WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 577: Everyone’s Interpretation (2), A Trip Down Memory Lane (1)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 112
Current Location: Unit 205, Singil Apartment, Seocho 3-dong, Seocho District, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 2」
- Han Ga-in
“Lastly, let's talk about the painting.”
The third piece of information A-ri had given us, the mysterious painting.
“Honestly, this is probably the most important part. The problem is...”
It was the most important, yet the hardest to interpret.
“...my memory isn't accurate.”
Some people have savant-like abilities that let them perfectly remember a scene after seeing it once and recreate it in a drawing, but that didn't apply to me.
The moment I saw the painting, an incomprehensible force swept over me!
I'd been too busy running away. How could I have memorized the painting perfectly?
Sang-hyeon lightly shook his head.
“I said this before, but the painting's details probably aren't important.”
“...”
“Ga-in, your memory is exceptional, but remembering a painting you only glanced at for two or three seconds as though it were a photograph is the realm of eidetic memory.”
“Right.”
“A-ri knows you don't have that kind of ability. So the details aren't the key. The main objects and the overall composition are enough.”
Details I couldn't remember in the first place weren't important.
“The background is a temple that looks like something out of Greek or Roman mythology. There's a frame in the center, and another painting inside that frame.”
“That's right.”
“The painting shows a ship moving forward with the sun at its back.”
“If I add one thing, ‘reflection’ was emphasized to an unusual degree. Does that imply the Mirror?”
“Actually, I thought that was an interpretation you added yourself, Ga-in. Because...”
“Because we already know the Mirror exists?”
“Exactly. Of course, I agree with your interpretation now.”
This was another minor difference in opinion I noticed while talking things through with my companions.
Still, Sage’s Advice had confirmed that the implication of the Mirror really existed, so I'd been right about that.
Soon, Sang-hyeon and I both fell silent.
“...”
“...”
There was nothing more to say because interpretations of the painting varied wildly.
We'd thrown out every idea we could think of and asked Sage’s Advice whether any of them were right.
All we'd learned was that tossing out random guesses and asking Owl whether we'd gotten it right made it difficult to get a proper answer.
“The sun, the Ark, the frame, the Mirror, the temple.”
“...”
“Still, two things are certain. Up to that point, it's ‘evidence-based reasoning,’ so even Owl said we were close to the answer.”
“The sun and the Mirror?”
“The sun refers to the Lord of Room 104, or something similar.”
“The Mirror is essentially the same object as the one we saw in Room 207.”
That was the conclusion we'd reached.
We still hadn't found a meaningful interpretation for the other three.
Tap!
Sang-hyeon lightly tapped the table, drawing my attention.
“Let's leave the old discussion there. Isn't today's real topic only beginning now?”
That was right!
The discussion about the information A-ri had given me was nothing more than a repeat of what we'd talked about endlessly over the past two months.
Today's real topic was the “trip down memory lane.”
“Right. I told you over the phone, but I'm planning to take a fairly long trip starting tomorrow.”
“...”
“So, I'm asking you to take care of Sunrise. I've been slowly stepping away lately, but I'm worried Ictus might do something strange if I'm gone.”
Sang-hyeon nodded and placed a small business card on the table.
『Sunrise Co., Ltd.
Director Kim Sang-hyeon』
Managing Sunrise while I was gone was another reason Sang-hyeon had come to Korea.
For him, it was also a justification for returning home.
If he'd been running a hospital perfectly well in America, then suddenly said he was moving to Korea for no reason, wouldn't people find that strange?
Maybe not others, but his wife and son would be horrified.
Being recruited as a highly paid director by a major Korean corporation was the kind of justification even ordinary people would accept.
“You don't need to worry about managing Sunrise. I'm an experienced hire, after all.”
“Experienced hire?”
“I managed Ga-in's cult in Room 206, after all...”
Now that he mentioned it, that was true.
“Still, I'll give you my final opinion.”
“Okay.”
“I wish you'd spend the remaining two months relaxing, going on dates with Elena or Mi-ro.”
“W-why are you naming those two...?”
“Why ask when you know? If you don't like that, I also recommend rolling around in your room and playing games. These days, Jinsol plays some shooting game called Call something all day.”
Seo Baram and Kim Jin-sol.
They were the wife and son Sang-hyeon had summoned through Dream.
I'd heard they were the same people as the family he'd gained in Room 203.
At least, Sang-hyeon believed so.
“A shooting game? Seung-yeop said Jinsol's League rank is even higher than Seung-yeop's.”
“That's because Seung-yeop's rank is low.”
“Wow! Jinsol's gaming talent is way better than Seung-yeop's!”
“It isn't that Seung-yeop lacks physical talent. His real problems are his absurd stubbornness and the nonstop chat messages he types on his keyboard. No, don't change the subject.”
Seung-yeop had gone through the Hotel, and he still fought with kids while playing League?
“I'm just going on a trip, Sang-hyeon. He even types in chat?”
“According to Jinsol, he types insults between skill uses. More importantly, are you really just going on a trip? You're calling it a ‘trip down memory lane.’”
Insults between skill uses?
When I imagined Seung-yeop typing, ‘Q, you idiot, W, don't get caught, E, I told you, R!’ I couldn't help being impressed.
“It's to look back on how I've lived so far...”
“Are there even any traces of the life you've lived here? By this world's standards, you were created four months ago.”
“...”
“In the first place, a trip to reflect on your life is something elderly people do when they're putting their lives in order. It isn't something someone young like you should-”
“I'm probably older than any elderly person you know.”
“...”
Sang-hyeon made an expression as if he'd just realized something.
It looked like I'd somehow won the argument, but I wasn't a child. It wasn't like I was happy over something like that.
“Ga-in, this isn't something to laugh about.”
“...”
“You're going because of what A-ri said, aren't you?”
According to A-ri's shocking words, something was wrong with some of my memories.
Even after thinking it over alone, I couldn't tell exactly what was strange.
Maybe something would come back to me if I went to the places in my memories myself.
The places I knew and their actual counterparts in reality had changed greatly because of the Loop, but there had to be things in common too.
“Song-i and Mi-ro decided to come with me.”
“...”
“The others are busy being agents or running businesses.”
Sang-hyeon was a perfect example, since he had to manage Sunrise in my place.
Then he tilted his head.
“Aren't both Song-i and Mi-ro students?”
“They are.”
“...Is it vacation right now? Ah, Korea's school vacation schedule...”
“Vacation doesn't start for another two weeks, I think. Seung-yeop goes to school.”
At that, Sang-hyeon's lips moved like a fish's.
Maybe he wanted to ask what kind of middle schooler or high schooler skipped school whenever they pleased.
But Song-i and Mi-ro didn't care about something like attendance days.
“Are you bringing companions with you because you want to make it feel like a ‘normal trip’?”
“Sang-hyeon, I told you not to add complicated intentions to it. I'm just going on a trip, and I'll take care of a few minor things while I'm at it.”
“Since Mi-ro has become something like a person with a split personality, maybe Dark Mi-ro will help.”
“Dark Mi-ro...? She'd like it if I told her you called her that.”
“Either way, you seem to have made up your mind, so I won't stop you. I hope it bears fruit.”
As I watched Sang-hyeon leave after our conversation, I thought about it.
People like Sang-hyeon and Eun-sol, who were deeply immersed in “reality” and tried to live “normally,” would probably find Song-i and Mi-ro strange...
But from Song-i and Mi-ro's perspective, wouldn't the other companions seem overly absorbed in role-playing?
To those two, reality was nothing more or less than one enormous playground.
What meaning could there be in whether they went to school inside that playground or not?
* * *
- Yoo Song-i
As I waited at our meeting spot, I realized again how much colder the weather had become.
Cold, dry air. Sharp wind slipping through the gaps in my clothes.
It was unmistakably winter.
Was winter vacation starting next week? Or the week after that?
Whatever. It didn't matter.
My vacation had already started.
“Achoo! Ah, why is Ga-in so late?”
“Are you cold?”
“A little! Ah, Song-i! Want some coffee?”
Mi-ro's cheerful voice came from beside me.
When I turned my head slightly, I couldn't help admiring her.
A girl with pure white hair and red eyes. She looked as though she'd stepped right out of a comic.
She wore soft winter clothes and even had a red fur hat on her head!
She really looked like a snow fairy.
“Song-i! Let's throw snow at Ga-in as soon as he gets here!”
She was a companion, but she was really cute.
Sometimes, how should I put it?
I kind of wanted to hug her.
“You really are different at times like this.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
She looked exactly like A-ri, but spending time with her showed just how different they were.
If it were A-ri, wouldn't she have done something irritating?
Like being the last one to arrive herself!
“How have you been lately, Mi-ro?”
“Good!”
“...Seung-yeop said you haven't been going to school.”
“It's boring. They keep making me study weird things.”
She said she wouldn't go to school because it was boring and she didn't want to study.
If an ordinary middle schooler said something like that, wouldn't they end up on one of those troubled-kids shows?
“You really live however you want... What kind of clueless middle schooler are you?”
“Wow! That's such a turnoff coming from you, Song-i!”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“You live however you want too! Your school even has a Yoo Song-i fan club- Mm!”
“B-be quiet!”
“Mm! You can't cover up the truth! Ah!”
“Ahhh!”
She bit my hand when I covered her mouth!
“Y-you idiot!”
“Idiot? Did you really just say that?”
“Want me to call you a low-intelligence middle schooler instead?”
“Cosmetic-surgery-addicted high schooler!”
“...!”
Mi-ro, you're dead today.
You rude little moron!
Just as we glared at each other, about to begin round two...
“...W-what is this?”
The main character of our trip appeared.
“W-what? Why are you two rolling around in the snow?”
“...”
“...”
Silence fell as if by magic.
When I awkwardly met Mi-ro's eyes, I suddenly felt incredibly stupid.
“Ahem! I was playing with Song-i.”
“O-oh, come on! You know, we were having a snowball fight!”
“That's right! Take this too, Ga-in!”
As if she'd been waiting for it, Mi-ro gathered snow from the ground and threw it.
Ga-in only tilted his head to dodge it before replying.
“A snowball fight is fine, but first, I'll tell you the trip itinerary.”
“...Okay.”
Soon, Ga-in took out a sheet of paper covered in place names and several photos.
“This is the address where I lived in high school. I looked it up on an online map, and in reality, there's some strange apartment complex there. This place in the countryside is where my late great-grandfather's house used to be, and this is-”
Mi-ro poked one of the photos.
“Where's this? A school?”
“Shinbanpo High School. It's where I graduated from, and surprisingly, a school with the exact same name still exists.”
“Isn't that because it was named after the area?”
“That is true. Anyway, we need to go there too. Because...”
“Because?”
“T-this is where Ga-young and I went to...”
“Ga-young?”
Ga-in's face suddenly turned a little red.
I turned to look at Mi-ro, wondering what that was about, only to see her tilting her head with the same expression.
“I-I'll explain later. Um, it's... a proud memory of mine?”
Ga-young?
A proud memory?
...Suspicious.
Footnotes:
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