Ghost Story Club

Within the dressing room in the broadcast station building.

The leader of the girl group Fourincess and I, the president of the Ghost Story Club, were glaring at each other.

“I said all we need to do is guard the door from whoever wants to leave.”

The leader’s expression grew darker.

“…What does that even mean?”

Instead of replying, I turned my head partially towards SunAh and called out to her.

“SunAh.”

“Yeah?”

“Guard the exit. Don’t let anyone leave.”

“……!”

With a determined expression, SunAh nodded and moved in front of the door. Once she was standing in front of the door, she put her hand into her pocket and slipped out a pink box cutter, gripping it tightly in her hands.

“……”

I was speechless for a moment, but I turned back around towards Fourincess and stared hard.

“One of your members is not a person.”

“…What did you say?”

The five girls stared at me in surprise.

“One of you is a ghost. I will now try to single you out.”

“Are you insane?”

The leader seemed unable to endure it any longer and gripped the prop-use cane even tighter.

“Girls, grab your weapons! He’s a weirdo, just as I suspected!”

They each grabbed whatever was near them, but couldn’t stop trembling.

The leader did step forward boldly, but because she was still scared of us, I could see her hands trembling slightly.

“Y-you’re going to pretend to catch a ghost as you secretly do lewd things to us…”

“What the fuck is that bullshit?!”

At that moment, I was so flustered that I shouted.

“I’m just trying to check a few things, so please cooperate with me!”

“……”

The girls quietly looked at each other.

“…Explain what you were trying to do, first.”

“Okay. Please listen to me.”

I let out a sigh and started my explanation.

“Have you ever heard of this story? My friend with the boxcutter over there told me about it today.”

“……”

“I heard that if you see a ghost in the recording booth while recording, that album becomes a hit. I heard it’s a famous story among singers. Is that true?”

As they held onto their weapons, the girls calmly looked amongst each other again.

“…Yes, it’s a famous story.”

Since the older members didn’t answer, DaSom—the youngest member—replied in their stead. The leader glared at her briefly, as if to ask why she was playing along, but she soon let out a sigh.

“Yeah, it’s famous. Not just among singers, but even some of the other famous celebrities have personal ghost encounters.”

“Just like I thought.”

“So? What about it?”

“If that is true, then your song becoming such a huge hit isn’t actually too weird. It wasn’t that you saw a ghost. A ghost is even traveling around and performing with you guys.”

“…And so how does that make us ghosts?”

“Just one of you. Only a single one of you.”

She was about to retort, but instead bit her lip and just looked away. It seemed like she was dumbfounded by how I was so confidently stating something so bizarre.

“Say everything you want to say. Continue.”

I nodded, turned around, and asked GyeongWon.

“GyeongWon, how many members does 4Minute have?”

“F-Four Minute?”

As I had been basically speaking with the leader one on one, he seemed flustered by my sudden question. However, he adjusted his glasses and answered.

“Well, they have four members.”

“What about Fromis 9?”

“Uh, it’s nine people I think……”

“How about Gugudan? GOT7?”

“Uh, hmm. If I were to guess from their names, nine people and seven people?”

T/N: 4Minute, Fromis 9, Gugudan, and GOT7 are all real K-pop groups. Gugudan translates to “Nine by nine multiplication table”, so that’s where the nine comes from.

I turned back to the leader and motioned to confirm if he was right.

“So, is he right?”

“……”

As they were idols themselves, they would know much more about those groups than us. She just calmly nodded her head.

“Then how many members does your girl group have?”

The leader flinched before quietly replying.

“…Five people.”

Instead of saying anything I just nodded. The girl group used the name ‘Fourincess’. It was clear what the meaning behind the name was. It came from the number (Four) and the word (Princess), as that was the concept they were going for.

The leader paused as if she was thinking over what she wanted to say, before replying—albeit much less confidently.

“…S-so what? Fourincess would have to mean four people, but since we have five members, one of us is a ghost? Don’t be stupid. We’ve been performing together for over a month!”

“Then that means that the ghost has been with you all for over a month. The timing aligns perfectly with when you first announced your new track.”

“You keep trying to push us with this name thing…”

The leader tried to retort, but she kept stuttering and couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Wh-while working actively, you can sometimes gain members and lose members…”

“You guys are a completely new girl group, but that happened already?”

“……”

“From what I know, you all debuted this year.”

The girl group leader put her hands on her hips as she tried to respond, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Silence settled in the dressing room.

After pondering for a bit, she turned around and started pointing out each member as she listed out names.

“DaSom, BoRam, SaeRyun……”

Excluding herself, she tried naming every member as she counted off. After confirming there were no discrepancies, she turned to glare at me again.

“I am this group’s leader. I remember who is who and the personalities of each girl. There is no way that I am mistaken. It’s you guys who made the mistake.”

“Is that so?”

I nonchalantly replied as I looked at the girls.

The Fourincess leader, Cha JiWon.

It was definitely their side that were mistaken. Just as the system could distort reality and create a clubroom that never existed, the ghost stories could fabricate reality and had the power to shake up human cognition.

Just as I had almost died of asphyxiation in the elevator due to a misunderstanding, the girls were being tricked as well.

“Then, please try explaining why the group’s name is Fourincess.”

“Hey! Will you keep pushing us over a name……?”

The leader was throwing a tantrum while making a noticeably flustered expression.

“There was probably some reason from the higher ups! You can’t keep claiming one of us is a ghost when it’s always been like this! Claiming one of us is a ghost makes you guys abnormal!”

“But why are you so flustered?”

Flinch.

“Isn’t it because, when I mentioned the name Fourincess, you suddenly remembered that you originally started with four members—and yet, at a certain point you don’t remember, you suddenly had five people? Is that fact continuously on your mind now?”

“D-don’t be stupid.”

Her pretty face had glamorous makeup on for the performance. However, a drop of cold sweat trickled down from her forehead.

“Unnie, you can stop… Indeed, we were originally four people.”

From the back, the youngest member stepped out and confirmed our suspicions with a resolute voice.

“DaSom……”

“At a certain point, I started to feel that things were weird. Why was there suddenly an extra person? It felt weird……”

“……”

“But no matter how much I tried to remember, I wasn’t able to… Who was it that slipped in? Which members were the original members……”

At that moment, the atmosphere in the room grew cold. Everyone was slowly taking in the truth. There was one imposter among us. One of us was not a human.

“That was why I continued pleading, hoping that someone would notice… We were growing more and more popular, and our schedule was growing busier and busier. However, someone that was pretending to be human had casually slipped in, and that scared me so much……”

DaSom began to tremble in fear.

After a moment of silence, the leader turned back to me and asked me a question with a resigned tone.

“T-tell me what you are planning to do, first.”

“I wonder…”

“I’m just mentioning this ahead of time, but for the past month the five of us here went through many difficulties together, from tough schedules to arduous tours. However, none of us has acted in a suspicious way.”

That was the main problem. I had also observed all of the members very closely, but not a single one of them acted suspiciously. All five of them were just very beautiful girls.

Step, step.

As a test, I tried aggressively walking forwards toward the girls. All five of them flinched and backed up.

Using the piece of information that the ghost does something backwards, I tried making them walk backwards, but nothing special came up.

‘What should I do……’

I pondered for a bit, then turned to look at my club members. SunAh was still wielding the boxcutter as she guarded the door, and GyeongWon was looking at me earnestly.

“The point of view Prez needs is right here.”

When I gave him a look that asked for advice, GyeongWon suddenly spoke up.

“You’re equipped with everything you need to know. You know which ghost story is involved, and you know the background and the original cause of this incident. Now the only thing you need to do is reveal who the ghost is, Prez. One of them is not a human, but it’s up to you on how you will differentiate the ghost.”

“……”

“I believe in you, Prez.”

I responded to the nodding GyeongWon with a look, and turned back around to look at the Fourincess members.

“Will all of you please do a handstand?”

“What?”

* * *

* * *

“I asked if you could do a handstand. For you girls, who can dance for long periods of time, it shouldn’t be difficult to do one. Right away, please.”

The five girls briefly gave each other looks.

“Are you saying that when you know we are wearing skirts? How will that let you differentiate?”

“Ghosts do things backwards from the way humans do them. They either behave backwards, or say things in reverse. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“…Backwards? R-really?”

“Actually, the handstand was something I just tossed out there. I was planning on having everyone do random things until something sticks out. It can be something like making you crawl while doing a back bridge, rehearsing the multiplication table in reverse order, or doing a backwards cartwheel. It really doesn’t matter.”

The leader began to tremble greatly.

“Th-this bastard, he’s going to force us to do random things… without any real reasoning, he’s going to throw shit at a wall and hope something sticks……?”

“Are you talking back to me?”

“Yeah, I am!”

The pretty and angry girl shouted at me. I calmly spoke back to her.

“Then you must have talked back because you are the ghost. No wonder you were screaming back at me from the beginning… If you’re going to cooperate, you should cooperate silently. Why do you have so many complaints?!”

“I already know you’re trying to do lewd things to us!!!”

“Stop with the bullshit, you crazy bitch!!!!”

“CRAZY BITCH?!!!!!”

The leader ran at me and grabbed my hair. I responded by grabbing her long, silky, black hair as well.

“You’re the ghost, right? I got you now, you bitch!!”

“Die! Die!!”

The leaders of both groups were pulling on each other’s hair while screaming.

“Unnie! Stop! Rein it in!!”

“Prez! Stop this!!”

After the situation calmed down, Korea’s number one girl group was forced to listen to my commands and go through an intense boot camp.

“Everyone, together. Clap.”

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.

The five girls clapped while making reluctant faces.

“Great. No problems here. Let’s now have you do ten reps of squats. Don’t forget to count off.”

“One, two……”

“Wait! Stop! Oi, you! Why are you doing the reverse of everyone else? Everyone is squatting down while you alone are back up! I got you know! SunAh, kill her!!”

SunAh began to dash towards the girl.

“It’s not that I’m doing it in reverse but that I’m just off beat, you fucking moron! Let’s try it again!”

“Fine, again! One, two… Hmm, I see no issues here. Sorry for the misunderstanding.”

“We’ll make you bend forwards and look down as you spin in place. Now go, spin, spin.”

“Agh, huff, puff”

“Ah, I’m so fucking dizzy, fuck……”

“She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So, if she sells shells on the seashore, she sells seashore shells, I’m sure.”

“She shells seashells… sell shore sells… she sell seashores… what the fuck?”

“Wrong. Again.”

“She sells seashells by the seashore……”

And as time kept passing, the five girls were exhausted and dripping with sweat. The dressing room was full of their tired breathing.

“Y-you should stop now… Right? Isn’t this more than enough?”

The leader was pleading as she had collapsed on the floor.

I felt a bit sorry. I didn’t think I would fail to find the ghost after going so far. But I brushed aside the tiny seedling of guilt and made another request.

“I’m really sorry, but I really think you guys should do handstands.”

“Th-this fucking bitch… really… I said, we’re wearing skirts!”

“Unnie, it’s okay, we’re wearing tight shorts underneath anyway, remember?”

From the side, the DaSom tried to appease the leader.

“I’m sorry. Just the handstand. This will be the last thing I request. If we can’t find the ghost after this, you can beat me to death literally.”

After hearing that, even as she was breathing heavily, the leader started to grin.

“…Fine, this is the last thing we do. If there’s nothing to see after this, I will really beat your ass to death. You will die. At my hands.”

“I’ll go first.”

Even though DaSom was breathing heavily because she was exhausted, she got up and walked towards the wall. As the MVP that had noticed something was off early on, I could feel that she was actively trying to solve the situation and taking this seriously.

The middle school girl got close to the wall and, after bending over, kicked off the floor and put her feet against the wall to perform a handstand.

Her skirt did flip over, but only her black tight shorts were revealed. DaSom maintained her handstand without any signs of difficulty. As expected of a girl group member that practiced dancing every day, she could maintain that posture without any problems.

“That’s enough. Nothing seems wrong. Thank you.”

“Huu!”

While exhaling a bit, she got back on her feet.

“Now, Unnies! Pretty please?”

The girl group members were mumbling complaints, but with the urging of their youngest member, they also got up and walked towards the wall.

“Yaa!”

Another member kicked off the floor and did a handstand. Her figure, especially her hips, made a fine and flexible S- line.

“That’s enough, you can come down now.”

“Huu.”

She let out a sigh as she plopped back onto her feet. Now there were three members left, including the leader. Everyone started to look at the leader. It was as if we were all saying, ‘even the youngest did it, shouldn’t the leader that represents this girl group step up now?’.

“This will be able to differentiate the ghosts from people?”

She didn’t move from her spot as she crossed her arms.

“We need to try to know for sure. It may be bothersome, but please help us out.”

“……”

At my insistence, the leader began to frown. Eventually, she got up and slowly walked toward the wall.

“You can do it.”

She was still hesitating.

“Unnie, hurry up……”

“Fight! You can do it!”

The other members started to cheer her on.

“Ugh……”

With her eyes squeezed shut, she continued to dawdle in front of the wall. I tried inciting her.

“… As I expected, it was you. Even though you are wearing tight shorts underneath, you kept avoiding doing the handstand. The way you were so against it had me concerned. That must also have been the reason you were so—”

“That’s not it, you bastard! Stop thinking whatever you want!”

With my antagonizing, she shouted back at me. Then she took a ready stance.

“Okay, I’m going to do it… look at it very closely… you bastard.”

I could see the leader’s long lashes tremble slightly as a droplet of cold sweat trickled down her cheek.

“Eiii!”

With an unnecessarily exaggerated shout, the leader of Korea’s number one girl group, the most popular Fourincess, did a handstand. After, her skirt couldn’t overcome gravity and flipped over. It revealed her innocent pink underwear with a cute bunny on it, which contrasted greatly with her usual bold and outgoing image.

The leader's face turned bright red as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her arms began to tremble greatly.

I quietly nodded.

‘Great success.’

“Isn’t that enough!!! FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!”

Her angelic face continued to blush red as she spit out demonic curses and got back up.

“You fucking bitch, you fucker… FUCK you bastard, Fuck, fuck… Asshole fucking bitch ass mother fucker……”

“Unnie……”

Her face was completely red and trembling with anger. Right behind her, DaSom was worriedly mumbling to her to try and calm her.

“Next! Both of you are going together now!”

At the leader’s shouting, the remaining two members shuffled towards the wall.

“Start!”

“Yes ma’am!”

It may be that they were used to it when practicing their choreographed dances, but at the leader’s order, they naturally responded and performed their handstands.

Immediately, the two were against the wall, upside down without losing their balance.

“Hehe~! How is it now?! There’s nothing wrong, right!”

With a slightly unhinged voice, the leader put her hands on her hips and lightly licked her lips. What followed was a glare of pure vengeance and wicked laughter.

“Seeeeee~! Everyone is normaaaaaaal~! Be prepared to face my wrath, moron!!!”

She ran towards me, her nails raised and ready to scratch.

“Iyaaaaaaah! Die, bitch!”

She was right in front of me, ready to scratch my face to ribbons.

“……?”

But as I was completely still and not even looking at her, she paused.

It wasn’t just me.

No one was trying to hold back the overexcited leader, and no one was paying attention to her at all.

“……?”

Realizing that everyone was being too quiet, she started to look around.

Feeling that the atmosphere was unusual, she realized that all of us were looking in one direction. She could tell that our gazes were fixated on one thing. Of the two girls doing handstands, our gazes all focused on one of the girls.

SunAh, GyeongWon, me, DaSom, and the remaining members were all staring. It was clear that we were nervous as we looked at that one girl.

“…What is it? Why are you all being weird?”

The leader felt the weird atmosphere and looked a little confused. She looked in the direction of the girls.

“What is it? Both of them are doing the handstand like you asked. What’s wr-”

She roughly looked at them and finally noticed something off. She froze, swallowing her words in surprise.

“……!”

Six pairs of eyes were wordlessly looking at one of the two girls. There was a bizarre tension building up inside the dressing room.

“Um… uh… Is there something wrong?”

As the situation grew weirder, one of the girls performing the handstand nervously asked that question. Since she couldn’t see right next to her while doing a handstand, she probably didn’t notice.

“Um, my hands are getting tired. Can I get down, now?”

I slowly nodded my head.

“Yeah, you can stop now. Come over to this side, quickly.”

“Okay. Huuup!”

She exhaled as she got back onto her feet. Then she started to brush her silky, messed up hair before looking around.

“……?”

Noticing that everyone was wary of something, she tilted her head in confusion. She started to straighten out her clothes.

“Why are you all acting like that?”

“Bo-BoRam… C-come this way, quickly……”

When she heard the leader’s scared voice, she casually sauntered over and joined our group of people.

“What’s wrong…?”

After joining us, she turned around—finally able to see the girl that was doing a handstand alone.

“……?”

For a moment, as if she didn’t understand, she squinted her eyes. And then it hit her.

She froze, then flinched in surprise.

“Wh-what the…?”

After finally realizing her misconception, the leader suppressed her fear and tried talking to the girl.

“Wh-what was your name… again? A-and, uh……”

She held down her trembling arms and tried to finish her question. However, she couldn’t finish her words and ended up falling silent.

We were all staring at the girl doing a handstand. Since she was upside down, her facial features should have been upside down as well. However, they weren’t.

While her entire body was upside down in a handstand, only her face was right side up—as if it were affixed in that position, casually staring right back at us.