𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐋 | 𝑨𝑶𝑼𝑨𝑫

33 | Epiphany

"What happened? Didn't Gwi-nam fell from the fourth floor?" Cheong-san inquired as he approach the quiet Su-hyeok on one corner of the spacious rooftop.

"That's right, I threw him off."

"So, how did he managed to survive?"

Su-hyeok sighs, "Maybe he didn't die... He comes back to life."

"He's not a human nor a zombie," Cheong-san presumed based on what he had seen, as well as as to what he recalled from earlier's encounter, "Do you remember the girl in the teachers' office?"

"Yeah, she was weird."

"He's like her, isn't he?" Cheong-san speculated, asking for some confirmation from Su-hyeok as to what he thinks about the thing.

Su-hyeok nodded, "You could be right."

For a few seconds, Cheong-san came for a thought yet was hesitant to voice it out, however, he chose to do so, "What if Jaewon's the same?" his tone more like a statement than a question.

"You think she'd turn?" a very familiar female voice intervened, shifting their attention to the owner, Su-hyeok is somewhat relieved it was just Ms. Park who have heard them converse.

Su-hyeok took a glance behind Cheong-san to see the unresponsive Jaewon who has recovered from the effects a while ago and is now cooperating with the group on looking for woods that can be used for creating an SOS sign.

"She'll be okay," Su-hyeok uttered.

"You can't guarantee that," Cheong-san opined.

"We can't guarantee anything right now, can we?" Su-hyeok averred, "We don't even know if we're gonna live.... Let's go make an SOS sign."

Su-hyeok gave Cheong-san a light pat before walking off but Cheong-san called out still disagreeing, "Bare-su."

Su-hyeok come to an abrupt stop, not hesitating to turn around and verbalize his thoughts just like what Cheong-san did, "You still think she's a threat, don't you?" when Su-hyeok didn't got an answer, he proceed, "She helped you deal with Gwi-nam, didn't she?"

Cheong-san avoided his eyes, looking anywhere else but Su-hyeok, "Let's not think we'll keep her here with us just because we owe her one for everything she had done to help, but rather, for an enough reason that she's alive and is one of us. Let me tell you, I understand your concerns but what if it were On-jo? Can you just abandon her like you wanted me to do with Jaewon?"

"We'll keep her. And if ever something happened just like what you've been worrying about, Cheong-san, we're gonna have to-"

Ms. Park's sentence were hindered when Su-hyeok brusquely said, "Excuse me, but what? Get rid of her?" he scoffed, "She should've turned dangerously already if she would."

"Su-hyeok," Ms. Park said in a soft and caring motherly tone, "As your teacher, I've been treating you all like my biological children. I don't want this too, but know that we gotta accept what's fate or for what has happened as to we couldn't do anything about it."

"I-I'm... I'm sorry for acting such way, Ms. Park, but I gotta help them with that now," he lifted his hand over his shoulder as he points behind him with his thumb before making his way to others, leaving Cheong-san and Ms. Park watch his back.

~

"You betrayed me," Jaewon spoke to the necklace that's still around her neck, pendant in hand, "You didn't warn me anything regarding Si-Mi's death."

She's seated on the ground, legs crossed together. The moment they finished with the sign, she immediately and silently separated herself from the others, including from Nam-ra as she have decided she wanted to be alone for the meantime, wanting to have her time and mourn for her best friend's death. She knows she's just walking around this school but knows all too well that that's not her anymore, Si-Mi's now out of control. Her heart sank and is drowning with great affliction, regret, despair and rage— of course, the others weren't an exception to these emotions. She's drowning and all she can see was the darkness of the depth of the sea slowly eating her, she kept on making herself float from under and reach for the light on the surface of it. Even so, it was uncompromising for her to set foot on the superficial positivity.