Chapter 5: Warning

          The Sherlock Team tried to make sense of their newly acquired information, but everything was too vague for any real conclusions. Finally, they just resorted to watching Soo-Young for another night. Maybe this time something will actually be caught on camera or seen by their very eyes—just maybe. Hopefully this time something happens or they will just conclude that it’s officially a ghost or that Soo-Young is officially insane.

          “Hey Eunji, are you ready to spend another night at apartment 1124?” Key asked as Eunji was fixing up her baseball cap over her head.

          “Sure,” she said nonchalantly. “I’m starting to think that it’s a real ghost though. I mean, I looked it up on the internet and there are pretty ridiculous food-stealing ghost stories too. One ghost in particular only wanted Mexican food. It was so strange.”

          “Nah, I just prefer to think of it more logically,” Key shrugged.

          “Oh, but you never know,” Eunji shrugged too.

          “Taeyeon Noona and Yuri Noona look pretty guilty to me though,” said Key. “They seem to be the mischievous type of weirdos.”

          Later that night, Eunji prepared to sleep at apartment 1124 again. Onew, Minho, and Jonghyun decided to stay at the Sherlock Headquarters to review the interrogation tapes and research more possible theories and similar cases. Key and Taemin both went with Eunji so they can sleep in the living room, just in case anything strange happens.

          “So, Soo-Young Eonni,” Eunji began as she sat on Soo-Young’s comfy bed and dragged the sheets over her pajamas. “In all this time that the ghost had been appearing to you, have you ever thought of talking to it and asking it why it’s here?”

          “Are you crazy? Why would I talk to a ghost?” Soo-Young trembled as she spoke.

          “I don’t know. Maybe it’s friendly? You ever heard of Casper the Friendly Ghost?” Eunji couldn’t help but giggle at her own suggestion.

          “Not now with your childish cartoons, kid. The ghost does not look friendly at all. It looks scary and creepy.”

          “Maybe you should pray to God to make it go away or something.”

          “You have no idea how many times I recited Psalm 23 before I sleep. I happen to be a very devout Christian.”

          “Oh well. Anyway, since you’re the only one who witnesses the ghost, I think you should totally talk to it. Maybe it just wants to tell you something. Who knows, you might make a new friend like in the movie The Sixth Sense. Have you ever seen that movie?”

          “No, I don’t plan on watching anymore scary movies for the rest of my life,” Soo-Young replied as she lay beside Eunji on the bed.

          “Well, do you want to pray with me before we go to sleep? Besides, you have a driver’s test tomorrow that you had been studying hard for. You could use the blessing,” Eunji said with a wink.

          “Okay, let’s pray,” Soo-Young held Eunji’s hand and they both closed their eyes. “Dear Lord, I hope that the ghost would finally go away.”

          “No, no, no,” Eunji disagreed. “Dear Lord, I hope we figure out what is actually going on with this ghost case. If it’s a prank by Soo-Young Eonni’s friends, please forgive their little joke. If it’s really a ghost, please show us why the ghost is here.”

          “And please be with me tomorrow as I try to ace my driver’s test. Protect us from evil and thank you for all the good food you have given us. Amen.”

          Suddenly, exactly after they finished praying, the doorbell rang. Soo-Young and Eunji were completely startled. They both headed out of the room only to find that Yuri was already about to open the door. Key and Taemin craned their necks to take a look at the visitor from afar.

          “Hi Yuri Eonni!” a girl about a year younger than Soo-Young greeted with a big, sweet smile. She had sleek, long, black hair and skin as smooth as a pearl. Her adorable round cheeks and bright, shining eyes made her look so young and innocent. The white blouse and white jeans with a brown belt that she wore made her glow under the fluorescent lights. She looked like an angel.

          “Seohyun? What are you doing here? I thought you lived far away with Yoona and Hyoyeon.” Yuri couldn’t believe that she was here. Seohyun, Yoona, and Hyoyeon moved to a city about three hours away just about a week before Soo-young and Yuri moved in to apartment 1124.

          “Oh yeah, I do. But I just needed to do a few things in this city so I thought I’d stop by and stay for the night since it’s already pretty late. I hope it’s not too much of a burden.” By the way Seohyun said it, Yuri had a hard time saying no to the sweet angelic girl. She used to go the same grade school as Yuri, Soo-Young, Taeyeon and the others, but she was younger than all of them. They used to treat her as their little baby and called her “Seobaby” because it totally fit her.

          Seohyun entered the house and gave Yuri and Soo-Young a big hug. “I missed you both, Eonnis!”

           Eunji slowly backed away and sat beside Key on the sofa. “There’s something really off about this lady.”

          “Yeah, I feel it too,” Key whispered back. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”

          Taemin immediately got up and introduced himself. He told Seohyun all about the case and what has happened so far. Unlike the reactions of Soo-Young’s other friends, Seohyun did not laugh or make fun of her at all. Instead, she just smiled and went off like having a ghost steal junk food in the middle of the night was a completely normal thing. The only thing Seohyun ever said about the ghost was, “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

          “Seohyun is a friend from way back in grade school,” said Soo-Young as she introduced Seohyun to Key and Taemin. “She lives far out in a different city. In fact, we just visited her last week.”

          Key quickly rang up the rest from the Sherlock Headquarters and ordered them to look into the profile of Seohyun, the new character to appear in the picture. He really does not understand why, but he felt really uneasy in Seohyun’s presence. It felt like the pressure of the sky was about to crush him. It wasn’t only him. Eunji felt it too. What the heck is wrong here?

          “Jonghyun, I want you to go out of town and visit a certain address. It’s this Seohyun girl’s current home. I want you to investigate and ask around, okay? Sorry for making you go this late at night, but I just have this bad feeling,” Key tried to explain to Jonghyun.

          “Okay, I’ll do my best.”

          Suddenly, Eunji got a text message from an unknown number, saying, “Eunji, where are you? Come home right now. From your parents.”

          “Oh, I need to go!” Eunji immediately dressed up to leave.

          “Hey, where are you going?” Soo-Young asked.

          “My parents sent me a message that I should go home. I don’t know why but I need to go.”

          “What about the case? What if the ghost shows up?” Soo-Young was getting worried.

          Although Eunji wasn’t quite trusting of Seohyun, she just said, “Don’t worry, Seohyun Eonni will take my place for now.”

          As Eunji was about to head out, Key grabbed her hand to stop her. “What are you doing? What about the case?” Then he whispered, “You know I don’t trust this Seohyun lady!”

          “Sorry. My parents will kill me if I don’t obey them and you know that. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

          At about midnight, Soo-Young tossed and turned in bed. She couldn’t sleep at all. Without Eunji, she felt like she lost a bodyguard or something. Finally, she decided to stay at the living room to watch television while Key and Taemin were busy reviewing case files in the kitchen. Seohyun and Yuri were both asleep in their room. Since she was getting hungry, Soo-young decided to grab a hamburger that she bought earlier in the day at McDonalds. She knew that this would totally attract the ghost, but she just couldn’t help herself. She had to eat.

          Then, there she was, the silhouette of a girl with long, straight hair, standing by the dark corridor. Soo-Young started to tremble in fear. It’s already past midnight. It’s about time that the shadow appeared to her again.

“H-h-hey! Det-t-tective K-k-Key! T-t-Taemin! The g-g-ghost is here!” Soo-Young stuttered uncontrollably.

There she was, about to approach Soo-Young. Out from the shadows of corridor, the girl appeared. Soo-Young immediately shut her eyes and hid under her blanket, thinking it could protect her from the phantom before her.

“Eonni, calm down, it’s just me,” Seohyun said with her sweet comforting voice as she approached Soo-young who was about to faint on the sofa.

Soo-Young sighed in relief. “Oh, Seohyun… I almost had a heart attack. Thank goodness you’re here.”

Key and Taemin immediately came running to the two girls huddled on the couch, only to find that it was a false alarm. This case is just getting more and more ridiculous by the minute. Something tells them that this “ghost” probably doesn’t even exist. Maybe Soo-Young really just lost her mind. Maybe she should have called a psychiatrist, not an investigation team. So far, nobody has even seen this “ghost” except her anyway. Then they headed back into the kitchen to look over some files again while waiting for any news from the other Sherlock members. So far, nothing was discovered yet again.

“Eonni, what the heck is that?” Seohyun said as she slid under the blankets with Soo-Young on the couch.

“Oh, it’s a burger,” Soo-Young said as she was about to take a big bite of the burger in front of Seohyun.

“Eonni, don’t eat that. It’s very unhealthy,” Seohyun said with a slap of Soo-Young’s arm.

“Well, I’m hungry. What else am I supposed to eat anyway?” Then she proceeded to fully devour the entire burger without even thinking twice. Seohyun’s mouth was gaped the entire time.

“Eonni, you really shouldn’t eat that. You might die!” she warned.

“You’ve already said that to me and the other Eonnis a hundred times. Look at us, we’re not even dead yet. It wouldn’t hurt to eat it once in a while.”

Early the next day, Key got a call from Jonghyun. Looking over the call log of his phone, he noticed that Jonghyun had been calling him over and over so many times. The flood of missed calls was just too much.

“What is it?” Key asked groggily. He hasn’t exactly had any decent night’s sleep ever since he started working on this ghost case.

“This is crazy,” Jonghyun started. His voice seemed to be worried and in a state of panic. “This case—I already figured it out!”

“Wait, what?” Key was so startled by Jonghyun’s statement over the phone that he immediately shot up as if he just sipped the bitterest espresso on earth. “What do you mean you already figured it out?”

From the way Key had been yelling over the phone, Soo-Young woke up from her sleep on the living room couch. Then she suddenly felt a strange knot in her stomach. Her insides growled, making her feel really sick and nauseous.

“Ugh, what the heck did I eat?” Soo-Young grumbled.

“I told you not to eat the burger,” Seohyun said with worried voice that echoed across the room. Oddly, a while ago, she wasn’t even there in the living room when Soo-Young woke up, but now she was standing before her, wearing a long white dress with her hair hanging loosely over her shoulders.

“W-what?”

Soo-Young tried not to throw up. She’s already feeling so queasy. She quickly ran to the bathroom and vomited a hefty of the burger she ate last night.

“Ugh, I don’t feel so good…”

After hearing Jonghyun’s explanation over the phone, Key’s complexion turned pale and he dropped his hand phone down on the cold tile floor. He felt all the hair in his body stand up in fear. Immediately he ran to Soo-Young in a hurry, only to find that their client had already collapsed unconsciously on the bathroom floor. Then he kicked Taemin awake and burst through Yuri’s door and yelled, “Soo-Young Noona is unconscious!”

Taemin immediately called the ambulance.

Meanwhile Yuri groggily got up to check what happened to Soo-Young, but she was distracted by a phone call from the living room landline.

          “Hello?” Yuri answered.

          “Yuri, it’s me, Yoona,” the voice on the other line replied. Judging by the constant sniffing, Yoona seemed to be crying.

          “What’s wrong?” Yuri became worried.

          “Seohyun…she’s dead.”