Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - What to do?
Su-Hyeok was standing in front of Mr. Lee, their science teacher, getting berated. Had it been any other teacher, Su-Hyeok would have taken it easily, but Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee hates him. He truly hates him.
To be more specific, he hates the (former) 'friend' and fighter of Son Myeong-hwan. There are many bullies in the high school, as are in other schools, but hardly anyone is as much an asshole as Myeong-hwan. Pranks and harassment is too tame for him. He and his underlings take pleasure in other people's fear and pain.
One of their favorite targets is Mr. Lee's son, Jin-Su. At least he was this past year (after Su-Hyeok stopped hanging out with them) until a few weeks ago when he disappeared. Rumors are that the bullying got so bad he had to transfer from the school and is now being home-schooled.
Despite Mr. Lee's position as teacher and his several attempts to get the school administration to take action against his son's bullies, the group went mostly untouched.
Which is why, Mr. Lee is taking out his frustration on Su-Hyeok. It's not fair, he thought. As sad and understandable as Mr. Lee's predicament was, Su-Hyeok never did anything to his son and despite his stupid decisions in the past, he has been trying to turn a new page.
This was a mistake, he thinks as Mr. Lee taunts him over every single mistake he made in the paper. Atleast the room was empty so no one else could witness his humiliation. He had stayed back after class to ask about an answer he thought right and went to see Mr. Lee if he made a mistake and cut his marks for the question. That was 8 minutes ago. Since then Mr. Lee has been doing nothing but taunting and insulting him.
There was a knock on the door. The class president was standing there with a thick book in her hands. Of all the people in the school, why, why did she have to be the one to see this now? Why her?
No one knows but Su-Hyeok has a teeny-tiny crush on the cold, aloof and silent class president. There is nothing warm, helpful or even kind in her outer demeanor. But she is so smart and so pretty, it makes Su-Hyeok stare at her for hours without getting fazed.
Oh God, I hope she didn't hear anything. I hope Mr. Lee doesn't say anything else infront of her. He can berate me for another half an hour but please don't say anything infront of her.
He is silently praying while Nam-Ra thanks the teacher for lending her the book. He notices her staring at his paper and resists the urge to hide it from her. It's bad enough that everyone (maybe even her, if she noticed his presence) knows of his reputation, she does not need to see it in exact number. He already knows she got full marks in her paper, as usual.
Mr. Lee instructs her to put the bookshelf on the other side of the room. As she proceeds to the shelf, Mr Lee resumes his tirade. He comments of his handwriting, his faulty grammar, even read out loud phrases he wrote wrong. All the while the prez was in the room and Su-Hyeok wanted the ground to open up & swallow him alive.
Right when, Mr Lee was pointing out how he had switched the symbols for chlorine and chromium, he is interrupted by Nam-Ra.
"Mr Lee, I wrote the same answer for question 5, which you have marked wrong here, but gave me full marks. Should I bring my paper so you can deduct my grade?"
Su-Hyeok is shocked. This is the first time, Nam Ra has talked back to a teacher, or challenged anyone in any way. Normally she just ignores everything and everyone until they leave her alone, that is if anyone even bothers to mess with her. But now she did this, for Su-Hyeok.
Mr. Lee didn't say anything else, just stared at Nam-Ra for a second, who stared back unflinchingly, and without a word, changed his grade, giving him full marks on the question. The same question which he came to Mr. Lee for, in the first place. Now with 5 more marks in the paper, he is no longer failing the test.
Mr Lee practically shoves the paper back at Su-Hyeok's face, dismissing them. They quickly bowed and left, not wanting to push the man any more than necessary.
He looks at Prez who keeps ignoring his presence and keeps walking away at a brisk pace.
"Hey, Prez. Wait up." Without the excuse of earphones, Nam-Ra is forced to wait until Su-Hyeok joins her.
"Thanks. I was trying to tell Mr. Lee for the last 15 mins, but he didn't listen to me. So thank you, because of you I didn't fail the test." Su-Hyeok smiles at her, grateful.
"I didn't do anything. Just pointed out that our answers match." Nam-Ra shrugs it off and tries to walk away.
But Su-Hyeok, being as persistent as he is, keeps walking with her, "But you didn't have to say anything. Let alone offer him to deduct your marks." She knew what he was doing but she didn't have any patience for chit-chat. So, she decided to drop her usual cold, hard facts.
"Mr. Lee doesn't like you and that's why he purposely deducted your marks to fail you. As a teacher, he should keep his personal opinion aside and focus on the study and future of his students. Ruining your grades for a personal vendetta, is a form of bullying. And I hate bullies." She ended the sentence with a heavily implied eyebrow raise towards him, stunning Su-Hyoek in his place.
Satisfied, Nam-Ra walked off leaving a stunned Su-Hyeok behind.
Maybe all the punches he had in the head finally started messing with his head, but instead of getting angry, humiliated or even insulted for being practically called a bully, but instead he felt even more attracted to her. She may have a cold exterior but she has fire in her. That made him even happier and made him fall for her even more.
She was a couple feet ahead when called her out loud, louder than necessary.
"Hey Prez"
Startled by his loud call, she turned immediately, befuddled to see him smiling. Her expression made Su-Hyeok smile even wider.
"Hey, will you tutor me?", he asks in the same loud voice, not caring who listened in on them. Right at this moment, he didn't care about what anyone thought at all, except her.
Seconds passed, as they both stood there, eyes on one another, in the empty corridor. Finally she answered.
"No"
Getting out of school, not possible. The grounds between and the gates are filled with zombies running around, biting students.
The admin block : not possible. Zombies are on the other side of the glass door.
The main building : the entrance is all the way around the other side of the building and the path to that is filled with more fucking zombies.
Lastly, a ray of hope appears when the gardener falls and becomes zombie meal (may he rest in peace, however unlikely it looks) but atleast now they have a way to escape in the form of an unoccupied ladder.
Su-Hyeok, the person because of whom she had made it this far, drags it to the window on the second floor. The ladder is not tall enough to reach second floor, but it does go till the 1 feet wide platform between the first and second floor.
"Hey prez, I'll go first and see if, well if the coast is clear." He gasps out. She agrees, nodding "Ok, I'll be the lookout."
The thought of the cold and perfect prez as a lookout was funny enough to make Su-Hyeok grin as he climbed up.
Nam-Ra, true to her word, keeps looking around, while picking up a wood and a steel rake from the gardener's tool bag. Just as Su-hyeok reaches the top, she notices something. Their classmate Park Hee-Su running with a zombie chasing her.
Maybe it's Su-Hyeok and his self-sacrificing act of saving Nam-Ra rather than taking shelter that motivates her but when she sees Hee-Su fall and the zombie gaining on her, instead of climbing up the ladder, she finds herself moving towards the zombie and tripping him with the back of the rake. She then gives a hand to Hee-Su pulling her up and towards the ladder.
If she was the lead protagonist of a zombie movie, or if she had any idea of how to tackle a zombie, or even know about it's existence for more than 5 minutes, then she probably wouldn't have only tripped the zombie, instead of killing it or atleast injuring it.
But unfortunately she's neither so naturally the zombie gets back on it's feet almost instantly and has found a target.
Nam-Ra
Just as Hee-Su is pulled in by Su-Hyeok and their other classmates into the classroom, the zombie starts running straight towards her. She starts climbing, almost running up the wobbling ladder.
Right when her hand reaches the top rung, the ladder gave a big jolt as the zombie crashed into it. A pair of hands stops the ladder from falling (and Nam-Ra with it), Su-Hyeok jumped back out of the window into the platform.
The zombie unbothered keeps swiping at Nam-Ra's feet and even manages to climb 2 rungs, which was high enough to grab her ankle. Which is exactly what it does, making Nam-Ra cry out in fear and panic.
Su-Hyeok, noticing this, just plain tries to lift Nam-Ra up above the ladder, but the weight of Nam-Ra and the zombie is too much for him.
In his attempt to do so, he hooked his forearms under Nam-Ra's arms. Which gave Nam-Ra enough leverage and by some power above and luck she found the strength to kick the zombie in the face, forcefully, making it fall off to the ground.
The force of the kick successfully dislodged the zombie's grip on her ankle but also proved too much for the swaying ladder which then fell away. Thankfully, Nam-Ra was secure in Su-Hyeok's arms as he pulled her up until they were both on the floor of the platform.
They collapsed on the spot, heaving from adrenaline. When Nam-Ra saw the heads of their classmates, Dae-Su, Cheong-San and On-jo hanging out of the window looking at them. That's when both Nam-Ra and Su-hyeok realized that they were practically lying on the floor (or the window sill or whatever it is called). To be more precise, Nam-Ra was lying almost on top on Su-Hyeok, with him facing her back and his arms loosely around her waist.
Shocked back into reality, they carefully stood up from their position. The rest of the group backed away from the window as Su-Hyeok climbed back in. Right away he helped in Nam-Ra, with a hand on her arm, another on her waist, hoisting her through the window.
I-Sak kept looking at On-jo as On-Jo was unable to take their eyes off of them as Su-Hyeok still doesn't take his hand off Prez's shoulder, asking her if she is alright.
Nam-Ra backs away leaning towards the cabinet at her back. She presses her hands on the window frame and the cabinet latch to support herself and keep from collapsing to the ground.
Su-Hyeok, on the other hand, has no such qualms, as he ungracefully slides into the floor, panting.
"It's that, isn't it? Zombies."
Nam-Ra took the time to scan the room and see who all made it to safety. Almost everyone is from her own class 2-5. She already saw Cheong-San, Dae-Su, On-jo and I-sak. There's Han Gyeong-su and Oh Joon-yeong, blocking the door. Lee Na-Yeon, Kim Ji-Min, Seo Hyo-Ryung and Kim Min-ji also made it. There's a another boy, a freshman most likely, standing alone in the room. There are also 2 senior girls she doesn't recognize. Hee-Su is also standing alone in a corner.
16, out of a school of over 600 students, only 16 are confirmed to be alive.
Dae-Su, who before Su-Hyeok and Nam-Ra came doubted his classmates word on zombies, finally understood what was going on. "I can't believe it."
Nam-Ra, who pushed herself off the cabinet to grab two water bottles from the bags lying on desks, hands one of it to Su-Hyeok on the floor and takes the other for herself as she collapses on a bench. In her exhaustion, she can't help but chime in. "Me neither."
"What else could be happening, then?" I-Sak asks Nam-Ra instead of Dae-Su. Normally, I-Sak wouldn't have said anything but this was Nam-Ra, who was just hanging off of the arms of Su-Hyeok, the guy her best-friend likes, really really likes. As her best-friend, it is her duty to smack down her friend's potential competition. Despite the circumstances.
However it's not the first time someone has tried to take a shot at Nam-Ra. This is far more familiar and normal to her than anything that happened in the past 15 minutes.
Downing half the bottle, she genuinely considers the questions for a moment, staring directly at I-Sak and answered in her usual bland, cold voice, knowing how much her voice and stare unnerves others.
"Well, on the top of my head. I'm sleeping and this is a nightmare. Or someone spiked my food and water with drugs and I'm hallucinating. Or someone hypnotized me and all of this is part of that hypnotic dream. Or the cafeteria food was drugged and everyone is high, coupled with mass-hysteria is making them act like zombies. Or I have a tumor in my brain and that's why I'm hallucinating. Or I have some other cancer, parasite or infection which spread to my brain and that's why I'm hallucinating. Or ..."
"Ok, that's enough." On-jo cut her off. Su-Hyeok bites back a laugh and pulls himself off the floor to stand next to Dae-Su. Over time he has gotten good at recognising and appreciating Nam-Ra's quirky sense of humor.
Woo-Jin pipes up from his side, his voice incredulous "So, drugs, hypnosis, hallucinations or terminal diseases. That's your pick?"
Nam-Ra, unfazed, answers back. "Still more likely than our school turning into a zombie playground."
Su-Hyeok notices Joon-Yeong and Gyeong-Su nodding and shrugging in acceptance on the other side of the room.
All of a sudden a zombie appeared and slammed into the door, right behind Joon-Yeong, who almost had a heart attack from the fright.
Hee-Su who had been hiding away in a corner, came over and sat on the bench next to Nam-Ra.
Nam-Ra looks over at her, puzzled. If there's anyone in the class who spoke even less than Nam-Ra, that's Hee-Su.
"Prez, I just... I just wanted to say. I... Thank you. You risked your life to save me. I don't know how to...", she stopped when Nam-Ra put her hand above hers. The small smile on prez's face and the light squeeze from her hand gave her the reply. There's no need for thanks.
"What do we do now?" The freshman whose name Nam-Ra doesn't know, asks the room, her voice quivering with tears.
The juniors looked at each other, when Cheong-San says, "First we find a phone and call the authorities. They can send someone who knows what to do and rescue us."
"If they believe us", said Wu-Jin. Which is true. Who in their right mind would believe a teenager saying that there's a zombie outbreak.
"We just have to convince them anyhow. But first we need to somehow open the cabinet to get a phone. Check the bags, maybe someone carried an extra." Everyone shuffled around, grabbing a backpack to check.
Only 3 people didn't move from their place, Nam-Ra, Hee-Su and Su-Hyeok who had slowly drifted to Nam-Ra's side against the wall.
Nam-Ra knows Su-Hyeok is right beside her, staring at her but she ignores him. She also ignores how her hand kind of tingles. She was holding Su-Hyeok's hand tightly for so long that now her hand feels empty, if that makes any sense.
Su-Hyeok, knowing she wouldn't acknowledge him, nudged her with his foot. She raised an eyebrow in question. He raises his eyebrows in return, in knowing, gesturing towards her.
That's when she remembers. Her phone. Rather, her secret phone which she uses for music, instead of an IPod like everyone assumes. Since her AirPods fell off somewhere during the chase and with everything that's been happening, she totally spaced about her own mobile.
Su-hyeok smiled when saw her eyes widen in realization. 'Great going, Nam-Ra. You are truly acting like the dumb girls in horror movies who get killed first because of their stupidity.' , she thought to herself, standing up, facing away from the class.
She quickly pulled her skirt up to get to the pocket of the shorts underneath the skirt. Su-Hyeok, turned his head immediately when he saw her skirt rise, (well almost immediately), and blushed dark red.
"Hey, yaah! Prez already has a mobile."
The whole class freezes. Dae-Su and Cheong-San who were hitting the glass of the cabinet with thick books, trying to bust it open and grab the confiscated phones, stopped and Dae-Su dropped the heavy book on Woo-Jin's toes. The class president, the model student had sneaked an extra mobile to school? Bare-Su must be joking.
"Damn it." She curses. There's a big crack running across her screen diagonally. She hopes only the screen cover on top broke and not the actual screen.
On the other hand, one of the seniors found another mobile, however it was locked. Nam-Ra prayed and pressed the power button on her mobile. Thankfully it was working properly. But it had only 28% battery. She immediately put it in super-power saver mode, to elongate the battery life.
Dae-Su getting over his shock, abandoned the book next to hopping Woo-Jin's feet and grabbed a steel water bottle to smash the glass. The glass shattered, startling everyone. They quickly grabbed the mobile tray and while most mobiles had a face/fingerprint lock with password, they quickly found a mobile with only pattern as screen lock, which somehow Gyeong-Su figured it out and unlocked it.
The whole class was divided into 3 groups, all around the 3 mobiles found. The girls, On-Jo, I-Sak, Hyo-Ryung and Ji-Min stood with the seniors with the mobile found in the bag. The boys, Dae-Su, Gyeong-Su, Joon-Yeong and Cheong-San with the mobile from the cabinet. Nam-Ra, Su-Hyeok, Na-Yeon, Hee-Su, Woo-Jin(mad at Dae-Su left that group), and the freshman around Nam-Ra's mobile.
On-jo's group was calling the emergency number as that is the only number they could call from a locked phone, so Cheong-San started dialing So-Ju, On-Jo's father. As a firefighter and first responder, he would have a better idea what to do next. Su-Hyeok and Nam-Ra decided against calling anyone and wasting any more battery than necessary. Thankfully Woo-Jin found a power bank charger in one of the bags, which is now plugged to Nam-Ra's phone. However, in the last 6 minutes, the battery has only gone up 1%.
The first responder On-Jo called, didn't believe her and berated her for prank calling the emergency services. He warned her that making non-emergency calls is a felony and next time she will be arrested. Cheong-San didn't have much luck either.
"Damn it", Cheong-San curses, "he is not picking up." He raised his eyes, meeting On-Jo's concerned ones, immediately recognising her distress. "No, no. I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he's just busy." Moving towards her, he tries to comfort her, squeezing her shoulder. On-Jo felt like crying. All she had in her life was her father. If she lost him, she didn't know what she would do?
"Hyeon-Ju was also a zombie, wasn't she?", she asked Su-Hyeok and I-Sak, who were there with On-Jo in the infirmary. "My father was the one who took her to the hospital. What if she bit him on the way? That would mean he is..." she choked, sobbing.
The entire class was silent, not knowing how to comfort the crying girl, all the while worrying about their own families. The fact that a zombie had gotten out of school and is most likely infecting the city didn't bode well too. I-Sak and Min-ji rushed to her side, hugging the crying girl.
On-Jo stopped and calmed herself, remembering her father's words to not lose hope in dire circumstances. She wiped off her tears and took the phone from Cheong-San's hands, dialing her father's fire station.
When the person on call doesn't direct her father to the phone, she started to lie about a fire in school, only to have the phone snatched from her hand. It was Nam-Ra.
She just snatched the phone from her hands and cut the call before On-Jo could fake a fire. Before On-Jo could get in touch with her father. Before they could get some help and have them rescued.
To say, she was pissed was a huge understatement. Resisting the urge to pull her hair and smack her, On-Jo confronted her. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" She didn't manage to stay as composed as she thought because her voice kept increasing until she was almost screaming the last words. Cheong-San held her back, shushing her quietly, reminding her of the zombies right outside the room.
"I was just stopping you from making a huge mistake. The fire department wouldn't be able to help us. Especially if they don't know what they are walking into." Nam-Ra reasoned with her.
"How many firemen would have come, 5, 6, 8, 10? 10 people against 100s of zombies, do you really think they would make it out alive, let alone save us. Calling any of them here, including your father, only to be completely blindsided with the situation here, will get them killed." Su-Hyeok appeared next to Nam-Ra, putting a hand on her elbow, stopping her. They looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation, which annoyed On-Jo even more.
Nam-Ra took a deep breath and continued in a softer, calmer tone. "I get it, you are scared and worried, for you and your father. Everyone's freaked out. But we have to be smart about what to do? And if we call anyone without making sure they understand the severity of what's happening, they won't have any weapons or equipment to fight them off or rescue us. All we will be doing is risking their lives as well." She hands the phone back to On-Jo. "But the choice is yours."
Suddenly there was a commotion outside the window and suddenly the zombies outside the door left, running towards a new target. Gyeong-Su peeked through the door to see where they went only to be pulled back and berated by Su-Hyeok.
Woo-Jin and I-Sak looked outside the window to see a bus crashing the school gates, blocking anyone from leaving or entering the school from the front gates. The rest of the room joined them to see and witness the horror.
From this distance, they could barely make out the door of the bus opening and the horde of zombies running towards the unsuspecting humans. They were probably 50 mts away but still they could hear the screams echoing through the previously silent building.
"It's the archery team. They had a tournament today. My sister, she is on that bus", Woo-Jin whispered, horrified. Quickly he sprinted towards the door, wanting to go and save his sister, but before he could reach the door, he is tackled by the Dae-Su. "No, no, no. Leave me, no. I have to go." He struggled as Dae-Su kept him restrained tightly.
"You wouldn't be able to make it in time, brother-in-law. She wouldn't want you to risk your life like that."
Joon-Yeong squinted his eyes, called Woo-Jin to his senses before he could hit or stab Dae-Su. "Hey, Woo-Jin. Look, they are running away."
And truly, over half the people from the bus either crawled under the bus or jumped up on top to leave the school property and run away. They couldn't see who it was or whether the people leaving were girls or boys, only small white specks could be made out. Some of them had also shot a dozen zombies before they could attack.
Only then Woo-Jin relaxed. He knew his sister and was confident in her abilities enough to know she would have made it out. The relief was so apparent he almost collapsed in Dae-Su's arms.
Unfortunately, not all of them made it out. Some went down almost instantly, some having no other option run in the grounds towards the school building, trying to escape the horde.
Nam-Ra quickly takes out her phone and starts recording. When other stare at her weirdly, she replies, "We have to make other believe that this is real. Warn our families of what is happening. Maybe this will help them believe it."
Her phone is brand new, an unnecessary reward from her mother for her grades in the last semester. The camera quality is superb, but Nam-Ra never cared for it, however now she is thankful for it.
The camera focuses on the humans running from the zombies. She looses track of most of them, but one of the archer makes it to almost the front of the building, near their window, when his arrows run out. The camera captures how he tries to beat and push away the zombies with his bow but is soon overpowered as one by one zombies grab and bite him. That's when the camera starts shaking.
Su-Hyeok takes the phone from her hands and that's when she realizes it was her hand that was shaking. He keeps recording for her and gently nudges her move away from the window.
Nam-Ra's eyes met On-Jo who was sitting on a bench far from Nam-Ra. The moment their eyes met, Nam-Ra knew that she realized. This could have been her father and other first responders. On-Jo looked away, looking down at her shoes.
Several others are in a similar state. Scared, horrified, traumatized. No one was looking the window anymore except Su-Hyeok who kept recording until that lone archer became a zombie himself. From Nam-Ra's phone, he created a group chat in all common messaging apps and added everyone's parents and any other number anyone in the class remembered and shared the video there.
Worried that the group will take it as a joke, or assume the kids are pulling a prank, they all recorded a video message of themselves, and passed around the room, so that everyone could leave a message for their families.
Su-Hyeok told them of everything that has been happening since Hyeon-Ju. Cheong-San warned everyone's (Especially his) parents to not come at school, instead call the authorities and leave the city, if possible. Hyo-Ryung cut off mid-sentence, and broke down crying. Everyone else's message was more or less the same. To look out for anything suspicious, stay alert, contact authorities and not come to school. Na-Yeon almost called her parents to come and take her, but Ji-Min stomped on her feet and took the phone from her. Nam-Ra and Hee-Su skipped out on the message.
Su-Hyeok didn't push her. He knew that she knew if her mother didn't believe the video and her classmates' messages, then she won't believe Nam-Ra either. He ended the very long video by saying to err in the side of caution, this is not a prank and to please be safe.
He then started calling the emergency services again (using the locked phone), but was put on hold as the line was busy.
When he announced it to the class, he could see a dark cloud hanging over Nam-Ra. He knew she connected the dots. It is almost impossible for emergency services to be busy. Hyosan is not a major city with hardly any major or significant crimes and the emergency services are trained to deal with the call as effectively and quickly as possible to keep the line open. (It was all given in the career brochure Nam-Ra got him, aghast at the fact that he did not know what he wanted to be).
If all of a sudden the emergency services are all occupied in this situation, that could only mean that the zombie outbreak has spread outside of school as well.
Then, a message popped in the group chat. It was Nam-Ra's mother, where she basically called them all immature idiots for playing such a horrible prank and to take down the inappropriate video. She then left the group.
A few other numbers left until someone, (turns out to be Joon-Yeong's mother) said that something weird is happening in the hospital as well. There's a lot of cop cars outside and people screaming and running around.
While this confirmed that Hyeon-Ju was also a zombie, possibly the first zombie. There was also a sigh of relief that atleast now maybe the parents will believe they are saying the truth.
"Let's call the cops again. Tell them to hurry up", Na-Yeon freaked out and yelled. Ji-Min nudged her to be quiet to avoid attracting the zombies back.
Na-Yeon was too freaked out of her mind to care about anything at all. She marched over to where Nam-Ra was sitting and addressed her. "Hey, do something. Tell Ms. Park to come and help."
Everyone looked at Na-Yeon, as if she was crazy. On-Jo was not a fan of Nam-Ra but still thought Na-Yeon had lost it. Su-Hyeok on the other hand, looked mad. Nam-Ra merely looked at her but didn't say anything.
"Do something", she insisted. "Do what exactly? We have already alerted the emergency services and our families. There isn't anything else anyone can do, so think before you speak." Su-Hyeok spoke up, pissed. This was the first time (in a very long time) anyone has seen Su-Hyeok this livid.
But Na-Yeon wasn't having it. "I don't know. Anything." She barked at Su-Hyeok, before turning back to Nam-Ra. "What have you done as class president?"
Su-Hyeok could see the moment Nam-Ra heard the words 'class president', he could see her patience snap. She stood from her bench and faced Na-Yeon. Su-Hyeok straightened up and almost moved to be at Nam-Ra's side but refrained himself. He knew she was more than capable of handling the situation. Even a crazy pest like Na-Yeon. Maybe he should protect Na-Yeon from Nam-Ra.
"Teacher's office. You want me to leave the room now?" She asked Na-Yeon. Na-Yeon flustered for a moment, "If you are offering."
Nevermind, let Prez deal with her, in her way. "You just told me to do something, right? So tell me, you want me to leave?" She taunted mockingly.
On-jo tried to stop them while Dae-Su and Woo-Jin tried to make of the situation. But Nam-Ra's wasn't one to let go that easily. And Su-Hyeok found himself in agreement. He has never been this mad at his classmates before.
Na-Yeon wanted Nam-Ra to leave, knowing very well that leaving the room is writing your own death sentence. Still she wanted Nam-Ra to leave for her own selfish tantrum. And the others just want her to brush it aside and laugh it off.
Gyeong-Su, from his position at the door, saw all this and Su-Hyeok's expression and clenched fists. The naked rage in his face, he only saw it back when Su-Hyeok used to fight for the bullies. Gyeong-Su was sure if Na-Yeon said anything else, Bare-Su is gonna throw her out of the window.
"It's ridiculous. And typical." She almost sang out the word 'typical', prompting On-Jo to ask her. "What's typical?"
She turns to On-Jo and with a pleasant but mocking smile asks, "Now that we are stuck in this mess, everyone remembers that I'm your class president."
For the whole year, their classmates have mocked, taunted, made fun of and spread rumors about Nam-Ra and her role as class president. Never has she said anything or even acknowledged that she heard anything. Until now.
Su-Hyeok then noticed the automatic message from the emergency services are playing a different message. He quickly shushed everyone and put it on the speaker.
"Due to an unprecedented event, emergency services are temporarily shut down. Until further information is found regarding the nature of this situation, this situation will be considered similar to an insurgence. Citizens are advised to take full precautions for their safety."
There's a moment of silence in the class after the message ended. The call was cut and they didn't redial because they knew it was of no use anymore. Perhaps the helplessness and hopelessness of their situation has hit them. No one is coming to rescue them. No one is probably capable of rescuing them.
Cheong-San broke the silence. "Wait, did they say they are treating it like an insurgence. What's an insurgence?"
Nam-Ra answered him, "It's the legal term for riots and lawlessness."
That got On-Jo thinking as she continued, "Any group of more than 3 people start breaking laws and committing violent acts. They cannot have any protocols ready for a zombie attack, so they are taking reference from the closest real-world scenario."
Cheong-San snapped his fingers. "Exactly, we should do the same."
"No one knows what to do or how to survive zombies. But like the government we can take clues from somewhat similar scenarios and look up on the internet for what to do in those scenarios. We can find what plans the law enforcements will enforce to rescue us and work accordingly." he explained, excitement stirring into his voice. All thanks to the school's public wi-fi.
"So, we treat this like we are stuck in between a riot." Su-Hyeok clarifies though he already likes the idea. It's better than sitting here and doing nothing.
"Yes, but not just a riot. We can also look for what to do when you are trapped in an unknown location. We can look for martial laws and how to live during curfew." Cheong-San prattled on.
"Oh, we can look for epidemic cases as well." On-Jo chimed in.
"Yes, I mean a zombie virus spreading is like a communicable disease you can't recover from." Woo-jin was onboard as well. Ji-Min and others nodded along.
"We should also look for chemical leaks and terrorism attacks." Nam-Ra pitched in. "A zombie virus is not natural. Someone made this. There's a chance the law enforcement, the government, the military will think of this as a form of terrorist attack." Cheong-San nodded.
"Ok, someone grab 2 notebooks and pens. We have 2 phones which we can use to search the internet. We can take notes from what we find useful and then check both for what is best to do in this situation." Hyo-Ryung and Min-ji gave the supplies to Cheong-San.
"Hey, why don't you just search how to survive a zombie attack?" Dae-Su casually remarked, leaning against Woo-Jin. Cheong-San and Su-Hyeok scoffed at him, chuckling under their breath.
As if there would be a Zombie Survival Guide. Why would there be one, when zombies don't exist.
But they paused for a second and looked at each other. It's not possible, right. Well, what does it hurt to look?
Su-Hyeok unlocked Prez's phone (If Cheong-San thought it was weird that Su-Hyeok knew Prez's mobile passcode, he didn't say anything) and googled "How to survive a zombie apocalypse." Much to their surprise, not only there's an actual published book titled 'Zombie Survival Guide', but there are also a bunch of articles and instructions, just in preparation for the hypothetical situation of a zombie outbreak.
Cheong-San uses the other unlocked mobile to opens the articles while Su-Hyeok downloads the pdf of the book. It may be fictional and humorous, it is said to be informative about disaster management.
Cheong-San then gave Prez's mobile, along with a notebook and pen to Nam-Ra. "Here, prez"
On the inquisitive look he got from her, he says, "You take the best notes in our class." She had expected another round of 'class president' drama, but not this. It was surprising enough to make her smile.
Su-Hyeok, handed Prez's mobile to him and sat next to prez with a scowl on his face ('What is he in a huff about?', he wondered ), Cheong-San grabbed another desk and when he looked up, he saw On-Jo looking at him with a weird expression.
"What?" but only got a shake of head, as she sat next to him.
He notices On-Jo getting distracted from her narration. He looks over to see her staring at Bare-Su and Prez. The two, unaware or uncaring of the audience, sat very very close. Close enough that their sides were practically touching. It was unclear from their angle, but the way Prez's left hand and Bare-Su's right hand was kept under the desk, they could be holding hands. They were talking, well Bare-Su was whispering in her ear, they couldn't see if Prez responded to him or not. But not once did she try to shy away from him or push him away. In fact she seemed to be leaning towards him ever so slightly.
"Maybe it's her." Cheong-San thought out loud. His words were whispers but On-Jo clearly heard him. When he brushed off her questions, she pinched him on the side, a spot she knew he was ticklish in, to get him to surrender.
"Ok, ok. Stop. A few weeks ago, Bare-Su mentioned that he got a tutor. He didn't want anyone else to know, only Dae-Su and I know this. He used to talk a lot about his tutoring sessions but never said who was tutoring him. He'd always change the subject. All he ever said the mystery tutor was a student from 2nd year." Cheong-San didn't say that he and Dae-Su had a bet going of when Su-Hyeok will confess that he is dating his tutor. His dreamy looks and smiles left them with no doubt that Bare-Su had feelings for his 'tutor'.
He hated the despondent look on On-Jo's face, but a small, selfish part of him wanted her to get over her unrequited crush. He looked back at the couple in question, now only looking at each other, silent. He turned his head away, feeling guilty as if intruding a private moment. Perhaps it's better if On-Jo faces the reality sooner rather than later.
Minutes passed like this, with the two students making notes while a few others narrating or helping in some ways. One of the point that was common in almost all the articles, was hoarding food and medical supplies and barricading the room. So, the rest of the students (except Na-Yeon and Hee-Su) divided themselves. One half went ahead to search the backpacks again, this time looking for food, water, anything that might help them in any way. Other started slowly but quietly picking up desks and arranging it in front of the doors.
From the 2 dozen bags in the classroom, they found total 6 energy bars, 4 chocolates and 5 (uneaten or half-eaten) lunch boxes. They also fill the water from all bottles, so that they have around 10 bottles filled with water. They shove these in 3 different backpacks, as On-Jo suggested. Putting all the essentials in a single bag was indeed a bad idea.
Joon-Yeong also suggested packing all the locked phones as well. Maybe they could reset the phone or swap the batteries.
After around 10 minutes of this just planning and strategizing, restlessness got Na-Yeon as she suddenly stormed up some more garbage about no one doing anything, irritating everyone until Ji-Min snapped and almost started a fight. Gyeong-Su too left his station at the door to break it up.
She only stopped when she almost slipped, because of something on the floor, beside Hee-Su, who had kept her head down through all this, face hidden in her crossed arms on the desk.
"Hey, did you pee your pants or something?" Na-Yeon yelled disgusted, shoving at Hee-Su roughly. The smaller girl, who looked pale and clammy didn't react much, just stared at the puddle on her feet and the wet stains on her skirt.
Su-Hyeok finally had enough and told Na-Yeon to either shut up or get out. That shut her up instantly. The boys had moved away to give Hee-Su some space and not embarrass her anymore.
On-Jo sat crouched next to the now trembling girl and wrapped an arm around her in a side hug, trying to comfort her. "It's ok, Hee-Su. It's ok." She kept whispering to her.
Hee-Su finally raised her and whispered,"I didn't pee." On-Jo, assuming she is embarrassed, just kept trying to comfort her, telling her everything is fine.
"No", she said a little louder, "I didn't. It's not pee." On-Jo fell silent, to let her speak her mind. "I... ", she looked at On-Jo, then at Nam-Ra who was sitting at the desk ahead. "My water broke."
Dae-Su, who was clearly eavesdropping along with other boys, asks confused, "What?" Not hearing and understanding properly what Hee-Su just said, while the girls went pale.
On-jo slowly touched Hee-Su's belly underneath her bag and sure enough there was a huge bump. She snatched her hand back as if burned.
For the second time at that day (and possibly ever), she and Nam-Ra had a silent conversation. Going into labor in school was already so bad on so many levels but on top of a zombie apocalypse. This can't be happening, right now.
That's when the half secured (since everyone got distracted by Na-Yeon) door opened and Coach Kang ran in the room.