Ch. 33 - Sixth Ghost Story - CSAT Banned Song (7)

Trigger Warning: This chapter has depictions of Violence. Readers, please be advised.

[I am buried under the third waiting room.]

The moment we understood the meaning of the phrase, chills ran down our spine as the room went completely silent.

Carefully, everyone in the room began to look around at each other. No one had any intention of speaking up first. The intense discomfort that sentence caused had silenced everyone.

“Ummm……”

After a while, Dukhun was—surprisingly—the first to speak up.

“There’s something that I just thought of, OwO~”

Everyone gave him a look that suggested he continued talking.

“Does anyone know about… Sadako?” [T/N: Sadako is the antagonist ghost from “Ring”. The Western adaptations changed her name to Samara Morgan, according to the wiki.]

Dukhun asked us as cold sweat began to form on his neck.

Sadako. I vaguely remembered hearing something about that.

“Is it that girl ghost that comes out on the television with that well thing?”

“Yeah, that!”

Dukhun quickly nodded at my answer. I wasn’t sure where it originated from, but I remembered seeing commercials and videos on the internet parodying the scene.

The television would depict a well, and from within the well a girl would crawl out, eventually crawling out of the television set into reality.

“Oh, I know that. It’s that ghost from the Japanese horror movie, ‘The Ring’.”

Once Gyeongwon chimed in, Dukhun got to his explanation.

“I will explain for the people who don’t know about it, UwU~. This is the plot for the horror movie, ‘The Ring’. There is a video tape possessed by a ghost, which kills the people who see the video. However, to avoid death, you can spread that video to someone else. Basically, in the movie, this cursed film ends up spreading like a virus all over……”

As expected of Dukhun, he seemed to be an expert on Japanese pop culture.

Luckily, I was able to catch what he was leading towards.

“The video with the ghost is spreading like a virus. Then, if we replace the video with a song, it will be similar to our situation right now.”

“That’s it, OwO~! That’s it!”

It seemed like most of us understood what he meant, but I reorganized it for Sunah and Jinhee, who still looked confused.

“This song that has been causing this chaos, it’s most likely that it is cursed by a ghost.”

“A cursed… song!”

“If we suppose that the story where people possessed by the ghost do things in reverse, the way that the song affects people and makes them do things in reverse all makes sense.”

It was especially true for the message hidden in the reversed song.

I was willing to bet that whatever made those lyrics was not human.

“Dukhun, for that movie, how did they stop the curse from spreading? How did the movie end?”

“Ahem.”

Dukhun started to think back.

“The curse started from the vengeful ghost, who shows up in the video. She died unfairly and was buried at the bottom of the well that shows up in the video, OwO~. In order to put the ghost to rest, they found the actual location of the well and gave her a proper burial.”

“Then that means that we just have to find whoever was ‘buried under the third waiting room’ and give them a proper burial to end this?”

Of course, the ‘whoever’ was clearly not a living person. We had to find the body that was buried under the ‘third waiting room’.

“Yup. It seems like everything clicks in place.”

“It definitely seems unrealistic, but considering the flow of what’s happening, it makes the most sense.”

“The third… waiting room……”

Everyone nodded in agreement with my hypothesis, which originated from Dukhun’s observation.

After all, if we just waited where we were, there was nothing we could do.

We had to get to that place. The third waiting room.

“But where is the third waiting room, anyway?”

“It’s not like there is only one ‘third waiting room’ in Korea.”

I spoke up positively as the conversation started to back in the direction of hopelessness.

“For that, we have to ask the folks who originally spread this song.”

“Who’s that?”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

“Fourincess.”

“……!”

That was right.

It was the new idol group causing waves throughout Korea, Fourincess.

They were the original singers of the song.

If it was them, they might know something about the abnormal phenomenon.

“Okay, so listen up. Although I’m not sure where the third waiting room would be, I do know where the creators of the song, Fourincess will be right now.”

“How do you know that……”

I responded to the question of the teacher.

“I saw a tweet on one of the member’s social media. Tonight, they have a live concert in one of the broadcast company’s music programs. The stage for that is in a dome building, and they are in one of the dressing rooms in that building.”

“I-is that so?”

Actually, I had obtained that information through lip reading, but there was no need to unnecessarily explain that.

“Everyone knows what we have to do now, right? Gear up.”

“Wh-what?”

The club members were growing restless.

“Go to the kitchen and bring anything that could be used as a weapon. Quickly.”

“Wait, Prez! What are you suddenly……?”

“We have to hurry, before this situation gets worse. It’s already past three in the afternoon. The sun might set soon.”

“Hmmm.”

The club members were restless at the news that we were suddenly leaving the school. However, we had rested well enough. Since we were certain about our destination, they decided to follow the plan.

“Soon, we will be face-to-face with Fourincess.”

* * *

A little bit later, Sunah was holding onto a large frying pan and twirling it around. Hayoon was holding a kitchen knife in each hand, comparing the two.

Soon, each of us had chosen various kitchen utensils like pots and pans to use as weapons.

Logically speaking, a bladed weapon like a knife or cleaver would make the best weapons, but only Hayoon had chosen such a weapon.

After all, a reasonable person would have a disinclination to stab someone else, so most of us had chosen blunt weapons, pots, pans, or brooms.

“Teacher, you have the keys, right? If you’ve all decided on a weapon, meet up at the door.”

In front of the locked steel door on the fourth floor of the cafeteria, I gave the club members another briefing.

“Girl group, song, broadcasting station, music program, dressing room, third waiting room, curse, corpse… There’s a great chance that all of these things are related to each other. That’s why we’re heading to meet Fourincess, the source of it all, to question them.”

“Got it!”

“We’re going to resolve this!”

The members all nodded.

Resolution, huh?

I wondered if they truly understood what they were fighting against.

I then told them something they would not be able to handle.

“Starting from now on, only those of you who can accept what I say should pay attention. I have the ability to go back in time.”

“……?”

The faces of all of the members that had been preparing to leave the school changed from resolution to awkward embarrassment.

“Wh-what did you say??”

“What?”

“Those members who went through the Dream Within Dreams together with me, do you remember how every time we died, we went back in time to the start of the dream?”

The three members nodded.

“I’ve been through the same exact experience a couple of times. Do you understand that? Even if we get out of school and find the solution to this weird phenomenon, I have no plans on solving it right away.”

I took in a deep breath and stated my resolution, whether or not they could accept it.

“After finding the solution to this phenomenon, I’m going to go back in time to before this chaos started. Then, I will cut off this situation at its roots to prevent this chaos from ever starting. That’s what I’m planning.”

“Wh-what…?”

The teacher, Jinhee, and Dukhun were making expressions of pure confusion.

However, while Gyeongwon and Sunah were slightly startled, they nodded their heads.

That was something I had resolved to do once I couldn’t contact my parents and saw the state of what was happening outside.

From what I had experienced so far, every time I had solved a case, a new checkpoint would be established.

If I went ahead and solved this phenomenon as it was, that would mean that my checkpoint, the place I would end up the next time I died, would be fixed after this occurrence. That would mean that my life would continue on with my parents having died and the nation a chaotic mess!

I would never be able to call that a win. It would be the same as saving the game after having made a mistake.

“Do you get what I’m saying? It’s fine if you don’t. Just remember this: if there are any members that fall behind as we flee, we are not going back for them. Don’t even look back. It’s fine to use violence against anyone standing in our way.”

Teacher Hwaeun froze when she heard what I was suggesting.

“I’m going to be turning back time anyway. Whoever dies doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is our destination. Only think of barging forward with that goal. In the next hour, we need to finish everything up. No one should hesitate or stop.”

They might not have understood exactly what was happening, but because of my life-or-death resolution, everyone seemed swayed to my pace. They all slowly nodded.

“After the explanation, we will open this door and rush down to the first floor. From there, we will head to the parking garage next to the cafeteria where the Teacher's car is parked. We will be using that to leave through the front gates.”

“Roger!”

“Unfortunately, the front gate is currently closed. While the car is stopped in front of the gate, someone will have to get that gate open. That is our first hurdle. Understood?”

With tense expressions, everyone gripped their weapons tighter.

“During the time we are trying to get the gates open, we have no idea what could happen. The person who leaves to open the gates might not be able to join back with the rest of the group. Even if that is the case, we are leaving them behind.”

“……”

“After that, it’s a straight sprint to ChungDam neighborhood in the city center, where the broadcast company is located. After parking at the lot next to the dome-shaped building, we will go and find the dressing room. End of explanation. Is everyone ready?”

I could see Gyeongwon’s hands shaking as he gripped his frying pan even tighter.

“I’m opening the door. Be ready!”

Without giving the members the opportunity to hesitate, I opened the steel door.

Creak-

As soon as the door opened, the truck driver that delivered the ingredients to the cafeteria could be seen. He must have been unable to escape the school before being infected. He had been silently staring out the window before he swung his head in our direction at the sound of the door.

“F*ck…!”

The moment he was about to open his mouth and start singing…

“Yaaaaah!!”

I quickly flung a large glass bowl at him.

Crash!

The bowl smashed into the driver’s face and shattered into pieces. Before he could do anything more, the impact sent him smashing into the floor and he rolled around.

In order to prevent any of the members from hesitating to hurt the others, I had shown them an example first.

“Now, follow me!”

I stood at the front again and hurriedly led them down the stairs. Because it would be impossible for the seven of us to sneak down all those stairs undetected, we prioritized speed over stealth.

Third floor.

Second floor.

Although there had been a couple of students in the cafeteria on each floor, because we had gone down the stairs so quickly, they didn’t seem to notice.

Once we got to the first floor, we saw the familiar face of a male senior.

“Guys! Urgent news, urgent ne-”

“Shut the f*ck up!”

With a shout, Jinhee jumped from the top of the staircase and smashed a frying pan onto the top of his head.

Tung-!

With the refreshing ringing of the pan, the senior collapsed onto the floor.

“This way! I parked my car here!”

With the teacher leading the way, we ran out into the parking garage. We looked around the outside of the parking garage as we followed behind her. There were a few students already outside, and we could see that they were running towards us, having discovered our group.

“Let’s split up! We’ll block the entrance to the parking garage!”

The few of us who could fight, Jinhee, Dukhun, and me, were defending the entrance to the garage, while the rest would help Teacher Hwaeun search for her car.

“Turn off that musiiiiiiic~ It keeps ringiiiiiiing~”

One male student was the first to arrive and started to swing a paper cutter behind his back.

“F*cking moron.”

Of course, his accuracy was zero. I dodged to the side and kicked behind his knees.

Smack!

“Kyak-!”

After the guy collapsed, Dukhun stomped on his head with his heavy legs, literally pulverizing him.

“Useyagare~!”

Crunch.

With over 220 pounds smashing down onto his head, after the student convulsed a bit, he stopped moving.

“Oh my god~ sister~! You have to listen to this sooooong~!”

After that, a pretty female upperclassman came running over with her cellphone out, blouse undone.

The noisy melody of the hook of the song was ringing from the phone.

“Urgh! Damn it.”

Jinhee made an expression that was slightly blank before immediately regaining her poise.

“Sister~!”

Jinhee took a step towards the girl running towards us, leapt into the air, and landed a spinning kick.

Thud.

With the added momentum of her running, the girl’s neck twisted backward and she collapsed under the power of the clean kick.

Crash.

“Damare~!!”

Dukhun rushed over to the phone still noisily blasting the music and stomped on it until it stopped playing.

Vroom, vroom-

From behind, we could hear the sounds of a car. Once we turned around, we could see Teacher Hwaeun’s car slowly moving toward us, a couple of infected teachers clinging to the side and tapping on the windows.

“Teacher Jang! Listen to this soooong! I hear it’s the newest faaad!”

“Kyaaaah! Kyaaaah!”

From within the car, the sound of scared students could be heard.

“Teacher Jang, even you can get married if you keep up with this fad! Quickly! Try listening to it!”

“Jinhee!”

Jinhee nodded in response to my shout, and with a mutual understanding, she ran towards the car.

“Teacher Jang Hwaeun!!!!”

“Kyaaaaah!”

Hayoon started to stab the hands of the teacher hanging onto the back seat window of the car as Jinhee swung her frying pan at the heads of the infected teachers.

Stab, slash.

Tong, tung-!

“Uuaaack!!”

“Young lady! How old are you?! And you dare to attack your elder?”

The teachers all collapsed, some gripping their hands while others gripping their heads. Using this opportunity, Dukhun and I ran and pushed those teachers away from the car.

Shove-!

“Aaaah!”

Afterwards, we immediately tried to get into the car.

“Damn! There’s no room! Dukhun, get in the front seat!’

“Hai!”

Teacher Hwaeun was in the driver’s seat and Dukhun was in the passenger seat.

In the back, Sunah, Gyeongwon, Hayoon, Jinhee, and I were all squeezed in. A total of five people.

Having been the last one into the car, I somehow ended up squishing Sunah due to the lack of space.

“Eek, Joon……!”

“Sorry, Sunah! Once we get out of here, let’s swap seats!”

I tried my best to support my weight by hanging onto the headrests of the front seats, and the teacher stepped on the gas.

“We’re all in, right? I’m going right through to the front gates!”

As she accelerated, all of our bodies jerked back

“Kyaaaah!”

“Uwaaaaah!”

Crash-!

The car holding the seven of us smashed through the barricade and sped out of the garage.

“Hey! Listen to this song!”

Up ahead, the infected students and teachers began to run in our direction.

Despite all of the chaotic swerving of the car, I managed to notice that someone was opening up the front gates.

“Teacher! The front gates! Somebody is opening them up! I think we can just go through them directly!”

“What? Oh, it’s true!”

Teacher Hwaeun turned the wheel to head towards the front gates, but because of how suddenly the situation had changed and the speed of the car, the angle wasn’t quite right.

“I can’t get the right angle! I’m going to have to make another round! Hold on tight!”

Passing by the students running around like some sort of zombie horde, the car drifted in a circle around the schoolyard, leaving behind a cloud of sand and dust.

“Urrrgh!”

“Eeek!”

As the car swerved and drifted, those of us in the back seat were subjected to utter chaos.

“Seatbelts! Seatbelts!”

Although I shouted about wearing seatbelts, no one was in the situation to actually put them on.

“Ack!”

Gyeongwon had his face smash into the headrest in front of him.

“Kyaaaah!”

The teacher started to scream as she finished her turn and rushed forward.

Some of the students were running in our direction, right in front of us. Soon, I heard them go over the hood, over the top, and onto the other side of the car.

Crash!

Bam! Tumble tumble!

Plop!

“Aaaaaagh!!!”

The windshield had some cracks, but it luckily wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t see.

“It’s a hit and run! It’s a hit and run! If you listen to this song, I’ll forgive you!”

The students and teachers continued to chase after our car.

“We’re going! Hold on tight!”

The car set a straight course towards the front gates and accelerated a bit more.

Vroom! Vroooooom!

Our bodies were forced back and Sunah was pinned under me again.

“Keuk, kek!”

“Sorry!”

We could see that next to the gates, the security guard was waving his hands frantically. It must have been him who opened the gates.

He had probably hidden in the security booth and opened the gates when he saw a car trying to escape, hoping to jump in as well.

“Let’s gooooo!”

We rushed past the security booth.

Vroom-

Bop-

We zoomed past the gate and over a speed bump, making the car jump into the air.

Uaaaaaaaah!

And after a brief moment of weightlessness…

Crash!

The car landed on the road and almost felt like it would break. We were finally out of the school!

However, the scene in front of us and the view of the city was clearly not normal. There were broken windows all over, and garbage and rubble were strewn about. Some of the broken windows even had smoke escaping outside.

Seoul was clearly a mess.

Vroom-! Vroom-!

Again, Teacher Hwaeun stepped on the pedal and accelerated down the road.

“T-teacher! You do know the way there, right?”

“Leave it all to meeeeeee!”

We were f*cked.

This person was clearly not in her right mind.

“Kids, hold onnnnn!”

"Aaaaahh!"

Us kids ended up screaming as the car proceeded to race down the city streets.

***

In the middle of the street, a crowd of people listening to the new song came into view. They were gathered around a noisy amp, playing the song loudly.

Crash! Boom! Crash!

A car completely crushed the amp as it drove past, dragging along some of the electrical wires for a little while.

“You p*nks! That was a ten-thousand-dollar amp…”

I could hear someone wailing from outside the car. Still, we never slowed down and continued from ShinLim Station to Seoul University Station.

“T-teacher! Please slow down a bit!”

“Kyaaaaaaaak~!”

Trash flew past us, and we barely missed several people. The scenery outside the window continuously changed.

“In front of us! An obstacle!”

One of us shouted. Teacher Hwaeun swerved in a rush, and the car continued on the sidewalk, smashing through mailboxes and street signs.

“Teacher! Slow down!”

“Kyaaaaaak~!”

As we screamed loudly, the teacher stomped down on the gas pedal harder.

A thirty-four-year-old old-maid did not believe in brakes.

Boom- Crash.

Some of the citizens on the sidewalk crashed into the car and were flung aside like dolls.

“Teacher! I think some of the people we just crashed into were normal!”

“It’s okaaaaay! The sidewalk is more spaciouuuuuus!!!”

“Ahaha, hahahaha.”

Even in this chaotic situation, someone was laughing.

When I looked around to see who it was, I saw that it was Hayoon giggling.

“Teacher, you’re so funny. Ahahaha.”

Even as she gripped the handle over the door with all her strength, her face turned red from all of her laughter.

Sunah was still behind me, but she had her eyes clamped shut as she hugged my waist and shivered.

Dukhun, who was in the front seat, couldn’t overcome the sense of speed and ended up gripping his seat belt as tightly as he could.

Even Jinhee seemed to be slightly fearful for her life as she grabbed onto the handle above the door and shifted her eyes around back and forth.

Gyeongwon seemed to have fainted a while back, as his body just swayed back and forth following the movements of the car.

The car soon dashed past a cemetery and turned onto the Han River roadside.

“Wheeeeeew.”

“Haaaa, haaaa.”

Vroom~

Luckily, the Han River roadside was empty. The road was quite spacious and there were very few things that could act as obstacles. Although we did occasionally see middle-aged people carrying radios as they chased fleeing teenagers along the jogging trail nearby, it was still a relatively peaceful path.

“Haaa, haaa.”

The teacher seemed to have calmed down as well. She started to slow down slightly as she drove.

Creeeaaaak-

Soon, we arrived in the ChungDam neighborhood. The broadcasting company building loomed ahead.

A car on the verge of disrepair slowly pulled up in front of the building.

Despite the car having been parked, not a single one of us moved from our seats.

We sat there looking around blankly.

Originally, it should have taken thirty minutes to get here, but it really felt like it only took us ten minutes instead.

Everyone had blank expressions, their hair turned into bird’s nests.

Teacher Hwaeun, who had been quietly holding onto the steering wheel, turned around.

“H-hey kids… We've arrived.”

“……”

After I powerlessly lifted my head and looked out the window, I could see a dome shaped building.

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