WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 46: Jangsalgot Submerged Site (8)
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“But ghost stories aren’t Lego. Can we really take them apart and put them back together like that?”
Lee Gangrim kept asking, clearly unconvinced. Each time, I stood firm.
This was not just about my confidence or proving I was right. It was a fight we had to believe in.
“We can. At their core, ghost stories are stories, and stories only exist on the logic and evidence people believe in. So we need to believe first.”
Everyone steeled themselves. The kids nodded too, even though they looked ready to cry and were trembling in fear.
“This will really work, right?”
“You’ll save us if it gets dangerous, right?”
“Of course.”
We split up and went to our assigned positions. Lee Gangrim headed to the shrine, Choi Seongun and the children went into the forest, and I went to the very end of the escape route, where I could see everything.
I could feel vines writhing just behind me. The vines that had come close enough to seize my ankles retreated after leaving behind a few sticky touches.
Beep!
“...Yeah, everything’s going well. Thanks to you, I’m not taking any damage either.”
I touched the hedgehog mask covering my face. Everything I had was keeping this one and only “escape route” separate from our method of rewriting the ghost story.
This was why teamwork was good. If I had to do all this alone, my head would have spun and I might have sat down to agonize over it for three days. It was not about being scared or sick of it. It was a matter of sheer mental overload.
Lee Gangrim’s voice came through the in-ear connected to the Corporation staff, casually singing a folk tune as if testing a microphone.
[Ready!]
[W-We’re ready too!]
“...Let’s do it!”
I took a deep breath and raised the camera.
This ghost story was a tangled combination of several others.
First came the legend of the Jangsal House and guardian tree that protected the ancient monster deep-sea fish buried beneath the village. Second came the reservoir-type ghost story that had appeared after Jangsalgot was submerged. Finally, there was the Hanging Ghost Tree Video ghost story.
We would reenact them so each ghost story could function only through its own core elements.
‘We need to leave the guardian tree. The old book described a rite that puts the monster to sleep, so reenacting that part should work.’
‘By performing the rite, we’ll remind that gourd-head tree of the duty it had been carrying out. If it doesn’t require many people, I can handle it alone.’
Lee Gangrim was skilled. They removed their protective suit, took out clean white ceremonial clothes, and laid them out without a wrinkle before wiping away the dirt.
Ignoring the heads hanging nearby, they selected stones and gathered only the finest ones to build a cairn.
They gathered the old ritual offerings that had rolled away, covered them in one corner of the shrine, and prayed with their palms pressed together. It was obvious they had done this many times before.
New offerings we had gathered went atop the cleared stone cairn. The students had given up pencil cases, bags, outerwear, and unopened snacks.
After cleaning the shrine, Lee Gangrim put the low table back in place and carefully arranged white paper on top. After bowing three times, they knelt before it.
“Tree, rise into the earth and not into the water. Bind fast the deep maw beneath Jangsal.”
“Let the wicked thing rise no more, forever sealed beneath the guardian tree. Heaven closes, earth hardens, and the mirrored image becomes the Dragon Palace.”
I had noticed it when Lee Gangrim sang that folk tune, but they could really sing. It went beyond singing, to the point that I wondered whether they had grown up in a shaman family.
With the ritual incantation, a cold wind began to be sucked into the shrine.
“Thus I declare: what is bound, beneath the water. What is living, above the water.”
Lee Gangrim backed away as they shouted the last line of the incantation. Their eyes never left the table or the hanging scroll. They crossed the shrine threshold, stepped fully outside, and the sound of waves crashed around us.
“What is hidden, remain within the paper!”
Lee Gangrim slammed the shrine’s old wooden door shut and firmly pressed the Talisman they had torn off earlier over it, together with the paper blinking with blue light, like a lock.
“...Now!”
Now it was up to the kids. Choi Seongun and I kept our ears trained on the in-ears, ready to run in if anything went wrong.
The most composed of the students turned on their phone camera and held it high.
“They said this is really a tree where people hang themselves, so I came to see it, b-but it does look like there’s something hanging there?”
The phone swept over the tree. Naturally, the gourd heads were still hanging there. The student’s voice shook terribly, but they were doing their best.
“But when you film it, there’s nothing there!”
“Th-Then what was that video? Was it faked?”
The other kids seemed to find their courage and chimed in.
“Looking at this shrine and stuff, I think some nearby temple hung up lanterns, then made the video quality awful and lied about it...!”
“Oh, come on. What a total waste of time!”
Their voices trembled, and their eyes were unfocused. Anyone could tell it was terrible acting, but it was enough.
‘The surest way for a ghost story to lose its power is to lose on logic or lose its evidence.’
Like a ghost begging someone who could not see it to look at it. Like coming all this way only to be disappointed because nothing showed up on camera.
And these middle school students were clear targets who had come here after being baited by the ghost story. If they really came to fact-check it, discovered it was fake, and left disappointed...
Then the ghost story would lose. We were saying we could not see something that was plainly there. What could it do except shake its branches?
‘B-But how are we supposed to act like there’s nothing there...? There are so many of those things hanging there right now...’
‘Can’t we at least take down a few of them...?’
Who was going to take them down? Touching one might not just curse me. I might end up hanging there too. And if I recognized a face among them, I could not guarantee there would be any coming back from that.
So we would just...
‘Look at it through the phone.’
The ghost story said something that appeared on video did not exist in reality. If that had been reversed, and something really was hanging there, we would assume it could not be seen on video.
I did not know whether that would actually be true, but we would turn a blind eye as best we could. That was the most I could ask of them.
‘Will it really not show up if we do that...?’
‘...They say you see what you believe, so try believing it is not there!’
The let’s-launch-it-and-see strategy.
And the result rewarded us.
Screeeeeech!!
A sound like grinding teeth or broken hinges echoed like a scream. For a moment, we all froze where we stood and only moved our eyes.
The wind stopped. The damp, salty air rising from the ground stopped. The chilling cold that had made it feel as if we were walking beneath the sea crawled over the ground, then retreated into the forest beyond the shrine.
Then...
Splash!!
Rumble, splash, whoooosh!!
“...Everyone, run this way!”
The Jangsalgot guardian tree pressed the monster beneath the water. With no water and no Hanging Ghost Tree ghost story, what was left?
‘The Jangsalgot Reservoir ghost story has taken priority...!’
The phenomenon that had been suppressed by the drought began to reappear. It physically filled this waterless place with water and began creating an “illusion reflected underwater” in this village from the past.
“Run! If we can’t get out, we’ll drown on a dry mountain!”
We took off toward the entrance of the forest. Water surged up from beneath our feet.
At first, it merely splashed against the soles of our shoes. Then it rose to our ankles, and within moments it was up to our knees.
“Argh!”
One of the middle school students was knocked over by the current. Lee Gangrim immediately slung the child over their shoulder.
“Gangrim!”
“Forget me and open the exit! Youngest, you carry the rest!”
“Y-Yes! Guys, get on hyung’s back!”
Choi Seongun’s shadow legs finally came in handy. One of his real legs staggered repeatedly in the current, but the shadow leg, which had no weight at all, stayed firmly planted and acted as a support.
Choi Seongun carried one child and grabbed another by the arm.
All I had to do was my part. I pushed through the water now up to my waist and moved forward.
At the end of the escape route, following the blue light, a telephone booth finally emerged in the haze.
‘That’s it!’
「They say strange calls sometimes come through public telephones near Jecheon that are still standing. Though they are models that can no longer receive calls, the phone rings, and when you answer, you hear the sound of water bubbling inside the receiver...」
The moment I opened the booth door, the current swept me inside and threw me to the floor. The handset had fallen and was making bubbling sounds.
I barely managed to grab it, clutching whatever I could and forcing myself back up. The water pressing against my chest made me slip again and again. I finally punched in the number and pressed the receiver to my ear.
Please.
〈Insert coins or a card.〉
“...It worked...!”
A mechanical receiver tone I knew well. I poured wet old coins into the slot.
Toot...
〈This is the operator. Where would you like to be connected?〉
A mechanical female voice without any inflection came from the other end of the line. I knew what I had to say. That was why I had deliberately chosen a telephone booth as our exit.
“Please connect me to 0000. We are leaving now. We are going back.”
It was the telephone booth escape method I had used to flee Twilight Market. Since it was another telephone booth, it had to work. All I had to do was hear that we were connected...
〈Are you traveling with companions?〉
Huh. I had never heard that pattern before. But there was no time to think. The answer came out before I could stop it.
“Six. Six including me.”
Then the operator answered in a kind voice.
〈Six travelers confirmed. Your route home has been verified. You will now be connected. Please board the vehicle outside the booth.〉
A vehicle?
The call ended. I spat out water that had risen to my throat and turned my head outside the booth.
“Youngest!”
Lee Gangrim’s shout. Then headlights as large as a house behind them. A bus appeared before us, cutting through the water.
“...What is that?”
It was an old, filthy village bus that looked like it could have been scrapped at any moment. The bus door opened with a Click. Inside, there were exactly six seats.
“Youngest... Are you sure we can really get on that? It looks like a free pass straight to the afterlife.”
“...It does not look like we have any other option.”
“A bus is better than drowning. Come on, kids. Get on!”
We hurried onto the bus. The moment Lee Gangrim helped the children aboard and climbed on, the doors slammed shut with a Bang!
Vroooom!!
The bus roared to life and began pushing through the water.
“...”
ABSOLUTE SILENCE.
DO NOT MAKE A SOUND.
We pressed our lips tightly together at the large red letters posted where the next-stop display should have been. Perhaps because of the weight of those words, the students bit their lips tightly despite being obviously cold and terrified.
The bus interior reeked of old synthetic leather and exhaust fumes. We sat heavily in our seats, gripping the handrails and the handles on the seats ahead as if they were lifelines.
Nothing could be seen outside the windows. There was only ink-black darkness and the sound of water battering the vehicle.
There was no route sign, and the electronic display for the next stop remained dark as the bus drove on.
I measured time by my pulse. Several minutes passed at the very least. Maybe even longer.
Crackle!
The one light left on the bus went out, then came back on. A dull announcement flowed from the speakers.
[We have arrived at the final stop. Please make sure you have not left anything behind, and all passengers must disembark.]
Nothing was visible through the windows, and beyond the opening bus doors lay only black emptiness. It felt alien, like stepping bare-bodied into space.
[Please disembark.]
I had to go first. I had started this.
I gave a small bow toward the driver’s seat where something black rippled, then stepped off the bus.
One step into the fog.
Then two. I could feel the hard texture of asphalt under my feet. Behind me, I heard Lee Gangrim, Choi Seongun, and the children quietly following.
Three more steps forward.
“Ah...!”
“Phew! W-We lived...?!”
“We’re... we’re outside...!”
The world flashed brightly before the scenery changed. The smell of water was gone, replaced all at once by exhaust fumes, traffic noise, construction sounds, and the noise of people passing by.
“...We made it back, but we came pretty far away, huh? Does this escape trick always bring people here?”
We had arrived at a bus stop in the middle of Seoul.
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