Chapter 45
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Monster Tale Specialist Office: The Cursed Video (7)
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The two of them came to a stop in front of an apartment complex. It was the kind of ordinary apartment block you could find in any neighborhood.
“Is this the complex where that girl lives?”
Sia asked Woli, who was standing beside her. Woli had been staring blankly up at the buildings but nodded.
“That’s what I heard, but… this is my first time here too.”
Woli had only received the address herself, so she’d never been to this apartment before.
“I don’t know it well either.”
“Then doesn’t that mean we can’t afford to waste any time? We don’t know how long Taeju can keep her occupied, so we need to move fast.”
With that, Sia started walking ahead. Woli hesitated for a moment before hurrying after her with quick steps.
There were hardly any people inside the complex. It was right around the time high schoolers were heading home from school, but the only people they passed on the way were one or two elderly folks strolling through the apartments.
Of course, the elderly paid no attention to the two of them. Most were gathered chatting or playing something like go or chess.
There were occasional glances from passersby, but it was just the sort of look you give anything that goes by. Even so, those gazes made Woli uneasy.
“Sis, is it really okay to do this? Aren’t we being way too reckless?”
“What are you worried about? You’re the one who beats up ghosts.”
At Sia’s scolding, Woli mumbled hesitantly.
“I’ve caught ghosts before, but I’ve never gone into someone’s house without permission.”
The two of them were heading into Suhyeon’s home.
Taeju was holding Suhyeon for the sake of gathering information, but he had another role as well.
To buy them time to sneak into her house undetected.
“No matter how I think about it, this feels like a bad thing to do…”
Surprisingly, beating up entities from ghost stories wasn’t a crime, but breaking and entering was.
Woli couldn’t shake off her hesitation and kept mumbling. Sia let out a small sigh.
When Sia had first asked which of them would come along, Woli had stepped up.
She’d acted like it was because she was the senior, but in truth, Woli had never done anything like this before either. So her anxiety was understandable.
Sia could sympathize, but since she’d warned her in advance, she had no intention of waiting.
If they had time, they could let her steel herself a bit before moving, but right now, there was a time limit. They couldn’t afford to coddle an anxious Woli.
“Yeah, what we’re doing is illegal. But curses don’t back off just because something’s illegal.”
Woli flinched at Sia’s words.
“If we back off, the curse gets left alone. You okay with that?”
Woli shook her head at Sia’s question. It still didn’t sit right with her, but she knew there were no other options.
Sia stopped in front of the apartment building with the number they were looking for. Woli, who had been lagging behind hesitantly, quickly moved to her side.
“Argh, still feels off somehow…”
Woli kept hesitating. She couldn’t shake off the lingering guilt.
“Worrying too much is a problem too.”
But Woli seemed not to hear Sia, lost in a daze. She looked trapped in her own thoughts.
Sia let out a small sigh and snapped her fingers right in front of Woli’s vacant eyes. Woli jumped back in surprise.
“Eek!”
“Why act so startled?”
“I was startled!”
Sia gave Woli an indifferent look and headed into the building first.
“Then we’re good. Let’s get going.”
“Wait for me!”
Woli shouted for her to wait, but Sia didn’t stop.
“What? You’re way faster than me if you actually run.”
Woli closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and stood beside Sia. She’d made up her mind.
“Phew, alright. Let’s go in. So what are we looking for once we’re inside? Do we have to rummage around?”
Seeing this, Sia’s tone softened a little.
“We don’t need to search every inch for objects. Houses show things people don’t want seen. This person’s life, her thoughts, and so on. That’s what we look at. As detailed as possible.”
“Oh, feels like we did something similar before.”
The previous time Taeju had gone to see the dokkaebi, they’d checked out the client’s house on the side. Woli had wondered at the time how he could be so nosy, but apparently that was part of the job too.
“That’s what you were doing back then?”
“It’d be nice if we always got permission like that time, but sometimes we can’t.”
Cases like this weren’t common, but they weren’t nonexistent.
“You’ll get used to it. What we do is stuff people can’t understand.”
That was why they sometimes had to do things that weren’t strictly legal.
“…I get that.”
“Then relax your face. You look even more suspicious.”
Sia said it casually to Woli. Woli nodded as naturally as she could manage. But it only made her look more suspicious.
It was a good thing no one around was paying attention to them, or anyone watching would have thought something was off.
Sia just shook her head slightly without pointing it out. She knew it wouldn’t change right away.
“Anyway, this is the problem.”
The two of them stood in front of a large glass door.
“No way to open the central entrance?”
At Woli’s question, Sia frowned slightly.
“I’ve got nothing. Guess we just wait for someone.”
Waiting for a delivery or a resident to come out wasn’t a bad idea, but it’d look suspicious.
“Old apartments didn’t have these…”
Sia clicked her tongue. Woli spoke in disbelief.
“Sis, how many years ago are you talking about?”
“…Ten years?”
The two waited a bit. But no sign of anyone coming or going.
“We can’t just wait forever… I’ll try opening it.”
Woli subtly stepped not toward the door but to the side. She stepped right into the dirt flower bed.
Then she pressed flat against the wall. There was a tree there, so she wasn’t visible.
“What are you planning over there?”
“Just keep a good lookout.”
With that, Woli jumped lightly but high, climbing right over the central entrance.
“Normal people don’t lock these.”
Woli opened a window leading to the second floor and slipped inside.
How does she not get caught doing that? While Sia stared in disbelief, the door opened.
“What’re you doing? Coming in or not?”
“…Didn’t you say you’d never committed a crime?”
Sia eyed her suspiciously.
“Ah, if we’re doing it, we should do it right. I did this once before at my own place! Forgot my keys…”
At Woli’s excuse, Sia headed for the elevator.
“It’s true!”
“Yeah, yeah. No time now, so I’ll believe you.”
“I’m not a criminal…”
Woli grumbled, sounding wronged.
They took the elevator and soon arrived in front of Suhyeon’s door.
“Alright, now the real deal.”
The door naturally had a digital lock.
“Come here, let me take a look.”
Woli examined the lock.
“Hmm, hang on…”
She stared closely at the buttons. Some were noticeably worn. The numbers 2, 7, 8, and 0 were especially faded.
“2, 7, 8, 0 seem like the most pressed.”
“Then do we try all combinations?”
At Sia’s worried remark, Woli looked smug.
“I found out Suhyeon’s birthday is August 27th!”
“Password’s her birthday? In this day and age?”
At Sia’s words, Woli shrugged and punched in the code.
With a beep, the door opened right away.
“It worked?”
Sia was a little surprised it opened on the first try. Woli, even smugger now, said,
“Told you.”
Woli silently thanked Boyeong for the birthday info as she opened the door.
“Come on in, whoa…”
But the moment Woli opened the door and looked inside, she froze.
“What’s wrong?”
Woli stepped aside so Sia could see. Sia had the same reaction.
“That girl… ”
It was rare for Sia to show panic while working, but this time she couldn’t hide it.
“Didn’t she say she lived alone?”
Sia said, eyeing the shoes filling the entryway.
Large men’s dress shoes and various women’s shoes lined up. Probably the family’s.
“Yeah… she lives alone.”
They were probably keepsakes now. Clearly no longer in use.
Yet the shoes looked as if they were still being worn.
The toes were scuffed, heels worn down, but not a speck of dust—cleanly polished.
The two stood there silently for a moment.
“Hmm.”
Sia let out a short sigh. It sounded regretful, or maybe like she thought it was foolish.
“Let’s look around the house more.”
Woli nodded with a stiff expression.
“Ha… this is serious.”
Sia sighed the moment they entered the living room.
Unlike the well-maintained shoe rack still bearing traces of family, the living room was a mess.
No TV where one should be, empty bookshelves. No sofa or table either.
But the floor was seriously packed. Unwashed clothes scattered, half-eaten food bits here and there. Piles of regular trash, of course.
“No worry about getting caught coming in here.”
Sia made that offhand joke because the state of the house was that bad.
“Don’t really wanna step on this floor…”
It was even sticky.
The two moved carefully through the trash pile, trying not to touch anything.
“By the way, why’s there no TV in the living room?”
Sia asked from the middle of the living room.
“Maybe there never was one? I hear a lot of places are like that these days.”
Woli replied indifferently to Sia’s question.
“No, look closely—there are marks where a TV was. It was there, and now it’s gone.”
Just as Sia said, there was a faded patch on the wall in the shape of a TV.
“Then where’d it go?”
“No idea.”
Saying that, Sia picked a room and went inside. Woli followed right away and started scanning it.
The first room seemed to be Suhyeon’s.
Like the living room, it was filthy, but nothing else stood out. Just a few books and a computer.
“Nothing here.”
They could learn more by turning on the computer, but that felt a bit too intrusive.
“I’ll check this room. You look in that one.”
Two rooms left. Sia picked one first and entered.
Unlike the living room and Suhyeon’s room, this one was spotless. Looked like the parents’ master bedroom.
Nothing much to see at a glance. No need for both to check it, so Woli headed to the other room.
“I’ll check the other one.”
“Yeah.”
A perfunctory reply came. Woli grabbed the doorknob to the other room.
“Huh?”
It seemed locked from inside and wouldn’t open. But it wasn’t a key lock, so Woli slyly grabbed a chopstick from the kitchen.
With a click, the lock gave way.
Woli wondered what they’d hidden in here to bother locking it.
“Achoo!”
Dust hit her as she opened the door and stepped in.
Woli rubbed her nose and looked around.
“Whoa… what’s all this?”
This room was completely different from the others—utterly alien.
A massive bookshelf filled one wall, stuffed with CDs and DVDs—enough that it overflowed, even old video tapes. The largest room felt cramped.
Everything was movie-related. She looked around briefly for anything non-movie but found none.
“This is insane.”
Woli was genuinely impressed.
No wonder someone this obsessed with movies could write award-winning articles for the newspaper.
“No wonder they kept it locked.”
Woli marveled as she looked around, then hurriedly took photos.
“What’s this?”
Mid-photo, she spotted albums neatly arranged in one corner.
Woli hesitated on whether to open them but gave in to curiosity.
Inside were stacks of movie posters and pamphlets. Carefully organized—clearly cherished.
“She really loved movies, huh?”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
Sia’s voice came suddenly from behind.
“Argh, you scared me!”
“Hey, be careful. What if you scratch it.”
Woli dropped the album in shock, and Sia scolded her. Woli quickly picked it up and checked it over. Fortunately, no visible scratches.
“Ah! Why sneak up and scare me!”
“Your fault for not paying attention. That room was quick. Nothing to see. Doesn’t clean her own room but keeps dust off this one—pretty obvious, huh.”
Sia said, frowning slightly.
“Yeah? Anyway, come look at this!”
Woli said, pulling out other albums.
There were several, but the one she’d picked up wasn’t full yet.
“This one’s just the Ring series.”
“The Ring series, huh. Don’t know movies well, but I know that famous scene. The ghost jumping out of the screen, like this case. Kinda connects, doesn’t it.”
Woli photographed that too, then put it back.
Just then, Sia’s phone rang—Taeju.
“What?”
Sia answered on speaker.
[We’re wrapping up here. Start heading out.]
Vague, but they got the meaning.
“Got it. We’re leaving now too.”
[Okay.]
The two checked for anything missed. Leaving something behind would be bad.
After a final sweep, they carefully left the house. Luckily, no one crossed their path on the way out of the complex.
“Nothing left behind?”
At Sia’s question, Woli nodded.
“What do you take me for?”
She said confidently.
“You think I’d make a mistake like that?”
“Good then.”
They got in the car parked outside the complex, and Sia started driving without hesitation.
The apartments receded into the distance. Woli turned to look back at them.
Reviewing if she’d slipped up anywhere, one thing hit her.
“Uh… ah? Huh?!”
Woli realized she hadn’t locked the movie room door.
“…I think we’re screwed.”