This is a true story that happened to my friend M-ko.

M-ko and I met in college and hit it off right away, becoming best friends. One night, we were having drinks at my place while watching a TV special on paranormal encounters.

Even though I knew it was all staged, I was actually pretty creeped out. I tried to hide how scared I was by putting on a tough front and joking, "Man, now I'm gonna be too terrified to go to the bathroom!"

Maybe that backfired, because shortly after the show ended, M-ko turned to me and asked, "Hey, want to swap scary stories?"

"Why?"

I asked automatically, but M-ko just said, "Because that show didn't satisfy me." She immediately turned off the lights to set the mood and started telling ghost stories.

The stories M-ko told at first sounded like embellished versions of urban legends she'd picked up somewhere, full of silly punchlines that left you unsure whether to be spooked or to laugh.

Figuring two could play at that game, I put my own comedic spin on a few famous ghost stories, which made M-ko laugh. "Okay, that's just ridiculous," she cracked.

After we'd each told three stories, M-ko's demeanor suddenly changed. She sat up straight in a formal kneel and said, "Alright, next, I'll tell you something that actually happened to me."

Seeing her sit up so formally, I instinctively clutched a cushion to my chest and held my breath.

"This was back during my sophomore year of high school..."

And just like a seasoned ghost story narrator, M-ko began her tale.

M-ko's parents were originally from a remote rural village, and during long school breaks, her family used to visit her grandfather who lived there. However, in the fall of M-ko's freshman year of high school, her grandfather suddenly fell ill and became bedridden, eventually being told he didn't have much time left.

M-ko, who was a real grandfather's girl, was heartbroken and cried endlessly. She begged her parents to let her transfer to a high school in her grandfather's rural village for her sophomore year so she could care for him and be there at the end. Normally, parents would refuse if their kid asked to move from the big city to the middle of nowhere and spend their high school years nursing a dying relative, but strangely, M-ko's parents only thought it over for a moment before giving her their approval. So as she moved into her sophomore year, M-ko moved in with her grandfather and transferred to the nearest high school.

It was so deep in the countryside that reaching a proper big hospital took over an hour's drive. Because of that, her grandfather's medical care was handled by a local country doctor—the only physician in the entire village—who would come by for home visits once in a while.

Since it was a tight-knit little settlement, the local neighbors were deeply involved in each other's lives, and they had been taking care of her grandfather in place of her parents who had left for the city.

When M-ko went around the neighborhood to introduce herself, she was constantly swarmed by small groups of housewives gossiping, showering her with questions like, "Ah, are you old man so-and-so's granddaughter?" or "Look how big you've grown!" She says she was actually caught off guard because their questions were just typical mundane curiosities, like what life was like in the big city or if the trends on TV were real.

During this round of greetings, M-ko met the village's biggest landowner, a powerful local figure. She said she got a chill down her spine as he seemed to ogle her up and down. To make matters worse, he introduced his son, telling her to be good friends with him. The son looked so much like the comedian Tonikaku Akarui Yasumura that M-ko had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. The landowner completely misread her expression and chuckled, "Ah, take a liking to my boy, did ya, ha ha!" leaving M-ko unsure of how to react.

Still, the Yasumura lookalike offered a hand and said, "Nice to meet you," so M-ko bowed politely and shook it—only to discover that Yasumura's (as she referred to him from then on) hand was abnormally warm and clammy.

It turned out Yasumura was on the student council at the high school M-ko had transferred to. On her first day, he approached her, startling her, and somehow launched into a private, two-person tour of the school. Until she was finally released, she was forced to listen to his unsettling bragging about how smart he was and how nobody could mess with him because his dad had money, which was pretty draining.

Despite that, school life was fairly enjoyable once she made normal friends. However, caring for her grandfather was a brutal experience, even if she had prepared herself for it.

M-ko started noticing something strange about three months after moving there. For some reason, whenever she left the house, she would bump into familiar neighbors everywhere who insisted on greeting her. Most of the neighbors were in their 40s or 50s, but they kept asking invasive questions about her high school life and pushed into tasteless territory, asking if she'd found a nice boy at school. M-ko, being naturally mild-mannered, just brushed it off with polite, noncommittal answers like "Ha ha" or "I'm not really sure yet."

Around that time—she couldn't remember who started it—a pushy group of locals emerged who kept relentlessly hyping up Yasumura, the landowner's son.

"That boy is gonna be mayor one day." "M-ko, if you stick with Yasumura, your future is set for life." "The landowner's son doesn't have a girlfriend, so he's quite a catch."

They pushed this narrative on her to a creepy degree.

When M-ko mentioned this to her newly made friend, A-ko, A-ko surprisingly agreed with them: "Well, that's just how it is in the countryside. Getting married right after graduation is pretty much the norm around here."

While getting married young might be a common rural trope, M-ko already had clear plans for her future. Depending on her grandfather's condition, she planned to leave the village as soon as she graduated high school. The local doctor had indicated that her grandfather likely wouldn't live to see her graduate, so M-ko assumed she would be leaving the village the moment high school was over.

However, school events soon backed M-ko into a corner. Naturally, there were events like the cultural festival and sports day, and for some reason, she was paired up with Yasumura every single time.

When they were paired for folk dancing, there was no blatant sexual harassment, but the way he touched her hands felt disgusting and gave her full-body goosebumps. Even now, just recalling it made her gag.

M-ko managed to dodge Yasumura's obvious advances until winter arrived. That's when she discovered that, without her knowledge, she had been made into Yasumura's fiancée. The news came completely out of the blue. M-ko had walked over to Yasumura's classroom on an errand when a group of guys watching from a distance started whispering, "Hey, look, it's Yasumura's girlfriend," which immediately turned into, "Wait, aren't they engaged?"

M-ko stood there stunned, wondering what on earth they were talking about, until she overheard one guy say, "My dad said Yasumura and [M-ko's last name]'s parents decided on the marriage." "Huh?" slipped out of her mouth in utter confusion.

(Why on earth would I have to marry someone like Yasumura?)

Fuming, M-ko called her parents right after school to check if it was true. But over the phone, her parents gave her a completely delusional answer: "Huh? We heard you actually liked Yasumura-kun?" That sent her over the edge, and she screamed, "Are you out of your mind?!"

Her parents, however, kept insisting that a promise had already been made with his family, that marrying the landowner's son guaranteed a comfortable future, sounding just like the village elders. Realizing she couldn't reason with them, M-ko slammed the phone down.

The next day, realizing the engagement would become set in stone if she stayed silent, M-ko called Yasumura behind the school building to set the record straight and tell him the engagement was a mistake.

"My parents made that promise without asking me, so just forget it ever happened."

When M-ko bluntly told him that, Yasumura's face instantly contorted in rage. She says she'll never forget how his face turned bright red, twisting like a demonic mask.

Having been rejected—albeit indirectly—Yasumura's veins bulged visibly as he stepped up to M-ko and snapped, "Huh? Are you freaking kidding me?"

Terrified, M-ko blurted out, "I-I'm sorry," and hurried away. But when she glanced back for a second, Yasumura standing there expressionless looked utterly terrifying.

In the days after M-ko rejected the engagement, the neighbors who used to greet her daily suddenly turned cold. When M-ko said, "Good morning," they'd give an annoyed "Yeah, right" and click their tongues at her. One old man who had been pushing Yasumura so hard went as far as calling her a "slut" and intentionally sprayed her with water from his garden hose.

And what awaited M-ko at school was collective ostracization.

Granted, it wasn't every single person. Mainly, the sycophants fawning over Yasumura led the charge, and students from the village and neighboring towns treated M-ko as if she didn't exist.

The homeroom teacher was particularly problematic. Whether Yasumura's parents had gotten to him or not, he constantly nagged M-ko and blatantly sabotaged her academic record.

Gradually isolated not just from her class but from her entire grade level, M-ko spent her days attending classes and going straight home without speaking to a soul.

The only person who still talked to her was A-ko, but every time she did, she'd offer unhelpful advice like, "You should just apologize to Yasumura-kun. I'm sure he'll forgive you." M-ko quickly realized that A-ko was in league with Yasumura.

What finally overturned M-ko's desperate situation was the death of her beloved grandfather. He passed away peacefully at the age of 94. Naturally, with their own father passing away, M-ko's parents took time off work and returned to the village. The funeral was held right away, but hardly anyone attended except for those who had been close friends with her grandfather during his life. However, the one person M-ko least wanted to see—Yasumura's father—did show up, and for some reason, M-ko's parents were bowing deferentially to him. Even from a distance, M-ko could tell they were talking about her engagement, but not wanting to ruin her final goodbye to her grandfather, she quietly slipped away.

After her grandfather's funeral, M-ko had a sit-down with her parents in the living room, now empty of her grandfather. The topic, of course, was the engagement.

Her parents' arguments sounded like the delusions of cult members: "Mr. [Landowner's last name] was generous enough to choose you!" and "You'll never get an offer like this again!" M-ko shut them down with, "Stop deciding who I'm going to marry!" but her parents kept grumbling and complaining right up until the morning they headed back to the city.

And then, the worst nightmare of M-ko's life struck right after the end of winter in her sophomore year.

One day on her way home from school, as M-ko was walking past a grove of trees, someone suddenly grabbed her arm and dragged her inside a deserted, shed-like building. When she looked up in shock, her attacker was Yasumura. One of his lackeys shut the door from the outside, trapping M-ko alone with Yasumura in the dusty room. Yasumura grabbed both of M-ko's arms with all his strength, using his weight to pin her to the floor. Realizing with horror that this was the cliché scenario you see in dramas, M-ko screamed, "Stop it!" but in that instant, he slapped her hard across the face, yelling, "Shut up!" She was left dazed, unable to process what had just happened.

As her mind raced, Yasumura temporarily released her hands and began fumbling with his belt buckle, muttering, "We're getting married anyway, so what's the big deal?" Seeing that, M-ko kicked him in the crotch with everything she had.

Yasumura doubled over in agony, clutching his crotch and groaning inaudibly, completely immobilized.

Seeing her chance, M-ko kicked him hard in the rear from behind, took a running start, and threw her weight into the shed door.

The door slammed open. As she crashed into it, she felt like she'd sent some obstacle flying. Outside, she saw one of Yasumura's lackeys fallen forward on the ground, clutching his face in pain. Realizing, "Ah, he was standing right in front of the door," M-ko sprinted away from the scene.

M-ko fled back to her grandfather's house, but knowing Yasumura would come after her for revenge, she grabbed a bare minimum of belongings and her wallet and bolted out the door.

In that town, buses ran once an hour at best. Fortunately, when she checked the schedule, she saw one was coming in a few minutes. Terrified that Yasumura and his crew might be searching for her, she ducked behind the bus stop structure to keep out of sight.

A few minutes later, the bus arrived slightly ahead of schedule. Relieved, M-ko boarded and took a seat near the front so she could exit quickly, keeping her head low so no one outside could see her.

But her relief was short-lived. Right as the bus pulled away, she heard someone yell, "M-koooooo!"

Peeking cautiously out the window, she saw several male students wandering around shouting her name, making her heart pound wildly against her ribs.

What if they stopped the bus? What if the bus driver was in league with Yasumura's father, and taking this bus meant being handed right back to Yasumura?

Terror gripped M-ko as she cowered in her seat, desperately praying for the bus to leave the town behind. Suddenly, the driver broke the silence: "Is that you they're calling after, miss?"

She was caught. The driver knew who she was. M-ko felt the air squeeze out of her lungs.

However, dispelling her terror, the driver spoke in a gentle tone: "Sounds like a real nightmare."

It turned out the driver had a son who went to the same high school as M-ko. Among the students who weren't in the landowner's pocket, M-ko was notorious as the poor girl being targeted by Yasumura. Having heard about M-ko's situation from his son, the driver recognized her name, and putting together the boys shouting outside with the girl cowering on his bus, he figured out what was happening.

"Don't you worry," the driver assured her. "Types like them are cowards who can't leave this town—they won't come after you."

He added, "That landlord's power doesn't mean a damn thing once you step outside of town."

Realizing the driver wasn't on Yasumura's side, M-ko felt the crushing weight lift off her shoulders, leaving her weak with relief.

"You'll be safe once we get to [Town Name]. Where are you heading?"

"Um, to [City Name]."

"Alright, I'll drop you off at [Town Name], and you can catch the bus bound for [City Name] right from there."

The driver cheerfully explained the transfer, and when M-ko thanked him, he just waved a hand casually and kept driving: "Don't mention it, don't mention it."

Following the driver's advice, she transferred between buses and trains until she reached the Bullet Train station, and after a two-hour ride from there, she finally arrived back at her parents' home late that night.

Her parents were stunned to see her show up out of nowhere, but when they learned she had fled from Yasumura, they turned furious, yelling with terrifying expressions, "What on earth have you done?!" In response to her furious parents, M-ko calmly disclosed how Yasumura had attempted to assault her and how she had been bullied at school. Seeing her crazy parents flinch and stutter, "Is that... is that true?", M-ko firmly declared, "If you send me back to that village, I'll commit suicide." That shut them up cold, making them swallow hard.

In reality, M-ko didn't have the slightest intention of committing suicide, but if her parents had ratted her out to the village to have her taken back, she was fully prepared to kill Yasumura if necessary to escape.

Fortunately, after M-ko returned home, her parents never mentioned the village again, nor did they make any secret phone calls to report her. During her leave of absence from school, she studied furiously for the High School Equivalency Exam. After convincing her parents to let her drop out of the transfer school, she passed the exam and got accepted into college a year late. The reason for the one-year delay was that she spent that time working non-stop at part-time jobs to save up money for college tuition and living expenses. Driven by a fierce determination never to depend on her parents again, she worked frantically to earn her own money.

Of course, saving up enough for full college tuition and living expenses in just a couple of years was impossible for a high schooler, so in the end, her parents paid for most of it. Even so, M-ko is still saving money bit by bit to pay them back. She confessed to me that once she gets a job after graduation and saves enough, she plans to throw every penny back in her parents' faces and cut ties with them completely.

Hearing all this, all I could offer was a weak, "W-wow... hang in there." But honestly, if my own parents had tried to force me into an arranged marriage with a terrible guy, I'd want to disown them too, so I felt a deep sympathy for M-ko.

Having poured out her entire story in one breath, M-ko ended with one final detail:

"By the way... I think I crushed one of Yasumura's testicles."

Unsure whether to laugh or crack a joke at her punchline, I just offered a dry, "Ah... gotcha."

And that's the story I heard from M-ko. I don't know how much of M-ko's story was true and how much was exaggerated. Maybe it was all made up, or maybe every word of it was real. There's just one thing I know for sure: later on, when Tonikaku Akarui Yasumura came on TV, M-ko was laughing her head off.