Ghost Story Club

The dressing room was filled with tremendous tension and silence.

The leader mustered up her courage and slowly approached the girl still doing a handstand.

“Hey, you over there.”

“Don’t go!”

The members shouted from behind.

The leader calmly looked back and told them.

“It’s alright, guys. She has been practising with us for a month. It’ll be alright.”

The leader slowly approached the girl doing a handstand.

“Hey, you… what’s your name?”

“You’re the ghost, right? Where and when did you join us……”

“We’ll help you. Can you speak?”

Whish.

The girl gently lowered her legs, swinging them back on the ground.

Her movement was unnatural, as if her body was as light as a feather, floating above the ground.

Even when her body was turning, her face was fixed in front of her, stuck at the same position like a lame CGI animation.

“Are you the cause of this riot? Why are you doing this?”

The leader asked again gently, like a nursery teacher comforting a child.

The girl ghost stood still before whispering silently.

[“Four”] [“In”] [“Ce”] [“Ss”]

“··Fourincess? Yes, we’re Fourincess. We’re your friends, you don’t have to hide anything. Tell me everything, okay?”

[“I”] [“I”] [“Dol”]

“···What? Huh?”

The girl shifted her gaze towards us.

Whoosh.

Her figure was slowly getting blurred.

Feeling the immeasurable regret pouring over, the leader pressed again.

“Idol? You meant you’re an idol, right? What happened to you?”

The girl stood still with a sad smile plastered on her small pretty face.

Her figure was getting more and more transparent, like a video slowly coming to its end.

She was disappearing.

“Hey! I’m asking you, I’m your leader! You have to tell me!”

The girl muttered one last thing before disappearing completely.

With a gentle breeze, the girl vanished like a wisp of smoke.

Just before her body disappeared completely, the girl let out a whisper. It was also at this moment when the system announced.

[“Goo”] [“ ”] [“ ”] [“ ”]

And then messages started to appear in front of me.

[You have come across and survived an E-rank ghost story – Trainee idol buried under the ground.]

[The ghost has let go of her regret and attachment to this world and ascended to the Afterlife.]

However, the system didn’t announce any points.

‘No points?’

The dressing room was filled with silence once again.

The girl has completely disappeared, but the members of Fourincess were still staring at the place where the ghost stood.

I was also lost in thought.

I had expected that a message that I had solved the ghost story would pop up but nothing happened.

The system was also silent.

So the ghost story was resolved?

But I had a hunch that it was not.

The message that just popped up only announced that I have survived an E-rank ghost story, and that the ghost had already gone to the Afterlife after letting go of her attachment to this world. However, there weren’t any messages announcing if the ghost story about the song had been resolved or not.

‘….I see.’

Although the ghost had disappeared, the ghost story was still intact and causing havoc in the world.

The ghost of the girl was a trainee idol who had been murdered, but after living her life as an idol for a month, she had let go of her grudges and was sent to the Afterlife.

I had told the leader about a ghost story earlier that had been circulating in this broadcasting studio for some time.

There had been a rumour that while walking alone somewhere in this broadcasting studio, the voice of a woman could be heard, muttering the lyrics of a song. The lyricist came across it last month when he had visited the studio on business.

However, I couldn’t figure out why the song that drove people crazy with its ghostly lyrics still existed, even though the ghost of the girl had already let go of her grudges and disappeared.

The song with the ghostly lyrics uttered by the ghost that drove people crazy.

And the ghost story about the song was still there.

It seemed that there were still some things to be done to solve the ghost story about the crazy song. The lyrics of the hook part of the song were originally written with the grudges of a trainee idol who had been murdered, and so the ghost story was also related to the song.

I looked around the dressing room slowly.

The four girls of Fourincess, who have slowly come to the terms of accepting the bizarre situation, were looking at each other, hoping that someone could explain the situation to them.

“Ugh, ah, ahem, uh…”

They look back at me slowly at the sound of my cough.

One of the members had her mouth opened in surprise, one looked sad, and two seemed still in shock. Their expressions were blank as if they didn’t understand the situation yet.

“Would you please listen to me for a moment? Let me explain everything.”

After seeing that their eyes had focused on me, I collected my words.

“You may not know but not long ago, a girl was killed by someone and buried under the studio’s third waiting room.”

“She had probably been one of the trainees who had come to the studio to audition to be an idol and hadn’t made her debut yet. Before anyone could know or investigate the matter, a ghost story had already been circulating in the studio.”

“Ghost story….”

One of the members murmured.

“Yes, you’ve heard of it too, right? According to my conclusion and the rumours that you have heard, the story is like this; when you walk around the third waiting room of this studio, you could suddenly hear the voice of a woman muttering quietly.”

The four girls looked at each other with uncertainty.

Their eyes focused back on me, while their brains were searching their memories.

“And the person who actually experienced the ghostly phenomena was the lyricist of your newly released song. What happened after that, you all know about it better.”

“The lyricist took inspiration from the ghostly murmur and turned them into lyrics and added them into the original song’s hook part. Just as he expected, your new song was a huge hit from the moment it was released.”

“Everyone in this field believes that if their work originates from any kind of paranormal phenomena, then they would be widely popular without any hitch. But your new song went beyond encountering a ghost, even though you only sang one sentence that the ghost had said.”

And even without the music, the effect was still the same…

As the youngest member shook, another member next to her held her hand tightly.

“If you sing the lyrics of the song normally, there doesn’t seem to be any problems. However, if you sing the exact same sentence backwards, the meaning changes. The sentence becomes, ‘I’m buried under the floor of the third waiting room’.”

“Oh, my God…

The members shook in disbelief. Their horrified expressions were proof that they didn’t know there could be such a meaning of a sentence which they sang over hundreds of times in a month.

“The ghost of the girl who died unfairly was constantly mentioning the third waiting room where she was buried. And it was this line that clarified the fact and at the same time caused people to lose their mind. As a result, this song became the ‘Cursed Song’ because of the trainee who had been murdered.”

“If you know the horror movie ‘The Ring’ from Japan, you will be able to understand it better. Just like in the movie where a ghost would kill anyone who watched the cursed movie, a cursed song containing the grudge of a dead girl was made.”

“C, Cursed Song…”

“We’ve sung the song so many times…”

The members looked at each other, their faces turning white.

I nodded my head in agreement.

“Her raspy murmurs, that had been turned into lyrics, was how this cursed song came to be. The song contained the grievance of the dead girl. Addictive melody and people’s enthusiastic response created terrifying synergy, which made the cursed song gain strength and possess the listener to spread the song further. Not only did it control the listeners’ consciousness, but it was also able to bring out the soul of the trainee to whom the original lyrics belonged.”

“Soul, of the girl…”

“Yes, the girl who was with you until just now.”

The members looked back at each other with dizzying expressions before opening their mouths.

“Well, come to think of it… the girl, she never ate anything or even slept……”

“We didn’t even know her name and didn’t bother to think about it either. We don’t even know what kind of person she was or when she joined us ….”

“How could we not notice her until now? Oh, my god…”

The four girls began to lament.

“I feel like I was possessed, how can we be mistaken otherwise… yes, it would be better to to put it that way. Even people who seemed normal at first glance, were actually under the control of the cursed song.”

“How could that be….”

The four girls were surprised at their own hypothesis.

“So, is it all over now? The ghost just disappeared.”

The member, who did a handstand with the ghost just now, asked me with an earnest look.

But I shook my head.

“Look out the window.”

Perhaps because of the speciality of the dressing room, the window of the room had dark blindfolds, barely illuminating the room with sulight.

The youngest member looked outside before shaking her head with a dark expression

It could be said that the city was still a mess.

“I have once read a book about exorcism…”

Gyeongwon, who had only been standing still in the back so far, finally started speaking in a low voice toward the members.

“There are many reasons why ghosts wander around this world. If they have any lingering desires, they won’t be able to go to the Afterlife until or unless they let go of those desires. Even if their resentment isn’t necessarily solved, anything that can appease them can also help them let go of their desires.”

“Anything that can appease them?”

Gyeongwon nodded his head.

Unlike his usual prideful tone he would use to talk to his friends and others of the same age, he explained it carefully using formal speech like a young master of a prominent family.

“The exorcists say that things the ghosts liked in their life, or things that they wanted, anything that can appease them can be used to soothe their resentment. Although I don’t know why, it seems that the ghost of the girl was satisfied living her life as an idol with you for a month. That’s why she could let go of her desire and disappear…”

“In other words, her regret or desire that she had was lifted even though we didn’t solve the grudges. However, her letting go of her resentment and resolving the grudges in the lyrics are two separate matters…”

The song was written by the lyricist’s willingness and spread by people.

“Well, then how do we resolve her grudges? What do we have to do?”

The leader asked with a determined expression.

Gyeongwon replied, pushing his glasses at the bridge of his nose.

“If you want to resolve the resentment of the girl who was murdered unjustly… Wouldn’t that mean that we have to catch the criminal as well? And considering the fact of the lyrics where it mentions that her body has been buried under the floor of the third waiting room, I think we should take out the dead body and bury it in a better place…”

I nodded at his words, showing my approval.

Finishing the explanation and leaving the place should be done first.

“How about this? Rather than being stuck in this room waiting for the military to dispatch, you should come with us to the third waiting room. No matter if it’s military or police, it’s impossible to resolve the situation without resolving the case itself. There’s only one way open for us now.”

“Third waiting room…”

The leader murmured with a pale face.

She pondered for a while before making up her mind.

The moment she was about to open her mouth.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked at the door of the dressing room.

Sunah, who had been guarding the door of the dressing room, jumped up in surprise and raised the boxcutter in hand.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Girls, are you inside!”

A man shouted from over the door.

“Huh?”

The members tilted their heads, trying to remember to whom the voice belonged.

“Who is it?”

When I asked quietly, the leader answered.

“This should be our agent who went on a rampage this morning and was taken away by the studio officials.”

“Agent. Hmm……”

Knock, knock, knock.

“Girls, are you inside!”

The man tirelessly knocked on the door again.

The leader slowly approached while being on guard.

Then she asked quietly toward the closed door.

“Mr. Agent?”

“Girls, I’m here to guide you!”

A roaring voice returned as the answer of her quietly asked question.

“Guide us where?”

“You have to go to the third waiting room, now!”

“What?”

“You have friends waiting for you!”

The members looked at each other with uncertainty.

“I don’t think he has returned to normal yet. What should we do?”

“What else? Kick him away. It’s clear as day that it’s a trap.”

At my suggestion, the leader spoke to the door again.

“We can go there by ourselves. Mr. Agent, you can go do your own business.”

“Then I’ll call someone else!”

Then a series of footsteps leaving the threshold could be heard.

“What?”

But a moment later.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone else knocked on the door of the closed dressing room again.

“Who is this?”

“I’m Pyo Yongil! I’m here to guide you!”

Everyone in the room was surprised at the unexpected appearance of the unexpected person.

Pyo Yongil, the top-class singer in Korea and a legend who was praised for his achievement and titled as the so-called King of the Music Industry. No one else in Korea could overcome his position as the unparalleled King of the Music Industry.

[T/N: The name Pyo Yongil refers to Cho Yong-pil, a South Korean singer-songwriter who is considered one of the most influential figures in South Korean popular music. His nickname is ‘King of pop-music’. Source: Wikipedia]

Such a person was right outside the door!

“Se, senior! Senior would guide us?”

Cha Jiwon, the leader of Fourincess, was astonished.

Although she could be considered famous, as a member of one of the best girl idol groups, not to mention her popularity would soar in the future. But at that point, she was just a leader of a small new idol group.

She was clearly taken aback by the appearance of a well-known figure, who was far more experienced and famous than her.

“I’ve been ordered to take you to the third waiting room!”

Once again, a loud voice boomed from beyond the door.

“Third waiting room…”

Even if we didn’t take his popularity in consideration, his seniority was way more than the girls of Fourincess.

However, he was speaking formally.

Although he was obviously much more experienced and well-known than the members of Fourincess, he was speaking politely to them, as if speaking to his superior.

[T/N: The formal speech of Korean language has been lost in translation.]

“Your friends are waiting for you!”

“What should we do?”

The leader looked at me with great hesitation.

“There seems to be no end to this. Even if we send this person away, someone else will come.”

“Hmm.”

Pondering hard, I voiced my thoughts.

“Let’s open the door and hope that it’s not a trap. We will have to go to the third waiting room anyway.”

At my suggestion, the leader nodded and cautiously approached the door.

Sunah, who was still standing in front of the door guarding it, stepped aside. The leader unlocked the door and slowly turned the doorknob.

When the door opened, the figure of a man could be seen.

The tremendous sense of pressure at the appearance of the King of the Music Industry of Korea was no joke.

An unknown aura from a person, who has reached the level of the pro enveloped us.

The members of Fourincess greeted him with a 90-degree bow, even though they had a feeling that he wasn’t in his right mind.

“Hello! We’re members of the girl group, Fourincess! We are really glad to meet you!”

The members all shouted together, like singing a chorus.

It was said that the entertainment industry put a lot of emphasis on seniority.

But the man shouted again in a louder voice, not even pretending to hear their greetings.

“I’ve been ordered to take you to the third waiting room! Please come this way!”

The girls lifted their heads up.

It was only when they saw the empty blank eyes of Pyo Yongil and the movement of his feet did they come to their senses.

Step, step.

The man took a backward step, his front facing us.

Just as I thought, he has also been infected by the song.

“I’ve been ordered to take you to the third waiting room! Please come this way. Everyone!”

King Pyo Yongil walked backwards slowly to the hallway before commanding us to follow him.

Seeing no other choice, we looked at each other before deciding to follow him out the dressing room.

Following Pyo Yongil, the members of Ghost Story Club and the members of Fourincess left the dressing room in an orderly manner.

As we turned the corner of the hallway and stood in front of the emergency exit stairs, we could see some people who were doing a handstand glancing at us. But surprisingly, they looked away before heading the other way.

“Oh, they’re not attacking us.”

“Hmmm.”

I asked Gyeongwon, who was standing behind me quietly.

“Hey, Gyeongwon. What do you think is going on here?”

“Wait a moment.”

Gyeongwon followed the movement of the possessed people strewn about. His glasses flashed, as if he understood the situation.

On the way up the stairs, we could hear the sound of a loud chorus coming from upstairs.

The sound was coming from the third waiting room on the 5th floor.

It seemed the ‘friends’ that The King of the Music Industry meant were the singers and celebrities who were singing a chorus in that waiting room.

No wonder there weren’t many people around even after all the chaos. It seemed they were just singing there like a fanatic all the time.

“This way!”

King of Music Industry, Pyo Yongil stopped at the entrance of the fifth floor and politely gathered his hands and bowed his head like a butler serving his master.

Through the closed emergency door, the sound of the singers singing the new hit song of Fourincess with all their might could be heard.

They were singing as if their lives depended on it. Their sounds echoing throughout the whole building, booming around the walls and shaking the building as if it was about to collapse.

Although we were standing on the other side of the closed door, their voices together were so loud that our ears began to tingle.

They were singing different parts of the song each in their own way, creating a hilariously noisy melody that you couldn’t possibly consider a sing-along.

“Joon…”

Sunah held my hand tightly in fear.

The four girls of Fourincess huddled together while shuddering in horror.

“….It’ll be okay, probably.”

I opened the emergency door with a determined heart.

Creak.

The moment the door opened, the loud chorus stopped.

All eyes fell onto us.

Singers and celebrities standing in the narrow corridors of the fifth floor could be seen on the other side of the door.

Some were old, some young.

I could recognise some famous faces that I had only seen on TV, and there were some faces I was seeing for the first time. However, all of them had similarity in one aspect– they were all wearing colourful stage costumes and dresses.

And at least one part of their bodies, such as arms or legs, were bent backward, as their blank eyes stared ahead without focus.

Suddenly, the people who were standing there began to move.

It seemed they were making a way for us to pass.

Step, step, step, step.

People at the edge of the crowd stuck themselves on the wall. They were pressed and almost crushed by the people in front of them, trying to split the crowd in between and making a path as if the Red Sea was being divided.

However, the whole process was surprisingly quiet.

Except for the sound of their busy footsteps, no sound of hesitation or unwillingness could be heard as they squeezed and pressed each other to make a path.

Since they were the one who heard the song most, they seemed to have become puppets rather than possessed.

Step, step.

After a while, the crowd split into two parts, making enough space in between for us to pass.

It was as if a red carpet was spread in front of us, leading us towards the stage.

We walked carefully along the path between the crowd with an anxious heart and soon reached our destination.

[Third waiting room]

We’ve reached the third waiting room, crossing a path made by hundreds of people with a strange silence.

Seven of us stood at the door and held our breath for a moment.

“This is it. The root of all the problems.”

I heard Gyeongwon muttering in the back.

“The song that has been spread like an infectious disease, we’ve been led to the root of it, the mother virus.”

Although I wasn’t sure if we were truly on the right track, I nodded.

“Let’s open the door.”

I spoke before slowly turning the doorknob of the third waiting room.

Click.

In the third waiting room.

A middle-aged man was sitting in a chair.

His whole body was tied up.

The room inside was neat, coloured with a deep black matte colour.

The place was perfect for the cast of the show to wait while changing their makeup.

However, the man tied up in a chair in the middle of the room was disharmonious within the neat room.

“So… I did it, I did…”

The man was constantly muttering something.

The guy must have been out of his mind, too.

As I entered the room and looked around, the tiles of one corner of the room were seen lifted up.

It could be seen at first glance.

I slowly moved towards the fine tiles in the corner.

When I peeked inside, I could see the body of a girl buried in cement.

Originally, the body should have been buried firmly out of sight, but perhaps someone just recently dug it up and revealed it, it could be seen at first glance.

Although the body was difficult to recognize because it had already begun to rot, at first glance, I could feel that the body belonged to the ghost of the girl who had been with the members of Fourincess.

It was definitely the dead body of the trainee who had been murdered.

I stood up slowly and made my way to the man tied up in the chair.

“Debut, I could have helped her debut. I coaxed her so well.”

The man tied to the chair was still muttering gibberish.

I moved the face of the man to the members of Fourincess.

“Do you know this man?”

The leader nodded.

“Yes, he’s the Chairman of this broadcasting studio.”

“The Chairman….”

“When I came to the studio for the first time for my audition, he was there. I saw him secretly peeking at my legs.”

The man didn’t seem to notice us at all and kept mumbling to himself.

“The agency, I told her, was going to help her debut…”

When I listened carefully to what the man was saying, I could understand the context roughly.

“I think this man killed the girl.”

He used his position as the Chairman of the broadcasting studio and snooped in at the time of audition.

He tried to tempt a trainee, giving her false hope to help her debut if she listened to him. But when the trainee refused, he got angry and murdered her.

Perhaps we were standing at the crime scene, exactly the place where the murder had taken place.

Because there were many eyes around the broadcasting studio, it was difficult to get the body out. So he just called a mason and buried the body under the floor.

The whole incident happened last month.

It was also before the entrance ceremony, the starting point where I kept going after dying for the first few times.

Now it seems even if I go back, I won’t be able to resolve the situation.

“I could make her debut… I coaxed her so well.”

Haaa.

Leaving behind the man still mumbling gibberish, I went back to the dead body.

Sitting on my knees, I stared at the pretty face of the girl.

The man buried the body too well, although it began to rot, no bugs could be seen on the body.

In my past life, the poor trainee was buried under the cement for three years.

“Someone informed me that my friend is waiting for me here, so I came.”

“You gave me all the hints, you also got everything ready. You told me where you were buried…”

The smell of the body was terrible because of the decomposition.

But the thin face of the girl at first glance was very beautiful.

If she were alive, she’d have been a beautiful woman. I could be so sure because I’ve already seen her appearance in the dressing room.

She was probably about the same age as I was.

“I’m sorry I won’t be able to save you even if I go back.”

“Do you want me to send him to prison? For his whole life?”

“But it’s going to be difficult. The people who should enforce the law are all out of their minds.”

“It’s because you were so dedicated. You danced, sang and worked so hard.”

“How was it? How did you feel when you became the top idol in Korea? Did you feel better?”

Knowing the dead body wouldn’t be responding to me, I got back on my feet and headed for the man.

“I need proof that he killed this girl.”

The overweight middle-aged man mumbled, his eyes rolling everywhere.

“Semen. My semen…”

Slap!

The leader finally couldn’t hold back anymore and slapped the man in the face.

“Dirty punk!”

“Ugh…”

As the leader of Fourincess began to beat the man, other members began to cry. Not for the man of course, but for the girl who had been murdered by the man.

I quietly called out to the youngest member.

“I need your cell phone number.”

“My number?”

“Yes.”

Although my sudden request made her embarrassed, she told me her number right away.

I recited the number in my heart and ordered Gyeongwon before leaving the waiting room.

“Please keep an eye on the dead body, don’t let anyone touch it. I have something to do.”

“Are you going to turn back time now?”

“Yes.”

“Then, Prez, I have a favour to ask of you.”

When I indicated to him to continue with a raised brow, Gyeongwon said, pushing his glasses.

“The first phone I bought was AMOLED Clover’s featured phone. If you can convince me of this fact, I may be able to help you.”

“….Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Perhaps. I’m sure you believe me.”

He nodded again.

“It’s a request, Prez.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

As I left the waiting room, I saw the people of the Music Industry who were standing motionlessly, were on their knees.

The pros of the Music Industry were welcoming the newly born Queens of pop.

T/N: If you notice any misspellings, grammar mistakes and awkward sentences, please feel free to point them out. And if you like my work, consider supporting me on Kofi.