Early Symptoms
Evening.
As always, we were gathered in Minhye's studio apartment.
On the table in the center of the living room sat Deokhu's laptop and various pieces of audio equipment.
We huddled around it, holding our breath as we stared at the speakers.
"Alright, connecting now."
Striking a solemn pose, Deokhu pressed the enter key.
White noise poured from the laptop speakers.
Deokhu deftly turned a dial, fine-tuning the frequency.
"Is this really working? All I hear is static," Minhye asked skeptically.
Deokhu replied with absolute confidence.
"Hey, you think this is some high-tech digital hacking? This is classic, romantic analog."
He pushed up his glasses and continued his proud explanation.
"When I planted the mic, I hooked up a micro-RF transmitter I built myself right next to it."
"An RF transmitter?"
"Yeah. Simply put, it's a wiretap. But instead of using the internet, it broadcasts radio waves. Since his car is ancient, this old-school method is actually perfect. Within a two-kilometer radius, we can hear everything as clearly as an FM radio station."
The moment Deokhu finished speaking, the static cleared, and a crisp sound began to filter through.
It was the calm voice of a radio DJ.
Followed by a gentle classical melody.
"Oh! It works!"
Seyeon gasped. The audio quality was astonishingly clear.
And then came a familiar, pedantic voice. It was Professor Park Jinchul.
"Whoa, crazy. It actually works."
We looked at each other and snickered. Eavesdropping on the great Professor Park giving a solo music critique inside his own car brought a strange, satisfying sense of amusement.
He seemed to be on his way home from work.
We could hear the rhythmic clicking of the old car's turn signal and the soft hum of the engine.
Just then.
Even while driving, the professor's lecturing didn't stop.
"Hey, did you hear that? Isn't he talking about us?" Minhye asked, horrified.
"Wow, seriously... he's exactly the same even when he's alone in his car."
I crossed my arms and nodded.
"Now you see why I cast Professor Park as the protagonist of this scenario, right? Look at that tone, that personality. You couldn't ask for a more perfect stubborn intellectual character."
"I admit it. Respect to your vision, Hyung."
Deokhu gave me a thumbs-up.
For a while, we giggled as we enjoyed the professor's one-man talk show.
From stuffy philosophical rants that sounded straight out of a liberal arts lecture to petty gossip about his fellow professors.
Normally, it would have been boring enough to make us yawn, but eavesdropping made it incredibly entertaining.
"Nothing much is happening. He's just his usual self," Seyeon said with a yawn after about thirty minutes.
"Probably because it's not D-day yet. The ghost seems quiet for now."
"Right? I mean, we still have a few days until midnight on Monday."
I was about to relax and lean back against my chair.
The professor's tone over the speaker suddenly shifted.
Screeech!
Along with the sound of sudden braking, we heard the clatter of loose items tumbling all over the car.
"Oh? Did something happen?"
"Looks like it."
We leaned back in toward the speaker.
He seemed to be stuck in traffic. Loud honking erupted from all around him. Someone had likely cut off the professor's car aggressively.
Just then.
A scream loud enough to tear the speaker apart erupted.
Startled, we stared at each other.
"Is that really the professor's voice?"
"He's... swearing?"
The professor's rage didn't stop there.
"...Peasant?"
Minhye covered her mouth.
"Wow, look at his choice of words. 'Peasant.' The professor must be absolutely furious."
"No, even if he got mad, he was never like this."
"He's not the type of person to say things like that..."
I furrowed my brow. No matter how I looked at it, something was off.
While the professor was strict and sharp-tongued, he wasn't someone who would hurl such vulgar profanity. Especially not on the road, at a complete stranger. It wasn't like him at all.
The professor's voice was growing increasingly savage.
Vrooooom!!
The sound of the engine grew rougher as well.
"Deokhu. Turn up the volume. And filter out the noise."
"Huh? Right!"
Deokhu adjusted the equalizer, sharpening the background noise behind the professor's voice.
The sound of teeth grinding.
And behind that...
A sound like a beast's low growl filtered through.
"I don't think that's the engine..."
Seyeon's face turned pale.
"Look at the waveform."
Deokhu pointed at the monitor.
"Separate from the professor's voice, there's a red waveform registering in the low-frequency band. This is... a third source of sound. It's the sound of someone breathing right next to him, or right behind him."
Just then.
Honk! Hoooonk!
The professor began to lay on the horn.
Three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds. The relentless blaring of the horn filled our hideout.
I clenched my fists.
Is it undergoing Self-Correction...?
Just like before, this scenario seemed to be undergoing Self-Correction.
According to my original script, the ghost was supposed to suddenly manifest at midnight on Monday. But...
The nature of a 'Road Rage' ghost.
Rage isn't something that explodes in an instant; it builds up slowly, accumulates, and then detonates the moment it crosses the threshold.
In that case, was the ghost currently 'warming up' to fully possess the professor?
The professor's inner frustrations, his elitist arrogance, his stress from the world—the ghost was likely feeding on these to grow stronger. It was slowly gnawing away at the rational barriers he usually kept locked tight.
"It's started," I said quietly.
"What? But it's not Monday yet," Minhye said anxiously.
"No. The physical disaster hasn't struck yet. The car doors still open, and the brakes still work."
I pointed to the red, fluctuating waveform on the monitor.
"But the mental corruption has already begun. D-day is close, so the ghost is tuning the driver to its liking."
There was no longer any dignity of an intellectual left in the professor's voice.
A mad, manic laughter bled into the audio.
Those weren't the lines of 'Park Jinchul' from the script I had written.
This was the real Professor Park Jinchul, succumbing to the ghost's whispers and unleashing genuine madness.
"Hyung... isn't this dangerous? Shouldn't we go stop him right now?" Deokhu asked urgently, pulling off his headset.
"We can't right now." I shook my head.
"He's driving on the road right now. There's nothing we can do. And..."
I tried to remain calm as I spoke.
"The professor is still the one holding the steering wheel. The ghost hasn't taken complete control yet. He's just in a terrible mood and incredibly angry."
But if this continued, the professor might cause an accident before Monday even arrived.
Running someone over, or ramming the car in front of him.
The only thing the ghost I created wanted was destruction.
If it decided it didn't care whether that meant a fatal crash or social ruin...
It might force him to do something terrible before the deadline.
"For now, let's keep monitoring him. We need to make sure he gets home safely."
We held our breath and kept listening to the speaker.
Fortunately, as the traffic cleared, the professor's swearing subsided a bit.
We heard him panting heavily, muttering to himself as if bewildered by his own behavior.
Vroom.
The sound of the car entering an apartment parking lot echoed, and then the engine cut out.
And then,
the connection went dead.
"Wow... that was seriously chilling," Minhye said, rubbing her arms.
"Will the professor really be okay? What if his blood pressure spikes and he collapses?"
"Honestly, that might be better. If he's admitted to the hospital, at least he won't be driving."
But I knew that wouldn't happen.
This relentless causality would force the professor into the driver's seat one way or another.
Even if he were hospitalized, it would probably make him walk to the driver's seat in his hospital gown.
I turned to look at my team.
"Deokhu. Your family's van."
"Yes, Hyung?"
"Let's tune it as much as we can. If that Grandeur's limits get unlocked, a normal van will never be able to keep up."
I pointed to a movie poster on the wall.
"Even if we can't go that far, we need to make it sturdy enough to survive a collision and fast enough to accelerate instantly. Or at least get as close to that as possible."
Deokhu's eyes widened.
"Whoa... Hyung, are you serious? That's illegal modification."
"Well... yes, but once we successfully clear this quest, the Stage Curtain will restore everything back to normal anyway."
Deokhu grinned.
It was the expression of an engineering student—no, a true geek—whose blood was starting to pump.
"Ah, now we're talking about my specialty. Leave it to me. I'll turn it into an absolute monster."
"Good."
Our to-do list had just grown.