Chapter 6

Mugyeong arrived at the entrance of the haunted house together with the other two.

But now that they were actually standing there, President Kim was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh? He was definitely standing here just a second ago.”

“Maybe he got an urgent phone call.”

PD Park pushed lightly against the metal door with her fingertips.

The door slid open without resistance.

Blue light spilled through the opening.

“The lights inside are on, and I can hear music too.”

PD Park looked conflicted.

“We promised to finish filming before midnight, so we don’t have much time left. Since he left the lights on, maybe we should just go in first.”

Mugyeong glanced at the livestream chat.

The viewers were already waiting excitedly for them to enter.

If they delayed too long, the few viewers they did have might leave.

“We already got permission to film beforehand, so I think it’s fine. I vote yes.”

PD Park led the way holding the camera, with Mugyeong and Unho entering behind her.

The haunted house had a simple structure— just follow the one-way path and eventually reach the exit.

There were four themed sections total, and except for the final “Mirror Room,” the attraction operated automatically without staff.

Since business hours were already over, there naturally weren’t any employees inside now.

The interior was pleasantly cool compared to the humid outdoors, probably because the air conditioning was still running.

The first section had a Western horror theme.

Mannequins shaped like witches and ghosts stood around, along with fake bats and cobwebs.

Aside from dim blue lighting and glowing arrows on the floor pointing the direction forward, there was almost no illumination.

Trying desperately to ignore the creepy background music and distant cackling sounds, Mugyeong rummaged through the equipment bag PD Park had given him earlier and pulled out an EMF detector.

The palm-sized detector had five LED lights attached.

“Starting now, we’ll be measuring electromagnetic waves. There are five levels total, and the more lights that turn on, the stronger the electromagnetic field. Apparently, strong electromagnetic fields indicate ghosts.”

Mugyeong spoke toward the camera.

The moment he turned on the device, two green lights immediately blinked on.

Mugyeong sighed in relief.

“That’s weak. Looks like there aren’t any ghosts here.”

“What about from your perspective, Teacher Cheongun?”

Unho also shook his head.

“I don’t sense anything unusual here.”

The livestream comments scrolled rapidly.

[Anonymous#29873: Cheongun-nim’s facial features are insane.]

[Anonymous#640333: The guy in black sleeves looks like a celebrity. Is he really a shaman?]

[Anonymous#410122: White shirt guy is cute. Who’s that?]

[MugyeongMugyeong: White shirt guy is Hexatonic’s Mugyeong. Please take care of our boy :)]

[Anonymous#5042: What the hell is Hexatonic, sounds like Tektonik.]

[Anonymous#98354: boring as fuck. Even flop idols from shitty agencies are crawling into paranormal streaming now. This genre’s dead.]

Mugyeong checked the phone screen strapped to his wrist.

This was no time to relax.

This was work.

They needed viewers, but the stream count hovered stubbornly around fifty people.

Actually, it seemed to be dropping slightly, meaning viewers were entering and leaving almost immediately.

While Mugyeong’s attention drifted toward the stream statistics—

Someone suddenly let out a shrill scream.

KIIIIIIIIYAAAAAH—!

“AAAH!”

Mugyeong shrieked and collapsed onto the floor in shock.

“W-what the hell is that?!”

At the end of the hallway, a blood-covered mannequin had suddenly popped out.

After accomplishing its purpose of terrifying him, it creaked noisily back into its grave.

“Holy shit… that scared me. I almost had a heart attack.”

Even after realizing it was fake, his pounding heart refused to calm down.

It was probably some kind of motion-triggered machine.

Without a word, Unho extended a hand toward him.

Mugyeong grabbed it and barely managed to stand again.

Humiliatingly enough, even his legs were shaking.

Meanwhile, neither Unho nor PD Park looked remotely startled, which bruised his pride even more.

“Are you scared? Want me to go first?”

Unho looked at him with obvious amusement.

The teasing tone nearly provoked Mugyeong into insisting he lead instead.

But he barely restrained himself.

No. Don’t get emotional. Think rationally.

The viewers clearly liked Unho’s face, so objectively speaking, having Unho in front would help ratings.

But if Unho walked ahead, that meant Mugyeong would be stuck alone in the back.

Defenseless against any ghost attacks coming from behind…

After intense internal debate, Mugyeong made a slightly cowardly decision.

Pretending to pat Unho casually, he firmly grabbed onto his arm.

“No, no. I’m the older one, I can’t let you go alone. I think it’ll be safer if we walk together.”

Unho looked mildly surprised but quietly went along with it.

The comments exploded again.

[Anonymous#8292: scaredy cat?ㅋㅋ]

[Anonymous#410122: Cheongun-nim is so sweet. I want a boyfriend like that.]

[MugyeongMugyeong: Mugyeong-ah fightingㅠㅠ]

[Anonymous#98354: White shirt guy acts so damn babygirlㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Anonymous#556: Are they dating?]

[Pentatonic55: Please stop shipping people carelessly. Celebrities are humans too.]

The next section was themed around Joseon-era ghost stories.

A female ghost in mourning clothes grinned with her mouth stretched unnaturally wide, her hair hanging loose over a pale face.

A Changgwi wandered nearby with white rolled-back eyes, black tears streaming down its cheeks while searching for its missing foot.

Mugyeong swallowed hard.

This section was far scarier than the random Western monsters earlier.

Maybe it was just his imagination, but the temperature suddenly felt colder too.

Shivering slightly, Mugyeong tightened his grip around Unho’s arm.

“Are you cold?”

“The AC’s probably too strong. Do you see anything here?”

“Hmm… there does seem to be one wandering spirit around.”

“W-where?”

“Between the virgin ghost and the gumiho.”

Without hesitation, Unho pointed.

The comments exploded instantly.

[Anonymous#556: Damn the shaman aura is crazyㄷㄷ]

[Anonymous#98354: Use the motion detector!!]

[Anonymous#8292: ㄱㅈㅇ]

[Anonymous#1166: do it]

Mugyeong closed his eyes briefly while staring at the comments.

I seriously don’t want to.

But if he backed out now, this whole thing would become pointless.

Suppressing the urge to flee, Mugyeong pulled a motion detector out of the bag.

“This equipment is a motion detector. It uses infrared sensors to detect human-like forms and display their movements. We’ll use this to check whether there’s actually something here.”

With trembling hands, Mugyeong powered it on.

The device had a camera on one side and a monitor screen on the other.

He adjusted the camera angle so both the virgin ghost and gumiho mannequins appeared on screen.

PD Park stood behind Mugyeong and Unho filming the monitor feed.

At first, the screen showed only the two mannequins.

Nothing else.

Internally relieved, Mugyeong said hopefully,

“PD-nim, this thing isn’t detecting anything. Maybe it’s broken?”

“Ah, no. Your hands are just shaking too much right now…”

Embarrassed, Mugyeong laughed awkwardly.

Without a word, Unho reached over and steadied one side of the motion detector.

The shaking immediately lessened.

They checked again.

Still nothing except empty darkness between the mannequins.

Mugyeong sighed in relief.

“Looks like there aren’t any ghosts here after all.”

[Anonymous#9209: A paranormal streamer getting happy because there are no ghostsㅋㅋ]

[RealTonic: Isn’t there something on the mannequin?ㅠㅠ]

Mugyeong glanced at the monitor again.

Two human-shaped stick figures hovered above the virgin ghost and gumiho mannequins.

Confident now, he explained,

“The motion detector recognizes anything vaguely human-shaped as a person. But look at the figures above the mannequins— they’re not moving at all, right? It’s just mistaking the dolls for humans.”

[Anonymous#556: huh? didn’t one just move?]

[Anonymous#556: am I the only one who saw that?]

Looking much calmer, Mugyeong turned toward Unho.

“There was something here earlier, but maybe it’s gone now. Right?”

“……”

“Unho?”

Unho remained staring silently ahead.

The chat suddenly accelerated.

[channel3108: yeah it moved]

[RealTonic: Mugyeong oppa look at the screenㅠ]

[RealTonic: hurryㅠㅠ]

[channel3108: it’s coming]

A terrible feeling crept over him.

Mugyeong slowly looked back at the motion detector screen.

The human-shaped figure above the gumiho mannequin twitched as though glancing around.

Then suddenly—

It stopped.

And charged straight toward Mugyeong.

“AAAAAAH!”

Mugyeong screamed loud enough to shake the building.

The rushing shape barreled toward him so violently that his mind went completely blank.

For a moment, it felt like he’d forgotten how to breathe.

No matter how desperately he sucked in air, his lungs refused to calm down.

“It’s okay. Calm down.”

A large warm hand rubbed gently along his back.

“Breathe slowly. In and out.”

The low, gentle voice soothed him.

Gradually, his senses returned.

Only then did Mugyeong realize he’d somehow buried his face against Unho’s chest.

But he was so dazed he couldn’t even feel embarrassed.

When he lifted his head, a tear that had gathered in one eye rolled down his cheek.

“Are you okay? Can you keep going?”

“……”

“Do you want to leave right now?”

“…PD-nim.”

“What?”

“PD-nim! Did you get that on camera?”

“Yes, I filmed everything.”

“YES! VIEWERS!”

Mugyeong immediately checked the stream count.

The viewers had jumped from fifty to over one hundred.

His terror instantly faded, replaced by pride.

The comments exploded.

[Anonymous#556: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ didn’t this guy literally cry from fear just now? Why’s he so happy]

[Anonymous#7708: LMAOOO]

[channel3108: capitalism-created monster…!]

[RealTonic: Mugyeong oppa is so professionalㅠ]

[Anonymous#62222: Came here after hearing rumors on the ghost story forums. Is this the stream where a ghost actually appeared?]

[Anonymous#20916: Did a ghost already show up or not yet?]

[Anonymous#11134: Came because I heard two handsome guys were streaming]

Mugyeong turned toward Unho and beamed brightly.

“Unho! I can keep going! No— this is where things really start!”

Notes

• 창귀 (Changgwi) → A ghost in Korean folklore associated with tiger victims. Often depicted wandering endlessly while searching for replacements or missing body parts.
• 구미호 (Gumiho) → A legendary nine-tailed fox spirit in Korean mythology.