The Seventh Ghost Story - Psychopath Test (1)
"...Teacher?"
Jang Hwa-eun was still standing there, eyes wide open, completely unresponsive. To a stranger, she might look like a portrait painting of just the upper body framed in a window rather than an actual person.
No way.
I cautiously opened the door. She remained perfectly still. Had she been possessed by another ghost story? Suddenly, I recalled the ghost story Yoon Seon-ah had told me during our first CA period.
[Someone got lost climbing a mountain and spent the night in a cabin. The cabin was covered in creepy portraits of scary-looking people... But the next morning, when they woke up, the portraits were gone—replaced by nothing but windows.]
The only ghost story I knew about staring motionless at a window was that one. Was she pretending to be a portrait right now?
"This is ridiculous."
I opened my bag, pulled out a textbook, and tapped her shoulder, where she stood with eyes bulging.
"Teacher?"
"Heh, caught you not being a portrait, huh?"
Maybe she needed a bit of a shock, like when In Ha-yoon slapped her cheek before. I rolled up the textbook and whacked her on the head.
Thwack!
"Get out."
"Yes, sir."
D-grade Ghost Story - Survived encounter with the Portrait That Was a Window ghost story.
Ghost Story Points acquired: 5
You displayed astonishing ingenuity, repelling the ghost pretending to be a portrait instead!
Ghost Story Points acquired: 20
Teacher turned around with a dazed expression and shuffled off down the fifth-floor hallway in the opposite direction, entering the self-study room.
Was she supervising self-study in the quiet study room?
This fifth floor housed club rooms and various utility spaces. Among them was the quiet study room, a perk for top students. Those in the top 30 of the school were selected as members and could study there instead of their classrooms during self-study period.
Might as well take a peek.
I followed the hallway to where she'd gone and peered into the quiet study room. Desks with personal partitions like a library reading room, filled with studying seniors. In the center desk, supervising the students, was Jang Hwa-eun. Spotting me, she broke into a delighted smile, waved enthusiastically, and came out, opening the door.
"It's Joon! Haven't gone home yet?"
"Yeah, had some business in the club room."
She was back to her usual high-pitched, perfectly normal self, as if nothing had happened. No memory of being possessed by the ghost story, as expected.
"Perfect timing! I went to your club room earlier to drop something off but forgot and just came back."
"Our club room?"
"Yep. Here you go."
She handed me a stapled sheaf of papers.
That weird title in the first paragraph.
"This is..."
"Some of your seniors in the quiet study room were passing it around giggling instead of studying, so I confiscated it. Seemed like something your club would enjoy."
So she'd come to drop this off in the club room, gotten possessed while peeking inside, huh. I wondered if she could even handle daily life.
"Thanks. A psychopath test—intriguing."
"Hehe, fun, right? I skimmed it earlier; pretty spooky."
"But it only has the questions—no answer sheet?"
"Oh? Hmm."
She furrowed her brows.
"I definitely told that kid to hand over everything when I confiscated it. Probably hid the answers."
"Haha, weird seniors."
"Wanna try solving it while you're here? I'll go confiscate the answer sheet too."
"Pfft... ha ha!"
She grinned mischievously, like she was pulling a prank. Twice our age and unmarried, but she clicked weirdly well with students.
"No need, but sure—thanks!"
"Alrighty~!"
She breezed back into the quiet study room with a cheerful reply. I slowly walked back to our club room on the opposite side of the hall.
Hmm, this must be the ghost story collection power from the recent club level-up. A C-grade one, probably.
On the surface, it looked like an ordinary psych test paper with various questions. But if it was a C-grade ghost story, some supernatural phenomenon was bound to occur.
Should I tackle this alone?
These ghost stories were definitely too much for me solo. What danger level for C-grade? The ones I'd faced were the red tissue/blue tissue bathroom ghost and the elevator asphyxiation story.
Pretty dangerous.
Not too hard to resolve, but I'd nearly died both times. No reason to read this alone. Plus, defeating ghost stories with more club members gave bonus points.
Of course, our advisor Jang Hwa-eun—who'd handed me this—was right across the hall in the quiet study room. But she was clueless about ghost stories, and her mind wandered in and out unpredictably—not reliable.
I needed someone to help.
Gyeong-won’s probably at academy, don’t have Ha-yoon’s number yet... what’s Seon-ah up to?
Seon-ah had no friends to hang with, no computer at home—she always got bored after school. She'd watch TV quietly or take a short walk nearby before bed early. Her public housing apartment was right next to school, perfect.
She had the time, was close by, knew the situation, and was prepped to help.
I looked out the club room window and called Seon-ah.
Ring... ring... click.
"H-hello...?"
Her voice cracked, slurred like she'd been sleeping.
"Yeah, Seon-ah. It's Joon."
"J-Joonie...?"
"Yeah. Were you sleeping?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Sorry for waking you. Can you talk?"
"I-it's okay..."
"I'm in the school club room right now. Looks like I'm about to get tangled in another ghost story."
"...?"
"Can you come help?"
"O-okay... I'll be right there!"
I pictured Seon-ah rubbing her sleepy hamster eyes as she answered. Good. With Seon-ah, whatever happens, we'll be fine. Let's see...
While waiting, I sat in the club room and skimmed the test.
A series of somewhat eerie questions. What could they mean? I pondered answers, putting myself in each scenario, when Teacher opened the club room door.
"How's it going? Figured any out?"
"Ah, yeah. Kinda curious about the answers. What about supervising the quiet study room?"
"Freshman, huh? Even self-study has breaks. But your club room seems... a lot bigger?"
She glanced around, holding the answer sheet. Not the first time—club room had expanded twice now, three times the original size. No denying it.
"Yeah, surprised me too. Just suddenly got bigger."
"Huh, weird?"
Thankfully, she brushed it off casually, sat down with an "oof," and said,
"Okay, remember your answers? Time for the solutions."
Ghost Story Club