Chapter 7 - Jun siwoo

Chu Siyan tottered behind the trench coat guy as silently as he could. Somehow, it felt like he would disturb that man if he walked a bit louder. His curious eyes looked around, absorbing their surroundings as they proceeded. On the ground floor of the sorority, there was a door right beside the kitchen area that was never a part of the tour. He was kind of curious about what that room was.

"Do you think that is a storeroom, a pantry, or a creepy basement? I bet it's a creepy basement. After all, we are in a scary ghost-infected level," he mumbled, rubbing his hands in anticipation.

Seeing his small act, the trench coat guy raised a brow. "You seem cheery."

"Well, I am. 'Cause I got my first-ever tattoo look." He held up his wrist.

The man took a small look and nodded.

It was a simple wood frame door with a brass doorknob that looked like it hadn't been cleaned for quite a while. Chu Siyan hesitated to touch it.

The trench coat guy slightly nudged him away and opened the door. "Scared?"

He was actually not scared at all. He did not touch the doorknob because it was such a long time since he had seen such a dirty surface. Chu Siyan did not explain himself. He busied himself by observing the inside of the room. As it was in the dark corner of the house, it didn't get that much light. He couldn't see anything much. "Ah, my trusty torch," he untied it from his waistband loop and switched it on.

The dim light lit up the place. There were a couple of wood-stained stairs leading down to the basement. There was even a small light bulb down there with a string hanging below.

"Told you it would be a basement," he grinned up at him.

He could vaguely spot a small smile on that man's lips. "Switch it off. Save battery life."

"Oh."

Since they had already seen the end of the stairs, they decided to switch it off and walk down holding the railing. Just a step on the wooden floorboard creaked loudly as if it was going to snap under them. The trench coat guy did not bother about all this; he walked in confidently.

This gave him a bit of confidence. Chu Siyan followed after that man down to the dingy dark room. His fingers touched something wet on the walls of the room. He simply sniffed it. 'Irony stench... it's blood…' His heart rate went up a bit. "There is blood on the walls," he exclaimed.

But there was no answer to his call. "Trench coat guy… Woo-hoo. Answer me…" he glanced around.

Sighing, he took out his torch and lit it up. To his surprise, he was all alone. There was no one else in the room except himself. "Trench coat guy?" he walked in and switched on the small bulb.

Golden yellow light lit up the dingy space. The basement was quite spacious with a lot of stuff piled up in the corner. A few of the suitcases were even flipped off with their contents scattered all across the room.

He picked up one of the clothing. It was a pretty yellow summer dress. He flipped it around until he found a tag. It was a famous brand dress. On the tag, he noticed a small letter painted on with nail polish. "P? No one's name starts with P. Maybe it's the dead ghost's clothes…."

Just as he said this, he felt a small breath on his neck. Unintentionally, he stiffened up. Someone was behind him. 'I didn't hear any footsteps at all.' No, something was behind him. He closed his eyes. It was most probably the ghost named 'P'. He glanced back.

To his surprise, he didn't even see a shadow of the ghost. Only a strong bloody stench remained close to him. "This girl likes to run away… I just wanted to see her face… what is wrong with that." He placed the dress down and walked around a bit. Even though he thought this, he knew for sure that his heart would have stopped if he had met that ghost face to face. He was so used to pretending to be strong for his brother. In this unfamiliar environment, he still kept up that act. Inside, he was trembling a lot.

The fear lasted only for a few minutes. He shook it off and walked around bravely. His eyes spotted something shining in the corner. He crawled through the assortment of clothes and picked up the thing that was hiding behind another suitcase.

It was a golden-framed photo. It was most definitely a picture of his senior sorority members. There were eight in that picture. "Eight… so four are not here? Tilly mentioned a few of them left the sorority… maybe only three or two of them died."

A chilling wind hit the back of his neck once again. He hurriedly glanced back. Once again, nothing. He hurriedly wiped the goosebumps off his arm. "Is there a rule or something that ghosts can't appear ahead of time? Maybe they are only allowed to spook people and not hurt them," he shrugged and held up the painting.

"You found something?" a husky voice startled him.

He stepped back slightly, hugging the photo frame. "Ah, trench coat guy. Where did you run off to? I thought you got eaten by one of the ghosts."

The man frowned. "Trench coat guy?"

"Yeah…" he slightly blushed. He had been addressing him as the trench coat guy in his heart, since he was startled; he called him out by mistake. "I don't know your name…"

"Jun Siwoo," he said curtly and gestured to the picture frame.

He held it up to him. "Hi Jun, I'm Chu Siyan. You can call me Siyan."

"Hmmm," he looked at the picture for a second and handed it back to him.

"You found anything when you were looking around?"

"Four luggage, two stained with blood. The girls were killed in their room by an unknown killer. Bodies missing," he said briefly.

Chu Siyan gaped at him. "You found all that by looking through some luggage. You're brilliant Jun."

Jun Siwoo cleared his throat and handed an old newsletter. It looked like it was a college edition newsletter that would be shared with students. On it was the picture of two girls. The story of their murder was clearly explained.