Horror story: the boarding house in Songjeong-ri with a window that won't stay shut

I wasn't going to post this but I genuinely can't stop thinking about it.

Early 2023. I moved into a boarding house near Songjeong-ri in Gwangju to grind for the civil service exam. Reviews in the study forums all said the same thing: quiet, cheap, close to the station. The building was an old two-story house converted into rooms. The landlady, this elderly woman, lived on the first floor and made simple meals.

My room was on the first floor. The room directly above mine, at the end of the second floor hallway. Empty. Every time I asked about it the landlady would just go vague.

"That room's locked. No one uses it. Don't worry about it."

I didn't. At first.

Then, less than a week in, it started. Past 11pm, sitting at my desk studying, I'd hear footsteps from the ceiling. Faint but unmistakable. Old floorboards creaking. The specific rhythm of someone walking.

The floor above me was empty.

I told myself it was the building settling. Wind. Maybe the neighbors. I kept telling myself that.

Then came the rainy night.

My window faced the alley. When it rained, the glass of the building across from me would run with water. I heard the footsteps again from above, and then lightning hit and I SAW IT.

The second floor window of our building, reflected in the wet glass across the alley. And in that window. A face. Pale, hollow-eyed, lips pressed together. A woman.

I screamed and ran to the landlady.

"There's someone up there! The window, there's a FACE"

She was quiet for a long time.

"A college student used that room. Few years ago... she jumped from the window."

She was shaking when she said the next part.

"But even after that. The window keeps opening. I close it every night and by morning it's open again."

After that I checked the window's shadow every single night. Sometimes I'd see the face again. And weirdly it kept getting clearer. More defined. Like it was getting closer.

Then another boarder casually dropped this one day:

"You know how the second floor window is always open? Here's the thing though. There's no railing on that side. It's just a straight drop."

We all just sat with that.

I had to know. I snuck upstairs one night. End of the second floor hallway, I could see faint fluorescent light leaking from under the door.

Empty room.

I tried the handle anyway. It opened.

Dust everywhere. But on the desk, a cup. Like someone had just set it down.

And on the wall. A photo.

Someone standing at an open window, looking down at the alley below.

That someone was me.

I slammed the door and ran. That night, two faces appeared in the reflected glass. Mine. And hers, pale as ever.

She opened her mouth.

"You should be in my place."

I moved out the next day. The boarding house is still there near Songjeong-ri. The second floor window is still open. And apparently some people still come by to look at it.

Some of them don't come back.