He checked his jack. It was plugged in. He checked his system volume. 100%.
The video on the screen was no longer Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum . It was a live feed of his own room.
He pressed play again. The scene continued. The streamers were getting scared now. The tension was building. Ji-hoon reached for his mug, taking a sip of cold, bitter coffee. Then, the audio cut out. subtitle GONJIAM.Haunted.Asylum.2017.1080p.FHDR...
Ji-hoon stared at the screen, tears blurring his vision, unable to scream, unable to move, waiting for the timecode of his own final scene to appear.
Suddenly, a new line of subtitle appeared in the preview window. It didn’t have a timecode in the right pane. He checked his jack
He reached for the mouse to close the program, but the cursor wouldn't move. It was locked in the center of the video preview.
He clicked 'Open Subtitle File' and loaded the companion file he had just finished downloading from an obscure forum: GONJIAM.Haunted.Asylum.2017.1080p.FHDR-EN.srt . He tapped the spacebar. The timecode began to roll. He pressed play again
He opened his subtitling software. The left pane showed the video preview, still black. The right pane was a blank canvas waiting for his words.