Ghost Story Club

Creeeak~

“Come in.”

“Thank you for having me…”

Sunah entered the apartment through the front door with a shy smile and greeted the empty space.

“There’s no one here.”

“But there’s a ghost…”

The two of us giggled.

As expected, since I came in with someone, there were no shadows of ghosts.

Everything was exactly the same as when I ran out of the apartment in panic.

The sensor light on the front door illuminated the dark room slightly.

“Sunah, look at this, here. The front door.”

“Hmm…?”

I briefly explained the situation to Sunah, who had just taken off her shoes and was about to put the grocery bag down in the living room.

“Outside, you saw the door has a keypad where you need to enter a password to get in, right? But inside, it has changed to the kind where you need to insert a key.”

“…What?”

Sunah glanced at the outer part of the door, and then inside.

“…For real?”

She pulled the doorknobs from the inside and outside at the same time and tilted her head in confusion.

Clank. Clank.

“Look. What’s more strange, even though it’s the side for opening and going out, there’s still a keyhole.”

“Yeah…”

The two of us looked down at the front door handle in silence.

“Even though it’s like this, does it still work……?”

“Yeah. On the outside, it’s a password type door lock, and on the inside, it’s a key for opening and exiting.”

After looking at it a few times, Sunah soon lifted her head with a puzzled expression.

“Why is it like this…?”

“I think it must be because the cliché manifestation ability was activated, it seems to have had some influence.”

“Ohh…”

Sunah thought for a moment, then looked up at me with a questioning expression.

“Why don’t you ask Gyeongwon…?”

“Yeah. That would be better.”

* * *

“Hmm…”

While Sunah was putting the bag of groceries we had bought to the kitchen, I took a picture of the door and posted it in the group chat along with an explanation of the situation.

And after closing the front door, I went to the kitchen and called Sunah again, who was placing the ingredients on the table.

“Sunah, come with me.”

“Huh?”

I gestured toward the door of the master bedroom, which was my parents’ room.

Sunah stopped her action of unwrapping the few green onions and followed me.

“I heard a loud noise from inside earlier. Let’s check it out before we let our guard down.”

Sunah’s expression immediately became serious.

“Is it okay to go without any weapon or anything…?”

“That’s true, I guess? Wait a moment. I think there might be something.”

I brought the vacuum cleaner from the living room.

“Joon, this is a bit…”

Sunah looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“I think this thing can be swung freely if I want.”

“That’s true, but…”

Sunah grumbled but still grabbed the handle of the vacuum cleaner and lifted it up like a spear.

“If it’s not this, all we have are umbrellas or kitchen knives… No one in our house exercises.”

A blunt object with a moderate reach and that can be swung easily, like a baseball bat or a golf club, would be better.

But at the moment, this was all we have.

“Okay…”

Sunah nodded as she held the vacuum cleaner.

“Then I’ll open it.”

“Yeah….!”

Right after turning the handle, I kicked open the door to my parents’ room.

Bang-!

Then immediately, I hid behind Sunah as soon as the door opened.

Screech.

Sunah dragged the vacuum cleaner into my parents’ room.

She waved it in the air a few times before looking back at me and nodding.

“You’re safe, Joon.”

“Okay.”

I quickly entered the room and joined Sunah.

I looked around my parents’ room, but everything was perfectly fine.

A double-sized bed, a closet that took up one side of the wall, and a dressing table.

“Over there, the bathroom in my parents’ room. Let’s just check that one last time.”

“Yeah.”

I remembered something suddenly popping out from there when we were trying the method for seeing ghosts during lunchtime.

I turned the doorknob and carefully pushed the door.

But it opened slightly, and then got stuck on something and stopped moving.

“…..?”

For a moment, I had a scary thought that maybe a terrifying ghost was standing behind the door, laughing maniacally, and using the same force to block the door from opening.

After pushing the door a few times, I heard a scraping sound. It seemed like something had fallen behind the door and was blocking it from fully being open.

“Haish! Huuu…”

I gave a few more pushes with my shoulder, and with a crashing sound of objects scraping, the door finally opened.

When I turned on the light and looked inside, a completely smashed up bathroom, as if a storm just happened inside, entered my eyes.

“Oh my god, what the hell is this?”

“Be careful, there are glass shards……”

I stood outside and looked around inside the bathroom. That’s when I noticed that the cabinet in the bathroom, or rather a storage cabinet hanging above the toilet where towels and other supplies were stored, was tilted sideways.

It seemed like the adhesive had worn off, as the entire unit had fallen and was shattered, blocking the door from opening completely.

“Wow, this… It’s going to be a pain to clean up.”

That loud noise from earlier was the sound of this thing falling.

※Horror Movie Cliché: The initial jump scare turns out to be nothing special.※

I started wondering what to say when my parents came back and decided to discuss it later with them. For now, I closed the bathroom door.

“Let’s go eat dinner. I’ll make something delicious.”

“Okay!”

Sunah followed me to the kitchen, dragging the vacuum cleaner behind.

* * *

“It’s Pak Jongwon’s special fried rice with green sesame oil.”

[T/N: Pak Jongwon is a well-known South Korean celebrity chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He is famous for his cooking shows, particularly “Baek Jongwon’s Alley Restaurant” and “Baek Jongwon’s Food Truck”.]

“Pfft, do it properly…”

Sunah giggled next to me as I wildly stirred the scrambled eggs, making them look a mess.

On the other gas stove, Sunah was making green onion oil by putting green onions on a pan with cooking oil.

“Okay. Throw in the rice.”

“Throwing~”

Sunah followed my instructions and put the heated instant rice from the microwave into the pan.

We made the fried rice by mixing scrambled eggs with green onions in the sesame oil, stirring everything together.

Occasionally, we added some oyster sauce to give it a savory taste.

Once it seemed fully cooked, we scooped the fried rice into bowls, sprinkled some sesame seeds on top, and finished the dish.

“It looks delicious.”

The fried rice with green onion oil was gleaming golden.

I took a bite, and Sunah followed suit with a smile, lifting her spoon.

“Let’s eat well, Joon…”

“Eat a lot. Let’s order chicken again later. Mom said she hid some emergency money in the drawer before she left.”

Sunah mumbled an answer with a stuffed mouth.

I actually wished Sunah would just stay here for the night until the problem was solved.

It seemed fine now since we were together, but if she left and I became alone at home again, who knew what might happen.

‘My parents have left Seoul, and are on the way to Busan to handle some matters. By the time they come back… It will really take until morning.’

Tomorrow is Friday, a weekday. I couldn’t help but wonder if Mom and Dad were both fine with going to work like this.

‘Sunah… And I have to go to school tomorrow. I wonder if it would be okay for her to stay here for the night.’

I decided to ask her casually.

“Sunah, is your grandmother okay at home? She’s left alone…”

“She has gone to the hospital today.”

Sunah answered, munching on rice.

‘Then I guess it’ll be fine if I sneakily make it so she can spend the night here.’

I brushed my chest, feeling relieved.

Being alone in a horror movie means death.

‘But where should I even start looking when I really can’t figure out anything.’

I decided to eat for now and think about it later.

Munch, munch.

* * *

[It has been confirmed that Clover Group Chairman, Cheon Sungjee has returned to Korea after a long time, and the President held a meeting with him, exchanging greetings and well-wishes.]

Around 9 p.m., I was lying on the living room sofa watching TV.

Sunah was seated on the sofa beside me, munching on the chicken I ordered which was spread out at the table in front of me.

KakaoTalk~

“Oh, he replied.”

Finally, a reply came from Gyeongwon, probably after he was done with his cram school.

I quickly grabbed my phone, hoping to get a clue about the current situation.

“What did he say?”

“Wait a minute.”

Sunah asked with a tilted head while taking a bite of a cheese ball that came with a delivery app review event.

Gyeongwon had sent a long KakaoTalk message.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: First of all, as Prez thought, the instructions written on the picture were just a way to confirm the presence of ghosts, not to summon or create one that doesn’t exist. I don’t think there’ll be anything to find even if we dig into that particular ghost story. The only thing that comes to mind is that it might have been the starting point of the strange phenomenon that’s happening to Prez right now?]

“Starting point? The beginning. I can’t understand what he’s talking about.”

“Me too…”

Sunah stared blankly at her phone while chewing on the cheese seasoning.

As we were waiting and thinking, another long KakaoTalk message came from him.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Ghosts are said to attach themselves to people who can perceive them. That’s why there’s a lot of advice to pretend not to see them. But you ended up perceiving the ghost using the method Dukhun sent. So it’s possible that ghost started sticking to you because it thought, ‘You saw me.’ ]

“That’s what I think too.”

I nodded in understanding.

If that was the case, it made sense why the strange occurrences suddenly started happening today.

However, the problem is, where on earth did this ghost come from?

I needed to figure out the structure of the story to find a way to dig deeper, but I had no idea what kind of ghost story it was.

[Lee Joon: So do you have any idea what the ghost itself is? The image I saw was of a woman with a long neck and a scary appearance.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Well…]

I could picture him pushing his glasses on the other side, although we were chatting on the phone.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Well, if we were to judge the ghost simply by its scary appearance, there are too many variations. But given the long neck, it’s possible she hung himself before she died…]

[Lee Joon: Hang herself… But that never happened in our whole apartment building, let alone the apartment where we live.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Are you sure, Prez?]

[Lee Joon: Yeah. We have been living here for 7 years, and my Mom was also the neighborhood representative. Most of the neighbors know us and each other.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Then it’s ambiguous. If there really wasn’t anything that could be connected to Prez, it could just be a random ghost passing by.]

[Lee Joon: So why would a passing ghost end up on the 7th floor of our building…. It’s a height where even mosquitoes rarely come in…]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: I don’t know either.]

I imagined him shrugging his shoulders.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: There are so many ways a ghost can get involved. For example, you may have picked up something that fell on the street, or you’ve been feeling weak lately, or you haven’t performed ancestral rites, or someone has passed away nearby… There are hundreds of reasons like this. So we have to tread into it carefully.]

“Someone passing away nearby….?”

Sunah and I stared at each other for a moment.

We both thought of the same thing.

“Joon, your parents…”

“That’s right. I thought of that too.”

A relative who, as my parents mentioned, recently passed away.

I wonder if it was related to that?

But when I thought about it carefully, that also seemed a bit strange.

Since my parents didn’t even mention who the person passed away was, it seemed like it was probably a distant relative with no connection to me.

Not to mention they lived in Busan, which is at opposite ends of South Korea from here in Seoul.

It was definitely not a distance that could be considered nearby.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: But the good news is that if it’s really just a random ghost, like a wandering spirit, it’ll be easy to exorcise it. When I looked up stories on the internet, there were many articles about people being startled by ghosts in their houses, cursing or throwing things at them, and then the ghost ran off and never came back.]

“Even ghosts are funny.”

I chuckled to myself.

Come to think of it, looking back on my experiences so far, except for the demonic beings created by real ghost stories, the ones that still felt like they were originally human were surprisingly easy to get rid of.

[Ahn Gyeongwon: Just in case, take a good look at any items you’ve picked up recently. If you can’t think of anything, it might be something related to your parents.]

[Lee Joon: Okay, thanks. I’ll contact you if I find something.]

[Ahn Gyeongwon: What about the cliché ability that you used? I’ll search for a few things on the internet, so wait a bit.]

“Thank you as always, Gyeongwon.”

Sunah also nodded while wiping her mouth with a tissue.

We have already switched to private chat and been talking there, so the rest of the members were unaware of the current situation.

Having two people, a boy and a girl, in the same house late at night could lead to some misunderstandings among the club members.

Since the ghost appeared at my home rather than at school, I also wanted to handle it quietly on my own.

“Did you finish eating?”

“Yeah.”

Sunah stood up, patting her hands.

“I’ll wash my hands and come back…”

“There’s a lot leftover.”

I also grabbed a chicken drumstick covered in cheese seasoning and took a bite.

‘It’s delicious.’

Since I bought her a chicken, Sunah would have to stay here with me until I deal with the ghost.

* * *

A while later, around 10 p.m.

With all the lights on in the apartment and the TV running in the living room, we were currently rummaging through my parents’ room.

Sunah was rummaging through the closet and I was searching through the clothes cabinets of the dresser. Since it was the place where my Mom kept her stuff, it was mostly filled with clothes and cosmetics.

“Joon, what’s this…?”

Sunah approached me carrying a box she pulled out from under the closet.

Inside was a family album, but the box seemed suspicious.

“Oh, that. It’s our family’s old album.”

“Wow, can I look at it?”

“Yeah. Of course.”

Soon, Sunah spread the album on the floor and started flipping through it.

I took a quick look too. The last time I saw it, the album was full of pictures with me and Kim Eunjung, but now it only contained ordinary photos of my old days.

“Joon, this! Ahaha…”

Seona burst out laughing as she looked at a picture of my childhood, where I was reaching out and eating a children’s multivitamin like Nomagold or Tenten, which my mom had hidden on top of the kitchen cabinet.

[T/N: Nomagold and Tenten are popular children’s nutritional supplements in Korea.]

“I’ve been very clever since I was little, you know…”

“Yeah… that’s true, well…”

Well… that’s how it is, you know.

Feeling awkward, I scratched my head in embarrassment and started rummaging through the drawers of the dresser again.

And then, among the Buddhist scriptures from the shrine where my Mom occasionally visits, I noticed something strange and was startled.

“…Huh? Why is this here?”

※Horror Movie Cliché: At the very beginning of the situation, an ominous object is discovered that hints at an incident.※

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