Ch. 20 - Fifth Ghost Story - The Neverending Fourth Period (2)

The three of us silently left the clubroom and stood in the middle of the hallway on the fifth floor.

“It’s quiet.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Our school had a very simple floor plan. First years were on the first floor, second years were on the second floor, and third years were on the third. The fourth floor had all the practical rooms gathered together, such as the science labs or the music practice rooms. The fifth floor had the reading room, a variety of clubrooms, and several multipurpose rooms.

During the first Club Activity period, the fifth floor with all the clubrooms gathered together should have been as loud as possible. However, it was the exact opposite. Only silence existed in the hallway.

“Let’s take a look around.”

“…Yeah.”

Sunah carefully tried peering into the windows of each clubroom, and Gyeongwon also snooped around.

It was as if we had never had an argument. The current weird situation made the three of us more cooperative.

“Is anyone there?”

I tried going to where the Dance Club was located and knocked on the door, but there was no sound coming from the room.

“I don’t think anyone is here.”

“Let’s try going downstairs.”

We tried going to the fourth floor.

“It’s quiet over here, too.”

“Did everyone go somewhere?”

Followed by the third floor, then the second floor.

As I expected, no one was there.

Finally, we arrived at the first floor.

“Let’s try looking for the teachers.”

The moment we reached the first floor, we headed to the teachers’ office. We opened the door and entered.

“Is anyone here?”

Gyeongwon tried walking around. Sunah also hesitantly took a look around, but there was no one there.

“……”

Silence.

The three of us gathered by the office entrance.

“Umm… Let’s try going to our class……”

“Yeah, let’s try that.”

Although there wouldn’t be much to gain from it, we decided to follow Sunah’s suggestion and walked back towards our classroom.

“If there is no one else in our classroom, let’s just pack our stuff and go home.”

“… If we do that, wouldn’t we be called in later and get in trouble, Club President?”

“From the start, everyone else went somewhere else. There is no need for us to stay in school.”

“I wonder where everyone went……”

A quiet school where the afternoon sun was shining brightly down. Normally, it would be a space filled with noisy and active high schoolers, so it being so quiet was actually quite nerve wracking.

“I think it’s my first time seeing the school so quiet.”

“Yeah… It’s scary……”

The three of us stuck right to each other as we walked to our classroom.

When we got to our classroom, we could see a girl sitting in the classroom.

“……!”

“Wh-what?!”

Because we didn’t even think that someone would be here, we were surprised.

I tried calming the others down and took another look, realizing that it was a face I had seen before.

“……”

A clear skinned female student. A slender face with long black hair. A very polite young lady, who seemed very well educated. Sunah’s partner.

In Hayoon.

This girl was calmly reading her book in the empty classroom.

“……”

Did she not notice that we arrived? I poked Sunah with my finger.

‘She’s your partner! Try speaking to her.’

Sunah looked at me as she began to sweat.

There was no way that she hadn't spoken with her partner at all, when it had already been almost a week since the school year started, right?

I looked towards Gyeongwon. He must have had no experience with girls since he just looked away and pretended not to see the situation at hand.

‘Do I have to step up again?’

The afternoon sun illuminated our very empty classroom. Within that classroom, the calmly reading In Hayoon made for a scene that seemed almost mystical, making it exceedingly difficult to interrupt.

“… Excuse me.”

The young lady raised her head.

“You’re Hayoon… Right?”

“Yes, I am. Hello there. Do you need something?”

As if she had never been reading a book, Hayoon looked up immediately and greeted me politely.

She had been the same the last time I spoke to her. Although she was very polite, she was so immediate with her responses that they seemed almost artificial.

“Uh, did… Everyone go somewhere?”

“Oh, it’s Club Activity period. They are probably in their own clubrooms.”

Hayoon responded very calmly. Did she not realize it yet?

“Um, that is… We just came back down from our clubroom.”

“Huh?”

“Right now, there is no one in the school.”

Hayoon stared calmly at me.

“……”

No, wait……

If I said that no one was there, she should have been surprised, or at least tried to check if I was telling the truth.

“Really?”

I nodded my head to emphasize that I wasn’t lying.

“Okay.”

Hayoon responded calmly.

“……”

“……”

Haaaah, damn.

I went to my seat and began to pack my bag. Sunah and Gyeongwon looked at us first before they each returned to their seats and started to pack up.

“We’re planning to go home. What will you do?”

“……”

Hayoon just sat there, looking at us. Then, after we packed our backpacks and shoe bags, we stood by the classroom door.

“Ummm……”

Before we left, Sunah hesitated for a bit, before looking back at her partner and slowly speaking out.

“… Let’s go together.”

Hayoon tilted her head and finally replied.

“Shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s……”

At those words, Hayoon smiled brightly and began to pack her stuff.

“Alright. Since my partner is inviting me, I will.”

Like that, the four of us put our bags on our shoulders and awkwardly left the school.

***

“Really? You already have a clubroom?”

“Yeah, haha. Somehow, we already got one.”

“That’s impressive~”

“Why were you reading by yourself in the classroom?”

“I applied for the Book Club, but I was rejected.”

Hayoon replied as if it didn’t bother her.

“Really? Was the competition that harsh?”

“I guess it was~”

Was that why, during the Club Activity period, she was all by herself in the classroom? She had been abandoned, without a club?

‘If she has nowhere else to go, it wouldn’t be bad for her to join our Ghost Story Club.’

A quiet courtyard. Only Hayoon and my voice echoed through it. Sunah and Gyeongwon awkwardly followed behind us.

‘Well, this is getting bothersome.’

I nudged Gyeongwon a few times and tried to get him to say something.

“Ahem.”

He faked a cough once again, then began to speak like he was reading from a book.

“You don’t catch the cold because you’re cold. Actually, the cold virus doesn’t exist in the north pole, so you can’t catch a cold.”

The f*ck was he saying? F*ck.

“Really? I didn’t know~”

But Hayoon smiled calmly and properly responded to his words.

“……”

She actually replied to that moron’s trivia.

That was praiseworthy and respectable.

Gyeongwon fake coughed again, his ears turning red, and said something else.

“Although most humans are right-handed, most polar bears are actually left-handed.”

“Really? How interesting~ What hand do you use more?”

“I-I’m a righty.”

“I’m left-handed~”

“I-I see.”

As Gyeongwon struggled just to spit out something to say, Hayoon calmly reacted to whatever bullsh*t Gyeongwon said.

As I no longer had to carry the burden of the current awkward situation, I approached Sunah and began to talk to her. Sunah had been feeling awkward, but since we had somewhat split into pairs, she seemed incredibly pleased to see me.

“Sunah, what do you think about no one being at school?”

“Hmmm…”

Sunah scrunched her brows in thought.

“Do you think everyone else left us behind and went home……?”

“Haha! It would be great if that were the case.”

I could only laugh at Sunah’s innocent question.

Soon we passed through the courtyard and ended up at the front gates. Of course, no one was in the security office.

“I guess we have to separate here.”

The four of us were looking at each other in front of the gates. Technically, it was too early for us to leave school normally. The streets themselves were really quiet.

“Although what happened today was really weird, we should go our separate ways here.”

“I guess so……”

Sunah replied to what I said with a slightly downtrodden tone. Gyeongwon then spoke with an analyzing tone.

“Although I have no idea what happened today, going back home is the only feasible choice that we have.”

“How curious.”

“……”

Sunah was staring at the floor. If I went back home, it would be fine for me since I could play games, watch TV, or just rest.

However, if Sunah went home she would have absolutely nothing to do.

I made my decision and decided to ask.

“Hey, Sunah?”

“Yeah……?”

“Do you want to—”

The moment that I was about to ask her if she wanted to come over…

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWOOOOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEWOOOOOOOOO-

The sound of sirens could be heard coming from every direction.

“……?”

“What’s that?”

“Huh?”

The four of us were surprised and we began to look around in every direction. At that moment, a sound even louder than the sirens passed by us.

WHOOOOOOOOSH!

It was a plane.

“It’s a fighter jet!”

Gyeongwon was shouting. It did look drastically different from the normal passenger planes I was used to seeing. Five fighter jets were flying in formation, releasing smoke from their exhausts as they whooshed by us.

“Why is it flying so low?”

Gyeongwon managed to shout over the noise from the sirens and the jets.

“No idea! I wonder what’s happening!”

I plugged my ears and shouted back. From where we were standing, we couldn’t see much because all the buildings were in the way.

“The rooftop! Let’s get up to a rooftop somewhere to check out what’s going on!”

“Sure!”

Right after I said those words, we could hear the sound of a bomb dropping.

BOOM, KABOOOOOOOOOM!

And then another formation of jets passed the airspace above us.

WHOOOOOOOSH!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

The ringing of the sirens, the whooshing of the jets, and the boom of the explosion from afar all reverberated and made my ears grow numb and ache.

Even with this sudden change that should have confused us, we were looking for a suitable building to use as a vantage point to look around.

Whiiiiish!

Fierce winds began to whip out at us. It must have been because of the explosion. I tried to get into a random building nearby, but the door was locked.

“Let’s go back to school!”

“School?”

“Back to our clubroom! We can see far away from our clubroom!”

“Okay!”

Gyeongwon replied by shouting.

Booom! Kaboom!!!!!

We could hear more explosions happening in the distance. The strong wind was hot, so it basically confirmed that the explosions were the source. Large amounts of dust and trash were being strewn about by the winds and forced me to start squinting. Sunah and Hayoon’s hair was whipping around everywhere.

The two could not move quickly because they were forced to try to hold onto their hair and their skirts.

Gyeongwon and I basically pushed their backs to get them into the school building safely.

Crash!

“Huuuu, huuuu.”

“Haaaaaa, Huuuuu.”

After getting inside the school building, the winds and the loud noise became a bit more bearable.

“Are you guys alright?”

I could see sweat forming on Hayoon’s forehead.

“Cough, cough.”

Sunah began to dry cough as she tried to catch her breath.

“Now, let’s hurry up the stairs.”

We checked up on each other to make sure we were fine, then began to climb up the stairs. As we made our way up to the fifth floor, we could hear the continuous sounds of bombs going off and fighter jets streaking past.

Boom, boom!

And mixed with these noises was something we heard for the first time.

“KUOOOOOOOO!!!”

It sounded like some giant being was shouting.

“Haaaaaa, haaaa.”

“Huuuu, huuuuu.”

Boooom. Kaaboooooom!

Whooooosh!

Boooom, booooom!!

“KUOOOOOOO!!!”

We scrambled up the stairs, we didn’t see anyone else the entire way up them. All of us just rushed into the clubroom and gathered at the window.

“……”

It was a clear afternoon. The sunshine was bright, but the clear skies were full of streaking jets. And in between all the buildings, something was slightly visible.

“What is… that over there……?”

“……”

Something giant was standing between the buildings on two legs. It was huge… No, ginormous. It was larger than the apartment buildings, larger than a mountain.

“… F*cking insane.”

Gyeongwon cursed as he began to tremble.

“J-Joon……”

Sunah was shaking like a leaf, moving to stand next to me.

“……”

I silently held Sunah’s hands. Through the window, we could see another group of jets flash by through the skies as they made loud noises. We could see a missile being fired, cutting through the skies towards the Demon King.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

There was a sudden flash of light, and the missile exploded. The explosion seemed different from the others. The sky was dyed red, and a mushroom-shaped cloud could be seen slowly erupting. They had fired a nuke at the Demon King.

The white curtains attached to the top of the window began to flap in the wind like crazy. The shockwave was completely visible as it rushed towards the school.

It looked like a cloud of smoke was approaching and it utterly demolished the buildings that it passed through. The shockwave from the nuke was approaching fast.

“J-Joon!”

Sunah grasped my hands tightly.

Gyeongwon was gasping for air as he backed away from the window. Hayoon was just staring blankly at the scene, her hair billowing.

“Joon! Joon!!”

The effects of the explosion were coming near us as Sunah began to scream. I held Sunah’s hands tightly and looked at her.

“Joooon!”

CRAAAAASHHH!!!!

CRUUUSHHHH!!!

The building was utterly pulverized and disappeared, and our bodies seemed to melt away into dust.

***

I slowly opened my eyes.

“Also! Those Japanese b*stards would settle down on our country’s lands and dampen the spirits of our……”

“……”

The hanbok-wearing national history teacher was shouting excitedly, to the point that spit sprayed out, when Japan was mentioned.

Through the small window on the classroom door, I could see some of the other students that had gotten out of class early rush towards the cafeteria.

In the seat next to mine, Dukhun was continuously smirking in a way that irked me as he doodled some sort of character on the corner of his textbook.

“……!”

When I turned my head to look over to the next row, I could see Sunah staring at me with wide eyes.

“……?”

This time, I looked towards the front to where Gyeongwon was sitting. He was also staring at me with cold sweat across his forehead.

“……!”

The three of us were just looking at each other, back and forth, trying to make out what had happened. Hayoon was just staring blankly towards the front, as I kind of expected by that point.

Ding dong~ ding dong~♬

As soon as the bell rang, many of the restless male students slammed the door open to rush to the cafeteria. The teacher's upset expression suggested there was more to be said on the subject, but the students seemed to think that eating lunch was more important than national history.

While the class was emptying out of the classroom, the four of us were calmly siting in the classroom.

“Ummm……”

Quite unexpectedly, Sunah was the first to say something. I nodded my head.

“Yeah.”

Gyeongwon began to look down as he mumbled.

“How could this…? How could this happen……?”

That day, we returned to our fourth period together.

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