"..."
Midnight.
I slowly opened my eyes to the sudden feeling of someone's presence.
"...Mmm."
I squinted my drowsy eyes and slightly lifted my head, but all I could see was darkness.
For a moment, I was confused about where I was.
'... Boarding house. This is a boarding house.'
The room I ended up staying in while chasing down a ghost story at the boarding house.
And there, someone was quietly sitting beside me.
Feeling the weight of another person on the bed, I let out a soft 'Mmm', and lifted my head.
"...Hayoon?"
The silhouette of someone slowly nodded.
It was very dark, but a bit of light from the hallway slipped in through the small window on the door, faintly illuminating Hayoon's quiet silhouette.
'She must be here to wake me for night watch duty.'
I mumbled softly as I shifted in bed.
"...Status Window."
Pop-
Then, even in the darkness, the texts before my eyes appeared vividly.
[2019, May 26th | Sunday, 02:35 AM]
[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts - 2]
[Ghost Story Points: 581]
[Causality Rate: 32%]
Whenever I wake up at night, the phone's bright screen hurts my eyes, so I often check the time through the Status Window like this.
'2:30…?'
With a puzzled 'Huh?', I lifted my head.
'Thirty minutes has passed already…?'
Before me, the silhouette of a long, straight-haired figure was still sitting quietly on the bed.
Half-opening my eyes, I looked at Hayoon and mumbled,
"Isn't my night watch at 2…? Why didn't you wake me—"
Then suddenly, Hayoon swiftly turned around and climbed on top of me.
"...!"
Startled by Hayoon suddenly climbing onto my upper body, I pressed my head back down onto the bed.
Without giving me a moment to say anything, she sat atop my stomach and thrust her face onto mine.
"Did you check it through the Status Window? How does it feel to carry that thing around?"
"What, what...?"
"It must be fun having that, right? It was mine once."
Her flowing black hair fell over my face.
In the darkness of the boarding house room.
Hayoon was on top of me, our faces almost pressed against each other.
Her hair spilled to the side, tickling my ear, and in the darkness, we gazed at each other.
For some reason, her eyes seemed to shimmer with a purple glow.
I stared up at Hayoon, unable to move either way, and remained frozen as time slowly passed.
"..."
"..."
After a long silence had passed.
She slowly raised her upper body.
The hair that had fallen over my face gently brushed against my cheek as it slowly swept upward.
Still sitting atop my stomach, Hayoon looked down at me for a long moment.
"Hey…..."
"..."
As soon as I opened my mouth, she quietly studied me again, then finally turned her body to the side and climbed off the bed.
Thump-
Her bare feet softly pressed against the floor.
Then, the door opened, and light poured in.
Creak—
I squinted and turned my head away at the sudden flood of light pouring in from the hallway.
Click.
Hayoon swiftly opened the door and left.
Soon, the sound of footsteps in the hallway slowly faded into the distance, followed by the faint noise of a door opening and closing on the opposite side of the corridor.
Creak- Click.
Hayoon had returned to her room.
"..."
I blankly lay on the bed for a moment, then soon came to my senses, grabbed my phone, and got up.
Then I, too, pushed open the half-open door and stepped out of the room.
Creak- Click.
Standing in the deserted hallway, I looked around.
"..."
The quiet boarding house.
The cold hallway tiles.
The fluorescent lights shining brightly within.
'…I wasn't dreaming, was I?'
I was already half-asleep to begin with, so what just happened felt so sudden, it almost seemed like a dream.
What on earth was that?
I walked slowly down the hallway in silence.
Passing by the counter, I went down the hallway on the other side and stopped in front of the door I assumed was Hayoon's room.
"..."
I stared intently at the door Hayoon had just entered.
What was she trying to say?
"…In Hayoon?"
I quietly pressed my ear to the door and called out, but there was no sound.
Slowly, I pulled the door handle.
Click- Click-
'…It's locked, as expected.'
What was she trying to say?
'I'm not letting this slide.'
Then, not quite a knock, but with a light tap, tap, I gently tapped the door with my fingers.
Then I brought my mouth close to the crack of the door, lowered my voice and whispered softly.
"…In Hayoon."
"..."
But beyond the door, there wasn't a hint of presence.
Biting my lip, I knocked on the door again, tap, tap.
"In Hayoon."
"..."
As expected, beyond the unresponsive iron door, the space was like her.
I sighed and turned around, and instantly my eyes collided with Sunah's, who was peeking out with just her eyes from the crack of the door to the next room.
"...…"
"..."
Through the crack of the slightly open door.
Sunah's lifeless eyes stared at me.
"..."
"..."
As I stood frozen in place, Sunah silently slid the door shut.
I once again stood motionless in the quiet hallway of the boarding house, surrounded by nothing but silence.
I quickly came to my senses and checked the time. It was already 2:55.
'…I'll only be on night watch for five minutes.'
Feeling overwhelmed by the series of events that had arisen one after another, I headed to the counter for now. The master key was lying on the desk, which was presumably left behind by Hayoon who had just finished her turn.
'…Should I use this to unlock Hayoon's door and go in now?'
Should I confront her right away and demand to know what she's been thinking?
But the room next to hers was Sunah's.
I had a feeling the moment I broke into Hayoon's room, something terrifying would happen.
'I'll let it slide for today.'
It's definitely not because I'm afraid of Sunah, or because I don't think I can handle Hayoon.
It's just that I only had five minutes left on night watch, and I didn't want to waste them on something stupid.
'Ah~ honestly, both of them are freaking scary.....'
I was scared of what Sunah might do to me if I unlocked Hayoon's door and went in.
And even if I didn't get caught, I was scared that if I confronted Hayoon, I might end up being the one cornered instead.
'…I might need to ask the Detective to start digging into her a bit sooner than planned.'
As soon as this competition is over, I'll ask the Detective to investigate on her identity and then come up with some excuse to kill myself.
'Then I'll have her parents' names, siblings, relatives, medical records, home address, and even her moving history all figured out.'
What are you gonna do, In Hayoon~!
Cry, scream, and beg all you want, I'm not gonna go easy on you~!
I'm gonna have the Detective dig up everything about you~!
'I guess I should just go and wake up Jinhee for the next shift.'
Just as I was about to stand up.
A large sticky note on the monitor caught my eye.
[Prez. I've restored the video. Turn on the monitor.]
Video?
'Oh. That one.'
The first of the three videos.
The footage from 20 years ago.
The screen had been so damaged it was hard to make out anything, but it looks like Gyeongwon worked on it during his night watch shift.
I sat back down in the chair and turned on the computer monitor.
The CPU must have already been running, because the screen lit up exactly as he had set it, with all the settings in place.
On one side of the screen was a notepad, and on the other, a video queued up and ready to play.
In the notepad was a message left by him during his night watch.
[Prez, I've restored it.]
[Since this footage is really old, it seems there was an error because the program used to capture the CCTV footage back then is different from the one we're using now. Anyway, I used the correct video codec to restore the image.]
[But the content inside is pretty scary, so if anyone other than Club Prez is reading this message, please think twice before watching. The owner looks more dead in this than alive, and it can be frightening to watch on night duty alone.]
[Anyway, just press the play button, and the video will start immediately. Well then, good luck, Prez.]
I shifted my gaze to the video paused on the other side of the screen.
The player was paused on the very first frame, ready to play as soon as I pressed play.
Just looking at this frozen first frame, the angle and composition of the camera matched exactly with the owner's suicide video I had seen before.
A composition that narrowly captured the glass front door and the entrance to the counter from the side.
The only difference was that although the layout was the same, it seemed to be a different business back then, with countless desks filling the space instead of the rooms that are there now.
'A study lounge?'
Was there a study lounge 20 years ago?
I hesitated for a moment before pressing the play button.
[But the content inside is pretty scary.]
[If anyone other than Club Prez is reading this message, please think twice before watching.]
[It can be frightening to watch on night duty alone]
Scary content.
I quietly turned my head and glanced at where I was.
The boarding house, where I was the only one awake in the dead of night.
And there I sat, motionless at the counter where a video of the owner's attempted suicide was ready to play.
Inside the counter area, the owner's wife, whom I saw earlier this evening, had at least done some cleaning, though it was faint…..
Upon closer inspection, I spotted traces of blood splattered here and there.
'And they expect me to watch this alone.'
My hand holding the mouse twitched a few times, then I gave up and stood up.
It was already 3:10.
The time to switch shifts with the next person had long passed.
'I'll just wake Jinhee up so we can watch it together before going back to sleep.'
With that thought, I clapped my hands once and stood up, reaching to open the door of the counter.
Suddenly, someone with long hair dashed by with a whoosh! Then opening a door in the hallway, they slammed it shut as they disappeared into the room.
"...!"
I quickly flung the counter door fully open and rushed out, looking around in all directions.
It wasn't one of our club members. It came from the hallway on the side where I was staying alone.
'...What the f*ck?'
I bit my lip and waited for a moment.
Knock, knock.
Then suddenly, a strange knocking sound echoed from the end of the hallway.
I immediately entered the hallway where our club members were and quickly walked towards Jinhee's room.
'Sh*t, sh*t…..'
Just as I was about to insert the master key into Jinhee's doorknob.
I heard the sound of a door creaking open from the opposite hallway, where someone with long hair had just run into a room.
Creeeaaak—
"..."
Step. Step.
The slow, unmistakable sound of someone walking barefoot.
They ran and hid in a room earlier to avoid me, but now they were coming back out again.
Cursing under my breath, I slowly turned to face the direction where the barefoot footsteps were drawing nearer, my nerves on edge.
Since the hallway was shaped like an 'ㄷ' with two corners to turn, I could only hear the sound.
Soon, the sound grew louder, whatever it was, it had turned the first corner and was slowly getting closer.
I slid the master key into Jinhee's doorknob and carefully began to turn it.
As if I was ready to fling the door open and dash into Jinhee's room the moment whatever it was tried to threaten me.
Click.
The footsteps grew closer toward the corner just opposite me.
With a tense expression and my arm stiffened, I gripped Jinhee's doorknob and waited.
The footsteps drew even nearer.
Finally, it rounded the last corner, revealing itself.
There, stood a crazy ghost, violently, rapidly shaking its head from side to side to side, whipping its long hair wildly with a whoosh whoosh whose, a knife held in its hand glinting and glinting, its head swinging, whopping and twisting violently in every direction.
The ghost gripped the knife so tightly it trembled in its hand, its hair whipping back and forth at an unnaturally rapid pace as it advanced toward me.
Thud, thud, thud. Tatatatatatata—
The moment I saw the ghost suddenly sprinting toward me, I didn't think twice and yanked the doorknob and dove straight into Jinhee's room.
Creak- Bang!
The door that was flung open with too much force, slammed against the wall with a deafening bang.
Jinhee, who had been sound asleep, raised her upper body in alarm at the sudden noise.
"What, what… f*ck… what…"
"Lee Jinhee, Lee Jinhee."
I scrambled onto the bed, climbed over Jinhee, and hid behind her back.
As if that weren't enough, I yanked the blanket and burrowed myself into it.
As Jinhee groggily turned around in confusion, I clung to her back and whispered urgently.
"Ghost. Ghost."
"What, what...? What...?"
"There's a ghost, a ghost."
"Ghost, what, ghost..."
Still groggy and dazed from sleep, Jinhee hurriedly propped herself up, and stared at the half-open door.
Even at that moment, I wrapped myself tightly in the blanket and pressed myself against Jinhee's back.
"..."
"..."
Jinhee silently stared into the hallway, while I clung to her back, hiding and trembling behind her.
After a brief moment of silence passed.
Jinhee finally took her eyes off the open door and slowly turned her head toward me.
"..."
"..."
Her half-lidded eyes furrowed.
A look that seemed to ask what I was so afraid of.
But I only pressed my head against Jinhee's back and shook my head.
"A knife. It was running at me with a knife."
"A knife…..?"
With a groggy groan, Jinhee glanced back toward the door again.
...But why was her back so warm?
"..."
"..."
It was only then I came to my senses and realized; Jinhee was wearing nothing but her underwear.
And the spot where I'd pressed my cheek so tightly was the bare skin of her back.
The firm, toned skin of Jinhee's bare back radiated warmth, gently seeping into my cheek.
Do delinquents usually have body temperatures this high?
Jinhee waited for a moment, then frowned and turned to me.
"…There's nothing."
"..."
Only then did I gently peek over Jinhee's back and look over at the entrance from my hiding place.
There was truly nothing there.
All I could see was the door across the hall.
Then, at that moment.
Click-!
The sound of a door loudly opening echoed from the far end of the hallway, followed by heavy footsteps thudding steadily closer again.
"Here it comes! It's coming!"
I clung tightly to Jinhee's back once more, wrapping myself completely around her.
It was warm and assuring.
"..."
"..."
But the heavy footsteps that stomped up to us and huffed right in front of us weren't those of a ghost, but a human.
It was the uncle-like boarding house resident, who argued harshly with Jinhee earlier that evening.
He was panting heavily and pointing right at us with a sharp glare.
Jinhee, her expression sullen for a moment, nodded and offered a vague apology with sleepy eyes.
"Sorry about that."
"..."
The uncle-like test taker glared at us with bloodshot eyes for a moment, then exhaled a sharp breath through his nose with a huff, and went back into his room.
Thud- Thud- Thud-
Squeak- Thud.
"..."
"..."
Did he wake up because of the commotion just now?
This time, there was no excuse to make, it was completely our fault, so there was no point in arguing. It was truly a nuisance we caused.
Jinhee narrowed her half-lidded eyes and looked back at me.
"…Get off."
"Okay."
I took off the blanket I'd snatched from Jinhee, unwrapped myself, and crawled off the bed.
Sure enough, Jinhee was practically naked, wearing nothing but underwear.
But she didn't seem to mind at all, just frowned deeply, looking annoyed from being abruptly woken up.
"....It's your turn for the night watch. That's why I was going to wake you up…"
"Yeah, I know. I'll change and head out."
"…Yeah."
I nodded and stepped out into the hallway.
Closing the door behind me, I took a moment to look around.
There really was no one there.