I Couldn't Tell You Who It Was

There was too much information buzzing around in my head. I unconsciously scratched at the door with my nails. Scritch scratch. It was a wooden door, so it was easily dented by my nails. Something bad happened to Seoyoon? Woorim was definitely with us… The hallway lights suddenly went out, and Seoyoon screamed from downstairs. Woorim and the secret passageways…

Secret passageways…. Secret passageways, you say…

“…The elevator” Since it seemed like Hyehyun wouldn’t let me out, I decided to ask something different. “How does it look now?”

Hyehyun thought my question was strange, yet he willingly checked the elevator for me. “It’s just the same as the morning.”

“…I see.” After I heard from him, I moved away from the door.

I had no idea what was obstructing my door, but it had to be items from another person’s room or the kitchen. It had to be Hyehyun’s idea to lock me in since I was the only person who would try to go and save Woorim.

I knew Hyehyun’s specialty very well. Instead of stepping out recklessly, he was good at instigating others around him. He minimized his risk while encouraging others to create the situation that he wanted.

This time was no different.

Although it may be strange that a second flashlight was discovered, people must have questioned Woorim’s method. Hyehyun was probably the one to convince them that Woorim simply seemed dangerous, so it was best to cast him out of the group. It was just like how he convinced his brother to fulfill his own desires.

When someone did something crazy out of the blue, there was bound to be another person manipulating them from behind. I swallowed tensely. “What about the others?”

“They went to look for Seoyoon. Raehee and I stayed back. We were in our rooms, but I came out because you kept yelling. Raehee is very anxious because of this series of events. If you keep acting like this, she’ll keep suffering.”

Lies. Hyehyun was worried that Raehee would go looking for Woorim if she heard what I had to say.

Seeing that Woorim was unable to come back upstairs after all this time, there must have been something blocking his way up the stairs. If people didn’t open the door for him upon finding the key, Woorim would never be able to come back upstairs. Hyehyun must have gloated inside, gleeful that someone he didn’t like ended up in that situation.

I was then hit by a bone-chilling thought. “…”

The doors were padlocked between each floor.

At first, I thought they were there so we couldn’t get out of the building easily, but coming this far, I thought that maybe there was another purpose to them. Why would someone need to block the stairways? Plus, they couldn’t be unlocked by someone coming up from downstairs.

Could it be in case something tried coming up from downstairs…?

“Hyehyun.” Perhaps it was because I was tense, but my voice was hoarse. “I’m tired. I’ll be resting.”

“All right. You’ll be better off there too. That way, you don’t need to search downstairs. Don’t think about throwing yourself into danger, and just have a nice long rest in there.” Hyehyun chuckled, pleased that I seemed to have given up. “I’ll definitely find the exit for you.”

Instead of replying, I took a sharp breath in.

Hyehyun’s footsteps grew faint. Upon checking that Hyehyun was far away, I looked around my room. It only had the necessities inside. I fell asleep fairly quickly on the first day because I was tired. I didn’t think that I needed to look around my room.

I started to feel around my door and walls. I wanted to see if there were any secret passageways.

The map that I had found depicted the lower floors excluding this top floor in precise detail. The top floor was blank and was only labeled “base camp.” I wasn’t convinced that such a bizarre mansion would only be normal on the top floor.

Woorim said so as well—this mansion was extended and renovated over the original.

That meant the mansion maintained most of its original form. The interior might have been modernized and altered for the ease of filming. What lay beneath the walls and floor was mostly untouched.

I recalled the “living room” with the piles of toys. I thought back to the timeworn and antiquated space behind the fireplace and the old furniture that rained from the ceiling. I thought that the mansion’s original appearance was like the room with the elevator.

A shiver ran down my spine.

If that was the case, this mansion was extremely similar in appearance to the mansion in my memories.