Chapter 9

Chapter 9. I Thought I’d Escaped (4)

I saw the inside of a modern building.

The space was wide, and the high ceiling was made of glass, reflecting the blue sky.

This was the sight I had seen in the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

Why?

At that moment, people passed by me as I stood frozen in a daze.

I looked at them and swallowed a hollow breath again.

Is this reality?

I watched the people moving around normally, then checked the information board.

The writing read normally.

……Thank goodness. I must have been mistaken for a moment.

I stroked down my startled chest and came out into the concourse.

But what is this?

For it to be just a mistake, the sight that followed was far too familiar.

It was my first time at Yongsan Station, yet every part of its structure was familiar to my eyes.

Thinking, Surely not, I looked for the ticket counter.

It was the same.

That ticket counter stood in the same place and in the same shape as the ticket counter in the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

No, no.

It was still too early to conclude anything.

Stations all look similar to begin with.

I turned around and looked for the path leading up to the second floor of the concourse.

A little later, when I found the escalator, I ended up sighing again.

In front of the escalator, there was a huge celadon vase set out as decoration.

That was also something I had seen in the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

From that point on, I ran around frantically and checked inside the station.

The Storage Lockers, the Lost and Found Center, and the Armed Forces Lounge.

“Fuck…….”

They were the same.

Everything, without a single exception.

This place and the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 were the exact same location.

The moment I confirmed that, nightmare-like memories exploded in my head.

The woman whose head had flown off in front of the ticket counter.

The man who had been crushed to death behind the pillar.

And the black forms that had rushed in so horribly.

“Urp……!”

At the memories stirred up by the space, I clamped a hand over my mouth.

Then I ran blindly toward the exit.

For now, I felt as if I had to get out of here.

But when I actually stood in front of the exit, my legs froze.

I had remembered.

The thing beyond the collapsed ceiling.

The thing that made me give up on life just by looking at it.

Cold sweat flowed from my forehead all the way down the nape of my neck.

This is not that grotesque railway station.

This is reality, functioning normally.

I knew it in my head, but my body would not follow.

As if I had been dragged back to that place again, my body refused to go outside.

Because it might be beyond this door.

Because it might be there.

Because it is there.

It is there.

It.

It.

It.

It…….

TAP—

At that moment, someone lightly tapped my shoulder.

“Editor……?”

Then a small voice woke me.

My vision, which had been flickering black, brightened again.

“Are you all right?”

I inhaled and turned my head.

When I looked beside me, a woman as small as her voice was looking up at me.

A young face that looked about university age.

A bob cut left roughly tousled and messy.

Loose clothes that valued convenience over individuality.

And even a blank expression that made her look easy to stop on the street.

She was someone I knew well.

“……Hello, Author Na.”

I forced a smile and greeted her.

Then that person, Author Na Bit, whom I had agreed to meet today, also smiled faintly and nodded.

---

I returned to our seats with an Americano and bubble tea.

Then I handed the bubble tea to Author Na Bit, who had been sitting and waiting, and asked,

“This is my first time meeting you around here. Did you move, by any chance?”

“No, I came to do field research…….”

Author Na Bit spoke with the straw in her mouth.

So I smiled gently.

It was to swallow the words, You write science fiction novels, so why are you doing field research in a place like this?

“Is the manuscript going well?”

“If the work were going well…… I would be working, wouldn’t I……?”

The author hesitated and confessed the truth, and I had no choice but to smile again.

Then Author Na Bit said in a voice that seemed to crawl into the ground.

“You can criticize me…….”

“Criticize you? Author Na, what are you talking about?”

“I think I would feel more at ease if I were at least criticized…….”

I responded with a business smile, but the author almost sobbed as she sucked down her bubble tea.

Ah, our flagship author is weak again today.

Her appearance was nothing impressive, but despite that, Author Na Bit was quite a remarkable person.

A ten-year mid-career author who had built a firm world of her own at a young age.

She specialized in horror-tinged science fiction novels and was praised for her meticulous imagination and unique insight into humanity.

She had never failed commercially. Not only were her works translated overseas, several were even in the process of being made into films.

In a word, she was our publishing house’s main source of income.

With that much, she could have walked around with her neck stiff with pride, but Author Na Bit never did.

Not because she was humble, but because she had a glass-fragile mind with almost no self-esteem.

“I’m sorry every time…… I’m sorry I can’t do it properly…… I’m sorry I couldn’t meet the deadline…… I’m hopeless trash…….”

“Ahaha……. No matter what, trash? There’s no need to go that far.”

As expected.

Author Na Bit, whom I was meeting after a long time, was rolling around at the bottom of a pit of despair.

Of course, I had known it would be like this.

On the day she was supposed to send the manuscript, she had sent a long text saying she was terribly sorry instead of the manuscript, then vanished.

I had coaxed and soothed her and barely managed to arrange this meeting.

Glass-fragile nerves and an avoidant tendency.

She really had the whole assortment, but I did not dislike Author Na Bit.

Rather, it was the opposite.

In fact, I had been a longtime fan of this author.

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of revealing that while I was her editor.

“It’s all right, Author Na. Writing isn’t an easy thing to begin with. You are well past the deadline, but the schedule can be adjusted, and I’ll do whatever I can, so please don’t feel too burdened.”

“Sob…….”

“It really is all right. You’ve done well all this time, Author Na. You’ll do well this time too. Just please don’t avoid contact and answer me properly. I can understand a reply being a day or two late as much as needed.”

“I-I’m sorry…….”

“It’s all right, it’s all right. I know the pressure is great because your previous works did so well. So please don’t rush too much, and just write good work at your usual pace. The readers will want that more too.”

“Yes…….”

At my carrot and stick, Author Na Bit nodded, even more tattered than before.

Ah, this was not something I should be doing.

To think I had to handle an author I respected like this.

This person even looked young, but she was older than me.

But extracting a manuscript from this fainthearted person was the supreme command I had received.

I badgered the author a little more and secured the next deadline along with a few promises.

Then, before the author crumbled again, I quietly changed the subject.

“But what kind of field research were you doing here?”

“Ah, that…… Do you know there was a bombing around this area?”

“A bombing?”

“It was during the Korean War. I heard the area around Yongsan Station was once devastated by bombing.”

I had not known.

When I reacted as if it was the first I had heard of it, Author Na Bit, who had been dispirited the whole time, suddenly made her eyes shine.

“So this whole area was either a sea of fire or ruins. But now there’s such a big station, department stores and buildings, and it’s a busy district with lots of cars. Isn’t it fascinating that the same space can look so different depending on the era?”

“Ah, yes……. That’s interesting.”

I responded out of courtesy, but I did not know what was so fascinating about it.

Aren’t rivers and mountains supposed to change in ten years?

“So, in the very place where we’re sitting face-to-face and drinking tea, someone might have been screaming with their whole body on fire.”

“When you put it that way, it’s a little eerie.”

“Right? If there were a higher-dimensional being than humans, one that could unfold time like space, how would this street look? Flames would soar beside people peacefully drinking tea, children’s bicycles would pass by people burned black to death, and shopping mall music, the sound of shells exploding, and the sound of sirens would mix together, making it incredibly chaotic and colorful, wouldn’t it?”

I listened closely to the author’s words, then flinched in surprise.

Wait.

Sirens? And a bombing?

Suddenly, the strange phenomena I had seen in the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 came to mind.

The unidentified crushing deaths that occurred after the siren sounded.

The 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」 that wanted burn medication.

The station building that had burned into ruins.

The black forms that gave off an acrid, foul stench.

And the structure that was exactly the same as Yongsan Station.

Is this just coincidence?

If it isn’t, then don’t tell me…….

I was silently horrified by the pieces fitting together in my head.

Then Author Na Bit seemed to misunderstand something and mumbled,

“Ah, I was saying weird things by myself again, wasn’t I……?”

“Uh, no. I was listening because it was interesting.”

I quickly came to my senses and explained.

But Author Na Bit was already wilting.

She really was a lot of work.

“I was thinking that it’s a relief. From prehistoric times until now, all sorts of things must have happened, and I wondered whether the brain could handle seeing all of that. So I thought it was a relief to just be human, able to see only the present. Something like that.”

At the words I hurriedly improvised, Author Na Bit’s face brightened again.

“That’s right. Maybe that’s why they call forgetting a blessing from God. No matter what humans go through, they soon forget and live on again.”

Author Na Bit spoke in a cheerful voice.

But I could barely hear those words.

What filled my head right now was only the correlation between the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 and Yongsan Station, which had supposedly been bombed.

---

“It’s true…….”

I muttered while looking at photos and videos I had found easily through a search.

Everything Author Na Bit had said during the day was true.

On July 16, 1950, Yongsan Station and the surrounding area had been bombed.

No matter how much it was the middle of a war, it was quite surprising that something like that had happened in the heart of Seoul.

But that did not mean I found it wondrous, like Author Na Bit did, that buildings had been put up over it and cars now drove through.

There had only been one thought circling my mind since earlier.

The identity of the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

Is that place really Yongsan Station?

Then are the monsters lurking there victims of the bombing?

No, that makes no sense.

The bombing happened about eighty years ago, but that railway station was a modern building.

Of course, as if this was the only thing that did not make sense.

I had picked up an unexpected clue, but as expected, I could not find the answer alone.

But now, somehow, it did not matter.

The fear I felt at the exit of Yongsan Station earlier was still vivid.

That dizzying sensation made me remember again.

How desperately I had struggled to escape the 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

So I decided to stop thinking about it now.

After barely making it out, it felt like too much of a loss to keep letting my mind be caught there.

Of course, I was still curious about Lee Sol’s safety.

And about the punishment of the bad bastards Sol had mentioned, the humans who killed people and put them in the Storage Locker.

But this too would gradually be forgotten as time passed.

Because forgetting was a blessing from God.

So let’s cherish the daily life I had regained with such difficulty.

Thinking that, I put down my phone.

Then I buried myself in bed and tried to sleep.

When I had only just fallen into a light sleep.

A cold air woke me.

I tried to pull up the blanket, but my hands caught nothing.

Wondering what was going on, I sat up.

“Mm……?”

Where am I?

I was definitely sleeping in my room.

But now, I had been abandoned alone in an empty hospital room.

Is this a dream?

I hope it’s a dream.

But for a dream, it’s too cold.

Does God exist?

Even if he does, I don’t think he’s on my side.