Ch.4004 – The Boy’s Abyss 4

# 004 – The Boy’s Abyss # 4

“Yeongwon, I’m so glad you came. Really…”

With a rush, class president Jeong Sojin threw her arms around my neck again and cried.

She felt soft and smelled nice.

“Hey, don’t cry.”

I patted Sojin’s back, feeling a bit awkward when my hand brushed against her bra strap.

Fortunately, Sojin didn’t seem to mind as she wiped her tears with her fingers.

“Yeongwon, I didn’t realize before how dependable you are. It was like that the first time we talked too, right? You carried all my heavy bags for me…”

“Hmm…”

“I really admire people I can look up to. If it weren’t for you, I might have gone crazy by now.”

“Sojin, there’s something I want to ask. Are Yang Juhui and Kim Geonho here too?”

“…”

Even in the darkness, I could see Sojin’s expression darken.

“Why are you asking about that?”

“Well, that Zippo lighter you’re holding belongs to Yang Juhui. The fact that you have it made me wonder if she might be in this strange corridor too.”

The silver Zippo lighter Sojin was holding was the one I had given to Yang Juhui.

And I was the one who had inserted Yang Juhui, Kim Geonho, and Jeong Sojin as players into the “Nightmare Corridor.”

I wondered if all the players might be in this corridor. I wanted to prove my theory, and Sojin trembled and made a tearful face.

“You’re right. Juhui and Kim Geonho were here with me. But they were attacked by that strange thing…”

“By strange thing, do you mean the Bell Maiden? That woman in shaman clothes who jingles bells?”

“No, not her…! There are more besides that bell woman. I’ve seen three different types so far. So Yeongwon, let’s get out of here quickly. Quickly…! Please…!”

Was she counting the Bell Maiden as one of the three?

Or were there three others besides the Bell Maiden?

This was important information either way.

“Can you tell me more about these three types of ghosts? I’m not sure if they’re ghosts or monsters—”

“You fucking idiot!!! I don’t care about any of that, let’s just get out of here!!!”

I was genuinely startled.

Sojin seemed just as surprised by her own outburst, as she trembled nervously.

“No, I’m sorry…. I’m not in my right mind… I really don’t understand why this is happening… I don’t know where we are… I was supposed to go to academy too…”

She was in a hysterical state, to say the least.

I decided to calm down the unpredictable Sojin first.

“Of course we need to get out of here. But if there are different types of ghosts or whatever, shouldn’t we learn about them first? We need to know how to deal with them if we encounter them.”

For instance, I had a theory that the Bell Maiden couldn’t see—or so I suspected. Whenever she approached, you could hear the shaman’s bells in her hand, making it easy to detect her presence.

But the others I hadn’t seen were complete unknowns, and I didn’t want to run into them unprepared and die stupidly.

Seemingly persuaded by my reasoning, Sojin took deep breaths—whoosh, whoosh.

“Yeongwon, you’re right. This is my first time experiencing something like this too… honestly, I’m confused and that’s why I lashed out without thinking. But it’s okay. No matter how much noise we make in this classroom, the ghosts don’t come in.”

“Really? For sure?”

“Probably because of the talismans? That’s why I’ve been able to hide here. I wanted to take one with me, but they turn to dust when you try to remove them.”

The classroom “1-4” is a place ghosts cannot enter—

I was making a mental note of this fact when Sojin took off her torn school stockings, revealing her white legs.

“It’ll be easier to move without these, right?”

It was my first time seeing a female classmate my age take off her stockings, and I found myself staring intently.

Watching a classmate remove her stockings was somehow more provocative and stimulating than even the most explicit porn where people get completely naked.

Of course, Sojin didn’t seem to mind as she spoke.

“Before we leave, let me explain what I know about what’s going on.”

# # #

“During lunch break, the kids told me. Kim Geonho and the others were smoking cigarettes near the old school building. You know, I’m the class president? If our classmates cause trouble, it’s my responsibility too…”

Sojin said she went to the old school building to guide those delinquent kids.

There, she encountered Kim Geonho and Yang Juhui, and Kim Geonho had managed to pick the lock of the old school building and went inside.

“I thought I should stop them somehow… but the old school building is kind of scary, you know. So I asked Juhui to go in with me… but no matter how far we walked, the corridor never ended. And the entrance we came through had disappeared…!”

Class president Sojin said she entered the unlocked old school building with Kim Geonho and Yang Juhui during lunch break, only to get trapped in this bizarre corridor.

Lunchtime—that matched exactly with when I had unlocked the “Shop” in my status window and released the lock on the old school building.

No wonder none of them answered their phones.

“President, what about your phone?”

“My phone doesn’t work, and it kept playing scary sounds, so I threw it away. The three of us wandered around until we found an exit. But Kim Geonho selfishly ran ahead, trying to save only himself…”

I thought about Kim Geonho.

No need for a long explanation—he was a complete asshole.

“While following Kim Geonho, we encountered the Head Ghost. The Head Ghost has no arms or legs, just a face covered in hair, and it looks terrifying. Really…”

Head Ghost, huh.

Shit, it sounds horrifying just imagining it.

“But this Head Ghost stays still. Maybe because it has no body, I don’t know. It just hangs its hair like spider webs and stays still. It seems docile as long as you don’t step on its hair.”

“It uses its hair as a trap… Like a spider. Spiders are generally quiet until prey gets caught in their web.”

“A spider… But unfortunately, it was right in front of the exit… Suddenly Kim Geonho pushed Yang Juhui down, and I was so focused on running away…”

Sojin held out Yang Juhui’s Zippo lighter to me.

I wasn’t sure whether to admire her for having the presence of mind to grab the lighter in such a chaotic situation.

“Juhui gave it to me. She told me to survive at least…”

Yang Juhui gave it to Sojin?

That seemed impossible.

As far as I knew, Yang Juhui absolutely despised Sojin.

Perhaps they awakened some friendship while facing this crisis together.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, I pretended to be nonchalant and asked:

“So what happened to Yang Juhui? I guess… she died? Since she was caught by the ghost.”

I felt my back and armpits soaked with cold sweat. I was desperately curious about what happened to Yang Juhui after being caught by this “Head Ghost.”

“I don’t know…. Anyway, as I was running away, I saw the faculty office. If we get the keys from the key box in the faculty office, we can open the multipurpose room! You know there’s an emergency exit for fire escape in Yeongji High’s multipurpose room, right?”

An emergency exit for escape.

Was there such a thing?

“Remember when we had that fire drill? A firefighter came and taught us that after a big fire in an old school, they installed emergency exits in certain areas of the building. Don’t you remember?”

“Ah. I think I do remember something like that.”

It did seem like something like that had happened.

So we definitely needed to go to the faculty office to find the keys.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the faculty office was nearby, she said.

I felt somewhat reluctant to leave this “1-4” classroom full of talismans, but we couldn’t just keep hiding in here forever.

According to my status window, the “Nightmare Corridor” was a place where you needed to “escape” rather than just “survive.”

But leaving the classroom right now wasn’t the right choice.

“President, let’s wait for now.”

“Wait? For what?”

“For the Bell Maiden, of course.”

“Why…!?”

Sojin frowned.

She seemed not to understand, so I decided to give the class president a brief explanation.

“From what I’ve observed, the Bell Maiden seems to patrol this corridor at regular intervals. So if we leave after she passes by, we’re less likely to run into her. If we leave now, we might immediately encounter the Bell Maiden coming back this way.”

Jingle—

As if to prove my theory, the sound of bells could be heard from far away.

Jingle, jingle, jingle—

Even though I’d been told ghosts couldn’t enter this “1-4” classroom, I still held my breath and felt my knees weaken.

Only after the eerie presence in the corridor disappeared could I finally regulate my breathing again.

“See? She went to the left, so she won’t come back this way for a while. If we want to go to the faculty office, we should go now. You said the faculty office is to the right, right?”

“Yeongwon, you…”

Sojin’s eyes glistened with moisture, either impressed by or opposed to my judgment.

“How did you know this? How?”

“I just have some experience with these hide-and-seek type games.”

“Games… I guess you could think of it that way. Yeongwon, it’s reassuring to have someone like you who plays a lot of games. If I had known this would happen, I would have played games instead of studying.”

I wasn’t sure if my reputation had gone up or down.

“I really mean it when I say it’s reassuring. When I was alone, I felt like I was going crazy. But you’re surprisingly calm, Yeongwon? I should say it’s manly… it’s kind of cool.”

“…Honestly, I’m scared too, suddenly experiencing something like this. I just woke up from sleep and found myself in a place like this. So don’t expect too much.”

We didn’t have time for idle chat, so I slowly opened the classroom door and stepped outside.

Creak, squeak, squeak.

As we walked down the corridor, relying on the lighter’s flame, Sojin, who had been following behind me, suddenly grabbed my waist tightly.

“I’m so scared, Yeongwon…”

“Me too. I’m scared.”

“But I’m glad you’re here. Yeongwon, can you protect me…? Actually, ever since you helped me at the entrance ceremony, I’ve thought well of you. If we get out of here safely, would you and I…”

Just as her voice, moist as if wet with dew, was stimulating my protective instincts as a man, I spotted something with the words “Faculty Office” written on it.

It was a place I couldn’t find when I was wandering alone, relying only on the dim light of my status window.

Honestly, I didn’t have the luxury to look around carefully either.

But there was a problem.

“Crunchcrunchgrindcrunchyangjihuiyougofirstnoikimgeonhoyoufiguresomethingoutguysdon’tfightjustcalmdownitseemsiketheycanthear—”

There was something pitch black crouching in front of the faculty office.

It was a ghost that had extended its long hair in all directions, creating traps like spider webs.

Only a woman’s face with wide-open eyes floated among that black hair, and meaningless words were being played from its mouth.