Ghost Story Club

 

“What do you say? If it’s not troublesome, maybe it would be okay to go and ask the teacher.”

I wanted to know more about the ghost story and resolve it if possible, so I asked Jinhee for her opinion.

“Hmm. Is that really necessary to do that…”

“Does that teacher still work at that school?”

“Yeah. She still works at that school. One of the kids I used to hang out with often came by a few weeks ago and said so.”

“Then I guess you can ask him for your teacher’s contact information.”

“Can’t. He’s currently at a juvenile detention center.”

Jinhee answered nonchalantly, she seemed to be pondering whether she should get involved in the matter or not.

Then Dukhun stepped in and urged her once more.

“It could be that your teacher is also involved in the ghost story. If we contact her and manage to successfully solve it, we’d get points and also resolve this frustrating situation. Killing two birds with one stone.”

“That’s… I used to be such a bother to the teacher when I was at school, so it feels a bit awkward to go meet her again.”

Judging by her embarrassed expression, she must have a guilty conscience for what she did during her young days.

“But you’re attending a highschool and even doing a part-time job to earn money now. I think she’ll be happy to hear about your recent situation.”

“….Is that so?”

“Obviously. A teacher feels blessed when her students come to visit her.”

Jinhee finally nodded quietly to my persuasion.

“Then should we go tomorrow?”

“Okay. Let’s go together!”

After that, we promised to visit the elementary school Jinhee graduated from together after school tomorrow and left her house.

“Bye.”

“Jinhee, work hard at your part-time job~”

“Uh-huh~”

Jinhee wore her slippers and came down to see us off. Everyone greeted her and headed for their homes.

Those who wanted to walk home headed there by foot. And those who wanted to take the bus, got into the bus. Everyone went their separate ways like this.

Since we were going in the same direction, Gyeongwon took the Gwanak 05 village bus with me.

Beeeeeeeepp-

Amidst the crowd of passengers who were trying to go to their respective destinations in the rush hour, we struggled to hold our balance.

Even on the bus filled with people, Gyeongwon was holding his phone with one hand and was diligently searching for something.

“What have you been looking for?”

“It’s just… No matter how much I think about it, it seems like a ghost story. I’m looking for some information.”

On the speedy bus that was swaying from left to right, Gyeongwon’s gaze was fixed on his smartphone.

“Strange phenomenon? What is this… Huh-”

“Be careful.”

The bus suddenly pulled over, so I quickly grabbed Gyeongwon’s bag to help him stabilize his staggering body so he wouldn’t fall.

Come to think of it, I was curious about something as well, so I asked Gyeongwon in a sotto voice, who was focused on his phone.

“….What do you think?”

“What?”

“This strange phenomenon.”

I spoke quietly so that the other passengers on the bus wouldn’t hear.

“Doesn’t it seem like we’re experiencing too many strange phenomena nowadays?”

“….That’s right.”

Gyeongwon put his phone in his pocket and nodded.

“You must have noticed it as well and was concerned. It’s been quite frequent.”

“What do you think? Is it really the Demon King who is doing this?”

“Hmm.”

Inside the swaying bus, his gaze was set out at the setting sun through the window, lost in thought.

Seeing Gyeongwon pondering so deeply, I mentioned a few of the odd things I had noticed before.

“Last time, in the corner game, it turned out to be a form of spirit communication. To be honest, I thought it was ridiculous that we succeeded in summoning three ghosts at once just at the first try. And we just heard the rumors about MineCraft this weekend, but they were all jumbled together to the point where it felt intentional…”

Gyeongwon’s expression turned solemn.

He just nodded instead of answering.

Beeeep, screech.

“Let me get off please~”

An old lady pushed through us and passed by.

The bus started once again.

Standing by the window, we watched the alleys passing by as the bus drove downhill.

“According to my observation so far, Prez.”

Gyeongwon slowly opened his mouth.

“Strange forces inside the school, and Clover Corporation outside the school… Organizations related to ghost stories have existed from the beginning, but I think it’s the work of the Demon King to bring them together and get us involved.”

“…Hmm.”

The sunset coming in through the window shone on Gyeongwon’s glasses, making them sparkle like diamonds.

“Beneath the playground, something is lying in wait, watching us closely. Watching our every move. And whenever we stumble upon a situation that could be linked to ghost stories, it intertwines everything and plots to kill us.”

“The Demon King…”

I also nodded slowly.

Even if I were the Demon King, if my targets were performing spirit communication on their own,

I would’ve immediately intervened and sent ghosts to kill them.

‘… In that case, it makes sense that we’d encounter ghost stories as soon as we set out to find them.’

“But we have to be careful, Prez.”

Gyeongwon muttered with a serious expression, pushing up his glasses.

“There were some ghost stories that were definitely sent by the Demon King, but there were also a few that weren’t.”

“…. You’re right.”

“The ghost stories that you encountered during the first week of the entrance ceremony and shared with us. And also in the cases of Fourincess and Corner Game, it was definitely the Demon King who sent them or made them up when the situation arose. There was no connection to outside forces, neither the teachers got involved. However…”

As my stop was approaching soon, I slowly prepared to get off. But I still listened carefully to his explanation.

“The curse that the science teacher put on you but died instead. That happened without any sort of involvement from the Demon King. It was the teachers, who were ordinary humans, who decided to perform such an act from the beginning to the end.”

“….I think so too.”

“And the incident that happened this weekend, where our consciousnesses were pulled into the game was also quite similar. The Demon King may have used some tricks to make the ghost story become true, since the game already had the potential to be a nuisance before we even began playing. However, the game, which is a ghost story itself, was already made 10 years ago. Do you understand what that means?”

I nodded with a serious expression as if I understood.

Certainly, even though the system has collected them, those ghost stories were originally legends that existed in this world.

“The Demon King, the school, and the Clover Corporation. These three separate enemies are intertwined and working together to harm us.”

And judging by the fact that the Demon King has no qualms about killing teachers, ironically, they don’t seem to be on the same side.

From now on, I fear how these three beings will be intertwined and entangled with each other.

And amidst the chaos, will our little Ghost Story Club be able to protect itself.

* * *

By the time I returned home, it was already evening.

Perhaps my mother was grilling fish, the savory aroma of grilled fish filled the hallway.

“I’m home~”

“Did you hang out with your friends?”

My mother’s voice greeted me from the kitchen.

“Yes, haha. I was with the club members.”

“Okay~ Wash your hands and come eat, dear.”

“Okay~”

After putting down my bag and changing from my school uniform into comfortable clothes, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. When I came out and went to the kitchen, I saw my mother grilling fish and my father placing the dishes on the table.

“Mom and Dad prepared the meal, so Joony should do the dishes.”

“Yes, will do.”

Our family of three soon sat down at the table for dinner.

While piercing the fish with chopsticks, my father looked at me and cautiously asked.

“So, Joon.”

Cough, he cleared his throat before asking.

“How were your midterm grades?”

“Oh, that’s right!”

The announcement itself was made yesterday, which was Monday, but I had been busy calculating the points for the club members so I forgot to tell them. Therefore, listening to my father’s cautious enquiry, I smiled and confidently said.

“I got 15th place in the whole school.”

“What! 15th!”

My father put down his chopsticks with an expression of astonishment.

“Order chicken!”

Chicken?

“Honey! We are already eating, Ho ho.”

“Ah? Then let’s all finish dinner and go for a drive together! Dad will drive!”

“You are really! Ho ho.”

My parents were excited to hear my grades.

I thought back to my past life and realized the reason.

My grades were around 40th to 50th place during highschool because I worked hard for college entrance exams. However, in middle school, I was more relaxed and wandered around the 100th place, thinking it didn’t matter as long as I went to a good highschool and got a good subject.

From my perspective as a highschool graduate student, my grades were comparatively better than my middle school grades. And it wasn’t an incredibly surprising result.

However, from the perspective of my parents, who only remembered me as a middle school student and saw me having average grades, it was a big increase for a child to suddenly rank 15th from straight 100th position.

In the end, after the dinner, our family hurriedly put on our coats and left the house together.

“How can we have fun on such a nice day like this, Joon! We’ve already had dinner, so we can’t go to a restaurant or something. Should we go see a movie together? Or should we drive along the bridge and get some dessert?”

My father was so happy that he kept smiling and chatting even while driving.

“Haha. But that’s really surprising, Joon. I didn’t really expect much because I only saw you playing around. But I guess you studied hard secretly.”

My mother was also noticeably happy.

It was a really harmonious atmosphere.

In the end, they dragged me to the nearby Clover Departmental store, where they almost insisted on buying something for me. I managed to convince them out of it and reached an agreement to increase my allowance instead, and then we returned home.

Fearing that future club activities would cost a lot of money, I thought it was better instead.

“But I must say, you did surprisingly well. We’ve only seen you study so hard when you used to compete with Eunjung for better grades in elementary school.”

“Who?”

“Eunjung. Your deskmate, Kim Eunjung. Don’t you remember?”

“….I don’t remember.”

“She was a friend of yours, you used to study with her back then, and then the both of you ended up assigned in the same class. You both competed hard, even calling each other rivals. You don’t remember?”

“This brat, he even forgot his own deskmate and friend he was so close with. Even though she transferred to another school, she must be crying from afar. Poor kid.”

“Haha. That could be true, honey. Even when I look at my elementary school album, I can’t remember anyone’s face anymore.”

“You’re in your 40s! Joony is only 17…”

When I got home, I hurriedly went into my room and opened the group chat.

Even before I sent a message, the KakaoTalk chatroom was already chaotic.

[Yoon Sunah: My grandmother said that a friend named Eunjung stopped by my house while I was gone and left some drinks…]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: My parents suddenly asked me if I remembered a girl named Eunjung who used to attend a gifted children’s program with me when I was young.]

[Oh Dukhun: Oi, are you guys joking?]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: What about you, Dukhun?]

[Oh Dukhun: I’m fine…]

I also hurriedly typed a quick message into the KakaoTalk chatroom.

[Lee Joon: My parents just suddenly asked me if I remembered a girl named Eunjung who used to be my deskmate during my elementary days. They even said we were assigned in the same classroom, but she transferred to another school before graduation.]

[Yoon Sunah: Whoa]

[Oh Dukhun: *Goosebumps*]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: !!!!]

[Lee Joon: What about you, Hayoon and Jinhee? Did anything weird happen?]

No replies came from Hayoon because she didn’t even read the message. Even Jinhee’s side was quiet, probably because she was busy working her part-time job.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: What should we do now, Prez?]

[Yoon Sunah: Scary.]

[Oh Dukhun: Are you serious?]

Soon, I quickly started giving instructions to the members.

[Lee Joon: Ask them for more details about that friend Eunjung from when you were young. Find out what she looked like and what her personality was like. Also, check the graduation album or any other photos to see if you can find a picture of her.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Okay]

[Yoon Sunah: I understand.]

[Oh Dukhun: Ah, it has begun.]

[Lee Joon: Dukhun, you too, stop playing around and look for more information about her. It’s strange that some of us have related childhood with her and some are exceptions.]

[Oh Dukhun: Okay. ]

I also hurried into the master bedroom and asked my parents, who were changing their clothes, about Eunjung.

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Interpretation: Year 2022