The practice that took place in the Old School Building.
Everyone had admired Seoyeon's ghost acting, but honestly, from Seoyeon's perspective, she couldn't be satisfied.
How should she put it.
It was probably because she completely failed to understand the sense of fear that the existence of a 'ghost' inherently possesses.
'The emotion I felt in the horror game before.'
She had talked about jump scares, but beyond that, there was definitely something thrilling.
That tension.
The atmosphere brought by the creature.
Honestly, Seoyeon didn't think she pulled off such things well.
Suddenly appearing on the stairs to startle someone.
That was the same as the jump scares Seoyeon extremely avoided in the game she played before.
It's not that jump scares are bad.
However.
'Should I reference a proper horror movie?'
Horror movies.
It was something unfamiliar even to Seoyeon, who learned human emotions through various media in her past life.
In the first place, a horror movie flows on the premise that humans feel fear.
To Seoyeon, who doesn't feel fear, its charm was naturally halved, and she didn't even think of looking for one in the first place.
'That's right.'
Seoyeon nodded.
The reason she was so startled and scared back then was simply because such things were unfamiliar to her.
'If I try a few movies or games, I'll get used to it soon.'
Ju Seoyeon, a woman who knows no fear.
Although she now knows it, she just needs to get used to it.
Recalling how she inwardly screamed and thrashed around in the game, her cheeks flushed hot.
"……That won't happen again."
Making such a resolution, Seoyeon watched horror movies to reference on the internet.
Mainly masterpieces that changed the paradigm of horror movies.
Among them, the most impressive scenes.
Among them, what caught Seoyeon's gaze was a staircase scene from a certain movie.
A scene where a possessed girl flips her body upside down on the stairs and crawls down on all fours.
'…….'
Seoyeon watched it intently.
And fell asleep shivering all by herself.
And.
In the Old School Building where no one came, Seoyeon practiced whether she could pull it off.
For the past 3 days.
After her own special training.
"Alright."
Seoyeon nodded as she looked at her face reflected in the mirror.
It was makeup that a friend from her class had worked hard to apply.
Actually, Seoyeon wanted to be made up to look scarier, but they just applied black mascara as thickly as possible on her eyes.
And applied powder to make her skin look pale, which was all.
Since her skin was originally so white, it didn't stand out much.
Rumble!
"……"
The place where Seoyeon was located was the 2nd floor of the Old School Building.
Of course, on the 2nd floor as well, students other than Seoyeon were waiting.
Female students waiting, dressed up as ghosts for each class.
However, unlike them who only needed to wait in a specific area, Seoyeon needed to move.
The central corridor going down from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.
After startling the students there once, she just had to come back up and wait in the former faculty room at the end of the 2nd floor, and it was over.
In other words, Seoyeon needed to move through the corridor of the Old School Building alone.
Shwoooooosh
The sound of pouring heavy rain was heard outside the window.
The blackout curtains borrowed in large quantities from the drama club were highly effective, making it feel like the middle of the night.
'It's stifling.'
Seoyeon unnecessarily pulled back the blackout curtain.
Still, pulling back the blackout curtain, she could tell it was still daytime.
'They said the haunted house starts at 10 o'clock.'
Checking the time, there were still about 10 minutes left.
Seoyeon wanted to take a deep breath for a moment, so she opened the window to breathe in the cold air wet with rain.
Clack.
Shwoooooosh!!
Slap.
Seoyeon opened the window and realized.
Ah, it's not just raining, but the wind is blowing hard too.
The moment she opened the window, the wind that blew in completely drenched Seoyeon's face.
Even her hair got wet, and she felt it sticking to her face.
"……"
Closing the window and roughly wiping the moisture off her face with a handkerchief, she felt the window rattling in the wind.
It seemed that the wind had started blowing more fiercely from the point Seoyeon opened the window.
She thought, 'Of all times.'
It was already dark enough, but the window was rattling and lightning was striking too.
It was a godsend for a haunted house, but a complete disaster for Seoyeon.
Still, who was she?
Ju Seoyeon, tempered by fear from watching horror movies.
Now, this much...
"……"
Seoyeon first headed to the central stairs.
It was almost 10 o'clock.
Because it was time for the first guest to enter the haunted house.
However, there was one thing Seoyeon didn't know.
The makeup Seoyeon usually wore didn't run even when it touched water.
But the makeup she had on now was different.
Therefore, she couldn't yet know what she looked like, drenched in rain.
***
Most students gave up at the 1st-floor central stair ghost and went back.
Very occasionally, there were those who came up to the 2nd floor.
"Ugh, should've just left."
"Scared?"
"Ah, what is there to be scared of again."
The three male students came up to the 2nd floor while having a light conversation with each other.
The 1st-floor central stair ghost was scary, but other than that, it wasn't at that scary of a level.
It was just the rain and lightning, and the atmosphere of the Old School Building itself that stimulated their fear.
"It's doable, doable."
"Hey, they said Jiseok came and ran away."
"Idiot. What's so scary about this?"
Clicking his tongue, he spoke, but his voice trembled slightly.
They finally arrived at the end.
The faculty room.
They had heard beforehand that the ghost they saw earlier would appear in this place.
The red-eyed ghost crawling down backwards that they saw at the central stairs.
"Hey."
"Why."
"Can't we counterattack this? If we go in, can't we scare them instead?"
It's called a haunted house, but it's a place made by mere high school students anyway.
Of course, they're neither staff nor professional actors.
"It seems fun to scare them back."
"Ah, you know I throw a punch first if I get startled. No. You'll get hurt."
Two male students speaking, boasting for nothing.
They showed their ambition to scare the ghost back and went inside like that.
However.
"……"
The moment they went inside, everyone stopped in their tracks.
In the center of the faculty room, there was a female student with her back turned.
Darkness.
The sound of rain heard in the quiet silence.
The back of the woman standing quietly as lightning struck.
'W-what was the mission again?'
It was over if they roughly opened the faculty room drawer and took out the bracelet inside.
"Hey, hey, she's not moving. What's she doing."
"Y-yeah."
Saying so with a trembling voice, they moved away from the stationary female student and walked slowly.
Pressing their bodies against the wall and walking along the designated path, the moment they slowly opened the drawer.
The female student's body moved.
The male students froze in the state of opening the drawer.
'I-Is she turning around?'
The moment they thought so.
The female student's waist snapped backward.
"Agh!!!!!!! Fuck!!!!!!"
Rattle rattle, they pulled the drawer that wouldn't open well and took out the bracelet.
They might say it's just a sloppy ghost acted out by a student.
Such a thought didn't cross their minds.
Human beings feel fear from things that depart from common sense.
Naturally, one would think she'd turn her body while standing, not that her waist would snap backward just like that.
On top of that, the atmosphere.
The black makeup melted on her face.
The red eyes glowing in the darkness.
The mouth wide open as if terrified.
She didn't look like a normal female student at all.
That figure.
Now, having flipped her body over, began to crawl towards them on all fours.
Even the speed was fast!!
"Run, hey fuck, I said run!"
At that grotesque sight, the male students quickly turned around.
- Give me back my bracelet, give it back, give it back.
Behind them, the deeply resentful voice of the female student was heard.
And after running for a while, when they stopped in their tracks at the central stairs going down to the 1st floor.
"Hah, haak. Shit. That was crazy scary."
"How can it crawl on all fours..."
"Ah, it's okay, it's okay. She was just at the end back there."
Turning their heads at the untimely chase.
There was a female student who had come right up to their noses.
"No, you said she was at the end!!"
"She's so fucking fast, I mean so fucking fast."
The male students ran down to the 1st floor in terror.
At least she wouldn't be able to crawl down the stairs quickly on all fours.
But this was also incredibly fast.
How could she chase after them that fast with her body flipped over.
Isn't she a real ghost?
Thinking such things, they jumped down to the 1st floor.
At the same time.
Coincidentally, their eyes met exactly with the female students who were coming in.
The body of the ghost that was chasing the male students stopped abruptly.
"……Ju Seoyeon."
Along with a voice that sounded extremely dismayed.
***
"Wow, the atmosphere is no joke. Jiyeon, are you really going?"
At her friend's words, Jiyeon nodded.
"There's nowhere else to go right now anyway."
"Still~."
The two following behind Jiyeon.
At Youngmi and Sunhee's words, Jiyeon clicked her tongue.
"It's just a haunted house made by high school students, what's there to be scared of?"
"If the weather was good, it wouldn't be scary."
"But with this heavy rain and lightning... just walking in the Old School Building would be scary."
At those words from the two, Jiyeon tilted her head.
It could certainly be true, but rather than such trivial issues, Jiyeon was worried about other things.
Because.
"I couldn't even go up to the 2nd floor."
"Then did you at least go to the end of the 1st floor?"
Starting from the conversation of the trembling female students.
"Ah, fuck. That was so embarrassing."
"I saw you running away. Your feet were really fast?"
"Tsk, I'm really going to die."
"I almost threw a roundhouse kick because I was startled."
Such conversations from the male students were also heard.
Of course, it was obvious that most of the conversations were mixed with bluff.
Especially the last one was lucky.
If he really had thrown a kick, wouldn't that leg have been broken?
Jiyeon thought seriously.
She didn't know well in the past, but thinking about the incident at the training camp in middle school...
'The line is long.'
Still, the response was huge, so the line of students standing in front of the Old School Building was long.
It was a natural thing since the number of people who could enter at once was limited.
If one team went up to the 2nd floor, then one team entered the 1st floor after them.
In other words, it was a state where 2 teams entered at a time.
On top of that, many other booths were dismantled due to the heavy rain, and the rest were ordinary stalls or recreation games, so more people must have crowded here.
With this atmosphere and a haunted house, it was only natural for students to become even more interested.
"Seoyeon must be really good at acting. A lot of people are running away just from her showing her face on the stairs."
"There aren't many teams that made it to the 2nd floor yet, right?"
"Yeah."
The conversation of Seoyeon's class students managing the line was heard.
Hearing those words, Jiyeon thought.
'It doesn't seem like she just showed her face.'
She probably did that during practice.
But it wouldn't have been at that scary of a level.
Looking at the reactions of the female students in the same class, she could infer that much.
'As expected, with the mindset of "It's not a ghost if it's not scary!"...'
She must have taken a role from a horror movie or game.
A character that could be a motif.
Seoyeon was very good at imitating such things.
Is it because she's a born actress?
Or is it talent?
'If she gets into the groove, I don't know what that kid will do.'
Sometimes she has that boyish side to her.
If the other party shows a great reaction, there are times she gets excited and does things without thinking.
"Ugh, it's our turn."
"I'm really going to stick right behind you, Jiyeon. I'm absolutely not going in front!"
"I got it."
Jiyeon sighed and went inside the Old School Building.
As she handed the participation ticket to the student waiting at the entrance and went inside.
'Definitely.'
The dark Old School Building had a scary feeling just from that.
But, only to that extent.
First, following the rough map given at the beginning, they visited the designated classroom on the 1st floor and carried out the mission.
The ghosts encountered there scare them.
But that was at a normal level.
Honestly, it fell far short of even an amusement park haunted house level.
However.
'Central stairs.'
That was the place where Seoyeon was said to appear.
So Jiyeon stopped in her tracks the moment she was walking towards the central stairs.
"Aaagh!!"
Along with the rough screams of the male students, the male students came running down.
And the red-eyed ghost chasing after them was seen.
That thing crawling on all fours seemed to be chasing the male students who had just passed by Jiyeon.
"……!!"
At the sudden appearance of the ghost, the two female students behind Jiyeon gasped.
When a person is too startled, even a scream doesn't come out.
The appearance of a woman coming down flipped over backwards.
The pitch-black something smeared on her face.
The red eyes glowing even in the darkness.
The sound of the two female students' legs giving way and falling backward was heard.
And.
"……"
"……"
Jiyeon and the ghost's gazes met.
Slowly.
Just as she was chasing, she began to crawl up the central stairs.
Jiyeon ran up to the 2nd floor, chasing after such a ghost.
"D-Don't leave us behind!"
The two female students reached out their hands desperately toward Jiyeon.
"Ju Seoyeon, you're crazy!!!"
It was right then that a shout, not a scream, was heard.