The Boy’s Abyss (3)

*Jingle, jingle, jingle*

The eerie bell sound drew closer and closer.
Breathless, I froze, eyes wide open.

It felt like the blood drained from my entire body.

*Jingle, jingle, jingle*

When the bell sound finally passed right in front of me, I saw something bizarre through the hole in the utility closet door.

Overall, it looked like a woman wearing colorful clothes in the five cardinal colors. By the way, I could tell it was a woman because her hair was long, and fair skin rippled through her disheveled top.
Her legs were also pale and slender, and her ankles were thin. The curious thing was that she was wearing socks that looked like Korean traditional socks instead of regular ones.

*Jingle!*

In one hand, she held a stick with many bells attached, and in the other, a candle. Her mouth was ripped to her ears, and she was sticking out her tongue down to her chin. It looked terrifying.

“Where are you I can’t see you you’re not here where are you I can’t see you I can’t see you where are you where where where—”

Words burst forth incessantly from her gaping mouth as if she were rapping, repeating the same thing without even breathing. Her lung capacity was unbelievable.

Looking closer at her face illuminated by the candlelight, I saw that the area around her eyes was horribly crushed.
Seeing holes blown through where her eyes should be, my heart sank.

…Fuck, what the hell is that thing?!

One look, and you could tell it wasn’t human.
Ghost, it has to be a ghost!

Worried that the pounding of my heart could be heard outside, I squeezed my eyes shut.

I don’t know what it’s looking for, but I hope it’s not me!

*Jingle, jingle, jingle*

The one fortunate thing was that this terrible ghost or monster-like thing passed right by the utility closet where I was hiding.

Honestly, I wondered if hiding in such a flimsy place would work, but thanks to the ghost’s eyes being crushed, it seemed to pass me.

“……”

Even after I could no longer hear the bell sound, I stayed hidden in the utility closet for about 5 more minutes.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to come out.

If I stayed like this, daylight would break, and police or rescuers would come barging in to help me—hopeful thoughts filled my head.

“Ugh.”

Then, the smell of rotten rags inside the utility closet grew so foul that it became unbearable. Even breathing through my mouth made me gag.

What could it be?
Something flashed through my mind—the advice I had seen earlier.

Advice from the [Broken Clock]

In the Nightmare Corridor, there are hiding places like cleaning supply closets and lockers arranged where you can avoid the horrors for a set period of time. Who could have possibly prepared such things?

“Could it be….”

Is it because of the ‘certain period of time’?
You can’t hide in these places permanently!
That much was clear!

Fuck it!
I’m going to hide here forever!

“Uek, ugh…! Gag…”

I tried desperately to endure it.
But the gagging kept rising, and I thought if I stayed, the Bell Woman might come back and hear me.

What happens if the Bell Woman finds me?
I don’t know, but it can’t be good!

Ah, fuck!
I don’t care.

*Creak*

I finally crawled out of the utility closet.
The smell that had been irritating me disappeared like a lie.
I was worried the stench might linger on me, but fortunately, that didn’t happen.

What the hell is going on?
Have I finally lost it?
That was a possibility, but… something felt off.

“…Status Window.”

One day, when you opened your eyes, you were lying in a dark corridor.

From that pitch-black corner, terrible sounds can be heard, and an ominous presence keeps drawing closer.

In this bizarre situation, you had no choice but to start walking in order to survive and escape. In the end, you reach a shocking secret and strange taboo…

This was definitely the “Nightmare Corridor” the Status Window advice spoke of.
No one needed to explain to me why I was in such a place.

Because I volunteered to come here myself.
In hindsight, it was such a stupid thing to do that I wanted to strangle my past self, but what mattered now wasn’t that, but somehow surviving.

What did it say about this Nightmare Corridor?

You had no choice but to start walking in order to survive and escape. In the end, you reach a shocking secret and strange taboo...

Escape!
If escape is possible, there must be an exit somewhere in this corridor!

Now that I could no longer hide in the utility closet, I had no choice but to start walking.

The fortunate thing was that this Status Window glowing like a hologram lit up at least right in front of my feet. Without even this, I would have died in the darkness.

“Whew….”

After catching my breath, I stumbled through this bizarre corridor, straining my ears to hear the surroundings as much as possible.

*Creak, creak*

The corridor floor was wood, and it made noise when I walked, which was a little annoying, but it couldn’t be helped.

But the layout felt quite familiar.
It looked like the corridors of Yeongji High School.

Maybe this place is the corridors of Yeongji High School?
If my guess is right, Class 1-D should appear when I turn this corner-.

1-4
My guess was right.
But the details were a bit different.

It wasn’t Class D, but Class 4 that appeared.
Didn’t Yeongji High School divide classes alphabetically from A to G?
I think they said they used to divide classes by numbers and changed them to alphabets when they started using the new building.

“Old building… new building….”

Right, this was the old building.
The old Yeongji High building!

Suddenly, I remembered that I had unlocked the “Old School Building” in the Shop.
The old school building that was tightly locked to keep students from entering.

This place was the corridor of the old school building!
That means there must be a building exit somewhere, and if I go out there, I’ll be okay!

If the layout of the old and new school buildings are similar, there should be stairs nearby…
I moved slowly with that thought in mind.

But strangely, stairs were nowhere to be seen, and only the endless corridor continued. It was literally like a never-ending nightmare.

*Jingle, jingle, jingle*

Ah—
At the end of that corridor, a faint light appeared along with the bell sound again.
The problem is that there are no lockers or utility closets around me to hide in now.

“……”

I looked around, desperately trying to survive somehow, and spotted a classroom with 1-4 written on it.

Wasn’t Class 1-4 the one I just passed?
No, it doesn’t matter!

*Slide*

Fortunately, the classroom door was open.
I hid among the many desks, and the *jingle-jangle* sound spread to the corridor around me.

How much time had passed?
The bell sound grew distant.
Along with the relief of being alive, a strange sense of accomplishment flowed through my body.

“Hah, that wasn’t so bad.”

Humans are creatures of adaptation.
I was able to look around with a bit more composure than before.

“……”

And I came to slightly regret my actions.

Because I found out that this Class 1-4 was packed with talismans scribbled with red scrawling letters.
An extremely eerie and spine-chilling place. It was the stuff of nightmares.

But what was even more terrifying was realizing that I wasn’t the only one in the classroom.

*Creak, creak*

The sound came from under the teacher’s desk.
It sounded like a monkey at times and like creaking wood at others.

Fuck….
Come to think of it, didn’t the Status Window say this?

In the Nightmare Corridor, hiding places like utility and personal lockers are placed to avoid horrors for a certain period of time—it said.

The expression ‘horrors’ here stood out to me.
If there were other terrible ghost bastards besides the Bell Woman roaming this corridor…!?

*Flash*

At that moment, I made eye contact with glowing blue eyes that shone from the Status Window’s light.
It was terribly startling, but it seemed the other party recognized me, too.

“Youngwon is that you, Youngwon…!?”

It was a small but loud voice.
A small but loud voice—honestly, I’m not sure if this description makes sense, but it really was like that.

*Rustle*

The thing crouching under the teacher’s desk soon crawled out towards me on all fours.
That’s when I could clearly see the identity of those glowing eyes.
They were glasses!

“Jeong Sojin…? Class prez…?”

“Youngwon…!”

*Hug!*

Jeong Sojin, the class president of Class D and the girl I had quite a crush on at the beginning of the school year, hugged me tightly.

“Youngwon…! I’m so glad to see you…”

The scent of cosmetics wafted strongly, and something soft touched my chest.
Jeong Sojin’s got quite the size, huh.
And even the studious Jeong Sojin wears makeup—such thoughts crossed my mind as an ominous premonition hit me.

“Hey, how can you prove you’re really Jeong Sojin? Show me some evidence!”

It could be a ghost of this corridor trying to trick me!
I hurriedly pulled away and stepped back, and the thing that may or may not be Jeong Sojin made a slightly dumbfounded expression, then laughed as if relieved…

“Hehehe, Youngwon, you’re really funny, you know? Remember when you and I handed out textbooks together before? We went to the warehouse together to get the textbooks. You moved all the boxes then…”

That’s right.
On the day of the entrance ceremony, when the classrooms were assigned, the homeroom teacher asked me and Jeong Sojin to move the boxes containing the textbooks.

At the time, I was like a veteran who had gone through 3 years of an all-boys middle school, and I got a bit nervous and excited to be alone with a pretty girl like Jeong Sojin…so I did some stupid things like “Jeong Sojin, if it’s heavy, I’ll carry your box too.”

Maybe Jeong Sojin would be favorable to my manly and gentlemanly attitude and say “Oh my, you’re such a nice guy!” and we’d get close, study for exams together, get married, have grandchildren…I imagined things like that.

I know.
It was a stupid thought.
But anyone who’s been through 3 years of an all-boys school would have ended up the same way.

Anyway, if she knows about that.
This girl is definitely the real Jeong Sojin.

As I was feeling slightly relieved, Jeong Sojin flicked on a small lighter.
Even a very small flame has a way of reassuring people.

“Youngwon, we need to find the key! The entrance key! I’ll explain quickly since there might not be much time, but to get out of this corridor, we need the key! I know where the entrance is!”

Key.
Quite a positive keyword.
Literally, a word that’s key.

“The key should be in the key cabinet in the faculty office! But I’m too scared to go alone, so…Youngwon, I’m so glad you’re really here. Really….”