I never imagined that transferring schools would bring about such a painful ordeal.
“Pretty, where did you come from?”
“Huh? Ah, u-uh… ugh.”
“What’s with the eyepatch? Oh my… are you sick somewhere?”
Girls crowded around.
And boys stealing glances from behind.
‘M-my looks did get prettier, but.’
No matter what, this seemed a bit too much, so I looked to the side.
“Are you twins with Sion?”
“Gasp…! Minjun is your oppa?”
The kids who thought themselves decent-looking clung to Minjun sunbae’s side, squealing with delight.
Of course, Minjun sunbae was an adult, so he paid them no attention at all.
Because of that, the kids gradually shifted over to me.
My stomach started churning because of it.
‘What do I do…!?’
I hurriedly looked to sunbae, but he merely smiled faintly, watching the situation from the sidelines as though enjoying it.
“Urk… h-hey, guys….”
I had no choice but to ask, yet when I opened my mouth, the kids grew even rowdier.
‘…Save me.’
Screaming for help inwardly, I stood up from my seat and fled to the bathroom.
“Urp…!!”
Covering my mouth to hold back my vomit, I dashed out of the classroom, so I could hear the whispers behind me.
It felt like hell was starting all over again, and I felt nothing but tears welling up.
* * *
Yeonu sighed as she gazed out the window.
‘Dealing with kids… is exhausting….’
It had been fine with Sion because she was docile, but the children currently right before Yeonu’s eyes were neither docile nor tired of talking to her.
“Why is your hair blonde?”
“It’s genetics from my dad’s side.”
“Really? Is he a foreigner?”
“Hm? Yeah! He’s American.”
“Oh….”
Still, a mission was a mission, so Yeonu answered their questions diligently.
It was possible because she always wore a lively and energetic mask in front of people.
And sitting beside that very Yeonu, the Watcher was looking at her with an expression as if beholding a monster.
‘…She’s definitely insane.’
How could someone’s front and back be so different?
In fact, the Watcher was starting to think that perhaps the ghost wasn’t herself and Sion, but Yeonu.
Originally, she too had suffered under the children’s barrage of questions, but then:
“If you wish to speak to this lady, I shall charge one hundred thousand won per person.”
“Uh….”
“Ah, dammit, I forgot my wallet.”
“Can I wire it?”
“Cash?”
“Mmm, cash.”
She had escaped the barrage through an utterly outrageous method.
Closing her eyes, the Watcher slowly scattered smoke throughout the entire school without letting anyone notice.
‘No presence.’
She couldn’t feel any presence at all.
To a suspicious degree, in fact.
Just as the Watcher sighed, feeling as though something had been deliberately hidden—
“Uwaaaeeek…!!”
The sound of vomiting echoed in her head.
Closing her eyes, she saw Sion’s figure.
‘It seems I raised my senses too high.’
Normally, this wouldn’t have happened.
Just as she wondered if her senses were too heightened—
“…So a presence can be felt.”
Having sensed a presence powerful enough to make her mutter without thinking, the Watcher immediately spoke to Sion.
* * *
I emptied my stomach in the bathroom.
My insides churned like mad.
“…Uu-weeeek.”
Dry heaves came even though I had eaten nothing.
I was growing short of breath, yet the dry heaving wouldn’t stop.
I couldn’t endure it.
The children’s gazes themselves.
It hadn’t been this bad before.
“Haa… haa….”
I flushed the toilet and sat on it, tears streaming down.
“…So I can’t go back again.”
I had thought that maybe I could return.
To live a normal school life as a normal human.
That someday, truly someday, I could go back.
But now I realized that was impossible.
I was a person far too distant from normalcy.
I had accumulated too much karma to be normal.
I had changed too much.
A sinking feeling.
“…Mom… I miss you.”
I thought I could meet her if I died.
I hated how Mom only appeared in my dreams, constantly telling me to die.
“Even if I die… even if I die, she won’t meet me….”
I cried bitterly in the bathroom stall.
I resented the world and hated it so much.
And then.
[Rookie.]
The Watcher’s voice rang out.
“…!!”
[Why are you crying? Nothing is solved by sniveling like a fool.]
The Watcher advised her to come to her senses.
I didn’t answer at all and stared blankly into the air.
A ghost like her could never understand my emotions.
And people could never understand the emotions of a ghost like me.
I had become both human and ghost and simultaneously nothing at all.
“…I want to die.”
At those words, the Watcher told me to stop talking nonsense.
[Stop the nonsense. Do you not smell blood?]
“…Huh?”
Blood?
There was no way.
If anything, the smell of my vomit filling the space was what should have been normal.
Just as I tilted my head—
“…!!”
Something was felt clearly.
The smell of blood.
The distinct smell of someone’s blood.
Naturally, my gaze went to the floor.
Because blood was slowly flowing in from the next stall.
“…Hieek?!”
[Go and check.]
“….”
[There is no ghost on this side. I shall handle the cleanup, so open the door and bring the brat here.]
Thus spoke the Watcher, having me check only whether there was a corpse for now.
I nodded, feeling my heart beating madly, and pushed the door.
It was locked, but opened easily with force.
And inside, a rather cruel scene lay spread out.
Blood splattered everywhere in a horrific manner.
It made me imagine on my own what had happened here.
“…Disgusting.”
Disgust flooded in.
However, having just emptied my stomach, I didn’t feel the urge to vomit.
Sighing, I rose from my spot.
It was time to work.
[It is time to work.]
“….”
I thought I had to call Minjun sunbae.
An avatar of the Watcher appeared beside me and cast an illusion over the entire bathroom.
[Go and return.]
“…Yes.”
I nodded and hurried toward the classroom.
* * *
-Slide!!
-Bang!!
I opened the classroom door noisily, drawing attention.
At that, kids approached me, apologizing for earlier.
“Sorry about before… I heard from Minjun that you have trouble talking because of trauma?”
“…Huh…?”
“Are you okay?”
Though I was bewildered by the apologizing kids, I quickly came to my senses, roughly bowed my head in thanks, and approached Minjun sunbae to grab his sleeve.
“U-um… o-ppa.”
“Yeah.”
“…A problem broke out.”
“….”
Sunbae’s gaze changed.
I stepped aside, and sunbae calmly walked out of the classroom.
I stuttered and said I was sorry, that I would go to the infirmary and come back.
“T-the inf-inf-infirmary for a bit…!!”
“Okay…! Come back, I’ll tell the teacher!!”
I heard the kids worrying behind me.
Ignoring them, I hurriedly guided sunbae to the bathroom.
“How urgent was it that you had to enter the men’s bathroom?”
“…S-sorry!”
After apologizing to sunbae, I went inside.
I showed him the corpse lying in the toilet stall.
“…The upper body?”
“It wasn’t there….”
Nausea rose.
It was disrespectful before the deceased, but I felt as though I would vomit.
I was barely breathing, forcing it back.
“Haa… haa….”
“If it’s hard, wait outside. No one will say anything.”
[So you have come, brat.]
Thus spoke the Watcher.
At that, Minjun sunbae, his face as stoic as ever, requested the handling of the corpse.
“Please take care of the corpse.”
[Yes, I understand.]
“Report to Yeonu and the Chief.”
Saying so, Minjun entered the stall to investigate the surroundings.
However, watching him, the Watcher spoke.
[This side is suspicious, but that side was suspicious as well.]
“…What?”
[There was nothing, as if someone had hurriedly hidden it.]
“….”
She had wondered if that was such a big deal, but it seemed it truly was a serious matter, for sunbae’s eyes changed once more.
“…Tell Yeonu to look around and investigate.”
[Yes. The Chief is still here, I see.]
“Please ask the Chief to come this way.”
After saying that, sunbae turned to me and gave an order.
“You stand watch, Sion.”
“Y-yes…!”
“If you feel like vomiting, say so. If the illusion seems like it will break, say so.”
At those words, I squatted at the bathroom entrance and looked around.
‘What if the ghost comes back…?’
It was a moment of great anxiety.
* * *
The sound of water.
And there, a male student was frozen in terror.
“…D-don’t come!!!”
It didn’t stop even as he screamed so.
Something was rushing toward him.
It was not in human form.
Nor was it in monster form.
Its identity could not be determined.
It couldn’t be seen with the eyes.
It merely approached.
Slowly… but surely.
Though he ran desperately, the object drew closer.
It was not particularly fast, yet the male student could not escape.
Right now, he was in front of the locked rooftop door.
The male student shed tears, perhaps in agony.
And that male student was slowly swallowed.
“Kuaaack…!!”
A scream rang out.
But there was no one who could hear it.
No one.
Except for one.
“…Is that sound… a scream?”
Yeonu, who was on patrol by the Chief’s order.