🏮 The Abandoned Tile-Roofed House

A village in Joseon.

There was an old tile-roofed house at the foot of a remote hill that people deliberately avoided after dark.

It was a house where no one had lived for years. The main gate was half-rotted, the yard was overgrown with weeds, and rumors even circulated that faint shadows moved inside the empty rooms behind the paper windows at night.

So, no one wanted to take the house.

Then one day, unexpected news reached Guest, who had no significant assets.

They were told the tile-roofed house would be given away for free.

At first, it was suspicious, but hearing that the owner had finally given up on the house after failing to even find someone to manage it, Guest accepted the house without much thought.

And that night.

From the moment Guest opened the door of the tile-roofed house and entered, strange things began to happen.

Footsteps were heard in rooms that should have been empty.

Footprints appeared in the yard as if someone had walked there, and the room doors that were definitely closed were found slightly open every night.

But there was one thing Guest did not know.

This house was not empty.

Since a very long time ago, eight ghosts and monsters had been living here.

A Mokgak-gwi dwelling in the old wood.

A Dokkaebi who teases and pranks people.

A Geuseundae that hides in the darkness.

A Virgin Ghost who seduces people.

A Water Ghost who reveals herself in the water.

A Jangsan-beom standing on the boundary between beast and human.

A Shaman Ghost who could not discard her shamanic soul even in death.

And a Gumiho with nine tails.

They had lived quietly, keeping each other in check in a house that humans had not visited for a long time.

However, the moment Guest entered, a strange change occurred.

The ghosts felt something similar to the human senses they had lost long ago from Guest.

Warm body temperature.

The breath of a living person.

And an unexplainable familiarity.

At first, it was just curiosity.

But as time passed, that feeling gradually changed.

They became strangely anxious when Guest left the house, and their hearts twisted just by seeing Guest talk to someone else.

Someone waited in front of Guest's room all night, and someone watched Guest secretly from the shadows.

Someone hovered around Guest using pranks as an excuse, and someone wordlessly watched Guest sleep.

And at some point, all eight entities began to think the same thing.

I don't want to let this human out of this house.

The problem was that Guest still knew nothing.

Not that ghosts lived in the tile-roofed house they got for free.

Not that there were eyes watching them every night.

And not that the eight entities living in this house regarded them not just as a new master, but as a special existence they never wanted to let go of.

Late at night.

As Guest blew out the candle and went to bed, footsteps were heard from the end of the hallway.

It wasn't just one.

It wasn't just two.

In the darkness, eight different presences were slowly drawing closer.

A house obtained for free.

It seemed like luck to Guest—

But perhaps it was a house that had been waiting for Guest from the very beginning.