The Ghostly Mansion #1
The car was incredibly long and pitch black. I wondered how much it cost. It had to be way more expensive than anything my family owned. The ride was so smooth it practically glided—shhhrrrr. One day, I’d love to ride in a car like this.
That’s what I was thinking when the girls started squealing.
“Da-hui, your skin is seriously perfect. What skincare do you use?”
“Me? I just use whatever’s at home, so I don’t really know the brand names. We’ve got tons of it though—want me to give you some when we head back later?”
“For real? That’s awesome! Da-hui, I love you!”
Bong Ji-yeon was the loudest one, as usual. From what I could tell, today was the first time she and Yu Da-hui had ever really talked, yet she was acting like they’d been best friends for five hundred years. Was this the social butterfly power of someone who’d spent her whole life as the queen bee of the popular crowd? It was impressive how hard she was trying to become Yu Da-hui’s personal sidekick.
Yang Ju-hui cut in bluntly. “Love you? Bullshit. Come on. No matter how much you suck up, you’re not getting any crumbs. Su-ho’s out of the picture, so now you’re trying to ride Da-hui’s coattails, right?”
“What the hell? Da-hui and I are super close. If you’re jealous, Yang Ju-hui, just say you’re jealous. Your personality’s as ugly as your face. Right, Da-hui? Whoa, your nails are gorgeous. How do you take care of them usually?”
“Pfft, Ji-yeon, you really are something else.”
…The world of girls was a complete mystery to a guy like me.
So what about the world of guys?
I lowered my voice so only Jeong Seok could hear. “Hey, Seok. You made a big mistake today. Talking about her sister like that. We still don’t have solid info, and we have no idea what’s going to happen next. You said way too much.”
Finding Bong Se-yeon—Bong Ji-yeon’s older sister—was basically classified information for our little pirate crew. But Jeong Seok had just blurted it out. That could easily put us in a dangerous spot.
“…I know. Sorry.”
Of course, Jeong Seok was a smart guy. He didn’t need me to spell out the problem or how to fix it. “I’ll smooth things over. Obviously I won’t mention anything about the status window. Even I think I went too far today, but I still know where the line is.”
Responsibility. Duty. That was the world of men.
The car kept rolling along for a long time. We were headed toward the outskirts of Gaeryong City, where the mountains were everywhere.
“It’s farther than I thought,” I muttered.
Yu Da-hui’s house was much farther away than I’d expected. No wonder she had a chauffeur drive her to and from school every day.
Bzzzt.
My phone vibrated. When I checked, Jeong Seok had sent a message in the group chat.
Jungle Jeong Seok: Couldn’t say this out loud because of the situation, but Chairman Cheon Dae-gon might be at the center of several major incidents. If you end up talking to him, think carefully before you speak.
: Got it.
The truth was, the person I needed to be most wary of today wasn’t some arrogant third-generation chaebol punk like Kwon Su-ho. It was the man who ruled Gaeryong Metropolitan City—the wealthy old family that had taken root in this land long, long ago.
“Whoa. Is that the gate? Do you seriously have to drive through the gate too?” Bong Ji-yeon exclaimed, completely hyped up.
Just like she said, Yu Da-hui’s house had a gate straight out of a movie. Beyond it stretched a massive garden. There was a fountain and a swimming pool. Tall, nameless trees lined the grounds, and golf carts—the kind you’d only see on an actual golf course—were parked here and there.
Just how rich were they?
Bong Ji-yeon kept going. “Wow, this is insane. Da-hui, your grandfather must be loaded. Being a school chairman really pays that well? Does he have other businesses on the side?”
A blatant background check. She was clearly trying to gauge Yu Da-hui’s wealth to see if she’d make a good new patron.
Yu Da-hui answered calmly, “I don’t think he has any other jobs. But apparently one of our very distant ancestors was an incredible alchemist. That’s how the family made its fortune.”
“Alchemist? What’s that?” Bong Ji-yeon frowned.
I felt a strange twinge too. An alchemist? Really?
Jeong Seok must have wanted to show off in front of Bong Ji-yeon, because he quickly jumped in. “Alchemists were people who tried to turn iron into gold. It was a field popular in Europe and the Arab world. Turning iron into gold was impossible, of course, but the research led to major advances in science.”
A male peacock spreads its brilliant feathers to attract a female. For Jeong Seok, those feathers were his knowledge. Whether that display actually worked on Bong Ji-yeon was another question.
###
Was there any house that deserved to be called a mansion more than this one? The ceilings were impossibly high, European-style pillars soared upward, and deep red carpets covered the floors. The whole atmosphere felt nothing like Korea. I felt like the protagonist of a novel.
A mansion belonging to a tycoon—the kind that always appeared in mystery novels. That was exactly what this place was.
And in places like this, something creepy always happened.
“……”
Even Bong Ji-yeon, who had been making a huge racket, was completely overwhelmed. Her mouth hung open in awe. No matter how tough or dangerous she tried to act, she was still just a first-year high school girl.
My evaluation of Bong Ji-yeon dropped a notch, while my evaluation of Yu Da-hui shot through the roof. I knew she was rich, but I never imagined she lived somewhere this extravagant.
“Want to see my room, guys? It’s on the third floor. Let’s take the elevator.”
Who the hell has an elevator in their house?
I stepped into the transparent elevator and rode up to the third floor. The hallway looked like something out of a luxurious old hotel—porcelain vases, framed paintings, and expensive-looking decorations everywhere. There were especially a lot of portraits.
“These are ancestors from the Cheon family,” Yu Da-hui explained.
I looked at the portraits again. For paintings of Joseon-era ancestors, they were surprisingly Western in style. Come to think of it, she did mention an alchemist ancestor. Maybe the Cheon family was one of those rare clans that embraced Western learning and practical studies during the ultra-Confucian Joseon period, quickly accumulating wealth. Being first to the table really does make all the difference.
“This is my room.”
Yu Da-hui opened the door. Her room had black carpet, an incredibly soft-looking bed, and was almost the same size as my entire house. A bedroom the size of a whole house? Unbelievable.
“Ugh, what the—?!” Yang Ju-hui suddenly yelped.
A fluffy white ball of fur was rubbing itself all over her leg. It looked like an insanely expensive purebred cat.
“That’s Snowy. She’s usually wary of strangers. Weird. She must like you, Ju-hui.”
Unlike most wary cats, Snowy jumped straight into Yang Ju-hui’s lap, climbed onto her shoulder, and generally made herself at home. Yang Ju-hui, of course, was horrified.
“Hey! Get off! Why is this thing like this?! Someone get it off me!”
I finally understood. Yang Ju-hui just straight-up hated cats. That’s why she always glared at the neighborhood strays and cat ladies. And since Yu Da-hui had a cat at home, she naturally liked them.
Yang Ju-hui practically hurled the cat away. After frantically brushing off all the white fur stuck to her clothes, her irritated expression suddenly brightened.
“Whoa, what is this? It’s a Princess Castle! You have every single Princess doll!”
What the heck was a Princess Castle? I turned and saw a rather large castle-shaped dollhouse in one corner of Yu Da-hui’s room. It was filled with princess-like dolls. I didn’t really get it, but it was clearly every little girl’s dream.
Anyway, seeing Yu Da-hui’s room made me feel, more than ever, that life wasn’t fair. What exactly did you have to do to be born with a golden spoon like this? Was it just pure luck?
Sure, I’d been a little excited about seeing a high school girl’s bedroom, but the reality was on a completely different level from my imagination. All that was left was pure awe.
Knock knock.
Someone rapped on the door. It opened with a heavy clack. The cat, Snowy, let out a hiss and bolted into the corner.
A woman dressed in clothes as black as mourning attire poked her extremely pale face into the room. Her hair was tied up elegantly, but her face was completely bloodless, giving her a creepy vibe. She looked to be in her forties or fifties.
“Yu Da-hui. Your grandfather will be here soon. Stop chatting and get ready for dinner.”
Her voice was just as eerie as her appearance. She even seemed angry at Yu Da-hui for some reason.
“And all of you—don’t be rude or speak out of turn. No matter who you are, you will behave with proper manners in this house. This mansion hears every word you say. I’ve warned you.”
Yu Da-hui answered politely, “Yes. We’ll be right down.”
Shhhrr. The woman turned and walked away. As she did, her eyes briefly met mine. That deathly pale face and expression didn’t feel human at all. A full-body chill ran down my spine.
“Who was that just now? Your mom?” Bong Ji-yeon asked.
Yu Da-hui paused for a second, thinking. “She’s a new housekeeper who started recently. The previous one quit, so she replaced her. I don’t really know what she did before. The old housekeeper was really fun and nice… but this one really hates cats. She even dislikes Snowy…”
Saying the old one was nice was basically the same as saying the current one wasn’t. And yeah, with those black clothes and that ghostly pale face, she did give off a shady, unsettling vibe.
Jeong Seok nodded. “A gloomy housekeeper… She really is straight out of Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers herself.”
“Alright everyone, let’s head downstairs.”
“Da-hui, I need to use the bathroom real quick.”
###
By the time everyone else had gone down to the first-floor dining room for dinner, I was still wandering around on the third floor. I’d gotten lost on my way to the bathroom.
“Where the hell is the bathroom?”
While I was unintentionally exploring, I started noticing strange marks all over the mansion. They looked like tiny cuts someone had made, or maybe some kind of symbols.
「→」
An arrow. It was placed so low I had to kneel and bend over just to see it clearly. I’d seen marks like this before.
“It’s similar to the ones that were in that elevator.”
The moment I remembered the symbols from the elevator on the Death Floor, I started unconsciously following the marks carved into the walls like knife cuts.
That led me to a painting hanging in the hallway. It depicted a man with deeply sunken eyes. The impression was so gloomy it reminded me of Van Gogh after he cut off his ear. Below it was written 「Self-Portrait」.
Okay, fine. But why did the arrow stop here?
Just in case, I examined the frame from every angle.
“Nothing here.”
The moment I pulled the frame away to look behind it—
Flutter.
A piece of paper that had been tucked behind the self-portrait fell to the floor. It was a page from a sketchbook. Two figures were drawn in crayon, clearly the work of a child.
「Da-hui ♡ Auntie」
Yu Da-hui must have drawn this. Who was this “Auntie”? Was it the previous housekeeper who used to work here?
“What are you doing?”
“Mom—!”
I jumped in shock. When I turned around, the creepy housekeeper lady was staring right at me.
“Why aren’t you downstairs? And what is that?”
Whoosh! She snatched the paper from my hand with rude speed and force. Then, with a face like an angry goblin, she viciously tore the sketchbook page to shreds.
“That insane little bitch! She hid something like this in the house? How dare she! It’s bad luck!”
“Huh?”
“You—some stray rock that rolled in here—how dare you hide something like this in the house! You thieving wench!”
She kept muttering to herself. This woman was clearly not right in the head.
“I know everything. I raised the Master myself. I’ve been with him since the moment he was born. I fed him with my own milk. In other words, he is my other half. My masterpiece—”
Grip! She grabbed my arm with terrifying strength.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“The Master will return soon. Everything in this mansion belongs to the Cheon family. Don’t you dare covet even a single pebble in this house, you Yu. Yu Da-hui, you thieving cat! I know exactly what you’re scheming!”
I could tell this woman was completely insane.
“You can’t fool me! My eyes see everything! Now that I’ve returned to this mansion, things will not go your way, Yu Da-hui!”
She was mistaking me for Yu Da-hui? I’m a guy and she’s a girl!
“…I’m not Yu Da-hui! I’m Ha Yeong-won!”
I struggled desperately. The woman pulled out a pair of glasses from her pocket, put them on, and stared at me. Her face twisted into a scowl.
“What? You’re not Yu Da-hui. Who the hell are you?”
Her fingers, cold as a corpse, grabbed my face and started roughly kneading it. A wave of goosebumps ran over me. I chose to run.