Chapter 92: The Seven School Mysteries
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92: The Seven School Mysteries
The seven school mysteries Satoru told me about over the phone were as follows:
1. The Fox Staircase
2. The Girl Ghost in the Music Room
3. The Radio in the Broadcasting Room
4. The Human Specimen in the Nurse's Office
5. Hanako-san of the Toilet
6. The White Face in the Window
With the exception of the last one, they were all ghost stories I felt like I’d heard somewhere before.
"Wait, if there are seven school mysteries, why did you only list six?"
[Oh, right. Apparently, anyone who experiences all the ghost stories from one to six dies. That's the seventh mystery.]
"..."
That in itself was pretty terrifying.
An inexplicable chill ran down my spine, and I rubbed my arms.
[Anyway, shouldn't you be at the classroom by now? What's taking so long?]
"It's because you suddenly started telling me ghost stories. If we weren't on the phone, I would've been there ages ago."
I grumbled as I grabbed the handle of the newly arrived Class 2-B's door.
Clack!
"Ah."
Right. All the classrooms are locked after school to prevent theft.
To think I'd only just remembered such a simple fact; my forgetfulness must be acting up again.
'What should I do?'
The key to the classroom was in the second-year faculty office.
Even if I wanted to sneak in and grab it, the security system there was solid, so the alarm would definitely go off.
As I was debating whether to give up on my Japanese textbook and just go home, my eyes fell on the window facing the hallway.
The lock was open.
The student on duty today must have forgotten to check it when they left.
For me, this was a stroke of luck. I slid the window open and reached my hand inside.
Click!
With the sound of the lock disengaging, the door to Class 2-B opened.
I carefully opened the door and stepped inside.
"..."
The classroom was silent.
My seat was at the very back of the class, so it was right in front of me as I opened the door.
I bent down and rummaged through my desk drawer.
"Ah, there it is."
Thankfully, the Japanese textbook I was looking for was safely inside.
Having accomplished my goal for coming to school, I put the book in my backpack, pressed the lock on the inside of the door, and stepped out into the hallway.
'Time to go home.'
The moment I turned, thinking just that...
FLASH!
A blinding light suddenly shone on me, and at the same time, a small figure let out a piercing scream.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
It was like the cry of a pterodactyl, loud enough to be heard throughout the entire school.
I instinctively knew I was fucked and scrambled to clamp my hand over the mouth of the person who had screamed.
*
Mizuki Nanae, the assistant homeroom teacher for Class 2-B, was on night duty just a few days before final exams, covering for another married teacher.
It was supposed to be her turn next week, but the other teacher had used the excuse of suddenly feeling unwell due to her period to leave early, dumping the duty on Mizuki, the youngest in the faculty office.
In any case, this wasn't her first time on duty in the dark, empty school, but she still couldn't get used to it.
Most people probably didn't know how a place so vibrant during the day could become so desolate at night.
「No, no, no, that's not the right reaction! Nao-chan! A little more innocent!」
「Like this?」
「Wahahahahaha!」
Mizuki sat inside the kotatsu in the duty room, watching a late-night variety show with actors and idols on her smartphone, thinking just that.
But it was at that very moment.
Thump.
"Huh?"
Startled by the sound of a footstep from outside the duty room, she whipped her head around.
"..."
The current time was 9:30 PM.
It wasn't time for the security guard to make his rounds yet.
But what she had just heard was definitely someone's footstep.
Normally, she would have dismissed it as hearing things and stayed put inside the duty room.
But it was exam season.
She had to be especially cautious, as a thief might try to break into the faculty office, targeting the exam papers that had just been finalized this week.
In the end, she had no choice but to grab a flashlight and step out into the pitch-black hallway.
Unlike the brightly lit duty room, the school building was filled with a stark darkness.
The long, long hallway grew darker the further you looked, naturally stimulating the imagination of anyone who saw it.
What could possibly be lurking in that darkness?
Feeling goosebumps rise on her skin, she shivered and, holding the flashlight, headed toward the second-year faculty office.
"...Phew."
Thankfully, there were no signs of anyone having broken into the faculty office.
After double-checking the lock on the door, she scanned the surroundings with her flashlight.
The source of the footstep was unknown.
It almost certainly wasn't the security guard.
If the guard had passed by, she would have definitely heard the jangling of his keys.
But lacking the courage to wander the dark school alone, Mizuki decided to head back to the duty room.
Staying out any longer would only make her more scared.
Just as she was about to return to the duty room, heading back down the hallway past Class 2-B, she froze at the sight of a massive shadow suddenly appearing from inside the classroom.
A towering figure, so tall his head nearly touched the ceiling.
An overwhelmingly muscular, massive frame.
And a hat pulled down low.
No matter how you looked at it, a suspicious-looking person had just popped out in front of her.
The truth is, people are scarier than ghosts.
And here she was, in a school late at night, face to face with a strange man in a place where there was no one to help.
In a situation that could only be described as the absolute worst, the last act of defiance she could muster was to scream.
Maybe the security guard, wherever he was in the school, would come running.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
She screamed with that calculation in mind.
But the strange man before her instantly covered her mouth with a thick palm, and Mizuki was on the verge of fainting from terror.
Just then, a familiar voice came from the man's mouth.
"Ms. Mizuki?"
'That voice is...'
Through her fading vision, she belatedly recognized Kim Yoo-Sung's face as he took off his hat, and then fainted in relief.
*
"Hah!"
After fainting upon seeing me in the hallway, Ms. Mizuki opened her eyes again about ten minutes later.
I had hastily carried her to the lit duty room and laid her down, and she had woken up on her own.
"Where am I..."
The teacher looked around, then spotted me sitting beside her and let out a sharp, "Hieeek!"
Well, I suppose it was an unavoidable reaction.
What could I expect from someone who had just fainted after running into me in the hallway?
I waited patiently for her to calm down on her own.
Eventually, as her chaotic thoughts seemed to settle, she took a few deep breaths, looked at me, and asked.
"Um... Kim Yoo-Sung, what are you doing at school at this hour?"
Hearing her question, I scratched my head in embarrassment.
It was, admittedly, the first question anyone would ask.
A student sneaking into school late at night was unlikely to be there for any normal reason.
I opened the backpack on my back and showed her the Japanese textbook inside.
"Actually, I lent my book to a friend at lunch, and I only just realized I left it at school. So I snuck in to get it."
"You do know that's against school rules, right?"
"...I have no excuse."
As I said that, rubbing the back of my neck, Ms. Mizuki let out a faint sigh and placed her hands on her hips, speaking in a stern voice.
"You're lucky I was the one on duty tonight. If it had been any other teacher, you wouldn't have gotten off so easily. I'll keep what happened tonight a secret, so hurry up and go home. Your parents must be worried."
"Yes, ma'am."
After receiving my scolding, I put the textbook back in my bag and stood up.
"I'm sorry for the trouble. I'll see you next Monday."
"Alright. Off you go."
A little incident in the middle of the night at school.
It seemed to have ended well, one way or another.
Just as I was thinking that and about to open the duty room door to leave...
"Ma'am? Did something happen?"
A voice suddenly came from outside the door.
Freeze.
I stopped trying to open the locked door and quickly looked back at the teacher.
She gestured frantically, mouthing, 'Hide!'
Following her instructions, I quickly retreated to a corner of the duty room.
Meanwhile, the teacher spoke to the person outside through the door.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Security Guard. I saw a mouse earlier and screamed a little."
"Is that so? I thought something had happened to you, ma'am. The scream echoed so loudly throughout the whole school."
"Ahahaha..."
As the teacher tried to laugh it off awkwardly, the security guard outside spoke again.
"Ma'am, if you don't mind, could you open this door for a moment? There's something I need to discuss with you in person."
The teacher quickly made an excuse.
"Ah! C-could we do that in a little while?! I'm in the middle of changing my clothes right now!"
"A little while... when would that be?"
"30 minutes! 30 minutes will be fine!"
The security guard outside fell silent for a moment, then said he would be back in 30 minutes and left.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The footsteps beyond the door slowly faded away. Hiding in the corner just in case, I let out a sigh of relief and muttered.
"That was close..."
Still, we got through it without getting caught. Was that a relief?
Thinking so, I turned to thank Ms. Mizuki one more time.
"..."
But her face was strangely pale.
Wondering what was wrong, I asked her, and she replied in a terrified voice.
"I didn't hear the bunch of keys..."