my escape • study group x reader

chapter twenty-three • episode 7

I woke up to someone's jacket being draped over my shoulders and groaned. I turned to find Se-Hyeon standing behind me.

He froze when we locked eyes. "I didn't mean to wake you."

I blinked slow, pushing the sleep out of my eyes before sitting up and sliding my arms through Se-hyeon's jacket, wrapping it around my waist tightly. "What time is it?"

He checked his phone. "Almost six, the others should be here soon."

I sighed. "Sorry. I guess I got here early for nothing."

He shook his head. "Not for nothing, I just...wanted to see you before the others."

I looked at him. "How come?"

He suddenly became uncomfortable and cleared his throat, avoiding my gaze and turning to locate the whiteboard that was pushed against the wall. I watched him wheel it over to the table I sat at and start using magnets to pin up a few pieces of paper. I stood up to look at them.

There were a few grid maps with spots dotted in red, some circled, some just dots. There were also a few wanted posters with peoples faces that I didn't know. I watched him organize them all in silence, knowing he'd explain it all when the others arrived.

The door swung open moments later and Jun walked in carrying a convenience store bag in his left hand. I shaped my fingers into a gun and pointed them at him, he looked at me and decided to play along. He raised his arms up in surrender, though his expression was tired.

"Hand over the bag and no one gets hurt." I help out my hand and he pretended to swallow nervously before slowly moving the bag in my direction, until the last second when he dropped it and pointed his own finger guns at me.

I gasped, "Touché."

He smiled and dropped his gun, leaning down to pick up his bag. He placed its contents on the table and I was suddenly thankful that my pretend robbery had failed. It was two cartons of carrot juice and a banana oat protein bar.

He offered a juice box to me but I scrunched up my nose and shook my head, turning back to Se-hyeon as the others began to stumble tiredly into the study room. They all took their usually seats and the meeting began.

"Hee-won and I investigated the Kim Seon-Cheol case last night." Se-hyeon began, his arms crossed over his chest.

"That's what this is about?" Ji-woo complained. "Why are you going this now? Who cares what a thug has been up to?" Jun agreed.

Se-hyeon smiled slightly and flipped the whiteboard over so that the empty side of it was showing. He nodded to Hee-won who flipped on the projector sitting in front of her. A graph appeared from it.

"If you look at this graph," Se-hyeon said, pointing to it, "Since Pi Han Wool joined the school this year, murders committed by high schoolers in Ancheon skyrocketed."

I sipped my americano and leaned forward, intrigued.

"It's clearly much higher than in other regions."

"Is the neighborhood cursed?" Jun asked.

"To say that, the overall crime rate isn't higher than others." Se-hyeon added, pointing to where that was shown on the graph.

"What does that mean? Help me understand," Ji-woo said, also seemingly more interested now.

"The average crime rate is the same but only the juvenile rates went up, which means the adult crime rate went down and the juvenile crime rate is going up." He explained it clearly, emphasizing it all with his hands. "In other words, high school students are being used in adult crimes. Don't you think that could be the case?"