I Returned, and Now I See Strange Things-Chapter 12: Empty Shell

The typical smudged screen of smartphone livestreams.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freёnovelkiss.com.

Since it was filming inside a dark closet, it looked even more distorted.

If even a single shadow flickered past, someone might easily mistake it for a ghost.

...Maybe that’s why people get so worked up, claiming they’ve seen spirits.

White noise buzzed constantly in the background, the kind you'd hear from a disconnected TV. Hyesung’s faint breathing was an added bonus.

There was a near-prophetic sense that absolutely nothing was going to happen.

She yawned so wide her eyes teared up, and she hurriedly wiped them with her hoodie sleeve so Hyeyeon wouldn’t misunderstand.

It wasn’t boredom that made her yawn... she was just a little sleepy.

Which made sense—it was now just past 2:30 a.m.

She’d gotten up early, wandered around, met up with Hyeyeon, and had been running around non-stop since then.

They’d had to buy the doll and [N O V E L I G H T] the alcohol, and she’d had to endure Hyeyeon fussing over her appearance. Of course she was tired.

Even though she’d said there was no point since she’d be wearing a mask anyway, Hyeyeon hadn’t backed down.

It felt like she’d gained a fussy younger sister, so she gave in... with a sigh.

Still, Hyeyeon had made sure she got proper meals and snacks, so she didn’t have much to complain about.

It had been a long time since she’d had home-cooked food from someone else’s house—and it was really good.

As a proper young man raised in the land of courtesy, the only regret was that she hadn’t been able to thank Hyeyeon’s parents for the meal.

They were apparently on a trip, so there was no helping it.

Anyway.

Turning her bored eyes away from the stream screen, she glanced at Hyeyeon—who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

The girl was watching something else entirely on her own phone.

"Didn’t you say you were into stuff like this?"

Hyeyeon rolled her eyes toward her. The dark circles around them gave her a strangely decadent look. She was lying on her stomach, and her chest, squished against the floor, was kind of... noticeable.

"Yeah, I am... but honestly, I’ve seen this kind of thing so many times. If nothing happens, it’s just a creepy stream where you can hear my brother breathing."

"...Fair point."

If even she felt that way, it made sense that Hyesung’s own sister would be even more bored.

Hyeyeon glanced through the chat window and murmured,

"This might be the last time we all meet... kind of a shame."

"That bad?"

"Yeah... the views are barely above my brother’s usual average, and the reactions aren’t great. If nothing happens, everyone’s gonna bail soon... Even if we edit and upload this, it’s gonna bomb. You can tell already."

Hmm... that was a problem.

Hyesung needed to scream in her place and make money. He had an obligation to supply her with funds in a stable manner.

What to do...

While she tapped her fingers on the floor in thought, Hyeyeon suddenly grabbed her smartphone and began typing something in.

A moment later, Hyeyeon’s phone buzzed loudly with an incoming message.

"I saved my number on your phone. Even if you stop working with my brother, you’ll still meet up with me, right?"

"...I don’t really mind."

"There’s a couple haunted places I’ve been dying to check out with someone."

"You really like this stuff, huh."

Hyeyeon clearly didn’t care if Hyesung’s stream flopped or not.

Looking down at her returned smartphone for a moment, the protagonist typed out a quick message and sent it to Hyesung’s phone.

Not long after, the buzz of a received message startled Hyesung into screaming.

"...Unni, was that you?"

"Yeah."

"It’s funny, but... I don’t think it’ll be enough."

"Then I guess I’ll have to take further measures."

At that, Hyeyeon’s eyes sparkled.

Avoiding that intense gaze, she glanced back at the stream. Hyesung seemed to be stepping out of the closet with the sake still in his mouth.

The dark screen showed him cautiously crossing the room toward the bathroom.

When he entered the open bathroom, the plush doll was still submerged in the sink water. Even the awl lay beside it, neatly untouched.

...If this kept up, her income source might disappear. She felt like she had to do something.

She wasn’t sure if Hyesung had planned this, but...

The camera caught footage of Hyesung following her directions and finishing the hide-and-seek ritual.

Before more viewers dropped off, she hurried to head back to Hyesung’s house.

To protect her source of money.

***

"So... you’re telling me to do it again?"

"Yeah."

Hyesung looked at Ayun with wide, confused eyes.

She’d told him to stop, so he had—but now she wanted him to do it again. He hadn’t expected that.

‘I thought it’d be bad to drag it out too long... but then again, nothing actually happened, huh.’

He’d always known it was a gamble, but now that the results were a bust, he was feeling pretty down.

That surprising message earlier had been a brief highlight, but it didn’t have anywhere near the impact of the abandoned hospital incident.

"What’s gonna change if I do it again? I heard the timing has to be precise too..."

"It’s because that ritual’s all messed up in the first place."

Ayun almost said “curse” but caught herself just in time. If she scared Hyesung into backing out, that would be a problem.

"So what’s missing, then?"

"..."

Ayun paused, unsure how to explain it to Hyesung—or to the viewers currently watching. She needed a believable reason to justify the extra step.

Meanwhile, the chat was blowing up again over the reappearance of the mysterious silver-haired girl.

Hyesung sighed in relief as the atmosphere in chat warmed up again with Ayun’s presence.

While he relaxed, Ayun finished thinking and spoke up. At the same time, the muted mic was unmuted.

"...From what I can tell, the version floating around the internet is missing the ‘summoning’ part."

"Just putting in rice and fingernails isn’t enough?"

"That’s not for the summoning... anyway, it’s not a fun story, so I’ll explain later."

Ayun pulled the plush doll out of the sink and stuck her finger under her mask.

When she pulled it back out, there was a smear of blood on her fingertip.

Hyesung blinked.

"Uh... are you okay?"

"What?"

"Your hand..."

"Oh. No need to freak out over something like this."

"..."

From the moment he first met her, Hyesung had thought Ayun was a tough one. Despite looking young, she was ridiculously hardened.

He still had no idea what kind of life she’d lived before—but biting open her finger without blinking? That was intense.

She must be a good person—she had come to save him—but even that had felt strangely calculating.

Ayun used her bleeding finger to scribble something onto the plush doll, then glanced up at Hyesung with a startled look.

"...Just in case, can you move the camera for a sec?"

"Ah, sure."

As Hyesung turned the camera away, Ayun resumed her work with her bloody finger.

– What’s she doing? Why can’t we see?

Donations started pouring in with demands to show what was happening.

Hyesung looked at her for permission, but Ayun firmly shook her head.

‘No idea if copying this would actually work for anyone, but better safe than sorry.’

And besides—wasn’t this kind of secrecy way more interesting?

Thinking that, Ayun finished writing something in blood on the doll and let go.

She plopped the plush doll back into the sink.

It looked like blood would leak out... but nope.

The water stayed perfectly clear.

Only then did Ayun give the okay to resume filming.

The screen showed the plush doll, still appearing unchanged.

Then came a faint sound—suck, suck.

It felt oddly lewd. Hyesung turned the camera toward it and saw Ayun with her bloody finger inside her mask, quietly sucking it clean.

"..."

She just thought saliva would help it heal faster—but it was definitely a strange image.

Hyesung, thinking once again how unreadable she was, began moderating the chat alongside the other stream managers.

He banned the last viewer who typed “Just one bite pls.”

"So what do I do now?"

"Just do everything exactly like last time."

"Is something actually going to change... from just that?"

"...Maybe."

Worst-case scenario, they were back where they started.

Hyesung looked at the doll still floating in the sink.

Just knowing it had blood on it now made it feel creepier. As his nerves tightened, Ayun handed him something.

It was the red stone containing Ignis.

["M-Master!?"]

Ignis’s panicked voice, unheard by Hyesung, tickled Ayun’s ear.

"Just treat it like a talisman. Give it back when you’re done."

It probably wouldn’t do more than act as a pocket warmer, but...

Unaware of Ayun’s real thoughts, Hyesung held the stone with reverence on his face.

["I’m sorry!!! You’re not abandoning me, are you??? Huh???"]

"I said no!"

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. Alright, I’ll go again—good luck!"

For my money!—was the part left unspoken, but Hyesung just scratched his head awkwardly.

‘She’s kind of cute, actually.’

A small misunderstanding born from his lack of mind-reading abilities.

If he’d known it was all about the money... well. He probably would’ve just nodded and said “figures.”

Unfortunately...

Anyway.

Once Ayun returned to where Hyeyeon was, Hyesung turned off the room lights and began One-Man Hide-and-Seek all over again.

In the darkened bathroom, he declared the start of the game and left the room to count to ten.

Then he returned, called out that he’d found the doll, and stabbed it with the awl.

"The second seeker is Chunsik."

At that moment, a chill ran down Hyesung’s spine.

Maybe it was the blood on the doll.

With a bad feeling crawling up his back, Hyesung quickly picked up the sake again and rushed to hide in the closet.

He spat the sake into the cup and gripped the red stone Ayun had given him tightly in one hand.

A strange warmth pulsed through him.

And then—

From the TV that had been playing only static, a different sound began to emerge.