The Twenty-First Story
Use meat.
After eating the delicious fried rice Jungkook made, we all changed into our pajamas. Jungkook wore pajamas with a cute, chubby rabbit design, Jimin wore pajamas with a cute yellow puppy design, and Taehyung wore pajamas with a heart design with eyes and thick lips. For some reason, these pajamas suited them quite well.
After turning off all the lights in the house, Jungkook took out a candle that had been left in the corner and lit it. Then, he felt the atmosphere become eerie. Jungkook hugged a pillow because of the suddenly eerie atmosphere. Jimin looked at him like he was a ghost and teased him. Jungkook, are you scared? If you're scared, you can hug me, hyung~" and pretended to spread his arms. Jungkook's eyes widened and he made a cute excuse, saying, "No, really." Jimin must have been flustered because he hit the nail on the head, so his cute tone came out.
"Okay, both of you, stop. The scary story... starts with me."
Taehyung said, setting the mood.
“This is… a true story that happened to me before…”
Jeongguk swallowed hard at Taehyung's words that it was true.
"It happened when I was around seventeen. Back then, I had to suddenly move for personal reasons and transfer to a different school. Every school has its fair share of ghost stories, right? But that school in particular had quite a few. There were even cases of teachers quitting after actually experiencing those ghost stories... And many students transferred because of the stress caused by those ghost stories, and many actually went missing. Anyway, that's why I don't tend to believe in superstitions. Maybe that's why, but I don't know what gave me the confidence to stay at school so late at night. Because our school was in turmoil because of those rumors, we didn't have to do ya-ja. Well, if you really wanted to, you could, so I stayed and did ya-ja by myself. Of course, I didn't study. There was this ghost story at that school: the ya-ja ghost... If you did ya-ja late at night, the ya-ja ghost would come and take you to the afterlife... It was just ridiculous. So I stayed late to see for myself that such absurd ghost stories didn't exist. And then... Time passed, and it was around 9:30. The night shift almost ended at 10. Only thirty minutes left, but nothing happened. So I thought, "Oh, that was a lie," and was about to go back to my phone when I suddenly heard the sound of a pen clicking. I was sure I was the only one there a moment ago... It was a little creepy. Still, I figured I must have misheard, and was about to put my earphones in when suddenly the sound of a pen clicking, harsh and fast, rang out. It was so creepy, scary, and loud that I just froze. Then, someone suddenly touched my shoulder. I was so startled that I screamed, and the person who had touched me screamed back, startled by my scream. But he was just a normal student. There was something even stranger. These days, they don't wear name tags on their uniforms, citing it as a violation of students' human rights. But that student had one on his uniform. It was a little strange, but I just brushed it off. After giving my name, I started talking. He suddenly asked me to go somewhere with him. He said he was too scared to go out alone because there were so many disturbing rumors going around the school, so he asked me to go with him. The moment I was about to say okay, the security guard came in and asked why I was still here. It was already past ten o'clock, why?aloneAre you still at school?aloneIt's a little weird when you say that. That kid and I were definitely together. So I turned my head towards him, but no one was there. We were definitely together just a moment ago… It was like he just vanished… It was so creepy that I went straight home that day and tried to look for him the next day, but none of the kids or the teachers knew him. It was really creepy and scary at that time… And then something even creepier happened… I was in the library club, so I had to clean the library. So I was organizing yearbooks, and I saw a really old yearbook. So I was looking at it… … That kid was in that yearbook. That yearbook was from the 1970s… … Later, I heard from the teacher that he was the kid who never skipped homework. He studied really hard. But no matter how hard he tried, he always lost to the kid who skipped homework, so he ended up in second place. There were punishments back then, but strangely, the kid who was first wasn't punished and the teacher was actually nice to him. It was so strange… I found out one day. That kid was the son of a congressman, so he forgave him no matter what he did, kept getting paid, and always got first place… … He overheard that conversation during private tutoring. So, after hearing that story, he was so shocked that he realized he couldn't do anything, so he killed himself… And then he became a private tutor ghost… … If I had followed him right before the security guard came, I… might not be here… …
As soon as Jungkook finished telling his story, he hugged his pillow tightly and curled up, saying, "Ugh, that's scary... Is this really something that happened to you, hyung?" Then Taehyung, trying to set the mood, spoke.
“It’s a lie.”
There was a brief silence after Taehyung's words, but it was broken when Jeongguk started making a fuss.
“No, is this guy really crazy?? Mr. Lee.”
Jungkook savagely hit Taehyung with the pillow he was holding. Fortunately, it didn't hurt much because it was just a pillow, but Jungkook was so strong that Taehyung still felt pain.
“Oh, what, what? Is this a pillow fight now?”
Jimin lunged at them with a pillow. Jungkook burst into laughter and hit Jimin with the pillow. Taehyung, who had been taking the beatings, also picked up a pillow and continued to beat them. The only sound in the house was the laughter of some male students.
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Continued in the next episode