Dispatches from the Graduate School of Ghost Stories - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Cursed Phenomena and Graduate School Diaries (10)
Fox Rain
Yu Jong-hwa stepped out of the studio and immediately grabbed his smartphone. He’d called several times, but Jeon Si-hyeon wouldn’t pick up.
What if I made things worse by asking him for help? What if something happened because of me?
A new email notification flashed on his screen. The sender was Jeon Si-hyeon.
Yu Jong-hwa’s trembling hands fumbled to open his inbox.
[Business Trip Reimbursement Documentation Notice]
The tension drained from him the moment he saw the subject line’s mundane tone.
Reading through the message, it was straightforward enough—since it was getting late, he should find a place to sleep and come back up the next day.
Below the main text was a postscript. Unlike the formal notice above, it was written casually.
+Heading home now. Won’t be answering calls after this.
Whatever his tone, the man was decent. Yu Jong-hwa resolved to bring him something as thanks.
He was walking in a daze of relief when the police stopped him before he could even leave the parking lot.
“Me? I just got back from a cooking survival show…….”
“Ah, a new program. We’ll need you to fill out a report.”
Please, God. Yu Jong-hwa felt as though he could collapse right there on the asphalt and sleep forever. But he couldn’t defy state authority, so he was dragged back into the container office and forced to painstakingly write down everything that had happened.
The civil servant who’d stayed at his post listened to Yu Jong-hwa’s ordeal and offered him a light word of comfort.
“You were lucky. Glad you made it back okay.”
“Thanks for letting me borrow the safety goggles. They really did the trick.”
Too exhausted to explain further, Yu Jong-hwa simply bowed and returned the items.
He was released just before midnight. The nearly empty streets were quiet, and he checked into the first hotel he found, collapsing face-first onto the bed.
At last, his first assignment from this godforsaken graduate program was complete.
* * *
A graduate student has to attend classes, work in the lab, and keep their professor happy.
Of all these things, which is the hardest? Obviously, the professor.
Shortly after his escape from the Cursed Phenomenon, he was added without warning to the lab’s group messenger chat.
[Since Student Yu Jong-hwa has brought in research materials from FSBC Broadcasting Station, run the analysis and contact Hwangryong Institute once we get the Target Protein results. Jong-hwa, get to school as soon as you can and hand over the materials to the lab.]
The research staff’s responses followed immediately. In that messenger channel filled with nothing but “Yes, understood!”—Yu Jong-hwa couldn’t bring himself to ask “Could I get some rest first?”
Though it had been a while since he visited Daejeon, Yu Jong-hwa boarded a train to Seoul the moment the sun rose.
The sky visible through the train window had been clear, but as soon as he stepped out of the station, his hair began to feel damp.
The sun was harsh, yet rain fell gently—an impossible kind of weather.
Yu Jong-hwa, clutching a large shopping bag full of bread, climbed the hill toward the University. The lunch hour had filled the path with people, but a gap opened around him as if the crowd were parting sea.
The passersby averted their eyes to avoid looking at him, and they seemed so repelled even by his passing that they shrank back as far as they could.
‘Do I smell bad or something?’
Sensing something was off, Yu Jong-hwa belatedly remembered what was in his backpack. The Plaque he’d brought from the Cursed Phenomenon was pressing down heavily on his shoulders.
Someone who brushed past him even gagged. Though he understood it was all because of the cursed object, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed.
When he stopped in front of Injae Building, three researchers in yellow protective suits and a person in business casual attire were waiting for him.
“Hello, you must be Yu Jong-hwa, right?”
One of the researchers in a rustling protective suit approached and took the Plaque from his hands. The Plaque, which looked like transparent crystal, gleamed brilliantly under the sunlight. They carefully placed it into a Metal Box and swiftly disappeared into the building.
“……Is there one more?”
A small voice stopped him just as he was about to follow the researchers.
Yu Jong-hwa turned to face whoever had spoken. Before him stood a tall woman with striking features. So fine was her face that Yu Jong-hwa briefly mistook her for a man—only when he heard her voice did he register her gender correctly. It was embarrassing.
She fixed him with a sharp gaze, studying his backpack.
He hurriedly rummaged through his bag and pulled out an employment contract with the word “Temporary” scrawled across it.
“Is this what you’re asking about? I didn’t bring it because I thought it was too contaminated for research…….”
The woman accepted the contract from him and fell silent for a long moment, her expression growing grave.
“Is it really that poor quality?”
“Well, it’s…….”
She placed the contract into what looked like specialized aluminum foil. But one layer wasn’t enough. She wrapped it several times over, handling it as though it were a major biohazard, and explained calmly.
“Things like this need to be wrapped carefully. They can be dangerous to ordinary people.”
“Really that much……? I just thought it was something that felt a bit off.”
“No. Most people probably wouldn’t even be able to approach it.”
“What?!”
“……Follow me.”
The woman led him quietly into the building. When the elevator deposited them on the fourth floor, she walked toward a Laboratory marked with hazard stickers. The entrance felt entirely different from the research lab on the fifth floor where he’d first been taken.
Beyond the door, which opened via Facial Recognition System, researchers in various types of protective suits sat behind acrylic barriers, gloved hands moving as they manipulated something…….
“Kiiiieeeeee!”
“Ugh. Gross!”
Right next to Yu Jong-hwa, a purple, gelatinous human face was pressed against an acrylic panel, screaming and startling him half to death.
The researchers seemed unsurprised. They peeled the thing—whatever it was with a human face—from the panel, gathered it into a sphere like slime, and dropped it into a beaker.
Yu Jong-hwa noticed they were wearing Safety Goggles.
“Um, excuse me—are you perhaps a senior from Professor Song Yeon-ho’s Lab? What’s your name?”
“Lee Ju-ho.”
“Ah, you left me a note? Thank you so much.”
Yu Jong-hwa struck up conversation with easy charm and followed the woman who’d turned out to be his senior through the cramped Laboratory, weaving between machines whose noise mixed with unsettling sounds of Cursed Phenomena, scattering his focus. The researchers worked with bloodshot eyes fixed on their experiments, most of them blocking their ears with something or other.
Among all these heavily armored people, only he and Lee Ju-ho wandered about without a single piece of safety equipment.
“Senior Lee, um—don’t we have Protective Suits or anything…?”
“It’s fine.”
She was a woman of few words. More precisely, she lacked conversational skill. Lee Ju-ho seemed about to explain something further but faltered, and soon closed her mouth entirely.
Yu Jong-hwa’s attempt to push the conversation forward didn’t last long. A sudden blaring siren shook the Laboratory.
“Which idiot just let it out! I told you to turn on the dehumidifier!”
“The weather report didn’t say anything about rain….”
People in yellow Protective Suits clustered and murmured in front of the Isolation Chamber. Bang, bang, bang—a heavy object shook the chamber door from inside as though trying to burst out.
Yu Jong-hwa read the caution notice affixed to the door frame.
<Did you check before coming out?>
1. Verify the dehumidifier is running 24 hours.
2. On rainy days, keep a photo of clear blue sky in front of the Wardrobe.
3. No mentions of “it’s raining.”
4. Extra caution during monsoon season!
“This is insane. Locked up in here for 24 hours—how am I supposed to know what the weather’s like outside?”
Yu Jong-hwa listened to the flustered researcher’s complaint, then rolled his eyes and checked his own damp clothes. It seemed the brief Fox Rain on his way in had caused this disaster.
The researcher responsible for maintenance hadn’t known it was raining, and on top of that, had left the dehumidifier off.
The researchers were now throwing their full weight against the Isolation Chamber’s metal door. Yu Jong-hwa noticed his senior beside him seemed oddly unruffled, so he ventured a careful question.
“Does this happen often?”
“Ah… not usually.”
“So what’s locked in there—it’s a harmless thing, right…?”
“That would be… unlikely.”
The senior couldn’t give him a clear answer on anything. Yet instead of words, she inspired trust in him through action.
Lee Ju-ho lightly brushed aside the gathered researchers and swung the Isolation Chamber door wide open.
As the door opened, an old wooden Wardrobe sat squarely in view. Perhaps sensing the attention of all those eyes on it, the object that had been momentarily silent began to rattle and shake.
“Can we smash that Wardrobe?”
“No!”
“It’s expensive!”
The researchers, who hadn’t screamed even when the Wardrobe tried to burst out, cried out the instant they heard Lee Ju-ho’s words.
Faced with such strong opposition, Lee Ju-ho stepped into the chamber with an embarrassed expression.
Just as the Wardrobe’s weathered door began to open, she pressed it shut with one hand and quietly gazed at the Cursed Phenomenon.
A long, glass Earring glimmered on one of her ears.
“What is this Cursed Phenomenon?”
“Oh, we bought it from some famous Abandoned House. Supposedly, if you open it on a rainy day, you can see a corpse inside the Wardrobe.”
When he nudged the researcher next to him watching, an odd answer came back. Whatever this university researched, it didn’t seem to benefit the world much.
He called out in concern for Lee Ju-ho, who was struggling alone.
“Let me help! I just need to keep it from coming out, right?”
“You don’t have to… but would you like to try?”
“Yes! Wait—aaaaah!”
“…Go rest.”
Yu Jong-hwa tried to hold the Wardrobe door shut the way Lee Ju-ho had, but he let out a shriek before even a second had passed.
Lee Ju-ho quickly slammed the Wardrobe door shut and shoved Yu Jong-hwa aside, then hefted the entire Wardrobe onto her shoulder. She set it down in the corner of the Isolation Chamber.
The researchers rushed over as if they’d been waiting and placed a Laptop screen displaying a bright blue sky in front of the Wardrobe.
“Wow. Senior, do you work out?”
“Yes!”
The moment the topic of exercise came up, the senior’s face brightened.
It was the expression of a gym fanatic you’d see anywhere.
“I’ve been working out pretty hard myself. I think I need to do more.”
“Ah, what you just saw—this Earring does a lot of the work. It gives me incredible strength… but it’s a bit tricky to use.”
Try it sometime.
Despite it being clearly a precious thing, Lee Ju-ho readily offered to lend it. Finally, a decent senior at work! Yu Jong-hwa felt moved, thinking back on his dreary corporate life.
Lee Ju-ho obtained a Metal Box for Cursed Phenomena from the researchers. She placed his contract inside the box and handed it back to him.
“That contract… take your time resolving it.”
“Yes. I did already sign my name, though—that’s okay, right? Haha.”
“…….”
“It’s fine, isn’t it……?”
“……You said you enjoy exercise, didn’t you? Would you like to join me?”
Lee Ju-ho was visibly hedging, clumsily steering the conversation away. It was a pitiable sight—someone trying desperately to reassure a junior colleague.
“But what happens to me?!”
“Oh…… Hwi-yeong said they’d be here soon. They’re much better at this sort of thing. Just give it a moment…….”
Lee Ju-ho unlocked her smartphone and held it out to him.
The person registered under the name ‘Hwi-yeong’ had sent a message long enough to fill the screen.
It was a list of everything that needed to be done today.
And one minute ago, a particularly chilling sentence had arrived from them.
[Jo-ho, make sure that guy doesn’t run off.]
“They’re incredibly meticulous and kind. Everything will work out fine.”
She laughed as though finding the message endearing.
Yu Jong-hwa felt no reassurance whatsoever.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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