The Line to Protect (1)
I clicked my tongue at Park Tae-joon’s empty seat.
The school atmosphere was gloomy. The students were still being swept up by the young ones easily influenced, and the incident from yesterday was chaining like other issues, endlessly reproducing and spreading all kinds of bizarre rumors.
“The evil spirits Mammut commands directly stimulate the dark side of a person’s inner self. It’s natural to have instinctive fear.”
Ren, who was invisible to others, sat on the desk pretending to be attentive. It wasn’t entirely wrong. People who didn’t know much about Mammut were most wary of the evil spirit possession users. The fear that a perfectly normal person might suddenly turn and slap you on the back at any moment anywhere was enough to shrink normal people’s actions and plunge them into fear. And part of that, I sympathized with too.
“…Why?”
When I glanced at him, Kim Su-jeong sitting next to me tilted her head. I had to get rid of the evil spirit inside this kid first.
“Hah, it’s nothing.”
I shook my head and just laid my head on the desk. Since the gazes staring at me secretly were scorching, I was thinking of just vacating the seat.
“That kid went to another seat because he was led by other kids.”
“…Why do I have to worry about this?”
At Ren’s words, I muttered while still lying down.
Kim Su-jeong’s friends had taken her. And those friends had been on guard during the days Park Tae-joon was with them. Thanks to that, right now without Park Tae-joon, I was the loner in the crowd. Of course, for me, it was rather comfortable now. There were too many things to think about.
“Everyone knows the atmosphere is gloomy, right? The government also acknowledged that dangerous anomalies are involved and announced to be careful as much as possible. Everyone, go home early.”
“Eh? I have to go to the academy though?”
“…Teacher, I’d rather say the academy is closed.”
Just before break time. The homeroom teacher Yoon Sun-ho, who had ended class a bit early, sighed and shook his head. He knew about yesterday’s events, so he warned the kids to be careful. But compared to how people were trembling in fear, from this morning until now in the late afternoon, it had been surprisingly quiet without any incidents.
“Why is that? I heard Mammut is a monster that without any hesitation, continues destruction and slaughter.”
“W-what? Did I lie?!”
When the bell rang and the surroundings became noisy, I pinched Ren’s face and questioned.
“What I told you is history up to now and it’s true. But Mammut’s movements now are completely different from before!”
“Is that his will? Are you sure?”
“…I don’t know. Honestly, it’s hard to believe that the guy is moving with someone. This Earth is a world that has many strange and huge events, after all.”
Ren shook his head and muttered in a low voice. In the end, the conclusion was that the company didn’t help at all.
“I don’t know what the scheme is, but if it’s quiet, it’s fine. Not bad.”
I leaned back in my chair. The kids in the classroom were busily chatting among themselves, playing, or studying. Among them was Kim Su-jeong with her friends. She glanced at this side occasionally, but her expression was as usual, rather ‘bright’.
“Isn’t she your friend too? How about the two of you playing together.”
Ren seemed not to like the sight much.
“What nonsense is this?”
When I turned my head at the out-of-the-blue remark, Kim Su-han was pointed out by Ren. I didn’t interact much with him, but there were many contact points with girls. One of Park Tae-joon’s gang, that guy is now sitting alone looking at his phone. It meant I wasn’t in a very different situation from him.
“So, to others, I look like him. It’s unfamiliar. Originally, I was the representative of mediocrity.”
Even if immature, Kim Su-han was a typical delinquent, a troublemaker, typical of today’s precocious kids. He was a type completely unrelated to my school days, where memories were hazy. But now, at least the way others see me, I might not be different from how I see Kim Su-han. Because hanging out with Park Tae-joon made me like that. Surely I took on that and hung out with that girl to get what I wanted. Of course, before I could properly enjoy it, everything fell apart.
“Oh, I saw you. And I mocked you?”
“…Are you mocking me on purpose right now?”
At that time, Kim Su-han noticed my gaze and turned his head, then smirked. It was obvious mockery.
I slapped Ren’s mouth to shut him up for saying nonsense. But why was that guy getting up from his seat and coming towards me.
“What’s up?”
“Look at this?”
Kim Su-han approached with a scent of cosmetics and showed me something. Messenger history. Honestly, even after reading it all, I couldn’t figure out why he was showing this to me so boldly.
“Message asking to meet separately for lunch today, since Park Tae-joon is absent? Why is this?”
“…You want to know my purpose. Thinking that I’ve been playing with you for the past few days?”
“???”
“Park Tae-joon knows all the girls whose interest has waned? You probably don’t know? They really transferred…”
She smiled gloomily while saying it as if warning. Honestly, it was so cute I couldn’t even be annoyed, but I didn’t bother to refute each word of the kid who was proudly boasting. However, she thought I was scared because I was keeping my mouth shut and smiled slyly, then went back to her seat.
“Insane girl.”
I just let it go there too. It was troublesome to deal with or think about.
“Hey, do you have anyone who can contact Su-han? He suddenly disappeared and I can’t get in touch.”
However, after lunch that day, in the afternoon time.
The homeroom Yoon Sun-ho’s shout as he hurriedly entered the classroom changed the atmosphere abruptly.
“No matter what, a kid who disappears without any contact isn’t normal.”
Yoon Sun-ho, who had interrupted the music teacher’s class, muttered with a gloomy expression. That would be true. To the teachers, Park Tae-joon, a model student, made the gang members keep certain lines so they wouldn’t get caught. It meant he kept the last line even after doing all sorts of bad things, and Kim Su-han, who seemed to secretly admire Park Tae-joon, was the same.
“Should I tell him? Or not?”
And originally, I knew where Kim Su-han had gone. The problem was, at lunch time, why did Park Tae-joon take her away after saying ‘wait a moment’ at the back door.
I looked down at the unresponsive phone on my knee. Clearly, Park Tae-joon who left a messenger for me in the morning didn’t say anything about Kim Su-han. That was plausible. According to Kim Su-han’s words, it could be that Park Tae-joon was playing with me. Not very credible, though. But no matter what the intention was, the guy was contactable, but now even contact is not possible. Is this really coincidence?
“M-Mammut’s doing?! Or it could be something else…”
“I don’t know either. Teacher. My head hurts too much.”
While Ren was fidgeting anxiously, I raised my hand to pull the whole class’s attention. Still, I wanted to confirm once.
“Y-yes, Jin-ah.”
The homeroom Yoon Sun-ho, whose mental state seemed already frayed, nodded without saying much, surprised a bit.
I immediately stood up.
“I want to go too.”
At that time, Kim Su-jeong sitting next to me also stood up from her seat.
“Does it really hurt a lot? It hurts a lot?”
“…It’s not like that.”
“Really? Really?”
As we crossed the quiet corridor, Kim Su-jeong kept chattering nonstop. At this point, it was confusing. Was she moving according to the will of a sane person or the evil spirit’s will?
“Let’s hurry.”
But when she acted like urging while secretly putting her hand on my side, it seemed more like the latter.
“My head hurts? Wait a second.”
The middle-aged school nurse sat us down in the infirmary and disappeared for a moment. The problem was Kim Su-jeong said she went to the bathroom and disappeared together.
I clicked my tongue. I didn’t need to maximize the senses to know what would happen.
“Teacher said to eat this.”
Kim Su-jeong appeared again, alone, holding two unknown pills and water.
“Don’t eat it! It’s a sleeping pill! It’s a very powerful one that the school nurse personally ate!”
Ren, who had been secretly following Kim Su-jeong out of suspicion, hurriedly chased and shouted.
I accepted the medicine first. There was a strange chill on Kim Su-jeong’s smiling face. This was the intuition of an adult.
“If I eat this and fall asleep and pass out, what then?”
“I’ll make sure you sleep well and rest!”
She answered my leading question without blinking an eye.
I sighed and clenched my fist holding the medicine.
“Cough…”
And once again, I lightly punched her solar plexus with that fist, knocking her unconscious, and caught her body that fell with a short groan.