Ghost Story Club

“I can’t believe you ate both the chickens by yourself. Stand up.”

Is he finally letting me go!

Hwaeun gasped as she stood up in anticipation. However…

“Sit down again.”

“Stand up.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Sit down.”

“Haah, haah.”

“Stand up. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down.”

In the middle of the night, inside the hallway of the apartment building which was illuminated by the bluish pale moonlight.

Jang Hwaeun started doing sit-ups at her student’s command.

“Stop. Turn around.”

“Yes.”

“Do 10 push-ups.”

“Hi, hiss.”

Lying on her stomach, Hwaeun struggled desperately, like a fish out of water, to push her body up using her arms. But her arms gave up only after two pushups and refused to budge anymore.

“Haah, huuh.”

“What? You don’t exercise usually? I thought that in sports clubs, like soccer and volleyball club, teachers and students work out together.”

“I, I wasn’t assigned to those clubs…”

Hwaeun, who was lying face down on the ground and panting, mumbled lowly. Seeing her sorry state, Lee Joon sighed and commanded her to get up.

“Get back on your feet.”

“Yes.”

“Jump 50 times with open arms.”

“Don’t jump too heavily lest you wake up the residents. And don’t jump more than 3 times at once. Start.”

“Ye, yes.”

Jump, jump.

“One, two… four, five… seven, eight…”

“Thirty one… thirty three.”

“You counted wrong. Start again.”

“Ha, one, two…”

Wearing the heavy trench coat and jumping like a monkey, Hwaeun began to sweat like rain inside the long coat.

“Haah, fifty…”

“Good. Turn around.”

“Yes…hick, hick.”

“I’m sure that the two chickens you ate today are digested now.”

‘No way’, Jang Hwaeun thought inwardly.

“Don’t do anything unnecessary after getting out of here and go straight home. Go.”

“Ye… Yes!”

Without wasting a single moment, Hwaeun ran towards emergency exit stairs in a hurry and climbed down the stairs so quickly as if she was being chased by a psychopath.

Lee Jun stood in his place and watched her running away.

When her figure vanished, he quietly sighed to himself and entered his apartment. Looking down the balcony, he saw his teacher gasping for breath and running out the apartment complex.

“Huu.”

Just as the sigh left his mouth, the sound of notification was heard in his head as messages from the system popped up in front of him.

 

[You have come across and survived a C-rank ghost story – Psychology Test.]

[You have earned 10 Ghost Story Points.]

[Current Ghost Story Points: 136]

 

However, he couldn’t help but frown at the message.

Why was there no message showing him that he had solved the ghost story?

He made her tired out like that, but it seemed she was still possessed by the ghost story.

Perhaps he should have slapped her hard just as Hayoon did. But he didn’t want to hurt his own teacher, even though she literally became a psychopath after being possessed by the ghost story and tried to kill him. Probably because he also played the role of a psycho, his brain had become a bit slow.

‘It doesn’t matter now that I have kicked her out. Everything should be fine now. She will come back to her senses once she goes back to her home anyway.’

Thinking so, Lee Joon went back to his room and laid down in bed. He was too tired being chased by a psychopath and almost getting killed, so sleep greeted him instantly the moment his head touched the pillow.

Forgetting that there was one more person who had taken the psychology test by the same eccentric teacher.

 

* * *

 

“Sunah, someone is outside… Sunah…”

From the living room, Sunah’s grandmother was calling her.

“There’s no one, Grandma… go to sleep.”

Sunah, who finally could have a good night’s sleep in a long time, thanks to Lee Joon for spending the afternoon in the clubroom with her after school and helping her spend her energy, rubbed her sleepy eyes and left the room.

“Someone is outside… Someone came…”

The old woman kept mumbling the same thing again and again while lying on the electric mat in the living room.

When Sunah looked at where she was looking, she realized that her grandmother’s head was turned toward the balcony, not the front door.

Feeling curious, Sunah approached the balcony and looked down, following where her grandmother was staring blankly.

As she looked down, she was surprised to see there was someone really standing there, just as her grandmother said.

Wearing a long trench coat.

And a hat.

Face covered with a stocking mask.

The strange man stood under the poor light emanating from streetlights of the old apartment complex.

Suddenly, the man looked up and pointed his finger at her as their eyes met.

‘He’s counting the floors!’

Remembering the psychopathy test she had taken in the afternoon, Sunah realized that the man wasn’t an ordinary person and more likely threatening her. Thinking that way, Sunah quickly entered her room and took out a pink boxcutter from the pocket of her school uniform.

The boxcutter was something that her parents, who had been taken away by the cult leader, left for her.

Her grandmother was barely alive now, with her broken spirit and sick body.

But this pink boxcutter.

Sunah always carried it in her pocket.

Like people with anxiety, who like to bite their pen, or twist their hair around their finger, or twiddle with their thumbs to calm them down.

Sunah also liked to fidget with the boxcutter whenever she felt anxious about someone trying to take something precious from her. At those times, she would put her hands into her pocket and touch the boxcutter to calm her anxiety.

If she felt too nervous or anxious in any situation, she would do that to feel calm.

Otherwise, she didn’t know what she would do if she lost control over her nerves.

‘I won’t let you take her away.’

A sick and unresponsive grandmother, but she was still the only blood left for her.

She was the most important person in her life.

Thud, thud.

Sunah’s ears perked up at the sound of strange footsteps climbing the stairs and stomping down the hallway. She knew that the strange person was coming to her house.

The apartment building was old, so the walls weren’t sound proofed.

That’s why, whenever anyone walked down the hallway or climbed the stairs, the sound was heard as close as if it was right in front of her.

Sunah waited as she slowly walked to the front door, preparing herself to greet the strange man behind the front door.

Her eyes suddenly landed on the reflection of the old mirror hanging on the front door.

The reflection inside the mirror was familiar but so unfamiliar to her. A child-like face with still existing baby fat, holding a pink boxcutter in hand.

‘…. I don’t like it.’

Compared to Hayoon, her desk partner, with a slim jawline and a slender face, she felt like her face looked somewhat chubby and stretched.

It was not only the appearance.

Compared to a normal girl of her age, she felt her mindset was somewhat distorted. As if she couldn’t see herself as a normal girl with her twisted personality.

Sunah’s eyes blazed. She didn’t think it was her fault.

Girls like Hayoon must have lived a comfortable life with everything she wanted. Living with her parents in a big house because she was rich.

A gold spoon. A gold spoon. A dirt spoon. A dirt spoon.

Sunah shot a deadly glare at the strange man over the door who was about to knock. If eyes could burn, her blazing eyes filled with anger would have already burnt the person to crisp.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Sorry for bothering so late at night, but I urgently need to use the bathroom…”

Swish.

 

* * *

 

“Teacher.”

Hwaeun, who found herself once again lying in the hallway of an old apartment building, tried to stand up in puzzlement.

“Why are you here?”

Her head searched desperately for an excuse for her being there. But her head only became dizzy the more she thought. Lying her head against the front door, she agonized over everything.

This time, she made sure her appearance was fully covered and the disguise was more than perfect. But how did she get caught again?

“I’m not your teacher.”

“Lies.”

Sunah scoffed coldly.

“Earlier… In the afternoon… In the clubroom… Joon and you were alone… What were you talking about?”

Is that what she’s worried about now?

Hwaeun, pretending to be innocent, asked a question as if she was dumbfounded while looking for an opportunity to attack Sunah.

“Why do you want to know what we talked about?”

“Tell me, quickly…”

Sunah slowly brought the boxcutter down to Hwaeun’s neck in a threatening way.

A cold sweat trickled down her forehead behind the mask.

‘I got caught again.’

Why?

She was sure that her appearance was that of a standard psychopath, who liked to torture their victims and play with their lives like toys.

However, she was suppressed by a useless brat, who was half her age once again.

“Tell me quickly…”

Sunah threatened once again, bringing the boxcutter closer to Hwaeun’s neck and pressing it down.

“Su, Sunah? Calm down, put down the knife for now.”

However, Sunah completely ignored her plea and pressed the boxcutter more on her Adam’s apple.

Just a little bit of force and it would be enough to cut the fine skin on her neck.

“Oo, okay. I’ll tell you… We were just solving the psychopathy test… the one I tested you too.”

“…Why did you go to Joon? And why are you dressed like this in the middle of the night?”

“I, I was assigned to supervise the students in the Study Room at that time, but I wanted to give the psychopathy test to Joon. I’m dressed like this now because I wanted to teach those students a lesson who made fun of me. Umm? Can I go now? I told you everything…”

After listening to her explanation, Sunah slowly removed the boxcutter from her neck.

However, before Hwaeun could let out a sigh of relief, she asked again with a terrible smile.

“Why did you go to Joon in the middle of the night…?”

“What? What?”

Feeling flustered, Hwaeun could only repeat ‘what’ without answering anything.

“Your clothes smell like Joon……”

What a crazy person!

Hwaeun looked around the hallway in a hurry to find a way to escape. The thought of attacking Sunah had already escaped her mind. There was no way in hell she could hurt someone who was a literal psycho, unlike her who only pretended to be.

On her left side was the wall of the apartment building.

She must go to the right side where the emergency exit stairs were located to leave the apartment.

“I, I see. It was nice to see you, Sunah. Bye.”

Without letting Sunah to say anything, Hwaeun hastily stood up and ran towards the way of the emergency stairs.

However, before she could take one step, her legs collided with something and she fell down to the ground. The next moment, someone grasped the collar or her trench coat and pulled her up. The enraged face of Sunah entered her vision as soon as she was pulled up.

Crunch.

“Answer me, Teacher…. Why did you go meet Joon in the middle of the night?”

The feeling of extreme fear began to grasp Hwaeun all over.

Why! Why!

Why was she being treated like this by some brats today!

Something inside her snapped as she finally couldn’t stand the anger of being beaten again and again by some children and asked angrily.

“Are you crazy? If you don’t know what’s going on, then why did you come out with a boxcutter in the middle of the night? And why are you even asking me about Joon?”

“Okay. I’ll answer you.”

Sunah smiled eerily as she spoke.

“What do a guy and a girl do meeting late at night? Something that a child like me won’t understand or be able to do. You must have had a lot of fun with Joon.”

The more Sunah spoke, the eerier her smile became as the corners of her mouth slowly rose weirdly.

Then letting out a giggle she said.

“Teacher… you need to be severely scolded by me…”

 

* * *

 

[A member of your Ghost Story Club used their incredible intelligence and repelled the ghost of the psychopath!]

[You have earned 50 Ghost Story Points.]

[10% bonus points for each contributing member.]

[Contributing member: Yoon Sunah]

[You have earned an additional 10% bonus points: 60 points]

[Current Ghost Story Points: 130 + 60 + 6]

[Current Ghost Story Points: 202]

 

As the sun rose, the ghost that possessed Hwaeun dissipated on its own.

Hwaeun, who woke up, found herself lying among the piles of garbage. Just as it happened many times before, she forgot everything that happened the previous night.

“Wh, where am I?”

The heap of garbage was situated at the corner of an old apartment complex where residents secretly threw away trash.

Hwaeun slowly rose up, holding her dizzying head.

“Trench coat? What…”

Looking around and at herself, she was surprised to find herself in such an old neighbourhood that she never crossed paths before.

“Crazy, how much did I drink yesterday?”

The last thing she remembered was eating two chickens she bought and drinking beer as she watched some shows on Netflix and giggled to herself.

However, the memory of which film she was watching was vague as she couldn’t remember anything. She thought it was probably because she drank a lot of beer.

However, she could vaguely remember having a nightmare where she was being chased around by scary children all night.

“Ugh, it’s hot.”

Removing the stocking mask from her face, she threw it away on the heap of garbage, as well as the trench coat she was wearing.

Could it be because she had such a scary nightmare?

She found that her trousers were wet.

She thought that because she sweated too much, her trousers got wet. But as she took off the trench coat, a foul stench tickled her nose and she immediately understood the origin of the wet stains.

Covering her bottom, she looked around in a hurry. Fortunately, there were no signs of people around, so she was saved from further embarrassment.

‘If people found out a teacher like me got drunk and wandered around a garbage heap like a homeless person, I would never find a husband.’

Throwing the trench coat and the mask, she tidied up her appearance as best as she could before disappearing in the rising sun of the morning.

Before someone could found her sorry state, she scrambled her way to find her home.

 

* * *

 

[A member of your Ghost Story Club used their incredible intelligence and repelled the ghost of a psychopath!]

[You have earned 50 Ghost Story Points.]

[Bonus 10% points for each contributing member.]

[Contributing member: Yoon Sunah]

 

What the hell is this?

The moment I opened my eyes in the morning, countless messages from the system popped up in front of my eyes, telling me that Sunah had resolved the ghost story.

‘Don’t tell me.’

That crazy teacher went to Sunah even after being punished by me like that.

Now that I thought about it, it seemed plausible since I wasn’t the only one who took that psychology test. Sunah also participated after me.

“…Oh, my God. Sunah is a ‘real’ psychopath.”

Unlike me, who had experience in handling ghost stories, Sunah was…

I wish she hadn’t hurt Teacher too much. How ironic it was that I was worried about Teacher Hwaeun when I should be worried about Sunah, who was half her age.

Anyway, the psychopath’s untimely appearance the previous night had come to an end.

 

 

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