I walked straight over and reached out toward the bag.
I meant to pick it up and leave the room, but.......
My hand is light.
When I looked behind me, there was the bag, still waiting in the same spot.
I reached for it again.
And my fingertips clearly touched the bag, but.......
No, I saw them touch it......?
There's no sensation in my fingertips.
It isn't only that there's no sensation.
My hand passes straight through the bag.
......?
What? Why is this happening......?
I tried again and again, but the result is the same every time.
The bag is still lying on the floor.
'Why the hell is this happening?'
With each failure I grow more frantic.
I even dropped to my knees and tried carefully lifting it with both hands.
This time too, both hands pass right through the bag.
'Please, don't do this.'
The more frantic I get, the harder it is to breathe.
'I only have to take this and go......!'
I tried several more times, but I can't pick the bag up.
No, I can't even touch it.
'Why on earth......?'
My vision shakes roughly.
My breath has risen to the top of my throat.
This is the limit.
I hurriedly turned and threw myself out the door.
The moment I exhaled, the humid air of the shower room registered across the skin of my whole body.
This sensation of having returned to the original space.
"What? Where's the bag? Why are you empty-handed?"
Ryu Do-ha, spotting me and running over.
"I can't get hold of it."
"What?"
"I said I can't get hold of it! No matter how I reach for it, I can't take hold of the bag......."
She hurriedly covered my mouth.
"Hey, don't get worked up. Have you forgotten where we are?"
I tried to calm down as best I could, but my heart is pounding hard.
My heart rate won't come down.
When I forced myself to nod, Ryu Do-ha took her hand off my mouth.
"Tell me slowly what happened in there."
"I can't touch the bag."
"You can't touch it?"
"My hand just passes right through it."
Ryu Do-ha's brow draws together.
"You opened the door and went in fine. But the bag won't come into your hand?"
"Yes. I tried over and over but I can't take hold of it......!"
A brief silence.
Neither Ryu Do-ha nor I could guess at the cause of the situation. Just then.
"In that case......."
Jang Seo-yun slowly comes toward us.
"How about we all go in together?"
"What?"
Jang Seo-yun's gaze turns to me.
That faint laughter dwelling in her eyes.
"Maybe someone else's hand could take hold of the bag."
"No, how does that make any sense?!"
Even at my shout she only tilts her head at leisure.
"Does that power you have make sense? You said it yourself earlier, didn't you? That you don't know by what mechanism the ability works. In that case shouldn't we try everything we can?"
"......."
She isn't wrong.
But.
'You aren't saying that purely because you want to get out of here.'
Her goal is simply to go to the world of 'Submergence.'
What is it that's there?
What on earth is down below, for her to be this persistent?
"All of us go in together, is it......."
Ryu Do-ha mutters quietly and looks back and forth between me and the white door.
"Might be worth a try."
"No......."
"Why? You don't want to keep staying here like this, do you? We have to try something."
No rebuttal comes to mind.
I looked at Jang Seo-yun.
She raises the corners of her mouth slightly at me.
Do I have no choice but to go along with her intentions?
Then Ryu Do-ha asked me.
"But you said earlier that the more people you use the power on at once, the harder it is to hold out, right?"
"I did."
"Then for now let's go with just the two of us, you and me."
"What?"
At Ryu Do-ha's assertion, Jang Seo-yun's face stiffens very faintly.
"Come on, he said it's hard. What if he can't hold it and the power runs out? Then we all burn to death in there together."
"But......."
"In that case, isn't it better for me to go in, since at least I wouldn't die instantly if the power gave out?"
"......."
The situation has reversed.
From Jang Seo-yun's position too, there's no rebuttal available.
"Then let's hurry up and go."
Ryu Do-ha held out her hand to me.
I looked toward Jang Seo-yun for a moment, but.
She says nothing.
She only keeps watching to see whether I'll take that hand.
I took the hand Ryu Do-ha offered, pointedly.
It's rough.
Unlike when I took Jang Seo-yun's hand, hers is rough, as if it were showing me the life she's lived.
But at the same time I feel a solidity in it.
A dependable feeling.
I drew in a breath.
And the moment I hold it, my vision ripples.
But then......!
Ryu Do-ha suddenly thrashes, twisting her whole body!
At the sight I hurriedly exhaled again.
"Hack, hack! Hey! You have to tell me before you do that!"
"Ah...... I'm sorry."
She kept hacking, then pulled herself upright.
"So it isn't simply hiding like an invisibility cloak. It suddenly felt like I was underwater."
"I should have explained it properly......."
"I know now, so it's fine. Let's hurry and go."
She takes my hand again.
"You're ready?"
She nodded.
The moment I hold my breath again, we're in the water just like that.
Unlike before, she gives me a thumbs-up with her free hand and then pinches her nose.
I went into the room with her.
We approach the bag.
She reaches for it, but her hand still passes through the bag.
Unlike me, she didn't try repeatedly; she pointed straight at the sky-blue door leading to the pool.
'Let's go that way.'
She mouthed the words.
.......
Leave the others behind?
When I hesitated, she pulled my hand along.
In the end I followed her through the sky-blue door, and.......
"Pwah!"
When I released the power, Ryu Do-ha dragged in air roughly.
And then she glares at me.
"Hey, tell me honestly."
"What?"
"Jang Seo-yun. Did something happen to her?"
.......
She'd noticed?
"When did you realize?"
"Just now."
"......."
"It's strange. Whether I go in alone or we go in together, all we need is to bring the bag out. Why would she be the one who seems put out?"
Thank goodness.
That she's more perceptive than I'd thought.
"It's because of that power you have, isn't it?"
"How did you know?"
"It's unsettling."
"What?"
"I can't get any read at all on what that ability of yours is, or where it has its origin."
"No read?"
"With any power, any ability, what matters is where it takes its origin."
Origin?
"The origin is the direction, and if you know that you can also guess where the power is heading."
She suddenly looks ahead.
Coming through the sky-blue door, what's visible are the stairs leading to the pool.
She looked quietly at those stairs with their anti-slip treatment, then spoke.
"But with that power of yours, there's simply no guessing at the origin."
"Is that such a problem?"
"By the superstitions of this world, the unclear is generally the ominous, yes. But."
"......."
"I didn't call it ominous for merely superstitious reasons. When you explained that power back in the storage room, I thought of it as roughly a trick-of-the-eye ability."
"There wasn't time to explain then."
"Right. In any case, having experienced it directly, I understand now. That isn't simply a trick of the eye. You move briefly into another dimension."
"So?"
"Crossing dimensions? That's an ability I've truly never heard of. Isn't that the sort of thing that only shows up in imagination?"
"......."
Honestly, I find myself wondering whether it's really that much.
It isn't as if I can do anything spectacular with this power.
"But what price are you paying in order to use that power?"
"Price......."
"What are you spending? Just holding your breath a while? There's no ability that convenient. Nothing is granted without a price."
Now I get a sense of what she's trying to say.
Certainly there's far too much about this power I've gained that doesn't add up.
"You might be paying a price without knowing it. So."
She took me by both shoulders.
"As far as possible, don't use that power."
"...... But to get through that room again I have to use it......."
"That's why I said it. 'As far as possible,' don't use it."
I came back to the shower room with Ryu Do-ha.
"That took a while, didn't it?"
More concerned with how long we'd taken than with the fact that we hadn't brought the bag.
She clearly has no great interest in getting out of here.
"We were trying a few things."
"You didn't bring the bag?!"
The woman suddenly cuts in.
When everyone's eyes turned to her, she hurriedly spoke up as if embarrassed.
"I mean, that Seo-yun girl told me everything. That there's an escape tool in the bag!"
"There is."
"Then what are we supposed to do now? Without an escape tool......."
She falls into a panic on her own and starts babbling.
"What can we do? We go to the pool and take part in CnR."
Ryu Do-ha, composed, unlike the woman.
"So we'll have to use Mr. Do-yul's ability, then?"
And Jang Seo-yun, who somehow looks pleased.
But.
"No, I'm going to try getting through another way."
Once again Ryu Do-ha shatters her expectation.
"Another way......?"
Instead of answering, Ryu Do-ha starts walking.
Her bare feet tread through the red liquid pooled on the floor as she advances.
And then she stops.
"I'm going to try going through here."
In front of her was the red door the Cops had gone through.
***
Kim Mi-ae.
Her age is fifty-three.
To summarize her life in a single line, it was an ordinary life with no particular ups and downs and no conspicuous blemishes.
Like everyone else she married when she came of age, like everyone else she had a child, and like everyone else she lived supporting her husband and her children.
In a word, she was neither villain nor mastermind but simply an ordinary person.
And recently, for the first time in her life, that woman committed a deviation.
Or rather, it was still hard to call it a deviation.
Namely, dreaming of an unexpected romance with a man she'd met at swimming lessons.
He clearly seemed to have feelings for her too.
But she couldn't bring herself to approach him first.
And then today, he brought a flyer.
Cops and Robbers.
An event said to be trending among young people.
"Let's play like young people, just for a day."
At his words, she nodded.
So she came to the pool.
Holding his hand for the first time.
But what awaited her at the pool was neither romance nor the thrill of a deviation.
It was a punishment.
The price of betraying her family's trust.
The arm of the man holding her hand was torn off while he was alive.
The sound of bare flesh tearing, the sound of bone shattering and blood vessels snapping.
Even while witnessing it she'd had no choice but to desperately raise the corners of her mouth.
Watching his second arm torn away too, she resolved in her heart.
That she would get out alive, no matter what.
And that she would spend the rest of her life atoning to her family.
Clack.
Ryu Do-ha, was it?
That woman who'd boasted she would get us out of here.
She opened the red door.
Everyone follows her inside without a moment's hesitation.
After surveying the situation just in case, she too walked slowly into the room.
Contrary to her worries, there was nothing particularly unusual inside.
Everyone sweeps a glance around the room and then walks toward the door leading to the pool.
Scanning the room one last time, she spotted something in a corner.
Swimming goggles.
Goggles fitted with red lenses instead of black ones.
After hesitating a moment she picked them up.
She already had goggles on her head, but you never know.
Who knows what part the red lenses might turn out to play?
She tucked the goggles inside her swimsuit.
'I will get out alive, whatever it takes.'
Resolving it over and over.