Chapter 15
Café Piorum. The café the woman had mentioned came into view.
Beside it was a narrow alley, and standing tall in the middle of it was a lanky woman.
“Hyunwoo was right… she’s really thin.”
Her cheekbones were so sharp they looked like they might cut through her skin. Her pants were far too loose, suggesting that her arms and legs were just as frail.
“The saying about skin draped over bones fits her perfectly.”
Her skin was so pale, it made you wonder if she ever saw sunlight. A beanie pulled low over her head hid all traces of hair and made her look suspicious.
“It’s not even winter…”
To be precise, what was suspicious was her face beneath the beanie.
Her eyebrows were barely visible, almost nonexistent. The beanie clung tightly to her scalp, leaving no room for hair—yet there wasn’t a single strand showing.
“If she’s been going through chemotherapy, that could explain the hair loss… and her thinness too.”
If she was sick, her expressionless face made sense. You wouldn’t have the energy to smile if your health was failing.
But the discomfort I felt around her wasn’t just because of that.
“‘Macho King’?”
The woman’s gaze landed on me. Naturally, she was checking to see who I was.
Dansuhyuk gave me a subtle nod—his way of telling me to play along and act positive.
“Yes, you’re the one I talked to in the chat, right?”
I smiled as naturally as I could while staying beside Dansuhyuk, careful not to get too close to her.
“I’m scared.”
The woman gave off the same eerie feeling as when I’d seen the ghost inside the keyring.
An instinctive, primal sense of revulsion.
Why, though? She looked like a normal person. Her face had color.
“Yes, that’s me. But… you’re not alone?”
Her uneasy gaze shifted to Dansuhyuk.
“He’s my friend’s older brother. I asked him to come with me.”
Dansuhyuk’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“Right?”
“…Yeah.”
His eyebrows twitched again. Whatever.
“I see. Did you bring the keyring?”
“No, my brother has it. I came to ask how we can deal with it. He said he’s been seeing strange things.”
“Then he must’ve made a wish. Do you know what it was?”
“He bragged that his grades suddenly went up. But I’m not sure if that was the wish…”
“If that’s the wish, the price won’t be too big.”
The way she said it so smoothly made my scalp prickle.
I didn’t even need to look—Dansuhyuk was probably giving me that are-you-serious look. Still, this level of acting was easy for me.
“Don’t make any more wishes. Just burn it.”
“What if I get cursed while burning it? It looked like a haunted object to me…”
“Oh, come on. Even in movies, they burn cursed things to get rid of them.”
“Then why didn’t you do it yourself?”
“I can’t. Even if I want to.”
What did that mean?
When I looked at her in confusion, the woman took a step forward. Startled, I stepped back—but Dansuhyuk moved to block her.
“I don’t mean any harm. I just want to show you something.”
She lifted her sweatshirt slightly. I expected to see a hollow, bony stomach—but instead—
“Ah!”
Her belly was covered in thick, black fur, dense enough to completely obscure her skin.
“What the hell…”
And that fur—now that I looked closer—it looked just like the black fuzz on the keyring doll.
“That sticky stuff on it… is that blood?”
Some of the fur was matted and clumped together with a dark, wet substance.
The metallic smell of blood hit my nose, probably coming from her.
I tried not to gag, and then she spoke bitterly.
“You shouldn’t be so surprised.”
With a thumb-less hand, she brushed the fur gently aside.
“…!”
Even Dansuhyuk—who rarely flinched—took a step back.
“It’s my ex-boyfriend.”
There, embedded in her abdomen, was a pale, lifeless face.
Grotesque.
There was no better word for it.
“My stomach’s turning.”
As if satisfied with our reactions, the woman let her shirt fall back down. Suddenly, she looked almost normal again.
Maybe that sense of unease I’d felt when I first saw her had come from that.
“After I wished for my ex to die, this happened. When I fall asleep, he wakes up—screaming, cursing at me.”
Her face went pale as she clutched her head.
“My mom keeps asking why she hears a man’s voice in my room. The neighbors complained about the noise too. It’s like I’m losing my mind—he just keeps shouting about our relationship, our fights, even… what we did in bed.”
She said she hasn’t been able to sleep since, her nerves frayed.
She only drinks coffee now, thinking that if she stays full of caffeine, she won’t fall asleep.
Suddenly, her skeletal frame made perfect sense.
“I even tried burning the doll myself, but when I did, he screamed and cursed again. Whenever I try to harm the doll, he wakes up.”
This was a curse—pure and simple.
The kind of thing you only ever see in horror stories.
I was too shocked to speak, so Dansuhyuk stepped in for me.
“Then is the previous owner’s disappearance the ghost’s doing?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t even know what wish that person made. But they say the CCTV footage went black exactly when he disappeared.”
“So they still haven’t found him.”
“No. I don’t even know if he’s alive…”
“Another question: why did you make sure the buyer was a woman and alone?”
“Oh, that. I’m a woman too—it’s scary meeting strange men.”
She hunched her shoulders as she spoke. It didn’t sound like a lie.
Dansuhyuk didn’t press further.
He probably only agreed to meet her because he hoped this case would reveal something about his missing parents.
But there were too few clues. He was likely disappointed.
I felt oddly sorry, like I’d just taken away his last bit of hope.
“She’s insisting burning it will solve everything…”
Should we really do that?
While I was staring at her uneasily, another thought popped into my head.
“Why did you say not to name the doll or talk to it?”
“…Did I say that?”
Her eyes widened in surprise, like she was hearing it for the first time.
Did she forget her own message? Either way, it didn’t seem crucial to solving this.
“I’ll think it over before deciding.”
Feeling there was nothing more to gain, I shot Dansuhyuk a look—let’s get out of here.
He nodded, and the woman didn’t stop us.
We got back safely, but the unease in my chest wouldn’t fade.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think burning it is the answer.”
Dansuhyuk’s voice was firm.
I glanced up at him. He was staring straight ahead as he continued,
“If burning it worked, she would’ve asked someone—anyone—close to her to do it. If all it took was that, she’d be free by now.”
Which meant either it wasn’t the solution—or someone else would get hurt if they tried.
“Besides, she didn’t sound desperate for our help.”
“That’s true.”
“She’s hiding something. The name thing must mean something.”
I hadn’t expected him to catch on to the same detail that bothered me.
He looked frustrated—like he had a hunch but couldn’t prove it.
“Maybe I should ask on that urban legend forum…”
People there knew a lot about supernatural stuff, though their info wasn’t always reliable.
“Or maybe…”
We could find someone credible.
I stopped walking, and Dansuhyuk stopped too.
“Let’s ask an expert.”
“What, like a shaman?”
“No.”
I said firmly,
“Class 3-1 of Dongsan High School!”
“…That’s our class.”
Dansuhyuk frowned.
The horror genre often features a certain archetype: the occult fanatic.
Someone with deep knowledge of the supernatural—who ends up helping the main character caught in strange events, eventually becoming a close friend.
“In the original story, he didn’t appear until a later episode.”
Since the original Dansuhyuk didn’t attend school, their meeting had been delayed.
“Wasn’t he introduced in the Quick Delivery Horror episode?”
Whatever. The timeline was already messed up.
If I could gain one more ally, that was good enough for me.
“Are you sure this so-called expert is in here?”
Dansuhyuk scanned the classroom through the window, clearly skeptical.
After we’d parted from the woman yesterday, he’d insisted on going to school right then to investigate—but I’d convinced him everyone would’ve gone home by that hour.
Now, the next day, I’d dragged him here.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“I probably know this school better than you do, considering how often you skip.”
“You’ve caused enough trouble to know every corner, I guess.”
He never missed a chance to throw a jab.
I glared at him, but he just looked down at me with that cool, indifferent stare.
Too tall for his own good.
“Ignore him, ignore him. No need to raise my blood pressure.”
I stepped confidently into Class 1. A few students glanced up, curious about the stranger, but I ignored them.
Honestly, with Dansuhyuk’s handsome face visible through the doorway, I wasn’t the one attracting attention.
I already knew exactly who I was looking for.
In the original story, the occult maniac had introduced himself like this:
“I may be short enough to sit right in front of the teacher’s desk, but I’ve got nerves of steel!”
I stopped at the desk right in front of the teacher’s podium.
“Huh?”
The student sitting there looked up, surprised that anyone had approached him.
Round glasses, a bowl-cut, and a small, almost frail frame—shorter than me even.
Dansuhyuk’s first companion—Tak Yeonho.
