Chapter 40
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Monster Tale Specialist Office: The Cursed Video (2)
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* * *
Creak—
The female student, who had been waiting alone and gnawing slightly at her nails, jumped to her feet the moment she heard the door open.
“Is it solved?”
She rushed toward Taeju.
“That ghost won’t come out anymore, right?”
She asked again, her voice laced with anxiety. She must have heard Woli’s enthusiastic hammering from outside.
“Yes, for now.”
At Taeju’s words, the girl’s face lit up instantly.
“But it’s not completely resolved yet. I’ve just pinned it down temporarily for the moment.”
Her expression darkened again at Taeju’s follow-up.
The girl’s face twisted. She had thought that just arriving here would solve everything in one go.
“What can we do about it?!”
Perhaps due to her desperation, her question came out almost like a shout. Seeming unaware that she had raised her voice, the girl just trembled.
Taeju smiled reassuringly and answered. Contrary to the customer’s worries, it wasn’t actually a dangerous situation.
At least not right now.
“Of course we’ll help. But to do that, you need to tell us now.”
This job had started so abruptly. Taeju had been thinking the day would pass without incident when the girl burst in.
She had begged to be saved, promising to pay anything, and Taeju had hurriedly applied a temporary fix.
But the immediate fire was out. Now it was time to hear the story. To resolve it properly, he needed the full background.
“I could manage just pinning the ghost down like this, but anything beyond that is tough without more info.”
The girl chewed on her thumbnail for a moment. She looked a bit better than before, but still scared.
This wasn’t getting anywhere. Taeju decided to prioritize reassuring her and pulled out the tablet.
“Want to check?”
Taeju showed her the tablet he was holding.
“The ghost isn’t coming out now.”
He didn’t explain how he had exorcised it. Smashing it was always reliable, but it probably didn’t look very professional.
“It really won’t come out?”
The girl asked in a trembling voice. Taeju grinned, turned on the video, and hit play. She yelped in fright.
“Eek!”
Of course, no ghost appeared. He had already confirmed it.
“It’s fine. It can’t come out right now. See? Nothing’s happening.”
The girl, who had squeezed her eyes shut, cautiously opened them when nothing happened—no sounds, no weird occurrences.
“Phew… Th-that’s a relief.”
“This is just temporary. I’ve only pinned it down for now. It’ll recover over time, and then it might come back.”
She shuddered at Taeju’s words. Still, they could at least talk now, unlike before. Taeju sighed inwardly, figuring this was good enough.
“C-can’t you get rid of it completely?”
“There’s a way.”
Her face brightened at Taeju’s reply. But it darkened again at his next words.
“But you need to tell us exactly what happened. That’s how we can figure out the solution.”
Taeju still didn’t know precisely what was going on.
“We don’t know enough to do more.”
Even so, she seemed reluctant to share. She asked,
“What if we stop here?”
Taeju answered honestly.
“Then there’s a high chance it’ll come back. Maybe even stronger.”
She flinched at his words, already trembling. Taeju knew it sounded like a threat, but it was the truth.
Yet the pale-faced girl still didn’t speak.
Taeju’s head throbbed. Why wouldn’t she talk to someone trying to help? He understood the fear, but it was frustrating from his position.
He couldn’t just leave it, though. It was a low-quality item, sure, but still a death curse.
One wrong move, and she could really die.
“I get it, it must be uncomfortable. After going through something like that. Alright, how about introductions first? We can’t stay like this forever, right? To talk, we should at least know each other’s names.”
Taeju smiled as kindly as possible. Exchanging names was the first step to easing tension.
“I’m Kang Taeju. One of the staff here.”
“My name is… Sunwoo. Kim Sunwoo.”
After thirty minutes, learning her name for the first time made Taeju feel like he’d finally made progress.
“Can I call you Sunwoo from now on?”
Sunwoo nodded at Taeju’s words.
“Great. Then shall we sit and talk? Standing around like this feels a bit off.”
Only then did Sunwoo realize she had been talking while standing.
“Uh, yes. Sorry. I was a bit out of it…”
She blushed and returned to her seat. A good sign. Feeling embarrassment meant she had enough composure to consider other emotions.
“So, shall we hear the story?”
* * *
“This has to be connected to that kid.”
“That kid?”
Sunwoo took a sip of the lemon tea Taeju had given her before continuing.
“Yeah. If that’s the ghost from the movie… then definitely!”
Sunwoo’s words were hysterical and sharp. She’d been like this ever since Taeju explained the ghost from the tablet.
Taeju’s expression grew subtle, but Sunwoo, head bowed, didn’t notice.
“Did you happen to see the initials on the tablet?”
Taeju recalled the engraved initials on the back.
“Yes. I remember. S. H., right?”
Sunwoo nodded and continued.
“That tablet belongs to my friend. Suhyeon.”
“So this pad isn’t yours?”
“No. I borrowed it.”
Sunwoo said with a stiff expression.
“I see.”
Taeju thought for a moment. If the owner was someone else, there was a key question to ask first.
“What was your relationship with her originally?”
Sunwoo hesitated, unsure how to answer.
“Just… just friends.”
Her expression said it was anything but. She looked a bit melancholic.
He couldn’t pinpoint the exact meaning, but it wasn’t the face one made talking about an ordinary friend.
The key here was whether the original owner knew about the video on the tablet and gave it anyway.
“So you think the owner put the video there on purpose? No! Just checking.”
Sunwoo glared as if offended mid-sentence, and Taeju hurriedly added,
“I don’t think that’s the case.”
Sunwoo lowered her head again at his excuse, her face dark. She seemed convinced her friend Suhyeon wouldn’t have cursed her.
But she also believed there was a connection, so Taeju couldn’t quite grasp her thinking.
“Is there a reason you think that?”
“She’d never curse someone. If anything, she was the one who got cursed. I feel like I ended up taking what she was supposed to get.”
Taeju tilted his head. Sunwoo was convinced Suhyeon wouldn’t curse her.
She had her reasons, but they were beyond Taeju.
“So you’re certain Suhyeon didn’t curse you?”
“Ha… Yeah…”
But now she sounded uncertain.
To Taeju, it seemed less like conviction and more like wishful thinking.
“Alright, we can’t confirm that right now, so let’s move on.”
Sunwoo grumbled discontentedly.
“You don’t believe me?”
“No. Curses need to be ended completely and quickly. Time’s short, and there’s a lot we need to know, so we’re trying to move fast.”
Sunwoo fell silent at Taeju’s words. He seized the opening.
“First, let’s confirm a few things. One, was the video there before you borrowed the tablet? Two, if it was, did the owner know it existed? Three, if she did, was it intentional?”
Sunwoo answered the first right away.
“Um, first, I think the video was there before I borrowed it. Honestly, I didn’t use it much after borrowing. I never received any videos either.”
“You barely used it?”
Then why borrow it? Taeju wondered but moved on, as it wasn’t crucial now.
“Then we start with whether the owner knew about it. What do you think?”
Taeju asked without much expectation. She couldn’t know. He asked anyway out of curiosity about her thoughts.
“…I don’t know. But it definitely wasn’t on purpose.”
“I see.”
“Sorry. I don’t have anything solid…”
“No, it’s fine. When did you borrow the tablet?”
“Almost a month ago, I think.”
Pretty long for a pricey item among high schoolers.
“So you had it for quite a while without knowing about any cursed video?”
Sunwoo nodded.
“Yeah. I borrowed it for a month, but I don’t think I used it for even a week.”
“Then when did you first see this video? I mean… when exactly did you first play it?”
Sunwoo’s face fell at the question.
“I first played it two days ago. Nothing weird happened before that. I just happened to see it in the gallery.”
Taeju nodded. Coming in after just two days was relatively quick—fortunate.
“Nothing strange happened the first time I played it. It was just a black screen with eerie sounds. I thought maybe it was one of my videos.”
Sunwoo sighed deeply and gripped her lemon tea. It had been hot when handed over, but now it was lukewarm.
“But it wasn’t. While I was wondering what it was, I heard a whisper: ‘It’s you.’ I felt creeped out and closed it right away.”
She said up to then, it was just a bad feeling, and she forgot about it after.
“But something else happened, right?”
Sunwoo closed her eyes and furrowed her brows at Taeju’s words.
“The very next day. I turned on the tablet casually, and the video started playing on its own.”
Taeju recalled how it hadn’t played until he hit play earlier.
“No appearance yet. Well, a faint shape showed up, but not a solid form like now.”
Sunwoo shuddered as she spoke. It would be pretty creepy alone at night. Taeju nodded.
“When we turned on the screen, a weird arm came out too.”
“Stop! I don’t want to hear that!”
Not intending to scare her, Taeju said awkwardly,
“I’ll be careful. Anyway, please continue.”
Sunwoo slowly started speaking again.
“And today, the third day, the tablet turned on by itself, and the ghost’s face started appearing.”
Terrified but unable to leave it on, Sunwoo had reached for the tablet.
That moment, with a voice saying “Found you,” her eyes met the ghost’s.
She said she nearly fainted seeing the huge eyes filling the screen.
“That eye contact happened right before coming here.”
“You did the right thing coming straight here.”
Taeju said, taking a sip of his coffee.
It must have been terrifying for a first-timer.
Sunwoo sighed deeply, face scrunched.
“I saw the flyer on my way home from school and barely found this place. Can you fix this fast? I’ll pay anything.”
She pleaded with Taeju. But he shook his head.
“You seemed too out of it earlier, so I didn’t mention: we don’t take money.”
Sunwoo looked puzzled.
“Then what do I pay?”
“After we resolve it, our Director will visit and tell you what’s needed.”
Even more confused, Sunwoo asked,
“Huh? Tell me now so I can prepare.”
“We don’t know either, haha… But he won’t demand too much compared to what we do, so don’t worry.”
Taeju smiled embarrassedly, and Sunwoo frowned suspiciously.
But with nowhere else to turn, she didn’t storm out.
The payment could wait. The priority was stopping that ghost for good.
“Fine, I’ll trust you won’t overcharge for now. How long to resolve it?”
Taeju scratched his head, face troubled.
“Honestly, it’s solvable, but I don’t know how long. First time seeing something like this. Our specialist in this field will be here soon. We’ll know then.”
Right then, the bell jingled.