Someone spent all night trying to break into my apartment. The keypad told the whole story.

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

This was sophomore year of high school. I was 18, living alone in Seoul while my parents had to work somewhere else. They set me up in this corridor-style apartment, small unit, just me. And honestly at first I felt kinda free? Like yeah finally no parents. But the nights were a different story. The place had this cold feeling to it. And for whatever reason, ever since I moved in, I started waking up in the middle of the night, every single night. I never did that before.

Always around 2am. Like, 1:50, 2:10, somewhere in that zone. Every. Night. For a week straight. I just figured whatever, weird sleep schedule, and went back to sleep.

Then one night I woke up at 2am like usual but couldn't fall back asleep. My bed was pushed up against the wall that faces the hallway, so my left side was basically right next to the corridor outside.

And that's when I heard footsteps. Dress shoes. Coming from the elevator. Heading toward my unit.

Something about the sound made my skin crawl. I can't explain it. Just this feeling like. That's coming here.

And then it stopped. Right in front of my door.

Silence for a long moment.

Then I heard the cover slide up on my keypad. Our lock had this plastic lid you slide up to reveal the buttons. The second it slid open I heard the beep.

And then. Slowly. One button at a time.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Seven digits. Our password was seven digits.

I was completely frozen in my bed. Couldn't move. Didn't want to make a single sound in case whatever was out there heard me and got... I don't know. Excited.

Inside I was screaming PLEASE let the next one be wrong. PLEASE be an eighth digit. PLEASE.

A pause. Then the cover slid back down.

Error sound. WRONG PASSWORD.

Oh my GOD. Buddha Jesus Allah I will do anything thank you thank you thank you ㅠㅠ

But before I even finished that thought it slid back up and started again. Faster this time.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep. WRONG.

Then again. Even faster. Like RAGEFUL fast. I've sprinted home from school having to pee so bad I nearly died and punched my code in at light speed, this was faster than that.

WRONG again.

A few more tries and the keypad locked itself out. Too many failed attempts, it just shut down.

I thought okay. It's over. You can't get in now.

I waited a while. Quiet. I slowly got up to get water and it suddenly hit me.

I hadn't heard footsteps leave.

No footsteps = still standing there.

I realized that half a second before the keypad screamed to life AGAIN.

It had just been waiting. It knew the machine resets after a cooldown. It WAITED.

I ran to the door, locked the handle, threw the chain latch on, then dove back into bed and pulled the covers over my head.

Eventually it went quiet again. Machine still hadn't locked out but the pressing just... stopped.

I was losing my mind under that blanket. Was it gone? Did it get in somehow and I didn't notice?

I peeked out from under the covers.

Nothing.

And then from behind my head. From under the bed basically.

A woman's voice, barely a whisper.

"Thought you could keep me out? Thought you could keep me out? Thought you could keep me out?"

Over and over.

That was my first sleep paralysis experience. Or at least I think that's what it was. Body stopped working, and then I just. Don't remember anything after that. Must've passed out.

Woke up in the morning (thank god it was a Saturday). Figured maybe I'd dreamed it.

Walked to the front door. Chain latch still on. Door handle still locked.

Not a dream.

I cracked the door open and looked outside. Nobody.

Then I lifted the keypad cover.

The numbers that make up my password. Every single one of them. Scratched up like someone had gone at them with a knife.

I called my parents immediately. They came up, saw it, and we went to the security office to check the CCTV from midnight to 2am.

Five people came through the main entrance in that window. All residents. Nobody in dress shoes. Nobody weird.

We replaced the lock. My parents stayed a few days then had to go back.

After that I stopped waking up at 2am.

I'd never believed in any of that ghost stuff before. Genuinely thought it was all made up.

Still not totally sure what to call what I heard that night. But the scratched keypad was real. I saw it.

Solo apartment people. Be careful out there.