CH 54

If I had to pick the most disgusting one out of the three in the room, it would be me.

I found Yeonseon’s confession, who could only express his love like this, to be endearing. His deprivation was beautiful and ecstatic.

“I don’t feel disgusted,” I answered and Yeonseon’s eyes widened. I made a soft smile at his bewildered face. What disgusted me wasn’t this but other things—my mom who stabbed her neck and the classmate who threw his body off the roof in front of me. Compared to their love, I thought Yeonseon’s love was virtuous and noble.

I was definitely strange.

I was happy that I could respond to Yeonseon’s affection because I was strange.

I kissed Yeonseon. I grabbed his face with my hands and buried my lips into his, and Yeonseon, who was still astonished, slowly opened his lips and accepted my tongue. Beyond the lips that we had only brushed by so far was a space surprisingly hot and wet. It excited me more than I expected.

Yeonseon must have shed some tears when he confessed because his lips tasted salty.

…From the person standing to our left, I heard a swallow.

* * *

Woorim and I couldn’t find the key.

However, our search wasn’t completely fruitless. We found a battery. I wanted to test out the broken flashlight immediately, but unfortunately, I left it on the top floor.

Besides, it wasn’t even my flashlight but Goyeon’s. My flashlight was in the hands of the dead Goyeon, though she could have tossed it aside and broken it as she fell.

Actually, we did find one key. However, it wasn’t the key that unlocked the door going downstairs. It was quite small, so it was easy to see that it couldn’t be the one to unlock the huge lock.

“But maybe it could unlock one of the doors that we saw on the way down,” Woorim suggested when he saw that I was disappointed.

Since we spent enough time to ease the swelling in my cheeks and roamed the rooms for a while, we decided to call it quits and go back upstairs.

It must have been near lunchtime because I was starting to get a bit hungry. I drank soy milk for breakfast at least, but Woorim, who woke up because of the scream, said that he didn’t have the chance to eat anything. I felt like it was rude to drag around someone who hadn’t eaten anything.

After arriving at the room where Goyeon fell, we looked around the area. We stacked up some IV stands and broken cots in front of the door in case someone else made the same mistake and suffered the same fate. Before we left, I checked the scratch marks on the doorframe once more.

Next, I glanced at Goyeon who was lying down, staring up at the sky.

“What’re you looking at so intently?” Woorim, who was going ahead, flashed his light at me and asked. I just grinned bitterly and turned my back to the room.

We headed back because we were famished and the other levels were too quiet. Earlier, when we were going downstairs, people’s eyes glinted murderously as they lashed out by breaking all the doors. Nobody would be in any of the opened rooms. Even so, there were bound to be a few people who would feel upset about being deceived and cause an uproar.

However, the upper floor was still. It was so quiet that I almost thought that the staff was hiding, and this was the end of the candid camera. Even if that were the case, it would be normal to hear the clamor from the agitated people.

It seemed like something bad had happened, something big enough to make this many people fall silent.

“…Oh, Haeseo, you’re finally here.” Hyehyun was the one who greeted us on the top floor.

After we arrived, he could have asked why we took so long, but he simply just glanced at me and led us to the central hall. Either standing or sitting, everyone was in the hall.

As they heard our footsteps, they all stared at us. Some were glaring. We had just arrived on the top floor, so we had no idea what had happened. However, it didn’t seem like the situation was in our favor. I frowned slightly and asked, “What happened?”

Despite my question, people kept their silence and exchanged looks, so I had no choice but to stay quiet too. The chilly, subdued air pricked my skin. It wasn’t unfamiliar to me. It was the atmosphere I felt when people felt uncomfortable around me. I let out a short sigh at the oft-felt silence from my school days.

What had happened this time?

I placed the battery and key on the table with a clack. I heard someone swallow.