Attendants A, B, and C looked briefly surprised at my words.
But then they glanced at their missing limbs, started crying again, or clutched their heads.
Why that reaction...?
I'd assumed it was obviously possible since this was a ghost story... was it too much to ask?
"Hahahahaha! Damn, you've got some nerve."
Gam Doyeong suddenly doubled over laughing, and I looked around. But no one else seemed to find it strange—they just kept sighing.
"Was I not supposed to request one?"
"That's not it. Are you sure? I don't know what item you're going to ask for, but are you certain you can identify the last counterfeit?"
"I'm certain."
The usual crooked attitude and sharp-tongued manner had softened a notch. Gam Doyeong gave a slight nod.
"Tell me what you want. One item."
"Senior?"
"You still have a chance left!?"
The other attendants, who'd been doing nothing but sighing, finally perked up.
I didn't know why everyone was reacting like that, but time was running out.
"A UV lamp. One that can detect ultraviolet markings."
"!?"
The unexpected request made everyone's eyes go wide.
"Why do you need that?"
"When fakes flooded the market due to the characters' popularity, the company and factory started embedding a special logo on the packaging boxes—one that's only visible under ultraviolet light. So if we shine UV on them..."
"The special logo would show up."
There was no time to search for another method, and frankly, this was the only way.
Gam Doyeong studied me, then the character keychains, then pulled out his phone from his back pocket.
"You just used up an extremely valuable opportunity. But since we need it to get out of here anyway."
Gam Doyeong punched in a number and made a call.
A brief dial tone, then someone picked up.
[This is Cabin Crew Member, Class 25, Gam Doyeong. Currently inside no. 449, the Duty-Free Luxury Hall Ghost Story. Requesting an item.]
[What item?]
[UV lamp.]
[Confirmed, Mr. Gam Doyeong. This is your final chance—remaining chance tokens: zero.]
Click—.
The moment the other end hung up, Gam Doyeong showed me the text message on his phone.
=============================
Your requested item, UV lamp, is scheduled for delivery within 45 minutes. Thank you for your request.
=============================
'45 minutes!?'
It was 5 o'clock on the dot—exactly one hour left. Getting the item, then shining it on every single package, would be cutting it dangerously close.
Ping, ping, ping.
Gold dust and gold scales clattered as they hit the floor. The senior attendants' time was running out too.
"Then until the item arrives...."
"Nothing to do but wait."
Gam Doyeong shrugged.
And so we had no choice but to stand around awkwardly in front of the character pop-up store.
"Let me help."
Attendant A, whose right arm had completely vanished into glittering gold dust and whose left hand was now following suit, could no longer sweep up what used to be her own arm.
Swish, swish.
I carefully gathered the powder with my hands in her place, collecting it into a handkerchief I had on me.
"You're... remarkably calm. Most people would be too scared to do that."
"I've got such a rough-looking face that no one would play with me as a kid. So my uncle used to tell me scary stories to keep me company. ...Though I suppose that can't really compare to seeing the real thing."
"Ah...."
Come to think of it, that's true. My uncle told me so many of those stories that I was pretty much fearless.
"You've handled a lot of ghost stories like this, haven't you, Senior?"
I asked Gam Doyeong, who had his eyes closed and was leaning against the wall while I finished sweeping up the gold dust.
"Yeah. A shitload."
"Do you personally handle the ones other staff can't clear?"
"No. Once a ghost story appears, the team assigned to it has to keep attempting to break through until it's resolved. And whoever took it on first stays on it."
"If they keep attempting... does that mean there are ghost stories that still haven't been cleared?"
Gam Doyeong paused for a moment, then spoke.
"One cold case."
"A cold case?"
"Yeah. A disappearance involving Cheonsu Airlines and a partner company."
Gam Doyeong's brow furrowed slightly as he spoke. Then he quietly ground his teeth.
A disappearance?
And a partner company on top of that?
"Enough. A fresh newbie doesn't need to know. Your item's coming soon. Time's running out, so stay sharp."
"There's one more thing I'm curious about, actually."
"You ask a hell of a lot of questions. What."
"What happens if we exceed the 'TL'—the time limit—on our report?"
"Immediate termination. But since this is a real-world Type 1 ghost story, those three won't be able to return to normal until the next successful breakthrough attempt, right?"
Gam Doyeong jerked his chin toward the other attendants.
Thankfully, his voice was low enough that only I could hear, so the others didn't seem to catch it.
"...We'd better hurry."
Before I'd even finished speaking, I heard the sound of small wheels rolling toward us.
We were the only ones in this airport at this hour.
And a UV lamp wasn't exactly something you could pick up at the corner stationery shop—how were they even getting it to us?
Clatter, clatter.
From the far end of the dark corridor, a small purple carry-on slowly rolled toward us.
The carry-on had a logo of a purple swallow in swift flight.
"A carry-on?"
"It's here. Hurry."
Gam Doyeong opened the carry-on. Inside sat two mini-flashlight-shaped purple lamps, and nothing else.
Leaving the attendants—who could barely use their hands—behind, Gam Doyeong and I began frantically shining the lamps over the tops of the character boxes.
"What time is it?"
"5:45!"
"You three, take the items and wait at the security checkpoint."
Attendants A, B, and C nodded, stuffed the remaining necklace, perfume, and compact into the counterfeit handbag, and ran.
"What does the logo look like?"
"A little house inside a circular mark, with the company name 'Sunday Land' written in it!"
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
The alarm Gam Doyeong had set to track the time blared across the entire duty-free zone.
I hurriedly switched on the lamp and began scanning the boxes.
'This one has it, this one too, here too.'
Every box in this row had the hidden secret logo.
"All clear on this si—"
"All clear over here."
Gam Doyeong spun around and called out.
'......What?'
The shock nearly made me drop the lamp.
Every single product in this pop-up store had the genuine authentication mark clearly present.
[The current time is 5:55.]
The alarm helpfully announced the time.
"Any boxes on your side without the mark?"
"No—they all have the hidden mark."
My expression darkened in an instant. There was no time left and no new ideas coming to mind.
Cold sweat rolled from my back across my entire body, making me feel feverish.
...Was my answer wrong?
SMACK!
"Hey, snap out of it. Why are you spacing out?"
Gam Doyeong slapped my back with his palm. Then he looked at me quietly, as if telling me to think again.
"You're right... I need to focus."
I gripped the lamp properly and looked again for anything I might have missed.
Click— click—
I kept pressing the lamp button, checking every shelf down to the bottom rows.
Faster, faster...!
'I checked everything so carefully—what could I have missed...'
Then it hit me—the one thing neither Gam Doyeong nor I had checked.
"Senior! The display keychains!"
"What? Those don't have packaging."
"Shine the lamp on the characters' soles!"
I sprinted to the sample keychains hanging on display and shone the lamp on their feet one by one.
'This one has it!'
I confirmed the company logo clearly visible on the mottled cow character's sole and moved down the line.
Where,
where is it,
which one's the counterfeit!?
Past the cow, the pig, the chicken—now it was the sheep's turn.
FLASH—
I checked the soles of the fluffy gray sheep holding a green apple.
"...Nothing."
Both of the sheep character's feet were completely devoid of any logo.
Just in case, I shone the light on its hands, face, and belly too—all empty.
GULP.
With trembling hands, I picked up the display sheep.
'It didn't turn to gold!'
"F-found it!"
"Two minutes left! Run!"
At Gam Doyeong's shout, I didn't look back—I just sprinted through the center of the duty-free zone.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD—
SCREECH!
My dress shoes nearly sent me sliding across the polished tiles.
GASP, GASP, GASP—.
The dark, silent airport filled with the frantic clatter of my shoes.
My legs shook with urgency—one lapse of focus and I'd go sprawling.
My lungs burned, and I could feel my heart hammering through my entire body.
Who could've imagined this?
That I—a job seeker whose life revolved between a computer screen and interview rooms—would be tearing through the luxury hall corridor of an empty predawn airport like a madman...!
"!"
And there in the distance, I could see the security checkpoint from earlier and the senior attendants standing nervously with the counterfeits.
[Report Filing: Use the phone at the security checkpoint.]
Gasping for breath, I reached the checkpoint and grabbed the first staff phone I could find next to the metal detector.
"Huff, gasp—what's the reporting number!?"
"Hold zero!"
I held the receiver and pressed zero for a long hold. After about five seconds—click—someone answered.
[Yes, this is the report filing desk.]
[This is the duty-free luxury hall—I'm reporting found counterfeits. Two from Brand D Cosmetics, one from Brand A Handbags, one from Brand T Jewelry, and one from the Brand K Character Pop-Up Store! All five have been located and recovered!]
[Counterfeit discovery report received. Recovery operations will begin shortly.]
Click.
Beep— beep— beep—.
After the monotone voice of the operator, the line went dead.
"D-did it work...?"
I looked up at the clock on the information display.
[06:00]
The suffocating held breath released all at once. The only thing I could feel was my heart doing its job, pounding hard after the desperate sprint.
Very slowly, I turned my head toward the attendants who'd been turning to gold.
"...It's back."
"My hand! My arm!"
"My face—is it back!?"
They were exactly as they'd been when we first introduced ourselves. Their smooth hands and slender arms had returned to their rightful places—completely restored.
Not a single trace of yellow gold anywhere.
The counterfeits we'd collected had vanished without a trace, as if they'd never existed.
"Everyone's back to normal...."
Haha... it's over.......
Relief drew a smile across my face on its own. I slumped to the floor, and Gam Doyeong came walking over slowly.
"We did it."
"The other missing staff members...?"
"Over there."
Gam Doyeong vaguely pointed back the way he'd come.
"They just got back. I called for other staff to assist them."
"...Thank goodness...."
Having retrieved the missing staff, Gam Doyeong gave Attendants A, B, and C a quick once-over.
After confirming they were unharmed, he headed out through the crew-only corridor first.
"Thank you. And congratulations."
Attendant A said to me.
"Congratulations?"
"You pulled off your first ghost story drill brilliantly. And seeing how the senior just left without a word—he'll probably write you up favorably in the 'processing report' too."
Apparently, there was a briefing report before entering a ghost story, and then a detailed 'processing report' written by the supervisor afterward, documenting the results.
And those results would feed into my future schedule assignments.
FLASH, FLASH!
The entire airport lit up as bright lights switched on, flooding the surroundings. From the distance, the sounds of rolling luggage and people's voices drifted in faintly.
The passengers were here.
The doors of the silent, still airport had opened.
I got to my feet and looked out over the luxury hall I'd spent the last three hours running through.
And with that, I barely managed to complete the ghost story processing drill.
***
"It's been almost five days since we last saw each other."
"Oh—Siun, how'd your training go?"
"Not well at all...."
Jeong Siun, whom I hadn't seen in a while, looked exhausted despite his crisp uniform.
"Did you... fail to clear the ghost story?"
"No, that's not it. Cleared it in two hours. But my supervisor was Senior Kang Naju, and she's brutal...."
The ghost story Jeong Siun had been assigned to was Type 2, the Prohibited Items Ghost Story.
Out of all the luggage that had passed inspection and been loaded onto the aircraft, he had to find—literally—a 'prohibited item.'
"You know what popped out after we dug through luggage and barely found the clue?"
"No idea?"
"Something even worse than the mother ghost from the interview test. A hand the size of a house reached out and dragged people away by their luggage!"
Jeong Siun shuddered, hunching his shoulders.
"Clearing that in two hours sounds pretty impressive to me."
"I couldn't even help before Senior Kang Naju handled everything herself. All I did was run. That woman's slightly Spartan."
Jeong Siun shook his head vigorously.
Judging by his expression, maybe I actually had it easier....
"I heard you were the one who carried the team, Cheongho. Impressive. I thought that senior, Gam Doyeong, would've steamrolled everything himself."
"I expected the same, but he didn't dismiss my item request or my opinions—he listened calmly. Maybe he was being considerate since it was a training drill."
"Ugh, seriously? No way. Those drills factor into their own performance reviews too, so I heard it's actually better for them to rack up the big contributions. That guy's more surprising than I thought."
Jeong Siun's words widened my eyes slightly.
I'd assumed the seniors were just being generous and deferring to the trainees....
"Huh? He actually granted an item request? With that garbage personality?"
Naviq said in disbelief.
After a brief chat with Jeong Siun, I'd run into Naviq at the smoking booth.
"Yes. When I told him I needed a UV lamp to break through the ghost story, he burst out laughing and said it was an incredibly valuable request—then approved it."
"Whoa, really?!"
Naviq expressed his surprise while lighting a cigarette.
Still wearing the hard hat and white smiling mask—at this point, my biggest question was how he managed to smoke with that mask on.
"You knew you could request an item, and you've got a sharp eye too."
"The item field on the report was blank to begin with, and if there are ghost stories that unfold in secondary spaces like Type 2, I figured item requests would obviously be possible."
"Hahaha, you're right. But the number of people who can actually make that request is very small. It really is a valuable opportunity."
Naviq pulled out a cigarette and continued.
"Item request tokens—'chance tokens'—are only given to a select few top performers at the quarterly performance review."