I Became the Hidden Mastermind

036 – Test of Courage # 5

036 – Test of Courage # 5

It was difficult for teachers to get tattoos in conspicuous places.

It was unavoidable due to the nature of my job, which required me to stand in front of students.

Think of a teacher who has a tattoo or irezumi on the back of their hand, arm, shoulder, or something like that.

It was bound to be strange.

Then what about the left ankle?

The left ankle would not normally be visible to students during a teacher’s class.

Ttogak.

Of course, it was visible to someone like me who was lying down and looking at the floor.

“Is there anyone?”

A voice that had become quite familiar recently spread throughout the teacher’s office.

It was the voice of Hong Mi-ri, a first-year English teacher at Yeongji High School.

Teacher Hong Mi-ri had a black butterfly-shaped tattoo on her left ankle.

At first, she thought it was just a spot covering her body, but when she looked closer, it was shaped like a butterfly and was clearly a tattoo.

“You guys. I don’t know who it is, but if you’re hiding here, you’d better come out now. I’m saying this thinking of you guys. Don’t you know how dangerous old teachers are? “There’s a lot of broken glass and nails sticking out.”

Ttogak.

Ttogak.

She walked around the teacher’s office and spoke to Teacher Hong Miri as if warning her.

We knew that someone was hiding in the old school building, but they didn’t seem to know where we were hiding exactly.

Ttogak.

When the high heels I was walking on came right in front of the desk where I was hiding-.

I couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

“… ….”

The black butterfly tattoo that was on her left ankle just now… It had disappeared.

Do tattoos appear and disappear at will?

Or was I looking at it wrong?

As I was thinking that, Teacher Hong Mi-ri slipped out of the teacher’s office and disappeared down the hallway, making the sound of high heels. She seemed to be going up the stairs to the second floor.

“Huh….”

Only then was I able to calm down and let out the breath I had been holding. Perhaps because I was very nervous and had been in a strange position for a long time, my whole body was sore and cold sweat was pouring down my back.

“Is everyone okay? “The teacher is gone!”

I asked in a small voice, but clear enough for everyone to hear.

Then, Yoo Da-hee slowly appeared from the empty cabinet.

“I hid in the dark, but it went smoothly without being detected. I think the game was trained in a truly critical situation. “If I hadn’t known where to hide, I would have definitely been caught.”

Dahee Yoo said that she was able to hide from her teacher thanks to her experience of hiding from ghosts in “Corridor of the Abyss,” Which she played today.

Soon, Jeongseok, who was crouching inside the blue PP box, also raised his head.

“If I had been caught, I don’t think it would have ended with me getting scolded. “Should I quit now?”

The experience of deviation is thrilling.

It seemed like neither Jeongseok nor Yoo Dahee could calm down.

But… Since I didn’t know when the teacher who went up to the second floor would come back down, I thought it would be a good idea to take this opportunity to go down to the basement of the old school building.

“Let’s go quickly. “To the basement.”

Pababat-.

We all quickly rushed out of the teachers’ room on the first floor.

However, finding the way to the old teacher’s basement was more problematic than expected.

A dark hallway.

With the three of us together, there was less of an eerie feeling, but we couldn’t figure out which way to go.

“Where should I go?”

I don’t know the way, but I have to find the basement while avoiding the teacher’s surveillance.

At that time, Dahee Yoo said.

“Guys. I think it looks like this one. If you go to the end of the hallway beyond the bathroom, there seems to be a staircase going down to the basement at the end! “I remembered!”

Did Yoo Da-hee recall a memory?

We walked towards the end of the hallway, taking as slow a step as possible and being careful not to get hurt or make a loud noise by stepping on the glass pieces on the floor.

And there really was a staircase going down to the basement, just like Yoo Da-hee said.

Gooooo-.

However, it was extremely dark and filled with a humid, musty smell, so I was wondering if it was really a good idea to go down here.

It feels like there are ghosts or bad people lurking around.

It seemed like there were a lot of cockroaches.

“… ….”

“… ….”

“… ….”

Did everyone have the same thoughts as me? Neither I nor Jeong-seok nor Yoo Da-hee could walk easily.

If Yang Joo-hee were there at a time like this, she would say, “You idiots. He would have reliably led the way, saying, “Follow me!”

“Write. Good. “I go first.”

As a leader, I decided to lead by example.

Jinggrang. Clink.

As I went down the stairs, carefully stepping on the glass pieces left carelessly on the stairs, I felt the temperature suddenly cool down.

I felt like I had entered a cold refrigerator.

As summer is approaching, it was very eerie as the air, which had been hot for the past few days, and the sweat that had been flowing due to it felt like it was cooling down in an instant.

“Wow, Mr. “Look at the mold.”

In the neglected basement, mold was blooming everywhere like flowers or murals.

There is so much moisture.

It seems to be true that the school is the site of a water vein.

The mold bastards are very serious.

But mold was actually a nobleman.

「Ghosts live here」

「Red Mask」

「When you see a ghost, the ghost sees you」

Someone had written words like “Die” And “Curse” On every wall with black and red lacquer, and it was very ugly and eerie for no reason.

It certainly seemed like some gangsters had sneaked in at night and scribbled the graffiti like we did. Perhaps because of the atmosphere, it looked quite strange.

The scariest thing was this.

「Do not turn on the light」

「When you turn on the light, a ghost comes.」

Don’t turn on the light.

How do you not turn on the light in this darkness? Make sense.

Jeongseok and Yoo Dahee soon came down next to me.

I asked Yoo Da-hee.

“Do you think something will come to mind?”

“Um….”

Yoo Da-hee was silent for a while, perhaps pondering or reminiscing.

Then, as if he remembered something, he grabbed my wrist.

“The atmosphere is different from what I remember from before. Youngwon, would you like to turn off the light on your cell phone?”

Light? You want me to turn it off?

If you turn it off, you won’t really see anything.

But there was no other way.

I was the leader, but our goal was to help Dahee Yoo find her memories.

Sch-.

Like Yoo Da-hee said, I tried turning off the cell phone light.

Because it was underground, not a single ray of light came in, so many things were immersed in darkness.

Perfect black color.

It felt like Yoo Da-hee and Jeong-seok who were right next to me had disappeared, and it was so dark that I couldn’t even see my hand.

# # #

I was scared because it was so dark.

Isn’t it true that Jeong-seok and Yoo Da-hee were gone when the light was turned on again?

“Guys. “Are you next to me now?”

I was scared for no reason, so I asked around.

Then Jeongseok spoke in the darkness.

“Yes. And. Turning off the lights really makes the atmosphere no joke. Dahee. “Do you think anything comes to mind?”

Jeongseok asked Yoo Dahee.

Yoo Da-hee said in the dark, “Um….” He fell asleep again.

“Eternal. “Let me hold your hand for a moment.”

Someone held my hand.

The hands were soft and warm, and the fingers were very thin.

This is Yoo Da-hee’s hand.

I recognized it instinctively, but through various experiences, I wondered if a ghost pretending to be Yoo Da-hee had grabbed my hand, so I pinched the back of my hand.

“… Wow! “Something bit me!”

Yoo Da-hee screamed.

It didn’t seem like a ghost.

Jeongseok spoke soon in the darkness.

“… Isn’t it like living with bugs? Since it’s humid, I think there might be centipedes or something. Should I turn the lights back on?”

Jeongseok’s voice was trembling.

It seemed like he was already starting to get tired of this darkness and wanted to turn on the light.

However, Yoo Da-hee spoke urgently.

“No. Never. You must never light it. Now we will slowly move forward. Eternal. You hold Seok’s hand well. Never let go. “I repeat, you must never turn on the light.”

Let’s hold hands and move forward through the darkness where we can’t see anything?

It seemed crazy.

The basement of the school is scary even without that….

“Hey. Seok-ah. Quickly hold my hand. Hurry.”

But it would be less scary if I held on to Yoo Da-hee and Jeong-seok in each hand.

I stretched out my hand in the darkness and was soon able to hold Jeongseok’s hand.

“Hey. Youngwon Ha. This is your hand, right? “You didn’t say it was a ghost hand for no reason, right?”

Jeongseok seemed to have thought of something similar to what I had imagined.

This fearless bastard.

Anyway, we held each other’s hands and slowly moved forward through the darkness.

In the basement, the cool chill covers your body like sticky vanilla ice cream.

Walking there drained my mental power faster than I expected, so I wanted to open my mouth and say anything to reduce the psychological burden.

“Dahee. “Is there any reason why I shouldn’t turn on the lights?”

“… I remember walking like this before. Someone held my hand…. “I was very scared, but I felt reassured.”

I think I understand.

I’m really scared right now, but I felt reassured because everyone was with me.

Jeobbuk.

Jeobbuk.

We walked through the darkness like that, relying on each other’s body heat.

Then I suddenly became scared.

“Hey. Jeong Seok-ah. “You’re the one behind me, right?”

“That’s right.”

“What jungle character do you usually choose?”

“Kha’Zix and Nidalee.”

Oh.

As expected, the thing behind me was correct.

Then, is the woman in front of me actually Yoo Da-hee?

“Forty. Forty days. Forty-two. Forty-three-.”

Yoo Da-hee was counting something.

I thought it was just a countdown, but it stopped at “Forty-four.”

I guess he was counting his steps.

“Why do you walk fast?”

I asked.

Then Jeongseok spoke instead of Yoo Dahee.

“Now that I think about it, there was a saying that there was a ghost in the territory that would answer three questions. If you go into the last cubicle of the women’s bathroom in the basement, face the outside and knock, then ask three questions… “Someone waiting outside said he would answer all of my questions.”

“Hey Mr. Are you kidding me? Why are you saying that now? Awfully.”

If you talk about ghosts in a cemetery, ghosts will appear.

Of course, this was not a cemetery, and I had destroyed the Feng Shui ghosts, so talking about ghosts won’t cause them to come out….

But… I was no stranger to ghosts that asked questions three times and then answered them.

Isn’t that an “Aunt”?

It was a ghost I had already encountered. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

Jeongseok said in a trembling voice.

“What I thought when I first heard this story was that Youngji High School doesn’t have an underground bathroom. But now I see that this old school building has an underground… “There it is.”

That was it.

Tall.

At that time, Yoo Da-hee’s steps stopped again at 44.

Just like before, Dahee Yu turned her body 90 degrees to her left and started walking again.

Jeongseok soon asked.

“But Yeongwon. No matter how much you think about it, isn’t it strange? We are now… You turn a total of 90 degrees twice and walk in a “ㄷ” Shape. The shape of the old Yeongjiji building building is “ㄴ”. We are now….”

“Hey. It’s the same when seen from the ground. “The underground location may be different.”

I was scared for no reason and blamed Jeongseok.

I was slowly becoming scared.

Yoo Da-hee just keeps counting numbers.

“Forty-four.”

Yoo Da-hee’s steps stopped again at 44.

Then I turned 90 degrees again and started counting from one.

“Eternal. If you walk 44 steps again… You know that we will eventually return to our original position with the letter ㅁ, right? “Is the basement of the old school building a square corridor?”

Kkaetalk-.

At that time, someone’s cell phone rang.

It was standard.

“Oh. “I think I got a message now.”

“Hey! Never check your phone! “I don’t know what it is!”

Out of impatience, I warned Jeongseok.

My phone also seems to vibrate continuously.

But it didn’t make sense.

When Yoo Da-hee asked me to turn off the light earlier, I turned off my phone just in case!

How does a cell phone that is turned off vibrate?

“Forty four. It looks like this….”

At that time, Dahee Yoo’s steps stopped.

Hwaak.

And then a bright light source exploded.

Yoo Da-hee turned on her cell phone and illuminated it.

I saw a staircase.

These were the stairs we came down to the basement.

Are we back to square one?

No, I didn’t think that was it.

“… “Well, what is this?”

Someone made a confused sound.

It seemed like it was probably the norm, but honestly, it didn’t mean anything to anyone.

「Save me」

「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」「Save me」

Unseen red letters were plastered all over the walls.

And instead of the mold that had been blooming like wildflowers in hell, black, long things were growing everywhere.

The thickness and visible texture… It looked similar to human hair.

“I remember. What kind of sister… I’ll get you out of here, so hold her hand, close her eyes, and count…. She said she came here to find something… I said so. Something like a round ball….”

Yoo Da-hee seemed absorbed in recalling her memories, as if this sudden change was not scary.

“… Why did I forget about this until now? The magic wand my sister gave me…. I dropped it here….”

Sch-.

Yoo Da-hee didn’t seem to understand herself.

She immediately reached out her hand and picked up a magic wand from the floor, like a girl’s wand, with a red diamond set into the top of the pink wand.

“Hey. “Do you really want to die?”

Flash-.

At that time, a fire suddenly came on in the basement.

When I turned my head, I saw a teacher wearing pointy high heels glaring at us from the stairs on the first floor.

“… ….”

I looked around in confusion.

I could see a basement full of mold everywhere.

「Ghosts live here」

「Red Mask」

「When you see a ghost, the ghost sees you」

There was no pleading for help, and there was no hair covering the hallway.

Teacher Hong Mi-ri looked down at the basement and said.

“You bastards! “Why don’t you jump up here right now!?”

“Yes.”

Jeongseok and I went up to the first floor feeling like we were alive.

Yu Da-hee also followed us up, and in the bright light, I saw that the magic wand she was holding in her hand had a round name tag attached to the end of the handle.

「Yang Joo-hee」