episode_0013

━━Jijijik!

[Please wait, please wait, please wait.]

Announcements rang constantly from the apartment building. However, the management office where the broadcasting equipment was located was dead quiet. The moment I saw the inside of the management office through the window, a cold sweat broke out on my back.

“I’ll go first!”

“Jinwoo!”

I quickly ran towards the management office. I crossed the large parking lot and arrived at the door of the management office, but I still couldn’t hear any sound inside. I opened the door to the management office feeling very nervous. The handle turned smoothly and the door opened.

━━Quick!

Inside the dark management room.

It was a room equipped with CCTV screens and broadcasting equipment. The broadcast microphone had a green light on, as if the emergency power had been turned on. The moment I entered the room, the faint sound of an announcement coming from the apartment suddenly stopped.

“Who are you!”

Someone was broadcasting here just a moment ago. I looked around to find him. I was looking inside the management office when I suddenly looked up at the ceiling.

There was something black hanging from the ceiling.

It was the head of a man with long, scattered hair. There was no body below the head. It looked like a decapitated body, with only its head left hanging from the ceiling.

The man’s eyes met mine. The eyes were bloodshot and red. The man opened his mouth and let out a breathless laugh.

━━Ihihihihihihi! Hehehehehehe!!

My heart was pounding. There was a moment when I was looking at the man hanging from the ceiling and blinked for a moment. The moment I closed my eyes, the man’s head disappeared. There was only fluorescent light visible on the ceiling.

‘… … ‘It’s gone?’

The man’s head was gone, but now I was sure. What was broadcasting from inside the management office just moments ago was not a person but a ghost. The ghost tried to keep us from leaving the house.

“Jinwoo! Who was inside?”

My mother, who arrived at the management office late, spoke to me.

I asked my mom again.

“Did you hear something just now? Something like laughter.”

“No? It was quiet.”

Mom didn’t hear the man’s laughter. I recalled the events that had occurred in the management office just moments ago. I found a man’s head hanging from the ceiling in a dark room.

“Anyway, who was broadcasting here? No matter how much I listened to it, it didn’t sound like the manager’s voice.”

Should I tell my mom the truth?

I said I saw a ghost inside the management office.

“Mom… .”

But the moment I was about to tell my mom about ghosts, I remembered something my dad once told me.

━━Jinwoo. If possible, don’t tell your mom about ghosts.

My father was an exorcist, but he didn’t often tell my mother about ghosts.

He often told me ghost stories, but when I was with my mom, we had normal conversations.

━━Why?

━━Your mother is weak compared to others. If you tell ghost stories often, you will see ghosts and your ears will open. When the ear gates open, people with weak spirits are especially at risk. Your mom might get hurt.

I heard that my mother is a weak person. I also tend not to bring up the topic of mysteries when talking to my mom at home. For my mother’s sake, it was better not to tell her about what I had just seen.

“There was no one.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s true. Could it be that someone ran away while broadcasting as a prank? They took advantage of the power outage and played a prank to scare people.”

I gave my mom a proper look.

At that time, the manager came into the management office from outside, very angry.

“What kind of guy is this! Who is playing pranks on broadcasting?”

The manager looked at me and my mom and made a puzzled expression.

“No, isn’t it Ms. Han Mi-jeong? I thought there was a prankster inside… . What are you doing here with your son?”

“Someone was making a strange broadcast, so I went to the management office. Where has the manager been all this time?”

“I went to check the electrical room of the apartment! Did you listen to the broadcast earlier? A strange broadcast telling people not to leave the house because there is a power outage. I came back to catch that broadcaster.”

The manager asked my mother a question.

“Did you see anyone in the management room?”

“No. No one saw it. I think the person who was playing around with us before we arrived ran away.”

“Haaa… Just try to catch what kind of guy he is.”

“We’ll go back now.”

“Yes, it is dark, so please return carefully.”

My mom and I parted ways with the manager and went back to the apartment building. The elevator was also out of power, so we had to go up via the stairs. Residents on each floor could be seen coming out into the apartment hallways and chatting.

“Did you listen to the broadcast earlier?”

“The broadcast you told me not to go to? We heard it too.”

The apartment residents were talking about a strange broadcast.

It seemed that other people also felt that the broadcast was strange and came out of the house late.

I was going up the stairs and was passing the third floor.

It was on the floor where Ayoung’s house was located. I saw the door to Ayoung’s house closed tightly near the stairs. Even though the entire apartment was noisy, no one in Ayoung’s family came out of the house.

Is everything okay with Ayoung?

I was a little worried and wanted to meet Ayoung.

“Mom, I’m going to check on Ayoung for a moment.”

I walked up to Ayoung’s house and rang the doorbell.

After ringing the doorbell about three times, the door opened and Ayoung’s parents appeared.

“… … What’s going on?”

“I came because I was worried. There’s a power outage, so I was wondering if anything was going on at home.”

Both of Ayoung’s parents were at home.

Ayoung’s father, whom she had not seen during the day, was also standing at the front door.

“Is Ayoung okay?”

“It’s okay! Nothing happened at my house.”

I saw Ayoung in the living room between her parents. At first glance, Ayoung didn’t seem to be okay at all. Because Ayoung was curled up in the living room, shivering.

“But why does Ayoung look scared?”

“Well… ? I think he saw a bug in his room.”

Ayoung is scared because she saw a bug?

It was a lie.

“Lie.”

“What?”

“Ayoung is not afraid of bugs. I saw it all at school.”

“… … !”

The lie was caught. Ayoung’s parents were speechless for a moment, probably because they didn’t know they would be caught. I opened my mouth to Ayoung’s embarrassed parents.

“What happened at home? When I heard a strange broadcast earlier.”

“Nothing happened.”

“Then can I go inside? Please talk to Ayoung.”

“No.”

Ayoung’s parents repeated the same thing like a parrot.

Even if I questioned him, I couldn’t get any information.

In the end, Ayoung’s parents left me in the hallway and closed the door.

Even if I rang the doorbell again, the door did not open.

I had no choice but to return home.

After some time, the power was restored and the lights came back on in the house.

*

I went to school early the next morning.

The moment I entered the classroom, I saw a familiar face.

Sarah was sitting in the back of the classroom, reading a thick book.

“Hello.”

As I approached, Sarah opened her mouth with a sober expression.

“Did you have a good time at Ayoung’s house yesterday? Without me?”

“I couldn’t play.”

“Why? What happened? Isn’t that what you wanted to see?”

Did you miss me?

That’s why I wanted to see Sarah.

But I was embarrassed when I tried to be honest.

“I missed you. Are you done?”

“Hmm.”

Only then did Sarah’s gloomy expression clear up.

I sat down next to him and talked to Sarah.

Sarah closed the book and looked at me.

“Because there was an accident at Ayoung’s house yesterday.”

“What accident?”

“The liquor jar in her house broke without anyone touching it. And then strange things started happening in our apartment.”

I told Sarah about what happened yesterday.

In our class, Sarah was the only girl who could talk about mysteries freely.

The wine jar was broken and I saw the hair inside.

A head was seen floating in an apartment where a power outage occurred.

Ayoung was scared.

“… … I think the new complex was the problem. After it broke, strange things started happening in our apartment. But is it possible to put hair in a sinju jar?”

“No.”

“What happens when the Shinju Complex breaks down?”

“If you have taken good care of the Shinju Complex, it is normal for nothing to happen. If what’s inside is an ancestral spirit. An ancestral spirit does not try to harm or scare descendants just because they made a mistake.”

That was correct.

As an ancestor, there was no way he would harm his descendants for making a mistake.

“You said what was inside was hair, right?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, it may not be the ancestral spirits that were inside the Shinju complex. Usually, when worshiping ancestral spirits, relics such as hair are not served. I feel like I got angry because I put a completely different soul in the jar.”

Sarah’s guess was this. It turns out that what Ayoung’s family was keeping in the spirit jar was not an ancestral spirit, but a different spirit. It was the floating head I saw in the apartment management office.

“It may not be an ancestral god?”

Sarah explained in more detail.

“Sinju jar is a jar that holds the soul. In other words, it can be used to seal the soul. Do you know what happens if you put a part of the body of a dead person in a memorial jar and perform a magical ritual?”

“What happens?”

“The soul of the dead person is trapped in the jar. You will be trapped inside the complex and continue to blame the people who locked you up.”

Does this mean that the Shinju complex can also be used to trap souls?

In that case, it was understandable that the entire apartment was in chaos overnight.

Because the soul that had been sealed in the sinju complex was liberated.

Since he was released after being locked up for a long time, he must have wanted to run wild.

He would want to take revenge on those who imprisoned him.

I urgently asked Sarah.

“Hey! Then isn’t Ayoung in danger now?”

“It’s dangerous. If you leave it alone, Ayoung and her entire family will be killed by the ghost.”

That was when we finished talking.

━━Drur!

The door opened and children entered the classroom one by one.

However, Ayoung was not seen among the children who entered the classroom.

Ayoung missed school that day.