Ghost Story Club-Chapter 140: Sixteenth Ghost Story – The Mysterious 4th Period (4)

[2019, May 13th | Monday, 11:50 AM]

[Lee Joon: Number of Attempts – 2]

[Ghost Story Points: 173]

[Causality Rate: 22%]

[The homeroom teachers of each class, please check again to ensure that there are no missing students…..]

Soon, the Principal, who had gone away, came back to the classroom this time with the Vice Principal following behind.

Near the front door of the classroom, three adults began having a discussion with tense expressions on their faces.

The Principal, Vice Principal, and homeroom teacher.

“… Are all the students here?”

“Yes, yes, I checked several times to make sure they are all there.”

“Then who on earth is that……”

The students began whispering among themselves at the unfamiliar sight of three important people of the school gathered in the classroom like this.

Even the homeroom teacher, instead of his usual playful tone, was speaking in a completely professional manner, like a proper adult.

Just at that same time, a man in a shabby jacket peeked through the front door from the hallway.

“Ah, you’ve arrived.”

The homeroom teacher noticed the man first and headed to the front door to greet him.

The Principal and Vice Principal, who had been in the middle of their conversation, also looked up and, with a slight exclamation, greeted the man in a shabby jacket.

This time, the four adults engaged in a serious discussion, speaking in low tones.

“What’s going on?”

“Right, right……”

Dukhun and I watched anxiously.

Soon, it was not the homeroom teacher but the Principal who came up to the teacher’s desk to deliver an announcement to the entire class.

“Ahem- Please focus for a moment.”

The students stopped chatting and showed a curious expression.

The students seemed surprised to see the Principal up close like this, especially since they were usually only able to see him from a distance, and now he’s standing at the podium.

“You must be feeling quite confused right now, but don’t worry too much. I have a few things to announce.”

The Principal, who was always seen from a distance, was now standing on the podium and speaking directly to the class.

Though it was the first time seeing him standing at the podium in our class, perhaps because he’s been in the teaching profession for decades, his presence felt steady and commanding.

Even his posture, casually resting his hand on the teacher’s desk while speaking, looked very natural.

The students sensed the presence of the highest authority in the school, so there was no whispering.

Instead, the atmosphere was more focused, even more attentive than when the homeroom teacher gives instructions.

“Just in case there’s anyone who doesn’t recognize me since you’ve only seen me from a distance, I am the Principal of this school, Shin Munhyeop. Currently, a body of unknown identity has been found in front of the teacher’s office on the first floor—”

Several students gasped upon hearing the word ‘body’.

“Fortunately, after quickly checking the total number of students in the school, it is presumed that they are not a student of our school. It must have been confusing, but thank you for following the instructions well. As expected of the students of our Nakseong High School.”

A light compliment was thrown to ease the atmosphere.

The expressions of some of the students loosened up a bit.

“We have completed the current headcount of people from the faculty to the cafeteria, security office, and store. And It has been confirmed that the numbers match on the teachers’ side as well. The unidentified body is currently presumed to be an outsider. The detective said he has a few questions to ask you for investigation purposes, so please sit quietly and wait. Detective, this way, please.”

Soon, as the Principal casually gestured towards the entrance, the man in shabby jacket, who had been waiting since earlier, strode confidently toward the podium.

The man switched places with the Principal and stood at the podium. He didn’t appear so but he was actually a detective, who looked like an uncle with messy hair and an intense look in his eyes.

“Nice to meet you. I am Detective Jang Gihoon from the 3rd Violent Crime Unit of the ShinLim Police Station. I will ask only what is necessary and keep it brief, and try to finish it before lunchtime.”

He looked much younger than Detective Park Gangwon, who was a veteran in his field, and appeared to have some stiffness in his actions, if not restrained.

Standing in front of the teacher’s desk, he stared at everyone with suspicion for a moment, before getting straight to the point.

“I heard that this class had a consultation session with their homeroom teacher all day today. If you were on the move during the 4th period for the session, please raise your hand.”

Soon, starting with the Vice Class President Chaerin, others began to raise their hands one by one.

Attendance number 15, Lee Jinhee, 16 Lee Chaerin, 17, In Hayoon, and 18, Joo Yeseul.

“Are these the only four students?”

When the detective turned around and asked, the homeroom teacher nodded.

“I apologize beforehand, but instead of going straight to the cafeteria, the four of you who raised your hands will need to talk to me for a moment.”

At the words, Jinhee’s grumbling could be heard faintly from the back of the classroom.

“Anyone else?”

The detective in shabby jacket looked around the entire class and asked.

“Aren’t there any other students who moved during 4th period?”

“……”

In an instant, several students turned to look at me.

“……”

“Oh, oi…..”

Dukhun sitting right next to me also looked at me in confusion.

Sensing the students’ gazes, the detective scanned the classroom.

“……”

In the end, I slowly raised my hand.

“What is that student’s name?”

“Lee Joon…”

“Lee Joon.”

The detective took out a notebook and scribbled something down.

“Why did you move?”

“……”

The stinging eyes of everyone poured down on me.

I answered with a stammer.

“… I was just… going to the bathroom….”

“I see.”

Tak, the Detective closed his notebook and patted the desk a few times.

“Including student Lee Joon, the five of you will need to stay in the classroom.”

At the same time, the bell signaling lunchtime rang, and the Principal and homeroom teacher guided the students out.

“Please do not go towards the teacher’s office. Use the east entrance and go directly outside. Now, this way…”

Students rushed out through the back door.

I could feel some students looking at me and whispering.

“… Hey, that Lee Joon? Isn’t he the President of some club?”

“Why did he raise his hand so late?”

“I heard he’s also quite good at studying.”

“I’ve never talked to him before….”

The tone of speaking about me carried a hint of suspicion.

I just stared blankly at my desk and sat still, and soon, Dukhun who was next to me also stood up and hurriedly left.

“Well, I’ll go first.”

Sunah and Gyeongwon came to me from the next row.

“Joon….”

“Prez, don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

Sunah looked at me with a worried expression, while Gyeongwon wore a calm face.

When the homeroom teacher glanced at them from the back door, I gestured for them to go ahead.

“……”

Finally, after the homeroom teacher greeted the detective and left, the classroom was filled with silence.

Only the detective wearing a shabby jacket and his arms crossed while staring at us suspiciously, and five students quietly sitting at their desks, remained in the classroom.

Jinhee, Hayoon, and me, members from the same club.

A female student named Joo Yeseul and the Vice Class President, Lee Chaerin.

And a young detective.

“……”

The detective looked around at each of us and quietly spoke.

“You all probably don’t want to go to the police station, right?”

“……”

“So you’ll need to give your statements here at school, but keep in mind, it might take some time.”

We silently nodded in agreement.

“Still, I’ll try to hurry so that you can all have lunch before it ends. Now, I’ve arranged the broadcasting room for the questioning place, so we have to head there. Let’s go.”

The detective spoke in a businesslike manner as he stepped out the door, and we followed suit, standing up and pushing our chairs back.

Step– step–

The detective in a shabby jacket led the way, followed by the four female students and me, the only male student.

While we were walking down the hallway, I glanced back at Hayoon and Jinhee.

“What do you think is going on…..?”

“Uugh!? What, what are you mumbling about?”

I tried to start a conversation, hoping to share my anxious feeling with her, but all I received in return was Jinhee’s irritation.

“I want to go have lunch, but this sh*t…..”

“……”

I shrank back and glanced at Hayoon this time, but as usual, she had a calm expression.

Without even sparing me a glance, she walked gracefully, her hair swaying lightly behind.

‘… Haa, if only Sunah, Gyeongwon, or at least Dukhun were here…’

Then with ‘What happened, Prez…’ ‘Are we in big trouble, Joon…’ and we could have just talked about it and comforted each other.

Of all people, I had to be with Hayoon, Jinhee, and two girls from the same class that I never even spoke to before.

‘And on top of that, it’s a situation where I could easily be suspected… I’m really nervous now.’

The other four female students, excluding me, were paired up and had their consultation session together.

However, I went alone, and my excuse was simply to go to the bathroom.

I didn’t have an alibi.

‘…But there’s no way they’d suspect me, a student, right?’

Even though it was during class, it’s not like I went to the bathroom alone.

Was there anyone else from another class who must have come and gone too…?

“Ugh, there is really a corpse.”

When Jinhee blurted out while pointing to the front of the teachers’ office on the first floor, the Vice Class President and Joo Yeseul gasped in surprise.

There was a large white sheet covering something in front of the teachers’ office on the first floor, and the curves that formed as the sheet sank clearly showed the shape of a person.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

We froze in fear and moved to the edge, avoiding the body as much as possible and clinging to the wall.

“The body isn’t going to sprang up to life, so don’t be too scared. Come this way.”

As the detective gestured while climbing the central entrance stairs, the girls pressed themselves as close to the wall as possible and turned the corner.

Soon, we arrived on the second floor.

We headed toward the broadcasting room, which was located opposite the general teachers’ office, also known as the main faculty office.

[Broadcasting Department, No Entry Except for Authorized Personnel]

The “No Entry” sign attached to the door of the broadcasting room made me feel uneasy for no reason.

I suppose we were going to be interrogated here from now on.

“Come in.”

I tried to calm my anxious heart and followed behind Jinhee as we entered.

‘Stay calm. Just answer their questions well. Don’t act suspicious.’

* * *

The broadcasting room was about the size of a single classroom, but it was divided into two sections.

The space we were currently standing now is the section that appears right after opening the door to one side of the broadcasting room.

This side had computers, sound equipment, desks, and a whiteboard scattered around.

‘It feels just like our clubroom.’

In a way, this was also a clubroom used by the Broadcasting Club members.

And from here, if you open the soundproof door inside the broadcasting room and go in, you will find the studio.

In that studio that could be seen through the glass window, the Principal sometimes gives a speech through the broadcast.

In this way, the broadcasting room was divided into two sections: the visible space we were in and the studio.

“Students with the earliest attendance numbers will come in first. The rest will wait outside.”

The detective said what he needed to and then opened the door, stepping inside first.

The student with the earliest attendance number here was me.

With nervous steps, I followed him inside.

“Sit down.”

“……”

The young detective slammed down something like documents onto the desk and sat down across from me.

Through the glass separating the two sections, I could see the four female students waiting their turn while looking at me.

‘… This is totally an interrogation room.’

It was the type of interrogation room I had only seen in movies, with one room divided into two sections.

On one side, the criminal and detective enter, while on the other side, the officers watch through the glass window.

The broadcasting room we were in had exactly the same layout.

Four female students were staring at me intently from the room on the other side of the glass window, and the detective was in front of me.

Soon, he stared at me sharply and asked me in a blunt tone.

“During the 4th period, in the middle of P. E. class, you said you went to the bathroom.”

“… Yes.”

Scribble, scribble, he took out a ballpoint pen, tapped it a few times, and wrote something in his notebook.

“Which bathroom?”

“……”

I hesitated for a moment.

Because I didn’t actually go to a bathroom.

I just secretly eavesdropped on Hayoon’s consultation session behind the school.

‘But if I say that… The situation will get even more troublesome.’

I already made an excuse during the 4th period to the teacher and others that I was going to the bathroom and left the auditorium.

At this point, if I were to say, ‘Actually, I was hiding behind the school to secretly overhear the counselling of the girls from our class’, the situation would just get more complicated. And I’d be embarrassed on top of that…

“Which bathroom?”

I finally opened my mouth to the detective who asked bluntly again.

If I say it’s the bathroom, there was only one place it could be.

“The men’s bathroom on the east side of the first floor….”

“Bathroom on the east side of the first floor.”

The detective scribbled something down.

“Why is the bathroom there? Is that the only men’s bathroom around?”

“… Yes.”

I nodded.

“There’s a bathroom at each end of every floor. The west side is the women’s bathroom, and the east side is the men’s bathroom….”

“Really?”

The detective jotted something with a ballpoint pen.

“So, you left the auditorium and went straight to the bathroom?”

“Yes….”

“You used it and returned straight back?”

I nodded with a tense expression.

“I didn’t see or hear anything.”

“… I see.”

“Yes….”

He was scribbling the information and writing it down in a businesslike manner.

Fortunately, this person didn’t have the incredible experience of Detective Park Gangwon.

He looked a bit younger, and although he had a sharp look in his eyes, his questions were vague.

It just felt like he was investigating because something had happened, more out of formality than anything else.

“Is this the correct layout of things?”

The detective suddenly flipped his notebook around and briefly showed it to me.

In the notebook, there was a simple diagram of the school’s floor plan, viewed from above.

Store

(West Side, Main Building, East Side)

Ground floor

Teachers’ office Classrooms Bathroom

Hallway

Main Entrance1[T/N: I’m a bit confused about the layout. If you find anything strange about it, please feel free to point it out.]

“Yes… That’s right.”

The detective took the notebook again after I nodded looking at the cross-section diagram.

“And after leaving the auditorium and entering through the east entrance, you used the men’s restroom right in front and came out again.”

“Yes.”

“The teachers’ office on the first floor is next to the main entrance, but the men’s restroom is on the east side, where you were, so you couldn’t have seen anything.”

“… That’s right.”

“What about the screams?”

The detective suddenly asked.

“You must have heard a few screams.”

I nodded without panicking.

“I heard it. A woman’s voice screaming that someone’s corpse had been found….”

“But you just went to the auditorium?”’

“… Yes.”

“Why?”

The detective stopped writing in his notebook and raised his head.

“Why did you just leave?”

“…..?”

“Isn’t it human nature to rush over when you hear something like that?”

It was a somewhat aggressive question, but I wasn’t nervous.

This was probably one of those pressure tactics that would be in a police manual.

Rather, I had a feeling that I could somehow trick my way through.

‘This guy is nothing compared to Detective Park Gangwon.’

Of course, there is a world of difference between a veteran detective from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who only investigates strange cases nationwide and a young detective who just came out of the neighborhood police station for questioning.

Even leaving that aside, I couldn’t feel the aura of a detective from the young detective in front of me, and I felt like I could easily avoid the situation if I just put up good excuses.

“… First of all, I was in class. There are a lot of people in the school anyway.”

I calmly responded.

“The only thing that was visible was the empty hallway, but there were dozens of students and teachers in each classroom near the place where the woman’s scream came from, so I naturally thought someone would go.”

“… Really?”

The detective nodded and took some notes again.

After scribbling a few more times with his ballpoint pen, the detective swiftly slammed his notebook shut.

“Thank you for your cooperation. Please tell the next number to come in.”

‘… This ended surprisingly quickly.’

I thought I would have to make more excuses, but thankfully, it was over.

As I got up from my seat, the detective gestured towards the girls through the glass window and asked.

I opened the soundproof door and went out, calling the next person with attendance number 15, which was Jinhee.

“You can go in.”

“Mm.”

Jinhee answered roughly and went inside.

Click-

Soon, through the glass, I saw Jinhee sitting down on the chair I had been sitting in and casually responding to the interrogation in a nonchalant manner.

“……”

Hayoon and the Vice Class President sat there expressionless, not even sparing me a glance.

Only the female student with short hair named Yeseul looked at me with an anxious face for a moment, but soon turned her head away.

‘Huu.‘

I also sat awkwardly on a chair among them and waited.

Students being called out in order of their attendance numbers.

The next person waiting to be called.

An adult asking questions one-on-one.

This was completely an extension of the consultation session with the homeroom teacher.

‘What a day.…’