The Red Mask Ghost
The day of the written exam.
I left the house with my little sister seeing me off.
"You gonna be okay? Think you can actually get on the right bus?"
"Don't worry. I looked everything up."
"You packed your pencil case?"
"They said it's a computer test."
"And the talisman I gave you? You brought that too, right?"
"Yeah. I've got it."
I almost asked if she was my mother, then thought better of it. Say that to someone who didn't have one and it turned into a dead-mom joke.
Let my guard down for a second and I might turn into a real piece of garbage.
At the same time, I was grateful. Here she was, looking after a sorry excuse for an older brother. I wasn't the type who cried easily, but today the tears were threatening to come...
And it definitely wasn't because I was scared of going outside. Absolutely not.
"Wait a second. Shouldn't you be at school? Why are you still home?"
"My brother's taking an exam and that's what you're worried about? I skipped."
"Of course that's what I'm worried about, you idiot."
"Ow!"
I flicked her on the forehead. I couldn't believe she'd just casually ditched school like it was nothing. She looked up at me with a little well of tears in her eyes.
"Ugh... school is a waste of time anyway."
Peak adolescent rebellion, apparently. My little sister seemed to have a lot of complaints about society.
"Go to school anyway. You'll regret it if you don't."
"You dropped out."
"...Yeah, and I'm regretting it plenty, thanks."
"Ah... sorry."
The mood went heavy all at once. That wasn't what I'd been going for.
"A-anyway. I'm heading out."
"Okay! I'll be here cheering for you!"
I stepped outside on the back of her bright, energetic send-off.
And in that same instant, a devastating attack slammed into me.
"Gaaaaaah!"
The searing heat a G-type main-sequence star hurled across a hundred and fifty million kilometers! Divine radiance capable of annihilating even a polar bear! In simpler terms: sunlight.
"My eyes...! My eyes are burning...!"
To a shut-in rotting in the corner of his room, sunlight was far too intense. Vitamin D, you little bastard! Were you a spy all along?!
"S-see? It's dangerous out here. Maybe I should just go back."
"...Just go already."
My sister snorted a laugh and shoved me in the back.
...I'd been completely serious. It was a lamentable age, when even family couldn't recognize sincerity when they heard it.
Whew. Made it onto the bus in one piece.
Maybe I'd been worrying too much this whole time. I'd boarded without a single incident.
So people really do live out here, huh?
The inside of the bus was painfully ordinary. Passengers with their heads down, staring at their phones. A couple, a little kid — that was about as exciting as it got. There was no way this was one of those ridiculous urban legends about a bus bound for the afterlife. It was still a bright, sun-drenched morning.
"Nothing to it. Coming outside was the right call after all."
The tension of leaving the house drained away — and a new tension rushed in to take its place. The written exam waiting for me.
I did hit a passing score on the practice questions, but...
I couldn't let my guard down. Not when I was up against Cheonjihae. For all I knew, they'd carved a curse right into the test paper. You've seen it in those classic urban legends often enough, haven't you? The ones that go, Beware — there is no question 3 on this exam.
...If anything like that shows up, I'm dumping the test and running.
Landing a job at a megacorp was a precious opportunity. My life was twice as precious.
"Well. All I can do right now is study."
I pulled out the vocab book I'd worked so hard to put together. Reading it now wasn't going to magically change anything, but it beat sitting there shaking and doing nothing.
I've lived a whole previous life. Practical exam aside, there is no way I'm failing a written test.
I was studying with real motivation for once when it happened.
"Miss! You have to tap your card before you— hhk!"
The bus lurched to a stop, and a commotion broke out up front. Someone had forgotten to tap their fare. I lifted my head without thinking, and my gaze locked in place.
...What the hell is that?
The thing boarding the bus was, technically, a person. If you ignored the fact that she was a woman over two meters tall. That much I could maybe swallow. The problem was that she had no eyeballs. And, most decisive of all — the red mask covering her mouth.
The Red Mask Ghost...!
Any Korean would know this urban legend. A woman who hid a torn-open mouth behind a red mask. She showed you that mouth and asked, Am I pretty? Say yes, and she ripped your mouth apart. Say no, and she just killed you.
Why — why is a ghost this famous on the bus I happened to get on?!
Outrage hit me before fear did. The Red Mask Ghost was a well-known urban legend, which meant her rank was nothing to sneeze at. How was something like that wandering around in broad daylight?!
"Am I pretty?"
"Uh, I, um..."
The Red Mask Ghost asked the bus driver. He'd clearly figured out that whatever was standing in front of him was not a person. He rolled his eyes in desperate circles, then forced out an answer.
"Y-yes. You're pretty. Very pretty."
"Oh? Even like this?"
She pulled off the mask. The mouth split all the way to her ears was grotesque all by itself.
"Hiiik!"
The driver screamed at the hideous sight. He was shaking violently, but he still managed to nod.
"Y-yes, you're pretty. Of course you are!"
It was the only line anyone in his position could have come up with. Everyone knew that telling the truth would get them killed. But with this particular urban legend, that wasn't the "right answer" either.
"Then I'll rip your mouth open too!!"
A wet, tearing shraaaaak.
The Red Mask Ghost ripped the driver's mouth open. Not sideways, the way you'd expect — vertically. His jaw tore free in a grotesque split and hit the floor.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
"N-no! What is that?! What is that?!"
"S-someone call an exorcist!"
The passengers descended into panic. They scrambled for an escape, but the only way out was the front door — and the Red Mask Ghost was standing in it.
And the driver who could've opened the rear door already got hit.
There was no way out. People were too terrified to do anything but freeze.
"You. There."
"Uwaaagh! M-me?"
The Red Mask Ghost pointed at a man.
"Am I pretty?"
Cold sweat poured off him. He'd just watched what happened if you said yes. That left only one option.
"Y-you're ugly! Ugly as hell! You pumpkin-faced hag ground against a steel plate!"
He hurled every insult he could think of. That wasn't the "right answer" either.
"How dare you call me ugly!"
"Ghhk—!"
She snatched him up in one hand. The strength was nothing a human should have had.
"S-spa—"
A sickening crunch. A wet thud.
She slammed him down like a rag doll. His head burst with a dull, heavy sound. His body folded at an impossible angle and didn't move again.
"Hik! Hiiik!"
Terror spread through the bus like a stain. What were you even supposed to say to survive?
Ugh!
That was when her gaze met mine. I thought it was my turn — and then she whipped her head away.
What? She looked right at me.
Had she skipped me because I was too ugly to even bother asking? What a rude piece of—!
The thought flashed through my head, and then I understood the real reason.
The talisman Chaeyoung gave me!
I'd stuffed it in my pocket just in case. It was actually working.
But do ordinary talismans even have that kind of power?
Most of them were only good for shooing off petty spirits. They wouldn't even register against a high-tier urban legend like the Red Mask Ghost. You'd need something seriously potent for it to mean anything.
Just how much money did she blow on a single talisman?
I was grateful to still be alive, don't get me wrong. But as her older brother, I was going to have to lecture her about her spending. Assuming I made it home, that is.
Okay. So the talisman probably saved me.
She passed me over and went looking for her next target. This was happening in the middle of a street in broad daylight. If I just held out a little longer, the exorcists would come running. Which meant I, at least, would get out of this in one piece.
It was a little selfish, but I let myself relax.
"Am I pretty?"
"Ah."
She'd picked her next target. My eyes squeezed shut.
You've got to be kidding me. A kid? Come on!
She was pointing at a girl who couldn't have been older than elementary school. Even if this were an adults-only horror game, going after a child would get the whole thing banned from sale.
"I-I..."
The girl couldn't get the words out. She was shaking too hard to speak. The adults were too paralyzed with fear to step in.
Then one person did.
"D-don't you pick on my little sister!"
A boy who couldn't have been more than two years older than the girl.
"O-oppa..."
"It's okay. Hide behind me."
He spread his arms, trying to shield her. His body was far too small to stop a monster.
...Damn it.
If I hadn't gotten lucky and skipped my turn because of a talisman. If I weren't someone's older brother myself. Would I have just sat here and watched?
I didn't know. What I did know was that my body moved before my head did.
Because that's what Hero Himmel would have done!
"Hey, you ugly-ass bitch!!!"
I crumpled up the talisman, hurled it at the kids, and shouted.
Chaeyoung, I'm sorry!
I might not even qualify as an extra in this story, but I couldn't just sit there and watch a kid die. I refused to be that kind of garbage.
My legs were shaking, but it was already too late to take it back. The Red Mask Ghost turned her head and looked at me.
"If you know you're that hideous, just quietly save up for plastic surgery! Taking it out on innocent kids instead? Do you even have eyes to look in a mirror?!"
Silence flooded the bus. Nobody said a word, but I could feel her rage. Her torn mouth curled into a grin. Cold sweat soaked the back of my shirt at that hideous, nightmarish expression.
Haha. I've lost my mind.
The way she came toward me, slow and unhurried, was terrifying. Fear had my body shaking so hard I couldn't stop it. She closed the distance and asked me.
"Am I pretty?"
Either answer got you killed. That didn't mean I was going to sit still and die. Time to show her the true power of modern man: we're more scared of other people than we are of ghosts.
"What? What are you even saying?" I asked in Chinese.
The Red Mask Ghost stopped cold. That's right. Ask all you want. I don't understand you — so what are you going to do about it?
If both answers get you killed, just pretend you didn't understand the question!
I wanted to send a thank-you note to my past self for studying Chinese during those job-hunting days. Behold the power of globalization, you freak!
I was cheering my own victory on the inside when she turned to me and asked again — this time in Chinese.
"Am I pretty?"
"...What kind of bullshit game is this."
How the hell does an urban legend from Korea and Japan speak Chinese, you lunatics.