Ghost Writer

Rabid Resolve and Cold Confrontation

TRIGGER WARNING: assault, blades

"HEY! I THINK THIS IS ONE OF my best drawings yet!" Chung-Cha grinned as she waved the paper in front of Bo-Ram. Ignorance was bliss, and Chung-Cha had been blissfully avoiding the other residents. For the past few days, she had been visiting Bo-Ram on the rooftop, even bringing along card games and art supplies. Sometimes, for an instant, guilt would overwhelm Chung-Cha when she remembered Andrew, but she pushed those feelings away. She already told Yi-Hyun and Sae-Bom, but they didn't believe her. There was nothing else she could do, besides hide out and hope nothing bad happens.

Bo-Ram glanced at the drawing. "Hmm, I guess so." Immediately, she turned back to her artwork, where she was trying to recreate the sunset with oil pastels. The sky turned dark a while ago, but Bo-Ram insisted she was not yet done.

"You didn't even look," Chung-Cha whined, but Bo-Ram stuck out her tongue and continued blending the colours. Chung-Cha rolled her eyes playfully, but she was secretly glad that she could be silly around someone. 

While she was waiting for Bo-Ram, she examined her drawing more closely. The short curly hair; distrusting eyes; angular face seemed extremely lifelike, but Chung-Cha couldn't remember who these features belonged to. When Bo-Ram had finished, Chung-Cha bid her goodnight, promising to come again tomorrow. She walked down, humming. Maybe if she wasn't so caught up in her own happiness, she would have heard the commotion on the 15th floor. She probably wouldn't have tried to save him, though.

:

Chung-Cha woke up to incessant knocking. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see the bright uniforms of the cleaners. "Good morning?"

The male cleaner ignored her, instead peering into her house. "Is Andrew here? It seems like he would come here. That brat stole our food!"

"He's not here," Chung-Cha said lowly. Being yelled at was not how she envisioned her day would start. Just as she was about to close the door, the female cleaner grabbed her wrist. "Could you help us find him?" Not one to say no, Chung-Cha unwillingly followed them.

They ran into Detective Kim on the way upstairs, who told them to go to Unit 1102. Not many people were there. They were waiting outside, and just as Chung-Cha decided it was a waste of time and was about to slip away, the door opened. The male cleaner launched into an angry rant, telling the couple to arrest Andrew for stealing the food (if only it was that easy).

"Please calm down. Someone died," Sae-Bom interrupted.

The male cleaner brushed off the statement. "That's not important right now. The food is gone—"

"The cleaning lady who was at your house died! Ms Lee Deok-Soon!"

Chung-Cha stilled. Then, she spurred into action, pushing past the others. She went into first room. It was stuffy, and the air smelt of cement. There were flies buzzing around. She looked around the room wildly, and her eyes landed on the corner of the room. Just as she was about to remove the cover, Sae-Bom pulled her back. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Chung-Cha didn't respond. She looked outside and saw Joo-Hyung, but she only heard Min-Ji's ghost, so he didn't kill the cleaning lady. "Who do you think did it?"

"Kim Se-Hun from Unit 1501. Yesterday, he left a letter saying he did something that cannot be undone. This might be it. Although, he's missing." Sae-Bom sighed. "Let's go back outside, the others are waiting. We're going to have a meeting at the gym."

The walk down was extremely noisy, with their footsteps echoing in the stairwell and the male cleaner constantly complaining about food. It became even more noisy when they met halfway with Hyun-Kyung and Andrew. Great, now there were two murderers and all the ghosts they brought with them. Chung-Cha was getting a headache. Still, she had something she needed to do. She covered her mouth, feigning a cough, and whispered, "Lee Deok-Soon, I hear you." The ghosts quietened down, and Chung-Cha knew she hit jackpot. Just for good measure, she added, "Kim Se-Hun, I hear you." Once again, the screeching of ghosts quietened down.