WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 15: What's Wrong, Give Me Back My Memory

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"So, what shall we play today?"

The cheerful, humming voice snapped me back to attention.

Were they actually giving us a choice? Which game to play?

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi, do you know any games that'll wear kids out? Something not dangerous..."

I pulled Hwang Ju-yeon aside for a quick strategy session.

Jeong Ji-ho was still nestled in my arms and hadn't said a word, but I didn't want to put any pressure on him.

When it came down to it, the adults looking after children might actually know this stuff better than the children themselves.

"I do see kids pretty often, but I've never raised any myself, so I'm not really sure... It'd have to be something that involves a lot of moving around, right?"

"Right. But nothing like hide-and-seek or tag."

Those were out.

Games where getting caught by the one who was "it" meant you died. No thank you.

"Oh! What about that game where you keep a balloon from touching the floor? You blow up at it from below to keep it floating."

"Yeah, that sounds good. You have to keep moving, and all that blowing really takes it out of you..."

"Oh dear, that won't work, will it?"

The rotten thing that had been watching our scheming without a word butted in at the last second.

Its voice dripped with what sounded like genuine disappointment, and it made my blood boil.

"Our children don't know how to breathe, you see. Ah, except for Ji-ho."

Oh, come on.

Then what were we supposed to do?

I understood they were toys and didn't breathe. But honestly, if you were going to argue on those grounds, them moving around at all didn't make any sense either.

I was grumbling to myself when Hwang Ju-yeon cautiously offered a suggestion.

"How about just a simple ball game? Though the space might be a bit too small for that... We could do balloon jegi-chagi instead."

That didn't sound bad.

I glanced over sideways.

The goose with its pitch-black pupils was humming "The Baby in the Seaside Cottage."

What if it turned our next idea down again, saying its children couldn't manage it?

How were we supposed to exhaust these "children"?

Could they even get tired in the first place?

What would tired even look like for them?

Would they just collapse on the floor and fall dead asleep like a person would...

Wait.

A lullaby?

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi."

"Yes?"

"Let's do action songs."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, dancing along to song lyrics. We do four or five songs, then end on a lullaby, get the kids to lie down, and put them to sleep."

The plan was to burn through whatever stamina they may or may not have with a few songs first, then ease them naturally into sleep with a lullaby.

Hwang Ju-yeon glanced at the goose teacher still humming its lullaby, then nodded.

I pointed toward the electronic piano tucked into one corner of the daycare.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi, if you could handle the accompaniment, that would be perfect. Since you can play piano."

"Ah, of course."

I explained our plan to the goose teacher right after that, and it was accepted. Reluctantly, but accepted.

Since Jeong Ji-ho had already been given permission to go home, he didn't have to join in and was allowed to sit near the entrance and rest.

"...Hands up, hands down, stretch, stretch..."

"...Hop, hop, hop along, I am a..."

"...Jump! All together now, jump..."

And so the tragicomic spectacle of toys and humans clanging and creaking along together was drawing toward its finale.

Ding...

Hwang Ju-yeon slowly lifted her foot off the pedal, and the last note of the children's song dissolved into a muffled hush.

I caught her eye and tilted my head toward the piano, signaling it was time to move on to "The Baby in the Seaside Cottage."

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi...?"

Her expression had gone dark.

It didn't seem like it was simply because the lights inside the daycare were off.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi."

"Yes."

Not just me, but even the toys had gone still, all of them staring at the pianist.

"Did I... ever tell you I could play piano?"

What was she suddenly on about.

"Yes, you did. You said you teach piano as your main job, that, you, did..."

Oh, damn it.

The sweat at the back of my neck went cold.

"I couldn't have. I mean, it's true, but I never told Seon Yu-han-ssi that. I'm sure of it."

Right. I had no memory of hearing that. None at all.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi, that's not what matters right now. You need to keep playing--"

"--My goodness. And who might this be? Seon Yu-han-ssi... you're not the magic teacher's colleague anymore, are you?"

Something was done to me.

Last time. In the library.

"Uri Saennal Daycare prohibits entry by outsiders."

The realization hit me like a thunderclap, and all those hollow, soulless eyes swiveled toward me at once.

* * *

5-3. Do not arouse suspicion from your colleague inside the daycare and get demoted to the status of an outsider.

* * *

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

"Ti-"

Fee... My whole body felt like it was burning, every corner of it scorching from the inside out.

"...me. Could you give me a moment, please?"

"Of course."

Chae Jae-ha.

Hwang Ju-yeon.

Strange information I had no memory of knowing had wormed its way into my head.

When it had occurred to me that Chae Jae-ha might be the youngest in his family, or that I might have once thrown a fire extinguisher through a corridor window, I hadn't thought much of it.

It wasn't important, after all.

At most, I figured it was some kind of aftereffect from torture, or something like it. Whether from the regression, the Golden Scale, or whatever else.

A temporary glitch I had no way of controlling or fixing right now.

I didn't dwell on it. It wouldn't have been the first time.

But the fact that my other memories were fine, and the interference was only happening around information about people I'd met in the Labyrinth, like Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon, made it feel like more than just PTSD.

The timing pointed to after I was forced into that reading circle with Kim Gil-yeong.

No, actually, even the memory that it had just been the two of us in that reading circle was now suspect.

There might have been deaths I couldn't remember.

...And if there had been some critical clue in Chaekbang Ollae about the conditions for getting down to the first floor, and I'd lost that memory.

"Interview Administrator-nim."

"Yes. Go ahead."

"This building. It's become a Labyrinth."

"Pardon?"

"Excuse me. Let's get up."

The words came out now like a customer service rep reciting a policy manual, smooth and uninterrupted. In this situation you do this, in that situation you do that...

Click.

While relaying various instructions to the Interview Administrator, I spotted a fire alarm and pressed it without hesitation.

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrring!

I looked away from the Interview Administrator's shoulder as they flinched at the sudden alarm.

It hadn't been strictly necessary.

But if someone had to press it, it had to be me.

"Hold the railing and head down."

Chae Jae-ha would have heard the alarm and gotten off the elevator early, so I went down the emergency stairs alongside the Interview Administrator.

It would only be a moment anyway.

"Well, thank you. Having you here really does make me feel better, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

Part of me wanted to force a smile for that.

Same here, I wanted to say.

Bang, boom, crash!

Clang!

Smash, thud!

A roar like the sky caving in echoed through the emergency stairwell.

Clunk.

I stepped out of the second-floor emergency exit alone and stared blankly at the empty corridor.

That person. Were they alive somewhere?

I hoped they hadn't panicked and missed a step.

Well, I was probably the only one stupid enough to die like that.

Clunk.

Not long after, Hwang Ju-yeon came out of a different emergency exit near the one I'd used, not the same one.

"Wait, why is this the second floor..." She stopped. "Oh."

Her eyes flickered when she spotted me.

"Um, excuse me, but... didn't you find the stairs a bit strange, by any chance?"

"What? Yes, actually! You too?"

I spoke first with a suitably puzzled expression, and the wariness in Hwang Ju-yeon's eyes gave way to something like relief.

"The alarm went off out of nowhere, so I rushed out and went down one floor, and I thought I'd just been half asleep, I really did. I just opened what I thought was the basement door."

"I kept ending up here too, so I was actually just standing here trying to think it through. Though it's a bit of an ominous thought."

"Ah... Don't tell me you're thinking what I'm thinking. Oh, wait, don't say it yet. Ugh, oh no."

Hwang Ju-yeon clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, and for a stretch she lost all capacity for human speech, just shuddering and making short, strangled sounds.

Then she finally raised her head.

"So you're saying this place is right now a la-... a la-... god. Wait, no, I'm sorry. That wasn't directed at you."

"Yes, I know..."

Either way, we'd come to an agreement that this place had become a completely insane Labyrinth.

"Anyway, um. Oh. By the way, what should I call you? I'm Hwang Ju-yeon."

"I'm Seon Yu-han."

With that brief exchange of names done, Hwang Ju-yeon and I opened the door to Chaekbang Ollae.

Sure enough, Kim Gil-yeong was there, unable to escape, and before long the reading circle began.

"Wait, the content here is..."

Hwang Ju-yeon and Kim Gil-yeong looked up from their books with bewildered expressions.

Each of them was reading the life story of the person sitting to their left.

Kim Gil-yeong read Hwang Ju-yeon's story. Hwang Ju-yeon read mine.

[Kim Gil-yeong was born on September 16th at 7:32 in the evening.]

I received Kim Gil-yeong's story.

[Kim Gil-yeong's father used to lie flat on the floor with his young daughter perched on his back, reading newspapers or books. Reading was the most natural, ordinary thing in the world to Kim Gil-yeong.]

I made a careful effort not to skip over the early sections I'd already read last time.

I had no desire to be branded a heretic and killed again.

["Hey, did you go to Sangnim Elementary?"

After the middle school entrance ceremony, Kim Gil-yeong, too introverted to slip easily into the noise of classmates, had been sitting quietly when someone came bounding over. Hong Dong-hee. Kim Gil-yeong glanced down at the nameplate.

"Looks like you and I are the only ones from our elementary in this class. Let's eat lunch together later!"

Dark skin, a mouth that opened so wide when she laughed you could see her uvula, a bounce in every step. Hong Dong-hee became Kim Gil-yeong's favorite friend.]

The elementary school section ended and the story moved into middle school, and that was when the parts I hadn't been able to read last time began.

Ah.

But something...

"Reading circle participants read their own books."

The moment my focus slipped, the reprimand came right on cue.

["Gil-yeong, have you ever thought about writing? There's a city essay competition coming up. If you're interested, you should try it."

Kim Gil-yeong had been closer to the school librarian, who was also the library club adviser, than to any homeroom teacher. It was around this time that Kim Gil-yeong began writing "librarian" as her dream job.]

I threw myself back into reading, and then that strange feeling crept in again. I looked up.

Something... felt wrong.

Something nameless was circling in my head, coiling and hatching.

Kim Gil-yeong, sitting beside me, seemed to sense my gaze and widened their eyes as if asking what was wrong.

Hwang Ju-yeon looked over too.

Wait.

The question finally cracked its shell and took full shape, and my whole body shook as though gripped by a sudden chill.

My fingertips went cold.

Why.

Why hadn't I gone to the daycare?

Footnotes:

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