Ch. 19 - Fifth Ghost Story - The Neverending Fourth Period (1)

Mijin, who was an employee of the Nakseong High Administrative Office and a mother of a two-year-old, was dying of stress recently.

The situation began on Monday, when the school went through a short blackout during the entrance ceremony.

Using the blackout as an excuse, someone had willfully announced over the broadcast system that the entrance ceremony should be done out on the courtyard, so the administrative staff were forced to rush around with all the equipment to set up the ceremony from scratch again.

After the staff had barely managed to put the entrance ceremony on track, the handouts distributed to the new students had some weird message about avoiding some 'Laughing Woman' snuck into it. The administrative staff rushed to recall all the handouts.

‘If something like this is uploaded onto social media, the school will be in an uproar!’

When the Principal came into the Administrative Office and screamed bloody murder, Mijin felt as if her postpartum depression had returned.

[T/N: Postpartum depression is a severe case of postpartum blues, commonly called baby blues. Be nice to new mothers.]

‘The only thing that our Administrative Office was at fault for was that we distributed the files we were given. Why were you angry at us?! And who was it who broadcasted that the entrance ceremony would be held outside in the courtyard?!’

Although she wanted to flip the table on all of them, she knew that the teachers were considered above the Administrative Office staff members in the school hierarchy at the end of the day. It kept making her crave a cigarette, despite quitting smoking during her pregnancy, due to the stress.

March was already busy enough, what with the start of a new school year and handling personnel transfers. The strange occurrences happening with such shitty timing were about to drive her insane.

Thursday morning also had an unusual occurrence.

‘I think the phrase ‘possessed by the devil’ could apply here.’

On the fifth floor of the school, an unused storage room was discovered. The discovery was made almost thirty-six years after the school was first built.

‘This is crazy. No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.’

Possibly because even the teachers were dumbfounded, they did not issue a complaint at the time. But for the Administrative Office, who was supposed to take care of the facility, the discovery made their hearts drop.

Mijin was so astounded that she and a colleague had skipped eating lunch altogether to find and check the old blueprints to the school building.

Although Mijin’s mind was filled with imaginary scenes of some troll secretly coming into the school to build another room, the storage room had been properly recorded. Unfortunately. It was called ‘Multipurpose Room 3’ on the blueprints.

‘Seriously, nobody knew anything about this?’

The room had always been there, but people passing by thought that it was a room with some sort of purpose and just went on with their day, ignoring the room’s existence.

For thirty-six years.

That was the result that the administrative staff had to accept. After they told the teachers that they could use the room however they saw fit, they decided to take their hands off the matter. They heard a bit later that the room was given to some club to use as their clubroom.

‘I wonder if I can use raising my child as an excuse to take another leave?’

As Mijin was leaving the school to go home, she felt like she was finally escaping the school and all the mysterious happenings within it. While crossing through the schoolyard, she turned back and looked at the ‘Multipurpose Room 3’ that had caused her such a headache that day.

In that room, Lee Joon was looking through the window, deep in thought about the future of the club members and himself.

‘We definitely locked the doors after we found it in the morning, so how did he……?’

Mijin decided that it wasn’t her problem anymore and gave it no more thought.

***

[2019 March 8th | Thursday, 11:35 AM]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts - 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 110]

[Causality Rate: 8%]

‘Huuuu… Why is time crawling by so slowly?’

It was Friday. When fourth period ended, it would be lunchtime, and after that it would be time for the first club activities period. I’d been eagerly waiting for it!

I started to jiggle my leg in anticipation as I waited in the classroom for the lesson to end.

The national history teacher, who wore a hanbok, was spending an unnecessary amount of time raging about the recent trend in the universities’ college exams, where they no longer reflect topics on national history.

[T/N: a hanbok is traditional Korean formal wear, usually worn during traditional celebrations. They are usually very colorful. Seeing people wear it in everyday life can be unusual.]

Through the small window on the classroom door, I could see some of the other students that had gotten out of class early rush towards the cafeteria.

“Also! Those Japanese b*stards would settle down on our country’s lands and dampen the spirits of our……”

[T/N: Due to geopolitical and historical reasons, South Korea, Japan, and China have a cultural identity involving a strong dislike of each other.]

‘F*ck, just end the lesson already……’

Ding Dong Ding Dong~♬

As soon as the bell rang, I joined many of the restless male students as they slammed the door open to rush to the cafeteria. The teacher's upset expression suggested there was more to be said on the subject, but the students seemed to think that eating lunch was more important than national history.

I dashed down the hall to try to get to the cafeteria quickly. Sunah and Gyeongwon quickly followed behind me.

“Let’s eat lunch quickly and go to the clubroom to hang out!”

“Huhu. You have to keep up appearances, Club President!”

Gyeongwon replied while adjusting his glasses. Sunah just smiled brightly in response.

I looked into Sunah’s eyes and nodded, and Sunah giggled a bit.

The three of us began to speed down the hallway when someone ran by even quicker, bypassing us and entering the cafeteria first.

It was our homeroom teacher.

The three of us sat side-by-side as we ate, and we could see many delivery workers moving around through the cafeteria window.

Fifth and sixth periods were Club Activity periods. As the club activities were fully independent and those periods were set aside for clubs by the school, many of the seniors seemed to have ordered food to their clubrooms via delivery rather than going down to the cafeteria.

Possibly because she was a bit jealous,

Sunah had stopped eating and was staring blankly at the delivery workers.

“Next time we should order food, too. Since we have our own clubroom and all.”

“Yeah!”

After finishing our food, we met our homeroom teacher on our way out of the cafeteria. He was rubbing his belly.

The homeroom teacher, after seeing us leave, came over and greeted us.

“It’s Joony Boy and friends. Did you enjoy your lunch?”

“Yes, we ate quite well. Haha.”

“That’s good. Are you going to your clubroom immediately?”

“Yes, that was what we were planning.”

Suddenly, the homeroom teacher put on a serious face and began to look both ways, as if checking to see if anyone else was nearby. After seeing that no one else could overhear, he spoke quietly to us.

“Then there is something that everyone here should know about.”

“……”

What weird thing was he going to say this time?

“In that clubroom there is something vicious lurking about. In order to get in there, you will probably need this.”

He then pulled our clubroom key out from his back pocket and handed it over to us, as if he were hiding it from view.

“I was going to give it to you during morning homeroom, but I had forgotten. Ohoho.”

With that, he walked away while rubbing his belly.

“Uh, we already opened the door yesterday……”

Sunah mumbled to herself.

“But with this, we can lock the clubroom when we are not using it. There is nothing bad about receiving the key.”

I matched my words to Gyeongwon’s comment.

“Since it’s possible that someone could steal from our clubroom, he’s right.”

“W-well, I guess that is true……”

“Since our homeroom teacher was setting the tone so seriously, I thought he was giving us something amazing. My gosh. Didn’t you get that feeling, too?”

“Yeah, me too.”

The sleep-inducing noon sunlight was peeking through the curtains in our clubroom slightly. The three of us were sitting in the chairs, sharing all our scary stories with each other.

“Some hiker was climbing a mountain when he had lost his way. Soon, it was nighttime, and he barely managed to find a cabin where he could rest. Within the cabin, there were many portraits of scary looking faces… Still, he managed to go to sleep. But when he woke up, he discovered that there were no portraits… Just a lot of windows.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“How was it……?”

I nodded my head in response to Sunah’s question. Gyeongwon was next.

“They say that divers have several taboos that they keep to themselves. Besides some of the more obvious ones, such as never going into the ocean when it’s raining, they have one taboo in particular that is very unusual. If someone discovers a corpse in the water, if the corpse is upright—as if it were standing up—they must never touch the corpse.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“At least, that’s what they say.”

It was Sunah’s turn next.

“A bunch of friends went camping, and when looking through their pictures, there was one picture where they all were sleeping……”

It was Gyeongwon’s turn again.

“In a certain region of Seoul, if you turn through the radio channels, you can find one channel where a woman is endlessly mumbling to herself. However, no one has been able to interpret what that woman is actually saying……”

“There was a weird feeling from under the bed, so when she checked under it……”

“When they checked the evidence for the conspiracy theory of NASA faking the moon landing……”

Sunah and Gyeongwon continued to tell the ghost stories they knew. I tried my best to put each of the stories they told into my memory. Sunah usually told supernatural ghost stories, while Gyeongwon tended to tell urban legends or conspiracy theories.

“Club President, are you not going to tell a story?”

“……”

I just answered honestly.

“Sorry, I actually don’t know very many scary stories.”

“Hmm, I was expecting that.”

Gyeongwon responded as if he were deep in thought.

“That makes me want to ask… Out of all the different clubs, why did you choose the Ghost Story club? I’m genuinely curious.”

“… I’m curious, too.”

The two stared at me straight on.

“You seem… To be uninterested……”

“No, it’s not that I'm uninterested. Hmmm, how do I explain this?”

Well, I was the one to draw the two in. They probably thought there was some reason that I made such a weird club. I actually only made it because of a quest!

“Hmm.”

I pondered for a bit. I, who had become the center of this club, could not appear to be thoughtless. Even if it was a very small group, a leader must not appear weak. If I did not stand straight and lead, the members could easily lose interest and scatter.

A leader’s role was especially important in a gathering based on a specific small hobby, like ours.

I put some strength into my voice and spoke.

“I might not know scary stories too well, but I’ve gone through lots of weird things in my life.”

“Weird things?”

When Sunah asked her question, I nodded.

“Yeah. I’m part of the experiential group, so to speak.”

Sunah’s eyes went round. Even Gyeongwon’s expression showed curiosity when he heard those words. However, it was difficult for me to speak on it further.

There was no way that they would be able to accept my words at that moment.

“… It’s a bit iffy for me to explain it now. I'll tell you guys the specifics when the time is right. Sorry.”

I roughly sidestepped the topic and went to the main point.

“Anyway, that was why I made this club. I have been through a lot of weird shit. And I thought that if I researched more into these ghost stories, I would be able to get to the root of the problem, which led me to creating this club.”

“……”

I did try to suggest that I was doing it because of my experiences, but my response was lukewarm at best.

Gyeongwon leaned on his chair with his arms crossed at my words.

“So, in the end, you're saying that you can’t tell us?”

“… Sorry.”

And so, silence fell between the three of us.

“……”

Suddenly, the atmosphere was uncomfortable. I tossed out some words to try and change the subject.

“Should we continue telling scary stories?”

“I’m good. I don’t feel like it.”

Gyeongwon spoke in a way that seemed to cross the line.

“… Why not?”

“The Club President, apparently, only wants to listen to the stories.”

“……”

Was he upset that I didn’t tell him everything? But if I told him everything I went through, I would definitely be treated like an insane person.

The Nakseong High School Serial Head Explosion incident.

The Laughing Woman.

The Mother Dilemma.

I did feel sorry about it, but it was best that I remained silent about it.

“Are you upset because I’m not talking about myself?”

Since I directly asked him about it, Gyeongwon responded with a frown.

“Well, that is a part of it. But maybe you have a personal reason. If you don’t want to talk about it, there is nothing I can do. I understand that you can’t tell us now.”

“Then what else is it? What’s making you upset?”

The b*stard started to sigh.

“Club President, you see… Like you said before, although I did get accepted to a specialized high school, I came to this school instead on purpose. Like you mentioned, rather than going to a specialized school and being in the middle of the pack, I planned to come to this lesser school and be the top of my grade.”

“……”

Well, I already knew about that. But what did that have to do with the current atmosphere?

“You get it? I was going to relax a bit when it came to studying at school. Instead, I planned to go around doing competitions and gaining other credentials worth putting into my résumé. Then, I would use that and the fact that I was top of my grade to jump into a top-ranking uni.”

“… We already talked about this.”

“If I were to go with what I initially planned, even if I were to waste a year cleaning up after my seniors, I would have joined the Academics Club and become its Club President as a second year or third year. I could have included it in my résumé, but I ended up becoming a member of the Ghost Story Club instead.”

“……”

“I’ll tell you the truth. I know more about ghost stories than you do, so wouldn’t it be better if I were the Club President?”

This young master was speaking in a provocative way, with his nose turned high up.

“… That was my initial thought. But making a new club as a new student is very difficult, and you were able to do it! Not to mention, you were even able to get us a clubroom as well! That was why I gave you credit and acknowledged you as the Club President.”

… Was that what made him upset?

“But now that I joined the club, it’s not that you don’t know a lot of ghost stories, but you don’t know them at all. Not to mention, the reason you created the club is iffy at best. Don’t you think that feeling upset is normal at this point?”

I did feel that I would need to prove myself to get along with such a prideful guy, but to think it was to such an extent. He had done me a favor and joined as a member…

Like I thought, I didn’t like the sound of that.

Since I was a bit annoyed at that point, instead of trying to explain my way out of it, my words ended up being a bit sharp.

“… As I said before, I’m more of an experiential guy. You might be a lot better than me in terms of knowledge, but I’m the type of guy who physically went through this sh*t. You can’t put me down like this.”

“That’s just something you claimed on your own, Club President. It’s not like I’ve seen you experience this so-called ‘weird sh*t’. As a member of the club, the only reason I’ve acknowledged you as Club President is because you were able to make the club and get us a clubroom as well.”

“… You got a problem?”

“Yes. A lot of them, actually.”

The air between us was tense, and Sunah began to look nervous.

“Haaaah…”

I let out a sigh and leaned back. Basically, I had to prove my worth as a Club President for him to let it go.

‘… Although the way he speaks is f*cking annoying, as long as I can prove my worth, he’s ready to follow me and accept me as Club President.’

However, I was actually being overvalued. The only good point about me was that I was good at using tricks and my wits.

‘… I would be more thankful if my cover weren’t blown.’

The three of us ended up sitting there uncomfortably.

‘To think that the situation ended up like this. How did it even come to this?’

The root cause. The root cause of the conversation was because we had run out of stories to tell, and we had instead started to talk about what was going on in our heads.

That meant…

“We exchanged so many stories, but the fifth period hasn’t ended yet?”

We looked around for a bit.

The sleep-inducing sunlight was still peeking through the curtains in our clubroom.

“Does the bell not ring during the Club Activities period?”

“Hmmm… Who knows?”

After I heard that, I tried looking out the window. When I saw the grounds, I realized something was off.

“Hey, guys? Will you come take a look outside?”

“Huh?”

Sunah came over first. Although Gyeongwon still had his arms crossed and a disgruntled expression on his face, he slowly followed.

“What do you think?”

There was no one outside.

“Why is nobody out there?”

“……?”

The soccer club, or the basketball club, or even the walking club… Someone should have been outside.

Although the grounds didn’t have to be packed full, there still should have been at least some people.

‘Status Window.’

‘……’

‘Status Window?’

‘……’

Out of habit, I tried to open the Status Window to check the time. For some reason, it didn’t show up. With no other option, I checked the time on my phone.

“Maybe… We were so into telling the stories… that so much time had passed… and everyone else all went home……?”

Sunah mumbled in a nervous manner.

“No. I think it’s the exact opposite.”

“Huh?”

I showed the two of them my phone—more specifically, the time.

“It’s not that time flew by too quickly. It didn’t flow at all.”

[2019, March 8 | Friday, 11:35]

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