Chapter 22: VIP Lounge (2)

[22. Tea time lasts 10 minutes. Conversation alone serves as the only proof of time, so please enjoy a pleasant chat with Ellis.]

Twice.

Su-myeon had managed to move the hourglass.

The others listened closely to those exchanges, formed a hypothesis, and then saw the newly appeared rule on their Heartphones.

That confirmed it.

'Time.'

Time only advanced when someone mentioned that time had passed.

But understanding the condition did not make moving the hourglass any easier.

"Don't you find it sad? That time keeps flowing, moment by moment."

As though she knew the rule had already been revealed, Ellis continued steering the conversation toward time.

The problem was that answering her too earnestly would raise her affection too much.

And if that happened, she might grant them a stay at the hotel before the ten minutes were even over.

"I like apples, personally. As they ripen...."

Su-myeon was about to tack on another remark about time, but stopped himself.

As they ripen, time passes and they grow more delicious. That's why I like apples.

That would count as a proper response to Ellis's question.

It could be interpreted as a reason why the passage of time was not sad.

Su-myeon hastily abandoned the thought.

"They're tasty, so......."

In the end, he let the sentence trail off vaguely.

This time, the hourglass did not move.

"Oh."

Someone let out a disappointed sigh.

Mention the passage of time.

Maintain almost no logical connection to Ellis's question.

Deliberately miss the point.

The strategy for surviving this tea party could be summed up in a single sentence.

Actually doing it was another matter entirely.

Su-myeon felt he should guide Ellis using the question-and-answer patterns he remembered from the game, but that was no simple task either.

"Damn it...."

Du-pal wanted nothing more than to pass out cold and wake up after someone else had carried him outside.

He was already at his limit from suppressing the nausea caused by the bizarre monster beside him.

The thing kept acting friendly, proudly displaying entrails it had pulled from its own belly.

"I-I didn't come here to drink. You go ahead and have that yourself. Yeah......."

Just fending off the creature—something made of flesh that seemed neither plant nor animal—as it repeatedly filled a soju glass and clinked it against his was enough to bring tears to Du-pal's eyes.

"Do you happen to know what time it is right now?"

"Look, Ellis. The sugar cube you put in the tea earlier has already dissolved—that's how much time has passed."

Meanwhile, Su-myeon was still fighting tooth and nail to keep answering Ellis.

Du-pal had already figured out the rules of this tea party too.

But he had absolutely no confidence that he could come up with anything better than Su-myeon under these circumstances.

[AM 10:03]

They had barely managed to squeeze out one more minute.

There was no telling how much longer they could keep making the hourglass move.

"Really? How long has it been now? It must be past three minutes, right?"

Ellis persistently dragged the conversation back toward time, clearly intent on forcing Su-myeon to answer her directly.

Su-myeon's gaze wavered.

So did his voice.

He searched desperately for the right words and barely managed to speak.

In his rush to keep the silence from becoming unnatural, however, he pushed the conversation forward too quickly.

That was the problem.

"The fruit that was sliced earlier has already changed color. That much time must have passed."

[AM 10:04]

The time advanced.

But unfortunately, Su-myeon's answer had actually followed from Ellis's question.

His expression twisted with regret as he bit his lip.

The instant the sand fell, every one of Ellis's many faces split into a broad smile.

"Hahahahaha!"

Ellis erupted in delighted laughter, as though thrilled that someone had finally answered her properly.

Her laughter echoed through the cavernous room.

And the moment Ellis laughed, every monster around her joined in.

They clapped.

They cheered.

There was no sense of self in any of them.

They were merely parts of the tea party, rising and falling in perfect sync with Ellis's emotions.

Du-pal thought he was going to lose his mind listening to the monster beside him cackle and fawn over her.

Ellis's dozens of heads were no longer simply watching Su-myeon.

Their necks stretched toward him.

They tilted at unnatural angles.

Their lips pulled wider and wider, as though they might tear.

[Han-su: At this rate, Su-myeon is going to be in danger.]

Du-pal glanced at the Heartphone buzzing in his hand and squeezed his eyes shut.

As if anyone doesn't already know that, Detective?!

"That's right! The fruit ages with time, and our time has slipped away too."

When Ellis followed up, the tension returned so sharply it felt as though the very air had grown teeth.

"Time will rot that fruit into mush, and in the end, we'll all become nothing more than something soft and sticky too, won't we?"

Su-myeon tried to fire off an answer to Ellis's cryptic words.

But Ellis was faster.

"It's such a shame, truly. But even so—time will keep flowing, won't it?"

Du-pal squeezed his eyes shut again.

Damn it.

What kind of answer to that could mention the passage of time while still being completely unrelated?

Su-myeon looked equally stuck.

For the briefest moment, an uneasy silence stretched over several seconds.

"Candles."

Han-su suddenly spoke.

Dozens of Ellis's heads snapped around in unison toward the sound.

"It would have been nicer with candles. For the atmosphere."

"Y-yes! By now, the wax would've melted down into all kinds of beautiful shapes—that's how much time has passed!"

Ju-hee hurriedly latched onto Han-su's remark.

Ellis looked back and forth between the two of them.

Her smile faded into confusion.

The sight of dozens of eyeballs rolling independently in their sockets was thoroughly horrifying.

[AM 10:05]

"......Candles?"

Ellis glanced around her immaculate tea table for a moment.

Then she nodded.

"You're right. You're absolutely right. What a wonderful idea! Why didn't I think of that?"

Her cheerful tone returned as she chattered excitedly.

But the group could not afford to relax.

"Next time I'll have to carve up a corpse, ■■ it, ■■ it, render the fat, and make some nice beeswax!"

"Urgh...!"

The accumulated pressure finally became too much for Ha-min.

He shoved his chair backward and retched.

Ellis's gaze slowly drifted toward him.

"I'll be needing materials, then."

As if responding to a cue, the monsters shouted in unison.

"Materials!"

"Materials!"

"Fresh materials!"

The situation was rapidly turning disastrous.

Du-pal watched it escalate while gripping the tablecloth so hard that the fabric bunched beneath his fingers.

At last, he forced himself to speak.

"Wh-when's the next dessert coming out?! It's been long enough for the good tea to go cold, so what's taking so long?! You said you'd prepared a nice tea party! Was that a lie?"

Su-myeon was quietly impressed.

Not bad for someone trembling like a leaf.

[AM 10:06]

Du-pal had gone a little overboard, but his outburst was enough to reset the atmosphere.

As long as the hotel's rules did not contradict one another, they were absolute.

And Du-pal had just pointed out that Ellis herself was violating the condition of a "happy tea party."

That was enough to make her settle down.

"I'm sorry, dear guest. I'll prepare fresh tea and desserts for you."

Cold sweat drenched Du-pal from head to toe.

But now the flow of the situation was gradually turning in their favor.

They had passed the six-minute mark.

Thanks to Du-pal completely resetting the mood, the conversation had effectively returned to square one.

Before Ellis could speak again, Su-myeon opened his mouth first.

"I really like the tea you served. The aroma grows richer as time passes."

[AM 10:07]

Almost there.

Just a little more of this miserable performance and they could leave.

"Would you like to try some freshly prepared tea as well? This one develops a deeper flavor as time goes on."

Ellis poured more tea into Su-myeon's cup.

It was already full.

He had not taken a single sip.

The moment more tea was added, it spilled over the rim.

Su-myeon spoke quickly.

"I bet the sun will be bright tomorrow. So much time has passed that tomorrow will be here soon."

[AM 10:08]

Sand trickled through the hourglass.

From that point on, impatience began to creep into everyone's hearts.

Only two more.

Two more successful answers and they could go outside.

They could escape.

That knowledge made their hearts race more violently than any time limit ever could.

"......How strange."

Suddenly, Ellis began tilting her heads from side to side as though something puzzled her.

Then her lumpy body rolled up onto the table.

Her enormous mass swept the food aside.

Plates and silverware crashed to the floor.

The sound of breaking dishes filled the room.

Du-pal tried to protest the destruction of the tea party again.

This time, no words came out.

"Why?"

Several of Ellis's heads caught his hesitation and snapped toward him.

Bulging eyes that looked ready to pop from their sockets fixed on Du-pal.

"Why? Why? Why? Why?"

The grotesque repetition overwhelmed him.

Du-pal scrambled out of his chair and stumbled backward.

By then, the tea party had already fallen into chaos.

But Su-myeon refused to let that chaos break his concentration.

He spoke again.

"The passage of time is an irreversible law. No one stays a child forever. Enough time has passed to prove that."

[AM 10:09]

Only a little sand remained in the hourglass.

Ellis appeared completely at a loss.

She rampaged across the tabletop, spinning around and around.

The food she had knocked over transformed into cockroaches a split second before hitting the floor.

They scattered in every direction.

"AHHH!"

That was finally too much.

The startled group abandoned their seats and retreated.

No one wanted to imagine what might have happened if they had eaten any of that food.

"No! Ellis's tea party must be happy!"

"Everyone must smile!"

"We're all having fun! Fun!"

The bipedal mice reappeared from nowhere, chattering frantically.

The monsters that had spent the tea party flattering Ellis repeatedly bowed their heads and muttered.

"Must be happy... we're happy, happy...."

"Fun fun fun fun fun"

Ellis's tea party was collapsing.

But Su-myeon and his companions remained untouched by that collapse.

They were not yet part of this story.

They were still outsiders.

Strangers.

People who were supposed to leave.

Ellis would desperately struggle to keep them there.

But she was running out of excuses.

Amid the chaos, Su-myeon forced himself to stay focused.

Then he delivered the final line.

"I've been sitting so long my legs have gone numb. We should be going now."

With those last words—

[AM 10:10]

Shhhhhh.

The final grains of fine sand slipped through the hourglass.

"......!"

And then—

like a mirage—

the scenery around them began to crumble into sand.

"Everyone, run!"

In an instant, the spotlight-like lights overhead went dark.

Then, as though showing them the way, a set of lights flared to life around a distant staircase on the opposite side of the room.

From Basement Level 1 to Ground Level 1.

A staircase crossing a single boundary.

"Stairs!"

"If we climb those, we're above ground!"

The group shouted and ran at once, their voices overlapping so chaotically that it was impossible to tell who had said what.

As though terrified that even the staircase might turn to sand, everyone charged upward in a single rush.

Toward the blinding white light.