ROA 5

It had been the hottest topic on the university community since last night through dawn. Since there were many people pulling all-nighters due to exam period, posts poured out and views quickly rose.

Park Dong-ju lowered his voice and whispered.

“Last night four second-years were studying and got sleepy, so they said let’s go check out the old library. They set off to wake up and because they were bored, but on the way there it was strangely cold so they kept getting chills. Even the streetlights were broken so they all walked stuck together… when suddenly they heard a ‘Save me!’ scream from the library!”

“Hm? Wasn’t someone really in a dangerous situation?”

“They thought so too and ran over, and there really was someone inside the library. But the person visible through the window was clearly alone, yet as that person walked toward them, suddenly dozens of handprints appeared on the window one after another…!”

Moreover, the screams for help sounded like dozens of people crying out, so they all ran away like crazy. Park Dong-ju shuddered, saying they tried to come to their senses with a courage test but instead had an experience that drove them out of their minds.

So Da-hyun also chimed in from the side.

“Word went around the dorm yesterday too. You can see the old library a bit from our building, and they said it seemed to be writhing strangely? They drew the curtains so they couldn’t see it at all because it kept giving them chills.”

“Even the kids rumored to have that ‘sixth sense’ warned not to look that way…”

Yang Ga-young also added in a trembling voice. Shim Seo-woo only blinked, realizing the reason the library was chaotic from morning was because of the ghost story.

He didn’t know this story at all since he didn’t use the community, but as he listened quietly, one existence suddenly came to mind.

“I ran into someone coming out of there at midnight…”

“What?! A gh-gh-ghost?!”

“No, they seemed like a construction worker.”

His voice was very calm as he answered while stirring his coffee so the ice clinked. Park Dong-ju, who’d been startled for a moment, let out a hollow laugh, but So Da-hyun firmly shook her head.

“What are you talking about? They said construction starts during vacation, so why would a worker come now?”

“R-right. And Seo-woo, why did you go to the library at that hour…”

An announcement had gone up early saying construction would be temporarily suspended during exam period so as not to disturb students’ studying. Even at the point that there was no way a worker would come, Shim Seo-woo only tilted his head blankly.

“While walking on the tree-lined street at night, I met people who asked where the science library was. After we parted, I remembered it was under construction, so I went to tell them they couldn’t enter inside now and happened to run into them.”

Even the background of his approach was absurd, so the three looked at each other.

“Even if they’re a worker, why would they come out of there at night? Maybe… weren’t all the people you met last night ghosts?!”

“Right, you were bewitched! Come to think of it, I think they said the path those second-years ran away on was the tree-lined street too!”

Park Dong-ju turned on his phone. He opened the community app to check the ghost story, but he froze stiff.

Following that, he kept pressing refresh with trembling hands, making So Da-hyun and Yang Ga-young tilt their heads in puzzlement before soon screaming.

“What the. All the posts are deleted!”

“Until 4 AM it was plastered with library stories…”

Dozens of posts poured out at dawn had all disappeared. Not a single post related to the library was left, leaving the board practically empty.

There should definitely be people questioning this phenomenon, but there weren’t even such posts. Before they knew it, a notice saying ‘Under temporary maintenance’ appeared on the board, blocking all acts of writing new posts and comments.

While the three exchanged confused looks, Shim Seo-woo said calmly.

“Everyone must have been bored because of exam period. They made up ghost stories at dawn and came back to reality in the morning and deleted them.”

“…Wow, seriously, this level of rationalization is honestly amazing.”

“They say extreme obliviousness borders on serenity.”

Park Dong-ju admired him sincerely, and So Da-hyun even clapped saying she wanted to share his mentality. The old library was gloomy enough to avoid even in broad daylight, so the fact that Seo-woo had gone there alone on a rainy night was astounding in itself.

“Can we just call this composure…”

Yang Ga-young muttered. She’d long known Shim Seo-woo’s calmness reached the level of enlightenment, but sometimes he gave off an oddly strange feeling. Like his danger-detection circuitry was broken.

Rather than the leisure of someone vaguely optimistic they won’t get hurt, it was closer to the detachment emanating from someone who’d already experienced the worst. That enlightenment mixed with resignation, where after experiencing something too terrible, you can brush off ordinary matters as nothing.

The three looked at each other and then just shook their heads.

“Phew, right. Let’s just go study.”

“Ah, reality is scarier than ghost stories…”

*

Shim Seo-woo quietly looked up at the clear sky, then lowered his head to check the building before him. No matter how many times he looked again, the building didn’t change.

“…Why did I come all the way here?”

He’d arrived in front of the science library.

While studying with friends, the hazy feeling wouldn’t go away at all, so he came out for a walk alone. Was it because of insufficient sleep due to exam period? No, honestly he’d been in this state ever since meeting that man last night.

‘It’s dangerous to come to a place like this alone late at night.’

Perhaps because he was a person with such a unique atmosphere, he kept replaying on the moment of encountering him and seemed to have unconsciously come all the way here.

His friends kept insisting he’d seen a ghost, but hadn’t those students who tried the courage test also said they’d seen someone in the library? Whatever the surrounding circumstances were, at least one person had definitely been inside the building.

Was the person those students saw actually him?

Shim Seo-woo checked the hallway the man had walked out from last night. Though there were no particular barriers on the building except construction notice signs, he felt cautiously hesitant and only tilted his head to look inside.

Something urgent enough for a worker to visit a site where construction stopped a week ago…

“…A doll?”

A black bear doll caught Shim Seo-woo’s eye.

It stood out all the more because it was dropped alone at the entrance of the hallway. A small doll under the light pouring through the shabby window.

Did that person drop it and leave?

Being the only object discovered in the hallway that was half-demolished and empty, he naturally came to think of him as the doll’s owner. It seemed like he was the only person who’d come and gone here recently.

Thinking it quite unexpected that someone with such a sharp impression would carry around such a doll, Shim Seo-woo picked it up.

“It’s got some dust on it…”

Perhaps it rolled around the construction site, as it was quite darkened, so Shim Seo-woo patted the doll with his hand.

Just then, two voices were heard from outside. It was the sound of conversation between people approaching the library.

“What’s his problem? He drops it himself, then tells us to go pick it up!”

“Actually we were late yesterday so we can’t say much, but… it’s strange. He’s not someone who makes mistakes like this.”

The voices were familiar, making Shim Seo-woo’s head turn naturally. They sounded similar to the voices of the people he met on the tree-lined street last night who asked about the science library’s location.

“We weren’t late, that guy was strangely fast, okay? Of, of course we did wander a bit! Anyway, moving alone and dropping an important item, is he getting revenge on us? Making us travel a long distance on purpose!”

“Come on, him? Where else would you find someone as indifferent to all worldly matters as him? He’d probably think even revenge is bothersome. Hmm, strangely he was a bit different from last night to this morning though…”

“What? Why are you stopping mid-sentence…”

Their conversation cut off the moment their eyes met with Shim Seo-woo’s in midair. They entering through the library main entrance and Shim Seo-woo standing in the hallway faced each other in a perfect line.

For some reason both froze with their mouths agape, so Shim Seo-woo pondered and then nodded his head in greeting.

“We meet again. Did you find the science library well yesterday? I belatedly remembered it was under construction—”

“Y-you’re, holding, the doll, the doll?”

“…Yes?”

The woman in the red hanbok’s words fell out tremblingly as she spoke. She even swayed unsteadily, and the small man covered his face with both hands in shock.

“You even cl-cleaned the doll…!”

“…Ah? Yes. It had dust on it so I brushed it off, and it happened to get clean.”

Shim Seo-woo became very puzzled. The expression “cleaned” was unfamiliar so he answered a beat late, but then looking down at the bear doll, he was surprised it had become much whiter than before.

It was this white of a doll?

Just how much of a dust pit did it roll in…

Just as he looked down at the doll with pitying eyes, the man jumped up and down. As if exasperated by Shim Seo-woo’s reaction, he raised his voice.

“Right now you’re holding a cursed doll with your bare hands, and you even purified it!”