WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 121: As Below, So Above
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“Ah, ugh......”
My stomach burned as I staggered to my feet.
The floor was stained a murky red.
Swish, swish......
After roughly cleaning up around me, I picked up the tray and spoon from the floor and headed for the tray return.
My appetite had vanished.
I didn't want to eat anymore.
I was full anyway.
Clunk......
When I placed the tray and spoon on the return rail, they slid away inside.
In the end, I must have somehow put down my spoon myself.
No matter how delicious all the food laid out in this cafeteria might be, it couldn't make me happy.
Still, it would be a problem if this kept happening every time......
I couldn't keep resolving it this way whenever I came to this floor.
It wasted too much time, and there might be floors ahead that required a minimum number of people, like the arcade.
There was nothing I could do this time, since things had already turned out this way.
If I came back again, I'd have to find another solution.
“Urk......”
I barely forced down something trying to rise from my stomach.
They writhed inside me. They wanted to rise too. Lost things screamed inside me. They wanted out too.
“Ha......”
No. No, it was fine. It was nothing.
There was no point suffering over it now.
That would be deception, and an insult.
I looked away from the things sprawled across the floor.
I had to keep going up.
I had to get out alive.
That was my rule, and it was the one thing I had to uphold.
Even if I broke every other rule.
Swish.
I pushed away the insect-like thoughts crawling up through my mind and pulled out my phone.
[⚠Unable to play video⚠
Ended broadcasts cannot be played.]
My livestream.
[#UiwiGuild#Jaelae#Visitor#Mukbang]
[110,000 views]
Ah. It had gotten a disgustingly high number of views.
Anyway, it looked like the stream ended as soon as I returned my tray.
Then I should be able to leave now.
Just as Yu Mi-rae had.
Clunk.
As I climbed the emergency staircase, I thought maybe I would meet Yu Mi-rae on the next floor.
* * *
When I was in middle school, there had been a pair of siblings in my grade.
Siblings born in the same year, the boy in January and the girl in December.
They'd be absent for days at a time whenever people started to forget about them, but their grades were surprisingly good. They didn't speak much, and their neat conduct made them closer to model students than troublemakers. They drew attention with their looks despite having no styling or makeup, and they didn't even have the usual social media accounts.
‘Are you guys really idol trainees? Which agency are you with?’
‘Where do you live? You don't live in Geumnae-dong, do you?’
‘If it's okay, want to eat with us tomorrow?’
‘Want to go to the store together later? What do you like?’
‘Your skin is amazing! What do you use?’
‘Hey, let's play basketball later!’
‘What elementary school did you go to?’
Once someone broke the ice, questions poured down on them. Despite their cool impressions, the shy siblings would respond with awkward little “Huh?” and “Uh?” sounds, their ears turning carrot-red.
Looking back now, I think I liked them.
......Not romantically, of course.
No, maybe it would have been better if it had been romantic.
We had never even been in the same homeroom or exchanged a word.
We only attended sectioned subject classes in the same classroom and passed each other at school.
Yet whenever people crowded around them, I caught glimpses of the faint shadows on their faces.
Because I thought I understood the temperature of those shadows.
Because when everyone admired them, I thought I alone could pity them.
As if that made me someone.
I had been young then too.
An arrogant child who thought I knew everything.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Still, there was one thought I had about those siblings that I believed was right even now.
The reason people kept being drawn to them and wanted to give them something of themselves.
It wasn't because they looked like exquisitely crafted dolls, or because their unexpectedly shy personalities contrasted with their appearances, or because they had that mysterious air of standing alone together beyond an invisible line......
It was because they smelled the scent of the gaps drifting out from between every piece that made them what they were.
Without even knowing its name.
That was what made them impossible to look away from.
So I had liked what they lacked.
Because they were broken.
Because they were damaged, like me.
Maybe I had thought my broken piece might fit perfectly into their empty space.
Like a puzzle.
Like one whole.
Like a Labyrinth.
Maybe, by locking into each other's empty places, we could finally solve each other......
Truly, it would have been better if I had liked them romantically.
* * *
Clunk.
The moment I opened the emergency exit door on the next floor, turning over those old memories in my mind.
“Hm?”
“......Huh?”
At the familiar face I ran into without warning outside the door, I let out a forbidden word without thinking.
I froze, blankly staring at the person before me.
Long, jet-black hair cascading down her back.
A jacket, vest, and ankle-length skirt, a three-piece suit coordinated in such a deep, dark green that it was nearly black.
Distinctive running shoes that felt oddly out of place beneath an impeccably refined and stylish business outfit.
“Ah, a person.”
And a voice that gripped people so strangely, as if it were burrowing into their minds.
“Yu Mi-rae......”
Yu Mi-rae. It really was Yu Mi-rae.
“Hm?”
“......Ah. Sorry, Representative.”
When I unconsciously murmured her name, Yu Mi-rae's eyes widened slightly. I came back to my senses and properly introduced myself.
“My name is Seon Yu-han.”
“Hm?”
Her pitch-black eyes rested on my face for a moment, then slowly traveled from my head to my feet.
Without blinking once.
Yu Mi-rae tilted her head.
......Could she tell?
My clothes had gotten so dirty that I had borrowed Hyeon Je-won's clothes.
“Why are you speaking formally?”
“......Pardon?”
“We're friends.”
“......We are?”
“Yeah.”
Yu Mi-rae nodded as though she'd said something obvious.
Come to think of it, it had sounded so natural that I hadn't noticed.
Yu Mi-rae was speaking casually to me.
“We're friends. Singyae Middle School, 42nd graduating class.”
I had known this was coming, but I really hadn't expected it so soon.
“Back then, your name wasn't Seon Yu-han, it was Lee...”
“...Yes. I changed my name.”
“Yeah. But your current name is prettier. I think you picked well.”
“Ah...... Yes. Thank you......?”
Honestly, I was flustered.
Yu Hyun-jae had recognized me from the beginning but stubbornly pretended not to, only acknowledging it after I had died nearly a hundred times.
And even then, it was to screw me over in the Prisoner's Dilemma.
Yu Mi-rae, on the other hand, made it obvious that she recognized me from our very first meeting.
It was enough to move me.
“Anyway, talk casually. We're friends.”
Just because we went to the same school didn't mean we could become friends who spoke casually......
“I talk casually to everybody anyway.”
Wasn't that just because she was in a position where she could get away with it......?
“I prefer speaking formally.”
Formal speech was comfortable.
I found it difficult to measure the distance between myself and others. I didn't want to measure it, either. I didn't want to let anyone get close enough for them to try.
That was why formal speech was comfortable.
“Really? So where did you come from?”
Yu Mi-rae agreed indifferently, as though she had never been interested, then immediately changed the subject.
“You came from below, right? Say you came from below. Hurry!”
The Representative suddenly raised her voice as though urging me on.
“......Can't I have come down from above?”
“No, you can't......”
This time, her voice trailed off dejectedly.
Why was she...... like this?
“What can't I do?”
“It's no fun. I'm going upstairs now, so it would ruin it if I knew beforehand.”
......Was that fortunate?
Unlike Yu Hyun-jae, who had taken so long, I had learned right away that Yu Mi-rae was crazy.
“I...... came up from the floor below.”
Yu Mi-rae brightened.
“Really? Then you cleared the floor below Haruda Dining and came up?”
“......Yes.”
“Then did you kill someone there? Haruda Dining doesn't have any rules that say you have to kill someone.”
“Pardon?”
I thought I had misheard her.
“What do you mean......”
“Your nails.”
Yu Mi-rae gestured toward my hand.
“There's still blood there.”
When I looked down, the undersides of my nails were blotched reddish brown.
“And you smell like blood. A little.”
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh slipped out.
My clothes had been the least of my concerns.
“But why are you deliberately telling me this, Representative? How do you know what I might do?”
If it had been Yu Hyun-jae, he would have approached more delicately, more subtly.
With the intention of screwing me over and testing me.
“Just because I'm curious. Things like that happen a lot in the Labyrinth. Besides, if you and I fight, I won't be the only one who dies. I'm really good at fighting. Dirty fighting. You know that too, don't you?”
Yu Mi-rae smiled mischievously.
She was so blunt and honest that it almost felt pure.
That was why she didn't seem to have any intention of attacking me at all.
How could they be so completely different?
“Yes...... I know.”
The whole country probably knew how good Yu Mi-rae was at fighting dirty.
“See? But where did you kill them......!”
Yu Mi-rae smiled triumphantly, then suddenly asked again as though annoyed.
“......In the company cafeteria.”
“Hm? Really? Not the floor below Haruda Dining? That's strange.”
Strange.
Why wasn't she asking which floor was below the basement level where the company cafeteria had been?
‘It's no fun. I'm going upstairs now, so it would ruin it if I knew beforehand.’
Could this possibly be an extension of that crazy remark?
......No, wait.
“You, by any chance...”
“...You said you were going upstairs now. Have you cleared this floor?”
Only then did I check the floor number.
Floor 10.
[Strategic Planning Division｜PR Planning Team｜Legal Affairs Office]
The directory had Strategic Planning Division and Legal Affairs Office written in bold.
“Yeah. I was on my way up when I ran into you.”
“What kind of...... floor is this?”
Even as I asked, I had a bad feeling.
Yu Mi-rae tugged up the corner of her mouth like a mischievous child.
“I'm not telling you.”
Footnotes:
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