"Excuse me, sir."
The three, who'd been chattering away, fell silent in an instant and turned their attention to Kwon Hoyeong.
Anan still wore his carefree grin. But look closely, and you could almost mistake his eyes for being completely hollow.
"I need to verify a few additional details on the boarding pass you presented earlier. I'm sorry for the trouble, but could you come with me for a moment?"
"Just me? What kind of thing?"
"Since you boarded a bit late, we weren't able to complete proper identity verification. It'll only take about two minutes."
"Then, just check here. I've already taken off my jacket and unpacked my stuff. Passport, ticket, let me see, my Thai ID...."
Without so much as a blink, Anan rummaged through his pockets for the ticket.
Kwon Hoyeong maintained a neutral expression, but the fact that Anan kept refusing to follow clearly had him in a bind.
"I'm sorry, sir. We need to begin the safety equipment and emergency exit briefing shortly. It would be difficult to handle it here."
I immediately switched to my most pleasant smile and stepped up alongside Kwon Hoyeong.
To make it harder for Anan to refuse again, I said, "Allow me to escort you this way," and angled my body to guide him, as if conducting a formal escort.
—Tch.
It was extremely brief, but I caught the sound of someone clicking their tongue.
I raised my head and looked at the three of them.
I couldn't tell whether it was Anan or one of the others.
"โอเค รีบไปรีบมานะ"
Fine, hurry up and come back.
When the man sitting beside him gave him a push, Anan rose with an annoyed look and followed my lead.
To match the excuse I'd given, Kwon Hoyeong immediately began the safety briefing with the other attendants.
[Ladies and gentlemen, we will now demonstrate the in-flight safety procedures. Please pause what you are doing and direct your attention to our flight attendants—]
Near the front galley, So Hyena was standing by, holding the sedative-laced drink.
I gave So Hyena the faintest nod as a signal.
"Thank you for cooperating."
"Sure."
"I'll verify the ticket, so in the meantime, here's a welcome drink as a gesture of—"
'Huh.'
I froze.
"Here, have a glass of—"
As So Hyena smiled and moved to hand over the drink, I stepped in front of her.
So Hyena looked at me, bewildered.
The smell was gone.
Not just that distinctive waxy scent from the incense near Anan—there was no scent at all.
Why had the incense smell suddenly vanished? Just as I was questioning it—
GRIP.
Anan seized my left arm hard and spoke in a voice that crawled, slow and desperate.
"ไม่ใช่ฉัน… ได้โปรด……."
It's not me... please.......
"...What?"
"Oh, my ticket's right here."
It lasted barely an instant, but—
'The voice was different.'
Unlike the trembling voice I'd heard a split second ago, his expression was utterly blank—devoid of any emotion whatsoever.
'Ugh!?'
Then, the veins on the back of the hand gripping my arm stood out sharply, and the grip intensified.
His fingers weren't enough—his nails dug in, pressing hard enough that the smile I'd been forcing crumpled into a grimace.
Anan kept holding my arm with only the corners of his mouth pulled upward.
'He's out of his mind!'
"I'll take that, sir. You can hand it to me."
So Hyena gently pushed Anan's arm away.
Anan released my arm and handed over the ticket with a thoroughly indifferent air, as if saying eh, suit yourself.
"What about the welcome juice?"
"I noticed something floating in it just now. I'll bring you a fresh one. We have orange juice, water, coffee, and cola—what would you prefer?"
"Hmm, well... cola, please."
Anan said it with a perfectly shameless face.
As So Hyena accepted the ticket and answered, a woman who'd overheard the conversation, along with other passengers, began chiming in with requests.
"Excuse me, can I get some juice over here too?"
"An americano for me, please."
"Oh, are we ordering now? Is the in-flight meal ready too?"
Passengers left and right started placing drink orders at So Hyena and me.
"Once we're airborne, our attendants will come around with the beverage cart!"
"Just a moment, please..."
"You're done, right? Just bring the drink to my seat."
In that brief window, Anan had already gotten his ticket back from So Hyena and strolled back to his seat.
"Hyena, you said you can understand some Thai, right?"
"Yes. He definitely said 'It's not me.' But the possessee could also be lying, so maybe we should've just given him the sedative...."
"Being cautious is never a bad thing. We only have one dose of sedative."
In exorcism movies, you often see the possessed person bound somewhere while a ritual is performed to save them.
And as So Hyena mentioned, it's common to see the possessing demon or spirit scream "It's not me!" as a lie.
Even so, there was something I was certain about.
"That voice just now—when he spoke in Thai instead of Korean—did you not catch it?"
"Hm? Not at all."
"His voice up until now, and the voice of the friend sitting next to him, were identical. But when he said 'It's not me,' it was clearly different."
Because all three of them had been talking together, something that should have been strange had slipped past unnoticed.
Through that brief exchange, I'd realized Anan's voice and the seated man's voice were exactly the same.
So Hyena had never heard all three speak at the same time, so it made sense she wouldn't have caught it.
The deep, low voice had shifted into a distinctly younger, boyish one.
'Slower. Think more carefully.'
'Don't let the time pressure make me miss something.'
I'd watched more than just movies—American documentaries about possession too....
...Wait.
'But what if this isn't an Exorcist scenario at all?'
The suspect was Thai—Southeast Asian.
Wouldn't digging into their region's traditions have a higher chance of yielding answers?
"Hyena, you said you've watched a lot of Southeast Asian horror! Are there any ghost stories or folk tales that come to mind besides possession? Specifically involving incense and Thai tradition."
I looked directly at So Hyena and asked.
"H-hold on... you're asking me so suddenly. Off the top of my head...."
So Hyena closed her eyes tight, furrowing her brow in deep thought.
"...Oh! I'm not sure about movies or folk tales specifically, but there is a similar 'game.'"
'ตั้งแต่หลัง 'เกม' นั้นใช่ไหม? รู้สึกแปลก ๆ ยังไงก็ไม่รู้.'
Since that 'game,' right? I've had a weird feeling I can't shake.
What the woman had said earlier came flooding back.
"What kind of game?"
"Honestly, calling it a 'game' is a stretch, but... it's known as 'Phi Tai Hong.' It's a type of séance, similar to the 'Bunshinsaba' that's been popular in Korea and Japan."
"A séance?"
Phi Tai Hong (ผีตายโหง).
A Thai séance performed with a glass, also known as the Glass Ghost.
The method involves placing an inverted glass on a large board covered in written letters, with participants resting their fingers on top.
Then, sticks of incense are packed into the glass and the ritual begins. Think of it as a Thai version of a Ouija board.
Like Bunshinsaba, when you ask a question, the glass with the fingers on it supposedly moves to spell out an answer.
The critical rule is that you must never lift your fingers off the glass in surprise, and the letter board must have designated start and end markers.
'A séance is inherently dangerous to begin with. If just anyone can summon something through a ritual, and whatever answers is willing to respond—the odds of it being a malevolent spirit are extremely high.'
And the key detail here.
"The incense!"
So Hyena exclaimed mid-explanation.
The game, the incense smell, and the Thai séance that fit perfectly.
"I believe they were conducting the séance and that's how the possession occurred. The incense smell matches too."
"Then the person just now wasn't possessed himself—he was 'latched onto' during the séance. That would explain why the incense smell appeared only temporarily!"
"The male in his early twenties listed in the report. The answer was someone else all along."
Having nearly reached the solution, a wave of relief washed over me.
"Cheongho...! Why didn't you give him the drink?"
"Did the plan fail?"
"What happened?"
Kwon Hoyeong and the other attendants rushed over after finishing the safety briefing, their faces dead serious.
"It didn't fail. It's just that the possessee isn't that man—"
I was about to explain what So Hyena and I had discovered, instinctively turning my head toward the three of them.
"!!"
The man who'd been seated next to Anan was suddenly standing up.
He had turned his head toward us and was staring fixedly at So Hyena and me.
'...He's been watching.'
Our eyes met.
The man's pupils locked precisely onto this direction.
His body was angled toward Anan, facing sideways, but his head was turned straight toward the galley where I stood.
His eyes now held no life whatsoever—pure black, so enlarged that nearly no white was visible.
Like the eyes of a dead fish.
'ทำไม?'
Why?
The man smirked and mouthed the word, his lips moving like a dubbed film.
I rolled my eyes downward, then slowly turned my body away.
So Hyena, too, was trying desperately to tear her rigid gaze away naturally.
I could see her lips trembling.
I'll never know how slowly those few seconds of eye contact passed.
But what I did learn was this:
The possessee wasn't Anan—it was the friend.
Not a single trace of human energy emanated from that man.
VRRRM.
Just then, a low vibration began humming through the entire cabin.
'What time is it now!?'
I scrambled to check the clock on my phone. The current time was—
[ 16 : 20 ]
The aircraft was moments away from heading to the runway.
Pushback was about to begin—the plane would start moving backward, slowly.
I quickly looked at the man. He was watching me, his lips moving silently.
"โง่จริง ๆ เลยนะ"
How foolish.
The man smiled, a satisfied look on his face, and sat back down.
I didn't know the meaning, but it was nothing good.
The aircraft's vibration still hummed through the cabin.
Time was running out.
But if I tried to drag the man off by force in my panic, every passenger on board would be watching.
It would absolutely end up on social media. And if the possessee played the victim and resisted to the end, the fallout would be catastrophic.
If we made it fully to the runway, even a ramp return might not be possible.
"This is a serious problem."
"What do we do...."
Everyone was hitting the wall of ideas, on the verge of panic.
That was when one insane thought struck me.
One idea with absurdly high stakes.
No more time to hesitate.
If that's the case, then,
"I, um, I'm not sure this will work, but I have one idea."
—Trying something is better than nothing!
"What is it?"
All eyes turned to me.
"We summon the ghost that's possessing him ourselves."
"Wh— excuse me?"
Bewildered stares filled with utter incomprehension.
I continued without hesitation.
"Fight a séance with a séance. If we get it to possess one of us, subduing it would be much easier, wouldn't it?"
'Phi Tai Hong is a séance, after all.'
I was saying I'd attempt one myself.
Kwon Hoyeong, the other attendants, and even So Hyena all stared at me with slack-jawed expressions.
"Our objective is to administer the sedative to the possessee, wait for them to fall asleep, and then transport them to the infirmary."
"And what does that have to do with...?"
Another attendant asked.
"The fact that the objective is to get them to the infirmary means there must be a method to exorcise or expel the possessing spirit once there. The key point is that 'method of expulsion.'"
Kwon Hoyeong let out a short sigh.
"Right. Han Sowol will handle it somehow, so all we need to do is get the possessee there."
Han Sowol—the one and only ghost story specialist physician at Cheonsu Airlines.
The person who'd given me medicine after the aftereffects from the Chinese ghost story.
"So you're suggesting we hold a summoning séance right here to lure it over?"
"Even if it's reckless, I think attempting it is better than not. The Phi Tai Hong that the Thai group presumably performed requires incense to fill the glass, but...."
"There's no way to get a lighter and incense sticks on board."
At that, So Hyena held up a Cheonsu Airlines pen.
"Then there's something that only needs pencil and paper. Bunshinsaba!"
Here, one might wonder: "Couldn't a different ghost show up, or if the summoning fails, wouldn't it all be for nothing?"
What we needed to remember was that this was still Doseong International Airport.
A place where people have said for over 500 years that the land is damp and overcast, that some strange energy has always lingered.
A place where stories seeped in with the flow of people, until ghost stories began manifesting on their own.
When summoning through a séance, the nearest spirit is the one that latches on.
And the only spirit on this entire aircraft was the one clinging to that man.
'This is feasible.'
"...Is this really our best option?"
Kwon Hoyeong murmured.
"Once we're airborne, there's no telling what the possessee might do up there."
At those words, Kwon Hoyeong seemed to reach a decision and looked at me.
"Haah... fine. But if we're doing this, I'll be the new host."
"You, Manager?"
"Y-you're doing it yourself?"
Two other attendants asked again in worried tones.
"Yes. No one else. We don't know what dangers being possessed entails, and we don't have time to experiment. I'll take the role of the new host."
Kwon Hoyeong spoke firmly, insisting that everyone follow his lead on this point.
"...Understood."
"One person marks the man, and the moment the signs disappear from him and manifest in me, administer the sedative immediately and put me to sleep."
Kwon Hoyeong laid out the plan at breakneck speed.
""Understood!""
Every attendant nodded with grim resolve.