Feeling around for the switch by the entrance, Miura Yumiko turned on the lights, instantly brightening the apartment.
Staring at the empty house, she sighed, changed into her slippers, and dragged her slightly tired body into the living room.
Due to work, her parents had been living overseas for a long time and only kept in touch with their three children by phone.
Yumiko's older sister and brother had left for college in other cities two and one years ago, respectively.
So, as of now, the spacious apartment was left with only her living in it.
"Today really didn't go well..."
Collapsing on the sofa, Yumiko recalled everything that had happened today.
Because Hayama Hayato had a competition coming up, it had been quite a while since they hung out after school.
And without him—the group's central figure—his three usual followers had no reason to pay attention to her.
Originally, having Yuigahama Yui and Ebina Hina around meant she wouldn't be bored.
After all, just cleaning up after those two airheads took a lot of her time.
But for some unknown reason, the girls who had been secretly bullying Ebina Hina all seemed to have been scared off recently and stopped targeting her.
As for Yuigahama, she had grown some wings and was trying to fly away—lately always hanging around that dead fish-eyed guy, Hikigaya Hachiman.
In the blink of an eye, Yumiko suddenly realized no one needed her.
"I don't feel like cooking today. I should've just grabbed a bento from the convenience store on the way back..."
Her stomach let out a loud growl in protest, but Yumiko had no appetite whatsoever.
She walked to the fridge, planning to grab a snack and just call it dinner.
But the moment she opened the refrigerator—
A large human head suddenly appeared before her eyes.
Staring at the head, Yumiko blinked in confusion.
Was she hallucinating from exhaustion?
Thinking that, she rubbed her eyes hard and looked back into the fridge again.
The head in the fridge was staring back at her, wide-eyed.
"This has to be a joke, right...? Something ...?"
She slammed the fridge shut, then immediately reopened it.
Instead of returning to a normal fridge interior, the head inside now had a grotesque smile on its face.
Faced with something this bizarre, Yumiko didn't react like a typical girl, frozen in fear.
The moment she saw the head smile at her, she slammed the fridge shut again and sprinted toward the apartment entrance.
"You can see me, huh!"
Just as Yumiko began to move, the fridge was suddenly burst open by the head, which rolled out into the living room.
While shouting incomprehensible words, it began rolling toward her.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
The body honed through tennis training now exploded with incredible speed. Yumiko opened the door and bolted into the hallway just before the head could reach her.
She barely had time to process what just happened when—
The head passed through the wall and reappeared right in front of her.
"You've gotta be kidding me!"
Her face twisted with disbelief. Seeing the head coming for her again, she quickly turned and sprinted toward the stairwell.
17th floor, 16th, 15th...
She ran down flight after flight of stairs, the head in relentless pursuit, occasionally letting out strange shrieks.
"What the hell is it?!"
Panting, Yumiko kept running desperately, trying to guess what the creature chasing her could be.
As she was deep in thought, a middle-aged man in a business suit suddenly appeared ahead of her.
Without thinking, Yumiko shouted at him in warning.
The man looked up with a tired expression, puzzled.
When he saw Yumiko rushing toward him, he hesitated for two seconds before calmly stepping to the side and leaving most of the stairs open for her.
"Is he not afraid of dying?!"
Seeing the man's reaction, Yumiko's heart filled with anxiety.
Why wasn't he running, even after seeing the head chasing her?
But she didn't have the luxury to dwell on that. Seeing that he wasn't planning to run, she gritted her teeth and dashed past him.
She'd given the warning—it was his choice not to escape.
However, after running down another floor, she didn't hear any screams from behind.
It's not that Yumiko was hoping the man would die, but the head was massive—it completely blocked the stairwell. There was no way anyone could survive being caught by it!
Puzzled, Yumiko turned to glance behind her—
There, beside the stair rail, stood the unharmed middle-aged man, looking down at her.
When their eyes met, the man even shook his head slightly, wearing a regretful expression on his face.
The realization that the man was alive made Yumiko completely overlook the expression on his face.
Still fleeing downstairs, she started thinking about why the man hadn't been hurt.
Suddenly, an idea hit her—a crazy thought forced its way into her mind.
Could this all be a hallucination?
As if responding to her inner thoughts, the head that had been trailing her leisurely suddenly leapt, slamming into the steps right behind her back.
I'm gonna die, I'm seriously gonna die!
If she got hit, she'd be smashed into pulp—no doubt about it.
Feeling the wind from the impact behind her, Yumiko's fear multiplied a hundredfold.
Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, and tears started streaming down her face...
And yet, even so, her survival instinct kept her running.
And now, spurred on by the head's sudden attack, she pushed herself to run even faster!
Soon, the emergency exit door on the ground floor came into view.
Seeing the door, Yumiko felt as if she saw hope—her steps quickened again, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
If she could just make it through that fire door, she'd be able to escape through the lobby to the street.
The nearest police station was just over 300 meters from her apartment—if she made it there, she'd be safe!