"You try not to end up in the infirmary either~ You shouldn't be seeing me often~"
"Yes, thank you."
After saying goodbye to Han Sowol as well, I left the headquarters building.
SHHHHHHHH—
"The rain's gotten even heavier."
Gloomy storm clouds packed the sky so densely that even though it was evening, it may as well have been a pitch-black predawn sky.
FWUMP—
I opened the folding umbrella I'd brought when I left for work.
"Pfft."
"Oh my...."
"Shh, shh, act like you didn't see."
Hahaha... goddammit.
The umbrella was riddled with gaping holes. Other employees walking past were desperately holding back laughter, which was truly humiliating.
The plane climbing above the clouds might be fine, but standing here on the ground, I was about to get absolutely drenched.
And I had my carry-on with me too, since I was supposed to fly to Thailand.
Should I just call a taxi?
"Pffhaha! What is that? Are hole-edition umbrellas trending these days?"
"First Officer?"
I turned toward the familiar voice and found the First Officer and Jeong Siun standing side by side, both trying to stifle their laughter.
Correction—the First Officer was cackling openly.
"Bwahahaha! You're going to turn into drowned Yuja-cheong."
"Pfft, Cheongho, did you miss the flight because of finding the possessee?"
Ah, now that I think about it, Siun was the one who delivered the report.
"It's a long story, but aside from me and Manager Kwon Hoyeong, the rest of the crew went to Chiang Mai as scheduled."
"I see. Ahem, the dorm is right nearby—shall I lend you an umbrella?"
Jeong Siun bit his lip as he spoke, standing beside the First Officer, who was laughing hard enough to choke.
"Siun, you can laugh."
"Ahem! No, no, it's fine."
"By the way, I didn't know you lived in the dorm, Siun. That's news to me."
The "Benefits and Perks" packet I'd received in the Cheonsu Airlines written-exam waiting room did include dorm support.
It was about ten minutes from Cheonsu Airlines headquarters by a single bus, and roughly twenty minutes from Doseong International Airport.
Headquarters even ran a direct shuttle bus to the dorm.
"I was supposed to go to Thailand with Hyena today, but then the emergency dropped. I couldn't help out either... stop by and rest for a bit."
"Sure, I was heading to the dorm anyway. Come along, Yuja-cheong."
"You live in the dorm too, First Officer?"
I hadn't expected any of the pilots to live in the dorm.
"Ahaha, I'm separated from my wife."
"Wh-what? You were married? For some reason I assumed you were single."
I'd figured he was the type to live life entirely his own way.
"I'm messing with you."
"...."
"Also, 'for some reason I assumed you were single'! That's rude, rude! I'm so popular that if I got married, everyone would weep."
"I see."
The umbrella went straight into the trash.
CRRRACK.
Fair enough—catching a taxi now, with rush hour and rain combined, I wouldn't get home until past nine.
My scheduled flight had evaporated anyway, and since I'd been invited, I decided to join them.
So the three of us boarded the shuttle bus and headed for the Cheonsu Airlines staff dormitory.
As the bus climbed a hill, a seven-story building shaped like an "L" came into view.
SCREECH—
Stepping off the bus, I saw a large stone monument engraved with 天守 (Cheonsu).
With the rain getting heavier, we ran into the building.
The building was white throughout, and the lobby displayed a long row of aircraft models in various sizes.
"All of them are our aircraft."
The First Officer said proudly.
On the wall behind the model planes were photos from Cheonsu Airlines' founding, photos of the captains, and group photos of the flight attendants.
"Wow, do our photos go up there too?"
"After about two years of work, maybe?"
The First Officer smiled at Jeong Siun's question.
Beside the group photo was even the picture of the First Officer from the Cheonsu Airlines website—sunglasses on, arms crossed, radiating supreme confidence.
At the far end of the wall hung framed group photos of the cleaning staff and the aviation maintenance technicians.
Hm?
'Naviq isn't in the technicians' photo?'
"He was hospitalized at the time."
"Ah."
The First Officer answered when he noticed me staring intently at the technicians' photo as though searching for someone.
That must have been when he was hurt in a ghost story....
"What floor are you on, Siun? I'm in 402."
"Ah, so you really do live in the dorm?"
"I use it like a vacation home. It's close to work, isn't it? And I get tired after long-haul flights."
The First Officer said, showing off his dorm key.
On the name field of the card key labeled 402, I could see the First Officer's name scrawled in permanent marker. As expected, it looked like earthworms squirming across the surface.
'Between this and that note last time, his handwriting is genuinely terrible.'
"I'm in 714."
"Wait, you live there?"
The First Officer looked genuinely alarmed upon hearing Jeong Siun's room number.
"What? What's wrong with 714?"
"Mm, the seventh floor of the dorm is famous for ghosts."
The First Officer said "Oh no..." with a pitying tone. At those words, Jeong Siun's complexion drained white in real time.
Even at an airport crawling with ghost stories you never know what might show up, so being told outright that ghosts appear was enough to horrify anyone.
"Plenty of witnesses too. Ah, it's not necessarily room 714 specifically, so don't worry."
"R-right?"
I think you've already worried him plenty.
Jeong Siun's pupils trembled. The First Officer threw an arm around his shoulder and made an effort to comfort him.
'Siun... so you were just putting on a brave face during the interview ghost story test.'
I just kept that thought to myself.
And so all three of us headed to room 714.
With sky-blue walls and a clean, wide corridor, the seventh floor gave off absolutely no sense of the ghosts the First Officer had described.
A water dispenser and snack vending machine in the middle of the hallway, a laundry room, plus a lounge area with a large table.
It had everything—a fully equipped dorm.
"If it's a dorm, is there a curfew?"
"Since we're adults, curfew is midnight to five. I'd prefer none at all, though."
"The dorm's shaped like an L, right? The left wing is women's, the right is men's."
At the bend in the middle was a lounge where you could hold meetings or chat. Beyond that, you scanned your dorm key for gender verification before accessing each wing.
"They even serve breakfast. This is why I've settled in here."
The First Officer chuckled about how great it was.
BEEP—
Jeong Siun tapped his card key and opened the door.
'Oh.'
It was the tidiest men's room I'd ever seen.
The roughly twenty-three-square-meter room had a small potted plant, and the laundry was folded with knife-sharp creases.
"Completely different from my room. This looks like a cleaning company's showroom."
"Haha, I have a bit of a cleanliness obsession."
Jeong Siun said with an embarrassed laugh.
In the corner sat a basket loaded with every kind of cleaning implement.
A mini broom, a lint roller, two vacuum cleaners of different sizes, and even disinfectant cleaning wipes.
'There's no way you could eat anything red in here.'
"It's a housewarming, so should we order something? My treat~"
"Ooh, sounds good. How about dakbokkeumtang? I know a killer place."
"Deal. And we're adding steamed egg to that."
'Hm, so that's happening.'
Before I knew it, I'd agreed to have dinner with them too.
When I pulled out a chair after being told to sit and make myself comfortable, something on a small dresser caught my eye.
"Is this a family photo?"
A single rectangular frame sat alone on top of the dresser.
It seemed to have been taken in high school—Jeong Siun in a school uniform, beaming with his arms around a boy and a girl who looked kindergarten-aged. A warm, close-knit photo.
"Yes. Cute, right? They're my siblings."
"They still look pretty young. They must be attached to you. They're probably sad you live in the dorm."
"Haha, exactly. Video calls every day, texts nonstop. My hometown's far, so the dorm's the only option."
The First Officer examined the frame from various angles as he spoke.
"Where's your hometown?"
"Busan, sir."
"Doesn't Cheonsu Airlines have a Busan office at Gimhae International Airport?"
"Ghost stories only appear at Doseong International Airport. That's why the benefits and perks are better here."
"Ah, that's true. So you chose the dorm specifically to commute to the airport with the ghost stories?"
"The truth is, I was the family breadwinner as a teenager. It's true I always wanted to be a flight attendant, but I came here for the pay. In exchange for handling ghost stories, the salary is on par with a major corporation. And the dorm is free on top of that."
I hadn't known Siun had a story like that.
"My siblings are with our grandmother right now. I need to earn a lot and send it home. Of course, I'm also extremely satisfied with the flight attendant work itself."
"Your siblings have a good older brother."
"Haha, thanks for saying that. Come to think of it, Hyena said she's always liked horror, and since it doesn't really interfere with the flight attendant work, she just stays. That might be even more impressive."
She'd been worried when the possessee appeared, but she hadn't seemed particularly frightened. If anything, she'd been the calmest of us.
"Why did you come here, Cheongho?"
"Ah, I—"
CLATTER—
Just then, the plastic cups on the small dining table toppled over.
"...?"
There wasn't any wind, though?
CRASH—!
This time the small herb plant by the bedside fell, the pot shattering into pieces.
"E-earthquake?"
"There's no tremor at all."
"True, but... what is this...?"
Everyone fell silent at the sudden turn of events.
When Jeong Siun moved with startled eyes to clean up the broken shards—
WHOOSH—
A gust of wind blew through, sending Jeong Siun's hair fluttering.
"...What was that?"
No matter how much I scanned the surroundings, there was nothing.
'Hold on, the windows are all closed. And wind just blows in out of nowhere?'
SNAP—
The instant the door shut, every light in the room went out.
"!?"
"Power outage?"
"Wow, incredible, hahahaha!"
Plunged into darkness in an instant, everyone groped around for a switch.
SHHHHHHH.
In the pitch-black room, only the sound of the driving rain could be heard.
FLICK, FLICKER.
Soon the lights flickered back on.
"Ah, that startled me."
"With the rain outside, it feels like a ghost's about to pop out—"
"ผีอยู่นี่ว่ะ ไอ้เวร."
The ghost is right here, you damn fool.
In an instant, my entire body locked up and goosebumps erupted across my skin.
All three of us turned toward the direction of the voice simultaneously.
There was nothing but the blanket sprawled out from our search for the switch and the storm clouds beyond the window.
"For all of us to react the same way, we can't have misheard."
"Right, First Officer...."
'But there's nothing here?'
"อะไรนะ? มองไม่เห็นเหรอ ตาเบี้ยวรึไง?"
What? You can't see me? Are your eyes crooked or something?
As if reading my thoughts, someone immediately started hollering at the top of their lungs.
That familiar Thai, the slightly raised pitch, the irritation laced through the voice—don't tell me!?
"The Thai ghost!?"
"ใช่แล้ว ไอ้บ้า นี่ฉันเอง"
That's right, you bastard, it's me.
The crisp, faintly cocky tone characteristic of a young boy. I still had no idea what it was saying, but instinct told me it wasn't anything nice.
I turned my gaze and looked properly toward the source of the voice.
But this was...
"A penguin......?"
Something was poking out of the pocket of my carry-on.
The booming, all-too-familiar voice was coming from a blue penguin figurine standing valiantly with one flipper propped on its hip.
"มองอะไรของแก! ไอ้เหี้ย!"
What are you staring at! You piece of shit!
...It was unmistakably a penguin.
A small, cute penguin figurine at that.
A sound that had no business coming out of this round, adorable five-centimeter figurine was coming out of it.
"Oh, do figurines make sounds these days? Is it yours, Yuja-cheong?"
"What? Absolutely not. It's a plaster figurine, so it physically can't produce sound... and more importantly, I've never seen this before in my life!?"
"มาจดจ่อที่ฉันสิ! พวกไอ้บ้าเอ้ย!"
Pay attention to me! You lunatics!
The First Officer, who had no idea what was actually happening, simply watched with interest and let out an impressed "Ohoo," while Jeong Siun could only blink in bewilderment.
I steadied my needlessly shaky breathing and asked.
"You're the ghost that was attached to the Thai man... aren't you."
"ใช่! เพราะนายนั่นแหละถึงได้กลายเป็นแบบนี้ไปแล้ว! ไม่ปล่อยไว้แน่!"
Yes! It's your fault I ended up like this! I'm not letting this go!
The ghost-possessed penguin figurine went beyond just producing sound—its entire body started jerking around.
Judging by the reaction, it was probably something like "this is your fault" and "I won't let this slide," but—
...I really had no clue what it was saying.
"I don't know a word of Thai. If you possessed this thing for a reason, say 'yeah.' If not, be quiet. That's the only way I can help you."
"......Yeah."
"You've got to be kidding me."
The fact that it understood and answered in the middle of all this was genuinely impressive.
'I thought I'd never be entangled with it again, and here we are less than a day later.'
A rotten laugh escaped me from sheer disbelief, and the figurine, having registered my expression, started thrashing and raging all over again.
"This sounds ridiculous to say, but—is this a ghost you know, Cheongho?"
"You know the possessee who was scheduled to board CQ767 to Chiang Mai today? That thing is the cause."
I pointed directly at the figurine with a limp finger.
"But why is it here!? Didn't we get rid of it? How can it be at the dorm instead of the airport...?"
"The dorm doesn't have talisman wards like headquarters does. It must have gone into the figurine and followed Cheongho here."
At the First Officer's words, the life drained from my eyes, and Jeong Siun's jaw dropped in disbelief.
It followed me, of all things. Good grief.
My temples throbbed, a headache setting in in real time.
"Yuja-cheong. When this ghost possessed Hoyeong, did it use Thai?"
"Yes. When Senior Kwon Hoyeong was possessed, his voice cracked and he said something in Thai."
"Hmm~ You—how much Korean can you speak?"
The First Officer picked up the penguin figurine and examined it from every angle as he asked.
"Is it alright to just handle it like that?"
"Hm? If it could possess people, wouldn't it have possessed one of us by now?"
Ah, that's a fair point.
"Why chase me all the way here and possess an object instead of a person, though?"
"From what you've told me, it possessed several times today alone. Hoyeong's case was forced, sure. It's been going in and out so much that it probably can't get into anyone anymore."
"So that's why the figurine...?"
"Look at this penguin. It has eyes, a nose, a mouth—a whole face. Normally they'd possess a similar doll, but since there wasn't a single doll around, it went into this instead."
The First Officer set the figurine down, cackling about how absurd the whole situation was.
The ghost, which had been quietly listening along, seemed to grasp the gist and started spouting Thai again.
"Shouldn't we request an exorcism?"
"Siun, Siunie~ We're not shamans, are we?"
"Guess we have no choice but to hand it over to a shrine."
When I muttered that while thinking through options, the ghost stopped dead and spoke.
"Don't. If you try to exorcise me, I'll curse you down to your descendants' descendants!"
"Your Korean is pretty fluent, huh?"
"Hah. Never mind."
The ghost started heaving sigh after sigh, considerably more subdued than before.
"Do you know where those three Thai people summoned you from?"
"What do you need that for!?"
"Hahaha, I've got my regular shrine's number in my phone. I'll book an appointment for tod—"
"Winner Suite Incheon. I've been an earthbound spirit on that lot for ten years."
When the First Officer smiled sweetly and issued his semi-threat, the ghost barely swallowed its anger and answered.
Winner Suite Incheon.
A four-star hotel about twenty minutes by bus from Doseong International Airport.
It boasted an open rooftop pool and, being newly built, trendy interiors throughout.
But it had once been famous as a hotel where ghosts were sighted.