Ghost Story Club

opped down onto a nearby bench. 

There was still a long time to wait before my parents returned. 

That desperate and poor state of mine.
Being a broke ass student was so pitiful!

“……”

The word ‘poor’ suddenly made me think of SunAh. 

‘It’s not like I have anything to do.
Should I send SunAh a KakaoTalk message?’

Thinking about it, as I had listened to the explanation of the ‘manual ghost story’ the day before, I had swapped numbers with GyeongWon and SunAh. 

I had only met them at school and had not contacted them via phone yet. 

‘Well, it would be natural if I said I was just saying hello while checking if the number worked, right?’

It was the first time I was sending a KakaoTalk message to a girl.

It was a bit tense, but at the same time there was nothing unusual about sending a message. 

I just had to send it. 

 

Badump, badump. 

Slip-

 

I slipped my phone out of my pocket and opened the KakaoTalk app. 

After checking my friends list, I found that didn’t need to scroll.
Both SunAh and GyeongWon were on the first page.

At that point in time, I really didn’t have many friends. 

‘I really spent my school life… in a completely boring way.’

It was a miracle that I had two friends that would walk with me on my way from school. 

The reason for that was because of my unusual disposition of feeling lonely when I was alone, but wanting to be alone when I was with others. 

Although there were no people who I was on bad terms with, there were also no friends that I was close enough to contact personally. 

‘Hmm, Ahn GyeongWon.
Should I check out his profile?’

When I checked GyeongWon’s profile, he had confidently put up a selfie as his profile picture. 

“The hell?”

As if he wanted to emphasize that he was an intellectual, his mouth was closed and he was flashing his glasses. 

And for his status message, he had put the quote, ‘You make your own luck through thorough preparation’, which sounded like something he found after scouring the internet. 

“… How respectable.”

His face was pretty as long as he remained still, so he might have been popular with the girls. 

Because he focused too much on trying to show off that he was an intellectual, he had such a strong ‘idiot who thinks he’s cool’ image that at school he didn't have friends outside of SunAh and me. 

I clucked my tongue and checked out SunAh’s profile. 

Everything was still the default settings.
The profile picture was the blue human shape that was the default when you didn’t upload a single image.
The status message was blank as well.
Everything was unchanged. 

‘Is SunAh a ten-thousand-year outsider like me?’

 

—

tl/n: ‘Outsider’ is often used as a term for people who stick to themselves and avoid social groups in Korea. 

—

 

Now that I was going to contact them, I was slightly nervous.
But I firmed my heart. 

Let’s send a message to a cute girl from class!

I typed out a short and pressed send. 

‘Since I’m bored, I’ll send GyeongWon a message too.’

Since we were both guys, I sent him a slightly more casual .

A moment later, a reply came from GyeongWon. 

I replied, Just tried out messaging you.
Enjoy.>

‘He’s at cram school.
It fits his image.
I wonder why SunAh isn’t responding.’

I wondered what SunAh spent her time doing.

Then I remembered the collapsing apartment building she lived in. 

‘… She said she lives with her grandmother.
What kind of environment does she live in?’

Did she have a computer at home? A TV?

I was curious about what SunAh would do at home to kill time. 

It was after I sat on the bench for an uneventful twenty minutes that my cell phone rang.

 

KakaoTalk~

 

—
tl/n: when you get a message through KakaoTalk, its ringtone is actually the words KakaoTalk. 

—

 

I checked my cell phone quickly and found that SunAh had responded. 

‘Ooooh!’

In my excitement, I was making a scene by waving my hands around.

‘I got a KakaoTalk message from a girl!’

My heart felt itchy. 

My mouth couldn’t stop smiling as I checked the message. 

lol>

I was sitting on the bench, smiling in a silly way as I looked at SunAh’s message, when some kids passed by.
It made me quickly change my expression. 

“Ehem.”

SunAh, you cutie.
‘hello.
lol’ was too cute!

I tried to calm myself and type a response on my keypad, but my hand was shaking too much. 

Why was I acting like that?

Was the effects of an all-boys middle school and all-boys high school really that bad?

Sometimes I laughed, or cringed to myself in embarrassment.

“Ah~ is this too short? Should I try sending a longer message?”

I was contemplating by myself while giggling.
Then I started kicking my feet.

It was so exhilarating!

I felt a gaze on me, so I looked up to check.
A cheese-colored cat was staring right at me. 

“What you looking at, furball?!”

“Meow.”

I raised my phone again and sent a message.

After I waited five minutes, which felt like an hour, another KakaoTalk message came. 

lol>

Hmm.
What did she mean? 

There was no way she was actually spacing out.
Was it some method of talk only girls used?

‘After that, how should I respond……?’ 

I kept pushing my brain, but I wasn’t sure. 

How was I supposed to respond to that message?!

I was an idiot, so I didn’t know much about that sort of thing. 

As I cringed and giggled in delighted worry, I accidentally drooled on myself.

The lady I met at the playground before saw that sight and rushed to me in surprise. 

“Student! You’re uncomfortable somewhere, right? Where are your guardians?”

“Ah fuck, lady! Just go! I’m completely fine!”

As I thought, that lady was really nosy. 

 

Your understanding of Choi JaOk has greatly increased by 20.

 

After shooing the lady away, I quickly responded to SunAh’s message. 

I’m stuck outside waiting for my mom and dad because I lost my keys.
:’( >

 

KakaoTalk~

 

The next response came quickly.

 

Click, click, click.

 

 

KakaoTalk~

 

Usually, SunAh mumbled and extended the end of her sentences, but in her KakaoTalk messages her speech was surprisingly normal. 

‘Is that obvious? But I’m the opposite.’

When I spoke to SunAh face to face, I spoke very comfortably.
But when messaging her through KakaoTalk, I was weirdly anxious and my heart fluttered. 

:’(>

And then the messages stopped.

I waited for about ten minutes, but there was no response. 

‘Hmmm, this flow isn’t good.’

I was going to spend time just talking about daily life, but when the topic of being out of the house came up, did it become too heavy?

The conversation had become a singular pattern. 

‘It might seem like I was being too whiny.’

SunAh’s lack of response continued. 

‘Should I try sending her another message with a different topic?’

But if I sent another message even though there wasn’t a response, would it seem like I was too impatient?

‘What should I do?’

I was uselessly immersed as I was pondering on what to send. 

‘Hmm, if I do it like this… No, that’s too much… Like this? No, that’s a bit……’

Suddenly, I remembered the scene in front of the school store where I had grabbed her hand and she made a clearly troubled face. 

Of course, right after that time had turned back, so it technically never happened. 

‘Ah, I don’t want to make a useless mistake.
I just want to be friends with her naturally.’

I knew nothing about what girls thought about. 

‘How about I say this here… or say this in this manner?’

Ugh.
My head hurt.
I was thinking so much that my brain burnt out. 

Some guys seemed able to hang out with girls comfortably, but why did I have so many thoughts?

‘What is she thinking now? How should I behave?’

Those types of thoughts continued to swirl around in my mind and quickly tired me out.
SunAh still hadn’t responded. 

‘Haah… Let’s stop.
I’ll just sit here comfortably.’

At first, it felt good messaging a girl.
However, as there were too many things to think about, my brain felt numb. 

The disposition that the system explained I had, two-faced.

… Now that I thought about it a bit, I thought that maybe that explanation was just about puberty. 

Although I had a lot of thoughts about looking good in front of friends, after worrying about my friends leaving if I made a mistake, I would think too much and end up not making friends.
It was a paradoxical situation. 

‘I’m tired.
I’m really tired.
This is why I can’t make close friends.’

Even GyeongWon was like that. 

Because he had high pride, it would be difficult for me to become his friend easily. 

I would have needed to continuously prove to him that I was also an elite. 

Was there no such thing as a friend who wouldn’t leave me, no matter how I acted?

A friend who, even if I showed weakness, would just laugh it off instead of looking down on me? A friend who I could trust?

A friend who I didn’t need to look good in front of, and to whom just being me was enough? That sort of friend?

Then I could stop the tiresome worrying and spend my time relaxing. 

That was when…

 

KakaoTalk~

 

 

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