Caught up in this serial killer ghost story, three minutes had passed since we arrived in front of the mountain lodge in the middle of the forest.
The secondhand market buyer, who had gotten off their bike after us, approached the cabin’s door.
He paused briefly when he noticed Baek Saheon and me standing there first.
‘…Looks like he recognized me.’
The secondhand market buyer seemed to recognize me, but I stayed silent, pretending not to notice who he was.
Baek Saheon, ever eager, immediately began speaking in a friendly tone.
“Excuse me, are you the owner of this house? Sorry, but it seems we got on the wrong bus. With this forest around us, there’s no signal. Would it be okay if we made a quick call?”
“I also got lost and came here to ask for help.”
“Oh… I see.”
At that point, I turned to the buyer and pretended to be surprised.“……!”
I widened my eyes slightly and gave a polite nod.
The buyer, already aware of who I was, didn’t seem particularly startled and returned the gesture with a small nod of his own.
Meanwhile, Baek Saheon subtly started prying for more information about him.
Clearly, he was trying to assess whether this person was weaker than him.
“Were you out here trekking for the weekend? This seems like a remote place—are you a local?”
“…No. I’m not sure how I even got here. I definitely started in Seoul.”
“Oh, really? Same with us! But there’s no signal here. Do you happen to know how to get out of here or where we are?”
“…I’m not sure. Let’s go inside and ask.”
“…Ah, right.”
Baek Saheon, clearly disappointed with the lack of useful information, clicked his tongue softly and glanced at the bike the buyer had arrived on.
And then he seemed to notice something.
The mark printed on the handlebars.
[Seoul Metropolitan Government #2153]
Obviously an official government-issued bike.
Having found an opening, Baek Saheon brightened and began to speak again.
“Excuse me, are you perh—”
I lightly nudged his side.
He froze, clamped his mouth shut, and turned to look at me.
I slowly mouthed the words:
‘Disaster Management Bureau.’
“……!”
‘He must’ve heard at least once at work how terrible the relationship is between the company and the Bureau.’
If this person found out who we were…
I subtly drew a finger across my throat.
Baek Saheon’s complexion turned pale.
From that moment on, he avoided speaking to the government employee directly. Good. A wise choice.
“I’ll open the door.”
I nodded to the civil servant, who had already reached for the door handle, and he lightly opened the wooden door.
Creeeeak.
“Anyone here?”
The midday sunlight spilled into the slightly dim interior of the lodge.
And then—
“Ohhh, hey? More people are here!”
“Are you the owner of this place?”
People who had already arrived began to emerge.
A married couple who looked to be in their forties.
Three young adults in their twenties.
And a middle-aged man.
Six people in total.
Including the three of us, that made… nine.
‘It’s starting.’
Suppressing the urge to groan, I stepped inside the cabin.
* * * Everything proceeded as predictably as a cliché could.
The married couple claimed their GPS led them here.
“I mean, the GPS sent us to the wrong place, the car broke down, and our phones don’t have any signal… It’s driving me crazy!”
“Huu. Honey, I told you so, didn’t I? We should’ve gone to Sapporo instead of Sokcho!”
Three university students from a hiking club, who claimed to have gotten lost.
“We parked right below the trail, though.”
“Yeah, but… Ugh, this is so annoying.”
And finally, a middle-aged man who’d been trying to catch the nearest bus stop after finishing a shift as a designated driver.
“Aigoo. Still, seeing people around is such a relief. If we wait, the owner should come, right?”
– And once the lodge owner shows up, the bloodbath begins?
Something like that.
I glanced around with the dead eyes of someone who had already given up.
I hadn’t even brought any decent items.
Living is hard, seriously…
‘Focus only on myself. Just myself!’
We were soon asked questions by the others.
“What about you folks? What brings you here?”
“Oh, we’re just office workers. We must’ve gotten on the wrong bus while heading out for fieldwork. This here is my supervisor, and I’m just an employee.”
Look at Baek Saheon subtly shifting responsibility onto me.
I took out my notepad.
Luckily, since I was still in my outdoor clothes, it was in my pocket, making it easy to maintain my usual demeanor.
[Hello.]
“Huh? Why are you writing instead of speaking…?”
[My throat’s a bit sore.]
“Ahh.”
The three university students turned away, looking unimpressed.
The married couple glanced at me and took a step back.
“Jeez, these colds going around lately must be really bad, huh?”
“You should at least wear a mask. What if you spread it to someone else?”
[I’m sorry. I’ll avoid speaking as much as possible and be careful.]
Baek Saheon shot me a disgusted look, as if I had become something revolting. He’d been reacting like this all along, taking over the responses I might have given.
“By the way, is that young man from your company too?”
“No, we met at the door, but… um.”
The secondhand market buyer, a tall man with sharp eyes that gave him an intimidating presence, replied politely.
“I’m a public servant from the Seoul City Hall.”
Oh. He actually admitted it.
He briefly explained that he was a public servant and had gotten lost while riding his bike.
And that was the end of it.
He conveniently left out the part where he worked for the Disaster Management Bureau, and that we were all stuck in a ghost story where a serial killer would soon be picking us off one by one, like a deadly game of Russian roulette.