# Chapter 48
As soon as I entered the building, an artificial floral scent wafted through the air.
Did they spray air freshener throughout the entire building?
The scent seemed familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. Fortunately, it wasn’t an unpleasant smell, so I quickly grew accustomed to it.
They really were using a school building as an orphanage; I could see traces where classrooms had been converted into living spaces and a library.
Admiring the children’s drawings hanging on the walls, I headed toward the director’s office at the end of the hallway. Before entering, I straightened my clothes. I felt like a student about to enter the principal’s office.
“Hello. I’m from the Earth Peace Research Institute.”
Opening the creaky wooden door, I saw the client sitting in an old leather chair. Upon noticing me, the client immediately stood up to greet me.
“Oh my. Teacher Son. You must have gone through a lot of trouble coming here in this heat. Would you like something to drink?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
The client took out a bottle of grape juice from a small refrigerator in the corner next to the sink and handed it to me. It reminded me of the bottled drinks I used to get when visiting teachers’ rooms during my time at the orphanage, bringing a slight smile to my face.
After taking a sip of grape juice, I looked around the director’s office. Like most offices, it had a desk for work and a sofa for receiving guests. It definitely felt like a workspace. What particularly caught my eye was the display cabinet on the wall, which showcased various trophies, awards, and certificates. They seemed to be achievements that the orphanage children had earned.
As I quietly examined the cabinet, the client spoke with a pleased smile.
“Our Dream House originally started as an alternative school. I was just a temporary teacher back then, but I took over when they were going to close it down, and somehow I’ve been running it for over 20 years now.”
“That’s no easy feat. You’re truly amazing.”
I looked at the client with respect. Being a guardian to dozens of children was incredibly difficult—something I knew best as someone who grew up in an orphanage. I’d heard that some orphanages practically abandoned their children. Thinking about such places, both the director of Somang Orphanage and this client were people who truly deserved respect.
“Since you’ve come all this way… does that mean you’ll accept the request…?”
The client cautiously asked while watching my reaction. I nodded with a gentle smile.
“I didn’t ask properly yesterday, but could you tell me in detail what happened?”
“I realized the children were missing about two weeks ago. We don’t usually do bedtime roll calls, but I kept feeling something was off, so I did a check and… there were only twelve children. That’s when I realized three of them were missing.”
I had already confirmed by phone with the director of Somang Orphanage that this orphanage’s capacity was fifteen children.
“First, could I see the current list of residents here?”
“Here it is.”
As if already prepared, the client picked up a binder from the desk and handed it to me. I didn’t examine the contents carefully, just flipped through the pages one by one to count them, since I only needed to confirm the number.
“There are fifteen pages?”
“Count again while checking the children’s faces.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes.”
As the client suggested, this time I flipped through the documents while checking each child’s face. Looking at their photos, they were all young children, around elementary school age. They definitely weren’t old enough to run away from home.
“The children here are all quite young, aren’t they?”
“We had two high school students, but they’re both in specialized school dormitories. The rest are indeed all elementary school students.”
“I see… Wait, what?”
After counting all the documents, I froze in my seat, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
How is this possible?
When I first counted, there were clearly fifteen pages, but when I counted while checking the children’s faces, it ended at twelve pages. Just to be sure, I counted the papers again. I even counted out loud, but the total was definitely fifteen pages.
“You also ended at twelve pages, right?”
The client asked me in a voice laden with tension. I nodded blankly, completely bewildered. The client’s expression, which had been full of tension, brightened momentarily.
“The other teachers insisted there were only twelve residents and looked at me like I was crazy! Oh my goodness, I thought I was really losing my mind! What in the world is this? It’s not like I’m possessed by a ghost.”
I gulped and counted the documents repeatedly. The count changed each time. Beyond confusion, it was eerie. It really did feel like being possessed.
“D-do you have any group photos taken at the orphanage?”
“Many. Just a moment.”
The client took out several laminated photos from a drawer and showed them to me. I picked up the one at the front and examined it carefully. It seemed to be a field trip to a botanical garden; the orphanage residents and teachers were all together in a greenhouse filled with blooming flowers.
After taking a deep breath, I counted the children in the photo one by one.
“There are fifteen, but… wait a second…”
Strangely, the faces of three children in the photo were blurry. As if someone had deliberately blurred them with Photoshop.
“…”
Suddenly, I recalled the dream that had been weighing on me. I had almost forgotten the dream’s content due to the shock of waking up from respiratory distress. But seeing this photo, a fragment of that dream flashed through my mind.
I had greeted some child. Though I couldn’t remember the dream clearly, that child’s face had definitely been blurry like this.
“It seems other people can’t see these children in the photo. When I asked them to look at the children with blurry faces, they said they couldn’t see anything. Plus, they insist there are only twelve documents. It seems I’m the only one aware that children have gone missing.”
The client shuddered, apparently feeling the horror of this bizarre phenomenon. I too was too chilled to speak easily. This clearly wasn’t an ordinary situation I could solve.
“Excuse me for a moment. I need to contact a colleague.”
After asking the client’s permission, I left the director’s office. I intended to call Heerim and tell him about this strange and chilling case. With his supernatural abilities, I thought he could immediately find the cause and solve it.
Just as I was about to press the call button after finding Heerim’s number, the message “Service Area Departure” appeared on my screen.
“…!”
I immediately looked around. This message always appeared on my phone when a Rift occurred nearby.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
As I frantically looked around with a pale face, a woman wearing a pink apron approached me. She appeared to be around the same age as the madam I had met earlier. Perhaps because the orphanage was small, it seemed that older people worked here rather than younger teachers.
“Well… the signal isn’t very good.”
“Ah, that. It’s been happening occasionally for a few days now. The electric pole just out front short-circuited and blew up with a bang a while back. It’s probably because of that.”
I sighed with relief, smoothing my chest. Having encountered too many Rift issues lately, I had unconsciously started overreacting to small incidents.
“You’re the one from Somang Orphanage, right?”
“What? Ah, yes.”
“My, Somang employs such handsome young people as staff. I’m envious. So envious.”
I awkwardly scratched my head at the teacher’s playful remark. I felt a pang in my heart for inadvertently lying.
“Actually, I’m not staff… I’m a former resident.”
Feeling there was no need to keep hiding my background, I told the truth. At that moment, I made eye contact with the client who was just coming out of the director’s office.
“What? Teacher Son, you’re from Somang?”
“Yes… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
“No, no. There’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s not something you had to mention. Still, it’s nice to know. Is Director Lee at Somang doing well?”
“Yes. She’s doing well. Um… could we talk about today’s matter another time?”
At this point, there was nothing I could do. Plus, I couldn’t reach Heerim right now, so it seemed better to come back later.
“You’ve come all this way. Stay for dinner before you go.”
As I was about to bow and leave the building, the staff member stopped me.
“That’s right. It’s almost dinner time. Are you busy?”
“Not really, but…”
“Then stay for dinner. My wife is an excellent cook. The children would love to see a handsome brother too.”
“Ahaha…”
While I was trying to figure out how to decline, I ended up being led to the dining hall by the client.
By coincidence, students returning from school showed interest in me, making it difficult to find the right moment to leave.
“Eat plenty. Let me know if you want more japchae.”
Tonight’s dinner menu was japchae rice. The madam piled japchae like a mountain on my plate. It looked like enough to fill me up without rice, but considering her thoughtfulness, I didn’t remove any.
“Try the kimchi too. Last winter’s kimchi has fermented perfectly.”
The client placed kimchi on my tray. Even though I wasn’t particularly fond of kimchi, the tip of my nose stung with emotion. I imagined this was what it would feel like if my parents were still alive.
Sniffling at this warm, family-like atmosphere I hadn’t experienced in a very long time, I silently devoured the food that filled my tray.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
