Ch. 63 - Ninth Ghost Story - Corner Game (4)

As I came to my senses, I realized I was standing in the clubroom.

Looking around, I saw Jinhee, Gyeongwon, and Hayoon were each taking their places in the corners as the game was about to start.

“Who will switch off the light?”

“I’m close so I can do it.”

The moment Hayoon, who was sitting in the corner near the entrance, put her hand on the switch in response to Gyeongwon’s question and was about to turn the light off.

“Don’t Aaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

At my sudden exclamation, the members all looked at me in surprise.

“Don’t turn off the light.”

Hayoon, whose hand was still hovering above the switch of the light, gave me a blank stare.

“Put your hands down. You shouldn’t turn off the light.”

“Why?”

“Something scary is going to happen.”

I thought that was enough to stop her from turning the light off. However, Hayoon, who had been staring blankly at me, soon tilted her head.

“Where are your manners, Joony.”

The corners of her lips rose slightly as she asked me with a somewhat coquettish look.

At her stubborn attitude, the corners of my lips twitched as I pointed my finger at Hayoon and was momentarily at a loss for words.

“Please Hayoon, put your hand down. You need to put your hand down so that we can talk….”

Instead of answering, Hayoon just smiled brightly before asking.

“Is there nothing more you have to say?”

I swallowed hard and whispered in a voice so that Sunah, who was outside, couldn't hear.

“Beautiful Hayoon, please…”

“Why do you think I'm beautiful?”

Hayoon, with her long black hair fluttering behind, asked as she lightly tapped her fingers on the switch.

Swallowing hard for the second time, I spouted out words at a rapid pace as if I was worried that if my members heard the nonsense I spouted, I would be teased to death.

“P, pretty skin… Since the first time I saw you… I thought your clear skin was so pretty.”

“……”

“You have long eyelashes and thin fingers…”

As if she was delighted to hear me praising her, she giggled.

“Am I as pretty as Sunah?”

Gyeongwon and Jinhee, who had already taken their places in the corners and were witnessing the bizarre situation, looked at me with bewildered expressions, clearly indicating they couldn't understand what we were talking about.

However, Hayoon just covered her mouth and laughed, as if she was happy seeing me momentarily speechless.

“Joony is hilarious.”

With that, she finally put her hand down from the switch.

I let out a sigh of relief inwardly as I quickly ran to the door and opened it, letting the light from the hallway enter the clubroom, brightening it a little.

Slid-

“Huuu.”

Only then was I able to breathe properly.

“Joon?”

Sunah, and the rest of the club members, who were waiting outside in the hallway, looked at me with bewildered expressions.

“Everyone, come in, quickly. We have to stop the game.”

“Why? Did you encounter any ghosts? Then, isn't that a good thing? That's what we planned to do from the beginning!”

Gyeongwon responded as if he was surprised by my reason.

“That’s true.”

Thinking about it carefully, I realized what he said was true.

From the beginning, the reason why we decided to play the corner game as an act of summoning ghost stories was to exorcise them.

Shouldn't I be glad if I did encounter something?

“Right? That was the original purpose for going through so much hassle. What are you saying now….”

That’s right.

That was what we planned to do.

However, the ghost story.

It was too scary.

“It’s because I’m scared to do it! Trust me.”

Gyeongwon shook his head with a sigh as if he couldn’t believe I was the one who was saying it.

The rest of the members looked at me as if they were dumbfounded.

“No, listen to me! That’s not the only reason. After turning off the light and circling around the room a few times, something would happen to you guys and you would die. You have to observe your opponent if you want to catch them. But I just blinked once and my neck was cut off…”

“But you have been handling things quite well so far…”

Sunah muttered quietly.

“I’ll stay with you, Joon… It’s okay.”

Mmhmmm!

“Hey, since we’re all together, everything’s gonna be fine. Why are you giving up already?”

Dukhun tried to encourage me, delivering lines that sounded like some cheesy lines from some cringy boy’s comic.

“....Joony is more of a scaredy cat than I thought. He even has illusions.”

Teacher Hwaeun gave me a sympathetic look.

“Idiot. What’s so scary about encountering some foolish ghosts…”

Jinhee spat as if she didn't expect me to behave like that and shook her head in disbelief.

“You guys don't know anything. You haven’t experienced it yourself. It was really f*cking scary.”

…. Although it felt like I was complaining, after wandering alone in the dark for so long and having my head cut off without me realizing, I felt relieved receiving such loving criticism from my friends.

Suddenly, I felt newbound hope in my heart.

“Let’s do this, Joon…”

“You can do it.”

“Don’t be scared.”

My hands naturally gained strength.

In the last ghost story, where I had to hold onto the phone playing a ridiculous riddle game with the science teacher.

I revealed the secret related to my identity and rebirth as well as the system to everyone and convinced them of the strange phenomena after returning back to time.

Thinking again, it was an excellent choice.

Now these guys are my comrades, teammates, subordinates…

We have become close friends, who shared experiences that no one can ever understand, and have the same goal that we were all trying to reach.

Hardening my heart, I soon made up my mind and nodded.

“....Okay. Then let’s fight. Let’s find a way together.”

“Okay, boss! First, explain the situation from the beginning again.”

“This is what happened. When Hayoon first turned off the light, I couldn’t see anything and it was pitch black. With the ticking of clock, time passed by and all I could hear was the sound of socks scraping against the floor in the silence. After waiting for a long time, it was my turn…”

I tried to explain the situation again while trying to imagine the scene in my head as much as possible. However, after I had completed explaining, Dukhun, who had been listening quietly, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Um, but… is there a clock in our clubroom?”

“....A clock?”

Everyone looked bewildered.

“Nope. But why?”

“Then why did you mention the ticking sound of a clock?”

“Ticking sound of clock?”

I asked back with the same puzzled tone and expression.

“Did I mention that?”

“You did.”

“Yeah. You did…”

Sunah, who was beside me, nodded along, confirming my doubt.

For a moment, I became flustered and started explaining from the beginning.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. So Hayoon turned off the light first, right? And I couldn’t see anything in the pitch black darkness. It was so quiet that all I could hear was the sound of socks scraping against the floor. And then, with the ticking of the clock, time flowed by…”

“That expression of time ticking by. Did you just use it as a metaphor or did you actually hear it yourself?”

I stood there for a moment, speechless, before slowly whispering.

“....I think I heard it.”

As soon as Hayoon turned the light off, I heard the ticking sound of the clock in the pin drop silence where nothing else could be heard.

Gyeongwon, who had a thoughtful look on his face, soon flashed his glasses as he said after a while.

“I don’t know what it has to do with the Corner Game we were going to play, but a ghost story that is related to the sound of a clock ticking is coming to mind at your mention of hearing a ticking sound. I can tell the story if you would like to hear.”

“Oh, go ahead!”

Late one night, I was sleeping in my studio when I woke up to the sound of the clock ticking rather loudly.

The sound of the clock ticking, which I usually didn’t pay attention to, was particularly annoying at that time. I kept tossing and turning in bed at the irritating sound when I realized something.

There was no clock in my room.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I jumped up from the bed, and at the same time the sound of the clock ticking stopped.

People sometimes say ghosts can imitate the sound of a clock ticking.

“The sound of the clock ticking…”

As I remembered the situation, it was certainly quite bothersome.

However, I couldn't understand why it was related to the Corner Game, as well as our heads being decapitated?

Gyeongwon continued his explanation while raising his glasses.

“If I think about it again from the beginning, this Corner Game that we wanted to play didn't seem like your ordinary game. Perhaps it's a form of ‘spirit communication’.”

“Spirit communication?”

“Yes. A ritual to summon a spirit.”

A ritual to summon a spirit!

“Think carefully about the ghost story of this Corner Game from the beginning. If you circle around the four corners of a dark room, an unidentified person appears. Do you remember?”

“Yes. I remember it well.”

“Then, it could also be explained like this; to summon a spirit, you have to circle around the corners of a square room.”

That’s right.

When I listened to it for the first time, I only thought it was just a typical ghost story. However, when we tried to put it into action, it seemed something entirely different than other ghost stories.

It was like those stories where people say, ‘If you perform this act, a ghost will appear!’ which can also be replaced with ‘If you perform this act, you can summon a ghost.’

This Corner Game.

Perhaps it was a secret method or ritual to summon a ghost or a spirit.

“Last time, it was a curse… This time, it's spirit communication… “

“Yes. The Rothstein Corridor we’re trying to do just now, although it's known to be a game, it's actually a method to call spirits even though we haven't drawn any kind of magic circle.”

“....It does seem kind of like that.”

Placing a candle in the middle of the magic circle, occultists spin around in the darkness and perform a satanic ritual, which was extremely similar to what we planned to do to play the Corner Game.

“This story, I think it could be taken as a kind of ‘Spirit communication’ to summon an unknown spirit .”

It was a valid opinion.

“Then why did the door suddenly disappear?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah…”

At that moment, Dukhun stepped forward and answered for me.

“If you take it in terms of the game, when you enter a new stage, you usually have to kill all the monsters on that stage to open the passage for the next level.”

“Hmm.”

Crossing my arms, I got lost in thought as I tapped my arms with my fingers. After thinking for a while, I asked Gyeongwon again.

“But what exactly is spirit communication? It’s not a word I’ve come across often.”

“Spirit communication. This is… a general term to call rituals that can summon a ghost. Let me give you a popular example on that.”

Flashing his glasses, Gyeongwon asked all of us.

“Have you guys heard of Pen Spirit?”

“Yeah. We have.”

Everyone nodded at this.

Pen Spirit, a popular ritual among teenagers where several students hold a ballpoint pen in one hand and try to summon a ghost.

It was quite popular among the youngsters so it was impossible for us to not know about this.

“Pen Spirit?”

However, Sunah, who perhaps didn't have any friends during her middle school, tilted her head in confusion.

“Hmm. Well, it's like the name of a game to summon a ghost. Just know that for now.”

Sunah nodded quietly.

I tried to organize my thoughts before asking Gyeongwon.

“So, even though it wasn’t mentioned in the ghost story, you want to say that the Corner Game we are trying to play is a kind of spirit communication, a ritual to summon a ghost, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

Gyeongwon nodded and added to his explanation.

“However, in spirit communication, although there are many ways to summon ghosts or spirits, it is unknown what type of ghosts would be summoned in the end. There are ghosts that just play along normally and continue to play the game like mentioned in the story…”

“……”

“....But, There are also vengeful ghosts that like to decapitate the heads of the casters as soon as they are summoned.”

Based on my experience just now, Gyeongwon muttered.

“....The quality is quite bad.”

I sighed involuntarily.

“But why did that happen? It’s a bit different from the story. ”

“...Well.”

Everyone tilted their heads at the questions that came to mind one after another.

“Okay. We should separate the topics before discussing. In the story about the ghost imitating the sound of a clock ticking, there was no mention of people’s heads being decapitated, right?”

Gyeongwon had a thoughtful look on his face at my question.

He seemed to be contemplating how to tie together the various scattered logics and present a logical explanation.

“There certainly isn’t such a story. But it’s so out of the blue… How should I organize this confusing information?”

“Hmm. I'll write it down on the whiteboard first.”

With that, I approached the whiteboard and wrote down the three strange phenomena that had just occurred to us at the very top of the whiteboard.

1. Corner Game (Rothstein’s Corridor)

2. A ghost story about a ghost imitating the ticking sound of a clock.

3. A ghost with only its head floating around. 4. (???)

I pointed to the third term and asked the members.

“Does anyone know what kind of ghost story this could be? In the darkness, a little girl’s voice suddenly warned me that a woman's head was floating in the air…”

"Eek."

Jinhee and Teacher Hwaeun flinched as if they were creeped out by the information.

"It's so freaking scary, Joony."

"....I'm talking about something that actually happened. I was scared too."

Nevertheless, Teacher Hwaeun should still be unaware about the strange phenomena that had happened to me.

Since she was someone who often got caught up in ghost stories, I didn't want to risk letting her know about the secret of my rebirth thinking that it would be dangerous if the secret was revealed.

And yet, teacher Jang Hwaeun was hanging out with us.

I was worried that she might think it was strange to hear about someone's head being decapitated and dying, so I laid down a little groundwork.

"...Teacher. We're all just playing roles, you know? Based on the ghost stories, we're just role-playing."

"What? Aren't ghosts really going to appear?"

However, Teacher Hwaeun jumped as if she couldn't believe she was not going to witness a ghost.

Surely, I didn't think she was seriously following our conversation.

“… No, well. You can take it however you want. I’ll just continue for now.”

I looked around at the members before asking again.

“What do you think? A ghost that floats around with only its head, decapitates your head, and takes your body. Is any ghost story similar to that coming to your mind?”

In response to my question, Dukhun suddenly stood up and approached me.

“I don’t know what kind of information President wants, but what you have written on the whiteboard, could it be… something like this?”

Snatching the marker from my hand with his thick hand, he began to re-write the terms I wrote.

1. Corner Game (Rostein’s Corridor) -> Spirit communication

2. A ghost that imitates ticking sound of a clock -> only imitates the sound and does nothing

3. The voice of a little girl -> warns about the situation

4. A ghost with only its head floating around -> decapitates your head and takes your body

I was speechless for a moment.

“That ghost with its head floating, it used your voice to speak after taking over your body, right? Then I guess the voice that warned you that your head would be blown off must have been from another ghost.”

“....Yes.”

Looking at it this way, I thought I could understand the whole picture a little bit.

‘If I reconstruct the situation like this, this is likely what has happened.’

With the light of the clubroom going out, the Corner Game began.

While we were getting ready by circling around the clubroom a few times, a ghost that imitates the sound of clock ticking had already appeared.

The game began, and as the members' turn went by, soon it was my turn and Gyeongwon tapped me on the shoulder.

And then I move to the last corner, and after confirming that it’s empty, I move to the next corner to catch Hayoon. While I was busy thinking of playing a silly prank, my friends silently got their heads cut off in the darkness.

And then the little girl's voice was heard.

“The head of a woman floated in the darkness, giggling at her poor prey. The head of a woman floated in the darkness, giggling at her poor prey.”

And then as I tried to run away, the girl continued to warn me about the situation. And finally, I heard my voice after my head was cut off.

“I, Lee Joon, President of the ghost story club, was beheaded by a female head ghost. And my headless body was occupied.”

The line that resonated through my voice at the end didn't seem like the voice of a little girl, but rather a mature woman.

Which meant the female ghost used my voice to utter those words after occupying my body.

“I see. So, there were three ghosts in total…”

1. Corner Game (Rothstein's Corridor) -> Spirit communication

2. A ghost that imitates ticking sound of a clock -> only imitates the sound and does nothing

3. The voice of a little girl -> warns about the situation

4. A ghost with only its head floating around -> decapitates your head and takes your body

We summoned three ghosts with spirit communication in that short amount of time.

"This is our first time doing it, but we have summoned a lot."

"That's right."

A group of chuunibyou teenagers’ first attempt at spirit communication, and three spirits responded.

'Is this world full of ghosts?'

I thought of the characteristics of the three ghosts once again before opening my mouth.

"....But after looking closely, I think the only ghost we should watch out for is the head ghost?"

Gyeongwon also looked at them carefully and raised his chin with a look that said,

'This sh*t can't be true.'

"It's true, Prez. One ghost just imitates the sound of the clock and the other warns you about the situation all of a sudden. They don't seem to have any intention of attacking."

I quietly looked through the list before quietly calling out to the members.

"Guys."

Get ready.

"We are gonna do an experiment."

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