Chapter 15

Hwaae High School (11)

“You’re sure these were the only pages torn out?”

“What, do you think I ate them?”

Team Leader Yong, Myeong Haebin, and I had gathered in the Class 2 classroom.

We were waiting for homeroom, and the two of them were flipping through the notebook, apparently just as baffled by the missing pages as I was.

“These were probably the most important pages.”

“At least we learned one thing. They performed some kind of spirit-summoning ritual.”

The notebook contained instructions for Bunshinsaba, Charlie Charlie, and similar games, so the missing pages presumably described something along the same lines.

The problem was that we had no idea what it was.

“Then why don’t we find this student and ask her directly?”

“Who?”

Myeong Haebin snapped the notebook shut and held it up.

A faint name was written on its black cover.

“Lee Seryeong. She should be in Class 5.”

What could we possibly learn from—

Oh, right. Myeong Haebin could communicate with the anomalies.

There was no need to take a roundabout approach when we could simply find Lee Seryeong and ask her directly.

Just then, the “teacher” appeared without a sound and struck the lectern twice to get everyone’s attention.

Our eyes met.

I felt uneasy about having skipped class all day. A normal teacher couldn’t possibly have failed to notice.

“There will be no homeroom today. Go directly to the study hall. You know you aren’t allowed to leave during evening self-study.”

The student anomalies sitting neatly at their desks nodded in silence.

“Everyone, move.”

Maybe nothing would happen after all.

Just as we tried to quietly slip away, the “teacher’s” hand pointed directly toward the three of us.

“You three.”

“…Yes?”

Uneasiness crept over me.

Were we going to be punished?

If we were going to skip class anyway, should we have quietly skipped homeroom too?

All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind.

The expressionless “teacher” tilted its head to one side.

“Go straight to the study hall. Don’t do anything unnecessary.”

Whew.

I survived.

Since high schools had different teachers for each subject, perhaps our homeroom teacher simply hadn’t noticed that we had skipped class.

Or perhaps there was some other reason.

Either way, I could finally breathe again.

“What’s gotten into that thing?”

“Seriously. Still… it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to visit Class 5.”

As far as I remembered, the student anomalies disappeared after class ended. This time, however, they all formed orderly lines and headed toward the study hall together.

They looked almost mechanical.

The hallway was the same.

Students emerged from every classroom, forming long lines that led toward the study hall.

Avoiding the eyes of the “teachers” stationed in the hallway, we naturally slipped into one of the lines.

“Why don’t we look for her in the study hall? Everyone is going there, so Lee Seryeong should be there too.”

“That depends on what the study hall is like.”

Both the cafeteria and the classrooms had been horrifying places.

What would the study hall be like?

The study hall was enormous and shaped like the Korean letter ㄷ.

It appeared that every third-year student had been assigned an individual study cubicle. Around a hundred and fifty partitioned desks were packed tightly together, while a “teacher” stood in front of the metal exit door as though keeping watch.

“Our names are here.”

My full name had been placed on one of the empty desks.

Our seats were at the end of Class 3’s section, arranged in the order of me, Myeong Haebin, and Team Leader Yong.

Ding-dong-dang-dong.

The bell announced the beginning of evening self-study.

Even the faint footsteps that had been audible inside the study hall ceased as if by magic. The sounds of turning pages and pens writing on paper began playing as though someone had started a recording.

This doesn’t seem like an atmosphere where we can talk.

Some spaces carried even the faintest whisper with unnatural clarity.

Like a private study room.

This place was exactly like that.

The tall, deep partitions concealed even Myeong Haebin in the seat directly beside me.

While I wondered how we were supposed to find Lee Seryeong, a piece of white paper suddenly slid through the gap beneath the partition.

[Class 5 is three blocks ahead, northeast from the front.]

Right.

We could communicate this way.

The long, scrawled letters had been written in ballpoint pen on what appeared to be a torn page from Lee Seryeong’s notebook.

It was probably Team Leader Yong’s handwriting.

[- There’s space beneath the desks. I think we can crawl through without being noticed. <<< Payment requested!]

Beneath it was another crooked line, presumably written by Myeong Haebin.

She probably meant “approval requested,” not “payment requested.”

I raised my head and checked the atmosphere around us.

The teacher who had been standing guard slowly began patrolling the study hall.

[The teacher is moving around. It’s dangerous. Isn’t there a break in the middle of self-study?]

[No!]

[I’ll go.]

The notes rapidly traveled back and forth.

Team Leader Yong volunteered, only to be decisively rejected.

[>>Anyone here besides me capable of talking to anomalies?<<]

That was precisely the problem.

If we all went together, the chances of being caught would increase. Besides, Myeong Haebin was the only one who could extract information from an anomaly.

A small bang came from two cubicles away, but fortunately, it didn’t draw anyone’s attention.

I heard rustling beside me and sensed someone lowering herself beneath the desk.

She had gone after all.

With Myeong Haebin, our intermediary, gone, I could no longer exchange notes with Team Leader Yong.

I should focus on what I can do now.

First, I checked the app.

The previously obscured fourth clause still hadn’t been unlocked.

In that case, where was the patrolling teacher?

Our seats were situated almost exactly in the middle of the ㄷ-shaped room. I could just barely see the main entrance to the front-left. In the direction Myeong Haebin had gone, to the front-right, there was nothing but a white concrete wall.

The teacher was patrolling the front-left section.

As I observed the teacher’s route, I noticed something strange.

The teacher isn’t looking this way at all.

More precisely, it never looked toward the section where we were sitting.

Ordinarily, this should have been the route a patrolling teacher passed through most frequently. Yet even when it came directly in front of us, all we ever saw was the back of its head.

Just then, something tugged on the hem of my pants.

“!!”

My heart nearly stopped.

Myeong Haebin was crouching beneath my desk, crossing her fingers into an X.

[Lee Seryeong isn’t here!]

The note that followed immediately afterward made my head begin to ache.

She wasn’t here?

All the student anomalies had gathered in this room.

[I asked the student sitting beside her, and they said she’s in Class 5.]

The students had formed lines and moved here together.

So how could Lee Seryeong still be in Class 5?

[Are you sure?]

[We don’t have much choice but to believe them. Also, there’s a back door at the opposite end.]

True.

Refusing to believe it wouldn’t change anything.

[We’ll have to go to Class 5 and find her. The teacher isn’t watching this section at all.]

The note traveled all the way to Team Leader Yong before returning with only two characters written on it.

[Confirmed.]

There probably wasn’t a single one of us who didn’t find the situation strange.

But sitting still wouldn’t solve anything, so we carefully crawled beneath the desks.

It’s even more cramped than I expected.

Naturally, there wasn’t enough room to straighten my back. I had to crawl on my hands and knees through the dark, chilly space beneath the desks.

The direction of the light cast by the incandescent bulbs in the ceiling was our only guide.

From beneath one row of desks into a narrow aisle, then beneath another row.

It had been years since I had crawled like this. Every time I extended my left leg, pain seized my abdomen, sending cold sweat pouring down me like rain.

Some of the student anomalies saw us, but they said nothing and simply returned to their work.

Is that the back door?

The main entrance was at one end of the ㄷ-shaped room, while the back door stood at the exact opposite point.

There wasn’t even a lectern beside the isolated metal door, much less a teacher standing guard.

“Can you see the teacher’s feet?”

“It seems to have moved to the other side.”

“I’m opening it.”

Team Leader Yong whispered so quietly that I could barely hear him, then turned the handle.

If the door had been locked, we would have had no choice but to turn back.

But it opened so easily that it was almost anticlimactic, allowing the cool air outside to flow in.

No matter how I look at it, this is strange.

It felt as though we were crawling into a trap of our own accord.

Wasn’t everything here practically guiding us out of the study hall?

Click.

The study hall door quietly closed behind us.

In the deathly silent school at night, moonlight was the only source of illumination.

Hwaae High School’s very structure was unusual.

It was shaped like a square—or perhaps the Chinese character 井—allowing us to see clearly into the corridor on the opposite side.

There was one kind of building with a similar layout.

A prison.

“Do you see that?”

“Yes. Only the door to Class 5 is slightly open.”

The concrete half-wall allowed us a clear view of the corridor opposite us.

Among all the classrooms, only the door to Class 5 stood open by the slightest amount.

“Let’s go.”

I had just taken a step, intending to get away from the study hall as quickly as possible, when—

Bzzzt—

Why did an ordinary phone vibration sound so loud?

As I hurried to pull out my phone, a large hand roughly forced my head down.

“Wh—mmph!”

At the same time, Myeong Haebin’s pale hand clamped over my mouth.

The sudden restraint startled me, but then a beam of light swept across the top of the wall above us.

There was a teacher patrolling outside too.

It seemed not to have noticed us because it was in the corridor on the opposite side.

That was close.

Team Leader Yong, who had barely raised his eyes above the wall, turned toward me with a bewildered expression.

“What was that about?”

Had neither of them heard the vibration?

I quietly slipped the phone I hadn’t managed to check back into my pocket.

“It was nothing. Sorry.”

“Keep your head in the game.”

“Yes.”

Schools were generally built around straight corridors. If the teacher merely turned a corner, we would be discovered.

There had to be a reason the app had sent me a notification.

But I didn’t want to draw any more attention from the other two.

For some reason, I felt that I shouldn’t.

Practically folding ourselves in half at the waist, we moved as quickly as possible toward Class 5.

“There’s no one inside.”

Even after Myeong Haebin said that with certainty, I couldn’t bring myself to step forward.

The room had the same layout as Class 3.

An old blackboard and lectern.

Mechanically arranged desks.

Closed windows coated with dust.

Was Lee Seryeong not here either?

No.

At the edge of my lowered vision, I saw something interrupting the diagonal shaft of moonlight.

“Wait.”

I pressed a finger to my lips, silencing the other two, and stepped into the deathly stillness of Class 5.

What is it?

Team Leader Yong, who had entered last, lightly tapped my shoulder and silently formed the question with his lips.

Instead of answering, I pointed toward the deepest shadows at the far end of the classroom.

At the end of the wall lined with lockers, a long curtain hung all the way to the floor. Beside it, an empty umbrella stand protruded into the shadowy corner.

And from that darkness, the heel of an indoor slipper was faintly visible.

As we approached the gap between the lockers and the wall, a head covered in black hair came into view.

Someone had crammed their body into a space so narrow that it seemed almost impossible to breathe.

“You’re Lee Seryeong, aren’t you?”

As though my words were a signal, Team Leader Yong violently swept the curtain aside.

“Sniff… Sob. I’m sorry.”

For a moment, I forgot how to exhale.

It was a frightened voice—strikingly clear and innocent in the way only a girl her age could sound.

Her face had delicately shaped eyebrows, tears trembling beneath her lashes, and softly quivering lips.

She had a complete human face.