Room No

Room Number 143 (Published Edition)

"That day, after everyone finished telling ghost stories, washed up, and went to bed as usual, my brother couldn't fall asleep. He's a very timid person and hates listening to ghost stories, but he had no choice but to listen to them in the dormitory, and he couldn't fall asleep after listening to them."

"Then in the middle of the night, he suddenly heard what sounded like people talking outside. He didn't dare to move, but the person in the bunk above him woke up. My brother asked him what he was doing, and the person said he heard someone calling him outside and he was going to go check it out."

“My brother didn’t dare to say anything. It was 3:15 in the morning, he remembers it very clearly. He checked his watch. Who would come out to call for help at that time? My brother told the person in the bunk above him not to go, but that person laughed at my brother for being a coward and went out, and then…”

"..."

"..."

At this point, the storyteller stopped talking, while the listeners, who were extremely excited, urged him on as soon as he stopped.

"And then what? Don't keep us in suspense!"

"Then..." In the pitch-black room, the person who had spoken at the beginning suddenly hesitated. His usually frivolous face suddenly became unusually serious, and the only beam of light from the flashlight shone on his face from below, making it look rather eerie.

After a long pause, the man suddenly spoke, "And then..."

"Dormitory 143, turn off the lights now! If you don't, you'll have to clean the toilets tomorrow!"

Suddenly, the dormitory supervisor's angry roar broke the terrifying silence. After a few shouts, everyone turned off the lights and pretended to be asleep. Only after the supervisor left did someone curiously ask, "Hey! What happened to the ending of your story?"

"The ending? Haha, the ending is that the guy next door had diarrhea in the middle of the night, and my brother, who was in the bunk above him, was borrowing some antidiarrheal medicine from him, haha!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of sighs erupted.

"What...?"

"A promising start but a disappointing finish!"

"Go to sleep, go to sleep."

The dissatisfied companions vented their frustrations and went to sleep, but one boy couldn't fall asleep.

He was also an extremely timid person, just like that man's brother. Although it had ended that way, he felt unexpectedly anxious and couldn't fall asleep no matter what. He was just about to quietly get up to get a glass of water when he looked up and was so frightened that he almost screamed!

"Why...why are you sitting here instead of sleeping?" The boy complained in a low voice as he looked at the boy sitting motionless on the upper bunk, hugging his blanket.

Upon hearing the boy's voice, the man seemed to awaken from a dream, shook his head, and smiled.

It was a dry laugh, sounding like a whisper in the quiet room, a laugh that made one feel quite nervous.

"That story... I... I can't sleep."

"...Wasn't that the story you were going to tell?!" It kept me up too! The boy didn't say the last part aloud, because saying it would make him seem cowardly.

"Huh? Hmm, it's what I wanted to say." The man murmured, hearing the boy's complaining tone.

Today is the first day of registration for new students. Everyone is meeting for the first time. The story was originally intended to help everyone get to know each other better. The person meant well... Thinking of this, the boy didn't know what to say.

Instead, the boy comforted his bunkmate. "It's just a story, and... haha, the ending is ridiculous, there's nothing to be afraid of." The boy muttered, but his bunkmate fell silent.

After a long pause, the boy on the upper bunk suddenly spoke up: "Actually... this story... is true. The reason I wanted to tell this story is because my brother's dorm room was 143, just like here, and... the school was the same too."

Looking at the boy under the bed who was staring at him with a surprised expression, the boy nodded slightly.

“That’s right, this is where the story took place, here five years ago. And… the ending I just mentioned isn’t true. I’m scared, back then…”

The room was dark, and the pale moonlight shone through the leaves outside the window onto the boy's face, casting dappled shadows that made it difficult for the boy to see his expression.

In the darkness, the boy heard himself swallow hard. Instinctively, he knew what the boy was about to say wouldn't be good news. He wanted to know the truth, but instinctively he also refused to know the facts.

In the silence, the boy on the upper bunk slowly spoke: "Then... after that person went out, he never came back. Never again, it was like he vanished. My brother was the last person to see him."

"I was terrified of goths, but no one believed me when I told them. Eventually, the person was declared missing by the police and was confirmed dead a few years later."

"My brother said he secretly investigated later and found that people would disappear from this school every few years. The police couldn't find anything, and in the end they would just say that the students couldn't handle the pressure of getting into a good university and ran away, but..."

“My brother usually doesn’t talk to us about his school. He only told us once when he was drunk. He looked really weird, and... after he finished talking, he disappeared.”

"I didn't really believe it at first, but I suddenly got scared when I got here today. It's too much of a coincidence, same school, same dorm..." The man chuckled dryly.

The room, now quiet again, was eerily still for a moment.

"...Um...I was just saying. Maybe my brother is overthinking it. Don't worry about it. Let's go to sleep. Classes start officially tomorrow, so don't be late." The boy then pulled down the blanket and said to the teenager before lying down.

After a long pause, seeing the boy's actions, he finally broke free. Stiffly moving, the boy gave a dry laugh and prepared to get into bed.

He didn't want to drink water anymore; he just wanted to go to bed, sleep, and wake up in the morning.

Lying back in bed, the boy still couldn't fall asleep. The old-fashioned alarm clock he had brought from home, which he had used for six years, ticked away, the faint glow on its indicator showing the current time: 3:13 AM.

suddenly……

3:15!

This moment inexplicably entered the boy's mind.

"...It was 3:15 a.m., my brother remembers it very clearly, he checked his watch..."

The words from the bunk above me suddenly flashed into my mind, and I was filled with a sudden sense of terror!

A creaking sound came from the upper bunk; someone was turning over. The boy knew that he... couldn't sleep either.

"Um... it's almost 3:15." For some reason, the boy suddenly said in a low voice, knowing that the person above would answer him.

"……Um."

"Let's go to sleep after this time."

"Um."

"..."

As their hearts pounded, the minute hand finally pointed to the

……