the goshiwon I worked at had a body in it. I found out way too late.

okay so I wasn't gonna post this but I need to get it out.

I was living in Noryangjin doing civil service exam prep, and I'd just bombed the April national exam (customs track). Nothing left to study for, nowhere to be, but I still wanted to stay in Noryangjin. Felt too guilty asking my parents for more money so I saw a listing for a goshiwon front desk job. 1pm to 6pm shift, women only applicants. Went in for the interview.

The owner was SO intense btw. Like I could write a whole separate horror post just about her. genuinely unhinged woman.

Anyway she called me the next day, told me to pack my stuff and move in. So I did. And then I find out the whole place is being renovated and there's a TON of work to do. She said it'd take like two weeks.

It took two months. LMAO. Classic.

but okay that's not the scary part.

One day this middle-aged guy walks in. I figured he was checking out a room for his kid or whatever so I was like "welcome! how can I help you?" And he goes, very carefully, "could I ask you something... I'm a TV writer. I heard something bad happened here a few months ago and I wanted to ask about it."

I PANICKED. I'm a huge scaredy cat, like genuinely cannot go to the bathroom after midnight, so I was like NO. nothing happened here. if anything happened I would have LEFT. who told you that??? He said the real estate office downstairs told him.

I basically screamed "I've worked here two years and nothing happened!!" at this man. (honestly maybe I just needed to believe that)

I assumed he was just some guy going around poking at random goshiwons for content. dismissed it.

three weeks later. MBC or KBS airs a special on civil service exam students dying by suicide in Noryangjin.

the reporter doing interviews on screen.

it was him.

goosebumps. all over. I just sat there like. okay so he DID find one. he found a place where someone died. I moved on.

but THEN.

one day a girl from the 7th floor comes down to the front desk holding something small in her hand. She goes "what does this look like to you?"

it looked like a fingernail. like, opaque, hard, curved.

I said "...a fingernail?"

and she LOST IT. like borderline hysterical. she told me she cleans her room every single day, and every day she keeps finding fingernails. on the floor. on top of the mini fridge. always one at a time. she always cuts her nails in the bathroom, never in the room. so why are there fingernails in the room.

and then that afternoon she'd been studying at her desk, went to the bathroom, came back, and there was a fingernail. sitting on top of her book.

that's why she came downstairs.

I was already freaking out and then she goes:

"hey do you know about Jeong Semu? someone died here. that's why they renovated."

I went home and searched every site I could think of.

it was in the news.

a police officer exam candidate failed and hanged himself from a clothing hanger in his room. in March.

the room directly above mine.

THAT'S why the owner renovated. THAT'S why every room suddenly had no hangers. residents kept asking me "hey why'd they remove the hangers, it's so inconvenient" and the owner would just say "they looked bad aesthetically."

but wait it gets worse.

turns out the guy who died had friends living in the same goshiwon. after a few days of not seeing him they asked the female front desk worker to go check his room with them.

she opened the door and he was right there. hanging from the hanger in the doorway.

she quit on the spot.

and the owner, because she didn't want word getting out, LEFT HIM THERE for days. then secretly called 119 in the middle of the night. and made the male staff clean everything up.

I heard that most goshiwons in Noryangjin have had at least one death. basically all of them except a handful.

the owner offered to raise my pay to keep me.

I could not sleep a single night after finding out. I quit.