Ten Ghosts Night Parade (2)
I hadn't done anything wrong. Skipping work wasn't a crime. They'd dragged some random guy here out of the blue and forced him into this job, right? All I was doing was exercising my perfectly legitimate right to call in absent.
So why was my heart pounding like this, against all logic?
It was past 11 p.m. The break room was as silent as ever. I wasn't the type to talk to myself, and there was no reason browsing the Gallery would make any noise. Still, to break the quiet, I'd make some sound—reading posts out loud and reacting, or laughing extra loud at something funny. It eased the tension a bit.
Knock knock.
My whole body froze. It was a sound I'd never heard at this hour—a knock.
Today's duty log had no special notices. So who the hell was knocking?
Knock knock.
I killed the sound and posted on the Gallery.
Today's log had no special notices and I'm scared af
Since I'd decided to skip today, there was no guard here. I ignored the knocking as best I could and kept scrolling the Gallery.
Midnight passed. The knocking didn't stop. Whatever youkai it was, it had stamina for days.
Emphasized, repetitive sounds make the guard uneasy.
One a.m. passed. The knocks grew louder, like they might shatter the glass. It wasn't knocking anymore.
If I'd ignored Song Ha-yeon's knocks on the first day like this, would they have turned into that? Dull thuds like fists pounding kept echoing in my ears. After two hours, it felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The initial fear had morphed into straight-up annoyance.
Do they always harass you like this if you try to skip? Youkai's been knocking for over 2 hours;;
I hadn't posted for solutions, but yeah, guess I just had to endure it. I tossed the Gallery aside and flopped onto the bed. Treat that pounding racket like a lullaby and sleep. No reason to suffer through it.
The moment I closed my eyes—
Crash!
I bolted upright. Definitely something breaking. Did the glass shatter?
Wasn't the guard room supposed to be a safe zone?
My body reacted on instinct, grabbing the baseball bat from the corner. I knew it wouldn't do shit against a youkai, but people clutch anything in a crisis.
The knocking stopped after the crash. Had a youkai broken in?
No footsteps. Just silence.
I clamped my mouth shut to stifle my ragged breathing. My swallow was loud as hell. Sweat dripped from my bat-gripping hand.
I prayed this was just a scare tactic.
The rulebook clearly said the guard room was safe.
Knock knock.
That damn knocking again—but closer now. Before, it was the outer glass. Now, it was the break room door itself.
Knock knock.
If my ears weren't lying, a youkai had broken in. The rulebook had nothing on this.
Two options: hallucination, or the rulebook was wrong.
Based on experience, it was the former. The rulebook never lied—not made by humans, but by an outer god.
Logically, it was a hallucination. But logic didn't kill fear. My body reacted on its own.
The door-thudding vibrations were way more nerve-wracking than distant glass taps.
But if it was a hallucination, no invasion happened. By two a.m., the knocking finally stopped.
Hallucination or not, I was grateful for the silence. I'd done jack shit today besides endure three hours of youkai torment—my mental energy was drained.
Exhausted, I lay down to sleep. A youkai might be right outside, but after all that fear, casually crashing out? I let out a hollow laugh. Sticking around this world was messing with my head.
The second I woke, I checked the door. Shut tight as always. Monitor off—sun was up.
I hadn't left once last night. Skipped duty for sure.
Now for the fallout. I'd have worried last night, but the knocking youkai stole all my bandwidth. Come to think of it, did it really break in?
I gripped the handle gingerly, praying for hallucination, and eased the door open.
Guard room looked normal. Glass intact, no cracks.
One difference: a new paper on the desk.
[Content filled with incomprehensible alien script]
Unlike the red-ink warning letter for mistakes, this was printed in ominous crimson. Creepy, but looked like my skip counted.
Knock knock.
I jumped. Yesterday's ordeal had me hypersensitive.
Turning, I saw a middle-aged woman eyeing me. No footsteps—how'd she sneak up?
Knock knock.
"Who are you?"
"Admin office staff."
She had frizzy hair, thick glasses, squinting eyes. Weird: she kept knocking even after I turned.
Knock knock.
"Got a question... You skipped yesterday."
Why keep knocking while talking?
Knock knock.
"Why'd you skip?"
Knock knock.
"Can't you hear me?"
"Uh... well..."
No good excuse came to mind. Never prepped an alibi since I didn't expect this.
Knock knock.
"You ignored me all day yesterday too, huh?"
"...Pardon?"
It clicked. That rhythm—matched yesterday's tormentor.
So the admin office's white mannequin was this lady youkai.
Knock knock.
"You were in there."
"..."
Knock knock.
"You were in there, right."
"..."
Knock knock.
"In. There. Right."
She glared with bulging eyes, yelling.
I thought daytime youkai in human form would be less scary, playing human. Wrong.
She stopped knocking, balled her fist, and slammed the window.
"In. There. Right. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah."
The knocks alone drove me nuts; her metallic screech pushed me over. Wanted to plug my ears, but dodging wouldn't solve this.
Glancing down, I spotted the Absence Report on the shelf. Grasping at straws, I snatched it and held it to the glass.
"In. Ther—"
She cut off. That was it.
"...Confirmed. Submit it to the admin office tonight."
Back to normal, she bowed and left.
One skip got this reaction—what if I skipped again? Third time, she'd probably kill me herself.
Sighing in relief, but not relaxed yet. Gallery admin said difficulty ramps up.
I cautiously opened the duty log file. No shift yesterday, so unchanged—but it writes itself anyway.
Except it was blank. Panicked at first, then remembered: mornings it's always blank, fills right before shift. Forgot the obvious from nerves.
No point fretting unconfirmed stuff. Calmed, I headed to the break room.
Fridge had beef veggie porridge. Delicious.
This world must have some anti-oversleep device. Napped early, tossed till late—still woke before shift.
No one on the Gallery, including me, ever overslept. Suspicious as hell.
Maybe Soonbaek-i's doing. Grateful, anyway.
Sat in the guard room as usual, opening the break room door to wait for night.
Kim Eat-Chil stood blankly outside, like he'd been waiting.
"What's up."
"You skipped, right?"
"...How'd you know?"
"Word's out."
Every youkai in school knew? Explained the difficulty spike instantly.
I covered my face, sighing long. He giggled.
Fine. Let's see how bad.
Trembling, I grabbed and opened the duty log.
Expected zero or one notice so far—maybe three max.
"......"
Rubbed my eyes. What was I seeing?
One, two, three, four... My hands shook on the file.
Today's duty log had a total of 7 special notices.