Late Night Call

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❤️Updating Every Saturday Evening (Japan Time)

(Translated and Arranged by Saya)



There was a telephone at my workplace which almost never rang.

It was something that had remained from the days when the company had more departments. The line was alive but no one ever used it to make a call, and when on rare occasions it received calls, they were all wrong numbers.

One night I had a lot of work to do and I was staying in the office until late. 
It was weekend and I was planning to go out for drinks, but something urgent came up and I was forced to work overtime.

Somehow or other I had managed to finish the work and I was getting ready to leave, when that phone rang. 

Again? I thought.
I had occasionally worked overtime until late before, and a few times I had heard the phone ring around midnight.

No one makes business calls around this time of the night, so it must be another wrong number. 
That’s what I would think to my myself every time it rang, and I would just ignore the call.

Usually, the phone would stop ringing after about 10 rings.
But that day, it continued to ring for a long time.
I was already beginning to mentally unwind after a hard day’s work, and those intrusive sounds were grating on my nerves.
I picked up the handset, fully intending to hung up immediately.
But before I did so, I held it to my ear to make sure it wasn’t a fax.
Then I heard:

Moshi moooshi? Oh good! Finally someone answers!”

A bright voice exclaimed on the other side of the phone. It sounded so cheery that I felt bad about wanting to hang up. 
I’ll tell him he has the wrong number and then I’ll hang up — I thought, and answered:

“Hello, this is *** corporation. I think you might have the wrong number.”

When I said that, the other person said something unexpected.
“Yes, of course you are ***! How can I not know that, T san!”

I panicked a little when I heard him mention “T san.”
There was an employee called T who was the chief of another department. But he had of course already gone home.

Sumimasen, this is M speaking. I’m afraid T has already left the office.” 
I said politely, although inside I was thinking how stupid it was for the guy to think T would still be here.

“No, you are T san! I know it! T san! I would like to come and see you right now!”

His voice remained cheerful but he was convinced I was Chief T. 
I couldn’t believe that he expected someone would be  available to see him at this time of night.

I got creeped out and tried to end the conversation and hang up.
I repeated to him that T had left the office and he had the wrong person.
But he didn’t listen and continued talking, in that annoyingly cheerful voice.

“T san! T san! I want to see you! I’m coming over right now!”

He repeated the words “T san”
and “I’m coming over right now” over and over again.
That totally freaked me out, and not knowing how to respond anymore, I just stood there listening to him.

Soon, his voice became shrill like a fast forwarded cassette tape, and all I could hear was a high pitched grating noise. 

(Below: Sound of a fast forwarded cassette tape)

When the noise finally stopped, I heard the man say, in a much deeper voice than before,
“Just wait there.”

The moment I heard that, I couldn’t bear it anymore and hang up.
I must leave the office as soon as possible, I thought.
I was heading towards the entrance,when the intercom buzzed.
I was not in the state of mind to answer it, so I peered into the monitor, holding my breath.

A tall, gaunt man was standing at the entrance. 
He was so tall that his head was above the camera and the monitor showed only his body from the neck down. He was holding something in his hand.

The intercom buzzed a few more times. Of course, I was not going to answer it.
I just stood still, trembling. I kept praying in mind for him to go away.

The man stooped down and stared into the camera. 
There was a big smile on his face. He was showing his teeth while he smiled.
His eyes were black and vacant. 

“T san! T san! Are you there ~ !? I have come to see you ~ !” 

The same cheery voice I had heard over the phone came through the intercom and echoed inside the empty office. 
My eyes were glued on the monitor.
The man came even closer to the camera. His vacant eyes filled the entire screen.
He was still talking cheerfully into the intercom.

“T san! Are you there ~ !? T san! Heeeey ~ !”

The man’s head was now swaying back and forth.

“T saaAaaaaahhhhNnnnnn !” 

His voice became low and deep just like before when we were on the phone.
Then he suddenly disappeared from the screen.

I couldn’t move from the spot in front of the monitor for a while.
I didn’t know when the man would suddenly appear again.
As I continued to stare at the monitor, the day began to break.
When I saw the outside getting brighter, I finally felt brave enough to go outside. 
I fearfully inched forward to the entrance. It was all quiet with no sign of people.

I unlocked the entrance and the automatic doors opened.
Then, something fluttered down to the ground. It was a brown envelope. 
I picked it up and opened it, and found a piece of human-shaped paper. 

More creepy stuff? No thank you! 
I put the paper back into the envelope, and then ripped it in pieces before throwing it away. 
By then, the sun had completely risen. I went back home and went to sleep immediately, exhausted from the all-night vigil.

I spent the weekend in a normal way, trying my best to forget the creepy incident.
At the beginning of the following week, when I arrived at the office, I was informed that Chief T had passed away.
Apparently, Chief T was hit by a train on last Saturday night.
His body was torn to pieces, and they only managed to identify him as Chief T by the driving license he was carrying with him.

As soon as I heard that, I remembered the series of events which had taken place at the last weekend, and shivered.
The creepy phone call, the man who came to see Chief T, the human-shaped paper inside the brown envelope…
I wondered if me tearing that paper up had anything to do with Chief T’s death.

I attended the funeral, feeling depressed. 
While I was in the office, I tried always to work with my back facing to the flowers on Chief T’s desk**
Although I couldn’t be sure, perhaps I was partly responsible for his death — this vague sense of guilt continued to torment me for sometime after Chief T’s death.

Half a year later, just when that sense of guilt was starting to fade away, I again had to work overtime because of some urgent business.
Chief A, who belonged to the same department as me, was working overtime too, so there were two of us in the office.

Abruptly, that phone stared ringing again.

It nearly gave me a heart attack. I
was even beginning to forget about the incident half a year ago, but hearing the phone ring again brought back all the memories.

Chief A, oblivious to my pale face, went over to the phone, muttering “ so annoying!” to himself.
Before I could stop him, Chief A picked up the phone. 

“Hello? *** corporation. A speaking.” 
Chief A said in a quizzical voice. I tentatively strained my ears to catch Chief A’s words.

“This is A speaking, not M.” 
“What business do you have with M?”
“I see. In that case, I will relay your message to him.”
“…. What?”
“…. Please excuse me.”

Having hung up the phone, Chief A came back, looking grumpy. He said:

“That guy was saying all sorts of crazy stuff, and in such a cheerful voice too! I got mad and hung up on him.
“You are M san, aren’t you?!” He said. I told him I was A but he wouldn’t listen.
But in the end, he said he wanted to leave a message to M san. 
“I’m sorry about what happened to T san,” he said. I was like what? And he went, “M san could have come instead of him, you know?”
What the hell was he talking about?”

I tried to look nonchalant while I listened to Chief A’s story.
A few days later, I quit the company.

Who was the caller? Did Chief T die because of me? 
I still don’t know the answers to these questions.


—————
Note:

** Flowers on a desk — In Japan, when a person passes away, sometimes they put flowers on the desk they used at work, to pray for the repose of their soul. (See an example of how it looks like from here https://www.asahi.com/sp/articles/photo/AS20180910003642.html?ref=yahoo )


—————-
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Kurochaya, Tokyo

Kurochaya (Black Tea House) is an amazingly beautiful restaurant that serves traditional Japanese food! It has a cafe next to a river too!
I’ve been there once and had a great time ✨

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Comments

Saya In Underworld said…
Hello, wonderful people!
I hope you are having a nice weekend !⭐️

This week’s story was LONG.😱
I had to spend more time translating!
I didn’t have much time to proofread…πŸ₯²
I hope you like it! ( I will be sad if you don’t 😭)

Let me know in the comments what you thought about it!✨
Your comments are always welcome!πŸ’–

Thank you so much for reading my posts!
See you again next week!😊⭐️
Aeri chan~ said…
At first i thought this is some creepy stalker story, bcos i thought how stupid M to tell his location and his nameπŸ˜…but then oh ..forget it, it's shinigami (?) so polite this shinigami called first before take someone else slife 😌
Saya In Underworld said…
Not sure what it really was, but Shinigami would be a good explanation 🀣✨

I hope not every shinigami looks freaky like this though 🀣🎡

Thank you so much for your comment! You’re the first! Yay!✨
Saya In Underworld said…
Be careful when you receive a late night call in your office 🀣✨

Thank you so much for your comment ⭐️🌸
allucinator said…
😐😬πŸ₯Ά
Saya In Underworld said…
Just make sure you do nothing when you find an envelope ~ 🀣⭐️⭐️⭐️
CreanJinSung said…
Oh right, landlines don't stop ringing unless the caller hangs up on their end. That is so annoying.

I tried thinking what if it used other forms to communicate. Very smart on the their end to use a telephone.

No one can ignore a Landline ringing. Emails can be ignored, deleted, marked as spam, mobile numbers can be blocked or just silence the phone, letters would probably get lost in the mail or assumed as bills 🀭

They can't just unplug the phone, I guess since it's an office line.

Yeah, I guess they (phone "person") really weighed out the pros and cons of how to effectively talk to A-San or T-san
Fairy said…
Wow this one is terrifying… I hate phone calls in general especially ones late at night lol!

I think I would have just put my headphones on and ignored it if possible…

I love this story so much! Definitely gave me the chills…

I hope you have a good weekend, Saya-san!!
George V said…
Creepy and as someone who hates the sound of phone, it really hits close.... Thanks Saya for a great story.
Anonymous said…
Thank you for the story, Saya!

That's scary, knowing you're unintentionally responsible for someone's death and also being targeted. Coincidentally, I've been getting a lot of spam calls, too, and a lot of them came at midnight or so! I don't put my phone in mute, so that I can respond in case of emergency, but those calls... targeting people at midnight is just evil.

And on another note, that bit with cassette tape made me feel nostalgic. I miss using my pencils on cassette tapes.
Saya In Underworld said…
The entity must be a clever one, as you said! 🀣⭐️

I usual ignore calls from unknown people so I’ll be alright 🀣✨

Thank you so much for your insight πŸ˜†
watermelonne said…
Office horror stories are my cup of tea but this one sure is pretty creepy ToT A creepy midnight call from a person you wouldn't expect to find as strange or not normal as they initially appear, on an outdated landline phone installed for a long gone time for the office... that's one night you couldnt ever forget!!!

Also, this story reminds me a lot of Filipino call center ghost stories too O~O it's always the old-fashioned wire call systems you can expect to make contact with an entity in. The scariest detail for me is the fact that chief T passed away due to trains, which are marked as "line 1", "line 2", "tokyo line" etc. in jp, while landline phones like the one the midnight call came from operate via long connecting cables that run along cities, like railroad lines. Guess I'm not getting any sleep tonight ~~ thanks for translating this story, saya-san!!!
Saya In Underworld said…
Getting calls on my landline phone at night scares the hell out of me, because everyone we know just calls on our mobile phones, so we wonder who it could be!? You know πŸ˜†✨

I’m so glad you love the story ~ ❤️❤️❤️

I hope you have had a good weekend too! Thank you so much for your kind words⭐️⭐️⭐️
Saya In Underworld said…
When we are so used to softer ringtones on our mobiles, we get shocked when we hear those landline phone rings ~ 🀣

I’m so happy to know you like the story!⭐️

Thank you so much for your comment πŸ™πŸ»✨
Saya In Underworld said…
Oh that must be so annoying! I hope you will find a way to block those spam calls!😱

I put that video of a fast forward cassette tape, because I was afraid younger people might not know what it may sound like ~🀣✨ But the noise makes many of us nostalgic, I’m sureπŸ˜†⭐️ (and the pencil too lol)

Thank you so much for your comment!🌸
Saya In Underworld said…
You’re very welcome ~ 🌸

I’m sure your country has so many scary and interesting ghost stories too ~ 😊❤️

Thank you so much for sharing your insight into the story!πŸ’•
Anonymous said…
alright, this is scary because I have both landline phone and security cameras and everyone just keep teasing me about what if I see ghosts or faces or strangers or something strange trough the monitors πŸ‘» and then what if the phone rings and ...
Haha I'm screwed πŸ˜…

Meanwhile here's a pic I took earlier, someone is a big fan of manga about fishing here πŸŽ£πŸ‘

https://i.postimg.cc/yxF3XRXY/20230723-100900.jpg

Thanks for the awesomely scary story 😁
Saya In Underworld said…
You have all the right conditions to have a scary supernatural experience then!🀣✨

Wow! I almost didn’t see those small letters on the boat! Awesome ~ πŸ€£πŸ’• Thank you for sharing!

You’re welcome and thank you so much for your comment!πŸ™πŸ»⭐️
Have a nice day ~ πŸ€
Second Sun said…
Sayaaaa!! γŠη–²γ‚Œζ§˜γ§γ—γŸ!!

Omg this story is seriously scary to me haha
Just when I thought it was going to end, it became even scarier!!
I really like these office stories though

The moral of the story is..don't work overtime hahaha
And don't answer calls past office hours
AND DON'T PICK UP WEIRD ENVELOPES ON THE FLOOR

(I will also never reverse my decision to get a landline. It's always terrible to listen to the ringing! Not to mention the ghosts that like to call LOL)

γ„γ€γ‚‚γ‚γ‚ŠγŒγ¨γ†γ­!!
Anonymous said…
Hello saya san, hope you're doing well!! I've been lurking in your website since a looooong time ago when i was studying english in middle school, now im already doing my final project in university hahhahah i still frequent this site every once in a while and im soo happy that you're still actively posting banger stories back to back (as the kids say nowadays lol) anyways this story is so creepy!! :"D i feel bad for M san whos already doing hard work overtime in the office and "someone" decides to mess around with him ;;; late night random calls are so anxiety inducing... thank you for the story!! This wil definitely stick with me for a while especially with the creepy photo in the beginning (i also looove the pictures you include so much btw!!<3) hope you're having a fantastic day, saya san and dear readers too! πŸ˜ŠπŸ’–
Saya In Underworld said…
Hello ~ Second Sunけゃん!γŠη–²γ‚Œζ§˜γ§γ™!

Thank you for making a list of the moral of the story!πŸ˜†⭐️ Those are very wise advices we should definitely follow🀣✨

I think the landline has its uses! Whenever I am asked for a phone number when I buy something on the internet, for example, I put down my landline number so I can avoid getting sales calls from them on my mobile! πŸ˜†

こけらこそ、γ‚γ‚ŠγŒγ¨γ†γ”γ–γ„γΎγ™!πŸ˜ŠπŸ™πŸ»πŸ’•

Take care and またζ₯ι€± ~⭐️
Saya In Underworld said…
Hello! It’s really lovely to hear from you! πŸ˜ŠπŸ’•

I think that photo might have been from another story which was about someone who had a late night visitor at home and this was the picture they took of the visitorπŸ€” but I can’t be sure! πŸ˜†⭐️
I’m glad you like the pictures that come with the stories!

Thank you so much and I hope you are having a great week too ~🌸

I hope your project at university will go smoothly 😊✨

Take care!πŸ€
Second Sun said…
Haha my goal is to survive a ghostly encounter if I ever do come across one so I need to keep reminding myself of the best practices to live 🀣

That's a good way to use the landline LOL
Here in Singapore, we have waaaaay too many insurance/property agents that spam your house gate with their flyers. So..I use their numbers in your landline situation so they can all sell to each other 🀣🀣
Saya In Underworld said…
Thank you so much for another useful tip! You’re truly wise🀣⭐️⭐️⭐️
you see, if this was me, I would've unplugged the landline phone. problem solved, no more calls, no creepy guy speaking in an eerily cheery voiceπŸ˜‚

no one uses it and no one calls besides wrong numbers, it's a win-win for everybody xD

that poor guy, he sounds like he's wracked with guilt :c
Saya In Underworld said…
Your name makes me want to have some mint chocolate cookies 🀣✨

I don’t think he could have unplugged the phone without his boss’s permission but perhaps he could have done it in secret at least when he was working overtime πŸ˜†⭐️

Thank you so much for your comment!πŸ’•