Chapter 6: Hwaae High School (2)

“The content changed.”

“Team Leader, did you see that just now?”

“Yeah. Now I understand why the higher-ups treat him so specially.”

I had only cleaned a simple bulletin board.

I felt a little embarrassed and rubbed my nose.

But they weren’t looking at the bulletin board.

Their gazes were directed lower down.

I wondered what they were observing so intently.

Then I realized that something was missing beneath the mirror.

“Haebin, did you clean it?”

“Clean what?”

I sprayed the glass cleaner onto the mirror and ran the window squeegee from top to bottom.

Naturally, I had placed a cloth underneath to catch the water.

Even so.

The floor should have gotten wet with water and detergent.

Then.

Why was the cloth still completely dry?

And why wasn’t there a single drop of water on the floor?

“Incredible! How did you do that? I never imagined cleaning paranormal phenomena worked like this.”

Jeong Dohyeon was staring at my window squeegee with genuine fascination as he asked me the question.

But I couldn’t answer.

Now that I thought about it.

What had happened to that black mass I removed from the drawer in the house?

Had I ever changed the water in the bucket after cleaning the blood?

What the hell am I?

Do I really have some kind of power?

Ding~

Dong~

Dang~

Dong.

At that moment, the characteristic electronic bell of a school rang.

“Looks like classes are over.”

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Although the hallway had been completely empty, footsteps could now clearly be heard approaching.

They were dress shoes.

“It’s a teacher.”

Upon hearing Team Leader Yong’s murmur, I didn’t have time to react.

The Teacher had already stopped in front of us.

He had abnormally long limbs.

His skin was a bluish shade, completely bloodless.

He walked as though he had no joints.

The only reason I knew he was a teacher was because a piece of paper had been nailed to his forehead with an enormous nail, and written on it was.

[Teacher]

“……”

I understood instinctively.

I shouldn’t speak.

Or move.

Teachers had to be respected.

My body became completely motionless.

First, he looked at the large clock in the lobby, a clock without eyelids.

Then he observed the boundary between the main lobby and the hallway.

Finally, he slowly raised his head and looked at us.

“Incorrect uniform. You are students I haven’t seen before. Eight minutes remain.”

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

And that was all.

The Teacher did nothing else.

He simply walked away down the hallway.

“Huff… We barely made it. Looks like he’s not the type to kill you the moment he sees you.”

Only then was Team Leader Yong able to move again.

He poked his head out to look down the hallway where the Teacher had disappeared and let out a sigh of relief.

“Why did he just leave? Because the break still wasn’t over?”

“…Classes haven’t started yet.”

Myeong Haebin was wrong.

Right now, it wasn’t recess.

It was 8:52.

“In high school, classes start at nine. What just rang was the warning bell.”

“You still remember things like that? Youth really does have its advantages.”

The Teacher’s eyes had clearly observed the boundary between the lobby and the hallway.

Did that mean crossing that line counted as attending class?

“Then we have to go in before it’s time…”

Why had he said our uniforms were incorrect?

My gaze turned toward the enormous mirror that covered the entire wall opposite the bulletin board.

Above it was a sign.

“The second rule said we had to wear the uniform properly, in accordance with the regulations.”

“Boss, look at the floor. I think this has something to do with it.”

Myeong Haebin, who had an enormous bag of cleaning tools almost as large as her body strapped to her back, called out to me while pointing at the floor.

[Wear the school uniform properly]

It was a circular sticker with the silhouette of a pair of shoes.

Of course.

How would they check whether the uniform was being worn properly?

By looking in a mirror.

I took a step and stood on the sticker.

At that instant.

My reflection changed completely.

I was wearing a uniform shirt over my white T-shirt.

The tie was sticking messily out of my pocket.

I looked like the typical juvenile delinquent.

Although.

Only my reflection was wearing the uniform.

In reality, I was still wearing the Daecheonmyeong uniform.

‘How am I supposed to fix this?’

“Hanmu, what are you doing?”

“Ah, look. I think I have to fix my appearance in the mirror, but I don’t know how to do it.”

Jeong Dohyeon stepped up beside me and placed his foot on the edge of the sticker.

“Ah, you’re right. The problem is that we can’t touch the reflection, right?”

He remained thoughtful for a few seconds as he adjusted his clothes.

Then, as if he had realized something, he reached his hand toward me.

“Hanmu, when dealing with paranormal phenomena, sometimes it’s better to set common sense aside.”

With his calm and friendly tone, he grabbed the shirt I was wearing.

His hand should have passed through empty air.

But.

He felt the fabric.

And the plastic buttons.

“Like this. What do you think?”

As he moved his hands, the buttons began fastening one after another.

As if he were actually adjusting my uniform.

‘So it really works.’

“I can take care of the rest my… Ugh!”

But Jeong Dohyeon grabbed my tie.

He pulled on the band that went around the back of my neck.

Enough to tighten slightly around my throat.

“I hope you survive for a long time, Hanmu. Consider it a welcome gift from Daecheonmyeong.”

‘I swear he tightened it on purpose.’

Was I imagining things?

As if he wanted to prove that it had all been a misunderstanding, Jeong Dohyeon smiled with that same honest and friendly expression as always.

Then he perfectly adjusted his own clothes and called out to the others.

“Team Leader. Haebin. I think we’ve found the answer.”

Maybe I had been staring at him too intently.

Team Leader Yong, who was fixing his clothes, poked his head over my shoulder.

“Rookie. Why are you making that face?”

“It’s nothing.”

‘It was probably nothing.’

After all, it was easy to make a mistake when trying to adjust a tie that didn’t actually exist.

Just then, the clock struck 8:59.

I moved away from Jeong Dohyeon and carefully crossed the entrance.

Nothing happened.

At least I had made it past the first step.

“It’ll be nine soon. Let’s move.”

I had no intention of running into that Teacher again.

Apparently, the others felt the same way, because we all quickly climbed the central staircase.

Jeong Dohyeon was in front.

“The classrooms start on the second floor. Let’s go into the nearest one.”

“Shouldn’t you go first, Team Leader?”

“Hey, hey. I’m valuable. I use my head; he uses his body. Got it?”

In an unfamiliar place like this, it was only natural that whoever went first would be in the greatest danger.

Although normally.

Shouldn’t the Team Leader be the one leading the group?

But I didn’t feel like arguing either.

What?

Did I want to go first instead?

No, thanks.

That was when it happened.

Ding~

Dong~

Dang~

Dong.

The bell rang.

As if everyone had agreed in advance, the commotion throughout the school disappeared.

We stopped as well.

“Why haven’t you entered the classroom yet?”

The Teacher was standing in the second-floor hallway.

An unknown liquid slowly trickled down the enormous nail embedded in his forehead.

Just like before.

My body stopped responding.

That was only natural.

How could I dare run away when a teacher was speaking to me?

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The Teacher began approaching.

His gray lips, unnaturally twisted to one side, parted slightly.

“Ah, it must be because your ears are too small and you couldn’t hear.”

A hand resembling an enormous pair of scissors rose toward Jeong Dohyeon, who was at the front.

In an absurdly kind voice, the Teacher spoke to him.

“It’s all right. The teacher will help you hear better.”

Before anyone could react.

The scissors closed.

Snip.

Jeong Dohyeon’s ear fell to the floor.

“Kugh…!”

His scream echoed throughout the silent hallway.

The blood-soaked ear bounced down the stairs, step after step.

Thump.

Thump.

The Teacher took an enormous gray ear out of his pocket.

He placed it where the real one had been.

Then he raised a needle threaded with red thread.

It was the student’s fault for not listening to the bell.

The teacher was only helping a deficient student.

Bzzz—

The phone vibrated inside my pocket.

At the same time, I regained my clarity of mind.

“Teacher!!”

It didn’t even sound like my own voice.

It came out as a high-pitched, desperate shout.

The needle stopped.

Only the Teacher’s head turned toward me.

“What is it?”

Only when I saw those two perfectly round eyes did I regret speaking.

They say that if you keep quiet, you’re already halfway there.

“Are you perhaps making fun of the teacher?”

He began slowly approaching.

Every time he moved his hand, the scissors stained with Jeong Dohyeon’s blood struck against each other with a metallic sound.

My heart was beating so fast that my chest hurt.

But now that he was standing in front of me.

I was certain of one thing.

That Teacher was capable of holding a conversation.

He hadn’t ignored me when I called out to him.

He had answered.

He even pressed me when I took too long to respond.

Now.

What mattered was choosing my words carefully.

“I didn’t know the bell that rang a moment ago marked the start of class.”

A long silence filled the hallway.

‘Damn it.’

That wasn’t what I had wanted to say first.

I should have practiced speaking under pressure more.

“I see.”

“Then it seems the problem isn’t with your ears, but with your head.”

The tips of the Teacher’s fingers began to lengthen and sharpen.

They were so pointed that merely brushing against them would be enough to draw blood.

Just before they were about to enter my ear.

I managed to organize my thoughts and spoke.

“We’re transfer students. We were looking for a teacher because we didn’t know where we were supposed to go.”

At that instant.

The Teacher became completely motionless.

As if someone had pressed the pause button.

“Transfer students?”

“…Yes. After all, didn’t you yourself say that it was the first time you’d seen us?”

It wasn’t just a guess.

At this school, we were being treated as students.

And when he found us downstairs, he had clearly said that he had never seen us before.

If a teacher was seeing a student for the first time.

The most likely explanation was that they were a transfer student.

And there was nothing strange about a new student not knowing the school.

The Teacher’s head slowly tilted to one side.

“I see.”

It was only two words.

But I could clearly feel the terrifying killing intent disappear.

The Teacher extended his hand.

Four name tags fell to the floor.

One yellow.

One blue.

And two green.

“I’ll give you five more minutes.”

I understood instinctively.

That was our last chance.

When the Teacher walked away, the strange pressure immobilizing my body began to disappear.

“Boss, you’ve really got guts. How did you think of lying to him so blatantly?”

“Hey, Dohyeon. Is he gone?”

I couldn’t take my eyes off Jeong Dohyeon.

The expression he had made a moment ago.

It was as though he had already known what was going to happen.

It wasn’t the face of someone who regretted what had happened.

And what he did next.

Was impossible to imagine.

After making sure the Teacher had disappeared.

He ripped off the gray ear that had been sewn onto him in one pull.

Crunch.

Blood began pouring again from the spot that was already completely soaked.

The blood vessels attached to that gray mass writhed as though they were alive.

“Are you all right?”

He pressed a handkerchief firmly against the place where his ear should have been.

Then our eyes met.

“Why are you making that face?”

“A moment ago, you almost died.”

If I had reacted just a little later.

That enormous needle would have pierced his temple.

And he would have ended up just like the corpse in the lobby.

But.

All three of them looked at me as though I were the strange one.

“But I didn’t die. And my head seems to still be working perfectly.”

“Besides, what? Was I supposed to keep that ear he forced onto me?”

Jeong Dohyeon took one of the name tags Team Leader Yong was holding.

Then he handed it to me.

“Get used to it.”

We were inside a paranormal phenomenon.

You could die from taking a single wrong step.

Or change the reflection in a mirror.

So.

Yeah.

Maybe I was the one who needed to get used to it.

“If you’re going to fight, do it outside. That way I can place a bet while I’m at it.”

“Old man, is this really the time for jokes?”

“What I meant was, if you’re going to die, at least do it outside. Time’s running out.”

“We’re not fighting.”

‘Stop thinking.’

If the Teacher came back again.

This time we would die like dogs.

Only then did I turn over the name tag I was holding.

“I’m in Class 2-1.”

The name tag read.

Kim Hanmu

2-1

It had a blue background.

Wait.

Hadn’t one yellow, one blue, and two green ones fallen?

“What bad luck. It had to turn out exactly like this.”

Jeong Dohyeon was in 1-3.

Myeong Haebin and Team Leader Yong had green name tags.

That meant they were both third-year students.

‘Shit.’

I was already scared to death.

And on top of that, I had been separated from all of them.