The Lady from Hell (2)

The Secrets of Gyo High School and Yeongji High School.

I was looking for someone who could share quite old memories, and teacher Kang Haneul was perfect for that role.
After all, teacher Kang Haneul was also a student at Yeongji High 16 years ago!
Originally, all adult women were once high school girls.

“By any chance, has a shaman ever come to the school?”

“Tsk, forget it! When have you ever been honest with your teacher about anything, Youngwon? What law says the teacher has to answer your questions? I don’t want to talk either.”

*Hmph*

The teacher puffed out her cheeks, pretending to be overly sulky.

It was hard to believe that 31-year-old teacher Kang Haneul, who was only three years younger than my 34-year-old mom, could be so childish at times.
Is this the difference between a married woman and a single woman?

“But if you change your mind, call this number. It’s my number. By the way, the teacher doesn’t give her number to just any guy, so consider it an honor, okay?”

“……”

“No answer?”

“Yes. Whew, it’s an honor.”

I left the library and headed home. On the way back from school, I even took the long way around, worried I might run into Kim Geonho’s gang.
When I finally arrived home, the bathroom was locked, so I knocked on the door and found Mom inside.

“Is that you, Youngwon?”

“Yeah.”

“School’s over?”

“It is.”

“Did you get a girlfriend at school today, by any chance?”

“Well… no….”

I need to use the bathroom urgently, but I wonder how long Mom will be in there.
Just then, I had this thought.

*Ding*

Youngwon-ah, Mom can't come home today, so get dinner on your own, haha. So, no girlfriend you like today? If there is, you have to introduce her to Mom right away. I'll treat you to a meal, haha.

I got a message from Mom.
When I felt an eerie chill, the bathroom door creaked open on its own.
The bathroom where I thought Mom was just a moment ago… was completely empty!

“What, there’s no one…!?”

Who the hell was here until just now?

“Advice!”

Advice from [Broken Clock]

Sometimes silence can be the answer.

Damn it, occasionally the advice would give some useless proverb-like thing, pretending it was advice, and it had to be now of all times!

This house was shitty enough with the huge cockroaches appearing, and now ghosts too? There’s a reason why the house price was cheap!
I was too terrified and couldn’t calm down at all.

*Bang*

For now, I ran out of the building.

I didn’t have a specific destination in mind, but I thought it would be good to go somewhere crowded.
If I go to a bustling and lively place, I might feel a bit better.
Ghosts probably can’t appear in a place like that, either!

“So where should I go?”

The problem was that I hadn’t even been living in this neighborhood for a few months, so I wasn’t very familiar with the area. I lived in Seoul until middle school, after all.
This neighborhood was too underdeveloped, with lots of back alleys, and was full of unidentified noises and foul odors.

*Flap, flap*

Then, something white fluttered, startling me.

“Mommy!”

I thought it might be a ghost’s white robe or something and freaked out, but looking closely, it was a placard.

“Make Gaeryong Metropolitan City prosperous! Gaeryong Metropolitan City development and revival are starting anew! Jeong Mansik will also make Subway Line 2 happen! - Candidate No. 1 Jeong Mansik!”

I guess due to lack of maintenance, one side of the placard’s string was loose, flapping like a flag.
Fuck, scaring people like that.
If I ever get the right to vote later, I won’t vote for that person even if I die and come back to life.

“This neighborhood is too shitty.”

Until last year, I lived in Seoul, where everything was sophisticated.
Then, this year, I came to Gaeryong because of Mom’s job, but I was still adapting in many ways.

“……”

So what do I do now?

*Growl*

I was hungry.

Um, I think it'll take me about 10 minutes, Youngwon. Why don't you go to wait inside a nearby restaurant for now? Order some food, too. I'll come and eat with you, so order the same thing for me. I'll pay.

I was glad I had brought my cell phone out with me.

I quickly got in touch with teacher Kang Haneul, who had said to contact her if anything happened, and thanks to that, I could also get dinner sorted out.
I ordered pork soup at a nearby pork soup restaurant and waited for the teacher to arrive.

“……”

But this wait was more tedious than I thought and, at the same time, eerie too.
Fuck, a ghost appeared in our house that was already scary enough with cockroaches.
Do I have to live there forever?

As if trying to look away from my fear, I called up the status window.
I thought it would be good to consider how to handle the accumulated points and items that I couldn’t check properly due to lack of time when I had some leisure.

Shop ◀ Click to open

Treatment Center ◀ Click to open

I still had 210 points left, even after unlocking the Treatment Center.
Seeing a very substantial amount of points, it felt like my hunger was satiated even without eating.
Should I do some shopping at the shop in this free time?

Welcome to the Level 1 Shop.
Our shop sells various items that will aid warriors in battle.

Raising your shop level will add products and apply discounts.
Shop Level 1 (0/100)

1. Trait Draw Ticket - 100P
2. Capsule Draw Ticket - 100P
3. Unlock a Locked Item - 100P
4. Unlock the 2nd Floor of Gyo High School - 1000P

What should I buy here?
The Trait Draw Ticket was the most appealing.

I already had the trait [Broken Clock], which was a truly excellent ability that could be called a superpower. If I had one more trait like this, my life would become even better.

*Tick*

Without hesitation, I selected the “Trait Draw Ticket.”

*Boing!*

Soon, something like a roulette wheel commonly seen in games for various draws appeared and began to spin round and round. It felt like a game of spin the wheel.

“Hypnosis ability, come on!”

*Drrrrrr—click.*

It stopped!
Where the roulette machine’s arrow was pointing, it said:

[Holding Breath]

You can hold your breath 1.5 times longer.

“……”

What the hell is this?
It’s so ambiguous.
I was secretly hoping for something like “Hypnosis App” to come out, so I couldn’t hide my disappointment. An ability to hold my breath longer.

Of course, it’s better to have it than not, but it felt a bit underwhelming for the 100 points I blew. I wish an ability that would help me make money had come out.

“Hoo.”

But since I drew the ability anyway, I tried holding my breath as a test.
Normally, I would have gotten out of breath after about 1 minute, but now I could easily hold my breath for up to 1 minute and 30 seconds.

“Phew.”

Now I have 110 points left.
I was about to either draw another trait or try this “Capsule Draw,” but I stopped myself.

“Youngwon!”

Because teacher Kang Haneul was coming into the restaurant, I didn’t have time to manipulate the status window either.
It’s probably not a bad idea to keep some spare points, just in case.

Teacher Kang Haneul drove a silver sedan.
As soon as I got in the passenger seat, a refreshing air freshener scent wafted strongly.
It smelled nice.

“Teacher, thank you for the delicious meal.”

“Wrong! Saying it like that makes it sound like you ate the teacher deliciously. Korean is a language in which the subject and object are important. Next time, say you ate the pork soup deliciously.”

“……”

Maybe because she’s a Korean language teacher.
I received a scolding from an unexpected angle.

“Then shall we go to a cafe now? You had something you wanted to say, right? Have you finally come to a point where you want to tell the teacher everything honestly?”

Teacher Kang Haneul seemed to think that I had called her because of the bullying and harassment written on the “note.”
Well, it was because I didn’t say, “A ghost appeared at my home!” I felt like even if I honestly said a ghost appeared at my home, would she believe me?

“Teacher, there are a lot of things I want to tell you. I have a request in many ways… Teacher, can you let me sleep at your house just for today?”

“What?”

Teacher Kang Haneul frowned.
She had an expression like, what is this kid saying now?

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t want to go home. At home… I can’t really say what’s going on, but…”

I tried to make the most miserable and pitiful expression possible. It was one of my talents that developed while being bullied by Yang Juhui and Kim Geonho.
However, teacher Kang Haneul was quite a principled person.

“You can’t even say what’s going on, but you want to sleep at the teacher’s house? Do you know what rumors will spread if people hear that a female teacher let a male student sleep over?”

“I’ll really keep it a secret. Please. Teacher. Please. Just think of it as saving my life this once. I might really die. Really… I really… I might die. Ah…”

This wasn’t a lie.
Mom said she’s not coming home today either.
There’s no telling what I might face if I go home like this.

Teacher Kang Haneul’s house was not far from the school.

It was a corridor-style apartment, but each house had a lot of trash and miscellaneous items in front of their doors, making the corridor environment very unsanitary.

“Youngwon, you must never tell others about today. Come in quickly when no one’s watching. Hurry! If the lady next door sees, she’ll definitely spread rumors because she’s nosy!”

*Swish*

I quickly went inside through the open door.

“Letting a student into my house. What am I doing now…”

Teacher Kang Haneul’s house had three rooms and one bathroom.
The area was about 80 square meters.
In the living room, there was a laundry drying rack set up with various undergarments…

“Wait, turn your face that way! Quickly!”

“Yes.”

The living room’s drying rack quickly disappeared from sight.
It was a house that felt very lived-in in many ways.
So this is what the home of a 31-year-old unmarried single woman is like. I felt slightly nervous being alone with an adult woman in her home, but the teacher seemed unfazed.

“Youngwon, you can’t be too loud or anything, okay? Since it’s Saturday tomorrow, the neighbors will all be home. This place was built a while ago, so the soundproofing isn’t that good for an older building. If you’re not careful, rumors will spread that I brought a man home.”

Teacher Kang Haneul seemed strangely conscious of the neighbors.

“What happens if rumors spread?”

“Youngwon, you’re a minor. The teacher could go to jail if things go wrong. Even if not, it would make it hard for me to get married later. You’re still young, so you wouldn’t know.”

Suddenly, I recalled a conversation I overheard among some classmates, saying, “I heard Kim Geonho went to a motel with the English teacher.” I also remembered the face of the 27-year-old English teacher with a sophisticated beauty.

“For now, sleep here tonight. This used to be my older brother’s room, so it hasn’t been maintained, but it should be fine for sleeping if we tidy up a bit. These are your pajamas. Should I make you some warm milk?”

I changed into the pajamas the teacher gave me inside the room.
I guess they were pajamas her older brother used to wear because they looked quite oversized for me in many ways. But it seemed better than continuing to wear the uncomfortable school uniform.

*Knock knock knock*

The teacher knocked on the door while I was changing clothes.

“Youngwon, can the teacher come in? I’ll clean up the things inside for you.”

“Not yet. I haven’t finished changing.”

“Now?”

“No, I said not yet. Stop rushing me, please.”

“When can I come in now? Since there’s a young man in the house, the teacher is a bit… unable to hold back…”

What can’t she hold back?
Is she holding it in and waiting to clean the room I’m supposed to sleep in because she urgently needs to use the bathroom? Hearing a voice mixed with tension and sighs to an unsettling degree, I wonder if it might be something big.
In the end, I hurriedly finished changing clothes.

“Yes. You can come in now.”

I waited a little, but there was no answer.
I felt a chilling sense of déjà vu from somewhere.

Don’t tell me, if I open this door and go out, the teacher won’t be there again?
Just like the ghost imitated Mom in the bathroom!

*Grip.*
With the thought of swinging my fists if needed, I went out to the living room.

But fortunately, teacher Kang Haneul was sitting at the dining table, sipping on some alcohol.
However, her outfit stood out.
She was wearing an extremely thin, see-through nightgown through which I could see the undergarments that were hanging on the drying rack earlier.

“Uh…”

Feeling a bit flustered, I averted my eyes. Just being in this situation felt like I was doing something bad.
Then the teacher spoke.

“Surprised? The teacher always dresses comfortably like this at home. More importantly, Youngwon, come sit here.”

“Why?”

“Come sit quickly. If you don’t listen, I’ll kick you out right away.”