The Madwoman #1
Hong Miri-sensei decided she would continue living her daily life as if nothing had happened, just like she had been doing until now. Or more precisely, she would be acting as Hong Yeri, who had been pretending to be Hong Miri. Even thinking about it made her head spin.
“This is going to be seriously confusing.”
I wasn’t sure if a woman whose time had stopped at seventeen could properly pull off the role of a high school English teacher, but she seemed determined to try.
“Sensei. If you want to act like Hong Miri, you need to speak a little less politely.”
“Less politely? Ah… I get the vibe. You mean I should throw in some insults like idiot or moron and sound totally indifferent, right?”
She was actually pretty good at it. Guess the saying about twins being alike was true after all.
Anyway, I had saved Hong Miri-sensei’s life, and in return she had given me a kiss. A kiss from a female teacher. It was the first one since kindergarten. Just thinking about it again made my face burn hot.
“It’s getting late. Hey, you idiot. Shouldn’t you be heading home too?”
Hong Miri-sensei asked while glancing out the window. It was pitch black outside. Somehow it was already eight in the evening. Mom was probably back home by now. The thought of going home made me feel a little drained. When would I finally get to go home?
“Want me to give you a ride? I see car keys in your pocket, so it looks like I’ve got a car.”
“…Sensei, even if Hong Yeri might have a license, weren’t you unlicensed?”
“Don’t you know about muscle memory? There’s a saying that the body remembers.”
“…No way….”
Whatever. I didn’t even care anymore. With a whatever-happens-happens attitude, I got into Hong Miri’s car. She started the engine with a slightly clumsy motion.
“Whoa. You don’t even have to turn a key? Just press a button and it starts? Nice car.”
“…Can I just walk instead?”
“Hey. Stay quiet for a second. I think it’s coming back to me.”
But after that, she was shockingly smooth. Whether the so-called “muscle memory” really existed or not, Hong Miri-sensei drove like a pro. It was honestly more amazing than watching a ghost turn back into a human. My head kept bobbing up and down from the smooth ride.
“See you at school, then.”
“Um, Sensei. I’ve been dying to ask… what are you going to do with that body and head from now on?”
I still couldn’t stop thinking about Hong Yeri’s body and severed head. I had a feeling I’d be curious about it for the rest of my life.
Hong Miri answered.
“She’s the one who betrayed me and made me suffer. Don’t you think I should at least make her suffer the same way before I feel satisfied?”
A chill ran down my spine. They say when a woman holds a grudge, frost falls even in summer. That saying fit perfectly right now.
“Hey. Don’t worry. I won’t let any of it touch you. I’m just going to lock her up somewhere like a basement and keep her there.”
Hearing the truth made it even scarier.
“Anyway, bye! See you at school!”
Vroooom—.
Hong Miri-sensei drove off. I headed home. The moment Mom saw me, she said,
“Son! Where did you get a kiss from? What the heck is that? And why do you smell like piss?”
“Huh?”
I looked in the mirror and saw a vivid pink lipstick mark on my cheek, shaped like a butterfly spreading its wings.
“What the hell is this?”
I rubbed at my cheek with the back of my hand. But no matter what, the lipstick mark wouldn’t come off! I quickly changed out of my piss-soaked clothes, went into the bathroom, and scrubbed my body raw trying to wash it off, but it still wouldn’t budge.
I was screwed.
But for some reason, I felt good.
“Hehehe.”
A silly smile kept leaking out like air from a deflating balloon. The corners of my mouth wouldn’t stop loosening. Well, it was because I’d received a kiss from a beautiful female teacher.
“She was really grateful.”
Hong Miri-sensei had thanked me from the bottom of her heart. Come to think of it, Gu Hye-na had also seemed wary of me while still feeling grateful after I helped her regain her body. Had I ever received this much gratitude from anyone in my life before?
“So it’s not all bad things.”
Ever since the status window appeared—no, even longer ago, ever since I met that girl in the warehouse and my entire life flipped upside down—I had thought my life was filled with nothing but misfortune. But looking back now, there were quite a few fun memories and meaningful moments too.
Jeong Seok. Yang Ju-hui. Yu Da-hee. Bong Ji…yeon? And the others. I’d made some pretty reliable friends. When I lay in bed at night, I even felt excited thinking about all the things I had to do the next day.
I wondered how the others would react once they found out I had taken down the terrifying Hong Yeri. I had already sent them a message, but the thought of telling them face to face made me feel good. Had I felt this fulfilled lately?
Maybe that was why I found a bit of courage.
“Mom.”
I spoke to Mom’s back as she was doing the dishes. She kept washing while answering.
“What.”
Clatter. Splash—.
“That girl from when I was in elementary school.”
Clatter.
I felt her hands freeze mid-wash. It only lasted a moment.
Clatter clatter clack.
“Girl?”
“The girl Dad was keeping. What… happened to her?”
“…I thought you didn’t want to talk about that time? You had a really hard time because of what happened back then.”
“I did, but…”
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. I thought about just going to my room and sleeping. Behind me, Mom said,
“Mom’s sorry. I just… suddenly felt like that.”
Mom apologized. I couldn’t understand why she was apologizing.
“Did Hong Miri-sensei change her style?”
“Why pink instead of red?”
“Did she get a boyfriend?”
The day after the female teacher was attacked by male students, the kids showed interest when they saw Hong Miri-sensei in the hallway. It seemed strange to them that she, who had always worn nothing but red, had shown up dressed in pink.
Thump.
At that moment, someone bumped my shoulder. It was Wang Ja-hyeon. He had brushed past and hit my shoulder with his own.
“Ah. Sorry.”
Wang Ja-hyeon smiled like a nice guy. This bastard clearly did it on purpose and was pretending he didn’t. Next to him were two girls—Im Hui-yeon and Gong Ye-rin. Both of them frowned when they saw me.
“Hey. Ha Yeong-won. Stop blocking the way and move.”
“Why do you have bandages on your face? Did you get beat up by someone again?”
I had heard things like this before. To some women, men who didn’t meet their romantic standards were basically NPCs. It seemed that to Gong Ye-rin and Im Hui-yeon, I was nothing more than an NPC.
Why were they being so rude? Of course, it was true that I was blocking the hallway.
“Gong Ye-rin. Im Hui-yeon. Stop chatting in the hallway and get inside. We’re having a pop quiz in first period. If you get more than half wrong, you’ll have to take a makeup test.”
At that moment, Hong Miri-sensei spoke up to the two girls. Her attitude was exactly like the usual blunt Hong Miri-sensei, and the fact that she even remembered all the students’ names was quite surprising.
She really was Hong Miri-sensei. She had become the perfect Hong Miri-sensei.
“You’re that idiot Ha Yeong-won, right?”
While I was still stunned, Hong Miri-sensei narrowed her eyes. Then she suddenly grabbed my arm and linked it with hers.
“Then let’s go to the classroom together, Yeong-won.”
“Uhh— What are you doing?”
I was completely flustered. A teacher suddenly linking arms with me! The sensation of the volume pressing against my arm made my head spin. The other kids looked pretty shocked and confused too.
“What the? What the?”
“Whoa, linking arms.”
“This is hilarious!”
Especially Wang Ja-hyeon. He forgot his usual perfect poker face and openly frowned.
“What the hell is that?”
I don’t know either. My face was burning up. Anyway, first period was English class. The lesson was surprisingly excellent. In some ways, it was even better than the original Hong Miri’s classes. It felt like the knowledge was being hammered straight into my brain. The real Hong Miri at seventeen had apparently been an outstanding student who could have easily aimed for Seoul’s top universities. It seemed that was true.
The problem came after class ended.
“Hey. What the hell? What happened? Why did the teacher link arms with you?”
Yang Ju-hui grabbed the back of my head and yanked it the moment class ended. It hurt a bit.
“…I told you yesterday. I took down the fake Hong Miri and saved the real one!”
“So what does that even mean?”
It would be nice if we could talk openly in some secret place. There were too many ears in the classroom. We really needed to discuss creating our own secret base soon.
Anyway, the day passed by in a flash like that. With finals right around the corner, most classes were self-study. After school, Jeong Seok came up to me.
“Yeong-won. How’s your body?”
“I’m fine.”
He seemed bothered by how I had gone back alone after we went to the PC bang together last time. I had been in a bit of a panic back then. I hadn’t had the mental space to worry about anything else. Jeong Seok looked like he had a lot he wanted to say and ask. But whether it was because he was conscious of the people around us or because he was reading my mood, he couldn’t open his mouth.
We all went home together, except for Yu Da-hee from Class A who had special lessons. Today was the day we were gathering at Jeong Seok’s house under the excuse of studying for finals. His house was in an apartment complex.
“Huh, this is the same apartment as Kwon Su-ho.”
It was an incredibly spacious apartment. As expected of the mayor’s son. He really lived in a nice place.
“Oh my, Seok brought friends over? Oh my goodness, isn’t that Ji-yeon! It’s been so long! You’ve become such a fine young lady! How are your mother and father?”
“Hello.”
Jeong Seok’s mother was a typical wealthy housewife. She wore glasses. She looked a bit like Jeong So-jin. If Jeong So-jin became a woman in her forties, would she look like this?
Jeong Seok’s room wasn’t as big as Yu Da-hee’s, but it was still quite large. There were tons of books.
“Mom. We’re going to study, so don’t bother us. You don’t need to bring fruit or anything.”
Jeong Seok spoke a little coldly to his mother. I actually wanted some fruit, but it felt awkward to say so after that. Anyway, Jeong Seok’s room became our temporary base for the day.
I told them everything that had happened. Of course, Bong Ji-yeon acted like she was hearing it all for the first time.
“What’s the Nightmare Corridor? And what’s a fake Hong Miri?”
Bong Ji-yeon had gone through a lot with us, but she actually had no idea about the “truth” behind everything. Still, after watching her for the past few days, I felt like we could trust her. After all, even if she learned the truth, she had more than enough reason to cooperate with us.
“We’ve been exploring the Nightmare Corridor. And I heard that at the end, there’s something amazing that can grant wishes. If we do it right, we might not just find your sister’s head—we might even be able to bring someone back to life.”
I was the one who had reassembled both Gu Hye-na and Hong Miri’s bodies. If we found Bong Se-yeon’s head… and reached the end of the corridor to obtain “something,” then bringing back the dead didn’t seem impossible.
How would she take this story?
Bong Ji-yeon’s expression changed completely.
“My horoscope today said I would encounter a huge secret. Wow, it was right! So that’s why you were moving Gu Hye-na’s torso around! This is amazing!”
…Honestly, I had been worried about how to convince her, but she seemed to believe it more easily than I expected. She had been really into superstitions lately, so maybe that’s why her mind was open.
I said to her,
“The Jeong Seok here has been taking really good care of you. The reason we’re letting you join us is because he asked us very earnestly.”
“Ohh.”
Bong Ji-yeon looked at Jeong Seok and let out an impressed hum. Jeong Seok’s shoulders seemed to rise about a centimeter.
“So? So what are we doing now?”
Bong Ji-yeon looked interested.
“Can you heal my ankle too?”
I wasn’t sure about that. But well, if we could bring back the dead, fixing an ankle should be easy!
“That should be possible too.”
I decided to write a lot of blank checks. And as the leader, I decided to clearly set our course for what we needed to do going forward.
“Since we’ve started this, let’s see it through to the end. After finals, we’ll enter the second floor. So everyone study hard for the exams. And Ji-yeon… could you go back to Kwon Su-ho’s group for a bit?”
“What? Why! You said you’d let me join Yu Da-hee’s group!”
This wasn’t Yu Da-hee’s group, it was Ha Yeong-won’s pirate crew. I had a lot I wanted to say, but this came first.
“Kwon Su-ho seems to know a lot of things. His dad, Kwon Oh-sung, seems to know even more. And it looks like Kwon Su-ho still has feelings for you. I want you to go back and act as a spy.”
“What? If I go back now that psycho might kill me!”
“There’s a way. That guy is probably in hell right now. When you approach Kwon Su-ho, ask him if he can’t eat meat. Then tell him you know the solution.”