Chapter 4
"Young-won, I'm really glad you're here. Really..."
Whoosh-.
Class president Jung Sojin hugged me again and cried.
She felt soft and smelled nice.
"Hey, don't cry."
I patted Sojin's back, feeling a bit flustered when I touched her bra strap.
Fortunately, Sojin didn't seem to mind and wiped her tears with her fingers.
"Young-won, I didn't realize before, but you're really dependable. It was like that when we first talked too, right? Even though it must have been heavy, you carried all my stuff..."
"Hmm..."
"I find people I can respect so cool. If you weren't here, I might have gone crazy by now."
"Sojin, I want to ask you something first. Are Yang Juhee and Kim Geonho here too?"
"......"
Even in the darkness, I could see Sojin's expression darken.
"Why are you asking about that?"
"Well, that Zippo lighter you're holding belongs to Yang Juhee, right? The fact that you have it made me wonder if Juhee might be in this strange corridor too."
The lighter Sojin was holding was the silver Zippo lighter I had given to Yang Juhee.
And I was the one who had put Yang Juhee, Kim Geonho, and Jung Sojin as players in the "Nightmare Corridor."
I wondered if all the players were in this corridor. I wanted to prove my hypothesis, and Sojin trembled and made a tearful face.
"...You're right. Juhee and Kim Geonho were here too. But they were attacked by that strange thing..."
"By strange thing, do you mean the bell woman? The woman in the shaman clothes jingling the bells?"
"No, not that one...! There are more besides that strange bell woman. I've seen three types so far. So, Young-won, let's get out of here quickly. Hurry...! Please...!"
Does she mean three including the bell woman?
Or three besides the bell woman?
It was important information either way.
"Can you tell me more about these three types of ghosts? I'm not sure if they're ghosts or monsters─"
"You bastard!!! Who cares about that, let's just get out of here!!!"
I was really startled.
Sojin seemed surprised by her own outburst too, and trembled nervously.
"No, I'm sorry.... I'm not in my right mind... I really don't know why this is happening suddenly... I don't know where this is... I was supposed to go to cram school too, ah..."
She could be considered hysterical.
I decided to try to calm down the unpredictable Sojin for now.
"Of course we need to get out of here. But if there are several types of ghosts or whatever, shouldn't we find out about them first? We need to know how to deal with them if we encounter them."
For example, I had a guess that the bell woman couldn't see - it was easy to notice her presence because of the shaman's bell sound in her hand whenever she approached.
But I knew nothing about the others I hadn't seen, and I didn't want to accidentally run into them and die stupidly.
Persuaded by my opinion, Sojin took deep breaths.
"Young-won, you're right. This is my first time experiencing something like this too... Honestly, I'm a bit flustered and I lost my temper without realizing. But it's okay. The ghosts don't come into this classroom no matter how much noise we make."
"Really? For sure?"
"Maybe it's because of the talismans? That's why I was able to hide here. I wanted to take some with me, but they turn to dust when you try to remove them."
The ghosts can't enter Class "1-4" -.
While I was taking in this information, Sojin took off her torn school uniform stockings, revealing her white legs.
"It'll be easier to move like this, right?"
It was my first time seeing a female classmate take off her stockings in person, and I found myself staring intently without realizing it.
Watching a classmate remove her stockings was more erotic and stimulating than even the more explicit adult videos where people come out completely naked and do more extreme things.
Of course, Sojin didn't seem to mind as she spoke.
"Before we leave, I'll explain what I know about what's going on here."
***
"During lunch break, the kids told me. Kim Geonho and the others were smoking near the old school building. You know, I'm the class president, right? If our class kids cause trouble, it's my responsibility too..."
Sojin said she went to the old school building to guide the delinquent kids.
There, she encountered Kim Geonho and Yang Juhee, and Geonho had managed to pick the lock of the old building and went inside.
"I thought I should stop them somehow... But the old building is scary, you know. So I suggested going in with Juhee... But the corridor never ended. The entrance we came through disappeared...!"
Class president Sojin said she entered the unlocked old school building with Kim Geonho and Yang Juhee during lunch break and got trapped in this strange corridor.
Lunchtime matched exactly with when I had unlocked the "Shop" in the status window and released the lock on the old school building.
No wonder no one answered no matter how many times people called.
"Class president, what about your phone?"
"The phone doesn't work, and it kept making scary noises, so I threw it away. We wandered around together like that and found an exit. But Kim Geonho ran off on his own, saying he'd survive alone..."
I thought of Kim Geonho.
No need for a long explanation, he was just an asshole.
"We followed Kim Geonho and encountered the hair ghost. The hair ghost has no arms or legs, and its face is completely covered in hair. It looks really scary. Really..."
A hair ghost, huh.
Damn, it sounds terrifying just imagining it.
"But this hair ghost stays still. I don't know if it's because it has no body. It just hangs its hair like spider webs and stays still. It seems docile as long as you don't step on its hair."
"Using its hair as a trap... Like a spider. Spiders are generally quiet until prey gets caught in their web too."
"Spider... But it was right in front of the exit... Suddenly, Kim Geonho pushed Yang Juhee down, and I was so focused on running away in the chaos..."
Swish-.
Sojin handed me Yang Juhee's Zippo lighter.
I wasn't sure whether to admire her presence of mind for grabbing the lighter in such a chaotic situation.
"Juhee gave it to me. She said at least I should survive..."
Yang Juhee gave it to Sojin?
That seemed impossible.
As far as I knew, Yang Juhee despised Sojin.
Maybe they awakened some friendship while experiencing this crisis together.
I felt slightly uneasy but pretended to be nonchalant as I asked.
"So what happened to Yang Juhee? Is she... dead? Since she was caught by the ghost."
I felt my back and armpits become drenched in cold sweat. I was extremely curious about what had happened to Yang Juhee after being caught by the "hair ghost."
"I don't know... Anyway, as we were running away, we saw the staff room. If we get the key from the key cabinet in the staff room, we can open the multipurpose room! You know there's an emergency exit for fire escape in Yeongji High's multipurpose room, right?"
An emergency exit for escape.
Was there such a thing?
"We had fire drills before, remember? A firefighter came and taught us that after a big fire in an old school, they made emergency exits in certain areas of the building. Don't you remember?"
"Ah. I think I remember something like that."
It did seem like something like that had happened.
So, going to the staff room to find the key was confirmed.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the staff room was said to be nearby.
I felt somewhat reluctant to leave this Class "1-4" full of talismans, but we couldn't keep hiding in here forever.
According to the status window's description, the "Nightmare Corridor" was a place you needed to 'escape' from, not just survive in.
But leaving the classroom right now wasn't the right choice.
"Class president, let's wait for now."
"Wait? For what?"
"For the bell woman, of course."
"Why...!?"
Sojin frowned.
She seemed not to understand, so I decided to give her a brief explanation.
"From what I've seen, the bell woman seems to be roaming this corridor at regular intervals. So if we leave after she passes, we're less likely to encounter her. If we go out now, we might run into her coming back this way."
Jingle-.
As if to prove my point, the bell sound started to be heard from far away.
Jingle, jingle, jingle-.
Even though I had been told that ghosts couldn't enter this Class "1-4," I still held my breath and felt my legs go weak.
Only when the strange presence in the corridor disappeared could I finally catch my breath.
"See? She went to the left, so she won't come around here for a while. We should go to the staff room now. You said it was on the right, right?"
"Young-won, you..."
Sojin's eyes glistened, either impressed by or opposed to my judgment.
"How did you know this? How?"
"I just have a sense for these kinds of hide-and-seek games."
"Games... I guess you could think of it that way. Young-won, I feel reassured having you here who's played a lot of games. If I had known this would happen, I should have played games instead of studying."
I'm not sure if my evaluation went up or down.
"I really mean it when I say I feel reassured. When I was alone, I felt like I was going crazy. But you're more calm than I expected, Young-won? Should I say it's manly... it's kind of cool."
"...Honestly, I'm scared too, suddenly experiencing something like this. I just woke up and found myself in a place like this. So don't expect too much."
We didn't have time for idle chat, so I slowly opened the classroom door and stepped outside.
Creak, squeak, squeak.
As we walked down the corridor relying on the lighter's flame, Sojin, who was following behind me, tightly grabbed my side.
"I'm so scared, Young-won..."
"Me too. I'm scared."
"But I'm glad you're here. Young-won, can you protect me...? Actually, I've liked you since the entrance ceremony when you helped me. If we get out of here safely, maybe we could..."
Just as her dewy voice was stimulating my protective instincts as a man, I saw a sign that read "Staff Room."
It was a place I couldn't find when I was relying solely on the faint light of my status window.
Honestly, I didn't have the luxury to look around carefully then.
But there was a problem.
"Crunch crunch grind crunch Yang Juhee you go first no Kim Geonho you do something guys don't fight just calm down it seems they can't hear sounds─."
Something black was crouched in front of the staff room.
It was a ghost that had stretched its long hair in all directions, creating a trap like a spider web.
Only a woman's face with wide-open eyes floated in the middle of that black hair, and incomprehensible words were being replayed from its mouth.