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5. Beware the hanged man inside the men's restroom.
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The precaution written on the last page of the notebook Se-min gave me.
The reason I have never once gone into the men's restroom until now.
I forced my eyes off the notebook and quickened my steps.
Blue and red human pictograms.
I'm getting closer and closer to the restroom sign stuck on the wall.
The closer I get to the restroom, the more a strange stench begins to rise.
A poster stuck on the restroom door with the phrase 'Please join us in saving water.'
Beyond the frosted glass jutting out below the poster, it's dark.
The power is out, just as the notebook said.
Se-min has been holding out inside that dark, filthy space during the train times.
Just in case, I tried the switch at the entrance, but only a clicking sound comes; the light doesn't come on.
Instead, from inside, the sound of water drops falling, drip, drip.
That sound, set against the silence of the platform, stirs up a strange dread.
'I have to go in, don't I?'
The incandescent bulb flickering beside the door.
The dark restroom interior.
And the hanged man said to be in there.
Haa.......
I badly wanted to throw it all down and run, but.
Because Se-min isn't coming out.
Something has definitely happened.
I swallowed hard and took hold of the door handle.
And the moment I opened the restroom door.
DRIP...... DRIP...... DRIP.......
The sound of water drops, clearer now.
If I'd had a mobile phone I could at least have turned on the flashlight.......
All I can rely on right now is the incandescent bulb flickering on the platform.
After wedging the notebook under the door, which kept trying to close, probably because of the hinge, I took one step into the restroom.
The light reaches exactly as far as the sink.
Any deeper in, it's darkness itself.
"Se-min......?"
I called him quietly, but there's no answer.
What I hear instead.
THUNK.......
The sound of something bumping lightly against a partition wall.
That sound came from the deepest part of the restroom.
As if by conditioned reflex, my mind pictures the scene beyond that darkness.
The last stall, and the hanged man inside it.
The image of his body swaying and striking the partition wall is drawn in my head.
My legs tremble.
If I relax even slightly I feel I'll sink to the floor on the spot.
Haa.......
First let me calm myself down.......
Let's not make any more sound.
It was written in the notebook, after all.
That the man reacts to external stimulus.
My eyes must have adjusted to the dark, because the outline of the restroom interior gradually begins to come into view.
But there's no sign of Se-min anywhere.
Which means, my eyes go to the stalls on their own.
The two stalls in front of me.
Se-min is in one of the two.
Haa.......
After quietly steadying my breathing again, I took a step.
The first thing to check is the stall nearer the entrance.
When I try pushing the door it doesn't give, as if locked.
Is Se-min inside?
When I push a little harder, there's a rattling sound.
Given that the door is locked, there's definitely someone inside.
The only ones at Manggok Station are Se-min and me.
Which means what's in there is definitely Se-min.......
So why is there no response?
Could he be unconscious?
I pressed my body to the restroom floor as if lying flat and looked under the partition.
And the shape of shoes comes into view.
'Were Se-min's shoes like this?'
When I raise my eyes slightly, I can see someone sitting on the toilet with their head hanging limp, as if they'd fainted.
I can barely make out an outline, so I can't see clearly who it is....... but it's definitely Se-min.
Because there's nobody at this station but me and Se-min.
The gap between the floor and the partition is just wide enough for a hand.
I put my hand through and shook the shoe, but the head is still hanging limp.
I reached out to try releasing the lock too, but I can't find an angle that would reach.
I shake the shoe again and still there's no reaction from Se-min.
'What do I do?'
DRIP...... DRIP...... DRIP.......
That sound, coming from the stall right next door.
I'd see it if I so much as raised my head.
Beyond this narrow gap between the floor and the partition, that man's feet, suspended.
Picturing it raises gooseflesh on the back of my neck.
The dark surroundings, and this chill rising from the tile floor now.
Didn't they say curiosity always follows behind the emotion of fear?
For a moment the urge to glance at the next stall rose in me, but I forced it down.
What I have to do now is wake Se-min somehow and get him out.
But I mustn't make a sound.
How do I get in there without making a sound?
Think.
Let's think.
.......
.......
Right.
In the case of the men's restroom, only the toilet arrangement differs from the women's; everything else is identical.
Which means the stall locks will also be identical.
Under that assumption, the lock on the stall in front of me is a bar-latch type.
'If I can just lift that latch.......'
Then Se-min's shoes catch my eye.
'Let's make use of those.'
I quietly reached out with both hands and separated the laces from Se-min's shoes.
I made a loop of suitable size with a lace, then tied it in a noose knot that tightens when pulled.
Didn't they say it's good to build up experience of any kind?
To think my time on construction sites would help at a moment like this.
I tested the performance of the finished knot with my finger, and as long as I succeed in hooking it, it binds tight.
'Good.'
After putting my hand through that gap between the partition and the floor, I used a snap of the wrist to throw the loop made of shoelace toward where the lock should be.
But the lace keeps failing to catch and falling to the floor.
I never thought it would succeed easily to begin with.
It's a shoelace anyway, so there's no worry about making a sound.
I keep trying until it works.
.......
.......
......!
'Yes!'
The loop caught on the protruding part of the bar latch.
When I pulled one side of the lace, it fixed tight.
'Now I just have to raise it gently and open it.......'
Unexpectedly it doesn't go well.
The angle for lifting the bar is just slightly short.
'Feels like a little more would do it.'
I pressed my body still closer to the floor and worked my arm in as far as the elbow.
Standing my arm up, raising the hand holding the lace as high as I could, I pulled carefully.
At which I hear the sound of the locking bar lifting bit by bit.
'A little, just a little more.'
Almost there!
Just a bit more pull and.......
CLICK.
"......."
I froze on the spot, forgetting even to breathe.
Because that clicking sound just now was not the sound of the lock I'd been straining to open.
CREEEEAK.......
The door of the next stall opens slowly.
'I'm f*cked.'
My mind goes white.
The fortunate thing is that the door is opening really slowly.
Don't panic, just hurry and finish what I was doing.
I put the faintest strength into the fingers holding the lace and pull, but that damn bar won't move.
My heart pounds as if it will leap out.
I have to calm down.
Don't get anxious.......
There's enough time, so slowly.......
.......
'Please, please......!'
SPLAT.
The sound of something wet dropping onto the tile floor.
Cold sweat runs down my spine.
Don't pay attention.......
Don't pay attention.......
Don't pay.......
.......
Chanting it almost like an incantation, I focus everything I have on my fingertips......
.......
CLICK!
'Got it!'
Is there ever a moment when you want praise from someone this badly?
It's a genuine shame there's nobody watching!
When I glance to the side, fortunately the door is still in the middle of opening.
I hurry to open the door, and there's Se-min, sitting on the toilet unconscious.
I gathered Se-min up in my arms without hesitation.
And without looking back I ran out of the restroom and all the way to the far corner of the platform.
"Haah...... haah......."
Even after reaching the corner I couldn't think to set Se-min down, and kept watching the restroom entrance.......
Fortunately nobody comes out.
Only then did I set Se-min down and collapse onto a chair myself.
Haa.......
My head is so blank I can barely remember what happened.
I think I moved almost half on instinct alone.
He said it was Grade D.
He said it wasn't very dangerous?
He says that and then why is he unconscious......?!
I called Se-min's name and shook him, but he shows no sign of opening his eyes.
Just in case, I bring a finger to his nose, and he's breathing well.
Please just wake up.
Because I'm scared of being alone.
***
The meeting had gone a second day without reaching a conclusion.
It had taken a day for five squad leaders to gather.
So three days had passed since Do-yul and Se-min entered Manggok Station.
Ryu Do-ha, having come into her own office, struck the desk with her fist.
She had told him to wait just five days.
But she had said that with deliberate margin; she hadn't actually thought it would take five.
Yet at this rate even five days won't be enough.
She had succeeded in persuading Kang Yu-rin, squad leader of Metal Squad.
Things had grown awkward between them now, but they had been fairly close as children, and she wasn't an unreasonable opponent to begin with.
As originally planned, she had obtained the agreement of two apart from her aunt, making it three to two.
The Wood Squad leader had shown signs of following the prevailing tide as expected, but the problem occurred today.
The Fire Squad leader, who had definitely said attending the meeting would be difficult, appeared at today's meeting.
Water Squad and Fire Squad.
There's a saying that water and fire are opposites, but at least inside the Formless Special Division that wasn't so.
With the Fire Squad leader's appearance, the tide that had been tilting came back into balance at three to three.
How much longer before a result comes out.......?
The Fire Squad leader's sudden attendance was surely her aunt's doing as well.
'That dog of a bitch.'
Just as Ryu Do-ha moved to strike the desk once more, there was a knock.
Her fist stopped in midair.
Ryu Do-ha forced it open and set her hand on the desk as calmly as she could.
"Come in."
The one who opened the door and came in was an agent belonging to Ninth Squad.
"Um, Sister."
"What?"
"You told us to contact you if Dae-ho woke up, didn't you?"
"He's awake?"
"Yes, a colleague of mine at Tae-eul Hospital just......."
Do-ha bolts out of the office before he can finish.
Dae-ho, who had been comatose all this time.
He was the one hope remaining to her.
.
.
.
There was a reason beyond simple symbolism for calling the round table the symbol of the Formless Special Division.
In fact, the very exterior of Formless Special Division headquarters resembled a round table.
A round, flat, single-story building.
A wide corridor runs along the building's outer line, tracing a circle, and at the circle's center are the main facilities, including the meeting room where the squad leaders' meetings are held.
The offices of each squad leader were arranged at regular intervals along the circle's edge, and Ryu Do-ha's office was located southeast of the north gate, that is, in the five o'clock direction.
Leaving her office, she ran along the wooden corridor tracing its gentle curve.
Beyond the corridor's windows, mountain ranges are covered in clouds.
Grand enough to make you wonder whether such scenery exists in South Korea, but all of it was illusion rather than real.
The scenery beyond the windows changed every hour, and this was a very old sorcery for concealing the location of Formless Special Division headquarters.
In fact, among the people currently belonging to the Formless Special Division, not one knew the true location of headquarters.
Not even Mok Deok-gi, the Wood Squad leader who had belonged to the Formless Special Division the longest.
The only entrances connected to the outside are the four gates located at east, west, south, and north.
But the east and west gates had long been sealed, and the ones actually in use were only two, the north gate and the south gate.
When Ryu Do-ha approached the south gate, the gatekeeper standing watch bowed his head quietly.
The moment she passed through the south gate, she was standing in an entirely different place.
A small room with nothing but a single elevator.
That elevator was one of the now only two passages connecting headquarters to the outside.
And in front of the elevator, her aunt, Water Squad leader Ryu Su-hyeon, was waiting for her.