Chapter: 72
In the old school building practice…
Everyone had been in awe of Seoyeon‘s ghost act, but honestly, she wasn’t satisfied at all.
What to say…
It was probably because she couldn’t fully grasp the fear associated with the very notion of a ‘ghost.’
Those feelings she felt while playing that horror game before…
Sure, they talked about jump scares, but beyond that, there was definitely a trembling something.
That tension.
The atmosphere created by a creature.
Seoyeon honestly didn’t think she nailed that vibe at all.
Jumping out to scare someone from the stairs?
That was exactly what she had tried to avoid in those horror games!
It’s not that jump scares are bad.
It’s just…
“Maybe I should look into some real horror films.”
Horror movies.
Even to someone like Seoyeon, who had learned about human emotions through various media in a past life, these were still a bit foreign.
After all, horror films assume that humans experience fear.
Naturally, for someone like Seoyeon who didn’t feel fear, the charm diminished significantly, and she hadn’t even considered watching any.
“Right.”
Seoyeon nodded to herself.
The last time she had felt really startled and scared was simply because it was all unfamiliar to her.
“If I just watch a few movies or play some games, I’ll surely get used to it.”
“Joo Seoyeon, the girl who doesn’t know fear!”
Even though she knew now, once she got familiar, that’d be it.
Her mind wandered back to recalls of her screams and wild antics during games, and her cheeks felt a bit hot.
“…That won’t happen again.”
Seoyeon made this resolution and started watching horror films online.
Mainly masterpieces that changed the paradigm of horror movies.
Among them, the most striking scenes caught her eyes.
There was one chilling stair scene in a particular movie…
A possessed girl, crawling down the stairs upside down on all fours.
“……”
Seoyeon keenly watched that part.
She trembled all alone, eventually falling asleep.
And then…
In the abandoned old school building where no one came, Seoyeon practiced herself.
Three days had passed.
After some self-training…
“Alright.”
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Seoyeon nodded.
Her classmates from the club had done her makeup enthusiastically!
Honestly, Seoyeon wished they had made her look scarier—yet, all they managed was to layer thick black mascara on her eyes and a powder to make her skin appear more pale.
Since her natural skin tone was already so light, it hardly showed.
Rumble!
“……”
Seoyeon was on the second floor of the old school.
Of course, that meant there were students besides her waiting upstairs too.
Girls dressed as ghosts from every class were on standby.
However, unlike those who only had to wait in specific spots, Seoyeon needed to move.
She’d first startle students on the central staircase and then return to hide in the old teacher’s office at the end of the second floor.
In other words, Seoyeon had to roam the old school hallways by herself.
Whoosh!
The sound of pouring rain echoed from outside.
The rentals of blackout curtains from the theater club were extremely effective, making it feel like nighttime.
“So stuffy.”
Seoyeon lifted the blackout curtain slightly, but at least it confirmed it was still daytime.
“They said the ghost house starts at ten.”
Checking the time, she noted there were still about ten minutes left.
Seoyeon wanted to take a deep breath and opened the window for some cold, rain-soaked air.
Clonk!
Whoosh!
As she opened the window, she quickly realized…
Ah, it wasn’t just rain; it was also blowing a lot of wind.
The moment she opened the window, a gust rushed in and drenched Seoyeon.
She felt her hair plastered to her face.
“……”
After shutting the window and hastily drying her face with a handkerchief, she could hear it rattling from the wind.
It seemed that when she opened the window, the wind picked up strength.
What a coincidence!
In such darkness, the window rattling and thunder crashing made it even spookier.
Great for the ghost house but pure calamity for Seoyeon.
“But I am who I am.”
Seoyeon reminded herself that she was Joo Seoyeon, hardened by horror films.
“I can handle this…”
“……”
Firstly, she headed toward the central staircase.
Ten o’clock was almost here.
The first guests for the ghost house were about to arrive.
Yet, there was one thing Seoyeon didn’t realize.
While her usual makeup didn’t wash off with water…
This costume was different.
So she had no idea how she looked all drenched.
*
Most of the students gave up on the central staircase ghost and turned back, but occasionally, there were those who dared to come up to the second floor.
“Geez, I should’ve just gone back.”
“Scared?”
“Ugh, what are you acting all tough for?”
Three boys casually talked as they made their way upstairs.
Sure, the ghost at the central staircase was scary, but everything else? Not so much!
It was just the rain, the thunder, and the ominous atmosphere of the old school building spiking their fear levels.
“I got this, I got this!”
“Hey, didn’t Jinseok run off after seeing it?”
“What a wuss! What’s scary about this sort of thing?”
Clicking their tongues, they said, but their voices quivered slightly.
Finally, they arrived.
The teacher’s office.
“I heard the ghost everyone saw crawling upside down comes out here.”
The ghost with those glowing red eyes that was spotted crawling down backwards on the central staircase.
“Yo.”
“What?”
“Can’t we fight back? We could scare the ghost ourselves, right?”
I mean, at the end of the day, it was just a booth made by high schoolers.
They definitely weren’t staff or professional actors.
“It’d be fun to scare the ghost back!”
“Hmm, you know if I get startled, I throw the first punch! So let’s not.”
The boys, trying to sound all tough, showed enthusiasm about giving it a go and entered.
However…
“……”
The moment they stepped inside, they all froze.
In the middle of the teacher’s office stood a girl with her back to them.
Darkness.
The echoing sound of rain in eerie stillness.
A woman calmly standing still, illuminating in sync with flashes of lightning.
‘Wh-what was the mission again?’
They basically had to scrape a bracelet from the drawer in the office.
“Hey, she’s not moving at all! What’s up?”
“Uh…?”
With trembling voices, they slowly crept closer around the motionless girl.
While one of them reached to open the drawer…
Just then, the girl turned!
Their bodies stiffened as they tried to crack open the drawer.
‘Is she turning around?’
They were thinking that when the girl bent her waist backward.
“AH!!!!!!! What the hell!!!”
Clank! Clank!
They yanked at the drawer that wouldn’t open, struggling to get the bracelet out.
Yet it’s a student pretending to be a ghost, they thought.
Any such thoughts faded away.
Humans feel fear when the ordinary exceeds the expected.
Normally, one would think she’d turn her body if she acted; but who would expect her to bend backward like that?
And the atmosphere?
The black makeup running down her face…
With her red glowing eyes in the dark…
Her mouth twisted in horror…
She didn’t seem like an ordinary girl at all.
And then…
She began to crawl up the stairs upside down!
She was quick too!!!
“Run, dude, freaking run!!”
The spectacle drew them in a flash, and they turned to bolt out!
– Give me back my bracelet, give it back, give it back!
From behind, the ghostly voice of the girl filled with regret called out to them.
And after plenty of bolting and running down the central staircase…
“Huff, huff! That was insane!”
“What was that crawling thing?!”
“Ah, it’s okay, okay! She was just by the end there!”
In the unexpected chase, they turned around.
A girl was right in front of them!
“Wait, but you said she was at the end?!”
“That was way too fast! I mean, scarily-fast too!”
The boys scrambled down to the first floor.
There’s no way she could quickly crawl down the stairs on all fours like that.
Yet, she was unbelievably swift!
How did she turn upside down and chase us so fast?
Is she for real a ghost?
Thinking this, they dashed down towards the first floor.
Simultaneously…
They made eye contact with girls entering!
The ghost that had been chasing them froze in her tracks.
“…Joo Seoyeon.”
With a voice laced with nothing but ridicule.
*
“Whoa, talk about atmosphere! Ji-yeon, are we seriously doing this?”
Nodding to her friend’s comment, Ji-yeon replied.
“Anyway, there’s nowhere else to go.”
“But still~.”
Two friends, Young-mi and Seon-hee, trailed behind Ji-yeon.
Hearing those two, Ji-yeon clicked her tongue.
“C’mon, it’s just a ghost house made by some high schoolers. What’s there to fear?”
“If the weather was fine, it’d be nothing.”
“But with this rain and lightning… just walking in that old school will be creepy.”
Ji-yeon pondered those comments.
True, it could be like that, but beyond such trivial worries, she had other concerns.
Well…
“I didn’t even make it to the second floor.”
“So you only made it to the end of the first floor?”
There was chattering among the trembling students, concerned.
“Ah, crud. That’s so embarrassing.”
“I saw you running away! You were so fast!”
“Pfft, I’m kidding around really.”
“Had I jumped in surprise, I coulda kick-legged someone.”
Most of their chatter seemed to be punctuated with exaggeration.
Especially that last bit—thankfully, they’d been spared a broken leg had it truly gone down like that.
Ji-yeon thought seriously about it.
She didn’t recall much, but thinking back to that incident during her middle school retreat…
“That’s a long line.”
But clearly, the response was great, as students lined up around the old school building.
The number of guests allowed in at one time was limited; it was only logical.
When one group went up to the second floor, another could enter the first floor.
Hence, two groups were cycling through the booths.
Besides, due to the heavy rain, many other booths were torn down, and the rest simply had regular stalls or recreational games, which intensified the draw.
In such an atmosphere, a ghost house would naturally pique the students’ interest even more.
“I guess Seoyeon really knows how to act. Even the folks on the stairs are running for it!”
“Not many teams have made it to the second floor yet, right?”
“Nope.”
She overheard students from Seoyeon’s class managing the line chatting.
Upon hearing this, Ji-yeon thought,
“I can’t imagine she just showed her face.”
Wouldn’t she have likely practiced something more eerie?
But it’s likely she acted like that during practice.
Still, it probably wasn’t that terrifying.
The reactions from her classmates made it abundantly clear.
“If you’re not scared, you’re not a ghost!”
Hadn’t she borrowed ideas from horror films or games?
Characters that could serve as inspiration.
Seoyeon had a knack for mimicking those traits splendidly.
Was it a natural flair for acting, or pure talent?
“If it gets a bit more exciting, who knows what wild antics she might pull!”
Occasionally, she could exhibit that mischievous side of a boy.
If someone showed a delightful reaction, she might just let loose without a second thought.
“Ugh, it’s our turn.”
“I’m seriously staying close to you, Ji-yeon! There’s no way I’m leading this charge!”
“Chill, I got it.”
With a sigh, Ji-yeon stepped into the depths of the old school.
After submitting her participation ticket to the students waiting at the entrance, she went inside.
“No doubt about it.”
The dark old school certainly had a frightening vibe.
But it wasn’t that severe.
Well first, just as the handed-out map stated, they’d complete some set tasks on the first floor.
And there they would meet the ghosts to frighten them.
But this wasn’t anything beyond an average ghost tale.
Honestly, it didn’t even come close to the level of amusement parks’ ghost houses.
But…
“The central staircase.”
That’s the place Seoyeon was meant to appear.
So the moment Ji-yeon walked toward the central staircase, she halted.
“Aaaah!!”
A panicked scream erupted from one of the boys as he dashed off down the stairs, followed closely by a ghost with glowing red eyes!
The ghost appeared to be pursuing the boy who had just rushed past Ji-yeon!
“……!!”
The ghost’s sudden appearance caused the two girls trailing Ji-yeon to inhale sharply.
When a person gets too startled, they can’t even scream.
That woman, crawling upside down…
With smudged, black makeup dripping down her face.
Those red eyes gleaming in the dark.
The sound of two girls falling back followed.
And then…
“……”
“……”
Ji-yeon locked eyes with the ghost.
Slowly…
Still in the pose of the chase, it began climbing back up the central staircase.
Ji-yeon dashed up to the second floor after this ghost.
“D-don’t leave me behind!”
The two girls reached out with desperation towards Ji-yeon.
“Joo Seoyeon, have you lost it!!!”
The shout came not as a scream, but a frantic call at that moment.
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