#sumsik if you squint

[complete-in-ix]

Statement 20233003 - The Tricky House

Rated: G

Warning(s): Unreality, Manipulation, Kidnapping, softcore psychological torture. Basically if the Tricky House mv was a TMA statement

Description: A sneak peek into the recorded archives of the KQ Foundation, dedicated to researching the paranormal.

(Read on Ao3)

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Minjae

Statement of Kim Gyuguk, regarding a suspected dokkaebi attack on his nightly commute from work on the Seoul Metro. Original statement given March 30, 2023. Audio recording by Kim Minjae, Apprentice Archivist of the KQ Foundation, South Korea. Statement begins.

Minjae (Statement)

I'm no stranger to the consequences of working overtime. The lost sleep, the sickly feeling that comes with eating too much too late at night, the amount of staggering that it takes to get back on my feet in the following days... Well, it's not like it can be helped. Business is business, and my boss would have my head if I didn't finish this project by tomorrow. I know I'm not young enough to keep shaking off these consequences for much longer, but at least the overtime pay can carry me over for now. Last night was no different than usual. 

I arrived at the office before the sun rose to get a head start on my work, but that still didn't prevent me from being unable to leave until well after it set. Thankfully I was still able to catch the last train home, and unsurprisingly it was empty. I couldn't help but notice as I sat down that the absence of other people seemed to highlight the amount of graffiti in the car that I had chosen. Teenagers these days have too much time on their hands, I suppose. At the time, I was really too tired to care and started to drift off the instant the train started to move. It was while I was nodding off that I noticed the train car wasn't as empty as I assumed it to be. 

There was a young man in the corner seat next to the door that connects the separate train cars together. Half his face was covered by a hat, but even then I could tell that he was quite handsome. His attitude seemed to leave much to be desired however, considering how he was sitting with one foot up on the seat next to him—then again, I'm sure all the young ladies that surely flock to leave love notes in his locker have no regard for that. Sometimes I worry for this generation. Well, whatever, I was much too tired to give him a scolding and he seemed to be minding his own business as well aside from giving me that look that all teenagers like to give adults, so I was content to stay in my seat until one of us reached our stop. He, however... Was not. 

I heard his footsteps coming toward me while my eyes were closed, stopping just in front of me. I really wasn't in the mood to entertain him, so I paid him no mind when it just seemed like he was standing there. I then heard a slight rustle of clothes, and then the headphones that he had been wearing were placed over my head. I braced myself for some screaming noise or nonsense, but it was actually quite pleasant. He hadn't been listening to anything, just some white noise at a low volume to drown out the noises of the train. I could have fallen asleep, until the very noise I had been expecting began to blast into my head! 

I stood up to confront him, but he just backed away with this... Cryptic grin on his face. In my headphones, I could hear something like "Let me show you around our mysterious Tricky House"... Whatever that means. The boy managed to lipsync to it perfectly without even hearing his own music. I would have grabbed his shoulder to ask what he meant, demand that he explain himself or apologize, but he just stepped through the door connecting our train car to the next one before I could even think to move. There were two other boys beyond that door, one who greeted this little troublemaker with an embrace that was quickly hidden from my view by the other boy stepping out to block me. 

He was dancing in my face, somehow lipsyncing along perfectly to the song blasting in my ears despite being unable to hear a word. The song was asking me to look around, to pick what was real... I didn't quite understand why he seemed to be following it along so closely until he threw out his hand and nearly struck me. I managed to avoid his arm by sidestepping him and turning around, but perhaps the motion was too fast for me to handle. No matter how I try to reason with my own memory, I clearly saw three wisps of blue flame fly out from this second boy's hand in the direction I was now facing. I could only watch as they fanned out in front of me and disappeared in a blinding flash. Where the flames were, there were three more boys standing in front of me, also dancing to the music that they surely couldn't hear. Then again, it was playing so loud in my own ears that it might have been leaking out of those headphones. The leader of this little squad asked me if I was "feeling their game", whatever that means. I'll never understand young people and their slang, but I do know that I did not want anything to do with this game! Then, I... 

I'm really not sure what exactly happened. I know I took a step towards them to push my way through and leave for the next car, only to find myself already in the next car down in the blink of an eye! When I regained my bearings, there was another little group in this gang of troublemakers blocking my path! There must have been four or five of them this time, one that I recognized as the second little trouble maker who threw the flames. He and the rest of this group were led by a foreigner, who asked me—well, I can't be sure if it even was his voice playing in my ears, but he lipsynced it very well—in perfect Korean if I was worried about losing. I wanted nothing to do with this game to begin with, so I took a step back to the car I'd started my ride in. 

Again, I found myself thrown backward to the car past it! Someone threw a hand over my shoulder from behind, then, and a voice in my ear—the same one playing in my headphones, though I have no idea how I was still able to hear it over the noise—welcoming me to their "playground". By this point I was quite stricken by motion sickness, so I didn't dare move again. The troublemakers did it for me, flashes of blue fire flying out from behind me and disappearing to reveal a boy with strikingly red hair in front of me. He said... He said many things to me, though it was so fast that I had trouble hearing any of it.

His companions appeared and disappeared in blinding flashes all around him and me, pushing me around and dazzling me until I started to feel much more than a little sick. I did my best to keep it down while these boys flashed and danced around me—despite how terribly mannered they were being, me throwing up on them would be much worse—but it eventually got to be too much, my stomach flickering with an unbearable heat until I was forced to retch. It was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Blue-hot flames ripped their way from my throat instead of bile that left a burning sensation behind like no other. I felt as if my entire torso were being emptied, and although I was already hungry as I stepped onto the train, my hunger was pulled out from me as well. Those flames had burned me numb. Even though I must have been under some kind of influence because of this gang—whether they had secretly drugged me or there was some kind of subliminal frequency imbedded in those headphones that I still hadn't taken off, that wasn't even the strangest part about this entire thing! 

No, what unsettles me the most is that after I had vomited up those flames, the movement... Seemed to make the entire train expand , somehow. I highly doubt one human who had spontaneously thrown up blue flames could ever be capable of that, but the timing of it all seemed to match up. The whole train car split down the middle and widened until it would have been impossible to fit inside the tunnel, though that didn't seem to impact it at all. The floor looked all the same, but where the door and walls had split there was only a sickening distortion like someone had stretched it with an editing software. The ceiling had gone through the most dramatic change, now opened up to reveal a mess of gears and machinery that shrieked and sparked against itself; all lit up in blue. The flames I spewed flashed into place in the center of it all, now taking the form of a whole gang of ten boys, all still dancing circles around me.

One boy gave an absolute roar of a rallying cry, and the entire train just... Exploded into a mass of scrap metal. I don't know how I managed to get out of it all unharmed. The oddest thing about it wasn't even my survival or how I was still moving as if I was still on the train even while it was falling apart around me; it was how the world outside looked. Instead of seeing a dark tunnel scattered with sparking metal, I just saw pure pitch black. It was like the world hadn't yet formed around me and consisted of only me and these hooligan boys.

The next thing that I remember is coming to in a shopping cart at my usual station. The weight of those headphones was gone, but my ears still buzzed with noise. My head did as well, I was operating as if through a dream. Before I could move to pull myself up from the cart it was seized from behind, and I was helpless to resist my being pushed all around the station. I at least still had my briefcase—I was clutching it for dear life at this point—while on my chaotic ride. I didn't even have to look behind me to know who was pushing me. I could hear their whooping and jeering echoing all along the station. I flew along the tunnels at a dizzying pace, the blue light of these creature-boys flashing around me all the while through. There was one pair that I noticed seemed to dance around each other quite a lot, colliding in the air before me and sending off showers of blue sparks. At one point I could have sworn that one exploded into a puff of flame shaped like a heart... Well. I certainly hope it wasn't directed towards me!

They pushed me clean through the gate to leave the station. I'm past questioning why I got out unharmed or how no one came running to investigate the noise of my cart crashing past. I just wanted to know where they were taking me. We zipped through the back roads, where no one could possibly witness this chaos. I remember trying to jump out on multiple occasions—often helped by the chaotic steering of whoever or whatever was pushing me—to no avail. Everything from here is a sort of blur. I remember faces; more young men laughing in my face and running circles around my prison in the cart. If they were still singing that song, I wouldn't be able to tell you… My whole mind was just a mess of noise. 

I vaguely remember coming to a stop at the arcade near my station. They tipped me out of the cart quite rudely—and directly into the closed door! I braced myself for impact, but… it never came. The door swung open just ahead of me before I could hit it and I instead collided with a short but solid body. This one said… Something along the lines of "Follow me" and dragged me into the arcade. It was all lit up as if it were the middle of the day; cabinets lighting up with noise and flashing in our wake. I was surrounded by the time we stopped. They had cornered me in front of a claw game full of stuffed animals, each of them cheering and begging me to win them one from their respective places at the other machines. 

"If you think for a second that I'd be willing to spend a penny for you rascals, you're sorely mistaken!" I scolded. They just laughed harder, all their voices overlapping until I could barely make out a word. The short one who had dragged me into the arcade raised a hand and they all stopped; he must be their leader. 

"Money won't be an issue, mister," he said, and then he pointed to the bag I still had clutched in my arms. "Look inside." 

I didn't trust any of these boys as far as I could throw them—and I'm not nearly as strong as I used to be—so I kept my eye on them all as I reached into my bag. I half suspected this was some kind of trick until my hand closed around an unfamiliar weight. 

"Go on, sir! Take it out and give your wallet a good whack!" The leader's eyes unsettled me as he spoke. They gleamed with a deep, bright blue light that didn't come from any of the arcade machines; it seemed to come from inside his body. The others' eyes shone too but it was more of a reflection; all their gazes trained on the leader whose stare pierced right through me. 

I was hesitant to follow his suggestion until I felt the heft of whatever they had put in my bag. It was dense and solid, vaguely long. Perhaps I could use it as a weapon if push came to shove. I took it out with the express intention of this only to find… A microphone. What was I supposed to do with that? Instead of the laughing and jeering that I expected, I was only met with stares of nearly tangible anticipation. 

"If you’re nervous about taking out your wallet in front of us, just hit your bag!” their leader said. I had half a mind to just scold these boys and leave until I just… Couldn't. There was something in the gleam of his eyes that held me still. I knew I had no choice but to obey, so I raised the microphone up and brought it down on my bag as if it were a drum. 

It immediately swelled to near bursting with coins; so quickly that I heard the seams creaking. I nearly dropped it in my surprise. The other boys roundly started cheering for me and resumed their pleading for their plushies—why they couldn't just steal them on their own was beyond me—and I had no choice but to turn around and start playing. 

“Showtime!” their leader cheered as I loaded the first few coins in. At this point I’m really not sure if I was fully in control of myself. I remember thinking “How can I keep letting them do this? I’m not even being threatened into this, I should just leave!” only for my legs to refuse to move. I must have been in that arcade for hours winning toy after toy for this gang—what a strange ransom to demand from strangers—until I finally had full control of myself again. 

I turned around to give them the scolding they all deserved only to be met with the leader pointing a gun from one of the point-and-shoot games directly into my head. He fired it with a “Pow!” and suddenly I was in an empty parking lot somewhere underground. Every plushie that I had given to those brats was now cradled in my arms and overflowed to the floor, but I really couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to that because of what was in front of me.

Blocking the exit to this garage were five mascot costumes that I vaguely recognized as life-size versions of the plushies in my hands. How they got there to block my exit was beyond me; I was more unsettled by their presence by anything. There had to be people inside for these costumes to be even standing; were they in league with this boy gang? I remember my bag having to be refilled by that microphone wand multiple times while I was in the arcade and it was still heavy with coins now; could this all have been a ploy to rob me?

I had no time to think of an answer before I just… Dropped everything in my arms and started dancing. It was like before; I didn’t feel in control of my body at all. I thought perhaps I could just be finally starting to snap under the sheer absurdity of my situation until I tried to resist my own movement. Something pulled tight around my arm and in the opposite direction of my resistance. It didn’t stop pulling even when I let my arm go slack again; I nearly thought this force was going to tear my arm off! Thankfully it just resumed dragging me around in that oddly intense dance that it initially puppeteered me into doing just a second later, and I was helpless to resist. Unfortunately my endurance isn’t nearly what it used to be; whatever was controlling me only seemed to be working on my movements and I found myself growing exhausted within moments. The mascots were upon me by then, all dancing around me and getting closer and closer with every move. Soon the proximity grew crushing, and I blacked out yet again.

The next time I came to was back in the shopping cart, and we were stopped in an alley where the back street racers park all their bikes. The boys were all dancing in a ring around me, chanting something. Once they noticed I had woken up, there was a great shouting and they all scattered. I tried to sit up only to be pushed back down by that first boy I had seen on the train. He spun me around to face an area of the wall that was still somehow blank of any graffiti and then disappeared from view. Another boy took his place with his fingers lit up in blue sparks… Which boy this was, I can't say, I was far too dizzy to make anything out. He signed the wall with a rather strange word… Perhaps it's a new slang that the kids have come up with; I think it was… xikers? Whatever that means. Another boy was covering my eyes before I could process it fully.

His face appeared before me only a split second later, lit up in all directions by a carnival. This unsettled me deeply; not only was it still far too cold for any carnivals here, I didn’t recognize this one at all! It was all… Off. I’m sure I’ve been someplace similar, but this wasn’t it; not exactly. My blood started to curdle as this boy was telling me that “We like it like”... something. I couldn’t quite hear him over the blaring of the rides. I remember being on one—a merry-go-round that was going far too fast for my liking—but I have no memory of getting on or off. I only remember my legs feeling like jelly as I held on for dear life. At this point the boys’ lighter and that booming music from when this night began was permanently ingrained into my head; I hear it even now, actually. It still rang in my ears even after I was transported off the ride—I really don’t know how I did it—back onto solid ground. The microphone was back in my hand instead of the merry-go-round pole; now extended on a short stand. 

I don’t remember what I wanted to do with it. I just know that the boys were trying to wrestle it from my grip and that they weren’t supposed to have it. Still, an entire ten against one is hardly a fair match, so I was struggling quite a bit. Amid their pushing each other for a hold and shouting words I can’t recall into the receiver, I managed to shake them off with a strong swing—directly into an ATM next to me.

Like my bag, it exploded with riches. Bills flew every which way and I’m not above admitting I tried to catch a few. The boys seemed to have no interest in them, just dancing around me and taunting me about how they like to play their game. I couldn’t help but notice the first boy from the train and the boy who received him when he switched with the second were staying awfully close throughout all this… Well, it’s none of my business. I was more preoccupied with the chaos around me to care; the lights in this carnival all started to go dark all at once amid the flurry from the ATM. It’s not like they turned off—no, they just changed. 

Yet again I found myself surrounded in a deep ultra blue while the carnival just melted away from around me. It was like I was in the train again being pushed through the entire train without feeling any of the movement; illuminated only by the blue wisps of fire that I had since come to understand were the boys who had chosen to terrorize me. Now that there was no background noise to torment me I could hear their words more clearly; something about a strange and beautiful dokkaebi house. I was beyond confusion at this point; the things that these boys had subjected me to throughout the night could be nothing else but the work of a trickster spirit. I would have honestly believed that they had gone extinct since modern times, however this clearly proved me wrong. 

It was then that I noticed my arms felt much lighter than before. I checked my bag in a panic; everything was there. The coins that it had been overflowing with at the arcade were the only things missing along with the microphone and its stand. I'll be honest, I was glad to have them gone. I only worried for what it was about to be used for in the hands of the dokkaebi boy in front of me.

"When the bat hits, what will it become?" he asked me, twirling it about in my face. I didn't have the slightest clue what "it" he could be referring to; I just hoped it wasn't me. I was then surrounded by echoing cheers of "Tell me what you want" and "tell me what you need". Were they asking me? All I wanted or needed was a way out of here, seriously… 

I must have said it out loud; for the boy then smiled at me and beat the microphone against the ground. 

In a puff of blue smoke, my tormentors disappeared and were replaced by a sleek, red Ferrari in front of me. My surroundings were pitch black; that car was the only thing remotely illuminated. Finally, my way out! At the time I didn't think to question why I was given such a gaudy ride out, nor did I wonder why I suddenly had the keys to such an expensive car just lying there in my pocket. In hindsight, I really should have. 

Once I opened the door, the chaos that I assumed had ended began again. I entered in blessed silence and just took a moment to breathe, to take in what I thought was my escape. I had grown so accustomed to the booming music that had been beating my ears since the train ride that I had almost forgotten what peace sounded like… I missed it. Perhaps if I had never turned the key, I could have just walked away and found my own way home. Unfortunately I was so tired that all I wanted to do was enjoy a comfortable ride home. 

The music blasted through the speakers as soon as the engine turned over. I was so startled that I stamped down on the gas instead of the brake; never mind that I hadn't even shifted the car into gear yet. That didn't seem to matter to it; the parking brake released and it slammed itself into gear without my hands even leaving the steering wheel. Speaking of the wheel I could hardly get a grip on it; any direction that I was able to pull it in was the result of all my strength and as a result had no real control whatsoever. On and on in furious circles I swerved until I was certain that I would be sick again—perhaps if I was any younger I would have found this fun, but as it is I've grown out of that phase quite thoroughly. It's a miracle that I didn't crash in all the darkness that still surrounded me. All I could see past the windshield was headlights glowing ahead of me—though I occasionally caught flashes of shapes in their beam before the car swerved away again. I did everything I could to stop; slamming the brakes, pulling up the emergency brake, even removing the key from the ignition; all to no avail. I got to the point where all I could do was beg and cry for someone to come stop me, for my captors to have mercy, anything! 

No such solace came.

The next thing I remember was waking up in an empty lot all the way across the city with a pounding headache, surrounded by burned-out tire marks and an entire supply closet's worth of brooms. I still had all my belongings—though my phone was long dead—and as far as I can tell my physical condition was fine save for some fatigue. They hadn't even taken any of my money; everything that had been spent at the arcade came from that mysterious magical microphone. Thankfully I was able to regain my bearings without too much struggle—this was near where I used to attend university—and I made my way straight to this place to give my statement. It's a wonder you lot are still open that late—or early—given how secluded your building is. Well, it's none of my business, I'm just glad I was able to give my statement. Surely the police would have me detained and tested for lunacy. I wouldn't blame them; even now I can still hear that song echoing in my mind… 

"Shanti, Shanti, ya-ya-ya, Shanti, ya-ya-ya," over and over again. Perhaps I should just get some rest.

Minjae

Statement ends. 

Well! It sounds like this Kim Gyuguk-ssi had a fun night! Honestly, I would be more inclined to chalk this up to a bad trip from some shady drugs that the boy on the train gave him that he's just in denial of—if it weren't for the corroborating evidence that Hunter was able to dig up for me. While digging through transit status updates for March 30th—last night, actually—he found a "strange disturbance" on the last train of the night. Security officers at the time reported what looked and sounded to be an explosion followed by a significant delay in the train's arrival, however when it did get to the final station it was perfectly intact—with no passengers. 

He also managed to get his hands on the security footage from that empty lot that Gyuguk-ssi woke up in. There was indeed an unexplained outage early this morning for nearly an hour, only for the cameras to come back on with a clear view of him lying unconscious in the middle of the lot; indeed surrounded by unexplained tire tracks and a large arrangement of old brooms scattered all around him.

During my own research—actually it was during my commute to work here—I did pass by the arcade that Gyuguk-ssi mentioned. The staff were gathered around having a heated discussion with each other; it turns out there was some kind of break in—even though there was no evidence of tampering—and one of their claw machines was stocked full of coins but no prizes. Those had all been found in a pile in the parking lot along with the mascots they use for children's parties. Seems like an awful coincidence…

Well, all the research that can be done on this subject has been done; Junmin suggested that we let Gyuguk-ssi get a little rest before we contact him again. All the better for me, maybe I can ask my boss to let me off early. Kim Hongjoong is no slouch, but he knows it's useless to hold people when there's no work to be finished. 

Maybe then my friends and I can welcome another guest to our house~

Recording ends.

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