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Chapter 3
The male student apparently wasn’t clueless either, because he’d been holding his breath the entire time too.
Our eyes met.
‘He probably knows this is only a temporary solution too.’
I quietly jerked my chin upward.
A questioning look followed.
‘Feels like he knows a lot more than he’s saying.’
The problem was that we’d already used the bicycle—the only object in the building—to distract that thing.
For now, we needed to get as far away from it as possible.
“……”
“……”
When I gestured upward again, the male student finally seemed to understand and silently began moving.
I followed behind him, carefully muffling my footsteps as well.
‘What do we do now?’
Should we keep dropping our belongings down to the first floor?
But everything else we had was much smaller than the bicycle. They might only fall to the second or third floor instead.
That would be even worse. That unidentified thing might hear the sound and come upward.
‘I need to find Chohae quickly too.’
I was anxiously biting my lip when—
Tap tap.
The male student quietly nudged my shoulder.
<If it catches you, you’re finished.>
On his phone screen, with the brightness lowered almost to nothing, those words were displayed.
Apparently his phone was on silent mode because even when he typed, no sound came out.
Just how much did this guy know?
<The only way to escape is to avoid being found and survive until morning.> <Think of it as hide-and-seek.>
‘Until morning? You expect me to survive this until MORNING?!’
How could he dress up something this horrifying with a cute word like hide-and-seek?!
This guy’s mental state was seriously questionable!
‘Where are we even supposed to hide in the first place?’
We were currently standing in the fourth-floor hallway.
The sound of the bicycle crashing downstairs had been deafening, yet nobody came out to check.
I stared at the silent hallway.
Did anyone even live in a villa that contained something like that to begin with?
And if my brother had been taken by it too—
‘If that’s really true, then how am I supposed to get Chohae back…?’
At this point, I wasn’t even sure whether I’d make it safely back to the dorm alive.
Just as my eyes started burning with fear and sadness, a phone was thrust in front of me.
<We need to find an empty apartment.>
The message was so merciless it felt like crying itself was a luxury.
Cold bastard.
Still, thanks to that, I calmed down a little.
The male student showed me another message.
<But I’ve never tried this with two people before, so there’s no guarantee it’ll work.>
‘With two people?’
Did that mean he’d come here before?
Considering how much he knew, maybe he had.
‘I thought only the original protagonist experienced bizarre things like this.’
I carefully studied the male student’s face again.
His side profile, focused while typing on his phone…
‘He really is handsome.’
The protagonist of the original novel had also been described as handsome.
And he was a student too.
But unlike the gloomy, exhausted guy in front of me.
‘The protagonist was actually kind of irritable, and he was scared of ghosts too, wasn’t he?’
This guy clearly felt the threat to his survival, but he didn’t seem terrified by ghosts.
‘Maybe he’s not the protagonist but a supporting character? Would I recognize the name if I heard it?’
Honestly, I’d only read the novel until around the middle anyway. I dropped it because the later episodes became too cruel…
<From now on, stop acting on your own without discussing it first and just follow my instructions. One mistake is enough to get you killed.>
Why did he say it like I’d be the only one dying?
‘Does he mean he’ll kill me himself if I don’t listen?’
I didn’t know whether I should fear the ghost downstairs or the guy beside me more.
Suppressing my trembling body, I nodded.
‘But can I really trust him and follow along?’
Was there even a way to find an empty apartment without making noise?
If he said we had to find one, didn’t that mean he didn’t know where it was either?
Tap tap.
When I poked his shoulder, he turned toward me with an annoyed expression that practically said what now?
‘Jeez. I know I’m technically the weaker party right now, but that glare is seriously rotten.’
I almost returned the glare but stopped myself and took a deep breath instead.
Pointing at the phone to ask for it, I held out my hand.
The male student reluctantly handed it over.
I quickly typed.
<Do you know which apartment is empty?>
He took the phone back.
After staring silently at the screen, he let out a soundless sigh.
Why? I had the right to know too! Being chased by ghosts was already terrifying enough!
<I can’t say for sure. It changes every time.>
Every time?
I stared at him.
<There’s no time for this. Just do exactly what I tell you.>
He didn’t even give me time to question him.
Sure, the situation was urgent, but his overbearing attitude was really starting to piss me off.
Still… now wasn’t the time, Machoyeon…
<From now on, I’m going to try opening every door on the fourth floor.>
<You sit quietly beside me and don’t do anything. If you make trouble by making noise—>
Ah.
While secretly reading over his shoulder, I noticed him pause.
Then he erased the sentence he’d been typing.
<You sit quietly beside me and don’t do anything. Absolutely do not make noise.>
If you make trouble, then what…?
Actually, maybe I didn’t want to know.
In the end, he meant he’d handle everything himself, so I should just stay put.
I silently nodded.
‘Internet ghosts are liars.’
It sounded like I’d find my brother if I just came here, but instead I ran into ghosts and ended up clinging to some foul-tempered jerk.
While the male student cautiously turned doorknobs one by one, I crouched against the wall facing the stairs.
Even if I noticed the ghost coming up, there wasn’t really any way to warn him without making noise.
Still, it was better than doing nothing.
As I sat there quietly, all kinds of thoughts flooded my mind.
‘I miss Chohae….’
I wanted to find him quickly, check if he was safe, hug him, and ask if he’d been scared all this time.
Just as tears were about to fall again—
Creeeak.
A tiny sound reached my ears.
Turning my head, I looked at the apartment door closest to the wall I was leaning against.
‘Huh?’
The door, which had definitely been closed earlier, was now open.
And through the crack, I saw a familiar face.
‘N-no, no, no way.’
The little child wearing the red suspenders.
That ghost child was crouching just like me, peeking through the gap and staring up at me.
It was horrifying enough to make my soul leave my body.
‘When did it get in here? No, why is it coming out of there in the first place?!’
The problem was that this wasn’t the end of it.
The male student had also stopped opening doors and was staring this way in shock.
Which meant he’d heard the door open too.
Of course he had! It was dead silent in here!
‘Which means—’
Tap!
‘There’s a high chance the thing downstairs heard it too!!’
I shot to my feet.
Because something was running up the stairs from below.
Tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap!!
And it definitely wasn’t just one thing.
“Get over here quickly!!”
“What the hell are you—?!”
I frantically motioned toward the male student standing not far away.
His face showed complete panic at the unexpected situation.
“You said we just need to get into an empty apartment, right?!”
“That’s true, but what are you planning to do?!”
Even while sounding angry, thankfully he still rushed toward me.
I grabbed his wrist.
There wasn’t time to explain properly.
“Logically speaking, there’s no way humans would be living in an apartment with a ghost inside!”
I squeezed my eyes shut and yanked open the half-open apartment door.
In the process of practically throwing the bewildered male student inside, something seemed to catch against my foot—
‘No way.’
Surely the ghost kid wouldn’t have been dumb enough to keep sitting there.
Bang!
The sound of the door slamming shut echoed thunderously through the hallway.
Huff, huff.
Inside the dark apartment, only our ragged breathing filled the silence.
And even that was just air leaking out after holding our breath too long.
“You idiotic peanut…”
The male student called out to me.
“I said we should hide in an empty apartment. If you openly show them exactly where we’re hiding, what’s the point?”
BANG!
BANG BANG BANG!!
At the same moment he spoke, something began pounding violently on the door.
It sounded like dozens of people attacking it at once.
“B-but…!”
We’d already been discovered! There was no time to check every single door to see which apartment was empty!
I opened my mouth indignantly, but the male student didn’t let me argue.
“And I never said an apartment with ghosts in it was safe either.”
It seemed like he was about to stop there, but after a short sigh, he added one last comment anyway.
“You’re the type who only understands exactly one thing when told one thing.”
Seriously? I’m getting scolded even after trying to help?
I felt irritated, but if I snapped back, it felt like he’d return ten times worse, so I gave up on arguing and looked toward the entrance.
There lay the child ghost in the red suspenders.
‘…That name is too long. Let’s just call him Red.’
Red was sprawled across the floor.
It looked like he’d been kicked away by something.
‘Wait. Then the thing my foot hit while coming in was?!’
I looked at the male student with a please tell me no expression.
Unlike me, who had shut my eyes earlier, he’d been the only one still looking.
But the male student didn’t seem interested at all in who had sent Red flying like that.
He simply stood up and began inspecting the apartment.
“S-s-so, um…”
As a result, only Red and I remained near the entrance.
It was impossible to keep pretending not to notice him when he’d been lying there motionless in the exact same pose this whole time.
“Sorry… I was in a hurry. If I shoved you while coming in.”
Was he sulking…?
No response.
Or maybe ghosts just couldn’t speak human language?
Then—
Squirming slightly, Red sat up and rubbed his forehead—the spot where he’d apparently been hit—with his tiny hand.
[You hit me…….]
Huh?! He could talk?!
That alone was shocking, but what he said was even more shocking, so I hurriedly defended myself.
“I didn’t hit you! I just bumped into you!”
[Noona hit me….]
“Ahh, I said it was an accident! Sorry!”
What if he cursed me or something?!
Terrified, I hurriedly dropped to my knees in front of Red.
“What are you doing?”
Apparently finished checking the apartment, the male student had returned to the entrance and was now staring at me like I was pathetic.
