Possessing The Obsessive Maniac’s Cotton Doll - Chapter 1

“Fuuuckkk! Damn professor, you see where I’m going wellllll!”

This is the voice from a graduate student who escaped after being locked up in the lab for over ten days.

“Park Yul. Calm down, calm down!”

“Can I really be calm now?! Fuck… You know what the damn professor said to me? I was told that there is no suitable picture among the images, so they told me to draw it… Crazy guy, am I an art student? Are I an art student?!”

“Hey, you idiot, drink slowly… !”

Yul ruffled his hair in rage. Then he took a bottle of soju in front of him and drank directly from it. A colorless liquid was sucked into Yul’s mouth.

“I will drink till I die.”

“You told me that last month.”

“I drank less then. I should have drank more and died. Why am I suffering like this now because I drank right before I died then and didn’t die?…”

Yul lamented mixed with regret that would come about once a month, and ate dry snacks.

He made up his mind while chewing the dried squid.

I’m going to drink today and die.

About two hours later, Yul was supported by Changhyun and left the pub. After helping Yul and coming down to the first floor from the pub on the second floor, Changhyun got exhausted and let go of Yul. Even though he was slender without much fat, his stomach became heavy after drinking alcohol.

“Why’d you let go! Oh gosh, oh gosh, that hurts!”

Yul, whose buttocks just fell to the floor, muttered without even thinking of getting up. It had been a long time since consciousness had already flown out the window.

“Oh gosh, oh gosh, I’m dying… Everyone, this poor graduate student is finally dying… Oh? Hey, let’s play the claw machine.”

“How did this bastard find a claw machine in this spirit?”

Yul’s drinking habit was to be obsessed with playing the claw machine. Changhyun couldn’t even stand properly but Yul was finding claw machines around like a ghost.

On Friday night, after midnight, the downtown area was bustling despite the spread of the coronavirus. Among the people who wore masks and raised their voices, Yul and Changhyun also became noisy with a scuffle.

“Ugh, this bastard is drunk again.”

“Oh, I didn’t get drunk! Look at this, I’m walking so damn well. In a straight line, eh?”

“Yeah, you’re going straight. Because you’re crawling on all fours.”

Changhyun clicked his tongue. Park Yul, this punk used to become a dog if he drank alcohol. He might as well crawl on all fours and bark, but his crawling on all fours meant ‘let’s play the claw machine’. He was a mess whenever he drank alcohol.

“I’m freaking good at drawing dolls. Fucking good… Completely1… Hey, this is what kids say these days, right? Teen talk is so these days… I can’t keep up.”

“They don’t use that word these days. You old man. Be quiet and get up.”

Even if he was drunk with babbling, he got drunk firmly. Well, actually, at the point when you’re crawling down the downtown floor on all fours, everyone will know that ‘this man is fucking drunk’.

Changhyun bit his tongue and looked pathetically at his old friend, Yul. He couldn’t tell when he was going to grow up even after getting out of the military.

Usually, it seemed that a screw was loose somewhere, but he acts like a human being, but if he drinks alcohol, he became like a dog.

“Ah~ I said let’s play the claw machineeee!!!”

“Ah frick, I get it! I get it so get up.”

“Really?”

“Ah, really.”

“Ah fuck~! Hey, lift me up.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“No.”

“No what?”

“I’m not an eggplant2. It tastes awful. I’ll be a cucumber. I’ll be a cucumber, a cucumber.”

“… Ha, what should I really do with this bastard?”

“Cucumber, cucumber~”

Changhyun clenched his teeth and swallowed the curse that came up to his throat. When he cursed at a drunk guy, it only hurt his throat.

In any case, Yul, who was drunk, got up from his prostrate body with the help of Changhyun.

Trembling like a newborn giraffe, Yul, who barely stood in place, walked into the claw machine store right in front of him.

“Hey, I’ll do that one. That.”

“Enough.”

“Fine. Then I will have it.”

“I’m going to kill you if you messaged me tomorrow saying that you’re lying next to a doll you’ve never seen before.”

“Okay okay. Trust me.”

Not even knowing what to trust, Yul with a red face pounded his chest with his fist. And then let out a sound of death, ‘It hurts… ‘.

Changhyun looked at him and wondered what the hell he had committed in his past life to be friends with such a mess.

“Ah… Why didn’t it get picked up?”

Meanwhile, Yul quickly squandered the thousand-won bill he had. Thanks to the mask that covered more than half of his face, only eyes to the top could be seen, but his sullen expression seemed to be clearly visible.

Yul had a face that looked like a puppy in the rain. Changhyun thought he shouldn’t be fooled by that pitiful face, but as usual, he took out a couple of thousand won bills from his wallet.

“When you are reborn, I will pray for you to be reborn as a doll. You must taste the pain of being pulled out.”

“Hehehe, thank you. I’ll really pull that and give it to you.”

Despite Changhyun’s curse, Yul laughed and took the money Changhyun gave him, and pushed it into the claw machine.

Yul’s gaze towards the target was drunk and relaxed. His gaze, far from sharp, was directed at the pink-headed human-shaped doll.

As if several people had already tried, the doll was lying at an angle in an easy-to-grab position. The pink, round, big head was as seductive as if it were saying, ‘Pick me.’ Because of this, Yul was persistently aiming for the doll even after several failures.

“Oohh, oh, oh! Ah, it’s a shame!”

The doll caught by the machine ran to the exit, and then fell without a hitch right in front of the exit. Yul felt sorry for himself as he threw his fists into the air in anger.

“Hey, no way you can get it. Let’s go now.”

“No, no. There is still one more chance left!”

Despite Changhyun’s urging, Yul waved the last remaining 1,000 won bill.

Yul resolutely exclaimed, ‘This time, I’m sure I’ll succeed!’ and put a thousand won into the machine. Of course, his eyes were still open, and his face was red, so he was not very reliable.

“Please, please, please, Pinkie. Let’s go home. Let’s go together, okay?”

Yul manipulated the claw machine, calling out a very one-dimensional name.

“I got it, I got a feeling. It’s now, now.”

Originally, it was said that it was the scariest thing when a crazy person mumbles to himself, and when Changhyun saw Yul muttering to himself, he was disdainful and took a couple of steps back.

At that moment, Yul pressed the claw lowering button, and the doll-picking claw, which had been hovering around the same place for a while, reached out toward Pinkie.

“Oohh, okay, okay!”

Pinkie, who had been seducing Yul the whole time, was finally picked up by Yul. Yul jumped with joy at the sight of falling down the exit. In case anyone would suddenly steal, he quickly shoved his hand into the exit where the doll came out, took out Pinkie and held it in his arms.

“I’m a claw machine god after all.”

“Hey, you just spent seven thousand won.”

“Shh. Don’t say that.”

Yul raised his eyes fiercely and cut off Changhyun’s words. Yet, his doe eyes weren’t a threat at all.

“Pinkie, pinkie. I’ll take good care of you.”

“You’re crazy really….”

In spite of Changhyun’s scolding, Yul only laughed.

“Did you see it, gentlemen? This is… Whoa!”

Yul, who was happily raising his pink doll toward the ceiling like a general who had gained valuable loot on the battlefield, suddenly lost his sense of balance and fell backwards.

Because he was intoxicated, there was no way he had any reflexes left to support his body from falling. Without any resistance, he slammed his round head down onto the hard floor.

“Hey, hey! Park Yul! Park Yul, are you okay? Open your eyes!”

His friend Changhyun’s words faded out. Yul didn’t resist his closing eyelids and just closed his eyes.

———

“… Uh…”

“”

The hangover hit him before he even opened his eyes. It must have been that he had poured alcohol crazily ​​yesterday as well. Although not often, the cycle that comes once a month had always led to a terrible hangover and regret.

Crazy guy… I did it again, again.

Yul woke up with regrets every month, cursing himself for pouring alcohol like a madman.

“Uh… And who the heck are you? Are you the little friend I picked up yesterday?”

The first thing he saw was a doll he had never seen before. It was a small human-shaped doll with pink hair and blue eyes studded with stars.

Since he often liked to play the claw machine when he drank, he smiled mischievously thinking that he must have been like that yesterday, but something was strange.

“Wait a moment… W-why so many?”

Dozens of identical dolls were sitting side by side. Besides, he didn’t realise because he was distracted by the doll, but when he looked closely again, the shelf on which the doll was placed was also different from the one in his own room. Or rather, it was just that this whole place itself was not his own room.

Yul, who was quickly rubbing his eyes with both hands, wondering if he had seen it wrong, stopped. It was because of the strangely soft texture.

Yul looked into my hand and screamed in shock.

“… Wh- why? What?!”

Instead of ten outstretched fingers, there were two small, apricot-colored cotton balls.