Chapter 34: Baekya Land - Parade (1)

[4. If you cannot hear the flute, never close your eyes. Each time you close them, He will take one step closer to you.]

Anyone who had ever tried a claw machine knew one thing.

The claw was cruelly, absurdly weak.

If you actually wanted to win something, you usually ended up spending more than the prize itself was worth.

"If I'd known, I would've bought more at once......"

Su-myeon stared at the ten coins in Ju-hee's hands with a pang of regret.

A measly ten tries.

At least the Heart staff member—with one arm severed—didn't seem inclined to cause trouble outside its own booth, presumably because this wasn't its establishment.

Fortunately, since it wasn't a Baekya Land employee, they hadn't violated any rules.

"Didn't see that coming~?"

Cheshire, who had been watching in silence like the stuffed toy he resembled, finally chimed in.

"I'm here too, you know.... We can go anywhere~"

"......A heads-up would've been nice, don't you think?"

"Where's the fun in that~?"

Su-myeon let out a long sigh at Cheshire's response.

Meanwhile, he tactfully pretended not to notice Han-su carefully picking up the severed arm and dropping it into a trash can before moving over to the machine.

He stopped in front of the claw machine with grim determination and gingerly inserted a coin.

DING-A-LING—!

A cheerful jingle rang out, and the claw began to move.

Su-myeon's eyes followed it helplessly as it swayed in response to the joystick.

Wait, hold on. The thing was—

CLUNK!

With a lifeless clunk, the timer ran out. The claw plunged into a completely useless spot and returned empty-handed.

"Move over, let me try."

Ju-hee boldly stepped up for the next attempt, but hers proved just as hopeless.

The red candy slipped maddeningly through the prongs and rolled away.

"Has anyone here ever won a plushie for their girlfriend with one of these?"

With no realistic prospect of winning in sight, Ju-hee tossed out the question.

No one answered.

"......"

"......"

Su-myeon aside, who had never dated in his life, even Han-su—with his build and looks—quietly averted his gaze into the middle distance.

Then Du-pal rolled up both sleeves and stepped forward.

"This is exactly why you hopeless bachelors are no good. Out of the way! My turn!"

Du-pal planted himself confidently in front of the machine.

DING-A-LING—!

The cheerful jingle rang out again as another coin dropped in.

How many times did that jingle end up sounding?

"No, not that one—the red one!"

"Hold on! I'm telling you, I'm going to get it!"

In the end, thanks to Du-pal's heroic efforts, the group found themselves with a pile of colorful candies.

***

Perhaps it was fortunate that the park wasn't particularly large.

It didn't take long to make their way back to the Horror Maze.

Now that they knew exactly where they were going, the return trip was even faster.

"Do I just...... just put it in his mouth?"

Standing in front of Hyeon-seok, who had been turned into something resembling a puppet, Ju-hee trembled as she held out the candy.

Without a word, Su-myeon took her wrist and firmly guided her hand toward Hyeon-seok's lips.

The crimson candy disappeared into his mouth, and in the blink of an eye—

THUD.

Hyeon-seok collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Ju-hee caught him as he fell, but his heavier frame overwhelmed her, and the two of them went crashing to the floor together.

"Some help with this guy—!"

Ju-hee flailed as she called for help, but Han-su—who normally would have been the first to move—stood frozen in place.

"......"

"Wait...... Quiet......"

Every wax figure in the room was staring at them.

All mechanical movement had ceased.

Their wide-open eyes were fixed on the group without the slightest tremor.

Glossy, unblinking eyeballs locked onto them.

"Grab him! Han-su! Get him on your back, now!"

The instant Su-myeon urgently spurred Han-su into action, every wax figure opened its mouth at once.

Eyes and mouths stretched impossibly wide, twisting into expressions no normal human face could make.

From every direction came the frantic clatter of typewriters, and printed text began flooding the walls.

[WhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoingWhereareyougoing]

"AAGH!"

Over Du-pal's scream, Su-myeon grabbed Han-su—who had barely managed to hoist Hyeon-seok onto his back—and hauled him forward.

Moving as though controlled by a single unseen force, the wax figures charged at them in unison.

"Emergency exit!"

Su-myeon took the lead, shoving aside stacks of useless documents and desks blocking their path.

There was a rule against damaging property, so the furniture crashing and toppling around them was worrying—but they had no other choice.

A little property damage was still better than getting caught by those things!

"Hurry!"

Su-myeon sprinted ahead without looking back.

Bursting out of the Horror Maze, he dove into a cluster of ornamental shrubs just outside the emergency exit.

"Is everyone oka—"

He turned around and, once again, wanted to smack himself in the forehead for the mistake he'd just made.

"......We're fine, for now."

The one who answered him was Kang Han-su.

And—

"......I don't think we're fine, actually......"

Shin Hyeon-seok, who had apparently regained consciousness at some point.

Just the two of them.

"I'm sure I heard her voice......"

Though fully conscious now, Hyeon-seok still looked disoriented.

Su-myeon handed the employee ID back to the confused man.

"This—you deliberately wore it around your neck so someone would find you, right?"

When Su-myeon returned it, Hyeon-seok grimaced as though his head were aching and nodded.

"I have...... a vague memory of doing that."

Everything he had experienced was hazy and indistinct.

His last clear memory was of wandering through the bizarre corridors of a subway station for what felt like an eternity.

He had followed the sound of a flute that kept drifting into his ears, and at some point, his memories had begun to blur.

A faint voice calling his name.

His body moving on its own.

Yet he had never once questioned what he was doing.

It had all felt as natural as some unreal dream.

"Ju-hee is looking for you."

At Su-myeon's words, Hyeon-seok's expression changed.

The sharpness that had remained even through his confusion vanished in an instant.

His eyes clouded with a mixture of melancholy and sorrow as he spoke.

"What did she...... say about me?"

Instead of answering, Su-myeon turned to look back at the Horror Maze.

Something was thumping and crashing inside, but no one else had emerged.

Had Ju-hee and Du-pal been caught?

While Su-myeon was still processing the possibility, Han-su answered in his place.

"We were told you two worked at the same company."

At Han-su's answer, Hyeon-seok fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.

The creaking of old rides echoed from every direction.

The countless wax figures radiated a presence that felt almost, but not quite, human.

Those sounds and sensations filled the silence for several seconds before Hyeon-seok loosened his suffocating tie and spoke.

"What...... is this?"

He rummaged through his pockets.

What emerged from his heavy trouser pocket was a coin.

Rose Coins.

"......"

The moment Su-myeon saw them, he clutched his head.

For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was toying with him.

The weight of Cheshire perched on his shoulder suddenly felt all the more noticeable.

"If you need them, they're yours."

Apparently misunderstanding Su-myeon's reaction, Hyeon-seok readily held them out.

Su-myeon didn't refuse.

"I won't say no."

Five Rose Coins had come out of Hyeon-seok's pocket.

As Su-myeon accepted them, he made up his mind.

He was probably going to have to go back inside and find Ju-hee and Du-pal.

THUD—!

Another heavy crash echoed from inside the maze.

Then—

"Run!"

"What do you think I'm doing?!"

Ju-hee and Du-pal's shouts rang out.

The three hiding in the bushes shot to their feet at once.

Ju-hee and Du-pal came sprinting out of the Horror Maze's main entrance.

Behind them surged a swarm of wax figures, tangled together and crashing into one another, yet still relentlessly giving chase.

"Wha—what the—"

Su-myeon's brain short-circuited for a moment, unable to process the sheer recklessness of their charge.

"Ahahahaha!"

Cheshire burst into loud, delighted laughter, as though this were the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

***

Before entering the supernatural phenomenon, they had made a pact.

"If we get separated, the rule is to get out and meet outside. No exceptions."

That was the rule Su-myeon had established beforehand.

Rushing off to find someone who had gone missing could get everyone killed.

They had all agreed.

If they became separated, their first priority wasn't finding one another.

It was escaping this place.

"Damn it. Damn it."

"......"

At the very moment Su-myeon, Han-su, and Hyeon-seok fled through the emergency exit—

Ju-hee and Du-pal had been left behind, crouching beneath an office desk.

"Now what?"

At Du-pal's murmur, Ju-hee drew a deep breath and surveyed their surroundings.

Their hiding place was nothing more than a last resort born of necessity.

The wax figures chasing Hyeon-seok had completely blocked the emergency exit.

They slammed into one another so violently that chunks of wax broke off their bodies. Trying to force their way through that mass would mean getting crushed.

"For now, let's just get the two of us out, like Su-myeon said."

Du-pal spoke in a voice that barely managed to summon any courage.

At his words, Ju-hee nodded heavily.

"Do you remember where the next emergency exit is?"

At Ju-hee's question, Du-pal racked his brain.

"About two offices back, give or take."

"Then let's move."

After a brief exchange of whispers, the two met each other's eyes and immediately set off.

The scene before them had completely changed from their first impression.

The wax figures, which had previously seemed only slightly unnatural and otherwise unremarkable—

Were now sweeping through the area with both arms raised like zombies, as though hunting for whoever had stolen one of their own.

Whenever they tripped over desks, they dropped onto all fours and crawled, groping blindly across the floor.

"......"

At least most of the wax figures were still packed into the emergency exit, floundering in the bottleneck.

Otherwise, slipping past them would have been nearly impossible.

Even as Ju-hee and Du-pal crept forward with painstaking care, their hearts hammered wildly with the fear of being discovered at any moment.

Eyes bulged as though they might burst from their sockets.

Mouths gaped so wide their jaws looked dislocated.

The grotesque expressions were horrific enough that simply meeting one of their gazes made them want to scream, but they painstakingly avoided looking at them and inched toward the other emergency exit.

"Found it...!"

At last, the two slipped past the wax figures' wandering gazes and reached the exit.

All they had to do was get through, and they were free......

"GHK—!"

Du-pal, rushing toward the exit, suddenly tripped.

Ju-hee whipped around and saw a wax figure crawling along the floor, one hand clamped around his ankle.

Du-pal kicked frantically, trying to shake it loose, but it refused to let go.

[Found you.]

This time, the same words appeared on every monitor throughout the office.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ju-hee pulled the crowbar from her Heartphone.

"Let go!"

She brought it down hard on the wax figure's wrist.

The impact felt strangely like striking a candle, sending an odd sensation through her hands as the wax figure's wrist crumpled under the blow.

Ju-hee hauled Du-pal to his feet and tried to run again.

But this time, the faster wax figures had already beaten them to the emergency exit.

"The main entrance is right nearby anyway, isn't it?"

The attraction's wide-open entrance was closer than the cramped emergency exit.

At Ju-hee's words, Du-pal nodded and broke into a sprint without even bothering to answer.

There were other wax figures and entrance staff near the spacious main entrance, but that didn't matter.

They weren't trying to fight them.

They only had to dodge them and run.

"Out of the way!"

Ju-hee smashed the crowbar across the head of a staff member blocking her path and kept running.

This was it.

All or nothing.

Either they escaped, or they got caught and died.

There was nothing in between.

Running at full speed, Ju-hee and Du-pal could only be grateful that nothing stood in their path ahead.

If they could just keep going straight—

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

A strange drumbeat sounded from somewhere.

"...?"

The two glanced behind them.

The wax figures that had been chasing them were gone.

Before they could even wonder what had happened—

FWEE.

A piercing flute note sliced through the air and drilled into their ears.