Floor 2 - Mansion (3)

**

After leaving the Study, we wandered the corridors looking for anywhere we could investigate.

Creak, creak-

The wooden floorboards creaked with every step.
It sounded like a woman’s shrill laughter, sending chills down my spine.
And that wasn’t all.
The stained wallpaper was warped and damp, while shards of glass lay scattered beneath broken lamps.
The Mansion had an unnerving atmosphere, as though a ghost might leap out at any moment.
If I’d been alone, I probably would’ve started screaming.
Fortunately, I had a reliable companion beside me. Once again, I was immensely grateful Kang Se-rim was here.

‘I love you! Thank you!’

Kang Se-rim strode fearlessly down the corridor.

“This place is fucking creepy.”

She looked curious, like she’d come to visit a haunted house for fun. She showed no sign of fear at all.
Was it because she was a high school girl?
She had nerves to match her fearless, fiery personality.
It was almost like the emotion of fear had been dialed down inside her.
Thanks to her, I relaxed a little too and obediently trailed behind as she led the way.
After we’d walked for a while, Kang Se-rim asked in confusion.

“Why haven’t we seen anyone?”
“Seriously. You’d think we’d have run into at least one person by now.”

The corridors were silent. We’d been walking for quite some time without sensing anyone nearby.
The whereabouts of the people who’d come to Floor 2 before us were still unknown.

“Maybe everyone’s deeper inside?”
“We need to find unni first… Stop walking around like an idiot and think about where she might be!”

Kang Se-rim kept pressing me, apparently worried about Han Gyeong-ah being alone.
Unable to withstand her glare, I put some thought into it and made a guess.

“Gyeong-ah’s bad with scary stuff. Maybe she’s hiding in a box or a cabinet somewhere.”
“Unni’s bad with scary stuff? That’s the first I’ve heard of it… How do you know that?”

Kang Se-rim gave me a suspicious look.
Only then did I realize I’d let something slip.

‘Right. Gyeong-ah and I are the only ones who know that.’

I’d only learned that Han Gyeong-ah was a coward from what happened yesterday.
It was something nobody else knew, a secret shared only between Gyeong-ah and me.
I’d gotten so used to knowing it that the words had slipped out naturally.
Thinking quickly, I passed it off as nothing more than a guess.

“When she was watching me underground… I kind of got that impression.”
“So while unni was watching you, you were secretly studying her? Creepy bastard.”
“…”

Being treated like a pervert felt a little unfair, but at least I’d gotten away with it.

“Anyway… that’s what I think. Gyeong-ah hates scary things, so she probably can’t bring herself to wander around a place like this.”

Even I, a tough manly man, was terrified here.
Imagine how bad it must be for a super-cowardly crybaby of a police officer.

“She probably hasn’t even left the place where she first woke up.”
“Hmm…”

She still looked doubtful, but apparently the argument made enough sense for her to nod.
Instead, she started questioning something else, namely how completely different my behavior was from Chapter 1.

“What the hell happened to you? You got fucking sweet all of a sudden.”

So she did find it suspicious.
I was so different from the Kim Yohan she knew that apparently it went beyond awkward and felt outright wrong.
Well, not every Kim Yohan was the same Kim Yohan.
The current me was the newly reborn NEW NEO Kim Yohan.

“I told you, I’ve been reflecting on my actions.”

I casually shrugged. Kang Se-rim looked disgusted.

“Bullshit… You expect me to believe one day of reflection changed you this much? At this rate, reflect twice and you’ll turn into Buddha.”

A perfectly reasonable reaction.
A vile, scheming bastard had suddenly turned friendly.
Of course she’d assume there was some hidden motive.

“I know exactly what you’re up to. You’re pretending you’ve changed so you can slowly worm your way closer to unni, aren’t you?”

Kang Se-rim shot me a deeply distrustful look, though she’d misunderstood the situation in a slightly different direction.

“I’m warning you. Don’t make a move on unni. If you do, I’ll kill you myself.”

Make a move on her…? Did she think I was approaching Gyeong-ah with ulterior motives?
The suspicion was so trivial that I let out a small scoff. It was exactly the kind of conclusion a girl her age would jump to.

“I don’t have any ulterior motives, seriously. More importantly, now isn’t the time for us to fight. We need to find Gyeong-ah as soon as possible.”

I pressed the point and reminded her why we were searching the Mansion in the first place. Kang Se-rim reluctantly accepted it.

“…Fine.”

At least while we were here, we were temporary partners. It was time to set personal feelings aside.
We continued down the corridor, focusing on the search, until another room appeared before us.

“Another room. What do you want to do?”
“Hmph. Why even ask…? Obviously we’re going in.”

Bang-

Kang Se-rim flung the door open before she’d even finished speaking.
Bold as ever.
Secretly impressed, I followed her inside.

‘A doll?’

The first thing that caught my eye was a cute doll resting on the bed.
The entire room had a fairy-tale, girlish atmosphere.
It felt slightly out of place compared to the rest of the Mansion, but Kang Se-rim couldn’t have cared less.

“Unni isn’t here!”

She immediately tried to leave, so I stopped her.

“Wait. Let’s look around a little more.”
“Then hurry up and get it over with.”

I searched the room to see what it contained.
Pastel wallpaper, white lace curtains, a bed decorated with frills, an adorable little rabbit doll…
When I opened a drawer beside the desk, I found a document.

A Medical Report?
I unfolded it and read the contents. They weren’t pleasant.

A medical report describing an incurable illness of unknown cause and a terminal prognosis.
Setting aside how grim that was, why was something like this in this room?
Was the patient in the report the owner of this room?
I showed it to Kang Se-rim, but she wasn’t interested.

“Finding unni is more important than some scrap of paper. If you’re going to keep wasting time, I’m leaving without you.”

Of course.
After finishing a quick search, we returned to the corridor and checked the nearby rooms one by one, but…

“Another dead end…”

The result was always the same.
There was still no sign of anyone, including Gyeong-ah.
The longer we searched, the more anxious I became.
Even Kang Se-rim, who’d started out full of energy, was beginning to look worn down.

“Why isn’t anyone here?!”
“We’ll have to try somewhere else.”

Having searched the entire area, we followed the corridor deeper into the Mansion.
With growing unease, we pressed onward and rounded the next corner.
A vast space opened before us, revealing a grand and imposing hall.

“It’s fucking huge…”

We’d reached the Main Hall.
Judging by the lavish scale of the place, this seemed to be the heart of the Mansion.
For a moment, I could only stare in awe at its grandeur.
It was that impressive.
A huge portrait hung in the center of the Main Hall.
It was far too large to ignore.
My gaze naturally drifted toward it.

She looked about fourteen.
A youthful girl sat demurely in the portrait.
Her golden hair flowed freely around her shoulders, her eyes were full of life, and a faint smile rested on her lips.
The painting was so detailed she almost looked alive. Without realizing it, I found myself staring.

“Hey, quit grinning like an idiot… Why don’t you start drooling while you’re at it?”

Kang Se-rim’s jab snapped me back to reality.

“I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Sure, pervert.”

I let the baseless accusation slide. In any case, the Main Hall was dazzlingly ornate.
It felt like a completely different world from the corridors we’d just passed through.
Everything I looked at seemed extravagant and new.
The chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the enormous portrait of the girl, Han Gyeong-ah peeking her head out from behind a pillar…
All of it came together into one dramatic scene.

‘…Wait.’

Something about that last one didn’t belong.
My eyes drifted back to what I’d just overlooked.
Someone was peeking out from behind a pillar in the corner of the Main Hall.
Had being pushed this far finally made me hallucinate?
It almost looked like Han Gyeong-ah was standing in the Main Hall.

‘That’s awfully detailed for a hallucination.’

She looked vividly real, moving right before my eyes. I looked again and jolted in surprise.

“Gyeong-ah?”

It wasn’t my imagination. Amazingly, she really was there.
Her police uniform was disheveled, and her hair was a tangled mess.
Was she trying out a whole new look…?
The Han Gyeong-ah we’d been desperately searching for was finally in front of us.

“Y-You… It’s really you, right?!”

The moment she saw me, tears welled in her eyes. Her face flushed with emotion as she rushed toward me.

“Where were you…? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!!”

She sounded close to tears. She must have been terrified, probably because of what she’d gone through before dawn.
Back then, she’d burst into tears from relief when she saw me.
It seemed those same emotions had come rushing back.
Setting aside Kang Se-rim, whose face suddenly went pale, I was simply relieved we’d found Gyeong-ah.

“Sorry. Took me a while, didn’t it?”

I comforted Han Gyeong-ah as she sniffled with tears in her eyes.
A familiar trace of jasmine shampoo drifted faintly from her.
Just as I was enjoying our touching reunion,
Kang Se-rim finally couldn’t take it anymore and shoved herself between us.

“Unni! Are you okay?!”
“Se-rim!”

Han Gyeong-ah’s face immediately brightened. Her anxiety melted away, and the tension left her body.

“You’re okay? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine…!”

The two sincerely checked on each other.
Wasn’t this normally supposed to be the other way around?
Anyway,
for the first time since entering the Mansion, the group was finally reunited.

“Before I knew it, I was in this strange place, and then you and Se-rim were both suddenly gone…”

Han Gyeong-ah rambled as she explained what had happened.
Her situation had been the same as ours.

“I’ve been looking for you this whole time!! Do you have any idea how worried I was…?”

So she’d been wandering around the Mansion looking for us…?
A question suddenly occurred to me.

‘Gyeong-ah, the coward, was actually exploring this place?’

That was a little different from what I’d expected.
I’d imagined she’d be hiding in a closet somewhere, too scared to move.
My surprise didn’t last long. The answer soon presented itself.

“Actually… I met someone else after I arrived here.”

Han Gyeong-ah glanced to the other side of the hall.
At the same moment, I sensed someone approaching from that direction.
I turned my head and saw someone walking toward us.
The sight made me flinch.

‘Why is this guy here?’

An unexpected figure was steadily approaching.
An exhausted face marked by heavy dark circles and a pristine white coat covering his body.
There was only one person who fit that description.

“…Lee Sa-hyuk?”

The man who was supposed to be on Floor 1 was casually wandering around the Mansion as though nothing were strange about it.