How to Die in a Company That Turned Into a Labyrinth

The cool breeze of early evening brushed against my ears.

“The rooftop…? The actual rooftop?”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Then what about the electrical room? Where was the electrical room? Didn't we have to fix the blackout to get past the Mechanical Room down below? Had I taken the wrong route from the start? What had I missed? Had I done something pointless again? Had I been creating dozens, hundreds of meaningless deaths?

“Come over here too!”

Yu Mi-rae's cheerful, distant shout swept away the thoughts in my head.

Yu Mi-rae, with left and right reversed, had already gone over to the railing.

Toward the setting sun.

I moved closer, worried that this reckless idiot might fall off.

I didn't grab Yu Mi-rae, but I stayed close enough that I could if needed.

“Then… is this the end? There isn't anywhere higher?”

“I don't know that either.”

Long hair swayed in the breeze.

“This is a Labyrinth.”

It was such an obvious truth that hearing it said aloud felt strange.

“You won't know until you go.”

I quietly watched that profile.

The setting sun and the rising lights of the city were swallowed by black eyes.

“CEO.”

“Yeah?”

A nearly perfectly symmetrical face turned toward me.

And so I couldn't hold back the words that had risen to my throat. Like laughter, like vomit.

“Have you ever been trapped in a Labyrinth?”

That face smiled with perfect symmetry again.

“Didn't Yu Hyun-jae tell you?”

“…Pardon?”

“About our Father.”

“Ah… he did. But…”

Why?

I felt that I had to ask.

Not simply that I wanted to know, but that I needed to know.

Even though I already knew.

“Do you want to hear it from me too?”

From Yu Mi-rae too. Fairly…

“Let's do that later. You can't tell it in seven characters.”

I only nodded quietly.

Silence settled between Yu Mi-rae and me. I watched Yu Mi-rae for a while, then spoke again.

“…CEO.”

A face holding the dim light turned to me without answering.

“Do you want to die?”

“I like living.”

“Then why do you do this? It's dangerous.”

Yu Mi-rae climbed onto the railing, then casually sat on it.

Patting the ground beside them as though telling me to sit.

It looked like Yu Mi-rae would stay like that forever if I didn't, so I followed and sat down beside them.

“This is a Labyrinth.”

“Yes. I know.”

“You won't know until you go.”

“You just said that… CEO?”

Then Yu Mi-rae suddenly grabbed me by the collar.

“Let's go, then.”

“No, you lunatic…!”

And jumped straight off the railing.

“Open your eyes now, Seon Yu-han.”

Instead of the Interview Administrator's voice, I heard Yu Mi-rae's.

Only then did I open my tightly shut eyes.

“You're more scared than I expected.”

Sure enough, Yu Mi-rae was there, wearing a ring on their right pinky.

“You said you've died plenty of times.”

“Closing my eyes when I fall is just instinct. But this place…”

My feet were planted on the floor.

Despite having fallen from the rooftop.

In front of an emergency exit I was sick of seeing by now.

“Throw away what you don't need.”

“Pardon?”

“Forget it. It's the sixteenth floor.”

“The sixteenth floor…”

The directory nearby said exactly that.

Hoewol Accounting Firm.

Chae Jae-ha's workplace.

“…But how did you know? That if you jumped from the rooftop, you'd come out on an upper floor.”

“How would I know?”

“Then why did you jump if you didn't know?”

“We need to find the way. You won't die anyway.”

For a moment, I was speechless at that utterly calm face.

“You… CEO, you can die.”

“That's your problem. Not mine.”

That indifferent voice, cold enough to chill me, pierced to the bone.

“…How is that my problem? How can it not be your problem? How can you say that? You only get one life.”

“Only having one life? That's my problem, yes. Mine, not yours.”

Eyes like dry wells looked at me without emotion.

“You don't want me to die? That's your problem. Stop it already, Yu Hyun-jae.”

My breath caught.

Who was this child looking at? Or what? Perhaps even when?

“I…”

I didn't know.

Whether I was angry, hurt, or perhaps… happy.

“…Let's start on the left.”

Out of all the sentences caught on the tip of my tongue, that was all I managed to force out.

“Let's start on the right!”

Yu Mi-rae pointed down the hallway where Myeongil Books was.

Eyes shining as though the conversation we had just had had never happened.

“Is there some reason?”

“They make books.”

“That doesn't explain much.”

“It's more interesting than accounting.”

“Ha…”

Yu Mi-rae's idea of “interesting” was generally proportional to danger.

“Fine, then…”

I followed Yu Mi-rae down the right-hand hallway.

It was a small publishing house that leased only one office suite.

The rest seemed vacant.

Compared to Hoewol Accounting Firm, which filled the hallway across from it, it was shabby, smaller even than a single department at Uiwi Guild.

Maybe it was the smallest company in this building.

…Could they even afford the rent?

“We make tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

Startled, I looked at Yu Mi-rae.

Yu Mi-rae was speaking politely?

“It's this publisher's motto.”

Thank goodness. It was still Yu Mi-rae, even if left and right were reversed.

“I liked it.”

Another owner of Jaelae Building opened the door to a company that made tomorrow.

32. This Is Not the End. Jump.

It was a publishing house as simple as it looked from outside.

A shared space with a wide table, two small offices, and an even smaller break room.

An ordinary office that smelled not of the sweet scent of books, but of ink from a multifunction printer churning out piles of documents.

It made me realize this was a company that made books, not a place like a library or bookstore where books were read or sold.

A large bookshelf stood against one wall. Looking closer, I saw that they were all books from this company.

There were often several copies of the same book, along with defective copies and rough-bound proofs.

Novels, poetry, plays, essays, self-help books…

They didn't seem to discriminate by genre, but literature appeared to be their main focus.

There also seemed to be quite a few children's books, like fairy tales and picture books.

“I should read this.”

At those words, I turned my head and saw Yu Mi-rae looking down at a book on the wide table.

It had an oddly suggestive title.

There was no design to speak of, only a gray cover with the title stamped in green foil.

There wasn't even an author's name.

“This isn't one of this company's books.”

Yu Mi-rae's fingertip pointed at the Myeongil Books logo on the spine.

I didn't ask whether Yu Mi-rae simply didn't know because it had only recently been published.

Yu Mi-rae couldn't possibly have overlooked that.

Then it was more likely that this book had appeared when the place became a Labyrinth.

I'd felt it at Chaekbang Ollae, but Labyrinths and books were not a good combination.

If we opened this book, then perhaps…

“Do you think we'll end up inside it?”

“Maybe.”

Yu Mi-rae shrugged as though it were nothing and reached for the book.

Swish.

I picked it up first.

Rather than entrust a book to someone who grabbed people by the collar and jumped off rooftops, I would feel better reading it myself.

Rustle.

I opened Nail Shell.

―――――――――――――――

Contents

Act 1 · · · · · · · · · · · 7

Act 2 · · · · · · · · · · · 29

Act 3 · · · · · · · · · · · 45

Commentary · · · · · · · · · 131

―――――――――――――――

It was a play divided into acts.

Nothing happened. I wasn't sucked into the book or anything.

Somehow, I relaxed and sat in a chair. Yu Mi-rae pulled over a chair and sat down too.

We pressed our heads together again and continued reading.

―――――――――――――――

Act 1

An old, narrow attic.

The sounds of wind and rain can be heard.

A boy and a girl enter, holding a lit candle together. The two children wear dingy yellow cloth bags over their heads like masks. Dark stains on the bags look as though eyes, noses, and mouths have been crudely dotted on.

Thunder crashes.

The boy and girl stop in place, look toward the back of the stage, then move to the center of the attic. The two children place the candle on the floor and sit facing each other.

Creak, creak. The sound of wood groaning can be heard.

The boy's body trembles. The girl cups the bag with both hands as though covering the boy's ears, while the boy looks around. The boy turns toward the audience and speaks.

Boy: Want to tell scary stories?

―――――――――――――――

It was an ominous play from the very beginning.

Even so, a stage steadily formed in my mind, and the two children in bags climbed onto it.

―――――――――――――――

Girl: (Taking her hands off the boy's head) Okay. You go first.

Boy: Have you heard the Nail Shell Story?

Girl: (Scratching her neck) Neck skin?

Boy: No! (Pretending to hammer) Nail Shell!

Girl: No. I haven't.

Boy: That's a relief. (In a whisper) Everyone who hears the Nail Shell Story dies.

―――――――――――――――

Nail Shell…

I'd never heard a story like that.

Nail Shell, Nail Shell, Nail Shell…

―――――――――――――――

Girl: But you're alive.

Boy: I don't know the real Nail Shell Story either. But I do know what happened to the people who heard it. (Pause) One day, three brothers went on a picnic in the woods…

Girl: What's a picnic?

Boy: Just listen. (Pause) Three brothers went on a picnic in the woods, built a campfire, and started telling scary stories one by one. Like us.

The boy holds up three fingers before the candle. Three shadows appear on the wall at the back of the stage.

The sound of a campfire burning can be heard.

Boy: (Lowering his voice) When it was the youngest brother's turn, he was upset. The story his middle brother had just told was so scary, and there was no way his own story could be scarier.

Girl: What was the middle brother's story?

Boy: Just listen! (Calmly) Anyway, the youngest brother started telling the Nail Shell Story. Then his eldest and middle brothers went pale…

A piercing scream is heard.

The three shadows cast on the wall tremble. The candle flares fiercely. The three shaking shadows disappear one by one.

Girl: Did they all die?

Boy: Yeah. As soon as the youngest finished his story, his brothers bolted. But the campfire they accidentally disturbed spread through the forest.

Girl: Wow, they ran away? How scary was it?

Boy: Exactly. It must have been an incredibly scary story.

Girl: I'm curious! I want to hear it!

Boy: (Looking around) Shh! I told you, you'll die if you hear it.

Girl: Even so…

The boy covers the girl's mouth area, and the lights shining on the boy and girl gradually dim.

―――――――――――――――

Blackout.

The lights come back on.

An old, narrow attic.

The sounds of wind and rain can be heard.

The boy and girl, wearing dingy yellow cloth bags over their heads, sit facing each other before the candle.

Thunder crashes. Creak, creak. The sound of wood groaning can be heard.

The girl's body trembles. The girl buries her face in her knees. When the boy stands and turns around, he sees a box. It is unclear how long it has been there. The boy takes a blanket from the box and drapes it over their shoulders. The girl raises her head and speaks to us.

“Let's tell scary stories.”

Act 2 begins.

“Nail Shell” is 못 껍질, which the girl mishears as 목 껍질, meaning “neck skin.” The Korean terms differ by one final consonant.