“With all these blackout curtains hung up in the hallway……”
A few days before Seoyeon filmed the commercial.
Seoyeon visited the old school building with her classmates.
“It definitely has some atmosphere.”
Gil Da-hyun, the class 4 president, marveled at the rather convincingly decorated atmosphere.
First, the windows letting in light were blocked with blackout curtains, white drawing paper was pasted on the walls, and then dark red paint was splattered to set the mood.
So, what came of this was...
“Wow, honestly, I'm a little scared.”
A female student shuddered.
That was understandable, considering the building they had received permission to turn into a horror booth was the old school building.
And an old school building that hadn't been used for a long time, at that.
An unmaintained building.
It had that unique atmosphere that abandoned buildings take on over time.
A strangely desolate atmosphere.
The classroom windows were cloudy and cracked.
And since it was an old building, the floor was made of wood.
“……Do we really need to do both the 1st and 2nd floors?”
A few female students, already overwhelmed by the atmosphere, muttered as such, but...
“What are you talking about! Of course, we have to do it properly!”
The highly motivated class president shouted loudly, glancing at Seoyeon, who had been quiet until now.
The actor who had recently been in the spotlight for various reasons.
That very Seoyeon had actually volunteered to take on the role of a ghost.
“U-um, Seo... ahem! Seoyeon. You'll do a good job acting as the ghost, right?”
It was a little awkward, but thinking about it, they had already been in the same class for a few months.
They couldn't stay awkward forever!
“……Yeah.”
At the class president's attitude, Seoyeon felt a little pleased, but also...
‘Umm.’
Honestly, she was a little nervous.
It wasn't really nervousness about the role.
‘It feels very similar to that horror game I played back then...’
An old, white building.
Making it dark with curtains made it feel even more similar.
“We'll give everyone a flashlight starting from the 1st floor.”
“Why? Even with blackout curtains, it's not to the point where we need flashlights.”
“Ah, you don't get it. The flashlight is for the atmosphere.”
Even entering with flashlights was similar.
Somehow, something felt off.
‘It probably doesn't matter.’
Seoyeon slowly nodded.
What could possibly happen?
What's the problem with it being similar to a horror game?
‘Back then, I was only startled by the monsters' appearances or the jump scares.’
So there was no way she'd be terrified by a haunted house made by high school students.
Most importantly, Seoyeon was on the side of doing the scaring.
The same role as the monsters that startled Seoyeon in the game back then.
“……”
Thinking of it like that made her feel a little joy.
Even the class president was looking forward to Seoyeon's ghost acting, wasn't she?
‘This might be helpful too.’
Coincidentally, the role Seoyeon had taken on was a murderer in a thriller movie.
The emotions from playing a ghost could be helpful for that.
‘Come to think of it, I feel like I've only focused on Cha Seo-ah's human side.’
Seoyeon suddenly had that thought.
Thinking of Cha Seo-ah and herself as similar people made her feel that way even more.
However, Cha Seo-ah was not someone to be pitied.
If she was the culprit in a thriller movie, she naturally had to instill fear in the audience.
‘The parts filmed properly so far are the highlight sections, so it was fine to show the character Cha Seo-ah, but...’
For the early part, they had only filmed the chase scene.
They had filmed the mid-section's daily scenes and highlights, but not the mid-section crime scene.
‘Then.’
It seemed like it would be good to emphasize a more terrifying aspect in the mid-section.
If she utilized that in this haunted house...
“Seoyeon.”
At that moment, the class president called Seoyeon.
When she raised her head, she felt the other students looking at her.
“We're going to practice starting now, is that okay?”
Actually, they had already practiced a few times while it was bright.
But it was her first time doing it in a dark situation, so Seoyeon was inwardly nervous.
Of course, it definitely wasn't because she was scared.
Seriously.
***
“Hmm.”
Like that, 3 days until the festival.
Seoyeon sat on a chair at home, pondering.
Today's commercial shoot had also ended successfully.
In particular, the director, Do Hyeong-tae, was full of praise, which actually made Seoyeon feel awkward.
That was because, before the shoot...
“Ah, if Do Hyeong-tae is directing this CF, it's going to be tough.”
“Why?”
“From what I heard, he has a very demanding personality.”
He was famous as a director who shot commercials with great visual beauty.
In return, he demanded a lot from the actors and was strict, so opinions were divided among the staff.
‘For someone like that, he was too much of a yes-man.’
Seoyeon recalled the time of the shoot.
She just held the cosmetics and acted lightly as written in the script, but everyone was full of praise.
Is this okay?
To the point where that thought crossed her mind unintentionally.
Thinking about it, it was her first CF shoot since growing up.
Perhaps her acting skills had improved, which also helped with the CF.
Anyway, since a lot of CG was going to be added, she hadn't seen the final version other than the raw footage.
They would probably send it later once it was somewhat completed.
‘Anyway.’
Seoyeon recalled the haunted house.
Today's practice wasn't bad.
There were about ten female students who took on the ghost roles.
Since they didn't do makeup, no one really threw themselves into the acting, but...
“Uweeeh!”
“Oh, it's okay, it's okay. Later, if you wear a wig and come rushing in, it'll be scary.”
“Right?”
It felt like it was heavily focused on jump scares.
Well, all haunted houses are like that, but...
However, in Seoyeon's case, it was a bit different.
“Seoyeon is the highlight of the 2nd floor. So, let's have you slightly show your face on the stairs, and then show your face again later. Like a boss, so to speak?”
“Wow, that's good.”
It wasn't asking for much.
The role was to briefly show her face on the 2nd-floor stairs, and then pop out exactly once at the very end to scare them.
“Ghost acting by a real actor must be super scary, right?”
“Wow, I get chills just thinking about it.”
Still, after preparing together, the students felt like their walls had come down compared to before.
Plus, since she was an actor, their expectations were a bit higher.
Above all, Seoyeon herself was full of motivation.
“Kyaaah!!”
A scream erupted for the first time during practice.
When Seoyeon smoothly appeared on the stairs and then popped out at the very end.
The atmosphere was extraordinarily eerie.
“T-That's true. It's not for nothing that there are high school ghost stories.”
“What's a high school ghost story?”
“A movie that came out before we were born.”
The high school girls murmuring such conversations were highly praising Seoyeon's acting just now.
Especially Gil Da-hyun.
‘She's not an actor for nothing!’
Gil Da-hyun was also in the spot where the scream was heard.
The stairs in the middle of the hallway after entering the 1st floor.
It was a place they had to pass by before proceeding with the mission at the end of the hallway.
The angle of her standing diagonally on the stairs, looking down at the students.
Honestly, she didn't do anything that great.
She only stared, but coupled with the red eyes, which stood out especially in the dark, one couldn't help but inadvertently stop in their tracks.
And how was the ending, again?
Seoyeon, who appeared quietly at the 2nd-floor mission area, was fitting for the highlight.
Unlike the other students who vaguely went “Uweeeh” and looked like zombies or ghosts, her vibe was different.
‘With this, the popular booth is definitely ours.’
The location was good, and the actor was good.
“I think it'll work out like this, Seoyeon! Please do well on the day of the festival too!”
“Ah, yeah.”
Seoyeon nodded at Gil Da-hyun's words, who said it with a bright smile, but...
“……Hmm.”
Unlike the others, Seoyeon was deep in thought.
Because it was a little different from what she had thought.
***
The Yeonhwa High School festival began like that.
Unlike university festivals, outsiders couldn't enter, but it was a big event held among the students.
Each class had a booth.
It was supposed to be a fairly vibrant and enjoyable event... but...
“……It's raining.”
*Swoooosh!!*
And not just normally, but it poured heavily.
As a result, the classes that set up booths outside shed tears of blood as they dismantled them.
They had heard it would rain to some extent, but they never imagined it would pour this much.
Because of that.
“Still, there are a lot of booths indoors, right?”
Most of them were booths made using classrooms or hallways.
A makeshift cafe, or a dart-throwing game.
Those kinds of trivial recreation booths.
And, unexpectedly, there was a place that drew the most attention.
“Haunted house?”
Lee Ji-yeon narrowed her eyes.
“I heard the kids from Class 4 turned the old school building into a haunted house? They said it opens at 10, so it must be open by now.”
At her classmate's words, Lee Ji-yeon crossed her arms.
‘I think Joo Seo-yeon mentioned that.’
Somehow, she had a bad feeling about it.
When she heard from Seoyeon before, she thought it was just a common haunted house seen at high school festivals, but...
‘I didn't know it would be this serious, to the point of borrowing the old school building.’
And there was one more thing that bothered her.
“Apparently, she's coming out as a ghost for that!”
“She?”
“Joo Seo-yeon. Your friend.”
Joo Seo-yeon as a ghost?
It made her even more anxious.
That was because, whenever Seoyeon did something, once acting was involved, she became completely serious.
10 years ago, during the kindergarten recital, it was like that.
In elementary school, too.
In middle school, too.
It was practically an annual event.
At least in middle school, Ji-yeon stopped her and it ended relatively peacefully, but this time they weren't even in the same class.
“Let's go.”
“Huh?”
“Ah, just... I'm a little curious.”
Ji-yeon said so, but she was really bothered.
In the first place, Seoyeon didn't seem to like scary things very much.
It was a fact Ji-yeon didn't know either, but she recently realized it after watching the broadcast of 'If You Turn It On, Go All The Way to the King'.
That kind of girl as a ghost?
So she couldn't help but worry.
‘The other students.’
Of course, she wasn't worrying about Seoyeon.
The problem was the students who would fall victim to what that runaway train of a girl would do.
***
“Oh, it's... not bad?”
Holding flashlights in their hands, two male students entered the haunted house for the first time.
It was raining heavily, and they couldn't find any other booth particularly fun, so they happened to find out about the haunted house booth.
“Maybe because it's raining, it is a bit scary.”
*Swoooosh.*
The sound of the pouring rain echoed in their ears.
The sun was covered by dark clouds, shedding no light.
With the blackout curtains drawn on top of that, the hallway was as quiet and dark as midnight.
The outer walls were painted with dark red paint, looking like blood.
The sound of the rain and the creaking of the old wooden hallway heard with every step made the hair on the back of their necks stand up.
“It's a relief they at least gave us flashlights.”
“Right.”
Without flashlights, they might have tripped in the excessively dark sections.
However, perhaps because the batteries were running low, the flashlight's beam flickered, unnecessarily creating an even greater sense of terror.
“Uwaahk!!”
On top of that, the ghosts that occasionally popped out as they walked.
They startled them so much that their hearts dropped.
“Phew, I hate jump scares. Seriously. This is the trait of a poorly made haunted house.”
“What do you mean poorly made? All haunted houses are like this.”
“That's because you haven't been to a well-made one.”
Perhaps feeling embarrassed for being startled for nothing, the large male student said so.
The short male student, who was walking and chuckling at his words...
Suddenly, saw the stairs.
In the middle of the hallway.
They were told to do a mission at the place at the end of the 1st floor, stamp their mark, and then go up to the 2nd floor.
So it was a place they definitely had to pass by, but...
At the edge of the 2nd floor.
Something white was visible.
‘What is that?’
At first, he wondered what it was.
And belatedly realized it was a hand.
Realized that it was stepping on the stairs with a hand, not a foot.
And, as he raised his gaze a little higher.
There were red eyes.
*Sweep.*
Black hair flowed down the stairs.
Belatedly, he realized it was a human head, and an upside-down human body.
“Uh.”
Slowly, from the very top of the 2nd floor.
A woman wearing white clothes down to her midsection was coming down upside down.
A scene like a movie seen a long time ago.
*Drip, drop.*
Black liquid flowing from the corners of her eyes and.
The red eyes shining in the darkness.
At that sight.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!”
He had no choice but to run, screaming like a girl.