This was before Lee Seon-hae revisited that dreadful hotel.
To guarantee a minimum of safety for a niece who had unwittingly stepped into a dangerous world, Baek Mu-jin gave Seon-hae so basic materials. It was probably right after Baek Mu-jin had returned from the hotel.
"This is...."
"Don't worry, it's safe material."
"So there's unsafe material too?"
"The most notable example would be information that makes your head explode upon viewing."
"My world's gone mad overnight."
"It wasn't overnight, but... yes."
He said this as he handed over the docunts.
"Have you ever heard about the importance of nas?"
"...Nas?"
"People and ghosts are different. In the sa vein, labyrinths and Dokkaebi are different from the living. Unlike humans, who can change their nas in any number of ways while alive, they cannot change theirs."
"......"
Seon-hae chose to listen rather than interrupt, and Baek Mu-jin continued.
"The 'Lee Yeon-woo' in your account was quite kind and upright. At the sa ti, he often appeared worn and fatigued, and at the very least... 'human' enough for your young charges to sense it."
"...That's right."
"I did not see him as human."
He spoke, as always, with nothing but conviction.
"I'm not saying I failed to see the 'Lee Yeon-woo' you described. He was certainly a being that could be called by that na. But as I said before."
"...Those who aren't human cannot change their nas."
"They can be called by several nas. Korean Dokkaebi in particular are playful and clever, and they keep countless tails to be cut and masks to be discarded."
"What are you trying to say?"
"He said he'd die halfway, you said?"
"......"
She was montarily lost for words.
That had been sothing Yeon-woo said half in jest to calm Seon-hae at the ti. And Seon-hae had understood it more or less that way.
But with Baek Mu-jin putting it like this, sothing felt....
"Yes, that's what he said."
"He may have truly died halfway."
"I'm not following, Sir."
"I'm saying the child I saw and the child you saw may have been different."
"What do you an by that?"
What, a split personality? Or the Yeon-woo she'd known had been acting? Or, well. What this man was trying to say was....
"......"
Seon-hae, groping her way through unfamiliar sentences, spoke.
"...I'd already accounted for the possibility that Yeon-woo might not be human. You said so yourself, Chairman—that he was probably not a person but a Dokkaebi. That I'd survived a Dokkaebi's den."
"I did."
"That it was a miracle I ca out with my limbs and mind intact. Yes, I understood that Yeon-woo might be a traditional Dokkaebi or whatever. But what you're saying now...."
"Tch."
"Excuse ? Sir?"
He added this.
"I'm not saying you saw wrong."
"Then what?"
"I didn't see wrong either. That labyrinth's administrator clearly possessed humanity. That would be why, even in that state, he was striving to suppress and purify a hostile labyrinth...."
"We're still on the sa topic, right?"
"But how much longer can he hold out?"
Baek Mu-jin looked down at Seon-hae. In those eyes, sothing seed readable.
"When he's already half dead."
"......"
"Young Dokkaebi despise lies."
...At those words, Seon-hae pressed her lips shut.
"I read him as a traditional Dokkaebi who was once a young artist. Suppose the 'humanity' both you and I speak of originated from that 'young artist.' He would have already lost half of it upon becoming a Dokkaebi."
"...It might not be that way."
"At the very least, it wouldn't be as strong as when he was human."
Baek Mu-jin's voice was as dispassionate as though reading aloud from a paper.
"And in that state, he was already captured by a labyrinth. With his humanity already dimd, he appeared to have lived for quite so ti in a labyrinth where humanity could only perish."
"From what I saw, that wasn't the case. Dokkaebi or not, he looked like a person."
"He would have endured. Held on through sheer conviction that he was human, that he would live as one. The child seed quite talented, but that hotel-shaped labyrinth didn't look easy to contend with, either."
"But...."
"Then a foreign elent intervened."
While they were locked in fierce contest—fighting to control each other, to stain each other.
"That being tried to save a person in order to remain one, and the formidable labyrinth would never have left that opening alone—so in the end, didn't the child have to die once?"
He died in Seon-hae's place.
Baek Mu-jin continued.
"I believe that in that mont, the hotel-shaped labyrinth won once."
"...Then what happens?"
"When I saw that child who had 'died halfway,' didn't I just tell you? That I did not see him as human."
"That's...."
"A scale can tilt at any ti."
Baek Mu-jin said.
"A traditional Dokkaebi and a labyrinth's Dokkaebi are entirely different beings. If it's too difficult, you may think of the two as different races. Traditional Dokkaebi are born sowhat unusually and possess unusual abilities."
"......"
"But they also share a pulse with the labyrinth's power. If a labyrinth is determined to stain a young Dokkaebi, it can absolutely do so."
"...Then?"
Seon-hae asked, looking at the docunts in her hands.
"Then what happens to him?"
"That would be up to the child going forward."
"Will he stop being human?"
"If the 'human' you speak of refers to the humanity bearing the na 'Lee Yeon-woo,' then probably."
"The mont you abandon your humanity, a person stops being a person."
"The scale has already fallen."
The scale that had maintained its balance had long since tipped. Giving up the fight against the labyrinth just to save a single person—that was what it would an.
"So go and see."
"...See what?"
"What that child has lost."
"How am I supposed to see that?"
"Aren't you curious?"
"It's a rather horrifying feeling."
"If you're curious, you should look."
Baek Mu-jin spoke with nothing but composure, nothing but dryness.
"You are my niece, after all."
"......"
Seon-hae, who had been staring down at the docunts, asked.
"...What might he have lost?"
"A Dokkaebi lives with many tails and many masks."
"Did you see that in Yeon-woo as well?"
"A glimpse."
"Could you give even a rough idea?"
"Stubborn, aren't you."
"I feel like I'll need to prepare myself."
"Very well."
Baek Mu-jin said, settling into the sofa.
"One half is part of that hotel, and the other half would be the Yeon-woo you knew."
Seon-hae asked back.
"...The General Manager, or Lee Yeon-woo?"
"You could put it that way."
"Is it one or the other?"
"It would be both."
"So ultimately a matter of proportion?"
"You finally seem to understand."
"The, um, General Manager...."
Her grip on the docunts tightened, just a little.
"Might not be human?"
Because I killed half of 'Lee Yeon-woo'?
"I...."
"So go and call his na."
"......"
"You'd want to know who it is sitting before you, wouldn't you?"
"...Yes."
Seon-hae affird quietly.
"I'm curious."
"Rember."
Baek Mu-jin cautioned her, like the old man in a fairy tale warning of tigers.
"You must call the exact na."
"...Yes."
"It must be that na."
"Yes."
And so Seon-hae visited the hotel once more.
"I will."
To asure the size of the debt I owe.
***
anwhile, Yeon-woo, who had none of this knowledge.
"......?"
He didn't show it, but he was still mired in confusion.
Contrary to what Baek Mu-jin suspected and Seon-hae worried about, Yeon-woo hadn't truly died halfway. It was rely that various penalties had created so distance from the Yeon-woo of the tutorial era.
Had he been aware of this gap in perception, Yeon-woo would have imdiately denied it or reassured the other party, but.
"...Hmm...."
Yeon-woo knew nothing.
This 'common sense among artists' wasn't exactly the sort of thing you could look up. This hotel didn't even have internet access.
In the end, the conclusion Yeon-woo reached was this.
"Are you upset after all?"
"Why would I be upset?"
"I see."
She seed upset.
'Normally, having your na called repeatedly ans you're about to be scolded.'
The result of interpreting the situation before him by relying on past mory and information rather than emotion. His judgnt was this:
Seon-hae was definitely upset!
"......"
But why?
'Did I... do sothing wrong?'
Having been so busy recently, he couldn't get a read on it at all. He briefly reviewed the conversation's context, trying his best to think.
'I may have been too self-absorbed.'
Objectively, his physical state wasn't exactly fine. No matter how much he insisted he was all right, there was no way he'd look all right to the other person.
'The penalty must have wiped out my social skills entirely.'
Having finished his mont of reflection, Yeon-woo began to open his mouth with the caution of navigating a minefield—then stopped.
"......?"
But if I really am fine, what am I supposed to do?
'No, no. I'm not in a fine state.'
Yeon-woo decided to try soothing the other's feelings first.
"Director."
"...Yes."
"Director Seon-hae, you're gripping too tightly."
"...So I am."
"It'll leave marks. I wouldn't want a forr guest of my hotel to carry such injuries."
"A guest of the hotel."
Oh no.
'Her voice dropped.'
Did I choose the wrong word?
But by that logic, Yeon-woo had nothing he could say. He couldn't exactly tell soone he'd known for only a few days 'We're friends, aren't we!' He wasn't the personable type.
He'd thought it was a word that respected their mutual personal space and reflected an appropriate social distance. Yeon-woo was beginning to genuinely lose confidence in his social abilities.
"......"
What was this, minesweeper?
'No, calm down.'
This, too, was a form of social interaction. I can do this. I can maintain this relationship amicably.
"I know you brought this up out of concern for ."
"Sorry for being a bother. I didn't want to carry on a childish conversation, but do you really understand?"
"How could I fail to recognize goodwill directed at , of all people?"
"Then why are you looking at like that?"
Like what?
"......"
...Ah, was that it?
'My withered emotional baseline must be showing through my eyes.'
He'd assud that a guest he hadn't seen in only a few days wouldn't have built much attachnt. Given this reaction, the old Yeon-woo must have been more emotional and personal with Director Seon-hae than he'd thought.
'If an acquaintance who'd even given you their personal business card starts acting like a total stranger, that would be bewildering.'
To avoid being rude, Yeon-woo chose the most courteous response he could.
"...Could it be that I seem unfamiliar to you?"
"......"
"I see. I understand."
Then this reaction made a little more sense.
She would feel uncanny, and anxious in many ways. After all, this was the first ti they'd t since the harrowing events at the Aqua Park.
'Beyond worrying about my condition, this visible change might also lead her to think I hold ill will toward her.'
After choosing his words as carefully as he could, Yeon-woo spoke.
"There have been so changes in my condition since that day. It's not only the matter involving you, Director—I've had many tasks to attend to. In the process... I seem to have startled you."
"If you follow this up by saying you're sorry, I really will get angry."
"If you insist, then how about an excuse instead of an apology? What I wanted to say was simply that I had no intention of causing you misunderstanding or a heavy sense of guilt."
So that the other wouldn't feel unjust guilt or the sensation of being judged, Yeon-woo drew the line in a neat and clear tone.
"It's true that I've grown dull, but I want to make it clear that this is not your fault. The consequences arising from my actions and choices are entirely my burden to carry to the end. So there is no need for you to feel tense or weighed down by this."
He raised his lips as he said it. But even that must have looked chanical, because Director Seon-hae could only smile awkwardly.
An unfortunate thing.
'I wish she would feel a bit reassured.'
Having lost his emotional baseline, even calming soone down had beco difficult.
"......"
Yeon-woo felt the need to speak more directly.
"But I truly am all right."
"Yeon-woo, I—"
"I'm not lying."
"What I an is—"
"I'm not unaware of the changes in myself, either."
"......"
"Yet I venture to say: I'm all right."
Without denying the change itself, but with sincerity.
"Because I, too, am working not to lose myself."
Yeon-woo had not yet abandoned his dream of returning to society.
***
He slled of water.
"......"
He slled of blood, too.
"......"
Honestly, it was a bit strange.
Neither body nor mind appeared normal. The hand she'd grasped during their handshake was cold without a trace of warmth. Even through gloves, this wasn't right—in the middle of sumr, no less. A man in a three-piece suit.
But those words.
"Because I, too, am working not to lose myself."
"...I see."
At his saying he was making an effort, there was a Seon-hae who childishly wanted to feel reassured. Even knowing it didn't truly an he was all right.
"Mr. Yeon-woo."
"Yes."
"Lee Yeon-woo."
Only then did he answer.
"Yes."
Just that.
"......"
"......"
"...Take care of yourself."
Because there's nothing I can do right now.
And because you're still holding on.
User Comments
0 comments from readers