The Nature of Possession – Chapter 27

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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9 a.m.

The director, tied to a chair, had become nothing but a mass of blood, twitched intermittently, but there was no sign of life.

Had she been too immersed for the past hour? Mina’s entire body was drenched in sweat and blood.

“Oh dear, I didn’t think of this.”

She muttered, looking at her filthy appearance.

It was time for the early birds to start coming to work. If she wandered around the office, she would get caught.

“There’s no other way.”

She checked the blinds of the director’s office, which she had pulled down completely and sat on the guest sofa.

She launched the work messenger app on her phone and left a message in the team chat.

“Huu…”

She ran her hand through her sweat-soaked hair and took a deep breath.

“I miss In-ho-ssi.”

Mina stared blankly at the ceiling as she mumbled to herself.

And then, 11 a.m. arrived.

Mina gazed down emotionlessly at the director, who had now stopped twitching entirely.

“You’re quite lively today, aren’t you?”

She chuckled and opened her phone again.

“Shall we go?”

She looked in the mirror and adjusted her clothes.

She tied her soaked hair once more and wiped the dried bloodstains on her face with a wet tissue.

She opened the lid of the paint thinner container she had left in the director’s office.

The pungent smell of thinner filled the air.

She didn’t even flinch at the strong smell as she poured it over the director.

*Splash, splash, splash*

After generously splashing the thinner all over the room, she opened the second container.

*Drag, drag*

Dragging the container, she left the room.

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In the conference room, where all the team members were gathered, they were waiting for Lee Mina, who still hadn’t arrived.

“She told us to gather at 11 and she’s late herself.”

Yun Hye-young grumbled in a dissatisfied tone and others agreed.

“But what’s the announcement about?”

“Maybe… it’s about In-ho-ssi’s case? Maybe a warning to be careful with what we say? I think she’ll tell us not to post anything about it online or something.”

“Ah… right, there was that incident.”

“It’s so unfortunate about In-ho-ssi. Who knew there would be a train accident?”

After Kim Yuna spoke, Yun Hye-young responded.

“I almost went. If I had listened to Mina-nim and gone down there, what would have happened… oh dear.”

“By the way, what’s that smell?”

Someone asked, holding their nose as a strange odor filled the room.

“Ugh, what is this smell?”

The smell spread like an infection, and everyone frowned at the sickening odor.

“I’ll go check what it is.”

As Kim Yuna got up to open the door.

*Click*

“Huh?”

*Click, click, click*

“The door won’t open.”

The door wouldn’t open as if it was blocked by something heavy. The people inside the conference room started murmuring.

*Whoosh*

And then flames erupted.

The heat radiating from the gap in the door made everyone instinctively step back.

“Aaaaaah! What is this!”

“Fire, fire!!”

With shouts of “fire,” everyone clung to the door and pounded on it.

The more they pounded, the more intense the heat became, and their skin started to burn without them realizing it.

“Cough, cough”

As acrid smoke filled the conference room, it quickly spread, triggering a fit of coughing among everyone.

“Help!!”

“Why isn’t the sprinkler working!”

Neither the fire alarm nor the sprinklers were working.

In a state of panic, they could only scream.

“Cell phone!”

“We all left them at our desks!”

“Ah! Someone do something!!”

Shrill voices rang out.

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The flames intensified and most people had long since collapsed from the acrid smoke.

The fire was slowly devouring the conference room and few remained conscious.

“We have to break through the door.”

The door had burned more than halfway through and it looked like it would open with a little force.

“Huh? Oh!”

Yun Hye-young, who was at the back, pushed Seo Seo-rim, who was in front with all her might.

*Bang!*

“Aaack!!”

The sensation of flesh burning, a sensation Seo Seo-rim had never experienced in her life, made her scream.

Was the pain too much? She lost consciousness and fainted on the spot.

“It’s open.”

With Seo-rim’s sacrifice the door was now opened. Yun Hye-young, laughing like a madwoman, burst out of the conference room.

*Thud!*

A dull sound echoed as Yun Hye-young fell backward.

“Huh?”

Hye-young, not knowing why she was lying down, saw the faces of her colleagues who hadn’t yet escaped.

Faces that looked as if they had seen a demon rising from hell.

Why are they making such faces?

Before she could question it, someone’s face appeared above her as she lay on the floor.

“Good morning, Yun Hye-young-ssi.”

It was Lee Mina.

Lee Mina, covered in blood for some reason.

Hye-young couldn’t grasp the situation.

“Mina… nim..”

And a fire extinguisher fell on her head.

*Thud!*

Once.

*Thud!*

Twice.

*Thud!*

Three times.

The fire extinguisher repeatedly struck her head.

The sound of bones crushing echoed in the burning office.

“Phew. It seems like you’re not feeling well, so take the rest of the day off.”

After putting down the fire extinguisher, Mina spoke refreshingly.

“Mina… nim?”

The remaining team members called out to her.

“Oh? There are still some people who haven’t lost their consciousness. Come quickly. I have another appointment, so I’d like to finish this quickly.”

As she gestured for them to come in, the few remaining people in the conference room started to rush out.

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Twenty minutes later, the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance.

It seemed her efforts to delay the report had worked.

“Huu…”

Rubbing the scratches and bruises all over her body, she took a step forward.

The office was already a sea of fire.

Thick smoke had already filled the area.

It was a situation where ordinary people would have already lost consciousness.

Perhaps because she had already lost her mind, she was able to remain conscious.

“It’s over now.”

She said while looking at the collapsed employees.

In the end, no one had managed to escape from this floor.

She was satisfied with that.

The exits were already blocked. And she had no intention of leaving in the first place.

The fire, which had started at the edge of the office, was slowly expanding its territory inwards.

She sat down at In-ho’s desk.

As if caressing someone, she gently ran her hand over his desk.

“Oh, you told me to try this, didn’t you?”

Holding the caramel popcorn she had hidden underneath in her arms, she turned on her phone and opened the photo album.

Pictures taken with him.

A medium for recalling happy memories.

Recalling the fragments of memories with him, she smiled.

In-ho-ssi.

Are you watching?

Would you be angry, or would you say I did well…

I don’t know.

Oh, but this popcorn is really delicious.

I should have bought it more often.

It would have been even more delicious if I had shared it with you, In-ho-ssi.

You know, I… I really didn’t want much.

I just wanted to keep working at this company with you, and just be together like that.

If I’m being honest, I kind of wanted us to live together.

That’s all I wished for.

Because my life before In-ho-ssi came was colorless.

That’s why I don’t want to think about a life without you.

Ah… my head is getting cloudy.

I must have inhaled a lot of smoke.

Where was I?

Ah, right.

This world… is the space that In-ho-ssi and I created, isn’t it?

We built this together, a team that was barely even a team.

But what meaning does this world have if In-ho-ssi isn’t here?

How ridiculous would it be for someone else to replace In-ho-ssi?

That’s why… I decided to destroy it.

Since we built it, it’s okay for us to destroy it, right?

Yes.

The world we created.

The world filled with our time.

The world where our memories piled up.

The world engraved with our traces.

In-ho-ssi, I’m sorry.

I… don’t want to live anymore.

In-ho-ssi, I miss you.

In her fading consciousness, she felt as if In-ho was by her side.

A warm hand gently wrapped around her shoulder.

She closed her eyes and fully embraced that dreamlike sensation.

Goodbye.

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[T/N: Ah damn you onion ninjas. It felt like a finale, didn’t it? But man, I felt really bad for Mina. Innocent people were killed? Fuck’em. Let’s take a moment to say goodbye(?) to the best girl so far.]

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