we moved into a haunted house in busan and i still can't explain what happened

okay so this is a true story from when i was like 17-18. and i need to warn you upfront: one of the girls in this story isn't alive anymore. her death connects to what happened in that house, so please don't be a dick in the comments. seriously.

so context. it's winter 2004. i'd been living rough since i was 16, just drifting around the country with basically nothing. by 17 i'm crashing in a shitty motel in busan's nampodong with a few hyungs (older guys) and friends. none of us had jobs. like, we're talking starving most days, scraping together a few thousand won every couple days to boil instant ramen. we're not paying rent obviously, so the motel ahjumma is losing her mind.

then this older guy A hyung who's pretty popular (especially in daegu) says he knows two girls from daegu who just came down to busan and they have money. they need a place to stay, we need rent covered. win-win, right? WRONG.

so the girls show up and immediately things are chaotic. this tiny motel room with 6 people packed in, and one of the girls gets drunk and literally BREAKS the door. like, full demolition. the ahjumma loses it. "you kids are embarrassing. get out. tomorrow. or i'm calling the cops." (we were minors so legally we couldn't stay long anyway.)

so next morning we're kicked out and somehow the girls mention they have a noona in busan who lives alone in yeongdo. her boyfriend's away. she might let us crash. spoiler: she does. pretty easily actually. she seemed bored living alone.

so we head to yeongdo. i still remember exactly where it was. up the road from cheonghak gas station, past this tiny super/video rental shop (the owner's place), second house down that alley. the house sits back from the road with no streetlights. when it got dark it was PITCH BLACK. like, those few dozen meters to the main road felt like hiking through a forest. genuinely terrifying at night.

the house itself was ancient. like, i'd never seen a squat toilet before and that's where i met my first one. traditional old korean style. completely falling apart.

the layout: you walk in the front gate and there's four rooms in a row. first room: a disabled couple (they had like 5+ bikes in a storage space). second room: a woman who worked at a bar with her kindergarten son (this kid was glued to us, and i remember lending him my game boy every night, tucking him in when he fell asleep). third room: this one-armed guy. TERRIFYING dude. fourth room: ours.

then right next to our room is the shared squat toilet.

first night. we get there, the noona's super chill and welcoming, buys a ton of alcohol. we're getting wasted. at some point i gotta pee, ask where the bathroom is, stumble out.

i'm half drunk so nothing scares me. walk up to the bathroom. door's closed, lights are off. obviously nobody's there right? flip the switch, open the door and—

THERE'S THIS BEARDED GRANDFATHER. Face completely covered in stubble. LEFT ARM COMPLETELY MISSING. Just sitting there on those wooden planks. STARING AT ME.

we just. locked eyes. for like two full seconds. frozen. and then we BOTH scream. like animal screams. I'm absolutely SOBER now, all alcohol evaporated from my system, and i bolt back to the room going "HYUNG OH MY GOD THE ONE-ARMED GRANDPA WAS SITTING IN THE DARK IN THE BATHROOM JUST WATCHING—"

and the noona's just like. "oh yeah he lives next door. he's shy and always does his thing with the lights off. just leave him alone. poor guy."

leave him alone??? what am i supposed to do??? i just got back to drinking lmaooo. but honestly now that i think about it it's like 10% terrifying and 90% hilarious. the way we both just SCREAMED. his shocked face. still see it.

so we actually move into the house properly. about a week later. there's 7 of us packed into this narrow room sleeping in a line, basically touching each other. lights off, can't sleep, just talking. and then out of nowhere one of the daegu girls—her name was hyeji—says something weird. something that makes us all go quiet. and then...

[to be continued lol]