I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

[Lee Seryeong]

The two words of her name were written on a green name tag.

Everything we had encountered in this place was inhuman.

The paranormal Professors had no eyelids and possessed deformed body structures, while the paranormal students had no facial features and were incapable of speaking.

But Lee Seryeong was different.

“Come on, Boss. You’re going to scare her like that.”

“Ah, right. Sorry.”

Still dazed, I let Myeong Haebin take me by the hand and pull me a few steps back.

“Did we scare you? I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to. We were looking for the owner of this notebook.”

Myeong Haebin tried to reassure Lee Seryeong in a kind, gentle voice.

When she saw the notebook, Lee Seryeong flinched. She looked back and forth between us, then held out a crumpled sheet of paper she had in her hand.

— Are you… looking for this…?

It was a piece of paper I recognized.

A page torn from the notebook.

And, just as we had expected, what was written on it was a game.

(How to Play Hide-and-Seek Alone)

“Ugh, what a headache. Did you even know what this was before you did it?”

— I’m sorry…

Team Leader Yong brought a hand to his head as soon as he read the title.

Even I let out an incredulous laugh first.

(How to Play Hide-and-Seek Alone)

Materials Needed

A stuffed doll, rice, red thread, your own fingernails, a sharp tool, and salt water.

How to Play

— Remove all the stuffing from the doll and fill it with rice and your own fingernails. Then sew it shut with red thread.

— Fill a basin or bathtub with water and submerge half of the doll.

— Stab the doll with a sharp tool and shout, “I found you! Now you’re it!”

— Leave the sharp tool beside the doll and hide.

How to End the Game

— Sprinkle the doll with salt water and shout, “The game is over.”

Hide-and-Seek Alone.

Also known simply as Honsum.

I more or less knew what it was. At one point, it had been one of those ghost-summoning games that caused a stir on the internet, and it also had a reputation for being extremely dangerous.

But the methods described there were far too familiar.

Unauthorized objects.

Uncooked food.

Activities unrelated to studying.

And a doll.

The bear-shaped stuffed doll?

“You played this game in the Home Economics Practice Room, didn’t you?”

— …How did you know?

Of course.

The app had been telling me from the very beginning that they had played Hide-and-Seek Alone in that room.

When we first entered the practice room, the sink had been full of water.

There had also been a bear-shaped stuffed doll in one corner.

Hadn’t I thought it was strange that its stomach was sewn shut?

In a place where the comics were completely covered in scribbles and objects flew at your head just for mentioning the word “class,” a bear with its stomach sewn shut hardly seemed like the strangest thing there.

Team Leader Yong, who had read the instructions with me, frowned and crossed his arms.

“Tell us what happened.”

— Well… I… I should’ve listened when Jinseo told me not to do it…

Jinseo?

Ah, was that the friend she had been communicating with through those scribbles?

‘There’s a reason people tell you not to do certain things.’

The words rose to my throat, but I wasn’t mean enough to scold her while her eyes were full of tears, so I kept them to myself.

As if she knew perfectly well that she had made a mistake, Lee Seryeong lowered her head deeply and murmured.

— Since nighttime self-study lasts so long, I thought no one would notice if we slipped out for a little while.

“It was obviously dangerous.”

— But how could real ghosts exist? We only did it as a joke, but then the school suddenly became strange, the students and teachers turned into things that looked like ghosts, and the doll really came to life and started chasing us…

Lee Seryeong’s hands trembled violently.

Myeong Haebin, who had been listening to her story, sighed and crossed her arms, imitating Team Leader Yong.

“Boss, I’m only saying this to you, but this is pretty typical. Tons of horror stories start because someone does something dangerous thinking it’s just a joke.”

— Horror… story?

There really was nothing this woman wouldn’t say in front of a young girl.

I grabbed Myeong Haebin and pulled her a few steps back before speaking to her in a low voice.

“So you’re saying this entire school horror story started because of Hide-and-Seek Alone?”

“That’s what it looks like for now. I think the entire space where they played Hide-and-Seek Alone ended up turning into a horror story.”

The idea that a simple game could create a horror story sounded absurd.

But when I remembered the ritual I had experienced in that house at the top of the mountain, it didn’t seem completely impossible either.

However, something was strange.

A sense of incongruity, as if a gear were spinning uselessly somewhere in the back of my mind, began creeping up from the tips of my toes.

I felt like I was on the verge of remembering something but couldn’t quite grasp it, and a suffocating sensation pressed down on the pit of my stomach.

After turning it over in my mind again and again, something suddenly came to me with an impact like someone had struck me in the head with a chisel.

The app.

[Completion Condition: Horror Story, ■■ Hwaae High School’s Hide-and-Seek Alone.]

All students must leave the school once the school day has ended.
Do not store unauthorized objects inside the school. (Uncooked food, sharp objects such as knives or scissors, etc.)
Activities unrelated to studying will be subject to disciplinary action.
Hide-and-Seek Alone will not end until everyone hiding has been eliminated or until the game comes to an end.

The app screen, which until then had remained distorted as though someone had deliberately hidden it, had finally been revealed.

Except for one part.

As I read the words that now appeared clearly, a burning chill ran down the back of my neck.

Lee Seryeong had secretly slipped out during nighttime self-study to begin Hide-and-Seek Alone.

We had also left the study hall without permission during nighttime self-study.

And my phone had vibrated right after we left.

The scattered fragments of information in my head converged into a single conclusion.

What all of that meant was.

Had Hide-and-Seek Alone already begun?

Slide!

The back door of the classroom violently slid open without warning.

“New friends!”

It was the familiar bear-shaped stuffed doll.

But now it held a huge box cutter in one hand, its belly was sewn shut with red thread, and its black button eyes gleamed.

“Do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?”

Its voice sounded like mechanical audio recorded on a cheap recorder, but my instincts warned me of danger.

“Is that the damn bastard?”

— What? Yes…

“I wasn’t asking you. Damn it. How did it find us?”

“I think the game had already started from the moment we left the study hall.”

Team Leader Yong violently ruffled his hair, then quickly folded the game instructions he was holding and stuffed them into his pocket.

Without caring what we did, the doll pointed the huge box cutter at us, its blade gleaming coldly.

“I’ll give you 30 seconds. Ready to hide? Sta~rt!”

“Follow me!”

Team Leader Yong roughly shoved aside the desks blocking the path to the entrance, clearing a way for us.

Damn it.

At my age, and now I had to play hide-and-seek?

“Boss, are you good at hide-and-seek?”

“I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know.”

As I followed them, I grabbed Lee Seryeong’s hand. She was pale and trembling with fear.

— Can I… go with you too?

“What are you talking about?”

I pulled the hesitant Lee Seryeong up to help her stand and looked at Myeong Haebin.

She shrugged as if she didn’t care.

“If that’s what you want, Boss, let’s do it. Looks like she was found too.”

I had never asked for permission.

Whether we were three adults or four people in total, hiding was already going to be extremely difficult either way.

Team Leader Yong looked at me and frowned for a moment, but he didn’t seem willing to waste the few seconds we had left.

“I don’t see any Professors. How was it again? There was salt in the practice room, right?”

“Yes. I also checked that water comes out of the sink.”

The way to end this game was to sprinkle the doll with salt water.

And we already knew exactly where to find the necessary ingredients.

‘15, 14…’

Ever since the countdown began, I had continued mentally counting the seconds.

Go up to the rest area on the fourth floor, then go down one floor to return to the practice room on the third.

Normally, it was a route that wouldn’t even take a minute, but now that short hallway seemed like an endless track.

‘11, 10.’

We had covered approximately half of the fourth-floor hallway.

However, Team Leader Yong spotted something and immediately opened the door to one of the first-year classrooms beside us, shoving us inside almost as if he had thrown us.

“……!”

Pain like my fractured ribs were piercing my lungs made my vision flash, and my still-affected sense of balance made the floor seem to move like waves.

The door silently closed, and before even a second had passed, the silhouette of a ‘Professor’ carrying a flashlight appeared reflected in the window.

“Ugh, cough, cough…….”

Only after the light had completely passed could I let out a painful breath.

Team Leader Yong helped me up with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?”

“No… It’s nothing. I just got dizzy for a moment…… Thanks.”

“There are less than ten seconds left. Boss, why don’t you stay hidden here? We can go by ourselves.”

“I’m fine. Open the door.”

I had lost track of the countdown.

Myeong Haebin had said there were ten seconds left, but considering how long it took the Professor to pass, the doll might already have started looking for us.

I crouched as low as possible, ignoring my body’s screams of pain, and stepped back out into the hallway.

I didn’t know where the doll would start searching.

But if we could reach the rest area at the end of the hallway and go down just one flight of stairs, we could end the game.

Then something round poked its head out from the stairwell landing by the rest area.

Its black button eyes reflected the moonlight and gleamed.

“Found you.”

The muffled voice coming from that twisting fabric was etched into my mind with unsettling clarity.

Had it already found us?

“Damn it. Let’s take the central stairs.”

Team Leader Yong immediately changed course and turned around.

The game still wasn’t over.

Because we were still alive.

Just as I took a step to follow him, the weight I was holding by the hand suddenly dropped downward.

It was Lee Seryeong.

— I… I’m sorry. My legs gave out.

She had followed us without saying a word until now, but perhaps all that pressure was too much for an ordinary high school student.

“It’s okay. Get up.”

I pulled on her, using my weight to help her stand.

But as though something was preventing her, she couldn’t get up.

Had she twisted her leg?

Or had fear made her muscles stop responding?

— I’m really sorry. I don’t have any strength in my legs……

“Boss, leave her!”

Myeong Haebin’s almost-whispered shout reached me.

I didn’t even need to look back to know.

The bear doll was approaching with staggering steps, dragging that huge box cutter along the floor.

Lee Seryeong’s hand was intertwined with mine.

All I had to do was relax my fingers and let go.

But I couldn’t.

Maybe because I remembered my former coworkers, who had died only yesterday.

‘How terrified must she have been, trapped completely alone in this hellish school?’

The only thing she had done wrong was play out of curiosity.

I tried to somehow lift Lee Seryeong as tears fell from her eyes one after another, but she was absurdly heavy.

“I’m telling you to come!”

Myeong Haebin was no longer keeping her voice down.

She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away by force.

But I shook off her hand.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

“I know you don’t care what happens to anyone else as long as it isn’t me. But she’s a child.”

“Boss. Open your eyes and look at her properly. She’s a paranormal creature.”

That reprimand, colder than ice, pierced straight through me.

“What?”

“You heard me. I’m telling you that she’s a paranormal creature.”

My gaze shifted toward Lee Seryeong, who was practically hanging from my arm.

Her face completely pale, she shed tears as she begged me.

— I’m sorry for doing something I was told not to do. Please save me. Just this once. I’ll never do it again. Please……

My head felt like it was burning.

I couldn’t think rationally.

Could it be that Myeong Haebin wanted Lee Seryeong to be a paranormal creature?

For my sake.

So that I would abandon her.

“Damn idiot.”

Was that directed at me?