Dispatches from the Graduate School of Ghost Stories - Chapter 28

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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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Urban Legends and Graduate School (28)
A Day in the Life of an MZ Intern (2)
A bag that lets you carry anything, or earrings that let you hit anything. Which would you choose?
On the surface, both sound appealing, but everything in this world has its pros and cons. Especially items born from urban legends—their strengths and weaknesses are starkly divided.
Yu Jong-hwa remembered Lee Ju-ho’s offhand assessment of those earrings from before.
“Senior, those earrings—didn’t you say they were difficult to use?”
“That’s right. So I wouldn’t really recommend them…”
“Ah, do they reject certain owners?”
“No, not at all. It’s just the conditions that are difficult. The weaker the user, the more power they lend.”
So Hui-young pulled a steel pipe from her bag and handed it to Lee Ju-ho.
Without effort, Lee Ju-ho bent it in half. Then she removed a chain made of glass beads—the earrings—and passed them to So Hui-young.
Holding the earrings in her right hand, So Hui-young grasped the folded steel pipe in her left and, with a perfectly serene expression, crumpled it into a ball.
“So it’s an item that should be used by me, not Ju-ho, to draw out greater power. Because I’m the weaker one!”
So Hui-young always acknowledged her weakness with confidence. Better to live by advertising from the start that she was fragile than to die pretending to be strong. Survival came first. Yu Jong-hwa agreed wholeheartedly with that philosophy.
“But then why doesn’t Senior use it, and Senior Lee does?”
“Because it’s difficult to carry anything else besides the earrings.”
“Even a single ballpoint pen can be classified as a weapon. The earrings decide everything arbitrarily. And the conditions change each time, so the amount of power they lend varies too.”
“…So I can’t carry a cell phone either?”
“Sometimes. That’s why you always have to keep your own strength in condition, just in case.”
It meant that one day, suddenly, you might have to survive an urban legend phenomenon with nothing but an ordinary body and empty hands.
Yu Jong-hwa did not trust his luck.
“I’m grateful just for the explanation. But that’s not something someone like me can use. I’ll take the bag.”
“Right. But that one has problems too.”
“I know! That bag has to be related to oxen, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. The animal that goes ‘moo.’ Strange, isn’t it? All those urban legend items are like that.”
Hui-young spoke carelessly, then tossed the bag over. Fortunately, the pale golden backpack’s opening loosened easily in Yu Jong-hwa’s hands. The thin bag, which could be tied shut at the mouth with cord like a coin purse and reopened, was heavier than it looked. Still, considering all the items inside, it was remarkably light.
“Hey, lucky for you. You can open it too. Do your parents raise cattle?”
“No! Senior, it’s because your name is ‘Hui-young,’ right? So it works that way too?”
“Yeah. It’s something I brought back directly from Busan, so maybe I’m being generous about it. Oh, that’s right. Are you born in the Year of the Ox?”
“No, I’m a Rabbit.”
Yu Jong-hwa recalled his own personal information and realized his zodiac sign was Taurus.
Could something like that count as a connection too?
Items from urban legends always work this way—their conditions are all bizarre.
“Doesn’t matter. If it works, you should be grateful. I’m lending it to you. I’ve packed two fresh bags of salt and sharpened the kitchen knife and put it in. I’ve also packed energy bars and snacks, so don’t just grab and eat whatever you find—make sure to eat proper meals! Don’t skip eating!”
“Wow, thank you so much.”
“Each person experiences different situations in urban legend phenomena. Even if something goes wrong, there’s a high chance it’ll be a phenomenon we don’t know about, so be careful. Understood?”
Lee Ju-ho worried endlessly for him, and quietly slipped a bottle of beverage into the golden bag.
Always walking the line between life and death—but it was a warm workplace nonetheless.
He was receiving this affection from his seniors, and Yu Jong-hwa resolved that he would absolutely succeed at this task and come back safe.
* * *
The first day of work at DNA Logistics.
Donning the guise of a new intern, Yu Jong-hwa arrived at the company well before the designated 9 a.m. start time.
Near the warehouse he’d visited for his interview, there stood an old-fashioned office building with a sign reading “DNA Logistics Gangwon Headquarters.”
The arrival instructions he’d received after passing had told him to go to room 315 of that small building, but the decrepit structure looked as though electricity didn’t even reach it.
<Guidelines for DNA Logistics Interns>
Prepared by: Kim Jong-mal, Hwangrong University
1. The workplace environment differs from person to person, but the way to clock in is always the same! When you enter, bow respectfully at the waist and announce you’re a new intern—promise! And make absolutely sure to keep your head down as you go in~. If your neck gets stiff, you know, it could snap right off~.
The exploration guidelines prepared by a researcher named Kim Jong-mal were always a mess. They didn’t follow basic format and the explanation was scattered all over the place. They were even covered in all sorts of emoticons and special characters. Yu Jong-hwa filtered out the meaningless decoration and forced himself to memorize only the content.
Some people do try too hard to be funny, but the fact that he writes this way even in guidelines for urban legend phenomena—where lives hang in the balance—suggests he’s not the most thoughtful person.
Still, Kim Jong-mal’s guidelines had considerable reputation. Since no specialized knowledge was required, organizations outside government agencies apparently used them often.
Since he was someone who’d actually attempted tasks the government didn’t recommend and survived, it was good that his descriptions of anomalous situations were quite thorough.
Following the guidelines, Yu Jong-hwa bowed respectfully at the waist and announced in a loud voice.
“Hello, I’m Kim Jong-sik, the newly hired intern!”
He didn’t feel any presence nearby, but Yu Jong-hwa kept his head lowered and pattered his feet forward into the building.
Only when the surroundings brightened noticeably could he straighten his back and look around the company.
The interior of the slightly aged but well-maintained building was filled with expressionless people in business suits passing by him. There weren’t many visible employees, and they all had an oddly hazy quality about them.
The guidelines said nothing about not talking to employees. Yu Jong-hwa approached one and asked.
“Um, hello. How do I get to the third floor…?”
The employee flinched as if seeing something unpleasant, then backed away rapidly and walked around him. He hadn’t even touched them!
Already feeling his confidence shaken, he began searching for the office alone.
The building’s exterior appeared simple enough, but its internal structure was bewildering—the floors were divided in peculiar ways. The elevator served only even-numbered levels, the stairs only odd ones, and within each floor the offices weren’t arranged sequentially but scattered haphazardly.
Yu Jong-hwa reached the door of Room 315 with difficulty. The quiet office wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pulled the handle. It was clearly locked tight.
2. Room 315 hasn’t been open in most investigations. Means they don’t care whether new hires show up or not! Aren’t you grateful? Don’t bother trying to force it open—just work in another department instead!
It’s well known that as long as you fill your work hours, it doesn’t much matter where you are.
*Of course, I once killed time playing games in the bathroom, but the security guard dragged me away for that. At least pretend to work somewhere people can see you!
Though he’d been warned beforehand, he couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
How could they call someone in and then just abandon them like this?
Even if it was an Urban Legend company, he was beginning to understand how the place operated.
8:45 a.m. Still no one had come.
9:00 a.m. Only other department employees heading to their posts passed him in the hallway.
9:15 a.m., he stood motionless, gazing out the corridor window. The Urban Legend Phenomenon seemed to have frozen the seasons—autumn leaves were falling despite April, and heavy autumn rain was coming down steadily with the cool breeze.
9:28 a.m. He figured it was safe to move around now. Yu Jong-hwa walked through the twisted corridors, tensing in anticipation of what kind of workplace ostracism might begin.
Haven’t you waited long enough? Don’t go wandering around without even lasting a minute. The core values of DNA Logistics employees are patience, sincerity, and compliance. As if that’s really something to boast about!
3. The offices where other employees work change location each time, but they’re generally on the same floor, so find them carefully. If your luck is bad? Too bad~.
Yu Jong-hwa’s fortune seemed decent today. He didn’t have to search long before finding a door marked “Management Support Department” on the third floor.
He knocked on the door, then entered the office with a loud voice.
“Hello! I’m Kim Jong-sik, the new intern who started today! I look forward to working with you!”
To his noisy entrance, no one paid any attention at all.
The office remained silent except for the busy sound of typing coming from behind high partitions.
“Um, hello……? This is my first day, and the desk I was assigned to was locked, so I came here instead!”
“If it’s about hiring, ask Manager Kim.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
When he grabbed someone at random over the partition and asked his question, an irritated response came back: a curt syllable.
Their attitude suggested they had no interest in conversation about anything outside their own work.
Yu Jong-hwa searched for a nameplate to find “Manager Kim.”
There were no titles written on them—only names, and he had to hunt through several nameplates to find the person in charge.
There were far too many people named Kim in Korea. After several blunt rejections, Yu Jong-hwa finally found the desk of someone who identified themselves as the person in charge. The man wore horn-rimmed glasses and, like every other DNA Logistics employee, had an indistinct expression, though his eyes were noticeably bloodshot from staring intently at the monitor.
“Was an intern supposed to come today? I didn’t hear anything about it.”
“What? You said today……. Did the date change, perhaps?”
“I don’t know. You started without even looking at a contract?”
You never gave me one.
The acceptance email had made no mention of an employment contract—just stated when he should report to work. Manager Kim left him with only the remark that intern hiring wasn’t his responsibility before turning his complete attention away.
Now Yu Jong-hwa understood what kind of suffering awaited him at DNA Logistics: workplace ostracism. Every employee would be indifferent to him, unwilling to exchange even a single word.
It was truly the worst possible company for him.
Different people have different thresholds for what constitutes suffering. DNA Logistics, an Urban Legend company, displayed different varieties of terrible workplace atmosphere tailored to each new hire’s personality. The reason they permitted only one person to join at a time was surely to construct a small hell unique to that individual alone.
When So Hui-young had joined, the company consisted entirely of people foisting their work onto others, or so the story went. With no internal rules and chaotic task distribution, she’d been buried under suddenly assigned work until she finally stole a delivery package and fled.
Lee Ju-ho’s experience had been somewhat different. The moment she’d entered the building, all employees had rushed to welcome her. They’d ask about her intentions whenever she shifted her body, mimicking every word she spoke and showing excessive interest. Despite having nowhere to eat outside, employees held morning gatherings with horrific food each had brought, and the same happened at lunch and dinner. She’d managed to escape during a gathering that extended to a second round, barely able to steal a package. She’d offered a rare, firm assessment: “I really wanted to die.”
And Yu Jong-hwa thought that the environment those two had experienced was at least tolerable by comparison.
“This really is my first day of work—I have an email to prove it! Is the person in charge of intern hiring not here today?”
“I don’t know. Someone said they went on a honeymoon or maybe quit. Work’s piled up because of that, so don’t bother me—you’ll just have to figure out what needs doing on your own.”
“……Yes!”
“Besides, you’re late anyway. Wouldn’t common sense say you should arrive fifteen minutes early?”
Is this really an Urban Legend? Isn’t this just average Korea?
In the procession of excessively cold personalities, Yu Jong-hwa’s mind grew foggy.
How was he going to get through working here? Would he ever become a full-time employee?
He stopped his natural train of thought and took stock of his situation.
Wait. Get a grip—this is something others experienced, not something happening to me.
“Yes! I apologize!”
Having lost any will to continue the conversation, Yu Jong-hwa offered a respectful apology and looked around the office.
The numbers and characters displayed on the busy employees’ monitors were completely illegible to him. They didn’t appear to be a foreign language, but the letters’ shapes were blurred as if he were viewing a low-resolution image.
How could he find work to do if he couldn’t even read it? Standing still seemed like it would draw less resentment.
He stood motionless, watching the other employees work for about two hours. Not a single person gave him even minor errands to run.
When his smartphone’s clock struck noon, all the employees rose as one, grabbed lunch boxes or bread, and left the office.
“Wow, even our company bought lunch on the first day. It was soup, no less.”
Yu Jong-hwa marveled, uncertain whether he should be amazed that this Urban Legend company even served lunch or appalled by their crude personalities. He was beginning to miss his old job.
Ding. A notification sound chimed from his smartphone—an email had arrived.
[DNA Logistics here. I’m in the first-floor lobby right now.]
He opened the email with its suspicious subject line, but it contained not a single word of text. There was only the same strange scrawl he’d seen before attached to it.

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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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