The group is now sitting around the fire again. Hye-ji was sitting beside Nam-ra and Hyun-jin. Both students didn't want to leave the girl's side.
Almost everyone is complaining how their body hurts because of the fight with Gwi-nam.
"What the hell is with that Gwi-nam kid? You said he got bitten." Joon-young asked, Hyun-jin. "I don't know. It looks like he became a different being." The president answered.
"I don't think he can die." Su-hyeok added. "What's up with you and Gwi-nam?" Dae-su turned to Hye-ji. "Were you friends? He didn't seem to want to hurt you." He added.
Wu-jin slapped Dae-su's arm. "Shut up." He said. "What? I'm just asking." Dae-su said, rubbing his arms. "He likes her." Wu-jin whispered but failed miserably as everybody still heard it.
He pulled away from Dae-su when he felt something hit him. "Yah! If you're trying to whisper, try harder. The entire school heard your whisper." Hye-ji said after she threw her shoe at Wu-jin. Wu-jin rubber his neck with a little "Sorry." He then gently threw the shoe back to its owner.
"What if he climbs up again?" Hyo-ryeong asked. "That asshole is bad, but to be honest, I'm scared of Hye-ji too. You saw her fighting earlier." Ji-min confessed.
"Well, I think it's reasonable to assume they're both half-bies-" Dae-su was cut off when Hyo-ryeong hit him. "What?" He asked in a hushed tone.
"You're really okay, Hye-ji? You wouldn't do that to us, right?" Ji-min asked, looking at Hye-ji. "Would you believe me if I said that I wouldn't?" Hye-ji said, knowing that Ji-min doesn't really trust her.
"Why do you have to say it that way? Can you at least try to make us believe you? We're going to be together anyway." Ji-min said. When Hye-ji didn't talk, Ji-min spoke again.
"I never really liked you. You talked to everyone. But you never tried to approach me and Hyo-ryeong. You talk to people in other class, our seniors, almost to everyone. But you almost never spoke to us." Ji-min confessed.
"Well..." Hye-ji started, making everyone turn to her, waiting on her response.
"I was scared of you, you know." Hye-ji said, everyone now looking at her, confused, so she continued.
"You know almost every gossip around the campus. And you were friends with Na-yeon. When the thing with Dong-min happened, I was thinking that every time you look at me, you were talking about me. That Na-yeon might've told you what really happened, because she knew.
"I was thinking that you were talking of how stupid I was. Of how I let that happen. I was scared to approach you because I think you're just going to judge me. I didn't mean to hurt you if you felt that way. But I was really scared because if you ask me anything about it, I wouldn't be able to defend myself. Because even I, myself knew how stupid I was. I'm sorry if you felt like you two were the only ones I don't talk to." She said, looking down, scared of looking at anyone right now.
"You know, we did talk about you before. But every time we start talking about it, Na-yeon would stop us. Saying that we should stop talking about you and about what happened. So we really didn't get the chance to talk about it." Hyo-ryeong said, truthfully.
"Oh." Hye-ji said, glancing at Hyo-ryeong before looking down again. "I'm sorry if I assumed that you were talking about me." She said.
"No." Ji-min said, making everyone turn to her. "You shouldn't say sorry for that. What you felt was understandable. So...I'm sorry, for making you feel that way. Sorry if you felt like we were talking about you. I'm sorry, Hye-ji." Ji-min said, sincerely.
"Me too, Hye-ji. I'm sorry." Hyo-ryeong also said. After that, everyone went back to teasing each other. Hyun-jin put an arm around his twin.
"I'm proud of you, baby sis." He whispered. "You, I'm proud of you too, for finally being able to tell On-jo how you feel." Hye-ji teased, making Hyun-jin chuckle.
Hyun-jin felt Hye-ji tense up. Making him look at her. "Hey. You okay?" He asked making the others turn to them as well.
"Did you hear that?" She asked. "Hear what?" Cheong-san asked the girl.
"What? Is someone out there?" Hyo-ryeong asked, scared. "They're coming." Hye-ji answered looking somewhere, the other followed where she was looking.
"I don't hear anything." Hyun-jin said. "Wait. I hear a helicopter." Cheong-san said standing up. The others quickly followed.
The others tried to get the helicopter's attention. Hye-ji was covering her ears as she can hear the helicopter and her friends' shouts loudly. Hyun-jin put a protective arm around his twin.
After the soldiers got down from the helicopter, the helicopter flew away. Cheong-san and Dae-su stepped forward to the soldiers but they pointed their guns at the students.
"Get down! All of you!" The soldier commanded the students.
"Sir. Can you please help us?"
"Face down on the ground! Get down!" The officer commanded again, this time, the students complied. The officers then proceeded to get the temperatures of the students. Seeing this, Hyun-jin held Hye-ji closer, even though they are lying on the ground. Hye-ji also tried to hide her eye using her hair. Nam-ra is on her other side.
The soldiers get their temperature, one-by-one, while on the ground. The last one to be scanned is Hye-ji.
"Temperature is 34.5." The soldier read the scanner. The other soldier immediately grabbed a warming blanket for the girl.
"One has hypothermia. The rest are normal." The soldier reported. "Rescue them after you complete the objective." Their commander ordered. "We'll rescue after the mission's complete. Over." The soldier confirmed.
"You can get up now." The soldier commanded, not aggressive this time. So the students stood up.
"Are you the only survivors?" The soldier asked, the others looked back at the student council president, wanting him to be the one to talk to the soldiers who did not think twice on pointing their guns at them.
Hye-ji then held Hyun-jin's hands. "Go on. I'm fine." She whispered so Hyun-jin nodded and stepped forward. As Hyun-jin walked forward, Hye-ji held Nam-ra's hand.
"We don't really know. There are probably others." Hyun-jin answered the soldier. The soldier nodded before speaking again.
"We're going down for a few minutes. Wait right here." The soldier told them. Hearing this, Ji-min stepped forward.
"Aren't you not gonna rescue us?" She asked. "Yes, we will. So don't go anywhere. Don't do anything. Just wait here. Understand?" The soldier said, making the students nod.
After seeing the soldiers climb down from the rooftop, Hye-ji wrapped her arms around Nam-ra, she didn't need the warming blanket, she doesn't even feel cold. But disregarding it would make the soldier question her temperature. She also knows that Nam-ra is cold, seeing as she is wearing regular uniform. So she hugged Nam-ra to hopefully, keep her warm even a little.
Hye-ji's skin was cold, but it did give Nam-ra the warmth that she needed. And it isn't like she was gonna protest about Hye-ji hugging her.
Hye-ji can hear the soldiers' guns, every bullet being fired. She winced at the noise. It was too much. Nam-ra took notice of this so she covered the girl's ears.
Joon-young and Dae-su stepped closer to the soldiers, Joon-young investigating on what the soldiers are doing. "Hey. Are they gonna kill all the zombies before they take us?" Dae-su asked Joon-young.
"I don't think so. There's only four of them." Joon-young answered. "But they're Special Mission, right?" Dae-su asked again.
"Are they looking for something? Are they heading to the science lab? Isn't the science lab that way?" Joon-young asked Dae-su, not answering the other's questions.
The soldiers climbed up again and the helicopter once again hovered over the students. Hye-ji was thankful that Nam-ra was covering her ears. Even with Nam-ra covering her ears, it was still loud for her.
"We'll pull you up one at a time. Stay still even if you're scared. Okay?" The soldier told the students.
"You're not landing the chopper?" Ji-min asked. "We can't. It can get unstable. He's gonna pull you up, so don't worry." The soldier answered.
"You can't go all at once, so let's go one by one." The soldier said. "We can't all go?" Cheong-san asked. "We can take all of you, but it has to be one by one." The soldier answered.
The students let Ji-min go up first. They watched with smiles on their faces as Ji-min was being pulled up. Even Hye-ji was smiling even if her ears are hurting with the noise from the chopper.
"Say again. Did you mean everyone?" Hye-ji heard the muffled voice of the soldier. She is not one to listen to someone else's conversation, but it seemed serious. She held Nam-ra's hands and made it let go of her ears as she listened.
"But their temperatures are fine." She heard the soldier try to argue, she can't really hear the other side of the conversation, so she can't understand fully what they were talking about.
"But they're just children!" Once again, the soldier tried to reason to the other person on the line. She saw the soldier look too them.
"Understood. Over." He said, still looking at the students. "Cancel the operation. We'll take just the package and pull out!" The soldier turned to the other soldiers, shocking the Hye-ji and Hyun-jin (Hyun-jin was the closest to the soldier so he was the only one who heard it).
The others watched in confusion as Ji-min was being lowered back down.
"She's going down!"
"She's coming down!"
"What's wrong?"
"What do you mean it's cancelled?"
There were a lot of complains from the students as the soldier pushes Ji-min back to the group. As Ji-min walks forward, the soldier pointed the gun at the group.
When the group didn't back down, the soldier stepped forward. "Stand back. Stand back or we'll shoot! Stand back!" He said, Hyun-jin pushed the others behind him to make them stand back.
"Wait a minute. You can't even take a few of us with you?" Cheong-san asked, with this, the soldier pulled the trigger, into the air, threatening the students.
For the first time after holding Nam-ra, Hye-ji had let the girl go to cover her ears. The class president looking at the girl worriedly.
"I'm begging. Please take just a few of us with you." This time, it was Hyun-jin who spoke. He just wants his sister to be safe. But once again, the soldier shot fire.
"Rescue us." Cheong-san said as they watched the soldier back away to the rope.
The soldier took sight of the students in front of him. The two girls at the back, the one with hypothermia was covering her ears as the other girl tried helping her cover her ears.
"I'm sorry." He said before he was pulled up. Hye-ji heard this making her think it was his superior who ordered for them to be left behind.
The soldier took one final look at the students they were ordered to leave behind. Remembering their faces at the back of his mind. Reminding himself to beg for their forgiveness if they are to ever see each other again.