

I WILL TELL YOU A SCARY STORY

Beyond the Nightmare

Copyright 2019 Luka Claw

Published by Luka Claw at Smashwords

Cover by: Monika Kurianowicz

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Door

Chapter 2 – New building, new customs, new... face?

Chapter 3 – Handprint

Chapter 4 – Secret of the recording room

Chapter 5 – How to fight a ghost – Chanwoo's guide

Chapter 6 – Ghostly surprise

Chapter 7 – Walking curse

Chapter 8 – Cursed mark and even more cursed noodles

Chapter 9 – Disastrous shadow

Chapter 10 – Connection

Chapter 11 – Not so ordinary base of Creepy Creep

Chapter 12 – Follow the signs or be lost forever

Chapter 13 – Buy the Voodoo Barbie and you'll get Bloody Mary's curse for free

Chapter 14 – Creep's life wisdom

Chapter 15 – Beyond the nightmare

Chapter 16 – You believe only what you see

Chapter 17 – Say 'cheese'!

Chapter 18 – Madam Bae

Chapter 19 – Exit the Dragon, enter the Lizard

Chapter 20 – Craving for logic

Chapter 21 – New tactic, bad tactic

Chapter 22 – Curiosity killed the cat

Chapter 23 – Don't look outside

Chapter 24 – When you thought you knew everything

Chapter 25 – Snakes for the rescue!

Chapter 26 – As if one ghost wasn't enough

Chapter 27 – In search of Beomseok's sock

Chapter 28 – Evil pan

Chapter 29 – Charm of a haunted house

Chapter 30 – Memories of the past, pt. I

Chapter 31 – Memories of the past, pt. II

Bonus story

Coming next

Thanks

About the author

Other books by this author

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Mini-dictionary

# _Chapter 1_

# _Door_

I'll tell you a scary story.

It happened a year ago in high school's abandoned math classroom. You've probably heard about suicide victims, who haunt their killers and bullies, or teacher, who loved married man, died in an accident and haunts him for not accepting her feelings. Well, this will be different. This story is about an outsider, who was unjustly killed by his jealous brother. Outsider's brother pushed him out of the window. Everyone thought that he killed himself, so soon they forgot him. But his revenge was just about to begin. The outsider loved math, so it was a strange coincidence that he died in a math classroom. After the incident it was not used anymore and locked. The rumor says that if you go near this classroom, you hear,

"One, two, three. And next is?"

You have then two options: run without answering or answer. However, if you run without answering, you will unconsciously pass the classroom again the next day. And if you do this three times, the door will open. Then you can't run anymore because you were invited in. You go in and the door closes. And you've become missed person.

But you may answer the voice. You probably think that the answer is "four" and you'll say it confidently, but it's incorrect. If you say the wrong answer, you'll hear the groan of disappointment and the door will open too, but you won't be invited in. Suddenly out of the darkness of the room –

"Oh, please stop! I get it, I'm sorry! You win!"

I smiled and stopped telling the story. Beomseok was hiding under the blanket, squeezing Youngho's arm. Youngho himself was pale and had frightened face. Jongil was sitting straight on the floor without moving. He usually was calm and wasn't easily scared, especially by scary stories, but this time he stiffened and I knew he was a little creeped out. As for Chanwoo, I didn't see him. Did he run away when I was just reaching the climax?

"So you're cleaning my room for a week!" I said, proud of myself.

"Alright..." Beomseok threw the blanket at me, offended.

He was the worst if it was about ghosts. He was so easily scared that I pitied him every time we were telling scary stories. But a punishment is a must in our lives.

This is a diary about the time when we were still trainees in our agency, two years before our debut. We were already living together in a dorm, which was small but cozy enough. I was sharing the room with Chanwoo and we slept on bunk beds. Jongil, Youngho and Beomseok shared another room. Because we decided everything mostly through rock-paper-scissors, today we ended up telling scary stories. Besides it, I bet with Beomseok who will tell a better story and – as you read – I won. Next was Chan, but he was still nowhere to be found.

"Did he go to the bathroom?" I asked.

"He went earlier," Jongil said. "Isn't he hiding under the bed?"

I wanted to check there, but stopped in the midway.

"He surely isn't there," I said quickly and went toward the wardrobe.

When I was reaching to a handle, suddenly I heard a groan. I stiffened. I recalled the story which I just told. It was exactly the same type of groan that I imagined...

Then the wardrobe's door slightly opened. I moved back, stepping on Beomseok's feet. Everyone strangely fast found themselves behind me. I swallowed hard and finally touched the handle.

Suddenly something grabbed my wrist and I shrieked, falling on my butt. Then I heard familiar laugh and Chanwoo came out of the wardrobe. I cursed and threw a pillow at him.

"Did you see your faces?" Chanwoo was still laughing. "Hilarious! I should have taken a picture –"

"You'll pay for it," I growled and pushed him on the bed, beating him up with another pillow.

BAM.

We stopped moving. A hit just came out of the living room. We had closed door to our room and there were just five of us in the dorm. Besides, the only slight light that we had here now was ironically next to the door.

"Another prank?" I whispered to Chanwoo, who shook his head violently. Now he was scared too.

Then we heard a creaking sound and the door slightly opened.

# _Chapter 2_

# _New building, new customs, new... face?_

We were frozen for at least two minutes. The door didn't move during them. I exchanged looks with group members, trying to persuade someone to go to the door. No one wanted to, so we played rock-paper-scissors in silence and – of course – I lost. Cursing my bad luck and group members' satisfaction, I went toward the door.

On my way there (which was sooo long...) I looked for some kind of a weapon, but found only Chanwoo's toothbrush. I ignored his voiceless protest and touched the handle.

Suddenly the light blinked and went off and at the same time a hand from the other side of the door grabbed my wrist. I shrieked and swung the toothbrush, when the door opened completely and the hand, that grabbed me a moment ago, switched on the main light in the room.

"I brought you tomorrow's breakfast and put it into the fridge," Sunwoo Han said, coming in. He was a fresh employee in our agency and was manager in training. He was taking care of us for about a month. He saw us in strange positions and raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing?" He looked up at the lamp next to the door. "Did the bulb burn out already?"

"Aaah!!" I groaned and sat down. Chanwoo quickly took his toothbrush, before I threw it with anger. "You scared me!!"

"No wonder, in this darkness and at this hour." He looked at us, irritated. "Why aren't you sleeping anyway?"

"We were just –" Youngho began.

" –fooling around," Jongil ended, standing up. "We go to sleep now."

We agreed. Jongil and Youngho left with Mr. Han.

"Aren't you going to your room?" I said with raised eyebrows, seeing that Beomseok stayed. He couldn't leave my precious blanket alone, thanks to which I survived every horror movie and cold days. He shook his head.

"I'll sleep here tonight," he said.

"You're sharing the room with Youngho and Jongil," I reminded him. "It's better to be there than here with two cowards."

"Hey!" Chan protested, but I ignored him.

"I don't want to leave the room. I'll wait till dawn. It's your fault, so take the responsibility!"

"Right." I glanced at him with grimace. "Whatever, but where are you going to sleep?"

"You have a mattress."

"Fine. But that doesn't change our deal! Starting tomorrow, you're cleaning our room for a week!"

"Okay..."

After about ten minutes we were in our beds. I slept on the second level, while Chanwoo on the first level. Beomseok lay next to Chan's bed.

"Jinwoo, are you sleeping?" I heard Chanwoo.

"Not anymore. What's up?"

"Your story was really scary, you know? I hid in the wardrobe because I was too scared."

"Is that so? I thought you deliberately did it to scare ME."

"No... But after I heard the ending, or almost the ending, thanks to Beomseok, I thought about that prank."

"Very thoughtful. But you don't have to do this next time." I glanced at Beomseok, who was covered with blankets. "Or you can, but choose different victim."

Beomseok probably fell asleep, because I didn't hear any comment. Chanwoo giggled, agreed and wished me goodnight.

In the morning my stomach felt like it was squeezed with a wire...

"Aaah, what the heck!" I screamed surprised, seeing Beomseok sleeping in my place, while I nearly fell, hanging upside down from the end of the bed. I avoided his kick.

He only muttered something and went back to sleep, hugging MY pillow. Anyway, it was a miracle that two people fit here. Beomseok was taller and at the same time weighed more than me, so I was even more surprised that the bed made it in one piece through the night. Chanwoo gasped shocked when he got up and almost bumped into Beomseok's leg, which was hanging from my bed. We smirked, stole his sock and left him alone.

Mr. Han announced today that we had to move temporarily to another building due to repairs. The change of the location was to be helpful for both sides: we'll get more space and silence to practice, while the agency's building will be calmly renovated.

We went to the new building excited. However, after we closed the front door, we heard an unpleasant echo. We flinched. There was dead silence, from time to time interrupted by flow of water in pipes. The building itself needed more repairs than our agency...

"Why are you standing here?" we heard Mr. Han, who was the last to enter. "Go to the end of the corridor and to the last door on the right, there will be stairs. Go upstairs and wait for me there."

We did as he said, holding each other's shirt. Jongil went first, so after a while he was annoyed by our behavior. But I still had in my head my last scary story, so I was afraid that near some door I'll hear 'One, two, three. And next is?'.

Finally, we safely got to the right door, opened it and went to the second floor through creaky, wooden stairs.

On the second floor was no better. Plaster was falling off the walls, windows were dirty and it was so cold, even though it was May. Mr. Han must have seen our faces, because he burst out laughing.

"We have to clean here ourselves, so don't be so disappointed. It'll look better tomorrow. Now, let's get to work!"

We played rock-paper-scissors and divided the duties. Jongil and Beomseok were mopping the floors, Youngho had to clean the practice room, Chanwoo was in the kitchen and Mr. Han selected the bathroom. I was supposed to clean the windows. I sighed, put on gloves, took the glass cleaner with cloth and was ready to work. I felt so lonely in the corridor, while Jongil, Beomseok and Youngho were having fun, as they started to mop the floor in the practice room. I sighed again and stretched my body ready to take a break, when something caught my attention.

I froze, staring at the partly cleaned glass. I could swore that I saw a movement behind it. I rubbed the corner of the window with the cloth. A bird? But when I cleaned the corner, I got chills.

There was a handprint. And it wasn't from the inside but outside. Not weird enough? I remind you that we were on the second floor. Suddenly I heard a thump behind me and turned around with fast beating heart. I sighed through the clenched teeth. It was only the broom, that fell down because of irregular wall's structure.

When I turned back to the window I saw a pale face, looking straight at me.

# _Chapter 3_

# _Handprint_

I screamed and ran away without looking back. I ran into Chanwoo at the door to the kitchen.

"What? What?" he asked confused.

I pulled him with me to the practice room where were the others. I sat on the floor and waited till I catch the breath and my heart stop beating so fast. I told them what I saw hoping that we'll forget about it and continue the cleaning, but Jongil was worried (thinking it was some thief) and went back to the window. I hid behind him, closing my eyes.

"Are you sure it was here?" I heard him and opened my eyes.

It was this window. But I didn't see any face now. What was more, there wasn't any handprint either.

"But wait –" I jumped to the window and opened it, looking around. There was no one indeed. "Was that my imagination... ?"

Jongil patted my back.

"You're still living the last night," he said. "Let's finish and go eat."

Group members left, but I stayed and continued researching the window. Eventually, I didn't find any clue that it wasn't my imagination and went after them. However, when I turned around and was ready to leave, something hit the glass and I fled without checking it out.

We finished the cleaning in the evening and went to eat. While eating my favorite kimchi*, I observed people in the restaurant. There were teenage girls fangirling over some k-pop group, young men from baseball team (looking at their uniforms), and a few couples. We were eating here for the first time, because it was the nearest restaurant to our temporary agency building. The place was nice, although not so popular. The interior was wooden and in 19th century Europe's style – even though they served only Korean food.

When I was staring at clients, one girl caught my attention. She was of average height, dressed in a white tracksuit and had long, black hair that was touching the table and hiding her face. She was sitting with teenage girls, but they were completely ignoring her. A victim of bullying? Or maybe she didn't know them and just sat there unnoticed? I frowned, still looking at her. She was scratching the table with her fingernail. Writing something? Drawing? Reliving the stress?

Then I felt a shiver down my spine. No one was interested in her.

Suddenly she hit the table with her hand and turned her face straight at me, gasping. I spat the coke, which I had in my mouth. When I looked at her again, her face was again hid behind her hair. I was breathing heavily, trying to calm down. It was her. That face from the corridor! I was sure it was –

"Hey, are you okay?" a waiter asked the girl in the white tracksuit, touching gently her arm. "You drank a lot. I'll get you a taxi." Then he took her outside.

I was gaping at the exit with shock. Wait, did I imagine it again? But this time –

"Oh God!" I gasped, turning to group members. Chanwoo was all wet, looking at me grimly. I must have spat the coke at him.

"Thanks, Jin," he hissed through the teeth. "I just wanted to take a sip."

I smiled apologetically, while the others burst out laughing. We finished our dinner and were on our way to the practice, when I stopped next to the table where that girl was scratching something. I leaned over it, wanting to see what she wrote or drew. But I regretted it, because there was nothing written or drawn. There was only a handprint. I closed my eyes and after a few seconds opened them again.

The handprint didn't vanish.

I ran after the group members, before some more frightening thoughts attacked my mind.

Later this evening we were practicing in our new, clean practice room. For my surprise, it wasn't that bad. Although the room was smaller than the one in our previous building, it had nice acoustic and good non-slip floor.

We finished after the midnight and were going to the dorm, but when we were passing the doors in the corridor, I heard a groan. I flinched and moved closer to the windows. Then group members giggled.

"Chanwoo, you idiot!" I growled and threw myself at him with fists.

Jongil and Youngho stopped our fight and we continued the walk. We stopped again in front of the recording room. The door was slightly open.

"Didn't Mr. Han say that this room is off-limits?" Beomseok whispered.

"He did," I said.

"Then why the door is open?"

We moved closer to each other. Suddenly we heard a noise behind us and turned around, but there was nothing there. When we turned back to the door, it was closed.

But we didn't hear it closing...

"Rock-paper-scissors!" Chan shouted all of a sudden and we automatically stretched out our hands.

Beomseok lost but he panicked, so we didn't have a heart to punish him like that. And among the rest of us no one wanted to go first. Even Jongil, who suddenly got interested in his fingers.

"Let's be men!" I said sharply and stepped out, but then the courage left me as fast as the air escapes from the pierced balloon. "I changed my mind," I groaned and pushed Youngho in front of me. "You'll go."

"Why me?!" Youngho outraged.

"Because you're a real man."

"I'm no man!" Youngho braced his feet on the ground. "I'M A GIRL! GIRL!"

"That's even better! Ladies first." And I successfully pushed him into the room.

We waited, observing Youngho through the Venetian mirror, which was next to the door. The room was illuminated only by corridor's weak lights, so we didn't see much. I finally saw Youngho with a flashlight, but in a moment he disappeared behind the speakers. Meanwhile Jongil was keeping the door open.

All of a sudden we heard a squeak and a rat ran over Jongil's foot. He moved it back surprised and the door closed.

"What the –!" he gasped and tried to open it, but without effect.

I turned on the microphone, through which we could contact with the one, who was in the recording room.

"Youngho?" I called to the microphone. "Answer if you can hear me."

Silence. I exchanged anxious looks with group members.

"Youngho, that's not funny. Answer us," Jongil tried again.

Still nothing. Suddenly the lights blinked and went out. Somehow I knew it was a bad sign. We heard a click sound, as if the door has been unlocked. I reached to the handle.

"Youngho –?"

Then something hit the mirror and we jumped startled. We waited with fast beating hearts for a minute and after that I checked the glass with the flashlight from my phone.

There was a familiar handprint. As I gasped and staggered at Beomseok, we suddenly heard Youngho's scream.

# _Chapter 4_

# _Secret of the recording room_

We reacted in a flash. Jongil and Beomseok hit the door with full force twice and it opened. We burst into the dark room, switching on flashlights in all of our cell phones.

"Youngho?" I whispered, although I wanted to say it louder. "Where are you?"

I pointed the flashlight to the mirror with fear. As I suspected, the handprint was on this side too. I shivered and continued looking.

Suddenly something grabbed my ankle and I jumped almost to the ceiling.

"Ah! You stepped on me!" I heard and sighed with relief. Youngho stood up, rubbing his hand.

"You scared me," I defended myself. "What happened? We heard you screaming."

"Screaming?" Youngho was shocked himself. "I didn't scream."

"You didn't?" Jongil asked with raised eyebrows. "We definitely heard you. Right?"

We nodded. Youngho frowned.

"I just tripped over some cables," he explained. "I only gasped. I didn't scream."

"Then you did scream," Chanwoo said. "You always exaggerate and maybe you thought that you only gasped."

Youngho did offended face, but we stopped digging into this matter. As we found ourselves in that mysterious room, we decided to investigate it a little. With flashlights it wasn't that scary anymore, so I felt courageous and began to check the speakers.

"Why so many speakers?" I said.

No one answered me. I looked around and got goosebumps.

I was alone.

T... They left me?! I opened my mouth to call them, but my phone slipped out of my hand because of sweat and fell behind the nearest speaker. I cursed and got on my knees, trying to reach it. Finally, I grabbed it satisfied, but something caught my attention.

The flashlight was pointing to the wall – or so I thought at first. Actually, someone was sitting in the corner. It was a girl with black long hair and... in white tracksuit.

I closed my eyes tightly.

It's not happening. It's just my imagination. It's –

But I felt sudden cold and unwillingly opened my eyes.

Her pale face was just in front of me. It was so horrible and covered in blood that I forgot about the phone and ran away with high-pitched scream. I was about to open the door, when someone grabbed my arm. I swung my hand shocked, but Jongil caught it before I hit him in the face.

"What's wrong with you?!" he outraged.

I was breathing heavily, staring at group members confused.

"Y-You didn't leave me... ?" I panted. "You were here all the time?"

"Yeah. Why?"

I looked around slowly. The girl was gone. So was the light from my phone. Did she eat it, or something... ? I wanted to come back and take the phone, but suddenly a speaker fell on the floor for no reason, so we panicked and left the recording room.

The next day I didn't want to go back to this building. Although I told my group members everything I saw, I wasn't sure whether they believed me. Well, they saw the handprint, the speaker falling and the door closing itself, but they didn't see that ghost.

Yeah, now I was sure it was a ghost. My imagination was vivid indeed, but please. I've never seen ghost before, no matter how freaked out I was after a scary story or watching horror, and it was too real.

Eventually we had to go to the practice. When we were passing the recording room, I saw that the door was locked and we didn't see anything suspicious behind the mirror.

"Jinwoo."

I turned around. Mr. Han showed me a phone. I stiffened. It was my phone.

"Where... did you find it?" I muttered, taking it.

"Where? It was lying on the floor next to the recording room, which is OFF-LIMITS. Didn't I tell you that?"

"You did, but there –"

"I don't want to hear excuses. You wouldn't get inside anyway. It hasn't been opened for years and the key is still lost. Stop playing around and go only there, where you need."

When Mr. Han left, we exchanged looks.

"It hasn't been opened for years?" Beomseok repeated quietly. "Then how –"

"Let's go," I said and shivered, seeing a shadow behind the mirror, next to the speakers.

"Do you believe me now? I told you this place is haunted!" I said as we were having a break in the practice room.

"Maybe this is –" Jongil began.

" –coincidence? Seriously, do you really need a material evidence of everything?"

"Hey, calm down," Chanwoo said, before we got into fight. "We have to find out who Jinwoo saw and what she wants from us."

"Our death?" I growled irritated. "It's a ghost! In addition, the creepiest one I've ever seen." Everyone raised their eyebrows. "I meant, in horrors."

"Are you talking about the girl in a white tracksuit?" we heard suddenly and turned toward the door.

PD* Shin was standing at the door with our food, looking at us frightened.

"Do you know her?!" we shouted at the same time.

"Not personally," he said and came in, giving us chicken, pizza and coke. "But I've heard a strange rumor from people living above us." He sat beside us, joining us in eating. "They say that ten years ago was a talent agency called Youngster Unity under CEO Junho Park. It was a small and not broadly known agency, but it had beautiful models and actresses. Thanks to them the agency shined for some time abroad. They didn't do music. They used recording room only for interviews, dubbings in animations, and voice training in order to speak confidently. However, some were saying that from the beginning there was problem with the staff, especially with their CEO. He was very strict and sometimes brutal, so it was a horrible rumor, taking into account that there were only young women. The rumored girl in white tracksuit was the best known model and actress of the agency. Her name was Hyeonju Ahn. Every girl was jealous of her natural beauty, but she was lazy and soon after the debut the fame was more important for her than anything else. Only success, only money, only recognition. CEO liked her attitude and she was his pupil. But one day Hyeonju had a serious quarrel with him. Witnesses said that she left CEO's room crying and since then no one saw her ever again."

"Where was she?" Chanwoo whispered, completely drawn into the story.

"No one knows. There was only blood and her DNA inside one of the rooms," PD Shin sighed. "Actually, she went missing, but after a few years police considered her dead."

I flinched, imagining that scene.

"Soon after that the agency closed, CEO left the entertainment industry and the police considered the case as a suicide because of depression," PD finished the story.

"Which room was it?" I asked, but deep down I knew the answer.

"The recording room, which is closed since that day. But I'll tell you the worst part of it. Some say that her soul didn't go with peace and the one who opens the door of this room, will be cursed till his death." PD Shin emphasized the word 'death' and we jumped surprised, dropping the food.

"W-Was someone i-indeed cursed?" Beomseok stammered.

"No one knows. Everyone that tried it would go missing after all."

"And what if the door opened itself?" I whispered.

"Itself? Then isn't it some kind of invitation?"

Suddenly I remembered the story about the math classroom. I felt sick. I didn't finish it, but I knew what happened next. And it wasn't a happy ending.

"You want to know how to recognize the cursed one?" PD said. Group members nodded, but I didn't want to know at all. "If you ever see a handprint, or hear a humming, you're done. That means she chose you as her next target."

# _Chapter 5_

# _How to fight a ghost – Chanwoo's guide_

We were silent for a while. PD Shin must have been surprised, seeing us this frightened, because all of a sudden he burst out laughing, scaring us even more.

"Don't take it serious, kids. I just wanted to prank you. I overheard you talking about some creepy girl, so I decided to scare you with this story. It's just a local legend, don't worry."

Because of this story not only I was worrying more, but also started freaking out, connecting all recent events. None of us laughed.

"Is it true?" I croaked. "That her body wasn't found?"

"Yes. And it's said that if body isn't found in forty nine days after one's death, the soul becomes the vengeful ghost and seeks death of those, who entered its territory."

For a few seconds we didn't breathe. PD Shin got confused and after a couple of reassurances that it was only a fiction, he left us. For the next few seconds we were staring at our food in silence.

"Let's not panic," Jongil said, deep in thoughts. "We'll come here tomorrow and see if the legend is true."

We came here tomorrow to our schedule and nothing changed. In the recording room was still this shadow, but this time not next to the speaker, but closer to the door. The handprint showed itself on the mirror in the bathroom and we saw a girl in white tracksuit at the end of the corridor, when we were going to our Chinese lessons. When we asked Mr. Han or other trainees if they saw someone, pointing directly at her, they denied.

"They really can't see her?" I asked group members.

"I don't think they pretended they couldn't see," Jongil muttered, thinking hard about the rap for one of song suggestions for our debut, which will be... in the near future, according to our CEO.

I rested my head on hands, thinking. How can we get rid of her? PD Shin said that she targeted us because we opened the door to the recording room. Was it the only reason?

Forever.

I shook my head, still in my own world. Damn, why was here so cold?

– pay for it.

"Jin," I heard Chanwoo and looked at him. He was staring at my shoulder, pale and with widened eyes. I glanced at others confused. They had similar faces and were also staring at my shoulder. In a second I got a really bad feeling and slowly looked to the right.

On my shoulder was almost white, here and there covered in red, hand. Now I knew why I was so cold and heard those strange words, which I thought were just my paranoid speculations.

She was behind me.

We all froze, waiting. But for what?

"Don't move," Jongil whispered.

"Very funny," I hissed through teeth. Her face moved toward me. Now I could feel her hair on my neck. I shivered and probably got even paler than she was.

Maybe Jongil thought that she was interested only in me, because he slowly stood up. But when he did that, she suddenly looked at him with a terrible crack as if her neck broke. Our oldest brother froze again.

"Now what!" Youngho groaned.

Then she opened her mouth. I thought she wanted to answer that, but she only whispered, "You'll pay for it," and vanished. We came back to our senses after a few seconds and breathed out loudly. I trembled and fell on my back.

"She didn't do anything to you, right?" I heard Beomseok.

"Except scaring the hell out of me, no," I muttered.

"I'm done with it!" Chan shouted suddenly, standing up.

"You don't say..." I grumbled, but he was already on fire. I was a little afraid of what he just made up.

"We're going to fight it! Who's with me!"

Any of us didn't want to do it, but I guessed that doing nothing was worse. That was why next day we came to the building armed with... Oh man, this is so embarrassing. How should I write it, so you won't take us for madmen?

Maybe I start with an explanation. The fight with ghost was Chanwoo's crazy idea, so he searched the Internet to find some tools, or other things that should help us. He made an instruction of using everything, which took all night. We didn't sleep at all and here we were – five zombies versus vengeful ghost with much more experience in haunting than we had in fighting paranormal. We were armed with salt, fire (lighter) and garlic.

"I have one question," I said to still excited youngest group member.

"Yeah?"

I showed him the lighter and continued, "How do we use it here without burning this place down?"

Chanwoo opened his mouth, surely with a good answer, but he hesitated and closed it troubled.

"I don't think this will work either," Youngho said, pointing to garlic. "She isn't a vampire."

"But she's still a ghost!" Chanwoo defended his plan. "We should try –!"

He suddenly shivered and turned around. "She's here!" he squealed terrified and reached for the salt. Unfortunately, his hand was trembling, so he swung too rapidly and some salt got into my and Beomseok's eyes.

"Aaah, Chanwoo!!" I outraged, blinking and tearing like crazy.

"It hurts!" Beomseok groaned somewhere near me.

"S-Sorry!"

I went to the bathroom, seeing a little bit on one eye. I washed my face and took a deep breath. I looked in the mirror. She could appear in it any moment, but I didn't know if I was frightened or mad at all of this. We didn't do ANYTHING to her! We just opened that damn door... Or to be more precise, it opened itself when we were near it.

I wanted to go back to the group members, when I heard a dripping water. It was empty and quiet here, so there was echo after each drip. I got goosebumps. Suddenly it dripped on my hand. What was weird, it wasn't cold. I looked at my hand.

The drip was red like –

"Blood," I gasped.

Drip. Another one landed on my thumb. Drip. Drip.

Slowly, with heart beating faster and faster, I looked up.

# _Chapter 6_

# _Ghostly surprise_

And, of course, I saw nothing. The ceiling was a little damaged but clean. I looked at my hand again. There was no blood. I breathed out quickly, bursting out laughing because of my cowardice. For the last time I looked around and headed to the door.

But something stopped me.

I looked down with fear. A hand grabbed my ankle, thereby making it impossible to move. I made a horrifying eye contact with the ghost. I opened my mouth to scream, but the ghost groaned and grabbed my neck.

She wanted to strangle me! I gasped and tried to kick her, but somehow I missed every time. When I was losing consciousness, she stopped and swung her fingers toward my eyes.

"Jinwoo!!"

I got up quickly with a gasp. I coughed and started to breathe violently as if I was a newborn eager for air. Someone was talking to me while rubbing my back, but I needed a moment to come to my senses. When I could breathe normally again, I looked up confused. Group members were beside me with worried faces.

"What happened?" Jongil asked.

What happened... ? I needed another moment to recall latest events. Sudden fear caught my lungs and once more I had trouble breathing. I touched my throat with trembling hands.

"S-She..." I panted. "She was here..."

"Are you sure? We saw her outside the bathroom when you were inside."

I frowned and calmed down a little. My neck was untouched. Eyes too. I looked up at the ceiling and my hand, but there was no blood. After that I listened for a while and heard no dripping. What the hell... ?

"We found you unconscious," Chanwoo said. "You must have slipped and fainted." He touched my head. I flinched. "Is your head okay?"

I realized that it hurt indeed. I probably had a huge bump. I looked around and saw that I was sitting on a puddle of water. I must have slipped because of that. But it meant that all of this was a... dream? The blood, ghost and her attempt on my life –

"Oh my God!" I shrieked. I just saw the door to the cabin.

It was skewed and had a writing in red.

"Tell me it's a paint," I muttered.

"Yes, something like that. Certainly not blood," Youngho said. "It was already there when we came in."

I sighed with relief. But still the red words worried me.

BEWARE. I CAN GO ANYWHERE.

"Is someone trying to be funny with rhymes?" I asked angered.

"Don't know, don't care," Chan said and lifted me from the floor. "Let's get out of here."

We finished our schedule in peace. The next day we didn't see the ghost. And the day after tomorrow either. It was like that for a week and we got worried and happy at the same time.

"Did she leave?" I whispered to group members during Chinese lesson.

"Maybe? Why should she haunt us when we didn't do anything to her anyway?" Jongil muttered, trying to study, but I was still flustered.

"The curse can be gone just like that?" I continued.

"What do you mean?" Youngho whispered.

"It ended with no conclusion, right? She just... left? I thought she was a vengeful ghost."

"Do you want her to return?" Jongil growled. He glanced at the teacher to see if she really wasn't paying attention to us.

"Of course not! But you have to admit it's –"

"Do I interrupt you, young men?" we heard suddenly in Chinese.

"No. We're sorry..." Jongil answered, kicking us in tibias under the table.

The teacher wrinkled her nose in displeasure but continued the lesson.

"I'm telling you that something is off!" I couldn't bear it. "I think –" Suddenly I got smacked in the head with a book.

"I think someone wants more homework to do," the teacher said.

I wanted to apologize but she already went back to the blackboard. Group members looked at me with rage. I smiled apologetically, but it didn't change that we ended up having an extra homework.

Because I was hopeless at languages, I was doing my part of homework till 2 a.m. Although Jongil and Youngho tried to help me, I didn't get most of it and they went to sleep. Chanwoo fell asleep next to me at the desk, so I had to piggyback him to his bed. As I was getting sleepy too, I yawned and went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water.

Before I stepped into the kitchen, I heard some strange noises. Crunching, munching, moaning. Rat? Unlikely. I looked into the kitchen quietly. It was dark, but fridge was open and its slight light showed long legs with shorts and Pikachu slippers. I sneaked near the fridge.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a frown.

The door closed and I saw a terrible face with a white mask and chicken's leg in its mouth. I screamed unintentionally.

He scared the hell out of me!!

Beomseok moaned something and continued eating. Jeez, he and his weird habits... I got my water and went back to the room. I put the bottle near my bed and looked at it, thinking about something. Then I decided to go to the bathroom before going to sleep.

When I was passing the kitchen, I saw that Beomseok was dozing off in the same position, with head nearly in the fridge. Chicken leg's bone was in his hand. It would be creepy if it wasn't for his ridiculous slippers. I sighed and entered the bathroom.

As I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror. I flinched, even though nothing was there besides my tired reflection. I yawned again and reached to the towel to dry my hands with closed eyes, but it wasn't where it supposed to be. I opened my eyes confused.

I nearly used black hair as a towel. While I was standing stiffened and frightened, Hyeonju slowly reached toward my face.

# _Chapter 7_

# _Walking curse_

Even though I was half asleep, my scream was surprisingly powerful. I was sure I got all building's inhabitants on their feet. Well, at least group members. Everyone ran to the bathroom in about five seconds. They saw me on the floor and raised their eyebrows. I pointed to the ghost but, as I expected, it vanished. The towel was lying under the hook, on which it should be hanging.

"You're kidding me," I said dully, causing an echo. "Again?!"

"What now, Jin?" Jongil sighed.

"She was here, I swear! I almost dried up my hands with her HAIR!"

To my anger, Chanwoo and Youngho smirked.

"You think it's funny?!" I outraged, standing up violently.

"What're you doing... ?" we heard and group members turned around. Besides me, everyone screamed shocked. Beomseok finally came to his senses, but forgot to take off the face mask and wipe his face from sauce. Now I was just angry that it continued to happen only to me.

"You're tired," Jongil explained. "We all are. You were probably seeing things –"

" –as always. Right?" I finished through my teeth.

Jongil was awake in a second. It was the first time I spoke to him in that tone. The rest of the group members stiffened, looking from me to Jongil.

"I don't want to argue about that," the oldest said.

"Me too. But I don't have a choice if I want you to believe me."

"We believe you! We all saw that ghost! But now –"

"I told you that it was weird that she disappeared just like that! She followed us HERE!"

"JINWOO KIM!"

I froze with shock. I never saw Jongil that angry at any of us. He said nothing more, but I understood it perfectly. I bit my lip and left the bathroom.

I slammed the door and threw myself on the bed. About two minutes later Chanwoo came in. He tried to talk to me, but I pretended that I was sleeping, so he gave up and went to sleep.

But I couldn't sleep for a long time. Perhaps it was already 5 a.m. when I've fallen asleep. We were woken up by Mr. Han at 7 a.m..

"What's wrong with you?" he asked puzzled. "Did you fight with each other, or something?"

'Or something'... Right, we didn't fight earlier at all, so it was normal that he was confused. It was the first time and I felt really awkward around group members. The last time I felt like that was when I met them for the first time. Deep down I wanted to reconcile, but I didn't feel guilty. Jongil should. Maybe it was very childish of me, but I decided to wait till he accepts my words and apologizes first.

Of course, we didn't tell Mr. Han about the ghost. I knew that sooner or later we should do it, before it become more dangerous, but for now we tried to think how to deal with it ourselves. When we came to the agency, to my surprise Hyeonju was waiting for us in the recording room. I flinched, as we were passing the recording room's mirror, behind which she stayed, touching it. I avoided Jongil's eyes in order to not feel worse. Before we finished our today's lessons, we met her again in the bathroom, where I had a nightmare earlier. She was facing the corner without any movement. I felt sick. It was so creepy that I decided to endure and use the bathroom in our dorm. On our way back Chanwoo and Youngho tried to ensure me that she didn't leave the agency and we were safe in the dorm. Jongil didn't speak to me today at all. I felt so bad that I wanted to scream, but eventually I just clenched my fists and stayed quiet.

In the dorm we went to our rooms in silence. It was only 10 p.m. but I was really tired, so I went to sleep first and had strange dream right away.

I was in a dark room. I didn't see anything, besides weak lights from the corridor. Wait... how did I know it was a corridor? Then I recognized the room. I was inside this recording room! When I started walking to the door, it opened slightly without my help.

I froze, listening.

For a few seconds there was dreadful silence. I heard only my breath and beating of my heart, which suddenly was drowned out by a quiet and sad humming. When I listened to it carefully, I realized it wasn't humming. It was groaning. I came closer to the door, although I shouldn't have. I did exactly the same thing everyone was doing in horror movies – going to the strange noise behind the door instead of running away. But somehow I knew it was a dream, so I got courageous. When I reached the handle, all of a sudden a white and wrinkled hand caught my wrist and squeezed it. After that a full figure of a terrible, half crumbled undead emerged from behind the door.

Then I woke up. I opened my eyes and gasped. Cold sweat was running down my forehead. Stupid nightmare... Now I'll have these? I shivered, suddenly feeling cold. Did Chanwoo open the window again? I wanted to get up and close it, but I felt as if I had something heavy on me. I took a deep breath and sat.

I felt a shiver down my spine and thought it got colder than before. A drop of sweat fell on my hand. Chan didn't open the window. At the other end of my bed was Hyeonju. She was squatting curled up and looking at me with terrifying whites of her eyes.

# _Chapter 8_

# _Cursed mark and even more cursed noodles_

None of us moved. We were just staring at each other. I was sweating more and more, while Hyeonju seemed scarier and scarier. Suddenly I heard a door but I didn't even flinch. Footsteps stopped. I was sure it was Chanwoo, who just came in after the bath. He probably froze too. I clenched my teeth. What should I do... She was definitely real and it was not a dream, because I felt pain when I clenched fists so hard that nails started hurting my palm.

Then Chanwoo moved again. Suddenly I heard a sound, as if he hit the desk, and something fell on a floor and broke, probably a glass. Chan gasped, I moved back uncontrollably and Hyeonju turned violently to Chanwoo. I thought with horror that she'll attack him, but then she opened her mouth and howled mournfully. After that she vanished and I felt so light all of a sudden, that I nearly fell from the bed.

The noise brought here others. Chanwoo frantically started explaining what happened and that I was right about everything. Their conversation was barely reaching me. I was too shocked to think clearly. She was so close, yet didn't do much. Or maybe leading us to death out of fear was her goal? If that so, she was doing great job so far...

"Jinwoo?"

I flinched and looked down. Group members were staring at me. "Let's go to the living room to talk," Beomseok said and reached out his hand to me. I came down without his help, but on the floor I staggered and he had to grab my arm.

"You're still pale, Jin," Chan whispered, when we sat of the sofa in the living room.

I nodded, still a little disorientated. Only when Jongil touched my arm and shook it, I looked at them.

"Could you tell us what happened in the room?" Youngho asked.

I took a deep breath and started to talk. When I finished, everyone was terrified. Everyone except Jongil. He looked worried, as if he was wondering what should he do with my craziness. I didn't have strength to deal with his stubbornness now.

"What should we do then?" Beomseok whispered with trembling voice. He was squeezing my hand. I realized it only when I looked at it, because it went numb. Chan and Youngho sat beside us too, just to feel safer. Only Jongil was sitting on a chair in front of us with uncertain face. I had a feeling that he slowly started to believe.

"If you're saying the truth –" he said.

"I AM," I interrupted emphatically.

" –then we have to tell Mr. Han," the oldest finished, ignoring me.

"What's the point?" I said. "He won't believe us anyway. Just like you."

Jongil looked at me angered and wanted to strike back, when I got chills and saw something behind him.

It was her!

All four of us were staring as she was emerging from the floor, looking straight at Jongil. I didn't know what to do. Jongil must have realized that something was wrong, because he stiffened and limited his moves.

Suddenly Hyeonju floated to the ceiling with a hiss and opened her hand with an intent to attack. I looked at her and then at Jongil. Damn –!

"NO!" I shrieked and threw myself at him, before my body forgot how to move.

I landed in front of him at the same time as the ghost appeared before me. It hit my chest with its hand and I fell on Jongil, who fell on the table. I gasped, unable to breathe. My chest was burning... !

"Jin!" Jongil patted my cheek, trying to bring me back to senses. "Hey!!"

"Watch out!" Chanwoo shouted with panic.

Hyeonju was ready to strike again. She howled and nosedived toward Youngho. I clenched my teeth and kicked her, when she was passing me. She probably didn't expect that as I could touch her without a problem. Hyeonju flew to the wall and disappeared behind it.

We weren't moving until a minute passed. She didn't return. I breathed out and sat.

"Jin... ?" Everyone gathered around me, watching me carefully.

I touched my chest. The pain vanished along with the ghost. "I'm okay," I assured them.

All of a sudden Jongil hit my head. "What was that for?!" I outraged.

Then he hugged me tightly. "You moron!" he whispered. "Don't do that again, you could've died!"

I smiled. "But I didn't." I looked again at the wall. "I guess NOW we can tell Mr. Han."

On the next day we told Mr. Han about the ghost and recent events, but – as I predicted – he didn't believe us.

"Even if it's true, you're lucky!" he even said. "The old saying goes: seeing a ghost in the recording room will bring you luck with your recording."

Yeah, right, I thought grimly. What part of that was lucky? Besides, she was in the recording room to which we theoretically didn't have access, so it wasn't really OUR recording room. And definitely not our luck.

As we all knew that the ghost was a wandering curse, the atmosphere around us became normal again. Jongil apologized, but that wasn't important. I was glad I didn't have to endure more of this awkwardness. For a moment we forgot about the ghost and enjoyed our break time. We went to eat dinner to the restaurant near our agency. Out of curiosity I checked the table, however I didn't see the handprint. How did that work anyway? Once the marking was left for some time, sometimes it disappeared immediately. I cleared my mind and focused on the delicious food.

We sat at the same table as last time. I glanced again at the table where I saw Hyeonju, who probably acted as that drunk girl then. It was empty, so I sighed with relief. After a few minutes we had our noodles served. I wanted to eat first but stopped in the midway, seeing Chanwoo's face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Chan rubbed his eyes and blinked confused. "I don't know..." he muttered. "Maybe I'm too tired..."

"Did you see something?" Youngho moved close to him violently. Beomseok, who was sitting beside him, almost knocked over his bowl with surprise.

"I'm not sure."

"Say it," Jongil ordered.

"I... I thought that there was something in Jin's bowl..."

We all looked into my bowl. There was nothing besides the noodles, soup and vegetables.

"Maybe you're tired indeed?" I suggested.

"Yeah... maybe. Sorry, eat well."

I smiled and raised my chopsticks again, but this time I saw something and was sure it wasn't a hallucination. In each bowl was something long and black.

"Stop!" I gasped. Group members froze. "Chan is right. Something's wrong."

We watched carefully all bowls but again didn't see anything unusual. I tried my noodles once more and then stood up violently, dropping the chopsticks. Something tickled my chin when I wanted to bite a carrot. I wiped my face right away with disgust and fear. Others got up too, staring at my bowl. There was something black in it –!

I covered my mouth. It was hair.

Suddenly I felt sick and ran to the bathroom. After I cleared my poor stomach, I washed my face five times and looked in the mirror. I grimaced. My chest was itching. Damn mosquitoes...

But the itching wasn't stopping. I cursed and rolled up my shirt. I froze with horror.

On my chest, where Hyeonju hit me, was a mark similar to the burn. And it was in the shape of a hand.

# _Chapter 9_

# _Disastrous shadow_

"Do you feel any pain?"

"No, just itching from time to time."

Doctor stopped checking me and sat down, scratching his beard in thought.

"How did this happen?" The doctor started to look through his papers.

"Would you believe me if I told you I was cursed?" I tried.

"Jinwoo!" Mr. Han scolded me.

"But it's true!" Chanwoo defended me but Mr. Han glared at him, so he fell silent.

"Cursed, you say?" The doctor scanned me carefully, probably wondering if I had some mental illness too. "By whom?"

"By a ghost. We're in South Korea. Don't such things happen sometimes?"

"In stories, yes. We're famous because of scary STORIES, not actual phenomena. But it's not my role to tell you that, right? I don't see anything unusual in this 'mark', Mr. Kim. For me it looks like a normal allergy in a funny shape. Do you have an allergy on something?"

"Ghosts," I grumbled, but he didn't hear that. "Not sure," I said louder.

"You can do an allergy test, just to be sure. That's it from me. Have a nice day."

"He's a con!" I hissed, when we were going back to our dorm. Mr. Han gave me a free evening today so I could rest.

"Because he didn't believe in the curse?" Mr. Han said from the front seat. "Be reasonable, Jinwoo. Stop believing that your dreams are genuine."

"I'm NOT dreaming!" I outraged. "Seriously, didn't you feel anything off from this building? You don't have to SEE to believe!"

"The only thing off now is your imagination. You're scaring each other with those crappy scary stories and that's the result of it. Have a good rest and tomorrow you're returning to work."

That was the end of the discussion. I felt offended and didn't say a word till we arrived. Group members didn't want to leave me alone in the dorm, but Mr. Han got angry and they quickly left, leaving me at the parking lot.

I shivered, when I realized there was no sound around me. I ran to the elevator.

Then I realized it was the worst idea ever, but the door already closed and the elevator moved. A couple of scenes from horrors flew before my eyes. Most of them were in the elevator. It was a common thing in scary stories or movies – the protagonist, or usually the victim, enters the elevator and the ghost appears. I stiffened when I thought about it. Would she appear here? She was a wandering ghost after all. If she was in our dorm already, then –!

Suddenly the elevator shook. I screamed and squeezed the handrail. W-What now? Did she stop the elevator... ? The lights blinked. I started to sweat like crazy. But then lights were working again and the elevator moved. I breathed out part of my life. I felt like I've gotten old in a second.

You'll pay for it.

I stopped breathing. The voice was near my right ear, where I felt sudden cold. It certainly belonged to Hyeonju but now I heard a lot of different emotions in it. There was anger indeed, but also sadness and... fear? It would be strange for a ghost to fear something, right?

She breathed in and got closer. I closed my eyes, trying to think about something else, but I already felt her hands around my neck, even though she didn't touch me yet.

Then the elevator stopped, the door opened and I heard footsteps.

"What's wrong?" someone said and I looked up. Elderly couple, who was living at the end of our floor, was standing before me with intention of entering the elevator. I looked around.

Hyeonju was gone.

"N-Nothing..." I muttered and quickly left.

"Poor girl," I heard suddenly and turned around, but the door already closed and the couple left. Did that woman mention the ghost? I read somewhere that elder people may encounter the other world if they're close to their own death. I hoped it wasn't the case and finally reached the dorm.

I locked the front door, switched on all the lights, closed the door to the room, and lay down on Chanwoo's bed. I didn't even have a strength to go up to my bed.

I closed my eyes and had a dream.

At the beginning it was a normal dream. I was at the fan signing after our hot debut. We had a lot of fans. I was happy and proud. When another fan came for the sign, I asked her name.

"...nju..." she muttered.

"Can you repeat it?" I said.

"HYEONJU AHN" she suddenly said with terrifying whisper and looked at me with whites of her eyes.

I opened my eyes and sat quickly, breathing fast. It was dark. I didn't switch off the lights, if I remembered correctly. Did group members come back? But I didn't see Chanwoo. I looked around and got goosebumps.

The door was open.

I tried to convince myself it was my imagination and maybe I didn't close the door when I went to sleep. I lay down, but something caught my eye. There was a strange shadow on the chair beside the desk. Knowing me and Chan, there could be just some hill of clothes. I reached to the bedside lamp, but it didn't work. Did the bulb burn out? Or maybe blackout. That would explain why all dorm was shrouded in darkness. I looked again at the chair and froze.

Now the shadow was standing next to the chair.

I frantically looked for my cell phone, in order to illuminate the room. After I found it, I tried to switch on the flashlight, but the phone didn't work at all. Out of battery? It was impossible, I charged it yesterday and surely didn't switch it off! I looked up and moved back with panic.

The shadow was standing next to me. With my every blink the shadow's hands were moving, reaching toward my head. Suddenly it brought out a weird and scary sound and I finally woke up.

I shrieked and sat violently. There was darkness around me again. I reached my hands out and touched... a wall? And the floor was cold, as if somewhere outside –!

I clung terrified to the wall.

Where the hell was I?!

# _Chapter 10_

# _Connection_

I started to panic, when suddenly the lights were switched on.

"Jin?"

I almost cried, when I recognized my group members. I sighed and sat down on the floor, which turned out to be our floor's floor. Group members kneeled beside me. I felt terrible. And strangely weak...

Beomseok touched my forehead and gasped, "Why do you have such high fever?!"

"I... don't know..." I panted. I was feeling cold, as if the ghost was hiding somewhere near. "Something was wrong... inside... I don't know how I... ended up... here..."

"Hey, stay with us!" Jongil patted my cheek. "Take him," he instructed Beomseok and I was piggybacked inside our dorm.

Youngho pressed the light switch, but it didn't work. It looked like only our dorm had a blackout. We entered carefully. When we were midway to Jongil's room, suddenly we heard a slight, regular creaking sound. We looked to the dark corner, where was Mr. Han's favorite rocking chair. But all five of us were standing far away from the chair, so...

"It's her," I muttered.

"B-But I don't see her," Chanwoo whispered. He switched on the flashlight in his phone and pointed it to the corner.

Then the chair stopped moving. We froze. I felt weak with fear. Chilly gust of wind passed us with a lot of whispers, merging into one, so we didn't understand a word.

Suddenly my chest started to burn. I screamed and jerked, almost falling down. Beomseok staggered and leaned his hip on the table to keep the balance.

"What's wrong?!" Youngho shouted.

"It... burns..." I panted through the teeth.

We looked at the chair again and flinched, seeing Hyeonju next to it. She was staring at us furiously. All of a sudden she shrieked awfully and flew toward us, but when she was about to touch us, she vanished.

Her voice was ringing in my ears for few more seconds as the pain was slowly disappearing. I sighed with relief. Somehow I knew she was gone. For now.

I lay down on Beomseok's bed. Group members scattered around, looking for all medical stuff. I sighed and closed my eyes. Finally I felt safe with everyone around and no ghost. I touched my chest, but quickly pulled back my hand when it stung, as if it was a fresh burn. Group members came back in the moment when I grimaced.

"Are you in pain?" Chanwoo said and jumped on the bed.

"I don't know..." I muttered. "The mark hurts..."

Jongil rolled up my shirt and checked it. The handprint was a little reddish, but on our eyes it changed to the previous color – a little darker than my skin. We were staring at my chest for a few seconds until I felt uncomfortable. I rolled down my shirt.

"That was the creepiest thing I've ever seen," Chanwoo stated.

"Really? What about the last month?" I said sarcastically.

"Jin, did you work out?"

"It doesn't hurt anymore?" Beomseok asked, before I came up with the answer.

"No," I said.

"That's good," Jongil said. He put the medicine on the table. "Now rest. We'll make something to eat."

"Mm..."

Everyone went out except for Chanwoo. I raised my eyebrows.

"I'll stay, so you won't be lonely," the youngest said, lying beside me.

I smiled and relaxed. We were lying in silence for a few minutes. Meanwhile I was thinking about something and had to share this with Chan.

"I've been thinking..." I said. "It has to have a meaning."

"What?"

"This mark. It hurt when she gave it to me, but stopped as she vanished. Today was the similar case. It suddenly started to hurt, then after her disappearance it stopped."

"So it's connected to her?" Chanwoo sat with worried face. "But it's weird. Then why you didn't feel any pain when we've met her besides today, after she gave it to you?"

"It's weird indeed," I muttered, deep in thought.

"By the way, what were you doing in the corridor?"

I froze. Right. Why was I there? I didn't remember. Did she do something to me that I –

"Oh my God..." I groaned and suddenly felt weaker than before. "This isn't good..."

"What's wrong?" Group members came in with food.

"Do you feel sick?" Beomseok asked worried.

"Worse..." I grumbled. "I-I think I've been possessed."

For a moment I thought they'll burst out laughing, but the atmosphere was so grim that it would be just wrong.

"Wait... Are you serious?!" Youngho gasped. He looked around terrified, as if Hyeonju would jump out of the wall anytime.

"It's okay," I said. "She's not here."

"How do you know that?" Chanwoo asked shocked.

Now I was shocked myself. How did I know that? Did I become some kind of psychic, or something? I touched my chest.

"Probably it all has to do with this mark," I explained slowly. "It's crazy, but I think I'm somehow... connected to her."

"Connected? ... In a good or bad way?"

"Can you think of anything good in this situation? Of course in a bad way. Probably I can sense her presence and she can possess me." Now it made sense! "And that's why I've been in the corridor! She must have taken my body when I was sleeping!"

"And did what exactly?" Jongil said.

"You don't believe me this time either?" I looked at him suspiciously.

Jongil shook his head and continued, "You misunderstood. I meant, what did she do with your body. Do you know?"

I clenched my fists.

"No. I don't remember. All I know is that I had a nightmare and when I woke up I was outside." I shivered and wrapped myself with the blanket. "Man, it's so freaky that I don't want to think about it anymore..."

For a few minutes we were eating, or should I say nibbling, the food.

"You know..." Jongil began. "I've been searching about all this paranormal phenomena. And I think I found someone who can help us."

"Really?" I brightened up in a second.

"You know the 'Conjuring' movies, right? There were people who researched and explained the phenomena. I found some website..." He took out his computer and showed us a creepy looking website. "This guy lives in Seoul and assures that he has a lot of experience in this field."

"But you know..." I pointed to the website's name, which was probably owner's 'academic' title. "That doesn't sound very assuring."

Jongil opened his mouth, but didn't think of anything, and closed it. He was worried too.

"Well, we don't really have a choice, right?" Chanwoo said and clapped his hands. "Let's find this Professor Creep and get rid of that ghost once and for all."

# _Chapter 11_

# _Not so ordinary base of Creepy Creep_

It was easier to say than do. Although Professor Creep's address was on the website, it turned out to be invalid, so we asked in the neighborhood. It could be my imagination, but it seemed that people didn't like him much. Luckily, we were able to get some information about his new place. However, when we reached it, it turned out to be invalid too.

"What the hell!" I got angry. "Is he even serious about helping people? Why is he hiding like that!"

"Maybe he has some ghost problem too, you know," Youngho suggested. "If he's in it for years, he might have angered something."

"That didn't comfort me. And I have a ghost problem TOO."

"For now let's –!" Chanwoo began and suddenly disappeared.

"Chan?" I looked around shocked and ran to where he was just a moment ago. "Where AAH–"

I stepped on something and fell down, sliding through a pipe. I screamed after I finished my journey and found myself in the air.

"Jin!"

I looked down and saw Chanwoo, sitting in the garbage. "Move!" I shouted and he rolled aside in the last moment as I landed on his previous place.

"What the – AAH, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" I moved back violently when I saw scary yellow eyes, looking at me from the garbage.

A big and rather ugly cat meowed and stretched itself. Then it glared at us for the last time and left through the small door in the corner. We were sitting for a moment surprised until we heard a loud scream and had to move.

Beomseok and Youngho landed on each other, and after two seconds so did Jongil, making human sandwich.

"W-What –!" Beomseok got up violently, but fell down again, tripping over something. "Where are we... ?"

"I think I know," I said, pointing to the wall on my left.

There was a sign:

Welcome to the Mighty Professor Creep's base! Please respect the following rules (if you wanna live):

1. Follow the signs. In other case, you'll be lost forever.

2. If you're a client, welcome! But you have to have a homecoming gift as advance

payment. If you're not a client, get the hell out of here.

3. No sightseeing, no smoking, no ANYTHING.

4. Don't touch ANYTHING. Especially my Ghosty.

5. After a visit, leave the tip (if you wanna live).

Enjoy your stay~ ♥♥♥☺

After we read it, we stared at it in silence.

"Maybe we should just leave," Chanwoo suggested quietly.

"Don't freak out," I snorted. "He can't be so bad."

"What part of 'if you wanna live' didn't you understand?"

"Oh, come on! We're here as clients, right? So we're safe."

Jongil pointed to the rule number two and five, saying, "We don't have any money and so called 'homecoming gift' either."

"You too!?"

"I'm just pointing it out."

"Well, thanks for that! Why can't we just –"

"Who's Ghosty?" Beomseok suddenly interrupted me.

We stopped arguing, dumbfounded. Now that he mentioned it...

"His... cat, I guess?" I muttered.

"Cat?" Beomseok repeated, brightening up. "Did you see it? Is it cute?"

"Don't ask," I said with Chan at the same time.

I took a deep breath, gathered courage, and went first to the damaged curtain, behind which was a corridor.

I looked at group members with disapproval and said, "See? I told you. Nothing to –"

Group members sighed, but when they looked above my head, they widened their eyes and shouted, "Watch out!"

I looked up too and in the last moment ducked. A big scythe, hanging on a chain from the ceiling, swung a few times, then stopped. We again didn't move for a while.

"He's very creative," I blurted. Only that came to my mind in this situation.

"Are you crazy?! Get out of there!" Youngho shrieked.

"We came here for help!" I said stubbornly. "I'm not leaving without at least answers!"

"Do you want to die for real? It's dangerous!"

"So am I," I growled through teeth and, without much thinking, continued walking.

I encountered a few huge spiders (thank God I thought then they were fake, because they WEREN'T), fake ghosts, and even sounds, which were supposed to scare me off but failed. I wasn't counting the booby traps, similar to the first one. I must have been so desperate that I forgot the fear. At the end of the corridor I saw a button with not so obvious sign Shut off all traps and pushed it. At once silence fell.

"I'm through!" I called others.

"Jinwoo! Ah, really..." I heard Jongil, but after a moment they followed me.

"How did you do that?" Chanwoo looked at the traps and then at me, almost with fear.

"Don't ask. If I think about it, I'll faint." I pushed the black shabby door, but in a second moved back startled by a... cat.

"Jeez, nothing deadly scared me, but THIS ONE freaked me out," I hissed through teeth.

"Jeez!" Youngho groaned, holding his chest. "For a moment I thought Hyeonju followed us here!"

The ugly cat meowed at us offended and proudly walked away. We took a deep breath and came in.

The interior was no less creepy. It was dimmed, because of few lamps and the fact that we were underground, on walls were more spiders (this time fake ones), awful and dreadful photos and drawings. As if that was not enough, in the nearest corner was something like a... voodoo doll?

"Man, this guy has problems..." I grumbled. "And what's with that smell?"

"He should be called Creepy Creep, not Professor Creep," Chanwoo added.

"Well, he's definitely a professor level in the research of disgusting things," Beomseok said.

"You'll pay," we heard suddenly a whisper and froze shocked.

Impossible! Would she really follow us here... ?

Then my answer came out of the shadow in the corner as something grabbed my arm.

# _Chapter 12_

# _Follow the signs or be lost forever_

Thankfully, it wasn't Hyeonju. Well, it wasn't human either. We freaked out over some doll, although very realistic one.

"You'll pay... you'll pay..." the doll was whispering like a broken record, giving me chills.

"Damn! Back off, stupid doll," I hissed, breaking its wooden arm. "First deadly traps, now creepy dolls? Is he even here, or is it another misleading?"

"Remember the rules?" Chanwoo said and showed us the door at the end of the room. "Follow the signs."

On the other side was a sign indeed, pointing toward the door next to it:

Clients, deliverymen, pretty girls.

"And he's a pervert too," I stated.

"Let's go," Jongil said. "We're clients after all."

We went into a dark tunnel. It was creepy, but at least without any traps. Again, I was so desperate that nothing scared me. Even when I felt something touching my ankle.

"Stop playing around, Chan," I said, seeing another sign, thanks to my flashlight.

Merry Christmas!

"It wasn't me!" Chanwoo outraged. "Is every prank my fault?"

"To be honest, yes. Because it's always you who's scaring us."

"But I'm in front of you, Jin."

I shivered and slowly pointed my flashlight to the ground. In the midway I saw one more sign:

Watch your feet~

And I saw snakes. REAL, ALIVE SNAKES. I gasped in a high tone. Everyone stopped, looking at me.

"Is it because of lights?" Chanwoo whispered. "Because you're really pale."

"Take a look and you'll turn pale too!" I muttered, frozen.

They gasped too and froze. But, as we all weren't moving, then how would we get out of here?

"Any ideas?" I groaned. The snake, that was around my ankle earlier, now was on my calf.

"Do you think he meant that?" Youngho whispered. "That we'll be 'lost forever'... then we'll die?!"

"We're following the signs though!" I said. "We would be 'lost forever' if we didn't! It looks to me like another FUNNY trap."

"I'll try something," Jongil said, keeping his eyes on snakes. "But you'll have to move quickly."

"Understood," I said. "But can you tell me what will you do? You know, just in case I would die if I was too slow."

"I'll switch on the stronger light. It should distract them and then you'll be free. But it probably would be only for a second..."

"That's good enough. I'm ready."

The rest of the group members moved back. Jongil reached out his phone toward my legs and as he switched on the stronger light, I jumped violently when snakes started to attack aggressively. I threw myself at my oldest brother and we fell on the ground. However, we weren't safe yet. Snakes were still attacking and few of them jumped on us. I kicked them, but one of them grazed my right calf. I hissed with anger and kicked with my left leg.

"Move, move, MOVE!" I shrieked, pushing everyone forwards.

When we were finally safe and out of the tunnel, we fell down, breathing heavily.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" we heard suddenly and some creepy Santa Claus attacked us. I punched him right away, probably because of high adrenaline level. Santa Claus's doll dropped the knife and fell on his back, shattering. This time the doll was made of glass, so if we were about to destroy it as it was above us, we would get hurt.

And about being hurt...

"Ah!" I groaned, when we were getting up. I staggered and caught Jongil's arm, but in the end I fell on my butt.

"Right! Your leg!" Jongil shouted with panic and checked it.

My calf was already purple. Jongil quickly tighten his bandana above the injury.

"It doesn't surprise me that they were poisonous..." I growled. "I'll kill this man when we meet him..."

"Don't joke!" Youngho was as pale as me. "You... you may die because of the poison!"

"I'm not dead yet..." I muttered and got up with the help of Beomseok and Chanwoo. "If he's reasonable enough, he must have an antidote."

"I have this weird feeling that he's NOT reasonable!" Youngho panicked again. "He –"

"Hey, calm down!" Jongil grabbed his arm. "First, calm down. We'll find him."

Beomseok took me on his back and we moved to another door with a sign:

Congratulations! Now you're just a step away from our meeting! Only pretty girls under 50 kilo are allowed. Others should wait for my appearance.

"This is comforting," I admitted. "Let's go!"

"But the sign says –"

"You really think he'll appear? We could wait days and in the meantime I'll die, so we don't have a choice."

"Why is the 'step away' underlined?" Chanwoo asked worried.

"Don't think too much and go."

I regretted that we didn't listen to Chan's thoughts. When we went into another tunnel, suddenly the floor opened, showing an endless hole. Jongil, Youngho and Chanwoo slid down.

"NO!" I shrieked with hoarse voice.

Dreadful silence answered me. Beomseok froze. In my eyes the tears gathered.

"Aaah, Youngho, you're kicking me in the face!" I heard suddenly Chanwoo's voice.

"Shut up and climb! You're digging your nails into my leg!" Youngho outraged.

I gasped and patted Beomseok to help them. I sat down and leaned toward the hole.

They were alive! Thank God... But I saw that Jongil was trembling with effort as he was holding the edge of the trapdoor.

"Hurry," I groaned, patting impatiently Beomseok's back.

He caught Jongil's hands and started pulling him up. But in the meantime Youngho began losing the grip, with Chanwoo now clung to his waist. I reached out to them, but they were too far away. I looked ahead, searching for clues. Suddenly I saw something like a lever with a sign, but I couldn't read it from this distance.

"Throw me," I said.

"What?!" Jongil gasped as he was safe beside Beomseok.

"Hurry! I can rescue them from the other side."

They hesitated for a second, but saw my glare. When I landed awkwardly on the other side, I jumped right away to the lever, glancing at the sign:

You had a long life, my friend! But it ends here.

I pulled the lever and at the same time something pricked me in the back and I lost consciousness.

# _Chapter 13_

# _Buy the Voodoo Barbie and you'll get the Bloody Mary's curse for free_

I wasn't dead – good news. I was very weak but alive. At least, I hoped so.

I opened my eyes and jumped scared to the wall. Ghosts, traps, snakes, dolls... and now zombies!? What the heck was wrong with my life!

"Calm down, it's okay."

I clenched my fist on my shirt and tried to calm my breathing. I looked around.

I was in a small, somehow disgusting room with lots of similar creepy things that were in the first room. I was sitting on a shabby bed with smelly and dusty blanket. Next to the bed were standing my group members and it was Jongil who just told me to calm down. He was still holding my arm. I touched his hand, to make sure it was real, and sighed, falling back on the bed. But I sat again violently coughing, when the dust got into my nose.

"What happened?" I muttered. "Are you all alright? The last thing I remember is –"

"Yeah, that was intense," Chanwoo said with smile. "But you saved us before collapsing. When you pulled the lever, a neat appeared below us and pulled us out. Then the trapdoor closed."

"But –!" Suddenly I remembered one thing and frantically checked my right calf. It was bandaged, but I felt no pain. Was it paralyzed? I... I won't be able to walk again, not mentioning the dancing?!

"It's fine," Beomseok said, sitting beside me. "You're no longer poisoned."

"H-How come –?"

"Ho-ho-ho, no need to thank me!" I heard suddenly and again saw the terrifying haired zombie face with big glasses.

I tried to kick the zombie but Chanwoo grabbed my foot.

"He's the guy!" the youngest gasped. "He's Professor Creep!"

I froze. Seriously? This tiny, old and creepy geezer was our potential savior?

"Oh, it's great then," I said through teeth and in a moment had a lot of energy when I threw myself at him with fists. Group members caught me in the last moment, before I punched Creep's funny face. "Let go of me! I promised I'll kill him, if we meet him!!"

"You could do that, if he hadn't saved your life!" Jongil panted, pressing me to the bed.

"Exactly! That – wait, what?" I looked at them in shock, then at Creep, who was smiling sheepishly.

"That thing, that 'stabbed' you, was an antidote," Youngho explained. "He was monitoring our every move from here. He already accepted us before we came into tunnel with snakes, but..." He looked grimly at Creep. "I guess he was just having fun."

"HAVING FUN?" I repeated with rage and again started jerking. "Will it be fun, if I KILL HIM RIGHT NOW?"

"You're a funny boy!" Creep laughed, pointing at me dirty finger. Above his wrist was a cut and I just realized that his face was covered in bruises.

"We've taught him a lesson when you were unconscious," Chan murmured to me with a smirk.

"If that's so, then I'll forgive you," I said coldly to Creep. "But only when you'll help us."

"I'm not helping you for free," he said and my anger rose again. "You didn't follow the rules."

"But we got HERE," I hissed through teeth.

"Without homecoming gift, payment, and without following the signs. You should be dead already."

"But we aren't," Youngho said. "Isn't that the reason you let us meet you?"

Creep looked at us with anger, but with his face it looked like he needed to go to the toilet.

"You destroyed my favorite dolls. And scared my Ghosty!"

"Who scared whom..." Chanwoo muttered.

"These freaky dolls were trying to KILL us," I reminded. "Booby traps too. Ah, did I mention SNAKES? Or were they your favorite DOLLS too?"

"Jinwoo, stop it," Jongil said, patting my back.

"Why should I? He deserves everything what we went through! EVERYTHING! I don't care if he saved my life! He –"

"I still didn't agree to help you," Creep interrupted me coldly. "I didn't hear your story either."

"Will you hear us out?"

"It depends."

"I told you so," I said to the group members.

"From what I remember, it was you who took us here in the first place," Youngho stated.

I glared at him but he only shrugged. To be honest, I already forgot about Hyeonju and her curse. I took a deep breath, saying, "Then why did you let us in, if you're not going to help us?"

"I said 'it depends'," Creep corrected me. "But seeing your lack of respect, I changed my mind and won't help you."

Group members glared at me, but it wasn't my fault. He really deserved every danger we went through. I continued unmoved, "What do we do for you to help us?"

Creep thought about something. I got a bad feeling. Suddenly he snapped his fingers so loud that it startled us. Didn't he break them?

"You still can BUY my services!" he said and ran to a big box, which strangely looked like a coffin. "I'll take it on credit, if you consider this option."

"Aren't you a psychopath on a wanted list, or something?" I blurted and was hit in the arm. I looked at Jongil indignantly.

Creep ignored my comment and brought to us a big, and no less scary, voodoo doll with fair hair. It looked like Barbie after transforming into zombie.

"She's my treasure!" Creep said with delight. He hugged it and we hugged ourselves, staying away from them. I wouldn't be surprised if the doll came alive. "And has an interesting story."

"We can't take your treasure, right?" I looked at the group members and they agreed with me. "Can we buy something else?"

"Oh, you'll change your mind when you hear her story!"

I guessed we didn't have much choice and had to hear the story. We all sat on the bed and Creep began,

"You all know Bloody Mary's legend, right? You stand before the mirror at midnight, saying 'Bloody Mary' three times. Then Bloody Mary appears in the mirror and do something terrible to you. Well, it depends on the region, but usually she steals your soul, drinks blood, or just makes you kill yourself. The legend, of course, had its followers, as you can see in movies or books.

A few years ago there was a girl named Sally Sanders, who lived in California. She was an ordinary kind girl, but in high school she had a nickname Barbie – because of her looks – which she didn't like. It showed she was fake and beautiful only outside. One day she heard the girls from her class talking in the bathroom about doing a horror night in the school, after midnight. She wanted to participate too but they refused, so Sally decided to take revenge on them. As the girls had a meeting in the school at 1 a.m., Sally made some preparations in her own room. She prepared a big old-fashioned mirror from her late grandma, a chair and candles. She made sure her parents were sleeping and started the ritual."

I flinched when Chanwoo gasped shocked next to me. We were so into the story that the partly scattered mirror on my left began to be uncomfortable to me.

"She heard that Bloody Mary can make wishes come true," Creep continued. "However, before anyone could say their wish, all Mary's callers died in unexplained circumstances. Sally was smart, in spite of her nickname, and made a Barbie doll of her size and sat it on the chair. Sally believed that Mary will appear, 'kill' the doll and then Sally will get a chance to make her wish. What wish she had? Simply to scare the girls in the school.

At the midnight Sally called Mary's name three times and hid inside the closet. She was looking only through a crack in the door. For some time there was silence. When a clock stopped striking the midnight, deathly silence fell. Sally heard only her breathing and fast beating heart. But it wasn't with fear. It was with excitement. She didn't believe in supernatural events, but that time she was sure Mary will appear.

But nothing happened. Sally wanted to come out, when she heard something weird. She listened to it and realized it was breathing. Not her own. There's someone else in the room, she thought and froze. As she was waiting, the breathing was hearable closer and closer to her hiding place. Was it Bloody Mary? Did she find Sally's hideout? Sally held her breath when the breathing was just next to the closet. But she didn't see anything and anyone.

Suddenly the breathing stopped. There still wasn't any movement or proof of the success of the ritual. Sally gathered the courage and touched the door just when something hit the doll, throwing it out of the chair. Sally gasped and covered her mouth. Now she began to hear footsteps, but they weren't coming toward her. They stopped at the door of the room. Sally uncovered her mouth and came closer to the crack, but all of a sudden a scary face with bloody eyes appeared before the crack.

Sally screamed and closed her eyes. Tell me your wish, she heard suddenly. She opened her eyes but Mary wasn't there. Sally took the opportunity and told her wish. She didn't get an answer, but now she was sure Bloody Mary left. When Sally came out of the closet, Bloody Mary was gone indeed and the Barbie doll was destroyed with looks of a scary voodoo doll, as if it was partly burned.

The next day Sally went to school and saw the police in front of it. She asked around what happened and it turned out that there were seven deaths in the middle of the night. Indescribable fear grabbed Sally's heart. She found a girl from her class, who told her that there were seven girls at the night, telling each other scary stories, when suddenly a gust of wind killed them. Everything was recorded by CCTV. And you know who was the culprit? Yes, Bloody Mary. But it wasn't the end. After Sally returned home, she discovered her parents in the kitchen. Both dead with knives in their hands. Sally ran to the front door in panic, thinking it was a thief and that he was still in the house. But the door was locked and even the keys couldn't unlock it.

Then she ran to her room, but as she opened the door, a bloody figure appeared in front of her and caught her face, saying, Now it's time to make MY wish come true. After that she broke Sally's neck.

In this story Mary is known as a 'wandering ghost', because she failed to kill the one who called her and lost her way back to the mirror. Only this doll remained as the witness."

When Creep finished, we were unable to say anything. It was so scary, that we were clinging to each other without a word and almost without breathing, like Sally hidden in the closet. The room was a little dark from the beginning and now I felt really uncomfortable. As I mentioned earlier, it was because of that damn mirror, but now I felt and heard something else.

The strange noise was coming from the direction of the mirror. I clenched my fists on Beomseok's sleeve and slowly looked to the left.

# _Chapter 14_

# _Creep's life wisdom_

I hesitated in the midway. I closed my eyes and bit my lip. What if there really was something? Like Hyeonju or... Bloody Mary? Now that I knew of ghosts' existence, I was afraid that we've got Bloody Mary's curse as well.

You're such a weakling, Jinwoo! I scolded myself. Get a grip!

I opened my eyes and regretted it right away.

A pale woman with mouth opened to scream and bloody eyes was staring at me. I screamed and moved back, but suddenly I realized that it was a reflection, so the ghost was behind me. I bounced from Youngho and fell off the bed. Then a weak light in the center of the room was switched on. I looked around.

Bloody Mary wasn't here. I looked in the mirror. She wasn't there either, then what –

Suddenly someone burst out laughing. My heart was still racing like crazy. Group members were sitting on the bed as confused as me. Only Creep was happy, as if he just won in the lottery. He was jumping and clapping, not to mention stepping on the Voodoo Barbie, which was supposed to be his treasure.

"I got you! I got you!" he was repeating. He pointed at me. "You're a really funny kid! You were so surprised like none of my previous clients! I like you."

Sudden anger hit me. So it was all prank!? Behind the Creep I saw another doll, similar to the figure I saw in the mirror. I jumped on my feet, but group members were faster than me and they managed to stop me from hurting this madman.

"Now," Creep said. "If you don't want to buy this doll, leave. We have nothing to talk about."

"Right," I said through teeth. "I'm just regretting our precious time by coming here. Can I at least leave you a homecoming gift?"

"You brought something?" Creep brightened up in a second.

"Sure. Watch closely."

And I jumped at him with fists. Thankfully (or rather not) group members guessed my intentions, so they caught me by shirt, stretching it and trying to move me back. Creep glanced at me with disapproval, but suddenly stiffened.

"Come here!" he gasped and grabbed me by a shirt, almost ripping it off.

"Hey, what –!" I began, but he pushed me on the chair and rolled up my shirt.

"I'll be damned..." Creep whispered, pointing to the handprint on my chest. He looked at me with widened eyes that were even bigger with his thick glasses. "Where did you get that?"

"Where... ?" Anger disappeared in a moment. "You know what this is?"

"Of course I know! That's my specialty!" His eyes were scary now. "So?"

I snorted, saying, "You didn't want to hear our story, not to mention helping us, so why should I tell you?"

"So... this is your story?" Creep finally moved back and I could breathe normally. Man, his breath... No wonder there weren't any ghosts around... "Alright. I'll listen to it."

He agreed to it too quickly. I frowned, looking at group members. They shrugged and encouraged me to do it. I sighed and told him everything. Well, I had nothing to lose anyway.

Creep surprisingly carefully listened to me. When I finished, his funny face turned serious, which somehow worried me.

"It seems that in the end it all comes down to a wandering ghost," Creep said. "And you're right. If she left a mark, she'll hunt you until the very end. You're connected to her, for example by feeling her presence, but at the same time you're vulnerable to the possession."

"Are you serious?" I blurted. "I thought you don't believe in ghosts!"

"And why do you think I built my place like THIS?" Creep looked at me disapprovingly. "It's kind of a shield they're afraid of."

"So if we decorate our place like this, we'll chase her out?" Chanwoo asked.

Creep shook his head. "It wouldn't be enough. I'm different. I'm in this from childhood, so they now see me as an enemy. But I'm not haunted, so it protects me."

"You're like this from childhood? My condolences," I couldn't stop myself.

Creep ignored it but group members gave me glares.

"What is Hyeonju anyway?" Jongil asked.

"Wandering ghost is the worst. Well, after the vengeful spirit. If you're unlucky enough, you've met wandering vengeful spirit, but I don't know this one. I can tell you about the wandering ghost. I may have joked but the story about Bloody Mary and Sally was partly true. I don't know about the doll, but Bloody Mary could make wishes come true and according to one of the legend she lost her way back to the mirror and wandered for decades. No one knows whether she returned at the end. Usually ghosts are connected or even tied to one place – their home, place of death, or somewhere they wanted to be before their death. There are ghosts that haunt certain person, but it's always someone connected to their death or life, so this doesn't apply to your case. But there are ghosts that haunt random people by cursing them." Creep pointed to my chest. "This is you. Because Hyeonju is a wandering ghost, which means she isn't tied to any particular place, she could curse you and make you hers."

"It's just wrong," I muttered.

"How do we eliminate the curse?" Youngho said.

"Eliminate?" To my gradually raising fury, Creep laughed. "There's no such thing, boy."

"Then how to fight it?" I asked irritated.

"That's up to you."

Suddenly I got a strange feeling. It wasn't due to Creep's discouraging words though. I looked around, squeezing Youngho's arm. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Something doesn't feel right here," I said.

"Is it Hyeonju!?" Chanwoo gasped and Creep startled us by falling from the chair.

"Get out, GET OUT!" he shouted and pushed us to the exit.

"So you're not going to help us?!" I outraged. "I thought you're interested in scary events! We can pay you later!"

"I'm not in this one and I don't need your money!" Creep hissed.

"I'm not going back through THERE," Youngho said, grabbing the wall before the door.

"Fine. There's another one. I'm using it only in emergency situations, but I have no choice now. Let's say it's an emergency."

"What?"

"Stop pushing me!"

"Hey! Could you –"

"Ah, my foot!!"

Creep pushed us into a wooden box, in which we squashed like sardines in a can. When he pushed some button, I became suspicious of it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Saying 'goodbye' to you in a spectacular way!" he said happily and his mood again changed in a flash, which made him much more suspicious.

We looked around. We were in a stone cabin and there was no space outside of the box. Then we looked up and saw an endless tunnel. I squinted my eyes. I thought I saw some light high above us...

I widened my eyes immediately when I realized what Creep intended to do.

"Wait, stop –!!" I began, but Creep already pushed another button and we were fired up.

# _Chapter 15_

# _Beyond_ _the nightmare_

We emerged from the ground like a firecracker. The box fell apart in the air and we fell on a tree. I got hit in the jaw with a branch and accidentally kicked someone, probably Beomseok, judging by the tone of moan. When we stopped falling, I opened my eyes and figured out the situation.

A few branches tangled my calf and I was hanging from the tree upside down. Beomseok and Youngho were lying on each other in the bushes, and Jongil was getting up from a pond. He looked around, squeezing water from his sleeve. "Is everyone alright?" he shouted.

We all responded, but someone was missing.

"Where's Chanwoo!?" I gasped.

"Missing me already?" I heard from above me.

Chan was sitting on a thick branch, waving at us.

"Come down," I ordered him. "But slowly..."

Chanwoo tried it 'slowly', but his foot slipped in the midway and suddenly he was falling down. I cursed and swung myself toward him, grabbing his hand in the last moment. The branches, which were holding me, creaked dangerously.

"Did you gain some weight?" I said through teeth.

"Actually, I lost some. Why?"

"I feel like my hand is tearing off..."

Chanwoo felt offended.

"I'm going to let you go," I said to him. "Others will catch you."

"What!? No, wa –!"

I let him go and group members caught him, as I predicted. They waved at me. I wanted to jump, but my legs were so tangled I could hardly move them. I bent, trying to grab the branches, but I've got no strength. Damn, I have to work out more...

Finally, in the fifth try, I reached the branches and began releasing my legs. When I was about to break the last branch, out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement on my left. I looked there and met big scary eyes.

I screamed and jerked. That was when the last branch let go.

"Jinwoo!?"

"Are you crazy?!"

"Why didn't you warn us!"

Thankfully, group members caught me. Although we all landed in the bushes, we were safe. I looked up and saw a squirrel, which blinked at me with 'scary' eyes and left.

"In the end we didn't get any help," Jongil said when we were back at the dorm.

"Don't say that! He told us about ghosts' types, right?" Youngho said.

"We can't be sure he told us the truth," Chanwoo stated. "And we were almost killed too. Shouldn't we report this to the police?"

"And told them what?" I sighed. "I'm sure he's hidden too well even for the police. We found his place by accident. I have a feeling he already blocked the entrance. Besides, we didn't see the exit clearly, as we were floating in the air. Just forget him."

"But the ghosts' types seemed real to me," Beomseok said. "W-What if Hyeonju is a wandering vengeful ghost?"

"Then we're doomed," I said with irritation. "Chill out, would you? I think I should be scared, not you."

Beomseok got angry, but Jongil patted his back and we were silent for a moment. Meeting Creep only alarmed me more. I didn't show that, but when we stepped into the dorm, I felt her presence. She wasn't here now, but she left some traces of her presence behind. She must have been here not long ago. Was she looking for me? She was a wandering spirit, yet she didn't know where we went... Maybe Creep's spells were useful after all. Aaah, I could have grabbed some of talismans, or something... Stupid me!

We were about to go to our rooms when the lights went out.

"Sorry," we heard and the lights were on again. It was Chanwoo. "I thought you already went into the rooms."

"I'll kill you!" Youngho shouted and threw himself at Chan.

I didn't know why, but I burst out laughing. They probably thought I've already gone crazy, but I knew Chanwoo wanted to lighten the atmosphere. He was glad I noticed that and we went to sleep in better moods.

I had a strange dream, for a change.

I stood next to my bed. Chanwoo was sleeping. I was sure it was a dream, because I saw my own body sleeping. I only hoped I didn't die, and left the room.

There was dimness in the living room, which was only illuminated by full moon. I looked around and stopped my eyes on the sofa. I shivered, but didn't run away. It was a dream, right?

Hyeonju didn't show any sign that she knew I was here. She was sitting on the sofa with crossed fingers and lowered head, so her face was hidden behind the black curtain of hair. I wanted to go back to my room, but the door was closed. I didn't hear any sound of closing and somehow I was sure it was locked. My brothers' room was closed too. I looked ahead.

The front door was opened.

I glanced at the sofa, but Hyeonju wasn't there. Did she leave through the front door?

Suddenly I felt a cold breath on my neck. I froze terrified.

You'll pay, she whispered and her voice echoed.

I closed my eyes and clenched fists, waiting for her attack. However, nothing happened. Hyeonju groaned and passed me, walking toward the front door. I blinked and she vanished. But the echo of her groans and whispers stayed with me. I sighed. Now she really left...

I turned around and she was just before me. I gasped and moved back a little, but she still wasn't attacking. What was she doing?

You promised me, I heard suddenly. She spoke new words. That was a good sign... right?

But wait... I promised her? Who she talked about?

But I wasn't enough, Hyeonju continued. Then her face distorted and she shrieked dreadfully, throwing herself at me. I covered myself with my arms and fell on my butt.

She disappeared once more.

I clenched my hands on my chest, trying to calm down. It was a stupid dream, so why was I so frightened! Damn it!

But it wasn't over. I saw her again. She was standing in the corridor, next to the front door. I saw half of her body and one eye, looking straight at me. I frowned. Why I had a feeling she was waiting for me? I gathered the courage, took a deep breath and followed her.

As I expected, she was taking me somewhere. Every now and then I was losing sight of her, but my legs seemed to know where I should go. We were going higher and higher up the stairs. Then she disappeared behind the door leading to the roof. I opened it. I ran around, looking for her and found her near to the edge.

"Wait!" I shouted, then hesitated. She was a ghost, she couldn't die twice.

She turned her head to me, as if she really heard me.

I was so good to you, she cried.

"Are you talking to me?" I tried.

Why did you do it!

And she jumped. I ran to the roof edge, but then the dream ended and I opened my eyes violently, gasping.

Why was here so cold –?!

Suddenly I realized I was standing on the edge of the roof of the ten-storied building, in heavy rain. Before I could grasp the situation I was in, I slipped.

# _Chapter 16_

# _You believe only what you see_

For a moment my heart stopped with fear. I felt like I was falling in a slow motion. Thank God, I quickly came to my senses and grabbed the edge of the roof in the last moment.

I was holding the stone with one hand and tried to grab it with my left hand, but it trembled, so I froze terrified. It looks so easy in the movies...

I was sure I'll be dead in a few seconds. I was high above the ground, the rain poured heavily, so I couldn't see clearly, and I almost chocked a few times while the stone was getting more and more slippery. My right hand began to feel numb too...

"I'm sorry..." I muttered and let go.

Suddenly I felt a firm grip on my wrist. After that I felt grips all over my hand. I looked up, blinking and trying to see anything through the rain.

"Everyone –!" I gasped, recognizing group members. I felt suffocating pain in my chest. "How –"

"Stop talking, you're getting heavier then!" Jongil hissed through teeth. He looked back. "Chan, is everything ready!?"

"Yup!" I heard Chanwoo, probably from the door.

Jongil caught something, but it caused loosening their grip and I slipped down a little. I screamed and automatically grabbed the wall with fingernails of my left hand, but it only hurt me.

"Hurry!" Beomseok groaned. He and Youngho were pale with fear and red with effort at the same time. Beomseok's hair was so long, that he had limited vision because of the rain.

Jongil dropped something toward me. It was a rope. "Grab it!" he said.

I tried to, but I was trembling so much that I couldn't even touch it. I slipped down a little more and started to panic again.

"Hey!" Jongil and others squeezed my hand harder. "It'll be alright. We won't let you go. Calm down."

I wanted to believe him, but it wasn't easy. My hand was really getting numb and I felt a ripping pain in my armpit. I was also so cold and stressed out, I was about to faint. But I couldn't let that happen. If I faint, I will fall, probably along with group members. I clenched my teeth and tried to support myself with legs, enough to reduce my weight. I saw Jongil was trembling too when he was tying the rope around my hand. When everything was done, they grabbed my hand and the rope, starting pulling me up.

After a few dreadful minutes I was safe on the roof.

"What happened!?" Jongil shouted, trying to outshout starting storm.

I didn't answer, only hugged them all. I finally recognized the suffocating pain in my chest and burst out crying. Group members took me quickly under the roof.

"What the hell are you doing!" Mr. Han ran to us in the middle of our way through stairs. He saw our condition and wanted to scold us more, but Youngho interrupted him:

"Please, Mr. Han. First we have to make ourselves warm. Especially Jinwoo."

Mr. Han looked at me, as if it was all my fault and I felt a lot worse. Well, he was partly right. It was me who went there, but it wasn't my intention to do it.

After a hot bath we gathered in the living room. I was sitting in the center of the sofa wrapped in the blanket and surrounded by everyone. I told them my part of story first and now Jongil and Youngho finished explaining everything to Mr. Han, but judging by his face he didn't believe them.

"What can we do to make you believe?" I muttered weakly.

Mr. Han looked at me almost with pity, which I hated. True, sometimes I thought I was crazy myself and was hallucinating, but the pain was too real. And with only this I couldn't prove to Mr. Han anything.

"I don't believe anything I can't see," Mr. Han said emphatically. "You can't convince me only with stories and this act. If you want a vacation, we can always –"

"It's not that!" Beomseok outraged. It was rare to see him this angry. "We're REALLY haunted! Just look at Jin, isn't that enough evidence of her existence?"

"And should I believe he was possessed and went on the roof involuntarily too?" Mr. Han snorted.

Suddenly I understood something. I connected two facts: recently I was gloomy and tired, and Mr. Han didn't believe in supernatural events.

"Y-You think I wanted to commit a suicide?" I blurted with disbelief.

Group members looked at Mr. Han with disbelief too. He didn't respond right away, so I was right. Tears started to flow from my eyes again. I smiled lightly.

"Hah!" I snorted with laughter, crossing tightly my fingers. "Really... Now I don't believe this..."

"Jin... "

"You know," I said to Mr. Han, who was now uncomfortable. "I never told this to anyone, but I've never been unhappy with my choices. I had ups and downs, like everyone. Trainee and later celebrity life isn't easy, I knew this before I decided to become one. But I value life more than you think. I would never took ANYONE'S life, not to mention my own. I just told you that, so you won't misunderstand anymore." I pointed to the kitchen. "If you're really scared that I'll try to took my life again, why won't you seal off the kitchen? There are knives and other dangerous objects. I could hurt other group members too. It would be inconvenient to the agency, right?"

"Jinwoo, stop!" Jongil shouted. "That's enough."

I thought Mr. Han would be angry, but he just sat on the chair, troubled, with lowered head and crossed fingers. After a while he lifted his head and wanted to say something, but suddenly the lights blinked and went out.

I shivered.

"It's her!" I hissed and wanted to get up, but Chanwoo and Beomseok pushed me back.

"You're not moving from there!" Beomseok said. "You'll be possessed again!"

I nodded, but wasn't convinced it'll work. Mr. Han stood up, looking around with anxiety.

"It's probably a blackout. Don't panic. I'll go check," he said.

"No, don't be fooled! It's not –" Chan began, but stopped, seeing something above Mr. Han.

I looked there too and widened my eyes.

Hyeonju was back. And from the look on her face, she was really unhappy. Suddenly a sharp pain hit me in the chest. I groaned and clenched my fists on the blanket. So the mark was hurting when she was angry? But why now –

"Protect Jin!" Jongil shouted and threw an apple toward the ghost, but – as we could expect – it went through it and hit the ceiling.

"What are you – OH GOD!" Mr. Han just saw Hyeonju. Well, better late than never.

Hyeonju shrieked and attacked us. I thought with panic that she'll hit others and they'll become cursed too, but she couldn't touch them. Or she didn't want to? Anyway, she passed everyone and tried to touch me. I moved back with fear and fell from the sofa. When she was about to possess me, someone jumped at me, covering me with his body.

The ghost hissed with displeasure and backed off. I was breathing heavily, still holding my itching chest. Mr. Han looked back, without letting go of my arms.

"Are you okay?" he panted, staring at my face carefully.

"Y-Yeah..." I grumbled. Group members joined us. "Take him out," Mr. Han said to them.

"What about you?" Youngho groaned.

"I'll be fine." He smirked. "I didn't believe, so it'll be a punishment for me."

But before we made another move, Hyeonju reminded about herself and screamed so loud and painfully that in a second the lights were destroyed and sharp fragments of glass fell on us.

# _Chapter 17_

# _Say 'cheese'!_

I opened my eyes and quickly checked if group members were injured, then I checked myself. Suddenly I realized we were under a blanket. Mr. Han saved us.

"Mr. Han –!" I reached to him when he faced the ghost, but it disappeared.

We were silent for a moment.

"Is she doing it often?" Mr. Han asked. "Vanishing like that after making a mess?"

"Yeah..."

He made a face saying 'why didn't you tell me earlier' but softened when he realized we told him, but he didn't believe us. He sighed and scratched his head, deep in thought.

"Mr. Han –" I began again, but felt something sticky on the blanket. I looked at it and saw a fresh scarlet stain. "You –!"

"Huh?" He saw the stain and checked his body. There was a cut on his arm. "Ah, it's nothing. Don't worry."

But I should be worried. He got hurt because of me! I jumped on my feet, frantically looking for the first aid kit. While searching the kitchen I dropped cereals, which scattered around the kitchen. Damn! Why my hands were trembling so much...

Then someone softly grabbed my hands. I lifted my head and saw Jongil. He smiled slightly. Then I felt something salty in my mouth. I didn't even realize I was crying again. Group members searched the kitchen instead of me and when Chanwoo found the first aid kit, we cleaned the sofa from the glass and sat on it with Mr. Han.

"I'm sorry," he said. I looked at him. He was talking to me. Youngho was bandaging his arm. "I should have believed you."

"It's okay..." I muttered. I calmed down a little, but my right hand was still shaking. "I wouldn't believe either, if I didn't see it for myself."

"And about the situation on the roof –"

"Don't worry about it." I smiled weakly. "I understand. Anyone would suspect I had those intentions."

But Mr. Han was still angry at himself. And I was at myself, because everyone was getting hurt because of me. Chan must have guessed my thought, because he suddenly hit my arm. I looked at him shocked. He hit me really hard, not jokingly as usual. And for the first time I saw him this angry. First Beomseok, now Chanwoo? What did I do?

"No one is blaming you" the youngest said sharply "so stop blaming yourself. We're in this together, from the beginning till the end. Even if it wasn't you, one of us would have been cursed by her for sure. Now!" He hit me once more. "Get up and join us thinking how to deal with it!"

He was right. He was damn right, but I still couldn't control my feelings.

"I'm sorry!" I groaned and burst out crying again. "I-I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be. We're bros, right? Get used to it."

Group members hugged me tightly. When I was calm enough to think, I saw Mr. Han had teary eyes too. I smiled. He cleared his throat and said, "I have a feeling you're doing something with it already."

We told him about Creep. He was half glad, half angry at us. Well, we skipped the most dangerous parts (so mostly everything...), but it was Creep's personality that worried Mr. Han.

"I hope you won't meet him again," he said. "And if you do, ignore him. It's better to look for another solution. I have something in mind and I'll do it tomorrow." He looked at my chest with anxiety. "Do you really feel her presence?" I nodded. "So we're safe for now?" I nodded again. "Still, I'll sleep here for few days. Do you all agree?"

We all nodded gratefully.

For the first time since Hyeonju's curse I slept all night without any nightmares. Seeing that, group members and Mr. Han must have let me sleep longer, because I woke up after noon. I sat and looked around. I was alone in my room. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, and went to the bathroom.

When I entered the kitchen to eat something, I almost tripped over Beomseok's turtle pose.

"Whacha doin'?" I muttered. My tongue wasn't functioning right yet.

Beomseok looked at me startled, as if I caught him red-handed doing something forbidden.

"Did you see?" he whispered.

"See what?"

"A little, fluffy and cute thingy?"

"Aren't you talking about your plush toys?" I grumbled, opening the closet under the table to get cereals. "WHAT THE HECK!"

Suddenly cereals burst into my face and something rather big jumped at me. Hearing my scream, everyone gathered in the kitchen in a moment.

"Beomseok!!" I outraged, fully awake.

"Found you!" Beomseok cried, ignoring me and hugging the 'thingy'.

He brought a dog. Not some 'little, fluffy and cute' puppy, but big Labrador with fair fur. Okay, it was kind of cute.

And fluffy too...

"It's from a shelter for dogs, which my friend owns," Mr. Han said. "You wanted a pet for long time, so I think it'll do well here for the time being."

"It's not ours?" Beomseok almost burst into tears.

"No. You don't have time for dogs right now. It'll stay here until we solve this ghost chaos. I've heard animals have more sensitive senses and they can detect abnormalities too. Maybe this will help against the ghost."

"I'm not enough?" I muttered, but I was glad the dog was here. Maybe I'll calm down faster.

"We're not sure whether you always feel her presence," Mr. Han stated.

"That was your plan you were talking about yesterday?"

"Not exactly. I have to go somewhere today, so you'll go to the agency without me. We'll meet later."

We brought the dog (Bella) with us. The staff didn't like that the dog will be at the workplace, but we insisted and said that Mr. Han will explain everything later.

We started our daily schedule from dance practice, then vocal lessons, and after that we had Chinese and Japanese classes. Before the dinner we had some free time during which we were lying on the floor, not sure what to do. After a few minutes Chanwoo and Youngho began to browse the Internet, Beomseok was watching some animation on his phone while eating snacks, and Jongil was napping. I took the camera, which was on the sofa and probably belonged to the staff. Well, I'll return it after the break, so they shouldn't be mad.

I took funny pictures of group members and unknowingly went out into the corridor. I documented all destroyed parts of the agency and entered the room where I haven't been in yet. I looked around through the camera. This room was the least damaged. In the corners I saw easels with finished and half-finished paintings. Wow, trainees of Youngster Unity were really talented...

Huh?

I frowned and again looked at the camera's screen, then at the painting before me. The painting was representing a landscape with a single house and a swing. I wasn't fully awake yet?

When I looked at the painting, there wasn't any human form. But when I looked at it through the camera, there was a blurry figure on the swing. I frowned more and wiped the screen with sleeve.

The figure vanished.

"What the heck... ?" I grumbled puzzled.

I took a picture of the landscape. I checked it and didn't find any human form at all. Maybe the camera was broken? I got ready to took another picture when I saw something creepy. I lowered quickly the camera.

It wasn't there. I swallowed hard and tried again. I froze. I wasn't mistaken! I couldn't see it with my own eyes, but there was a dark figure, sitting on the chair next to the painting, only seen through the camera. I took a picture and checked it, but it was clean. I carefully looked through the camera once more and saw the same figure. What was it doing?

Suddenly the figure's hand moved and I panicked, accidentally switching off the camera. I looked around, breathing fast. There was no one here. I didn't feel anything either.

I wanted to look again, to check if I really wasn't wrong, and I raised the camera, ready to switch it on. But before I could do it, I saw similar figure on the screen, standing behind me.

# _Chapter 18_

# _Madam Bae_

Before I reacted, suddenly I heard barking and footsteps. Then some woman shouted something in a strange language and out of nowhere I was poured with a bucket of smelly water. At least I saved the camera from getting wet. I turned around and saw a disappearing ghost, that left behind a whitish smoke. Group members, Bella and Mr. Han ran to me.

"Are you okay?" Youngho asked worried.

I nodded, still dumbfounded. Was Hyeonju behind me? If that was her, she probably wanted to possess me. I shivered at the very thought. I suddenly felt nauseous when the smell from my clothes hit my nostrils. Bella smelled them too and snorted with disgust.

Then we heard a grunt and looked at the door where was standing a woman. She was almost half shorter than us and lot thicker. She was dressed in rather extravagant clothes with lots of cheap jewelry and almost reflective long head scarf. I looked lower and saw an empty bucket. I got angry, but before I said something, Mr. Han grabbed my arm.

"She's here to help," he explained.

"You call THIS help?" I outraged, putting my sleeve under his nose. He jerked and moved back, as if I hit him.

Mr. Han cleared his throat, saying, "Anyway, she's called Madam Bae and she's a respected shaman. The only flaw she has is –"

"Did I hit it?" Madam Bae asked in loud and kind of irritating voice. She was looking around. "Are there any other spirits?"

I raised my eyebrows. "You mean –"

"How can she NOT see it?" Chanwoo whispered. "We all see it! And we don't have any special gift, or something." He paused unsure. "I hope..."

"I heard ghosts are seen only if they want to," I came to Chanwoo's rescue. "That's why at the beginning only I could see Hyeonju and the staff didn't even notice her handprints. I'm sure something was here, so how the shaman chased away the ghost if she didn't see it?"

"She feels it in some way," Mr. Han said. "I'm sorry, that's the only thing I could do for you. Police will be useless in this case."

I smiled and grabbed our manager in training hands. "Thank you, you did enough. If she's a shaman, she'll definitely help us somehow." I wrinkled my nose. "But what is that smell?"

"Juice from spoiled fruits that stayed under the full moon for three months," Madam Bae explained, coming closer to us. She, on the other hand, had so sweet perfume that I had to move back.

"Ju –!" I groaned and touched my shirt. It was sticky indeed. "Gross!"

"But useful. What is your name again?"

"I didn't say it yet," I grumbled.

"Anyone would disappear after being soaked in this thing," I heard Chan's whisper and glared at him.

"I'm Jinwoo," I said, seeing Madam Bae's sharp look.

"Jinwoo. So you're the main dish?"

"I'm not sure what did you mean by that, but I guess so... ?"

"Come here."

Before I realized what was going on, Madam Bae grabbed me by collar and jerked me, so I fell on my knees. Now we could at least face each other. She checked my face with her fingers (because of the juice on my face her fingers got also sticky and I was more disgusted), at the end stretching my cheek. Then she checked my eyes, nearly putting her finger in one of them.

"As I feared," she sighed, finally leaving me alone. I stepped back, staggering. Chanwoo and Beomseok checked if she didn't make me any harm, besides embarrassment.

"What is it?" Mr. Han asked worried.

"He's sick. Very sick."

"More precisely, please?" I said. "And why did you check my face, if I have the curse on my chest?"

"Everything is seen from the face and eyes, boy," Madam Bae said. She suddenly took out some piece of paper from under one of layers of her clothes. "I have to use serious security measures."

Then she stuck the paper on my cheek. Because of the juice, it didn't fall. I felt nothing special but feeling ridiculous. I glared at group members and Mr. Han, who were strongly holding back their laughter.

"How is it going to help me?" I asked grimly.

"These talismans will protect you," Madam Bae answered.

"How?"

"Don't ask about things you won't understand, boy. Now, next one."

After a minute half of my body was in paper, as if we were playing Post-It*.

"Now what?" I growled. Group members and Mr. Han were already red from holding back the laughter.

"Now we wait until the spirit is gone."

"How long?"

"It depends. Usually a week."

I winced and three papers fell from my face. Chanwoo couldn't endure anymore and snorted with high-pitched laughter. "Aaah, I'm done with this!" I got angry and freed myself from these ridiculous papers.

"If you feel uncomfortable, we'll do something else," Madam Bae said, unshaken by my rebellion. I didn't think I would meet someone whom I'll hate more than Creep. He was at least more convincing con than she was.

"Can we trust her!?" I hissed to Mr. Han, when the shaman began to search through her pockets.

"Give her a chance, Jinwoo. We have nothing to lose."

"Besides my pride and health," I snorted and left to take a shower.

I was so angry and distracted that I slipped in the bathroom and painfully hit my tailbone. Cursing, I soaked myself with water for a few minutes. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down a bit, but Madam Bae's irritating childish voice was still ringing in my ears.

All of a sudden the water became cold. I hissed and opened my eyes. I frowned and changed it back to warm.

"Weird," I muttered and closed my eyes again.

Suddenly I felt chills on my back. I opened my eyes quickly and turned around, but there was no one there. I had a delayed reaction from before? I observed the bathroom for a minute, then returned to taking the shower. The chills didn't stop, so I changed water to cold, but suddenly it became the opposite and I burned my hands.

I jerked, hissed and opened my eyes.

WHY DID YOU DO IT!?

I screamed and moved back, but I slipped and fell on my back, while Hyeonju reached out to my face and in a second everything around me went black.

# _Chapter 19_

# _Exit the Drago_ _n, enter the Lizard_

In a second I felt sudden cold and my body got weak, but before I lost my consciousness I thought strongly about beating her up. At the end my will surpassed her and I hit the wall behind me, while Hyeonju vanished in the wall before me.

I was sitting in one pose for at least two minutes, breathing fast and trying to grasp the situation.

I rejected her! I really did that...

Still with high level of adrenaline, I got up, dressed up and went toward the door that suddenly opened violently, hitting my nose.

"Sorry!" Chanwoo groaned, checking if he broke it. "Are you okay? We heard screaming –"

"Wow, that was awesome!" I blurted, still proud of myself.

"What?" everyone asked confused.

"Shower?" Youngho said.

"The hit?" Beomseok suggested.

"No! I rejected her!"

"You... Wait, what!?"

"She attacked you here!?"

"And I thought Creep was perverted –"Chanwoo muttered.

"Aren't you proud of me?" I asked, slightly disappointed by their reactions.

"Yes, we're very proud," Jongil said. "Now, let's go before she come back."

"She won't. For now," I stated.

"You can't be sure," Mr. Han said. "You didn't feel her in the art room."

"It was weird but now I'm sure," I stated. "She got hit by my will pretty hard."

"I think you got hit pretty hard too, Jin," Chan said softly, pulling me out of the bathroom.

"WAIT!"

We jumped, then froze. Madam Bae blocked our way. "Nobody moves."

We didn't ask why, wanting to avoid her strange stories again, and waited. She was jumping from place to place like a flea, checking something. I wanted to say that looking for Hyeonju was useless, but I knew the answer, so I said nothing.

"How much did you pay her?" I hissed to Mr. Han.

"Don't ask..." he muttered. "I guess I was wrong this time too."

"Let's get rid of her and go to the practice!" Youngho whispered. "Our break has ended some time ago."

I moved and was caught by Madam Bae's eagle eye.

"I said: don't move, boy. You're interrupting my research."

"I'm sorry, but you are interrupting our work," I said to her confidently. "We're sorry for the trouble and thank you for your service. You can leave now."

Madam Bae was dumbfounded when we passed her in silence.

"That was a little harsh," Beomseok stated.

"That was the only way she'll leave –" I began, but suddenly got hit by something and almost flew on Jongil and Chanwoo. All three of us fell down. Next to us rolled a remote control for the air conditioner.

Before I came to my senses completely, I thought about Hyeonju and the goosebumps returned. I gasped and grabbed Beomseok's waist, pulling him on the floor too. A tripod for the microphone flew above our heads and broke the window behind us, falling outside.

"Where is she!" Mr. Han shouted when something made a noise in one of the rooms ahead.

"I don't know!" I panted, shaking my head. A drop of blood fell on the floor.

"Jinwoo, your forehead –!" Jongil gasped and put his sleeve to the cut.

"Never mind! We have to –"

Then I heard a strange sound, as if something big was coming our way. Suddenly a commode flew from the nearest room, straight at me. In the last moment Beomseok jumped before me and was hit by it.

"Beomseok –!" I groaned when he fell on me, unconscious.

"LET'S GO!" Youngho shrieked.

Mr. Han took Beomseok on his back, Jongil pulled my hand and we ran toward the first floor. However, Hyeonju was waiting for us next to the stairs. Everyone shouted surprised, besides me. Now I was just enraged and took from Madam Bae's pocket a bottle of that stinky juice and a handful of talismans, throwing all of it at the ghost. The water and talismans didn't do anything to it, just passed through it like it was a hologram. I glared at Madam Bae, who shrugged and ran to the elevator, that was on the other side of the corridor. She was quite fast as for her posture.

"It didn't work!?" Chanwoo got angry. "Then in that room –"

"She disappeared because of your arrival," I said, now understanding everything. "It wasn't because of the water or talismans."

"So now what," Youngho groaned.

I looked at them. We were in a pinch. Beomseok was still unconscious and Mr. Han was getting tired from holding him. There was no other way out but stairs, because Madam Fraud took the elevator.

Suddenly I felt goosebumps once again and turned to the stairs.

Hyeonju was just before me, reaching to my head. Damn, I didn't pay attention –!

Then we were dusted by something salty. I closed my eyes and moved away.

"Did I miss something?" we heard a familiar voice and I opened my eyes violently, but they started to sting and I had to squint them. But it didn't prevent me to recognize the person, who was standing on the stairs, wearing eccentric colorful clothes, a lot of sacks, and a funny hat. Only the beard was as untidy as it was during our first meeting.

"What are YOU doing here?"

# _Chapter 20_

# _Craving for logic_

I was staring at Professor Creepy Creep with disbelief. What was more surprising, Hyeonju vanished after his attack.

"What did you do?" everyone else asked at the same time as I asked the previous question.

Creep scratched his beard and came closer, staring at the spot where the ghost was a moment ago. "Was that your wandering spirit?" he asked.

"I think she's vengeful too," Youngho blurted and we glared at him.

"Why did you come?" I said with anger. "You said you won't help us."

"I said a lot of things in my life, boy," Creep muttered, searching through his sacks. I hoped he wasn't looking for any fake talismans. He took out an ordinary plastic bag and began to gather the thing he just dusted on us.

"To be honest, I'm afraid to ask what you're doing now," I said.

"This salt is very precious, so you know."

"That was salt?" Chanwoo gasped.

"An ordinary salt chased Hyeonju away?" I asked with more disbelief.

"Not ordinary, oh no. This salt was given to me by an American exorcist. I'm not sure about its origins, but it isn't salt to eat," as he was saying that, he looked at Bella who seemed to understand him and stopped in the midway, before she licked the salt.

"I thought about your story," Creep continued, before I repeated my question. "And I decided to check it out. It seems your Hyeonju is quite famous around here."

"Really?" I said. He researched that far?

"You're talking about the local legend?" Mr. Han asked. We flinched. We forgot he was with us.

Suddenly I gasped, remembering someone else. Beomseok! I jumped to him. "Is he alright?" I asked Mr. Han.

"I don't know," he answered grimly. "His pulse is normal, but I'll take him to the hospital. You..." He glanced at Creep, who was now fumbling in his teeth.

"We'll be fine. We dealt with him earlier, remember? Besides, we have Bella with us now. Go with Beomseok."

Mr. Han nodded and went downstairs.

"You really meant the local legend, or did you find something more?" I continued the interrogation.

Creep looked at me with one eye. He pointed to my forehead. "Don't you have to fix it first?"

Before I burst out with anger, group members agreed with Creep and took me aside, taking care of my injury. After that we could continue. "Well?" I asked through the teeth and Bella supported me with a bark.

Creep flinched and grimaced at the dog. I guessed he didn't like dogs since he had his beloved cat.

"Yes, I heard the legend," Creep said. "But on my way here I found out more. You know that Hyeonju's CEO abandoned the entertainment industry after her death?" We nodded. "Well, you're wrong. He's still into it."

"WHAT?"

"He was out for a year but returned, opening a new agency called C&S – an abbreviation for Creative and Successful, if you're curious. It's a small and not very well known agency, but this time he decided to promote bands, not only actors and models."

"Why are you telling us this?" I asked suspiciously.

All of a sudden Chanwoo gasped, saying, "You mean the CEO –"

"Smart boy!" Creep complimented him. "I don't know if he really killed her, but he's surely connected to it somehow. It would be strange if the CEO, the most important person in the agency, didn't know anything about the incident, right?"

I began doubting that Creep was just some crazy old guy. He was actually talking with sense and that sense frightened me a little.

"Are you saying we have to look for him?" I said.

"No need. I know where he has the talent agency and where he lives."

"Are you also a perverted stalker, not just some creepy madman?"

"Shut up, boy, or I'll dust you again."

"Okay, now I've got an important question, beside the point," Jongil interrupted. "How do we protect ourselves, especially Jin, from the ghost? Will you give us this salt?"

"No way! It's too precious!"

"Then?"

"I can lend you some of it."

"How is that different from giving it to us?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Well, if I give you, you won't care about it. But if I lend you, you will have to give it back later."

"Alright, let's do it your way. What we can do with it?"

"Just spread it around you or places where you go often. Ah, one more thing." He searched for something again. "If you have to attack her, don't use the salt. Some of it melts during the encounter with the spirit. Use this instead." He gave us pieces of paper, similar to what Madam Bae was using.

"How can we be sure it'll work?" I snorted. "Sorry, but we just got rid of a fraud who used similar ones."

"You don't have to use it, if you don't want to. But DON'T use the salt on attacks."

"Are these from the American exorcist too?" Youngho asked. Were they so desperate to believe everything Creep was saying, or was I just too cautious?

"Nope, these are from a Chinese temple's monk. But that's another story."

"You traveled a lot," Jongil stated.

"Okay then!" Creep shouted and turned to the stairs. "Good luck."

"Where are you going?!" I blocked his way. "You said... Okay, you didn't say it directly, but you checked out our story, so you want to help us, right?"

"Not really. I was just curious."

"So why did you come here!"

"Calm down, boy. I saved your butts, lend you my precious tools and gave you a hint what to do next. What do you want more?"

"I don't know! Some logic?"

"Everyone has their own logic, so don't push it." He threw something at me. I caught a sticky business card (let's hope it was cat's food). "But because I'm a little interested in it, contact me anytime. On the other side are the addresses you need right now. Bye, bye!"

As we were watching his ridiculous hat, slowly disappearing from our sight, my chest started to itch with irritation. This time, however, wasn't Hyeonju's fault but this crazy old creeper who intentionally, or not, made our problems even bigger.

# _Chapter 21_

# _New tactic, bad tactic_

"I told you it was a bad idea."

"You didn't tell us that."

"I did, but in different words."

"That doesn't count."

"Really? Can you say that after we get out of here?"

"You have paranoia, Jin. Creep gave us a hint and we have to use it. Or do you like that Hyeonju keeps haunting you?"

I could argue with Chanwoo longer, but we reached the elevator full of people.

Yes, we followed one of the addresses Creep gave us and found Youngster Unity ex-CEO's new agency. We went there the next day after we visited Beomseok in the hospital. He was already conscious but had a lot of examinations to do today and tomorrow, so he couldn't go with us. He had a broken rib anyway, so...

Mr. Han went to CEO's apartment, in case he would be there and not in the agency. Besides, it was safer for us to go to the building full of people and not some lone house at Seoul's suburbs. At least we thought that, until we met the mighty CEO.

We squeezed in the elevator, trying not to stand out, however our casual clothes betrayed us. Everyone else was wearing formal suits.

"Too much pressure!" Chan hissed to my ear, when we grabbed each other arms, so as not to be lost in this crowd. I was sure he meant the workers' unpleased looks, not the fact there was not enough air inside.

On the fifteenth floor (out of twenty) all the workers got out and we finally could breathe. Our stop was on the last floor.

"How is he managing all of this?" I asked wowed, looking around with my mouth open.

"I doubt there is only a talent agency in here," Jongil said. "Even larger agencies than ours, which are more popular not only in South Korea, don't have buildings like this."

"And Creep said it's not so known agency," Youngho added.

"And you believe him," I said with irritation.

"Jinwoo, please. I know you don't like him, we feel the same. But we have to do something and I think Creep's research will help us a lot."

"I'll kneel before you if you're right."

After getting lost more than once, we found CEO's room. His secretary ordered us to wait and we did that for maybe one hour.

"I have enough of this!" I exploded with anger, standing up violently. "Who he thinks he is!?"

"The most important person of this agency?" Jongil yawned.

"Well, yeah, but we got stuff to do too! And he purposely ignores us. I'm sure –"

"Of what?" we heard suddenly and turned around.

Middle-aged man in a scarlet suit was looking at us with a grimace on his similar to fox face.

"... that he'll come soon after his important meeting," I finished lamely, red with embarrassment.

He smiled but I felt it was too wry. "Let's say you had that in mind. My secretary said you wanted to discuss with me something as important as life or death."

"It's true," I blurted. "Our lives are at stake here."

"If you want to become a part of my agency, come to the official casting. Don't use cheap excuses like 'I can live only with music and if you refuse I won't leave until you accept me', or threats like 'I'll die if you don't take me'. Castings are each Saturday."

"You've met a lot of... desperate people," I said confused and angry with his attitude towards castings' participants. "We have to refuse. We're already trainees in another agency."

CEO raised his eyebrows. "Then you came here to spy?"

"That's not it either. It's about something that happened ten years ago."

This time he frowned. I took a deep breath and asked, "Do you remember Hyeonju Ahn?"

He didn't know what to do with his eyebrows after hearing this question, so he clenched his fists and came closer to me. Group members grabbed my shirt and pulled me back. CEO stopped in the midway, thinking about something, and showed us the door to his room. He again smiled wryly, saying, "Come inside. We'll discuss this there."

CEO sat down on his puffy chair, crossed his fingers and looked at us carefully. I glanced at the sign on the desk with a name Junho Park, CEO.

"I don't know how you found out about Hyeonju, but I'll ask you to forget it, as everyone else did."

"You didn't," I blurted again without thinking. He looked at me coldly.

"I'm sure you wouldn't forget it either, if you had experienced it," CEO Park said. "What's your true purpose of this visit? If you want money, go somewhere else."

"Why would we want money!" I outraged. Jongil patted my arm, ordering to stay calm.

"You're trainees, right? Don't worry, it's common for trainees to be poor, so I don't blame you."

Wow, he really said that. I looked at group members, but this time they were as enraged as me.

"I don't want to be mean" I growled "but I hope Hyeonju will visit you someday."

CEO Park widened his eyes and... burst out laughing. I didn't know why I got goosebumps.

"Visit? Are you comedians? If you know about her, you must also know she's long dead."

"Are you sure about that?"

Maybe... Okay, I REALLY shouldn't have said that. CEO's face in a moment turned dark and besides having goosebumps I became a little scared of him. Did he really kill her... ?

"What do you mean?" CEO suddenly asked, glaring at me.

In a second I decided I won't tell him the whole truth. He wouldn't believe us anyway.

"That's just a guess," I said. "We had to temporarily move to your old agency's building and we heard her story there."

"What did you hear?"

"Well... that she died in a recording room. And her body wasn't found."

Just by looking at his face I could have sworn he felt relief.

"I have an unfortunate news for you, kids," he stated after a moment of an awkward silence. "You just heard a local legend and freaked out. It's nothing to worry about and I have nothing to say to you. But I advise you not to dig deeper into this matter. If you're unhappy by something in the building, go to its owner, not me. Now leave, please. I have an important call to make."

I exchanged looks with group members. We got up, bowed to him and turned toward the door. But before I reached it, I felt a firm grip on my shoulder and heard a whisper,

"Be careful. You don't know whether you dig out treasure or corpse."

# _Chapter 22_

# _Curiosity_ _killed the cat_

I didn't understand CEO's words, until it was evening. We were going back from the practice at 8 p.m., however – as usual – we were hungry, so we stopped at the nearest restaurant to eat late dinner. Group members were eating loudly (also as usual), except me (that was unusual).

Hyeonju didn't appear today at all. We didn't see her in the agency, at the dorm when we were there to take some things, and in the neighborhood. It wasn't like her. I was afraid it'll be like before – she'll appear somewhere else and attack us without earlier signs.

During the dinner I needed to go to the toilet. When I finished my business, I came out and walked toward the group members, when I heard something strange.

From the kitchen was coming crying. I looked around. No one was interested in it and it didn't sound like Hyeonju, so I entered the kitchen unnoticed. It was empty, only soups and sauce were boiling on a low heat. The food wasn't bad here, but the staff was too reckless leaving the fire on and going off somewhere. I searched the corners and cabinets but found nothing. I frowned, crossing my arms. I was still hearing the crying. Finally, I found a boy, about eight year old, hiding between closet and fridge.

"What's wrong?" I asked softly. "Did you get lost?" He nodded without looking at me. "Come with me, it's dangerous to be here alone."

"I could say the same to you," I heard suddenly and turned around violently.

I moved back, tripping over my legs and falling, in the last moment surviving the knife.

A man in cook's clothes and white surgical mask spun the knife in his hand and his eyes became narrower, as if he smiled. I cursed and took the kid, running toward the exit without questions. First ghost, now some psycho. I had a luck of a dead man. I heard that lately there were a lot of them: desperate people who lost the jobs, now experiencing mental problems. But I didn't ever imagine I would meet that kind of a freak.

We were almost at the door and I was already reaching out toward the handle, when my back got hit by something heavy and I fell on a boy, fortunately avoiding crushing him. I groaned and looked aside at a large pot, which rolled under the table.

"I don't know what your problem is" I hissed to the man, who was slowly moving closer to us "but I don't want to be part of it."

"You already are, Jinwoo Kim," the man said and I froze with fear. Then he looked at the kid and smiled again. "Good job, brat."

I widened my eyes and looked at the boy too. He was avoiding my eyes, but I realized he didn't cry at all! On his face were no tears and his eyes weren't even slightly red. He faked it? But why... ?

The kid pushed me and ran to the man, who gave him 10 000 KRW. The boy nodded to him as thanks and passed me without a word, going out.

I looked slowly at the man who stopped next to me and squatted, touching my cheek with a cold blade. "Such a pity," he said. "Youngsters are so reckless these days."

"In what?" I muttered, fighting with my trembling body and teary eyes. Was I really going to die now? For what?

"Have you heard that curiosity killed the cat?"

I didn't understand him, but I didn't have time to think. He attacked again and I threw myself at the door, falling out into surprised crowd. When everyone saw the armed man, in a second the restaurant was empty. Someone grabbed my arms and I jerked frightened, but it was only Youngho. I sighed with relief and let group members lift me.

"What's going on!?" Chanwoo gasped, as pale as death. "Who's he?"

"No idea. But he knows my name and probably wants to kill me."

"WHAT!?"

"Enough chatting," the man said and attacked again, this time all of us.

We scattered around the place. Jongil temporarily hid in the back, calling the police.

"Did you use that kid to lure me in?" I shouted from the other side of the counter. The man suddenly threw the knife at me. I dived under the counter, avoiding the death by a hair.

"Dead men don't talk," the man growled and jumped on the counter. I moved back violently, hitting the shelf with glass with my head.

Suddenly a glass bowl broke on man's head. He didn't even flinch, which scared me more. Trickle of blood ran down his temple. He turned around and I saw terrified Chanwoo, who just saved me by this move. However, he was so scared and probably couldn't believe what he just did, that he was unable to move. The man swung his knife at him and Chan screamed, falling down, but I didn't see clearly what happened. In a second indescribable rage hit me and this time I attacked first. I threw at the man every single glass, which I found on the shelf. I didn't care whether he'll be seriously hurt. He deserved it and I was doing it only in self-defense.

After a few seconds we heard police sirens, while the man caught the last glass I threw and gave it back to me. The glass broke above my head and hurt my hand, when I protected my head. Then he took another piece of the glass and... started to cut himself!

"W-What're you doing!!" I tried to stop him, forgetting his murderous intentions towards us.

He pushed me and I slipped, falling on the floor. Group members ran to me. I was glad Chanwoo had only scratched cheek. The man, on the other hand, fell to his knees, as the police charged in.

"H-Help me!" the man suddenly cried to them. "They attacked me without a reason!"

We were too shocked and dumbfounded to deny, so the police in a second pressed us to the ground, handcuffing us.

As we were on our way to the police cars, I looked at the crook, who took off his mask and smiled perfidiously, while the medical team was taking care of his injuries. He said something, but I could only read his lips,

"Have a nice trip to hell, brats."

# _Chapter 23_

# _Don't look outside_

We spent night at the police station behind the bars. It was horrible and the most embarrassing moment in my life. I couldn't sleep.

Luckily, the restaurant had a CCTV and we were acquitted in the morning. Mr. Han came for us. He didn't say a word and I couldn't read anything from his eyes. To be honest, I would have preferred to be scolded than taken without any comment. Before we left the police station, we heard that the man, who attacked us, disappeared from the hospital. Why it didn't surprise me? Now I was sure that he wasn't just great actor – he was a professional crook and maybe an assassin too.

In the dorm Beomseok was waiting for us. He didn't hear recent news yet, so he welcomed us enthusiastically, but stopped confused after seeing our faces and my puffy eyes. We went straight to beds. When we woke up after the noon, Mr. Han told us about his visit in CEO's house.

"I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but we have to do something with this," he said. He was this depressed because of this. "I'm afraid you were tangled in something more than just ghost haunting."

"I know..." I muttered. Everyone looked at me surprised. "I had a feeling yesterday's attack wasn't a coincidence. Fact, there were rumors about those kind of psychos, but to know my name? It's fishy. What's more fishy, Hyeonju isn't following us since our visit in CEO's agency."

"Can't we just assume she left?" Mr. Han suggested.

I shook my head, saying, "She did similar thing earlier. That was when she changed places. But I'm sure CEO had a big role in her death! He may be the killer himself."

"If that's so, let's leave it to the police."

I nodded, but I couldn't stop thinking there was something else. Something more important than trainees suicide notes and their invalid contracts, which Mr. Han photographed. And that wasn't in Youngster Unity's building or Junho Park's new agency.

I waited until Mr. Han left our dorm and leaned toward group members with words, "I think we need to check it ourselves."

The next day we left to CEO's house at the same time we were in his agency day before yesterday, so he shouldn't be at home. June began but the weather was cloudy. I shivered in front of the house but somehow I had a feeling it wasn't because of the cold wind. What if we'll find something worse than papers?

We wondered how Mr. Han entered this wealthy apartment and it turned out the janitor who always had spare keys – in this case key cards – lent a hand because of his hatred toward the CEO. Although it was illegal, he gave us the key card with pleasure. We had only one hour before the security come out on patrol, so we entered the apartment, while the janitor was 'cleaning' the camera in the corridor.

Interior was wowing us for a while, then we started to search. Mr. Han probably found the documents and letters in one of drawers in CEO's office, because I found a lot of other papers, for example contracts – mostly forged, and also forged IDs, where some of them belonged to CEO.

"How did the police not catch him yet?" I muttered with admiration and disgust at the same time.

I looked around. I saw a frame, probably with a photo, facing the table. I frowned. Only when there is something that someone wants to forget, the frame is in this position. I put the frame, as it should have stood, and looked carefully at the photo.

The main figure was of course Junho Park, holding some trophy. He seemed younger and stood in front of the Youngster Unity's building. It looked so different that I barely recognized it. But what interested me the most was the girl, who was standing beside CEO. I was looking at her for at least five minutes when I finally recognized her.

"HYEONJU!" I screamed, but quickly covered my mouth. I didn't want to summon her here, although CEO deserved to have an unexpected guest at night.

I wasn't mistaken. It was Hyeonju Ahn. I didn't recognize her at first, because in the picture she was smiling, her hair didn't look so sticky and she wasn't pale. In other words, in the picture she was less creepy. She was wearing a red dress and holding CEO's waist. Looking at this photo, I wondered whether she was more to him than just a pupil.

Suddenly I heard a noise outside the room and jumped surprised. Then the door opened violently and group members charged in, armed with brooms and a vacuum cleaner.

"Where is she!" Chanwoo cried. He looked at me. I still must have had frightened face, because his face become white as death and he pointed the vacuum cleaner at me. "Don't tell me... she possessed you!?"

"Don't be stupid!" I snorted, but then thought about that. "Okay, that's possible, but I'm not possessed now! She isn't here anyway." I showed them a photo. "But I found this."

We analyzed the photo together and... came up with nothing. Sure, she could be CEO's lover, but we didn't have any evidence. Well, except CEO's confession, but he will definitely remain silent. We had to come up with new plan.

"How about breaking in the police station and searching the archives?" Chan whispered. We glared at him and he laughed, "Joke, joke..."

"Maybe we ask around his current agency?" Jongil said. "There must be at least one person who knows his past."

"He's a crook, he could have falsified his past," I muttered. Then something popped up in my mind. "What do you think about focusing on Hyeonju?"

"What do you mean?"

The more I thought about it, the more this idea seemed to be the best one. "We have to find about her family, friends and home!"

Chanwoo clapped his hands, agreeing with me. Youngho and Jongil nodded. I frowned, asking, "Where's Beomseok?"

"He stayed in the kitchen," Jongil said. "His rib still hurts."

I felt guilty, but Beomseok insisted so much that he'll come with us, that I didn't have strength to stop him. He could walk, but was a little restricted in psychical strength.

"Don't do that face, Jin," Chanwoo said, patting my back. "It wasn't your fault."

"He protected ME," I grumbled, clenching fists. "How it wasn't my fault?"

"Anyone could be in your place," Jongil said. "And each of us would have done the same."

Just pretty words, I thought but was glad they were thinking about me in that way. We returned all things to their place and left the room, walking toward kitchen. Meanwhile, we were talking about our further plan.

"I suggest we don't focus on Hyeonju's friends, and so on, because we don't have time. Let's start from her family. It shouldn't be a problem to find her birthplace."

"So we need to talk to her old agency building's neighbors. Maybe someone heard where she came from."

"That's doubtful. There are only elderly families in the building. They could have heard about it, but they don't remember it. If she was a celebrity, she could have tell her fans about her home."

"Searching her fans will be difficult."

"I'm not talking about that. Anyway, first we must somehow find her birthplace and then we start to worry again."

However, our worries came to us quicker than we expected.

We found Beomseok in the kitchen indeed. As I predicted, he was eating.

"I hope it isn't from CEO's fridge," Jongil said warningly.

Beomseok shook his head, saying with full mouth, "Mr. Janitor gave me that. In case we would be hungry."

"In case one of us would be hungry," I corrected him. "You shouldn't eat everything you get from strangers, you know."

"It's fine. I know this bread, I've eaten it before. It's awesome!"

"That's not what I meant, but whatever."

Youngho waved at us. "We need to get going. Almost an hour passed."

We reached the door and I was about to touch the handle, when something hit the door from the other side. We jumped surprised and moved back a little. I got goosebumps. Did I really summon her here? But she wasn't around when we were in CEO's agency, so I thought she was keeping a distance from him. I took a deep breath and came closer to the door, looking through the peephole.

The corridor was empty. Light could be switched on when there was movement, so now it was nearly dark. Only a weak sunlight outside the window on the left, at the end of the corridor, was illuminating it a little. The sun must have hidden itself behind clouds again. I squinted my eyes, looking carefully, but there was no one there. I turned to the group members and shrugged my arms. Before we decided to open the door, I checked the corridor again and froze.

The lights were switched on.

But I still didn't see anyone! Chanwoo put his ear to the door and shook his head. There was no sound either. I came back to looking and gasped. Although not clear, there was a dark figure on the right. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. The figure disappeared.

"I have a bad feeling we're not alone," I whispered to the group members.

I looked once more through the peephole with hesitation. The corridor was still empty. I sighed with relief, but suddenly a peephole was covered with a hand with a loud bang.

# _Chapter 24_

# _When you thought you knew everything_

We all gasped and bumped into each other, which caused the fall.

"Did you hear that?" we heard suddenly a familiar voice. We looked at each other terrified.

CEO just returned home.

"I didn't hear anything, sir," the janitor said. "Can I ask why are you this early today?"

"Not your business, old man," CEO growled.

"What to do!!" Chanwoo screamed silently.

I looked around with panic. Wardrobe! But no, the first thing CEO will do is to hang his clothes there...

Bathroom! Ah, it was bad too. Five of us won't fit in one shower and it was a bad idea to separate. Eventually I grabbed group members and ran to CEO's bedroom. It was still early, so maybe he won't go there yet. And while he's in the bathroom, we'll sneak out!

Good plan, so far.

Chanwoo and Beomseok hid under the bed, Youngho jumped into a basket with dirty laundry and Jongil squeezed with me in the closet. After a few seconds we heard a click coming from the front door. CEO came in.

Man, if I don't calm down soon, he'll find me by my loud heartbeat!

I focused. There was a delicate bang, as if he was looking for a cup, then his cell phone rang. I saw through the chink in the door that Chan was so surprised by it, that he jumped and hit the bed with his head. He covered his mouth with teary eyes and we all held our breaths. Did CEO hear that... ?

When there wasn't any sound for two minutes, we breathed out with relief. I loosened up and almost hit the back of the closet with my back.

Suddenly the door to the bedroom opened and we held our breaths again. For God's sake, really?! He had to come in here NOW! My bad luck was doing pretty well, huh?

Don't change your clothes, don't change your clothes, I was praying in my mind. CEO passed the bed, almost standing on Beomseok's hand. He threw his jacket on the basket, where Youngho was hiding. Then he turned to the closet. I was sure he heard my crazy heartbeat. My lungs began to hurt from not breathing.

He was thinking about something for a moment, but eventually decided to go to the closet and I panicked. Jongil squeezed my arm to be quiet. I closed my eyes, waiting for the worst but nothing happened. I opened my eyes confused.

CEO wasn't in front of us. I heard a click and realized he opened the neighboring closet. I almost laughed with relief, but I stopped in the last moment. However, I couldn't control a delicate breathe out, which betrayed my whereabouts.

CEO stopped moving. We too. I wondered how we should explain ourselves. Surprise! And we laugh out loud (I saw that in a drama)? Or should we push him and run away? We were doomed anyway as we'll be caught for sure.

CEO was just about to open the closet in which we were, when suddenly his cell phone rang again, which surprised even him (thanks to that he didn't hear we also jumped). He cursed under his breath and answered the call.

"Yeah, I'm leaving right now! Stop whining!" he growled. I felt sorry for the person on the other side. "I know, it didn't go as planned, but you'll take care of it soon, am I right? I'm not paying you for doing nothing!" He walked away from the closet, heading for the door. "Those kids will be a problem. I have a feeling they know too much. Think of something, I don't want to be haunted by that wench in my dreams." I shivered. Why was I sure I knew who he was talking about? "Whatever. I'm telling you..." And he left, closing the front door.

We waited another two minutes before we went out. I almost fell on my nose when I staggered after jumping out of the closet. Chanwoo and Beomseok crawled from under the bed, while Youngho almost fired up from the basket, eager for fresh air.

"Guys, we're in big trouble," I stated but they guessed it too. "I have a feeling we'll meet the freak from the restaurant soon."

"How could he do that!?" Chan outraged. "Did he really send at us that psycho?"

"It seems that way. We need to tell the police, but first let's find Hyeonju's home. I think it'll help us a lot."

Contrary to our expectations, finding ghost's birthplace wasn't so difficult. One of old agency's neighbor knew it, because her daughter was Hyeonju's friend.

Her home was in a nice flat in northern Seoul. We met her mother, who invited us in.

"I'm glad someone still remembers my child," Mrs. Ahn said, giving us a tea.

"Can you tell us about her?" Jongil asked. "If it isn't a problem."

"Of course it isn't! I was waiting for someone to show up and ask about her true story. Police only dug into physical matter, not caring about my feelings... What do you want to know?"

"The time she was in the Youngster Unity," I proposed.

Mrs. Ahn's expression became darker.

"That was hell, not talent agency!" she whispered. "Every year I regretted I didn't stop Hyeonju from going there. The job was hard, stressful and even her 'friends' from there didn't help her, when she suffered from depression. They were only rivals. However, CEO was the worst. He didn't care about anything besides money and other benefits. Girls were working really hard, especially my Hyeonju, and when I thought he finally saw potential in her, he left her in the worst moment of her depression. I'm really happy that this horrible man is locked up in the prison."

I bit my lip. That would be tactless and stupid if we told her he wasn't locked up and has been living a pretty rich life.

"I have to ask you something," I said, taking out my phone, with which I copied the photo from CEO's office. "Is this the CEO you're talking about?"

Mrs. Ahn widened her eyes and covered her mouth with trembling hand. "Yes!" she said and looked at me shocked. "How did you get that photo?"

"Do you know what relationship he had with your daughter?" I risked the main question. I pointed to the girl in the picture.

"I don't know what you mean by that," Mrs. Ahn said slowly, frowning at the sight of the girl. I frowned too. Was that a normal reaction? Suddenly I felt an unpleasant weight in my stomach.

"I have another question," I said, showing her the girl again. "It's your daughter, right?"

I thought she would hesitate. Maybe she forgot her face after ten years. But she answered me right away, confidently,

"No. That's not Hyeonju."

# _Chapter 25_

# _Snakes for the rescue!_

There was a deathly silence for a while. Everything I knew became chaos in my head.

"This... isn't Hyeonju?" I muttered, looking at the girl carefully. I was certain she was the ghost that was haunting us. "Are you sure?"

"You're saying I don't remember how my daughter looked like?" Mrs. Ahn said coldly.

"That's not it..." I stopped still confused. "If it isn't Hyeonju, how do we find about that girl... ?"

"I know who it is."

We looked at Mrs. Ahn shocked. Now she was staring at the photo with disgust.

"Her name is Rena Im. She was a model in the same agency as my Hyeonju. What's more, they were close friends and rivals, but I knew from the beginning that Rena treated Hyeonju only as a rival and somehow a threat. I told you that with time Hyeonju became the pride and joy for CEO. Rena was jealous and I saw that on every event she appeared with Hyeonju. Rena was the best model in the celebrity world, but not for her boss, which was very essential for her. Before Hyeonju died, I heard rumors she was arguing with CEO and Rena. I don't know about what and what happened with her after my daughter's death. At that time the agency was closed. But I hope she's leading embarrassing life as she used to."

Well, I know what happened to her, I thought grimly.

Okay... so we knew the ghost's real identity. Now what?

"Do you know what relationship she had with the CEO?" I asked carefully. If Mrs. Ahn hated Rena, she could avoid the topic. But fortunately she was pleased to throw her anger out.

"No. But you can guess, seeing this photo, she was a little out of her mind. I wouldn't be surprised if she was his lover. Ha! They look so well together! Crook and his empty doll."

I frowned. So Mrs. Ahn thought that too. Let's say they were lovers. Because of Rena's fame they probably had to hide with it. That could lead to a lot of disagreements and fights. Hyeonju could have found about their relationship and threatened Rena.

"Was Hyeonju ever jealous of Rena?" I asked.

"No! Why –"

"Answer not as a mother, but as an objective observer, please. It's very important to us. Telling the truth isn't going to harm her more than she was harmed as a living person."

Mrs. Ahn hesitated, but she lost due to my desperate look. She sighed and continued the story,

"Hyeonju was a clever and loyal girl. There weren't any compliments about her since she joined the agency, so she was very happy when CEO finally started to respect her. However, Rena didn't like that. I think she wanted to be the only one for CEO. So she started to use her image to become more famous, as CEO cared only for money. And Rena couldn't let Hyeonju to earn more than she earned. Hyeonju was doing her best to be at the top too, even if it cost her their friendship. I admit, she was jealous but as every girl who wanted a success. She wasn't as vain as Rena was. After that they argued. Around that day Hyeonju died and Rena disappeared with CEO. That's all I know."

We were immersed in deep thoughts for a minute. Finally Jongil stood up and bowed to Mrs. Ahn, saying, "Thank you for your time and story. We'll take our leave now."

"Why did we leave?" I asked when we were outside.

"Read the atmosphere, Jinwoo. She may have claimed she wanted to tell us about Hyeonju, but it was a horrible memory for her. We have what we needed."

"Really? We found only that the ghost's name is different."

"Not only name but the whole person. But are we sure it isn't Hyeonju?"

"What do you mean? I would recognize her everywhere! I'm sure the ghost is that girl from the picture!"

"Okay, calm down. I meant that the girl in the picture can be Rena Im, but the ghost can be still Hyeonju. Ghosts are freaky and not exactly known paranormal phenomenon, right? She could camouflage herself so we THOUGHT she is Rena."

"That... does sound reasonable," I admitted, even though Jongil's words made bigger chaos in my poor head.

"So... Hyeonju wants revenge?" Chanwoo asked. We crossed the street and were going toward the station. The street was empty, except for one black van.

"If she wants it, why didn't she appear before Junho Park?" I wondered. I frowned, looking back. We were alone and the sun came out from behind the clouds, so there shouldn't be any ghost around.

"Maybe she's afraid of him?" Youngho suggested. "You told us one day you felt something like fear from her."

"I'm not sure if that was that kind of fear. I mean –" I looked back again suspiciously. "I think I'm losing my mind, but wasn't than van a little further away from us a moment ago?"

Group members looked back too. We exchanged looks and began to run. The van immediately followed us.

Damn! Did CEO send after us another psycho team? I didn't think he would attack so soon...

"There!" I shouted, pointing to the bus station with a lot of people on it.

We'll make it!

Suddenly van's brakes screeched and it stopped violently before us. We didn't make it...

We stopped abruptly, bumping into each other. Then the door opened and masked men took us inside.

I flew and hit the door on the other side. I reached to it but one of the men, who was waiting inside, grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. I screamed and kneeled, almost bowing to other masked people. I jerked and bit attacker's other hand, with which he was holding my chin. He hissed and punched me in the face, without letting go. Group members became furious at him, but quickly were immobilized too.

"Jeez, youngsters' stamina is scary these days," I heard a familiar voice and in a second felt sick with fear.

As I thought and said to group members earlier, we met once again the crazy man from the restaurant. This time he wasn't wearing cook's clothes but black set with similar mask as his colleagues. He grabbed my chin brutally, nearly breaking my jaw. I groaned. "I told you that curiosity killed the cat. You didn't listen and went deeper into the matter. Are you that stupid or brave?"

"Neither of it!" I muttered.

"Neither?" The man raised his eyebrows. "That's an unexpected answer."

"I'm just desperate to uncover the truth! I'll tell the police everything. You and your boss will regret what you've been doing, I promise!!"

The man burst out laughing. "Strong words for a kid. But I have a question." He suddenly squeezed my neck. I gasped shocked. Group members screamed and resumed the fight. "How will you tell anybody about this if you're going to die here and now? I don't think your dead body will do it instead. Or will you become a vengeful ghost?"

I groaned as he squeezed tighter. Tears ran down my cheeks. I closed my eyes, feeling weaker and weaker...

Suddenly the van shook, as if it was struck by something big, and stopped. I was freed from man's grip and fell on the floor, coughing.

"What's going on!?" the man shrieked angered to the driver. Meanwhile group members grabbed me and went closer to the door.

The door behind us opened violently and we fell out at the same time as something flew inside.

"What are you doing on such a beautiful and peaceful day like today?" we heard and turned around quickly.

"Professor!!" I cried, almost throwing myself into Creepy Creep's arms.

Creep shivered. "It's creepy when YOU call me by that title." He waved at us. "Come here, if you don't want to be in the wonderland again. The dark kind of wonderland, I mean."

We looked at the van and moved back immediately. The 'things' that flew just a moment ago into the car were snakes.

"You have a car?" Beomseok gasped as we ran to a small, yellowish and old-fashioned car, which was partly destroyed. I guessed Creep hit the van with it.

"I hope you didn't laugh at me just now," Creep grumbled and pushed us into the car, in which we barely fit it. With Creep's tiny posture it wasn't a problem, but we could hardly breathe.

"Where are we going?" I panted when we lost the van. "And what about your snakes?"

"They'll be neighborhood's worry," Creep said. "We're going to your dorm. I already called your nanny."

"Were you always that reliable?" Youngho backfired, but Creep didn't hear that.

"Why?" I asked.

"I found Hyeonju's body. It was buried by her family in secret just after her death, so the ghost can't be her. I think the case is much bigger than I imagined and you know what? It'll be fun!"

I couldn't disagree more...

# _Chapter 26_

# _As if one ghost wasn't enough_

If you thought hunting a ghost was a fun and easy job, you were horribly wrong. Although hunting humans was easy as pie for a ghost, vice versa... not really. Rena Im (ex-Hyeonju) was deliberately hiding from us. Or maybe only from Creep? To be honest, I would hide from him too, if I were her. His eccentric fashion was nothing! If you saw his tools, you would think twice before you go near him.

"What's this?" Chanwoo asked for the umpteenth time, when we visited Creep's base for a second to get more creepy stuff. The youngest was pointing to a decoration that looked like skeleton's hand.

I frowned. It looked weirdly real...

"This is a navigator," Creep said, not looking at it and searching under the bed.

"For what? Ghosts?"

"You can say that. But I wouldn't touch it, if I were you. Some flesh eating bugs may be still at it."

Chan froze terrified with his hand above the skeleton's hand. He exchanged disgusted looks with me and jumped away. Meanwhile, Jongil and Youngho were checking another disgusting thingy – a doll wrapped in cobwebs. It was similar to the Voodoo Barbie, but with more red paint (I hoped it was paint...) on it and scary, open mouth. They looked inside its mouth and jumped away even quicker than Chanwoo from the hand. After a second a big spider went out of the doll's mouth for a walk. I shivered.

"I hate this place..." Beomseok muttered.

"And this place surely hates us," I added, then looked for Creep. "Did you find it? We're not only running out of time, but also breath. Please, respect our young lungs."

"Right, right," I heard Creep's voice, coming from the hole in the floor. How did he end up there? Then I heard a sound, as if he stepped on a couple of big cockroaches, and he finally showed up. "I got it."

"Yes!" Beomseok called with joy. "Can we go now?"

"What was so important?" I asked, when we left the base and were enjoying fresh air.

"This!" Creep showed me a glass, similar to one that farsighted had in their glasses.

"Sorry if I'm being an ignoramus, but what is this?"

Creep sighed with disbelief, as if I was really an ignoramus and should know this like the fact that the sun is hot. "Don't you even watch horror movies? Although scary stories from ancient times would be a better source."

"We watched a lot," Chanwoo admitted. "But lately... You know."

"Have you heard about Ouija?"

We stopped.

"You mean the game board through which you can evoke the ghosts?" Youngho whispered.

"Exactly! The wood, thanks to which you get to know ghost's words, is different in every producer of this game, but the prototype was with this glass. I call it Ghost's Eye."

"I wonder why," I said sarcastically. "No, wait. I don't want to know why. Can we forget it and do something else? For example, use that sacred salt of yours?"

Creep ignored me and continued, "You think only Hyeon... I mean, Rena is around you? No! There're a lot of other ghosts, although wandering one is hard to find. But only few have enough power to show themselves to the living. Rena is one of them. A vengeful ghost is the most powerful one I've heard about. The others just wander or hang out in this world, waiting for their judgment, or just time to pass, after which they disappear forgotten."

"Disappear forgotten?" I repeated.

"Yes. Ghosts can vanish by their own, but only if they completed their unfinished business from before the death, or when they're completely forgotten by people."

"It won't happen to Rena," Jongil muttered. "CEO still remembers her and Hyeonju. Besides, her body probably isn't buried."

"So we have to find her body first," I decided. "Before CEO's dogs will find us again."

"Right, right," Creep interrupted us and pulled me aside. "You first."

"W-Why me?!" I outraged. "Why won't you go first?"

"I used this a lot, so I know how they look like. You all need to know how to use it properly. Do it."

Well, I didn't have much choice. I took the glass thingy with hesitation and looked through it.

At the beginning I didn't see anything abnormal. The view was only a little bent, as if I was looking through a peephole. After a while an elderly woman crossed the street.

"I see nothing strange," I said and gave the glass back, pointing to the street. "Only an elderly woman who –" I stopped puzzled.

The woman was nowhere to be found. She looked sick, so I doubted she could run from our sight in such a short time.

"Oh, boy..." I muttered, when I realized I just saw a ghost.

Creep ordered me to look again through the Ghost's Eye.

"Why do we need the glass anyway?" Beomseok asked meanwhile.

"If Rena is hiding her form from us, we can see her through this," Creep explained. Besides that grandma there were a couple of kids playing far from us, and a young man sitting on a curb in a very creepy pose. "Over the time, vengeful ghosts grow stronger, so at some point she was able to hide her form and possess people without prior warning."

I suddenly noticed a movement to my right and looked there.

A man without half of his face moved closer to me and I screamed shocked, dropping the glass. Creep caught it in the last moment, before it shattered. "Are you crazy! Do you know how hard it is to find it!?" he scolded me.

"Am I crazy, you old freak!?" I enraged, shaking my head to clear it from all the new spirits I just saw. "I have e –!"

I froze, feeling familiar chills. I looked around, but didn't see anything. In a second I felt sick with fear. I quickly took the glass from Creep and looked through it. It was weird that all the ghosts, that were here a moment ago, disappeared without a trace. I stepped back worried.

I turned around violently, feeling goosebumps on my back. Group members raised their eyebrows questioningly. I sighed with relief and turned again to search the street for the last time.

Rena Im appeared before me with her mouth open unnaturally wide, as if she wanted to suck out my soul.

# _Chapter 27_

# _In search of Beomseok's sock_

She nearly possessed me. 'Nearly' is a good word. She literally put her hands into my body, when Creep took out his precious salt and dusted it on Rena. She backed off, hissing. I gasped violently and fell down. The world was spinning, I was feeling very weak... Thankfully, the awful feeling disappeared quickly.

"Jinwoo... ?" Jongil said worried. Group members helped me to sit.

Rejecting her by force was so different than with my own will and had unpleasant side effects... I had a feeling some part of her stayed in my body...

"Be gone!" we heard Creep and looked up.

Rena didn't vanish. I flinched and clenched my fists on Beomseok's shirt. She was staring straight at me. Besides being cursed by her, did I do something that she hated me so much?

Then she attacked again.

Creep tried to touch her with his talismans, but she avoided it and almost got me again, when Jongil jumped to Creep and borrowed some of the salt, dusting it at the ghost.

"Protect Jin!" the oldest shouted.

Only now I realized something. I was her only goal. Was my body really that important to her? Or was it something else?

Beomseok and Chanwoo pulled me back, while Jongil, Youngho and Creep started to fight Rena. It was so unreal to me that I got emotional and the tears gathered in my eyes. I didn't want any of this to happen!

Suddenly Rena became faster and stronger and found herself beside me, sending Beomseok and Chanwoo aside. I gasped terrified and crawled to the nearest car, hitting the backlight with my head. I clenched my teeth, swallowing the tears.

Jongil appeared behind the ghost and hit it with his fist. The ghost screamed and flew to the other side of the street. I widened my eyes. How did he do that!? Then I saw the talisman wrapped around his fist.

All group members ran to me. "Pull yourself together!" Jongil scolded me. "She is attracted by your emotions! She's getting stronger when you're sad or scared. Try not to think about those emotions."

Easier said than done! My body was trembling and didn't listen to me. The tears were flowing endlessly. I wiped my eyes with anger. Jongil returned to the fight when Rena reminded about herself.

"Jin, you can do it!" Chan said confidently. "We believe in you."

Because of his words the tears reappeared, but after a few seconds I took a deep breath and gradually started to calm down. As Jongil predicted, Rena began to weaken. Now I understood why she didn't appear when I had fun with others. When I thought about her, I got scared and that was probably the emotion, which attracted her the most. The same was with sadness and anger. The mark she gave me must have been connected to her emotions and that was why she knew about my feelings. And I thought there wouldn't be anything creepier...

Suddenly my chest exploded with pain. I groaned and curled up.

"Jin?!"

I began to panic, but the pain quickly disappeared. I looked up and saw Rena, who glared at me and vanished. I breathed out. She was gone. I was sure of it. Finally...

"This is more complicated than I thought," Creep said, hiding all his tools. "The sooner we find her body, the longer we'll live."

Later this night I heard a noise near my bed, so I immediately opened my eyes and got ready the talisman from Creep, when I suddenly recognized the intruder.

"Beomseok, you idiot!" I hissed to my brother, who was looking at me with puppy eyes, holding his pillow.

"Can I sleep here?" he whispered. "I can't sleep in my room..."

I sighed. I still didn't know how he couldn't sleep with Jongil and Youngho, who were more courageous than me and Chanwoo.

"Fine," I said. "But –" He came up to my bed. "– get the mattress... Ah, whatever."

Before we fell asleep, Beomseok poked my arm. "What," I grumbled.

"What did you do with my sock?" he asked.

"What sock?"

"The one you stole with Chanwoo the other day."

"Ah, that one. I don't remember. Why?"

"Find it. I want to use it tomorrow."

"Seriously? You have more socks than all of us."

"But that was my favorite."

"You have only black socks. How can you distinguish them?"

"That's a secret. I want to wear them tomorrow, so find it."

I sighed again. Beomseok was like a kid – you never win with his childish arguments.

After a few minutes Beomseok fell asleep but I couldn't, so I decided to search for the sock. At first I wanted to wake up Chan, but he was sleeping deeply and I would feel bad if I did it.

"Where did we hide it?" I muttered to myself, when I wasted an hour searching.

Suddenly it got cold. I jumped on my feet, scared Rena was back, but in a moment I chased away those thoughts. If it wasn't her, my emotions could summon her. I looked around and saw the open window. My heart rate became faster. I closed the window and the curtains. I took a deep breath, smiling lightly. "Damn, Jinwoo Kim, you're such a coward," I said out loud.

"I can't agree more."

My heart pounded so hardly that I felt weak for a moment. Someone's shadow appeared on a table. I slowly turned around and realized it was a mistake.

For the first time in my life I hoped it was the ghost.

# _Chapter 28_

# _Evil pan_

I grabbed a pan, that was behind me, and tried to attack, but the intruder stopped my hand, squeezing tightly my wrist. Then he came into the moonlight and I opened my mouth shocked.

"You're not him!" I gasped.

Junho Park smiled wryly, without letting me go. "You mean the man I hired to warn you?" he asked. I shivered. He was somehow different. Was he possessed? "I fired him after his second fail. Jeez..." He scratched his head with a grimace. "How hard it can be to scare away five stupid kids?" The grip got stronger and I groaned. "So I came to check it out myself."

Now I was sure he wasn't possessed. He was just crazy!

"You call 'scare' or 'warn' attack with a knife and an attempt of kidnapping?" I hissed, secretly looking for something with my left hand, to protect myself.

"Well, yes. You didn't die, so what's the problem?"

I couldn't believe what I just heard.

"I think the problem is YOU," I said with clenched teeth. My heart skipped a beat. Found it! "First you threaten us, then send at us psycho, and now you broke into our house, surely with ill intentions. That's a lot of good evidence to the police."

CEO's face changed in a second. I guessed what was to happen next, so I hit him with a can opener. The sharp part scratched his cheek. CEO turned back to me violently and punched me in the face. I staggered at the table. Then he grabbed the knife. I panicked and started calling brothers' names, while running away in a circle around the table, which could look quite ridiculous if not the seriousness of the situation.

Eventually CEO jumped at me through the table and pressed me to the floor. I bit his arm and ran to brothers' room. I opened the door with a bang, but CEO grabbed my ankles and I fell down on my face, almost biting off my tongue. When he began to pull me out, Jongil threw himself on the floor and grabbed my hands. Youngho hit CEO with desk lamp.

CEO released me, but renewed the attack with the knife. Suddenly Chanwoo did a risky move and jumped at his back, grabbing his right hand. CEO got furious and started jerking, almost stabbing Chan's neck. I screamed panicked. Chanwoo fell on Beomseok, who tried to catch him, and both of them hit the wall. Chanwoo put his hand to his neck. With horror I saw blood on his hand. CEO wanted to finish his job, but this time I interrupted him. Unfortunately he predicted my move and turned around violently, pressing my neck with his arm to the wall. I gasped, trying to break free, but he was too strong. Jongil and Youngho wanted to help me, however CEO touched my cheek with the knife, so they immediately froze.

"Well then," CEO whispered. I shivered. Not because of knife's coldness, but his scary tone of voice. "Let's check how much do you know."

"Most of it!" I blurted before I thought. "I know what you did to her!!"

CEO frowned. "Do you really?"

"Where is it?" I hissed.

"Where is what?"

I dug my nails in his skin. "Where is Rena Im's body?"

This he didn't expect. I was sure he meant Hyeonju, because we mentioned her to him when we first met. Judging by his expression, few people knew about Rena's death, if not only CEO. But now he discovered we also found out about his secret and I thought I just dug my own grave with this confession.

"H-How –" CEO began, out of the blue terrified.

Suddenly something hit CEO's head. I thought one of the group members attacked, but when I looked aside, all of them were in the same place as before. I looked at CEO as confused as he was. Then again he was hit and he punched the attacker with his free hand, but there was no one behind him. I saw only pan lying on the floor, that I wanted to use on CEO before.

I frowned. Did I really leave it there?

Then, on our eyes, the pan shivered and flew. We froze, including CEO. However, his hesitation didn't last long. He turned to me angered, pressing stronger, so I started to choke. "What trick are you using!" he growled.

"N-None!" I panted. "You think we could do anything in a situation like this!?"

The pan smacked CEO's ear and he grabbed it, screaming with rage. But the pan knew how to protect itself – it pulled CEO, so he almost lost the balance and let me go. Instead, he grabbed my neck and stood me before him, as the pan was nose-diving on CEO.

I closed my eyes frightened, but I wasn't hit. I opened my eyes and saw the pan just before my nose, levitating. After that (as if it thought what to do next) the pan passed me and hit CEO's face. Then he finally understood that something strange was going on here.

Suddenly we heard a police siren near our dorm. CEO cursed and let me go, fleeing through the window. I coughed but came to my senses quickly, jumping to the window, but he already slid down the drainpipe and disappeared into the darkness. I turned around and saw someone beside the pan, that was this time lying on the table. I began to panic, but stopped in a second. The aura was different. I squinted my eyes, not seeing clearly. Somehow I was doubtful it was Rena. When I tried to take a better look at her, she vanished.

I wanted to sit down to rest, but I remembered Chanwoo and ran to him. Jongil was already checking his wound. "It isn't serious," he said and we all breathed out with relief. "But he needs to go to the hospital to be sure."

Someone came into our dorm and turned on the lights. It was Mr. Han (who was called by Beomseok, when he heard my struggle with CEO first) and two police officers. They were too late though.

We went to the hospital with Chan and waited for the results. His wound was stitched up. It wasn't serious indeed and he was going to be released in the morning, so tonight we all slept in his hospital room.

Youngho and Beomseok were sleeping in the next bed, while Jongil curled up on a sofa in the room's corner. I was supposed to sleep on the third bed, but I fell asleep beside Chanwoo's bed, sitting on the floor.

Something woke me up in the middle of the night. I opened my eyes and looked around half asleep. Everyone was deep in the dreamland. I wondered what woke me up, but I was too tired and decided to get back to sleep.

However, when I was standing up to go to the bed, I saw a movement under Chanwoo's bed. I was awake in a moment. I really didn't want to do it, but I looked down.

Huge, glowing in the dark eyes were looking straight at me.

# _Chapter 29_

# _Charm of a haunted house_

I shrieked, waking everyone up and hitting the edge of the bed with my head. When Jongil turned on the lights, something jumped at my face. I fell on my back, trying to take it off.

"This is..." I heard Chanwoo's sleepy voice.

Finally I threw the fluffy, huge thing away and moved back, surprised again when another 'thing' came out from under the bed.

Creepy Creep smoothed his messy hair and grabbed his ugly cat. "Hey!" he said, as if nothing happened. "What's up?"

I had a lot of curses on the tip of my tongue, but Youngho interrupted me, telling Creep everything that happened a while ago. He wasn't surprised by Junho Park's behavior, but I didn't believe he predicted all of it.

"I won't ask how you got here," I said. "But I want to know why did you come."

"Ah, right!" Creep gasped and nearly hit my eye with a piece of paper. I looked at it and saw an address. "We have a mission!"

"Mission?" I repeated dumbfounded. "And what's that?"

"An address, if I'm not seeing wrong," Creep snorted with sarcasm. "We're going to end this crappy haunting with this."

I got exited in a second. "Really?"

"I'm ninety nine percent sure Rena's body is in this house."

As Creep said, we went to the house where Rena's body was supposed to be. Of course, we didn't say anything to Mr. Han and sneaked out from the hospital before the dawn. And, as I predicted, Chan went with us. To be honest, Beomseok's rib was still hurting, so he shouldn't have come either, but all of us were stubborn. That was why I didn't even start to argue with them.

We arrived at 8 a.m. at the house. Correction: haunted house. It definitely looked like one...

"I think staying behind in the hospital would be a great idea..." Chanwoo whispered.

"You said you won't have any regrets," I reminded him.

"Did I? I don't remember."

The house was old and creepy, even more than Creep's base. Even though it was a sunny day, interior was dark. I looked around and saw that windows were covered with wooden planks. When we reached the stairs, suddenly we heard a creak and the front door closed with a slam. We jumped and turned around. Youngho threw himself to the door, but we were locked in.

"Did someone lock us from outside?" Beomseok whispered, grabbing my shirt on the back.

"Maybe, maybe not," I said, folding my arms when I felt cold. "I have a bad feeling about this place."

Creep went up first with a flashlight. We followed him in a group. This strange procession was closed by Creep's Ghosty. We stopped after a few steps where we had to choose stairs on the right or left. Creep did something creepy with his compass and chose the left stairs. We followed him there, but in a second we regretted it.

Out of nowhere something noisy attacked us from behind the curtain. We panicked and unconsciously scattered around. Before I realized, I was all alone in a corridor on the first floor. I didn't even remember from which direction I came here. I cursed out loud and summoned another noisy thing that appeared to be raven. I cursed it and my stupidity.

I switched on flashlight in my phone and took a deep breath. Now what? I didn't know where I should go...

Then I remembered something. I reached to my pocket and took out Ghost's Eye that I forgot to return to Creep. I swallowed hard and looked through it. There was nothing in front of me. I got ready to breath out with relief when I saw something.

On the floor were tracks of someone's feet. I lowered the glass and gasped with shock. The tracks disappeared. When I again looked through the glass, they returned. Something heavy and unpleasant squeezed my stomach.

I gathered courage at once. We came here to end this, for God's sake! Get a grip, Jinwoo!

I looked through the glass once more and froze. In front of me, next to the door at the end of the corridor, was a shadow of a person. I got goosebumps. I tried without the glass and indeed saw nothing. I put Ghost's Eye to my eye and gasped, because the shadow was in a different place, as if it was getting closer to me.

I hid the glass and turned around, deciding to ignore the figure. I made a step forward, but again I realized I was running away. I clenched my teeth and turned back to track's direction.

Rena Im was standing just before me with her usual furious aura. I screamed and eventually escaped from the corridor. How did she expect us to find her body if she was interrupting us every time!

I tripped over something at the end of the corridor and fell from the stairs. I groaned, holding my head, which throbbed with pain. I looked at my hand, illuminating it with the flashlight.

Blood –!

I touched my head again to made sure I wasn't seeing things and this time my hand was clean. There wasn't even a stain from the earlier touch. I sighed and sat. What the hell?

Then I felt a cold breeze and looked at the ground in front of me.

There were female's feet in white sandals. Without looking up, I jumped on the stairs to ground floor, but I stopped in the midway.

Was Rena wearing sandals?

I turned around but she was already gone. I frowned. The aura seemed similar to the one I felt in our dorm yesterday. Was here another ghost? I shivered at the very thought.

I turned to the front door and shrieked.

"Damn it, Beomseok!!" I shouted at Beomseok, who was more frightened than I was. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for all of you!" he groaned, holding his chest. "I nearly died because of you! I thought you were Rena!"

"Thanks," I growled. "I met her on the first floor. And –" I looked again at the empty stairs. "Never mind..."

"Have you seen the others?"

"Nope."

"Then let's find them and get out of here! I knew coming here was a bad idea... Can't we leave the body to the police? We're almost sure it's here anyway."

"Right... That's a good idea..."

But finding group members and Creep wasn't so easy. The house was big, partly destroyed and, of course, haunted. On our way we saw Rena's whole figure two times (the same number of times I had to calm Beomseok down, because he was treating my arm as a good to bite pillow), a few times doors slammed without a warning and I encountered a couple of Rena's handprints. When we heard a noise in the nearest room on the second floor, I got ready the salt, sure it was the ghost.

I attacked with a shout but stopped abruptly, almost dusting the salt on Chanwoo and Youngho, who were hiding under the table. They stated they were hiding from Rena who was here a moment ago, but I ignored it and continued looking for Jongil and Creep. We met them in the attic, which was the creepiest place in the house, so we quickly pulled two fearless people out of there.

As we were going down (while listening to Creep's wailing that we should investigate it ourselves), I slowed down, hearing something strange. It was neither crying, nor groaning. I frowned, listening to it carefully. Whispering... ?

"Jinwoo, what are you doing?" Jongil called.

"Coming!" I answered and ignored the sound, going to them.

However, when I passed the room, from which I thought the sound was coming, suddenly I felt a breath of cold from behind. Then something hit me hard in the back and the world around me went black.

# _Chapter 30_

# _Memories of the past, pt. I_

I gasped and opened my eyes. I immediately sat down, looking around. I breathed out. A dream? I could have sworn that –

I froze. I was alone in a corridor. I cleared my mind and recognized it. I wasn't in the haunted house anymore. Was that a dream too?

I was in our temporary agency building, or I should say Youngster Unity's talent agency – it looked so different I barely recognized it. It looked almost like in the picture CEO took with Rena years ago –

I gasped again, getting up.

Something hit me a moment ago and I probably passed out... Was it Rena who possessed me? Was I seeing a dream that in a second will turn into a nightmare like always? I was here before, in the dreams. To be specific, in the recording room. I looked around and found this room. It was bright and new. I frowned. Another stupid dream... I was hoping I won't wake up on a roof.

As I was walking down the corridor, suddenly I heard voices, but they weren't like whispers I usually heard from Rena. They seemed... alive?

" –and I told him to back off! I had enough of his behavior."

"Really? That's just mean. Wasn't he mad at you?"

"Well, he was at first, but I was so absorbed in acting that I forgot about it soon."

I looked into the nearest room and saw two girls in white tracksuits, who were stretching, probably before some training. I saw a back of a girl with fair hair, who was sitting on a floor and a girl with long brown hair, who was facing the fair one, stretching her waist. She was the one who acted somewhere.

I frowned. I saw the brown-haired girl for the first time in my life, but somehow she seemed familiar...

Then two other girls came out of the room, walking straight at me. Suddenly we all froze, looking at each other. But... it was a dream, so what could they possibly do? One of them grimaced and jerked the other one, pointing to something behind me.

"You see? She's here again," she whispered to her friend. "I swear, this time Hyeonju will get mad."

My heart pounded faster. Did I hear it right? Did she say 'Hyeonju'? I turned around slowly.

Not so far from me stood another girl. She had black hair and so much make up on, that I barely recognized her, but after a while I was sure. She was Rena Im. Then... in this practice room... could one of the girls be Hyeonju Ahn?

I wanted to check on the girls again, when they walked out of the room and saw Rena too. The brown-haired girl frowned. "What now?" she asked Rena, crossing her arms in an offensive position. "Are you spying on me again?"

"No!" Rena snorted. I shivered. That was definitely that ghost's voice. "Do you think you're so important that everyone will look at you!?"

"Aren't you talking about yourself?"

Rena's face turned red and she walked away. I looked at brown-haired girl. So she was Hyeonju... She was a little different than in her mother's description.

"Let's go," Hyeonju said to her fair-haired friend, taking her hand. "I want to puke every time I see that witch."

I looked at Rena for the last time and decided to go after Hyeonju, but when I took a step forward, suddenly the view changed, as if I was thrown into a washing machine. Now I felt nauseous from the spinning.

I blinked a few times and found myself in front of a big door with a sign 'CEO's room'. I came closer to it and looked through chink in the door. Loud voices were coming from there. I saw two figures and recognized Hyeonju. She stood near the desk in a way I could see her devastated expression. The man, who was showing me his back, was probably Junho Park.

" –you told me I will go abroad!" Hyeonju was screaming.

"I did," CEO answered calmly. "But I changed my mind. What will it change anyway? You're successful enough here."

So he was a jerk from the beginning, I thought grimly.

I realized a minute ago that I must have seen Rena's memories, so maybe she really was possessing me right now. That was why no one could see me. I didn't exist here. However, why I was seeing Hyeonju's memories too?

"It changes EVERYTHING!" Hyeonju burst out. "I wouldn't mind if it wasn't HER! All South Korea knows I'm your favorite and I was supposed to go there! My mother was hoping I'll change my life there!"

"Change your life?" CEO repeated coldly. I shivered. I knew this tone and started to fear about Hyeonju's safety when I realized I wasn't real here, so I stood still, listening. "Are you unhappy with the life you have now?"

"That..." Hyeonju sighed. "That's not what I meant. I really wanted to be known overseas and I can't do that only through social media. You know that!"

"I appreciate your –"

The scene was cut off again and I was pushed aside by something, landing on a carpet. I groaned, massaging my hips. Now I was in the hateful recording room. It was slightly illuminated. Near the speakers were standing two people. I recognized Rena and Hyeonju.

I froze in a moment. Was that the scene where –

"Why did you do it!?" Rena shouted, pushing Hyeonju, who was holding a microphone, so she probably had been practicing some speech before Rena came in.

"What are you talking about?" Hyeonju whispered. I didn't like her tone. Was she really the victim here?

"Don't play stupid! You complained to CEO and now he's considering YOU as the candidate to abroad meeting! Did you played on his emotions as always!?"

Hyeonju's face became darker. "Isn't that your specialty? I know about your relationship with CEO."

"So now you're threatening me?" Rena said coldly.

"How could I dare," Hyeonju replied innocently. Man, I felt from her so much falsity that it almost hurt. "Your lover would fire me."

Then they got into a fight. I observed it with my mouth open. I didn't know girls could be so aggressive toward each other. Rena hit Hyeonju's face multiple times and Hyeonju returned the favor with a few kicks.

Suddenly Rena took a sharp object from the table and stabbed Hyeonju with it. I gasped uncontrollably, together with Hyeonju. The sharp object got stuck in her stomach. Rena was shocked herself. She let go of the handle and perhaps wanted to go for help, but Hyeonju, with her last strength, hit her with the speaker, making a deep wound in Rena's head.

Now, seeing this horrible double murder scene, I remembered. The ghost haunting us had a wound on its head indeed. And if it was true that ghosts appeared in clothes their bodies were buried with (or almost buried), the one who saved us in our dorm and stood before me on the stairs was Hyeonju. While Rena wore a white tracksuit, Hyeonju was in a white dress and sandals. But why would she help us? From what I saw she was the evil one... And I thought it was CEO who killed them!

I was sure it was all over when both of the girls fell down, but after a while someone came in and turned on the rest of the lights. It was CEO. I frowned. He didn't look shocked at all, only a little... disturbed? He checked Hyeonju's pulse. When he confirmed she was dead, he squatted beside Rena. I saw she was still alive!

"I'm... sorry..." Rena panted. Almost her whole body was covered in blood and I was sure she will die soon. "I... didn't mean to..."

"Hush..." CEO whispered. Then I saw a smile on his face. "I know. She deserved it."

"R-Really? Are you... not mad... ?"

"Why would I be? You did a great job."

Suddenly I heard police sirens. CEO too. He clucked with displeasure. I saw a blinking red button under the table. Maybe Hyeonju felt something was wrong before and pressed it calling for help, just in case?

"Too bothersome," CEO said all of a sudden and took the sharp object, cutting Rena's throat. She looked at him with disbelief and muttered something, but I didn't hear it. "Sorry, child. It's better than dying in agony, don't you think?"

Then she died for real. I panicked, even though I was only a shadow in this memory. He was a total psycho! H-How could he kill her so... delightfully!? That... That was just wrong!

I won't forgive...

I froze. I felt her. Rena's ghost was next to me. Her cold hands touched my throat, but before she strangled me, something hit my chest and I was conscious again.

Rena fell out of my body and disappeared with a groan. I gasped, breathing fast. Something warm was on my cheeks. I touched them and saw blood. Although my eyes were hurting, I thought I caught a glimpse of Hyeonju's soul that vanished along with Rena.

"Jin!!"

I looked to the right and saw my group members. I sighed with relief and wanted to go to them, but suddenly I heard a growling and looked ahead.

It seemed that the one who rescued me from the possession was Bella. I wondered why was she growling, when I recognized the one who just came out of the shadows.

"And I thought you wouldn't be so bothersome," Junho Park said, wielding a gun pointed to my heart.

# _Chapter 31_

# _Memories of the past, pt. II_

I swallowed hard, trying not to move. If I did that, he would shoot me for sure.

"I won't ask how you found this place," CEO said, looking at everyone else. I didn't see Creep, but why it didn't surprise me? I knew this freak would run away sooner or later. "But one thing doesn't let me sleep well..." He came closer to me and I automatically moved back, but he grabbed me by my shirt. I was dizzy. Damn, the side effects after being possessed have not yet disappeared... "How did you find out about Rena?"

"Clearly you weren't careful enough with your secrets..." I growled, trying to forget about my rampaging stomach.

Ah, damn my tongue. CEO got pretty mad because of my words. I got hit in the face and fell on my back. Group members ignored his weapon and ran to me. Then CEO loaded his gun and was ready to shoot, but suddenly Bella jumped at him, injuring his leg. He screamed with anger but wasn't distracted. He shot in the floor, an inch from my foot. Jongil quickly took me on his back, waiting for a chance to run.

But the chance wasn't coming. We lost hope to survive, when our another rescuer arrived.

Creep hit CEO's head from behind with a plank. CEO staggered aside and Creep passed us surprisingly fast, waving to follow him. We did that, leaving CEO alone with pain.

"What do we do now!?" Chanwoo panted as we entered the unknown corridor on the first floor.

"I'm thinking!" Creep hissed.

"I thought you left us," Youngho laughed nervously.

Creep glanced at him. "Well... I wanted to, to be honest. But I haven't received the payment yet."

"Very honorable," I commented with sarcasm. Everyone flinched, as if they suspected I was unconscious. "I can walk myself," I assured and Jongil let me go.

"Are you really okay?" Beomseok asked worried. "Your face..."

"What's wrong with my handsome face?" I panicked, touching it.

Group members smirked, seeing I was myself again. By the way, Chan was right: what do we do now?

"He won't leave us alone," I said, then wiped my face. It turned out some blood came from my eyes, probably when Rena was about to strangle me in her memories. But I was slowly recovering. Somehow I also felt that Rena's mark was lighter than before.

"He's crazy," Youngho stated.

"That's undeniable. And he's armed. Even though Bella injured his leg, he'll catch up soon." Then we heard a noise from downstairs. "I mean, REALLY soon," I added.

"He's not a ghost!" Creep hissed, looking through his stuff.

"That's even more undeniable," I grumbled.

"I meant, I don't know how to deal with him!"

"Oh."

"We should call the police," Beomseok proposed.

"Already done," Jongil said, showing us the phone. I just realized he was away for a moment. Man, this house's shadows certainly could swallow up any presence...

Wait.

"I got a pretty dangerous idea," I said.

"I like dangerous ideas!" Chanwoo jumped excited.

"No, you don't," Beomseok whispered through teeth, grabbing his arms to keep him still.

I continued, "I'll be a bait and you –"

"No way!"

"You're kidding, right!?"

"I think he's still sleepy. Don't listen to him."

"I didn't mean this kind of dangerous, you know?"

I sighed. As I thought. But we didn't have any other option.

"Let me finish," I said angered. "If we can't fight him physically, we have to break him mentally. He was uncomfortable when he found out I knew about Rena's existence and scared when I confessed I knew about her death. He wants to eliminate the only witnesses, that means us. I'll make him confess." I gave Jongil my phone. "Record it. He'll probably make sure I don't have any recording stuff."

"And what WE should do?" Youngho said anxiously.

"This place's shadows are mad." I stepped into one and everyone gasped. "See? You can't see me at all."

"But what if Rena, or other ghost, attacks us?" Beomseok freaked out. "I'm reminding you that the house is HAUNTED."

"You're safe, Rena can't touch you. She can possess only me and I'll be with her greatest enemy. And even if she attacks me, CEO will learn the truth and then everything will become a lot easier."

"That's a crazy plan," Creep commented and smiled widely. "I like it."

I smiled slightly, even though I hated the plan. I was scared of a lot of things. For example, CEO can kill me as soon as he sees me. Or Rena will possess me again, this time with deathly consequences, before I meet CEO. Others possibilities were no less terrible, so I gathered courage and tried not to think about them.

"Good luck," Jongil said. "We're beside you, remember."

"Okay."

After all of them hid in the shadows in the corridor, I stood in the center of it, waiting.

I didn't wait long. Junho limped on the first floor with enraged face. He smiled wryly at my sight and pointed the gun at me, when he stopped abruptly with suspicion.

"Where're the others?" he asked.

At least I made frightened face, as if I was shocked by his sudden appearance. "We got separated," I answered hesitantly.

"Ah, really? Do you have proof?"

"What more do you need? I can't prove they're in different parts of the house."

CEO stared at me for a few seconds, making sure I was telling the truth and he suddenly pointed his gun to my forehead, saying, "This will make my job easier."

"Wait!" I shrieked panicked, raising my hands. I heard a quiet gasp on my left, probably from Beomseok. "W-Why do you want to kill me?"

"Don't sweat it, boy. I don't have time for –"

"I want to know about Rena and Hyeonju!" I risked. My legs were trembling. CEO frowned. "You're going to kill me anyway, so you can tell m-me."

I didn't even hope he would fall for it and I was right. He came to me, searched my clothes and pushed me, without lowering his weapon. "What're you playing at?"

"I just want to know the truth," I insisted. I felt tension from the shadow on my left and right and I prayed that CEO won't feel anything. "I'm unarmed. A-Alone. And still unwell, as you can see. What can you lose? Besides your precious time, of course."

I did it. He became curious. "You're annoying but interesting kid, you know?" He lowered his gun. "Somehow scary too."

Who's the scary one, I thought grimly but I was happy that at some point the plan worked.

"Did you kill Rena and Hyeonju?" I asked, although I already knew the whole truth. What was left was his side of story.

"How do you know about them?"

"There're rumors. In your old agency's building."

"It's impossible that the rumors mention Rena. Especially her death."

"But some inhabitants knew her and Hyeonju. I also talked to Hyeonju's mother. I know about their relationship."

Suddenly CEO burst out laughing and I flinched, scared he would attack me instead. "You're scary indeed. Do you like to play detective? You knew it'll lead to your death eventually." I didn't answer that. Drop of sweat ran down my temple. "So you talked to her. That makes a problem. Oh, don't worry," he added, seeing my face. "I won't kill her yet, I need to clear my name first."

Good luck with that, I thought angered but managed to hold back my emotions.

"Yes, I killed Rena," CEO suddenly said, when I was about to repeat my question. "But I didn't kill Hyeonju."

"You didn't?" I pretended to be shocked.

"That's right. Hah! Both of them were stupid little kids. I don't know the details, but I suspect it was Rena who killed Hyeonju. She was already dead when I came into the recording room."

This confirmed I saw the truth.

"So you killed Rena," I whispered. "What happened to their bodies?"

"Bodies? Funny, you ask. Hyeonju's mother didn't tell you? The detective, who was leading the case back then, made a deal with her and they secretly took Hyeonju's body, burying it next to their house. It was forbidden though as nobody besides them knew about it. Well, at least they thought that they were the only ones. According to police archives, the body is missing."

Well, that explained a lot. "What about Rena?" I risked my main move.

"Rena was a difficult case," CEO continued, totally into his memories. "One body was bad enough for my business. I couldn't let another one to appear. So I took care of it myself."

"You hid it? Where?"

I was too impatient. CEO felt something was wrong. "Why do you want to know that?" he whispered, again pointing the gun at my forehead. This time he loaded it. I swallowed hard, suddenly feeling weak with fear.

Then we heard a familiar groan. For a moment I thought Rena came back, when I recognized it. It was Chanwoo. The groan echoed creepily in the corridor, so CEO felt insecure.

"Having fun of me again?" he growled, glaring at me. Thanks to my pale and frightened expression he probably thought it was a real deal, because he turned white himself.

"Revenge..." I heard from another direction. That was Youngho's whisper.

"I won't forgive you," Jongil added from behind me.

It scared CEO and while he was moving back, he suddenly realized my plan and wanted to get to me, but then I saw her.

Hyeonju Ahn was standing not so far away from CEO. She was really pretty. Her white dress was clean, not covered in blood like Rena's tracksuit. Perhaps only vengeful spirits are this ugly and creepy.

"Hyeonju..." I whispered, looking straight at her.

CEO stopped in the midway. "What did you say?" he growled.

"Do you want to know how I knew about Rena's death?" I said, looking at CEO with confidence, which confused him a little. "Because I saw her."

"What the hell are you talking about!? She's dead! You couldn't see her unless –"

"That's right. I saw her ghost."

CEO laughed. "You're making funny story to survive, kid, but it's useless. You –"

"Rena trusted you," I interrupted him angered, making a step forward. He stiffened. "But you killed her anyway. You cut her throat."

CEO's hand shivered. "How –!"

"I told you. I met her. I saw her memories. Hyeonju's too."

When I said that out loud, I was sure Hyeonju partly rescued me from Rena. She probably interfered, putting her own memories into Rena's, which confused the vengeful spirit a little. That was why I saw her and CEO's conversation.

"You cut her throat," I repeated, making another step. CEO dropped his gun while moving back. "You said she did a great job and that Hyeonju deserved to die!"

"YOU'RE LYING!" Junho shrieked, clenching his fists on his hair. Now he looked like a sick person. "I... didn't..."

"Where did you hide it?" I insisted. "WHERE DID YOU HIDE RENA'S BODY!"

"DOWNSTAIRS!" he suddenly shouted. "I hid it in the basement behind the wall! She couldn't... She surely –" Then he glared at me with madman's look. "It's all you fault! I'LL KILL YOU!!"

And he jumped at me. At the same time Hyeonju vanished with a sad look. I cursed. Why didn't she help me NOW!?

When I fell hardly on my back and was about to be strangled by CEO, group members came to my rescue. They tried to take him off me, but I kicked him aside, shouting, "Find her!"

"B-But –"

"HURRY!!"

Beomseok, Chanwoo, and Youngho ran to the basement. Jongil stayed with me. Creep disappeared somewhere again. Just great.

CEO got up and now was searching for his gun. I found it first and pointed it at his chest. He smirked. "You won't shoot," he hissed pleased.

He was right. My hands were trembling and I couldn't aim properly, even if I knew how to shoot. CEO took an advantage of my hesitation and punched me in the face. I fell on Jongil and we hit the wall. Jongil groaned. I turned to him worried, but CEO already grabbed my hair and pulled me on the floor. I hit it with impact and got dizzy. I froze in a moment and couldn't breathe with fear.

The gun was pointed into my mouth. I groaned, trying to break free, but he was too strong! I caught a glimpse of Jongil, who was coming back to his senses and turned pale when he saw the current situation.

"This is bye, bye," CEO said happily, pulling the trigger.

Then a few things happened at the same time. Yeah, that freak shot, but in the last moment Jongil pushed his hand and the bullet hit the wall. My brother fell on me, so I once more hit the floor with my head. I groaned semiconscious. After that we heard a rather hysterical battle cry and Creep came out of the shadows, attacking CEO with his weapons intended for ghosts. While he was struggling with CEO, my phone rang.

"We found it!" it was Chan. "We found it, but..."

"What now?" I cried.

"She's stuck. Isn't it over yet? I mean, we already found her body, right?"

He was right. Rena should be gone by now!

Suddenly I felt familiar coldness. Damn it. I summoned her again...

"It... isn't over," I whispered to Chanwoo. She was closer and closer. So was CEO, who just shook off Creep, who was lying puzzled on the floor with blood on his face. "I think you have to dig her out."

"What!?" that was Beomseok. "It's disgusting!"

"Do you want to switch places!? Hurry and –"

"JINWOO!" Jongil shrieked and I ducked in the last moment. The bullet missed again.

I put the phone in the shadow, so our only evidence could be safe.

"You'll regret everything!" CEO shouted and attacked me with his fists. His elegantly made hair was a mess. So was his always composed face and posture.

When I escaped from him, I ran into Rena. I gasped, stopping abruptly. She was really mad and my chest started hurting. I howled, falling on my knees. But before she got me, I heard a scream.

In a second fell deathly silence. I turned around, breathing heavily. CEO just saw Rena. He was looking at her with mixed feelings. I saw shock, sadness and fear in his eyes. Rena saw him too. She froze in a position, as if she wanted to crush my head with her hands.

"R-Rena?" CEO whispered in a trembling voice. "What... that's impossible."

"See?" I panted. "I wasn't lying."

He ignored my words. "You're alive?" CEO came closer to her. She, on the other hand, moved back. "No. It's weird..."

Suddenly Rena shrieked terribly and... attacked CEO. She clenched her hands on his neck, ready to break it.

"No! Don't kill him!" I screamed.

She ignored me as well. I cursed and got up to help him, but Jongil stopped me. CEO showed the whites of his eyes and started to drool.

Then Rena disappeared. Just like that. CEO fell on the floor. He wasn't moving. As Rena vanished, all of a sudden I felt strange and gasped, as if something was taken off me. Jongil sat on the floor with me. I touched my chest with hesitation and rolled up my shirt.

The cursed mark was gone. I looked at Jongil. "It's over!" I groaned. Jongil smiled, ruffling my hair. "It's over..."

After a minute we heard footsteps. Group members ran to us, dirty and tired. They looked at us, then at CEO. I stood up and came closer to CEO, touching his neck. I sat again, shocked.

"He's dead!" I told them.

At the same time we heard a noise downstairs. The police finally arrived. Someone touched my arm. I flinched surprised. Creep squatted next to me, looking grimly at CEO.

"We couldn't do anything," he assured me. "It was Rena's regret. I think he would die by her hands sooner or later."

"But that doesn't change she –!"

"Look," Creep pointed to something at the end of the corridor.

We all saw Hyeonju. While the police was occupied by the skeleton from the basement and by securing the crime scene, she came to us and kneeled beside CEO's body. She touched his hand and... smiled. Then she vanished. Perhaps for good too.

"I think Hyeonju didn't hate that man," Creep said. "Maybe she felt sorry for him. But her spirit was weak, because she was buried properly and should have gone to the afterworld. Rena, on the other hand, became the vengeful spirit because of the lack of proper burial ceremony and was much stronger than Hyeonju. That's why Hyeonju's presence was hard to notice and she wasn't much of help."

Now everything was clear to me. The ghost that was haunting us turned out to be the one, who was hurt the most by the psycho. And the one, about whom were rumors, was the good one. Such a misunderstanding with a sad story.

"I'll pray," I decided. "For both of them."

Creep smirked and hit my arm lightly. "That's the spirit! Ah, sorry about that... I think you have enough spirits for now?"

We laughed.

"Okay, let's get serious. Don't think I forgot about my payment," Creep added with a frown. "I want double!"

"We'll contact Mr. Han," Jongil promised and professor went home, escaping sneakily before the police saw him.

While group members were talking about something funny, I looked at CEO's face for the last time, before he was taken by the police. I shivered. His look was creepier in that state and similar to the one Rena's ghost had...

Well, it's not like he'll haunt us next.

.

.

.

Right... ?

END OF VOLUME 2

BONUS STORY

DAY WE DIED

Do you like zombies? Do you always wanted to be a part of a zombie apocalypse? Well, I liked them and sometimes dreamed of being a part of the apocalypse until all of it came true.

You probably think "He's going to begin with this and probably tell something better later", or "He has nothing better to tell". Okay, maybe now I don't, but this is... kind of interesting.

And no. I'm not going to change the topic. Why should I suffer alone?

One day I woke up in a different place than usual. I wasn't in our dorm, or even my family house. When I looked around shocked I was also sure it wasn't Seoul. Buildings were ruined, as if the greatest earthquake destroyed them, streets were empty and partly ruined too. Some of cars had still engines on.

"Did I get possessed again?" I asked myself.

Similar thing happened when we were still trainees. Back then I also woke up in a different place than I fell asleep in. But now I didn't feel anything unusual, as cursed mark, etc.. The only thing left was a dream. Before I pinched my cheek to check it, something hit my back and I fell painfully on my face. Okay. Now it was checked that it wasn't a dream.

"What the hell –!" I shrieked angered, turning around, then froze. "Youngho!? What... What the hell are you wearing?"

Youngho straightened up and threw the riffle on his back. He was wearing leather's suit, as the one I saw in some movies about European Middle Ages. The only thing he was missing, to look more ridiculous, was a horse... Were we in the middle of making music video? He looked around too, but with stone face, then grabbed me and pulled behind the nearest wall.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Me!? What are YOU doing!" Youngho scolded me. "Do you want to die wandering alone like that?"

"Certainly I don't want to die and I have no idea what you're talking about."

Youngho stared at me for a minute, probably thinking whether I joked or went crazy. Then he sighed and took me deeper into the building's ruins.

"Right. You perhaps just woke up," he started to explain. "Do you remember the last thing you did?"

"The last?" For a moment I was lost in thought. "Ah. We had free evening, so I watched horror with Beomseok. Then I probably fell asleep. Why do you ask?"

I thought I saw a grimace on Youngho's face but it disappeared in a second, so I wasn't sure if I didn't imagine that.

"Do you know what kind of horror it was?" Youngho continued.

"Well..." I stopped, seeing something strange behind him. I frowned and blinked. Man, did I drink something and was seeing things now?

Behind Youngho was a weirdly looking man – he had burned skin, was showing whites of his eyes, his clothes were torn, and half of his body was covered in red, which reminded me of –

I swallowed hard and pointed to the man with trembling hand, saying, "It was something like that."

Youngho turned around quickly and hit man's head with the riffle. Then he grabbed my hand tightly and pulled on the empty street.

"What the hell was that!" I shrieked. "The makeup was so real! Are we making a film, or something?"

"You've slept quite a long time," Youngho said. "You've missed a lot."

I looked around and gasped.

Behind us was no longer one man but hundreds of them. They looked exactly like the ones I saw in the horror.

Before I woke up in these ruins, I watched with Beomseok zombie movie. The one we watched was called Alone and was really creepy. Although the protagonist was the only living man, who was fighting the zombies, I wasn't alone. I looked in front of me. I had Youngho with me and was sure the others were somewhere. At least I hoped...

Then I thought about it again. Was it not a dream after all? My body hurt as I was running away and everything seemed so real... Especially my brother's tight, bone-breaking grip.

"Youngho..." I hissed. "Too tight..."

He loosened the grip but didn't let go. We turned left, just to meet another hundred of zombies.

"H-How did this happen!" I panted. Youngho hid me behind him and got ready his weapon. "What happened when I was sleeping?"

"End of the world," he replied, putting his finger on a trigger. "Seoul vanished and half of population died in one night."

I planned to be speechless for at least one minute, but zombies didn't let me. When I opened my mouth shocked, Youngho pushed me on the ground and started shooting like a professional. I wondered whether those games he played with Chanwoo taught him that.

"Right!" I shrieked. Youngho eliminated another zombie and pulled me again, running. "Where are the others!?"

"We're going to them," Youngho replied with no emotion, what was unlike him.

This time I started getting worried, but suddenly my worries were replaced by fear, when one of the zombies grabbed my hood and reached out his ugly hand to my face.

BANG!

I jumped away into Youngho's arms and the zombie fell dead (okay, deader) with a bullet in his head. I looked around and saw Jongil, who reloaded his gun and ran to us.

"Jongil!" I cried and fell into his arms, but he skillfully avoided my hug.

"Are you both alright?" he asked us. "We need to go NOW. They're getting ready."

"Ready for WHAT?" I said nervous. "And who're THEY? I may be still a little sleepy, so can you enlighten me what's going on? Besides the attack of creepy zombies."

"That's the main problem," Jongil answered. "We'll tell you everything in the base. We're not safe here."

The base turned out to be our agency. At least it WAS our agency... To be honest, only few walls remained and we gathered in a messy practice room. We were surrounded by other fallen pieces of buildings and trees, so it was great hideout, as it was hard to find in the first place.

When I came in, the first I saw was a person sitting on a torn chair with another riffle at the ready. I recognized the person immediately, and vice versa, and Chan jumped at me happy, squeezing me tightly.

"Jin, you missed so much!" the youngest said.

"I know that already," I muttered. "But I'm glad, to be honest. You're all okay!" I looked around. "And where's Beomseok?"

In a second group members' faces turned white.

"He's –" Chanwoo began hesitantly.

Now I turned pale. Was Beomseok –!?

" –out," Jongil finished and my level of stress violently jumped down. "He's out."

"Oh, really? Don't scare me like that!" But I came back to worrying, "Manager? Other staff? Our families!?"

Chanwoo shook his head, saying, "We don't know anything. There hasn't been twenty four hours from the attack yet. There is blackout in all city and we got separated from the others."

"Another thing is bothering me." I looked at them angered. "How come I was the only one left in the middle of an empty street? Why didn't you wake me up!"

"We wanted to," Youngho said, grabbing my arm. "But everyone panicked and we were pushed out. When things calmed down a little, we went looking for you, but you were already awake, so..."

Somehow I didn't believe him. How could I sleep through zombie apocalypse!? Even the deepest dream can be interrupted by a bloody, shrieking monster.

"How the zombies appeared?" I sighed, out of nowhere tired. I sat on the ripped chair. Springs were uncomfortably digging into my back.

"When you fell asleep watching the movie, we wanted to prank you, but suddenly there was something like earthquake," Jongil started to explain. "Then it turned out it wasn't that but a crowd of strange looking people, who blew up a building not far away from our dorm. First we thought about a terrorist attack, but then in the news began appearing those people all over South Korea. We don't know about the rest of the world though."

"After that there was sudden blackout," Chanwoo took the lead. "We panicked. But before we were able to move, our manager ran to us, fighting those creeps. We wanted to take you, but manager pushed us outside, assuring us he'll take you. We went out with security guard, who was killed soon anyway."

"Then we went to the agency, hoping it'll be the best hideout," Youngho said. "We decided to stay here till the dawn and go back to the dorm, but we fought almost all night and when we split up on patrol few hours later, we met up with you."

"Is everyone really... killed?" I asked quietly. What I just heard was a great horror scenario, but the most scary part was it was real.

"Well, mostly. We don't know the exact number. Some of our staff was... infected too."

"Infected?" I didn't like this word.

"Outsiders zombies can just kill or bit and then humans are infected. Then they become zombies too. It's similar to all zombie movies you've watched..."

"Then if that was a movie, it would be the creepiest one," I muttered, feeling sick from all the emotions that I experienced in such a short time. "So, where is Beomseok? I'd be at ease if we were all together."

Group members exchanged looks and Chanwoo wanted to say something, but at the same time the wall behind me exploded and I fell on the floor, coughing because of dust.

"They're here!" Jongil shrieked and shot several times.

Chan and Youngho got ready their weapons too, when they suddenly froze. I looked in the same way they were looking and saw someone's shadow.

It was a man's figure. A tall one. He was stooping and walking toward us slowly and hesitantly, as if he was injured. However, I couldn't see his face yet. The dust was too thick. But I felt group members recognized him. Maybe they fought him earlier? He seemed to be a tough enemy.

"Who's he?" I whispered, but was ignored.

Then the tall zombie started to mutter something. At first I thought he was humming, but he definitely was grumbling words.

"... me... my..."

"What?" I hissed. "I can't hear you!"

"Jin, don't!" Chanwoo grabbed my hand but I slipped out, coming closer to the zombie. I was annoyed by the whole apocalypse anyway. If they could speak and had a purpose, I wanted to hear that!

The tall zombie stopped abruptly, hearing my voice. "... give me... my..." he continued stubbornly.

"What?" I growled. "Give you what?"

Suddenly he jumped at me, grabbing my shirt and lifting me above the ground. The light came into the room through a hole in the ceiling and I recognized the zombie.

"Oh, boy..." I blurted shocked.

Beomseok grinned hideously, saying more clearly, "Give me! Where is my Pikachu!?"

"Which one?" That was the first thing that came to my mind.

I know, I should have asked "what happened?", "are you okay?" (which was definitely inappropriate question in this situation anyway), or "let me go!"; but I was more shocked by his ridiculous problem than the fact he was the walking dead.

"Jin, duck!" I heard Chan.

"With pleasure but HOW!?" I shouted irritated.

"Ah, never mind! Just stay still!"

"Very funny."

Then a metal rod hit Beomseok's head. He let go of me, but apart from that he didn't even flinch. I crawled away, only now freaked out by his creepy appearance and the fact he was gone forever.

"Don't worry," Jongil said, lifting me up.

"Say what!?" I outraged, pointing at Beomseok-zombie. "Look at him! He's –"

"I know but –"

"We're a team! Family! We should protect each other! Why –"

"Just listen to me! I'm trying to tell –"

"I don't care! Beomseok is a freaking zombie and now –"

"We got the cure."

I stopped dumbfounded. "Really? Why didn't you say it sooner!"

Jongil rolled his eyes. Youngho shot a few zombies, that were about to attack us from behind, and said, "But we need to get closer to give it to him."

"Is that why you just killed other innocent ex-humans?" I asked slowly. Somehow Youngho with a riffle was scarier than brain-eating Beomseok.

"Thing is, time is important," Chanwoo stated before Youngho reacted. "Beomseok was bitten a few minutes before you woke up, so he's still... fresh enough. You can see the difference if you look at their skin."

I did that and saw that Beomseok's burns weren't as dark as others'. Maybe that was why he could speak and others couldn't?

"So now what?" I said.

Jongil showed me a transparent tube with colored pills inside it. Everything would be fine if the tube didn't have duck's head.

"I won't ask about that design," I decided and took the tube. "But how did you get it?"

"That's a long story."

"But the zombies are in the city for not so long."

"Well... the truth is we ran into some scientists, who were also running, and we found the tube. At first we thought these pills were candies, but thankfully we fed zombies with them before Chan ate some. We rescued two people. We tried it on another one, that had almost black burns, and it didn't work. We hope it'll still work on Beomseok."

"Then let's get it done!" I shouted confidently and raised the tube, encouraging to the fight, when suddenly someone snatched it from my hand. "What the –!"

Beomseok looked at the tube with slight interest. That was easy, I thought, hoping he'll eat it out of curiosity. After a minute of studying it he... threw it away.

"What the hell, dude!!" I screamed and jumped to save it, but at the same time Beomseok attacked me.

Luckily, Chanwoo was fast enough and pushed Beomseok, while I caught the tube. I breathed out with relief but had to move right away, when another zombie tried to make a hole in my skull with a wire.

"Jinwoo, come on!" Jongil shrieked, waving at me from the other side of practice room. How did they end up there so fast?

"What about Beomseok?" I panted as we were running and a horde of brain-eaters started to persuade us. "I thought –"

"We need to isolate him, so others won't disturb us," Youngho gasped.

"Is it possible?"

"We'll see."

So it wasn't.

We ran on the street where skyscraper's pieces blocked the way to east Seoul.

We were trapped.

I turned around with fear, but there weren't any zombies. I frowned, then looked at group members, but they were also puzzled. What happened? Have they disappeared just like that? And what about –

Suddenly I heard hissing. I froze, not sure from which side it was coming. All around us was deathly silence and an echo. I swallowed hard and turned around, but there was no one behind me. I looked around freaked out. Why would they hide!? I thought they were no longer this intelligent!

"I have a feeling this Pikachu was an important item for us to survive," I whispered to group members.

"He was just babbling nonsense," Chanwoo assured me.

"That's just my feeling. Don't mind it."

Then I saw a hand, approaching Chan's ear. I opened my mouth to warn him, but Youngho, who was closer to him, saw that too and hit the zombie with the riffle.

"Youngho, stop playing those games. You're scaring me." I said.

Youngho smiled satisfied. We heard a noise from behind us and realized Jongil knocked out another two enemies. Then out of nowhere the rest of them appeared and in a second we were surrounded.

"CHARGE!!" Chanwoo shouted, raising his hand with the weapon. "I've always wanted to say that."

Well, I didn't. All of this was still unreal to me. Youngho, Chanwoo and Jongil seemed to have much more fighting experience than me. Okay, I was the only one who didn't like to play games, but...

Suddenly a few zombies jumped at me. I kicked one, punched another, but the third one reached out to my precious brain. But before he could feast on me, a metal rod flew into my hands.

"Find Beomseok!" Jongil screamed. "We'll hold them off..."

"But I –"

"Find him and hug him tightly from us!" Youngho added.

"Why would I do that!?"

"Okay, then hit him with it hardly!" Chanwoo said.

"That will do."

I hesitated a little, but they were coping pretty well, so I left them.

I found Beomseok rather quickly, which was somehow suspicious. Did he wait for me?

"My... Pikachu..." he was murmuring to the ground.

"If it's about the fat one, I'll buy you another," I said, getting his attention. "Now, can we talk it over?" He howled at me creepily. "Guess not."

Before he attacked me, I quickly came up with a plan and used in action both Youngho's and Chanwoo's wishes. When Beomseok was about to eat me, I hugged him, which obviously surprised him. Then I hit him with the rod, this time confusing him a little. This gave me the opportunity to put the candy into his mouth.

"Done!" I shouted satisfied, quickly pulling my hand away from him, before he bit it.

Beomseok staggered back and made a face, as if he was about to vomit. I got worried. Should it look like that?

"Jinwoo!"

I turned around and saw other group members. I pointed at Beomseok. They also got worried, which worried me more.

"I think we're too late," Chanwoo stated.

"Wait, what!?" I screamed shocked. "You said he was still fresh!"

"Well, it looks like I was wrong." And he got ready his weapon.

"No, wait!"

"Sorry, Jin," Jongil said suddenly, aiming at me too.

Then I realized (strange I didn't feel it though) Beomseok-zombie just bit my ear and I was going to turn into zombie soon.

When Jongil shot, I jumped with a scream, hitting something hard. I touched my body to check the holes, but there weren't any. I looked around confused.

I was in our dorm. The light was dim, as it was when we were watching the movie. I wiped my face covered in sweat and gasped, when Beomseok's face appeared in front of me. He was holding his forehead, which I probably hit earlier.

"You're okay?" he asked.

I breathed out slowly and stretched his cheeks. I sighed with relief and fell on sofa. He wasn't a zombie. Jeez, what a freaking nightmare!!

"Where are the others?" I said, closing my eyes to calm myself down.

"They're out."

I opened my eyes violently. This sounded familiar...

"Out?" I repeated, looking around. There were only two of us in the living room indeed. "Out where?"

Beomseok didn't respond. He was staring at something above my head. I got goosebumps.

Sudden familiar hissing made me to turn around violently and caused my fall from the sofa.

Then the full light was turned on and I heard a birthday song. I needed a minute to realize what really happened.

Everyone told me I fell asleep while watching the zombie movie, as I thought in the dream. Group members tried to prank me, so they waited for me to wake up and then they planned to scare me. I sighed with relief and was about to burst out laughing, when I suddenly heard in my left ear, "My... Pikachu..."

Not again!!

And that was the main prank. It turned out I was talking in my sleep and group members remembered some of my lines.

Man, now I was sure I didn't want to be a part of a zombie apocalypse. No matter how bored I would be.

END

COMING NEXT

I saw a strange circle made by the audience. I got curious and left the stage, coming to the empty space.

In the center of the circle was kneeling a boy. He was about eight years old and in a moment I remembered Daewon. I looked around. Fans were totally ignoring the kid, as they were chanting and having fun – they didn't break the circle though. Daewon himself was lowering his head and looked really miserable, even worse than when we met him for the first time. I squatted beside the kid and put my hand on his arm.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked and suddenly the silence fell, as if the noise was cut by a knife. I looked around shocked. Fans were standing without any movement, lowering their heads too. It creeped me out. I looked at the stage and realized my group members were in the same positions.

Then the kid grabbed my wrist. I looked at him and gasped with fear.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading my book, I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed it, won't you please leave me a review at your favorite retailer? It'll take only a moment.

Thanks!

Luka

About the author:

Scaredy-cat, fan of scary stories, unforeseen twists, Japanese, Korean and Chinese folklore and culture.

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Not weird enough?

In fact, one day the author is a modern ninja - who wants to discover all the secrets of the world (not only written ones), and another an ancient scholar - who loves to keep head in the clouds. Completely absorbed in fantasy and crime/horror, the author doesn't allow the reader to breathe even for a moment, because of emotional roller coaster.

The inspiration for stories comes from dreams, passion for Asian culture and vivid imagination, because of which even seeing a horror movie requires soundproof room.

Discover other titles by Luka:

I Will Tell You a Scary Story, Volume I: Psycho's Mail

Connect with me:

Follow me on Twitter: <https://twitter.com/LukaClaw>

Favorite me at Smashwords:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lukaclaw

*Mini-dictionary:

Kimchi – fermented vegetables.

PD – Production Director.

Post-It – one of games popular among Korean idols. It involves putting sticky notes on one's face and the player has to get rid of them using only his face muscles or blowing.

