The Head Ghost's Prey
The head ghost spoke. “We’re right in front of you, but we’re staying still, but what should we do, Geon-ho? I have a good idea for you─.”
“Is this the head ghost…!?”
It was a head with hair growing wildly, looking hideous. Upon closer look, its forehead was torn by something sharp, blood dripping down. It looked so damn scary that tears almost welled up in my eyes.
“Wow, shit, the visuals are really brutal. But how is it talking without vocal cords.”
“Aaah… No! Why of all places here! Why in front of the teachers’ office!”
Jeong Sojin almost screamed as she covered her face with her hands. The story that the head ghost doesn’t react to sound and sight seemed true, as it just stayed still in place despite Jeong Sojin’s screams.
I pondered slightly on how to get rid of this ghost. In fact, ever since I heard about the head ghost’s characteristics from Jeong Sojin, I had some ideas on how to move it elsewhere. Throw something like a rock as bait to lure it away?
Just as I was about to put that into action.
“Crunch crunch, crunch crunch, Jeong Sojin you fucking bitch, how could you do this to me, let’s run away, Geon-ho, let’s run away, when Yang Ju-hui went to her, now’s the time, now, Geon-ho, run away, Geon-ho, quickly, when that bitch fell, let’s leave her and go by ourselves, no, the door’s locked, we need the key─”
“…….”
Perhaps because of the head ghost’s unpleasant muttering, a certain scene flashed through my mind. It was the scene where class president Jeong Sojin pushed Yang Ju-hui down and took the chance to approach the multipurpose room door with Kim Geon-ho.
“Jeong Sojin, you, don’t tell me….”
Just as I looked at Jeong Sojin.
“Yeong-won, I’m sorry!!!”
Thud-!
At that moment, something intense pushed my shoulder hard. The two palms thrust forward were filled with not just the weight of one person, but also malice and selfishness.
“Ugh!”
Even though I’m weak in physical activities, I wasn’t weaker than Jeong Sojin who seemed to only study sitting down. Thanks to that, I didn’t fall, and instead ended up in a posture as if embracing Jeong Sojin.
“Hey, Jeong Sojin!!! Hey you fucking bitch!!! What the hell are you doing all of a sudden!!!”
“Don’t curse! It’s Yang Ju-hui’s fault! Does it make sense that my grades are lower than Yang Ju-hui who smokes and hangs out with guys every day while I only study? I didn’t do anything wrong! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“What? So you pushed Yang Ju-hui to the ghost? And when it was exposed, you pushed me too? This is completely psycho, you crazy bitch! It’s creepy that someone like you was our class president, fuck!”
“Shut up! You fucking loser! Let go of me!”
Jeong Sojin, perhaps flustered by hitting the mark, struggled to push me away.
“Let go, you bastard! Fuck, let go! Where are you touching! It’s creepy! You loser bastard!”
“What touching! It was already weird when Yang Ju-hui said she gave you the lighter! Yang Ju-hui hates you, Jeong Sojin!”
I had felt a sense of incongruity from Jeong Sojin’s story about the lighter, and had been on high alert in case Jeong Sojin made a sudden move. Thanks to that, I didn’t fall from the previous attack.
“So you knew I was two-faced! You lying bitch! Was it also a lie that you went to the old building to crack down on Kim Geon-ho and the others smoking?”
“What!?”
I used to go between the store and the back of the old building for Kim Geon-ho’s errands. And one day, I saw Kim Geon-ho and Jeong Sojin together in a secluded spot near the old building. At first, I thought the class president was warning the delinquent, but then they kissed. I quickly left, thinking I shouldn’t see what came next.
A little later, Jeong Sojin, who was loitering behind the old building, made eye contact with me and flinched, asking, “Yeong-won, why are you here? Did you see something?” I said, “No. I didn’t see anything.” But after that, Kim Geon-ho’s bullying got worse, and I learned from Yang Ju-hui that it was at Jeong Sojin’s instigation. Even back then, Jeong Sojin didn’t believe my words from the start. That’s also why I threw Jeong Sojin into the Nightmare Corridor as a player.
“Still, I really tried to help you, and you stab me in the back like this? Hanging out with guys is you, right!”
“Fuck! It feels gross! You pervert bastard! This fucking asshole! Why am I a slut! You bastard! Why am I a slut!”
Wait, I didn’t call her a slut? Jeong Sojin hit or bit me like a completely deranged person. She was almost like a madwoman, and it was torturous for me with my weak stamina. The more she did that, the tighter I hugged Jeong Sojin.
“Stay still! Stay still, I said!”
“Let go, you bastard! What are you trying to do to me! Let go!”
A strong scent of cosmetics wafted from Jeong Sojin, and the sensation of the soft thing touching my body being crushed became even more vivid. A woman’s body is this small, slender, and fragile. On the other hand, a man’s body is so sad that even in this situation, it reacts in various ways regardless of one’s will.
“Hey you pervert bastard!!! You fucking loser!!!! You bastard without a dad!!!”
It wasn’t because I was a pervert like Jeong Sojin said that I was doing this. In my own way, I was protecting Jeong Sojin on a humane level. Because there were hairs spread like spider webs around, if I moved my feet wrong, it would be bad.
“Let go!”
But Jeong Sojin was almost insane and eventually escaped from my arms-.
“Ah-.”
Thud.
She fell. Jeong Sojin was sitting as if a flower had bloomed among the hairs spread like spider webs on the floor.
“Let go you bastard fuck let go where are you touching you bastard without a dad what are you trying to do to me let go aaaaaah why am I a slut eeeeeek.”
The head ghost, now only a head, lunged at such Jeong Sojin, and Jeong Sojin struggled like a butterfly caught in a spider web.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!! Save me! Yeong-won, save me! I was wrong! Save me! Ugh, ugh, ugh─.”
As hairs seeped into Jeong Sojin’s holes like eyes, ears, and nose, the sight of her repeatedly gagging was truly horrific. She was asking to be saved, but the situation had already passed where I could do something.
“I, I’ll date you! Yeong-won, you like me, right! We made eye contact every break time! Save me! Save me! Save─.”
Jeong Sojin’s body seemed to float in the air for a moment, then moved like an awkward puppet show, cracking joints with creaks.
“You… like me… Mom… I… don’t want to study… don’t want to be a doctor… Geon-ho… before someone sees… quickly… ah… ah… ah…….”
Perhaps the hairs digging into her brain were touching nerves. Jeong Sojin listed incomprehensible words and eventually could only say “ah ah-”.
Whoosh-.
I snapped back to my senses at the smell of liquid flowing down from Jeong Sojin’s school uniform skirt to her thighs.
“Key.”
I need to find the multipurpose room key in the teachers’ office-.
With that thought, I moved my legs and entered the teachers’ office.
“Bitch. Still, at the beginning of the semester, I kind of had a crush on her.”
Clink.
Despite the bitter and complicated feelings, I steadily obtained the “Multipurpose Room Key” from the key box.
But the unfortunate thing was that in this strange corridor, I didn’t know where the multipurpose room was. Thinking back now, Jeong Sojin hadn’t told me the location of the multipurpose room. She just said she knew where it was. Considering Jeong Sojin’s cunning, she might have intended to use knowing the multipurpose room’s location to gain an advantage in her relationship with me. She might have even planned to use me as bait for the head ghost if things went wrong. And in reality, she acted that way and died.
“Is this karma.”
Glancing outside, the head ghost had disappeared somewhere with Jeong Sojin. Unlike a spider that webs and stays in place, does the head ghost move after a successful hunt? It was a reasonable opinion. When Jeong Sojin pushed Yang Ju-hui, it seemed the head ghost was in front of the multipurpose room.
Suddenly, Yang Ju-hui came to mind. If she was attacked by the head ghost, would Yang Ju-hui have ended up like Jeong Sojin just now? In the end, wetting herself?
“Hey…! You’re Ha Yeong-won, right?”
“Mom, shit!”
I was really startled by a voice coming from an unexpected place. Even a cat eating and suddenly seeing a cucumber wouldn’t be as surprised as me. I was really startled, my heart pounding, when something soft covered my mouth tightly.
“Shh, be quiet…!”
Whoosh-.
The scent of cosmetics wafted. And also the scent of sweet and sour. I knew this scent well.
“Yang Ju-hui…!?”
Even with eyes accustomed to the dark, Yang Ju-hui’s yellow hair was clearly visible. Yang Ju-hui is alive. How is this possible? Wasn’t Yang Ju-hui killed by the head ghost?
# # #
“When that ghost attacked, I took out the cutter knife and stabbed it. Thanks to that, I was able to escape somehow. Then I hid in this teachers’ office. Probably the head ghost followed me and came to the front of the teachers’ office.”
The head ghost couldn’t enter the teachers’ office. Upon closer look, there were many talismans attached to the teachers’ office, just like in the 1-4 classroom.
“I see. Attacking with a cutter knife….”
The blood flowing from the head ghost’s forehead seemed to be traces of Yang Ju-hui’s violence, not decoration for fear. The head ghost takes damage from physical attacks─might be useful information. Swinging a knife at a ghost, she’s got some guts.
“The cutter knife? The one you took from my desk, right? Where did it go?”
“Don’t know. I lost it after stabbing the head ghost. That’s why I was trapped in this teachers’ office. I also found this flashlight while searching the teachers’ office. I was looking for a usable weapon.”
“Aha.”
“Anyway, Jeong Sojin that bitch is dead, right? That bitch like a dog. I’ve hated her since before. She acts all innocent like a fox. She’s so loose but pretends not to be! She flirts with guys like crazy!”
Yang Ju-hui cursed at Jeong Sojin for about a minute. For Yang Ju-hui, Jeong Sojin was someone who tried to use her as bait.
“Ah, right. Our Yeong-won liked Jeong Sojin, right? Huh? Even though you didn’t know Jeong Sojin was dating Kim Geon-ho. Did you know that the Jeong Sojin you liked was dating Kim Geon-ho?”
“What are you saying, I never liked Jeong Sojin. I don’t like girls who wear glasses.”
“Really? Well… I’ll take it as that. But really, what the hell is this….”
Yang Ju-hui plopped down. Though she didn’t show it, it seemed she had been tense for a long time and felt relieved meeting me. Maybe because she was close, the sweet and sour scent wafted. As I unconsciously smacked my lips, Yang Ju-hui asked.
“What, Yeong-won, what are you eating right now?”
“What eating.”
“Really? Suspicious. You really don’t have anything to eat?”
“No, really don’t. Even if there was, I would’ve eaten it already. I want to drink a cold cola.”
“Shit, I’ve been trapped in this teachers’ office for two days already and I’m hungry. Now that you mentioned cola, I want to drink cola too. Take responsibility. Yeong-won, I’m thirsty. Go buy cola from the store.”
Take responsibility… Hearing those words reminded me of the dream I had not long ago. But in Yang Ju-hui’s words just now, there was a keyword more important than responsibility.
“Two days? You’ve been trapped here for two days?”
Isn’t something strange? According to my calculations, it hadn’t even been 24 hours since Yang Ju-hui and Jeong Sojin-like kids wandered this corridor. There were suspicious points in many ways, but there was something that clicked.
“Could it be that this place….”
Jingle, jingle-.
At the sound of bells, both Yang Ju-hui and I shut our mouths.
Jingle, jingle, jingle-.
The bell sound grew louder and finally passed in front of the teachers’ office.
This place is safe-.
With that thought, strength drained from my body. Sleepiness I had forgotten also rushed in. I knew it was funny even to myself, but I was really sleepy. In the first place, I woke up in the middle of the night while sleeping and was doing this shit!
“Ju-hui, you know where the multipurpose room is, right?”
“Probably? Not sure. Because I ran away randomly while avoiding the head ghost.”
Good. Still, for me who doesn’t know the location of the multipurpose room at all, it’s better to have Yang Ju-hui with me. But I kept feeling like ‘I’m missing something’. Just in case, it’s good to have insurance.
“Ju-hui.”
“Why.”
“I have one favor to ask.”