WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 16: Books, Books, Books, Let's Read Books

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A chill ran down my spine.

Jeong Ji-ho.

Why didn't I bring him out? Why did I leave him there? I knew he was there. How could I do that? How could I. Of all people. How dare I. No matter how much of a piece of trash I am. When have I ever sunk this low.

I.

I...

"Seon Yu-han-ssi? Why are you suddenly breathing like that..."

I made a promise. At least don't become that kind of adult. I swore it. I told myself I would never become an adult who looks the other way when a child needs help. I made that vow.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

Right. Seon Yu-han.

I staked my own name on it.

I really did.

Only then did I manage to collect myself and open my mouth.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi."

I.

Did I really.

"Did we not stop by the daycare first?"

Did I actually leave that kid behind?

"Hm? No? What's this about, out of nowhere--"

"--Reading circle participants will each read their own book."

"Ugh, can't even chat for a second. So rigid."

Hwang Ju-yeon, who had been wearing a baffled expression, muttered under her breath and dropped her gaze back to her book.

Right. Like she said, we, I, had never stopped by the daycare. Not this time.

No matter how hard I turned it over in my mind, I had no memory of it.

But that couldn't be right.

I knew. I knew there was a child being punished in that daycare, displayed like some enormous music box figure. There was no way I had skipped past that place and come straight to the library.

"What the..."

I barely swallowed the rest of it.

That's it.

My memory was erased. It had to be.

I didn't know exactly why, but my best guess was a penalty. For failing to follow the library's instructions.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi, do you by any chance remember a child named Jeong Ji-ho from the daycare?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure. I didn't really memorize every kid one by one... Oh no. Don't tell me you knew someone who goes there? Once we get out of here, let's go check on him right away...!"

Right. I needed to get through this wretched reading circle, or whatever it was, as fast as possible and go check.

And to end the reading circle, there was nothing for it but to read.

[Kim Gil-yeong stared blankly out the window. Snow white as a blank page fell like flower petals. Almost as if celebrating a birthday. But it only made Kim Gil-yeong feel more alone. Being used to something didn't mean it was all right.]

Reading a story that laid out someone else's life in such exhaustive detail was uncomfortable no matter what.

Having someone read my own life was just as uncomfortable.

"Reading circle participants will each read their own book."

I glanced at the freelance magician to my right.

Where in the book had she gotten to, I wondered.

What point in my life was she reading right now.

Knowing me wouldn't mean understanding me.

Without becoming me, none of it could be accepted.

She might know things about me, but trust was another matter entirely.

Understanding is an illusion, acceptance is a deception, and belief is nothing but a mistake.

Not a mistake ellipsis a mistake period that thing period that feeling exclamation point a mistake period that feeling exclamation point that finger comma that gaze comma it needs to be purified period that thing's tool comma the body comma I comma won't you please look at me just a--

"Reading circle participants will each read their own book."

"Seon Yu-han-ssi."

My vision swam... The black print on the page writhed. Should have killed it. Leeches! Crawling along my fingertips where they gripped the paper, spreading all over my body. Sticky and filthy! I want to tear it off, disgusting, even if I have to peel the skin away. My hands, I want to wash them clean. Should have died. Please, just for today--

"Reading circle participants will each read their own book."

"Seon Yu-han-ssi...!"

"Yes?"

Kim Gil-yeong called out in an urgent voice, and I looked up.

"Are you feeling all right? It looked like you weren't reading..."

"Ah."

I looked down. The paper in my hands was crying, crushed into ugly wrinkles.

For some reason it reminded me of the librarian.

That face scrunched into a pained frown.

"I'm sorry. The nerves just caught up with me a bit late. I couldn't focus. Thank you for letting me know."

Would I have died again if the page had torn and the book been completely destroyed?

That thought still in my head, I turned my eyes back to the book.

[The last summer break of high school. A sudden longing for middle school friends led Kim Gil-yeong to look up the online class forum the homeroom teacher had set up back then. The portal site password hadn't been used in so long that logging in was already a hurdle.

"What is the name of the friend you were closest to in elementary school?"

Kim Gil-yeong recalled the memory as vividly as if it were yesterday. A friend with a fair, pale face that had never seen sunlight, whose dimples sometimes appeared when she smiled. Hong Dong-hee. Kim Gil-yeong filled in the answer without difficulty.

The cafe banner, upon finally getting in, was a class photo from those days. The last post on the board was from two years prior. Kids who had each been assigned to their high schools had left comments with their school names, and someone had posted "Class 3-13, let's meet again."]

Hard to read or not, I had to read.

That was the rule.

Rules had to be followed.

Breaking them made you a bad child.

[Kim Gil-yeong drifted slowly between the empty shelves. Robert Louis Stevenson's 《Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde》, Kurt Vonnegut's 《Timequake》, Haruki Murakami's 《Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World》, Marcel Proust's 《In Search of Lost Time》, Miguel de Unamuno's 《Mist》... Running fingers along each spine in turn. Kim Gil-yeong stopped in front of an empty slot on the shelf and slid in a novel by C.S. Lewis. Reading in secret a beloved childhood book that no one in the in-building library had any use for anymore, a book pulled quietly from the shelf, was a librarian's privilege.]

The words entered my eyes and bounced right back out.

I couldn't focus at all.

[The lights in Chaekbang Ollae went out.]

I had been pushing through in a daze when I stopped at that line.

This must have been the moment the Jaelae Building underwent Labyrinthification.

The very next line read:

[※ The completed story ends here. The story beyond this chapter is currently in progress, and reading it is not recommended. ※]

I stared at that sentence for a long while, then closed the book and raised my head.

Kim Gil-yeong, having finished reading Hwang Ju-yeon's story, had already set the book down. Hwang Ju-yeon still had a few pages left.

If the story after Labyrinthification couldn't be read, at least Hwang Ju-yeon wouldn't know that I was caught in a loop.

Not that it mattered much, at this point, what she knew or didn't know.

"All participants have finished reading their books."

Before long, Hwang Ju-yeon closed her book too, and the library's ghost-like voice came again.

"Participants may now freely share their thoughts and introduce the book they read to one another. However, spoilers that would impair the reading experience will be censored."

"Censored?"

An ominous word.

Did it mean we weren't allowed to give spoilers at all, or that it was fine to try, and we would simply be cut off midway?

"We don't know what the penalty might be, so let's be careful about what we say."

The three of us sat in silence for a moment, watching each other's faces.

It was only natural to be afraid to speak first in a situation where a single wrong word might get you killed.

"I..."

But.

"After reading Kim Gil-yeong-ssi's story..."

You couldn't move forward without taking that first step.

* * *

"There was something I was curious about while reading. Whether Kim Gil-yeong-ssi's favorite book as a child was 《Alice's Adventures in Wonderland》, or 《The Chronicles of Narnia》--"

"--Seon Yu-han-ssi, that must be a spoiler. I couldn't make out what you said. I think we can skip that part."

At Hwang Ju-yeon's prompt I paused, and cleared my throat while I was at it.

Spoilers being censored meant that anything containing a spoiler would be automatically filtered into gibberish.

It was a relief we didn't have to pay with our lives for spoiling.

Still, what was so spoiler-worthy about what your favorite book was as a kid?

The text mentioned that after reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Kim Gil-yeong had opened a wardrobe to check, and later said a novel by C.S. Lewis was the favorite.

C.S. Lewis meant The Chronicles of Narnia. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was Lewis Carroll.

It could be that young Kim Gil-yeong had mixed the two up, or simply that the favorite had changed over time, but no matter how I thought about it, that didn't seem like the kind of content worth censoring.

I didn't understand the spoiler standard.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"Ah. Right. Anyway, personally, I think Kim Gil-yeong-ssi is..."

The book holding Kim Gil-yeong's story was difficult to discuss at length or introduce properly.

Partly because I hadn't been able to focus, but also, honestly, there was nothing especially memorable or interesting in Kim Gil-yeong's life.

"I'm envious."

I knew how absurd it was to catch only a fragment of someone's life and feel envious without knowing the whole picture.

But that was all I was being envious of, just that fragment. I didn't want all the pieces.

"Um, er, thank... you?"

The librarian answered with an uncertain upward lilt and looked away.

"Since Seon Yu-han-ssi introduced my story, um, I suppose it's my turn now... I read Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi's book, and..."

Kim Gil-yeong started out cautiously, stumbling over words, then gradually got absorbed in sharing impressions and began pouring it all out in a rush.

"But do you not like piano very much anymore?"

"No. It's not that I dislike it. I just don't have the same passion I used to."

From what I heard, Hwang Ju-yeon seemed to prefer her identity as a freelance magician, the path she'd taken up late, over being a piano instructor.

Apparently whenever she introduced herself with piano instructor as her main job, she couldn't help feeling like she was making excuses for herself.

"The reason you became a person cold toward religion was heartbreaking too... Someone from the same church went missing, and how could people say things like that..."

"Well, it's not really because of just that one incident. More that those kinds of memories stacked up over time. Honestly, I'm no saint either. I can barely even remember that person's name now."

Either way, Hwang Ju-yeon was an ordinary person.

Not nearly convincing enough to be a prime suspect in the librarian's murder.

"[censored gibberish]!"

The censored spoiler came out like audio played in reverse, completely unintelligible.

Could there be some secret hidden in that spoiler, something that might explain the motive behind the murder?

But I was no detective, and if no one had died yet, there was no particular reason for me to step in and resolve anything.

And...

I kept my mouth shut and watched Hwang Ju-yeon.

The moment our eyes met, she looked away smoothly. Exactly like someone who knew something.

No, like someone who knew all too well.

Some things were better left unknown.

* * *

"The reading circle has ended."

The three of us held our breath and waited for the next announcement.

Nothing more came.

"What. Is it really over? Over? For real?"

"I, I think so..."

"Wow..."

Hwang Ju-yeon, as if all the tension had drained out of her, slumped into the sofa and let out a long breath, then sprang right back up like a coiled spring.

"Then let's go, quick!"

She didn't need to tell me. I was already at the door.

"Please..."

I pressed my palms together as if in prayer, took hold of the door handle, and pushed with everything I had.

Ssss--

"Oh."

It opened smoothly. Not a single jolt or catch, as if nothing had ever been blocking it.

"It opened! It really opened!"

Hwang Ju-yeon threw her arms around Kim Gil-yeong and bounced up and down.

I gripped the door tight so it wouldn't close again and stepped out.

It was the first time this suffocating second-floor corridor had ever felt like a welcome sight.

"Oh, oh..."

Hwang Ju-yeon followed behind me with a similar feeling, it seemed, smiling with an odd expression, then turned back at the sound of the librarian's voice.

"Gil-yeong-ssi, what are you doing? Aren't you coming out?"

"Kim Gil-yeong-ssi...?"

The librarian was standing just behind the threshold of the wide-open library door.

As if there were an invisible wall, pressing both hands against empty air.

"I, I can't get out...!"

Something was wrong.

Footnotes:

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