Why am I stranded in this shitty Island again? chapter 48

Terrified, Dansol felt his head throb beyond simple fear. Waiting for his turn while hearing others scream from the cliff only intensified his fear.

Though he thought the only thing he could rely on was the lantern, having someone with him, even just one person, was a significant comfort.

Dansol turned to Taeoh next to him, intending to ask if he was okay.

However, Taeoh was drenched in sweat, looking more scared than words could express. Feeling a strange affection, Dansol gazed at the lantern.

—Joo Dansol, Ma Taeoh, please proceed.

“Ha…”

“Are you okay, Taeoh?”

“Yes… Why is it so scary even though it’s a familiar place?”

“It’s… probably just your imagination.”

Holding Taeoh’s trembling hand, Dansol moved his reluctant feet. His hand was so sweaty that anyone might mistake it for having been dipped in water.

“Taeoh… It feels like it’s raining… I keep feeling water dripping.”

“Sorry… It’s my sweat.”

As Dansol wiped his damp hand on his pants, Taeoh, who had reached the pine forest, suddenly screamed at the ghost doll placed at the entrance.

“Ahhhh!”

“Ahhhh!”

Startled by the shadows cast by the lantern, Dansol threw it away and ran in the direction Taeoh had fled.

“Wait!”

At the trap where others had been caught, Taeoh screamed. Dansol, stopping immediately, slid on the ground, almost falling into the trap.

“Someone must have marked it. It’s a trap.”

“Headlamp…”

The headlamp that Yiyeon and Minhyuk had worn was flickering at the spot where Dansol had almost fallen.

“There could be more traps. Let’s go slowly, watching our steps.”

Taeoh spoke in a nearly crying voice.

“O… okay… but could you let go of me?”

Despite his words, Taeoh was holding Dansol so tightly that he couldn’t move.

Being 20 cm taller than him, if he continued clinging, Dansol thought he might choke to death before a ghost got him.

After that, they encountered a series of rather silly tricks.

Wigs falling from trees or sudden bursts of fog. While still startling, these were typical of entertainment shows.

Passing through the pine forest, they entered an old house set.

The low-walled hanok set looked realistic, like a real house. At that moment, Taeoh heard the sound of a baby crying.

“Dansol… Did you hear that?”

“H… hear what?”

“A baby crying…”

“There’s no way there’s a baby here. Maybe you misheard the sound of a cicada?”

“Ugh…!”

“What… what is it?”

Walking half-embraced by Taeoh, Dansol tried to turn around but was blocked by Taeoh’s stiff arms.

And Taeoh, who had frightened Dansol, remained silent.

“…Dansol, there’s a child over there.”

“What?”

“They’re saying… to come here?”

Dansol turned his head with a creak, as Taeoh’s arm slowly loosened.

However, the child was nowhere to be seen, and only Taeoh, walking into the room as if in a trance, was visible.

“Taeoh? Where are you going? I’m… scared…”

Despite being so timid, Dansol couldn’t find the courage to follow Taeoh inside, so he stood nervously in the yard for a while.

After about five minutes, Taeoh came out of the room, beaming.

“Thank you!”

Taeoh was holding a small pouch in his hand.

“Taeoh! What’s that? Where did you go?”

“A child told me to follow them… and this was inside the room.”

Inside the pouch Taeoh held out were eight elimination ballots.

“So instead of hiding them one by one, they put them all together…”

“Of course, we couldn’t find them like this. Now, all that’s left is the cave… Let’s go quickly.”

Feeling relieved, Taeoh linked arms with Dansol and headed toward the cave. Thanks to the moonlight, the path wasn’t too scary.

“Woo!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Kyaa!”

When the two picked up the date tickets on the table inside the cave, those who had arrived earlier jumped out and startled Dansol and Taeoh.

“Oh, Taeeo. You were so scared before, and now you got both the date tickets and the elimination ballots.”

“Really… we couldn’t find them no matter how hard we searched. Where did you find them?”

Jisoo and Yiyeon asked Taeeo.

“In the master bedroom. The child actor told me? But… the makeup was so realistic. I almost peed my pants.”

“Huh? Child actor?”

“Yes, a child with a white face, big eyes, and wearing denim overalls…”

“What? You seem more relaxed now that it’s over? You were trembling so much before, and now you’re saying such things? I just got chills.”

Jisoo rubbed his arm as he spoke.

“What? No… you’re joking, right? Dansol-ssi! You saw it too, right?”

Dansol shook his head. To be precise, he only saw Taeeo going into the room; he didn’t hear the baby’s cry or see the child actor.

At that moment, PD Mijin stepped forward.

“Taeoh… did you see something wrong? We didn’t hire any child actor. And logically, there’s no way a child would be on standby alone this late at night…”

“Eek!”

“Taeoh!”

“Taeeo!”

As soon as he heard that, Taeeo fainted. Even as he fainted, he held onto the elimination ballots tightly. The youngest assistant director looked at Chief PD Choi with concern.

“Uh… PD-nim, I think I forgot to hide the elimination ballots…”

“What? Then what’s this?”

“Well… I couldn’t find them no matter how hard I looked… I thought the senior staff hid them.”

“What? You…!”

As the staff started to argue over the pouch containing the eight ballots, Daesoo, who checked Taeeo’s pupils and pulse, shouted.

“Someone has fainted! Does it matter now? It looks like he just fainted, so let’s move him to the dorm.”

***

That night, the sound of the wind seemed unusually loud to Dansol as he lay in bed.

Pulling the blanket up to his nose, he recalled the conversation he had with Jisoo earlier when they returned to Chunmong Pavilion.

“Hyung… what did Taeeo-ssi really see?”

“…No, there was a child actor. I saw it too. The staff must be joking.”

Jisoo might have been lying to reassure Dansol. Just then, it started to rain.

Surprised by the sound of the rain and wind, Dansol pulled the blanket over his head, and thunder began to roar outside.

“…Scared…”

Crash—!

With a flash of lightning, something broke outside. Finally, unable to stand it, Dansol grabbed his pillow and ran out of the room. The scary ghost costumes he saw earlier now haunted his mind.

He felt he wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. In the hallway, Dansol knocked on Jisoo ‘s door. This wasn’t the time to worry about appearances.

Knock knock.

“Who is it?”

“Hyung… it’s Dansol.”

Fortunately, Jisoo seemed to still be awake. As soon as Dansol spoke, Jisoo opened the door as if he had been waiting.

“Sol, what’s wrong?”

“Uh… I… that is…”

Dansol hesitated for a while. Admitting that he was scared to sleep alone took more courage than he thought.

“Ho… I’m scared to sleep alone…”

“I was also scared to sleep alone. You thought of me and came, didn’t you?”

Quick-witted Jisoo led Dansol into the room by the wrist. It seemed he had been reading, as a book and a bottle of PPL drink were by his bedside.

“You really like calamansi, don’t you, hyung?”

“Yes, I really like sour things.”

“Were you reading a book? Demian? Wow… it looks hard.”

“Not really. I’ll lend it to you when I finish.”

“Thank you. But just looking at it makes me sleepy… I need to sleep.”

As soon as he saw the book cover, Dansol fell asleep immediately. Despite filming the variety show all day, today was particularly exhausting.

Jisoo smiled as he felt the familiar weight on his bed.

After fixing Dansol’s hair, he adjusted the brightness of the lamp on the nightstand and leaned against the headboard, listening to the sound of the rain while reading his book.

Peaceful and quiet. It was a perfectly satisfying day for Jisoo .