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"Tap… tap… tap…"
A crisp, rhythmic click of high heels lifting and striking the floor suddenly echoed through the long, narrow corridor, dark and completely empty.
The sound was sharp and clear, every step seeming to tap straight against a person's nerves.
As it grew closer, it felt as if the owner of those heels was steadily approaching.
In a situation like this, such an eerie presence appearing out of nowhere was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
"..."
Even Asher felt his breathing freeze for a split second.
After all, this was the first time he'd ever run into a scene straight out of a horror movie.
He paused for a few seconds, then quickly turned around.
When he looked back down the corridor he'd come from, he immediately saw a figure not far away.
A very tall figure… no, "tall" didn't even begin to describe it.
That silhouette had to be over two meters high.
Even from a distance, he could tell it was a woman. Long hair fluttered around her, and a trench coat wrapped almost her entire body, revealing only an absurdly long pair of legs.
As that ghost-like woman slowly advanced toward him…
Asher could clearly feel the temperature around him plummeting. It was like standing in an ice cellar in the middle of the hottest days of summer.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed.
Damn it. Don't tell me I'm running into a final boss before I've even left the beginner area?
The oppressive aura pouring off this female ghost was on a completely different level from the evil spirit he'd casually dealt with earlier.
But no matter what, his path back was blocked now. There was no way to run.
He had only one option left: face this unknown ghost head-on.
The situation felt painfully familiar, like the standard setup in a horror film.
Once the ghost reached him, it would attack.
"If that's how it's going to be…"
Asher decided to strike first.
He raised his right hand, fingers pressed together in a sword gesture, ready to activate his onmyoji techniques and summon shikigami for a decisive fight.
But—
Just as he was about to make the first move…
Suddenly.
Click.
A soft sound rang out.
The door to one of the apartments beside him had opened at some point.
"Huh?"
Before Asher could even react, a slender, pale hand reached out from the darkness behind the door, grabbed his shoulder, and yanked him inside without hesitation.
Bang.
The door slammed shut.
The corridor returned to silence, as if Asher had never been there at all.
Neither Asher nor the person who'd dragged him inside knew that, at the very moment he vanished from the hallway, the female ghost who had been walking with those crisp, rhythmic steps came to a halt.
She slowly lifted her head. Her face was hidden beneath a curtain of pitch-black hair, her features obscured except for her mouth.
She stared at a certain apartment door.
Then her lips split into an eerily twisted smile.
…
Click.
The sound of the door locking echoed softly.
When Asher finally came back to his senses and looked up, he found himself staring at a girl with slightly chubby cheeks and an undeniably cute face.
Right now, though, her expression was filled with panic. Her face was pale as a sheet.
Seeing Asher's dazed, confused look, the girl quickly raised her index finger to her lips, signaling him to stay quiet.
"Shh."
Asher didn't really understand what was happening, but the girl didn't seem hostile, so he stayed silent.
The room was deathly quiet. Even their breathing was barely audible.
It was obvious, though, that the girl who had pulled him inside was terrified.
Her delicate hands were clenched tightly together, her eyes half-closed, her shoulders visibly trembling.
No one knew how much time passed. After what felt like ten minutes or so…
When there was finally no more movement outside, the girl let out a long breath.
"Phew… she should be gone now, right?"
Like someone who had narrowly escaped disaster, she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.
A bit of color finally returned to her face as she looked at Asher.
Then a soft, slightly timid voice slipped from her pink lips.
"Um… sir, why are you here so late at night?"
"Don't you know what kind of place this is?"
Hearing that, Asher couldn't help feeling curious.
Honestly, he also wanted to know exactly what kind of place this was.
"I don't know either," he said."But I guess I'm… a new tenant?""My room is the one at the very end of the hallway."
"A n-new tenant?!"
The girl clearly hadn't expected that answer.
She stared at Asher with a strange look, examining him from head to toe.
"Uh… why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?"
Asher felt completely lost under her gaze.
Seeing his expression, the girl seemed to realize something. She sighed and began to explain.
"Then you probably don't know what happened in this building. Otherwise, there's no way you'd have the guts to move in."
"About a month ago, I think, a woman jumped off the building. Supposedly her boyfriend dumped her, and she couldn't take it."
"Ever since then, there've been rumors that this place is haunted."
"So over the past month, almost everyone who used to live here has moved out."
"Now… I think there are fewer than ten households left."
"..."
Hearing this, Asher rubbed his chin.
That explained why the place felt so strange. Turns out something really bad had happened here.
But compared to that…
"Then if this place is really haunted, why are you still—"
"Eh…?"
Caught off guard by his sudden question, the girl froze.
She'd just said it was haunted. Not only was this guy not scared, he was asking something like that?
Thinking about her own reason for staying, she looked a little embarrassed.
"Well… actually… I only moved in a couple of days ago…"
"I just came to this city for school, and I don't have much money. When I saw this building advertising rooms at such a cheap price, I…"
"I didn't find out about what happened here until after I moved in."
"And honestly, I didn't believe in ghosts or anything like that at first… until the night before last."
"I'd already decided that no matter what, I was moving out tomorrow. But then those footsteps woke me up just now, and when I looked through the peephole, I saw you standing outside…"
"….."