true ghost story: footsteps at 3am in a half-abandoned Seoul apartment

okay I wasn't going to post this but this happened to my friend's little brother and I genuinely cannot stop thinking about it.

so there's this old apartment complex in Seoul. half-abandoned, barely anyone left living there. and the reason nobody lives there? ten years ago a girl killed herself in one of the units. her death was never fully explained. after that, weird stuff just kept happening in that room, residents started leaving one by one, and eventually the whole place turned into basically a ruin.

my friend's brother, Junho (20s, moved to Seoul alone for uni), ended up renting there. he knew about the rumors. he just... didn't care. the rent was cheap and he was a broke college student, so.

one night he goes to bed after studying late. normal night. then at 2am he wakes up out of nowhere.

footsteps. outside his door.

he figures it's a neighbor coming home late. closes his eyes. but the footsteps don't stop. they just keep going. back and forth. like someone pacing right outside his door.

he gets up. opens his bedroom door. the sound is clearer now, definitely coming from the front door. he walks toward it slowly and then.

the doorknob starts turning.

slowly.

Junho FROZE. someone was trying to open his door. he grabbed the handle and yelled "WHO IS IT?? WHAT ARE YOU DOING??" nothing. no answer. the turning just... stopped. he stood there at the door for a long time but the sound never came back. eventually he convinced himself it was nothing and went back to bed.

next morning he goes to the building office and checks the CCTV. nobody. there was literally no one in that hallway all night. zero. Junho shook it off and went back to his routine.

a few weeks later. 2am again. he wakes up.

this time it's not just footsteps. there's a woman crying.

he pulls his blanket over his head. the crying gets closer. and closer. and then it stops right outside his bedroom door. he's lying there completely still, too scared to move, and then someone knocks on his door.

he could not move. he just lay there.

he told his friends the next day and they all said bro you need to leave that place. but he couldn't afford to move. so he stayed.

a few nights later it happened again. this time he'd had enough. he got up, opened the front door, walked out into the hallway.

nothing. empty.

he went back inside, locked the door, turned on the lights. stood there trying to convince himself he was hearing things. looked around the room.

and then he saw his own reflection in the mirror in the corner.

but behind him.

there was a woman in white standing there.

he spun around IMMEDIATELY. nothing there. just his empty room. he looked back at the mirror.

she was still standing behind him in the reflection.

Junho screamed and ran out of the apartment.

he never went back. stayed at a friend's place and moved out as fast as he could. when his friends asked the building management office about it, the staff basically just went "yeah we know, weird stuff happens in that unit all the time." said it completely casually btw. like that was a normal thing to say.

Junho moved eventually. but he still wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, swearing he can hear it. the footsteps. the crying.

who she was. what happened in that room. nobody knows.