I saw something in my school's night study hall and I'm still not okay

okay I wasn't going to post this but it's been years and I still think about it.

So this was sophomore year of high school. I was going to a regular public school in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, and every single night I'd stay until 10pm for yaja¹, mandatory night study sessions. The school building was OLD. like, the hallways and staircases were just permanently dark, and the 2nd year classrooms up on the 4th floor had this energy that was just. wrong. Couldn't explain it.

That night, everyone had slowly packed up and gone home. Everyone except me and my friend Minji. We'd made this little deal to stay and keep grinding through problems a bit longer. Sounds studious. Adorable. Stupid.

I checked the clock at some point. 10:40pm. Minji gets up and says she's going to the bathroom.

And then it started.

Like the second she left, I heard footsteps in the hallway. This dragging sound.끄—윽, 끄—윽... like someone shuffling their sneakers across the floor. Slow. Deliberate. I thought okay, Minji's pranking me, she does stuff like that. Classic Minji.

except. Minji didn't come back.

The sound kept getting closer. I was sweating. Like full cold sweat, just sitting there frozen. I stood up, thought about going into the hallway, but something in my gut was screaming no. So I just. cracked the door open a little bit.

There was someone at the end of the hallway.

Hazy. Hard to see. But they were wearing a school uniform. And their head. their head was tilted ALL THE WAY to the side. Like completely sideways. And they were facing me. And they were walking toward me.

Still making that sound. 끄—윽, 끄—윽.

I slammed the door and ran. Back door of the classroom, down the stairs, didn't look back once, made it to the first floor in like ten seconds. The school gate was already locked. Security guard's booth? Lights off. Empty. I called my dad on my phone, shaking, and he said he'd come get me.

I called Minji. Like thirty times. Nothing.

Then a few minutes later she texts me.

"where'd you go? I came back from the bathroom and you were just gone lol"

I'm sorry. SHE TEXTED ME THAT. like nothing happened.

now here's the part that actually kept me up for months. I found out later that in that old 2nd year building, ten years before, a student had died by suicide on the 4th floor hallway. The pressure of entrance exams got to them.

And the desk that student used to sit at.

was my desk.

the one I sat at every day.

After that night I never stayed past 9pm. The lights in that classroom started flickering constantly after dark. Rumors spread that people kept seeing a shadow at the end of the hallway. The school denied all of it, obviously. But the number of students staying late for yaja dropped to almost zero.

anyway.

if you're reading this during a late night study session... look up from your screen. look down the hallway.

somebody might be watching you.