OL Ch 30

Chapter 30

The sun had fully set, and darkness enveloped the sky. The streetlights were on, but their glow didn’t reach where Hayun was hiding. He cautiously shifted aside some trash bags. As if cats had gotten to them, one bag was half torn open, leaving traces of bugs both inside and outside its contents. It looked utterly disgusting.

Judging by the variety of items present, it seemed like someone carelessly swept everything together without sorting. Amongst the clothes and wallpaper scraps, there was also a tangled mass of hair-covered tape with half-eaten ramen noodles stuck to it. Nothing caught his eye as valuable.

Hayun hesitated whether he should give up when changing positions revealed a business card at the bottom of the bag. When he pulled out the card, several Post-it notes came along with it. Judging from their arrangement, it appeared that the business card was placed underneath while various Post-its were stuck all around it.

‘The business card and the post-it note face different directions.’

Before he could ponder further, Hayun stuffed them all into his pocket. He hastily tidied up the trash he had scattered around him before standing up. His heart sank as he realized how late it had become.

However, before leaving, the pile of books tied with twine caught his attention. After quickly scanning the area, he grabbed the thinnest book that was easiest to remove from the stack. There wasn’t time to pick through for something interesting. Just as the resident claimed, a cat had disturbed the food waste bin, causing it to roll down the sloping road. The noise alerted nearby residents who started yelling angrily. Startled, Hayun fled along a different path than the one he’d taken earlier.

It took quite some time for the trash can to reach the road where buses traveled, despite the pleasant cool weather causing Hayun to sweat profusely. Once he barely managed to board a bus heading towards his neighborhood, Hayun finally had a chance to examine the booklet he’d retrieved earlier.

“…..”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t an unfamiliar publication. It was a newsletter regularly issued every few months by the Labyrinth Observation Research Institute where Seo Iju used to work. The yellowed pages indicated its age. Hayun flipped through the newsletter to confirm the publication year.

‘Nine years ago.’

As soon as he disembarked from the bus, Hayun pulled out the business card he had stuffed into his pocket upon leaving Yongin City.

Labyrinth Observation Research Institute

Chief Kim Eung

Hayun swallowed hard. Something strange was happening here; that much he could tell. Just as unused muscles would ache when exercised, his head throbbed from overthinking. Laughing at the absurdity of this headache, Hayun recalled telling Seo Iju once that research wasn’t for his type of brain—but it seemed to be even worse than he thought.

‘If I start studying seriously, my head will explode. Literally.’

Rubbing his forehead, Hayun reminisced about yesterday’s events. He had gone to Kim Heewon’s house only to find out it had been destroyed by fire long ago and turned into a road. A local resident mentioned rumors of them moving to another neighborhood, so he headed there blindly, climbing up a steep hill along the way.

Then he discovered a house where someone recently died, and heard that his son went missing recently.

‘Is the deceased person Kim Heewon’s father, and is the son Kim Heewon?’

At least they shared the same surname ‘Kim’. However, it was problematic as there were too many people with the surname ‘Kim’ in South Korea. Kim Deukcheol, Kim Heewon, Kim Eung, and even Kim Hayun himself had this common surname.

‘Is the dead person really named Kim Eung? Do people usually stick their business card on the wall? Could it be someone else’s?’

Hayun picked up the post-it note and business card again. The business card was stuck upside down on the wall, leaving tape marks behind. Then, the post-it note covered it.

‘I thought maybe they used the business card as a post-it note, but there is nothing written on it.’

There was no trace of any memo on either side of the business card. Instead, multiple numbers were written on the Post-it notes. Some numbers were interrupted due to being overlapped by other notes, while others seemed incomplete with only parts written down.

Hayun read out the most neatly written number and letters:

‘Pung-un Bulgogi 31#8-5-283-9475Kim’.

It looked like a phone number, but it was actually a type of coordinate system to distinguish the location of doors, similar to what he found inside the shoe cabinet at Mookyeong’s current home.

‘If the deceased person is truly Kim Eung, and his son is Kim Heewon…’

Then what was it? Kim Hayun stared blankly at the ceiling. If he were Mookyeong or some other smart person, they might have come up with an idea quickly. However, despite his brain feeling strained like a mouse gnawing away, his thoughts wouldn’t coalesce.

‘Think as simply as possible. Keep it simple. So, let’s start from the beginning. What can I deduce from this? Come on, Kim Hayun.’

Hayun gazed intently at the post-it note.

‘What is immediately clear is that Kim Eung was a doorkeeper.’

In Guri-si, Gyeonggi-do, at address number 283, the 9,475th registered ‘Kim’ created the shortcut for ‘Pung-un Bulgogi’. This notation style was used in the Labyrinth Observation Research Institute’s [path] registry. The registry of paths was stored within the research institute, accessible only to its researchers for documentation and review.

This indicated that doorkeepers officially registered these shortcuts with their respective countries. Naturally, there were many more unregistered shortcuts. Kim Hayun alone had created hundreds of them. However, his case was exceptional.

In reality, individuals couldn’t create such a vast number of paths. If everyone could produce numerous shortcuts, the count of registered ones would be much higher. But how many doorkeepers worked at the research institute?

‘I remember hearing that doorkeepers aren’t very common.’

The exact number remained unknown to Hayun. He only knew from Seo Iju that the research institute maintained various records and registries.

‘If I could see those registers, I might be able to estimate the number.’

Had he still possessed his ability, he would have known this information upon graduating from school. But now, as an ordinary person, it seemed out of reach.

‘If only I could attend school, I wouldn’t be struggling like this.’

Suddenly, Hayun remembered the bracelet he had taken from Kim Deukcheol and its numerous gogok adorning it.

‘Kim Eung.’

He recalled where he had seen the name ‘Kim Eung’. When using the bracelet to close the labyrinth’s door, some of the gogok broke, revealing names that were presumably their owners. Among them were names written in languages he could read and others he couldn’t comprehend. One of those readable names was indeed ‘Kim Eung’. As Hayun searched his memory, he gripped his left wrist, which oddly began to ache inside.

‘But what about the gogok…?’

“Weren’t they only extractable right after death?”

Hayun frowned at his own words, feeling unfamiliar with them. He pondered where he might have heard this before and eventually groaned softly. Although unsure of the exact time, he distinctly remembered learning it from Seo Iju. All his knowledge about doorkeepers had come from Iju alone.

‘Then Kim Eung must have died much earlier.’

Several months had passed since the labyrinth opened. Assuming someone killed Kim Eung to retrieve his gogok, but he was found dead in a corner of his yard. The neighbor mentioned that due to the foul smell and insects, they couldn’t open their doors even on cooler days.

‘It wasn’t a sealed space, and he died outside. This neighborhood has plenty of stray cats.’

It should have been an ideal location for rapid decomposition and attracting insects. Therefore, Kim Eung must have died more recently than initially thought.

‘The book I brought wasn’t wet either. Checking this area’s weather records might provide more accurate information.’

Hayun crossed his arms and let out a groan. He felt close to grasping something but couldn’t quite pin it down. For a moment, he sat blankly, lost in thought, before exhaling deeply.

‘What am I doing right now?’

Did he really need to delve so deeply into this matter? After all, he was merely trying to craft a more plausible lie.

‘I’m unnecessarily overthinking and making deductions that aren’t my forte. Even if I figure it out, what good will it do?’

“…..”

Despite knowing it was futile, he couldn’t stay still. Hayun sprang up and entered his younger sister’s room. He found unused notebooks, pencils, tape, and scissors before returning to the living room. With another long sigh, Hayun started attaching sticky notes and business cards to the notebook pages. Then, he began writing down whatever came to mind haphazardly. Although his handwriting wasn’t neat, simply organizing questions and answers gave him a sense of progress.

“What the.”

Regardless of how absurd it seemed, Hayun jotted down weather information from Kim Heewon’s neighborhood on the day he visited and made estimates about potential dates of death. Additionally, he noted his questions regarding Kim Eung.

‘Kim Eung died recently, but his gogok was present in the bracelet made by Kim Deukcheol. However, after losing his wife, Kim Eung’s ability disappeared due to grief, and he was fired from the research institute. Even if we don’t consider the exact time of death, could a gogok be extracted while someone has lost their ability?’

Was it possible that he didn’t truly lose his ability but was unable to use it due to mental issues?

‘No, what traumatic event would prevent him from opening doors?’

Perhaps something happened while trying to open a door?

‘Huh?’

Hayun leaned forward, his body tensing.

‘What if Kim Eung hadn’t died recently?’

In the past fire incident, apart from the wife’s body, another body was found. What if that other body was actually Kim Eung? The investigation results could have been manipulated by forces supporting Kim Deukcheol, couldn’t they?

‘The fire was set by an esper, making it impossible to extinguish with regular firefighting equipment.’

Hayun recalled the esper burning down Seo Iju’s house. They had searched for him and Mookyeong while setting ablaze the house, intending to turn them into useful puppets.

‘And they killed Uncle to make him into a puppet too.’

Baek Jinha, created by Kim Deukcheol, could use some of his abilities from when he was alive. However, Kim Eung was a doorkeeper.

‘If another doorkeeper uses a gogok extracted from a doorkeeper, the door won’t open properly. The doorkeeper might get stuck or even lose limbs at the doorway. Similarly, even if Kim Deukcheol made a puppet identical to Kim Eung using his gogok, it likely wouldn’t have been able to pass through doors.’

Hayun started to review from the beginning of what he had written down.

‘Summarizing the hypothesis: Kim Deukcheol targeted Kim Eung, killed him, took his gogok, and used a puppet to pretend he was alive until recently.’

Why would he go to such lengths?

‘Was there someone he wanted to deceive?’

Before her death, Seo Iju underestimated Kim Deukcheol. She mentioned that he was involved in bigger matters than she initially thought. Could one of those undisclosed affairs involve Kim Eung?

‘Teacher, and who else might he have deceived? Perhaps like with Mookyeong or myself…’

Did it also apply to Kim Heewon?

‘Kim Heewon, Kim Heewon.’

Hayun tapped his forehead with his fist. He had few memories of Kim Heewon. The name just sounded familiar because he heard it occasionally.

“…Occasionally.”

Hayun muttered while biting his fingernails. Suddenly, Seo Iju’s words about Jeong Kiwoo came to mind:

[Anyway, you must have seen him before. No, felt his presence at the door.]

He had perceived Jeong Kiwoo’s existence when seeing his name on the door. Thus, he vaguely realized that he was involved somehow.

‘I saw Kim Heewon’s name intermittently at the door and sensed his presence.’

It wasn’t within the same class but rather through the door.

Hayun bit his lip. He initially thought it was just a random lie, but it wasn’t. There was a possibility that Kim Heewon could also be a doorkeeper. However, this remained speculation since there was no way to confirm it accurately at present.

Despite that, a chill ran down his spine. Hayun abruptly stood up. It wasn’t yet time for his family to return home, so he was alone. Earlier, he enjoyed being by himself, but now it felt unsettling. Fear suddenly gripped him; he didn’t want to be alone anymore. He yearned to go somewhere crowded with people.

Hastily, he put on his outerwear and shoved his key card into his pocket. Yet, his gaze remained fixed on the notebook.

‘It isn’t certain. It isn’t certain. I just guessed it right. There could be mistakes. The puppet who died at that house might not be Kim Eung’s and it might not even be Kim Heewon. And…’

“…Even if it is true, what can I do?”

It was literally pointless. Should he go to the police with his deductions or go to school and tell a teacher? Now, he was just an ordinary person without any ability. He didn’t know how to handle this situation or how to deal with it.

“Why did you make something like this?” Hayun threw the notebook away. The flying notebook hit the TV shelf before bouncing off. Then he opened the pages once again.

“…..”

The numbers on the post-it notes with unknown destinations caught his eye. Hayun ran his hands over his face as he erupted in frustration. His eyes quickly reddened. He couldn’t open them, unsure where they might lead, yet he kept trying to guess their locations.

‘What am I doing? If you think you know where these places are, then what is stopping you?!’

He could only determine the possible range of movement for Kim Eung who was dead and Kim Heewon who had disappeared. Additionally, it was uncertain if Seo Iju’s Stealth skill would leave any traces behind.

“…Shit.”

However, even if that were the case, what good would it do?

‘I might be able to tell more convincing lies, just like my original purpose.’

Hayun muttered another curse under his breath, grabbed the notebook, and rushed outside.