Ch. 13 - Fourth Ghost Story - Mom (1)

Trigger warning: This chapter has depictions of slight Body Horror. Readers, please be advised.

After getting off the elevator, I stood in front of our front door.

The moment I opened the keypad to the door lock to input the passcode, I felt that something was off.

‘It’s too quiet.’

I gently closed the lid and put my ear against the door.

If someone was in the house, there would be some sort of noise, no matter how small.

The sound of the TV, the sound of the vacuum being run, the sound of opening and closing doors.

At the very least, there should have been some sort of noise when they walked around.

“……”

However, I couldn’t hear anything coming from our house.

All that I felt was the cold metal of the front door.

I used my hand to block my other ear and tried to focus harder.

“……”

Like I thought, no noise could be heard. I could sense that there was nobody there.

‘There is no way. I just saw Mom……’

I pushed aside the foreboding feeling and quickly punched in the passcode, turning the doorknob.

Creak-

“I’m home~”

“……”

“Mom?”

I took off my backpack and tossed it aside, heading towards the veranda.

No one was there, either.

“Mom?”

I tiptoed to the master bedroom and opened the door.

“……”

No one was there.

I went to the bathroom right next to it and switched on the lights.

Flick.

Just in case, I checked the bathtub as well. There was no one there.

It was quiet.

Including my Dad’s study, I looked through all of the rooms in my house. Finally, I checked my own room before going back out to the living room.

“……”

Silence.

Complete silence.

‘This isn’t right. I definitely just saw my Mom on the balcony.’

There was no way we had just missed each other, not within such a short timeframe. She definitely had to be in the house.

‘Balcony.’

I had been about to check the balcony again when I paused, a feeling of foreboding washing over me.

“……”

I had definitely thought that someone was there, but the house was silent.

Where would my Mom have gone?

Was I currently alone in the house or not?

Even though it was the middle of the day, with the sunlight shining brightly into the house, the inside of the house was completely foreboding.

“……”

I suddenly got shivers down my spine, making me turn around. But of course, there was no one there.

Again, I began to walk towards the balcony.

I stood at the exact spot that my mom was standing before.

When I looked down, I could see the footpath connected to the apartment complex entrance.

‘I looked up as I was walking at roughly that point…’

It wasn’t that far of a distance.

As I thought, there was no way that I saw incorrectly.

“……”

After standing on the balcony for a bit, I turned my head to leave when something caught my eye.

It was the washing machine.

Our washing machine was located at the very end of our balcony.

The lid to the washing machine was shut.

“……”

Mom always left the lid open because of the humidity.

Why was it closed?

The foreboding feeling ran up my spine. I slowly approached the washing machine.

I wanted to call out to my Mom, but I felt that the moment I broke this eerie silence, something menacing would jump out.

Swallowing my saliva, I held it in.

I muffled my footsteps and sneakily stood in front of the washing machine.

Then I slowly opened the lid.

Mom was huddled down inside the washing machine, staring directly at me.

“……!”

I started to backpedal as I gasped.

Once I backed up a bit, the angle at which I looked at the washing machine was lower, which meant Mom was no longer visible.

However, I could still see the top of her head jutting out.

“Gasp, gasp.”

Keeping my eyes on the washing machine, I slowly continued to back up.

I felt like the moment I looked away, something would come running at me, screaming.

“Gasp, gasp.”

And just like that, one step at a time, I very slowly escaped the balcony.

Continuing to back up in the same manner, I turned the corner into the living room.

In the direction I was looking, the washing machine was covered by the wall as it gradually left my sight.

I continued moving the same way until I reached the middle of the living room.

Suddenly, a head popped out from the corner leading to the balcony.

“Did you just get back from school?”

Mom popped her head out from around the corner, asking without any inflection in her voice.

“Gasp, gasp……”

At that moment, my heart dropped.

It wasn’t her.

It wasn’t my Mom.

A person could not stick out only their face, at exactly a 90 degree angle.

In order to do that, their body would have to be completely bent sideways, in an unnatural 90 degree angle.

“Gasp, gasp……”

Instead of answering, I slowly turned my head and approached the front door.

I had no confidence in maintaining eye contact with that thing pretending to be Mom.

However, I had a feeling it would start running after me the moment it left my sight completely.

Therefore, I began to slowly sidestep while keeping that face barely visible in the corner of my eye.

I managed to arrive at my front door.

I stretched my hands vaguely in the direction I thought the door lock would be and used my sense of touch to press the button.

Beep, beep, beep.

“You b*stard, just like your father! Where are you crawling to?!!!!!!”

The moment that thing opened its mouth wide and tried to jump out, I kicked the door open and ran like crazy.

I ran down the stairs as if I were rolling down them, skipping four to five steps at a time.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

I mindlessly escaped to the first floor and opened the building entrance.

I then ran to the commercial center, which I could see in front of me.

“Gasp, gasp, huff, huff……”

I ran away like crazy until I was in the middle of the commercial center, where people were walking around. I finally caught my breath.

“F*ck… Insane, huff, huff… gasp… huff… what was that? F*ck… huff… huff…”

The passing ladies and students were staring at me.

I turned my head and wiped off my sweat as I looked up at the apartment building.

My Mom was in the same spot on the balcony, staring down at me without moving.

“……”

A little while after, my Mom leaned back onto all fours, stomach up, and bridge-walked back towards the living room until she was out of sight.

[T/N: look up the spider walk scene from The Exorcist to get an idea.]

“F*cking insane… F*ck……”

I breathed in deeply and let out a long sigh, before collapsing onto the stairs at the commercial center.

I was lucky to have run out of the house with my slippers on at least.

“Wow, when did I even make the time to…? Haha.”

I admired my quick wits.

But I wasn’t laughing because it was funny. It was a reactive laugh, originating from the release of tension.

“Huuuuuuuu……”

I let out another long sigh.

‘What should I do now?’

It’s not like I could go back into the house now.

I was thinking that I should wait until both of my parents returned from work before I went inside.

Did I have to call that a ghost? That thing didn’t usually appear when I was with my family……

‘What time is it? Main Screen.’

Pop.

《MAIN SCREEN

[2019, March 6th | Wednesday, 16:22 PM]

[Lee Joon - Number of Attempts: 2, Progressing in Tutorial]

[Ghost Story Points: 15]

[Causality Rate: 6%]

Status Window

Manage Club (Locked)

Statistics

Settings》

It was a little past four in the afternoon.

My parents wouldn’t be home from work until at least seven.

I had to wait at least two hours.

‘Ah. I left my wallet at home, too.’

I usually kept my wallet in my bag, and I tossed my bag to the side in the house before I ran away.

The only thing I had on me was my cell phone.

If I had at least a dollar, I could have spent my time in an internet cafe. I didn’t have a single cent on me.

‘What do I do for two and a half hours?’

If I just sat at a bench and surfed the web on my phone, the time would pass by quickly.

However, my data plan was minuscule because I was a student, and without wifi there was no way for me to go on the internet.

With no other option, I dusted off my butt and headed towards the playground located within the apartment complex.

* * *

I was calmly sitting on the swings at the playground when a passing neighborhood lady clucked her tongue and approached me.

“Student, why are you here alone?”

“I can’t go home.”

“Tsk tsk tsk. Did you eat?”

It was late in the afternoon, almost sunset.

I was a student on a swing alone with no bag, slippers on my feet, and I was still wearing my school uniform.

Did it look like I had some sort of story?

“No, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m alright. It’s really only that I can’t go home right now.”

“What do you mean you can’t go home? Were you chased out by your mom?”

“Yes……”

“Tsk tsk.”

She began to cluck her tongue again.

“I’m not trying to insinuate anything about another household’s educational methods, but how could someone calling herself a mother chase her son out while he’s only in slippers…? Haah…”

“……”

“My first son is a doctor, and my second son is a lawyer, you see. They grew up so well without me having to give them a beating……”

“Ah, yes. Now go, please.”

What was with the sudden bragging about her sons?

I thought she had come over because she was worried, but she was just a nosy lady.

[Your understanding of the character Choi Jaok has increased by 5.]

I got up and began to walk around the neighborhood to avoid the lady.

I walked around slowly in order to pass the time, but after a single lap I was already tired.

‘Why the hell do I have to go through this trouble……?’

I had been planning on spending a comfortable afternoon playing games, but that thing pretending to be Mom had ruined everything.

“Haah…”

I let out a sigh and I plopped down onto a nearby bench.

There was still a long time to wait before my parents returned.

That desperate and poor state of mine. Being a broke a*s student was so pitiful!

“……”

The word ‘poor’ suddenly made me think of Sunah.

‘It’s not like I have anything to do. Should I send Sunah a KakaoTalk message?’

Thinking about it, as I had listened to the explanation of the ‘manual ghost story’ the day before, I had swapped numbers with Gyeongwon and Sunah.

I had only met them at school and had not contacted them via phone yet.

‘Well, it would be natural if I said I was just saying hello while checking if the number worked, right?’

It was the first time I was sending a KakaoTalk message to a girl.

I was a bit tensed, but at the same time there was nothing unusual about sending a message.

I just had to send it.

Badump, badump.

Slip.

I slipped my phone out of my pocket and opened the KakaoTalk app.

After checking my friends list, I found that didn’t need to scroll. Both Sunah and Gyeongwon were on the first page.

At that point in time, I really didn’t have many friends.

‘I really spent my school life… in a completely boring way.’

It was a miracle that I had two friends that would walk with me on my way from school.

The reason for that was because of my unusual disposition of feeling lonely when I was alone, but wanting to be alone when I was with others.

Although there were no people who I was on bad terms with, there were also no friends that I was close enough to contact personally.

‘Hmm, Ahn Gyeongwon. Should I check out his profile?’

When I checked Gyeongwon’s profile, he had confidently put up a selfie as his profile picture.

“The hell?”

As if he wanted to emphasize that he was an intellectual, his mouth was closed and he was flashing his glasses.

And for his status message, he had put the quote, ‘You make your own luck through thorough preparation’, which sounded like something he found after scouring the internet.

“… How respectable.”

His face was pretty as long as he remained still, so he might have been popular with the girls.

Because he focused too much on trying to show off that he was an intellectual, he had such a strong ‘idiot who thinks he’s cool’ image that at school he didn't have friends outside of Sunah and me.

I clucked my tongue and checked out Sunah’s profile.

Everything was still the default settings.

The profile picture was the blue human shape that was the default when you didn’t upload a single image. The status message was blank as well. Everything was unchanged.

‘Is Sunah a ten-thousand-year outsider like me?’

[T/N: ‘Outsider’ is often used as a term for people who stick to themselves and avoid social groups in Korea.]

Now that I was going to contact them, I was slightly nervous. But I firmed my heart.

Let’s send a message to a cute girl from class!

I typed out a short [Hello] and pressed send.

‘Since I’m bored, I’ll send Gyeongwon a message too.’

Since we were both guys, I sent him a slightly more casual .

A moment later, a reply came from Gyeongwon.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: At cram school, can’t check phone.]

I replied.

[Lee Joon: Okay. Just tried out messaging you. Enjoy.]

‘He’s at cram school. It fits his image. I wonder why Sunah isn’t responding.’

I wondered what Sunah spent her time doing.

Then I remembered the collapsing apartment building she lived in.

‘… She said she lives with her grandmother. What kind of environment does she live in?’

Did she have a computer at home? A TV?

I was curious about what Sunah would do at home to kill time.

It was after I sat on the bench for an uneventful twenty minutes that my cell phone rang.

KakaoTalk~

[T/N: when you get a message through KakaoTalk, its ringtone is actually the words KakaoTalk.]

I checked my cell phone quickly and found that Sunah had responded.

‘Ooooh!’

In my excitement, I was making a scene by waving my hands around.

‘I got a KakaoTalk message from a girl!’

My heart felt itchy.

My mouth couldn’t stop smiling as I checked the message.

[Yoon Sunah: Yup, hello. lol]

I was sitting on the bench, smiling in a silly way as I looked at Sunah’s message, when some kids passed by. It made me quickly change my expression.

“Ehem.”

Sunah, you cutie. ‘hello. lol’ was too cute!

I tried to calm myself and type a response on my keypad, but my hand was shaking too much.

Why was I acting like that?

Was the effects of an all-boys middle school and all-boys high school really that bad?

Sometimes I laughed, or cringed to myself in embarrassment.

“Ah~ is this too short? Should I try sending a longer message?”

I was contemplating by myself while giggling. Then I started kicking my feet.

It was so exhilarating!

I felt a gaze on me, so I looked up to check. A cheese-colored cat was staring right at me.

“What you looking at, furball?!”

“Meow.”

I raised my phone again and sent a message.

[Lee Joon: Whatcha doing? lol]

After I waited five minutes, which felt like an hour, another KakaoTalk message came.

[Yoon Sunah: I'm just spacing out. lol]

Hmm. What did she mean?

There was no way she was actually spacing out. Was it some method of talk only girls used?

‘After that, how should I respond……?’

I kept pushing my brain, but I wasn’t sure.

How was I supposed to respond to that message?!

I was an idiot, so I didn’t know much about that sort of thing.

As I cringed and giggled in delighted worry, I accidentally drooled on myself.

The lady I met at the playground before saw that sight and rushed to me in surprise.

“Student! You’re uncomfortable somewhere, right? Where are your guardians?”

“Ah f*ck, lady! Just go! I’m completely fine!”

As I thought, that lady was really nosy.

[Your understanding of the character Choi Jaok has greatly increased by 20.]

After shooing the lady away, I quickly responded to Sunah’s message.

[Lee Joon: Oh really? lol. I’m stuck outside waiting for my Mom and Dad because I lost my keys. :’( ]

KakaoTalk~

The next response came quickly.

[Yoon Sunah: Oh, for real? :’( Outside where?]

Click, click, click.

[Lee Joon: I’m just sitting on a bench outside the apartment.]

KakaoTalk~

[Yoo Sunah: You should go to some internet cafe somewhere or something :’(]

[Lee Joon: I happened to leave my wallet at home today :’( ]

Usually, Sunah mumbled and extended the end of her sentences, but in her KakaoTalk messages her speech was surprisingly normal.

‘Is that obvious? But I’m the opposite.’

When I spoke to Sunah face to face, I spoke very comfortably. But when messaging her through KakaoTalk, I was weirdly anxious and my heart fluttered.

[Yoon Sunah: You don’t have any neighbors you can stay with?]

[Lee Joon: Yeah, I don’t… :’(]

[Yoon Sunah: What about your parents? When do they come home?]

[Lee Joon: I don’t know, in like two hours?]

[Yoon Sunah: Ah really? :’( There’s still a lot of time left. :’(]

[Lee Joon: Yeah.]

And then the messages stopped.

I waited for about ten minutes, but there was no response.

‘Hmmm, this flow isn’t good.’

I was going to spend time just talking about daily life, but when the topic of being out of the house came up, did it become too heavy?

The conversation had become a singular pattern.

‘It might seem like I was being too whiny.’

Sunah’s lack of response continued.

‘Should I try sending her another message with a different topic?’

But if I sent another message even though there wasn’t a response, would it seem like I was too impatient?

‘What should I do?’

I was uselessly immersed as I was pondering on what to send.

‘Hmm, if I do it like this… No, that’s too much… Like this? No, that’s a bit……’

Suddenly, I remembered the scene in front of the school cafeteria where I had grabbed her hand and she made a clearly troubled face.

Of course, right after that time had turned back, so it technically never happened.

‘Ah, I don’t want to make a useless mistake. I just want to be friends with her naturally.’

I knew nothing about what girls thought about.

‘How about I say this here… or say this in this manner?’

Ugh. My head hurt. I was thinking so much that my brain burnt out.

Some guys seemed able to hang out with girls comfortably, but why did I have so many thoughts?

‘What is she thinking now? How should I behave?’

Those types of thoughts continued to swirl around in my mind and quickly tired me out. Sunah still hadn’t responded.

‘Haah… Let’s stop. I’ll just sit here comfortably.’

At first, it felt good messaging a girl. However, as there were too many things to think about, my brain felt numb.

The disposition that the system explained I had, two-faced.

… Now that I thought about it a bit, I thought that maybe that explanation was just about puberty.

Although I had a lot of thoughts about looking good in front of friends, after worrying about my friends leaving if I made a mistake, I would think too much and end up not making friends. It was a paradoxical situation.

‘I’m tired. I’m really tired. This is why I can’t make close friends.’

Even Gyeongwon was like that.

Because he had high pride, it would be difficult for me to become his friend easily. I would have needed to continuously prove to him that I was also an elite.

Was there no such thing as a friend who wouldn’t leave me, no matter how I acted?

A friend who, even if I showed weakness, would just laugh it off instead of looking down on me? A friend whom I could trust?

A friend who I didn’t need to look good in front of, and to whom just being me was enough? That sort of friend?

Then I could stop the tiresome worrying and spend my time relaxing.

That was when…

KakaoTalk~

[Yoon Sunah: Then do you want to wait at my house??]

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