Gyeongwon took a taxi to Hyejin's apartment building, which he had deduced based on an internet search.
Because the road was narrow, he got off on the nearby street, walked along the alley, and as he turned the corner, a four-story apartment complex came into view.
Among them, in front of an apartment with its lights off, making him wonder if anyone actually lived there or not, Gyeongwon paced back and forth for a long time, hesitating once more.
By then, it was already 8:30 in the evening.
Even though the tutor had covered for him with the excuse of buying him dinner before sending him home, if it went past nine o'clock, his parents would still find it suspicious.
Even assuming he got home as fast as possible, he had about 20 minutes left.
"What could I possibly solve by suddenly barging into this place in such a short amount of time?"
Gyeongwon paced for a little while longer, but soon made up his mind, opened the glass door, and stepped inside the building.
It wasn't exactly dilapidated, but it was
just an ordinary middle-class building
with no public entrance, security gates or elevators.
Fortunately, there were mailboxes, so
Gyeongwon checked the names of the heads of households one by one.
"Kim, sok, dom... not that.'
Since it's Lee Hyejin, her father's surname would be Lee as well.
And since it was a four-story building where only eight households lived, Gyeongwon was quickly able to find that surname.
'Here it is. Lee Sanghyeop.'
The only head of household with the surname Lee living in this building.
It must be Hyejin's father.
Gyeongwon took out a letter, checked the name and apartment number, and was about to put it back in when his eyes were suddenly drawn to its contents.
[Notice of Payment for Overdue Parking Fees]
He thought it was just an ordinary bill, but upon closer inspection, it was a notice regarding overdue parking fees.
".....?"
Gyeongwon frowned, put it back in, and began taking out the other mails one by one to examine them.
[Notice of Overdue Maintenance Fees]
[Notice of Overdue Mobile Phone Bills]
[Notice of Overdue City Gas Bills]
".....What is this?'
Was this really a place where someone actually lived?
Gyeongwon fiddled his glasses once, scanned them, then carefully put them back in the mailbox.
And then he began climbing the stairs toward Hyejin's place on the fourth floor, Unit 402.
Flick- flick-
Sensor lights turned on one by one with every floor he ascended.
Feeling inexplicably nervous, Gyeongwon took out his phone again and went to Hyejin's Instagram.
[This account has been deleted]
".....!!"
Gyeongwon's heart sank at the sudden appearance of an error message.
He bit his lip for a moment, put the phone away, and continued climbing toward the fourth floor.
[Unit 402]
"This is..'
This was the place where his crush, Lee Hyejin, really lived.
Feeling his heart pounding, Gyeongwon clenched and unclenched his hands.
For one thing, when he looked at the window from outside or when he looked through the peephole of the front door, the lights inside the house were off.
Was Hyejin inside right now?
If so, what was she doing with all the lights in there turned off?
"....."
Suddenly, a shiver ran down Gyeongwon's spine as he thought of the photo of Hyejin smiling with a distorted grin, with a flash going off in the pitch-black darkness.
He raised his trembling hand to ring the doorbell, but pulled his hand away from the empty air and quickly tooka deep breath.
"Huu, huu."
He was scared.
His crush, who seemed out of her mind and smiling widely all alone.... was possessed by a ghost.
This situation, standing in the dark apartment hallway, about to ring the doorbell of a house with all its lights off, was just too Scary.
'Prez has faced situations like this dozens of times and won every single time'.
Just what kind of fight had Prez been through...
"....."
Gyeongwon, whose hands had been
trembling, soon clenched his fist tightly and reached for the doorbell.
[Ding~ Dong~]
The moment the doorbell rang from the other side of the door, his heart seemed to give another jolt.
But Gyeongwon comforted himself by
repeating that nothing is worse than death.
I've already told Yoon Sunah, so no matter what happens, Prez will go back and save me anyway.
Conversely, the fact that the President hadn't said anything to him today meant that this wasn't the timeline where he'd already returned, but rather the one where he was going there for the first time.
Keeping that fact in mind, Gyeongwon
pressed the doorbell again.
[Ding Dong-]
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
At that moment, from the dark house, Gyeongwon heard the sound of someone dashing frantically toward the door, and before he could even take a step back with his heart pounding, the door swung open.
"Who is it?"
"Haa, haa..."
Through the slightly opened security chain, a girl was glancing around frantically in the darkness.
Soon, the girl's eyes turned toward Gyeongwon, and she smiled brightly.
"It's Gyeongwon! Is it about today?"
"Huff, huff... well..."
"Come in!"
Thud, the door closed hard, as if to undo the safety chain.
But even after waiting, the door did not open.
Once again, only silence filled the dark house of his crush.
"....."
"....."
This must be a nightmare.
He must be dreaming.
Gyeongwon shook his head, feeling his head grow dizzy in the dark apartment hallway.
'....Snap out of it.'
If he got scared of this house even a bit, it would be the end.
What Hyejin tore open was a blue card, a B-rank ghost story.
Among ghost stories of the same rank were the Laughing Woman, the Fake Mom, the Head Ghost, and Bang Chunja.
All of them, without exception, were terrifying beings that could drive people crazy and kill them while laughing.
Gyeongwon, thinking that he had to keep his wits sharp to save Hyejin, made up his mind again and pressed the doorbell.
[Ding~ dong- ding dong]
Clủck, clack.
[Ding~ dong skreeeeeee...zeeeeee..]
The doorbell suddenly cut off with a drawn-out sound.
Gyeongwon got scared again and flinched, but then pressed the bell firmly a few more times, however, it seemed to be completely broken, and no sound came out.
Instead of ringing the doorbell, Gyeongwon began knocking.
Knock-knock, knock-knock-knock.
"...Lee Hyejin. Lee Hyejin?"
Knock-knock-knock.
"...You told me to come in. Open the door. Lee Hyejin?"
Knock-knock-knock.
"..."
Silence ensued.
Gyeongwon bit his lip and waited, then tried pulling on the doorknob.
Clủck-
As expected, the door was locked.
Naturally, the front door was locked.
Gyeongwon pulled the door a few times and knocked, then sighed and turned around.
What should I do now?
'....If I go down through the rooftop.'
Earlier, when he looked from outside, the railing of Hyejin's apartment on the top floor and the rooftop were quite close together.
It was close enough that jumping from the rooftop would let him land directly onto the railing.
After glancing one last time at Hyejin's house, Unit 402, Gyeongwon climbed the stairs leading to the rooftop.
***
The rooftop entrance was cluttered with bicycles, earthenware jars, and the likes, all carelessly left behind by the tenants.
Gyeongwon carefully avoided the obstacles and opened the rooftop iron door, and fortunately, the door was not locked.
Creak-
He opened the door from that dark, gloomy apartment and stepped out onto the rooftop, expecting to see the outside view, but perhaps because it was a narrow back alley, there wasn't really anything to see.
This was a dark apartment complex where not a single light was on.
Even when he slowly felt his way along the rooftop and looked around, there were only darkened shops and buildings, with banners like 'For Rent' hanging.
To Gyeongwon, who had only ever lived in wealthy neighborhoods, it was a dark unfamiliar alleyway and completely foreign.
Gyeongwon had thought that being outside would make him less scared, but instead, feeling even more eerie, he hurriedly searched across the rooftop and found Hyejin's balcony railing.
..Here it is.'
Recall the building's structure, Gyeongwon leaned out over the edge at one spot, and there, as if it were the right answer, the railing of Hyejin's house, just as he had seen it from
outside, was visible.
'....Oh, wait. Now that I look at it again, this isn't a railing, it's just a foothold.'
The railing Gyeongwon had intended to land on, seen up close, was much smaller than he had thought.
Gyeongwon stared at it quietly for a moment, then soon realized what that railing really was.
'It's the space for the air conditioner outdoor unit.'
Either way, the only way to get into Hyejin's apartment was to land on that outdoor air conditioner unit railing and go in.
And there, he Wwas going to meet Hyejin, who was right below him, the same Hyejin who had opened the door a crack and then closed it just a moment ago.
Though he didn't know what she was doing in that darkness.
" ....."
Gyeongwon clenched and unclenched his fist a few times, then carefully placed his foot on the edge of the rooftop.
If he landed incorrectly, he would fall straight down from the height of the fourth floor.
Gyeongwon shone his phone flashlight to double-check the bottom of the railing he was about to land on several times, and finally, he dropped down.
"Huuuup-!"
Creeeak-!
He landed properly, but the impact made the railing tilt for an instant.
Creeeeak..
The narrow railing rattled and shook, making a spine-chilling sound.
Gyeongwon hurriedly turned around and opened the window to enter Hyejin's house.
At that moment, a woman with a face as pale as a mannequin slowly leaned her head toward Gyeongwon through the wide-open window.
"Aaaah!!!"
Gyeongwon screamed and fell backward.
One screw on the railing came loose, and with a creak, the floor tilted, and the cold wind from four stories up brushed past him.
Gyeongwon trembled, then raised his head again and looked at the window.
The woman was still completely motionless, stretching her head straight out and staring down at him.
"Huff, huff, huff.. M, mannequin...?"
Fumbling along the floor, Gyeongwon got up and pushed the thing aside.
It was just a female mannequin that had been leaning against the window all along, and simply tilted over when Gyeongwon opened it.
It even had a wig on.
'.. It wasn't there when I looked from outside.'
If a human silhouette had been leaning against the window like this, Gyeongwon would have noticed it long ago.
This mannequin was set up like this only after Gyeongwon entered the building.
As if it had known he would come in.
'...Who? Hyejin?'
Soothing his still-pounding heart , Gyeongwon moved the mannequin aside first and pushed his body toward the window.
Thump-!
"Huff, huff, huff."
He had barely managed to get inside Hyejin's house.
At that moment, from outside, the railing for the outdoor air conditioner unit let out a creak and fell to the ground below.
Thud- bang.
"..Huff, huff."
After catching his breath, Gyeongwon turned on his phone's flashlight and checked the room he was in.
"...What is this?"
It was a dilapidated room; there was no bed, no wardrobe, nothing at all.
All that was there was a narrow desk, a chair, and the wig-wearing mannequin that Gyeongwon had just knocked Over.
Click, click.
He tried pressing a nearby switch, but the light wouldn't turn on.
Gyeongwon walked slowly around the dilapidated, empty room, shining his phone's flashlight.
And then he realized something.
'....Could this be?"
Lee Hyejin's room, which he had seen
on Instagram.
In the photos, there were only shots of her studying at her desk, or selfies taken against the ceiling, so he hadn't been able to tell.
The wallpaper, the floor tiles, and even the finishing materials, which were the decisive clue that led Gyeongwon to this place, were all identical to the photos.
The image of Hyejin studying at her desk in the Instagram photos that Gyeongwon had admired.
Now that he looked closely, except for that angle, the entire space was completely empty.
"What on earth.. happened..."
Gyeongwon held his breath, slowly turned his head, and this time shone the light on the door of the room.
As if it were a house where no one lived, only silence flowed through this place.
"...."
Gyeongwon swallowed hard once, then shone his flashlight and slowly approached the door of the room.
Still, Hyejin would be here somewhere.
Because she had opened the door for him earlier.
Gyeongwon slowly opened the room door.
Creeeeak...
Finally, Hyejin's living room came into view.
Fortunately, it was just like an ordinary family home, and was indeed the same place he had seen in the video.
There was a sofa and a TV, and although it didn't seem to be working, there was also a refrigerator and a dining table.
Standing frozen in front of the doorway, Gyeongwon tensely looked around, then slowly called out Hyejin's name.
"...Hyejin."
In the midst of that overwhelming silence, his own voice echoed around him, making him flinch in surprise.
Gyeongwon lowered his voice even more and called her name once again.
"...Lee Hyejin."
Thump. Thump.
Suddenly, a thumping noise came from the bathroom, then the door burst open. and Hyeiin. hanging upside down, poked her head in from the ceiling.
"Gyeongwon, you're our mom's three-plot."
Crash-!!
At that moment, the sound of breaking glass came from Hyejin's room, which Gyeongwon had just walked out of.
(T/N: (Seuripeulot) is a mixture of Korean and English, which is a reference to a famous Korean internet urban legend. The legend is quite lengthy so please look into it at your own discretion.]
When Gyeongwon quickly turned his head to look into the room, the mannequin that had been there just a moment ago was nowhere to be seen, only the glass window was broken.
Trembling uncontrollably, he looked back toward the bathroom, where Hyejin's head slid in, and the door slammed shut with a thud.
"Huff.....ha....huff ..."
Gyeongwon heart is pounding hard.