*"Hey, did you hear? They say the Fox Window started at our school."

"What the hell is a Fox Window? Stop talking nonsense and just eat."

"No, I'm serious! They say if you look through a Fox Window in the corner of the 5th-floor stairs leading to the music room, you can see ghosts."

• •

During evening self-study that day, I looked up what a Fox Window was. Naturally, nothing came up. I had heard the other kids talking about it recently, but I just laughed it off as some local school legend and didn't think much of it.*

But why do I have this lingering, uneasy feeling?

When I opened my locker after study hall, there was a small note inside. I unfolded the paper to find instructions on how to make a Fox Window, a list of precautions, and a message telling me to come to the 5th-floor stairs.

They're really going all out just to prank me. Thinking I'd play along with my friend's joke for a bit, I headed toward the 5th-floor staircase.

• •

The pitch-black school somehow made me hunch my shoulders instinctively. I waited for my friend for a long time, puzzled by the empty staircase.

As time passed, I grew curious about the Fox Window. Thinking it was just a silly hand trick, I overlapped my hands and peered through the gap between my fingers at the corner of the stairs.