Ch. 5 - Second Ghost Story - Laughing Woman (1)

Trigger Warning: This chapter contains mentions of Suicide. Readers, please be advised.

“‘Manual ghost story’……”

“Is it your first time hearing it? You both look like you don’t know about it.”

“Yeah, it’s my first time hearing it…”

“Then it might be better just to show it to you. Give me your number and I’ll send you the link through KakaoTalk.”

“Sure.”

[T/N: KakaoTalk is a very popular messenger app used widely in Korea.]

Since the topic came up, the three of us swapped cell phone numbers.

“Okay, my cell number is 010…”

“Mine is…”

While exchanging numbers, one person was obviously enjoying it.

It was Sunah.

Was she happy that she could make friends so easily on the first day of the new semester?

No longer blushing, she smiled brightly as she saved my number on her phone.

“Okay, I just copied the link and sent it. Give it a read if you’re curious.”

The ‘Manual ghost story’ that Gyeongwon sent us was an announcement flier with information of a dormitory for newly admitted office workers.

[Employment Announcement Congratulations on your employment at Clover Industries.

To those who hope to apply for the on-site apartments, please apply using the methods below.

Subject Applicants: Those in good health who are newly employed, as of 2019.

On-Site Apartment Application Period: 2019.01.28 (Mon) ~ 2019.02.22 (Fri).

Required Documents: Health Certificate (Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B), Photo ID Upon submission, fax to the manager in charge of Clover Pharmaceutical.

Submission Method: Clover App → Employee Menu → On-Site Apartment → On-Site Apartment Entrance Application New employees must call the Human Resources Department to verify your data before applying through the app.

Precautions During Application: Said apartment was constructed for the sole use of employees through Clover Industries’ own money and resources. Please remain grateful.

Should your family be religious, your application will be denied.

When visiting the supervisor to submit the documents, all time-keeping items must be kept with the security agent before the visit.

Notice After Moving In: After moving into the apartment, cancellations due to health reasons such as auditory and visual hallucinations are not permitted.

For safety reasons, units at both ends of the hallways are always empty. Even if the lights are on or sounds can be heard, please ignore them.

The apartment has no fourth floor for religious reasons. Should the elevator stop at the fourth floor, please commit suicide before you get caught.

Entry and exit using the stairs at night is forbidden. Should you be forced to use the stairways, you must crawl on all fours at all times.

For All Other Questions: On-Site Resource Team: 0xx) xxx -xxxx

Clover Pharmaceutical: 0xx) xxx - xxxx]

Even after briefly reading through it, there were a lot of suspicious points about this announcement.

Once it seemed like I had read through all of it, Gyeongwon asked his question.

“Did you figure out which parts are weird?”

“Hmm, wait a moment……”

‘First, when applying for on-site housing, it is suspicious that one must visit the pharmaceutical department.’

The lines after that were filled with weird points.

“… Do you think they are performing live experiments on the new employees who move into the dormitories?”

“Oh ho!”

Gyeongwon flashed his glasses in surprise.

“That’s quite the sharp thinking, despite it being your first read through.”

“Haha, well… I just made a guess. But I don’t think that was the right answer.”

“It depends on how you perceive it.” Is slipping in suspicious statements into these official announcements the ‘Manual ghost story’ that had recently become popular?

Sunah also stared intently at her phone screen, scrolling up and down numerous times.

“Gyeongwon, just like last time with the broadcast announcement, you seem to know a lot of scary stories.”

He pushed up his glasses and smiled brightly after hearing what I said.

“Originally, I enjoyed mystery and suspense. But as I began reading stories of that genre, I got to know a lot about horror, since it’s a related genre.”

“Is that so…?”

I thoroughly read through the ‘Manual ghost story’ again.

“So for this, what was the answer?”

“… Answer?”

He flinched, as if he hadn’t expected this question.

“Yeah, it might be an unusual announcement notice, but what’s the conclusion?”

“Ummm……”

Sunah, who was standing in front of him, also stared at Gyeongwon—seemingly curious about the conclusion as well.

That was right.

Shouldn’t a story have a conclusion? While there were suspicious points all through the notice, what story was it trying to tell?

“Even if you ask me that…”

It felt like Gyeongwon was now a bit embarrassed.

“Okay, hear me out. It’s not that I can’t tell you because I don’t know, but ghost stories aren’t supposed to have conclusions…”

“… Really?”

“Really.”

He nodded in a determined manner.

“This notice was something that a newly hired employee of Clover Industries secretly took a picture of and posted on the internet. It wasn’t something that somebody just made up……”

“Ah, so someone posted a picture of it on the internet.”

“So asking for the conclusion is a bit difficult. It’s not that I don’t know the answer to it……”

He was a bit embarrassed.

Maybe because he was proud of his knowledge, he was emphasizing that the reason he couldn’t answer wasn’t because he didn’t know.

But I didn’t understand his point.

Because I had no prior knowledge about the horror genre, I had asked such an amateurish question. It would be difficult to try and get me to accept the lack of a conclusion.

“Ghost stories are just short, fragmentary stories floating around the internet or somewhere like that. Asking for its conclusion is very difficult to—”

I waved my hands to show that I understood him when Gyeongwon struggled to explain it again.

“I see, I understand. Sorry, sorry. Because my hobbies aren’t usually about horror, I asked a question like that.”

“Yeah… I wasn’t struggling to explain because I didn’t know. It was just difficult to explain the point that there is no answer to that—”

“So, you’re saying that hiding these weird warnings within these types of official notices is what creates a ‘Manual ghost story’?”

After I cut him off and asked about my conclusion, Gyeongwon’s eyes sparkled as if he found things interesting.

“For a beginner, you understood the main point pretty well. You’re right. That is the scary part of the ‘Manual ghost story’.”

“Hmm.”

Clover Industries was a conglomerate that could influence the world, but couldn’t they be sued for spreading such a ghost story……?

Well, we could just leave it at that.

As for the printouts handed out by the school, the fact that it had also contained a hidden warning like the ‘Manual ghost story’ made me think that it was what I needed to focus on right then.

‘Beware of the laughing women.’

* * *

After briefly chatting with Gyeongwon and Sunah, we returned to our seats as the distribution of textbooks began.

‘This is a new feeling.’

Receiving the textbooks I had gotten during my first year of high school gave me an unusual feeling.

‘Out of all of these textbooks, none of them were of any help for the college standardized exams.’

With the exception of some of the early mathematical material, all of these textbooks had only the most basic of basics, which would not show up on the standardized tests at all.

‘… Actually it wasn’t only the standardized exams.’

Not only was the material covered by the textbooks useless for college exams, none of it was helpful for life in general.

When I was starting out working part-time jobs during the winter break of my senior year of high school, I remember having a difficult time due to my lack of knowledge.

If I had at least learned some of the labor laws, I would have been in more of an advantageous position. These thoughts were what came up during my time before the exam season.

Soon after, the homeroom teacher returned and made the closing remarks.

Everyone began to pack their bags and get up. The new students were struggling to shove the heavy textbooks into their bags.

‘Of course, they don’t know anything. What cute kids they are.’

The textbooks that we received for our freshman year, there was no reason to study them at home, hehe.

Instead of bringing the textbooks home, I just chucked them all into my locker. With my lightened bag, I prepared for dismissal.

Looking at the time, it was still only 11, not even lunchtime yet.

As I was about to leave the classroom, I could see Sunah hesitating as she was looking at me.

“…Excuse me.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Sunah was acting restless as she continued to stare at me.

She might be looking for a friend to leave school with.

‘I was planning to walk home alone so that I could collect my thoughts.’

Although I found it slightly bothersome, she was still a new friend I had just made that day. There was no need to act so cold-hearted.

“Sunah, let’s go together. Where’s Gyeongwon?”

“Over there, with someone else……”

Looking at the direction that Sunah was pointing, I could see Gyeongwon leaving with a large ‘Glasses+Pimples+Pig’ boy. They were heatedly discussing something.

Was it like that saying, fanatics get along with fanatics?

It seemed like they were speaking about some obscure hobby that I knew nothing about.

“……”

Sunah was giving me an earnest look as she fidgeted with her bag.

I spoke energetically to Sunah.

“Let’s go! Did you say your home is the Jugong Apartment Complex?”

“Yes, that’s right……”

“After we leave the school, we have to go in different directions~. That’s unfortunate.”

“Yes, it is……”

When I cleverly began to lead the conversation, Sunah had a relieved expression on her face.

Although I had unexpectedly ended up leaving school together with a girl, none of the surrounding students even seemed to notice.

Since it was the first day after becoming high schoolers, most of the students were busy trying to maintain their image.

It probably had to do with the people not knowing each other.

If Sunah and I continued to travel together after the students became more acquainted with each other, they might have whispered to each other about whether or not we were going out.

‘School brats really are shallow.’

I was looking down on the other students, thinking that I did not count as a school brat. Although I had not graduated yet, I had held a college acceptance letter in my hand before.

“Let’s go this way. We can cut through the courtyard.”

“Sure……”

Sunah and I naturally began to match pace with each other.

Gossiping while seeing girls and boys strictly as the opposite gender was also something you only really did until you graduated high school.

I heard that once you get to college, all of the guys and girls eat together naturally and get along. Although I was a bit regretful that I had returned before having experienced that……

At least Nakseong High School was a co-ed school.

Even with all of this… unexplainable ghost story, Demon King revival nonsense, being able to make friends with a girl as cute as Sunah at a co-ed school and go home together made my heart flutter.

“What do you think of the homeroom teacher?”

“N-not sure……”

“He seemed like a funny guy.”

“Yeah……”

Just like I thought, Sunah wasn’t the type to talk a lot.

It seemed like I would mostly lead the conversation, and Sunah would stutter in response.

Regardless, as we continued our conversation in this manner we somehow passed through the courtyard and reached the front gates.

Near the front gates, the security guard was checking things out as he stood around.

‘… It’s also been three years since I’ve seen this guy.’

Do I have to call it a hostile relationship? You could say that he had quite the ties with me.

At that time, I was so busy trying to survive that he was completely exasperating.

Now that I was in a normal situation, it was even a bit nice to see him three years in the past.

‘Of course, he wouldn’t know who I am,’ was what I thought as I passed by him.

Not long after we passed the front gates, I said my farewells to Sunah.

“Goodbye! I’ll see you tomorrow~”

“Yeah, goodbye~”

As Sunah walked in the direction of the Jugong Apartment Complex next to the school, I could see her looking back in loneliness as she carried her book bag.

That dilapidated apartment complex was built over thirty years ago.

Although some people did live there because of the rumors of redevelopment, the complex was like a haunted house where only the elderly lived.

The walls around the building were covered in vines, and none of the asphalt was intact, with grass growing through all of the cracks……

I hadn’t been inside before, but it was probably even more terrifying.

I had been thinking, ‘so Sunah lives there’, when I had a sudden thought.

The Understanding system.

I remembered that even if I couldn’t know something for sure, if I made a guess or just roughly went over things, it would still properly reflect in the system.

‘Can I make some inferences based on what I’ve observed about Sunah so far?’

After taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I speculated on a statement by myself.

‘Yoon Sunah is struggling.’

No response.

‘Yoon Sunah is poor.’

Still no response.

I considered using more offensive words for a moment.

Although I did feel apologetic to Sunah, this was just something I was saying to myself in order to get accustomed to the system. It’s probably alright, since the person involved wouldn’t hear it, and it wasn’t like I really meant it.

‘Yoon Sunah was born with a dirt spoon in her mouth. Yoon Sunah has no money. Yoon Sunah is a beggar. Yoon Sunah is completely broke. Yoon Sunah is……’

[T/N: STOP INSULTING my baby Sunah.]

I tried saying things randomly, but of course there was no response.

Was randomly trying to figure things out not allowed?

As I watched Sunah move further away, I again tried to collect my thoughts.

‘Let's see… first, Sunah is slow to speak or act.’

No, rather than just slow, she seems very awkward with human relationships.

I’ve seen her spend a lot of time acting hastily or hesitantly over nothing.

‘… Has she spent a lot of time alone?’

I don’t think her personality was originally like that.

Although there are some people who are awkward with human relationships because they were more comfortable alone, Sunah seemed different. She was clearly joyful when she made a new friend.

Then that meant that the reason Sunah was awkward with people was an extrinsic reason.

‘Could the reason be her household situation?’

Anyway, it was just guesswork in order to get accustomed to the understanding system.

There was no reason to feel guilty about just making some conclusions, right?

I decided to try to make a conjecture.

‘Yoon Sunah’s household is poor. Therefore, during her school days, she probably had a lot of problems with her relationships with friends. That led to her confidence being worn down, to the point that it became the reason for her reserved personality.’

Ding.

[Your understanding of the character Yoon Sunah has greatly increased by 30.]

“……!”

I succeeded!

And it was a great increase at that!

“… So this works.”

It seemed like I was somehow able to guess it correctly.

I wanted to check Sunah’s Status Window to see what had changed.

However, Sunah had already entered the apartment complex. She couldn’t be seen anymore, so there was no way to open her Status Window.

‘I should check it at school tomorrow.’

I decided that I should prioritize understanding the system.

Finally, I turned around and headed home.

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