Chapter 21
The lunch bell rang, signaling the end of 4th period. Amid the clamor of students pouring out of the classroom, the four of us just sat there motionless. I stared blankly down the hallway, watching them all rush off to eat like a stampede. Cutting through the crowd was one guy sprinting even faster—an uncle-type figure shoving his way ahead. It was the homeroom teacher. Only when delivery guys started riding their scooters through the school gate on the playground did I finally break the silence.
"Hey, guys."
Seon-ah and Ha-yoon turned to look at me. Gyeong-won still had his head down, mumbling something like, "How could this happen..."
"Let's get out of here for now."
Regression. This was all new to them, but I'd already gotten used to it.
"Come on, stand up. Let's go eat. Hurry."
I pulled Seon-ah—nail-biting away—and the dazed Ha-yoon to their feet, gave Gyeong-won a pat to snap him out of it, and headed for the cafeteria. Explaining anything right now wouldn't stick; they weren't ready to process it. First, normal stuff like walking and eating to jolt them back to reality.
As we walked to the cafeteria, I muttered under my breath.
Status Window.
No dice. It didn't appear. What the hell was going on?
It'd only been a short week, but after all the crap I'd been through, I'd developed a habit of unconsciously pulling up the Status Window with every regression to check the time. In the chaos of dying and coming back, that was step one: confirm the clock, steady your nerves.
But now... nothing.
Fuuuuck, what the hell is this?
I'd bragged to Gyeong-won about being an "experiencer," but truth be told, I was just as lost. All I knew was "you die and time rewinds" and "ghost stories become real." Ask me for insight on this mess? Best I could say was it's one of those "figure it out or die trying" games.
The current situation. Why the fuck did the Demon King show up now? That monster doesn't appear for at least another three years.
...Way too soon. Doesn't make sense.
And why did we regress together? All these swarming people—where the hell do they vanish to in a bit?
Missing people... That's priority one for this loop!
We grabbed trays in the cafeteria and wolfed down some food. Miso stew and fried fish. Supposed to be grilled fish, but the lunch ladies drowned it in so much oil it might as well have been deep-fried.
The hearty smell of miso and the mouthwatering aroma of fried fish seemed to pull Seon-ah back to her senses—she finally picked up her spoon.
Clink.
"Nom nom."
Seon-ah picked at the fish, munching away. Ha-yoon poked at her rice grains with chopsticks. Gyeong-won just stared at his tray, still muttering to the floor.
As we left the cafeteria, we spotted the homeroom teacher waddling along, rubbing his belly. He saw us and let out an "Oho!" with that goofy cheer, waving like we were old pals.
"Joon and friends! Good lunch?"
"Yeah."
I gave a half-assed reply.
"Right. Heading straight to the club room?"
"Nah, staying in class."
Plan was to stick around the classroom to figure out where everyone in the school disappears to after an hour.
"Hrmm, okay then." The homeroom teacher glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then got dead serious. "Still, after lunch is CA time, so you'll head to the club room, right? In that case, there's something you all should know."
"Something evil is lurking in that club room right now. You'll probably need this."
The second he reached for his back pocket—
"Nah, we're good. Already handled it."
I waved him off and herded the club members past him.
"Oh... really."
The homeroom teacher drooped, head hanging.
I sat at my desk, and the others naturally clustered around me.
"Ku... kuh. That's my seat, you know."
Oh Deok-hoon had just walked in and froze at Seon-ah in his spot next to me.
"Oh, right. Anime club interview, yeah."
Overwhelmed by our vibe, Deok-hoon let out a "Pfft" and hunched his shoulders, slinking back out of the classroom.
"Um, Joon... what do we do now?"
Seon-ah spoke up hesitantly. Ha-yoon eyed me too. Only Gyeong-won was still out of it.
I cleared my throat and laid out my thoughts.
"For now, best to just watch how things play out."
I made eye contact with each one slowly.
"We don't know enough. Where all these students vanish to, why the clocks froze..."
Seon-ah nodded.
"Can't make any calls yet. Let's just observe."
"Kuku... kukukuku."
Gyeong-won, head still down, suddenly laughed in this creepy way.
"What're you talking about, prez?"
"Huh?"
"This situation! It can't be real~!"
An Gyeong-won's quirk: reality denial. He shot up from his seat and clambered onto a desk.
"Always wanted to do this! Uwahahahaha!"
Then he started hopping desk to desk, zipping around the classroom.
"Boing! Boing~! Uwahahaha!"
We three stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Why just watch~! Join me! It's not even real anyway!"
"Always wanted to run around like this~! Uwahaha!"
Gyeong-won cackled maniacally, bounding across desks.
Boing. Boing.
I sighed, about to stop him—
BZZT!
The lights exploded in a shower of sparks, plunging the school into darkness. Sunlight filtered in from outside, but the sudden gloom startled Gyeong-won mid-jump—he slipped and crashed to the floor.
Thud crash!
"Gyaack!"
Ha-yoon was right in front of where he faceplanted. She extended a hand calmly.
"You okay?"
Gyeong-won rubbed his ass, taking her hand to stand.
Right then, the classroom PA blared.
Announcement from the broadcast room. Power outage in the school—electricity is out. CA time will be held on the playground, so all students, please gather there. Repeating...
I jumped up in shock. Seon-ah looked at me.
"What?"
"Don't go out there!"
Everyone nodded, stunned by my shout. Gyeong-won rubbed his butt as he shuffled over.
"Why? Got a hunch or some— ooooh, oooooh."
Suddenly, Gyeong-won's face started swelling up.
"Kyaaack!!"
Ha-yoon backed away silently; Seon-ah screamed.
"Bloo, bloo, blooooo— SPLODE!"
Gyeong-won's face burst, spraying gore across the dark classroom. Then Seon-ah and Ha-yoon's faces began inflating grotesquely.
"Bloo, blooooo."
I felt my own brain swelling endlessly, that bizarre sensation—
And then.
SPLOOOOOODE!
Slowly, I opened my eyes.
"And those Japanese bastards drove stakes into our land everywhere, sucking away all the geomantic energy..."
I stood silently.
"Don't spend money on Japan, guys! Do your research. Uh, huh? Something up?"
The teacher, mid-rant, startled at me.
"C-can I go to the bathroom...?"
"Y-yeah, go ahead."
As I slipped out the door, Seon-ah and Ha-yoon suddenly stood too.
"Me too~"
"M-me as well..."
"Uh, huh? Huh?"
We left the flustered teacher behind and followed me into the hall.
"Got a lead?"
Ha-yoon asked.
"...Why do you say that?"
Seon-ah answered instead.
"Cuz... you've been weirdly calm since earlier."
I nodded.
"Remember why I said we made the club? The 'experiencer' thing—that's what I meant by phenomena like this."
Seon-ah's eyes widened.
"Ohhh, so you know what we should do now...?"
"Sorry. No clue."
Her hopeful face fell again.
"All I know is ghost stories keep bleeding into reality. To fix this, we gotta figure out which ghost story we're tangled in."
And for that, we need An Gyeong-won. None of us—me, Seon-ah, or Ha-yoon—know ghost stories deep enough.
Even if I have to beat sense into him.
Students started spilling out of the next classroom, murmuring.
Bell about to ring.
Ding dong~
I told the two.
"We need Gyeong-won. That knowledge nerd's gotta know something."
"...Yeah!"
Seon-ah nodded. I opened the classroom door.
And there, smack in the middle, stood some lady caked in white makeup, grinning ear to ear.
Lunch-hyped students beaming. Gloomy history teacher. Head-down Gyeong-won. And in that scene, the woman stood grinning like her mouth would split.
"I'll get him."
Ha-yoon sensed something off and darted inside to fetch Gyeong-won. Behind her, the homeroom teacher—rushing to lunch—spotted dazed Seon-ah and me at the door and "Oho!"'d cheerfully.
"Joon and friend! Off to lunch?"
"Nah?"
"Then straight to club room?"
"Dunno."
I answered without looking. Gyeong-won was still spaced out, muttering; Ha-yoon grunted, hauling him up.
The lady stood grinning in the middle of the class.
"Ahem, well, anyway."
Homeroom teacher, embarrassed by our vibe, spoke up.
"You'll need this."
He pulled something from his back pocket and dropped it in my hand. I grabbed it casually without looking—and flinched.
"...What's this?"
Not a key. Some accessory-like thing, heavy for its size. Never seen it before.
"Ho ho hot, use it well."
Homeroom teacher hummed off to the cafeteria.
"Not real. Not reaaal..."
Gyeong-won staggered forward, propped by Ha-yoon. Still out of it.
"Hey, Glasses!"
I bellowed.
"Snap out of it! This is real!"
Grabbed and shook him.
"You gotta figure it out! Quick!"
"Wha..."
He dangled limply from my grip, mumbling.
"What ghost story we're in! What keeps looping the time!"
"...Ghost story?"
"Yeah, you fucker, ghost story!"
Shook him hard again and yelled.
"Why everyone's gone! Why clocks stopped! Why we keep dying!"
"How the hell should I know..."
"Fuck!!"
Behind Gyeong-won, in the classroom, the woman gripped a cutter knife, slinking forward slowly. Students scattered in panic. History teacher, sweating, approached asking if she was a parent.
I yanked Gyeong-won's collar up to eye level.
"Please, think."
"Everyone vanished. Time stopped. We're looping."
"Some ghost story like that. Anything similar."
He mumbled weakly.
"Dunno... No way stories that weird exist."
I squeezed my eyes shut, then showed him the thing from homeroom—maybe it'd help.
"This? What about this?"
No clue myself, but he might.
"What's that?"
"Fuck if I know."
He stared at me like I was nuts.
The woman swung her knife slowly toward us. History teacher got his throat slit, clutching the gushing blood with both hands. Students screamed past us, shoving shoulders.
Kyaaaack— Kyaaaack—
Crazy bitch— Nooooo!
Die here or running—same shit. I locked eyes with Gyeong-won, still gripping his collar.
"Figure it out. Please."
"Please."
Gyeong-won stared blankly at the item from homeroom.
Then his pupils shook wildly.
I gripped harder in shock. Seon-ah and Ha-yoon stomped anxiously beside us.
"Something click?"
"...Ahh."
Confidence flooded back into his eyes.
"Heh heh, heh heh heh."
Slow laugh. He adjusted his glasses with that smug grin.
"You've been wrong from the start, prez."
"...What?"
Gyeong-won smirked, shaking his head.
"Wrong from the very beginning."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
I yanked him so close our noses nearly touched. His scrawny ass lifted onto tiptoes easy.
"Ku huhu."
"Xbal, spill it! You fucking with me in this situation? Talk!"
"Figure it out yourself this time."
"What?"
He shook his head with a sigh.
"You're the Ghost Story Club prez. So think."
The laughing woman closed in, cutter raised. Students shoved past in the chaos. But we stayed locked, me gripping his collar, glaring.
"Ju... Joon! We gotta run...!"
Seon-ah cried desperately.
Gyeong-won smirked bitterly.
"You Xbal bastard, you joking?! Spill it!"
He just smiled, staring back.
"Prove it. That you're worth standing above me."
Even choked, he adjusted his glasses.
"Worth my three years. Worth my help."
"You..."
"Think dying ends it?"
"No, I know better."
"Heh heh... Then why panic?"
This fucker was testing me. He knew way more, but why should I lead the club? Worth his time as a member?
Prove it here.
Whoosh—Snick.
"Kyaaaaaaaack! Jooooon!"
Ghost Story Club