Chapter 21: Steaming
The voice I had been hearing thankfully didn’t seem to be a hallucination.
I picked up the empty makgeolli bottle he had tossed and put it in my bag, then moved toward the voice calling out to me so desperately.
Following the voice out of the cave, the first thing I saw was the blinding sunlight attacking my eyes.
...Just a moment ago, it had been pitch dark.
As the intense light beat down on me, my eyes—which had adapted to the darkness of the cave—screamed in protest.
Like a child of darkness huddled in a sunlit room with the curtains suddenly drawn, I squinted and let out a faint groan.
A voice I had never heard before spoke up.
“...Are you Ms. Bo Ayun?”
As I blinked and adjusted to the light, I saw people who looked like police officers. Their faces looked fairly worn out.
“...Yes, that’s me.” “We found her!”
As I answered, they radioed it in and began leading me down the mountain.
...As we slowly made our way down, I got the gist of things. It seemed Hyeyeon and Hyesung had reported me to the police.