Ch.19019 – Ghost Story 1

# 019 – Ghost Stories #1

“Why didn’t you come yesterday?”

The literary girl was holding Baudelaire’s “The Flowers of Evil” in her hand.

Her pitch-black hair shone like the night sky, and her white skin was as transparent as milk accidentally spilled by a student on duty. When I realized that the faint smile lingering on her lips was directed at me, my mind went blank.

“I’ve been waiting for you lately. You haven’t been around.”

To think that the girl I’d been secretly crushing on since seeing her at the library was saying she’d been waiting for me.

Just as I was looking around again to see if she might be talking to someone else besides me…

Swish-

Her slender white finger reached toward me and brushed off some dust from my shoulder.

“You have some dust on you. See you later then.”

Clunk-

Vrrrm-

The literary girl got back into her black car, which spewed dark exhaust as it disappeared.

I was certain I would never forget this moment until the day I died.

“Hey, Ha Yeongwon. Do you know Yu Dahui?”

Yang Juhui asked me.

Only then did I snap out of my dazed state.

I felt like I had been wandering in a dream until just now and had suddenly awakened.

“Her name is Yu Dahui? Was I supposed to know her?”

Yang Juhui seemed to know the literary girl’s name.

Well, it wouldn’t be strange for someone as pretty as her to be well-known.

Of course, Yang Juhui was pretty too, but comparing them was like comparing different genres.

If Yang Juhui was pretty like a high school social media influencer, the literary girl from earlier was like appreciating beauty while listening to Bach or Mozart.

“You just acted like you knew each other, and now you’re pretending you don’t? That’s funny. Wait, is Yu Dahui possibly that girlfriend you said you dated before? You’re really something. Wow, how—”

Yang Juhui frowned as she was about to say something more.

She said it was funny, but she wasn’t laughing at all.

“I’m going ahead. I don’t want to be late.”

She looked at her phone and started walking very quickly—tick-tick-tick-tick. Though she said she was walking fast, with her long legs it was practically running speed.

“Hey! Let’s go together!”

Yang Juhui disappeared, walking swiftly—whoosh-whoosh.

I tried hard to follow her, but the awkward atmosphere made it difficult to catch up.

Yang Juhui seemed to have misunderstood something.

Did she think I had dated Yu Dahui?

It seemed like Yang Juhui didn’t get along well with the literary girl Yu Dahui, as her mood had visibly soured.

When I arrived at school, Yang Juhui was slumped over at the desk behind mine.

She remained slumped over even after class started and stayed that way until the end of lunch period.

Sleeping all day at school—she was a complete delinquent. Well, she always had been one.

# # #

“Do you know who Yu Dahui is?”

“Jeong Sojin: Yeongwon, you shouldn’t use your phone during class haha”

“……”

I was an idiot for asking her.

I was thinking that when another reply came.

“Jeong Sojin: You mean Yu Dahui from Class A? I don’t know much about her except that she comes to school by car every day haha”

So she doesn’t know.

Well, even if Jeong Sojin is the class president and tends to be nosy, she can’t know everything about students from other classes.

With that thought, the after-school hours arrived.

Yang Juhui grabbed her bag and rushed out as soon as the bell rang.

I had planned to briefly discuss the “Nightmare Corridor” with her today.

Instead, another girl approached me.

“Yeongwon, what are you doing after school today?”

It was class president Jeong Sojin.

As Jeong Sojin, the popular girl of Class D, approached and spoke to me, I could feel the curious gazes of other students who were packing their bags.

This is another strange situation.

That’s what I thought too.

Why is Jeong Sojin coming to me now?

Is it because of the text I sent earlier? I regretted my actions.

“If you’re not busy, would you come to the bookstore with me? I need to find a book for a book report for the essay competition, but I don’t know much about novels and such…”

Does Jeong Sojin see me as someone knowledgeable about novels?

I did read various books during breaks and lunch periods at the beginning of the semester.

Swish-

Just then.

“Hey, Jeong Sojin. Why aren’t you cracking down on students smoking these days? A class president should keep students in line. Come to the old school building during lunch tomorrow.”

Kim Geonho approached my desk and spoke casually.

I had thought school life had been peaceful these past few days, but I had a feeling I was about to get involved in something troublesome. And my prediction was right!

“What are you saying? Kim Geonho, who are you to tell me what to do?”

Jeong Sojin shot back with narrowed eyes.

Kim Geonho trembled.

“Wow. Scary. So scary. Ha Yeongwon, you heard that too, right?”

Tap-

Kim Geonho’s hand landed on my shoulder.

Though he was joking around, it seemed like he was genuinely afraid of Jeong Sojin. The proof was that the hand on my shoulder was trembling.

I understood. I was terrified of Jeong Sojin too!

I knew better than anyone what she was capable of when pushed to the extreme.

“Ah, this is so boring.”

Kim Geonho left abruptly.

Watching him go, Jeong Sojin frowned and shot out:

“Total delinquent.”

“What? Did you just say something, Jeong Sojin?”

“I think I did. What did you just say? What? F-uck?”

The atmosphere took a strange turn.

Even students who had been packing their bags to go home stopped and watched the scene in dead silence.

“……”

Being caught between these two was truly miserable.

Why did they have to do this at my desk of all places!

I could understand Kim Geonho, but why was Jeong Sojin suddenly acting this way?

I suddenly remembered Jeong Sojin’s new quirk that had appeared this morning.

“《Gambler》: Failure means treason. Success means revolution. In the world of gamblers, there is no retreat. For them, there is only moving forward. Even if they don’t know where that path leads.”

Does the quirk 《Gambler》 make people relentless?

Jeong Sojin and Kim Geonho glared at each other like they were ready to devour one another.

Kim Geonho was the first to back down.

“Damn… Class D sucks these days.”

Whoosh-

With that, Kim Geonho disappeared from the classroom.

The heavy atmosphere in the classroom lightened a bit, as if a lead weight had been lifted.

“Yeongwon. If Kim Geonho bullies or hits you, tell me.”

“……”

…No, class president.

Right now, I’m more afraid of you than Kim Geonho.

I was literally trembling with fear.

Is this some kind of horror premonition?

“Hey, class president. The homeroom teacher is calling for you.”

Swish-

Just then, someone stood up and called for Jeong Sojin.

It was our vice class president, Jeongseok.

“The homeroom teacher?”

Jeong Sojin opened her narrow eyes.

She looked back and forth between me and Jeongseok, then said, “Yeongwon, I’ll see you later,” before disappearing down the hallway with quick steps.

It had been a truly stormy day.

Now I should head home too.

But I didn’t feel like going home at all.

“Auntie Ghost.”

“Mother Ghost.”

Ghosts have already appeared at my house twice!

Even if I go home now, my mom will be working late, so I’ll be alone—if another ghost shows up, I… I might really die!

What should I do…? In ambiguous situations like this, it’s probably best to use the advice function.

“Advice.”

『Advice from 《The Broken Clock》: “The library is a temple where all the relics of the ancient sages full of virtue, and all things without delusion and deception, are preserved and rest.”』

What does that mean?

I think it’s telling me to go to the library.

That’s a good idea.

# # #

I’d felt this before, but Yeongji High’s library was quite impressive.

It had many old books and was constantly updated with new ones, making it a paradise for me.

“I suddenly need to pee.”

They say sometimes smelling ink makes you need to urinate.

That was exactly my case.

Swish-

I put my bag in a suitable corner and picked up a broom. As Class D’s library committee member, I had a duty to clean the library.

It was a position Teacher Kang Haneul had recommended, saying it would be advantageous for my school records and college applications.

“……”

As I swept the floor, I looked around.

I wondered if the literary girl… the girl named Yu Dahui might be here, but she wasn’t.

“So you came today?”

“Mom!”

I jumped higher than a cat startled by a cucumber.

My voice echoed through the quiet library.

When I calmed down and turned my head, the girl I had seen this morning was standing close to me.

“Why are you so surprised? I did all the cleaning here yesterday.”

“Cleaning?”

“Yes. I’m Class A’s library committee member too. Didn’t Teacher Kang Haneul tell you? You haven’t been coming for the past few days, so I cleaned everything by myself. I was waiting for you.”

Yu Dahui spoke in a gentle voice.

She seemed to have a composure that people like Yang Juhui and me, who lived in poor and shabby places, could never possess.

A feeling like there was no reason to rush through life.

Thanks to that, I could find a bit of composure too.

“Ah. So you’re a library committee member.”

I didn’t know Yu Dahui was on the library committee.

Wasn’t I the only one in charge of this library as Class D’s committee member?

Come to think of it, the library is too big for one person to manage.

So two classes, 1st year Class A and Class D, each selected a committee member to manage it.

When Yu Dahui said she had been waiting for me this morning…

She meant the library committee work!

“You’re Ha Yeongwon, right? I’m Yu Dahui. I’ve heard about you from Teacher Kang Haneul occasionally. This is the first time we’re actually talking. You were always reading books, so I never had a chance to approach you.”

“Ah.”

“Yeongwon, you read a lot of Haruki Murakami, don’t you? You read ‘Norwegian Wood.’ Also ‘The Decameron,’ ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover,’ and ‘Lolita.’ The common thread in these books is…”

I was surprised that the literary girl I had been secretly crushing on remembered all the books I had read.

And then I became afraid.

The common thread in the books I read…

It was that they all contained explicit sexual descriptions!

While I was flustered, Yu Dahui chuckled.

“The common thread is that they’re all foreign novels. I like foreign novels too. I’ve read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ about 10 times already. These days, I’ve also become interested in feng shui—”

Was it because her voice was so gentle?

Or was I tired from everything that had happened? I yawned without realizing it.

“Do you not like this kind of talk?”

Yu Dahui, who had been chattering away, tilted her head.

I was honestly touched.

“No, I like feng shui too. Like baesujin and such.”

“Baesujin is a military tactic, while feng shui is about having mountains behind and water in front.”

Yu Dahui chuckled.

She understood my joke and laughed—Yu Dahui was truly a high-level girl!

Honestly, I never thought I could have such an intellectual, high-level conversation at Yeongji High School. While I was trembling with emotion, Yu Dahui looked at my hand.

In my hand were books about folk tales and ghost stories.

I had been looking for information about Yeongji High School.

“Do you like scary stories?”

“I guess… you could say that?”

“Really? Then Yeongwon, come closer and let me whisper in your ear.”

Swish-

Without giving me a chance to consent, Yu Dahui brought her lips close to my ear.

She had no sense of personal space.

An attitude that assumed others wouldn’t mind her approach.

An attitude suggesting she had never been rejected by others in her life.

“Come to think of it, they say this school was actually built on a large cemetery site that was bulldozed. I wonder if that’s true?”

A pleasant shiver ran down my spine as her soft breath tickled my sensitive ear.

“Cemetery? But why are you whispering…?”

“They say if you talk about ghosts in places where ghosts gather, like cemeteries, real ghosts will come. They think you’re talking about them. Just in case, I’m speaking quietly.”

“…Ah…”

“This school… Even after construction was completed, people and students went missing. Some students were found with only their heads missing. They say those heads are still wandering around looking for their bodies…”

The words whispered in my ear were eerie.

A ghost with only a head wandering around.

This story feels familiar somehow.

“Lots of shamans came to the school too. But most of them ran away while performing rituals in the school building.”

Her breath and breathing were stimulating.

I wished this moment could last forever.

“One shaman plucked out both her eyes and then hanged herself in the bathroom, and after that, people began to hear the sound of a shaman’s bell in the corridor. Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling—”

Yu Dahui seemed to really enjoy telling scary stories, even imitating the sound of bells with her mouth.

But she was surprisingly good at it, making it feel like the bell sounds were actually coming from nearby.

Ding-a-ling-ding-a-ling-ding-a-ling-ding-a-ling—

…Wait, is this sound actually real?

While I was startled, Yu Dahui continued speaking.

“But they say the scariest isn’t the shaman ghost or the ghost with only a head. The truly scary ghost is…”

Yu Dahui’s voice grew quieter.

Was the story over? I took a step back.

“……”

“……”

Now I noticed that Yu Dahui had a blank expression.

It was an empty expression as if all emotions and desires had completely disappeared.

It was as if someone had pressed a pause button.

I never knew a beautiful girl’s expressionless face could be so chilling.

“Um…”

I felt goosebumps all over my body as I looked at Yu Dahui, who no longer seemed like a person of this world. I was starting to wonder if she might be a ghost herself.

“If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come. If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come. If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come. If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come. If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come. If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will come.”

“Mom! Ah, shit, it’s starting again! More crazy stuff! Again! Again! Agaaaain!!!”