1 – The Story of the Childhood Friend Who Sees Ghosts #1**
When I was young, there was a girl in my elementary school who could see ghosts.
First things first, let me reveal her name.
Her name was Sera.
From the moment she entered elementary school, Sera became a celebrity among the kids.
She became famous instantaneously by causing a huge incident.
It wasn’t a mundane and trivial incident like fighting with a classmate or getting into trouble with a teacher. The year we entered elementary school, she caused a major incident that stirred up the whole neighborhood.
Sera discovered a body buried behind the school’s mountain.
A body that had been stabbed to death.
It was presumed to be the corpse of a man who had been murdered.
Literally, a major incident.
A mere eight-year-old girl had found the body and reported it to the police.
Considering common sense, the story had more than one or two strange aspects.
At that time, the local police station was unaware that a murder had occurred. The murdered man was a homeless person who no one cared about. Sera had discovered the body, which no one knew existed, let alone found.
Moreover, Sera acted as though she knew the body was buried behind the mountain from the start.
It wasn’t like she stumbled upon it while walking.
It seems she brought a shovel in advance to exhume the body before climbing the mountain.
Sera took a shovel herself, dug into the ground.
Once the silhouette of the body became visible, she immediately reported it to the police.
All of this happened in the middle of the night.
Sera was in the mountain in the pitch-black night, with the body she had unearthed. Then she was found by the police, who responded to her report, holding a dirt-covered shovel.
“Over here, Mr. Policeman.”
When the police arrived at the mountain, Sera pointed to the body with her shovel. Where Sera pointed, the bloodless hand of the corpse was protruding through the soil.
That night, the police were so startled that they asked Sera.
“Li, little girl…! Did you dig up that body?”
“Yes.”
“How did you find it? Did you actually see someone burying the body here?”
If you think about it, it wouldn’t be strange for Sera to find the body if she had witnessed the murderer burying it in the mountain.
“No, I didn’t see it myself.”
“Then how did you find it? How did you know the body was here?”
But she hadn’t witnessed the act of the body being buried.
Sera pointed at the body with her shovel once again.
“That man over there told me.”
“What?”
“The dead man came into my dream and showed me where he was buried. So, I brought a shovel and came here.”
It was an extraordinary answer that transcended common sense. A dead person appeared in her dream to show her the location of his body? However, as unbelievable as it was, the body buried in the mountain was not a mannequin but a real human corpse.
The police immediately recovered the body and began investigating the case.
Not long after, the murderer was caught by the police. The killer was a young man in his 20s, who reportedly committed indiscriminate stabbings targeting homeless people.
The case was resolved well.
But the incident of Sera finding the body remained a mystery.
“An 8-year-old girl unearths a buried body”
“The girl who found the body ‘met a ghost in her dream’”
Being such a strange incident, Sera’s story was even featured in online newspapers at the time. Naturally, it goes without saying that Sera became famous among the kids. To have a child who could see ghosts attending the same school, and moreover, in the same grade…
At that time, my significant interest in Sera sprouted, triggered by the murder incident. Although I was just an elementary school student, I had a great interest in mysterious events.
Time passed, and it was when I reached the third grade of elementary school.
I became classmates with the girl who could see ghosts.
*
After the long winter vacation ended and a new school year began, there was a girl I had heard rumors about in the class I was assigned to.
I was finally able to see Sera up close, as we became classmates.
“Wow.”
You could tell just by looking at her.
Sera looked different from ordinary kids. She was born between a foreigner and a Korean through an international marriage. Specifically, her father was Swedish, and her mother was Korean.
There was also the mixture of Western blood.
Sera was incredibly beautiful, capturing people’s attention.
A dazzlingly white complexion, reminiscent of a Caucasian.
Blue eyes, a pert nose, and red lips, but above all, the most striking feature was her silver hair. It was the platinum blonde often seen at low rates among Northern Europeans.
Amidst all the dark-haired children, she shone with her hair, eyebrows, and skin all glowing a stark white.
‘So truly white.’
As white as snow. That was my first impression upon seeing Sera. Even her eyelashes were dyed a pale white. It was like looking at a meticulously crafted Western doll.
Perhaps it was due to her conspicuously mysterious appearance.
From the first day of school, many kids flocked around Sera. Some were drawn simply by her appearance, while others approached having heard the rumors that she could see ghosts.
“Sera, can you really see ghosts?”
“I can.”
“Are ghosts really real?”
“They must be.”
“Is it true that your mother is a shaman?”
“Yeah.”
On the first day of school, Sera was asked about ghosts by the kids several times.
Since I was sitting next to her, I perked up my ears whenever Sera conversed with the kids. But after continuously listening, I began to feel a bit frustrated. I slowly wanted to speak directly to this girl who could see ghosts myself.
It was after all the classes on the first day of school had ended.
I tried talking to Sera outside the school building when it was time to go home. Until then, there were too many kids around Sera, making it hard to approach her.
“Um, Sera!”
“Why? Jinwoo.”
Thanks to sitting next to her, Sera remembered my name quite well.
My name is Jinwoo.
“Are you going home now?”
“Yeah, I have to go home.”
“Can you talk with me for a bit?”
In the afternoon, under the faintly glowing sunset.
I stopped Sera, who was heading home from the school field.
Sera looked at me with a puzzled expression, standing on the sandy beach.
“Talk? What talk?”
“A ghost story. I have something to ask you.”
“Ah…! That kind of story? What are you curious about?”
What I wanted to ask.
From the moment I heard the rumor that she found a body, there was something I wanted to ask Sera. A question that had been buried in my heart for a full 2 years. Finally, the moment to talk to Sera had arrived.
“You said you see ghosts.”
I took a brief deep breath and threw a question to Sera.
“…So, can you show me a ghost?”
I want to see a ghost.
That’s been a wish of mine since I was little. A child who can see ghosts is right here with me. So, I have to ask her to show me a ghost in some way or another.
Was my question unexpected?
Sera furrowed her eyebrows.
“Show you a ghost? Why would you want to see that?”
“I’m curious. I want to see a ghost with my own eyes. So, can you recommend a place? Somewhere I can see a ghost. Like a haunted place around here. It doesn’t have to be in this neighborhood, anywhere is fine. Everywhere I’ve been has been a bust.”
“No…”
In short, she’s asking for a recommendation for a haunted place.
If a child who sees ghosts recommends a haunted place, there’s no doubt I will be able to see something too, right? Even if I don’t perfectly see a spirit, I might experience a part of a spirit or some chilling phenomena.
“I’ll buy you something if you tell me a good place.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course, I am. Or should I buy it first? It’s like the advance payment adults talk about. There’s a tteokbokki place nearby.”
Sera looked at me, who was tempting her with food, with an incredulous expression. A pretty girl was staring hard, but I was not at all intimidated. The real opportunity to see a ghost had come, so there was no need to worry about face or anything.
“I’m seriously asking. I want to see a ghost.”
I was not joking.
I continued to speak to Sera with a serious expression. Seeing that I was serious, even Sera, who was initially bewildered, seemed to decide to have a serious conversation with me.
“Alright. If you want to see a ghost that much, I’ll tell you where they appear.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Unexpectedly, Sera quickly agreed to tell me where ghosts appear. The moment I heard that, I cheered inside. I never thought I would get an answer in just one day. I thought she would take a long time to tell me, even if she did tell me.
‘Where can I see a ghost?’
Is it a haunted place? When thinking of places where spirits linger, the first thing that comes to mind is a haunted house. Or just an abandoned house, even without any special story. I focused and listened to Sera’s voice.
“Over there.”
Sera pointed somewhere with her finger.
If she could point to it, it meant it was somewhere close to the school, right? I looked at where Sera was pointing while thinking. When I turned my head and looked behind, I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Over there.”
“That’s our school!”
It was the building of the school we attended.
I swallowed and asked Sera.
“So you’re saying that a ghost appears at our school now?”
The place with the ghost wasn’t a haunted house or an abandoned house, but our school?
It was an answer I hadn’t even imagined.
“Yeah. You can see it, can’t you?”
Sera wasn’t just pointing at the school building.
What she was pointing at with her finger was shockingly our class window.
3rd grade, class 5.
From noble mtl dot com
The place where we had just had class.
And where we would be having class for the next year.
“……”
That was when it happened.
A faint shadow-like thing appeared at the window of our class that Sera pointed at.
Someone remained in the empty classroom after the end of school.
It was faint, but it was recognizable as a person. The dark thing wiggled while maintaining a human form beyond the window. I stared wide-eyed, and then I heard Sera’s voice.
“You don’t need to go far, Jinwoo.”
Chills ran down my spine.