I Became the Hidden Mastermind

005 – Abyss of the Boy #5

005 – Abyss of the Boy #5

The head ghost spoke.

“Even if we’re in front of you, we just stay still, but how can we come up with a good idea for you, Gun-ho?”

“This is a head ghost…!?”

It was a horrifying sight with hair growing wildly on a hideous head.

Upon closer inspection, the forehead seemed to be torn by something sharp, and blood was dripping. It looked so terrifying that tears were about to well up.

“Wow, your visual is really brutal. But how can you speak without vocal cords?”

“No…no… It can’t be! Why of all places here! Why in front of the office!”

Jeong So-jin clasped her face as if she were almost screaming.

Whether it was true that the head ghost did not respond to sound and sight, the head ghost remained still in its place despite Jeong So-jin’s plea.

I pondered for a moment on how to get rid of this ghost.

Actually, since I heard about the head ghost’s characteristics from Jeong So-jin, I had come up with some ideas on how to remove it.

Should I try throwing a stone-like object as bait and get rid of it?

It was time to put that plan into action.

“Kka-ddeuk, ah, geu-deu-deuk, Jeong So-jin, you f*cking b*tch, how dare you do this to me, Gun-ho, we should get rid of it, let’s go together when we went to see Yang Ju-hee, not now, Gun-ho, let’s get rid of it quickly, Gun-ho, you damn b*tch, get up, we need a key, it’s locked─”

“……”

The unpleasant muttering of the head ghost seemed to conjure a scene in my mind.

It was the sight of Captain Jung Sojin pushing Yang Juhee, causing her to stumble, while Jung Sojin and Kim Geonho seized the opportunity to approach the multipurpose room door.

“Jung Sojin, you wouldn’t…?”

I looked at Jung Sojin.

“Youngwon, I’m sorry!”

Bam!

At that moment, something forcefully pushed my shoulders.

In the two outstretched palms, extended forward, there was the weight of one person, combined with malice and greed.

“Ugh!”

Even though I wasn’t strong in sports, I wasn’t weaker than Jung Sojin, who seemed like she would only study sitting down. Thanks to that, I didn’t fall, and instead, I found myself embracing Jung Sojin.

“Hey, Jung Sojin! What the hell are you doing all of a sudden?!”

“Don’t curse! Yang Juhee is the one at fault! Does it make sense that my grades are lower than Yang Juhee, who smokes and hangs out with guys, while I study every day? I didn’t do anything wrong! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“What? So you pushed Yang Juhee to the ghost and even pushed me too? This is completely insane, you psychopath! It gives me chills that someone like you was the class president, damn!”

“Shut up! You loser! Let me go!”

Jung Sojin seemed flustered as she struggled to push me away.

“Let go, you bastard! Damn it, let go! Where are you touching! It gives me chills! You loser!”

“What am I touching! Since Yang Juhee told you she gave you a lighter, things have been weird! Yang Juhee dislikes you, Sojin!”

Feeling a sense of crisis from Sojin’s story about the lighter, I was on high alert for any sudden actions from her.

Thanks to that, I could withstand the recent blow without falling.

“I already knew that you’re a person with a difference between appearance and reality! You liar! Did you also lie about reporting to the teacher about catching Kim Geonho and others smoking?”

“What!?”

I went back and forth between the convenience store and the back of the school for Kim Geon-ho’s errands.

And once, I saw Kim Geon-ho and Jung So-jin together in a secluded place near the back of the school.

At first, I thought the class president was trying to warn the troublemaker, but they ended up locking lips.

I hastily left the scene, thinking I shouldn’t witness what would follow.

Some time later, as I was wandering near the back of the school, I unexpectedly met eyes with Jung So-jin. She looked surprised and asked, “Yeong-won, why are you here? Did you see something by any chance?”

I replied, “No. I didn’t see anything.”

But after that, Kim Geon-ho’s torment became even worse, and I learned from Yang Ju-hee that it was all because of Jung So-jin’s fortune telling.

Jung So-jin at that time didn’t believe my story from the beginning.

That was also why I became the player who trapped Jung So-jin in the corridor of nightmares.

“But I really tried to help you. Is this how you repay me? Playing around with a guy, it must be you!”

“Damn it! I feel awful! You pervert! You son of a b****! Why am I treated like trash? You bastard! Why am I trash?”

No, I didn’t call her trash?

Jung So-jin attacked me as if she had gone crazy, hitting and biting me.

She seemed almost insane, and for me, with weak stamina, it was like enduring torture.

The scent of cosmetics emanated from Jung So-jin, and the soft touch against my body felt even more vivid, as if my body was being crushed and squeezed.

A woman’s body is so small, delicate, and fragile. On the other hand, a man’s body, no matter how sad the situation, reacts in various ways involuntarily.

“Hey, you pervert!!! You damn loser!!!! A fatherless bastard!!!”

It wasn’t because I behaved like a pervert, as Jungsu-jin claimed. I was, in my own way, protecting Jungsu-jin on a humanitarian level.

The surroundings were covered with hair like spider webs, so a wrong step could lead to big trouble.

“Let go of this!”

But Jungsu-jin was nearly insane and eventually slipped out of my embrace.

“Ah-.”

Thud.

She fell.

Jungsu-jin sat on the ground, nestled among the hair spread out like spider webs, like a flower blossoming.

“Let go, you bastard! Let go, where are you touching, you damn jerk! What are you trying to do to me, let go! Ahhh, why am I a mop, eeek.”

The head, remaining from the hair ghost that attacked Jungsu-jin, lunged at her, and she struggled like a butterfly trapped in a spider web.

“Kyaahhhhh!!!! Save me! Yeongwon, save me! I was wrong! Save me! Ugh, ugh, ugh─.”

As hair infiltrated her eyes, ears, and nose, Jungsu-jin kept retching. It was truly gruesome. She begged for salvation, but the time for me to do anything had passed.

“I, I’ll date you! Yeongwon, you like me, right! We made eye contact every break! Save me! Save me! Save─.”

Jungsu-jin’s body floated in the air for a moment, then moved awkwardly like a puppet, breaking joints with a clattering sound.

“You… like… Mom… I… don’t want… to study… don’t want… to be a doctor… Geon-ho… Before anyone sees… quickly… ah… ah, ah, ah……”

The hair that delved into her brain seemed to touch a nerve. Jungsu-jin listed incomprehensible words, eventually only able to say “ah.”

Push-.

As Jungsu-jin’s motion stopped, I snapped to attention at the smell of liquid flowing down from her school uniform skirt to her thigh.

“Key.”

I had to find the key to the multipurpose room in the office -.

With that thought, I moved my legs and entered the office.

“Damn. But I did have a bit of a crush at the beginning of the semester.”

Clang.

With a bitter and complex heart, I diligently grabbed the “multipurpose room key” from the key box.

But the unfortunate thing was that I didn’t know where the multipurpose room was in this strange corridor.

Looking back now, Jeong So-jin didn’t tell me the location of the multipurpose room.

She said she knew.

Considering Jeong So-jin’s cunning, she might have wanted to gain an upper hand in our relationship by knowing the location of the multipurpose room.

She might not have known that she was considering using me as bait for the head ghost.

In fact, she acted that way and died.

“Is this karma?”

When I glanced outside, the head ghost had disappeared along with Jeong So-jin.

Unlike the spider that spins its web and lives in one place, does the head ghost move its position after a successful hunt?

It was a reasonable opinion.

When Jeong So-jin pushed Yang Ju-hee, the head ghost seemed to be in front of the multipurpose room.

Suddenly, Yang Ju-hee came to mind.

If she had encountered the head ghost, would Yang Ju-hee have experienced a situation similar to what just happened to Jeong So-jin? Wetting herself in the end?

“Hey…! You’re Ha Yeong-won, right?”

“Mom, damn it!”

I heard a voice from a place I hadn’t even thought of, and it truly startled me. Even a cat suddenly seeing a cucumber while eating wouldn’t have been as surprised as I was.

I was genuinely shocked, and my heart thumped loudly. Something soft abruptly sealed my mouth.

“Hush, be quiet…!”

Hwak-.

I smelled cosmetics.

And the scent of something tangy and sweet.

I knew this smell well.

“Yang Ju-hee…!?”

Even with eyes accustomed to darkness, Yang Ju-hee’s yellow hair was clearly visible.

The fact that Yang Ju-hee was alive.

How on earth was this possible?

Wasn’t Yang Ju-hee supposed to have died from a ghost in her head?

# # #

“When that ghost attacked, I pulled out a box cutter and stabbed it. Thanks to that, I somehow managed to escape. I ended up hiding in this staff room. Maybe the ghost in my head followed me and came right up to the staff room.”

The head ghost couldn’t enter the staff room.

Upon closer inspection, just like in the classroom of “1-4,” there were many talismans attached to the staff room.

“I see. Attacking with a box cutter…”

The blood flowing from the head ghost’s forehead wasn’t a decoration for horror but seemed to be a trace of Yang Ju-hee’s violence.

The head ghost seemed to be vulnerable to physical impact—a piece of potentially useful information.

Swinging a knife at a ghost, that takes some courage.

“Cutter knife? The one I took from my desk? Where did that go?”

“I don’t know. I lost it after stabbing the ghost in the head. That’s why I was trapped in this office. I found this flashlight while searching the office. Was thinking if there was any useful weapon.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, Sojin Jung is dead, right? That damn girl. I disliked her from before. Acting all fake like a fox. Acting innocent while playing dirty! Flirting with guys shamelessly!”

Yang Ju-hee cursed Sojin Jung for almost a minute.

For Yang Ju-hee, Sojin Jung was a presence that tried to use her as bait.

“Oh, right. Our Yong-won liked Sojin Jung, didn’t he? Huh? You didn’t know Sojin Jung was dating Geon-ho Kim. Did you know that the Sojin Jung you liked was dating Geon-ho Kim?”

“What are you saying? I’ve never liked Sojin. I don’t like girls with glasses.”

“Really? Well… I’ll take your word for it. But more importantly, what’s really going on here?”

Yang Ju-hee slumped down.

She didn’t show it, but she had been tense for a while, and meeting me seemed to bring her relief.

Being close, I could smell a sweet fragrance.

Just as I started to crave something, Yang Ju-hee asked.

“What are you eating now, Yong-won?”

“Eating? I have nothing to eat.”

“Really? That’s suspicious. Do you really have nothing to eat?”

“No, I really don’t. Even if I did, I would’ve eaten it by now. I just want a refreshing cola.”

“Oh, come on. I’ve been stuck in this office for two days, hungry. You mentioning cola makes me want one too. Take responsibility. Yong-won, I’m thirsty. Go buy cola from the store.”

Take responsibility… hearing that phrase reminded me of a dream I had recently.

But in Yang Ju-hee’s words just now, there was a keyword more important than taking responsibility.

“Two days? I’ve been stuck here for two days?”

Isn’t something strange?

If my calculations are correct, it hasn’t been even 24 hours since people like Yang Ju-hee and Jung So-jin left this corridor.

There were suspicious and slightly unsettling aspects in various ways.

“Could this place be…”

Jingling, jingling-.

At that moment, both I and Yang Ju-hee fell silent at the sound of the bells.

Jingling, jingling, jingling-.

The sound of the bells grew louder and finally passed by the front of the office.

This place is safe-.

With that thought, the tension in my body eased.

The drowsiness that I had forgotten about came rushing back.

It’s funny even when I think about it myself, but I was really sleepy.

In the first place, I was sleeping, and I woke up in the middle of the night to deal with this nonsense!

“Ju-hee, do you know where the multipurpose room is?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure. I just ran away when I was avoiding the ghost in my head.”

Alright.

Still, it’s better to have Yang Ju-hee with me since I have no idea about the location of the multipurpose room.

But I continued to feel like I was ‘missing something.’

Just in case, it’s probably a good idea to have insurance.

“Juhee.”

“Why.”

“I have a favor to ask.”