001 – A Really Scary Story
001 - A Really Scary Story
001 - A Truly Scary Story
A pork belly restaurant with charcoal fires blazing.
It was a full company dinner for the Michelin two-star restaurant where I worked.
"Alright, let's toast to Chef Seong's debut on Net-Plus Survival!"
"Wow, I heard reservations are already fully booked until next winter!"
The sound of soju glasses clinking rang out loudly amidst a festive atmosphere, as if we had rented out the entire place.
But beyond that noisy clamor, there was a voice that grated on my nerves.
The power player of the hall, the head sommelier, 37-year-old Team Leader Jeong.
He was already red-faced from drinking and had his arm draped tightly around Yerim-ssi, a 23-year-old Stage (intern) who was two years younger than me.
"Yerim-ssi, we're going the same way, so let's ride in my car later."
"...No, Team Leader-nim. I can just take the subway!"
"Hey, it's more comfortable to call a designated driver, why suffer? I just won a good bottle of wine at an auction, why don't you come by my officetel and have just one glass?"
His voice, slurred and greasy, reached my ears.
Even though Yerim-ssi was clearly showing her discomfort, the hand resting on her shoulder wouldn't budge.
I, who had been working there for five months, had heard many times that this guy hit on the female staff at all hours.
Rumor had it that several hall staff had already submitted their resignations because of him.
But everyone was too busy clinking glasses and chatting among themselves, pretending not to hear or see anything while walking on eggshells around the sommelier team leader, the restaurant's power player.
Even Chef Seong was like that.
The chef was a star chef with two Michelin stars, but strangely, he acted weak toward the sommelier team leader as if he had some sort of weakness held over him.
"Yerim-ssi, your ears are red, so it looks like your liver is weak. We have ginseng wine at my place, you know? That's really good for the liver."
"No, I have to go before the last train stops...."
"Hey! I'll catch you a taxi!"
Just then, I made eye contact with Yerim-ssi.
Those round eyes of hers looked like they were saying 'Help me.'
Those moist eyes resembled 'Bori,' the Border Collie that crossed the rainbow bridge when I was in high school, and it also reminded me of my younger sister, who said she was busy preparing for graduation.
'Does my sister have to deal with such advances from her superiors when she gets a job too?'
At this moment, I learned something about myself.
I'm the type of person who can't stand this sort of thing─.
"Team Leader-nim, that auctioned wine and ginseng wine. Could I go drink them instead of Yerim-ssi?"
......
.......
The hot pork belly restaurant felt as cold as a freezer storing dead tuna.
Eight months after that─.
I, Ha Yuseong, successfully transitioned from a Stage at a famous fine dining restaurant to an unemployed youth.
It was clearly the sommelier team leader who was in the wrong, but for some reason, I was semi-forcibly 'voluntarily resigned.'
Is that what social life is?
It's been eight months, but even now, if I close my eyes, the events of that company dinner come to mind, and I grind my teeth.
"Ugh, if I was going to get fired anyway, I should have punched Team Leader Jeong in the jaw."
Return what you received─.
That's our family motto, after all.
Anyway.
For the past few weeks, my only conversation partner has been the owner of the convenience store in front of my studio apartment.
The convenience store owner was a woman in her mid-40s who drove a Mercedes.
She was a stylish person who dyed her hair bright, wore luxury bags, and even wore a watch.
Perhaps because she was good at business, she remembered the faces of her regulars, and when they bought things, she would secretly slide a Nunettine as a service.
Beep, beep-.
As I was paying for my chicken breast and protein drink as usual, the owner asked me in a subtle voice just before the payment.
"Honey, have you seen anyone stealing from our convenience store lately?"
"Stealing?"
For the record, I quite liked talking to this owner.
Since I hadn't had a proper conversation partner for about eight months, this 5-minute conversation had become very precious to me.
The owner frowned and said with a face full of worry.
"When I close up, the quantities of lunch boxes, ramen, and snacks don't match. I thought the part-timer might have stolen and eaten them, but that doesn't seem to be the case."
"Did you check the CCTV?"
"I took a day to watch it all. But I still don't know. So, when you come to the convenience store, please keep an eye out for anyone stealing."
The owner handed me a yellow banana milk.
Swoosh-.
It's only human courtesy to show appreciation when you receive a service.
So, I visited the convenience store again that evening to grab a bite.
I'm not a detective or a security guard, so I wasn't going to do anything grand, but I sat at a table and glanced around at the customers.
The air conditioner that the convenience store part-timer had turned on low because they were sensitive to the cold.
The heat of the cup ramen rising as I opened the lid.
Hah-ah, this is the life.
Just as I was about to take a bite, the convenience store door opened halfway.
Clatter-.
As if someone was about to come in.
But strangely, no customer was entering.
What is it? Did the wind blow?
A wind strong enough to open the thick glass door of a convenience store?
Could that happen?
I put aside my doubts and tried to eat the cup ramen again─.
I saw the hot steam of the noodles I had scooped up with wooden chopsticks shaking strangely.
As if someone was brushing past me.
I turned my head just in case.
And there, beyond the steam from the ramen, something like a heat haze was moving!
What is it?
Thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, I rubbed them and opened them wide, and a strange thing happened.
Along with a feeling of my head going numb, the things that looked like heat haze became clearer and clearer.
It was as if old paint was peeling off, and the appearance of something began to be visible in front of the convenience store shelf.
'What the?'
The first thing I saw was a thick padded jacket.
It's a strange thing.
Because it's August, summer right now.
Who would wear a padded jacket in the summer?
But that mysterious someone stuffed snacks and lunch boxes into their padded jacket and ran out of the convenience store.
I grabbed my dazed mind and asked the part-timer.
"Excuse me, did you see that person just now?"
"......."
The female part-timer, who looked like she had just turned twenty, took her eyes off her phone screen and frowned.
Does she think I'm hitting on her or something?
Or maybe she was so focused on her phone that she really didn't see that 'padded jacket human.'
I felt like I had found the 'culprit of the theft' that the convenience store owner had mentioned, so I ran out of the convenience store.
The thief was waddling away in the distance through the winding studio apartment alleys near this university street.
Then, they slipped into the underground parking lot of a studio apartment building.
Thump, thump-.
I followed them into the parking lot without even having time to calm my pounding heart. The musty smell of mold, typical of old building basements, strangely made me feel weird.
「Please don't feed the cats.」
「If I see a cat food bowl, I will really sprinkle Tylenol on the food.」
After passing the pillars of the underground parking lot with the brutal text written on them, crunch, crunch─ a sound that stimulated my brain was heard from between the cars.
Is it the sound of a stray cat eating feed someone sprinkled?
I crept past the cars and finally found the source of the sound in the very corner of the underground parking lot.
Crunch, crunch, crunch─.
Scattered ramen bags.
Crumbs of crushed raw ramen.
And the roundness of the back of a head wearing a padded jacket.
The build is a bit small.
Is it an elementary school student?
'I can definitely win if I fight.'
Thump, thump, thump─.
After calculating my odds in a short moment, I reached out toward the creature.
"Gotcha, you thief!!!"
".........!!!"
The padded person whose wrist I grabbed jumped up in surprise.
They kept struggling and kept spouting words I didn't recognize.
"...Meka Chef? Meka Chef! Meka Cheeeef!?"
Meka Chef? Chef? Does this person know I worked at a fine dining restaurant?
Of course, I wasn't a chef, but actually a Stage, a handyman.
Whatever it is, the fortunate thing is that there is a police substation within 300 meters nearby.
I walked confidently into the nearby police substation while holding the wrist of the flagrant offender.
And───.
"Sir, so you're saying you caught a flagrant thief?"
"Where is that person now?"
The police officer's bewildered face at the substation made me flustered.
"No, can't you see them? Look at this! They're caught in my hand right here!"
"Geez, who is there! Sir, it's troublesome if you play pranks like this."
"Officer Kim, isn't that guy drunk?"
"No, I haven't had a single drop of alcohol. They are clearly here..."
Suddenly overwhelmed by emotion, I couldn't continue.
Clearly, in my hand, I was holding a strange person who was struggling, along with the heavy lining of a padded jacket.
But the police acted like they couldn't see it at all.
Don't play pranks?
That's what I want to say!
Suddenly, I felt a chill, forgetting the season.
'Am I really seeing things?'
Is it a problem that I ate hotter cup ramen in a hot season?
I must have gotten heatstroke.
Eventually, I was pushed out by the police officer into the police substation parking lot.
I stared half-dazed at the thief who was still caught by me.
"......."
"......."
The creature didn't struggle, nor did they spout unintelligible words.
They just stayed there quietly.
What on earth is this? A ghost?
Invisible to others, wearing a padded jacket in the middle of summer─.
It was truly surreal, and an inexplicable strangeness spread from below my belly to the tips of my hands and feet, making me tingle.
Then grumble─ a sound was heard.
The thief hunched their waist and held their stomach with one hand.
Come to think of it, that creature was eating raw ramen before being caught by me.
"Do ghosts get hungry too, and do they steal from convenience stores?"
"......."
Still, the thief had no answer.
So what do I do now?
Come to think of it, it's time for the laundry I put in the washing machine to be finished.
If I don't hang it up properly, it will get musty.
'Yeah, let's go home first.'
It seems I've been resting for too long, so I'm seeing things.
They say if a person lives in isolation for a long time, the brain creates hallucinations to forget loneliness, right?
Like that guy on the deserted island talking to a volleyball.
Yeah, that's definitely me.
I could go home, do my overdue housework, and sleep well, and by the next morning, this strange commotion might disappear cleanly as if it never happened.
The sound coming from behind me.
Tap, tap-.
'...They're following me?'
The feeling of being chased by a strange existence that is invisible to others and only visible to me.
The summer night of my 26th year.
Me.
It seems I've been possessed.