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A cryptic story!
I work in a pub in the evenings.
That day I had to work until late and couldn't catch the train I usually use. I had to get off half-way at an unfamiliar, near-deserted station.
It was the day before a payday, and I was broke. I went into a park and tried to get some sleep in there until it was time for the first train to come.
But it was so freezing outside that I began to have a pain in my stomach. I ran to the park's public toilet.
A short while later, someone came into the cubicle next to mine. It sounded like the guy was talking on the phone as he walked in.
Although there were traffic noises from outside, inside the toilet was very quiet, so my ears picked up bits of their conversation.
"What? Yeah, I know that. Hahaha! Oh, sorry, sorry. What?"
".....ber you.....di....no.......rec...."
"Aww, yeah, I see what you mean, man. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Huh? Yeah. Hahaha! No way, why? Hehe. Hmmm, is that true?"
"......ch.......t...again"
"Are you sure? I see....damn, maybe you're right. Sorry, just a second!"
Crinkle crinckle... Just as I came out of my cubicle, I heard the dry noise as the guy pulled down the toilet paper, and at the same time I clearly heard the words that the person on the other side of the phone was saying.
A bolt of fear shot through me and I fled from the place. I made a full sprint to the station and waited there until the shutters opened.
I was creeped out to the bone. Even now whenever I think about it, I grow afraid of the night.
A cryptic story!
I work in a pub in the evenings.
That day I had to work until late and couldn't catch the train I usually use. I had to get off half-way at an unfamiliar, near-deserted station.
It was the day before a payday, and I was broke. I went into a park and tried to get some sleep in there until it was time for the first train to come.
But it was so freezing outside that I began to have a pain in my stomach. I ran to the park's public toilet.
A short while later, someone came into the cubicle next to mine. It sounded like the guy was talking on the phone as he walked in.
Although there were traffic noises from outside, inside the toilet was very quiet, so my ears picked up bits of their conversation.
"What? Yeah, I know that. Hahaha! Oh, sorry, sorry. What?"
".....ber you.....di....no.......rec...."
"Aww, yeah, I see what you mean, man. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Huh? Yeah. Hahaha! No way, why? Hehe. Hmmm, is that true?"
"......ch.......t...again"
"Are you sure? I see....damn, maybe you're right. Sorry, just a second!"
Crinkle crinckle... Just as I came out of my cubicle, I heard the dry noise as the guy pulled down the toilet paper, and at the same time I clearly heard the words that the person on the other side of the phone was saying.
A bolt of fear shot through me and I fled from the place. I made a full sprint to the station and waited there until the shutters opened.
I was creeped out to the bone. Even now whenever I think about it, I grow afraid of the night.
Comments
You do have to have a certain knowledge for it.
Not sure how it could be scary. Maybe if he was checking a recording on his phone, he couldn't have been talking on it at the same time? I'm lost on this one :P
Hmm, I could think of a few hypothesis, but don't think I'm quite right.
Anyway, I can't help but see the last phrase said in the other side of the phone as "Check it again", to which the guy agrees to do so. The first can be something like "Remember you".. di(ed)? Idk, really!
A few of my theories:
1- The guy in the other side of the phone was referring to the "protagonist" in his stall, to which the other was unaware of, so he's like "There's someone near, check it again"... who knows what for. But this doesn't make sense with the "scared of the night" part.. unless the 'died' is actually a thing.
2- The other guy is some sort of criminal (that "ber" could fit for robber, stabber, bomber.., or 'remember you did not..'), and the other can be maybe telling him he forgot something so he should check, or again telling him someone might be listening...
3- Kind of silly, but.. the person asks him if there's someone else with him, and he's like "No way, why?", maybe because he's listening to some no(ise) (indi)rec(tly?), when he came out, turns out... That guy was being 'attacked' by Aka Manto and didn't realize x3?? *I said it was silly*
This is pretty much all I could guess. Looking forward to the actual answer, though!
"Hang up and try again"
If it is, maybe they're filming girls on the toilet and the guy was picking up the day's batch?
Anon, I think the phone guy said 'remember you' and maybe 'did not recognise'? the second bit does look like 'watch it again'.
That might explain why the guy on the other cubicle finishes round the same time the girl does.. since he has already got the recording he wants...
I think its something along the lines of "The number you have dialed could not be reached"
"Hang up and try again"
2 May 2014 08:32]
woah i think you may be right about this.
yea if what sheep said was true then wouldn't it just be a strange person. no reason to jump to further/paranormal conclusions. You would probably run away from there for safety, but it wouldn't really creep you out to the bone?
this one has stumped me @@
The narrator could've inadvertently walked into a kidnapping case. All the same, I also can't wait to hear the answer > u <)
The only one I can think of is that the narrator thinks a person need to use both hands to pull the toilet paper. And there's no way somebody is going to put a cellphone on the floor. So, the other person must be talking to 'somebody' in the toilet instead of through phone.
Yeahh, not sure I got this one right. Each time I read a cryptic story, it's really, really hard not to immediately look at the comments to see if anybody got the answer.
This is a good one, Saya-san. :D Thank you for this story.
My personal theory is that the guy beside his stall is only *pretending* to be on the phone, and he was about to do something horrible to the protagonist. The protagonist escaped in the nick of time 0_0
I have a few theories ( excuse my bad english ):
The protagonist is a "he". Public toilets in parks should always divide into gents and ladies.
The man had been talking on the phone since he walked in the public toilet, combines with the fact that the number he dialed could not be reached ( Sheep also mentioned above ), so the error message had been repeated numerous times. Therefore he was talking with himself the whole time.
When he excuse himself to get some toilet paper, if there was a human on the other side ( of the phone ), that person would wait for him. But it's not. At the same time, the protagonist could heard the message clearly, so he got freaked out.
Noone would dare to be close with a madman at night when nobody's around.
Anyway, thanks for your hard work translating this, Saya :D
Looks like the guy in the other cubicle is a killer. What does sheep said was right. It means the other guy was not talking to a person but uses the art of deception (talking to himself so the protagonist won't mind him) to wait for his prey ( The protagonist) to come out from the cubicle to kill him/her. Luckily the protagonist came up with this conclusion so he/she ran to escape from his/her terrible fate.
*Hey Saya, I've been reading some of your blogs, especially the cryptic ones. Please keep up the good work.
Man, I watched too much horror films.
This story is seiously creepy, it is one of those fears i have actually on the rare occassion that i end up being alone somewhere. I've had my fair share of encounters with creepers so i can really relate to the protagonist of the story :O
If the narrator moved a second later, who knows what could have happened? Once again, you made our imagination run wild Saya-chan! Thanks for the spooky story! :D
I hope Saya tells us the real answer to this!
"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again."
Sheep said: Sheep said...
I think its something along the lines of "The number you have dialed could not be reached"
"Hang up and try again"
CompyDex Said: Looks like the guy in the other cubicle is a killer. What does sheep said was right. It means the other guy was not talking to a person but uses the art of deception (talking to himself so the protagonist won't mind him) to wait for his prey ( The protagonist) to come out from the cubicle to kill him/her. Luckily the protagonist came up with this conclusion so he/she ran to escape from his/her terrible fate.
When piecing two and two together, it seems like a very valid answer... But then again...
I really am looking forward to the answer for this one!
It's not really a scary story---well it is sort of!
As for this cryptic story... I think the other comments have said enough. You can't even feel safe in a bathroom...
when you tell us to have certain knowledge i thought of
1. what crinkle noise usually occur in toilet, relates to something that is creepy
2. certain knowledge about public toilet such as its stall, or the room itself, or something else, (or specifically - park toilet - or toilet in japan?)
3. crinkle is the dry noise? is happened as the same time as the pulled down toilet paper noise also the same time as he heard the actual phone noise, does this sound correlates??
what's this certain knowledge and the explanation of the story is the biggest mistery to me ahahaha
can't wait
i happen to have some thought
1. first of all, what is the crinkle noise? it could relates to something creepy that has happened before on public toilet stall, a sex or violence act
2. perhaps something we should know about public toilet, or maybe specifically public toilet in japan
3. the crinkling noise, the pulled toilet paper noise, and pressumed phone call noise that happened to be heard by the narrator at the same time maybe correlates?? so he can take a conclusion about what happened
so curious about the explanation from saya
can't wait
This one is a difficult one to decode. I'm at a loss. Everyone has such good theories..
Whether he had malicious intent or was merely deraged seems to be something we could only conjecture without certainty due to the Main character taking leave of the place before anything further could occur. I'd say the damage was done; Fear being something that attacks not your body, but your mind.
I find the whole thing to be amusing even if things didn't escalate to a physical altercation. I don't socialize with people in the restroom and most certainly wouldn't wait around for someone who was conversing with a recording. :p
Thanks again for another wonderful, cryptic tale!
However,I based this translation on
a guess that the person on the other side of the phone is a recorded message, that says "The number you have dialled has not been recognised. Please check and try again."
He didn't hear anything different afterward. When it says he heard the words clearly, I think it just means that he recognized the error message. But it's definitely a strange person who talks to an error message like they're a real person responding back to them. It's suspicious if they're doing it on purpose, or maybe they're not in touch with reality. Thus, the narrator was scared and ran away. Not because of some new words on the phone but because he realized the person was "talking" to an error message, or pretending to.
Terrific story once again, saya san! Banzaaaaiiiii~~!