Chapter 12 - Break, Hotel Underground Floor - 'Living Swimming Pool' (1)
Chapter 12
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Floor underground level, Billiards Hall
Sage's Advice: 3]
"No, how can you not even push a cue stick straight? I showed you how to do it. Grip the handle firmly, and with your left hand maintaining the angle at the tip, just push it straight—swish!"
"Hyung, I told you I've never played billiards..."
"No, if a college student doesn't play billiards, what do you even do with your life? From what you said earlier, games? And you barely even play those! What on earth do you do to survive?"
It's unfair. There are so many things to do in this world besides billiards and games, yet Jin-cheol hyung has been scolding me for 20 minutes straight just because I can't do those two things.
Fortunately, while wandering around the amenities, the 'Sage's Advice' didn't activate.
On the first day, when I tried to go underground via the elevator, what did it say?
'It's dangerous to go down now!' it had warned, so why is it okay today?
The difference between the first day and today.
Come to think of it, on the first day, a monster attacked at the front desk.
That monster disappeared at some point... perhaps it had gone underground.
There are still many things we don't know about this hotel.
Regarding the amenities, Eun-sol noona's prediction from yesterday was correct.
The facilities themselves look exactly like guest rooms from the outside.
From the outside, it's a size where things like a swimming pool or a zoo could never fit,
but when you open the room door, everything was there as if it were a lie.
It's no longer the time for us to be surprised by things like this.
So everyone just enjoyed themselves and started going to wherever they wanted to play.
Eun-sol noona went to some bar and started drinking cocktails,
Song-i went to the zoo, Elena to the swimming pool, Seung-yeop to the PC room.
Everyone must be having a fun time at their desired places. Except for me.
I was wandering around wondering where to go and what to do when I got caught by Jin-cheol hyung like this.
This hotel literally had almost everything,
but there was exactly one thing—no one else except us—and you can't play billiards alone.
"But... something about it, the facilities are nice and everything's good, but with only us here, it's a bit awkward to have fun."
"You're right. I wonder if Eun-sol noona is having any fun going to the cocktail bar alone.
The zoo, well, there probably are animals. And that guy Seung-yeop, will he have anything to do at the PC room?"
"The games he plays aren't really the kind you play sitting next to friends."
"I know that too, you bastard. Who doesn't know League of Legends? But don't you think the internet won't work?
Just the fact that our phones are dead is bad enough, this isn't exactly the atmosphere where they'd let us communicate with the outside."
"Um... that's ambiguous. It might actually be more fun for all of us to just gather together."
Thwack—
Coolly, my cue stick sliced through the air and then struck the table edge beside the ball.
Seeing that, Jin-cheol hyung put down his cue stick and stood up.
"Hey, hey, let's stop. What's the point of winning at billiards against a guy who can't even hit the ball?
It's no fun for me, and it's no fun for you either. Let's go meet the others."
That's a relief.
Where would be good to go?
The place that immediately comes to mind? Honestly, I'll put my hand on my heart and admit it.
Here, 95% of men in the world would have the same thought, right? The swimming pool!
Really, from early on, I was full of thoughts about throwing away this damn cue stick and going to the swimming pool!
If you're human—no, if you're a man, Jin-cheol hyung can't be any different! I'm 100% certain.
"Hyung! How about... the swimming pool! It's not like we need to learn how to play games,
and I've never even had a cocktail. The zoo is definitely out."
"Swimming pool?... I don't even have a swimsuit."
"Elena-ssi went without a swimsuit too, and seeing how she hasn't come out and is doing fine,
isn't it likely that swimsuits are all provided inside? Looking at the billiards hall now, all the cue sticks and everything are there, right?"
"No, cue sticks in a billiards hall are obvious, but swimsuits in a swimming pool—how would they have them when they don't even know people's sizes?"
"Hyung, that's for a normal hotel. Every time we've eaten and drunk stuff so far, it's been creepily tailored to our tastes, and now you're suddenly saying they wouldn't know swimsuit sizes?"
Something's strange. No, how can this hyung show signs of not wanting to go to the swimming pool in this situation...
Seeing how he always beamed with joy whenever talking to Elena-ssi, I thought he'd have the same idea as me.
Still, I somehow persuaded him. It's not like we have many other places to go anyway!
After leaving the room and moving, Seung-yeop and Eun-sol noona were out in the hallway across from us.
"Um, you guys came out too."
"Aha, noona, was it a bit much being alone too?"
"Well, drinking cocktails all by myself in melancholy at a place without even a bartender made me wonder what the hell I was doing... so I came out.
When I came out, this guy had already come out earlier?"
"There's no internet... The computers are insanely good, but what the hell are you supposed to do with a computer that has no internet..."
"We were actually thinking about going to your side, but you guys came out too. Billiards wasn't much fun either?"
"Noona, don't even mention it. This guy can't hit the ball with a cue stick. Sigh, what does he even do with his life."
"Ahahaha, so where should we all go?"
"I'll take a guess. You guys came out to go to the swimming pool!"
A jolt.
Honestly, it's true, but being called out like that point-blank makes me feel embarrassed for some reason.
But there are already 4 of us out here, and honestly, the 'zoo' where Song-i is isn't really it, right!
All that's left is the swimming pool!
Flinching, the noona chuckled and turned away.
"Ah, so cute, cute~ But let's go to the swimming pool. For something that seems to have a lot of stuff, there's surprisingly few places to go."
We all decided to go to the swimming pool.
"But... I came out here first, right? While I was waiting, I heard something a bit strange.
Did anyone else hear anything?"
"I didn't hear anything? What kind of sound are you talking about?"
"Whenever something appears on our hotel display, it goes 'Ding!' right? I thought I heard that sound from far away. Or did I?"
"Ga-in?"
"Um, there's no notification on the 'Advice'."
"Then it should be fine. The Advice always popped up whenever something seemed off, right?"
The monkey incident on the first day, the main gate, the elevator, the cursed room—the Sage's Advice had always provided appropriate advice during every crisis at every location.
It wouldn't suddenly hit us on the back of the head now.
Soon, Seung-yeop also said he probably misheard and gave an awkward smile, and then we all headed toward the swimming pool.
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/Today's Surprise Event!
The 'Living Swimming Pool' is now open!/
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I understood why hyung, who had been giving me a hard time about billiards all morning, was reluctant when I suggested going to the swimming pool.
He should be confident in his body, and 'Elena' was swimming no less!
This hyung is,
absurdly terrible at swimming. A complete sinker.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh
Cough! Gasp! Ptoo, ugh!
Truly, a colorful array of sounds filled the swimming pool.
"I distinctly heard yesterday that you at least know the basics of swimming."
"Hahk, hahk, hahk... I, I definitely did learn when I was young."
"When you say 'young,' are you perhaps talking about swimming in your mother's womb?"
"Haha, gasp, you're good at joking."
That wasn't a joke at all.
From what I could see, Eun-sol noona was 100% serious when she said that, and I had the exact same thought.
How... how is this possible? If you just take a deep breath, the human body naturally floats in water.
In that state, even if you just do a dog paddle, you should at least move forward!
He's tremendously strong, thrashing his legs so hard it sounds like thunder, but why can't he extend his legs backward?
Even just inhaling should make him float, but I can see him twisting his entire body and gradually sinking.
Thanks to hyung's astonishing skills, even Elena, despite her dolphin-like, brilliant swimming abilities (strictly speaking, her swimming abilities!), lost her presence at some point,
and started leaning against the wall to watch Jin-cheol hyung.
The sight of a 190cm hulking man twisting his entire body and flailing about as he gradually sinks into the water is worth paying to watch.
Since I'd been nagged all morning for not being able to hit the billiard ball, watching this is even more entertaining.
While we were all giggling together, Song-i came in at some point.
"Ah! You were all here. I went to the billiards hall and the bar too, but no one was there, so I wondered where everyone went."
"Song-i, go change quickly too! Second room from the end over there, go into the room with the clothes drawn on it and a swimsuit will just—pop!—appear.
If you don't see it, turn around for a moment and look again, and it'll be there before you know it."
"Seeing you talk about this so casually, I guess we really have come to a strange place."
We really did share such strange information as if it were nothing.
"Was the zoo fun? Are there lots of animals? Like elephants?"
"Ga-in oppa, the zoo is... um... I think we should all go together later. It's a slightly strange zoo.
It's not the kind of zoo we're thinking of."
Jin-cheol hyung, who had come out of the water at some point, answered.
"A strange zoo? There's nothing in this hotel that isn't strange.
Even this swimming pool is insanely strange, but if something is especially strange even among these strange places, what on earth could be there?
Don't tell me they lock people up saying 'humans are animals too'?"
"It's not like that, it's just full of animals I've never seen in my life. Not like deer, foxes, things like that... truly animals I'm seeing for the first time."
"Isn't it just animals Song-i doesn't know? I was surprised once watching that famous documentary 'Living Earth'—there are truly bizarre animals in this world."
"A few species could be like that. But, of course the zoo was so vast that I couldn't see many species, but I still saw more than 10 kinds, and I couldn't recognize any of them."
"Then... I'm thinking rather than all going together, we should all avoid it together..."
"You think so?"
Strange zoo. I made a mental note of it. By the feel of it, the botanical garden would probably be similar too.
A zoo full of animals that exist nowhere else. Did they gather and cage only unusual animals that ordinary people don't know about?
If so, that would actually be a relief, but...
What if, by this hotel's standards, they're normal animals—animals that exist somewhere—
Just as my ominous thoughts began,
an anomaly occurred.