### Chapter 296 – Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (18)
—
– Kim Mooksung
As I stepped out of the peculiar kitchen, there was Park Sang-ho standing right there.
“Huh? What are you doing out here?”
“What? No, huh?”
In an instant, Park Sang-ho’s brows furrowed as he glanced towards the kitchen.
“Did they make you do some work?”
“No, I just went to see if I could help with anything, but your mom said I should head to my room and rest….”
His expression softened just a bit after hearing my words.
“Got it. You really are too kind!”
“Ugh, come on~!”
Seriously, do I have to be spouting these cheesy lines?
Apparently, small talk wasn’t enough, as Park Sang-ho stepped closer to take my hand. I swear, my entire body nearly trembled with awkwardness.
“You shouldn’t have to get your hands dirty! You know? Just go rest in your room. Who on Earth wipes dirt with flowers?”
Is this the vibe of the ’90s? Even back then, wouldn’t that be a stupid thing to say? Sure, it’s lovely that it’s newlywed love, but if kitchen chores are beneath you, shouldn’t you tell your mom and sister to pitch in as well?
After that, I had nothing to do. Everyone was telling me to go rest, so what was I supposed to do? After a surprisingly delicious dinner, as if made by country folk, I did absolutely nothing until the sun set.
*
As it got late and the night rolled in, something utterly chilling loomed over me. It was ten times more terrifying than a monster popping up. Surely, my ‘husband’ wasn’t gearing up for anything creepy, right?
Sorry, I can’t deal with that. Even if I could handle it, I bet my Abras warrior’s arm wouldn’t stand for it either.
Thankfully, Park Sang-ho seemed disinterested in starting anything loud in this poorly sound-proofed country house, peacefully dozing off beside me. Meanwhile, I couldn’t sleep, worried about what this guy might be up to until dawn.
…
— Creak!
What the heck? Is this just now starting? I sneaked a glance towards the flimsy papered door, and there it was—a sight of someone peeping into the room.
Who is it? A murderer? A monster? A bizarre country person?
I really had to check, but I was too anxious to go myself. What if I got stabbed as soon as I got close? Yeah, that’s something the man should handle.
— Thud!
“Ugh…. What the—”
“Shh! There’s someone outside.”
Park Sang-ho’s eyes flew open, staring at the door. Unlike me, who couldn’t tell who it was, he recognized them immediately.
“No way, is that really that guy?”
My cautious heads-up went out the window. Park Sang-ho bolted up, shouting loudly into the dark night, and I could hear the sound of someone rushing away, followed by a scuffle.
“What the hell is your problem?!”
“Uhgh!”
The sounds of someone getting beaten went on for a while. Meanwhile, I was growing increasingly bewildered.
Isn’t this a bit strange? That clearly felt like a ‘crisis,’ didn’t it? Wasn’t that guy supposed to pounce on me wielding a knife? Instead, things are going this smoothly—
— Grab!
The next second, something I never expected happened. Out of nowhere, a ‘wall’ flipped, and a strong hand shot out from behind!
I could never have imagined this kind of nonsense happening in a country house. Bracing my warrior arm—
Bracing? What do I even do with that? Am I supposed to crush the limbs of the guy trying to kidnap me? If I went that way, people would call it a ridiculous plot twist, right?
This very dilemma landed me into a trap. The cloth over my mouth was soaked in some strong sleeping drug, and before a minute passed, I lost consciousness.
… In that murky darkness, I realized something.
Ah, so this is why Elena got into trouble in that romance flick. But even if I realized it, I had no clue how to deal with what was happening.
*
— Splash!
“Hey, kid! Wake up already!”
As I came to, splashed with cold water, one thing hit me—this movie’s pacing is ridiculously quick.
And no, I’m not talking about how time is fast here. Such ‘benefits’ have disappeared. But most of what I experienced would probably get wrapped up in the movie within ten minutes at most.
Right at the start, my ‘husband’ and I decided to go to the city after a chat. We arrived at the city and were met with a warm welcome, then I had a peculiar kitchen experience.
In the night, I woke up feeling strange from the stares, and bam! I got kidnapped.
That’s really a succinct summary. The reason it progresses so absurdly fast is that these four segments make up one movie.
“Well, city girl, finally awake?”
As I opened my eyes, I was met with my strangely acting in-laws from yesterday. My arms were chained to the wall, and my mother-in-law was sharpened a knife.
— Scrape!
“… Quite an interesting experience I’m having.”
“Oh my, I thought you’d scream upon waking up! How about a peek to your right?”
Turning my head made me chuckle dryly. There was a human skin hanging on the ceiling, all droopy and lifeless.
… Great, this hotel is truly terrible for teaching kids manners.
“Sang-ho, I really don’t know how you snagged such a pretty girl.”
“Haha! You really shouldn’t be so intimidating! What if the city girl messes herself, who’s cleaning it up, huh?”
“Oh my, why say such things? Kid! Don’t be too scared. Tonight’s going to be v-ery long. You’ll get to see what’s underneath your skin.”
At some point, I just tuned out. The old couple rambled about their gruesome tales, busy bragging about past victims.
They must want to hear me crying and begging for my life. Instead of giving them what they wanted, I thought deeply.
Where did the ‘mistake’ happen?
Let’s rewind back to the start of the movie. Park Sumi, the owner of this memory, ended up escaping and went to the café. What does that mean?
It suggests that even a normal young woman without fantastic powers could manage to escape. Now, here I am, arms bound and toyed with by this sadistic old couple—clearly, something I missed.
“I don’t know.”
“Your eyeballs better—what?”
“I said I don’t know, you old bat!”
“What—what did you just say?”
“Hey! Listen up! I’m taking charge here. You two figure out how to break me out smartly.”
“S-suddenly what—”
— Crash! Clang!
With the sound of a wall breaking down, my chains ‘ripped apart’. In front of the wide-eyed elderly couple, I declared, “You people, calling me ‘kid’ when we’re not that far apart in age! And skinning me? Preparing to chop me up alive? You’re all talk!”
“Wh-what the—”
Surprisingly, instead of the mother-in-law writhing on the floor, the father picked up a knife and charged at me. Just watching their moves made me want to burst out laughing. Clearly, he’d never thrown a proper punch in his life.
Extending my warrior arm, I grasped the knife tightly, and with a swift motion, the blade shattered into three pieces.
“Sir, knives are dangerous. Why don’t you put it down?”
Next, I grabbed the old man’s shoulder, giving a light squeeze, causing his arm to bend at a weird angle—the angle he’d never experienced before.
“Ugh, aghhh!”
“Feeling good, aren’t you, sir? I give great massages.”
Seriously, since I’ve already trashed the ordinary plot, might as well spin it this way? Nowadays, there are tons of movies where victims get their glorious payback, right?
As I yanked at the man’s ear, the skin tore, and white cartilage splattered everywhere. At this point, the old man was already spitting blood, having fainted.
“How come you were so obnoxious? Oh, mother, you coming over next?”
“Ahhh! You monster!”
“By the way, where’s Sang-ho?”
The mother-in-law lost her mind and began wailing as I approached her, ready to grab her head.
As I twisted her head slowly, I toyed with the thought of whether this was enough to get the hotel’s approval.
“Hey! That’s my husband!”
“…”
In horror movie terms, that person is the teammate who foolishly acts first and gets caught by the murderer early on. But with the plot all twisted, I ended up in this bizarre scenario.
So I just blurted out some random explanations.
“Sang-ho, you see those human skins over there?”
The guy looked completely dazed, turning his head around.
“Your ‘unique’ family seems like they might be cannibals. So, you know, I had no choice.”
“You… what are you….”
“A secret organization member?”
Isn’t there an organization like the Administrative Bureau around here?
“You’re from the Vatican!”
“A cardinal.”
“A cardinal? But you’re only 23!”
“Hey, you become a cardinal based on skill, not age. Just roll with it! And how clueless can you be not to know what your family does?”
“S-Sumi?”
“Keep quiet, will ya?”
After that, everything became a blur.
Honestly, having messed everything up, I felt drained, and my motivation for acting faded fast. Stepping outside, I thought, “What the hell, this isn’t even my body, right? Might as well have a smoke and stare at the sky as the place trembles.”
*
“In the end, I beat my mother-in-law and father-in-law to death and escaped with my husband.”
“Wait? Out of nowhere?”
“Yep. Turns out, I’m a cardinal of the Vatican.”
“Wait, what?”
“Cardinals are ranked by skill.”
“Oh, no…. I was hoping for a more serious attitude.”
“Writer, didn’t you just say we wouldn’t argue about the stories we hear?”
“… I’m sorry, but this story feels quite, um, thrown together. Let’s try again later.”
When we returned to the café, a funny thing happened. Park Sumi recounted the exact chaotic events that went down during my turn.
With ridiculous confidence, she claimed that the old murderer couple had been killed by sheer brute strength, attributing her victory to being a cardinal—an absurd statement that threw screenwriter Doh In-ho off guard.
Yup, this is a definite failure. The line “let’s try again later” felt intriguingly heavy.
Just then, waiting her turn, the astonishing twenty-something beauty, Han Yoori, spoke up.
“Sure, that could happen. We’re all people who’ve experienced strange events, right? Writer, can I go next?”
“Of course. Please, go ahead, Yoori.”
“This story is about my high school memories. Um… I feel a bit bashful saying this. I was quite popular during my school days.”
“Looks like it. Honestly, aren’t you still quite the popular one?”
“Oh come on! Anyway, every day at school, my shoebox was filled with confession letters. But, that day felt a bit different.”
The space began to warp.
*
– Second Story, The Enchanting Girl
— Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!
Hearing the sound of the school lunchtime bell resonate around, I sighed. Right, this is my second go, so let’s not dwell on the whole being a schoolgirl situation.
“Yoori! Do you have time tomorrow? I got tickets for the Black Eye concert—”
From beside me, a girl named Saerom rambled on about going to the concert together. She seemed like a friend, but this is a horror movie.
“… Don’t stick too close to me.”
“Huh?”
“I won’t live long.”
“What?”
We started near the shoe locker. The girl receiving confessions being right by the shoe locker—I knew that well. Kids shove all sorts of things in there, right?
When I opened the locker, it was stuffed with papers. Five white papers were crammed in there, and among them was a most ridiculous item.
“What’s this? Jelly?”
The girl beside me, Saerom, looked astonished.
“That’s slime? How did they even fit this in here?”
It’s a gigantic jelly-like toy! No high school kid would have access to such a thing, right? How did it even get in here?
As I pulled it out and stretched it, I found a little note inside that said ‘I love you.’
“What a pathetic idiot. Shoving this in and ruining the shoe locker!”
“Right? It must be some loser nerd. Yoori, just throw it away.”
I get what this kid was thinking. With so many confession letters in the locker, he probably thought he could slip in a standard paper note among them unnoticed.
So, he figured he’d add something eye-catching, leading to this ridiculous slime usage.
… Well, he caught attention alright. It feels like calling the dang cops would be a valid reaction.
“Sigh… Is this how kids confess these days? Seriously, they have no nerve to look a girl in the eye and are resorting to this slime terror. What a joke!”
— Bang!
A heavy metal object smacked my head.
“Don’t tease me! Who do you think you are? What? What? You? You think you’re funny? I worked hard to make that!”
That was my last memory from the horror movie.
*
One minute into the second story, and Kim Mooksung meets his demise, filling the theater with silence. Even Ahri, who rarely drooled, snapped back to her senses late.
“W-wait! Did Mooksung just get knocked out by a fire extinguisher? D-did he just get killed for rejecting a confession? Is this how today’s kids are?”
Hearing Ahri’s words, the ‘today’s kids’ around her fell silent.
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