ULAS 13

Chapter 13

“…You knew from the very beginning?”

“……”

So that was it.

No wonder Dan Seohyeok had been ignoring my words and staring pointedly somewhere else the whole time.

Damn it, now that I’m aware of it, the lower part just feels even colder.

Crap. I need to pee. But if I go to the bathroom, I’m terrified the ghost will come after me again when I’m alone!!

I’d rather get a bladder infection than do that.

I widened my eyes and desperately looked only at Dan Seohyeok. That was when a baffled expression appeared on his face.

“Don’t look at me either.”

What was I supposed to do then?

“That’s uncomfortable.”

Was it okay to curse in front of a ghost? Still, it had probably wandered around for longer than I had been alive, so it probably wouldn’t curse me more just because I was rude.

“Ah.”

Jang Hyunwoo clutched his head. Both Dan Seohyeok and I turned toward him at the same time.

“Sorry, I keep saying weird things without meaning to.”

It must be the ghost’s influence.

I did my best not to think about what was below me and continued talking.

“It’s okay. More importantly, doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t keep the keychain next to you?”

“I already tried throwing it away.”

Jang Hyunwoo rolled up the sleeve of his patient gown.

“Gah!”

On his exposed arm were deep blue handprints, like someone had gripped him tightly and left bruises behind.

At my shocked reaction, Hyunwoo answered weakly.

“It got in the way.”

“But someone already handed the keychain off to you, right? That person didn’t get in the way, so that’s why they gave it away, no?”

“That was just dumping it on someone else.”

Dan Seohyeok cut in abruptly. After pausing as if thinking over a solution, he added,

“It’d be better to return it to the original owner.”

Return it?

“No.”

“Why?”

“That’s….”

Dan Seohyeok asked for the reason, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer.

If I say that some soldier ghost appeared when you weren’t there and told me not to do that, you’d definitely say something…

He’d give me a disgusted look and ask if I seriously believed what ghosts said.

And he definitely told me not to return it or burn it.

It was a warning from a ghost, but somehow it was hard to ignore.

That ghost felt different.

I didn’t feel fear or revulsion from it, and most importantly—

It was a ghost, but it was handsome…!

Ah. If I said that out loud, I’d be 100 percent scolded.

When I trailed off, Dan Seohyeok frowned.

“I can’t return it to the original owner.”

Jang Hyunwoo answered with a gloomy face.

“I already sent them a message to ask why this happened, but I got blocked.”

So my contact route had been blocked entirely.

“You said you bought it through a secondhand site, right?”

“Yeah. But even when we met, something felt off.”

Hyunwoo answered Dan Seohyeok’s question, rolling his eyes as if recalling it.

“She was so thin she looked like skin stretched over bone… and both thumbs were missing from the hands that handed me the doll.”

“Thumbs?”

“Yeah. Weird, right? Even if it was from an accident, would both thumbs really be gone?”

Hyunwoo muttered while flexing both of his own thumbs as if to show us. He stared at his hands with a dazed, possessed look.

“And she said something weird too.”

Something weird? Could I not hear it?

“‘I’m glad it ended with just fingers. At least I won’t disappear.’”

Then why did you even take something that ominous?

I swallowed the words rising up to my throat.

I could see how anxious Hyunwoo looked. He’d been under a ghost’s influence, so what was the point of lecturing him now?

More importantly, disappear?

I wasn’t the only one who reacted sharply to that word.

“Disappear? Explain in detail.”

For the first time since entering the lounge, Dan Seohyeok’s gaze landed squarely on Jang Hyunwoo.

It made sense. A person already tied to a ghost mentioning “disappearance” was bound to set off alarms.

Could the keychain ghost be some kind of trafficking ghost or something?

If I think about that eerie face, it really does feel like final boss material.

My awareness of the area beside the leg where the ghost had been mentioned started creeping back.

“I don’t really know. I didn’t want to ask too much.”

“……”

Disturbing.

The woman who handed over the keychain had left in a hurry, almost like she was fleeing. After that, she had blocked Hyunwoo’s account as if she’d made up her mind.

“I-I’m going to disappear too? Or if I dump the keychain on someone else… no, what about Yu Chaesong? When is she coming?”

“What? You’re not seriously thinking of dumping the keychain on Chaesong, are you?”

“If the original owner did it, maybe I can survive by passing it on too!”

Hyunwoo reached out and grabbed my arm. His grip was so strong that I winced.

“The person who needs it should have it! Right?!”

“Ow! Let go and calm down!”

“I-I don’t want to disappear! Honestly, my wish wasn’t even that dangerous, was it? No—wait, maybe you should take it. If you take it and don’t make any wishes, maybe everything will be okay.”

“Jang Hyunwoo!”

“Stop.”

Dan Seohyeok covered my mouth.

“Ahh, please….”

When had it started?

In Hyunwoo’s dark eyes, my reflection appeared. And beside me stood a woman grinning so widely her mouth seemed to split apart.

Hyunwoo must be facing that horrifying face directly.

“Choyeon… save me…!”

“……”

“……”

A pitch-black hand reached out from beside my face.

Slowly, it wrapped around Jang Hyunwoo’s face. I was forced to stare at the writing covering his skin so densely it turned him black.

help me help me help me help me help me please save me now please save me soon it’s your turn help me help me help me help me

Only the words “save me” were repeated over and over.

No, was that all there was?

Just as I was trying to focus on the other words I had glimpsed and narrowing my eyes—

“Ahhh!!”

Hyunwoo’s eyes rolled back, and he toppled over backward.

“Kyaaa!”

Screams erupted around us, and people hurried over in a panic. Dan Seohyeok and I both took a step back.

“Patient! Are you okay, patient?”

Hyunwoo was already unconscious. I was still staring blankly as the medical staff rushed him away when—

I thought I saw a flash of black hair slip by, but then something covered my eyes.

Something big. Something warm.

It’s Dan Seohyeok.

It was Dan Seohyeok’s hand.

“Soon.”

A voice whispered right beside me.

That same metallic voice I had heard from Chaesong and Hyunwoo.

I held my breath.

Was it really from beside me?

My cheeks itched. Both of them did.

Maybe the ghost wasn’t whispering from beside me at all, but was standing right in front of me.

“Your turn.”

Only then did I understand.

The other words mixed in among the repeated “save me” had been a warning directed at me.

It really happened.

Yu Chaesong sat in her dark room, resting her chin on her hand as she sat at her desk.

The image of Jang Hyunwoo falling from the rooftop was still vivid in her mind.

So wishes made to the doll really do come true.

She had sneered at such nonsense before, but after seeing what happened to Hyunwoo, doubt crept in.

He’s not the type to secretly study hard.

It also made no sense that he could suddenly leap ahead of her in grades just because he briefly got serious and studied.

So, out of curiosity, she had accepted the keychain and made a wish.

Punish the person who unfairly harmed my grades.

She never expected Hyunwoo to really fall from the rooftop afterward.

It had been shocking, but the reason she’d laughed in that moment was because the joy outweighed the shock.

It really came true?

And Hyunwoo hadn’t even died—he’d only suffered a mild fracture, nothing life-threatening.

It was punishment in the truest sense!

In exchange for that wish, Yu Chaesong had only gotten a little nosebleed.

“Incredible.”

She muttered softly.

No, even so, Hyunwoo got hurt—how can I call that incredible?

Her face twisted, and she looked into the tabletop mirror sitting on her desk.

Her own pale face reflected back at her. And over her shoulder, an unfamiliar hand rested there too.

“……”

Skin blackened by writing, dense and overlapping, made the arm look pitch black. Yu Chaesong stared at it, and little by little, her focus began to blur.

…He didn’t die, did he?

It wasn’t as if he was badly hurt anyway, so wasn’t that fine?

The hand on her shoulder slowly slid upward, brushing her neck and then her cheek.

It felt rough, as if made of dry wood with no moisture at all.

The corners of Yu Chaesong’s mouth gradually rose. Far too much.

It was a grotesque smile.

Right. Something like that isn’t worth worrying about. I just need to use it in moderation.

In that case, instead of relying on the keychain, what if she used it only when necessary to help her studies?

Hyunwoo’s wish wasn’t unrealistic.

But someone like Jang Hyunwoo, who had been completely disconnected from studying, suddenly achieving that result was too much to ask from a wish.

The teachers and the others were surprised, but they didn’t seem suspicious that his grades suddenly improved, right?

She remembered how unusually many injuries there had been on Hyunwoo’s body.

…Maybe it affected other people’s thoughts too, which is why Hyunwoo got so badly hurt?

If that was the case, then if she narrowed the range of influence and only made achievable wishes—

The risk would probably go down too.

She needed to test it.

She didn’t want to ruin her life by making a reckless wish just because she’d finally gotten hold of a good opportunity.

Yu Chaesong turned toward her bed.

In the corner, the being she had encountered in the classroom was curled up in a hunched position.

When had it moved over there?

No matter how hard she stared, it didn’t blink and just kept staring back.

I was startled at first, but if that can help me, then so be it.

A female ghost with long, disheveled hair and a body covered in incomprehensible writing.

The ghost never spoke to her, but it had even grabbed her leg in the classroom.

I never thought ghosts really existed.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t afraid. It was more repulsive than she’d imagined from other people’s descriptions, and she didn’t want to get close to it.

Yu Chaesong’s gaze moved to the object in the ghost’s arms. It was Jang Hyunwoo’s bag. Of course, the keychain was inside too.

I was planning to sneak over at night to get it back.

How shocked had she been when she opened her closet at home and found that bag there?

That shock had turned to delight in an instant.

She couldn’t tell what the ghost wanted. Had it come to torment her because she, like Hyunwoo, had made a thoughtless wish?

Either way, I’m grateful it came to me directly. Now I don’t have to worry about being caught on CCTV entering the hospital and being mistaken for a thief.

Yu Chaesong slowly stood and walked toward the ghost. From the bag in the ghost’s arms, she removed only the keychain and returned to her desk.

She had been wondering how to study all night after her parents banned coffee and energy drinks because they were worried about too much caffeine.

So she made a wish to the keychain.

To let her maintain her usual condition even if she stayed up all night.

I’m really not sleepy. This is amazing, isn’t it? It doesn’t hurt anyone else, and it helps my studies!

In exchange, even now her fingernails kept popping off one by one, and the floor was soaking wet with blood.

Yu Chaesong hummed cheerfully with a hollow expression.