Excerpt: About a group of boys who decide to play with the Japanese version Ouija board, called Kokkuri-san.
JIMIN'S POV:
When I was in school, my best friend Jungkook was really into scary stories, ghosts and urban legends. He seemed to know every creepy tale there was and he said he read all about them on a scary website he always went to.
At the time, we all loved listening to the various creepy stories and urban legends he told us. Through him, all of my friends heard about “The Slit-Mouth Woman”, “Kashima Reiko” and other weird Japanese legends. Some of them really terrified me.
One day, Jungkook invited myself and two of our friends, Taehyung and Seokjin, to a sleepover at his house. That evening, after school, we all followed Jungkook home and went up to his bedroom.
He started talking about a new Japanese legend he had read about and begged us to do a ouija board with him. I told him I didn’t want to mess around with the occult, but he said that it wasn’t an actual ouija board, but a Japanese version of the game he had seen on the scary website. It was called Kokkuri-san.
Because it was Japanese and didn’t involve summoning demons, I guess I thought it would be OKOK.
“But just to be safe, we should play with a silver coin,” said Seokjin.
“OK, but why?” asked Jungkook.
“I heard that if you play a ouija board with a silver coin, it protects you against being possessed,” he replied.
Luckily, Jungkook’s mother had a coin collection, so he took one of the silver coins out of its case and brought it up to the bedroom.
We sat in a circle on his bedroom floor while Jungkook drew the board, putting letters and numbers on it. When he was finished, he placed a coin in the middle of the board, on a weird squiggly red shape he had drawn, and we started to play Kokkuri-san.
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We each put a finger on the silver coin and Jungkook called out “Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please come and play with us!”
The rest of us had never read anything about it, so we really didn’t know what we were doing. When the coin suddenly started to move, we were all shocked.
After a while, we were having a lot of fun and spent some time asking the spirit as many questions as we could come up with.
“Who does Yoongi like? Me or Jungkook?” I asked excitedly. The coin quickly slid across the board and spelled out my name. “I knew it!”, I squealed with delight. Jungkook wasn’t so happy.
We were all grinning stupidly at each other. It was like we had found a new playmate. However, as we asked the spirit more and more questions, I noticed something that seemed a little strange.
Whenever we asked the spirit a question, instead of answering YES or NO, it would always spell out “OK”.
Because of this, it was a bit difficult to figure out what the spirit’s real answer was. As we continued playing, it grew dark outside and we eventually ran out of questions to ask.
We decided to call it a day and go home. Jungkook said it was important to end the game properly, or something bad could happen.
“Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please go back to the other world,” he called out.
The coin moved over to “O” and then “K”.
“That’s not right,” said Jungkook in a worried voice. “It’s supposed to go to YES”.
“Ask it again,” I suggested.
““Kokkuri-san, Kokkuri-san, please go back to the other world,” Jungkook demanded.
Again, the spirit spelled out “OK”.
“It’s supposed to go to YES and then stop on the red torii gate,” hissed Jungkook. “But it’s not doing it.”
We all tried to tell the spirit to return to the other world, but it was no good. It just kept spelling out “OK”.
“Did you go back home?” asked Jungkook.
“OK.”
“Did you really go back home?” he demanded.
“OK.”
“Please go away,” he shouted.
“OK.”
No matter what we said, it just wouldn’t leave. The movement between the two letters gradually got faster and faster and eventually the silver coin was flying back and forth between the two letters at a dizzying speed. It was all we could do, just to keep our fingers on the coin.
We were all terrified. It was as if the spirit was out of control, taking over the board and the coin and there was nothing any of us could do. We sat there watching in horror as the silver coin slid back and forth again and again.
“OKOKOK…”
All four of us started to freak out. Taehyung and Seokjin began crying, and Jungkook was wide-eyed and had tears in his eyes. My heart was pounding so fast I thought it was going to leap out of my body.
“I can’t take this anymore”, I cried. We all looked at Jungkook.
“Alright!” he shouted, taking control of the situation. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re all going to take our fingers off the coin at the same time.”
We all immediately agreed.
“Alright, on the count of three…” he said. “One… Two… Three!”
All of the boys lifted their fingers off the coin at the same time.
All, that is, except me.
I don’t know why, but for some reason it was as if my finger was stuck to the silver coin. I just couldn’t let go. The coin continued sliding back and forth at dizzying speeds. I was so terrified I couldn’t even think.
I burst into tears and started screaming, “What’s happening? Help me!” over and over again.
It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. Even today, I’m not sure if I fully recOKOKOK…
