WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 299: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (21)

──────

- Lee Eun-sol

As I watched Kim Ji-ho, the baseball team boy walking toward me with a face as red as a ripe persimmon, I thought:

Should I accept this confession or not?

Rejecting him outright was a little scary. That idiot from this morning and a baseball team boy built like that were on completely different levels of danger. If someone like him came at me trying to kill me, could the other students even stop him?

...

I made my decision.

“Ji-ho...”

“H-Han Yu-ri! S-Sorry for coming twice, but... I-I just couldn't let go of you as you kept growing in my heart. I c-can't even focus on practice because I keep th-thinking about you...”

Wow, this kid was really something.

Ji-ho's words were so slurred that I wondered if he was even speaking Korean, and it made my breath catch. I could feel just how crazily this boy liked Han Yu-ri.

He couldn't even breathe properly, could he? Yu-ri, what the hell had you been doing?

“My coach told me to try one more time... Ah, no! I didn't come because my coach told me to! I-I...!”

“Slow down. Take your time. I'll listen.”

I only said it because I was getting frustrated, but his face turned even redder when he heard it.

“S-S-Sorry... W-Will you go o-out with me?”

I smiled as kindly as I could, took his hand, and looked into his eyes.

“Then is today our first day together?”

“U-Uwaaaah!”

Kim Ji-ho screamed and fell backward. He came here to confess, so why was he surprised when I accepted?

Why had I accepted his confession?

One reason was definitely that rejecting someone with such strong physical abilities outright felt burdensome. Also, judging by how the story was going and the title ‘The Bewitching Girl,’ it seemed like crazed ‘confession killers’ would keep coming after me.

Wouldn't I need both a valid reason to reject confessions and a bodyguard?

It looked like I hadn't made a bad choice. The baseball team boy even shed a few tears, tried to throw his arms around me, then suddenly started trembling on his own. After making a complete fool of himself, he left after saying he'd see me after class.

When I turned to return to the classroom, I noticed that the atmosphere inside had changed.

The girls around me had begun glaring at me as if they could shoot lasers from their eyes. Just as I wondered what this was about, someone spoke sharply.

“Congratulations! Yu-ri has a boyfriend now?”

“... Thanks.”

“Is today your firssst day together?”

“...”

“That's so cute! Right?”

“Yeah! I've never heard Yu-ri make such a nasal voice before!”

Girls. What kind of elementary-school power struggle was this? Did they think their older sister couldn't handle a pathetic little argument like this? Was this girl's name Kim Eun-hye?

“Did it sound like that? Eun-hye, your ears must be pretty blocked. Ask your boyfriend to take a look at them! Oh, you don't have one?”

The girl in front of me glared with her eyes wide open. So what? Would I die because you glared at me? What are you, Medusa?

Then another girl across from me attacked.

“Didn't you reject Ji-ho when he confessed last month?”

I remembered someone saying he had come again when the baseball team boy showed up. So this wasn't his first confession.

“That was then.”

“It's different this time. Why, because Ji-ho got drafted into pro baseball?”

“...”

“Wow! Yu-ri, you're amazing! Yeah! Yu-ri is sooo poor, right? You need a rich husband.”

So they were saying I was dating him not because of sincere feelings, but because he looked like he'd make a lot of money? Sorry, but it took me a while to understand what exactly was wrong with that.

Sorry. Your older sister had been worn down by life a little. You'll understand when you get older, but adults are naturally supposed to consider jobs and assets when dating and getting married.

And now that I knew it, Yu-ri's family was poor? Then of course she should find herself a good boyfriend or husband.

“Just be honest, all of you! You-”

--- Smack!

Before I could react, someone grabbed my shoulder hard. I turned in surprise and found Saerom, who had been following me around since morning. Seeing the girl's face frozen as cold as ice made me sigh.

Don't tell me she liked that baseball team senior too-

“Shut your fucking mouths!”

The girl before me now seemed like a completely different person from the one I had seen all morning.

The problem wasn't just that she had cursed. An intense pressure I couldn't put into words radiated from her. A few of the girls even staggered.

... Was that a normal reaction?

After verbally crushing everyone around us with a single sentence, Saerom gripped my arm and began walking down the hall. Her strength and forcefulness were so overwhelming that I couldn't stop her.

“W-What the hell? Why all of a sudden-”

The girl leaned close to my ear and spoke quietly.

“You made a mistake just now.”

... Why was she suddenly speaking formally?

“What do you mean?”

“Ha... You really don't understand the situation at all. Even if this is a school, you suppressed yourself too much, didn't you? I thought you had been acting strangely since this morning.”

What had I done? Suppressed myself? I had been strange since morning?

“Go home right now. You'll understand what I mean on the way. And think about how you're going to deal with this.”

“...”

“Right now! I'll make an excuse for you leaving early.”

I really didn't understand. What kind of development was this all of a sudden?

* * *

- Theater

“What? What was that all about?”

Ga-in couldn't understand the situation at all. The other companions reacted with the same confusion.

“What mistake did she make? And why is she suddenly telling her to go home?”

Song-i nodded at Elena's words. Then A-ri's expression darkened.

“... I think I know what this is.”

“What?”

“Was this really where the story was going? I did think the degree to which she charmed people was abnormal...”

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

Still confused, I gathered my things from the classroom. Since I had just fought with the girls, I even had an excuse.

But where was my home address?

With a bitter laugh, I asked Saerom, the only one I could possibly ask. She whispered, “Control yourself appropriately from now on,” then told me the address. The location I found on my smartphone map app was a little shocking.

“I live somewhere like this?”

Once I left the classroom, walked down the hall, and stepped outside the school building, a realization slowly came over me.

...

Awakening was the shedding of one's shell.

Cracks formed in the shell that had covered me, and incomprehensible knowledge seeped into my mind. An evil breath that ordinary people would never dare understand filled my lungs.

This was seriously too much! This was the kind of story it was?

“Ugh... Grandpa! You should've held on a little longer!”

Grandpa should've figured this out too! He was taken out so quickly that I, the one who entered second, ended up realizing it. What was I supposed to do now? How should I proceed from here?

“Yu-ri!”

As I walked across the field, lost in confusion over what I should do next, my ‘first-day boyfriend’ Kim Ji-ho spotted me, waved with a huge smile, and ran toward me.

I awkwardly smiled and waved back, then froze in shock. The moment the sturdy baseball team boy entered my sight, an urge I had never imagined I could feel toward a human being filled my soul.

So that was why! That was why ‘Han Yu-ri’ always kept her shell on at school! She must not have been able to endure this revolting urge.

“Yu-ri! What's with the bag?”

“... I have a headache, so I'm leaving early today.”

“W-What? Oh no! I was going to tell you after class!”

“What is it?”

“I'll walk you home today!”

“...”

“I-I heard it. Your house is in a somewhat dangerous area. You normally go with Saerom... but Saerom isn't here today!”

“...”

“Don't misunderstand! It's not like I asked around about you or anything. I just happened to hear...”

“You mean you'll walk me home?”

“Yeah!”

Without thinking, I muttered, “You're really devoted.”

Did that sound a little sharp? The boy panicked for a moment, then seemed to guess my intentions however he liked and began making a strange excuse.

“D-Don't misunderstand. I really don't have any weird thoughts. I'm saying this because I'm genuinely worried about you, so-”

“Okay. I'll wait, so go tell your coach.”

I didn't suspect for a second that this baseball team boy would try anything improper under the excuse of walking me home. Honestly, such trivial matters didn't concern me.

I only wanted to see how strong my ‘urge’ was.

Kim Ji-ho said something to his coach, then soon returned to me with a bright smile. I did wonder what kind of coach allowed a promising player to skip practice just to walk his girlfriend home, but whatever.

As I walked around the field while waiting for Kim Ji-ho to return, I smelled a fragrant scent whenever I saw the ‘young students.’ My wildly pounding heart told me how intensely thirsty I was.

...

The thirst became several times stronger when I looked at the boy holding my hand with a foolish grin.

...

Had about twenty minutes passed? Once we left the school and reached an alley, I finally stopped.

I couldn't bear it any longer.

“Ji-ho.”

“Yeah?”

“You should go back now.”

“What? I can't even see your house yet. We're almost there, so let's just keep-”

“Go back.”

“Y-Yu-ri?”

I grabbed Kim Ji-ho's arm tightly, stopping him, and stared into his eyes. At first, the boy looked embarrassed. Soon, though, his expression turned dazed.

“Go. Back.”

“... Okay.”

* * *

In the alley where a girl beautiful as an angel from heaven had passed by, the boy who had leaned against the wall with a dazed expression soon came to his senses. Why had his angelic girlfriend told him to go back?

Maybe she had been embarrassed to show him her poor home. After deciding that was the reason, the boy turned around, thinking about how he could approach her more naturally next time.

Then he noticed several dark blue bruises on the arm Yu-ri had gripped so tightly.

“Yu-ri is a lot stronger than she looks?”

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

I ran toward the house in a panic. After passing through one shabby, dangerous alley after another, places far too dangerous for a pretty girl like Han Yu-ri to live, I finally saw a decrepit abandoned house at the end of the alley.

“H-Hehe! Hi!”

“...”

A potbellied man who looked mentally unstable stood in front of the house.

“H-Hi! You, you! You're Yu-ri, right? I-I see you sometimes. D-Do you need money?”

... If I were still the version of myself from school, I would have considered this a serious crisis. Should I have brought Ji-ho all the way here? If the sturdy Ji-ho were beside me, a vagrant like this wouldn't even have been able to meet my eyes before running away.

He was nothing more than a perverted vagrant at society's very bottom, someone who had lost repeatedly in life until nothing remained. But he was still an adult man. He was a great danger to a high school girl, and it wouldn't be easy to escape without supernatural power.

So I used supernatural power.

--- Click!

The moment the brooch in my hair clicked, a blue butterfly floated through the air and flew toward the vagrant. The man wondered what it was, then collapsed and rolled across the ground before five seconds had passed.

I felt no concern or unease about using the brooch. The plot of ‘The Bewitching Girl,’ which I had belatedly understood, allowed me to use my abilities without consequence. I had already used a power practically identical to hypnosis several times.

--- Ring-ring!

“Gangdong Police Station-”

“There's a strange man collapsed on the ground here.”

It would be troublesome if this bastard died here. After making a rough report, I entered the shabby abandoned house. It was truly a place that made no sense for a high school girl to live in.

Of course...

She had chosen it deliberately. A place like this made it easier to deal with ‘prey.’

There were no parents or family members inside the house. After all, the only person even remotely like that to me was Saerom, who was still at school.

Instead, the thick smell of blood and the disgusting stench of entrails turned my stomach.

... That was a lie.

Far from turning my stomach, they gave rise to an unbearable urge. The craving I had felt ever since I left school and shed my shell was stronger than ever.

Dazed, I turned and looked into the mirror.

I saw two red lights, like blood emerging from the darkness.

Then my school skirt began to sway.

A trace of wildness protruding from between my legs lightly brushed the floor.

... I was hungry.

This thirst and appetite could never be satisfied with human food.

I knew that I was not the one being hunted, but the hunter.

「The Bewitching Girl」

「The Bewitching」

「」

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「21st-Century Tale of the Nine-Tailed Fox」

Footnotes:

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