OL Ch 31

Hayun chose one of the locations written in his notebook, one he could reach by the end of the day.

Since there weren’t many options, he didn’t spend much time choosing.

The moment he saw the number, Hayun could picture where the place was, what kind of building it was in, and what form it took. Even though the briefly recorded number didn’t contain such information, it came to mind as if he had known it in advance.

An orange sign with a chick drawn on it, the store name written in green, and the last letter peeled off, leaving only the outline. Right next to it was a single wooden door, and at the bottom of it, there seemed to be a small passage about knee-high.

Hayun thought it might be his delusion.

Before losing his ability, Hayun only had to think of the place he wanted to go, and he would know the door leading there. Rather than finding them himself, it felt more like the doors guided him on their own.

Why the doors did that, he didn’t know, but it was so natural that he didn’t need to question it. Therefore, Hayun didn’t need to memorize the location or markings of the doors. But apart from that, Seo Iju never stopped training him.

Anyway, even if it was possible before, there was no way to know where the location was or where the door was exactly now. Maybe it was just his imagination based on the feeling from back then.

‘Because I lost my ability.’

But somehow, he felt like he would know if he went there.

Like when he went to Kim Heewon’s house. So, he refused to check the road view and got on the bus.

Hayun tried to suppress his expectations in case he was wrong. He tried not to think deeply, calming himself, and arrived at the place he had imagined.

“…..”

The smell of oil and tteokbokki wafted from afar. It seemed they were busy preparing food, waiting for the children to get out of school. Hayun walked quickly and checked the sign of the snack shop.

Hayun tried to remember if he had ever been to this neighborhood. He couldn’t recall. Hayun pushed up his glasses, which had slipped down, with the back of his hand. The glasses, slightly bent from the fight with Mookyeong, slipped down more easily than usual. They slid down again as soon as he pushed them up.

Hayun scrunched his nose to push up his glasses and glanced at the snack shop.

“I’m going crazy.”

“…Why? Why are you going crazy? Are you hungry?”

The owner of the snack shop, who was wiping the counter, spoke to him. Hayun smiled awkwardly. He was trying to avoid conversation, but then he pouted his lips at a sudden thought.

“I’ll give you a lot of service. You’re so pale, it makes this ajumma’s heart soften. The fritters are freshly fried, so they’re all delicious. Do you want a serving to go?”

Hayun searched his pocket. He found a ten-thousand-won bill.

“What, you have money. Do you want a mix to go? With cheese on top?”

“Yes. Ah, excuse me, ma’am.”

“Hmm?“

“How long have you been here?”

“Running this business? Why?”

“Just curious. It looks like a really good place to eat.”

“Oh, look at you talk. You’re so cute. I’ve been running this place for over thirteen years.”

“That’s a long time.”

The snack shop owner smiled and added a couple more fritters. She must have thought he was very hungry. Hayun asked about the door next to the building. But the owner said she didn’t know.

“Everyone was curious about opening a shop there, but the owner never shows up. It’s not a house, and it’s not a junkyard. It’s just there. But just out of an old lady’s concern, don’t try to go in.”

“Why?”

“Why, you ask? It’s someone else’s property. And some local punks tried to go in there a few times to make it their hangout, but there were steel nails driven into the ground and walls. They all ended up bleeding without even getting in. Here you go. Four thousand five hundred won.”

It felt a bit like he was being forced to buy. Hayun took the black bag filled with cheese-covered fritters and walked forward. The location of the door he had expected was in an ambiguous place. He couldn’t do anything that would look suspicious in broad daylight, especially in a place where elementary school students would soon be pouring out.

‘I’m really going crazy.’

It was driving him crazy that the snack shop and the door were just as he had imagined, and it was driving him crazy that he couldn’t confirm it even though it was right in front of him. Hayun roughly swept his hair back. He bit and licked his dry lips, feeling restless. Then, unable to hold back, he turned around. At that moment, something familiar appeared through his glasses.

“…..”

‘Did I really go crazy after saying I was going crazy?’

He could see a door that shouldn’t be visible now. But it wasn’t clearly visible, only through the sides of his glasses. Hayun slowly turned his head left and right. He could see it with his left eye, and he could see it with his right eye. But when he pressed his glasses close to his eyes, he couldn’t see it with either the right or the left.

Hayun took off his glasses altogether.

He couldn’t see it.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Hayun let his glasses slip down a little, just like before. Then, once again, the door appeared through the space beside the lenses. Hayun looked around in that state. Other doors should have been visible, but they weren’t.

Then was the door he was seeing now his delusion, or was it real?

If he could see the door, could he open it?

He wanted to open it right away. But there were too many people around.

‘I have to endure it.’

He felt like he had to, even without thinking deeply.

‘If it’s not a delusion, and I can really see it, why can I see it?’

Why can’t he see the other doors?

‘Is it because of the glasses?’

Hayun recalled Seo Iju’s advice to always wear his glasses.

How far had she foreseen? How much was her conjecture, and how much was unexpected?

‘Will my ability return to normal?’

Or would it end here? If he assumed it would return, he would need rehabilitation training, and if not…

‘It’s frustrating.’

He wished he were smarter. Then he wouldn’t be wandering around not knowing what to do. But one thing was clear: if his ability returned, it must never be discovered.

‘Those guys killed the doorkeeper and took out the gogok.’

And there was a high possibility that those guys hadn’t been completely eradicated. Then, of course, they would be planning for the future. Or even if they were eradicated, it was impossible to say that no one would be interested in their plans. In that case, naturally, he, as the doorkeeper, would be targeted.

Hayun rubbed his abdomen, recalling ‘that day’. The green light shining from Seo Iju’s abdomen, and the sound of breaking when the door closed.

‘I also had a gogok, and it broke that day. Maybe the reason I can see the doors, at least partially, is because a fragment of the broken gogok remains.’

He didn’t know if the fragment could be restored to its original state. He had never heard anything about it from Seo Iju. Perhaps he could only use the power of the remaining fragment.

‘Damn it, I don’t know anything.’

Hayun sighed deeply. He thought something would happen if he came here, but it only made things more complicated.

“…..”

Just then, a gust of wind blew. It messed up his hair and the fallen leaves around him, just like his chaotic mind. Hayun stared at a leaf that was caught on his toe, swaying. The leaves of the trees, which were still green when he was discharged, had now changed color.

Hayun sighed softly. His mind was confused, but he remembered what he had to do now.

‘Let’s eat first.’

By the time he had finished eating, Hayun thought of two places he felt he should go. One was Kim Heewon’s house, and the other was where Mookyeong was.

The reason he wanted to go to Kim Heewon’s house was to collect any remaining traces of Kim Heewon before more time passed.

‘I hope the trash is still there.’

It was possible that it had been completely cleaned up because he had rummaged through it. Or maybe cats had dug through it and scattered it all over the place.

‘And I have to get inside the house.’

Finding traces left inside the house was the goal this time. He was a little worried because there were traces of wallpaper being torn off in the trash.

‘The problem is getting in.’

Whether he could get in without being detected by the neighbors. That was important.

Even if it was an empty house with no owner, they might say something. Moreover, Hayun was a minor. What if he got reported to the police and got caught?

‘They arrived late when I reported the body, but maybe it was because it was a body.’

It wasn’t a normal reaction, so he had to be cautious. They might come quickly this time.

‘I have to go in and out quickly without being detected.’

Hayun headed straight for Kim Heewon’s house. It wasn’t that difficult since he had been there before. He thought about waiting until it got dark in the neighborhood. But he thought there might be more people in the evening, so he just went up the road.

In conclusion, Hayun’s choice was right. Most of the neighbors were out working during the day, leaving their houses empty.

After reaching the top of the hill, he checked the trash first. It was messy, as if it had been left unattended for a long time. Hayun put the trash in a trash bag he had prepared in advance, and stuffed suspicious things into his bag.

Then he looked around to find Kim Heewon’s house. He didn’t know the exact location since he had been hiding when the neighbors were talking. But the moment he saw the green painted gate, he was sure this was the place.

Hayun looked into the mailbox. Unlike what he expected, it wasn’t empty; something was stuck to the bottom. Hayun pulled it out. Judging from the dried-up marks, it seemed to have been wet with rain and dried up while stuck to the bottom.

‘Red Cross Fee. Kim Eung.’

His heart sank as his prediction came true. Hayun decided not to think deeply. He blinked rapidly, calming himself.

‘Stay calm.’

After looking around, he pushed the gate slightly. It didn’t open smoothly, probably because it was poorly maintained, with paint peeling off in places. Hayun looked around once more and pushed the gate open with force. The gate opened with a creaking sound.

It seemed that the owner of the empty house hadn’t even locked it. After entering, Hayun closed the gate, leaving only a small gap.

He worried about being seen from the house next door, but there was a rather high wall between the houses.

‘Yeah, that’s why they couldn’t find the body right away and only realized it after entering the house.’

When you enter Kim Heewon’s house through the gate, there was a storage room on the left. Behind the storage room was a water pipe and a platform that seemed to be for a soy sauce jar, but instead of a jar, there was an old bicycle and a laundry drying rack.

And at the end of it was another storage room. At first, he thought it was a toilet, but the actual toilet was along the path beside the house.

Inside the house, there were two rooms, a kitchen/living room, and an attic on the wall connecting each room and the living room to each room. Also, the shoe rack was excessively low, and there was a sliding storage cabinet on the left wall. It was big enough for a child to enter, if not an adult.

It wasn’t a normal house.

Hayun wondered if it was an old style he didn’t know about. But one thing he could tell was that it was a house with many places to hide.

“…..”

Lying on his stomach and looking at the storage cabinet, Hayun suddenly noticed a familiar mark inside. The moment he traced it with his fingertips and silently moved his lips, the [door] flickered through his glasses, which had slipped down due to his posture.