WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 134: Room 107, Gate Room - Final Trial (25)

──────

- Kim A-ri

--- Ring! Ring!

I woke to the sound of my alarm.

Still half asleep, I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, washed my hair and face, and slowly came to my senses.

When I looked in the mirror, I saw a stunningly beautiful girl who looked as though she had stepped out of a work of fiction!

... Time to go.

I idly touched the Pendant around my neck as I left the bathroom.

After getting dressed, I came out to the savory smell of fried eggs filling the house.

“You're up? Come set out the utensils.”

Mom was preparing breakfast.

‘How strange. Mom seems like an adult.’

?

That was a weird thought. Of course Mom was an adult. What else would she be, a child?

Fried eggs, a few side dishes, and rice.

It was a simple but filling breakfast. Just as I was about to head out, Mom lightly hugged me and stroked my hair.

“Good luck today too!”

“Ah! Mom, I told you not to do stuff like that.”

“I'm joking.”

Silver hair flowing down to her waist, red eyes, softly curved eyebrows.

I left the house after looking at my mother, who was so beautiful it was hard to believe.

For some reason, a single tear slipped down my cheek.

As I ran toward school, a familiar voice called out to me.

“A-ri!”

Who was that? The name was... Ah, Da-seul.

I chatted with Da-seul, my friend since childhood, all the way to school.

‘Seo Da-seul should've died a long time ago.’

There I went again, thinking strange thoughts. Da-seul was alive right beside me.

Classes were as unbearably boring as always.

Over several decades, smartphones with processing power beyond old supercomputers had fallen into our hands, and civilization had advanced enough for the Management Bureau to send people to the Otherworld. So why had school lessons remained almost the same for decades?

... The Management Bureau?

I had another strange thought.

The bell rang, ending class. When I stood up, several friends gathered around me.

We chatted about this and that for a while, laughing our heads off.

They could laugh and talk for ten whole minutes over a caterpillar climbing a branch outside the window! Students at this age seemed capable of laughing even when a leaf fell.

After stepping into the hallway for a moment, I noticed everyone taking out their lunchboxes and gathering them around the stove at the back of the classroom.

Should I have brought a lunchbox and put it on the stove too?

... Lunchboxes? They served school meals these days, so why had everyone brought lunchboxes?

Once I realized that, I looked around and noticed the uniform design was strange too.

The tops and bottoms resembled gakuran uniforms, while the student caps looked like berets.

Didn't people only wear uniforms like that in the 1980s?

My head hurt. I felt like I was on the verge of realizing something.

Without realizing it, I touched my Pendant again.

Just as I was about to sit back down and think, Da-seul grabbed my shoulder.

“Ah.”

“What do you mean, ‘ah’? What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“It just felt like something around me was strange for a second...”

“Strange? Did you have a dream or something?”

“Maybe.”

“Did you watch You Who Fell from the Sky yesterday?”

“What's that?”

“Whaaat? You didn't see it? Everyone's talking about it! It's a huge hit!”

“Is it a drama?”

“Yeah! The female lead is seriously such a goddess. Look!”

Da-seul took out her phone and showed me the drama's female lead.

Flowing golden hair, as if coated in melted gold. Emerald eyes that seemed filled with all the vitality of the Amazon.

She was the kind of person who naturally made you blurt out, “Wow, a celebrity!”

She looked incredibly familiar.

Had I seen someone like her somewhere before?

For the rest of lunch, I did nothing but listen to people talk about You Who Fell from the Sky and its rookie actress lead.

The strangest thing that happened that day occurred around seventh period.

--- Flap!

The window suddenly flew open with a loud noise, and a parrot flew into the classroom.

Everyone screamed in surprise, and even the teacher who had been giving the lesson panicked. Total chaos!

The parrot didn't spare anyone else a glance. It flew straight at me as if it were charging.

I was so startled that I couldn't even react.

The parrot flew right in front of me, then immediately thrust its beak at my neck and tried to tear off the Pendant I was wearing.

“Ahh! What is wrong with you? Get off! Get off!”

Startled, I tried to hit and push the parrot away with a book, but it didn't work.

Even though the book was much bigger than the parrot, it didn't budge. Instead, it grabbed me with its beak and shook me.

Were birds normally this strong? This was way too strong. How could an ordinary bird be like this?

My friends and the teacher rushed over too, desperately trying to grab the parrot and pull it away from me.

--- Wheee!

A sharp whistle pierced my ears.

The parrot immediately raised its head and reacted to the whistle.

“Pero! Get back here right now!”

A female student's voice called out, sounding angry.

Pero flew away somewhere, unable to hide its disappointment.

Class ended awkwardly amid the confusion.

As soon as class was over, a second-year student came to see me.

She had short dark brown hair that reminded me of hazelnuts, delicate and cute features, and a pleasant appearance. The name tag on her chest read, “Yoo Song-i.”

On her right arm, she wore an opaque bracelet with a mysterious air about it.

For some reason, this girl felt very familiar too.

Despite having controlled the parrot with a single whistle and one sharp shout, she hesitated nervously in front of me before speaking.

“Um! I'm sorry. My friends kept begging me to let them see Pero just once, so I brought Pero to school. I definitely put Pero in the Birdcage, but my friends were fooling around and Pero got out. Pero suddenly flew off and did something weird. I'm sorry!”

“It's okay. It's a bird, so things like that can happen.”

“Pero isn't normally the kind of bird who causes trouble like today. Pero's a really smart parrot, but the second the Birdcage opened, Pero flew off so fast that I couldn't stop it.”

“It's really okay. It wasn't a big deal.”

“...”

“...”

We looked at each other for a moment, then tilted our heads at the same time.

I spoke first.

“Don't you think we've met somewhere before?”

“I was thinking the same thing. Where do you live?”

I talked with the older student for a while, but where we lived and our backgrounds were completely different. Even so, we both felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity and closeness toward each other.

Maybe we had run into each other by chance somewhere and forgotten?

Nothing else unusual happened that day.

* * *

- Yoo Song-i

I had a strange experience.

Pero, whom I had brought because my friends kept begging, caused a huge incident! I was so startled that I barely managed to handle it, and I had to listen to the teacher scold me for a long time too.

The strange part came when I went to apologize to the first-year student Pero had bothered.

First, I was shocked by the girl's appearance.

Hair that seemed to hold the night sky, distinct features, and above all, red eyes that flashed as though blood might start flowing from them at any moment!

She had the kind of appearance that felt impossible to forget for the rest of my life.

Wasn't this just an ordinary academic high school? It wasn't some celebrity training school, so how could there be someone like her here?

Her appearance was so overwhelming that it was hard to even open my mouth.

The next thing I felt was an inexplicable familiarity and closeness.

She looked like a princess from another planet, someone as far from the word “familiar” as possible. Yet for some reason, she felt familiar. More than that, she felt close.

It felt like we could comfortably joke around with each other.

Then something even stranger happened.

That girl, Kim A-ri, said she felt the exact same closeness and familiarity toward me!

Afterward, we talked about whether we might live near each other or have attended the same elementary or middle school, but none of it matched.

I walked across the schoolyard, thinking about the confusing experience for a long time.

--- Screech! Clunk!

“Hey! Watch where you're going!”

“Ah! I'm sorry!”

Oops, oops! I had been walking while lost in complicated thoughts and nearly got hit by a motorcycle.

But wasn't this the schoolyard?

The delivery driver had obviously been speeding illegally, yet they got angry at me!

I puffed out my cheeks in annoyance when someone called out to me from behind.

“Wow, Song-i, I was so surprised. You almost got hit.”

When I turned around, I saw Yeon-a, one of the friends who had begged me to bring Pero.

“I was surprised too.”

“Be careful. I heard one of the third-year students got hit by a motorcycle and was hospitalized too.”

“A third-year student?”

“Yeah. Haven't you heard? Senior Ga-in.”

“I've never heard of him. Is he famous?”

“Not exactly famous, but there are a few girls who like him because he's handsome.”

“Really?”

I accepted that explanation and turned my head away.

...

“Yeon-a.”

“Yeah?”

“Is that senior's family name Han? Han Ga-in?”

“That's right. You know him too?”

“No... It just suddenly came to mind.”

It really had just suddenly come to mind.

Nothing else unusual happened at school.

By evening, I returned home. My peaceful home, just like always.

The moment I arrived, Happy, who looked like a white ball of cotton, and Som-i, who spent half the day sleeping, came over and nudged me.

After I spent a while doing a joyful spinning whirlwind dance with Happy and Som-i, an incredulous voice spoke up.

“Song-i, do you do that dance every time you come home? Can't you see Pero looking stunned right next to you?”

“So what? Pero can dance with us too.”

The moment Pero heard that, it flew into the room.

“Mom! Where's Dad?”

“Your father said he'll be late today. I don't know why he's been working overtime so often lately. I know the hospital is busy, but he should pay some attention to home too.”

Mom sounded disappointed that Dad was so busy with hospital work that he often couldn't come home.

For some reason, simply seeing this scene made me feel happy.

I felt like Mom used to not care at all whether Dad went somewhere or not...

It had to be my imagination. Mom and Dad had always gotten along well.

Just then, Dad sent a message to the family KakaoTalk group.

/My beloved Song-i and dear Ye-eun! I'm sorry I'm late~!/

The message began like that and continued with sickeningly sweet lines. I teased Mom mercilessly, and after blushing, she kicked me. That brought dinner to an end.

For the first time in a while, we were going on a family trip during the short holiday break, which even included a public holiday.

After dinner, I was about to go to my room when tears welled up in my eyes without warning.

... What's wrong with me?

Strange memories suddenly surfaced in my mind.

My parents screamed at each other every day.

They began seeing other people just to spite each other, and they started contacting lawyers.

They were strange memories. My parents had always gotten along well. Something like that could never happen.

After washing all those strange memories away in the shower, I went into my bedroom.

...

...

--- Clunk!

I woke in shock as the bed shook violently.

In front of me stood an incomprehensible monster unlike anything I had ever seen anywhere in the world.

Footnotes:

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