WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 429: A Family of Distinction (5)
──────
- Han Ga-in
That day, after finishing my shift at the coffee shop, A-ri and I returned home to find Mom crying.
“Ga-in... A-ri... Hic!”
Then she told us the devastating news.
Dad had terminal liver cancer.
The shock was so overwhelming that my legs gave out. I couldn't stay on my feet any longer.
A-ri gave a bitter smile.
“Let's stop here.”
“...”
“This ending is completely screwed up. Looks like misfortune will just keep coming.”
Without a word, A-ri took a kitchen knife.
“... Please make it quick.”
“Of course. I've killed plenty of people. Do you really think I'd mess up killing just one?”
That was a very reassuring answer.
--- Stab!
* * *
...
...
...
--- Rustle!
A gentle breeze brushed my cheek, and bamboo leaves rustled in the nearby grove.
Something tickled my nose-
--- Clap!
Startled by the sudden clap, I turned around.
My little sister, Elena, stood there.
... My younger sister was a blonde, green-eyed white girl?
The sense of wrongness hit so hard I almost laughed. Then new information surfaced in my mind.
This child was my younger sister, adopted by our parents when she was young.
Since she was adopted, it made sense that she looked different.
...
No, this was complete bullshit.
Wasn't that setting way too lazy?
“Ga-in.”
It somehow felt perfectly natural for my little sister to suddenly call me Ga-in.
“Ah, in this situation, I should call you Big Brooo!”
“Please just call me Ga-in.”
“Ahem. Since there are other people around, I'll call you Big Brother. You should speak casually to me too. You must be confused, but listen carefully to what I say.”
“...”
“From what I saw A-ri doing outside, you're half-dazed right now, Big Brother. Half of you is awake, while the other half is trapped in the dream.”
“...”
“So try to pull yourself together.”
“I was already starting to wake up.”
It was a strange way to put it, but I really did feel like I was gradually waking up.
Memories of the earlier dreams I'd repeated were starting to surface too.
A-ri at least looked East Asian, with black hair, but Elena was unmistakably white. Was the disconnect caused by her appearance simply too strong?
“You're waking up? That's not a very good sign...”
“What do you mean?”
“The others are using the Painter's blank white drawing paper like a screen to watch your dream in fast-forward.”
“...”
“While watching it, there was something we couldn't understand.”
“What?”
“Why do you keep failing?”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words, but Elena continued.
The younger relatives had no idea what Elena and I were discussing, but they watched us with fascinated expressions.
“This dream is an adaptation of something you experienced as a child. Back then, you overcame it all on your own and arrived at the Hotel.”
“...”
“Why is present-day Big Brother failing at something younger Big Brother overcame? It's not as if you've gotten dumber with age.”
“...”
“This is what we concluded.”
“What?”
“Could it be that you're acting too much like an adult now? That's why you keep reaching endings different from real history.”
I was acting too much like an adult. Why?
As Elena put it, I was half-dazed.
Half of me was Ga-in the middle schooler, while the other half was an adult who vaguely knew all of this was a dream.
“Big Brother. The Painter decided just now. You have two chances left. Failing won't kill you, but you won't be able to receive the Painter's reward.”
“...”
“This time, instead of stepping in carelessly, I'll only point it out whenever you act unlike a middle school student.”
“...”
“Remember. From now on, Ga-in, ahem, Big Brother, you're a first-year middle school student. Act like one.”
I was a middle school student.
“I'm a middle school student.”
“That's right.”
“A first-year middle school student is basically an elementary school kid.”
“Th-that's right?”
“I'm basically an elementary school kid. I don't know any better.”
“Ga-in?”
“I'm a crazy middle schooler who doesn't know any better!”
“Pardon?”
I realized it.
I was a crazy middle schooler in the throes of adolescence, Han Ga-in unleashed.
* * *
The moment we returned to the country house, loud voices greeted us.
“Jeong-ho! You never even set foot in Grandpa's house normally-”
“Is Uncle any different? Anyone would think you're some great filial son!”
“Why's this punk talking like that? Min-seung really made a complete mess of raising his kid!”
“Good grief! Brother, take better care of your own damn brat!”
“You son of a bitch-”
“Hey, Brother and I came out of the same womb. If I'm a son of a bitch, then what does that make you-”
--- Crash!
“...”
I looked at Elena and thought.
How had I acted in this situation in the past?
I'd soothed the younger relatives, who had frozen stiff like stone, then played on the mountain behind the house while waiting for the adults to cool down.
“Wow. Thinking about it again, that's ridiculous.”
“... Big Brother?”
“What kind of middle schooler is that nice? Is that something out of a moral education textbook?”
“Ga-in?”
I needed to show the adults what a real middle schooler was like.
“Elena. You can cry on command, right?”
“Pardon? All of a sudden?”
“Get ready.”
Then I looked at the younger relatives behind me.
“Kids!”
“Big Brooo?”
“Big Brooo?”
“Let's go play in the water with Big Brother!”
“Water pway?”
“Yeah. Water play!”
Looking around, I found sprinklers for maintaining the garden and several hoses laid around the property. I handed one to each child.
“Fire!”
The children began spraying water all over the garden with bright smiles, regardless of whether the adults were fighting.
I aimed my hose toward the hanok.
“Eek! Big Brother! What are you-”
“This is what middle schoolers do.”
“Pardon?”
“This.”
“Pardon?”
“Fire!”
--- Whoooosh!
The streams of water arced through the air, drawing rainbows as they struck the country house. The hanok's fragile paper windows tore apart without mercy, and chaos erupted inside.
“Argh!”
“W-What is this?!”
“Who is it?!”
“I'll go check-”
As the adults shouted, I quickly put down the hose and transformed into a well-behaved middle schooler, stopping the younger kids.
“Kids, I think we should stop splashing around now~”
Of course, the children were already too excited, busy spraying water everywhere.
Elena watched with her mouth half-open.
“What... is the point of this?”
“I don't know.”
I didn't know either.
But when you thought about it, most of the stupid things kids did had no point at all.
“You little brats!”
The adults finally rushed out of the hanok. I quickly signaled Elena.
“Cry!”
“...”
“Now!”
“... Waaah!”
We'd caused an accident so outrageous that everyone's jaws would drop.
If you thought you were about to get scolded, you cried first.
Wasn't that how proper children behaved?
* * *
When Great-Grandfather saw the wrecked hanok, he looked dumbfounded. Then he kicked all the adults out to the tea fields, saying it was their fault for not controlling the children properly.
He wasn't wrong.
If they'd taken proper care of their kids in the first place, this mess never would've happened.
Elena, who had been watching the situation, muttered, “The adults got kicked out a day earlier. What could that mean?”
“I don't know.”
“...”
The adults had been kicked out a day earlier than in the original events, while the children were freer to act.
What did that mean?
...
It meant I had some time.
Time to uncover the secret hidden in this damn hanok and jar!
“I know what we need to do now. Kids~!”
I led the children straight to the storage room, and Elena looked deeply uneasy.
“J-Just in case, if you break the jar-”
“Elena, I just had a great idea. Listen carefully.”
“...”
Elena gave an awkward smile after hearing my plan, though her expression still asked whether this would work.
“I-Is this really what a middle school student would do?”
Honestly, it probably wasn't.
But after Elena came in, I suddenly came fully to my senses. There was nothing I could do about that.
“Don't obsess over whether it's something a middle schooler would do. What matters is ending this dream in something close to a happy ending.”
“That is true, but...”
The household staff looked extremely flustered when they saw me and the kids running toward the storage room.
If we had been thieves, they would have stopped us even if they had to beat us up, but we were all the homeowner's great-grandsons and great-granddaughters. Their confusion was a sight to see.
The moment we entered the storage room, I shouted firmly.
“All right! From now on, touch and play with anything you want!”
The children, like colts with their reins cut loose, immediately began handling expensive items all over the room.
Elena and I searched for the jar. Unlike me, who couldn't clearly remember the details of the previous dream, Elena had sharp memories and found it quickly.
“... You know you can't break it, right?”
“I told you, I know.”
In the meantime, the children began acting even more destructively.
“Here comes the airplane! Airplane!”
What Min-seok threw through the air while calling it an airplane was a very expensive painting. It had already been torn in two, so there was no way to tell what it had originally been anymore.
“What's this? Why's it round?”
Min-a threw a golden toad-shaped object onto the floor over and over, turning the round toad into a square one.
In moments, collectibles worth at least tens of millions of won had turned into trash.
Then, amid loud commotion outside, Great-Grandfather entered with a household staff member supporting him.
“O-Oh my goodness! What in the world is this?”
“Great-Grandpa~!”
His cute great-grandsons and great-granddaughters smiled brightly at him, with the trashed storage room behind them.
Great-Grandfather froze at the absurd sight. Then Elena and I appeared holding the jar.
“Great-Grandpa~!”
“Gah!”
This was different.
Until now, he'd remained composed like a man worth 100 billion won even as the children wrecked the place. Now, he looked so flustered that cold sweat ran down his face.
Because this jar was the real thing.
“G-Ga-in! Elena! Put that down!”
“Yeees?”
Pretending to be a completely clueless, crazy middle schooler who had no idea what he meant, I raised the jar high above my head.
Great-Grandfather's face went pale.
“Ga-in! B-Be careful! T-There's something very dangerous inside that jar!”
“Dangerous? I like dangerous things.”
I lightly shook it as if I might throw it.
“Argh!”
--- Tink!
I even gave it a sharp finger flick.
“Oh, for heaven's sake! What son of a bitch raised this kid like that? Whose child are you?”
“Your great-grandson.”
“Oh, has my time come at last?!”
In moments, Great-Grandfather had gone deathly pale.
In front of everyone, I carelessly handled the jar this way and that.
In reality, I controlled the angle so it could never open, and the sound of the finger flick had only been a sound I made with my hand.
What would it look like to anyone watching?
Like the jar had opened or cracked.
Great-Grandfather believed something ominous would happen if anything went wrong with the jar, and that belief was true.
So...
It was time to learn the secret Great-Grandfather had been carrying.
I nudged Elena.
“...”
“Hurry!”
Elena gave a bitter smile, then began to act.
“Uoooooh!”
The blonde girl suddenly rolled her eyes back and began making possessed noises!
Great-Grandfather stared at Elena in shock. Then Elena spoke in a voice like metal scraping against metal.
“Haaa... Brother Jin-seong. It's been a long time... hasn't it?”
“Gah!”
“How... long has it been? Have you been well?”
Han Jin-seong collapsed to the floor in shock.
I wanted to know.
What exactly had happened between Han Min-sang, trapped in the jar, and Han Jin-seong?
What did the jar demand in exchange for wealth and prosperity, and how could that price be avoided?
There was only one person likely to know the answer.
Han Jin-seong.
Footnotes:
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