I Want to Be a VTuber

Practice in the old school building.

Everyone was in awe of Seo-yeon’s ghost acting, but honestly, Seo-yeon couldn’t be satisfied with herself.

What should I say?

It was probably because she didn’t fully understand the fear associated with the existence of ‘ghosts.’

‘The emotions I felt in a horror game before.’

Sure, there were jump scares, but beyond that, there was definitely something shivery happening.

That tension.

The atmosphere brought by the creature.

To be frank, Seo-yeon didn’t think she did a good job at all.

Suddenly appearing and scaring people on the stairs?

That’s just like the jump scares that Seo-yeon used to avoid in previous games.

Jump scares aren’t necessarily bad.

But.

‘Should I refer to some proper horror movies?’

Horror movies.

Even for Seo-yeon, who learned about human emotions through various media in her past life, they were unfamiliar.

After all, horror movies assume that humans feel fear.

For Seo-yeon, who couldn’t feel fear, the appeal was naturally diminished, and she didn’t initially even think to look them up.

‘That’s right.’

Seo-yeon nodded her head.

The reason she was so shocked and… scared at that time was that it was something she wasn’t used to in the first place.

‘If I watch a few movies or play some games, I’ll get used to it quickly.’

Joo Seo-yeon, the girl who doesn’t know fear.

Although she had just realized it, getting accustomed to it would be enough.

Thinking about how she had screamed and flailed in games made her cheeks heat up.

“…That won’t happen anymore.”

Seo-yeon made that resolution and watched some horror movies online.

Mainly masterpieces that changed the paradigm of horror films.

Among them, the most impressive scenes.

One of them that caught Seo-yeon’s gaze was a staircase scene from a certain movie.

A possessed girl, crawling down the stairs backward on all fours.

‘……’

Seo-yeon watched it keenly.

And fell asleep shivering alone.

And.

In the empty old school building, Seo-yeon practiced what she could do.

For three days.

After her special training.

“Alright.”

Seo-yeon nodded while looking at her reflection in the mirror.

Her friends from the class had eagerly done her makeup.

Honestly, Seo-yeon wished it could have been scarier, but they had just heavily applied black mascara to her eyes.

And that was all, to make her skin look pale.

Her skin was already so pale that it didn’t really stand out that much.

Grrrr!

“……”

Seo-yeon was on the second floor of the old school building.

Of course, there were students waiting in the second floor, excluding Seo-yeon.

Female students dressed as ghosts from each class.

However, unlike them, who just had to wait in specific areas, Seo-yeon had to move.

A central hallway leading from the second floor to the first.

She had to scare the students once and then go back up to wait in the old staff room at the end of the second floor.

In other words, Seo-yeon needed to travel alone down the hall of the old school building.

Whoosh!

The sound of pouring rain could be heard from outside.

The blackout curtains borrowed from the drama club were very effective, making it feel like night.

‘It’s stuffy.’

Seo-yeon peered open the blackout curtains for no reason.

Still, pulling them aside made it clear that it was still daytime.

‘They said the haunted house starts at ten.’

Looking at the time, there were still about ten minutes left.

Seo-yeon took a deep breath, intending to get some fresh air from the rain-soaked chill, and opened the window.

Clatter.

Whoosh!!

Tak.

As Seo-yeon opened the window, she realized.

Oh, it’s not just raining; the wind is really strong too.

The moment she opened the window, a gust of wind rushed in and soaked Seo-yeon’s face.

She felt her hair cling to her face, drenched.

“……”

Closing the window and wiping her face casually with a handkerchief, she sensed the window rattling in the wind.

It seemed that as soon as Seo-yeon opened the window, the wind started to blow even stronger.

What a coincidence, she thought.

It was already dark, and with the window rattling as well as lightning striking?

For the haunted house, it was a favorable condition, but for Seo-yeon, it was a disaster.

But who is she?

She is Joo Seo-yeon, refined through horror movies.

Now, this much…….

“……”

Seo-yeon first headed towards the central staircase.

It was almost ten.

Time for the first guests to enter the haunted house.

However, there was something Seo-yeon didn’t know.

The makeup she usually wore wouldn’t run when wet, but this one was different.

So she didn’t realize what kind of condition she would be in after getting soaked in the rain.

*

Most of the students gave up the ghost on the central stairs on the first floor and left, but occasionally, a few made it up to the second floor.

“Ugh, I should have just gone.”

“Pff? Scared?”

“Ah, what’s there to be scared of?”

Three male students lightly chatted as they climbed to the second floor.

The central staircase ghost on the first floor was scary, but everything else didn’t seem that terrifying.

It was just the rain and lightning, and the atmosphere of the old school building that triggered their fear.

“It’s doable, it’s doable.”

“Hey, they say Ji-seok went in and then ran out.”

“Idiot. What’s there to be scared of?”

Tsk, tsk, they clicked their tongues, but their voices quivered slightly.

Finally, they reached the last destination.

The staff room.

They had already heard that the ghost from earlier was supposed to appear in this place.

The ghost with red eyes that crawled down the stairs backward.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Can’t we like, fight back? We could scare them ourselves, right?”

They call it a haunted house, but it’s just a place made by a bunch of high school students.

Of course, they’re not staff or professional actors.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to scare the ghost instead?”

“Ah, you know I’d throw a punch if I got startled, right? No way. It’ll hurt.”

Two male students, pretending to be tough, were so bold as to think of scaring the ghost instead, stepping inside.

But.

“……”

As soon as they entered, they all froze.

In the middle of the staff room stood a female student with her back turned.

Darkness.

In the quiet stillness, they could hear the sound of rain.

With a flash of lightning, the woman stood still.

‘W-What’s the mission again?’

All they had to do was open a drawer in the staff room and take out the bracelet inside.

“Hey, she’s not moving. What are you doing?”

“Uh, uh.”

With trembling voices, they moved cautiously around the still female student.

As they pressed against the wall and moved along the designated path, as soon as they opened the drawer slowly…

The female student moved.

The boys froze, still trying to pry the drawer open.

‘Is she going to turn around?’

Just as they had that thought, the girl’s waist bent back.

“AW!!!! What the F*!!!!!!”

Clatter, clatter, holding onto the stubbornly stuck drawer, they yanked out the bracelet.

It was just an amateur ghost acted by a student, or so they thought.

But those thoughts faded.

People feel fear when encountering something that defies common sense.

Of course, they thought she’d turn around if she was standing, but they didn’t expect her to bend her waist backward like that.

And then the atmosphere.

The black makeup running down her face.

Her gleaming red eyes in the darkness.

Her mouth wide open as if paralyzed with fear.

She didn’t look like a normal female student at all.

That was it.

Now, she began to crawl, upside down, on all fours.

And she was fast too!!

“Run, run, damn it, run!”

At the sight of the grotesque figure, the boys quickly turned around, and—

– “Return my bracelet, return it, return it.”

A haunting voice of a female student filled the air behind them.

And when they finally stopped at the central staircase while rushing down to the first floor.

“Huff, huff. Damn, that scared the hell out of me.”

“What was with the crawling thing….”

“Ah, it’s alright, it’s alright. She was just over there.”

In the bizarre chase, they turned their heads.

A female student came dangerously close to them.

“What do you mean, just over there!!”

“She’s so damn fast, like seriously fast.”

The boys scrambled down to the first floor.

At least she wouldn’t be able to crawl down the stairs that quickly.

But damn, she was incredibly fast.

How could she flip her body and chase them like that?

Is she really a ghost?

They thought, racing down to the first floor.

At the same time.

Just then, they locked eyes with some incoming female students.

The ghost chasing the boys abruptly stopped.

“……Joo Seo-yeon.”

With a tone of utter disbelief.

*

“Wow, the atmosphere is crazy. Ji-yeon, are you really going?”

Ji-yeon’s friend asked, and Ji-yeon nodded.

“I mean, there’s nowhere else to go now, right?”

“Still~.”

Following behind Ji-yeon were Young-mi and Sun-hee, who replied to her.

Ji-yeon clicked her tongue.

“It’s just a haunted house made by high school students. Why be scared?”

“If the weather had been nice, it wouldn’t be scary.”

“But with this downpour and thunder… just walking in the old school building is frightening.”

At their words, Ji-yeon tilted her head.

That could certainly be a concern, but what was worrying Ji-yeon more were other things.

“Well… I didn’t even make it to the second floor.”

“Then did you make it to the end of the first floor?”

The conversation of the shivering female students was heard.

“Ah, crap. So embarrassing.”

“I saw you running away; your legs were really fast.”

“Seriously, I’m going to die.”

“I almost threw a roundhouse kick from surprise!”

She caught snippets of the boys’ conversations as well.

Of course, it was pretty obvious most of it was just bravado.

The last statement was a lucky jab.

If he had really kicked, his leg might have broken.

Ji-yeon thought seriously.

She hadn’t quite understood before, but recalling the incident from her middle school retreat…

‘The line is long.’

The line was surprisingly long and packed, possibly due to the weather since many of the other booths had been dismantled, and the rest were ordinary stalls or recreational games.

With the haunted house in this kind of atmosphere, students were bound to become more interested.

“Seo-yeon really is good at acting, huh? Just showing her face on the stairs has sent so many people running.”

“Not many teams have made it to the second floor yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

Ji-yeon caught snippets of her classmates’ discussions as they managed the line.

Hearing that made Ji-yeon think.

‘It probably wasn’t just showing her face.’

She probably practiced doing just that.

However, it wouldn’t have been terrifying at just that level.

From the reactions of the other female students in their class, she could infer that much.

‘For sure, they think if it’s not scary, it can’t be a ghost!’

Was she imitating characters from horror movies or games?

Seo-yeon was very good at mimicking those types of things.

Was it because she was a born actress?

Or was it talent?

‘If she gets into the groove, I wonder what she’ll do next.’

Sometimes she had a bit of that boyish side.

When the other party responds passionately, she might enjoy herself too much and just act recklessly.

“Ugh, it’s our turn.”

“I’m sticking close behind you, Ji-yeon. I’m not going in front!”

“Fine, I get it.”

Ji-yeon sighed and entered the depths of the old school building.

She submitted her entry ticket to the students waiting at the entrance and walked inside.

‘Definitely.’

The dark old school building had a scary feeling just from that alone.

But that was about it.

As per the initial map they were given, they had to enter the designated classroom on the first floor to complete their mission.

Inside, they would face the ghosts that would scare them.

But that was just of a mundane level.

Honestly, it didn’t even come close to the level of a theme park haunted house.

But.

‘The central stairs.’

That was where Seo-yeon was supposed to show up.

So when Ji-yeon walked towards the central staircase, she froze in place.

“AAAHH!!”

Along with the horrified screams of male students, one ran down the stairs.

And behind him was a ghost with red eyes, crawling.

The thing crawling down on all fours seemed to be chasing after the boy who had just zipped past Ji-yeon.

“……!!”

At the sudden appearance of the ghost, the two female students behind Ji-yeon sucked in a breath.

When people are shocked, they can’t even scream.

The upside-down figure of a woman.

Something dark smeared across her face.

Her shining red eyes in the darkness.

She could hear the sound of the two female students’ legs giving way as they fell backwards.

And then.

“……”

“……”

Ji-yeon’s gaze met with the ghost’s.

Slowly.

The ghost resumed its pursuit, clamoring up the stairs.

And Ji-yeon chased after that ghost, running up to the second floor.

“D-Don’t leave me!”

The two female students stretched their hands toward Ji-yeon desperately.

“Joo Seo-yeon, have you lost your mind?!!!”

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