chapter three; screams
[ season one, episode one ]
Mrs. Park now stood at the front of the class. "Hi there."
"Hello."
"Hi. Good morning. Time to turn in your phones"
Ae-Cha watched everyone walk up and then back to their desks.
"Who's in touch with Hyeon-ju? Nobody? So none of you have tried calling her today?"
"Uh, we cleaned the science lab together yesterday, but I haven't seen her since."
"Okay. If anyone hears from her sometime the next few days, let me know right away, okay?"
Okays were scattered across the room.
Mrs. Park took out her own phone and chimes were heard coming from the students.
"I heard that. One more time. Hand over your phones please. Dae-su seriously?"
Ae-Cha mentally face palmed at Dae-su for not putting his phone on silent, but honestly it was expected. Dae-su and I-sak sheepishly shuffled to put their phones away.
"Ae-cha, your phone?"
"My mother took it away this morning."
That's a lie. Her phone, unlike the others, was on silent, sitting in between her snacks, right next to her battery pack and airpods. Mrs. Park gave her a doubtful look but carried on to the next victim.
"On-jo. This is your phone from last year."
"Take it please."
The girl laughed at her friend's "mistake" as she sat there with an not so innocent smile.
—
"In fact, none of us are completely free from prejudice. We all have preconceived ideas about others. Here, 'free from' means the lacking in or unencumbered by. Anyone want to interpret this?"
Hee-su abruptly stood off of her seat. Her zip up hanging off her body loosely. She was drenched in sweat from her forehead to her neck. Her skin was more pale than before.
"Okay. Hee-su."
"I need to use the bathroom."
"Okay, go."
When Mrs. Park turned around to face the board, she grabbed her messenger bag. Ae-Cha quietly followed after her friend, not seeing that she caught the eyes of three boys in particular.
"Hey, Hee-su, what's wrong?"
The pregnant girl's body slacked, she used the wall as a last resort to hold her body up. She looked at her best friend, feeling a sudden strike in her lower abdomen sending a wave of pain throughout her whole body.
"I... I think it's coming." Tears were falling down her face.
She wiped the tears off of Hee-su's soft face, "It's going to be okay love, everything's gonna be alright. Let's get you to the infirmary."
They just made it to the nurse when they heard footsteps pounding behind them. Su-hyeok ran in with a what looked like to be a bloodied Hyeon-ju, On-jo, I-sak, and Mrs. Park assisted him.
"Please help."
"Well shit." Ae-Cha looked at her friend. "What do you want to do?"
"Can't wait. Leave."
"Okay. Okay. Let's go get your bag."
Together the two made their way back. After retrieving the backpack they attempted to quickly make their way out of the school building. Albeit it wasn't exactly fast.
"Where are we going?" Ae-Cha asked.
"You are staying here, and I'll figure it out on the way."
"No. Just no. You're in pain Hee-su, you can't just go walking the streets."
Hee-su smiled at her, she was grateful to have such a wonderful friend beside her, but she had to do this on her own.
"Please. I'll be okay Ae-Cha. Stay here with your lover boys."
Ae-Cha rolled her eyes and sighed, "Okay. Text me. Send me a picture when you have the little alien, okay? I want to see my god kid before anyone else." She felt her eyes beginning to pool with tears. She didn't understand why she was crying. But she could feel the air was off and this parting was different than before.
"I promise."
Hee-su slowly walked through the front gate of the school and Ae-Cha turned around with the intent of heading back to the front doors, nearly being hit by the 119 van. She reached the group at just the end of the conversation, Mrs. Park was already telling Su-hyeok and On-jo to head back to class. So she tagged along.
Ae-Cha, Su-hyeok, and On-jo were walking up the stairs discussing the previous situation.
"What happened to Hyeon-ju?"
"We don't know, she was bleeding badly, thrashing around, and even tried to bite us."
"Like a zombie?" Ae-Cha asked.
Su-hyeok scrunched up his face, "Yeah I guess so?" He turned to On-jo. "Are you okay? Did she bite you?"
"No. It's just a scratch."
Ae-Cha tuned out the rest of the conversation. She grabbed her airpods from her bag and turned on some music. It was an american band, called Cigarettes After Sex. The girl wouldn't say she was exactly fluent in English but she knew it pretty well. She didn't always know what they were saying in the songs but she just loved the way it made her feel. She felt a tingling sensation everytime she listened to their songs, like her body was at ease and she could let everything go. She craved that feeling of euphoria.
All of a sudden two people of the three stopped. She forgot she wasn't alone. She paused her music and looked at the two.
"Hey, you said you wanted to meet on the roof?"
"What?"
"You said come up after lunch. Can you just tell me now? I'm actually playing basketball after lunch."
On-jo looked at Su-hyeok and then nodded at Ae-Cha. Ae-Cha pointed out her airpods and then pointed at the phone and scrolled. She didn't press play on the music. Should she be eavesdropping? No. It was rude. She knew that, but what does it really matter? She was secretly looking at the two. On-jo reached into her pocket and held out her closed fist. Ae-Cha's eyes widened at that, realizing what her friend was doing.
Her mood plummeted.
Su-hyeok laid out his open palm, and the girl placed her name tag in his hand.
He stammered, "Wait. This means..." He looked at Ae-Cha who quickly looked back down at her phone. Ohhh pretty picture...
"...you wanna go out with me."
"Yeah."
"But aren't you with Cheong-san?"
"No. We've lived next door ever since we were little kids and his mom always gives me free chicken...and I do like the chicken. I love it actually." Su-hyeok blankly stared at the rambling girl. "But not him, I swear."
"Ah, okay. So I-"
"On-jo! Where did you get hurt?" He grabbed her arms. "How bad is it, huh?"
Wrong timing dude. Ae-Cha shook her head. She may have just felt her heart break a little but she would always be rooting for her friend's happiness, no matter what.
"You're such a klutz sometimes."
On-jo yanked her arm away, "I'm fine." She continued walking up the stairs.
Ae-Cha took out her airpods and placed them back in her bag. With her hands placed behind her back and twiddling her thumbs she moved from the tips of her toes to the balls of her feet. "Soooo, how are you two doing?"
Cheong-san rushed towards her and grabbed her arms, looking for signs of injury, "What about you? Are you okay?"
"Oh I'm fine, I actually didn't stay with them."
"Okay. Okay that's good. I- I'm glad you're okay I mean."
She just smiled at him.
"Hey. You're going out with On-jo? Right?"
"Mm-hm. Right."
Su-hyeok sighed and clicked tongue. Ae-Cha looked at him oddly.
Cheong-san laughed, "Can't believe you bought that? You freaks. Seriously, even if it was the end of the world, and it was her, me and a zombie, I'd honestly rather date the zombie. I actually like this other girl. Have for a while now. Why do you ask?"
The girl still stood there soundlessly. She was watching the whole thing. Kinda weirded out by it, there was nothing exactly weird per say, but the energy in the group felt sticky?
"No reason. Let's go." The trio walked.
"Anyways, what's for lunch today? Do you guys have any idea?"
"Nope."
"I want some Takatsu."
"That sounds so good. Oh! And with that tea we tried the other day?"
Ae-Cha's mouth was on the border of watering just from thinking about the meal. God did she love food.
Cheong-san answered, "Thai tea?"
"Yes! It's so good. You have got to try it Su-hyeok. It's like your drinking bits of heaven! It's my favorite!"
"If it's your favorite, why didn't you know the name?"
She looked at the two boys and lunged at them, pretending to try and bite them. They ran away laughing. Born a kickass ankle biter, and will be till the end.
—
The bell finally rang for lunch. Ae-Cha waited for everyone else to walk out before leaving herself. She walked slowly, not really as excited about getting to eat as before. When she finally did make it she grabbed her tray of food and headed to where I-sak and On-jo sat instead of her usual spot next to Joon-yeong.
I-sak turned to the girl who sat across from her and placed both her hands on the table, "Did On-jo tell you about what she just did?"
"Didn't have to, I had front row seats."
On-jo started banging her head on the table in embarrassment. Ae-Cha place her hands on the table to soften the bangs from On-joz
"Stop it On-jo you're going to give yourself a headache." The girl just rested her head on the table.
I-sak laughed at On-jo, "So?"
"Well, that's all."
"Huh? He didn't say anything?"
"Mm-hm."
"Not even a vibe?"
"Oh no, there definitely was a vibe." On-jo groaned at Ae-Cha's words.
"Mm-hm."
"You couldn't tell how he felt or anything?"
"I'm going crazy."
"You're making me go crazy." Tell me about it.
The three girls were standing in line waiting to clear their lunch trays when I-sak turned with a look of mischief in her eyes.
"I have a great idea."
"You. You have an idea? That's not good." I-sak scoffed and slapped her shoulder.
"Just ask Cheong-san."
"Forget it."
I-sak gasped, "Ae-Cha!"
"Yes?"
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Well you and Su-hyeok are best friends..."
"Your point?"
"You could put in a good word for On-jo and ask him about his feelings."
"I could, but we don't really talk about stuff like that."
"Then you and Cheong-san work together. He figures out Su-hyeoks feelings while you talk up our dearest friend."
Ae-Cha contemplated this proposition. On-jo was an amazing person and so is Su-hyeok so it was only right for them to be together. Right? Ae-Cha sighed, "Okay, I'll talk to Cheong-san before class."
On-jo jumped at the girl and hugged her right. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Ya ya whatever...speak of the devil."
Cheong-san walked up to the three girls. He placed his tray on top of On-jo's. "Put mine away too gopher."
Ae-Cha sighed and called after him as he turned away, "Hey, Cheong-san. Can we walk to class together? I actually need to talk to you."
"Yeah sure."
Ae-Cha passed her tray to I-sak and walked to the boy. It was just them two walking down the aisles of tables.
"What's up?"
She looked up at him. She was twiddling her thumbs, a nervous habit that she never seemed to shake. Just as she was about to speak a group of students ran towards the doors from the outside. They were screaming. They tried getting through the doors but each student just fell on top of another creating a mountain of students. Everyone that was sitting at the tables looked around in fear, curious as to what was going on.
The glass doors were beginning to crack.
They broke.
Students ran in knocking their peers over. Cheong-san was knocked over and then Ae-Cha. She tried to catch herself before she touched the floor. But instead she hit her head on the hard tiled floor. She could only hear a ringing in her ears, and screams. And slowly she lifted herself up. The girl saw a sickening scene play out in front of her. A student was completely bloodied and bit into the neck of another. It caught sight of her, and sprinted toward her.
Cheong-san came to his senses faster than she did. He helped her up the remainder of the way, they grabbed each other's hands and ran as fast as they could not really knowing where they were going.
• • • • •☽ ☀︎ ☾ • • • • •
I ACTUALLY WROTE THIS ONE ON TUESDAY (AUG. 9) BUT IMMA JUST PUT THE DATE THE CHAPTER IS PUBLISHED:
I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTERS ARE GONNA BE LONGER
SORRY I FORGOT TO PUBLISH THIS MONDAY:(
August 17, 2022
(2,026 words)