Aftermath — Cleaning the Warehouse
The evening of the day they'd experienced something they never wanted to relive in the annex basement, in the twins' room.
The door opened and Siyeon came back from her shower, letting out a long sigh that spoke volumes about everything she'd been through. From the top bunk, Suyeon poked her head out and peered down.
"Oh, Siyeon. Did you see a ghost in the annex basement today too?"
Siyeon shot her twin a sharp glare.
"What—how do you know about that?"
"So there were two sightings... maybe it's real after all."
"Hey, I never said I saw anything."
Suyeon grinned at her twin, the sister she'd spent her entire life beside.
"When you've been stuck to me that long, I can read you at a glance."
"Ha... geez. So annoying."
Siyeon gave her smartphone, left on the bed, a brief glance, then went to her desk. Suyeon crawled across the mattress until half her upper body hung over the edge.
Siyeon stubbornly stuck to her position.
"You believe that? It could've been a lie, you know."
"Your legs gave out and you sank right down to the floor, Siyeon, and Yeoncheong threw herself on her bed and refused point-blank to go back and look again?"
Siyeon was doing her skincare in front of a small mirror. Suyeon sat up fully on the bed and kept talking.
"There's no way two people that scared of everything were pulling a prank, and the storage room was a total disaster. So I figured, just in case."
Siyeon, who had been carefully smoothing on her cream, turned her head.
"You were planning on going back there?"
"Yeah, we have to tomorrow. We're the ones who have to clean it up."
"She actually agreed to that?"
Just thinking about the annex basement made the memory flash back vivid and raw.
Not that Siyeon was one to talk—she'd clung to Yeoncheong's back, hiding the whole time. She couldn't even imagine what Yeoncheong must have felt, facing that thing head-on and holding her ground.
"Yeah. All she asked was that I promise never to leave her."
"Impressive..."
At some point, Siyeon's hands had gone still. Hearing all this, she found herself suddenly worried about bedtime.
Her drooping eyebrows laid her feelings completely bare. Suyeon tilted her head at the sight of her twin.
"My adorable little sister. If you're scared, you can sleep with me like the old days?"
"Get lost."
Siyeon finished her skincare routine and fiddled with her smartphone, and before she knew it, the night had deepened. Between the ticking of the clock, Siyeon called out to Suyeon.
"Hey, Baek Suyeon. You asleep?"
The clock kept ticking, indifferent. Just as Siyeon was resorting to plan B—pulling the covers over her head—Suyeon rubbed her eyes and stuck her head out.
"What, you're still awake?"
"...Come down here."
At the crawling, creeping tone of her voice, Suyeon asked back. Siyeon's voice rose a notch.
"I said come down."
Sufficiently awake now, Suyeon snickered in the dark.
"Okay, okay. Hold on..."
Suyeon carefully climbed down the ladder and squeezed in beside Siyeon.
"This brings back memories. Want me to hold your hand? Hug you?"
"No thanks. Just lie there and stay still."
"Ugh, it's cramped in here."
Complaining though she was, she didn't push away her sister clinging to her. Siyeon pushed back the fear by bickering with her twin, but...
"Haah..."
Yeoncheong shot up in bed after yet another failed attempt at sleep—she'd lost count of how many by now.
This feels gross...
Her body and clothes were soaked through with sweat.
The full-length mirror had been covered with cloth ages ago, and the bathroom and kitchen lights were still on. Even so, sleep refused to come.
The next day, Yeoncheong yawned her way through the entire school day, unable to hide her drowsiness. A friend slumped over her desk at every spare moment—worry seeped into Hasol's voice.
"Yeoncheong, did you not sleep last night?"
"Tossed and turned a little."
"That doesn't look like a little tossing and turning. How much did you actually sleep?"
Yeoncheong tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling.
"Maybe... two hours?"
Hasol's yellow eyes went wide.
"Two hours?! You're not coming down with something, are you?"
"I'm fine. I just need to catch up on some sleep."
Not even listening to Yeoncheong's answer, Hasol muttered to herself.
"Maybe I'll make something fatigue-recovering at the club today..."
"No, Hasol, I'm really fine..."
Yeoncheong's eyes went wide with alarm.
But her friend had already vanished into her own private world of cooking.
I have to finish cleaning as fast as I possibly can and get back.
The annex cleanup had just turned into an impromptu time attack.
After final period ended.
"Yeoncheong, I'm heading out first! Wait for me!"
Forgetting even to say goodbye to her other friends, Hasol darted off toward the home ec room. Suyeon, who'd come to head to the club room, watched her friend's retreating back.
"What's up with Hasol?"
"Suyeon, you're not tired today?"
"Hmm... I'm perfectly fine so far."
"Tell me if you get tired later."
Suyeon nodded without giving it much thought. Yeoncheong, having glossed over every last detail of the previous night, smirked.
The two of them collected several large trash bags from the teachers' office and gathered cleaning supplies from the club room—Yeoncheong taking what she'd need, and Suyeon grabbing enough for both of them.
They headed for the stairs. Halfway down, when Yeoncheong spotted a girl who looked exactly like Suyeon, she flinched.
"Why are you scared of me?"
Yeoncheong glanced once at the Suyeon beside her, then let out a breath of relief.
"Ah, right, it's Siyeon."
"Yeah. I share some of the blame for all this, so I came to help."
Suyeon, already heading down the stairs ahead of them, smirked back at her sister.
"So honest of you. At home yesterday, wasn't it all 'I feel bad for leaving you at the front'?"
Siyeon bit her lip and growled.
"You shut up."
"Siyeon..."
"It's not like that."
Yeoncheong's blue eyes sparkled as she looked at her. Siyeon just turned her head away.
Suyeon, acting as if nothing at all had happened, handed over the cleaning supplies and headed down first.
"Hey, I said you can't go alone!"
Yeoncheong hurried after her, chasing Suyeon down the steps.
"W-wait, I'm coming too!"
Siyeon, glancing warily around her, followed the two of them down.
"Huh. The lights work now."
When Suyeon, who'd gone ahead into the storage room, flipped the switch, a clack sounded and the room lit up.
"Apparently the security guard fixed it for us."
The storage room, littered with junk and shards of broken mirror, was more than enough to call yesterday's events rushing back.
Yeoncheong and Siyeon froze at the threshold. Suyeon walked in first, and the two trailed after her, hovering at her heels.
The eyes of the two who'd been at the center of it all went straight to the far side of the entrance. To the spot where the mirror had stood when the ghost first appeared.
But there was no mirror to be seen, and Yeoncheong's voice came out creaky and thin.
"Uh, it's gone?"
"I asked the security guard to move it somewhere else so it wouldn't be dangerous while we cleaned."
Suyeon explained, glancing around. Sure enough, the floor bore the marks of something having been dragged across it.
Siyeon poked her head out slightly and cut into the conversation. She was hiding behind Yeoncheong, who was hiding behind Suyeon.
"Baek Suyeon, how do you know all that?"
"I can't have you two whining about how scared you are while I'm cleaning, can I? So I asked the security guard for a favor."
"Wh-when did we ever whine—"
Their protests were casually brushed aside. Suyeon blew air into a trash bag to open it up, then fell deep into thought about where to start cleaning.
"You two sweep the floor. I'll pick up the fallen junk and bag it."
Contrary to all her worrying, Suyeon focused on nothing but the cleaning. Yeoncheong and Siyeon, careful not to stray too far from her, began sweeping up the shards scattered across the floor.
Layer upon layer of heavy dust stretched and yawned awake beneath their brooms. When Yeoncheong sneezed, Siyeon held out a disposable mask to her.
"Here."
"Thanks."
From a distance, Suyeon straightened up from her bent-over posture and held out her hand.
"I would've handed these out ages ago if I'd remembered to bring them."
"I forgot. And I don't want to hear it from the person who came to clean without preparing anything."
After passing Siyeon a mask as well, the trio—now properly equipped at last—officially kicked their cleanup into gear.
Since most of the wreckage had been smashed by the ghost girl's rampage, they were spared the trouble of sorting out what to keep. They stuffed every piece of junk they saw into the trash bags and swept shards and dust from every corner of the floor with their brooms.
"Whew... I think we've picked up all the big stuff. How much floor did you two get?"
"We swept from the entrance all the way to where we are."
"Okay? Then I'll work my way up from the other side."
Suyeon grabbed a broom from the entrance and headed for the far end of the storage room. The moment the distance between them stretched too far, the other two found themselves glancing around nervously for no good reason.
Still, Yeoncheong and Siyeon soon kicked their fear aside. Finishing as fast as possible and getting out was the only sensible strategy.
With one more pair of sweeping hands, the three of them met again at the midpoint in no time. They scooped the gathered shards and dust into a dustpan, tipped it into a bag, and all three straightened their aching backs.
"Uuuugh. Now we just have to sort out the desks and stuff."
Suyeon's behavior was surprisingly subdued. With two of her friends claiming to have seen an actual ghost, they'd half expected her to run around the room buzzing with excitement, but not at all.
When Yeoncheong asked if she hadn't believed the ghost story from the very beginning—
"When your friend was clinging to you and begging you not to look, you kind of have to play along, right?"
"Hey... when did I ever cling and beg?"
Yeoncheong stole a glance at Siyeon, but she seemed calmer than expected. Naturally—she'd already heard all about it yesterday.
Siyeon and Yeoncheong stacked the desks in neat rows while Suyeon made her way over to a cabinet that wouldn't close.
"Why won't this shut?"
As Suyeon struggled with the cabinet, Siyeon's and Yeoncheong's eyes met behind her. The memory of the two of them crammed together inside that narrow cabinet flashed back, and both their faces flushed a day late.
"The cabinet's bent a little. That's why it won't close."
Suyeon analyzed the cause, scrutinizing the cabinet closely. The other two, done with the desks, tried to talk her out of it.
"Leave it. No need to force a door closed that doesn't want to close."
"Yeah. Might not open again later, either."
Suyeon shot a sideways look at the two of them suddenly in such perfect sync, and her gaze drifted to the storage room door.
The annex basement, where no one had any business coming.
And yet—footsteps on the stairs. What they'd assumed was just echo in an underground space drew steadily closer. It was definitely coming this way.
Siyeon stealthily positioned Yeoncheong in front of her, and Yeoncheong inched her body behind the cabinet.
A long shadow stretched closer and closer. Then one of the propped-open doors thudded shut. At the scream that burst from inside the storage room, the shadow outside flinched.
The owner of the head that slowly poked around the door wasn't a ghost. It was a person—their friend, Hasol.
"You scared me... why did that door just slam shut? Jeez."
"Hasol? What are you doing here?"
Hasol held up the tumbler she'd brought with her.
"You looked so exhausted, Yeoncheong, so I made you a juice that helps with fatigue."
Hasol hadn't flinched at the door slamming either, and Suyeon's eyebrows twitched.
"How did you know we were down here?"
"Because yesterday and today, Yeoncheong kept grumbling about it nonstop."
Hasol stepped inside, taking in the spotless storage room, and asked,
"Wait, why are you the only one here?"
"Yeoncheong's right over—huh?"
The two who should have been beside her were nowhere to be seen. Her gaze, sweeping the room, stopped at a creaking cabinet. Suyeon peeked inside and snorted.
"They're in there. So that's why the cabinet was bent."
Hasol followed Suyeon's beckoning hand around to the side. Covering her mouth with both empty hands, her yellow eyes went round.
"Oh my."
The two inside had crammed themselves into a single cabinet, just like when they'd been playing hide-and-seek with a ghost. Fear branded into their bodies. Purely instinctive movement.
Siyeon, half-buried in Yeoncheong's arms, stammered uselessly, while Yeoncheong, staring dead into the two faces outside, had eyes that wavered violently.
"No, this is... hold on, it's, um..."
Suyeon addressed the two tangled together in the cabinet.
"You two. A case of getting close through the language of the body?"
"We were not!"
Hasol chimed in beside her.
"Suyeon, let's shut it and leave them alone together."
"N-no, don't!"
Without any need to decide who went first, the two of them shot out of the cabinet, their shouts ringing through the storage room.
Hasol laughed behind her hand and said,
"Yeoncheong's just as much a scaredy-cat as Siyeon."
"S-so it was you, Hasol."
Suyeon, Seobin, Siyeon, and now Hasol. More than half of the people she could actually call friends now knew her secret.
All her effort to hide her weakness for scary things had gone entirely to waste.
Hasol reached out her hand.
"Come out quickly. I made a drink that's great for fatigue. Try it."
"Huh?"
They'd finished the cleaning as fast as they could, but Hasol had made her drink even faster.
"Where's Suyeon? She must be tired from cleaning too."
"She went to tell the teacher the cleanup's all done."
Suyeon had sized up the situation the moment she laid eyes on Hasol and bolted long before. Siyeon, who'd been leaning against Yeoncheong, also started gingerly picking herself up.
"Well, my cleaning's done too, so I might head out..."
But Yeoncheong grabbed her before she could escape.
"Siyeon, Suyeon's gone."
"Th-that... could you let go of me?"
"You're her twin, so you're going to drink her share for her, right?"
Yeoncheong had absolutely no intention of dying alone.
When Suyeon returned with the teacher in tow, Yeoncheong and Siyeon were wearing smiles that somehow looked on the verge of collapse. Unidentified liquid dripping from the corners of their mouths.