Chapter 47
"That Yoo Dahee is really crazy. How could she think of staying at a boy's house just because she ran away?"
Yang Juhee clicked her tongue after learning that Yoo Dahee had stayed at my house last night.
It seemed like something that would make others gasp if they heard it.
Thinking about it calmly, it was true.
A beautiful girl from the richest family asking to stay at my house. It was an unusual event that rarely happens.
It seems that my threshold for the unusual and unreal has risen quite a bit lately, after encountering ghosts, experiencing murder cases, disappearances, and various other incidents.
"She'll probably stay over tonight too. I might have to let her stay at our house until Mom is discharged from the hospital."
Yoo Dahee didn't remember what happened in the Nightmare Corridor yesterday. But it seems that the relationship between me and Yoo Dahee has clearly become something that could be called more 'intimate'.
We were on terms where we could open up to each other.
"I wonder why she gave up the last talisman for me."
Yoo Dahee could have kept the talisman attached to the first-floor sacred statue and escaped herself, but she didn't do that and gave it up for me.
She also died as if deliberately acting as bait for the third ghost.
Thanks to that, I was able to retrieve the talisman and escape.
I'm also concerned about what she said at the end when she was being devoured by that terrifying red woman.
Although I couldn't hear it clearly...
Ding dong deng dong-
Before we knew it, lunch break was over as we were talking about various things. As we were returning to class, Jung-seok spoke as if he had a suggestion for me.
"It seems like the more information we gather, the more things there are that are difficult for us to handle on our own. I think we might need help from adults around us sometimes."
"Hmm..."
"Young-won. How about we look for trustworthy adults?"
"Adults, huh."
Most adults were liars. Can the words 'trustworthy' and 'adult' coexist?
Teacher Hong Mi-ri was a prime example.
"Teacher Hong Mi-ri. The third ghost is probably the English teacher, Hong Mi-ri."
"What? Is that true? Teacher Hong Mi-ri?"
Everyone looked like they couldn't believe it. Well, I couldn't believe it either until I saw the evidence myself.
But the clear scar on that red woman's neck and the butterfly-shaped birthmark on her face were the clearest evidence.
Thinking back... there were many suspicious and dubious aspects about English teacher Hong Mi-ri's behavior.
"When she bought me soup, I somehow got scared and left the table first. I felt like someone was following me then. If I hadn't met Yoo Dahee at that time, I don't know what would have happened to me."
While eating soup, when asking about Kim Geonho's wellbeing, English teacher Hong Mi-ri also said this:
"You were close with Kim Geonho, right? Do you know why he's not coming to school these days? He seemed a bit strange after staying overnight in the old school building. Did he say anything to you? Like ghost stories or something."
"Ghost... stories?"
"Why. Like a red mask appearing on night streets. Don't kids these days know about the red mask? Wearing a red mask. Wearing high heels and something like a trench coat. With a mouth torn wide open."
Red mask. At the time, I didn't think much of it, but this was clearly talking about herself!
According to my deduction, Kim Geonho died to the third ghost in the nightmare, right! And he's not coming to school after that!
So Hong Mi-ri was trying to probe me about Kim Geonho's condition while mentioning the red mask!
Damn it!
The puzzle pieces are fitting together perfectly?
It's chilling.
Of course, Jung-seok still seemed to have many parts he didn't understand.
"Does that mean Teacher Hong Mi-ri is a ghost? She didn't look like a ghost... Could it be related to the 'Twin Experiment' documents we found in the elevator?"
I don't know. I want to know too.
I'll have to think about how to deal with Teacher Hong Mi-ri from now on.
***
Ghosts this, disappearance cases that.
You'd think experiencing unusual things would make you appreciate the ordinary more. But school classes were still boring.
"Alright, everyone go home now."
3 PM end.
Yeongji High School's class hours were getting shorter, probably due to the eerie neighborhood atmosphere.
I headed straight to the library.
I was hoping to meet Yoo Dahee, and I also wanted to get more information about this Gaeryong City and Yeongji High School.
But at the library, I met Teacher Kang Ha-neul instead of Yoo Dahee.
"Teacher. It's been a while."
"Young-won. How's your mother? Is she okay?"
"She's fine. She'll be discharged soon."
"That's great!"
Teacher Kang Ha-neul was happy for me as if it was her own business.
Suddenly, I remembered Jung-seok asking, "Aren't there any trustworthy adults?"
Teacher Kang Ha-neul might be one of the more trustworthy adults.
But... when we were involved with the "Auntie Ghost," didn't Teacher Kang Ha-neul's life get tangled up in a very complicated problem? I suddenly became curious.
"How are you, Teacher? Are you getting along well with the apartment residents now? It was quite a mess back then with the police coming because of me."
"Oh, don't even mention it. I thought I was going to die trying to clear up the misunderstanding!"
I see.
Dragging Teacher Kang Ha-neul, who had just returned to normal life, into our ghost-filled party... this would be a very bad thing to do. It's questionable whether she'd even believe us.
Of course, I have to look out for myself first. More allies would be better.
If an adult joins the party, our range of activities and choices might increase. We could even go to PC rooms at night with guardian consent.
But... this matter seemed to need a lot of careful consideration.
I left school without gaining much from the library.
Since we were on the topic, I thought I'd go see Mom, but I heard laughter from Mom's hospital room.
"That's how it was back then. I was just...!"
I hear a man's voice. It doesn't sound like the doctor.
Creak-
When I opened the door and entered, I saw a man with messy long hair and a beard on his nose and chin chatting with Mom.
Who is this? It was an unfamiliar sight.
"Oh. Young-won's here! Hey, that's my son Young-won."
Mom introduced me. I couldn't help but look at the man with slightly tense and wary eyes.
The man approached me and placed his hand on my head.
"Oh. I can't believe it. Who would believe you have a son this age? You still look like an unmarried young lady."
The man reeked of cigarette smoke. Just being near him made me feel like I might get cancer. He's a total cancer-inducing human!
"Who are you, mister?"
"Your mom didn't tell you anything about me? I'm your mom's ex-boyfriend."
Mom's ex-boyfriend?
It felt like a past I didn't want to know was swirling before my eyes. Of course, Mom, sitting on the bed, burst out laughing.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Bada, you were just my lackey."
"I wish I had been- If I had succeeded in dating your mom, you might have been my son. Ha Young-won. Nice to meet you."
Swish-
The man held out his hand to me. I shook it cautiously, feeling his strong grip squeezing my hand.
The man's eyes, which had looked relaxed like a slacker's, were now sharply looking down at me.
"You look alike. You really do. Spitting image."
"Of course he looks like me, he's my son."
The atmosphere was really hard to adapt to. I decided to ask the man again.
"Who are you, mister?"
"Young-won. Have you seen Harry Potter?"
"What?"
"There's Professor Snape in it, right? Professor Severus Snape, who was bullied by the nasty James Potter in school and even lost his unrequited love Lily Evans to him. That's me. I'm Kang Bada."
The man's name was 'Kang Bada', it seems. He looked like an eccentric artist, but his name sounded like a woman's.
But... don't I know a similar name?
"Are you perhaps related to Teacher Kang Ha-neul...?"
"Ah. She's my younger sister. You're a Yeongji High student, right? Do you take my sister's class? She should be a literature teacher. Do they call it Korean language now instead of literature these days?"
"Ah!"
I had heard that Teacher Kang Ha-neul had an 'older brother'. The room I stayed in at Teacher Kang Ha-neul's house was her brother's room!
So this man, Kang Bada, was that brother! And this man, Kang Bada, seemed to be a friend from when our mom was a high school student!
Not just a friend, but maybe the relationship was a bit complicated?
Mom's love life! Ugh. It's not something I want to think about deeply!
"Ah. Should I give you my business card? Despite how I look, I'm a proper adult in society. Here."
Swish!
The man held out a business card to me. But the card was all in Japanese, making it hard to read.
Since my second foreign language was Japanese, I could read it to some extent.
"Sakura..."
"Sakuras Co. President. That's how you read it. It's a decent small to medium-sized game company."
"A game company?"
"Yeah. It's had some hits too. Have you heard of 'Abyss Corridor'? Or things like 'New Amnesia' or 'Lethal Industry'?"
"Oh!"
I know! I know it!
Come to think of it, Jung-seok said the president of the company that made Abyss Corridor was Korean! It seems that was true!
But I couldn't just be happy about it. The bearded man in front of me started to look more suspicious and dubious.
He was like a huge box. A mysterious box with unknown contents.
That's when Mom asked.
"What? Bada, didn't you say you were going to be a novelist?"
"I did. But all the books I wrote were total flops. Ah damn, it seems not just anyone can write horror novels. More importantly... oh, it's already time-"
Swish-
The man checked the time on an expensive-looking watch. Then he ruffled my hair once more and left abruptly.
He was a very strange person.
"Mom. Who exactly is that man?"
"Someone who liked me in the past."
"That's really shit-"
"What do you mean shit? Until I was in school, I was rumored to be the prettiest girl in school, you know? I got confessed to at least three times a day! Bada was one of them. Hiya, he was such a timid kid back then. Has he become such a slick adult with time! Seems like he's made a lot of money too!"
Somehow, Mom's attitude seemed quite favorable towards the bearded man. What's this? Am I one step away from getting a new dad?
I was incredibly confused.
In some ways, it was more mentally taxing than when I was wandering the corridor with ghosts popping out and all sorts of crazy things happening.
Oh, shit...
So am I going to become Kang Young-won?
Swish-
I examined the business card I received from the mysterious man, Kang Bada, from various angles. And I discovered some strange dots written on the back of the card.
".--- . ..-. -.. ...- .--. .- --. ..- --"
"What's this?"
It could be a scribble that I could just ignore, but for me who had been getting hints from small and trivial things, it was quite interesting.
Wondering what it could be, I decided to take a picture and send it to Jung-seok. Whatever it is, Jung-seok would probably figure it out.
I didn't even need the internet.
When I checked my phone, I saw that I had 20 unread messages.
「Joo Chan-mi: Where are you?」
「Joo Chan-mi: Where are you?」
「Joo Chan-mi: What do you want to eat?」
...
..
.
"Oh, shit."
Is this what the life of a popular man is like?
I remembered again that there was a 'Monday service' at Glory Church today.
"Oh right, Mom, you said you used to go to Glory Church?"
"Ah. That's right. I've received a lot of help from the pastor there since long ago. Even when I came to this Gaeryong City, I settled down with the pastor's help. Your school enrollment and such too."
"Really?"
"When I'm discharged, we should go together and express our gratitude."
Ring ring-
Just then, a phone call came. It was Yang Juhee.
"Phone call! Is it a girl? Is it Juhee? How far have you two gone?"
"Mom. It's not like that. I don't know! I'm going!"
Feeling annoyed, I left the hospital room. When I answered the phone, I heard an unexpected voice.
"Young-won, where are you?"
"Yoo Dahee? Are you calling from Yang Juhee's phone?"
"We're together now! Let's have dinner together!"
Yoo Dahee and Yang Juhee are together? This is tricky in many ways. I was planning to attend the Monday service today.
"I was thinking of going to church today, so I might not be able to have dinner together. I might have dinner with the church noona. You two might have to eat without..."
Clank- Crash-
Soon, I heard various noises, and then Yang Juhee spoke.
"You're planning to eat with Noona Chan-mi, right? That's great. Then I'll contact Noona Chan-mi, so let's eat together. I'll attend the Monday service too."
And so, a strange dinner was scheduled.