
'The flesh flies went down the stairs, but some are still here?'
Remembering the horrific flesh fly swarm attack, cold sweat ran down Byung-su's back.
He couldn't face a swarm alone.
He retreated to the center where the black coffin was.
Keeping an eye on the stairs, he backed away.
He took a careful step backward.
Screeech. The floorboard made an incomprehensible noise.
He tilted his head and took another step back.
Screeech.
He couldn't understand why the floor was making that sound.
He turned around and took a normal step forward.
Creeeak.
It was weird, but a proper sound.
He tried another step backward.
Screeech.
He bent down and touched the floorboards.
Just ordinary wood.
'Of course it's ordinary. What was I thinking...'
He chuckled wryly and turned to take a step.
Screeech.
Even walking forward, the floor made the weird noise.
He stopped and looked down.
"Oh, I thought it was backward. Heh, I got confused too."
A mutter reached Byung-su's ears as he looked down.
A playful voice.
He looked up and scanned around.
The sun was setting, darkness descending.
But it was still light enough to see.
This vast floor was empty except for Byung-su.
'What was that voice just now? Definitely not Beelzebub.'
Thinking he needed a weapon, Byung-su hurried toward the stakes scattered around the coffin.
Beep beep beep. Weird sounds matched the rhythm of his steps.
Growing anxious, Byung-su quickened his pace.
"Agh!"
A sharp scream came from under Byung-su's foot.