Chapter 23

Chodam Park—West Gate (2)

I gritted my teeth.

I had no idea what kind of object the wristband was, so I braced myself for whatever effect it might have.

Surprisingly, however, I felt nothing unusual. I experienced no strange urges, my body didn’t move against my will, and nothing hurt.

“Haebin, are you all right?”

“Uh… Yes. I don’t feel anything.”

Myeong Haebin also seemed unaffected and looked back at me in puzzlement.

“What is this wristband?”

“It’s an environmental wristband given to those who love Chodam Park’s environment. It’s made from biodegradable plastic—”

That wasn’t what I was asking.

Judging by the irrelevant answer, it had no intention of telling us what the wristband actually did.

The strangest part was that although it had forced the wristband onto me, I could remove it if I wanted to. Still troubled by the anomaly’s words, I decided not to take it off.

“…What are those?”

Instead, I pointed to the white plastic bags prominently displayed at the booth and the metal litter pickers beside them.

“They’re part of another campaign to restore Chodam Park’s environment. If you fill one of these bags with garbage and bring it back, you’ll receive a Responsible Environmental Guardian wristband.”

“Do we have to do it?”

“You already love the environment, but participation is strongly encouraged. After all, it benefits everyone.”

As if I’d do that.

“No, thank you.”

“Thank you for participating in our campaign. Have a day filled with care for the environment.”

The anomaly bowed politely to us. Then, as though it had rooted itself to the ground and had nothing more to say, it stood perfectly still.

“This is my first time hearing of an anomaly trying to protect the environment.”

“Same here. We stopped for no reason and ended up losing all our equipment.”

My equipment.

Thinking about it again made me feel cheated.

I felt as if I had been stripped naked. How was I supposed to clean the park now?

I hurriedly searched my pockets.

Thank goodness. I still had my phone.

“Do you have anything left, Haebin?”

“Ta-da! That anomaly was looking at my bag, so I took this out just in case.”

“…That’s all?”

Myeong Haebin proudly held up a five-hundred-milliliter bottle of water.

What were we supposed to do with that?

“What about you, Senior? You don’t have anything at all!”

“All right. I’m sorry.”

I had to admit that she was quicker than me. She usually seemed oblivious, yet at times like this, her instincts were remarkably sharp.

“What do you have in your pockets?”

“Only a few snacks. If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve taken out more!”

So Myeong Haebin was practically empty-handed too.

“Haah… Fine. Let’s keep going.”

With a sigh drawn from the depths of my core, I walked past the temporary booth I never wanted to see again.

As we continued along the trail, the pond gradually drew closer.

“Is this… the only way forward?”

The path on land came to an end. The only route remaining was a line of stepping-stones crossing the left side of the pond—the part corresponding to the snowman-shaped pond’s head.

There was also an unusually large amount of garbage scattered around the pond.

“I can see why they’d launch an environmental campaign. Why did people dump so much trash here?”

“Be careful not to fall in.”

I saw crumpled receipts, empty bottles, and even pieces of rotten bread. Since we no longer had any cleaning equipment, we left them alone for now.

Then a sign beside the pond caught my attention.

“Haebin, look at this.”

Was that… a bird?

Once again, the sign had no writing. It displayed only four illustrations.

One showed what appeared to be a bird with its wings spread wide, with powder being sprinkled toward it and a red prohibition symbol drawn over the image.

“It looks like feeding the birds is prohibited.”

“There aren’t any birds around, but I guess that means there must be some somewhere in the park.”

“The others seem to prohibit feeding the fish, fishing, and littering. These pictures are disturbing.”

The fish on the sign had arms. The bait impaled on the fishhook had a human face. And the no-littering illustration didn’t show someone throwing away an entire bag, but rather scattering its contents everywhere.

“Should we cross?”

“Be careful.”

“It’s fine. The stones don’t even wobble!”

The stepping-stones were large and positioned close together, so crossing them wasn’t particularly difficult.

The water-level gauge at the entrance must have been measuring this pond, right?

It was stagnant water. Moss-covered stones lined the bottom, and there wasn’t a single fish in sight. In the distance, fallen leaves, branches, and plastic bags floated on the surface.

No other unusual features.

Was it referring to a different pond?

Having gained nothing, we stepped onto dry land and continued along the path.

A roughly square shipping container stood to our right.

That must have been the square object depicted on the guide map.

“I’m not sure. There are empty shelves and bars… Do you think something lives inside?”

We approached the bars on the side of the container.

Behind the gridlike frame, which appeared to have been welded together, was a closed glass window. Layers of adhesive film covered the glass, making it impossible to see inside.

“It might be empty.”

“We’re not going to smash our way inside, are we?”

“I’m not Team Leader Yong.”

It was always best not to touch anything that looked obviously dangerous.

Turning our backs on the container, we decided to continue along the path.

The app said the exit was the west gate.

If the map was accurate, we should soon reach the point where the sign stood.

I continued walking with that thought in mind.

My empty hands clenched into fists as I heightened my senses, taking each step while watching for anything abnormal.

But at some point, I found myself standing before a massive painted stone engraved with words and a swaying metal panel.

[Our Pond Is Currently]

[Parched] … [Insufficient] … [Average] … [High] … [Abundant] … [Perfect]

We were back at the starting point.

Back at a place resembling—

[Chodam Park—East Gate]

The metal guide map swayed in the wind.

When I looked behind us, I saw a vast asphalt road.

Then how had we ended up back here?

“Was there an exit anywhere along the way?”

“No. We followed the same single path the whole time. You saw that too, Senior.”

“That’s why I’m asking.”

And earlier, this place had been labeled the east gate.

Not “Gomyut.”

The previously peaceful atmosphere of the park had changed.

“…The sun has set too.”

When we entered, the bright midday sun had been blazing directly overhead until only moments ago. Now it was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a moon hanging in the deep blue night sky.

“Have we been bewitched?”

“Would you like me to slap you?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

Smack!

I slapped myself across the cheek to regain a sense of reality.

Numbness rapidly spread across my face, but my mind didn’t become any clearer. I must have already been fully lucid.

“Good. Then let’s go around again.”

Aside from day becoming night, nothing inside the park had changed.

The guide map, the placement and number of benches, and even the design of the streetlights were all identical.

We cautiously retraced the path we had already followed until we finally encountered the first difference.

“The anomaly that was here… Where did it go?”

The temporary environmental-campaign booth was so dilapidated that it looked ready to collapse.

“Only the bags and litter pickers are intact. Everything else is a complete mess.”

The banners that had once passionately promoted environmental protection were so faded and stained that their writing was almost illegible.

“Our wristbands are still here. There’s nothing under the booth either, right?”

“No. It’s completely empty.”

Apart from the missing attendant and the ruined booth, the park remained unchanged.

After glaring at it for a moment, I took a couple of folded plastic bags and stuffed them into my back pocket.

Even the garbage is in exactly the same place. The signs are the same too.

The more details I checked, the harder it became to shake the feeling that we were circling through the same space.

Still troubled by that feeling, I stopped halfway across the stepping-stones.

“Haebin, were the gaps between these stones always this wide?”

The difference was extremely subtle—only about four fingers’ width.

Instead of questioning it, Myeong Haebin counted the stepping-stones one by one and confirmed that I hadn’t imagined it.

“One, two, three… Oh, you’re right. There’s one fewer stone.”

“Does this count as an anomalous phenomenon?”

“Technically? But it might just be a change in the park, like what happened to the booth.”

Nothing happened when we stepped on the stones.

Even after crossing safely, I found myself repeatedly glancing back at them.

“That’s such an ambiguously minor—”

Not long after thinking that, we encountered a change that was anything but minor.

Outside the small, roughly square shipping container, a refrigerator and shelves had appeared, packed with goods.

The refrigerator—whether it was receiving electricity or not—was filled with bottled water, soda, sports drinks, and other beverages. Bread, snacks, and chocolate were arranged on the shelves.

“Is this some kind of kiosk?”

I thought so because the items were displayed too neatly to be someone’s personal belongings.

“The window is open. Let’s ask the owner!”

Myeong Haebin spoke cheerfully, as though she had lost all sense of caution or fear. But with my gaze fixed on the window, I shook my head.

“No.”

The inside of the container was dark, as though it had no light bulb.

Something moved behind the metal bars, which were covered in reddish patches of corrosion.

Blink.

“Do we need anything from the kiosk?”

I saw it.

A bloodshot eye with every capillary ruptured, gleaming with a bright red light.

“…Let’s not touch anything.”

As we slowly backed away, the gaze faded as though it had never been watching me.

“What did you see?”

“Something inside the container.”

It was probably the owner of that kiosk-like facility.

We didn’t need anything from a kiosk right now. None of the rules mentioned it, so there was no reason to provoke it unnecessarily.

“Then let’s just go.”

I wiped the sweat from my palms on my pants and continued along the otherwise unchanged path.

Would we return to the beginning again?

And where were we supposed to find the distinction between using Gomyut and the west gate in the first place?

This time, however, we found a fork in the path.

A signpost indicated the destinations in each direction.

< West Gate | Gomyut >

“Maybe there was no need to agonize over it.”

I hadn’t expected the choices to be displayed so openly.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.”

The dirt path toward the west gate had no streetlights. A strange darkness consumed it, as though that section of space had been cleanly severed and nothing beyond the boundary could be seen.

“Which way should we go? Our destination is the west gate, but that path looks far too dangerous.”

“Let’s take the brighter path.”

I was glad we had found the west gate, but we needed to head toward Gomyut.

We had encountered far too many strange things: the moon that had suddenly appeared, the ruined booth, the missing stepping-stone, and the kiosk.

How many anomalous phenomena did that make?

We turned onto the path toward Gomyut.

Beneath the bright yellow glow of a streetlight stood a wooden mailbox shaped like a birdhouse.

“Oh, something new has appeared. A ‘Citizen Feedback Box’?”

A postcard rested on a plank protruding from the front of the birdhouse.

[Please check the aspects of Chodam Park that you found unsatisfactory.]

The postcard displayed the same guide map we had seen at the entrance.

A pen was even conveniently attached with a spring cord.

“The temporary booth, the stepping-stones, and the kiosk. Was there anything else?”

“You mean anomalous phenomena, right?”

Myeong Haebin narrowed her eyes in thought, then shook her head when nothing else came to mind.

“I think that’s everything.”

“Good.”

I placed the postcard inside the feedback box, but I didn’t hear it land.

Then we found ourselves back at—

[Chodam Park—Gomyut]

—the starting point.

Bzzzt—

I took out the phone vibrating gently inside my pocket.

A previously hidden third rule had been revealed.

[3. If you have arrived at Gomyut, return to Rule 1.]

Thanks for making it perfectly clear.

And what I had realized was—

“Haebin, have you ever heard of a time loop?”

We were trapped in a loop.

“You know about those too, Senior? I was just thinking the same thing.”

A loop—something whose beginning and end were connected like a ring, repeating infinitely.

The garbage that had disappeared reappeared, and the path we had already traveled was placed before us once again.

“I thought you said this ghost story was small.”

“I didn’t know it was a loop. Still, there must be a way out.”

“Can you be sure?”

“More or less?”

Myeong Haebin casually shrugged.

“Apparently, ghost stories naturally tend to keep growing, become more dangerous, or try to escape into the outside world. Whether through a physical exit or some other method.”

“What does that have to do with us getting out?”

“What would a ghost story need if it wanted to escape? An exit, of course. There are a very few exceptions that don’t have one, but there should be one here.”

The phrase “a very few exceptions” bothered me immensely, but I had the app.

Something that intended to work me for nine hundred and ninety-nine years wouldn’t let me rot here forever.

More importantly, one thing had clearly changed in the otherwise unchanging park.

[Our Pond Is Currently]

[Parched] … [Insufficient] … [Average] … [High] … [Abundant] … [Perfect]

The water-level gauge, which had previously remained at its lowest setting, had risen by one level.

To [Insufficient].

“Should we take this to mean we made progress?”

“I’d put an eighty-percent chance on ‘we did something wrong.’”

Beside the still-creaking guide map, a white sheet of paper held in place by a single strip of tape fluttered in the wind, looking ready to tear free at any moment.

[Notice]

The kiosk inside the park is an authorized facility and is not subject to enforcement action.

For the smooth operation of the park, please refrain from submitting unnecessary complaints.

※ This notice is intended to prevent safety accidents.

—Chodam Park—