Ghost Story Club

Wiggle wiggle (くねくね).

Or Kune kune. It is a ghost story that originated from Japan which means ‘wiggling shadow’ or ‘twisting figure’.

Below is the story of what happened to A and his older brother when they went to visit their grandparents’ house in the countryside.

The two brothers were walking along the paddy fields when they saw something white, like a shadowy figure, wriggling in the distance.

A white object that was twisting in such an unnatural manner that it was hard to describe what it was.

“Brother, do you see that?”

“Yeah. What is that?”

A’s older brother took out his binoculars and examined the twisting figure closely.

For a long time, A’s older brother didn’t move. His eyes were fixed on the binoculars gazing in the distance.

Seeing his unmoving brother, A, out of curiosity, grabbed his brother’s arm and shook it while asking “What? What did you see?”

Then, A’s older brother slowly put down the binoculars, broke out in a cold sweat, and murmured, “You don’t need to know….”

But A was curious, so he begged his older brother for the binoculars, but his brother, speaking in a hesitant tone, only said dully, “It’s better not to know…..” and turned around, staggering back to the countryside house first.

That night, A, who had been sleeping peacefully, was awakened by a commotion and saw his older brother crawling wildly across the wooden floor while laughing like crazy. And their grandmother and grandfather were holding onto him and crying.

Soon, his grandfather came over to A and shook his shoulders with a desperate expression.

“Did you see that too? Did you see that white object with the binoculars too?”

“N, no… I didn’t s

“Thank goodness, thank goodness…..”

The next day, their parents, who had hurriedly come to the countryside, took only A and went back to the city.

“We have to leave him in the countryside. He can no longer live in the city. It will be better to leave him in the fields after a few years…..”

After that day, A never saw his brother again.

No one knows what exactly did A’s older brother see that drove him insane, and what was the identity of that wriggling white object.

It was a fact that was unknown till this day.

[2019, May 4th | Saturday, 11:23 AM]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 195]

[Causality Rate: 19%]

“Joony~ Can you come over and help us?”

I was lying face down on the bed in my room, and reading a ghost story called ‘wiggle wiggle’ on my phone when my mother called me.

“Yes, coming~”

I answered before standing up and leaving the room.

When I went to my parents’ room, I saw my father using a broom to sweep up the glass shards in the bathroom of the master bedroom.

Yesterday, the cabinet where the supplies were stored fell in the bathroom, causing everything to fall down and mess up the whole place.

“Wrap this up carefully with newspaper and put it in the trash bag.”

“Okay, okay.”

When my father poured the glass shards he had collected onto the newspaper, I carefully covered them and threw them in the trash bag.

“They really messed up the whole place! Such a bad guy.”

My mother grumbled at the non-existent robber whom I made up while organizing the dresser.

“But at least they didn’t find the money, honey. Hehe……”

The truth was, I was the one who overturned the dresser while looking for suspicious items as Gyeongwon advised.

And it was not just the dresser, because of yesterday’s incident, our house is a complete mess right now.

Thanks to Sunah breaking the door, my room is currently doorless, and because I cut the mosquito net with a scissor, I can’t even open the window carelessly for fear of bugs coming in. �

The wallpaper in the living room was also tattered badly because Sunah scratched it with her boxcutter.

‘Yoon Sunah, you punk.’

I’m gonna scold her later.

* * *

After roughly finishing the cleaning, I went back to my bed and continued reading ghost stories.

[Gramoxone Ghost Story]

It’s a very toxic herbicide that’s mostly used in the countryside, and the pesticide that’s often mentioned in stories about people committing suicide by ingesting them mostly refers to Gramoxone.

The problem is that these types of herbicides often come in bottles that have designs that resemble beverage bottles, which is quite misleading.

That’s why in the countryside, poisoning accidents happen more frequently, where people accidentally drink herbicide mistaking it for a beverage. Apparently, this happens much more often than many people can imagine.

(According to a doctor from a certain rural hospital, three people a day are treated in the emergency room due to herbicide poisoning accidents.)

In particular, in the case of Gramoxone, if you drink about a shot glass worth, immediate treatment becomes meaningless, and the only thing that’s left is to choose whether to die at the hospital or at home.

Perhaps for this reason, there were many Gramoxone ghost stories circulating on Naver KnowledgeIn.

These kinds of ghost stories are mostly where people publish a post asking, ‘I accidentally drank Gramoxone, what should I do?’, but to be never approved.

There are also many others with questions like ‘I accidentally drank it, will it be a big deal?’, ‘My grandmother put it in a Bacchus energy drink bottle and the whole family accidentally drank it, what should we do?’, and so on, but these posts are never approved to be published.

[T/N: A non-carbonated energy drink that was launched in South Korea in 1963.]

Because all the people who posted such questions were already dead.

* * *

“I see, so they don’t approve their posts because those people are already dead.”

Ah, how educational.

I sighed and turned off my phone.

It was a rare weekend with a holiday, but I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about reading ghost stories until my head started aching.

Ghost stories are just some unpleasant stories about people dying.

‘I don’t understand why Gyeongwon finds this so fun that he digs so deep into it.’

Throwing my phone next to my pillow, I laid down with my arms spread open on both sides.

‘Do I need to do this?’

Of course, it was better than remaining clueless, but in fact, I already have two useful sources of information to teach me about ghost stories.

Ahn Gyeongwon and Oh Dukhun, our Ghost Story Club members.

In the case of this ‘wiggle wiggle’ ghost story, it seems to have originated from Japan, so if I just ask Dukhun, he probably already knows about it.

And Gyeongwon, who was a horror enthusiast, would definitely know about the Gramoxone ghost story.

At this point, I suddenly couldn’t help but doubt whether it was necessary for me to be studying ghost stories.

‘I guess it’s not, so let’s not bother with it.’

I wasn’t the type of person to sit down and study seriously anyway.

‘What’s worse, ghost stories were never my kind of thing to begin with……’

With my interest dropping and my focus slipping, the speed at which I was studying ghost stories was very slow.

Even if I forced myself to learn them little by little like this, it would be hard to catch up to either Gyeongwon or Dukhun, who have been obsessed with this kind of thing for their whole lives.

‘They don’t do it because they are forced to, they’re just complete maniacs who dug deep because they actually enjoy it.’

If I were to put it in gaming terms, it’s like being in a party where there were already two diamond-level supporters and I was in the process of trying to study how to be a supporter myself.

‘On top of that, my learning speed is slow, and it’s not even something I’m originally interested in.’

In other words, there were already two party members who could perfectly perform that role, so was there really a need for me to practice the same position?

Supporter: Ahn Gyeongwon, Oh Dukhun

Tanker: Yoon Sunah

Dealer: Lee Joon, Lee Jinhee

Idiot: Jang Hwaeun, In Hayoon

“Ah, what is our team’s tank doing~!”

I tried to suppress my anger towards her for breaking my room’s door.

If Sunah were here, she would have probably said, ‘Joon, I’m sorry…’ with an apologetic expression.

‘There’s no need for me to learn the same role.’

It’s just a waste of time and resources.

There were already two team members who are almost experts when it comes to knowledge about ghost stories.

If the situation requires it, I could just ask them directly.

Then the important thing is, ‘What role should I play in this club?’

What is my talent specialized in, and what position should I take based on that?

Until now, I have always vaguely thought of solutions as a last resort, but to put it differently, it was a quick response in a critical situation.

Thinking about it, I usually just laze around, but as the exam period approaches, I always manage to pull off explosive last-minute preparations.

‘Thanks to that, I failed the CSAT.’

In this life as well, when I suddenly encountered a strange phenomenon intruding into my daily life, I quickly overcame the situation by swiftly assessing the conditions with an explosive last-second cramming, rather than panicking and being confused.

I may not be good at preparing in advance, but in critical situations, I’m very good at quick thinking of strategy, and assessing the situation.

Then, as Gyeongwon said before, my role would be to compile the information that they gathered and come up with a final solution, essentially taking on the role of the dealer who delivers the finishing blow.

Then, the field I need to study from now on is clear.

‘After all, ghost stories are essentially created by people’s imagination.’

It’s impossible to figure out exactly who created which ghost stories, but the general consensus is that things people find ominous gradually morphed into ghost stories as they are passed along through conversations, picking up details along the way.

‘Which means that ghost stories originally come from people’s minds.’

Actually, based on what I’ve experienced so far, there has never been an absurd monster that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, something people had never imagined or thought of.

‘Wouldn’t it be scary if there was a power outage, but an announcement was still made?’

‘Wouldn’t it be scary if there were strange phrases mixed in with an ordinary manual?’

‘Wouldn’t it be scary if there was a song that was so addictive that people went crazy?’

All of these are ominous stories that have already been secretly spreading among people in the form of ghost stories.

Then, what I truly need to study might not be the ghost stories but people, right?

If I had known even a little information about human psychology, perhaps the situation in Kim Eunjung’s ghost story wouldn’t have escalated to that extent.

‘The same goes for other ghost stories as well.’

Even the system itself uses the ‘Understanding’ value as a measure of expressing my relationships with members, rather than intimacy or favorability.

Thinking like that, there’s no reason for me to be holding onto collecting and learning ghost stories now.

‘There are already two members who have mastered this.’

What I need to do right now is study people.

What do people feel anxious about, what do they fear, and what unusual things they are terrified of.

I need insight into those things.

‘Moreover, as the President of the club, I have to lead a bunch of high school students.’

Studying about people will definitely help me in my leadership in managing the members.

“Huu.”

I lay down with my arms under my head and looked up at the ceiling.

“Leadership?”

It was ironic.

I had heard this word countless times when people, who claim to be successful, came up to the school auditorium during career guidance lectures and acted all high-and-mighty.

‘The virtues of a leader of the 21st century.’

‘The difference between dreams and vision.’

‘Youth leadership shapes the future!’

Along with the lines of ‘Do you know how a magpie goes through transformation? Do you know that a lion throws its cubs off a cliff…?’.

Until now, I thought that all of this was just boring talk from adults.

Now, to think that I’m seriously contemplating what leadership is.

‘Doing something that’s not even in my destiny…..’

Studying to learn about people, and working hard to learn about myself.

Things I definitely wouldn’t have thought of doing in my previous life.

I used to be a guy who only thought of how to suck the sweet nectar of life, and only used my stupid brain when the situation was extreme.

Only after finding myself in this strange situation did I slowly start to reflect on myself and seriously think about life and people.

“I have to learn about people……”

Hmm.

I guess I should buy some psychology books.

“Tsk.”

I decided to think about it later and sat down in front of the computer.

“Ah~! I’m gonna pick Yasuo first~!”

Boom, bang.

* * *

[2019, May 5th | Sunday, 11:43 AM]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 195]

[Causality Rate: 19%]

The next day, Sunday, May 5th. Children’s Day.

“Since Joony has grown up, I don’t need to give him a present or anything, right?”

My father said this while lying on the living room sofa in his running clothes, intending to relax the day at home. And my mother, who was completely dressed up, came out of my parents’ room.

“What are you talking about! Since it’s today, we should go out to eat. Get up!”

“Aww, really……”

A while later, our family was having lunch at a Korean buffet called ‘Seasonal Melodies’ at the nearby Clover Department Store.

Because of the huge generation gap between my parents and me, our tastes were completely different. So when dining out, we would sometimes have trouble choosing foods. One time, we went to a seafood restaurant and I ended up ordering pork cutlet because the food didn’t suit my taste.

Since then, my parents often take me to the Korean buffet ‘Seasonal Melodies’ for dining out.

This place has many dishes that reinterpret traditional dishes in a modern way, and especially since there are plenty of meat-based dishes, our family tends to visit this place often.

As I scooped a moderate amount of dak galbi, sweet and sour mushrooms, and kimchi fried rice, I asked my mom something I had been wanting to ask.

“Oh, Mom, I have something to ask.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

My mother, who was scooping up some gondre namul rice, looked over at me.

“While I was organizing things on the dresser, I saw a spade-shaped ornament. Do you know what that is for?”

“Oh~ that?”

My mother showed an indifferent expression.

During the previous incident, while Sunah and I were rummaging through my parents’ room, I found a ‘♠’ spade-shaped totem hidden between the Buddhist scriptures in my Mom’s dresser.

And that was similar to the item my homeroom teacher gave me in my dream during the Dreams Within Dreams incident previously. According to Gyeongwon’s information, it is also a symbol representing the religious organization called the Dogma of Void, whose people were hiding within the school.

“It was given to me by a friend who goes to the same shrine as me. It’s made of germanium, so they say it’s really good for the body. Since it’s also said to have Buddhist significance, I’ve just been carrying it around with me.”

“

I was worried, but fortunately, my mother hasn’t fallen into that religion.

“When was that? When did you get that item?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Well? A week ago?”

A week ago.

I swallowed a groan.

‘They must have approached my mom on purpose.’

My mom’s friend who attends the same shrine as her, I wasn’t sure what their intentions were, but if they gave her such an item as a gift, it’s clear that they are a follower of that Dogma of Void.

And if it was something Mom received a long time ago, that would be one thing. But she received it just a week ago, which means it happened right after I got deeply entangled with the organization due to the incident with the science teacher.

I had already submitted all my personal information to the school when I enrolled, and at the beginning of the semester, they sent home notices and even conducted environmental surveys.

There’s no way the organization wouldn’t know about my family.

‘… Damn it.’

It was something I had always done since middle school, so I wrote down my parents’ workplace and profession without any suspicion before submitting it. But now that I think about it, it’s a really scary thing.

‘They approached my mom intentionally.’

Were they trying to make her follow that religion?

“Mom, has that friend…. ever suggested something like learning meditation or anything?”

“What? No! She never did. Why are you suddenly asking me that?”

My mother made a puzzled expression.

How should I explain this?

In fact, even if they approached her with the intention of making her follow that religion, on the surface, they were a very clean and respectable organization.

I could only reply indifferently while chewing my meat.

“I just… I just wanted to say that, if someone asks you to learn something like meditation outside the shrine’s regulations, don’t listen to them.”

“You too, sheesh…”

My mother, looking as if she couldn’t understand the situation, nodded her head slowly.