Chapter 45: Mujin High School (1)

[1. 3 AM. If you make a wish on the third step of the third floor, your wish will come true. However, if you make an unreasonable wish, you will disappear from this world.]

Su-myeon headed straight to Ha-min's school with Han-su.

The sedan assigned for work pulled up in front of Mujin High School.

Ha-min, who had been waiting by the school gate, hurried into the car.

"Su-myeon!"

Ha-min was so worked up that tears were already welling in his eyes, looking as incongruous as ever on someone with such a large frame.

After taking a moment to calm him down, Su-myeon asked,

"So you're saying someone else disappeared, besides the person you remembered before?"

There had been good reason for Ha-min's panicked phone call.

"...Yeah. Another friend disappeared."

Su-myeon rubbed the bridge of his nose at Ha-min's answer.

<UTG: The Infinite Campus> — he had never imagined that one of the fan-game spin-offs in the series would turn out to be set at Ha-min's actual school.

But the moment he arrived and saw the place for himself, Su-myeon knew.

The school looked exactly like the one in the game.

"I couldn't believe it at first either."

Ha-min's voice trembled as he forced himself to continue.

"Every school has a few ghost stories floating around, right? So I figured it was just that kind of thing."

Statues that came alive and fought each other at night. Ghosts haunting particular bathroom stalls.

Even the story about an anatomy model wandering around the science lab at dawn — practically every school had some version of that one.

Ha-min had heard similar stories in elementary and middle school, so he'd never taken them very seriously.

But this time was different.

"There's a... kind of unusual ghost story at our school."

3 AM.

The third step beside Class 3 of Year 3 on the third floor.

If you made a wish there, it would come true — an absurd story.

And of all places, the rumor had originated with Ha-min's own baseball team.

"When our school won the national high school championship for the first time, they say the team captain at the time made a wish there and it came true."

Mujin High School's baseball team was fairly well-known.

Because of that, the rumor had never quite died out. It was passed down from one class to the next every year, eventually spreading beyond the baseball team to the rest of the student body.

"The guy who disappeared this time wasn't someone I was especially close to...."

But they had spent time together as teammates on the same squad.

And just the night before, the boy had casually mentioned that he was going to test the ghost story and make a wish.

Ha-min had tried to stop him, but he hadn't truly believed the rumor could be real.

It was just superstition.

The guy was simply desperate enough to try it.

That was all Ha-min had thought before letting the matter go.

"But he disappeared today."

Su-myeon nodded as he listened.

He had heard enough to understand the situation.

"I have a rough idea what this might be, but to be sure, I want to hear about any other ghost stories circulating around the school."

"I'm usually stuck in the athletic wing all day, so I don't really know much about the rumors going around...."

Han-su, who had been listening to the downcast Ha-min with a serious expression, suddenly asked,

"But isn't it class time right now?"

"......Huh?"

Is that really what matters right now?

Su-myeon looked just as baffled, while Ha-min answered in confusion.

"I mean, technically... but since we're on the athletic track, nobody really cares if we skip class...."

Just then, a bell rang from inside the school.

A glance at the time told them it was lunchtime.

The school was currently in the loose attendance period before winter break.

As if to prove just how relaxed things were, a cacophony of noise soon spilled from the building all the way out to the athletic grounds.

Han-su opened the car door.

"Then why don't we ask the students directly?"

Can outsiders really just walk into a school full of kids?

Su-myeon hesitated, but Han-su confidently held up his ID.

***

"Ghost stories? Hmm, I'm not sure."

Mujin High School's athletic grounds.

With Ha-min's help, a handful of students known for being talkative and well-connected had gathered around the two men.

A security guard had approached them once, but after taking one look at Han-su's police ID, he'd turned right back around.

Su-myeon couldn't help appreciating how convenient that was.

"There are a lot of them, though."

"But do the police actually investigate stuff like this?"

The energetic high schoolers showed not the slightest hint of intimidation despite Han-su's stern appearance.

If anything, the sight of a genuine police badge only made the fearless kids crowd around them even more eagerly.

A few of the boys even went so far as to poke at Han-su's arm muscles through his thin winter jacket.

Their behavior hovered somewhere between innocent curiosity and outright rudeness as they noisily spilled every ghost story they knew.

"You know the one, right? The anatomy model that moves around at 3 AM."

"The moving specimen in the science lab? What school doesn't have that one?"

Most of the reactions were along the same lines, but a few students offered counterexamples.

"Still, our school does have a few genuinely unusual rumors, doesn't it?"

"Seat number 3 in Class 3 of Year 3 is always left empty. I've heard there's a reason for that."

"What reason?"

"No idea. Anyone know?"

"Besides that, I've heard the third light in the auditorium is always burnt out because a student died when it fell on them years ago. Supposedly their resentment still haunts it or something."

Su-myeon scribbled furiously, snatching keywords from the flood of information.

Three.

Three.

Three.

The number three kept appearing over and over again.

Su-myeon raised his eyes toward the school building.

Someone was standing at the third window from the left on the third floor, staring down at them.

"There's also a rumor that if you lean against the third window on the third floor, you'll definitely fall."

The moment someone said that, Su-myeon turned toward the student who had spoken.

She was a girl with round glasses and a sharp, composed air.

"The third window on the third floor? Can you tell me more about that?"

"Oh, that one. Apparently someone fell from there last year while messing around."

"They boarded it up with plywood afterward."

...Boarded it up?

But just a moment ago, he had clearly seen....

Startled by what the students said, Su-myeon looked back toward the building.

Now, unlike what he'd seen only moments earlier, the window was completely sealed with wooden boards.

He had definitely seen someone standing there.

Watching them.

"......"

Now there was nothing.

The window itself was blocked off.

Something was unquestionably happening at this school.

"...All right. Thank you, everyone. That's more than enough."

The innocent students lingered around Su-myeon, reluctant to leave.

They probably meant no harm, but having a swarm of high schoolers pester him about whether this was a murder case and what exactly was going on quickly became exhausting.

Thankfully, the bell announcing the end of lunch break had never sounded so welcome.

"You should head back in too."

"Seriously? You want me to go back to class? In a situation like this?"

Ha-min's frustration was understandable.

The aberrant phenomena surrounding the ghost stories had overturned the ordinary lives of everyone caught up in them.

So thoroughly that each of them had put aside their careers and every other goal they once had to devote themselves to this.

Everything they had seen.

Everything they had experienced.

The people they had left behind, and the people they had lost.

All of it weighed heavily on them.

"Even so, you've got to hold on to whatever normal life you still can."

It might have sounded like hypocritical nagging from an adult.

Even so, Su-myeon sent the visibly troubled Ha-min back inside.

"I have a pretty good idea which ghost story this is. I'll tell you everything I find out. I promise."

Trusting Su-myeon's word, Ha-min trudged back toward the school with heavy steps.

Most of the ghost stories the students had described were typical school legends.

But the persistent fixation on the number three stood out.

"Is this a ghost story we can enter with rules we already know?"

Su-myeon gave a heavy nod at Han-su's question.

"Have Ju-hee check the Infinite Campus entry in the script. And drop me off at home."

At Su-myeon's words, Han-su smoothly turned the steering wheel.

If a student had vanished only yesterday, they couldn't afford to waste any time.

"If possible, let's go in tonight."

***

2:50 AM.

In front of Mujin High School.

Su-myeon kneaded the hot pack and the Cheshire doll in his pocket against the bone-deep cold.

Behind him, Ha-min clutched the back of Su-myeon's padded jacket and muttered with fierce determination.

"There's no way you're leaving me behind this time. Absolutely not. Don't even think about going without me."

Ha-min's friend had disappeared only yesterday.

If he'd tried harder to stop him, would things have turned out differently?

Or was there someone else who had disappeared before him, trapped somewhere inside?

Once Ha-min started thinking along those lines, his resolve had become immovable.

"All right, all right. I said you can come. Now let go and walk properly."

If Su-myeon left Ha-min behind, the kid would probably attempt something reckless on his own just to follow them.

For all his fearfulness, Ha-min was fiercely loyal, and there was no changing that.

Bringing him along was better than risking something worse.

Since the decision had already been made, Su-myeon pried Ha-min's fingers from his jacket and shoved the hot pack into his hand instead.

"You're sure that method will really...."

Behind them, Hwi-yeon followed with tension clear in her voice.

The group entering Mujin High School consisted of four people this time, with Han-su taking the lead.

"Yes. This is how we enter the ghost story. Everyone, don't forget what we went over at the office."

They had spent the entire evening reviewing the Infinite Campus over and over again.

Su-myeon had compiled and organized the in-game information and walkthroughs from his home computer, while Ju-hee and Du-pal cross-referenced everything against the Heartphone Script.

Working together, they had managed to condense the information into a more practical set of rules.

"I'll head straight for the third floor."

Han-su declared as he continued to lead the way.

There were several possible entry points into the Infinite Campus, but Su-myeon had chosen the safest one.

Faint moonlight seeped into the pitch-dark school corridor.

"......"

The vast space where students would normally have been running around during the day now stood completely empty, their footsteps echoing through the halls.

They climbed one floor at a time until they reached the third.

Su-myeon turned his head toward the windows.

The third window on the third floor — the one he had noticed that afternoon — was still sealed with wooden boards.

"But is this staircase really the one the ghost story means?"

Meanwhile, Han-su had stopped on the third step of the staircase leading from the third floor to the fourth.

If you made a wish on the third step, your wish would come true.

But if you wished for °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° something unreasonable, you would disappear.

Exactly which "third step" the rumor referred to was open to interpretation.

But Su-myeon was certain.

"This is the one."

The time now read 2:59 AM.

The group watched their phones and waited for the minute to change.

Four people standing side by side on a single stair.

The tension alone was enough to send chills crawling up their spines.

Especially with that unsettling, boarded-up window directly behind them.

The urge to turn around kept gnawing at Su-myeon, but he tightened his grip on Cheshire inside his pocket and forced himself to stay still.

[AM 03:00]

The time changed.

One by one, they closed their eyes and silently made their wishes.

Su-myeon's wish was only one thing.

'Please just let me go back to an ordinary life.'

He made the wish with a dry, hollow feeling in his chest.

It didn't matter anyway.

This ghost story didn't actually grant wishes.

The threshold for what counted as "unreasonable" was so subjective and broad that most unattainable wishes fell into that category.

The promise of granting wishes was nothing more than a trick of words.

Bait.

Ghost stories didn't grant wishes.

How empty it felt, making a wish while knowing it could never come true.

DONG— DONG— DONG.

Once they had finished making their wishes, the sound of a bell ringing through the school speakers reached their ears.

Su-myeon opened his eyes.

"......"

Everything around them had been dyed in the crimson glow of a setting sun.

The air was pleasantly cool, as if on a mild day in a gentle season, while the sunlight carried a soft warmth.

"...What on earth...."

The others opened their eyes as well and stared around in bewilderment.

And it wasn't only the scenery that had changed.

At some point, their clothes had transformed into school uniforms too.