Ghost Story Club

“Pbbbbbbt… pbbbbbbt… pbbbbbt….”

“Huuub… huuuub… huuub…”

Within the quiet fast-food joint, SunAh was trying to give me air using a straw.

“Pbbbbbbt…”

“Huuuub…”

SunAh’s face turned red as she tried to force the air into me through the straw. However, I was unable to handle it. I ended up letting the air out and taking in a breath of fresh air.

“Puuuhaaaaa…”

“……?”

SunAh looked at me as I took the straw out of my mouth. Her face was flushed red from all of her hard work.

“Joon, what happened……?”

“N-no, it's just that……”

She probably wouldn’t like it if I said that her face looked funny, right? I picked up the straw and started to explain.

“I think… This straw is too thin. It’s very difficult to send in air through it. “

“Yeah……"

SunAh’s breath was fast, showing that she agreed that it was too difficult despite not actually voicing it. However, there were employees working in the fast-food restaurant, so we wouldn’t be able to use the gas pipe.

“There doesn’t seem to be a nice, sealed space to use either……"

Something bigger……. Wasn’t there something I could use to breathe in SunAh’s air that was a bit bigger?

“Joon, what do you think about using this paper cup……?"

SunAh was pointing at the paper cup sitting on our table.

“Let’s see……"

I picked it up and began to examine it.

‘This is just a regular sized cup.’

It was too short. We might even end up kissing by accident.

“Isn’t there a large cup somewhere?”

“Maybe in the rubbish bin……?”

“Just wait here. I’ll go ask for a new one.”

I stopped SunAh, who was about to go search through the rubbish bin, and went down to the first floor where the front counter was.

We were going to put our mouths on it, so it should at least be new.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to ask, but can I get a large cup, please?”

A part-timer girl who looked only a bit older than me had been in the middle of preparing a delivery, so she slammed the cup on the counter as if she were a bit annoyed.

‘How rude.’

I brought the cup back up to the second floor.

“We’ll just make a hole on the bottom here and you just have to breathe out air for me to breathe in.”

With that, the cup would be wider and have a larger cross-section than the straw from before.

“Huuuu……"

“Huuuuub……"

“Huuuuuuu……"

“Huuuuuuub……"

I did my best to ignore SunAh’s adorable puffed up cheeks as she pushed the air into the cup.

“Huuuu— Uuub! Cough, cough!”

As she was breathing into the cup, she suddenly started coughing.

“Cough, cough.”

I cleaned off the saliva covering my face.

“… Are you alright?”

“Cough… haaaa, this is hard.”

SunAh wiped away the sweat on her forehead. I also wiped my mouth and started explaining the method to her one more time.

“Do you get it? Your role is to breathe in fresh air and blow out the air into the cup. There is no need to overthink things and make it complicated.”

“Uh, yeah…"

The point was that I was supposed to breathe in carbon dioxide until I was knocked out.

“Then, let’s try again.”

“Okay……!”

Once again, we put our lips to the cup between us. I could feel the other customers glancing at us from time to time.

“Huuu, huuuu, huuuuu”

“Huuuub, huuuuub, huuuuub……"

SunAh was a lot tougher than she seemed. As she was pushing out her breath, it was so strong that it was forced into my mouth. I almost coughed several times because of how strong it was.

“Huuuuuu, huuuuuu……"

“Ooof… ooook……"

Paaaack-!

“Cough…! Cough…!”

This time, I started to cough hard. It was because SunAh was pushing in the air as hard as she could.

“Cough, cough……!”

“J-Joon……"

SunAh was acting all flustered because she felt sorry. HaYoon had been very delicate and tactful when she did it. My head started to hurt from all of the coughing.

“Cough, cough… Can you do it a bit more gently……?"

“S-sorry……"

SunAh looked at me with a very sad expression. Suddenly, someone spoke to the two of us.

“Excuse me? Customers?”

After catching my breath, I looked over and saw the rude part-timer girl standing there.

“Are you alright?”

The other guests were whispering as they looked at the red-faced SunAh and I. I guess if a pair of uniform wearing students were to jam their faces into a cup, it would be quite attention grabbing.

“Customer?”

SunAh stared at the part timer girl with a scared expression. I started to wave my hand as I got up.

“Cough… Yes, I’m alright. I’m doing fine, so please leave now.”

“I’m sorry, but I think you should leave the premises.”

The part-timer girl announced this with an uncomfortable expression on her face.

“Some of the other guests are uncomfortable with your actions……"

“Fine, fine. I’ll be on my way out after packing my shit. You can go now.”

I replied as annoyance was mixed into my tone.

‘Damn it, why is this dream so unnecessarily realistic?’

The part-timer girl grimaced as she started to go back down to the first floor.

“SunAh, let’s head to the bathroom and finish up what we started.”

“Yeah……"

The restrooms were in the corner of the second floor. As I was needlessly considering whether to go into the men’s room or women’s room, I led the way as SunAh followed behind me.

‘Well, there’s no reason for me to go out of my way to choose the women’s room, right?’

I opened the door and entered one of the stalls. SunAh looked around first before entering the men’s room.

“Come into the stall.”

Once we were both in the same stall, I locked the stall door.

“There. Now no one should bother us.”

“Yeah.”

As if to get the hesitant SunAh to focus, I looked into her eyes and started to explain.

“You know how being sealed in a space with little oxygen can make you sleepy, right?”

“… Yeah.”

“That phenomenon occurs because of the lack of oxygen, and right now we are trying to replicate that.”

As there was no suitable space to seal me into, we were trying to use the paper cup to force me to be overwhelmed with carbon dioxide. One of the issues, however, was that the paper cup was smaller than a breath of air, so sometimes SunAh would push in too much air.

The two of us were crouched in the cramped stall about to start again.

“Okay, let’s start.”

We put our mouths to the paper cup and started our breathing again.

“Huuu…"

“Huuup…!”

“Huuuu…"

“Huuuup…!”

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

The pacing of the breathing was much more stable than before. If we kept this up, it seemed like we would succeed.

Huuu…"

“Huuup…!”

“Huuuu…"

“Huuuup…!”

And so, as my consciousness was starting to fade away, the men’s room suddenly opened and we could hear some noise.

“Those students from before went here. Both the girl and the boy entered together.”

“Excuse me, customers? Excuse me? Customers!”

The part-timer had brought some other employees as well to enter the men’s restroom. Soon, they reached our stall.

“Open the door! What are you two even doing in there? Come out!”

They started knocking on the door. As the other employees were whispering, I could hear one of them going into the stall next to ours.

“……!”

SunAh looked around in embarrassment, before returning to breathing into the cup, breathing at a much faster pace.

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

My mind was slowly getting hazier, and my consciousness seemed to flee.

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

While we continued our joint breathing, the door continued to be hammered on.

“Excuse me! Come out from there! Come out!”

Knock knock!

Knock knock knock!

In the meantime, one of the male employees had climbed up the toilet to look at us over the stall wall.

“Ugh, I’ll go up the wall.”

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

“Oi! You students!”

The male employee was looking down at us from over the wall.

“What weird thing are the two of you doing? Hurry up and come out!”

From the door, we could hear a coin fiddling with the lock.

Click, click.

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

“Huuu… Huuu…"

“Huuup… Huuup…"

“Come out! Quickly!”

The employees managed to open the door and started to grab SunAh to attempt to drag her out. SunAh endured the pulling and tried to continue to send me air. With the last bit of air, I finally felt myself black out.

* * *

* * *

Badump.

Badump.

Let’s open my eyes.

Oh, I couldn’t open them.

Badump. Badump.

I couldn’t seem to put any strength into my eyelids.

What was that feeling? Where was I? It was incredibly comfortable. It felt like my body was floating.

Badump. Badump.

“#[email protected]&$^……"

It was my mom’s voice. My mom’s voice was echoing throughout the area.

“&%^@#@……"

No way, was this place… was it back when my mom was still expecting? Before I was born?

I was feeling very dazed as I tried to connect the dots. The dreams I dreamt weren't completely random. The nightmares I had gone through were all in reverse order.

In that first dream, where all of us were stuck, I was dreaming about the fourth period class that day.

After SunAh, GyeongWon, and I went one layer deeper, we were within the dream at the fast-food joint, which I had dreamt about after defeating the Laughing Girl.

Another layer in and SunAh and I had gone through the serial explosion case, which was actually three years ago for me.

Considering how we continuously went back in time for each layer, I had gone back in time almost twenty years—to before I was born.

Did the nightmare have some kind of meaning, perhaps about all the traumatic stress I’d gone through being bad enough to cause a rebirth?

Was that why the nightmare I had come into this time was the worst one of them all? Back to before I was born?

Badump. Badump.

The world was so stressful. However, the place I was in was really comfortable. I thought I should just live there forever… just living off the nutrients provided by Mom. I didn’t have to think too hard… I could just laze around.

I just had to float here.

Badump. Badump.

Badump.

.

.

.

Badump.

Badump.

Suddenly, I thought of SunAh’s face. She was probably freaking out in the restroom in the fast-food restaurant, trying to protect my sleeping body. SunAh should just chill a bit, it was just a dream.

.

.

.

Badump.

GyeongWon was… probably in the layer of dreams above us… waiting for me while eating fries.

Badump.

I wondered if HaYoon… was doing well, running away from the monsters.

.

.

.

I think something strange happened while I was with HaYoon… What was it exactly? Ah, I was too lazy to try to remember it.

.

.

.

Badump.

My consciousness was alert again for the first time in a while. I was steadily getting a sense of foreboding. Had I rested there for way too long? A moment was probably fine, but if a day, or a month, or a year… or maybe even ten years were used up in that dream? Would the other members be able to endure?

Badump. Badump.

I understood.

The ghost story was the type to confine its victims within a dream and to carve away at their consciousness.

Badump.

But how did I fall asleep into a further layer from there?

I thought just one more layer would do the trick.

What could I do when I was all alone?

Badump. Badump.

.

.

.

I needed to get the umbilical cord wrapped around me.

Even though my awareness was hazy, I slowly squirmed around within the amniotic fluid. I kept spinning around, trying to find something that I could grab.

After I discovered the umbilical cord, I kept spinning around until I got it wrapped around my throat.

Badump.

Badump.

That’s it.

I could feel myself lacking oxygen. I tried to loosen the umbilical cord so that it wouldn’t kill me. The uncomfortable feeling continued. As I continued, I could feel my consciousness fade once again.

It was already to the point that I was unborn, so how much further into the past could I go?

Badump.

Badump.

I thought my awareness was being sucked away somewhere else.

Phhhhuuuut-!

***

“……"

“Why……"

“……"

“……"

“But……"

“……"

“……"

“…… I give permission for this, so it is alright.”

“……"

.

.

.

“Huuuuuuuugh!”

As I opened my eyes, I could see that I had returned to the restroom in the fast-food joint. SunAh was looking at me with a worried expression. Nearby, the staff had called 911 and I could feel that the atmosphere seemed busy.

“J-Joon… are you okay?”

“Huuup… Huuup.”

What was it again? Who was it that I had met? I don’t remember. The only thing was… I thought that I had met someone I had missed for the first time in a while. We had talked about something important.

I needed to remember it.

But as I became more aware of my surroundings after waking from the dream, the dream itself became increasingly unclear.

That was right. I was waking up.

“SunAh.”

“Yeah?”

I could feel a part of my consciousness begin to squirm. All of the parts of my brain that had been asleep during the dream were starting to wake up. I grabbed SunAh’s hands and shouted.

“SunAh! Let’s go back home!”

“Yeah!”

SunAh nodded vigorously. And concurrently, the floor began to collapse.

***

“Club prez!”

We were in the fast-food joint again. However, this time we were on the first floor.

“Arrgh… GyeongWon.”

As I put my hand to my forehead and tried to get up, GyeongWon rushed over.

“Did you succeed?”

“Yeah… I succeeded.”

Next to me, SunAh had also gotten up and looked around her with a confused expression. Once GyeongWon heard that I had succeeded, he spoke after checking out my mood.

“Prez, as I was waiting here, I thought about it really hard. I finally remembered what we were doing in the real world before falling through here.”

“Really? What was it?”

I shouted out in surprise. That was right! What the hell were we even doing in the real world? What were the four of us doing to fall asleep together like this?

GyeongWon adjusted his glasses and began to laugh before responding.

“Even if I tell you, you wouldn’t believe me. You can find out after we wake up.”

“Huh? What is it? You’re making me curious!”

As he laughed, GyeongWon shook his head.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t something bad. You might feel quite flabbergasted though.”

SunAh approached as she started touching her head. GyeongWon turned to look at SunAh and nodded in approval.

“Great work, Yoon SunAh.”

“Ehe.”

At that moment, we felt the restaurant shake before the ceiling began to collapse.

***

“Mom has been telling you to come to church so many times, but why are you still…?”

“Hmmm…”

As I got up and pressed on my temples, I could see that we were in the classroom. However, there was nobody else in the room and it was completely quiet.

From the hallway, far away, I could hear the complaints of the ghost pretending to be my mom.

“Ow, my head.”

GyeongWon and SunAh woke up, holding their heads. I couldn’t see HaYoon anywhere. It seemed like she was somewhere else.

As the walls began to shake again, it seemed like the world was about to fall apart again. At the same time, I could feel my awareness being dragged somewhere from above.

I then had a sudden worrying thought. I spat out my concern to the two right away.

“Umm, GyeongWon, SunAh. Maybe… is this just my own dream, and you two are just parts of my dream as well? What happens if that’s the case?”

What if everything I’d done so far was just a one man show? The concern that brought me had suddenly surfaced and I started to get scared.

From within the falling rubble, GyeongWon adjusted his glasses again.

“Well, you better hope that isn’t the case, prez.”

Next to me, SunAh giggled silently as she looked at me.

“I’ll see you in a bit, Joon……"

The ceiling collapsed on top of us, and I could feel myself waking up for the last time.