I heard a girl's bright, carefree laughter.
She was sitting on top of the water tank, where no one could see her. She watched the students and teachers bustling around below, and the girls being scolded by their teachers as they sobbed, and laughed delightedly. She laughed so hard she doubled over, clapping her hands. Then she leaned too far, slipped off the water tank, and landed lightly on the floor.
The teachers called the girls out, then carefully inspected the bathroom. They found nothing unusual.
Time shifted in the dream, and I saw students whispering among themselves.
The story of someone hanging herself in the bathroom had already spread. The teachers couldn't suppress the rumors.
Some girls had actually seen the girl hanging there, while others had seen nothing at all but swore they had and described the scene in vivid detail.
Like most rumors, the story was embellished and distorted again and again. New versions kept cropping up, and people offered all kinds of explanations for who the girl was and why she had died.
After watching the spectacle for a while, the girl grew bored.
Her gaze fell on one of the students.
She was the first girl to see her. She had screamed and run away in terror, but now she was a star student, surrounded by classmates who treated her like a celebrity.
"I really saw her! She looked just like this..." She tipped her head back, miming a hanging, and stuck out her tongue.
"I wasn't that ugly..." The girl was sitting on the windowsill beside her, muttering to herself.
No one else could hear her.
The student grew more and more animated as she talked.
"...I'd heard about it before! A senior who graduated last year was my neighbor. She told me that