I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

Team Leader Yong tapped his finger against his lips a few times.

Seeing that, Jeong Dohyeon withdrew the hand that had been about to take the early dismissal permit.

“I can still attend the rest of the classes. There’s no need for me to leave immediately…”

Jeong Dohyeon’s words sounded quite convincing.

However, the Nurse pointed at the permit again.

[The student is hereby ordered to leave the school immediately.]

The sentence appeared underlined in red, as if to emphasize it.

Then, the Nurse raised a finger and placed it vertically against his lips while looking at us.

‘Don’t provoke him.’

It was as though that intention had been engraved directly into my mind.

I had a feeling that, if we kept refusing, something very bad would happen.

Jeong Dohyeon seemed to feel exactly the same thing and slowly nodded.

“I’ll see you later.”

Was there really no other way?

Could we only let him leave the school?

I looked at my phone, hoping for some clue.

But it remained completely silent.

And I didn’t have several spare lives either.

In the end, I looked away from him.

However.

I think Jeong Dohyeon managed to take the early dismissal permit.

Clack.

When I blinked again.

We were no longer inside the nurse’s office.

We were standing in front of the door.

There were only Team Leader Yong, Myeong Haebin, and me.

“What happened to Dohyeon?”

“He disappeared. I suppose the system processed his early dismissal.”

“That’s not what I mean. I’m asking what happened to him.”

For a moment, I thought I saw Team Leader Yong’s face twist.

But he immediately ran a hand over his face and gave me a light pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t think about that. You can do that once we get out of here. Just focus on not getting hurt. Understood?”

It was impossible to remain indifferent when a teammate had disappeared.

Team Leader Yong was pretending to be calm.

But it was obvious that he wasn’t.

I didn’t want to keep making him uncomfortable.

So, instead of pressing him further, I silently headed toward the stairs.

The third class would begin soon.

Damn it.

We were only on the third one.

“Ah, take this.”

Team Leader Yong tossed me something small.

I caught it reflexively and then realized what it was.

A green name tag with 3-2 written on it.

The difference from ours was that it had no name.

“This is…”

“I stole it. I was planning to get another one and give them to you and Dohyeon, but that won’t be possible anymore.”

The safety pin went through my uniform without offering any resistance.

My second-year name tag was replaced.

The empty space automatically filled with my name.

3-2, Kim Hanmu.

“What are you doing, Boss? We have to go. I’ll make sure we get out of here.”

“…Yeah.”

Don’t think.

Three people are still better than one.

There’ll be time to process the shock once we get out.

I gritted my teeth and quickly went down the stairs, following Team Leader Yong’s back.

The third-year, Class 2 classroom accepted me as if I truly belonged there.

‘It’s no different from the second-year classroom.’

It looked exactly the same.

Only the schedule hanging on the wall had changed.

Since the bell hadn’t rung yet, there were no students.

I reached into the desk, looking for the class materials.

Inside, I found the textbook.

Then a question occurred to me.

What had happened to the original owner of this seat?

“What happened to the student who originally wore my name tag?”

“I saw it! The moment the name tag was taken off, they disappeared.”

“They just disappeared? They didn’t even attack?”

“Yeah. How should I put it…? They were like a scarecrow.”

Now that I thought about it.

I had never felt that the students posed any threat.

They didn’t even appear during breaks.

It sounded strange to put it this way.

But perhaps they could be considered harmless anomalies.

“Maybe the main anomaly in this story is the Teacher. After all, teachers are always the scariest ones in a school.”

“That makes sense.”

While I was talking with Myeong Haebin, who was sitting right behind me, Team Leader Yong suddenly interrupted the conversation.

“That’s enough. We just have to endure until seventh period. Then we’re leaving.”

“Is that enough? What about this paranormal phenomenon?”

“My team will handle it. Don’t worry about it.”

Team Leader Yong’s tone had completely lost the relaxed attitude he had before.

It was understandable.

A member of his team had disappeared without a trace.

But I couldn’t simply leave.

[Completion Condition: Clean ■ ■ ■■ ■■■■ of Hwaae High School.]

[Reward: 2 questions.]

[If Failed: Death.]

The reward was important too.

But above all.

That application was still holding a knife to my throat.

“Are you planning to give up on dismantling this paranormal phenomenon today?”

“Yes.”

His decision wasn’t a bad one.

In fact, it was the most sensible and least reckless option.

But even if he could give up.

I couldn’t.

“Give me a chance. I want to try cleaning this paranormal phenomenon.”

Team Leader Yong, who had been rummaging through the desk to take out his textbook, raised his eyebrows as he looked at me.

“Rookie, I like your attitude. Fine. But if you die doing that, no one’s going to thank you.”

His gaze was so cold that it could easily be called chilling.

But I didn’t look away.

I looked him straight in the eyes.

“Do you think I don’t value my own life? I’m only asking you for a chance.”

Myeong Haebin, who had remained silent until then, immediately intervened.

“If Boss is in danger, you can help him, right?! My Boss is really good at cleaning!”

I had no idea where that absolute confidence came from.

But Haebin gave me a thumbs-up with a huge smile.

“Haebin, seriously, I told you not to interrupt when the adults are talking.”

“I’m an adult too. Besides, we’re all students here, aren’t we? Since you’re planning to abandon this operation anyway, why not let us try?”

Team Leader Yong alternated his gaze between Haebin, who said all of that with her eyes wide open, and me.

Then he clicked his tongue.

“If it looks like you’re going to end up in the nurse’s office too, you stop immediately. Understood?”

“Understood.”

He was still looking at me as if I were a newly hatched chick.

But at least he had given me permission.

Now then.

What did I have to do to clean this paranormal phenomenon?

The clue had to be in the application.

[3. Any activity unrelated to studying will be grounds for punishment.]

Until now, we had only been in classrooms and places related to classes.

No matter how thoroughly we searched the classrooms, we would never find a clue about activities unrelated to studying.

There had to be some place in the school where the rules could be circumvented.

“Is there somewhere students can do things without the teachers seeing them?”

“And why are you looking for a place like that now?”

“Because so far, all we’ve done is go back and forth between the classrooms and the rest area. Besides, if you want to place more Dismantling Markers, Team Leader, maybe it would be better to change our perspective a little.”

I already had an excuse prepared in case he asked why I was so interested in dismantling when I was supposedly trying to clean.

But Team Leader Yong simply crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

“Yeah. Not a bad idea.”

“I think I saw an abandoned classroom. I believe it was the home economics practice room.”

A practice room?

The application’s second rule immediately came to mind.

[2. Do not keep unauthorized objects inside the school. (Uncooked food, knives, scissors, or other sharp objects).]

It was the perfect place to hide uncooked food or knives.

“Let’s go there during the next break.”

“All right.”

Whether it was a place related to the second rule or the third.

The chances of finding something there were very high.

Ding~

Dong~

Dang~

Dong.

“The bell rang. Be careful what you say.”

“What should we call you, Team Leader?”

I pointed at the middle-aged man who, rather than a classmate, looked too old even to be a senior student.

Team Leader Yong let out a dry laugh.

“Hyung? Forget it. Better not call me anything. I still have some shame left.”

As if shame had anything to do with work.

But I didn’t have time to keep thinking about it.

The teachers and students suddenly reappeared.

“Where did we leave off yesterday?”

With his back to us, the Teacher once again began writing on the board, producing that unpleasant screeching sound.

That was all he was doing.

And yet.

Something felt strange.

‘Where is this uncomfortable feeling coming from…? Wait.’

The textbooks Team Leader Yong and I had were different.

[Math]

Although the letters were distorted and barely legible, that was clearly the book on his desk.

But that wasn’t the real problem.

“Wasn’t this class Korean Language…? Or am I mistaken?”

Suddenly having to stop speaking formally felt incredibly awkward.

The other two, on the other hand, acted completely naturally.

“A different textbook? Wasn’t it Math?”

“Mine is Physics. It was the one inside the desk.”

I looked at the schedule again.

It still clearly said Korean Language.

I felt several gazes on me.

When I turned my head, I saw the students quickly avert their eyes to avoid meeting mine.

“Did you also use the textbook that was inside the desk during the last class?”

“Yeah. The previous class was World History. That was the book. I should’ve checked it earlier.”

During the previous class, I had used a World History textbook.

Now each of us had been given a different subject.

That meant the books had changed.

Team Leader Yong discreetly reached toward the desk of a nearby student.

But the faceless student quickly pulled away their Korean Language textbook and hid it.

I had thought those students were nothing more than scarecrows because they let us take their name tags without resisting.

But apparently.

They also knew how to defend themselves.

“Damn it…”

“What’s going on over there?”

The Teacher, who until then had only been paying attention to the board, finally turned his gaze toward us.

This wasn’t good.

‘Students must pay attention in class.’

Instead of ignoring that warning pounding against my head like an obsession, I hurriedly called out to Team Leader Yong.

“Hey.”

“I know, I know. It’s fine.”

If this continued, two of the three of us would have to face the Teacher’s questions without the corresponding textbook.

There was no way Team Leader Yong hadn’t realized that.

Nervously, he began tapping his foot against the floor.

Why was I the only one who had the correct Korean Language textbook?

Then I remembered something Jeong Dohyeon had said.

That paranormal phenomena were cunning.

‘Originally, this seat was supposed to belong to a student-anomaly. But I took their place.’

The other two, however, were different.

If they had already used up the “textbook in the desk” once during the previous class.

‘Then it makes sense that I’m the only one who received the correct textbook, since I just joined this class.’

The atmosphere turned unsettling.

It was as if we were sitting inside a trap prepared especially for us.

A drop of cold sweat ran down my back.

Then I saw the back of the student sitting in front of me.

“It’s risky, but I’ll buy some time. Can you grab that one?”

Perhaps because they were sitting in front of me rather than beside me, that student remained motionless, staring straight ahead.

A textbook was sticking slightly out from the side of their desk.

They didn’t seem to have eyes in the back of their head.

If someone could snatch it quickly.

We weren’t the only students.

They were students too.

Maybe, precisely because of that, they wouldn’t be able to make a scene by saying their book had been stolen.

Whatever we did.

It would be better than doing nothing.

“What are you planning to do?”

But to steal it without attracting too much attention, we first needed to distract everyone.

Without crossing the line.

We couldn’t knock over desks or cause a commotion.

I slowly raised my hand.

“Kim Hanmu? Do you have a question?”

Although his back was turned, the Teacher’s neck rotated one hundred and eighty degrees the moment I raised my hand.

The students, however, remained motionless with their heads lowered, like statues.

‘They put up minimal resistance, but they’re still obedient scarecrows.’

I needed to provoke some kind of reaction.

Or somehow break that oppressive silence.

So I decided to make myself the center of attention.

“I thought I heard that today was the last day to turn in the assessment project. I was wondering if you weren’t going to collect it.”

Since time immemorial.

The greatest villain during class was the student who reminded the teacher about an assignment they had forgotten.

But I pretended to speak with all the caution in the world.

As if I were genuinely asking respectfully.

Hands clasped together.

Polite voice.

Was it true?

What did it matter?

All I wanted to find out was whether this paranormal phenomenon intended to behave like a real school.

And if it was a school.

Then there had to be exams.

And, of course.

Projects too.

“■■■■■■■.”

“■■■■?”

“■■■■■■……”

The huge stone I had just thrown into the pond began creating ripples.

The entire classroom started to stir.

The students murmured among themselves in incomprehensible words.

They turned to look at me.

Some even began rummaging through their desks.

‘I feel a little bad for them.’

Honestly.

I wasn’t even particularly interested in what they were saying.

They were probably discussing whether there really was a project, whether it was due today, or whether any of them had heard about it.

“What are you talking about?”

As expected.

Today wasn’t the due date for any project.

I wasn’t a fortune-teller.

Much less an anomaly of this school.

The Teacher’s head slowly tilted to one side again.

The sight of those lidless eyes sent cold sweat down my back.

But I tried to answer calmly.

“At my old school, around this time of year, we usually had to turn in our projects already. Besides, I heard something in the hallway. Maybe I misunderstood?”

“The project is scheduled for next week. You must have heard wrong.”

That was all the Teacher said in response.

But it was enough.

As if a signal had been given.

The entire classroom fell completely silent again.

“I must have been mistaken. Thank you for telling me.”

I dropped heavily into my chair.

I had only exchanged a few words.

And I was already completely exhausted.

When I actually went to school.

I was always the one who suffered through situations like that.

Never the one who caused them.

“Did you get it?”

“Of course. Who do you think I am?”

Taking advantage of the fact that I had managed to draw everyone’s attention, Team Leader Yong grinned and tapped the Korean Language textbook now sitting on his desk.

The student sitting in front looked around in confusion.

But, since they didn’t seem willing to cause a scene, they went still again.

Now officially a textbook thief, Team Leader Yong raised his hand toward me.

I had no choice but to silently high-five him.

Now we only needed to get one more book.

Then all three of us would be safe.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

But before we could choose the next victim.

The Teacher began walking toward us.

‘No, if he picks Myeong Haebin…’

I knew she probably wouldn’t die.

But she would suffer unbearable pain.

I knew that perfectly well.

And yet.

My body wouldn’t respond.

“Hmm.”

I was ruled out because I had my Korean Language textbook open.

Then.

Tap.

The Teacher’s footsteps stopped.

“Let’s see if you can answer this question.”

His target was Team Leader Yong.

For a moment, I felt relieved.

Until I saw that there was only a Math textbook on his desk.

What about the Korean Language textbook we had just gotten?

Where the hell had he hidden it?