The Lady From Hell (3)

“So here’s the thing. Teacher often has nightmares, so I can’t sleep without drinking like this. I usually drink alone, but it’s nice to have you, Youngwon, as a conversation partner.”

Teacher Kang Haneul kept pouring and drinking liquid from a bottle labeled whiskey.

The more drunk she got, the more disheveled Teacher’s pajamas became, so I didn’t know where to rest my eyes.

“I’ve tried things like sleeping pills before, but I think I’ve built up a tolerance from taking too many. Alcohol is the best. Youngwon, you’re a minor, so you can’t drink alcohol, right? Have you ever tried it?”

“No. I’ve never had it.”

“Really? That’s unexpected. When Teacher first saw you, Youngwon, I thought you were a total problem child. Always walking around with bandages on your face. Bad boy style? How many girlfriends have you had? Tell me honestly. Were you popular?”

“I had a girlfriend, but I got dumped.”

“Well, that won’t do. Youngwon, Teacher… honestly wants to smack kids who are wasting their golden time. I’d rather trade places with you. They have no idea how good a time they’re missing out on….”

“…Hmm…”

“But these days, there’s a lot of talk about student rights and whatnot, so you can’t even properly admonish students. The other teachers nag from above, and the students below don’t listen, and the parents are extreme.”

“……”

“Youngwon, isn’t there anything you’re curious about Teacher? I feel like I could answer anything for you right now… Anything you’re curious about…? Even the final exam questions….”

Isn’t telling me the exam questions a crime?
It was clearly a joke, but because of the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like one.

“…You can ask more intimate questions. Rude and personal questions are fine, too. Right now, Teacher wants to answer anything you ask, Youngwon. Teacher has no filter today.”

Teacher’s voice was sticky like honey and the air was somehow hot and steamy.
I decided to joke around to try to change the awkwardly burdensome atmosphere.

“Then… what about Teacher’s first love? Stories of past lovers….”

“Teacher only studied, so she never had a boyfriend until this age. Okay, Teacher answered a question, so I’ll ask one too. Youngwon, have you had sex?”

“……”

This is clearly sexual harassment.
I was dumbfounded, unsure of what I had been listening to for the past 5 minutes.
So I just kept sipping the milk Teacher poured for me, but that milk was also almost gone, with only a few drops left at the bottom of the cup.

But why am I so sleepy?
So sleepy.

“Oh….”

My body was heavy like wet cotton, and my vision was blurry, to the point where Teacher’s face looked multiplied. Her mouth seemed to be ripped to her ears.

“Youngwon, are you sleepy? You’re sleepy, right? It’s a good thing I had some leftover sleeping pills I used to take.”

In my fading consciousness, I heard Teacher Kang Haneul’s voice.
Did Teacher just drug me with sleeping pills?

*Rustle, rustle*

Soon, I heard the sound of thin fabrics falling to the floor.

And the sound of her rubbing sticky lotion on her smooth skin.

*Squish. Smear smear*

I was so sleepy that I couldn’t come to my senses and could only bury my head on the table, but somehow I could still move my mouth.

“Tea…Teacher…what are you….”

I was scared.
I remembered the story of the female student who went missing at the beginning of the semester, causing a huge commotion at school and in the neighborhood.
They said the culprit could be someone related to the school.
There were absolutely no signs of resistance, so they said it could be someone she knew.

It couldn’t be…

“Youngwon, Teacher is going to become one with you. You said it yourself. That I can go inside you. Teacher is going to go inside Youngwon. Relax and loosen up. Teacher will take care of everything…”

It was a sticky voice.
It was the first time I heard such a sticky and seductive voice, to the point where goosebumps rose on my temples.

*Whoosh*

Teacher soon flipped my body over and laid me on the floor.

Through her underwear, I could see her white skin, and Teacher, covered in shiny lotion, finally opened my mouth and… started pushing her hand and arm into my mouth!

*Squirm, squirm*

“Youngwon’s insides are tight and warm. Don’t I taste good too, Youngwon?”

“Uuueck—!”

Do I taste good? I felt like I was literally going to die!
Teacher was undoubtedly trying to wear me like a human skin suit by flipping my skin inside out!

“Ueeck! Ueeeeeck!”

“Why are you so stiff? Was the gel not enough? Since it’s come to this, I’ll have to make you wetter. Alcohol is something you’re supposed to learn from adults anyway.”

*Glug glug glug glug*

Teacher poured whiskey into my mouth.

“Ueeck! Ueeeck! Teacher, Teacher stop! Please spare me! Teacher, please spare me!”

I pleaded at death’s door.
But the more I did, the more excited Teacher seemed, laughing with her mouth ripped to her ears.

“You sleep well during class, but why aren’t you sleeping now? The sleeping pills must not work well because of your tolerance. Wait a second.”

*Whoosh*

Teacher left for a moment.

I thought this was my chance!
If I stay like this, I’ll be killed by this spinster serial killer or ghost, whatever she is! I can’t die a dog’s death like this!

Was it because I desperately wracked my brain in this critical situation?
Like how even a broken clock is right twice a day, a lightbulb-bright idea popped into my head.

“Aaaah! Aaaaaah!”

I gathered all my strength and screamed.
And just as I expected, it happened.

*Bang bang bang*

Someone knocked on the apartment’s metal door.
Soon, an elderly woman’s voice was heard.

“What the hell are you doing this late at night! Let me sleep, you crazy bitch! You’re in there, aren’t you? Did you bring a man?! I told you I’d introduce you to my son! My son works at Osung Electronics! He’s only forty!”

Just as I expected!
The story about the apartment’s poor soundproofing was true, and the next-door neighbor came!

“Ah!”

“A scream… is something wrong?”

“Aaah!”

“Should I report this to 112?”

“Aack!”

The police!
At those words, I felt like I had grabbed a lifeline.
The spirit of camaraderie in Korea was still alive!
The camaraderie of the neighborhood remained! I won’t let the bastards who deny this get away with it!

“Hehehe…. You answered… three questions…?”

But then…
A strange sound came from outside the door.

“Trade with me. Trade with me. Trade with me. Trade with me. Trade with me. Trade with me. Trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me…”

Oh fuck!
It was terrifying enough to make me piss myself.
But extreme fear sometimes works to drive away fear itself!

When I barely managed to sit up, I saw something seeping through the thin crack of the metal door.

“Trade with me.”

It looked like my mom, and also like Teacher Kang Haneul, and at a glance, like some middle-aged woman I didn’t know.

“Trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me.”

The ghost lady approached me, swinging her arms from side to side.
A foul smell emanated from the ghost lady, like rotten apples or a chicken coop!

“Ugh! Chicken coop smell!”

“……”

The ghost lady stopped.
Does it have an effect?
Right, maybe they hate those kinds of words!

“Chicken coop smell! Spinster! Menopause! Old lady! Hag! Ahjumma!”

If only I had better words!
But it wasn’t completely ineffective because the ghost lady’s face changed more terrifyingly than I’d ever seen, and soon she bent her arms and legs backward into a bridge position and scuttled backward into the dark bathroom, like *Shashank Shashank*.
It was spine-chilling, just like a giant cockroach.

“Ah fuck, she hid again… Wasn’t this supposed to get rid of her….”

*Knock knock knock*

Then someone knocked on the door.

“Youngwon, are you okay? Teacher went to buy milk and came back. I heard a commotion inside. Why is the door locked from the inside?”

It was Teacher Kang Haneul’s voice!
I felt a sense of relief, like taking a cold shower in the sweltering heat, but… suddenly, I had an ominous feeling.

“Youngwon, you’re in there, right?”

“……”

“Look how he doesn’t even answer when Teacher calls. No manners, that’s what you get when you grow up without a dad. Ungrateful brat.”

It was a moment I felt like crying my eyes out.
This time it wasn’t Teacher either, but the ghost!

Advice from [Broken Clock]

Sometimes silence can be the answer.

This advice was meant for this moment!
The problem was… *knock knock knock-* the sound of knocking on the walls began to echo from all directions.

*Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock.*

The ceiling.
The door.
The walls.
The floor.
The sound of knocking came from all directions.

*Ring ring ring-.*

My cell phone rang, too.

“Hey, you’re Ha Youngwon, right? I’m Jeong Sojin, the class president of Class D, and I like you. Will you go out with me? Answer me. Answer me answer me answer me answer me answer me answer me answer me…”

“Fuck off! You sound like an old hag!”

This ghost lady was desperately struggling to ask me questions.

“Do I… have to live like this forever?”

Do I have to stop answering the phone from now on?
My life suddenly became wretched.

But sometimes when a person is driven into a corner and receives stress to the extreme, a competitive spirit can arise.
A cornered rat will bite a cat, you know. I was a fucking rat right now.

“Fuck, okay. Let’s see who wins. Old hag! Come out! You want to steal my body, right? That’s why you keep asking me questions?”

I called out the ghost lady in the spirit of just fucking bring it on.
Then, with the sound of joints cracking *pop, pop*, Teacher Kang Haneul appeared from the dark bathroom. It was still terrifying, unbelievably so.
The fear made me squeeze my eyes shut, but when I opened them, Teacher spoke.

“That’s right. I like younger men. The more you answer my questions, the more thrilling it gets… After I take your body, I’ll take your life, too. If you don’t give me your body, I’ll take this woman’s body as is!”

Thinking back on what had happened so far, I realized something.
This bizarre ghost lady asked me questions and also answered my questions.

And that last answer was more than enough for me to make up my mind.
She says if she fails to steal my body, she’ll take Teacher Kang Haneul’s body.
What a nightmare this is turning out to be!

Something that happened because of me.
Let me put an end to it like a man!
I opened my arms toward the ghost lady.

“Not anyone else! Use my body! Come inside me!”

“Okay. Then Teacher is really going in. Relax~”

*Whoosh*

Teacher Kang Haneul’s body seemed to turn into powder and started entering through my nose and mouth.

In doing so, it pushed out all the air from my lungs and took its place, choking me.
If I hadn’t obtained the [Holding Breath] trait from the store, I would have passed out from suffocation right now!
Nothing in this world is useless… With that thought, I recalled the advice from [Broken Clock].

Advice from the [Broken Clock]

An [Eccentricity] is a strange phenomenon afflicting the body, soul, and mind. If one possesses 2 or more Eccentricities, that person will die. [Eccentricities] can be cured for 100P at the Treatment Center unlocked in the shop.

An Eccentricity afflicting the body, soul, and mind.
It was the same as this ghost lady trying to steal my body!

“…Heuk…Status Window.”

I squeezed the breath out of my increased lung capacity and called up the Status Window.

Eccentricity [Ghost Possession]

Trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me trade with me

Fuck you, bitch!

Treatment Center ◀ Click to open

100P will be spent to remove the Eccentricity.

The Eccentricity [Ghost Possession] has been cured.

“…Done! I won!”

It’s a good thing I saved the remaining points just in case.
If I really hadn’t opened the Treatment Center, I would have been fucked.

*Beep beep beep beep*

Then I heard the sound of the door lock being opened.
Teacher Kang Haneul was coming in with a convenience store bag full of something.
Looking closely, I could see milk and snacks peeking out of the bag.

“Youngwon, what’s going on? What on earth happened! Why is the house such a mess! I went to the convenience store to buy milk and ran into the English teacher on the way back!”

“Teacher… do you happen to like younger men?”

“Wh…what kind of question is that all of a sudden?”

I plopped down.

Congratulations!

You have emerged victorious against the curse of becoming a ghost after answering three questions!

Beginning settlement for the 1 surviving person.

*Clink*

100 points came in.
It was like getting back the exact amount I spent to cure the Eccentricity.
Even after all that suffering and chaos, just breaking even felt like a loss.

I should be satisfied with surviving.
What the hell just happened? That nightmare isn’t limited to that corridor, I see.
To think I’d encounter a ghost in reality, too.

Your experience points exceed the standard, so your level has increased.

Some traits change according to level.

The probability of Oddities and Observers tracking your existence has increased.

Oh…
My level increased?
I was wondering what the level in my Status Window meant, but it does go up after all!
It was also interesting that traits change according to level.

But what concerned me more were the words that appeared next.

Oddities and Observers…?
As I was pondering what that could be, *wee-woo wee-woo* I heard sirens.

“Anyone home? We received a report that a student may have been kidnapped.”