[2019, May 26th | Sunday, 3:19 AM]
[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts - 2]
[Ghost Story Points: 581]
[Causality: 32%]
[D-1 until the Science Exhibition Preliminaries]
"Phew."
Soon, Jinhee finished changing her clothes and entered the counter.
She was wearing the pink dolphin shorts and white sleeveless top she had on before bed.
Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference between them and underwear.
"…You're here?"
"...…?"
When I greeted her awkwardly after waiting, Jinhee closed the door and looked at me with a strange expression.
"You're still here? What are you doing, not going to your room?"
"I was waiting for you…"
"For what?"
"To watch this together…"
I pointed at the monitor screen with an awkward expression.
There, a video paused on the playback screen was waiting for our attention.
Jinhee flinched for a moment and slowly tilted her head back with a knowing look.
And instead of her usual blunt voice, she spoke in a slightly thinner tone.
"…Hey, you know."
"…Yeah."
Her voice, usually not lowered like this, sounded a bit strange, and she let out a soft ahem, clearing her throat briefly.
Once composed, Jinhee's voice sounded more feminine than I had expected.
"...Isn't it a bit too soon for us to watch something like this together?"
"I guess so...?"
After saying that, Jinhee just stood there blankly. I sat quietly in silence.
"..."
"...…"
After a brief silence, Jinhee puffed out her cheeks in an expression that didn't quite suit her and leaned back against the wall.
I politely pointed to the monitor again.
"Sit down. Let's watch together."
"..."
But Jinhee only puffed out her cheeks even more, leaning further against the wall with a sulky expression.
I pondered for a moment, puzzled by that strange expression that didn't suit her rebellious image at all.
'What does she think this video is?'
After a brief moment of silence, I cautiously spoke up.
"...It's nothing weird. It's a scary video."
"..."
But Jinhee only leaned more against the wall and narrowed her eyes as she looked at me.
"You're misunderstanding. It's a normal video."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Hey, I'm telling you it's not anything weird! Come over here and see for yourself!"
"Ah~ no need to raise your voice..."
Only then did Jinhee grumble and pushed herself away from the wall.
"That old guy will come rushing again. Don't raise your voice."
"…Then you should have come and taken a look."
"I'm here, here."
Finally, Jinhee wiped off her strangely sulky expression, came over to my side and leaned over.
"What is this? Explain."
"You can just read the notepad next to it. Gyeongwon explained it well."
"Hmm."
As she leaned in next to me to look at the monitor, Jinhee's hair softly fell onto my shoulder.
Unlike Hayoon's silky, smooth black hair that tickled gently, Jinhee's hair, perhaps from frequent dyeing, was dry and slightly prickly.
"Your hair....."
"Hold on. Is it tickling? Let me read this for a bit."
Soon, Jinhee began reading the notepad that Gyeongwon had opened next to the screen.
"…If any other members besides Club Prez are reading this message, consider watching this..… Watching it alone during night duty might be scary.…? Crazy. Hey, did you wait for me because you were too scared to watch this alone?"
Jinhee looked back at me as if she was dumbfounded.
I turned my head away slightly.
"...Everyone has things they're afraid of."
"Bravo, dumbass…"
Before I knew it, Jinhee had returned to her usual expression and voice, and gave my shoulder a light tap.
"Your subordinate would be overjoyed to see this."
"...Who is my subordinate again?"
"Right in front of you."
She pointed with her chin at the notepad Gyeongwon had left behind.
'So Gyeongwon is my subordinate?'
Come to think of it, he probably left the note assuming I'd have no problem watching it alone.
I couldn't help but wonder what kind of person I am in Ahn Gyeongwon's mind.
"Quiet now, I'm starting it."
"Uh-huh."
"He said it's super scary, so don't run away."
"Just hurry up and play it."
"Okay. Three, two, one."
Click-
Just like that, I played the very first of the strange videos recorded in this boarding house restored by Gyeongwon. A video from 1999.
As soon as I hit play and the screen flickered on, I immediately covered my eyes with my hands.
Not just because I was scared, I thought the owner might have committed suicide after watching this.
'Let's show Jinhee first.'
I'm sorry, Jinhee...
But I trust you. I think you'll be okay...
So I covered my eyes, leaving only Jinhee quietly watching the video.
After a moment with no response, I shifted my fingers, just a slight, and peeked through them and asked her.
"Did it appear? Did the ghost appear?"
"Not yet."
Jinhee replied expressionless.
As expected, she was not scared.
I slightly parted the fingers that were covering my eyes and asked her again.
"Did the ghost appear now? Did it appear?"
"Ah~ stop being such a scaredy cat before I punch you... Huh? Whoa."
Jinhee's annoyed expression suddenly shifted.
Soon, she started giggling as she looked at the screen.
"What is this? This is freaking cool."
"What is it, what is it?"
"Pfft, what is this? Isn't this crazy?"
"...?"
I parted my fingers just the tiniest bit to see part of the screen.
Then suddenly with a whoosh, a terrifying woman's face appeared through that narrow gap.
"Ah, sh*t, that scared me..…"
I hurriedly covered my eyes again, but Jinhee just laughed and gave me a few light taps.
"Hey, seriously, it's not a ghost. There's nothing scary. Hurry up and look. It's freaking amazing."
"Don't mess with me, I just saw a woman's face…..."
"Don't you believe I'm saying it's not a ghost? Come here and watch, now here- Oh..… Ah~ the video ended. Idiot. Even if you ask to watch it again, I'm not watching it with you. Watch it alone."
Jinhee grumbled and raised her head, which had been bowed toward the screen.
Only then did I lower the hands that were covering my face.
"...Is it over?"
"Mhm. It's over."
Jinhee stepped back and leaned against the wall again, then pulled out a piece of gum from her pocket and unwrapped it.
I cautiously turned around and asked.
"…Are you sure there's no ghost?"
"Ugh~ are you seriously trying to piss me off? How many times do I have to say it, there's no ghost. Want a piece of gum?"
"No, I'm good. You don't feel weird or anything, right?"
"Not really?"
Jinhee replied, chewing her gum nonchalantly.
It seemed like just watching the video didn't actually have any effect.
"…Alright, then I'll watch it too."
"Do whatever."
Click.
Then the video started playing again from the beginning.
* * *
The video's setting appeared to be an old study lounge from long ago.
The time was 2 a.m., late at night.
Despite the hour, the room was filled with students sitting at desks, studying late into the night.
Strangely, the layout of the study lounge as captured in the camera resembled this boarding house's interior. It seemed this study lounge was probably located where the current boarding house now stood.
The reason we thought the composition of the two videos were the same was because despite the long history, and even though the place got remodeled, the entrance remained unchanged.
To capture people entering and exiting, the camera must have been installed in that fixed location.
Furthermore, since the wiring was connected to the ceiling, the camera could only be installed in the same spot anyway, so the glitchy video we all watched earlier really did resemble the outside of the boarding house and wasn't just my imagination.
'So it wasn't a boarding house after all, but a study lounge.'
The front door, counter, and bathroom were in the same locations, but while the hallway is now filled with rooms, in the past, it was a spacious space, filled with nothing but desks.
'It feels more like a library than a study lounge.'
Unlike now, the space wasn't divided into sections; it was just a wide area filled with desks separated by partitions, like a school study room.
"So there were study lounges even back then. They even stayed open until dawn… That's amazing. This was before I was even born."
Jinhee, seemingly uninterested in my mumbling, blew up a bubble behind me.
If Gyeongwon were here, he would have explained the relevant details in depth, but it was a shame that the one who was here instead was Jinhee, who didn't care about studying.
'Prez, it was around 2002 when the government first restricted after-school academy operating hours to 10 p.m. Before that, study lounges were included in the private academy category, so many stayed open until 2 a.m. Blah, blah, blah..…'
"Let's see….."
I quickly shook off my distracting thoughts and focused on the video.
At first, the screen just showed people studying continuously.
Only people wearing hats or shabby sweatpants, constantly taking notes, were visible on the monitor.
Then, a moment later.
A woman suddenly staggered into the frame from off-screen and began wandering between the people studying.
With long hair swaying, the woman weaved through the gaps between the desks.
"She looks exactly like the ghost I saw earlier."
"Really?"
The woman on the screen staggered around dizzily, weaving frantically between the desks where people were studying.
A few people glanced around as if bothered, but strangely, no one paid her any attention.
They simply glanced for a moment and returned to their studies.
"They're nice. If this was people nowadays, they'd already start cussing. Like knock knock- you're disturbing us."
At that, Jinhee let out a small chuckle.
"Keep watching. You'll figure it out."
"...?"
The woman continued to stagger between the desks.
Eventually, she stumbled all the way to the edge of the camera's view, and finally disappeared out of frame.
And then, the screen returned to showing only the people studying.
Everyone was either scribbling away or flipping through pages, focused and working hard even at this late hour.
'So this is what Noryangjin looked like 20 years ago, in its prime.'
A stark contrast to today's exam takers who were only into drinking, getting into fights, obsessing over 'study partners', and grinding to reach Master tier in League of Legends. This was the Noryangjin of that era, when young people hauled their belongings up from the countryside, carrying the weight of their entire family's hopes, throwing everything into their studies with burning determination.
Seeing that study lounge packed even at 2 a.m., I couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration swell in my chest.
'Is this seriously what old-school Noryangjin was like? This would be perfect to screenshot as a motivational study clip.'
I remember back when I was studying for the college entrance exam, I had that photo of 'Harvard at 4:30 a.m.' stuck on my wall, it really fueled my motivation. I remember it being quite stimulating to me.
'Back then...'
Back in my day, I couldn't even play League of Legends properly, even though I loved it, all because of studying for the college entrance exam.
Aish~ these days, exam takers just don't know what hardship is..…
Just because I yelled a bit in my room, they came knocking… tsk tsk.
As I was watching the video of the study lounge and getting lost in these pointless thoughts.
All of a sudden.
Whoo~sh!
Suddenly, from the bottom of the screen, that same woman climbed up and thrusted her face right into the monitor, filling it completely, then let out a shrill, cackling laugh.
"What the f*ck..…"
I flinched in surprise and stepped back.
"I thought you said there were no jumpscares..…"
"Are you scared? You got scared, right?"
Jinhee giggled behind me.
"I said there's no ghost, but when did I say there were no jumpscares?"
"Sh*t… but you're saying this isn't a ghost?"
I cursed under my breath and straightened my posture again.
Unlike the other members, who were innocent and had no tolerance for swearing, I somehow felt comfortable around the foul-mouthed Jinhee, and the swearing came out naturally.
"Anyone can tell she's a ghost….."
The screen was still filled with the face of a woman, practically pressing her face into the camera lens.
A woman with a haggard face, bloodshot eyes, and a worn-out appearance with prominent cheekbones, laughing maniacally.
After laughing for a long while, she began shaking her head wildly from side to side.
Then, the woman suddenly started running around the study lounge.
She disappeared from the camera's view again, then suddenly popped up in a random spot, waving a knife wildly with both hands in the air, shaking her head from side to side and causing a scene.
And even as she ran wildly through the quiet study lounge like a madwoman, no one tried to stop her.
Everyone just frowned like before and glanced around briefly.
That's when I realized something.
"…Can they not see her? Do they only hear the sounds?"
"That's not a woman."
"Huh?"
At Jinhee's casual remark, I focused back on the video and watched closely.
Soon, the woman, her hair whipping around, dashed far to the right edge of the camera's view and disappeared again, then suddenly popped back up right up-close on the left side, causing a commotion again.
"... You're right. It's a man."
"Right?"
Because of the man's frightening face, I didn't have time to look closely. With his long hair, gaunt appearance, and slender build, I briefly mistook him for a woman.
But looking again more carefully, I noticed a rough stubble on the chin. This person was definitely not a woman, but a man.
Knowing that, I watched again, and the person's appearance started to look different.
At first, I thought he was just a ghost, but upon closer inspection, he looked, well, how should I put it...
"…Like a heavy-duty uncle worn down by exam life, and a heavy smoker?"
"Wow, that's a perfect description."
Jinhee laughed from behind me.
Yeah, that's exactly what it was.
Sometimes, among the younger uncle-age crowd, especially those who get deeply into philosophy or intense studying, there are quite a few who let their hair grow long like that.
They look haggard, their cheekbones protruding, their eyes sunken and bloodshot.
And the person running around in the screen before me right now looked exactly like that.
He ran wildly between the desks, shaking his head from side to side, and even leaned over people's heads, whooping his hair around, deliberately disrupting their concentration.
He suddenly ripped off what looked like sticky notes left by exam takers and threw them around, knocked over the books, and dashed about the room in utter chaos.
The man, sprinting wildly through the study lounge in the dead of night, suddenly came to a stop in the center, then raised his knife behind a man wearing a cap who was focused on studying.
With a whoosh, the long-haired ghost-like creature slashed the man's arm with the knife.
["Ah, ahhh, ahhhh..."]
There was no need to even activate the Lip Reading, yet the shape of the student's mouth, twisted in a scream of agony, appeared before my eyes.
And just like that, the video ended with the knife-wielding madman causing chaos and people screaming in pain.
"…When was this recorded?"
I read the file name again.
19990225.
"1999..."
After thinking it over carefully, I immediately sent a text to the Detective.
[Just in case you're asleep, I'm sending this by text. I found a video on the boarding house counter computer, and it contains some seriously disturbing footage. I'd appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know what you think.]
Then, I played the video again and recorded the whole thing with my phone camera, attaching the footage as a file to send to the Detective.
[The date of the file was February 25, 1999. When I checked the last modified date, it seemed to match the time when the owner attempted suicide. I suspect he watched this video around the time of his suicide attempt, and this footage seems deeply connected to the secrets of the boarding house.]
[I would appreciate it if you could check the case records to determine what happened here on the 5th floor on February 25, 1999. Also, please confirm whether there was indeed a study lounge here at that time.]