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The Girl with the Red Umbrella
Chapter 01: Furore
Gripping her umbrella tightly, she walked quicker, her shoulders noticeably tensing at a sound that resembled a footstep, or a shadow that looked as if it belonged to someone other than herself or the feeble bushes alongside somber sidewalk. Ahead of her was her younger sister, laughing and talking loudly amongst the silent city streets of Seoul.
“Sun Ah,” whispered a friend, not so quietly, as the girl meters behind them could hear quite well enough, “Sun Ah, your sister is so unsociable. Doesn’t she have any friends at school?”
The girl, Han Sun Ah, became quiet at the mention of her older sister’s name. Her chattering friends crowded around her, occasionally glancing at the figure behind their group. “How would I know?” was her answer, the tone cold and uncaring. “She isn’t exactly sociable at home, either.”
In only moment’s time the gathering of freshman girls, all new to the local high school, were gossiping and giggling about the latest celebrity news once again, forgetting all about the senior girl who was never talked to.
Lee Jung Mi was a victim of murder.
The students could only gabble in surprise and disgust at the corpse, laid in a pool of blood half-dried. In her chest was a gaping hole, the rest of her sprawled-out body uninjured. Police and teachers alike tried to subdue the excited students, their phones, and their cameras – for this school hardly had anything to listen to, to look at. A group near the far corner was huddled in quiet sobbing, drowned out by the other students who were crowding around the corpse, amazed. One of the early students had spotted the gruesome sight first, and had contacted her friend, who in turn had contacted nearly the whole school, excluding the freshmen, and of course, outcasts to whom she had no number – outcasts like Han Mi Hwa.
Mi Hwa, who didn’t even use her cellphone, went up to class as usual to an amazing crowd of people blocking a whole half of a hallway, keeping her from going into her classroom. Her sister and other young students of the school were starting to run into the floor, only just getting the news.
“Who do you think killed her?” one could overhear.
“Who would know?” another answered.
“I overheard one of the investigators say that she was stabbed with an unidentified object. Maybe she was killed with a pencil.”
“You idiot, didn’t you see that huge hole in the middle of her chest? You gotta be kidding!”
Afternoon came, and at last all the students had been forced into their classrooms. But the gossip had yet to stop on the one topic that the students would not let go in the boring, gray-walled reality that they had to endure six days a week.
Next day, Bae Min Young of class 3-C announced that her father, a lead detective on the case, had determined that the unidentified murder weapon was an umbrella, leading to even more gossip and speculated thoughts on the case.
Still, one story rose up to the top – and became the story that everyone came to and accepted. No one knew how it came to be, but within two or three days, the rumors focused on only one version of how the murder came to be – the story of the Girl with the Red Umbrella.
Everyone was whispering – no one paid heed to the endless efforts of the police and teachers, caught up in the excitement of the mystery.
“She carries a red umbrella,” said one.
“The inside is white, because the outside is the only part that has been stained with blood,” explained another.
And so it was known and talked about all throughout the school – one teenage girl with the uniform of this particular school could be found in a blurry rainy day, always carrying around a bright red umbrella that could not be missed, yet always was. The inner side of its original color – white, and the outer fabric of the umbrella always dripping with the fresh color of red.
And this was only the first case. But the doubtless expectation of the chattering students were met, one gruesome case after another – each case a one that the police could just not get a hold of enough.
“I’d say that’s ridiculous,” scoffed one of them, Kim Hee Young. “It’s only a rumor, isn’t it? The story can’t possibly true. There have only been three or so murders, after all. The media isn’t even sure if they’re related or not.”
“But Hee Young, that obnoxious freshman has been insisting that her father said the weapon was an umbrella,” one of her friends argued. “A murder weapon to be such a thing – that maniac will strike again soon!”
Hee Young made an abrasive face. “Whatever,” she replied, and changed the subject. “Anyone finish last day’s homework? Over there, Han Mi Hwa! You did it, didn’t you? Hand it over.”
The referred-to girl didn’t even lift her head. “I did it, but I don’t see why I should hand it over.”
Hee Young took a moment to retort. She gave an unbelieving laugh. “What? That was the worst answer you could have given me, you little –“
“Shut up and get to your seats, you little scoundrels,” the thundering voice of the teacher made everyone silent except for the quiet shuffle of moving feet. Mi Hwa adverted her gaze from the girl who was glaring at her with a message – I’ll take care of you after school. She was used to this.
She bit her lips in fury and annoyance. ‘This is gonna be a load of crap,’ she thought, ‘I’m going to have to get some hell from my parents because of this.’
And she hated washroom duty. The whole day was just pissing her off. All because of a stupid, hardly existent girl at the back of the class whom no one cared about.
After classes, Hee Young casually took out the pair of shoes from the locker labeled “Han Mi Hwa” and threw it into the garbage can on her way to washroom duty. During the halfhearted hour of work that she spent on cleaning the washroom, she decided to stay out late for the night so that she would avoid her parents to a possible extent.
It was still warm out, although it was well into September. The cloudy skies were still light, and didn’t show any sign of a shorter day.
Hee Young hated having to go around in her uniform, but what could she do? She felt her anger mounting again, all directed at Mi Hwa, the loner of the class.
That dumb and useless bitch, she thought over and over in her mind as the bus slowed down at another stop. I hate her so much I could just kill her.
The weather, as well, didn’t seem too keen on pleasing her, sending down small droplets of water as soon as she got off at Shinchon.
The common hangout for Junior High and High school students was crowded, but began to lessen, as the rain got thicker.
“Damn it, what’s up with the rain?” a young girl cursed as she huddled into a small umbrella with two of her friends. “I hate it when it rains here.”
“Yeah, especially since that weird story going around is making everyone paranoid. You know, the one with the red umbrella?” a companion commented.
Hee Young marched past the young girls, too pissed to hear another conversation on the Girl with the Red Umbrella. Why did it have to rain all of a sudden? It wasn’t just a shower now, either. The heavy droplets soaked her uniform.
“To hell with this!” she yelled out as she ran in under a shop’s roof. Some of the clothes shops were closing, as most of their merchandise was parked out in front of their small selling areas. The cafes were filled with people who had forgotten their umbrellas, with the employees trying their hardest to get the loiterers to leave.
Without an umbrella, cold, wet, and angry, Hee Young was in absolutely no mood to be in a crowded café. Wandering the nearly deserted streets of the tightly packed shopping areas, she spotted a girl with the same uniform as her.
“Who are you?” she asked, annoyed when she realized the girl was walking towards her. Hee Young blinked her eyes again, removing her hand from above her eyes to see the student better. Seeing a flash of vibrant color, she stopped, and managed to croak out – “wait…you’re!”
The Girl with the Red Umbrella, undoubtedly, had struck again.
case file part 01: end
A/N: Thank you for reading the first chapter of my first horror/thriller! I am happy to have finally finished it. The second chapter will be up soon! Please leave your comments.
Also, Shinchon is a popular shopping area for students. It is located in Seoul, Korea. (I mean the south one.) This chapter is dedicated towards my two cousins, Dana and Ashley, for letting me ramble on about it when I first thought of the idea.
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