This Korean ghost story has a punchline that will ruin your day

okay so a group of girls from some school decided to take a trip over summer break. to save money they played at the river during the day and planned to sleep at this abandoned school building at night. haunted school. for fun. sure.

so one of the girls, Mijin, ate too much during the day and her stomach started acting up. It's the middle of the night. In a haunted school. And she has to go to the bathroom.

she wakes up the girl sleeping next to her, Jeongsuk, and basically begs her to come along. Jeongsuk is NOT happy about it but she goes. Mijin grabs her hand, drags her to the bathroom door, and goes "you HAVE to stay right here okay? don't move. promise me" and then goes inside.

She's in there doing her thing and it gets really quiet. So she calls out.

"Jeongsuk-ah, you still out there?"

"...yeah."

okay. good. she keeps going. then it gets quiet again.

"Jeongsuk-ah, where are you?"

"...wol-lae."

Mijin just figured Jeongsuk was bored and messing around. she laughed it off. kept going.

a while later she asks again.

"Jeongsuk-ah, where are you?"

"...wol-lae."

Same answer. whatever. she's almost done. she's putting her clothes back on and she goes "okay I'm done, you still there?"

silence.

she comes out and there's nobody there.

she figured Jeongsuk got impatient and went back to sleep. annoying but fine.

the NEXT DAY she goes up to Jeongsuk like "hey why did you leave before I was done" and Jeongsuk goes.

"...I left right after you went inside. I never stayed."

so Mijin goes home from the trip feeling genuinely unsettled. but she had one specific thing nagging at her. not just the obvious "something was outside that door" thing.

it was the word. "wol-lae." what does that even mean.

summer ends. she goes back to school. and she casually asks her homeroom teacher (who teaches Korean language class) what "wol-lae" means.

and the teacher goes.

"...wol-lae? it's an archaic word. nobody uses it anymore. it means... 'above you.'"

.

.

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yeah I'm never using a public bathroom at night again ever