Chapter 7
“Choyeon!”
Even though I had only taken a short nap, my fatigue hadn’t gone away.
Groaning a little, I stepped into the classroom when someone suddenly called out to me.
“Ma Choyeon!”
Why are they shouting my name like I’m about to run away?
“What?”
“You…!”
A girl with short hair and round glasses — the very picture of a model student — hurried over to me with a worried face.
Her name was Yoo Chaesong, a friend who also knew both me and my twin sister.
“…Have you gotten in touch with Ma Chohae by any chance?”
So the news of Chohae’s disappearance had already spread around the school.
I finally blinked away my drowsiness and looked around. Sure enough, quite a few eyes were on me.
“No. My aunt said she reported it to the police, and they’re searching now. But… do the others know, too?”
“Well, you’re twins, after all. People are bound to be interested.”
Ma Choyeon and Ma Chohae — the only twins in school. It wasn’t surprising that our classmates would be curious.
And from Chaesong’s perspective, she was worried about both her friend and her friend’s missing sister.
“I just hope she’s safe… There’s been so much scary stuff happening lately.”
“You mean the disappearances in Eden-dong?”
“Yeah. That, and did you see the news? The idol execution case. The world’s going crazy.”
No — to be precise, the original story has gone crazy.
‘Too bad I can’t tell her that…’
I sighed softly as I put my bag down at my desk. Whatever she thought that sigh meant, Chaesong’s face fell.
“Don’t worry too much. I’m sure they’ll find Chohae soon.”
“Yeah… I hope so.”
If she’d really been dragged away by that human-trafficking ghost, though, even the police might not be able to find her.
“You look tired.”
“I went out for a bit last night and came back late.”
To be exact — it wasn’t just late, it was dawn.
I was about to add more, but a yawn came up, and I barely swallowed it mid-sentence. My eyes watered from holding it back, and I blinked rapidly.
Yawning mid-conversation would be rude — especially to Chaesong, who was genuinely worried for me and Chohae.
‘I guess I’ll have to nap during class today.’
Blinking heavily, I looked at Chaesong — but her expression suddenly changed.
“Wait, don’t tell me… you were out looking for your sister last night?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll help look too! Don’t try to shoulder everything by yourself!”
She must have seen the tears in my eyes and gotten the wrong idea. Thankfully, she hadn’t noticed the yawn. I quickly hid my embarrassment.
Still, it touched me — she was busy preparing for exams too, yet she wanted to help.
“Thanks. But don’t go near Eden-dong. It’s dangerous.”
I gave her a grateful warning, but Chaesong’s eyes welled up again.
“You’re even worrying about me right now!”
No, seriously, there are ghosts there. It’s actually dangerous.
“Anyway, don’t overwork yourself. If you get too tired, tell me — I’ll tell the teachers you’re sick so you can rest in the nurse’s office.”
“Okay. But where’s everyone else?”
The classroom felt unusually empty for this time of day.
“Oh, someone who’d been skipping school for ages finally showed up. Everyone went to the teacher’s office to see him.”
“Skipping school?”
“Yeah, apparently he’s our classmate — and he’s connected to the first disappearance case in Eden-dong.”
That sounded very familiar.
“…Connected how? Did his family go missing?”
“Yeah, his parents disappeared.”
No way — Dan Seo-hyuk?
“And I heard he’s really handsome, so everyone rushed to see him.”
That confirmed it. It had to be Dan Seo-hyuk.
‘I didn’t think he’d actually show up just because of what I said.’
A strange mix of pride and guilt stirred inside me. It felt good, though — like I’d somehow inspired something positive.
“Honestly, the girls have no tact. The guy’s probably going through hell.”
Hearing Chaesong grumble made me hesitate to go greet him. I decided I’d check in on him later.
Just then — scrape! — the chair next to me moved loudly.
Chaesong and I turned at the same time.
“What the—Jang Hyun-woo, what happened to you?”
It was my seatmate, Jang Hyun-woo. We’d sat next to each other for months because we were both short.
But his current appearance — what was that? His hands were covered in cuts, his uniform was torn, and his face was dotted with bandages.
‘He’s playful, sure, but he’s never been the rough type to get that hurt…’
I blinked in surprise as Hyun-woo awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“I, uh, tripped yesterday.”
“How hard did you trip to end up like that?”
“It wasn’t my fault! I was crossing the street when a car suddenly cut in front of me, and I dodged and—boom.”
He sounded irritated, though not at me — more like he was reliving the frustration.
“And the driver didn’t even apologize! What if I’d actually gotten hit?”
“That’s from dodging the car? Those injuries are pretty bad.”
“Oh, well… when I stood up after falling, someone running past didn’t see me and knocked me down again.”
He held up his scraped palms with a tired sigh.
“Then later, I slipped on the stairs, too.”
“At this point, are you cursed or something?”
I asked half-jokingly, but he just scratched his neck with a shrug.
“Cursed? Nah. Just had a really unlucky day, that’s all.”
“Well, at least it wasn’t worse.”
“Right? I’m fine! Plus…”
Hyun-woo grinned proudly.
“Check this out. Looks cool, right?”
He lifted his bag onto the desk. Hanging from the white bag was a small black keychain — a fuzzy round plush, its fur puffed out like a tiny black ball.
‘A plush keychain?’
That was odd. Hyun-woo wasn’t the cutesy type at all.
“Actually, I got this for free yesterday in Eden-dong. Total steal, huh?”
Wait — Eden-dong?!
“Are you crazy!?”
“Jeez, Ma Choyeon! Why are you yelling!?”
“Who goes to Eden-dong right now!? It’s dangerous!”
“Hey, hey, that’s a pretty biased thing to say. Sure, stuff’s happened there, but it’s fine during the day!”
He had no idea.
‘Yesterday’s mess at Eden Villa — don’t tell me Hyun-woo was there too?!’
If he’d shown up even a little earlier, he could’ve been caught up in it — maybe even encountered that ghost.
“There really was nothing weird, I swear. Oh, but—”
He hesitated, watching my reaction carefully.
“The person giving these out said something weird.”
“What did they say?”
“That it grants your wish… but brings misfortune too.”
“What? Even elementary kids wouldn’t fall for that.”
Chaesong snorted, implying he was just being jumpy because of his bad luck.
Hyun-woo protested loudly that he wasn’t scared, but—
‘Grants wishes?’
That phrase made me think of the Urban Legends Forum — and how following its “find the missing” ritual had almost gotten me dragged off myself last night.
‘Oh, great…’
This wasn’t an exaggeration.
Anyone could tell this was a classic horror setup.
Even after class started, I couldn’t sit still.
I kept slipping him notes:
“Throw it away right now.”
“Or burn it.”
“It looks seriously cursed.”
Every minute, another note.
At first, Hyun-woo just wrote back, “Stop worrying,” but eventually, he got annoyed — crumpling my notes and glaring at me.
Fair. I had been poking his arm nonstop.
“Quit it,” he hissed under his breath. “I said I’m fine. Why are you freaking out?”
“Because I’m worried about you.”
“I told you, it’s just bad luck!”
“Bad luck my foot. Doesn’t it bother you at all that it’s supposed to bring misfortune?”
“They said it only does that after your wish comes true.”
He snorted.
“And if stuff like this really made wishes come true, everyone would be living easy, wouldn’t they?”
“What wish did you make?”
Depending on how big the wish was, the misfortune might get worse.
“One that’ll never come true.”
…That only made me more anxious. Just what kind of impossible thing had he wished for?
“You two! Not paying attention?”
Apparently, we’d been talking too loud.
The teacher appeared beside us, whacking both our heads with the corner of a textbook.
“Ah!”
“Ugh, teacher! It was Ma Choyeon — she kept talking to me!”
“Really? Looked like you were happily chatting too.”
“Man, this is so unfair!”
“Watch your mouth — did you just say ‘man’ to a teacher?”
Smack! Another hit. Hyun-woo winced dramatically.
Okay, fine, I had started the conversation… so maybe I felt a little guilty.
“Consider this a pass since your grades went up,” the teacher said.
“…My grades?”
“Yeah. You even scored higher than Chaesong in English this time.”
Gasps erupted around the room. Hyun-woo’s eyes went wide — and so did mine and Chaesong’s.
‘Higher than Chaesong?’
Chaesong was one of the top students in the whole school, while Hyun-woo was the kind of guy who preferred soccer fields over textbooks.
In other words, there was no way his scores should have jumped that high.
“……”
Hyun-woo turned toward me, his mouth slightly open — as if he had something to say, but couldn’t bring himself to say it.
