Ghost Story Club

“Did you understand? My point is that the belief that hamburgers are unhealthy is a false rumor. Rather, it can be said to be a perfectly complete food, with the perfect ratio of carbohydrates, protein and fat. Why would bread, lettuce, tomato, and beef be bad for your health?”

Within an idle fast food joint, GyeongWon, a rich young master who claimed to be elite, was showing off his knowledge—gained from the internet—on hamburgers.

“It’s unhealthy because of artificial coloring and other additives? Saying that means you’re ignorant. In the past, once the fake news that MSG is bad for your health became popular, the owners of the mass media companies only continued to instigate these topics—howarethelightsoninthisstorewhenitsablackout—and when you exclude the french fries and cola, hamburgers are actually healthy food products. You get it?”

I was letting the words flow in through one ear and out through the other, and just roughly replied that I understood.

Next to me, SunAh was fixing her makeup.

Watching a female friend fix her makeup was quite the stimulating experience for a guy in puberty.

I ate my burger as I continued to watch the young-looking SunAh’s face become much more beautiful as she did her makeup.

“The easiest target for mass media to mess around with is the food industry. While broadcasts claim to be suing the companies, how much did they actually do? Other than being a bother for others? What’s even more disappointing is that the masses are all convinced by the media, and—”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—

GyeongWon’s head suddenly exploded.

Blood and flash was scattered throughout the store.

From the impact of the explosion, GyeongWon’s glasses flew over towards my eyes and landed on my face. I unintentionally ended up wearing them.

That was when a message popped up.

[Wheeze, Wheeze! Passive ability Goddess of Luck Activated-ne. UwU~!]

What, was the Goddess of Luck that sort of ability?

It was supposed to be S-ranked so I expected a lot, but all it amounted to was wearing glasses without using my hands?

My disappointment was immeasurable……

Even through all that, SunAh was fixing her makeup.

“SunAh, after you put on your makeup, you look so beautiful……”

When I mumbled the words, as if I were in a trance, SunAh’s arms began to move at twice the speed as she continued to put on her makeup.

The speed steadily increased, and soon weird noises began to come from her arms as they moved at invisible speeds.

Soon, SunAh’s joints couldn’t handle the speed and her arms went limp.

I suddenly became scared and spoke.

“Su-SunAh. Stop. Something is weird here. Let’s leave.”

Suddenly, SunAh stopped. She began to smile in a creepy but bright manner—like a clown. Then she spoke.

“DDDDOOOOOOONNNNNNN’TTTTTTT LLLLLLLLEEEEEAAAAVVVVEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

***

Aauugghh!

‘Huuu, Huuu, FUCK……’

When I awoke, I was in my bed.

‘Haah… What time is it?’

[2019, Mar. 06 Wednesday, 02:32]

[Lee Joon - Number of Attempts: 2, Progressing in Tutorial]

[Ghost Story Points: 5]

[Causality Rate: 5%]

1. Status Window

2. Manage Club (Locked)

3. Statistics

4. Settings

‘It’s not even dawn yet.’

I felt lucky that I could still sleep for another four hours.

After discovering that using the system to check the time was far more convenient, I often used this method to check the time instead of my phone.

‘Damn, that was such a weird dream.’

In my past life, I had nightmares of my friends’ heads exploding.

In this life, due to my unusual and traumatic experiences, I had a nightmare consisting of a hodgepodge of the system, the laughing girl and the exploding heads.

‘Damn.’

That meant that these incidents had an impact on me.

The only stress I used to have was exam stress.

This was the first time that I was so close to death that I began to have nightmares.

I shook my head, got out of bed, and headed to the kitchen to grab a drink of water.

I could see the dark waters of the Han River past the veranda.

‘Now that I think about it…’

Looking at the Han River at night overlapped with the night in my past life, when I had seen the Han River right before it all ended.

I had woken up due to the emergency alert on my cell phone in the middle of the night, the night before my graduation.

And I had seen the Demon King across the Han River.

The place that the Demon King had been standing was where I was right then, ShinLim Neighborhood.

My current house and my house in my past life were just across the Han River from each other.

‘What exactly… was that thing?’

It was too unusual to simply say it was just a giant monster.

I started getting the creeps as the image of giant shadow lurking among the city lights resurfaced, fresh as ever.

Also, the method of death that I couldn’t understand…

‘… that mysterious creature is hunched over beneath the school?’

And above him, all of the high school students were spending time talking and enjoying their school lives, ignorant of what was below.

It made me shudder.

I shook my head and went back to bed.

It would only wake up the day of graduation.

Only two days had passed since the entrance ceremony.

I still had three years, and I had just started taking steps towards the goal.

Since nothing would come out of thinking over it now, I decided to go back to sleep.

***

The Next Morning.

As soon as I entered the classroom, I noticed the schedule and lunch menu posted on the notice board.

Even yesterday, I could feel the lax atmosphere that hovered because of the fact that it hadn’t been long since the entrance ceremony. It was readily apparent, since there was lots of idle time between the few lessons.

Now it felt like we were properly starting our school life.

It soon hit 8 and the balding, middle-aged homeroom teacher came in and spoke to us.

“Oh? What’s this empty seat?”

It was probably a late student.

“Now, let’s begin checking the attendance… Those of you who aren’t present, please raise your hands~.”

“Hahaha!”

A few of the students laughed.

They weren’t there, so how could they raise their hands?

But the dad jokes seemed to fit him perfectly, so it was surprisingly refreshing to hear him say them outright.

When I turned my head to look out the window, I could see SunAh running laps around the courtyard.

The school apparently gave late students punishment in the form of laps.

“Ah, and is there a student who goes by Lee Joon?”

“Yes? That’s me.”

“Joon, please follow me to the teachers’ office. With that, homeroom is over. Good work, everyone.”

I followed the teacher out into the hall.

***

“Okay, you can sit down right here.”

After entering the teachers’ office, my homeroom teacher started sorting through the piles of paper before finding and picking up a specific piece.

“Hmm… a Ghost Story Club.”

Ah, so that was why he called me over.

“This is a club that doesn’t exist yet in our school… but if you feel like, ‘I must be in this club!’, then you have to make a new club, become the club president, and run it yourself. Would that be okay?”

It seemed like he didn’t really care too much about the weird concept of a ghost story club itself.

“Yes! I’ll be alright!”

Truthfully, I didn’t want to make nor run such a weird club.

I was only doing it because the system told me to, and I thought it would help me in some way……

“I’ll be printing out a club application form, so you just have to fill it out by the end of the day. There needs to be a minimum of four members, so excluding you, you’ll need to find three more people.”

“Yes.”

“And do you see the blank spot at the top of the form, asking for the supervising teacher? This is asking for a supervisor for the ghost story club, and the school will assign an available teacher so leave it blank~. Then, keep up the good work~.”

“Yes! Thank you very much!”

So I left the teachers’ office and began to think on my way back to the classroom.

‘Three people… I’ll ask SunAh and GyeongWon first, but who should the last person be?’

The only people I’d spoken to in my class were my partner, DukHun, and SunAh’s partner, HaYoon.

‘No, wait. The time I spoke with HaYoon was before time turned back. I guess she wouldn’t know me now.’

Then would the only person left be DukHun?

I let out a big sigh.

As I was about to head into the classroom, down the hallway I could see two female students walking my way.

One person was SunAh. The other girl was a yellow-haired girl who looked like she had an attitude.

It seemed like they had finished running laps around the courtyard as punishment, and were on their way back to the classroom.

‘… was that yellow-haired girl named JinHee?’

She was the scary girl who was knocked out in the back of the classroom during the entrance ceremony.

I remembered discovering her name through the status window when I checked it that day.

‘Wait, on the very first quest I received, didn’t it count her as my friend?’

I had received a quest to gather three friends in order to make a club, and that scary girl counted as one of the members, allowing me to complete the quest.

If the system registered her as a friend, couldn't I trust it and try asking her?

‘Fine.’

I decided to invite her into the Ghost Story Club!

I briefly waited in front of the classroom door, and as the girl approached I tried to speak with her.

“Hey, are you—”

The girl just continued on her path and walked into the classroom without even looking at me.

SunAh, who was right behind her, misunderstood and thought that I was talking to her. She came up to me, smiling.

“H-hello.”

“Good morning. You’re late today too, SunAh.”

SunAh shyly giggled.

Afterwards, I tried asking SunAh to join the club. As SunAh was the type of person to follow the lead of others, she coolly answered that she would join the club.

‘So GyeongWon and DukHun are left.’

As any scholastic person would, GyeongWon was sitting at the very front.

I decided to ask DukHun first, since he was closer.

* * *

* * *

“DukHun, did you decide which club to join?”

DukHun began to stare at me while making a questioning noise.

“……”

“……”

If a person asks a question, at least respond.

“I’m trying to start a new club. The idea is that we study scary stories. Would you be interested in joining?”

After listening to what I said, DukHun pushed up his glasses and chuckled in an irksome way.

“Yare, yare.”

After that, he began to shake his head with a triumphant expression on his face and mumbled to himself.

“I wanted to spend my time quietly this year……”

“……”

“At the start of school, to think I would get someone who would talk to me first~. I thought they were extinct in reality. Life is incredible.”

“……”

“Demo, Watashi decided to join the Anime Club. Gomen~.”

DukHun gathered his hands in apology.

‘Whew, this is rough.’

***

“Ghost Story Club?”

It was break time.

I had just invited GyeongWon to join my club.

“It’s a new club you’re making?”

“Yup.”

“Hmmm……”

Unexpectedly, it looked like he was thinking about it.

Because he knew a lot of scary stories, I thought that he would agree right away, but I guess not.

I wondered what I should say to make him agree to join.

“What club were you planning to join in the first place?”

“It’s called the Academics Club. I was planning on joining a club that would help when applying to college. I was planning to participate in some competitions to add to my resume.”

“I see.”

I thought back to the three years in my past life that I had spent preparing for college, and quickly thought of something.

“If you join those types of clubs in the first year, you actually lose out. The reason is that, for the competition activities that can reflect on your college entrance, they never let first years join.”

“… What?”

As I expected, this guy might know a lot, but he only lived by following his parents’ decisions. He was the type who hadn’t experienced much in real life.

I, who had spent three years longer in high school than him, had the advantage.

“It’s because of the upperclassmen. It’s more important that second and third years get priority for the competition activities. Even if the entire club is considered to have won a competition, the ones who actually receive the credit are the upperclassmen. The first years are recorded down as reserves at best.”

“… Who are you to give me advice?”

“……”

After listening to what I had said, he attacked me because of his bad mood.

‘What’s this?’

For a moment, I felt like crying.

“……”

But I tried to keep it in and calmly raised my head as I began to work my brain.

I thought I might have bothered his sense of pride too much.

That bastard might have enjoyed teaching others, but must have been the type that didn’t enjoy getting taught in return.

Especially if it was in the topics he was confident in, such as grades or college applications.

[Your understanding of Ahn GyeongWon has increased by 5.]

But because I was annoyed at his cocky attitude, I reflexively responded in a rude way.

“I gave you advice because I felt it was needed. You good at studying?”

“… Better than you, at least.”

The bastard spoke like a bitch.

But what did that mean?

Was he saying that I seemed like I’d suck at studying?

Although it was a fact, because I wanted to win once, I started to bluff.

“You think you study better than me? What was your rank back in middle school?”

“I was always within the top ten. You?”

“I was always in the top three.”

“… Liar.”

The bastard’s face began to quiver.

“… Then why did you come to a school like this? You should have gone to a specialized high school.”

“Well, I had the same purpose as you.”

“Same purpose as me…?”

The young master had an inquisitive expression on his face.

I, who had spent three extra years in this field, could see through it all. I could tell his purpose in coming to this school.

A top ten student from a rich household, giving up on going to a prestigious school and coming to a plain school? There was only one reason for that.

Rather than be a small fish in a big pond, he would be the big fish in a small pond.

“GyeongWon, didn’t you also come here to get good credentials? Rather than going to a specialized school and being mediocre, you were planning on coming to a slightly lesser school and becoming the top in order to get into Seoul National University.”

“… I was planning on going toKAIST. You don’t even know—”

—

T/N:KAIST stands for Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. It’s considered the top science and tech school in Korea. Commonly ranked second behind the Seoul National University mentioned previously.

—

“Same shit. Getting the top grades in a crappy school to jump your way into a prestigious university. I was planning the same.”

“……”

The bastard was staring at me with doubtful eyes.

His suspicious gaze was suggesting that he was wondering if I actually was good at studying.

“Just try listening to me. What I say won’t be of any disadvantage to you.”

“……”

GyeongWon slowly nodded his head.

“… I’m listening. What is it that you want to say?”

“First, the club that you want to join because it will help with your resume. The first year is worthless. You’ll just end up acting as the upperclassmen’s servant and waste a year.”

“My mom didn’t say anything like that……”

Bitch. At the age of seventeen, he was looking for his mommy?

“No matter how smart your parents are, they wouldn’t know about the politics that happen within the school. Listen to me. If you go to the Academics Club, you will definitely waste a year. But what about the Ghost Story Club that I’m trying to make?”

“……”

“My point is, we are the ‘founding members’. We don’t need to worry about any of the school’s circumstances. As long as we have the skills, it doesn’t matter what we win—we get to take all of the credit. We don’t need to spend a year cleaning up after those upperclassmen idiots.”

“Oho.”

GyeongWon started to gain some interest.

While framing the upperclassmen as bumbling idiots who’d steal from their juniors, I was also fanning his pride as an elite student.

“We don’t have to go to our upperclassmen to ask for the school’s club support money. Instead, our small number of members can split the wealth all by ourselves. Also, since I’m the club president, we won’t have any annoying and unavoidable club customs. And the club hours are entirely our free time. How does that sound?”

This will definitely work.

His purpose in attending this school, and his personality, which made him like to claim himself as an elite. I had taken all this into account as I tossed him that invitation.

The moment the slowly nodding GyeongWon opened his mouth to respond, a message window popped up.

[Your understanding of Ahn GyeongWon has greatly increased by 20.]

“… So you were one of those people who have smart ideas. Sorry for looking down on you earlier.”

Great! He was hooked!

It seemed like he hadn’t particularly liked the idea of coming in under someone else, as his expression wasn’t great. But as I slowly revealed my plan, it must have fulfilled what he was looking for, as at the end he was admiring the idea.

“Instead of joining some aggrandized club and wasting a year serving the upperclassmen, us skilled people would just make our own club and do it all ourselves… Impressive.”

“Well, that’s the plan. No need to waste any time.”

“As much as the weird concept of a Ghost Story Club does make me worry… Well, you’re free to package it as you like, and with an unusual concept like that, there would be no other clubs that overlap with ours. It would stand out in competitions.”

As GyeongWon was thinking it through, he suddenly had an idea.

“… But are new students allowed to make clubs? If so, it would be preferable if I made the club.”

That bastard. How dare he? I was the one who thought of it first.

“Usually, new students can’t make a club. The only reason I can is because I have some connections to a teacher in the school.”

“……”

GyeongWon, who was calmly watching me, spoke in admiration.

“You are so different from your first impression. I totally didn’t see you like that.”

‘Hey, you fucker. All of this is a lie~.’

As I listened to GyeongWon’s admiration, I filled out the spaces in the club application form.

Club President: Lee Joon

Member 1: Yoon SunAh

Member 2: Ahn GyeongWon

Member 3: —

I finished lunch and I was on my way to the bathroom as I worried about who to recruit as the last member.

Suddenly, I heard someone chuckling. When I turned to look, I saw that it was the homeroom teacher.

“It’s you, Joon. Is the club application going well?”

The rotund, middle-aged homeroom teacher.

He looked like he just finished brushing his teeth, as he had a toothbrush in his hands.

“It’s going so-so.”

“Hehe, a Ghost Story Club, how exciting. It seems you enjoy scary stories.”

“Well, rather than me liking ghost stories, I have a need to study them. I’m trying to learn more about them now.”

After listening to what I said, the homeroom teacher looked both ways to make sure no one was near.

Then he cautiously asked me a question.

“Were you on your way to the men’s room at the end of the hall?”

“Yes.”

“A ghost comes out at the fourth stall in that restroom.”

“……”

“It asks if you want a red tissue or a blue tissue. You’d better choose wisely. Well then, I’m off.”

The homeroom teacher disappeared in a hurry after telling me that.

‘How old is that story?’

That story was one of the old stories that were popular around the time I was in nursery school, such as the Hong Kong Grandma or the Red Mask ghost.

Just like his joke this morning, this homeroom teacher seems to be too much like an old man.

Was that his concept?

Still, he was a rotund, middle-aged, balding man.

That image, combined with his old man sense, made for an interesting combo.

‘How cool. How great would it be if I could also live life not caring about what others think and just going at my own pace?’

I laughed to myself and headed to the men’s room.