In This Life, The Greatest Star In The Universe

The sound of someone tearing down the stairs rang out in chaos.

"Junhyun!"

"Yes!"

"Look after Biju!"

"Yes!"

Biju’s legs, in a dress, dangled as he bounced in Junhyun’s arms.

My head was pure pandemonium.

"Aaaah! I’m going to hate the producer for this!"

"Dammit! Why is Dracula here!"

But once we came down from the lord’s room to the library, we couldn’t run anymore.

Because someone was blocking the passage.

[Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh—!]

A burly old man stood there, planted like a boulder.

A wild-haired, white-haired old man stared at us with bloodshot eyes.

A toy chef’s knife in one hand.

In the other, he was dragging a sack that looked like it had something inside... and I really didn’t want to know what.

"Five of you, huh... That’s too many to fit in the sack...."

Aaaah! We tried to retreat with a scream, but from far off, the sound of Dracula’s footsteps echoed.

—My love, Lady Kim. Where are you now?

As a honeyed voice rolled through the air, Biju gasped, then quickly curled up in Junhyun’s arms.

"Ha."

Ri Hyuk glued himself to my side and whispered.

"Hyung, what do we do? This is a real no-way-out situation."

Oh my.

"Did you just call me hyung?"

"Is that important right now!"

"Ah— uh— wait."

It’s not like I had a solution.

Dracula was closing in from behind and a cannibal killer blocked us in front. Which was scarier? Obviously the one behind.

Still, the old man in front of us was a person.

Difference between ghosts and people.

A person is something our third can actually knock down.

"Junhyun!"

"Y-yes?"

"Now! Stop that grandpa!"

Like shouting "Fire a million volts!" I barked the order, but Junhyun-mon did not respond.

He went rigid like Pikachu refusing to fight a legendary.

A look I’d never see on the usual Junhyun.

"Junhyun?"

"Y-yeah?"

"What’s wrong? You okay...?"

His Adam’s apple bobbed with a loud gulp—anyone could see how nervous he was.

Our third, who laughed off ghosts on Jeju, was scared of a person.

Still holding Biju, Junhyun backed away.

"Hyung."

"Yeah?"

"Could you...."

"What?"

"Uh... it’s just... I...."

He leaned in and whispered in my ear, embarrassed.

"He looks like the Sack Man. It’s kind of scary...."

Ah.

I’m gonna lose it. Seriously.

[HBS Variety “From Now On, Us” — NewBlack Episode]

Wooju smoothly slid the toy knife from Junhyun’s belt.

The old man licked the toy blade with his tongue, tension crackling.

English lines traded back and forth with captions layered on.

Old Man: "You look tender."

Wooju: "What are you talking about! We’re all bones!"

The lackeys fired back in desperate Korean.

Biju: "Right! Nothing but bones!"

Jiho: "We won’t taste good! We’re like chicken neck bones—no taste!"

Ri Hyuk: "I take a ton of antibiotics whenever I’m sick, so eating me would be bad for your health! All of us live on junk! Lay one finger on us and we’ll curse your whole family for three generations!"

Jiho: "If you’re taking someone, take this hyung first! I didn’t say anything rude! Grandpa!"

Biju: «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» "No. If we get caught, we get caught together!"

Jiho: "Take this princess first!"

The sudden barrage of Korean made the old man actor’s pupils tremble.

In the small box at the bottom of the screen,

the panelists bowed their heads to choke back laughter at the escalating nonsense.

Meanwhile, the camera pushed in on Junhyun’s face—frozen like a statue with Biju in his arms.

Junhyun’s interview voice laid over the footage.

Junhyun: "I don’t scare easily, usually. But I’m kind of scared of that old ‘man-with-a-sack’ story from when I was a kid. (Why?) My grandpa used to spook me a lot back then."

Western flavor or not, the cannibal’s look had turned into an unintentional live-action Sack Man, and it spooked him.

Caption rolled underneath:

Kim Junhyun (23, invincible)

Weakness: the Sack Man.

In that moment, along with the chicken skewer that gave him food poisoning and ruined his class trip, one more of Junhyun’s fears was revealed.

[shing!]

When I drew the prop knife, the kids cheered.

"As expected of Wooju hyung!"

"Hyung! Sword moves! If you can do sword moves, do it!"

"Hey, what sword moves."

Even as I said it, my arm moved on its own and a graceful blade dance flowed out.

Princess Biju whooped.

"It’s like a lightsaber!"

"As expected of Wooju hyung! He was ready!"

Maybe because it was urgent, my body just moved. I swept the blade through elegant arcs, then snapped into a pose.

The old man actor’s mouth cackled, but his eyes were wide with panic as we locked gazes.

‘Are you really going to do this?’

‘I don’t want to either, but I need to live.’

I respect my elders normally, but right now, the only answer was attack.

Forgive me, sir.

I was about to say, I’ll just tap you lightly with the knife, please pretend to fall—

[click, click]

Heels began to echo from somewhere.

"Huh?"

"Mm?"

And it wasn’t just one pair.

Several sets of heels clicked, and behind the old man, a trio of women in dresses appeared.

Biju rose in Junhyun’s arms.

"Ah, that’s not good!"

"Why?"

"It’s dangerous! Those are the duke’s older sister and younger sisters...."

So, the northern grand duke’s sisters.

At that, Jiho tilted his head.

"Hyung. If the duke is Dracula, aren’t they, you know, that too?"

"Huh?"

While we were talking, Ri Hyuk hastily flipped open the book in his hands.

The old cannibal’s gaze slid that way.

"Heh-heh-heh! New prey...!"

But he didn’t finish.

Because the trio of women materialized from the dark, bared their teeth, and lunged. Fangs flashing in the gloom.

Ri Hyuk’s voice brushed my ear.

"In the original novel, Dracula has three brides, and the three brides are vampires like him."

"You don’t have to explain it."

"Uh... he’s already getting eaten."

The three vampires swarmed the old man and started devouring him.

"Aaaargh!"

The moment he thrashed, we knew it was our perfect timing.

"Run!"

"Go!"

As we slipped past the dining vampires, one of them bared her fangs and swiped with a claw.

Razor nails.

"Aaaagh!"

We burst out of the corridor and started down the stairs from the second-floor library to the first.

Only then, catching his breath, Junhyun pointed behind us.

"Hyung. Look."

"Yeah?"

The vampires were moving strangely.

"Grrrrrr."

The trio, fangs bared, stopped on the stairs down from the second floor as if blocked by an invisible wall.

They pawed at the air and glared at us.

Then the radio crackled.

—Ah-ah! Urgent update. We dug up info on the vampires from the documents.

I turned the volume up.

—Those vampires expand their range the deeper into night it gets. Until then, their activity zone is restricted.

At the panel’s words, we paused to breathe.

We traded a glance—as entertainers.

"There must be a wall there, hyung!"

"I’ll go check."

"Hyung!"

As I crept up the stairs, the vampires surged to match my approach.

"Here, huh."

I mimed, feeling for a wall.

My realistic mime made the three actresses falter, their eyes flitting in fluster.

‘Your mime looked rough, so I’m helping.’

‘Thanks.’

Different languages, universal eyes.

While they matched their acting to my hand on the “wall,” I regrouped with the brothers who were calling me back, frantic.

And then the northern grand duke—no, Dracula—finally appeared.

Maybe his range was wider than his brides’; he came down a few steps farther and stopped right in front of us.

"My, my."

Dracula bowed with elegance.

"So you ignored my warning not to wander at night. My lady. Allow me a proper introduction. I am Dracula, master of this castle."

Biju, face full of betrayal, snapped open his fan with a flourish.

"Then your love for me was a lie after all!"

The actor playing Dracula coughed, like he barely strangled a laugh.

"Ahem. As if that could be. My lady, my love for you is unwavering. I want you back in my arms. Become a vampire with me and live an eternal life."

"Eternal life...."

"Well?"

"I have one condition."

"Speak." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Biju’s eyes sparkled as he pointed at us.

"Can they all have eternal life too? Can we live together forever and ever?"

"Biju...."

"He still hasn’t let go of that dream."

"That hyung will never let us go till we die. Probably."

Watching our second plunge headfirst into the bit, I couldn’t help but smile... and then—

Oh.

Why do I feel like crying.

Like I was caught on a thorny vine. Like a premonition that our future freedom just died.

Count Dracula shook his head.

"That won’t do, my lady."

"Then negotiations are off."

"A shame. But what could you possibly do?"

We shouted.

"Dracula, we’re going to drive a stake through your heart!"

"Yeah!"

"We’ll stake you and wipe you out—and then we’re taking this castle!"

"We’re seizing the castle!"

At our vicious threats, the Dracula actor paused and ran his tongue over his lips.

"Confident, aren’t you. Let’s see how long that smile lasts."

A weight like something big was about to happen pressed over the hall. As Dracula readied to move—

I edged back and told the kids,

"Hey. Looks like he’s about to charge us, so get ready to run first."

"Okay."

"Junhyun. Carry Biju."

"Okay."

Junhyun tucked the clumsy princess in a dress under his arm.

And then—

A massive sound boomed through the castle.

[BONG— BONG—]

The clock striking the hour.

"Those vampires expand their range the deeper into night it gets."

Remembering that, we sprinted with the brothers for the door out of the library.

"Aaaagh!"

"Run!"

We were almost at the library doors when—

While Ri Hyuk scrambled for the key, Count Dracula, who’d been strolling toward us, stopped again, right near us.

Looked like he’d hit his range limit.

"My lady. You will be mine."

"I don’t belong to anyone!"

Right then—

With a snap, lights powered on and a red wash bathed the library.

As if drawing a line for where the vampires could operate.

—Everyone!

The radio crackled.

—We managed to punch an overlay through the vampires’ blind spot. The red light marks the zones the vampires can operate in. Please... keep this in mind.

That was the moment the escape game truly swung into its second half.

After we uncovered the secret of the dragon castle in the first half, it was time to cut loose in a full-blown chase with vampires.

We headed downstairs first.

"Whoaaa...."

"Why?"

"Hyung. Look at this."

"Huh?"

Our eyes went wide together.

What we thought was a storage room. When the elevator rose, another space spread beyond.

A broad, lab-like compounding room.

"Guess this is where it really starts."

Using the map Jiho brought, we began sweeping the basement.

Mission from the control room: eliminate the vampires and escape.

—You’ll need holy water to eliminate vampires. Draw holy water from the well at the laundry in the basement and make it into a weapon.

Task one: develop the holy water to repel them.

For that we had to decode the manual in the compounding room and operate the devices in it.

And—

—Your only way out of the castle is through the waterways.

Every other path was blocked.

So we had to board a flume-ride-like boat in the castle’s underbelly.

According to Junhyun, the rails in the cave looked just like a flume ride—must’ve been built for an amusement park.

"Ugh. I hate rides."

Ri Hyuk muttered.

"I can’t even ride that ‘Sinbad’s Adventure’ one."

"You can’t ride Sinbad?"

"Really? Even I can ride Sinbad and I’m scared of heights."

Biju and Ri Hyuk murmured to each other while we grabbed a quick break in the compounding room.

But not all time was leisurely.

[WEE-OO—]

"Red zone!"

"This area just turned red!"

"Ah, crap!"

Every time the red zone spread, my heart hammered.

A sudden wash of red would pour over the place we stood, and each time, the vampires slipped into our space like skaters.

There were more than a few moments when I thought we were done.

A chase—pursuing and being pursued.

Like that, we kept finding clues to move from this room to the next, again and again.

"Lady Kim! Why won’t you understand my heart!"

"Hard pass on obsessives!"

"I won’t be obsessive."

"Then you don’t love me?"

"...."

We filmed sweet little love beats between Biju and Count Dracula in between it all.

Amid a tightly wound atmosphere, the chase looped. We’d wrung enough footage; time to head into the final act.

At the same time, we started catching clues about “H.”

"Wow. We owe this person."

"Seriously."

“H,” the one who entered this romance-fantasy-meets-Dracula mashup before us.

Thanks to his notes in the books and the breadcrumbs he left around, things went smoothly.

And—

As we pushed the escape, a feeling clicked into place.

"I think he’s alive. I’m sure."

Piecing through the records he left one by one, we concluded H had seen through Dracula’s identity and was hiding somewhere in the castle.

He’d faked his death and gone to ground.

If we found this, he wrote, we should rescue him.

"We have to return this ring too."

Apparently the person who dropped a ring in Biju’s room was H. Blond hair, they said.

Count Dracula too.

Foreign folks really went through it to get here. I should talk to them when this is over.

"Beloved! Accept my love!"

Yikes. Clingy guy!

We ducked away from Count Dracula dogging us like a stalker and slipped into the next room together.

With our brains—okay, with Ri Hyuk—solving puzzles one by one, we were prepping to move on when—

[ssssss—]

Eunseong’s voice came through.

—Everyone. We have an update for you. There’s a drain in that room that leads to a secret space in the castle.

"Yes."

—Our scan picked up a faint life sign down that drain.

We nodded.

"Very faint?"

—Yes. If that’s the survivor you mentioned, you need to get to them before the next red zone.

"Understood."

Rescue the survivor and defeat Dracula.

Then all of us get out safely.

We traded a sober look and turned to the hatch for the drain down to the lower level.

We had to combine clues from all over to enter this code.

Maybe thirty minutes passed.

"What if we look at it on a slant like this?"

"Oh!"

We changed the angle on the tapestry hanging on the wall. A seven-digit number hid there.

We keyed it in, then slotted and turned the key we’d found in the previous room.

My heart thudded.

[ssssssss—!]

With a venting hiss and a breath of white vapor, the hatch slowly opened, revealing a ladder dropping down.

"Go first, Junhyun."

"Okay."

Junhyun went first, shepherding members down one by one.

I checked the room one last time, closed the hatch, and climbed down.

And then—

"Huh?"

"Oh!"

The kids’ startled murmurs rose.

What now.

When I dropped off the ladder, I understood why.

"Ha...."

A figure with blond hair, done up grimy and ragged.

A handwriting that had felt familiar.

And the initial H.

"How did I miss this."

The grimy figure, wearing handcuffs, looked at me and slipped into a faint smile.

As I couldn’t help smiling back—

The handcuffed figure stood and held out a hand.

"...Did you come to rescue me?"

Initial H.

Special guest TNT member, Han Taehyun, was acting it up with a sly grin.