Obsession

Chapter 3

Part 2

[My parents died in a house fire last year. It happened suddenly right before my exams, so I failed in it. But my mom and dad probably wanted me to go to college. I made up my mind and moved into a gosiwon and just studied for them.]

Hee-young covered herself with the blanket and tried to sleep, but Ji-ae’s words kept ringing in her ears.

[I have no relatives, and now I am left alone, so I have to take responsibility for my own life. At first, I was at a loss, but now that I have gotten into college, I feel like I can do anything.]

I was jealous. I wanted to go to college too.

But it seems like that kind of life is not allowed for me. Even if she tries to escape, it seems like fate is holding her back and not letting her go. If not, how could everything be so messed up?

[Mom and Dad left me some savings and I have some life insurance money, and I’ll get a job right after I graduate from college. Are you going to stay here?]

Ji-ae called Hee-young [sister]. Actually, we are not really sisters, but we are of the same age, but I guess I just look older.

[But, Sister. I think we look alike. People keep confusing me with you. Even today, the lady in room 203 mistook me for you.]

They can’t possibly look alike. Ji-ae smiles so brightly, but she can’t smile like that. Her own face is full of shadows, so how could they look alike?

‘I wish I could go to college too… … I wonder if I can go someday… … .’

Winter in January is cold.

Gosiwon without heating is even colder. These gosiwon are cheap, but they don’t have any heating at all. So, like Heeyoung, most people wrap themselves in thick cotton blankets to beat the cold, or bring an electric blanket or heater into the room separately.

Heeyoung also wanted to buy an electric blanket, but gave up. Winter will pass quickly, so just endure it. But today, for some reason, she felt even colder.

‘This won’t work. Let’s bring some hot water.’

When it’s really cold, it helps to hold a hot water bottle tightly. Hee-young came out of the room and went to the communal kitchen. And while waiting for the water to boil in the electric kettle, a strange smell started to come out from somewhere.

‘What is that smell?’

It smells like something is burning.

‘What’s on board… … .’

Heeyoung went out of the kitchen to look around, but there was nothing special in the hallway.

‘What is it? The smell keeps getting worse… … .’

The hallway of the gosiwon was quiet, as if everyone else was asleep. At that moment, Hee-young discovered white smoke seeping in from the stairs at the end of the hallway.

‘The smoke… … .’

And then the smell of smoke and smoke rushed in all at once. At that moment, Hee-young realized that there was a fire.

“Fire! Fire!”

Hee-young ran into the room screaming. There was a fire, but it was unclear which floor it was on.

“There’s a fire! There’s a fire!”

Hee-young ran from room to room, knocking on the door of each room she passed and while shouting. Hee-young ran into her room and grabbed her bag. This small bag contained all of her belongings.

When she came back out into the hallway, people who had already woken up were running around in panic. Hee-young, who was trying to run away with them, looked into the next room. The door to the next room was still closed.

‘They must have run away, right?’

I knocked on the door next door just in case, but I didn’t hear anything.

“Are you inside?!”

All the rooms in the hallway have their doors open as everyone runs away frantically, but this room’s door is closed.

“Is someone inside?! There’s a fire!”

Hee-young, who had been screaming, kicked the door. The door of the gosiwon was old and shabby, and after kicking it a few times, the latch on the door broke and the door opened.

A woman was lying in a small room. The already small room was filled with books, and Ji-ae was lying in front of the door, holding her bag in her arms. It was clear that she had collapsed while trying to escape. The room was filled with smoke. Did she suffocate from the smoke?

‘Are you alive?’

Hee-young put her finger on Ji-ae’s nose as she collapsed. She could still feel her breathing, albeit faintly.

‘What should I do?’

Even at this time, the hallway was gradually filling with smoke.

‘I have to take her out.’

Hee-young carried Ji-ae, who had fallen. She also put the bag that Ji-ae had been holding tightly in her arms on her shoulder. Then she left the room and walked up the stairs with all her might.

“Eww!”

At that moment, a man on fire ran out of the stairs. The stairs leading down were already engulfed in flames. There was no going down, no going up. And the hallway was filled with smoke.

‘Ha, I can’t breathe… ‘

Hee-young sat down on the spot with Ji-ae on her back. Thick smoke was entering her mouth and nose, making it hard to breathe. Her head was getting dizzy and her consciousness was gradually fading away.

‘I don’t want to die like this… … .’

I need to move, I need to get out of here quickly, but my body won’t move. I see people lying down here and there in the smoky hallway.

‘Car, window… … .’

Only then did Hee-young remember the window on the other side of the hallway. If she jumped from there, wouldn’t she be able to survive?

This is the 5th floor. Even if I jump, it’s unknown whether I’ll live or die, but at least I don’t want to die here like this.

‘I have to go out… … .’

Hee-young struggled to hold onto her fading consciousness and began crawling down the hallway. When she stopped crawling and glanced back, she saw Ji-ae collapsed in the hallway. She couldn’t take her. Right now, it was hard to even control her own body.

Hee-young crawled to the end of the hallway, almost losing consciousness several times along the way. Then, holding onto the wall with all her might, she got up and opened the window. No, she tried to open it. But the window wouldn’t open.

‘Please… … please open… … .’

Hee-young cried and begged earnestly. God had never answered her prayers before, but could he please answer her today? So please, could he please listen to her pleas just this once?

‘Open! Please open!’

Heeyoung cried and banged on the window with her hand.

Crack – Then the glass window cracked.

“Ugh!”

Hee-young, who saw the crack in the window, hit her body against the window without even thinking about anything else.

WHACK-!

The moment she hit the glass window, Hee-young lost consciousness.

I felt my body fall downwards, but it only lasted for a moment.

* * *

‘My throat hurts… … .’

As I gradually regained consciousness, the first place I felt pain was my neck. My neck was sore and painful. And my whole body was aching as if I had been hit.

“Are you coming to your senses?”

She heard a voice from the side and Hee-young opened her eyes with difficulty. The first thing she saw was a white ceiling.

“This is the emergency room. Are you awake, Han Ji-ae?”

‘What? Han Ji-ae? I’m not Ji-ae… … .’

Why does the kept calling me Han Ji-ae? Her name is Yoon Hee-young.

“The teacher will come and check on you soon, so you’ll have to wait a bit until then. It was almost a big problem, but thank goodness.”

When the nurse left, Hee-young tried to come to her senses. The gosiwon was on fire. All she remembers is that she tried to run away with Ji-ae, who had collapsed, but she collapsed with her, and she crawled to the window alone, broke the glass, and threw herself out.

‘I’m alive… … .’

I jumped from the 5th floor and survived. What happened to the others? What happened to Han Ji-ae? Did she survive or did she die?

‘This is… … .’

As my mind cleared a bit, Hee-young discovered the bag next to me. It wasn’t my bag. It was Ji-ae’s bag.

‘Why is this… … .’

I remember carrying my own bag and Ji-ae’s bag on my shoulder. But my bag was gone and only Ji-ae’s bag was left. When I opened the bag, there was a wallet, a bankbook, and things like a college admissions card inside. And inside the wallet was Han Ji-ae’s ID card. At first glance, it looked like mine.

The ID photos are all like that. They are photos that are a little different from the real face. So, they are photos that make women of similar age and similar face shape look similar.

‘No way…….’

Is it because of this ID that the nurse called me Han Ji-ae?

‘Does everyone think of me as her?’

Hee-young staggered out of bed and ran out into the emergency room hallway. Then she looked at the television in the waiting room. The news was showing a fire incident at a gosiwon.

As of now, 25 people have died, 3 people have been injured, and 8 people are missing.

Twenty-five people are dead, eight are still missing, and only three have been rescued and taken to hospital. She is one of those three.

It was about an hour later that the police came looking for Hee-young.

* * *

‘It really all burned down… … .’

Standing in front of the gosiwon, which was now nothing but a hideous pile of black ashes, Hee-young stared blankly at the building with only rebar left. The gosiwon building, with the rebar and some of the concrete blackened and charred, was extremely hideous.

The cause of the fire was said to be a short circuit in an electric blanket. The fire started in a room on the 6th floor due to an electric blanket short circuit, and it spread throughout the entire gosiwon. There is only one staircase in the gosiwon. Of course, there is no emergency staircase or anything like that. There are no windows in each room, and there is only one window at the end of the hallway.

At least on the 5th floor where Hee-young was, there was a window, but on other floors, all the windows were blocked by piled up objects, so they couldn’t be seen. The fire started on the 6th floor, and the smoke quickly covered the entire goshiwon, and people were suffocated by the smoke and couldn’t escape. In the end, only six people were rescued.

Dozens died. The road leading to this gosiwon was narrow and had many parked cars, making it difficult for fire trucks to enter. So when the fire trucks came and started to put out the fire, more than half of the building was already on fire, and most people were already dead from suffocation, the news kept saying it.

Wherever you go, the news is on, so you can’t help but hear it even if you don’t want to. Most of the people who stayed in this gosiwon are said to have been homeless. Well, in a way, Hee-young herself was also homeless. And Yoon Hee-young was on the list of the dead. Yoon Hee-young, not Han Ji-ae, was on the list of the dead.

When jumping from the 5th floor, out of the two bags, I was holding Ji-ae’s bag instead of my own, and because of the ID card in that bag, the police mistook Hee-young for Han Ji-ae.

There was no one to correct that mistake. Neither Han Ji-ae nor Hee-young herself had a family. They were completely orphans.

The only difference between Han Ji-ae and me is that no one will look for Han Ji-ae, but there will be people who will look for me.

Hee-young still has nightmares. It’s a nightmare where that man, Lee Jong-woo, comes looking for her.

Whenever I entered the gosiwon, I would keep looking back. Before going to bed, I would check the door lock several times because I was afraid that Lee Jong-woo would come looking for me at any moment.

But if Yoon Hee-young dies and I live as Han Ji-ae, won’t my future life be different? Even if Lee Jong-woo finds traces of me, if I confirm that I died here, I will be completely free. Why would that man chase after a dead woman?

‘Han Ji-ae… … .’

Hee-young gripped her bag tightly. Inside the bag were Ji-ae’s ID, college admission documents, and a bankbook with some money in it. With just this, she could make a fresh start.

A completely new identity, a new name, a new life.

It’s not Yoon Hee-young, it’s Han Ji-ae.

I heard that Han Ji-ae was found burned beyond recognition. Most of the people in the gosiwon were found burned to the ground, making it difficult to identify them, but Hee-young herself testified her death.

[She’s the woman in the next room. Her name is Yoon Hee-young.]

That’s what I testified. The dead woman was Yun Hee-young. In the end, I killed Yun Hee-young myself.

‘It’s cold…….’

Snow began to fall from above. January was almost over. Soon it would be February, and in March, I would be a college student.

Scholarship student Han Ji-ae.

That’s the name I’ll use from now on, and it’s the name I’ll hear for the rest of my life.

‘I’ll do well. I’ll be happy.’

Hee-young turned her back on the gosiwon, fixed her bag, and started walking.

I am glad that the snow is falling now. Hee-young glanced back and saw the white snow beginning to cover the footsteps I had walked. I wish everything would be covered like this and the world would become pure white. If I draw my life again under the name of Han Ji-ae in that pure white world, then I will definitely be able to be happy.

A new life starting with Han Ji-ae instead of Yoon Hee-young.

My heart was pounding.