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HEARTS RACED, BREATHS QUICKENED, FISTS CLENCHED. the girls quickly ran inside the classroom they had branded as their own. the first to collect their thoughts was seungwan, who immediately picked up a piece of chalk.
06/13/16 park sooyoung death by drowning
seungwan paused her writing and pursed her lip. she glanced at the other girls and began writing again.
killer = ???
by the time she had finished writing, the girls had composed themselves and had found a seat to reside in. they all sat staring at the chalkboard with the white words written on them.
"i'll give you a chance to speak up now," seungwan began. "who did it?"
the room of girls sat in silence. no one spoke a word. no one dared to breathe louder than they should. no one dared to look seungwan in the eye.
sooyoung was closest to seungwan. they were usually stuck at the hip during school and hung out together more than they did with anyone else in the group. her death had scarred seungwan the most. it was evident to everyone that seungwan was definitely not the murderer.
yerim raised her hand. "i can vouch for seulgi," she said. "i went out early to take a shower and help prepare lunch. when i walked by, seulgi was still playing basketball. i heard her dribbling her ball."
seungwan stared at the youngest girl, then seulgi. "how do you know she didn't do it after you left the building?"
without hesitation, yerim answered her back, "when i walked out of the shower. i checked inside the basketball court and seulgi was still playing. i asked if she was going to shower, she said yes. i stayed with her while she showered and talked to her."
seulgi nodded to confirm yerim's statement. "yerim came and checked up on me while i was playing and stayed with me while i showered so we could go together."
seungwan stared at the two and nodded once she finished analyzing what they had said. she immediately rounded up on juhyun. "eonni, where were you that whole time?"
the eldest girl sighed. "i was practicing."
nothing was said after that. after a moment, seungwan turned back to the board and wrote something else.
who's next?
the girls stared at the words seungwan had written. they sat staring at those words until the sun began to set. the girls slowly went out of the room one by one.
first to leave was seungwan. "we need to eat dinner," was all she said before the left. juhyun let out a sigh and left after seungwan to cook. seulgi was next to leave - she was the one who always set the table. the last to leave was yerim, who stared at the board for a minute before erasing the question marks and changing into words of her own.
killer = it was one of us and we all know it
after yerim had finished writing, she set down the chalk piece and made her way to the cafeteria. she knew everyone else was thinking the same thing, especially seungwan. there was just something so familiar about how the knots were done.
juhyun made everyone ham and cheese sandwiches before everyone, figuring no one would eat that much. her intuition was right. no one even touched the sandwiches.
the girls left the cafeteria slowly. first to get up again was seungwan. "i can't find the heart to eat anything," was all she said before she left for the teacher's lounge.
the girls left all of their things in the teacher's lounge, which had huge cabinets that acted as closets for clothes, many drawers which acted as a place for toiletries, and little hooks on the wall to hang their towels. for the girls, it was a large accommodation for all of the belongings they had brought with them. the nurse's office was right next to the teacher's lounge and a set of bathrooms, making the lounge an ideal place for them.
seulgi left after seungwan and yerim closely followed. juhyun washed the dishes and headed back to find everyone in bed.
— yet, no one could stay asleep that night. except one person.
