Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 106
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 106
Myoryeong Hotel.
For a hotel with a European atmosphere, it has a quite distinctly Korean name.
‘I think they said it was named after the forest next to the hotel.’
I thought this while drinking the red-steeped tea water.
That’s right.
We’re currently in the middle of a tea ceremony experience held at the hotel.
Despite my worries about how we’d manage without even a convenience store nearby, we’re getting along very well.
Every morning we eat breakfast, take walks, attend the swimming pool in the hotel’s underground, and participate in every program the hotel offers.
‘It was surprisingly good. Healing too.’
Since I rarely stayed in the room and wandered around the hotel, I naturally caused misunderstandings…
An affectionate father and child on a long-term stay…
‘I look like a kid’s dad…’
It was bitter, but earnestly denying it seemed funny too, so each time I just smiled quietly and nodded.
Anyway, I’m quite satisfied. They prepare meals for us, my body is comfortable, and the air is good since it’s the countryside.
The problem is…
‘Nabi is at her limit.’
I glanced sideways at Nabi sitting on the cushion across from me.
Her eyes looking down at the tea are listless.
“I drank this smelly water yesterday too…”
Her muttered words are full of boredom.
Today marks the 4th day of our hotel stay.
We haven’t gone anywhere else and have spent all our time just at the hotel, so… hmm. It would be boring for Nabi.
“What thoughts come to mind when Nabi drinks tea?”
The Tea Ceremony Instructor asked Nabi, the youngest among the camp participants.
“It smells and tastes bad.”
“Haha, children might feel that way. Then, what does Nabi like?”
“What I like? Um… snacks and… Rest?”
“Rest? How unlike a child to like rest. Everyone likes to relax comfortably!”
The camp participants are busy laughing as if Nabi is adorably killing them.
“…”
Excuse me, teachers…
That’s not the kind of ‘Rest’ you’re thinking of.
I forcibly moistened my parched lips with tea and called to Nabi.
“Nabi, shall we go outside and play after this experience ends?”
It seems like something bad might happen if we spend another entire day at the hotel.
“Really?”
“Really.”
I don’t want to see news headlines like ‘All Myoryeong Hotel Guests Die Mysteriously.’
***
As expected, when we came outside the hotel, there was nothing.
Vast rice fields and a few scattered houses here and there.
Still, Nabi was excited, perhaps feeling good about escaping the hotel.
‘Is this fun…’
Following Nabi as she sprinted at full speed across the empty field, I looked around.
I said there was nothing, but that wasn’t really true.
Early summer, June.
It’s the perfect season to feel nature.
The bluish-tinted rice fields and the forest lush with green leaves everywhere.
The occasional cool breeze that still blows is enough to pleasantly calm a person’s heart.
‘I should have come out sooner.’
Holding a picnic bag containing kimbap and sandwiches I had ordered through hotel service in one hand, I continued walking.
“Oh! A mart! A mart!”
“…A mart?”
After walking like that for a while, Nabi, who had been walking ahead, suddenly turned around and shouted.
“There’s a mart?”
“Yeah! Isn’t that an ice cream freezer?”
When I quickly approached the direction Nabi pointed to, there really was a commercial freezer commonly used to store ice cream in marts sitting outside.
As I got closer, I could see a small house behind the freezer… Rather than a mart…
“It looks more like a neighborhood corner store?”
“Corner store?”
“It’s like a small mart.”
Now that I looked, there was a store sign on the roof with all the paint peeled off.
《 Myoryeong Super 》
Myoryeong here, Myoryeong there.
“Aha! Then, do they have snacks there too?”
“Snacks… They probably do. But we brought kimbap and sandwiches, do you really need to eat snacks?”
“Yeah! I need to eat them!”
…Right, who could stop your stubbornness.
When I smiled as if I had no choice, excited Nabi flung open the door to the shop and went inside.
‘There was a corner store like this near grandmother’s house when I was young.’
…The corner store I followed Nabi into was quiet.
Food items with expiration dates barely remaining were placed in one corner, and the display shelves were emptily vacant as if stock hadn’t been replenished for a long time.
Sunlight came through the transparent hinged door, illuminating the interior of the corner store.
Dust floating around made the traces of time stand out even more.
I slowly entered inside and stopped as if entranced near one wall close to the checkout counter.
“…?”
Dozens of face photos occupying an entire wall.
Dozens of flyers were stuck closely together on the wallpaper.
I looked closely at one of those flyers.
[ Looking for Missing Child ]
-Name: Jin Gyeoul
-Female, 7 years old
-Missing Date: 20XX, June 19th
-Missing Area: Near Myoryeong Forest
-Physical Features: Small mole above right eyebrow
The content written alongside a photo of a brightly smiling child was a typical missing person flyer.
‘All of these…’
Missing person flyers, each with slightly different designs, were stuck up to a height that seemed to reach the ceiling.
The moment I got an eerie impression and reflexively stepped back.
“You, you…! Where are your mom and dad!!?”
“…!”
A human voice came from the direction of the checkout counter.
I hurriedly ran toward that direction.
“Nabi!”
An old man who had appeared from behind the display shelf at some point was grabbing Nabi’s shoulder and shouting.
“Where are your mom and dad?! Quickly, quickly!”
Don’t tell me she caused trouble in that short time?
“Stop it!”
Did she eat all the snacks or something? Or did she pull out her hand while I wasn’t looking?
The Old Man got angry when he saw me appearing late.
“How can you leave a child alone like this!!”
“…Ah, Elder, I didn’t leave her alone, I was over there….”
“Do you know how many children have disappeared in just a brief moment of looking away like this?!”
The Old Man’s hand pointed to the flyer I had been looking at earlier.
“Those are all Children who went missing in this village! I filed so many complaints with the District Office, but that damn rotten Hotel was built and couples who don’t know anything come to play in this village every year with their kids!”
I looked at the flyer again.
Here and there.
All of them had the same missing location.
Myoryeong Forest, Myoryeong Village, Myoryeong Forest, Myoryeong Village, Myoryeong Forest, Myoryeong Forest, Myoryeong Forest, Myoryeong Village, Myoryeong Village.
Moreover, all of them were Children…?
A chill crept up my throat.
So many people went missing from just one village? Is that even possible? What happened in this village…
“Anyway, listen here!”
“…!”
The Old Man, who had hurriedly handed Nabi to me, warned me sternly with a face filled with terror.
“Before you leave this village, keep your wits about you. Unless you want to lose the child.”
“…Yes.”
Due to the owner’s threat, we left Myoryeong Super without buying anything.
“Can’t buy Snacks? Why?”
I felt sorry for Nabi who was suddenly struck by this bolt from the blue, but given the atmosphere, waiting there to buy Snacks was a bit….
As we left the super, the air that had been frozen with tension gradually began to thaw.
‘It’s certainly unsettling and creepy that there are so many Missing Persons….’
But I didn’t feel alarmed or worried.
‘At most, we’ll only be Outside the Hotel during the day.’
Most importantly….
“Nabi, let’s go to the Hotel instead and see if they have any Snacks.”
“Yeah! Snacks! Snacks!”
Nabi isn’t a ‘real child’ after all.
Even if it were kidnapping-related disappearances.
‘In this case, wouldn’t it be right to worry about the kidnappers instead….’
***
The next day, I went Outside the Hotel again at Nabi’s request.
‘She was disappointed yesterday when we came straight back to the Hotel after leaving the super like that.’
So today I decided to go a bit farther.
‘Though it’s still near the Hotel….’
The Hotel pamphlet introduced several places as tourist attractions of the village, so I thought we’d go there.
And among them, the most suitable place to take Nabi would be right here.
“Let’s spread the Picnic Mat here and play.”
“It’s so wide!”
A Field near Myoryeong Forest.
This Field, where grass and wildflowers stretch endlessly, is famous for its beautiful scenery, enough to be called a famous spot that photographers visit every year.
‘Being near Myoryeong Forest is a bit concerning though….’
Just thinking about what I heard at the super yesterday, we shouldn’t be coming Outside at all, but honestly, part of me felt complacent.
“Nabi, it would be nice to play with the Ball, but let’s put away those hands. What if someone sees?”
No, just look at that sight.
She’s playing with a Ball using those giant black hands that stick out from her back like wings…. And she’s even tearing the Ball. Tearing it.
“See…. You tore the Ball again.”
If she tears Balls, what guarantee is there that she won’t tear people too.
‘I’m worried in many ways.’
I threw the ball I had brought separately to Nabi again and lay down on the Picnic Mat.
The weather was nice and the breeze was cool, so it would be perfect to just lie here like this, eat, and then head back.
“Don’t go anywhere else! Only play here! If anything happens, call me!”
“I know! I know!”
I closed my eyes and exhaled. The environment was practically encouraging me to take a nap.
‘Let me just close my eyes for 10 minutes like this…’
When I closed my eyes for exactly 10 minutes and then opened them.
“…Nabi?”
In that time, Nabi had disappeared.
Without a trace.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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