The Boy’s Abyss (4)

“Youngwon, I’m so glad you came. Really….”

*Hug*

Class president Jeong Sojin hugged my neck again and shed tears.
It felt soft and fluffy and smelled nice.

“Hey, don’t cry.”

I patted Jeong Sojin’s back like that but felt her bra strap and was a bit flustered.
Fortunately, Jeong Sojin didn’t seem to mind as she wiped her tears with her fingers.

“Youngwon, I didn’t know you well, but you’re really dependable. Even when we first talked? It must have been heavy, but you carried all my baggage for me…”

“Hmm…”

“I really respect people like that. If it weren’t for you, I really… I might have gone crazy by now.”

“Jeong Sojin, there’s one thing I want to ask first. Are Yang Juhui and Kim Geonho here too?”

“……”

Even in the darkness, I could see Jeong Sojin’s expression darken.

“Why are you asking that?”

“No, the Zippo lighter you’re holding is Yang Juhui’s. The fact that you have it means maybe Yang Juhui is in this strange corridor too, I thought.”

What Jeong Sojin was holding in her hand was the silver Zippo lighter I had given to Yang Juhui.
And I was the one who put Yang Juhui, Kim Geonho, and Jeong Sojin as players in the “Nightmare Corridor.”

I wanted to prove my hypothesis that all the players were in this corridor, and Jeong Sojin trembled and made a tearful face.

“…Yeah. Juhui and Kim Geonho were with me too. But that strange thing attacked them….”

“If it’s a strange thing, the bell girl? The woman in shaman’s clothes with jingling bells?”

“No, not that…! There’s more besides that strange bell woman. There are at least three types that I’ve seen so far. So Youngwon, let’s get out of here quickly. Quickly…! Please…!”

I wonder if she means three types, including the bell girl?
Or does she mean three types, even excluding the bell girl?
It was important in many ways.

“Can you tell me more about those three types of ghosts? I don’t know if they’re ghosts or monsters—”

“You fucking bastard!!! It doesn’t matter, so let’s just get out of here!!!”

I was really startled.
Jeong Sojin herself seemed startled, too, floundering about.

“No, sorry… I’m not in my right mind… I don’t know why this is suddenly happening… I don’t know where this is… I have to go to academy too, ah…”

It’s safe to say she’s in a hysterical state.
I decided to calm Jeong Sojin down first, who might rush off somewhere.

“Of course, we have to get out of here. But if there are many types of ghosts or whatever, shouldn’t we find out about them first? So we can deal with them if we run into them.”

For example, I had a hunch that the bell girl couldn’t see. Every time she got close, I could hear the sound of the shaman’s bells she held, so it was easy to notice her presence.

But for the rest that I hadn’t seen, they were unknown, and I didn’t want to run into them and die a dog’s death for nothing.
Persuaded by my opinion, Jeong Sojin took a deep breath, *whew, whew*.

“Youngwon, you’re right. This is my first time experiencing something like this too… Honestly, it’s a bit confusing and surprising, so I lost my temper without realizing it. But it’s okay. No matter how much we talk or shout in this classroom, the ghosts don’t come.”

“Really? Truly?”

“Maybe it’s because of the talismans? That’s why I was able to hide here, too. I wanted to peel one off and take it with me, but it turned to powder when I peeled it.”

The classroom 1-4 is a place ghosts can’t enter—.
As I was trying to remember that fact well, Jeong Sojin took off her torn uniform stockings, revealing her white legs.

“It’ll be more comfortable to move like this, right?”

It was my first time directly seeing a girl my age take off her stockings, and I stared at it intently without realizing it.
The stocking undressing of a classmate was more erotic and stimulating than porn, where people get fully naked and do more intense things.
Of course, Jeong Sojin spoke as if she didn’t mind much.

“Before we get out of here, I’ll explain as much as I know about what happened first.”

“The kids told me during lunchtime. That Kim Geonho and the guys were smoking by the old school building. I’m the class president, you know? If kids in our class cause trouble, it’s my responsibility too…”

Jeong Sojin said she went to the old school building to guide the delinquent-like kids.
There, she ran into Kim Geonho and Yang Juhui, but Kim Geonho finally picked the lock of the old school building and went inside.

“I thought I had to stop him somehow… But the old school building is a bit scary. So I told Juhui to go in together… But no matter what, the corridor wouldn’t end. The entrance we came in from disappeared too…!”

Class president Jeong Sojin said that during lunchtime, she entered the old school building along with Kim Geonho and Yang Juhui and got trapped in this bizarre corridor.

Lunchtime matched exactly with when I unlocked the “Shop” in my Status Window and released the lock on the old school building.
No wonder no one answered their phones, no matter how much we called.

“President, what about your cell phone?”

“The cell phone doesn’t work, and scary sounds kept coming out, so I threw it away. Then, the three of us wandered around like that and found an exit. But Kim Geonho ran off on his own trying to survive…”

I thought of Kim Geonho.
To put it simply, he was a fucking bastard.

“While following Kim Geonho, we ran into the head ghost. The head ghost has no arms or legs, and its face is covered in hair. It looks really scary. Really…”

A head ghost, huh.
Fuck, just imagining it is terrible.

“But that head ghost stays still. Maybe because it has no body. It spreads its hair out like a spider web and stays still. If you don’t step on the hair, it seems docile.”

“It uses its hair as a trap like a spider… Is it like a spider? Spiders are usually docile too until prey gets caught in their web.”

“Spider… But of all things, it’s in front of the exit… Suddenly, Kim Geonho pushed Yang Juhui over, and I was so focused on running away…”

*Swish*

Jeong Sojin held out Yang Juhui’s Zippo lighter to me.
I wonder if I should call her fingertips, that managed to grab the lighter in that chaotic situation, sharp.

“Juhui gave it to me. Telling me to survive at least…”

Juhui gave it to Jeong Sojin?
No way.

As far as I know, Yang Juhui hated Jeong Sojin terribly.
Did they both awaken some friendship while going through a crisis together?
I felt a slight sense of discomfort, but I pretended to be nonchalant and asked.

“So what happened to Yang Juhui? Did she… die after all? Since she was caught by the ghost.”

I felt like my back and armpits were drenched in cold sweat. I was so curious about what happened to Yang Juhui, who was caught by the “head ghost.”

“I don’t know… Anyway, while running away like that, I saw the faculty office. If you take keys from the key cabinet in the faculty office, you can open the multipurpose room! You know Yeongji High’s multipurpose room has an emergency exit for a fire escape, right?”

An escape emergency exit, huh.
Was there something like that?

“We had fire drills before, remember? A firefighter came and trained us, saying there was a big fire in an old school, so they made emergency exits in certain spaces of the building. Don’t you remember?”

“Ah. I think I kind of remember something like that.”

I suppose that did happen.
In the end, going to the faculty office and finding the keys seems to be set in stone.

Fortunately or unfortunately, she said the faculty office was nearby.

I felt quite reluctant to leave this classroom 1-4 full of talismans, but it wasn’t the place we could keep hiding in either.

According to the description in the Status Window, the “Nightmare Corridor” was a place where you had to “escape,” not survive.
But leaving the classroom now wasn’t the right choice.

“President, let’s wait for now.”

“Wait? For what?”

“The bell girl, of course.”

“Why…!?”

Jeong Sojin frowned.
It was an attitude of not being able to understand.

I decided to give the president a brief explanation.

“From what I’ve seen, the bell girl seems to be roaming this corridor on a regular basis. So if we start out after sending the bell girl away, there’s less chance of running into her. If we go out now, we might run into the bell girl who’s coming back this way.”

*Jingle*

As if to prove my guess, the sound of bells began to be heard in the distance.

*Jingle, jingle, jingle*

Even though I heard that ghosts can’t enter this classroom 1-4, my breath still stopped and a chill ran down my spine.
Only when the eerie presence disappeared from the corridor was I finally able to catch my breath.

“See? She went to the left, so she won’t come around here for a while. We have to go now if we want to go to the faculty office. You said the faculty office is to the right?”

“Youngwon, you…”

Jeong Sojin’s eyes sparkled with tears as if she was against my judgment or moved by it.

“How did you know this? How?”

“I just have a sense for these hide-and-seek type of games.”

“Game… I see, you can think of it that way too. Youngwon, I feel reassured to have you who played a lot of games. If I knew this would happen, I should have played games instead of studying too.”

I don’t know if her evaluation of me went up or down.

“I really mean it when I say I’m reassured. When I was alone, I really thought I’d go crazy. But Youngwon, you’re unexpectedly composed, huh? Should I say you’re manly… You’re kind of cool.”

“…Honestly, I’m scared, too, from suddenly experiencing something like this. I fell asleep and when I came to my senses, I was in a place like this. So don’t have too high expectations.”

We didn’t have much time to chat, so I slowly opened the classroom door and stepped outside.

*Creak, creak, creak*

Walking down the corridor for a while, relying on the lighter’s flame, Jeong Sojin, following behind me, grabbed my side tightly.

“I’m so scared, Youngwon…”

“Me too. I’m scared.”

“But I’m glad you’re here. Youngwon, can you… protect me? Actually, ever since you helped me at the entrance ceremony, I’ve seen you in a good light. If we make it out of here safely, with me…”

When a voice wet as if with dew stimulated a man’s protective instinct, I saw letters spelling out “Faculty Office.”
It was a place I couldn’t find when I was wandering alone, relying on the faint light of the Status Window.
Honestly, I didn’t have the leisure to look around deeply either.
But there was a problem.

“*Mutter mutter* Let Yang Juhui go first, *mutter* I don’t want to, *mutter* Kim Geonho you do something, *mutter* Hey guys don’t fight and calm down first, *mutter* It doesn’t seem to hear us—”

There was something black crouching in front of the faculty office.
It was a ghost that had spread out long strands of hair in all directions, creating a trap like a spider’s web.

Between that black hair, only a woman’s face with wide, shining eyes was floating, and incomprehensible words were being played from that mouth.