The Magic Wand
Hong Miri seemed laid-back at first glance, but she could cut you with a single sharp word. We had to stand there and endure nearly ten minutes of her scolding.
“Hey. Ha Yeong-won. Your mother’s lying in a hospital bed and you think it’s okay to pull stunts like this?”
“Sorry.”
When you’re in the wrong, the only move is to flatten yourself on the ground. Soon her gaze slid over to Jeong Seok as well.
“Vice president of Class D. I expected better from you. What exactly are you doing here? Two boys dragging one innocent girl into this crumbling wreck of a building—what’s the plan?”
Two boys coaxing a girl into a broken-down building. The phrasing sounded strangely suggestive. Yu Dahee, who had been listening quietly the whole time, finally spoke up.
“It was my idea. Yeong-won and Seok only came because I asked them to. I lost something important and I was too scared to come alone.”
“You, Dahee?”
Her eyes narrowed into thin slits. The look was so snake-like and piercing that I almost flinched. She clicked her tongue.
“Fine. It’s late. All of you go home.”
Oh. Finally free from this lecture from hell.
“Yu Dahee, you stay behind. I’ll have to speak with the chairman about this. I heard he’s unwell, and if you’re causing trouble on top of that, your family won’t be pleased. You know that better than anyone, don’t you?”
“…….”
Yu Dahee’s face crumpled like a child who’d been caught doing something bad through no fault of her own.
“Understood.”
I had no idea what the deeper story was, but I just wanted to get out of there.
“Seok, let’s head home too.”
Looking back, that underground exploration had been downright terrifying. I was still shaken. The best way to shake off fear like that was to open the status window and flex my new traits and gacha items. Time to get home fast.
“Yeong-won. Here.”
Yu Dahee held something out to me just as I was about to leave. It was a magic wand about thirty centimeters long.
“Give it back to Ju-hui.”
“…Got it.”
And with that, our impromptu Saturday night courage test finally came to an end.
What we gained from it was as follows.
1. Mental exhaustion.
2. The 「Magic Wand」 with Yang Ju-hui’s name engraved on it.
3. A wish coupon from Yu Dahee.
“I guess this counts as a win?”
Whether it was profit or loss would depend entirely on how I used number three. Jeong Seok muttered beside me.
“That’s an underground I never want to see again.”
“Same. But if everything Yu Dahee said was true, it sounds like Yang Ju-hui’s older sister—Yang Do-hui—went down into the old building’s basement looking for something. What could she possibly have been searching for?”
The experience from today felt like it could become one of those “missing puzzle pieces.” When I asked the puzzle master himself, Jeong Seok just trailed off.
“I’m not sure…”
As far as I could tell, his brain was still paralyzed by the fear he’d felt underground. What on earth had she gone there to find?
“Yu Dahee said she was looking for something round, like an orb. Seok, that missing female student’s head case you mentioned happened five years ago, right?”
“…Yeah. It was winter. The whole country was talking about it.”
I had been living in Seoul back then, so I hadn’t known anything about the uproar happening in this city. I hadn’t even known much about Gaeryong Metropolitan City at the time. But now that I thought about it… there might be a real connection.
“And Yang Do-hui disappeared the following spring. What if her case is linked to the headless girl incident?”
“You’re saying it’s the same culprit?”
Jeong Seok’s previously dazed eyes sharpened instantly, as if someone had flipped a switch. His hatred for the “culprit” was clearly genuine.
“No, not necessarily the same person. Think about it. A head that vanished in winter. Then, the next spring, a high school girl disappears while searching for something. Maybe…”
“Oh. So you’re saying Yang Do-hui might have gone into the old building basement to look for that head?”
“Exactly. The headless girl and the missing Yang Do-hui could have been friends. Seok, you’d come looking for me if my head went missing, right?”
“…….”
Jeong Seok wore an uncertain expression. Was he saying he wouldn’t look for me? Or maybe he just thought my theory was an evidence-free stretch. Still—
That’s how puzzle-solving usually starts. You jam every piece that looks like it might fit, then swap them out later if they don’t. That’s the process.
“At least now I have an idea of how Yang Ju-hui’s sister disappeared. And it doesn’t seem like Yu Dahee was lying. I still don’t know where she went, but…”
I gave the magic wand in my hand a little twirl. Better to return it today.
“Hey. Let’s go to Ju-hui’s place.”
“…I should really head home soon.”
Jeong Seok looked uncomfortable. It was already ten at night. He probably wanted to get back before it got any later.
“Fine. If you have anything to say, just message me. And keep notifications on in the group chat.”
Soft and fluffy, my heart—
Like clear stream water—
Stream, stream, stream water—
The signal tone was as bizarre as ever. The call connected.
“What.”
“Come down. I’m in front of your building. I have something for you.”
“What is it?”
“Telling you would ruin the surprise. Just come down quick. Hint: it’s thick, long, pink, and hard.”
“What the hell are you talking about, you bastard?”
The magic wand with 「Yang Ju-hui」 written on it. I was mildly curious how she would react when she saw it. I waited with a small spark of anticipation.
About five minutes later, a girl wearing red sweats over dolphin shorts came down from the apartment. Calling the prettiest girl in our class out on a weekend evening to meet in front of her house… when I thought about it, the whole situation felt slightly surreal.
“What?”
Yang Ju-hui glared at me with narrow eyes. She still seemed upset about how Yu Dahee had yelled at her and stormed off earlier that afternoon.
I held the wand out to her.
“Hey. This is yours, right?”
“Isn’t that the Princess Wand?”
Yang Ju-hui’s expression melted instantly. It was like watching a prickly hedgehog that had been puffed up with thorns suddenly relax the moment you offered it an apple. She snatched the wand from my hand and examined it from every angle.
“It really is the Princess Wand!”
What even was a Princess Wand? Was it a set item with the Princess Sketchbook or something? Yang Ju-hui turned it over in her hands.
“This has my name on it. It’s mine! Where did you get this?”
“Gack!”
She suddenly grabbed my collar and shook me so hard I couldn’t breathe. Her strength was far greater than it looked; my whole body was being tossed back and forth.
“Where did you get it?!”
“Yu… Yu Dahee…”
“Yu Dahee?”
“I went to the old building with Yu Dahee. We found it in the basement. She told me to give it to you. Why? What is this thing, exactly?”
“…….”
Yang Ju-hui stared at the wand in silence. When she pressed the button, the jewel on the tip began to flash brightly.
“This… is the last thing I saw my sister holding before she disappeared. She always liked taking my stuff. Pencil cases, erasers, toys…”
So Yang Ju-hui’s habit of stealing my cutter, eraser, and pencil case was a skill she’d learned from her older sister.
“This was the wand I got for my seventh birthday. She tried to take it too, so I got really angry and said some awful things to her. That was the last time…”
I see. It had been a meaningful object after all. I told Yang Ju-hui everything that had happened during our exploration of the school basement with Yu Dahee and Jeong Seok. I also casually slipped in my theory that her sister, Yang Do-hui, might have gone down there to find the “headless girl’s” head.
How would she react?
“The headless sister… I knew her too. She used to come over to our house a lot. Her name was Bong Se-yeon.”
“Bong Se-yeon?”
“The headless girl. She’s the older sister of Bong Ji-yeon, the Class C delinquent leader. Didn’t Jeong Seok tell you?”
He hadn’t. I hadn’t asked, either… but now that I thought about it, it was easy to guess. The headless girl had lived next door to Jeong Seok. And Bong Ji-yeon was the childhood friend who constantly bothered him by coming over. So that’s why the Class C bully lived next to him.
“My sister went looking for Se-yeon’s head… Now that I think about it… my sister always had something strange about her. She would talk to empty spaces, or suddenly get sick for no reason.”
“Like someone who could see ghosts?”
“Yeah. And then she disappeared.”
Shop Level 2 (0/500)
Strong Heart: Your heart becomes incredibly robust. Stamina increases dramatically and you gain complete immunity to all heart-related illnesses.
Yang Ju-hui’s family line had apparently produced shamans for generations. If her older sister Yang Do-hui had truly possessed that kind of “talent”…
The ability to see ghosts. A person who watches. A Watcher.
Was that what being a Watcher meant?
A refreshing chill exploded in my head, as if someone had poured ice-cold soda straight into my skull.