How to Survive the Horror Novel I Wrote
Chapter 7
Faintly, the murmur of voices drifted over me.
My consciousness was sluggish, as if submerged underwater. I struggled to pull myself together.
When I opened my eyes, harsh white light stabbed at my vision.
I tried to raise my right hand to block the light, but a sharp, stinging pain tugged at my arm.
“Ouch.”
An IV needle was stuck in my arm.
Only then did I notice the IV bag hanging above my head.
A hospital?
“Are you awake?”
A gentle voice asked me.
I turned my head dizzily and saw an exceptionally handsome man.
Who was this?
None of the men I knew were this good-looking.
Suddenly, a flashing memory clawed at my brain.
Ju Ugeum!
As I scrambled to get up, Ugeum gently pressed down on my shoulder.
“Lie down a little longer.”
I couldn’t disobey him.
I lay there limply, parting my dry lips.
“How…?”
I meant to ask how he was here, but Ugeum took it as me asking how I got here.
“You collapsed, so I brought you to the ER. They said it was acute stomach cramps. You should be more careful about what you eat.”
Ugeum chided me mildly.
I was flabbergasted. It wasn’t because of what I ate. It was because of you.
I’m an extremely sensitive person. Stress hits me physically. Stress-induced headaches and stomachaches were practically my constant companions.
In the past, I had even been rushed to the emergency room once just after reading a nasty comment online.
Not that I could honestly tell him, I collapsed because of you.
My stomach began to ache with heartburn all over again.
“How does it feel now? Are you alright?”
Ugeum asked, softly caressing my forehead.
Completely oblivious to the fact that he was the root of all my ailments.
“I’m okay.”
I couldn’t stop my tone from coming out blunt.
“That’s a relief.”
Ugeum toyed with a few strands of my bangs before asking offhandedly,
“Do you remember asking me to save you?”
My heart sank. Of course I remembered. But why was he asking? Did he catch on? That I knew his true identity?
“I thought I was dying from the pain. That’s why.”
I looked away and made an excuse, feeling as though he’d see right through my lie if I held his gaze.
Ugeum continued playing with my hair as he murmured,
“Hearing you say that to me felt a little strange.”
Of course it did. Out of all the people who had ever begged you for their lives, you hadn’t spared a single one. I was the first.
I casually changed the subject, feigning indifference.
“I thought you couldn’t come to the ER without a guardian.”
“You have me.”
Ugeum spouted nonsense with a perfectly straight face.
It was so absurd that my head snapped toward him before I could stop myself.
“You checked me in?”
“Of course. Who else?”
Ugeum affirmed with a rhetorical question.
How on earth? I swallowed the question that had instantly surged to my lips.
Ugeum believed he was a real person. Asking something like that risked triggering an existential crisis or meddling with his identity.
Still, I truly couldn’t fathom it. How could Ugeum be my guardian? He was a fictional character—there was no way he had a resident registration number.
Part of me wanted to march up to the reception desk and ask: Excuse me, did you run this man’s resident number? Did it actually go through?
A moment later, a nurse came over and pulled the IV needle from my arm.
“You can pay the bill and be discharged.”
Even as she spoke, the nurse couldn’t tear her eyes away from Ugeum.
The surrounding patients and guardians were no different. They kept stealing glances at Ugeum, whispering among themselves about whether he was a celebrity.
Celebrity, my foot. He’s an executioner.
Shaking my head, I got up from the bed and rummaged through my pockets.
But all my fingers caught was empty air; I had neither my wallet nor my phone.
Dumbfounded, I snapped at Ugeum before I could think.
“Did you only bring my body when you came here?”
Ugeum flicked my forehead lightly.
A gentle tap.
“Don’t worry.”
Why was he acting so affectionate? I didn’t have the slightest desire to be chummy with a serial killer.
Struggling to conceal my discomfort, I followed Ugeum to the cashier’s desk.
When our turn came, Ugeum took a card out of his wallet.
Where did he get that?
Even though I was the author, I had no clue. The Night Series was horror, not a mystery, so the source of Ugeum’s wealth had never been important.
As I waited for the clerk to process the payment, I silently prayed for an error to chime—saying the card was lost, canceled, or reported stolen.
I secretly hoped the police would take Ugeum away.
However, the payment went through without a hitch, and we walked out of the ER without incident.
As I headed toward the taxi stand in front of the hospital, Ugeum caught my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“To catch a cab…”
Ugeum let out a chuckle of disbelief and pulled me toward the parking lot.
“Silly. I told you, I brought you here. I have my car.”
The car Ugeum brought turned out to be a black Porsche. I was speechless.
Granted, Ugeum was wealthy. In the novel.
But this was the real world. Where on earth did this Porsche come from?
“Shall we?”
Watching Ugeum open the passenger door with a playful invitation, my sense of reality dissolved completely.
Then again, if a fictional character could leap into reality and roam around, why couldn’t a fictional car and card do the same? It was easier to just give up trying to understand. I quietly climbed into the passenger seat.
The drive home went by in a flash.
As the car approached the residents’ entrance, I couldn’t believe my eyes when the gate barrier automatically lifted. Why did that open?
I looked over in disbelief and spotted a resident parking pass affixed to the driver’s side windshield.
“Ah…”
A groan-like sigh slipped out on its own. I understood instantly why Ugeum had that sticker. Because he was my boyfriend.
After parking in the underground lot, Ugeum circled around the front bumper to open the passenger door for me. He even offered his hand to help me out. It was a bit much, but undeniably chivalrous.
No wonder female readers love him.
Dropping me off at the complex should have been enough, but Ugeum got into the elevator with me. I thought he was just walking me to my door, but then he tried to follow me inside.
I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Aren’t you going home?”
I whipped around and asked sharply, only to receive a response as gentle as a spring breeze.
“I will. After I make you some porridge.”
“Just go. I don’t have an appetite.”
I bristled without thinking, only to remember Ugeum’s true nature a beat too late. Serial killer.
The one who murdered his lover.
I hastily added in a softened tone,
“I appreciate the thought, really.”
I couldn’t afford to let my guard down. Ugeum acted so tenderly that I kept forgetting.
“You have to eat even if you don’t have an appetite. You starved all day.”
Ugeum pushed his way inside stubbornly. I was forced back helplessly.
Still, I couldn’t just let him stay. It would soon be eleven at night—an hour when regular couples might stay over.
Living under the same roof as the Cursed Keyboard was already horrific enough; I couldn’t add a serial killer to the mix. I had literally just been discharged from the hospital.
I had no desire to trigger acute stomach cramps from looking at Ugeum like earlier.
“I didn’t starve all day. I only skipped dinner. I ate breakfast and lunch…”
While making excuses to send him away, I remembered that I had gone on a blind date over lunch. My voice trailed off on its own.
Never forget. This bastard is a man who murdered his cheating lover. Betray him, and you die.
“Ate lunch? Please. I saw you leave almost all your pasta behind.”
Ugeum scoffed with an amused smirk.
When on earth had he seen that? Ugeum’s powers of observation sent a chill down my spine. Even I hadn’t remembered how much lunch I’d eaten.
“I didn’t leave that much. The noodles just swelled up, so it looked that way.”
I made an excuse reflexively, then remembered that Ugeum despised lies, so I added with less conviction,
“…Probably.”
Ugeum didn’t even pretend to listen and walked past me straight to the kitchen.
“I’ll make some porridge, so eat at least a little bit.”
Was it because of his preset role as my boyfriend? Ugeum knew what was in my kitchen cupboards as if they were the back of his own hand.
And like the flawless man who could do everything, he displayed remarkable culinary skill.
Ignoring Ugeum’s suggestion that I get some rest, I sat at the dining table to watch whether he slipped any poison in.
He didn’t show any particularly suspicious behavior.
Yet when Ugeum finally ladled a bowl of porridge and set it down in front of me, lingering suspicion made it hard to even lift a spoonful.
There might be poison in it. Just because he didn’t put it in openly didn’t mean he hadn’t already done so.
In the rice sack, the rice cooker, the salt shaker. For all I knew, he could have coated this very bowl with a colorless, odorless toxin.
Ugeum had plenty of opportunity. He had come home with me after the blind date. Who was to say he hadn’t poisoned something while I was asleep?
Seeing through my hesitation, Ugeum teased lightly,
“Why? Worried I poisoned it?”
I froze with a start before managing an awkward smile.
“Of course not…”
He wasn’t saying that knowing I knew his true identity, right?
“I didn’t poison it, so don’t worry. See?”
Ugeum took a spoonful to prove his point, then scooped another and held it out to me.
“Here.”
I hesitantly took it into my mouth. Because I parted my lips as little as possible to eat the smallest amount, some porridge smeared around the corner of my mouth.
As if waiting for that moment, Ugeum wiped the corner of my mouth with his thumb. It felt less like being treated as a lover and more like a child.
But in that very instant—
Ugeum licked what was on his thumb while staring right at me. His red tongue, undulating with sensual precision, commanded my gaze. A shiver ran down my spine, and my mouth went completely dry.
My heart thudded wildly like a lie. It was absurd. Was this the suspension bridge effect?
I bit down hard on my lower lip.
Don’t be fooled. This isn’t romantic flutter.
“Don’t bite your lip.”
Ugeum reached out and gently stroked my lips.
Then he rose from his chair, leaning down toward me to whisper playfully,
“Let me bite it instead.”
Immediately, his lips pressed against mine. Catching my lower lip in a soft, teasing nip with his teeth, Ugeum let out a faint laugh and cupped the nape of my neck.
Then our breaths mingled and our tongues entwined. A strange, intoxicating current coursed down my spine. My eyes closed on their own.
Separate from my body’s response to the pleasure, my mind was consumed by a single thought: betray him, and you die.
In that case, how much would Ugeum tolerate? What would he refuse to forgive? I had no way of knowing. That was why I couldn’t reject this kiss either.
I had to pretend to love Ugeum anyway. If I didn’t, I’d be murdered.
I tilted my head back and responded to his kiss.
Wet lips. Hot breath. Gliding tongues. Unlike the fierce kiss from this morning, this was a tender, tantalizing tease.
…Tantalizing?
My eyes snapped open.
You’ve lost your mind, Ha Jian. This guy is a killer.
I gripped Ugeum’s shoulders and pushed him away.
Ugeum yielded easily to the push, rubbing his thumb over my lips with a look of lingering regret.
“Can’t be helped, since you’re sick.”
He seemed to think I had pushed him away because I wasn’t feeling well.
“I’m heading out. Take good care of yourself.”
Ugeum kissed my forehead and left without lingering. He had really meant it when he said he would leave after making porridge.
I was relieved that Ugeum had just left. Relieved, but… how long could this relief last? Nothing had happened so far. But what about tomorrow? And the day after?
What did Ugeum want from me, and how far would his demands go? The impossibility of gauging it made me anxious.
Harboring a thorn of anxiety, I sat at the table and ate the porridge Ugeum had cooked and tasted for poison.
It was delicious enough that I wouldn’t have regretted paying for it.
In the midst of that, a faint sound grated on my nerves.
Clack-clack-clack, clack-clack…
“!”
It was the sound of typing. I sprang to my feet and rushed into the room.
Sure enough, the keyboard was typing on its own.
It meant Ugeum was still on the move.
With an ominous foreboding, I turned on the computer monitor, and the document currently being drafted popped up as if it had been waiting for me.
[Ugeum could not stop thinking about Jian. Her pained groans, her pale face, her limp, helpless body lingered stubbornly in his mind. Ugeum’s heart stirred once again.
It felt as though a storm were raging inside him. An agitation he had never experienced before shook him to the core.
Silently, Ugeum accelerated the car. To shake off the helplessness that had seeped deep into his bones, there was only one way.
Hunting.]
Oh my god. Ugeum was on his way to kill someone.
Because of me.
