Ch.16016 – The Dancing, Laughing Shaman Ghost 3

# 016 – The Dancing, Laughing Shaman Ghost # 3

Ghost!

A ghost appeared!

With three people lying there with their eyes wide open!

“Let’s run! Let’s run!”

I grabbed the hand of a nearby woman and ran!

A strategic retreat!

“My, my daughter! My daughter Juhui!”

The woman shouted as we frantically ran down the stairs.

Now I realized that the hand I grabbed wasn’t Yang Juhui’s!

“Oh my! Mother-in-law!”

“Mother-in-law!?”

“No! Mom! I mean, uh, not mom! Deaconess! I’ll bring Juhui! You run away! Run! Shit, there’s a real ghost up there! A real ghost! Oh shit!”

“I’ll… I’ll go get people from the church! People!”

As I started climbing back up the stairs, I felt like bursting into tears from fear and frustration.

From a death game to a shaman ghost!

Is it normal to encounter ghosts twice in one day?

“My life is ruined.”

I really hated the idea of going back into Yang Juhui’s house, but I was afraid that if Yang Juhui died at the hands of the shaman ghost, she might become a “bully ghost” and come after me.

If that happens, I’ll really die!

A bully ghost sounds absolutely terrifying.

“Um… Juhui…”

I slowly entered the house.

My face automatically scrunched up because the house, which until recently had smelled like flowers befitting a high school girl’s home, now reeked of garbage.

“Cough, cough.”

Ugh, what the hell is this smell?

As I slowly entered the house, the already dim lights suddenly went out.

“Oh, shit…”

Complete darkness inside.

I really wanted to turn back right then, but…

“Peace like a river. Peace like a river. Peace like a river flows within me…”

“What nonsense.”

“Mom!”

I was genuinely startled.

Even a cat spotting a cucumber while eating wouldn’t have been more surprised than I was.

When I shined my phone light, I saw Yang Juhui standing there in the darkness, drooling something strange from the corner of her mouth.

“Hey…! Let’s get out! Hurry! Yang Juhui!”

“Go where? This is my house. This is my home. My home. But these bitches never invite me over for Chuseok or New Year’s. These bitches who believe in desert demons and disrespect their ancestors.”

The face and voice were definitely Yang Juhui’s, but… she didn’t seem like herself.

I was really scared and wanted to run away, but I decided to ask.

“Um… I’m really sorry, but… who are you?”

“I’m her grandmother. This bitch never offers me a single ancestral meal. Despicable. So I’m going to take her away. Hahahahaha!”

Swaying, swaying, swaying-.

Yang Juhui suddenly started dancing like a madwoman.

She laughed while dancing and made bell sounds with her mouth.

“Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling-.”

A gut ritual…

Is she performing a shamanic ritual?

Suddenly I remembered that Yang Juhui’s maternal line had been shamanic shrine keepers for generations. Her grandmother’s ghost must have really possessed her!

“Do you know what the two scariest ghosts are, even shamans avoid? Laughing ghosts! One is a dancing ghost! And even scarier is a shaman ghost! Hahaha! So what would you call a dancing, laughing shaman ghost?”

I don’t know, damn it!

How would I know that!

Why am I even here doing this?

I was terrified but also angry.

When people get too scared, they sometimes snap.

Maybe after dealing with various ghosts, I’ve developed some guts.

So I mustered up my courage and asked.

“Um… if you’re really a shaman, can you… like… summon dead ghosts?”

“Yes! Hahahahaha!”

“Then… can you summon Hitler? I heard Hitler hid a lot of gold…”

“…Foreigners are not possible!”

“Then what about my dad? Can you summon my dad’s ghost?”

“Wait a minute. Ha Yeongwon, you rascal! Not listening to your father and just goofing off every day!”

“Dad? Is that really my dad? Sing the military song!”

“……”

“Hey you fraud, my dad isn’t even dead!”

I never believed in shamans or fortune-telling anyway.

How could she summon my father who isn’t even dead?

This is completely fake!

By this point, my anger had surpassed my fear.

“You bastards! If you’re really ancestors, you should help your descendants by giving them lottery numbers! You’re trying to kill someone just because they don’t perform ancestral rites?”

“Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling-.”

“People who really benefit from their ancestors go on overseas trips during Chuseok and New Year’s! You’re not a real ancestor! If everyone who dies becomes a ghost, then what about Tyrannosaurus rex!”

“……”

Yang Juhui subtly averted her eyes.

I shouted at her furiously.

“If people really became ghosts after death, then the Tyrannosaurus ghosts who died first would have eaten them all! Tyrannosaurus! Allosaurus! Velociraptor! Pteranodon!”

I vividly imagined dinosaur ghosts.

Then I thought I heard actual dinosaur roars from somewhere, and Yang Juhui screamed.

“Eeek! Wh-what is this! What is this! Aaack!”

Thud-.

Yang Juhui’s body collapsed to the floor like a marionette with cut strings.

Soon, text appeared before my eyes.

『Congratulations! You have defeated ‘Placebo Effect’!』

『Beginning calculation for 3 survivors.』

『You gain 300P.』

Placebo effect.

It means that if you believe something strongly enough, even if it’s fake, it can have real effects.

It seemed that Deaconess Kim Yeook, Yang Juhui’s mother, had talked about ancestral ghosts so convincingly that it manifested like a placebo effect.

…Well, I’ve been through some strange things.

I really feel like crying.

# # #

“Hey. Are you okay?”

After all this, I should consider my debt from the corridor paid off.

Yang Juhui had collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily. Her chest was heaving, and her white legs were still stretched out under her school uniform skirt.

I’d managed to drive away the placebo ghost.

But seeing her still unconscious made me worried.

“Hey. Get up.”

Poke, poke-.

I poked Yang Juhui’s thigh with my finger.

Her legs were firm and muscular despite being plump.

Perhaps from taking Taekwondo as a child.

“Ugh, my head.”

My touch seemed to have an effect as Yang Juhui sat up, clutching her head.

Soon she looked around and frowned.

“What? What happened? Where’s Mom?”

“Your mother went to church. Do you remember what happened just now? What’s the last thing you remember?”

“……”

Yang Juhui frowned like someone suffering from a hangover.

After thinking hard for a while, she stammered.

“I don’t know. I remember Mom screaming… I think I had a really scary dream. Someone was shouting… and suddenly dinosaurs appeared… a scary but funny dream…”

I see.

She doesn’t remember anything after the deaconess screamed before the frame broke.

“Pastor! Over here! Over here!”

“Deaconess. Oh, Deaconess. Just a moment… whew, I’m out of breath-.”

Just then, the deaconess and an unfamiliar man entered through the front door.

The man was holding a Bible, wearing glasses, and looked like a bookish type.

He must be the person the deaconess brought from church.

“My daughter Juhui has a shaman ghost possessing her! My daughter Juhui! Pastor!”

“…She doesn’t look possessed to me?”

Unlike the panicking deaconess, the pastor from Yeong-gwang Church calmly examined Yang Juhui. Of course, the deaconess was insistent.

“She was possessed by a ghost! Trying to take my daughter! An ancestral ghost possessed her! It’s those shaman women! Not satisfied with taking Dohui, they’re trying to take Juhui too! Aaaah!”

This is truly maddening.

While I was wondering what I could do, something soft grabbed my hand.

It was Yang Juhui.

“Ha Yeongwon, let’s get out of here! Hurry!”

“Huh?”

The pastor and deaconess were shouting something behind us, but Yang Juhui didn’t seem to care as she grabbed my hand and led me down the apartment stairs.

I wish she’d tell me where we’re going.

Yang Juhui walking ahead of me remained silent.

After walking for a while, Yang Juhui stopped at a playground within the apartment complex. It was a rusty playground with peeling paint, impossible to tell when it was last repainted.

Creak, creak-.

Yang Juhui sat on a swing.

Then she swung her long legs back and forth, rising and falling toward the sky.

“You saw it too. My mom is completely obsessed with church. She goes every day of the week. It wasn’t this bad before. It got much worse after we lost my sister.”

“Sister? What about your sister?”

“My sister… at first we thought she just ran away. Now we don’t know if she’s alive or dead. We used to be better off.”

Man, why do so many people disappear in this city?

Yang Juhui continued.

“Mom spent all our money trying to find my sister, even sold our house. She went to all the big churches in Seoul, begging pastors to help find my sister. Mom thinks a ghost took my sister.”

Yang Juhui spoke as if it was nonsense, but to me, it didn’t sound like a joke.

Well, a few days ago, I would have thought it was a joke too.

But the world is full of mysteries and horrors incomprehensible to the minds of first-year high school students, and I was right in the middle of it.

Too intricate to be mere coincidence?

“I might transfer schools soon. To follow my dad. He got a job in Seoul and wants us to come. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll ever find my sister. She’s probably dead.”

“…Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know if it was a dream or reality. I think I saw my sister’s ghost. She was standing in some dark corridor.”

Dark corridor.

I wanted to hear more about this.

“Can you tell me more about that?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to Seoul now anyway. I’m done with Gaeryong. I’m sick of everything. Sick of my mom, sick of this ant-infested apartment, sick of those church people exploiting my poor mom.”

Seoul, huh.

Seoul isn’t that great either.

Actually, Yang Juhui probably just wants to leave this place, regardless of where she goes.

Yang Juhui and I had some things in common.

That commonality broke down some of my wariness toward her.

“Juhui, if what you saw in the corridor was real, you might be able to meet your sister again.”

“Yeongwon, it’s nice of you to comfort me, but you shouldn’t say things like that carelessly.”

“No. I’m serious.”

I was at a crossroads.

Honestly, the burden I carried was too heavy to bear alone.

It would be good to have a reliable companion.

“Yang Juhui. Take this hand. If you take this hand, you might be able to meet your sister. But in exchange, you’ll experience things more terrifying than you can imagine.”

“What is this, some extension of your April Fool’s confession joke?”

“I’m not joking. So please, take my hand.”

Yang Juhui stared at the hand I offered for a long time.

About 30 seconds passed.

“…So who was that ex-girlfriend who dumped you, Yeongwon?”

…Still on about that?

I looked up at the sky.

Stars shone above the old playground.

I quite liked this city, Gaeryong.

It was appropriately shabby.

It had a charm that seemed to embrace me even if I lived like a mess.

For someone as chaotic as me, Gaeryong was the perfect refuge.

Similarly, I thought the angular and twisted Yang Juhui and I would make good partners.

Like a blind person and a cripple leaning on each other.

Swish-.

A soft touch met my hand. It was a small, delicate touch I’d felt before.

I gripped it tightly, afraid it might slip away.

“Ah, geez-. Yeongwon, you’re such a loser, holding hands like a pervert.”

“How do you know what it’s like when a pervert holds hands? Have you held hands with a pervert before?”

“I have. Right now.”

Whether it was Yang Juhui or me, one of us laughed first and then we both burst into laughter.

After that, we rode the seesaw, the swing, and the old slide in the playground.

It was a night more unbelievable than ghosts or the corridor of the old school building.

“Me playing with Yang Juhui in a playground. The sun must be rising in the west.”

On my way home.

Buzz-.

My phone rang.

「Yang Juhui: So how can we meet my sister?」

I had added Yang Juhui on messenger earlier, and she had already contacted me.

I decided to give a casual answer.

「Let’s meet in your dream tonight lol Don’t be surprised if you see me there I’ll explain everything then」

「Yang Juhui: Eww cringe lol gross」

Tonight is my second entry into the corridor.

Unlike last time when I knew nothing and had no allies, today I’ll at least get some “hints.”

I can do this. With how I am now!