Afterlife Dating Episode 12 – Tears in the Underworld X-Room

“Hey, Cha Hyunwoo! Clean up those cobwebs properly! This is supposed to be a ghost dating show—not a place with actual ghosts crawling around!”

Wearing a mask and carrying my battered gimbal bag under one arm, I shouted into the dusty attic.

The storage loft hidden in the corner of the shrine was being transformed into our latest attraction:

The Underworld X-Room.

Dust poured from the ceiling like a waterfall.

My expensive cardigan was already beyond saving.

“Ham Seonyeong, you’re seriously unbelievable. You drag me out in the middle of the night just to build a room that reopens people’s emotional wounds?”

Hyunwoo grumbled, but he still moved the old crates exactly where I told him to.

Seeing soot smeared across his annoyingly handsome face was oddly satisfying.

“This is business! Alright, put Jieun’s shaker bottle over here, and Minsu’s letters from Jieun over there. Placement matters. We can’t have the energy getting tangled.”

One by one, we arranged the keepsakes our participants had brought—items carrying memories of their exes.

An old bottle of perfume.

Wrinkled movie tickets.

Well-worn gym equipment.

When we finally finished decorating the room, an odd sense of emptiness washed over me.

Inside this cramped chamber wrapped in red strings, someone would soon fall apart while staring at fragments of their youth.

Fidgeting with my gimbal, I muttered quietly.

“…Hey, Cha Hyunwoo. What exactly is love? How can people live or die over some old object? I honestly don’t get it.”

Hyunwoo’s hands stopped moving.

Slowly lowering his mask, he stared at me.

“Of course you don’t get it. You’re more sensitive to donation alerts than people’s feelings.”

His voice softened.

“The object isn’t heavy. The feelings inside it are.”

He looked away.

“You’ll understand someday—when you finally give something precious to someone else.”

“As if! Don’t say creepy things like that. I’m never giving my stuff to anyone. I’ll just sell everything online!”

Embarrassed for reasons I couldn’t explain, I repeatedly switched the gimbal on and off.

Hyunwoo chuckled quietly and brushed the dust off my head.

“Alright! Entering now. Cameras rolling. And… action!”

Jieun went first.

I followed her with the gimbal in night vision mode.

The moment she saw the old protein shaker sitting beneath the spotlight, her breathing became uneven.

“This… I bought this with my first paycheck when Oppa started working out…”

Her trembling fingers opened the lid.

The faint scent of protein powder still lingered inside—sweet and strangely stale.

The moment she caught the smell, she collapsed to the floor.

“You idiot…”

Her voice trembled.

“The lid was broken, and you taped it together? You were still using it?”

Tears welled in her eyes.

“Every time I washed this, I nagged you to work harder. You ran away because you got tired of my nagging…”

Her voice cracked.

“Then why couldn’t you throw this away?”

Clutching the shaker bottle to her chest, Jieun cried like a child.

Tears dripped onto the yellowed tape wrapped around the bottle.

Perfect.

That desperation.

That regret.

Thumbnail title:

[Held Together by Tape—and Regret]

The chat exploded.

[EmotionalGhost1]: The tape on the shaker… omg 😭 He kept it because Jieun gave it to him??

[JieunBeHappy]: “You ran away because you got tired of my nagging…” 😭😭😭

[KOccult]: LOL Ham Seonyeong pretending this is emotional romance while wrapping the room in creepy red strings.

Next was Minsu.

His large frame barely fit inside the tiny room.

He opened the box of handwritten letters from Jieun.

Each envelope had cute notes scribbled on them:

“Today’s Meal Plan”

“Protect Your Gains!”

After reading one letter, Minsu suddenly covered his face with his massive hands.

“Jieun…”

His shoulders trembled.

“You’re cruel. You stopped yourself from eating tteokbokki because you wanted to help me with my diet…”

His voice broke.

“And here you wrote: ‘Watching you become healthier fills me up more than food ever could.’”

A tear rolled down his cheek.

“I didn’t even know…”

His voice shook.

“I just kept saying I felt suffocated whenever I was with you…”

His tears blurred the ink on the paper.

For someone his size, the sight of him crying so helplessly was heartbreaking.

“I’m trash.”

He clutched the box to his chest.

“You gave up your own life trying to make me a better person…”

His voice failed him.

“And I…”

Unable to continue, he lowered his head.

I zoomed in on his tear-soaked eyelashes.

Yes.

This was exactly the emotional impact I wanted.

Guilt.

Regret.

Love that arrived too late.

The chat was on fire again.

[ProteinThief]: Dude… seeing a guy that huge cry hits hard. She gave up tteokbokki for him?!

[AlwaysOffended]: Isn’t this obsession, not love? A girlfriend managing your diet sounds suffocating.

[ProtectJieun]: She sacrificed her own wants for him. How is that obsession?

[FactBomb]: “You tried to make me a better person” ← That’s parenting, not dating. Breaking up was inevitable.

[HyunwooMom]: Someone stop that devil shaman LOL. Hyunwoo, take away her gimbal!!

Watching the two of them break down on my screen, I found myself thinking:

Hyunwoo was right.

Those objects really were heavy.

But my moment of reflection didn’t last long.

Hyunwoo emerged from the observation room and tapped the handle of my gimbal.

“What are you thinking about?”

“…Just that those things look heavier than I expected.”

I answered absentmindedly.

Arms crossed, Hyunwoo snorted.

Then he bumped my shoulder—almost like a shove—as he walked past.

“What’s with you? Did sniffing money all day numb your senses?”

He glanced back.

“You think those are just objects?”

His voice was quiet.

“They’re karma. Regret. Things people never let go of.”

Before I could react, he grabbed my gimbal bag and slung it over his shoulder.

“If it’s heavy, stop whining and hand it over. If you wreck your wrist, you’ll send me the hospital bill anyway.”

He clicked his tongue.

“I’m not taking care of you too.”

“That thing’s expensive! Be careful with it!”

I hurried after him.

Still grumbling, Hyunwoo switched on the gimbal for me.

Under the red lights, his side profile looked strangely sharp—

and unexpectedly dependable.

Without saying a word, I tightened my grip on the gimbal handle.

The tears of the X-Room had come to an end.

Now came the real challenge:

The Heart-to-Heart Session.

A conversation where truths would cut deeper than knives.