Once her hair was rinsed and dried, her appearance had changed so much that she was nearly unrecognizable.
Even Hyeyeon, who’d been fiddling with her smartphone behind her, had widened her eyes in surprise. That said it all, didn’t it?
"How do you like it?"
The person who had styled her hair grinned widely.
...To be honest, she wasn’t thrilled about the body that had changed so drastically, but since it at least looked nice, she was satisfied. As the saying goes—good-looking rice cakes taste good too.
"...Looks good."
"Try not to go around looking like before, and stick with this."
...See, it’s not that she wanted to look like that, you know?
There’s a whole backstory behind it.
Do you know how many triangle gimbap I could buy with the money it costs to get my hair done here? Even if you convert it into ran, that’d keep fed for quite a while.
But since she couldn’t exactly say sothing that pitiful out loud, she just gave an awkward smile.
When she stood up and walked over to Hyeyeon, the girl’s previously gloomy eyes were now sparkling brightly.
"Why were you going around like that?"
"...I had my reasons."
She’d assud Hyeyeon was just creepy, but apparently she had a kind of cute side too.
Sohow, the distance between them felt a lot shorter.
Just then, Hyesung ca through the door.
"Geez, what’s with the line—was it the Great Wall or sothing? Does no one have a job─"
He blinked as he walked in holding a paper carrier in one hand.
"Uh... where’s the person you were with?"
He stared blankly at Hyeyeon, then looked back and forth between her and the protagonist, blinking as if to say, Wait... is that...?
The protagonist nearly chased after him to kick him in the shins but held herself back upon spotting the coffee in his carrier.
When she raised her foot, Hyesung looked at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.
"Uh... no way."
"Yeah, it’s ."
"Whoa, why were you walking around like that? You look amazing!"
"...."
Should she kill him or let him live?
Maybe he sensed her dilemma, because he awkwardly smiled and handed her one of the drinks.
...His ability to read the room was disgustingly sharp.
That aside, the coffee he gave her was good. Sweet and just right.
Its na was sothing like... iced black glay... why was it so long?
Whatever.
Not like she needed to morize the na when she wasn’t even sure she’d get to drink it again.
She sucked down the coffee and got into Hyesung’s car. He sat in the driver’s seat, Hyeyeon in the back.
And of course, she sat in the passenger seat.
It had been a while since she’d ridden in a car, but... it didn’t move her much.
Once the engine started and the car got going, Hyesung spoke up.
"Co to think of it, we haven’t formally introduced ourselves yet, have we?"
"Hm... guess not."
"Well, I’ve seen your na from your ID, but still... if we’re gonna be working together, we should at least introduce ourselves, right?"
So he’s more formal than expected.
Well, that’s not a bad thing.
"Shall we?"
He giggled like sothing had really amused him.
"What’s so funny?"
"...Nothing. Should I go first? My na is Han Hyesung—I go by my real na for my streaming. And the gloomy one in the back is my little sister, Han Hyeyeon."
"Hey, you wanna die?"
"She might look like that, but she’s hiding a savage personality."
The way they bickered, it was like they were genetically programd to be enemies—real siblings, through and through.
Watching that peaceful scene made her smile. But then Hyeyeon’s voice, sulky and disgruntled, ca from the backseat.
"...Pretty sure we already introduced ourselves."
"Ah."
Ahem.
She cleared her throat first.
It really had been a long ti since she’d introduced herself to anyone.
She’d co from a world where knives flew before nas were shared... so it felt weird. Her face even itched a little from the awkwardness.
"Haha, I thought you were shy. I really thought you were a ghost."
So much for reading the room—he sure knew how to talk himself into a beating.
Or maybe it was a strear thing? He really looked like soone who deserved to get smacked around on cara.
"I’m driving, you know."
"...."
Yeah. On those shows, isn’t this when the chat pays to hit the guy?
He must make good money.
She gave him a cold smile and opened her mouth.
"Um... Ayun."
As for her job... full-ti bum.
"Uh... that’s it? What about your last na?"
"...Bo."
"Sorry?"
"Bo! My last na’s Bo!"
She could clearly hear the stifled snickering.
She couldn’t punch the guy while he was driving, and she couldn’t hit a girl younger than her either—so she clenched her fists and trembled with rage.
After laughing for a while, Hyesung finally spoke up with a teasing grin.
"So should I call you Ayun noona?"
"Huh? Noona?"
Hyeyeon’s voice rose faster than hers. Her eyes were round with shock.
Hyesung explained Hyeyeon’s confusion.
"Yeah, she’s older than . Not that it ans anything to you, since you’re already talking down to your own big brother."
"What the hell."
In the rearview mirror, she saw Hyeyeon staring at her in utter shock.
Well... she did look a bit young.
"Uh... then I guess I should be calling you unni, huh?"
Noona... Unni... neither sounded good to her. But it’s not like she had any better alternatives, so...
She wasn’t the type to get hung up on titles, so she decided to ignore it.
Setting aside how weird she felt about it—
"Call whatever. Now that we’ve done intros, can I talk casually with you?"
"Ah... sure, go ahead..."
"Heh heh..."
With the awkward introductions out of the way, it was ti for the real discussion.
"You rember what I ntioned earlier, right?"
"Uh... sort of. So what exactly do you want to do?"
"It’s nothing big."
Her role in the next content was... essentially a “consultant with spiritual sight.” Soone who could supposedly see things and confirm whether ghosts were present or not.
Which was fine in itself, but—there was one big problem.
"Do you think people will believe ?"
"That’s... honestly, probably not."
"Then why do you even need ?"
Exactly.
As she’d said before, she was soone capable of seeing herself objectively.
She really could see things—but making others believe that was a different story.
At that, Hyeyeon started rustling around in the back and pulled out sothing that looked like a remote. It was divided into five color-coded sections, from green to red.
Clearing her throat, Hyeyeon began explaining.
"This is an EMF detector... it’s not very well known in Korea, but it’s a device commonly used abroad to detect ghosts."
...There’s a gadget for everything now, huh.
So doesn’t that an they really didn’t need her? They could just bring soone else and have them wave this around. Heck, even Hyeyeon could do it from the back and it’d probably light up just fine.
As she tilted her head in doubt, Hyesung smiled and continued.
"Well, proving that you can see stuff will co with ti... but honestly, that’s not the main reason."
"Huh?"
To put it simply, Hyesung’s reason was this:
The abandoned hospital they visited last ti?
He picked it without thinking much because it had already been chewed ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) up, spat out, and wasn’t dangerous anymore—no one had gotten hurt there in ages.
But then sothing actually happened, and the protagonist had clearly seen it.
So maybe there’s sothing to her... and if so, that could be huge.
That was his reasoning.
...It was blunt and straightforward—and she kind of liked that.
If he’d gone on rambling in circles like he did in his text, she would’ve scowled at him.
To be honest, she still didn’t know why that ghost had suddenly appeared at the hospital... but she decided to see it as a golden opportunity.
Which ant it was ti for the most important question.
The real reason she’d co this far.
"How much are you paying ?"
"Ah..."
After a fierce back-and-forth, they reached a satisfying agreent.
Okay, thank you.
It wasn’t enough to bet her life on, but as a kind of freelancer deal, it was a pretty good result for her current situation.
Maybe now she could afford to buy a rice cooker.
"So... should we talk about the content we’ll be filming?"
"Yeah."
"Hyeyeon, you’re up."
"What, you’re outsourcing that too?"
"Hey, didn’t I give you extra allowance already?"
With a sigh, Hyeyeon finally set down her phone and began explaining.
What they were doing this ti was simple.
They’d cut open a doll, stuff it with rice, then add fingernails, hair, blood... then give it sothing sharp to hold, and play tag with it.
The na of the ga: Hitori Kakurenbo (ひとり かくれんぼ).
In Korean: One-Person Hide and Seek.
...Listening closely, it felt... strange.
This was less of a “ga” and more like—
[It resembles a curse ritual, though it lacks key components.]
Aslan suddenly chid in. Trust a death knight to perk up at a grim topic.
You goddamn pedophile.
Anyway, just like Aslan said—it felt more like self-cursing than a ga. She rembered seeing sothing similar in Entera.
Though in that case, it wasn’t self-directed—it was a truly malicious curse ant to harm others.
Still.
This felt like a dumbed-down version. A sloppy, amateur curse ritual full of holes.
She doubted anyone in their right mind would try sothing like that—but apparently, this had been a viral trend both in Korea and abroad. There were even tons of firsthand stories about people trying it.
...The world was full of people who’d clearly lost their minds.
"So who’s doing it?"
Hyesung replied with a sulky look.
"...It’d have to be , right?"
"Why are you stating the obvious? You scared?"
"Hey! Han Hyeyeon!"
...What a sweet pair of siblings.
In any case, the execution date was this Saturday.
At Hyesung’s place.
The protagonist and Hyeyeon would be on standby.
But really, it was just an amateur curse ripped from the internet.
She figured it’d be an easy job.
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