CH 80

“…Downstairs,” Raehee repeated, sighing. She exchanged looks with Hawoo and Hyehyun. The other two were silent since a moment ago—they were acting strange. My observation was confirmed after Hawoo said, “Let’s return to our base camp first and check the map.”

That was an unmistakable sign that they intended to leave Woorim behind.

“…We’re not going downstairs?” I asked, and Hawoo made a troubled face.

Hyehyun said, “See me for a moment,” then he grabbed my arm and pulled me away. Hyehyun was scowling horribly. His face was contorted and he said, sounding distressed, like he had no other choice, “Do you trust that b*stard?”

I knew the face that Hyehyun Ham made very well. That hypocrite. I was sure that he had something disgusting in mind.

Maybe I was feeling more pressed for time than I thought, but my honest thoughts popped out. “More than you.”

“Haeseo!”

“I would rather listen to the other two than you.”

Hyehyun called out to me again and caught my arm, but after shaking him off, I stared at the two in front of me. I didn’t know what kind of person Hawoo was yet. So far, he was reserved in his actions. But Rahee was different. She looked after Goyeon’s stylist more than anyone else, and she seemed like a flexible person, given her vast general knowledge.

I asked Raehee, “What happened?”

Raehee looked tense as she swallowed hard. She said cautiously, “Actually, we thought Woorim was suspicious.”

I was really surprised. “What?”

Raehee said steadily, being considerate of how shocked I looked, “We’re sorry for coming downstairs so late. But there was another door with a padlock in the stairway, so we had to search a bit. After we came down, we went to the room that Goyeon fell in.”

While Woorim and I were resting in the hallway, they were looking for the key upstairs. While we were in the room with the elevator, they were exploring the room with Goyeon. Raehee swallowed nervously again. I felt there was something wrong and frowned.

There was something horribly wrong with what she said next.

“We found Goyeon’s stylist there.”

“…”

“As a corpse.”

Then, Hawoo said, continuing the story, “She was hanging from the ceiling like she committed suicide.”

“Like” meant she was actually murdered. I couldn’t hide my shock.

“But when we were downstairs, we didn’t…”

“Right, we didn’t see that when we were looking around the floor modeled after the grocery store either.”

The room Goeyon fell into went through three floors: the hospital floor that Goyeon fell from, the grocery store floor in the middle, then the toy floor that Goyeon’s corpse was in.

The three floors were connected, so if the stylist’s body was hanging there, we should have all seen her. Moreover, Hawoo said that they opened all the doors on the grocery store floor to find the key.

“We think that she was already dead but hanging somewhere and when the objects started pouring down from the ceiling, she fell from that shock. Someone arranged it so that it looked like she committed suicide over Goyeon’s body since she couldn’t have gone and hanged herself from such a high ceiling.”

“Maybe we couldn’t find her when we were opening all the doors in the grocery store floor because there was another space inside the walls. After that happened to you, none of us were in our right minds. We just didn’t realize that then.”

I couldn’t understand where they were going. I understood that they found the stylist’s body in the room where Goyeon fell. But I had no idea how that led to them suspecting Woorim. I asked shortly, “So?”

“I found these in Goyeon’s room.” Raehee, looking downcast, handed me something. A damaged flashlight. I had my doubts, but it was indeed damaged after bumping into things as Goyeon fell. But that wasn’t the only issue.

“Two?”

One of them had to be my flashlight. However, Raehee handed me two flashlights. Two damaged flashlights. What was the other one? Raehee said, “One is your flashlight. The other one…”

Hyehyun placed his hand over mine that was holding the flashlight and whispered in a low voice, “…Is Woorim’s.”

“…What?” As I was reeling in shock, Hyehyun snatched the flashlight in my hands. He checked the initials on the flashlight. Then he grinned, flashing his teeth. “This is also Woorim’s flashlight.”

I felt faint and held the wall for support.

“That’s weird. Why does Woorim have two flashlights? One of them was found in the room where Goyeon and her stylist were found dead,” Hyehyun jeered.

Raehee added her explanation over Hyehyun’s remark. “Each cast member was given only one flashlight. Then what would this mean?”

I felt like I knew the answer even if she didn’t pose the rhetorical question. I rubbed my face with my hands. If I saw my reflection now, I knew I would look deathly pale. I heard from Hawoo next.