1440 - Chapter 17

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 17
Han Ung had already rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness. Jin Hyung jumped to his feet and hoisted him onto his back. Du Hui helped Su Gyun up from the floor. The four of them rushed across the Corridor and tumbled down the clean Staircase as if their lives depended on it.
“Call 119, should we call 119?”
“We’ll get there faster ourselves. Just lay him down in the car! Su Gyun, you stay with Han Ung in the back seat.”
“Got it, I’ll support him!”
The group scrambled into the car without even time to organize the Camping Equipment, and hurried out of the School. They drove straight to the nearest Emergency Room.
Even with “nearest,” it was a drive of more than thirty minutes. Terrified that the delay might cause complications for Han Ung, they burst through the Emergency Room doors.
The diagnosis was a relief, at least. Han Ung had only lost consciousness briefly, and his body showed no signs of serious injury—except for damage to his esophagus from vomiting.
The three of them, drained of all energy, finally collected themselves and called Han Ung’s parents. Then they quietly returned to Seoul.
“Don’t worry too much. Han Ung will wake up soon—they said he’s fine.”
“Yeah. Just get some rest. You’ve had a rough day.”
As Jin Hyung said his goodbyes, Du Hui found herself glancing down at where his ankle would be. Then she smiled awkwardly and waved.
After the two men left, Du Hui entered her Studio Apartment, where she lived alone.
The door creaked open with a piercing squeak that made her skin crawl today. Faced with the dark room, she felt a sudden urge to turn and flee, so she quickly switched on the lights. The moment the space filled with brightness, her mood improved somewhat.
“Sigh…….”
That was it. Today had been exhausting, and the atmosphere must have made her see things that weren’t there. After all, that place was decorated so grotesquely that you’d be surprised if nothing strange turned up.
Or maybe Han Ung had planned the whole thing and put on a show? It was Han Ung who insisted on going up to the Second Floor, and Han Ung who walked straight into that strange Classroom. Maybe it had been a surprise courage test he’d prepared without their knowledge, just to get some good shots.
“If that’s what it was, that bastard should seriously consider acting.”
Han Ung was someone who loved playing pranks normally, so it seemed plausible. With that thought, her mind eased considerably.
She lay down on her familiar bed, and despite the fatigue and unease, sleep crashed down on her.
Du Hui simply stripped off her dirty clothes and left them scattered, then burrowed into the blankets in just her underwear. She had no strength left for anything else. She fell asleep that quickly.
⋮
In her dream, Du Hui stood once more inside that School. But as if she’d forgotten everything that happened before sleep, she wandered through the abandoned building in a daze.
Cold, filthy. A musty smell too.
She was covering her nose with the back of her hand, searching for a way out, when someone gently pulled her hand. Confused by the force pulling from behind, she turned to look—but there was no one there. Instead, she saw a clean, well-swept path.
In the building where soot and grime hung in ugly tangles, only that path was bright. As if someone had combed it, the walkway was cleared for footsteps alone, and it seemed to lead toward an exit. So Du Hui moved her feet to follow it.
With each step, she found herself climbing a Staircase.
Wait? Wasn’t the exit on the First Floor? Shouldn’t I be going down?
As that dazed thought flickered through her mind, someone grabbed her hand again and pulled her forward.
“This way. This way.”
“Ah, yes.”
Du Hui laughed, following that clear, childish voice. Yes, yes—there must be something wonderful waiting there. Just hearing that voice makes me so excited, doesn’t it?
Her feet, which had hesitated for a moment, began moving faster. She climbed the Staircase with vigor, stepped onto the Second Floor, and entered the left Corridor without pause.
“This way. This way.”
The voice called from inside a Classroom at the far end. Du Hui pushed open the front door without hesitation and stepped in.
A cold wind rushed in and chilled her scalp, but the sensation of it sweeping away the grime that had been pressing in from all sides felt pleasant enough.
Before long, Du Hui stood in the center of the Classroom. Her feet sank into a slick floor as she stood beneath the soft glow of Candles, her head hanging down in a daze.
Wait. Why is it slippery?
Du Hui looked down at her feet, and her eyes, which had been blurred and half-open, suddenly snapped wide.
The tips of her white Sneakers were soaked dark with blood. And then—the tickling sensation at her ankles, the wet, slapping sounds.
“H-uh, khh……!”
In her panic, Du Hui tried to turn her body toward the front door and retreat—when both her cheeks were seized with brutal force.
Two hands gripped her face and forced her to stare straight ahead. Before her sat a simple Ritual Table, with rice cakes and fruit arranged on it, and two Candles.
“This way. This way.”
And the voice, now coming from just above her forehead.
It was no longer the clear, innocent child’s voice from before. It was a woman’s voice—scratched, grated, torn to a terrible rasp. It poured down from above her head with damp, ragged breath.
“This way. This way! This way. This way! This way. This way!”
Exactly three times—and Du Hui’s mouth ripped open. Torn apart vertically by the two hands that had seized her cheeks.
A sickening crack sounded from her jaw. It felt as though her upper and lower jaws would split clean in two.
“Uhhuhuhuhaha—krkkk. Open this bitch’s mouth wide!”
Though her arms and legs were free, Du Hui could not escape those hands.
“Gck, ck. Gruhh!”
“Break her ankles so the little thing can’t run away!”
Bound as if by chains, standing rigid and immobile, her lips splitting and bleeding—yet still she could not pull away, her mouth forced open to its limit.
Her jaw muscles were tearing. A sickening sensation of her lower jaw separating, tears streaming down her face.
It hurts, it hurts. Stop, please stop!
⋮
“Stop!”
Du Hui jolted awake at the sound of her own scream. Sunlight was already streaming through the window.
“Haa, ah, dammit…….”
She ran her fingers across her face, first checking that her jaw was still intact. The pain and sensation were far too vivid; she had to confirm more than once that she’d actually woken from the dream.
Fortunately, both her jaw and her mouth—which had been torn and bleeding in the dream—were unharmed. The pain was excruciating, but at least outwardly everything looked intact.
17
Still dazed, she felt around toward the head of the bed, found her cellphone where she’d tossed it, and gripped it in her hand.
Because she’d fallen asleep without plugging in the charger, the battery was nearly dead, but when she opened the screen, she found an avalanche of missed calls and messages.
“What—what is this? Is this really all of it?”
Du Hui hesitated, gripped by an ominous feeling, and touched the topmost messenger notification. Her heart dropped to her feet. Her ears went numb, and it felt as though electricity was shrieking inside her skull.
「Su Gyun : Han Ung is dead. 07:32」
***
“So, how exactly did your friend die?”
Du Hui wiped away tears that drenched her face as she answered Yeon Su’s question.
“I don’t know. He just wouldn’t wake up. There was nothing wrong with him. When dawn came, Han Ung’s parents arrived and kept vigil. So we all went home, and then suddenly—he was dead. This morning he had a massive convulsion, and then his tongue rolled backward into his throat and he asphyxiated…!”
“But he was in the Emergency Room—didn’t they perform emergency treatment?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about that. I just know what happened. His tongue rolled back, so the doctors held his mouth wide open and pressed on his tongue, and then—ugh, unngh…that moment, it was exactly like…”
“Like choking on a rice cake at school?”
At Yeon Su’s words, Du Hui curled in on herself, sobbing afresh.
Because she had experienced that exact thing in the dream she’d had, she knew that pain and terror intimately. The fear that she too would die in precisely the same way made her whole body tremble uncontrollably.
Yeon Hyung looked at Du Hui and spoke abruptly.
“Is that all?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————