Chapter 70: The End of the Ghost Story (3)

Su-myeon had already been wondering about their condition himself.

Just then, Young-cheol came up to the office carrying a chart.

“You’re here? Shouldn’t you rest a little more today....... When did you take off the bandages?”

Before Su-myeon could say anything, Young-cheol checked his hands first.

The wounds were so minor that it was embarrassing, but Su-myeon couldn’t bring himself to refuse and was helplessly caught by him.

No matter how he looked at it, this was excessive, but there was nothing bad about healing faster.

Taking comfort in that thought, Su-myeon asked Young-cheol.

“How are those people doing?”

The person who had been trapped in a ghost story for more than a year and the person who had been rescued with his body swollen up.

Su-myeon couldn’t even guess which of the two was in greater danger.

As Young-cheol wrapped Su-myeon’s hands in bandages again, he answered.

“The swollen one is still in dangerous condition.”

Looking at him now, it seemed Young-cheol had spent the entire night caring for the patient.

The dark circles beneath his hollow eyes made him look terribly exhausted.

But saying the situation was too serious for him to give in to fatigue, he continued.

“He’s more stable today than he was yesterday, but honestly, I can’t guarantee anything.”

Even so, he was a hundred times better off than those who had emerged as corpses.

“His body’s balance has been completely ruined, but it’s not as though he actually has some disease.... There is at least a possibility that he’ll slowly return to normal.”

Everything, starting with what kind of medication he should use to help with that, was something Young-cheol had to worry about.

Watching Young-cheol wrap the bandages with a sigh, Su-myeon knew nothing about medicine, so there was nothing he could say except nod.

After seeing the bandages carefully finished so the wounds wouldn’t get worse, Su-myeon got to his feet.

“Then, I’ll go meet the survivors for a bit. It’s all right just to meet them, right?”

“Yes. Of course. But as for that man, please try to keep him as calm as possible. It would be better not to talk about the ghost story with him yet.”

Young-cheol added that the person who had been inside the ghost story for a long time was fine, so they could ask him whatever they wanted to know.

After listening carefully to Young-cheol, Su-myeon looked at Ju-hee and Han-su.

Shouldn’t they go together?

At the look that seemed to ask that, Ju-hee waved her hand.

“Ah, actually, I was so curious that I went to see them as soon as I got here. You two go ahead.”

Saying it would be a little awkward to go again, Ju-hee declined, and Su-myeon didn’t ask twice.

“Yes. Then, let’s go. Hyung.”

At Su-myeon’s words, Han-su disappeared after him, following close behind like a well-trained hunting dog.

Young-cheol, who had been watching them, only spoke quietly after the two had disappeared.

“...He just called him hyung, right?”

“When did they get that close?”

Hwi-yeon added, sounding puzzled as well.

In the middle of them, Ju-hee suddenly blurted out.

“Me too! He called me noona. ...Su-myeon did it first...!”

“......Who... asked...?”

At Ju-hee’s completely out-of-nowhere remark, Mi-ae muttered under her breath.

It was quiet, but in the silent office it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Ah.... Anyway, that’s what happened!”

Realizing herself that she had said something unnecessary, Ju-hee hurriedly returned to her seat.

“Young, so young-”

At Du-pal’s voice from where he was buried beneath a pile of documents, Mi-ae snickered mischievously.

With the scale of this incident having grown so large, the amount of paperwork was enormous.

Recovering and examining dozens of bodies, along with coordinating with the personnel secretly assigned by the government and the police.

Since Du-pal hadn’t participated in the field operation and was familiar with paperwork, almost all of it had fallen onto him.

Most of the rest was Mi-ae’s responsibility, so she could no longer waste time and was heading back to her seat when she suddenly spoke.

“Ah, more importantly, this doll. You put it in the washing machine yesterday.”

What Mi-ae was referring to was Cheshire, sitting damp by a sunny window.

“I wasn’t sure whether it could go in the dryer, so I just brought it up. Can this thing go in there?”

There were simple shower facilities and washing machines on the fourth floor of the Governance for people who were transferred there in a contaminated state.

Everyone who had rolled around in The Witch’s Forest had gotten fairly filthy.

Cheshire in particular had been covered in sticky substances tangled through its fabric, so it had been washed together with the clothes.

“Ah....”

It seemed Mi-ae had retrieved the thing that everyone had forgotten about because of its ambiguous existence, neither ally nor enemy.

It certainly looked better now that the grime had been washed off, but....

After thinking for a moment, Ju-hee tilted her head and answered.

“...Probably not.”

“Yep. Then I’ll just leave it like this~”

No matter what, it would be troublesome if it burst after being put through the dryer.

Letting it dry naturally somewhere with sunlight seemed like the best option....

When Ju-hee walked over and touched it, she found that because it had been sitting there for quite a while, all the moisture had pooled in its bottom where it touched the surface.

“....”

After pressing it firmly several times to squeeze out the water again, Ju-hee made a small clothesline and clipped Cheshire up by the arms with clothespins.

She wasn’t sure if that was really the right thing to do, but in reality, its body was nothing more than a doll anyway.

It seemed better than leaving it sitting there until only its bottom stayed damp.

***

The patient rooms on the second floor, where Su-myeon had gone down, were quiet.

The footsteps of the two men echoed through the white space, where only the mechanical sounds of medical equipment produced a steady rhythm of noise.

Su-myeon hesitated briefly in front of one hospital-room door before knocking carefully.

“....”

Watching him, Han-su furrowed his brow.

It reminded him of the countless times he had knocked and pounded on doors while searching for Su-myeon and Ju-hee after they entered The Witch’s Forest.

Just like then, there was no answer this time either, but now Su-myeon was beside him.

“We’re coming in.”

Su-myeon slowly opened the door and entered.

Inside the hospital room was a person lying on a bed, connected to numerous machines.

A massive body that could barely breathe through a respirator.

It looked as though his own body was pressing down on his lungs.

Had he spent even two full days in The Witch’s Forest?

And in that short time, he had ended up like this.

The man, breathing roughly, could barely even open his eyes properly.

Su-myeon approached carefully and spoke.

“Hello. I’m Han Su-myeon. Kang Han-su came with me as well.”

At Su-myeon’s voice, the man moved slightly.

His eyes rolled toward them, and his gaze landed on the two men.

He opened and closed his mouth as though trying to say something, but perhaps because his throat was being compressed, it was difficult to hear.

“I was the person in charge of this rescue operation. I’m sorry we couldn’t find you sooner.”

At Su-myeon’s words, the man barely shook his head.

Meeting his eyes, Su-myeon felt something strange.

Tears began filling the man’s eyes as his breathing grew slightly more labored, and he barely managed to raise one hand.

Reflexively, Su-myeon took his hand, and the man tightened his fingers around his.

The survivor’s eyes shook even more violently when he saw Su-myeon’s hand wrapped tightly in bandages.

“Th... thank....”

The rest was almost completely crushed into an indistinct sound, but the intent behind the words was more than clear enough.

Because the tears made his breathing even more labored, Su-myeon quickly added.

“Calm down. You’re somewhere safe now, so you need to recover quickly and get out of here.”

He thought the words didn’t suit him at all, but strangely enough, he meant them sincerely.

“That way, it’ll feel worthwhile for me too.”

The brief words of thanks he heard from the patient lying in the hospital bed carried considerable meaning.

Su-myeon had secretly worried that the survivor might resent him, saying it would have been better to die than to live in such a state.

After all, there had actually been a student who chose to remain inside a ghost story because he feared the miserable reality waiting outside.

“....”

But this man’s eyes showed genuine gratitude.

So that he could rest, Su-myeon placed his hand back in a comfortable position and left the room.

Then, after taking a short, deep breath, he knocked on the door of the room next door in the same way.

“Yes. Come in.”

This time, an answer came back.

Inside were Tae-hyeon, the informant, and Ji-hoon, the survivor.

Perhaps they had assumed it would be Young-cheol, the doctor, because the moment they saw Su-myeon and Han-su, both of them belatedly looked surprised.

“Oh!”

Tae-hyeon in particular sprang to his feet the moment he saw Su-myeon.

Then he tapped Ji-hoon, who was receiving an IV, on the shoulder and said.

“Him! That’s him!”

He said that while pointing toward Su-myeon and shaking Ji-hoon.

Ji-hoon also looked back and forth between Su-myeon and Han-su with an overwhelmed expression.

It seemed they had already talked about the rescue operation and the people who had saved them.

“Hello! Thank you so much! Thank you.”

Ji-hoon hurriedly got out of the hospital bed, repeatedly thanking them and bowing his head.

“No, it’s fine... really, it’s fine, so just....”

Please lie down!

That was what Su-myeon wanted to say, but with his hand timidly caught in Ji-hoon’s grip, he had no choice but to keep listening to the repeated thanks.

Surprisingly, Ji-hoon had no other problems aside from the severe malnutrition.

He was young and otherwise healthy, so he was in a condition where all he needed was to recover slowly.

“You saved my life. Thank you for not giving up and for coming to find me!”

At the way Ji-hoon expressed his gratitude to an almost overwhelming degree, Su-myeon’s entire face turned red.

He supposed he had... done something deserving of that much.

But it also seemed there had been a slight misunderstanding.

“For someone you didn’t even know... you went so far that you were injured like this....”

With tears of gratitude gathering in his eyes, Ji-hoon gazed wistfully at Su-myeon’s bandaged hands.

Whatever he was imagining, it was probably nothing like what had actually happened.

Unable to bring himself to deny it, Su-myeon merely nodded.

“On top of that, my father committed such an unforgivably terrible crime. As for that... I don’t even know what I could possibly say to apologize to the victims,”

The owner of Room 404.

His father, whom they had called that, had literally gone insane after the ghost story disappeared.

He could not even properly recognize his own son, so it seemed that with Ji-hoon’s consent, they had decided to admit him to a psychiatric ward for treatment.

During the single night Su-myeon had slept, an enormous number of things had been taken care of.

He couldn’t even imagine how busy the members of the Governance must have been.

“...Still, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you helped put a stop to it here.”

In the suddenly solemn atmosphere, Ji-hoon instead gave a bitter smile.

It was believed that among the dead was the body of Ji-hoon’s mother, who was also part of his family.

It seemed it would take some time to determine which of the dozens of bodies belonged to her.

“I know I have no right to ask anything, but I survived. If I ever get the chance, I absolutely want to repay this debt.”

His attitude felt almost resolute.

What expression was Su-myeon supposed to make, and what answer would even be appropriate?

Instead of giving any clear response, Su-myeon unnecessarily adjusted his perfectly fine glasses.

It was undeniably an embarrassing and awkward situation.

But in any case, even if he couldn’t quite define it, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

***

And so, another day passed as they dealt with countless other matters.

The aftermath still hadn’t ended, and piles of documents continued flooding in.

Dozens of unidentified skeletal remains had suddenly appeared inside an apartment.

This was not something that could be treated lightly, so numerous agents from the National Intelligence Service, for whom maintaining secrecy was essential, were deployed.

A few of them were assigned to stay temporarily at the Governance and help handle the work, allowing Du-pal and Mi-ae to finally catch their breath.

“Now, then, we need to decide where we’re going next.”

Only one ghost story had been concluded.

There were still countless ghost stories left.

The meaning behind the higher-ups providing additional personnel was clear.

They were telling the field agents not to worry about the paperwork for now and move straight on to the next one.