It was definitely the Yoon-taek Jae-ha knew, but he didn’t feel like the same person at all. His body moved awkwardly, like someone trying to use their limbs for the very first time, and his eyes—once clear—were now completely swallowed in black.
He twitched twice in that stiff, creaking posture before his head snapped suddenly to the side, his gaze locking straight onto Jae-ha.
“Ju Hae-hyun!”
Hae-ryeong’s desperate shout overlapped with another voice, one that rose and fell wildly, breaking in pitch.
[If you get caught, you’re it!]
Stumbling, lurching steps charged straight toward Jae-ha.
Wait—am I supposed to run?
Panicked, Jae-ha stumbled back. At that moment, Hae-hyun darted in front of him, hand thrust outward. A burst of radiant golden light exploded into the air.
[Kyaaaaaaah!]
A piercing shriek rattled the auditorium like it would split his eardrums. Even with his hands clamped over his ears, Jae-ha’s head buzzed painfully.
[It hurts, it hurts! That’s cheating! Hurting the seeker is against the rules!]
The voice was nothing like Yoon-taek’s. It was high-pitched, like a little girl shrieking until her throat tore. Thick black wax oozed down from Yoon-taek’s eyes.
“What do we do?!” Jae-ha shouted.
Hae-hyun glanced quickly toward Hae-ryeong. She had yelled to caution him, but this was the only move they had. If things were this bad even mid-purification, stopping now would only send the candle’s power spiraling out of control. Clicking his tongue, Hae-hyun seized Jae-ha’s arm.
“For now, we run. Move!”
At the same time, Yoon-taek’s head lifted again, his neck bending grotesquely as if it couldn’t support the weight.
This is straight out of a horror movie…
Terrified, Jae-ha sprinted after Hae-hyun. The grip on his wrist was so firm that he nearly tripped trying to keep up, but he managed to steady himself.
[Who’s it? Who’s it? Who’s it?]
The child’s voice echoed from behind, unnervingly clear even as they gained distance. The air itself hummed, vibrating with a sound that almost resembled laughter.
[If you get caught, you’re it!]
They burst out of the auditorium and clambered up the stairs into the lobby corridor. Hae-hyun glanced quickly around, then patted Jae-ha’s back as he gasped for breath.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just… a little rattled.”
Jae-ha couldn’t make sense of anything. What was that black wax? Why had Yoon-taek turned into someone else the instant it touched him? And what in the world was this ‘tag’ game?
“Think your sister will be alright?”
“I don’t think it’s after her. If it wanted to attack, it would’ve done so in the auditorium.”
Instead of striking Hae-ryeong, the candle had split its power to chase someone else. That meant something mattered more than confronting her head-on.
And that something was…
“It’s not interested in me or my sister. For some reason, it’s after you, sunbae.”
The absurdity just kept piling up. Jae-ha let out a helpless, bitter laugh.
“Why me? What the hell did I do?”
“Exactly. There are plenty of others around, and the aura on you is actually mine.”
Hae-hyun frowned, clearly just as confused. His worried eyes flicked over Jae-ha, scanning him.
“Anyway, my sister and I will deal with it. You must not leave the lodge. At least inside the barrier, it won’t be able to unleash its full strength.”
“I’ll try… but—”
Could he really fend off something that relentless? His voice trailed into uncertainty. Hae-hyun opened his mouth to reassure him, but a rattling noise echoed through the building.
With everyone else asleep, there was only one possible culprit.
“Shhh.”
Hae-hyun pressed a finger to his lips and tugged Jae-ha into cover around the corner. Their footsteps hushed, they slipped into the nearest room. Half-packed bags were neatly lined against the wall—leftovers from some group staying there.
“So what’s the plan? You have one, right?” Jae-ha asked.
Hae-hyun grimaced, troubled. Not a promising sign.
“Spirits that drag the living into games usually have a low mental age. My guess is it died young—probably as a child.”
Given that tag was such a simple, universal game, and judging from the whining tone, the spirit couldn’t have been older than elementary school when it died.
And the longer a ghost remained, the murkier its reason grew. With a child’s mentality on top of that, persuasion was useless. It wouldn’t understand a word—just loop its own lines over and over like a broken recorder.
“So what do we do, then?”
If they couldn’t talk to it, force was the only option. But even possessed, Yoon-taek was still human—and still Jae-ha’s junior. Hurting him wasn’t an option. Hae-hyun shook his head firmly.
“We have to play by its rules.”
Child spirits weren’t exactly rare, and thankfully, Hae-hyun had dealt with a few before.
“First rule: follow the game.”
Talking wasn’t the only way to communicate. By agreeing to play, they were already engaging with the ghost on its terms. Rules. Jae-ha mulled over the word. Conveniently enough, the ghost had already spelled one out for them.
“Hurting the seeker is against the rules?”
“Exactly.”
But that didn’t feel like good news. Jae-ha frowned deeper.
“Then how are we supposed to catch it without hurting it?”
From the looks of it, the ghost was the seeker, and Jae-ha was the one being chased. If the rule was really don’t harm the seeker, then they couldn’t physically stop it from pursuing him.
Play a normal game of tag, and he’d eventually get caught. There was no way he could run forever in this building.
“What if I become the seeker instead?”
Hae-hyun flinched like he’d been stung.
“You cannot get caught. Ghost games don’t reset.”
The spirit’s entire purpose was to tag Jae-ha. Once it did, that was the end.
“But what if I get tagged, and you immediately catch it after?”
“Way too dangerous. We don’t even know why it’s after you.”
Hae-hyun’s voice hardened. No one knew what the ghost would do once it achieved its goal.
Jae-ha tried to laugh it off with a joke.
“Come on, you think it’d go through all this trouble just to tag me and kill me on the spot?”
“Sunbae!”
Hae-hyun’s voice cracked. His face twisted with anguish, eyes shining like he was about to cry.
“If it goes wrong, your soul could get bound to it. Do you know how hard it is to untangle that? If you say something like that again, I swear I’ll kill the damn thing myself.”
His glare burned into the door, his aura sharp enough to cut. It was like he already saw Jae-ha dead.
“Alright, alright. I won’t. I was just saying I could take that kind of gamble.”
“Well, I can’t. Did you forget you’re already cursed? This could be connected.”
Now that he thought about it, some things had been strange. Like how he’d been the only one unaffected by Hae-hyun’s sleep spell. And how the spirit was focused solely on him. If it really was tied to the curse inside him, then this wasn’t just some random chance—it was part of a bigger problem. The realization weighed heavily on Jae-ha too.
“Anyway, you cannot get caught. I’ll find another way. Your only job is to avoid it. Understand?”
Hae-hyun pressed again, worry plastered across his face as if convinced Jae-ha would throw himself to the wolves the moment he slipped up.
Jae-ha was about to promise when he suddenly froze. A strange unease prickled in his chest.
“Hae-hyun.”
“Yes?”
Hae-hyun’s eyes darted to him, but Jae-ha wasn’t looking back. His gaze was fixed on the closed door.
“Don’t you think we’ve been talking pretty loud?”
Outside was silent. Too silent. Like nothing was there at all.
“Then why hasn’t it found us yet?”
And at that moment—
Clang! Clang, thud! Thud!
Something rattled violently. Snapping his head toward the sound, Jae-ha saw the large window that opened to the back yard of the lodge.
And beyond it—
The ghost, cheek pressed flat against the glass, rapping its hand against the window.
[Found you~.]
Its mouth stretched into a grotesque grin, blackened eyes glistening thickly like melted candle wax.
