Ch.147147 – A Woman’s Heart 1

# 147 – A Woman’s Heart # 1

Yang Ju-hui’s large eyes welled up with tears.

I was surprised by her strong reaction when I teased her about how cute she had acted when she was struggling as “The Sacrificial Virgin.” I started panicking, thinking something worse than her getting angry might happen if she cried, but then Yang Ju-hui let out a snort of laughter.

“So!”

“…So what?”

“Did you enjoy kissing Yu Da-hui? You’re grinning from ear to ear.”

“I’m not grinning.”

“You are in your heart!”

So Yang Ju-hui even knows how to use reverse psychology.

To be honest, getting a kiss from a pretty girl like Da-hui couldn’t be anything but nice. It still felt like a dream. Well, it actually was a dream since I got kissed in the Nightmare Corridor, but still…

“Ha Yeong-won! If Da-hui and I were drowning, who would you save?”

“You’re a good swimmer. When I saw you swimming with the other girls last time, you were like a mermaid princess.”

“…Da-hui and I drank poison and collapsed, but there’s only one antidote! Who would you save?”

A woman’s heart was truly unfathomable. Why did she keep asking these questions? Why did she keep creating scenarios where I had to save just one of them?

When I didn’t answer right away, Yang Ju-hui asked angrily:

“Between me and Yu Da-hui. Which one of us would you date?”

This time the question was very direct.

I pondered so deeply that I worried I might develop circular baldness starting from the crown of my head, but I couldn’t come up with an answer. Then suddenly I got angry at my situation. Making my head heat up from the hot morning! Yang Ju-hui, you rascal.

“Between me and Yu Da-hui. Which one of us would you date? Answer quickly!”

“Yu Da-hui. Her family is rich. And if I dated you, I feel like I’d have to do all the housework.”

“…What?!”

Yang Ju-hui jumped up like a startled cat. Because of that, she fell backward with a thud from the chair she’d been sitting on, swinging her legs. Whether it was because she was hurt from falling or for some other reason, Yang Ju-hui cried her eyes out.

“How could you say that! Do you know how hard I’ve been working to help you! You jerk!”

I thought she might throw a punch at me, but instead she curled up like a pill bug. She was crying so pitifully that I felt like a real criminal. I had jokingly said Yu Da-hui, but I never expected such an intense reaction.

“Hey, I was just kidding. Just a joke.”

To begin with, I had never seriously considered dating either Da-hui or Ju-hui. Making a choice would only break the harmony.

“Ju-hui, I didn’t know you thought of me that way. What do you like about me?”

“What are you talking about! I don’t like you!”

It seemed like it would be difficult to comfort her. But through my experiences, I knew Yang Ju-hui’s weakness well. Her weakness was that she was very ticklish.

Swish-. Tickle tickle-.

I tickled the bottom of Yang Ju-hui’s foot that was sticking out from under her bottom. She couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

“Kihihi! Hey!”

She laughed, cried, and got angry all at once. It might not seem like much, but having three emotions mixed together was quite impressive.

Hiss, hiss-.

With a flushed face and breathing heavily, Yang Ju-hui finally couldn’t take it anymore and dove into my blanket. Then she wrapped herself up in it. She looked just like a pupa in a cocoon. I had a feeling this state would last for a while.

I had to admit that I had made a big mistake. A woman’s heart is truly difficult to understand. Let’s just think of this as an expensive lesson learned.

# # #

Ding-dong-.

“It’s so hot!”

“Come inside. It’s cool in here because the air conditioner is on.”

Yang Ju-hui came into my house. After sitting down on a chair and swinging her legs casually, she asked me:

“You. Did something happen between you and Yu Da-hui yesterday?”

A familiar question in a familiar scene. Of course it would be. I rewound time using 100P!

I did wonder if it was okay to use points for something like this, but after thinking and pondering for a long time, I came to a conclusion. I said to Ju-hui:

“Do you like me?”

“What? What are you suddenly saying!”

Bang-!

Yang Ju-hui, who had been precariously leaning back in her chair, fell over with a crash. The falling scene was similar to before.

“I like you, Yang Ju-hui. Because you’re pretty. Because you’re ticklish. Because you hate the heat. Because you’re trying to find your sister. Also…”

There were countless reasons why I would like Yang Ju-hui if I were to like her. Yang Ju-hui was flustered, probably thinking my confession was sudden.

“What are you saying! Why are you suddenly saying this!”

“But while I like you, I also like other people. Everyone is a precious colleague and friend I’ve met. If I had to choose just one, I’d end up agonizing so much that I wouldn’t be able to save anyone, and everyone would die.”

I liked how things were now.

I liked it so much that if I had enough points, I would want to repeat each day forever and savor those days intensely. And I had grown through various experiences.

I knew enough to understand that my immature crush and adolescent affection might break our peace and damage our unity.

“But when this is all over, I’ll show you my choice. This is my promise as a man.”

Swish-.

I held out my pinky finger to Yang Ju-hui.

Yang Ju-hui seemed a bit confused and didn’t understand my sudden words, but eventually she held out her pinky finger to me.

“…So what did you do with Yu Da-hui yesterday? Did you two kiss or something?”

What must happen will inevitably happen…

This is another lesson learned.

“That’s not important. What’s important is that we’re starting to see clues. Look here. We have Bong Se-yeon’s head. We’ll be able to find your sister soon too.”

“Whoa, what the hell is that head.”

Good. I succeeded in diverting her attention. Of course, Yang Ju-hui was still looking at me with narrowed eyes. It seems she let it slide.

# # #

“That’s what happened.”

Chatter chatter-.

I came to the secret base and told Jeongseok, Bong Ji-yeon, and Kwon Su-a about what happened last night. I also took out Bong Se-yeon’s head from the styrofoam box.

“This is Bong Se-yeon’s head.”

“Aack, shit, what is that!”

Bong Ji-yeon, who I thought would be the happiest to recover her sister’s head, quickly backed away. Wasn’t finding her sister Bong Ji-yeon’s goal? I thought she would be a bit happier.

“Here, it’s your sister.”

“…You bastard! Put that away!”

Put it away?

That’s too harsh for your own sister.

Swish-.

I placed Bong Se-yeon’s head on the table. Jeongseok, who was watching, was also greatly impressed.

“It’s not going to suddenly open its eyes, is it?”

“I don’t think so. We need to use a special method.”

Glance-.

I looked at Teacher Hong Mi-ri, who was sipping coffee. Teacher Hong Mi-ri could swap heads like Lego parts. It was an extremely impressive skill.

“Kyaak!”

Just then, someone screamed. Bong Ji-yeon, who had picked up Bong Se-yeon’s head, threw it into the air with a terrified expression. Yang Ju-hui shouted “Hey!” and jumped onto the desk to catch the head.

“What are you doing, you crazy girl!”

“Its eyes opened! Its eyes suddenly opened!”

Eyes?

Wondering what was going on, I looked and saw that Bong Se-yeon’s eyes were indeed wide open. They were completely black eyes with no whites showing. It was so scary that my legs gave out.

“…Heemi.”

I even made a strange noise. Of course, given the situation, no one paid attention to me. Soon Bong Se-yeon’s lips started moving, and Teacher Hong Mi-ri, who was watching, said something.

“She’s asking where this is.”

Boing-.

We all looked at Teacher Hong Mi-ri.

“I’m raising a head too, you know. If you keep watching, you can understand what they’re saying just by their lips.”

“Indeed, lip reading.”

Jeongseok pretended to know. I didn’t know what lip reading was, but the important thing was that we could now understand what Bong Se-yeon was saying. Teacher Hong Mi-ri was an expert on severed heads.

Munch munch-.

The severed head moved its lips again like a goldfish.

“She says she’s sleepy.”

Drooop-.

Bong Se-yeon closed her eyes. After that, Bong Se-yeon didn’t open her eyes again. She seemed to be sleeping.

“Shouldn’t we take this to the police station? You said it’s the head from a murder case!”

Kwon Su-a made a fuss as if she was terrified. It was the right thing to say. This was a head that the police were desperately looking for. Bong Se-yeon’s family had even gone to the police station crying, asking them to find the head. If we returned it, the family would be happy.

“No. We need to ask about my sister.”

But Yang Ju-hui was against submitting this head. The reason was that we needed to hear the story from Bong Se-yeon’s head.

“Bong Ji-yeon. What do you think?”

I asked Bong Ji-yeon, who was blood-related. If anyone in this place had the right to choose what to do with the head, it would be her younger sister, Bong Ji-yeon. The reason Bong Ji-yeon had cooperated with us was to find this ‘head.’ Now that we had found the head, it also meant that she had no reason to risk her life to cooperate with us anymore.

“If we need my sister’s head. It can be a little late to submit it to the police.”

Everyone was relieved by Bong Ji-yeon’s decision. Although no one said it, it seemed everyone knew that we needed that head. Now we just needed to decide on our next course of action.

“Let’s go to school today. The real school.”

In dreams, we explore the Nightmare Corridor-.

In reality, we explore the actual old school building.

“How about exploring on two tracks like this?”

I told everyone my strategy. However, my friends’ reactions were more lukewarm than I expected. Bong Ji-yeon, who had found her sister’s head, was one thing, but Jeongseok and Kwon Su-a also seemed slightly indifferent.

“I think we’re really close now. We’ve almost found Yang Do-hui’s whereabouts. And they say the corridor ends at the 4th floor. We’re really close now.”

To boost everyone’s morale, I clarified our goal. Now that we knew where the finish line was, it was time to strengthen our resolve again. Glance-. Just then, someone raised their hand.

“Um-.”

It was Kwon Su-a. Kwon Su-a spoke softly.

“…What happens when we reach the end? Do we return to normal life? Not seeing ghosts anymore?”

“Probably. Isn’t that good for everyone? Ghosts are scary.”

I heard that Kwon Su-a had suffered a lot because of the ghosts she had seen since she was young. I thought she would be happy to return to a daily life without ghosts. But Kwon Su-a spoke in a timid voice, as if she lacked confidence.

“I… I think things aren’t bad as they are now. I can see my dad every day…”

“…Your dad?”

“My dad is at home. I thought I’d never be able to meet him again for the rest of my life. Even though he’s a ghost… Even though it seems like we can’t have conversations… still…”

I remembered when we all went to Kwon Su-a’s house. Her father’s ghost was there, and we came back without exorcising him. In the past few days, it seemed Kwon Su-a had grown attached to her father’s ghost that was left behind.

“They say the 4th floor grants wishes. It might be possible to bring your father back to life. Everyone must have something they want to do. We just need to get to the 4th floor.”

I comforted everyone. Everyone must have at least one wish they couldn’t speak of. When we get to the 4th floor, we’ll be able to fulfill all of them.

“I don’t know. Those who want to stay will stay. I’m going.”

Swish-.

Yang Ju-hui stood up from her seat. Following that, everyone else stood up too. The atmosphere made it impossible not to stand up.

And so the expedition to the basement of the real school began again. I couldn’t know what each person was thinking, but each with their own dreams. Into the darkness, into the dark basement-.