Chapter 127

The first painting was identical to the one in the opposite passage. A little girl and a boy standing side-by-side, holding hands. The two tilted their heads in confusion and moved toward the next painting. However, the second painting was also exactly the same as the one in the opposite passage.

“What is this? Are the paintings copy-pasted too?”

“Is this ‘Infinite Infinity’ or what?”

Holanghee and Father muttered in disbelief and moved to the next image. The paintings were truly identical as if they had been duplicated. They wondered if this even meant anything. However, by the halfway point, the paintings began to change.

It showed the period after the man had promised the woman marriage. From a certain point, a different woman began to appear by the man’s side instead of the one he was betrothed to. The two continued to meet behind his fiancée’s back, and the man eventually promised to marry this other woman as well.

While the fiancée spent every day nursing dreams of a happy future, the other two were also cultivating their own dreams of a happy life together.

However, the man was so pathetic that he lacked the courage to tell his fiancée goodbye. Days turned into weeks, and finally, it was the day before the wedding.

Having failed to break up with his fiancée, the man used the cover of darkness that night to run away with the other woman.

As if in response to the man’s heaven-defying behavior, the black sky began to pour down a torrential rain. The path for the two crossing the mountain trail at night became even more treacherous.

They relied on each other and moved forward one steady, cautious step at a time, but in the end, the man lost his footing on a cliff and fell. Even his final death cry was buried by the sound of the downpour; not a single speck of sound reached anyone.

The moment the man fell, the rain stopped as if it had all been a lie. The woman wailed for the man from the top of the cliff before frantically returning to the village.

Once back, she broke the news of the man’s accidental fall, and the village was turned upside down. The authorities and the villagers alike took up torches and climbed the mountain to find him. As the eastern sky began to brighten, they discovered the man’s corpse, hideously mangled from the fall.

The man’s body was brought before the woman who had been waiting for their wedding. As if unable to believe either his death or his betrayal, the woman wailed her heart out before him. Her beautifully adorned wedding dress was now a hollow mockery.

Afterward, the man’s funeral was held poorly, as if everyone was walking on eggshells around the woman. Consumed by the fury of betrayal, the bride secluded herself and did not even appear at the funeral. In a dark room where not a single ray of light entered, she refused to take off her wedding dress, wasting away alive as she rotted in a sense of vengeance that had nowhere to go.

A strange silence hung between the two after they finished looking at the final painting.

But it lasted only a moment. “That crazy, total piece of trash!” Holanghee, exploding with rage, shouted and punched the innocent painting. Father also flew into a fit of rage, jumping around in fury.

They poured their indescribable anger toward the painting, but their spite remained unquenched. While the two stood huffing and glaring at the image, the wall next to the painting slid open to reveal a room.

Father and Holanghee looked back and forth between the open room and the painting, giving the image one last glare before stepping into the room. The third room was also identical to the previous ones. However, they saw a sliding door on the opposite side of the passage. Unlike the second room which had no door, this was like a mirrored version of the first room.

The two stared at the sliding door in silence before cautiously approaching and opening it. With the creak of an old hinge, the door opened without resistance.

“Whoa.”

“It’s open.”

Standing before the door that had opened so easily, they muttered hollowly. They looked back at the two passages and three rooms they had traversed before stepping out of the room without lingering and entering the dark corridor.

Having entered the palace hall, Blaine began retracing his memories to find the room where he had been separated from everyone else. He harbored a faint hope that Theo might be waiting for him there, but the room he finally found was empty.

His shoulders, which had been raised high with anticipation, slumped.

“Hyung.”

He called out weakly, but only the sound of his own voice hitting the empty space returned to him. Blaine slid down and sat on the floor as if all his strength had left him, letting out a gloomy sigh before forcing himself to stand back up.

He had to keep moving, if only for Theo, who was likely wandering alone somewhere. He might be searching for him desperately.

Blaine followed the open doors rather than the closed ones. He reasoned that a closed door meant no one had passed through, so it wouldn’t be the path Theo took. After some time, he discovered the room with the empty altar.

“…….”

He couldn’t know what had been there, but seeing the altar empty, it seemed Theo had taken the item.

“The bride must have come…”

Muttering in a worried voice, Blaine hurried out of the altar room and scanned the area. However, Theo was still nowhere to be seen. Only the open doors, like the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel, indicated the path.

Blaine pushed forward, relying on the sound of his own footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. Numerous forks in the road appeared, but the open doors served as signposts, guiding him along.

“Blaine.”

A familiar voice calling his name—as if it knew how lonely he felt—reached him several times, but Blaine stubbornly refused to answer. He knew it wasn’t Theo.

He had been walking like that for quite a while when, from somewhere in the distance, a creak, creak sound of floorboards being stepped on rang out. Blaine hurriedly held his lantern high to illuminate the surroundings. Only the flickering light of the lantern danced in the pitch-black darkness; nothing was visible. Meanwhile, the sound of footsteps gradually drew closer.

Flustered, Blaine ran blindly in the opposite direction of the noise. He needed a place to hide. But the more he ran and fled, the more distinctly the sound pursued him. Thanks to that, he knew instinctively.

The thing chasing him was the bride. Because he was stepping on the floor, she knew his exact location. Blaine hurriedly began searching for something to climb onto, but his face fell as he remembered something. They had encountered the bride before everyone was scattered. They had all climbed onto something following a hint, only to be attacked as if that were the plan and ended up separated, hadn’t they?

Whether it was a bug or something else, he didn’t know, but he worried that climbing up might be useless this time too. He had finally found Theo’s trail and followed it; it would be devastating to be pulled away again now.

Still, he had nothing to lose. He couldn’t just stand there and take it, and since the only method he knew was to stay off the floor, he had to climb onto something regardless of whether it would work.

As he fled frantically while scanning the open rooms, he spotted a sliding door that was suspiciously only halfway open. He felt he should check the inside, but there was no time. Just as he tried to ignore the room and pass by, an urgent voice called out to him.

“Soo-hyun!”

Blaine slammed on the brakes as if reacting to the voice, stopping so abruptly his knees felt like they might snap backward. Glancing through the gap of the half-open door, Blaine threw it open and dove into the room, where he found Theo perched atop a wooden chest in the corner.

“Hy—!”

Just as he was about to call out in joy, Theo hurriedly gestured and shouted.

“Come here! Get up here, quick!”

Theo’s urgent expression made him hesitate for only a split second. Snapping to his senses at the sound of rapid footsteps approaching from behind, Blaine dashed to the chest, and Theo reached out to pull him up.

The moment Blaine made it onto the chest, the bride appeared before the wide-open door. Her ragged, angry breath scattered at her mouth, and her three eyes—disguised as bridal marks—rolled in different directions as she slowly walked into the room, scanning every corner with bloodshot eyes.

Cowering on top of the chest at the sight of the terrifying bride, Theo and Blaine clung to each other and held their breath.

After circling the room a couple of times, the bride glided back out. Only after confirming that the sound of her footsteps had faded did the two finally let out the breath they had been holding.

“Ah… I’m not going to live a full life at this rate… I feel like my lungs and heart are shriveling up.”

Theo muttered in a trembling voice while lying flat on the chest. Blaine, who had been watching the door, stroked Theo’s back several times as if to reassure him. Flinching at Blaine’s touch, Theo jerked his head up and looked at him.

“By the way, how did you find me? Were you okay? Did anything happen?”

Theo poured out questions like rapid-fire, cupping Blaine’s face and checking him over to ensure he was unharmed. Blaine, who had looked dazed as if surprised by the suddenness, soon smiled brightly at the pleasant concern and nodded. Then, making eye contact with Theo, he answered.

“Yes, I was fine… Hyung… Hyung, your eyes are red. Did you… were you crying?!”

This time it was Blaine’s turn to be horrified as he cupped Theo’s face. Theo, who subconsciously swallowed hard at the sight of Blaine’s face suddenly inches from his own, flapped his arms and stammered.

“Huh? Uh…? No, I wasn’t…”

Theo was about to shake his head and deny it when he stopped, remembering something.

Come to think of it, he had cried because he was so scared when he met Noquia. You mean to say there are still traces of that?

As Theo stopped talking and touched his own eyes, Blaine’s face looked as if his heart were breaking.

“I’m sorry. I… I should have been by your side, Hyung…”

Tears began to well up in Blaine’s eyes as he blamed himself. Startled, Theo tapped his shoulder to comfort him.

“Huh? No, that was a force majeure. A-and I barely cried anyway.”

Theo spoke with forced cheerfulness as if it were no big deal, but Blaine looked even more shocked. To say he “barely cried” meant he had cried after all, didn’t it? Bowing his head like a criminal, Blaine wiped away his tears while repeatedly apologizing, and Theo had to break a sweat trying to calm him down.