Ch.35035 – Courage Test 4

# 035 – Courage Test # 4

A courage test.

Going into haunted houses, abandoned buildings, or closed schools to retrieve items or explore.

Honestly, I don’t understand why people do such things.

Jeongseok seemed to think the same way.

“You want to go into the old school building for a courage test? Seems like all risk and no return to me.”

The problem with Jeongseok was that while he was great in many ways, he was too smart for his own good.

Sometimes you need to have a burning heart and just say, “Sure, let’s do it!” without asking questions or overthinking things.

Fortunately, I was a man who knew how to make deals.

“If you come with me, I might consider punishing that suspect guy. Just to be clear, I said ‘consider,’ not ‘do it.’ Don’t get confused.”

“…”

Jeongseok seemed unable to forgive the criminal who had brutally murdered the high school girl who lived next door and even hid her head, yet was still living freely in society.

If his sense of justice was genuine, my offer would be as sweet as honey.

“You’re saying you want to meet that guy?”

“Well… depending on how you do.”

“Don’t forget that promise. You’ll definitely know when you meet him. He’s a really bad person. You’ll see right away that he shouldn’t be walking around freely in society. Seriously.”

Since Jeongseok accepted my proposal quite readily, I became curious.

“But can you actually meet him if you want to?”

“He’s been in and out of prison for other crimes, but you can meet him now if you want. He’s here in Gaeryong City. Do you know Yeong-gwang Church? He works there as a managing deacon and gets room and board.”

Yeong-gwang Church.

Suddenly I remembered the cross that was stuck on the front of Yang Juhui’s house along with all sorts of stickers.

Wasn’t Yeong-gwang Church the one Yang Juhui’s mother attended?

“Is that Pastor Cheon Aesu’s church?”

“You know it well. They say if that pastor lays his hands on you, diseases can be cured. In the past, I would have thought it was definitely a scam, but after all we’ve been through, I’m starting to think such things might actually be real.”

This Gaeryong Metropolitan City is small.

Various incidents are intertwined like a spider web in places I never even thought of.

Anyway, what matters is that we’re going to explore the old school building today.

“Ha Yeongwon. But why the old school building all of a sudden?”

“If you explore the old school building with me today, Yu Dahui will grant me a wish.”

“What?”

Jeongseok’s face turned slightly red.

The guy was a first-year high school student, a bundle of hormones.

“Don’t tell me you…”

I knew exactly what he was thinking.

Well, I was thinking the same thing after all.

“That’s right. I want to ask Yu Dahui about what happened in the summer of sixth grade. You told me if I wanted to hear the story, I should ask her directly. I thought I could use the wish to hear about it.”

My attraction to Yu Dahui’s wish was based on somewhat rational thinking.

Jeongseok soon responded to my explanation with a small “Oh.”

“Ha Yeongwon. I see you in a new light. I thought you were the type of guy who couldn’t refuse girls’ requests and just blindly agreed to everything. You know, the type who’s weak around women.”

“Hey, come on. Who are you to talk? You were totally whipped by Bong Jiyeon too.”

“I… have my reasons. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Bong Jiyeon. She’s been so quiet lately that it actually makes me nervous.”

A flash of anxiety and concern crossed Jeongseok’s face.

Suddenly, I realized that Jeongseok didn’t entirely dislike Bong Jiyeon, who had bullied him.

“Hey, Jeongseok. Since it’s just us guys, let me ask you something. Do you like Bong Jiyeon?”

Bong Jiyeon was quite a pretty girl.

Not as pretty as Yu Dahui or Yang Juhui, but those two were on a different level to begin with.

Bong Jiyeon was definitely among the top three prettiest girls in class.

She was right at the Maginot Line.

While Yu Dahui and Yang Juhui were so high-level that you’d think, “Could I ever date someone like that? No, it’s impossible for me,” and give up…

Bong Jiyeon was the type where you’d think, “Someone like her… if I play my cards right, I might have a chance…” – yeah, she was a solid 7.

But that’s just talking about looks. Personality-wise, wasn’t she a total psycho and a bully?

“Hey, Bong Jiyeon is a total queen bee with a nasty personality and a complete bully. Why would you like a girl like that? Do you have some fetish for being bullied by female bullies?”

“No, how can you say that? You’re exactly the same, Ha Yeongwon. You even did Pikachu impressions in front of Yang Juhui. Seriously, you of all people shouldn’t be saying that to me.”

Well, he had a point.

Now that I heard it, it did seem that way.

So this is what they call putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

“Still, if Yang Juhui is just a normal bully, Bong Jiyeon is like a hard-mode bully. Bong Jiyeon is even friends with more dangerous senior bullies.”

If Yang Juhui was a lone wolf type of bully, Bong Jiyeon was the pack type.

And naturally, it wasn’t a very good pack.

From what I heard, some of her senior friends had even been to juvenile detention.

“She wasn’t always like that. Until she was doing track and field, she was nice. Before that, we used to do homework together and everything… She suddenly started hanging out with weird kids.”

According to Jeongseok, Bong Jiyeon used to come over to his house when he was studying, annoying him or playing pranks.

…Like childhood friends?

This bastard Jeongseok, I thought he was a socially awkward guy from an all-boys middle school like me, but he actually had a pretty girl as a childhood friend who would visit his house?

Suddenly, anger welled up inside me.

Why do I feel betrayed? My three years in middle school were… absolute hell!

Is this the unbridgeable gap between the privileged and the common folk?

“But everything changed after the third year of middle school. Bong Jiyeon injured her leg and had to quit track and field. From then on, she changed as if she’d entered a rebellious phase.”

So Jeongseok watched his childhood friend change as she started hanging out with bullies?

Seeing a friend who used to be cheerful and mischievous enough to visit his house and play pranks, now smoking with older bullies and being rumored to be dating them… that… that could be its own kind of hell for a young boy.

# # #

After talking with Jeongseok for a while, we finally arrived at the school.

Today was Saturday.

Schools are usually quiet on weekends.

“The security guard isn’t here today.”

I thought about the security guard who had caught and bothered us when we tried to sneak out of school to find my mom who had disappeared in the elevator.

I had some resentment toward the security guard, but Jeongseok said something unexpected.

“The security guard actually helped quite a bit when you were looking for your mother. I think he used to be a police officer. He contacted the police and asked for various favors.”

“Really?”

So he was just someone with a strong work ethic.

I wondered if I should buy him some fruit later.

Even someone with such a strong work ethic doesn’t guard the school on Saturdays.

Jeongseok looked around.

“I heard that in the old days, they used to go to school on Saturdays too. They had to attend school on Saturdays and Sundays and were forced to study until 5 PM. Even during vacations, apparently?”

“Wow, really? That’s terrifying. That’s the real ghost story. So where’s this dog hole Yang Juhui mentioned? She said there’s a dog hole in the wall.”

The school gate was firmly locked.

It would be difficult to climb over it, so it seemed better to sneak into the school through the dog hole.

I thought about contacting Yang Juhui… but after learning why she disliked Yu Dahui, I felt a bit awkward about reaching out now.

I’d contact her after various issues were resolved.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we found a dog hole in the fence of the school tennis court.

Someone had covered it with tape and paper, but we could just remove it.

Rustle-

As I crawled through the narrow dog hole, I said:

“My mom’s doctor told me that even if someone has lost their memory, sometimes familiar stimuli can help them recall what they’ve forgotten.”

My mother, who had disappeared and returned, had forgotten even about me, her son.

She still wavers a bit.

But I’ve been trying to stimulate her brain in various ways, and thanks to that, she’s much better now.

She’ll continue to improve.

Similarly, if my guess that Yu Dahui “lost her memory” is correct… wouldn’t today’s exploration of the old school building help her remember various things?

Then she might also remember when she witnessed Yang Juhui’s sister.

It would definitely help in finding Yang Juhui’s sister.

“But… are we really going in there? It looks really creepy.”

Jeongseok stood in front of the old school building with his mouth hanging open.

The old school building bathed in the reddish evening glow was more eerie and gloomy than I had imagined.

The first-floor windows were broken here and there, with graffiti painted with lockers and mysterious mold growing on every wall.

The building was also much larger than the new school building.

I heard there was a baby boom in the past, with 40-50 students per class and up to 10 classes.

Maybe that’s why the old school building felt like a more massive presence than the school I knew.

“It’s so creepy that rumors about the school being built on a cemetery would be believable.”

As I tried to shake off the goosebumps by recalling the time I fought the feng shui ghost, Jeongseok made a comment.

“I looked it up. Before this school was built, there was a mansion belonging to Cheon Ilsik, who was the major landowner in this area. It was a modern mansion built during the Japanese occupation and was the only modern Western-style mansion in this area. They say it was very grand.”

A Western-style mansion.

It was hard to imagine.

“Cheon Ilsik even received a title during the Japanese occupation. A count or something. A family that went beyond the yangban class to become nobility in Korea. Isn’t that impressive?”

“It is impressive. What are those people doing now?”

“You don’t know? Yu Dahui, who you’re waiting for, is the great-granddaughter of that Cheon Ilsik.”

Is that for real?

Yu Dahui was more extraordinary than I thought.

If she had been born in the old days, would she have been like a noble lady?

“Even now, they say if you want to do politics or business in Gaeryong City, you have to go through the Cheon family. My dad met them when he ran for mayor. They also say Oseong Electronics was nurtured by the Cheon family.”

“They must be rolling in money. But Yu Dahui’s surname is Yu, not Cheon. Is she related through her mother’s side?”

“…You’re right.”

Jeongseok didn’t seem to have given much thought to why Yu Dahui’s surname was Yu.

Rustle-

As we chatted, the evening glow faded, and the world was completely enveloped in darkness.

The old school building, which had somewhat felt like a human structure, now began to look like a massive gray tombstone stuck in the ground. Do we really have to go in there? Should I just say I don’t want to do this?

As I was thinking that, I received a message from Yu Dahui.

“Yu Dahui: I’ve arrived at the school, but the gate is locked!”

“There’s a dog hole lol I’ll tell you where it is”

I guided Yu Dahui to the dog hole in the tennis court fence.

Creak, creak.

“It’s narrower than I thought.”

Watching Yu Dahui struggle to crawl out of the dog hole gave me a strange feeling.

Pat, pat-

As Yu Dahui was dusting off her knees, I asked:

“So where in the old school building do we need to go? Do we just go inside?”

“Hmm… let’s go to the basement first.”

Not the first floor of the old school building, but the basement?

I started to feel a bit creepy.

It was because I thought there would be a lot of cockroaches.

But I couldn’t back out now.

As we slowly entered through the open door of the old school building and walked down the messy first-floor corridor:

“Hey! Who’s there!”

Someone shouted at us from outside the old school building.

Had we been caught?

Jeongseok said:

“There must be a teacher on duty! Ha Yeongwon! What should we do? If we get caught, we’re done for exploring the old school building!”

“What do you mean what should we do? Let’s hide first! Dahui! We need to hide! There should be a staff room nearby, let’s go there!”

“Okay…!?”

Startled, we entered the staff room on the first floor.

It was a damp staff room full of dust.

“Let’s hide! Try to hide somehow!”

Click. Click. Click.

Soon, the sound of a woman’s sharp heels began to echo in the first-floor corridor of the old school building.

I peeked out from under the desk and looked toward the entrance of the staff room.

Soon, along with the light from a cell phone flashlight, a pair of bright red high heels appeared at the entrance of the staff room.

Click. Click.

And as the light shone here and there in front of the desk where I was hiding, I saw something strange from under the desk.

“…”

There was a tattoo or a strange spot on the left ankle wearing the high heels.