CH 117

“Haeseo,” he said as he extended both arms to pull me into an embrace, “You’ll catch a cold. Let’s hurry upstairs and wash up.”

My teeth chattered as he continued to spew irrelevant things. I felt like I could shudder to death in his arms. ‘Oh, oh, oh…!’

“People will come to rescue you in three days, so you just need to hold on until then,” he continued to whisper unrelated things.

In response, I yelled, “I asked if you killed them!”

“Goyeon Lee tried to commit suicide when Yeonseon Ham died. I didn’t kill her.”

“That’s not what I’m asking…!” I yelled viciously as I shoved him away. However, my burned-out body was exhausted by the slightest movements. My limbs went limp.

Seohang whispered into my ear, “Seohang was the bandmate that Woorim pushed down the stairs. He was talking about himself at that time. Oh, I was already in Woorim’s body then, so I guess I did kill him, didn’t I?”

That wasn’t—that also wasn’t it…!

“Th-the people…!” I barely managed to say, “I’m talking about all the people…!”

“People,” he repeated my words and hummed out loud. “I didn’t kill them. Oh, I did gather the staff. I let it slip on the internet that I wanted to make a snuff film, and a lot of people seemed interested. I selected the crew among those people. I also made corpses out of them.”

“…Lies,” I mumbled.

“This house and the cameras too. But this house never had an owner because this house will disappear in three days. I didn’t make the rules to kill people. I made them to try and save a few since you would be miserable.”

Lies—they all seemed like lies. After creating a stage where there was no choice but for people to die and then to say that he made the rules to protect them—there was nothing more hypocritical than that. I couldn’t believe him. Seohang must have read my mind as he frowned slightly. He looked upset about being wrongly accused of deeds he didn’t do. “I only killed the staff. You guys killed each other.”

“What?”

“I said you guys killed each other.”

I couldn’t understand him at first. Hawoo killed the stylist. But the rest? Did Seogeung kill Seoyoon? But that sounded more like an accident. Then, what about Goyeon? What about Raehee?

“I only told them a few things,” Seohang said, looking unconcerned.

“I told them to carry out one order if they wanted to leave the mansion quicker.”

Act 18

“An order…?” What was he saying? I hadn’t heard anything of that sort. Nobody mentioned anything like that before.

Regardless of my thoughts and feelings, Seohang continued to say what he wanted to, “I told the staff to prepare a candid camera event. I asked Seogeung to give someone a little push in front of a certain room.”

Seogeung suggested to me and Woorim that we should pretend to fight. When we declined, he went to the producer-director’s room late at night, upon which Seogeung suggested a candid camera. The producer-director, who was ordered to plan a candid camera, readily accepted Seogeung’s suggestion.

Seogeung asked what the other man thought of Seogeung pushing a random passerby in front of a certain room in the morning. Anything went for the producer-director, who then told Seogeung about a secret passageway to use as a shortcut. Seogeung woke up in the morning and was on stand-by downstairs.

Then, the angry Goyeon arrived at that scene.

After Goyeon died, Seogeung hurriedly went upstairs and joined the rest of the cast, pretending everything was fine. Nobody doubted him when he said he slept in, but the filming crew—who heard from Seogeung that Goyeon died—all tried to escape using the elevator. Seogeung was enraged at the staff, who tried to dump all the responsibility on him and ran away.

Goyeon tore apart the corpses of the filming crew, then she chewed off Seogeung’s face.

“I asked Seoyoon to turn off the hallway lights and Raehee to place a flashlight with Woorim’s name in the room with the dolls,” Seohang went on.

Seoyoon was caught red-handed by Seogeung while turning off the lights. He fell to his death as he was running away.

Raehee—I remembered how stern Raehee’s face was when she told me that the second flashlight of Woorim was discovered. She also said that she had to apologize to Woorim before she died. She said that Woorim was innocent. I thought she was just saying that and didn’t think much of it… Her heart must have been heavy with guilt until she died.

The flashlight that Raehee discovered…

“I asked Hawoo to push the wall décor in the stylist’s room.”

After Hawoo killed the stylist, he feared that he would be singled out as the culprit, so he framed Woorim as the rat.