Chapter 1: The Room of Echoes
The wheels of the wooden cart groaned under the weight of Ji-Hoon’s entire life. It wasn't much—just six cardboard boxes, a rolled-up mattress, and a high-end computer monitor. He stood at the entrance of Apartment 404. The building was located in a narrow, crowded alleyway of Mapo-gu, Seoul. It was the kind of place where the sun only hit the ground for ten minutes a day. Inside, the wallpaper was peeling at the corners, and the air smelled like old books and wet stone.
"Home sweet home," Ji-Hoon muttered. He was twenty-six, a freelance designer, and his bank account was almost empty. He spent the next three hours dragging his boxes up the stairs. By the time he finished, the sun had set, and a soft, grey rain began to tap against the window. Ji-Hoon sat on the floor, exhausted. The silence of the room was heavy. Usually, he liked being alone, but this room felt different. It felt like the air was waiting for something to happen.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Priority one: Internet," he said to himself. In Seoul, being offline felt like being underwater. He opened his Wi-Fi settings. Usually, he would see twenty different names, but tonight, there was only one.
[ Help_Me_5G ]
It was an open network with no password. Ji-Hoon hesitated. An open network in a building this old was strange, but he had deadlines to meet. He tapped "Connect." The moment the blue checkmark appeared on his screen, the lightbulb above his head flickered violently. Zzap.
The temperature in the room dropped instantly. Ji-Hoon could see his own breath turn into white mist. He shivered, pulling his jacket tighter. Then, he felt a strange sensation—like a static electric shock running down his spine. He looked toward the window.
A girl was sitting on the narrow windowsill. She hadn't been there a second ago. She was looking out at the rain, her profile soft and glowing. She wore a high school uniform from years ago—a dark blazer and a pleated skirt. Her hair was long and black, falling over her shoulders like silk.
Ji-Hoon’s heart stopped. He tried to speak, but his throat felt like it was full of sand. The girl turned her head. Her eyes were deep, dark, and filled with an unbelievable sadness. She looked at Ji-Hoon, then her eyes drifted down to the glowing phone in his hand.
"You..." she whispered. Her voice sounded like it was vibrating inside the walls. "You finally connected."
Ji-Hoon scrambled backward, hitting his back against a cardboard box. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"
The girl didn't move. She looked at her own hands, which were slightly transparent. The moonlight from the window passed through her arm and hit the floor. "My name is Ha-Yoon," she said softly. "And I think... I have been waiting for someone to find my signal for a very long time."
Ji-Hoon stared at his phone. The Wi-Fi bars were pulsing with a strange, rhythmic blue light. He realized with a shudder that as long as his phone stayed connected, the girl stayed visible. He wasn't just in a new apartment. He was part of a haunting.
