Chapter Text
Jihun’s day couldn’t get any better.
First, he overslept and had to run to class through pouring rain without breakfast. Then came the group presentation, where his teammates somehow “forgot” every important part, leaving him to carry the entire thing himself. The project wasn’t over after class, either. The missing data kept all three of them at the university library until the late hours of the evening.
By the time they finished, it was already 11 PM.
On cue, his stomach growled.
“Listen. When a day starts pulling a domino effect on you, stop pushing your luck. If you keep ignoring the universe, it’s just going to drop a house on you.”
Jihun could almost hear that annoyingly composed voice lecturing him about superstitions again.
Ignoring the advice that offered no help in this moment, he spotted the familiar glowing sign of a 24/7 convenience store just a block away from the campus exit and jogged toward it.
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
The small speaker by the door made a sound to signify someone entering the store.
Jihun’s feet immediately took him to the refrigerated section, and he checked his options. Since it was quite late, there were only a few choices left: a pork cutlet, a Spam rice bowl, and some pre-rolled tuna mayo kimbap. He took the latter and a bottle of banana milk, then hurriedly walked to the register.
The cashier swiped the kimbap.
Beep.
“Rough night?” The other guy looked right around Jihun’s age. Probably another student stuck with the worst shift imaginable.
“Something like that.”
The cashier let out a half-hearted chuckle and scanned the banana milk.
Beep.
“That’s 3,700 won.”
Jihun pulled out the cash and handed it over. The guy took the bills, counting them quickly before dropping them into the register.
With slow, practiced movements, the cashier reached for a small plastic bag and slid the tuna mayo kimbap and banana milk inside. He slid the bag across the counter, along with Jihun’s change and the receipt.
Jihun was about to reach for the bag’s handles when the bright lights flickered twice and died.
The store was plunged into near-total darkness.
With a sigh, he grabbed the bag held by the employee’s hands.
But this guy wouldn’t let go.
“Uh…”
He tugged it once, lightly, but the employee still held onto it. Annoyed, Jihun looked up to tell him off, but the words caught in his throat.
The employee’s eyes were wide open, blankly staring at something past his shoulder.
“Hey,” Jihun asked, trying to keep his voice even. “What’s the matter?”
The employee’s shocked look was replaced by something closer to terror. He ducked down, frantically searching underneath the counter. Eventually, he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out from a cabinet under the register.
“T-The girl who worked the night shift before me left this,” he stammered. “She told me to read it if the lights ever went out after midnight, after flickering twice.”
What an oddly specific piece of advice.
Jihun’s eyes moved toward the clock mounted on the wall behind the employee. The minute hand was pointed a little after the number “12.”
“I-It’s instructions.”
He flattened the crumpled paper on the counter, using the glow of the digital register screen to read. Jihun leaned in slightly to better read the messy handwriting.
Welcome to the Night Shift Family! <3
If you’re reading this, the store has officially entered After Hours.
Follow these tips to ensure a successful shift:
#1: Greet every customer warmly. Etiquette is more important after hours.
#2: If a customer asks to buy a hot bar after midnight, check their eyes. If they have no pupils, tell them the microwave is broken.
#3: No refunds!
#4: If a customer pays with old paper money that smells like dirt, accept it. Do not count the change back to them.
#5: If you hear something wet dragging itself down Aisle 4, do not look at it.This is a two-person effort! No one can leave the building until the sun rises.
Let’s do our best until the end of the shift! Fighting~! ^^
A two-person effort? For a job that only hires one?
“Every story follows a set of rules. Some stories, like this one, have unwritten ones you’d need to infer. But if you’re lucky, they’ll be on a wall, with a guide, or a convenient piece of paper.”
Jihun sighed. Why did these things always happen on the worst days imaginable?
He wasn’t even hungry anymore. He just wanted to lie down and sleep!
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
The store’s speaker suddenly signaled the entrance of a new customer. Mr. Unfortunate Employee in front of him was still frozen, blankly staring at the instructions left for him by the previous cashier.
So, reluctantly, Jihun turned his head and greeted them in his stead.
“Welcome to Fami Mart. Please let us know if you need any help.”
Standing by the entrance was a figure in a black business suit. The fabric hung loosely, as if there was nothing but a skeleton underneath it. Overall, pretty tame for a ghost story, Jihun faintly thought, even if the pale person beside him didn’t share this opinion.
The university student quickly stepped around the side of the counter, slipping into the narrow space right next to the cashier.
“W-What are you doing?” the cashier hissed.
“Didn’t you read the rules?” Jihun angrily whispered back. “It’s a two-person shift.”
The figure suddenly lurched toward the perishable foods section, surprising the Fami Mart employee beside him. However, it did nothing but pick up ordinary kimbap.
It shuffled slowly toward the counter.
Jihun stepped in front of the register.
“Did you find everything okay?” He asked, keeping his voice even and professional.
It slowly raised its arm and dropped the kimbap onto the counter. Jihun grabbed the barcode scanner.
Beep.
“That will be 1,400 won.”
The figure reached into its suit pocket with a jerky movement. It pulled out a single, crumpled 1,000-won bill and four 100-won coins, placing them flat on the counter. The paper money was damp, and the coins were stained with dirt, but it was exactly 1,400 won.
Jihun didn’t look at its eyes. He took the money and dropped it straight into the register, closing the drawer with a firm click. He grabbed a small plastic bag, slid the kimbap inside, and pushed it across the counter.
“Thank you. Have a nice night,” Jihun said, offering what he hoped was a polite smile.
Its long fingers wrapped around the handles of the bag. It turned around and walked back toward the entrance.
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
The automatic doors slid open, and the figure vanished into the pitch-black fog outside.
...
The cashier collapsed back against the cigarette racks, his hands shaking so violently that a lighter clattered to the floor.
But before Jihun could check on his condition, another customer had entered the convenience store.
Then, another.
And another.
For the next hour or so, the college student would serve these peculiar customers in the actual employee’s stead.
One particular visitor, a headless woman who had an eyeball stitched into the back of both her hands, paused at the counter during checkout, likely sensing the other employee who was still shaking on the floor beside him.
Not a sign of good etiquette at all.
Jihun placed his palms on the back of her hands to block her view.
Ugh. Gross!
He could feel her eyes roll around his palms.
With a smile, Jihun thanked her for coming and lightly shook her hands. He used his body to block the view behind him and walked her to the exit.
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
Only after the doors slid shut did Jihun wipe his hands on the front of his pants before walking back to the cash register.
Silence settled over the convenience store.
Sensing an opportunity, the Fami Mart employee slowly rose from the counter he was hiding behind.
“F-Fuck this shit,” he stammered, moving an inch away from Jihun with every word. “I don’t care about the pay. I’m leaving!”
“Wait-” Jihun reached out to grab his sleeve, but he was too late. The cashier bolted from behind the counter and sprinted toward the entrance.
No one can leave the building until the sun rises, he wanted to say. Did this guy have no self-preservation?
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
But to his surprise, the doors opened anyway.
Wasting no time, the employee lunged through the opening. But before his feet could even clear the threshold, something violently yanked him backward and dragged his body into Aisle 4.
Jihun gripped the edge of the counter and looked away.
From the deep shadows of Aisle 4, a wet, tearing noise cut through, followed by the sharp snap of bone. The student could hear something heavy thudding against the metal shelving, sending a row of instant ramyeon cups clattering to the floor.
A gasp echoed, followed by a squelchy pop.
Jihun kept his eyes on the counter. His knuckles were shaking.
He almost caught him, but could he have done more to help? He even entertained those customers to avoid penalties for both of them, but…
“I’d... probably panic too.”
Truth be told, wasn’t screaming and running toward an exit the natural response when faced with something supernatural? Jihun was pained to admit it, but he really wasn’t the normal person in this scenario.
Nothing had ever been normal ever since that day he went home to find his apartment way bigger than it should have been.
Wait a second… at the end of the note, didn’t it also say-
This is a two-person effort!
Jihun looked down at the crumpled instructions again.
Shit.
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
The doors parted again. Jihun was about to force a smile when the newcomer spoke first.
“So, this is where you’ve been. I told you to call if you’re going to be out late.”
The student froze. “H-Hyung?”
His older brother, Kim Soleum, stood in the doorway wearing a dark, wrinkled sweater and lightly panting, as if he had just run all the way here.
Kim Jihun’s day really couldn’t get any better. But this time, he thought this sincerely.
Supernatural Disasters don’t exist in this world because people don’t believe in ghosts.
That’s right. Here, they’re fictional.
The Dark Exploration Records is a fictional wiki page. Therefore, the stories that exist there are fictional too.
Similar to how Kim Soleum resolved a Supernatural Disaster that began when someone accidentally left a piece of red clothing at Exit 4, a ghost story can’t exist when no one believes it’s caused by a ghost.
And in Soleum’s home world, no one believes that ghosts are real.
Except him.
For years, Kim Soleum was trapped in a world of ghost stories. He had seen people melt in a subway. Worked for a company that harvested Dream Essence from Darknesses. Joined a government agency that rescued civilians from Supernatural Disasters. Almost died more times than he cared to count due to paranormal incidents.
You get the picture.
Even after returning home, Soleum couldn’t convince himself those years weren't real. In fact, he still worried about the people he had left behind in such a dangerous place.
Because while he adamantly refused to open the DER wiki after he came back, he had never forgotten its full name:
Prophecy of the Apocalypse: Dark Exploration Records
An ominous title that hinted at the end of that world.
So, on some nights, he wondered whether Director Cheong had already recovered enough to start terrorizing people into signing permanent contracts again. He also wondered how Ho Yuwon was doing in his counseling. Whether Go Youngeun’s father had recovered. Whether Supervisor Park had finally been cleared to return to D-Team.
He hoped Assistant Manager Eun, fulfilling her contract with Director Ho, and Supervisor Dolphin, who already had enough points for a Wish Ticket, were finally living peaceful lives outside Daydream.
On his worst days, he even thought about that psycho who looked like he was going through a change of heart after the events at Jisan Village.
But on brighter days, he mostly thought about Black Tortoise Team 1. It was difficult not to, when his short time with the Disaster Management Bureau was arguably some of his happiest.
Did Agent Choi and Agent Bronze ever find new teammates? His former seniors were very capable people, but it was because there were too few of them in the first place that a tragedy in Looky Mart could have happened.
Sometimes he wondered whether anyone thought about him, too.
Maybe everyone had simply moved on.
…
Anyway.
Kim Soleum believed in ghost stories. It was difficult not to after what he had seen. He didn’t think he could see them as mere “stories” ever again. They were as real as the existence of the “characters” he had treasured in a world where the entries on the Dark Exploration Records weren’t just fiction.
He believed urban legends so fiercely that he looked only at the floor when he was in an elevator.
His mouth dried at the thought of stepping on a train, so he had bought a bicycle and used it as his main mode of transport.
Even the sight of large supermarkets made him ill, so he had learned to buy what he needed in smaller ones, wet markets, or those that were part of a mall.
So, how did a world where people thought ghost stories were fictional accept a person like Soleum?
Easy. It assumed ghost stories were real.
To him.
To the one person who knew they were real and couldn’t imagine a life, or even a world, where they weren’t.
To Soleum’s misfortune, his home world has a lot of ghost stories—way more than the contents of the DER wiki. From the whispers of a divorced woman in Bongcheon-dong to rumors of a Jayu-ro highway ghost that only appears on foggy nights, there are many urban legends detailing supernatural phenomena in Soleum’s world.
Once, he’d believed they were only stories too.
But ever since he came back, Soleum couldn’t help but think…
Were they real?
Was he really not supposed to walk alone in the Bongcheon-dong neighborhood after 11 PM?
Had the crashes along Jayu-ro been caused by supernatural phenomena and not intoxicated drivers?
Was that story told to him about a grandma who stalked kids at night to keep him in the house after hours, not a story at all?
That’s why it was only a matter of time before it finally happened.
A few months after his return home on an unremarkable Friday night, Soleum found himself buried in mountains of paperwork. His Section Chief was still hard at work, and he was nothing but a diligent employee who needed the money to sustain his rent and hobbies, so leaving before his boss did wasn’t an option.
By the time Soleum looked up, it was already well past the HR-recommended clock-out time of 7 PM.
When the man finally signed the last document and started packing up, Soleum did the same.
He waited until his Section Chief’s car left the parking lot before sprinting toward the station, determined to catch the last train of the night.
He dropped into one of the seats with a deep sigh and did a quick scan out of habit.
The carriage he was in was empty.
Maybe a little too empty.
It was also cold in a way that had nothing to do with the air conditioning.
[The doors are closing. Please stand back behind the safety line.]
Well, his apartment was only a few stops away. Soleum could handle a few minutes of silence.
[We have arrived at Yeouinaru Station.]
[If your stop is Yeouinaru Station, please exit the doors to your left.]
Once the door opened, a man stepped in. He was wearing a perfectly tailored black business suit reminiscent of his coat back in Daydream Inc.
This passenger sat in front of him.
Which… was a bit weird, he had to admit. The car was big enough for them to sit on opposite ends and ignore each other, but maybe the man wanted some company.
And because Soleum was a coward, he didn’t mind the company.
Shhh.
The doors closed, and the train sped up to the next stop.
Soleum dropped his gaze and absentmindedly took out his phone. There were two unread messages from his brother.
Kim Jihun (8:32 PM)
I have a big test tomorrow. Gonna lock inDon’t greet me when you come home
His younger brother, Kim Jihun, was a first-year university student currently staying in his apartment. Initially, Jihun was going to stay in the on-campus dormitories, but an influx of exchange students had pushed him onto the waiting list, and somehow Soleum’s spare bedroom had become his.
Rent around Seoul wasn’t something a first-year student could realistically afford anyway.
Soleum was also high enough on the corporate ladder to afford his current space, which was big enough to accommodate up to three people. Besides, Jihun was a good kid who handled most of the shopping and weekend chores without being asked. His brother would honestly do a lot of things if it meant he didn’t have to live with their parents anymore.
Just as Soleum was about to type out a reply, he heard a cold whisper directly in his ear.
“Hey.”
He almost let out a verbal curse.
“You look pretty tired.”
Hello? Gods that governed reality?
Wasn’t he home? In a world with no ghost stories? This must be his imagination.
Soleum was tired, after all. He hadn’t had a day this long in a while…
[We have arrived at Mapo Station.]
The train stopped at the intended platform. But the doors immediately closed after a few seconds, with no new passengers in the car.
“Why don’t you quit your job and come work for me?”
Motherf-
Outwardly, Soleum maintained the poker face he was known for back in Daydream. He kept his eyes locked on his phone, determined to pretend he was the only person on this carriage tonight.
He was getting off at the next stop. He just had to hold on.
But…
Soleum’s mind, which always worked best under pressure, couldn’t help but race at the implication. This subway line had a famous urban legend attached to it—a corporate wraith that preyed on salarymen riding the last train after overtime.
Soleum had a long shift. He was on the last train on Seoul Subway Line 2.
The world cannot be serious.
“The pay is good,” the voice mumbled. “Much better than the night shift. You like money, right?”
... Shit.
It was serious!
Soleum didn’t need to look at the thing across from him. He already had an idea of what it could be.
How, you might ask?
Well, ever since he quit reading Dark Exploration Records, Soleum needed another hobby. His interests in the supernatural never really went away, so...
He started reading about real urban legends again.
While DER had been around for nearly two decades, it wasn’t the well-known wiki it is today. The only reason Soleum discovered it in the first place was that he had always been interested in the supernatural, even when he was a teenager.
Have you ever heard of the 2chan /x/ board and @lt.folklore.urban? Soleum mastered the art of web digging early because of these websites. He even paid a one-time flat fee of 13,000 won to access the then-epicenter of collaborative internet folklore—a forum that would later conceive life-like sightings of a featureless man who left ominous notes in a forest.
Today, there were dedicated forums like r/norest that allowed the common user to share their experiences or horror-themed ARPGs they could join online (not that Soleum partook in them since he became a corporate employee...). The former agent could even “watch” MeTubers talk about supernatural phenomena as long as he put his phone down and treated it like a podcast.
Sometimes, mainstream media would even join the discussions.
For example, while nobody knows what happened to the people who responded to this suspicious job offer, there have been real missing person cases where they were last seen riding the last train on Line 2 during a weeknight.
“You’d fit right in.”
Just leave him alone, please...
With one eye closed and the other only half open, Soleum let out a fake yawn and squinted at the window behind the person sitting across from him.
He saw a smiling face reflected in the glass when it should have been the back of his head instead.
[Now arriving at Gongdeok Station.]
He stood up and walked to the carriage door.
“Leaving so soon?”
The brakes screeched loudly against the metal tracks. Soleum continued to fix his eyes on the blurred scenery of the arriving platform.
He counted the seconds.
“Hey, consider this offer seriously. We have great benefits-”
Three.
“Like eternal rest.”
Two.
“HahAhahahAhahahahAhathatsounds nicedoesn’t it-”
[We have arrived at Gongdeok Station. Please exit the doors on your right.]
One!
Soleum jumped, no, stepped out of the car.
His feet took him to the ticket machines and through the gate. A bit later, he was already halfway up the stairs.
He was gripping his phone to the point where he thought it might break.
He...
He was done with ghost stories...
He was supposed to be home, in a perfectly normal world, living a normal, boring life.
So why...?
Heart pounding loudly against his chest, his legs quickly took him past a row of buildings all the way to where his apartment was.
He skipped the elevator and took the stairs up to the fifth floor.
It wasn’t real, he desperately told himself. He was just tired. His mind still couldn’t let go of those years spent in another world, and it had finally manifested in some freak hallucination in a subway he knew an urban legend about.
He stopped in front of his door.
Soleum’s chest heaved, his breath coming in shallow gasps. His fingers fumbled with the keys once before he jammed the metal into the lock.
Click!
Walking inside, he saw Jihun diligently studying in the living room. Remembering his text, he left him to his books without greeting.
Soleum went straight into his bedroom and shut the door behind him. He reached up and loosened the tight knot of his tie, his eyes drifting toward the pink bunny sitting on the satin-lined cushion he’d bought for it on his nightstand.
But the doll that once held the consciousness of his Good Friend sat perfectly still.
As expected.
After all, Kim Soleum lived in a world with no ghost stories, and the Late-Night Talk Show was a ghost story.
But if this were true, then what was this?
Why was there a human face pressed flat against the inside of the glass in the fourth-floor company bathroom mirror the following week? A terrifying thing that had no eyelids, blood pooling through the place where its eyelashes should have been?
The sight of it made Soleum want to jump out of the window.
Should he just wait for another person to enter the restroom before going in next time?
Soleum slowly turned off the faucet and walked backward out of the restroom while keeping his eyes on the entity.
Twice could still be a coincidence, right? He immediately erased the thing’s face from his memory.
The next day, he stepped into a train car where all the advertisements were upside down. Unfortunately, Soleum knew about this urban legend, too. According to Nomuwiki, it wasn’t that the advertisements were upside down—the train was.
In fact, it was truly unfortunate that, also according to the wiki, this next part of the story only happened to passengers who recognized the shift in gravity.
Thud!
Soleum violently dropped onto the ceiling of the car. He lay there for a second, not registering what had just happened.
Then, the smiling entities noticed him. He was chased until he reached his stop.
By the time he woke up the next morning, it already felt less real. However, the ex-Daydream employee grew some sense and didn’t take the train again after that. He also finally bought a bike.
For months, Kim Soleum stubbornly continued to rationalize each of these supernatural events as leftover trauma from his long stay in a world where ghost stories existed.
Until he decided to share his apartment with his younger brother a full year later.
It didn’t even take a month for a ghost story to appear right in the middle of their home after that.
Back then, he remembered suddenly thinking, Seriously, WHAT is this world’s criteria for some of these urban legends to pop out?!
His apartment didn’t spawn this many rooms back when Soleum was living alone!
So why...?
Because of that exhausting day when he had to navigate a maze-like house to locate his younger brother, Soleum had no choice but to accept it.
It’s not safe here.
It might have been, if he had just remained blissfully ignorant. But he couldn’t unlearn what he knew. And you know who also had the misfortune of knowing?
Jihun.
By refusing to admit what was happening, Soleum had only delayed the inevitable. He couldn’t even convince his brother it wasn’t real now since the injuries remained when they were out.
It was too late for Jihun to go back to being ignorant, so Soleum could only teach him how to safely live his days in a world where ghost stories existed.
Another year would pass after that.
“How did you even know I was here?”
“It was late and I was worried, so I tracked your phone to its last location,” Soleum answered, his voice flat as ever, as he walked right past the entrance. On any other day, Jihun would’ve complained about this blatant invasion of privacy but today, he was simply glad his brother was such a paranoid man.
Soleum briefly eyed the piece of paper on the counter before taking it himself. He scanned what Jihun had deduced were this phenomenon’s rules.
“Unless you got a part-time job without telling me, I’m assuming the actual employee ran away?”
Jihun grimly looked at Aisle 4, which was now silent.
“Ah.”
Soleum stepped over the blood pooled between the tile gaps to enter the other side of the counter. Jihun, assuming that his brother would accompany him until the end of the shift after reading the rules, made space. However, Soleum just walked past him and pensively gazed at the analog clock on the wall.
1:24.
With all that had happened, Jihun could have honestly sworn he’d been here longer.
Still, it was the early weeks of summer, so the sun would rise pretty early. They’d only be here for another four hours. Plus, tomorrow was a Wednesday, so his classes wouldn’t start until the afternoon. He could set an alarm at 1 PM. and sleep in the morning.
He could do this!
His hyung was here, after all. And things never seemed so scary when he was around.
“Jihun.”
The university student watched as his brother reached for the wall clock. Once it was in his hands, he flipped it on its back and turned the dial multiple times until the hour hand was pointing at the number “6.”
A few seconds passed before the lights flickered twice and then fully powered back on. Oddly, the place looked cleaner than it was when he came in, as if an employee had tidied up before opening.
Satisfied, Soleum put the clock back on the wall and faced him.
“Let’s go home.”
“Hyung... are you messing with me?” Surely, it couldn’t be that easy? “Just because you changed the time doesn’t mean we get to leave. It’s obviously still ‘after hours.’”
“It does,” Soleum insisted. He even gestured to the lit ceiling to prove a point.
In return, Jihun pointed toward the dark street outside. It was still lit only by lamps.
His brother tilted his head slightly. “You don’t believe me?”
Without waiting for an answer, the tyrant turned on his heel.
“Wait!”
Soleum didn’t hesitate and ran toward the automatic doors before Jihun could grab his arm.
Remembering what happened to the last guy, Jihun sprinted after him and caught him in a hug.
... But his hyung was, for some reason, stronger than Jihun, who was younger.
Soleum dragged both of them forward without much effort.
Tee-lang, tee-lang~
With a soft hiss, the glass doors parted, and Soleum stepped across the threshold with Jihun’s shaking arms wrapped around his waist.
The youngest closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst-case scenario.
Together, they walked out into the dark streets.
...
They... walked out?
Things were okay?
“I told you.”
Jihun slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Soleum’s gentle expression, who lightly patted his head.
T-This jerk!
He made Jihun worry for no reason.
The least he could do was not save the explanations until after he did things. It wasn’t like they were in any rush.
(Except Soleum was. He didn’t want to stay there and see the next customer walk in.)
He felt his brother pass something into his hands. It was the plastic bag that contained the purchases he’d made earlier. Jihun had forgotten about it entirely.
“...”
Kim Soleum forgiven, Jihun took the kimbap out and ate it as they walked, chewing quietly. The banana milk satiated the sweet cravings he’d been having all day.
Did I really go through an entire day without any sugar?
What was university life doing to him...
They reached the apartment by 1:45. The elevator stopped functioning at 10 PM to encourage curfew among its tenants, so they took the stairs.
Jihun felt his legs grow heavier with each flight, but his hyung’s breathing hadn’t changed at all. He continued to explain how ghost stories like that, which included a time of ending in their rules, were easy to escape.
Apparently, ghost stories with an ending time could be fooled into thinking that time had already passed. They were lucky the convenience store had an analog clock. Otherwise, they would have had to wait until sunrise—or find some other way to convince the ghost story that morning had come early.
He also heard him mutter something like Even Daydream wouldn’t use something like this to farm. It only lasts five to six hours, and it’s easier to clear than an F-Class Darkness...
He pretended he didn’t hear it, though. Not that he understood any of what was said anyway.
Soleum also said that if he hadn’t arrived when he did, the next entrant would have become the second employee. And unless the next guy managed to keep his head like Jihun, they would have also attempted to escape and disappear as a result.
Rather than the unusual customers, wouldn’t the real horror story here be the many people Jihun would have seen dragged to Aisle 4?
“Avoid going into that place past 9 PM from now on. Since it’s a story connected to a handwritten note, it’s unlikely to happen in another Fami Mart. But to be safe, avoid going into any convenience store when major establishments are closed for the day. Plenty of employees like to make up ghost stories to haze newbies assigned to the night shift.”
Soleum watched his brother, half-asleep, prepare for bed while occasionally nodding to more of what he called “hyung’s oddly specific but helpful advice.”
Avoiding convenience stores altogether would be difficult with the late nights demanded by Jihun’s degree. If Soleum arrived at the apartment first, he would probably start texting him if he needed anything.
Bidding each other good night, he left him to his privacy and closed the door.
With a small sigh, Soleum leaned his head against the wood and closed his eyes.
Fortunately, since urban legends here exist mostly to scare, plenty of them are harmless if you know the rules. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have crazy ones. He still hadn’t figured out how to escape the Backrooms if he accidentally walked into the place.
If there’s any cause for worry, it’s that this world doesn’t have a large number of people who know how to safely conclude these stories. Unless they are already interested in similar media like Dark Exploration Records or Silent Hillside, people will rarely think of approaching these phenomena like puzzles that need a solution.
But, in the first place...
In this world that doesn’t believe that ghosts are real…
These stories probably only manifest for people who know they’re “real,” like Kim Soleum.
Unless there’s another poor bastard out here who got sent to a world where ghost stories are real, these supernatural phenomena are only real to Soleum, who continued to manifest them into his daily life, and more recently, his younger brother, who experienced a real ghost story in Soleum’s apartment.
Basically, people who can never think of them as “fiction.”
So, whatever happened to Jihun was now Soleum’s responsibility. If any civilian was dragged into the supernatural phenomena around Soleum and Jihun, they were Soleum’s responsibility, too. It was because of him that Fami Mart lost an employee tonight.
Soleum must never allow other civilians to come out of these phenomena thinking, I was dropped into a ghost story, but thank god I managed to survive. Otherwise, they, with the sure knowledge that “the supernatural is real,” would go around attracting urban legends themselves and drag even more people into them.
So, what had started as a casual hobby soon became a job. To survive and protect the ignorant people of this world, he had no choice but to read more ghost stories.
Maybe...
Maybe Kim Soleum should never have come home.