episode_0012

A jar the size of a human head rolled down the closet.

The children nearby ran away from the closet in a hurry.

━━Click!

The jar that fell on the floor broke with a loud noise. Porcelain shards flew everywhere and the rice inside spilled out. I couldn’t believe it even when I saw it with my own eyes. A jar on a dresser that no one had touched fell to the floor without permission.

“Be careful! If you step on it, it will hurt.”

The jar was quite large and had been broken, leaving sharp fragments scattered all over the floor. I quickly looked around at the children in the room. Fortunately, no children were injured by the fragments of the jar, but it was obvious that they would get hurt if they stepped on the fragments.

The girls who were playing in the living room heard the loud noise and came into the master bedroom. There was also Ayoung who invited the children to her house. Ayoung looked at the broken jar on the floor and raised her eyes towards the boys who were playing in the master room.

“What! That’s the jar that was on the dresser! Who dropped it?”

“No! No one touched it!”

“How dare you not touch it! How does a standing jar fall?”

“It’s real! The jar shook and then fell!”

It was true that no one had touched the jar. All the boys playing in the master room saw the jar fall. The boys spoke together to Ayoung.

“We are not lying. We all watched the jar roll and fall by itself.”

“All together?”

“Can we touch what’s on the dresser in the first place? I can’t even reach the height.”

“Someone could have hit the closet hard!”

“No one bumped into anyone, class leader.”

Even if you think about it calmly, it made no sense. In the first place, the jar was on a large dresser and was something that children could not touch. The principle was to place the new complex on a high place so that it could not be touched.

“What on earth happened? I’ll call my mom first.”

Eventually, Ayoung stopped questioning the boys and called her mother, who was working in the kitchen.

“Mom!”

“What’s going on?”

“No, there’s a pretty jar in the master bedroom. They say it suddenly rolled and fell without anyone touching it.”

“What… ?”

Ayoung’s mother arrived in the master bedroom. Ayoung’s mother looked shocked when she found the jar shattered on the floor.

“Um, that… !”

“Ajumma. No one touched our jar. I just looked at it and it suddenly fell down.”

“… … It’s broken.”

“Of course it broke because it fell.”

Ayeong’s mother’s face, who was looking surprised, distorted. Ayoung’s mother looked at the broken jar and opened her mouth in a cold, subdued voice.

“Everyone, get out quickly.”

“Yes?”

“Get out of my house. Ayoung’s birthday party is now over. You all go home.”

It was a tone of command rather than a request.

He had greeted us kindly when we entered the house, but suddenly he saw us and told us to leave the house. The children were embarrassed by the drastic change in attitude.

“We all decided to get together and play later?”

“Didn’t you hear me? Get out of my house!”

I just need to clean up the broken jar.

Ayoung’s mother kicked the children out of the house. In the end, those of us who came to the birthday party had no choice but to leave the house without even saying goodbye properly. Until just before we left, Ayoung’s mother was blocking the door to the master bedroom. It was as if he didn’t want to show others what was inside.

But I saw it.

I ended up seeing something black inside the broken jar. As I looked closely at the broken jar, I couldn’t help but notice that there was something strange inside.

Rice flowing out.

The black thing mixed in with the rice grains.

Now that I think about it, I think it was human hair.

‘hair?’

It’s strange. I have never heard anywhere that there is a house in Shinju Complex that stores hair. There was also quite a lot of hair.

‘Why was there hair in the Shinju complex?’

I went home with doubts.

*

It happened around that evening.

A text message came from Ayoung.

“Jinwoo! I’m sorry that the birthday party ended suddenly today. Mom is also very sorry for yelling at you guys. Let’s play together again next time.”

It was a text message apologizing for kicking out my class during the day. It seemed like Ayoung was texting not only me but also other children who came to the birthday party. I sat on the sofa in the living room and sent a text message directly to Ayoung.

“It’s okay, Ayoung. But what happened to Shinju Complex?”

“Mom cleaned up all the broken sinju jars.”

Ayeong’s reply came back.

I continued to send texts to Ayoung. I wanted to know the identity of the hair contained in the wine jar.

“Ayoung, I have something to ask you.”

“What?”

“I saw the Shinju jar broken earlier and what was inside. There was hair in there? “Why is there hair in it?”

There was no reply immediately.

It wasn’t like Ayoung, who usually responded quickly to texts or KakaoTalk messages.

A whopping 15 minutes passed before Ayoung finally responded.

“I don’t know either.”

You don’t know?

“really?”

“huh.”

It was understandable that Ayoung didn’t know much about the family’s new liquor complex. That’s something that only adults would be interested in. However, if you don’t know, you can reply right away that you don’t know. Why did I wait 15 minutes before sending a reply?

“Hmm.”

That was the end of texting with Ayoung.

I spent my time at home as usual. You can use your computer to read blogs that post mysterious cases or watch YouTube channels that deal with mysteries.

“Son! Mom is here.”

“Welcome back.”

Besides me, there was also my mother at home who came back from work. However, even though I used the computer for a long time, there was no need to worry about my mother. My mother had a free-spirited style of raising me.

“What are you doing in your room?”

“Computer.”

“Have you had dinner?”

“I ate a lot at my friend’s house earlier. Today was our class president’s birthday.”

“Oh my, that’s right. My son will never starve. Even when mom isn’t looking, she eats well.”

It was when I was spending time in my room.

━━Jijijik!

The fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling flickered. The light blinked and turned on and off repeatedly, as if it was malfunctioning.

“Mom! I think the fluorescent light in my room is broken?”

“So? Wait a moment. Mom will change the fluorescent light.”

It kept getting dark and bright, so I couldn’t stay in the room because it was uncomfortable. I went out into the living room. But when I went outside, the same thing started happening in the living room.

━━Jijijik!

The fluorescent lights in the living room also flickered. My mother, who was bringing a new fluorescent light, looked around the living room and looked puzzled.

“Huh? Are the fluorescent lights in the living room broken?”

“Mom. I don’t think this is a problem with the fluorescent lights.”

“Why?”

“The TV is also blinking.”

When I looked around, I realized that the fluorescent lights weren’t the only ones blinking. The TV that was on in the living room would go to a crackling gray screen and then return to its normal screen. My mom and I stood in the living room for a while, confused.

“Is the electricity not working well at home? My mom will contact the manager in a moment.”

Mom took out her cell phone and called the apartment manager.

At that time, I was looking around the living room and happened to notice the window.

A person with long flowing hair passed by near the window.

‘what?’

Again, I saw a person’s head pass by.

My house is on the 5th floor.

“Heo Eok.”

As soon as I gasped in surprise, I quickly ran to the window. I opened the window and looked outside, but all I could see was the dark night sky. The head of the person I saw earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“Son! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

After finishing the call, my mom came up to me. But I couldn’t properly tell my mom that I saw a human head. Because I might have seen something wrong.

“It’s nothing. Mom, did you have a good conversation with the manager?”

“Yes. It’s not just us that’s having trouble now, other houses are also having trouble getting electricity. The manager said he was looking into what was going on.”

“I hope it is fixed quickly.”

Approximately 20 minutes.

It was a time when my mother and I were waiting in the house with the lights flickering. My eyes hurt, so I tried to turn off the light, but even when I pressed the switch, it still flickered.

━━Tap!

The lights went out completely.

The house was dark and all the appliances were turned off.

“Is there a power outage now? There are so many different things.”

There was a power outage.

Unfortunately, there was a power outage at night, so I couldn’t see the house properly. My mom and I turned on the flashlight at home so we could see at least a little bit. There was a lot of commotion around the apartment as the same power outage occurred in other houses. The voices of residents were heard from all over.

It was right then.

An announcement rang out from the broadcasting speakers installed in the house.

━━Jijijik!

[An announcement will be made from the management office. There was a power outage in apartment building 101. Accidents may occur, so residents should wait and do not leave their homes. I will forward it again. Residents, please do not go out of your house and wait inside.]

The electricity was cut off, but the broadcast continued normally.

Of course, there was nothing strange because our apartment had a device that supplied emergency power.

What really bothered me was the strange warning message heard in the announcement.

“Mom. They tell us not to go out of the house?”

“What on earth does that mean? Don’t go outside?”

This was the first time I heard an announcement telling people not to leave the house when there was a power outage.

It might be a warning to unplug the outlet.

“I’m going to go check out the management room for a moment.”

“Let’s go with mom.”

Me and my mom went out of the house.

I carefully opened the tightly closed door and went out into the hallway. When I went out into the hallway, took the stairs and went out of the building, I could clearly see the apartment management office in the parking lot.

It was a dimly lit management office.

There was no one inside.

[An announcement will be made from the management office. Residents, please do not go out of your house and wait… .]

The broadcast rang again.

In a place where there are no people.