Ghost Writer

Somber Silence and Repulsive Revelation

TIME PASSED SLOWLY as Chung-Cha worked away. A notification dinged on her laptop, and she quickly glanced at it. "Oh, lunch time."

Chung-Cha closed the laptop, wondering whether she should visit the grocery store and see Bo-Ram. She immediately shook the thought out of her head. She had promised her parents that she would be careful (and truthfully, she was terrified of the infected). Walking over to the kitchen cabinets, she opened it to find only canned goods. Chung-Cha sighed; she absolutely hated how it tasted, but she didn't have anything else to eat.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Chung-Cha peeped into the peephole; it was Yi-Hyun, holding what looked like a bento lunch. She opened the door slightly and looked away from him, purposely hiding her face. "Thank you for the food."

"Are you alright? After yesterday?" Yi-Hyun asked.

Chung-Cha remembered waking up that morning and looking at the mirror to find her eyes swollen. But she simply nodded and shut the door. In the silence, Chung-Cha ate lunch by herself. She messaged her parents, then she went back to work.

:

"The method for the 99.9 is too premature at the moment. So instead, let's—"

The call disconnected. Chung-Cha blinked twice, slowly. She tried to reboot her computer, but there was no connection. Was her computer broken? She sent a message to her parents, but it didn't send through; then called them, but the call didn't go through too. It seemed like there was no connection at all. Giving up, Chung-Cha went over to Hyun-Kyung's house to ask if she could borrow her Wi-Fi.

There was arguing inside her neighbor's house. Chung-Cha cringed and was about to leave (who cares about a work meeting anyway; she could apologise later) when the door opened. Soo-Min was dragging Hyun-Kyung out, but they both immediately stopped when they saw Chung-Cha.

Chung-Cha coughed, obviously embarrassed. "Ah, hello. Is your Internet working?"

Hyun-Kyung shook her head. Soo-Min interrupted, "Did you see all the other building residents get infected?"

It was Chung-Cha's turn to shake her head. "No, sorry. I was working until the connection was cut. But is it true?"  

Hyun-Kyung looked at Soo-Min. "This nutcase said he saw it with his own eyes."

"I did! Come downstairs, I'll show you."

Rolling her eyes, Hyun-Kyung bid Chung-Cha goodbye and let Soo-Min drag her away. Chung-Cha considered following them, but she hesitated. What if something dangerous happened? In the end, Chung-Cha returned to her house. She sent one more futile message to her parents, but predictably, it didn't go through. Sighing, Chung-Cha went to sleep. 

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

Incessant knocking woke Chung-Cha up. Groaning, she made sure she was presentable before opening the door. 

"There's a residents' meeting at the gym," Hyun-Kyung said. 

Chung-Cha nodded sleepily. She tried to find her notebook, but she couldn't find it anywhere (whatever, she could look for it later). They walked together in silence. When they walked past the carpark entrance, Chung-Cha abruptly stopped.

"What's that?" She pointed at the red smudge on the glass. It looked awfully similar to the red coating that covered the golf club Yi-Hyun found in Joo-Hyung's house. Chung-Cha gagged at the unpleasant memory. "Blood?"

"It's probably just a prank," Hyun-Kyung said unsteadily. 

Chung-Cha frowned. They left it at that.

Walking into the gym felt like deja vu. People were already there, and so were the ghosts. But this time, Chung-Cha didn't crack. She simply clenched her fists, steeled her nerves, and walked squarely as if she was going into a fight. Still, her heart was racing. She wished she had her notebook to calm herself down.

The elderly woman from Unit 302, Joo-Hyung and lawyers from Unit 602 entered. At the sight of Joo-Hyung, Chung-Cha went rigid. She discreetly looked for Yi-Hyun and Sae-Bom, but neither were there. Noticing her panic, Hyun-Kyung glared at Joo-Hyung and moved protectively towards Chung-Cha.

Inhaling, Chung-Cha closed her eyes. In the darkness where she couldn't see anything, she noticed something was amiss, but couldn't put her finger on it. Exhaling, she opened her eyes again.

Hae-Sung (the male lawyer from Unit 602; Chung-Cha remembered his name when his wife was promoting their consulting business) walked to the front. "Who saw that the outside was filled with the infected?"

Soo-Min motioned an elderly female cleaner (was she there yesterday? Chung-Cha didn't remember, she must have been sleeping) to come closer, and they hesitantly raised their hand. In the manager's office, Trainer Kim sprang up and raised his hand too.

Hae-Sung frowned. "Anybody from the higher floors?"

"No public rentals, you mean?" Hyun-Kyung simmered.

Chung-Cha blocked out the rest of their argument. Instead, she stared intently at the trio of cleaners. Her abilities were dependent on proximity. They stayed behind with her after the meeting. At that time, she could still hear the ghosts. That meant that one of them was the serial killer.

—BANG BANG.

Joo-Hyung stood up, waving his wallet. "I'll give you money. If any of you figure out what's happening outside... It's not much, but I'll give you 200,000 won."

Several people scoffed, but Chung-Cha could see that the cleaners were being swayed.

"No?" Joo-Hyung thumbed a stack of cash, the rustling of the crisp paper loud in the otherwise quiet gym. He held the money high. "I will give a total of 300,000 won in cash."

Eventually, all the cleaners excluding the elderly female cleaner raised their hand. Chung-Cha couldn't believe it. She wanted to protest; to say that putting a price tag on people's life was wrong, even if one of them was the serial killer. But the words were stuck in her throat. What would Joo-Hyung do if she successfully intervened? How could she go against him? So, selfishly, Chung-Cha remained quiet.

"It's dangerous to go at night. At least wait until tomorrow morning."

Tense silence settled over the gym. Yeon-Ok (the boomer; Hyun-Kyung told Chung-Cha her name) took control of the situation again. She stood up and cleared her throat, while glaring at Joo-Hyung. "We need to sort out the supplies for the non-residents."

"If you need food, please come to Unit 401. I'll give you instant noodles and water."

"Me too. Unit 602. We have extra clothes to change into."

Finally, the miserable meeting ended. Joo-Hyung was the first to leave. As everyone was streaming out, Sae-Bom and Yi-Hyun walked towards the gym (who knows where they have been this whole time). Yi-Hyun stopped Joo-Hyung.

"I believe I told you to stay home."

Hae-Sung stepped forward and whispered some things to Yi-Hyun. But with his hand loosely clutching a baseball bat, he didn't seem fazed.

"And does everyone know you're a murderer, Joo-Hyung?" Yi-Hyun asked, raising his voice.

Everyone paused and looked at him. Considering that he was bribing people literal minutes ago, nobody thought highly of him, but to the extent of murder? Of course though, nobody said anything. Joo-Hyung seized the opportunity to launch into a sob story detailing his immense grief about losing Min-Ji, and how he definitely did not kill her.

Did he really? Something clicked. Chung-Cha stayed behind as everyone ignored him and walked away. She ended up riding the elevator with him and the couple from Unit 602. Everyone was quiet, and when Chung-Cha reached her floor, she stepped out wordlessly.

Chung-Cha walked to her door and grasped the doorknob. She stopped, breathing shakily. True, all the residents were silent just now, but the elevator trip was still noisy. Because when Joo-Hyung was isolated, Chung-Cha heard the wailing as clear as day; wailing that wasn't there when she visited his house and Min-Ji was still alive.

He really did kill her.