Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Head in the Box (8)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The walk home wasn’t far, but to Jeonghan, it felt like an endless journey.
It had never been a place he was particularly attached to, but he’d never felt this much dread about going back there before.
“You don’t seem very tense…”
Jeonghan said, sounding a bit envious and impressed at the same time.
“My hands are still shaking a little.”
If he’d been alone, he never would have made it back. He wondered what would have become of him without these two beside him.
“Haha, I’m tense too. I’m just used to situations like this. It’s my job, after all.”
Taeju said with a small smile.
“But you don’t look it at all.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Of course, he wasn’t as tense as Jeonghan, but Taeju was keeping his emotions in check to some degree. If he panicked, it could send the people around him into a tailspin.
A brief silence fell. Woli seemed uninterested in their conversation, walking along while gazing at the clear sky. That natural attitude of hers was probably the real deal.
“It’s perfectly normal to panic or get scared.”
Taeju said out of the blue.
“Huh?”
“It’s normal. That’s what ghost stories are—things that make people afraid or freak out.”
Jeonghan was momentarily thrown by Taeju’s words. While Jeonghan was at a loss for words, Taeju continued.
“So it’s fine to feel those emotions. Just stick to one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“If something unexpected happens, just slowly step back. It’s okay to be scared or flustered. Screaming… well, it’s better not to, but if you do, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Jeonghan looked puzzled at Taeju’s explanation.
“Isn’t that something we shouldn’t do?”
“It’s better not to, but how do you control it?”
Taeju smiled faintly.
“Just don’t head down a more dangerous path on your own. People in a panic often do that.”
Jeonghan’s expression turned chillingly uneasy at Taeju’s words.
“…Has that happened before?”
“I’ve seen it once. We barely stopped it, but it freaked me out too.”
Jeonghan’s face scrunched up at Taeju’s response.
“Anyway, it looks like we’re almost there. Whereabouts is it?”
At Taeju’s question, Jeonghan snapped back to attention.
“Ah, this way.”
Jeonghan stopped in front of a small residential building. Even from the outside, it didn’t look particularly normal.
“We go in through this door?”
Jeonghan nodded at Taeju’s question.
“Yeah. There are several studio apartments inside, and mine’s the one at the very back.”
“It’s not very spacious, huh.”
“Nope. It was the cheapest one near the office.”
It looked like some illegally extended structure. Rent had to be dirt cheap.
As they headed to the very back as described, a door came into view.
“Is this it?”
Jeonghan nodded at Taeju’s question.
“Yeah, this is the one. Oh right, I should open the door.”
Jeonghan gripped the handle and took a deep breath.
It was a place he’d entered without a second thought before, but knowing something was inside changed everything.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep-beep—click.
The door opened. Jeonghan stepped naturally inside.
But that was as far as he got.
Jeonghan froze in place by the shoe rack, unable to go any further.
“Why…”
Woli grumbled discontentedly, but Taeju quickly covered her mouth. Then, just as swiftly, he pulled Jeonghan back out.
“You okay?”
Taeju whispered softly. Jeonghan, pale as a ghost, nodded. He looked like he’d forgotten to breathe for a moment.
“There’s… someone lying inside.”
Jeonghan said in a small voice, without screaming or panicking.
“You did well. Stay back for now.”
Taeju left the trembling Jeonghan with Woli and stepped inside.
“This is…”
Taeju swallowed the words that nearly escaped his lips. He had to stay as quiet as possible.
Just as Jeonghan had said, someone—or something—was lying asleep in the middle of the room.
It was a burly young man in tracksuit pants, fairly built. He had a bit of stubble, just as they’d heard. If Taeju hadn’t known beforehand that this was a dokkaebi, even he might have thought it was just a guy sleeping.
But it definitely wasn’t human. It wasn’t breathing.
Taeju squinted and stepped back out. He needed to relay the info to the others. He whispered,
“It’s the dokkaebi, all right. Let’s step outside for now.”
The two nodded and retreated to the entranceway.
“What’s the situation?”
Woli asked, her eyes full of curiosity.
“You’ll see it soon enough… Anyway, listen up.”
Taeju explained to Woli before starting.
“As the client saw, the dokkaebi’s sleeping right in the middle of the room.”
“Oh dear…”
Jeonghan said, his face ashen.
“That thing’s been in my room all this time?”
Jeonghan shuddered, goosebumps rising. He’d known intellectually there was a dokkaebi in his house, but seeing it was a whole different story.
“Yeah. That’s probably its true form. It must have been disguised as an object until now.”
“How’s it sleeping like that?”
At Woli’s question, Taeju described it exactly: sprawled out flat on its back, fast asleep.
“What? Sprawled out like a starfish?”
Woli asked, looking incredulous.
“Yeah. Snoozing away peacefully. But just in case, don’t go in yet.”
“You say that, and now I wanna go in even more!”
While Woli spun wild imaginings about the dokkaebi, Jeonghan asked,
“So what now?”
His face was full of anxiety.
“Isn’t this different from what you expected?”
“Well, I didn’t expect it to be lying there like that either… but it’s not like something’s gone wrong.”
“The dokkaebi’s just lying there like that? Even if it were a person, that’d be shocking!”
Taeju nodded.
“Yeah. I told you there’d be a dokkaebi in the house.”
Taeju chuckled soon after. Falling asleep like that when it thought no one would come home.
“In a way, our plan worked too well. It gave it total confidence that no one would return midway.”
Seeing Taeju’s calm demeanor helped Jeonghan settle down a bit.
“Still, that appearance…”
Even upon closer inspection, it wasn’t as dire as the initial shock. Taeju smiled faintly at Jeonghan’s composure.
“Yeah, it’s a surprise to me too. I thought the best case was transporting it to the office while it slept, but that seems tricky now.”
“You mean carry that thing?”
“We didn’t expect it to stay in that form.”
Seeing Jeonghan’s shocked expression, Taeju gave a wry smile.
“We figured the dokkaebi would be asleep in the form of an object. That’s how it’s been hiding until now.”
It must have entered the house as a small item when he first moved in, blending right in.
It was pointless to dwell on now, but Taeju’s initial worry had been pinpointing what the dokkaebi had turned into and where it was hiding.
“In a way, this is better. We saved the trouble of finding it.”
Plus, they still had time. Several hours left before sunset.
The time they’d have spent searching was now free, so they actually had plenty.
“Hmm, all things considered, it’d be easiest to just take the dokkaebi back to the office in the end…”
As Taeju began pondering, Jeonghan asked awkwardly,
“I’ve been thinking a bit.”
“Yeah?”
“You said the dokkaebi isn’t inherently evil, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then, if that promise wasn’t a scam or a lie, maybe there’s really no problem?”
Jeonghan met Taeju’s eyes directly.
“Jeonghwan was never the type to deceive anyone with lies.”
Jeonghan stated firmly. Taeju was a little surprised by his confidence.
“Of course, it might be fine, but it might not.”
Taeju agreed with Jeonghan that the odds of things going south were low.
But he couldn’t afford to be complacent from his position.
Even if your friend’s promise wasn’t a scam at the time, it might only have been binding on him. Now that it can’t be kept, the dokkaebi will see it as a scam.
“But…”
“Unavoidable circumstances might excuse it to humans, but not to a dokkaebi.”
Jeonghan fell silent at Taeju’s words.
“Even if dokkaebi are easily tricked and honor unfavorable promises, they’re monsters at their core. So we have to be careful.”
Jeonghan froze at Taeju’s words.
“They might do ridiculous things, but they’re not to be taken lightly.”
After Taeju’s final remark, Jeonghan seemed lost in thought. Taeju looked at him with renewed curiosity.
What kind of friend was Jeonghwan to earn that level of trust? It bordered on faith, not just fondness for a buddy.
“So what’s the plan from here?”
Woli cut in at the perfect moment.
“You’re gonna do something to the dokkaebi, right?”
“Yeah. That’s the issue.”
Taeju glanced at Woli as he continued.
“It’s out cold, even if we carried it… Maybe…”
Taeju trailed off suggestively, and Woli whipped her head away in disgust. A clear “no way” reaction.
It was half-joking anyway, so Taeju flicked her forehead lightly and dropped the probe.
“Should we wake it up?”
At Jeonghan’s question, Taeju shook his head.
“Might have to later, but not now. Waking a sleeping person puts them in a bad mood—imagine forcibly waking a sleeping dokkaebi. Not the smartest move.”
They could use forceful methods if needed, but it risked bigger collateral damage. Still, no clever ideas for getting it to the office came to mind.
Silence stretched for a moment. Woli said boredly,
“That thing’s got all its limbs intact, right? Why not just wait and have it walk to the office on its own?”
“That’s…”
Taeju started to dismiss it, but it didn’t sound half bad.
“It could work.”
“It could?”
Woli blinked wide-eyed, surprised at her own idea.
“Seems like it could.”
If they played their cards right, they could get the dokkaebi to walk to the office on its own two feet. Taeju nodded.
“It’ll work.”
Hearing that, Jeonghan’s face lit up.
“There’s a way?”
“Looks possible. You okay staying late tonight?”
“Of course! Should I head to the office in the meantime?”
“Yeah. Follow Sia’s instructions to the letter. Sorry, but even for the bathroom, let her know.”
“The bathroom too…?”
Taeju said with a straight face.
“It could be dangerous.”
* * *
Jeonghan’s place was a tiny studio apartment. With the dokkaebi asleep in the middle, the two had no choice but to kill time awkwardly in the cramped space.
They poked around the room at first, but it wasn’t big enough to last long. Three hours had passed since Jeonghan left, and doing nothing was getting boring.
“What’s that client doing right now?”
Woli finally asked out of boredom. Hours cooped up in a tiny room had her fidgety.
“Who knows. Probably sitting there awkwardly with my sister, not saying a word.”
Sia got tunnel-visioned on work and ignored everything else.
She was likely busy setting up barriers that could handle a dokkaebi entering, no time to babysit Jeonghan. He wasn’t one to strike up chit-chat either, so they’d probably just sit in awkward silence.
“Better than here, at least.”
It was a spacious, comfy café-like space, even if makeshift.
Better than cramming three people into a one-person spot.
“Ah, shoulda considered just carrying it out if I knew it’d be this boring.”
Woli yawned, leaning against the wall.
“Nah. If it woke up midway, things could get messy. We could handle it as an object, but human form? Trickier.”
Causing a ruckus outside would be hard to contain.
“True, but it’s sooo boring. Anyway, this room—”
“Talking too much might wake it.”
Taeju warned, but Woli brushed it off.
“Whatever. It’s fine. Time to wake up soon anyway.”
She wasn’t wrong, so Taeju didn’t press. Woli continued.
“Anyway, it’s a bit dusty, but pretty clean overall, right?”
“Yeah. Living alone, it’s easy to let it get messy, but this is tidy.”
“Honestly cleaner than my room. How many people keep it this neat?”
That might’ve been the oddest part to Woli. Taeju chuckled.
“More than you’d think. Though for a solo liver, this guy’s exceptionally neat.”
“And super diligent too.”
“Yeah… Looks it. Anything strike you about the room?”
“Lives exhaustingly?”
“Not ‘diligently’?”
Taeju scanned the place again and sighed.
“Anyway, enough pretending to sleep. Time to get up.”
“……”
“I know it’s time to wake up. Faking being human won’t fool us. We know you’re a dokkaebi.”
The dokkaebi’s eyes snapped open, and it propped up its upper body.