given-taken ; park sunghoon

curiosity kills the cat.

i cautiously opened my eyes, and found myself in the middle of the road, the car going without me and a telephone box on the sidewalk

i was never told which telephone was the one, but this one just felt right. it felt strangely safe on the street despite it being night and the sidewalk lights flickering. the cold evening breeze scraped past me and the lights made little spotlights throughout the streets

it was clear what i was suppose to do.

i tried to stride confidently towards the telephone, and on the telephone box, there was a poster plastered on the inside

the telephone
congratulations for making it alive to here, most don't, but i guess you got lucky. please call one of the following numbers. make your decision carefully, you only get one call.
to quit 1785 (943?4
the headquarters ,7489/856v
mr kim sunoo !"99;6 !845);-6
your advisor 6-!) &7!)29'
home 548,@ 173/589!v

the 'number pad' was strange. it only consisted of the characters shown on the poster, all the numbers apart from 0, the symbols above, and one letter, v.

there must be some kind of code, they couldn't have just decided to put random numbers symbols and one letter.

i couldnt make anything out of it, and decided to take a walk to clear my mind, and thats when i saw a qwerty and number and symbol keyboard printout, like the phone keyboards.

i ripped the sheet off and noticed a note on the back, written by someone
'there is a pen under the box. please use the keyboards, it will help you. i hope you make it out. if you see someone walking towards you from the north (the direction the back of the telephone box is facing) run.'

squatting down, i saw the pen. it was rusty, and smelled strongly like blood, and was secured to the bottom by worn out tape

there is probably something between the letters and numbers that link together to make the code. my eyes flickered between the two keyboards and the phone numbers.

it suddenly made sense, if you lay the qwerty keyboard over the number and symbols keyboard, it made words.

to quit = quit forever
the headquarters = curiosity?
mr kim sunoo = bloody birthday
your advisor = yang jungwon
home = trick question?

i wasn't entirely sure if 'trick question' was a trick question. i wasn't sure if it was mocking the participants or suppose to make us think.

i don't think speaking to jungwon would help me in any way, and quitting might not be a good move

the headquarters. the headquarters of this 'experience' organisation? but i felt like calling them directly might not get me answers right away. jungwon said only the ones at the top had all the information

mr kim sunoo was a familiar name. i actually think there was a kim sunoo in my chemistry class..? i wasn't sure why but i just felt like mr kim sunoo was what i should go for. the bloody birthday definitely was out of the ordinary, and possibly may get me answers?

maybe mr kim sunoo himself can give me some answers.