The Boy's Abyss
“Yeong-won, I’m so glad you came. Really…”
Jeong Sojin threw herself at me again, wrapping her arms around my neck as tears streamed down her face. She felt soft, and she smelled nice.
“Hey, don’t cry.”
I patted her back, only to feel the strap of her bra and grow flustered. Thankfully, Jeong Sojin didn’t seem to notice. She simply wiped her tears with her fingers.
“Yeong-won, I didn’t know you were this dependable. You were like that the first time we talked too, right? Even though it must’ve been heavy, you carried all my stuff for me…”
“Mm…”
“I think people you can respect are really cool. If you hadn’t been there, I might’ve actually gone crazy by now.”
“Sojin, there’s something I want to ask. Are Yang Ju-hui and Kim Geon-ho here too?”
“……”
Even in the darkness, I could see her expression darken.
“Why are you asking that?”
“Well, the Zippo lighter you’re holding belongs to Yang Ju-hui. If you have it, I thought maybe she’s trapped in this weird corridor too.”
What Jeong Sojin clutched was the silver Zippo lighter I had given Yang Ju-hui. And I was the one who had dragged Yang Ju-hui, Kim Geon-ho, and Jeong Sojin into the Nightmare Corridor as players. Maybe all the players were here.
I wanted to prove my theory, but Jeong Sojin’s body trembled violently as she made a tearful face.
“…You’re right. Ju-hui and Kim Geon-ho were with me. But then that weird thing attacked us…”
“You mean the Bell Girl? The one in the shaman outfit with the jingling bells?”
“No, not that! There’s more than just the bell woman! I’ve seen at least three different kinds so far. So please, Yeong-won, let’s get out of here. Hurry…! Please…!”
Did that mean three kinds including the Bell Girl, or three excluding her? Either way, it was important information.
“Can you tell me more about those three types of ghosts? Or monsters, I guess—”
“You fucking idiot!!! I don’t care about that, just get us out of here!!!”
I was genuinely startled. So was Jeong Sojin; she flinched and began trembling.
“No, I’m sorry… I’m not in my right mind… I don’t even know why this is happening… or where we are… I was supposed to go to the academy, but ah…”
She was clearly hysterical. I decided to calm her down first.
“Of course we have to get out. But if there are multiple kinds of ghosts, shouldn’t we figure out what they are first? We’ll need to deal with them if we run into any.”
For example, I suspected the Bell Girl couldn’t see. Since her shaman bells jingled whenever she approached, it was easy to notice her. But the others I hadn’t encountered were complete unknowns, and I had no desire to die a pointless death by stumbling into one.
Jeong Sojin seemed convinced. She took a few deep, shaky breaths.
“You’re right, Yeong-won. This is my first time dealing with something like this… Honestly, I’m really shaken up, so I lashed out without thinking. But it’s okay. No matter how loud we are in this classroom, the ghosts won’t come in.”
“Really? For sure?”
“Maybe because of the talismans? That’s probably why I could hide here. I wanted to take some with me, but they turned to dust the moment I peeled them off.”
The classroom of 1-4 was safe from ghosts. I filed that fact away just as Jeong Sojin peeled off her torn stockings, revealing her pale legs.
“It’ll be easier to move without these, right?”
It was the first time I’d seen a girl my age take off her stockings in person. I couldn’t help but stare. Watching a classmate remove her stockings felt far more provocative than any porn video of people stripping for something more extreme. Of course, Jeong Sojin acted like it was nothing.
“Before we leave, I’ll explain what I know about how this happened.”
“During lunch, some kids told me Kim Geon-ho and his crew were smoking behind the Old Building. I mean, I’m the class president. If my classmates cause trouble, it’s my responsibility too…”
Jeong Sojin had gone to the Old Building to discipline the delinquents. There, she ran into Kim Geon-ho and Yang Ju-hui. Kim Geon-ho had picked the lock on the Old Building and gone inside.
“I thought I had to stop them somehow… but the Old Building is creepy. So I suggested we go in together with Ju-hui, and then… no matter how far we walked, the corridor never ended. The entrance we came through had vanished…!”
During lunch, while I was unlocking the shop in my Status Window and opening the Old Building, the three of them had entered and become trapped in this bizarre corridor. That matched the timing perfectly. No wonder none of them had answered their phones.
“Class president, what about your phone?”
“It was completely dead, and creepy noises kept coming out of it, so I threw it away. While the three of us were wandering around, we found an exit. But Kim Geon-ho ran ahead alone, saying he’d save himself…”
I thought of Kim Geon-ho. No need for a long explanation—he was a piece of shit.
“While chasing after him, we ran into the Head Ghost. It has no arms or legs, just a face buried under a huge mass of hair. It looks terrifying. Really…”
The Head Ghost. Damn, even imagining it was horrifying.
“But the Head Ghost just stays still. Maybe because it has no body. It hangs its hair down like a spiderweb and doesn’t move. As long as you don’t step on the hair, it seems docile.”
“It uses its hair like a trap… Like a spider. Spiders are usually quiet until something gets caught in their web.”
“A spider… But unfortunately, it was right in front of the exit… Suddenly Kim Geon-ho shoved Yang Ju-hui to the ground, and while I was panicking and running, I…”
Jeong Sojin held out Yang Ju-hui’s Zippo lighter to me. I wasn’t sure if it was impressive or just desperate that she’d managed to grab it in the chaos.
“Ju-hui gave it to me. She said at least one of us should survive…”
Yang Ju-hui gave it to Jeong Sojin? That was impossible. As far as I knew, Yang Ju-hui hated Jeong Sojin’s guts. Maybe surviving the crisis had awakened some kind of friendship between them. I felt a twinge of unease but asked casually anyway.
“So what happened to Yang Ju-hui? Did she… die? Since the ghost caught her.”
Cold sweat soaked my back and underarms. I desperately wanted to know what had become of Yang Ju-hui after being grabbed by the so-called Head Ghost.
“I don’t know… Anyway, while we were running, we spotted the teachers’ office. If we grab the keys from the key box there, we can open the multipurpose room! You know there’s an emergency fire exit in Yeongji High’s multipurpose room, right?”
An emergency exit? I didn’t know that existed.
“We did a fire drill before, remember? A firefighter came and taught us that after a big fire broke out at the old school, they installed emergency exits in certain parts of the building. Don’t you remember?”
“Ah. I think I remember something like that.”
So heading to the teachers’ office for the keys was confirmed. Whether fortunate or not, Jeong Sojin said the office was nearby. I felt reluctant to leave the talisman-filled safety of classroom 1-4, but we couldn’t stay hidden forever. According to the Status Window, the Nightmare Corridor required escape, not just survival.
But leaving the classroom right now wasn’t the right move.
“Class president, let’s wait a bit.”
“Wait for what?”
“Obviously, the Bell Girl.”
“Why…!?”
Jeong Sojin frowned, clearly confused. I gave her a short explanation.
“From what I’ve seen, the Bell Girl patrols this corridor at regular intervals. So if we leave after she passes, we’re less likely to run into her. If we go now, we might bump straight into her coming back this way.”
Jingle.
As if proving my theory, the sound of bells echoed from far away.
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
Even though I’d been told ghosts couldn’t enter classroom 1-4, my breath still caught and my legs went weak. Only after the strange presence faded from the corridor could I finally breathe again.
“See? She went left, so she won’t come near here for a while. If we want to reach the teachers’ office, we should go now. You said it’s to the right, right?”
“Yeong-won…”
Jeong Sojin’s eyes glistened, whether from approval or admiration.
“How did you know that? How?”
“I just had a feeling from playing hide-and-seek type games before.”
“Games… I guess you could think of it that way. Having you here, someone who’s played a lot of games, is reassuring. If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve played games instead of studying.”
I couldn’t tell if my evaluation had gone up or down.
“I really mean it when I say you’re reassuring. When I was alone, I thought I was going to lose my mind. But you’re calmer than I expected. I guess I should say you’re manly… It’s kind of cool.”
“…Honestly, I’m scared too. I woke up and suddenly found myself here. So don’t expect too much from me.”
We didn’t have time for more small talk. I slowly opened the classroom door and stepped out. Creak, groan, groan.
After walking down the corridor for a while by the light of the Zippo, Jeong Sojin, who had been following behind me, suddenly grabbed my side tightly.
“I’m so scared, Yeong-won…”
“Me too. I’m scared.”
“But I’m glad you’re here. Yeong-won, can you protect me…? Actually, ever since you helped me at the entrance ceremony, I’ve thought you were nice. If we make it out safely, then with me…”
Her voice, damp like morning dew, stirred a man’s protective instincts—until the sign reading Teachers’ Office came into view. A place I hadn’t been able to find when wandering alone by the faint glow of my Status Window. Honestly, I hadn’t had the luxury of looking around carefully.
But there was a problem.
“Grind grind gnash grind Yang Ju-hui go first I hate it Kim Geon-ho do something you guys don’t fight just calm down for now I can’t hear the sound—”
Crouched in front of the teachers’ office was a pitch-black figure. It was the ghost with long hair spreading in all directions like a spiderweb trap. Only the woman’s face with wide, gleaming eyes floated among the black strands, and from her mouth came a stream of incomprehensible words.