WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈

Episode 15: Hana Galleria Mall Pop-Up (5)

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I put on the gloves I’d swiped from a corner of the display and headed for the children’s clothing section.

Most of the store’s mirrors were mounted on walls, but some places had secondary mirrors hanging up so customers could check themselves from different angles.

Found it.

After circling twice, a wheeled mirror that hadn’t been there before appeared from between the clothes. It was as if it had materialized because I needed it.

No one around, right?

— There are no unpleasant frequencies nearby.

Good. No anomalies. I quickly unlocked the mirror’s wheels and pushed it toward the escalator.

It was a little small, but if I crouched down enough, I should be able to fit.

“...Good. That did it.”

The steps that had been endlessly rising in the mirror reversed as if the footage had been rewound, then began descending.

When I touched the mirror, it felt soft and squishy, like pressing into the jelly area at an adult theme park.

I slipped one shoe through the mirror. It rolled down to the floor below on the escalator.

“Here I go.”

As I stepped into the mirror, my foot landed on an escalator step going down. My body was pulled in, followed by a brief electronic tone.

Thud.

At last, I hit the floor. Looking around, I saw a distinctly lower corridor. It was a staff passage.

“This place has been swallowed up too, to some extent.”

The hallway stretched far in both directions, doors continuing without end.

— This was accounted for too, wasn’t it?

“Of course.”

「If a store corridor feels longer than usual, never run or look behind you. Instead, close your eyes, stop where you are, and count to one hundred. Then politely call out, ‘It is closing time,’ and enter the nearest emergency exit.」

I stopped before a door marked Emergency Exit. I closed my eyes and counted to one hundred.

“It is closing time.”

Then I opened the emergency exit. Cold air brushed past me. I shut the door, opened my eyes, and waited a moment. There was no sound outside.

I cracked the door open and looked out.

“...It worked.”

It looked like the same corridor, but there were differences. The hallway was shorter, there were fewer doors, and the boxes I’d put down at the start of the pop-up were still there.

“Good. It almost overlaps with reality now.”

I remembered where the problematic “suspicious new door” was. When I put down the boxes and turned my head to the right, it had definitely...

“There.”

I opened the door. Water dripped somewhere in the pitch-black darkness. It looked suspicious, but this was definitely the exit.

“Now the mannequins and mirror just need to come here. Then they can cross over with it, and... I’ll grab the people reflected in the mirror and get them out.”

Hertz didn’t ask if I thought it would work. Even if it had, I wouldn’t have answered. This had to work.

If I didn’t believe it, the logic would collapse. Once I had these three things in place, I had to believe it would work.

I can do this.

“Hertz, please.”

— All right. It’ll be loud, so be careful.

I quickly removed my earphones. Soon, every speaker in the department store began to crackle.

Fox, fox, what are you doing?

Eating rice.

A gentle yet playful child’s voice. The song from the old speakers echoed across every floor.

It worked. They’re moving.

Those frozen here and there like mannequins or objects began wandering toward the speakers playing the song.

Clatter. Mannequins spilled into the corridor.

The endlessly long passage shifted in an instant, from the third floor to the second, then the first, becoming endlessly covered in objects like a moving walkway.

I only need to find twelve.

Among the countless mannequins piling up and separating, I pulled out the ones wearing clothes I recognized, one by one. Whenever monsters came, I hid, waited for them to leave, then searched through the pile again.

Warm.

A few mannequins had breaths, heartbeats, and warmth. I reflexively pulled out the white plaster figures bearing terrified faces.

Nine, ten... Almost there. Just a little more.

Fox, fox... wha...

...ting... ...fox, ...

“Hertz?”

The speakers crackled. The song began cutting out. The flood of objects began to stop.

“Hertz, what’s wrong?!”

Hertz’s uneasy voice crackled through the speakers.

— I’m sorry, Partner. I’ve reached my limit... I can no longer broadcast...

Hertz’s voice gradually faded, as though someone were lowering the volume. The corridor began twitching as it slowly reclaimed its original rules.

No... There isn’t enough time...!

Monsters or no monsters, I began overturning mannequins as fast as I could. Mannequins and mirrors, carts and shelves came crashing down in a deafening cascade.

Just one more, one more...!

Sweat ran down my back. No, there was too much for sweat. Something black dripped down from above my head.

A chill ran through me. I remembered that I hadn’t checked behind me in far too long.

“...!”

The moment I spun around, I came face-to-face with it. Its head tilted from side to side, then its faceless mouth opened wide. Clusters of eyeballs writhed and licked in place of a tongue.

It had found the one singing.

It caught me just a little faster than I could roll down the mountain of mannequins.

“Argh!”

A scream burst out of me with the smell of burning flesh. From where its jaws had caught me, pain raced through my veins as if lightning had struck. My vision turned white, and it felt as though my arm would tear off.

Whispers reached my ears like hallucinations.

Leave them.

You need to survive, at least.

You’ve tried hard enough.

Those things died when they became mannequins anyway. They aren’t human.

Run.

Run.

Leave everything behind and run alone. Then you can live.

I clenched my teeth.

“...No. I can’t do that.”

The familiar taste of blood filled my mouth. My vision repeatedly flashed white before turning pitch-black again. I heard what sounded like my finger joints being crushed.

— Partner, I can pull you out alone. Let’s go. You’ve tried hard enough...

Hertz’s voice came through at a volume so weak it seemed about to die out. It was a sweet temptation. If I just let this go, I could get out. Alone.

But I couldn’t. The burning pain in my arm drove away the weakness trying to take hold.

“I won’t let go... No, Hertz. If that happens...”

I began this by saying I would rewrite ghost stories. To prove a ghost story was fake, people had to make it out alive. For the ghost story to become real, the scenario I’d put together had to play out to the end.

The curtain had risen on the stage. I had only two paths: be consumed by this story, or bring down the curtain on the version I had rewritten.

If I couldn’t resolve this ghost story, everything I’d built so far would collapse.

— But you can’t hold out any longer...!

“I’ve almost found them all. If I can just shake this thing off, it’ll be fine...!”

My arm was being chewed apart. Eyes came out of its mouth, and the teeth attached to those eyes tore off flesh and crunched away. There was no blood. The fingers I could use to pull free were disappearing.

Ah, but how am I supposed to shake it off right now?

My vision no longer merely flashed. It blurred. Blood ran from my mouth. My mind scattered. This won’t do. I have to win.

— Partner...!

I passed my days idly in the mountains, unaware the seasons were passing.

Before I even had time to understand the words, a piercing burst of sound erupted with an intense white flash.

Flowers bloom, and it is spring. Leaves emerge, and it is summer.

Paulownia leaves fall, and it is autumn. White snow flutters over evergreen pines and green bamboo.

My body lifted into the air as if from an explosion, and the door flew open with a bang. From within the doorway, rippling like water, a long pale hand shot out.

I welcome the sound of music, with no interest in Buddhist chants.

In such a fine place for pleasure, shall I not stop and enjoy myself?

The moment I recognized it as the sound of a small hand gong, the hand grabbed the back of my neck and yanked me as though reeling in a fishing line.

Every sensation in my body overturned. Gravity vanished, time stretched out, and I felt as if I were passing through a long tube. My entire body seemed to twist and crush apart. I instinctively shut my eyes.

Then.

Thud.

I fell as though I’d been slammed into the floor. I exhaled roughly and tried to get up. My whole body ached.

My, my hand...

Fortunately, none of my fingers had been torn off. But red lines ran from every place that had been bitten and ripped, across my palm to my wrist, as though I’d been struck by lightning. They burned so badly that the feeling had started to go dull.

“What happened?”

The moment feeling returned to my body, I looked around. This was neither the basement corridor nor the grotesque shopping mall.

I was sprawled at the entrance to the third-floor pop-up location.

But it was as if time had stopped.

In a place without any sound, everyone lay collapsed as though they were part of a performance art piece. The employee holding a box, the visitor accepting a souvenir, all of them seemed to have been laid on their sides while keeping the poses they’d been moving in.

“The ghost story... isn’t over?”

Could I jump from one ghost story into another? As I got up, I saw the people sprawled around me.

Red hoodies, black cosplay outfits, eco-bags with character badges. Large and small, each with a different complexion.

...Twelve people.

The missing people. I didn’t know how, but it seemed they’d come out with me. I hurriedly held my hand beneath one person’s nose. They were breathing.

They’re alive. We definitely made it out.

“Well, would you look at that? I thought there was someone the Goblin Play didn’t work on.”

A voice cut through the silence. I turned toward it.

“Ugh!!”

White light shone into my eyes. I squeezed them shut on reflex, then opened them to slits and saw several people shining something like flashlights in my direction.

The suspicious people in matching black uniforms held lanterns flickering with blue light. Their uniforms bore a taegeuk emblem that practically screamed government agency. But the Chinese characters identifying their affiliation were entirely unfamiliar.

Ghost Story Records Corporation

Ghost Story Records Corporation. I’d never heard of that agency.

The uniformed people quickly scattered to check on the others. Two of them approached me.

“Are you Mr. Seon Jaehyeon?”

The taller of the two people asked in a low voice.

“You know me?”

What? Who are these people?

“Quit holding out on us. We came here knowing who you are, so let’s keep this civil, all right?”

The woman with short hair swept to one side immediately glared at me and threatened me. I was too dumbfounded to react.

“Section Chief. For now, he’s a victim in distress.”

“We don’t have time to play Twenty Questions. We heard the person we were looking for was someone the Goblin Play doesn’t work on. What do you think, Hyeon-u?”

“It is an unusual case. But he has just been affected by a Distortion, and he needs an explanation first.”

“Who... are you people? What is this Ghost Story Records Corporation supposed to be? And Goblin Play? In this day and age...”

I reflexively checked the radio on my phone, but no frequency was broadcasting. It seemed my radio connection with Hertz had been severed when I returned to reality.

“We’re civil servants. We belong to the South Korean government.”

The large civil servant held up an unfamiliar type of government ID.

“What kind of civil servants like you does South Korea have? I’ve never heard of you. And I need to wrap up that pop-up... We weren’t in any danger...”

I tried to act tough, but my body lurched forward. If the large civil servant hadn’t caught me, I would have collapsed embarrassingly.

“Section Chief.”

“Mm.”

The woman called Section Chief nodded, and the large civil servant slung me over his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Seon Jaehyeon, but we’ll explain on the way. You’ll have to come with us.”

“What? What the hell is this? Wait a second, wait...”

I twisted and struggled with all my might, but I couldn’t move. It was probably because I had no strength left. In the end, I raised my voice despite trying not to.

“I have to deal with this pop-up right now!”

“Our side will handle it. We need Mr. Seon Jaehyeon’s testimony right now. Please cooperate so this doesn’t require excessive force.”

“Hyeon-u.”

The short-haired woman called Section Chief quietly said the civil servant’s name from behind me. Somehow, that felt even more ominous. When I struggled again, blue light flickered around my body.

“Yes.”

“If we try to talk him into coming, the sun will rise. Just stop him.”

“...Yes.”

Stop me? What? My mouth?

The moment a bad feeling passed through my mind,

Thwack!

A dull pain hit my head. I didn’t even have time to scream. Letting out the breath I hadn’t managed to swallow, I collapsed where I stood.

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