mirrorball // AOUAD

Chapter Thirty-Five.

"Sh!" (Y/n) shushed as On-jo yelped into (Y/n)'s hand. "Be quiet! We'll be caught." She slowly removed her hand from On-jo's mouth only for On-jo to wheel around and hit (Y/n)'s shoulder.

"You gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," (Y/n) said dismissively. "Keep quiet. Come on." On-jo followed after (Y/n), who was even trying to keep her footsteps quiet. The sun was in the process of setting, though the girls would still have time to make it back before dark but not before dinner, which could cause some alarm.

"Where are we going?" On-jo ventured to ask. (Y/n) didn't reply until she reached a secluded area. On-jo looked around, finding a backpack that was zipped shut, a rope of thick scarves, and some scattered objects. "What is this?" (Y/n) took out a map and motioned On-jo over to a blue water catcher object.

"Look," (Y/n) said, unfolding the map and placing it on top of the water catcher. On-jo came over and peered down. There was one large red circle and another one was a smaller blue one. "We're here," (Y/n) said, pointing at the red circle. "This is our high school," she went on, pointing to the blue circle.

"What about it?" On-jo pressed.

"We're by our school, On-jo. We can find Nam-ra."

"Why would Nam-ra return to the school of all places?" On-jo frowned. (Y/n)'s shoulders drooped and she frowned. "How about... we make our own memorial?" On-jo suggested at length. "Apart from that gate and outside the walls... We'll leave food and drinks there in case Nam-ra is still out there in Hyosan."

"That works... I was going to ask if you wanted to make memorials anyway," (Y/n) mumbled, still looking quite sad. She took out three rolls of ribbon and permanent markers from her bag along with some scissors. On-jo and (Y/n) started with a few ribbons: for I-sak, Cheong-san, Nam-ra, (Y/n)'s brothers, and So-ju. They cut the ribbons and returned everything else to (Y/n)'s bag before tossing the scarf rope over the wall (after many failed attempts). Neither of them wanted to get off the wall first, so when they were both on it, they got down together and walked for a while before finding a tree worthy of their memorial.
This would be the place (Y/n) and On-jo spent the next two months grieving. It took one night of On-jo seeing a light from their old school to convince her Nam-ra was still out there and even over at their school. (Y/n) had been seeing it for quite some time and always assumed she really was losing it. On-jo had lingered behind in order to see more of the fire and potentially even go and see it.

"The most upsetting part about being here was not being able to choose our tents..." (Y/n) sighed as they all ate breakfast together. The only absent person was On-jo. 

"Tell me about it. There's enough room for all of us to share a tent, but no, they randomly selected who would be in each tent," Hyo-ryung frowned.

"What was the purpose of that? To purposefully divide parties and families?" Gyeong-su asked.

"Who knows?" Su-hyeok shrugged.

"I wonder what we'll do after we're allowed to leave this place," (Y/n) said. "I didn't have any saved up money, my parents are gone, my brothers are gone, how will I get by?"

"I wonder if there's even enough kids without families to start a program or something for them..." Joon-yeong said, peering around the area. Not many kids arrived without a parent. The teenage population was the most scarce as they rarely saw another kid their age outside of their own group.  

"If there was, I don't think I'd join it," (Y/n) said. "I'd rather get a job and go from there..."

"Is it too far stretched to suggest some of us getting places together?" Hyo-ryung asked, looking quite hopeful.