Just then, thunder and lightning struck again. Hakyoung lowered his eyes and flinched very slightly. Just barely enough to not be noticeable to others.
“Ghosts? What ghosts?”
When Sunmin asked with curiosity, Hanju leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“You know that ghost that regularly appears on the 10 line. The blue-eyed aunties…”
“Ah, the blue eyes!”
Sunmin chimed in knowingly. Hanju kindly added.
“Hakyoung, you don’t really know since you transferred here, right? There are quite a few ghosts that reside in our dormitory. But this isn’t something to just brush off—several people have witnessed them and everyone describes them the same way. I’ve never seen them once, but apparently they often appear to people with weak energy. There are always three aunties in a group, and they’re all emitting blue light from their eyes, so they’re called the blue-eyed ghosts.”
“What do those three ladies do?”
Hakyoung asked. Hanju giggled at the extremely respectful honorifics applied even to unknown ghosts.
“According to witnesses… Those aunties appear when you have sleep paralysis. And they look down at the person with sleep paralysis and whisper, ‘Are they dead? They’re dead, right?’ But the problem is, if you try to wake up from the paralysis then, they realize you’re not sleeping. So even though it’s painful, you have no choice but to stay still while paralyzed. But the aunties don’t leave, it’s painful! You can’t escape the paralysis! It keeps being painful! The kids who experienced it say it really goes on all night.”
“What happens if you just get up?”
“I don’t know since I haven’t tried it…”
Hanju, who had been scratching his head, continued.
“Anyway, they appear often on the 10 line. That’s why room 10 is always unpopular when dormitory rooms are assigned. That’s also why this place was empty until you transferred here.”
“I see.”
Hakyoung nodded calmly. Hanju looked between Sunmin and Hakyoung alternately and asked again.
“Are you guys okay?”
“I don’t believe in ghosts in the first place.”
Sunmin said.
“I’ve never experienced sleep paralysis.”
Hakyoung answered. Meanwhile, Hakyoung realized that Yumyeong was being excessively quiet.
When he looked to the side, Yumyeong somehow had a slightly tense face. He was pretending to look down at his book, but he was biting his lower lip hard, and the hand holding his pen had also stopped.
At the same time, Hanju raised his voice.
“Huh? Shin Yumyeong, you’re scared, you’re scared!”
“It’s not that I’m scared… Ugh!”
Yumyeong, who gave up pretending to be composed in 3 seconds, sighed and hurriedly climbed onto Hakyoung’s nearby bed.
“Ha, who started this story?”
Yumyeong grumbled while pressing his back firmly against the wall and leaning on it. It was the typical behavior of someone who feels scared just from having their back exposed when hearing ghost stories. Whether he did that or not, Hanju recited a list of famous ghosts living in the dormitory along with their characteristics. With very kind descriptions in case Hakyoung, the transfer student, might miss something.
“There’s also a ghost that only appears at the 4th floor lounge window, and it’s called Bingeureure because it hangs upside down laughing. Its hair is disheveled and its face is always very pale. And there’s also a ghost that keeps stealing one sock. This one is presumed to be a baby…”
Hakyoung occasionally looked behind him to check on Yumyeong’s presence. While pretending to be fine, at one point their eyes met when Yumyeong was pressing both ears hard with his hands. Later, perhaps because he was quite scared, he was sitting with Hakyoung’s blanket rolled up to his neck.
Come to think of it, Yumyeong had been very weak to ghost stories since childhood.
Especially when he was young, what he feared most was the ghost living under the bed. Because of that ghost that would grab and drag away a child’s ankle if they lowered their feet under the bed, Yumyeong would always tense up whenever he got down from the bed.
Even now, Yumyeong had his feet up on the bed. It seemed like he was still worried about his ankles even now that he was all grown up, so Hakyoung laughed to himself.
A while later, when the conversation died down, Yumyeong asked softly from behind.
“But are you guys going to keep studying here?”
“Why?”
“This is room 10…”
“Then go to your room!”
At Hanju’s clear conclusion, Yumyeong shut his mouth tight. He didn’t want to be on the 10 line, which was a ghost hotspot, but he seemed even less inclined to go to his own room alone after hearing ghost stories.
In the end, Yumyeong only returned to his room when Hanju finished studying and got up.
“Wow, it’s already 3 AM. You guys know? This is the time when ghosts wander around the most… Aack! My back stings!”
Hanju added one more comment until the very end and got his back smacked repeatedly with both of Yumyeong’s hands.
And the next morning.
At roll call time, Yumyeong appeared with dark circles under his eyes. His face clearly showed fatigue.
“Why is Shin Yumyeong like that?”
“Don’t even ask. He had sleep paralysis all night.”
Hanju answered on his behalf to the friend from the next room who asked. There was a slightly apologetic air about him.
Whether others were talking about him or not, Yumyeong’s eyes were unfocused as he blankly listened to the roll call.
Yumyeong was already well aware of the blue-eyed ghosts. Because he had seen them directly. Do ghosts appear where they’re called? From the moment Hanju opened his mouth yesterday, the signs weren’t good, and as expected, Yumyeong had sleep paralysis all night. The blue-eyed ghosts visiting was a bonus.
The weakened Yumyeong soon leaned his head against the door and began whining.
“It’s because you guys talked about ghosts yesterday. Sob… Park Hanju, you bad guy. From now on, don’t even bring up the ‘gh’ in ghost. If you really must, give a hand signal warning and then start. I’ll be somewhere else.”
“Really? Ah, but what are you going to do today? I’m going home.”
“That’s right. It’s the weekend!”
At the thought of having to sleep alone today, Yumyeong’s face turned pale.
Once all the students left, the dormitory became very quiet. As soon as Hanju left the dormitory, Yumyeong went to Hakyoung’s room. Sunmin had also gone home, so only Hakyoung was in that room.
“Studying? Let me study with you too.”
Then, before Hakyoung could say anything, he tossed his books onto the desk with thuds and properly positioned himself for studying. Seeing that he’d brought even his personal water cup and pencil case, Hakyoung made a surprised expression.
“What’s the occasion?”
“Well… it’s about time I pull myself together too.”
Then Hakyoung laughed and said.
“Right. Study hard.”
“I’m not in a position to be encouraged by you, you know? If I really put my mind to it.”
“Right, put your mind to it and work hard to do it properly. That way…”
Hakyoung paused and muttered softly with his eyes lowered.
“You’ll go to the same school as me.”
Those softly spoken words strangely provoked Yumyeong.
“Hey, what do you take my level to be to say something like that?”
At the sudden words, Hakyoung looked up at him silently. Yumyeong crossed his arms and frowned.
“Do you think I’m at a level where I need to work hard to aim for the same school as you?”
“If not?”
“It’s the opposite.”
And with that, Yumyeong said confidently.
“Strictly speaking, you should be following me. I was top of this school, you know?”
“Hmm…”
At Yumyeong’s words, Hakyoung didn’t show any sign of being offended and just smiled. However, Yumyeong was rather suspicious.
Could it be he’s looking at me so laughably because he doesn’t believe me?
Well, that made sense. Hakyoung didn’t know his serious mode.
“Right, work hard.”
However, Hakyoung smiled contentedly instead and lowered his head back to his book. That somehow provoked a competitive spirit deep in his heart, so Yumyeong placed his hand on top of the book Hakyoung was reading.
Hakyoung, whose view was obstructed, raised his head. Yumyeong said with a challenging look.
“Let’s make a bet.”
“A bet?”
“Yeah. Betting on school ranking.”
When he spoke seriously, Hakyoung’s complexion changed a bit. Yumyeong laughed and asked.
“Scared?”
“As if.”
“Let’s compete man to man.”
“Who’s avoiding it?”
“Then let’s bet.”
Then Hakyoung frowned slightly.
“What are we betting?”
“Let’s think about it from now.”
And so Yumyeong began thinking about what would be most beneficial to him.
A 10-time late-night snack voucher?
But he was already getting plenty of that.
Should I ask to go to an amusement park? That also seems boring somehow…
Ah, should I ask him to introduce me to a female sibling or cousin if he has one?
It was a thought that passed fleetingly, but when he mulled it over, there was something very tempting about it. If they resembled Hakyoung, it would be hard for them not to be pretty. Yumyeong was grinning widely, thinking he’d come up with quite a good idea. Meanwhile, Hakyoung also seemed to have thought of a reward, and after hesitating a bit, opened his mouth.
“Anything…”
“Hm?”
“Can I say anything?”
“Of course.”
Yumyeong answered readily. And yet Hakyoung still had a somewhat reluctant expression with his chin propped up.
“As if I’d know what you’re going to say…”
“Think about that after you win.”
That uncomfortable expression is definitely because he’s not confident he’ll win, Yumyeong scoffed inwardly.
***
The rain showed no signs of stopping until night.
The two people who had been stuck at their desks continuously except for eating listened to the roll call broadcast and came out to the hallway.
“Third floor, beginning evening roll call. Since it’s the weekend today, we’ll just quickly call the names of those remaining and finish.”
The dorm supervisor checked the number of people against the list of those remaining and dismissed them saying “study hard for exams.” In the busy hallway where doors were slamming here and there as everyone closed their room doors after the short roll call, Hakyoung spoke to him.
“You’re going to stop here for today, right?”
“Yeah, but…”
“You want to do more?”
“Yeah, no…”
When Yumyeong hesitated, Hakyoung waited for an answer with eyes asking what was wrong.
Finally, he let out what he’d been debating whether to say all during today’s studying.
“Today… want to sleep together?”
“…”
In that moment, Yumyeong saw Hakyoung’s Adam’s apple bob distinctly. If he’d been just a little closer, he might have heard the gulp.
