The Breakout Project - Hwang Hyunjin

✧Chapter 17✧

The next morning I made a bee line from the school gates and towards the classroom, going over and over again through the words that I was planning to share with Yura. She had to know something about Minseok and that meant, something about the interns. I knew for a fact that plenty of them had a family outside the institution, which meant some of them might be willing to protect their identities. Perhaps Yura knew Minseok from before and she was helping him with keeping a low profile. Killing people didn't help his cause, nevertheless.

Expecting to see her sitting in her usual spot for Politics, I was greeted by the sight of her empty chair. A frown instantly made its way into my face. I looked at the clock and saw there were ten minutes left before the class started. Could she be running late?

Not being able to hide my disappointment, I dragged my feet to my seat and pulled it out before slumping down, a childish pout on my lips. Mrs. Yang walked past me and sat down on the chair, her hands fumbling with the chalk as she went to write on the board the subject for today.

I opened my notebook and started making doodles, killing time because I wasn't in the right piece of mind to actually pay attention to the lesson, but I didn't want Mrs. Yang coming near my seat once she saw I wasn't writing down things.

This time I even beat her when the bell rang, five minutes before the clock struck to 10, all my stuff was already packed, one of my legs was out of my chair, ready to bolt when it happened.

I rushed towards the first familiar face I saw and that was the squirrel.

"Have you seen Yura?" I asked Jisung, who was finishing placing his books in his locker.

The boy jumped when he heard me and shut his locker door by reflex, placing the other hand on his chest dramatically. When he noticed it was me, he huffed in annoyance.

"Jeez, Hyunjin! Where did you even come from?"

"Yura," I repeated. "Where is she?"

Jisung scowled, finally recomposing himself and opening the door again to continue his work. "How would I know? I saw her early this morning, she was coming out of the chemistry lab. What is it between you and her?" He gave me a weird look.

"Okay, thanks."

Without less than a goodbye, I ran down the hall, reaching the hall of laboratories in five minutes. I knew for a fact that she wouldn't be in the lab, but perhaps close. She couldn't have left the school, right?

The hall and the labs were completely deserted, except for the janitor that was cleaning up the bones from the skeleton in the biology lab.

I shivered instinctively, a nasty flashback of last night's news floating to the surface.

I looked around for at least twenty minutes and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting desperate. Lunch hour would be over in ten and I wasn't making any progress. I went from east to west, going over the music room, the gym, the swimming pool and even the backyard, but there was no sight of her short black hair. 

That was until I went past the art classroom and the sound of voices caught my ears. Overwhelmed by hope, I stepped closer to the door and took a peek from the small square window on the door. My eyes widened when I saw her back directly towards me, her black hair brushing the top of her shoulders. She was wearing a denim jacket over her uniform today.

My hand went to the knob when the sound of another voice stopped me.

"What the hell did you just say?" That was Jiwon.

"You heard me, Jiwon," the short girl said, a tinge of boredom in her tone.

A snicker came from the end of the room. "It doesn't surprise me, honestly. Did you really think another citizen had killed Minseok? Please, Ji."