Chapter 5

Chapter 5

An angry voice struck at Han Siwoo.

Park Hyunwoo, one of our classmates from the same department, came storming over with his face twisted in rage and grabbed Han Siwoo by the collar.

What the hell is this now?

I let out a hollow laugh at his pathetic behavior and narrowed my eyes.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

I was about to stand up and snap at him when Han Siwoo raised a hand to stop me.

“Let go of me first. Then we’ll talk.”

“You think that’s the problem right now?”

“Yeah.”

Park Hyunwoo hesitated for a moment at Han Siwoo’s firm answer.

That was enough.

Han Siwoo twisted Park Hyunwoo’s wrist.

“Agh! You bastard!”

“Hey, enough. What are we going to accomplish by fighting among ourselves?”

Lee Dohyun, who had been watching the whole thing, grabbed Park Hyunwoo by the shoulder and tried to stop him.

Park Hyunwoo turned his head with an irritated expression, only to realize that everyone in the room was staring at him.

No one welcomed a fight in a situation like this.

Realizing that things were turning against him, Park Hyunwoo clicked his tongue and backed away.

I quickly turned toward Han Siwoo.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

Han Siwoo briefly straightened the clothes Park Hyunwoo had messed up.

Then he let out a short breath and spoke.

“Actually, we were just about to tell you what we saw outside. Of course, some of you might think it sounds ridiculous and refuse to believe us. Others might believe us. You can decide for yourselves.”

Han Siwoo paused and slowly looked around the room.

The people his gaze passed over instinctively shrank back.

Then he continued.

“There’s a monster wandering around the hallway. It was eating a person.”

Gasps escaped from several places around the room.

“Y-You seriously expect us to believe that?”

Park Hyunwoo was the first to object.

A mocking smile hung on his lips as if Han Siwoo had just told some ridiculous joke.

But his eyes weren’t laughing.

“Whether you believe it or not is up to you.”

“S-So what happened after that? What are we supposed to do?”

Someone urged him to continue.

Han Siwoo shrugged.

“Who knows? I don’t know either.”

That was an incredibly irresponsible answer considering how serious he had sounded until now.

Han Siwoo was wearing a strange smile.

At first glance, it looked bitter.

At the same time, it almost seemed like he was mocking the whole situation.

But that strange smile soon disappeared.

Then he continued.

“I’m going back out into the hallway.”

It took me a moment to understand what he had just said.

I grabbed his arm and whispered.

“Are you crazy? You’re going back out there?”

Did seeing that monster earlier finally make him lose his mind?

Come to think of it, he had been strangely calm ever since everything started.

Now I understood.

He must’ve hit his head somewhere.

I clicked my tongue sympathetically as I stared at him.

But Han Siwoo looked back at me as though I were the pathetic one.

“I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Do you think I’ve only known you for a day or two?”

Han Siwoo let out a short sigh.

“When we ran into that monster in the hallway earlier, I also thought we shouldn’t go back out there. But look.”

He pointed toward the tightly shut windows.

“Now that we can’t leave through the windows, we have to use the door. Otherwise, we’re never getting out of this place.”

“…What if we can’t get out that way either?”

“I already told you. Then we can’t get out.”

He was unbelievably calm about it.

I nervously bit my lip.

That was when the people who had been listening finally spoke up.

“…Do we really need to hurry? We could wait until we manage to contact someone outside.”

“R-Right. You said there’s a monster out there. How are we supposed to leave? We don’t even have weapons.”

“Maybe we should wait a little longer…”

Most people would have wavered after hearing so many objections.

Han Siwoo didn’t.

His expression remained firm.

“Waiting might be fine. But what if no help comes from outside?”

Everyone fell silent.

“We don’t even know what those man-eating monsters are. Do you really think people outside are going to rush in here to rescue us without knowing anything?”

His gaze swept across the classroom.

“And what guarantee do we have that this room will stay safe until then? We can’t even get a signal right now. At the very least, we need to find out what’s happening outside.”

It seemed he had thought about quite a lot in such a short time.

Right.

Now that I think about it, this was the kind of person he had always been.

“If there are other survivors, it would be better to join forces with them. That’s why I’m going out into the hallway.”

Han Siwoo looked around.

“Is anyone willing to come with me?”

“Hey.”

Before I knew it, I had called out to him.

Han Siwoo looked at me.

I wanted to tell him not to go.

But before I could say anything, he beat me to it.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask you to come with me.”

What did he take me for?

It seemed Han Siwoo thought I had grabbed him because I was afraid he would ask me to go along.

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out an incredulous laugh.

“You’re really going?”

Han Siwoo grinned.

“Unlike you, I’m confident in my running.”

Then he looked at everyone again.

“Any volunteers?”

Has he completely lost his sense of fear?

How could he say he wanted to go out there after seeing that thing earlier?

Han Siwoo seemed to be hoping someone would volunteer, but no one stepped forward.

Of course they didn’t.

Most of them hadn’t seen the monster themselves, but there wasn’t a single person here who hadn’t seen someone die.

After witnessing that, no one could still believe this was just some kind of event or prank.

And even if someone did, it wasn’t easy to decide to walk out that door.

If nobody volunteers, even Han Siwoo won’t be crazy enough to go alone.

That was a relief for me.

I quietly waited for him to give up.

Then—

“Me.”

Someone spoke.

My eyes widened as I turned toward the voice.

Then two more voices followed.

“M-Me too!”

“…I’ll go too!”

Have they all lost their minds?

I turned around to see which lunatics had volunteered.

Surprisingly, they were all familiar faces.

Park Hyunwoo and Kang Haneul volunteering was one thing since neither of them had actually seen the monster.

But Lee Dohyun volunteering was unexpected.

“You’re seriously going outside?”

“Yeah.”

“Mm-hm.”

Park Hyunwoo and Kang Haneul answered at almost the same time.

They almost looked like they were preparing to go on some kind of adventure.

“I’m telling you just in case—this isn’t a joke. It definitely isn’t some hidden-camera prank either.”

“…I know. That’s exactly why I’m going.”

“I won’t know until I see it myself. I want to confirm it with my own eyes.”

Kang Haneul’s face showed a hint of nervousness.

Park Hyunwoo, on the other hand, acted as if it were no big deal.

A troubled look appeared on Han Siwoo’s face.

He sighed once.

“Then just understand one thing. You could die.”

“Okay!”

“I said I know.”

With that, Han Siwoo turned toward the door.

A pile of chairs and desks had been stacked there to stop the monster from getting inside.

The four of them quickly began moving the barricade away.

I blankly watched them for a moment before suddenly jumping out of my seat and walking toward Han Siwoo.

“Han Siwoo.”

“Why?”

Han Siwoo looked at me curiously.

Wow. Look at this bastard.

“Are you seriously going to leave me behind?”

“You said you weren’t going.”

“When did I say that?”

I searched my memory.

I definitely didn’t remember saying anything like that.

Sure, I had treated Han Siwoo like a lunatic when he said he wanted to go back into the hallway.

But that was all.

“You’re slow at running.”

“……”

I was speechless as Han Siwoo shook his head.

…

He wasn’t wrong.

So why was I so annoyed?

As I stood there silently, he continued.

“There are already four of us, including me. If we bring even more people, won’t that just make it easier for the monsters to notice us?”

How could every single thing he said make perfect sense?

That only made him more annoying.

Still, I felt uncomfortable letting Han Siwoo leave like this.

If I couldn’t stop my friend from walking straight into danger, then going with him was at least what I considered friendship.

I added, almost as if making an excuse,

“E-Even so, you’re really going to leave me behind?”

Another sigh.

It made me feel like I had become nothing more than extra baggage.

But what Han Siwoo said next was a little different from what I expected.

“Your palm is injured too.”

“Ah…”

Without thinking, I covered my torn palm with my other hand.

It was still throbbing.

I had gotten frightened by even this small injury.

If I actually came face-to-face with a monster, wouldn’t my whole body freeze?

My courage was shallow.

My fear ran deep.

And my acceptance came even faster.

Right.

Where exactly am I planning to go with a hand like this?

That was when Lee Dohyun barged into our conversation.

“Hey, save the flirting for later. If you’re not coming, we’re leaving without you.”

“We’re not doing anything like that!”

How dare he insult fifteen years of friendship like that!

When I shouted, Lee Dohyun casually scratched his ear.

“Wow. Are you trying to gather every monster in the building? If it’s not like that, then it’s not. Why are you yelling?”

“Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and go if you’re leaving.”

Lee Dohyun immediately mocked my way of speaking.

“Stahp tawking nonsense and hurry up an’ go if yer leaving.”

This bastard…

I forced down the anger rising inside me.

Then I noticed Han Siwoo staring at me.

Right.

This wasn’t exactly the time to be fooling around.

Feeling awkward for no reason, I gave him a bitter smile.

“Be careful…”

I didn’t have enough courage to recklessly follow him.

But that didn’t stop me from worrying about him.

Unable to keep looking him in the eyes, I lowered my head.

Then Han Siwoo spoke.

“What are you worrying about? You’re not even my girlfriend.”

“I’m worried about you and you still—Ow!”

Han Siwoo messed up my hair.

“How could this big brother die when he has such an immature little sister waiting for him?”

“Hey, you know that’s a cliché, right? The guy who says something like that is always the first one to die.”

I fixed my messy hair with my hand.

Han Siwoo chuckled and turned away.

He was about to open the door when he suddenly stopped.

Then he looked back.

“Don’t worry. We’ll only check the area nearby and come right back.”

With that, Han Siwoo turned around again.

I stared at the closing door and muttered,

“Just make sure you come back.”

It felt strangely unpleasant.

Like I was seeing someone off before they went to their death.

He’s a cautious guy. He’ll probably be fine.

Only four people had left.

Yet the classroom suddenly became so silent that it felt as though the silence itself had swallowed the room.

There were only thirty students in this class to begin with, so the empty seats stood out even more.

Still, considering the situation, maybe that was actually fortunate.

Every sound made by every person could eventually attract the monsters.

Just what the hell is happening at this school?

Half of me was afraid that the people who had left might never come back.

The other half desperately hoped all of this was just a nightmare.

That was how I felt as I stared at the door they had disappeared through.

There was only one thing I could do now.

Hope that they would return safely.