CH 34

It must have been an unexpected question since the man’s eyes widened. However, he soon fulfilled his duties and answered, “We don’t know. While we were looking for a suitable filming location, the higher-ups told us that there was a place like this… Since they haven’t used it for a few years, they readily agreed to let us use it.”

Higher-ups.

It was a truly ambiguous answer. At the same time, it felt like that was all this man knew.

I ended up having to simply nod with a dissatisfied face. As soon as my question ended, others asked the man their own. The man was diligent with his answers, but he was usually quite vague. “You’ll see when you experience it.”

“Why did you ask that? What would you do if you knew the mansion’s owner?” As soon as the eyes on me subsided, Hyehyun stuck close to me and asked.

I didn’t feel like answering, but I felt like Hyehyun would ask why I wanted to be on the show again. That was a question I was even more unwilling to answer. The thought I hated the most was Hyehyun realizing that I didn’t want to answer. I bent the corner of the booklet and gave a half-baked reply. “I just wondered which rich person was willingly wasting this much money.”

Hyehyun sighed out loud, “Ah.” It was easy to tell the intentions behind that loaded sigh. Instead of fulfilling frivolous curiosities like that, I should focus on the more important things—stuff that would help with escaping the building.

He snatched away the booklet that was slowly turning into a paper airplane in my hands. He clucked his tongue like he was an older brother scolding his childish younger brother.

“You really should be thankful that you called me.” Just like how you called Yeonseon in the past. “It’s because it’s me that I can handle you. How could anyone else keep up with you?”

My head dipped down like a dolphin with pneumothorax. Then, I closed my eyes.

After the question-and-answer session, we were to start filming right away. The red light of the camera blinked on and the host of the show introduced the cast one by one.

It was only then that I learned the names of the people who were trapped in this strange mansion with me. Aside from Woorim Eun, Seohang, and Goyeon Lee who I already knew, there was the MC, Seoyoon Kim; the sportscaster Raehee Park; critic and television personality Hawoo Kang; and comedian Seogeung Ahn.

After hearing their professions and names, a strange feeling crept upon me. It would probably be rude of me to say this to their faces, but I couldn’t help but think that, given the interest in the show, the cast members were all professionals with ambiguous positions in the industry.

Furthermore, among them, some couldn’t even really be called television personalities. When the host introduced me, he talked more about Yeonseon than me. It was understandable that some of the cast who had never seen me before looked puzzled.

I also heard the name of the group that Woorim and Seohang were part of—Lunatic.

I then realized why the name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t recall them readily. The title song of the album released by the most popular girl idol group at the time was “Lunatic.”

Day after day, the song titled “Lunatic” was played on music shows, commercials, and variety shows, so any interest in the newly debuted idol group naturally died down. If one searched up “lunatic,” all the search results were about that girl group.

Consequently, the group had to conclude their debut, failing to let their name be known by the masses. Their following albums had poor records because the management agency couldn’t figure out what direction to take the group at all. Most people still associated “lunatic” with the girl group.

One could wonder how the groups could have failed spectacularly just because of their name, but it was possible. Some albums failed to rise to the charts because their timing to make a comeback was bad.

Pop culture was sensitive to the psychology of the public. What would become a trend, what would become popular, what people didn’t like, what people would buy more—even if a director had built up a lot of experience, there could always be an unforeseen accident.

It was a true tragedy that luck played a significant factor in success. Even talented people couldn’t turn any day into a lucky day at will.

That was why people invested everything into the uncertain. As long as luck was in their favor, the results would be proportionate to the amount of effort put in. This was also why businesspeople and those in the entertainment industry went to get their fortunes told so frequently.

Therefore, this “mansion urban legend” spread particularly among students taking exams and entertainers. The dream about being trapped in a corridor with many doors—the door signified a “change” of sorts, and depending on the door, there was a superstitious interpretation that one could be in control over one’s destiny. People who claimed to dream about the mansion always said the same thing.

That, had they not chosen the door that they chose, this would have never happened.