Su-jin:
"HI." MS. PARK GREETED.
"Hello!" Everyone reciprocated.
"Hi. Good morning. Hand in your phones." She spoke. Everyone got up and put their phones in the box. I always had a spare phone that I would use that looked just like mine and put it in the box everyday. She never noticed.
"Anyone in touch with Hyeon-ju?" She questioned. "Nobody? None of you tried calling her?"
"We cleaned the science lab together yesterday, but I haven't seen her since." Joon-yeong answered.
"Okay. If anyone hears from her, let me know right away, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am." The class responded.
"Exams start next week, so get your acts together." Ms. Park spoke as she took out her phone, texting the group chat.
"Hey, your phone." Wu-jin teased Dae-su, pointing at his phone.
Ms. Park sent the text and Dae-su's phone went off. He turned to Nam-ra immediately trying to throw everyone off but it didn't work.
"Hey." Wu-jin hit Dae-su's arm.
"I hear it." Ms. Park announced.
"Why didn't you silence it?" Wu-jin whispered, laughing at his friend. I tried not to laugh.
"Hand over your real phones."
"You idiot."
"Dae-su. Seriously?"
Dae-su and I-sak both got up, turning their phones in after all.
"How stupid is he?" Wu-jin said turning around and asking Nam-ra and I. I smiled in response.
"Seriously, Wu-jin?" Dae-su asked as he walked back, Wu-jin still laughing at him.
Ms. Park looked at On-jo before looking at the box of phones, then taking On-jo's phone out.
"On-jo. This is your phone from last year." Everyone started laughing in response.
"Take it."
"She's dumber than me." Dae-su commented, my pushing his shoulder in response.
"Take it now." Ms. Park pressured as On-jo just sat there staring at her; trying not to smile and blinking repeatedly.
On-jo eventually got up and took her phone, putting her real one in the box. After she sat down, we were going to start the lesson until a student opened the door and walked in, with a box in his hand.
"Um..I have to give something to Su-jin." He spoke.
"Ahh, go." Ms. Park allowed him.
He looked for me until I raised my arm and he quickly walked over. He placed the box in front of me on the desk, avoiding eye contact.
"Thank you, Haneul." I said, he nodded looking at the floor before quickly leaving the room.
"What's he give you?" I-sak asked, looking over On-jo.
"I don't know. I'll look at it during lunch."
"Aish. Look at you. Having the whole school down to their knees for you. Tell me your secret." Dae-su pestered.
I stared at him before forcefully turning him around to the front of the room. Everyone started giggling or chuckling at how I responded and to Dae-su's sulking. I caught a glimpse of Wu-jin staring at the box with no emotion whatsoever. He then turned back to the front of the room before I could ask or say anything.
✩°｡ ⋆⸜ 🔨✮
"But none of us are completely free from prejudice, we all have preconceived ideas about others. Here, "free from" means the lack of. Who wants to interpret this?" Ms. Park spoke in english and then asked who would want to interpret the quote to the class, to which no one raised their hand.
Hee-su then stood up, sweaty and you can tell she wasn't in good shape.
"Ah, Hee-su!"
"I need to use the bathroom.." She mumbled looking at everyone who turned to her.
"Okay, go." Ms. Park allowed.
Hee-su then slowly walked out the room with her arms tightly hugging her stomach. I seemed to be the only one caring as everyone else turned back around to what they were doing while I was watching her worriedly. Hee-su and I were good friends but not very close friends. We talked to each other here and there but not all the time. I was still worried though.
"Okay, then. Who wants to have a crack at it? Our classroom president?" Mrs. Park once again asked and targeted Nam-ra, catching her attention.
"The truth is, all of us have some sort of prejudice. We all have preconceptions about other people." Nam-ra spoke calmly as she always does.
"Okay. Good. Next, Bare-su. Stand up."
Su-hyeok looked at her and then stumbled to stand up from his seat." "Yeah?"
"Why are you "Bare-su"?" She asked.
"It's short for Barefoot Su-hyeok. Bare-su." Joon-yeong brought up.
"He really hates wearing socks. So he stinks a lot." Dae-su added causing everyone to laugh, including Ms. Park.
"Okay, Bare-su. What did Nam-ra just say?"
"Uhh.." He spoke out as everyone mocked him.
"He doesn't know. He knows nothing." Joon-yeong mumbled.
"She was absolutely correct." He said making everyone laugh.
"So what was her absolutely correct interpretation?"
"Hmm.." He spoke before turning to door and pausing, "Huh?"
Everyone looked at the door to see Hyeon-ju walk in a completely mess and blood seeping out of her nose and her forehead.
"What the hell? Is that Hyeon-ju?"
"Hey, Hyeon-ju." Ms. Park called out as Hyeon-ju walked inside sluggishly and then collapsed on the floor causing Ms. Park to stumble to her. Everyone shot up from their seats, some student running over and helping Ms. Park catch her before she hits the floor.
"Hyeon-ju! Hey. What's wrong? Are you okay? Hyeon-ju." She called out and spat questions at her.
"Is that blood?" Someone muttered.
"Ms. Park." Hyeon-ju spoke, her voice completely raspy as if she hasn't had water in 3 days.
"Yes, it's me. Do you recognize me?" Ms. Park pleaded.
"He grabbed me...The science teacher grabbed me and locked me up." She said slowly.
I was between Nam-ra and Joon-yeong, grabbing her hand but not squeezing it. He grabbed mine and interlocked our hands.
"He locked you up? The science teacher? Mr. Lee Byeong-chan? Huh?" Ms. Park questioned, skating Hyeon-ju slightly as she didn't answer and kept dozing off.
"He tied me up..." She gave out again before closing her eyes and breathing heavily.
"Let's go to the infirmary. Nam-ra. Have them study. Stay quiet while I go and check. Hyeon-ju, get up." She struggled trying to pick her up.
"I'll carry her." Su-hyeok volunteered, pulling Hyeon-ju on his back as Ms. Park agreed.
"Someone help him." She said, obviously pain and fear in her voice.
"I'll help." On-jo volunteered.
"I'll help too." I-sak joined in; Ms. Park agreeing as she yelled at everyone to get back to their seats and then they ran out the room toward the infirmary.
After about 5 minutes, Hee-su came waddling in class and then slowly took her bag and swung it over her shoulders as she waddled back out the room. I got up and ran out the door to her.
"Yah! Hee-su! Wait up!" I said catching her attention as she looked over at me.
"Are you okay? You're sweating and you look like you're about to collapse any minute now."
"I...I'm fine. I just have a really bad stomach ache and I'm going h-home now." She mumbled slowly and then wincing, cupping her stomach harder.
"Are you sure? You look like you need to go to the hospital."
"I'm fine." She spoke and then walked passed me, stumbling down the stairs again.
I sighed and walked back into class. I'm about 10-15 minutes, I-sak came back. Everyone split from the groups they were in as they were talking about the situation and crowded her, bombarding her with questions.
"What happened?"
"How is she?"
"How's Hyeon-ju?" Hyo-ryung asked.
"It's no joke. She was biting people..." I-sak said.
"How's On-jo?" Cheong-san immediately brought up.
"She got hurt."
"Where? How bad is it?" I said, popping out of my seat next to Nam-ra and walking over next to Cheong-san.
"Just a little bit." She reassured both of us.
"Hyeon-ju bit her?" Hyo-ryung questioned.
"I think she went crazy. Her temperature is low, but she said she was hot. She tried to bite us when we covered her."
"What?"
"Does she have rabies?"
"Yah!" I said, smacking his head making him wince and rub his head.
"Don't be stupid." Dae-su muttered.
"But Hyeon-ju had a strange smell." I-sak brought up.
"What smell?" Na-yeon asked.
"The same as the science teacher."
"A rotting corpse." Na-yeon said having an epiphany.
"Yes, that. And she said he gave her a strange shot."
"What a total psycho." Na-yeon whined.
"Shouldn't we report this to the police?" Hyo-ryung stammered as she slapped Dae-su's arm repeatedly making him whine in pain. I reach down and slowly removed her hand from his arm making her look at me confused with her puppy dog eyes and back at her hand. I chuckled at her cuteness.
"I don't know. Ms. Park said she'd handle it." I-sak said and then paused and looked at Nam-ra. "What the...She's studying right now. She's number one in our school." I stomped my feet slightly at I-sak's remarking; not making too much noise. Cheong-san placed his hand on my shoulder telling me to calm down before he went to look for On-jo.