WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 124: The Taste of Memories! (Even That Bittersweet Aftertaste, Just as It Was!)

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"If you drink Nectar, you should be able to curb most appetites. It probably varies a little from person to person, though."

Haruda Dining's food and the Nectar in the vending machine.

The most delicious flavor and the most dearly missed flavor.

Nectar, which showed you the flavor of your most cherished memory, could offset the greed for the most delicious food to a certain extent.

Just as I had suppressed that desire with the things that made me happiest.

I could only stare stupidly at Yu Mi-rae without saying a word.

"You didn't see it?"

I hadn't.

Judging by the others' reactions, the vending machine had clearly been there from the start, but the thought had never even crossed my mind.

"If you'd eaten while drinking that, you probably could've held out for a while......"

"I didn't know. I had no idea......"

I never could have imagined there'd be a solution like that......

Nor had I expected the Labyrinth to offer that much kindness.

"Well, it was hidden so naturally. Don't be too upset about it. It wasn't your fault."

Yu Mi-rae must have interpreted my dazed expression some other way. With a sympathetic frown, she comforted me, even patting my shoulder.

"Even if you'd noticed the Nectar, you might not have thought of how to use it. Still, you're alive. That's something. Anyway, you're impressive too. You held out completely sober."

Yu Mi-rae didn't seem especially good at comforting people.

......Wait.

"Then why didn't you and that...... secretary drink it? You knew there was Nectar."

Looking at the streaming footage that began right after Manager Kim paid for the meal tickets, Nectar had been mentioned.

'The fact that it hasn't cooled at all is characteristic of an artifact, but it doesn't seem to have an effect like Nectar. It is the most delicious soybean paste soup I've ever had.'

But that was all.

As though Nectar hadn't even been a possible choice.

"Hm? I didn't need it."

"......Oh. I see."

I remembered what Yu Mi-rae's verdict had said.

'......Due to congenital hyperthymesia, mistakes unreal events such as dreams and imagination for real events, or vividly recalls past events as though they happened recently......'

Yu Mi-rae had no need for Nectar.

"Yeah. And Manager Kim, um......"

That secretary had died for Representative Yu Mi-rae.

Though he feared death and resented Yu Mi-rae, he also liked Yu Mi-rae and was grateful to her.

"He had some issues too. Actually, Nectar doesn't work on him. Such a shame."

Yu Mi-rae faintly frowned, smiling bitterly.

As if a toy they'd enjoyed playing with had broken.

The siblings really were alike.

For a moment, I distracted myself with the thought of how the people involved would come charging at me as if their lives depended on it. Then I looked back at Yu Mi-rae's face.

"......"

My whole body stiffened at once.

Eyes gently closed as though cast downward.

The shadows of long eyelashes.

A downpour flowing beneath them.

"He was such a precious person......"

I stepped back.

I couldn't help it.

"I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have saved him......"

Yu Mi-rae stood there, tears dripping steadily.

My stomach churned.

The way Yu Mi-rae's emotions didn't just swing wildly, but exploded.

That uncontrolled, no, that sincere side she showed by choosing not to hold it back.

It was unpleasant, and just a little...... frightening.

The fact that she, like me, had a beating heart, and blood flowing beneath her skin.

The dry fact that Yu Mi-rae was human, just like me.

That incongruity, that dissonance.

All of it made me uncomfortable.

Yu Hyun-jae's emotional range was narrow, and his demeanor was always steady, so he was easier to be around.

He had never seemed very different from the Yu Hyun-jae fixed in my memories, gradually colored in by impressions from the media.

Nothing about him had felt strange.

"I thought I'd be okay...... I thought I'd be okay even if he died. Because I remember everything......"

Yu Mi-rae had shattered the Yu Mi-rae in my memories and appeared before me, crying like a child.

"What do I do now? I......"

I watched silently, then vaguely realized something.

This child had never permanently lost someone she cared about.

"......Representative. Representative Yu Mi-rae."

Some incidents could never be undone.

Never.

Not even in this Labyrinth where time could be turned back.

Whenever I reached Haruda Dining on basement level one, Yu Mi-rae's secretary, Manager Kim, would always be dead, dried out like a mummy.

No matter how many times I died and came back to life. No matter how hard I tried or how fast I rushed there.

Just as the internist Jeon Yeong-gwang would always be dead with his heart removed when I reached TooYou Wellness Center on the fourth floor.

Just as an unnamed teacher would always be dead, laid off inside a toy box, when I reached Uri Saennal Daycare on the second floor.

Just as Yu Hyun-jae's escort, Driver Kim, would always be dead with his heart removed when I reached the parking garage on basement level five.

Just as Lee Jin-su's Neosoft colleague with the nickname JunSeo would always be dead, missing parts of their body, when I reached Neosoft on the fourteenth floor.

Just as Singyae Daily reporter Kim Young-ho would always be dead with a necktie half-swallowed when I reached Moment O'Clock on the fifteenth floor.

Just as someone unnamed would always be dead with their left leg amputated when I reached the parking garage on basement level three.

"Some deaths can't be undone...... Ever."

I was about to say that all we could do was live while carrying them with us.

Then Yu Mi-rae suddenly stopped crying and looked directly at me.

Her wet eyes glimmered faintly.

"Yeah. I know. Me too."

Eyes that looked angry, sad, and perhaps even like they were smiling.

"It's my most, most favorite rule."

Was it dissonance, déjà vu, humiliation, or kinship?

Unable to name the feeling, I finally looked away.

"Hm? Time's up."

Yu Mi-rae abruptly checked the clock and turned around.

"I'm leaving now."

She was so nonchalant.

If not for the tear tracks on her cheeks, I might have thought everything that had just happened was a dream.

"You get out at 12:02, right? You'll be bored. Take out some documents and read them. There are lots of interesting incidents."

The owner of Jaelae Building, unaware that it would collapse at midnight, calmly said goodbye.

"It was nice meeting you. I hope you make it out alive, Yu-han."

"......Yes. Me too."

After Yu Mi-rae waved and left, about five and a half hours remained until the building collapsed.

[12:00]

In that final moment, as I watched chunks of concrete fall toward my face, I thought about Yu Mi-rae's farewell, which had become her last words.

About the feeling behind saying, not "you too," but "you."

You.

Why, you?

* * *

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?"

* * *

Clunk.

"Oh, basement level one......"

"......Huh? Is someone over th... Seon Yu-han?"

The moment I arrived at the employee cafeteria, I walked to the vending machine.

"Ha."

It really was there.

A can with the word 'νέκταρ' slanted diagonally across the front, and 'Nectar' written neatly beneath it.

It sat among familiar canned drinks as naturally as a hidden-object puzzle.

[1,300 won]

And it only cost 1,300 won.

Nectar didn't often appear in contact-type Labyrinths, and even then, it only came out one or two cans at a time. Whenever it did appear, it was always sold through auction.

Naturally, the starting bids easily ran into the tens of millions.

It wasn't only because of its rarity and addictiveness.

It seemed wasteful if you thought of it as a consumable that was gone after one drink, but there were plenty of rich people who wouldn't think any amount of money too much for the food they would eat at the end of their lives.

"Huh? Huh? What?"

The artifact researcher who had followed behind me was the first to recognize it.

"Nectar! It's Nectar!"

"Huh? You mean that thing that tastes like memories?"

"Yes!"

Click.

Thunk, clunk!

Hyeon Je-won inserted their card faster than anyone and bought the Nectar.

"No, is it really......?"

"Yes! These Greek letters! The smudged nutritional information! This label! It's real, it really is!"

Holding the can carefully as they inspected it from every angle, the researcher shouted excitedly.

"This is the first time I've ever held one in such perfect condition! Research on Nectar is already complete, so even when a new physical specimen comes in, it gets moved along as soon as its basic safety is confirmed. I've never once......"

Thunk, clunk.

I half-listened to Hyeon Je-won and bought my own can of Nectar.

"You knew, didn't you, Seon Yu-han? That there was Nectar here."

Hyeon Je-won clutched their Nectar tightly and looked at me with pleading eyes.

Of course, they couldn't maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds before looking away.

"Could you maybe tell me someday? Not now, later......! Even later is fine. How you filled out the Artifact Management Ledger, how you knew there was Nectar here......"

"......Yes. I'll tell you later."

"Really?"

"Yes. I promise."

Empty promises were easy enough to make.

Thunk, clack.

Thuuunk, clunk......

"No, then this really is......"

Yun Geon-min and Kim Hee-sook bought Nectar too.

"Don't drink it yet. There must be a reason it's being sold."

I pointed to Manager Kim's corpse, his head buried in the serving area far away.

The types of food changed every time I came, but Manager Kim was always dead with his face buried in a plate.

Bzzzt.

"Hm?"

"Huh?"

The streaming link arrived just then.

I needed to show them how Manager Kim had died before I could properly explain what the Nectar was for.

And once that was over......

Click, pssht!

It would be time to eat.

* * *

"Sniff, hic......"

The sound of sniffling came from all around me.

With each sip of Nectar, Yun Geon-min ate a spoonful of plain rice.

Seasoned with tears.

"Mom......"

It seemed to taste like the side dishes and soup his late mother used to make.

He was already in a bad state after seeing his mother in his room in the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories.

"Oh, it makes me think of my mother and father too......"

Kim Hee-sook wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"It just tastes like really ordinary Western food, but when I was little, that kind of thing was rare...... And when I buy it nowadays, it doesn't taste the same...... But this really tastes just like what I ate with my mother and father back then......"

Kim Hee-sook smiled shyly and rambled on about this and that, then fell quiet again.

"Are you all right, Hyeon Je-won?"

"Um, yes!"

As usual, Hyeon Je-won nodded hard while looking somewhere else.

"It tastes like the jelly my teacher used to give me as a reward when I was little, so I like it! It's a jelly they discontinued, so I can't eat it anymore...... Ah, that teacher is my favorite! They were the first person who noticed and understood how I was different from the other kids."

Unlike the other two, Hyeon Je-won wasn't deeply shaken emotionally.

They just looked happy.

"Anyway, it's really fascinating! The cafeteria food tastes really good when I eat it, and then I keep wanting to eat as though I'm not quite myself, but when I drink Nectar at that point, the memory overlaps with it and my senses get confused in my head, so I feel a little dizzy. Anyway, if there hadn't been Nectar, I definitely would've kept eating until I died from a lethal amount of food......!"

Thankfully, Hyeon Je-won was the same as always.

"What about you, Seon Yu-han? Are you okay?"

"Yes."

I wanted to throw up.

Nectar took us back to the moment we experienced that flavor of memory.

The warm hands that touched us then, the faint smiles we saw then, the gentle voices we heard then, even the vague smell of something burning that we smelled then.

It recreated not only the taste and texture in our mouths, but every sensation from that time.

"What does Nectar taste like to you, Seon Yu-han? In most cases, people say it tastes like a meal they had with their families."

"Yes. It tastes like that to me too."

The flavor of the last meal shared by a family who lived in Dalumul Village.

Back when all three of them were still alive.

Footnotes:

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