CH 108

It was only then that I understood the significance of the black eyes. They didn’t appear on people who had the dream of the mansion, nor on people who became weird upon having that dream. They didn’t manifest because they were possessed by an evil spirit by chance, and they weren’t like a black mark to people whose life was almost spent. They were…

“You—are you the Child who I met back then?”

They were people devoured by the Child.

Since then until now, the Child who I met long ago at the mansion was always nearby.

I recalled what the man in front of me once asked, “The urban legend about the mansion. Who do you want to meet by spreading it?”

I couldn’t help my bitter grin. At the time, I thought it was quite an ingenuous question.

“…I told you that I would tell you when we became closer.” I stared back at the eyes that were only looking at me. “I came to meet you.”

I wanted to end it all.

“I’ll give back my life that you extended. So, take back everything else that you gave me.”

I wondered where my dear Yeonseon went.

Yeonseon Ham, who I met at the scene of the accident, was only superficially the same, but he was fundamentally a different person. He couldn’t recognize me like he just woke up from a nightmare. I too couldn’t feel him. After all, I could only identify him by his clothes. Any shred of doubt I had then was blown away with Yeonseon Ham’s question.

The Yeonseon I loved was not there.

That made me realize several things, such as the identity of the black eyes. In what state were the people who had those black eyes? Why did they end up dying quickly? What did their cryptic words mean?

There was a goblin with black eyes around me.

I could never meet my dear Yeonseon ever again. I didn’t mean that I couldn’t see his face again. To begin with, he had never existed in this world. He was a made-up person. That was the truth about the person whom I loved.

The moment that Yeonseon Ham was forcibly dragged down the stage by Hyehyun Ham, everything was over. This was my ultimate destination and my grave.

“Please take it all back. I want to end it all.”

Just like Yeonseon wandered that lonely road, I might roam this mansion with no exit for eternity. The wriggling things downstairs were my future.

* * *

For a long while, Woorim Eun didn’t react to my words. A frigid and heavy silence fell between us. I had two goals when I came to this mansion: to kill Hyehyun and to meet the Child to void our agreement.

Woorim said that he would tell me who dreamed of the mansion when we became closer, but I felt like I knew even without hearing his explanation. The one who dreamed of having an out-of-body experience was Seohang, and since the Child was wearing the skin of Woorim, the one who had the mansion dream was Woorim Eun.

I didn’t know when Woorim dreamed of the mansion. I didn’t know when my mother, the classmate who committed suicide, and Yeonseon Ham dreamed either. However, they had the dream when they were at the crossroads between life and death, and I was sure they all entered the doorless room as I did. They probably met the Child there.

The door was destiny. They changed their destiny of demise by going into the doorless room, just like I did.

But if I had to point out one difference… it would be that.

“…If it’s too hard on you, do you want to give it to me?” I had said.

It had to be that.

“Is there anything you want? This never happened to me before… so I want to give you anything that you want,” the Child had asked in return.

My offer imprinted me as someone special to the Child, judging from the words and actions of the people that the Child went through. Woorim even answered at one point. When I said that he looked at me the way I looked at Yeonseon, he specifically chose to say, “You loved him a lot then.”

…The black-eyed goblin loved me.

When I was younger, I had extended my hand because he just looked pitiful, miserable, hurt, and tired. This caused me to be captured by the most frightening and horrific thing. What came in return from my small act of kindness was a cruel destiny—a  destiny far worse and fatal than a life of seeing and attracting strange things.

The Child wandered among the people I knew.

“Oh, no wonder. I’ve been found already.” Woorim tilted his head to the side without a hint of being astonished. Then, he asked in a tender voice, “When did you find out?”

It was the same manner of speech that I liked about Yeonseon. I laughed while furrowing my brows. I couldn’t keep in my laughter.

“When we shook hands for the first time,” I replied.

“The handshake at the smoking area? I was caught quite soon. How did you know, Haeseo?”

I thought back to when I first met Woorim. It was after I sent Hyehyun to buy coffee and I went outside to smoke to shake him off. There, I had my first conversation with Woorim. He told me that he was my fan, and he defended my actions. He said that he looked forward to working with me and extended his hand to me.

I saw them then.