It was the topic that heated up the university community from last night until dawn. Since many people pulled all-nighters during exam period, posts poured out and views rose rapidly.
Park Dongju lowered his voice and whispered.
“Last night, four sophomores were studying and got sleepy, so they said let’s go check out the old library. They set out since they were bored and wanted to wake up, but on the way, they kept getting chills because it was strangely cold. Even the streetlights were broken, so they all walked close together… when suddenly they heard a scream of ‘Save me!’ from the library!”
“Hm? Wasn’t it actually a dangerous situation for someone?”
“They thought so too and ran over, and there really was someone inside the library. But the person visible through the window was clearly alone, yet as that person walked toward them, suddenly dozens of handprints appeared all at once on the window…!”
Moreover, the screams for help also sounded like dozens of people crying out, so they all ran away like crazy. Saying they tried to regain their senses with a courage test but instead had a mind-blowing experience, Park Dongju shook his shoulders with a shiver.
So Dahyeon also joined the conversation from the side.
“Yesterday in the dormitory, rumors spread too. You can see the old library a bit from our building, and should I say it seemed to be squirming strangely? It kept giving us goosebumps, so we drew the curtains so we couldn’t see it at all.”
“Even the kids rumored to have that ‘divine power’ warned not to look that way…”
Yang Gayeong also added in a trembling voice. Sim Seowoo realized the reason the library was chaotic from the morning was because of ghost stories and just blinked his eyes.
He didn’t use the community so he had no idea about this story, but listening quietly, one existence suddenly came to mind.
“I encountered someone coming out of that place at midnight…”
“What?! Gh-gh-gh-ghost?!”
“No, I think it was a construction worker.”
The voice answering while stirring the coffee to make the ice clink was very composed. Park Dongju, who had been startled for a moment, let out an empty laugh, but So Dahyeon firmly shook her head.
“What are you talking about? They said they’d do construction during vacation, so why would a worker come now?”
“R-right. And Seowoo, why did you go to the library at that hour…?”
A notice had gone up early saying they’d temporarily stop construction during exam period to not disturb students’ studying. Even at the point that there’s no way a worker would come, Sim Seowoo just tilted his head vacantly.
“While walking the tree-lined street at night, the people I met asked for the science library’s location. After we parted, I remembered it was under construction, so I went to tell them they can’t enter inside right now and happened to encounter someone.”
Even the background of his approach was absurd, so the three looked at each other.
“Even if it was a worker, why would they come out of there late at night? Could it be… all the people they said they met last night were ghosts?!”
“That’s right, he was bewitched! Come to think of it, I think they said the path those sophomores ran away on was the tree-lined street too!”
Park Dongju turned on his phone. He opened the community app to check the ghost story, but he froze solid just like that.
Following that, he trembled and kept pressing refresh repeatedly, making So Dahyeon and Yang Gayeong tilt their heads questioningly before soon screaming.
“What the. All the posts are deleted!”
“Until 4 AM, it was plastered with library stories…!”
The dozens of posts that poured out at dawn had all disappeared. Not a single post related to the library was spared, making the bulletin board completely empty.
Surely there should be people raising questions about this phenomenon, but there weren’t even such posts. At some point, a notice saying ‘Under Temporary Maintenance’ appeared on the board, blocking all acts of writing new posts and comments.
While the three exchanged confused looks, Sim Seowoo said calmly.
“I guess everyone was bored because of exam period. They made up ghost stories at dawn and returned to reality in the morning and deleted them.”
“…Wow, really, this level of acceptance is truly awe-inspiring.”
“Advanced spaciness borders on composure.”
Park Dongju was genuinely impressed, and So Dahyeon even clapped saying she wanted to share his mentality. The old library was gloomy enough to be reluctant to approach even in bright midday, yet Sim Seowoo who went there alone on a rainy night was truly fascinating.
“Can we really just see this as composure…”
Yang Gayeong muttered. She’d known for a while that Sim Seowoo’s calmness reached the level of enlightenment, but sometimes she felt something heterogeneous from him. Should she say his thought process regarding danger seemed broken?
Rather than the leisure of someone vaguely optimistic they won’t get hurt, it was closer to the detachment exuding from someone who’d already experienced the worst. The kind of resignation-mixed enlightenment where after experiencing something too big, you can brush off most things as nothing.
The three looked at each other and soon just shook their heads.
“Ugh, fine. Let’s just go study.”
“Ah, reality is scarier than ghost stories…”
***
Sim Seowoo quietly looked up at the clear sky, then lowered his head to check the building situated before him. No matter how many times he looked again, the building didn’t change.
“…Why did I come all the way here?”
He’d arrived in front of the science library.
While studying with friends, the dazed feeling wouldn’t go away at all, so he came out for a walk alone. Was it because of insufficient sleep due to exam period? No, honestly, he’d been in this state ever since meeting that man last night.
‘It’s dangerous to come to a place like this alone late at night.’
Perhaps because he was a person with such a unique atmosphere, he seemed to have unconsciously come all the way here while mulling over the moment he encountered him.
His friends kept condemning him for seeing ghosts, but didn’t the students who did the courage test yesterday also say they witnessed someone at the library? He didn’t know what the circumstances before and after were, but at least one person was inside the building.
Could the person those students saw have been him?
Sim Seowoo checked the corridor the man had walked out from last night. Though there were no special barriers on the building except construction notice signs, he felt cautious for no reason and just tilted his head to examine the interior.
An urgent matter enough for a worker to visit a site where construction stopped a week ago…
“…A doll?”
A black bear doll caught Sim Seowoo’s vision.
Moreover, it was dropped alone at the entrance of the corridor, making it stand out even more. A small doll under the light pouring through the shabby window.
Did that person drop it and leave?
Since it was the only item found in the corridor that was half-demolished and hollow, he naturally came to think of him as the doll’s owner. It seemed like he was the only person who’d entered and exited here recently.
Such a sharp impression yet carrying around a doll like this—thinking it was quite unexpected, Sim Seowoo picked it up.
“It’s got some dust on it…”
It was quite blackened as if it had rolled around the construction site, so Sim Seowoo patted the doll with his hand.
Then two voices were heard from outside. It was the sound of conversation between people approaching the library.
“What’s wrong with that guy? He dropped it himself, so why is he telling us to pick it up!”
“Actually, we were late yesterday, so we have nothing to say but… it’s strange. He’s not the type to make mistakes like this.”
The voices were familiar, making Sim Seowoo’s head turn naturally. They sounded similar to the voices of the people he met on the tree-lined street last night who asked for the science library’s location.
“We weren’t late, that guy was strangely fast, okay? O-of course we got a bit lost! Anyway, moving alone and then dropping an important item—could he be getting revenge on us? Making us go back and forth on a long trip on purpose!”
“Hey, that person? Where else would you find someone as indifferent to everything in the world as that person? He’d probably think even revenge is bothersome. Hmm, though strangely from last night to this morning, he was a bit different…”
“What? Why did you stop talking mid…”
The moment their conversation cut off abruptly was when eyes met with Sim Seowoo in the air. They entering through the library’s main entrance and Sim Seowoo standing in the corridor came to face each other in a precise line.
For some reason, the two froze with their mouths wide open, so Sim Seowoo deliberated and then nodded his head in greeting.
“We meet again. Did you find the science library well yesterday? I belatedly remembered it was under construction—”
“Y-you’re, holding, the doll?”
“…Yes?”
The woman in the red hanbok’s trembling voice dropped out in stutters. She even swayed unsteadily, and the petite man covered his face with both hands in shock.
“He even cl-cleaned the doll…!”
“…Ah? Yes. It had dust on it so I brushed it off, and it happened to get clean.”
Sim Seowoo became very bewildered. The expression ‘cleaned’ was unfamiliar, so he answered a beat late, but then looking down, he was surprised that the bear doll had turned pure white unlike before.
It was this white of a doll?
Just how much of a dust pit did it roll through…
Just as he looked down at the doll with pitying eyes, the man jumped up and down. As if dumbfounded by Sim Seowoo’s reaction, he raised his voice.
“Right now, you grabbed a cursed doll with your bare hands and even purified it!”
