A heroic act gone wrong would soon be dismissed as a monstrous move. A selfless deed to protect others was regarded as a selfish misjudgement for self-defense. Who was to justify what was right or wrong?   Chan Yeol felt the weight of the gun in his hand; along with it came the weight of the murder he had committed. His fingers were slurred lazily against the handle of the handgun, barely holding on to the weapon and not knowing what would’ve happened if it fell from his grip.   All he cared about was Yerin; the girl who now avoided his gaze. She was focused on the dead corpse that was once Park Seong Yeon. Her hands clasped in front of , frightened to see the murder unfolding in front of her eyes for the first time.   The silence was broken when Mira knelt down besides her friend, weeping her heart out after losing someone she was close with. She rested her body on her friend’s, ignoring the blood that flowed out of Seong Yeon’s head.   There was a small shifting noise that caught his attention next. Hyerim was getting up on her feet, using the wall behind her as support. There was no ‘thank you’ from her part, and it made him doubt his supposedly heroic actions. Perhaps he had truly turned into a monster.   “Where’d you get that gun from?” Was the first thing Hyerim questioned him as soon as she was back on her feet. Granted she was slouching a little, but unharmed.   Chan Yeol swallowed, noticing Yerin staring at him with the similar curiosity as everyone else. He could still read fear in her eyes, and he was afraid a wrong answer would lead to the wrong reaction.   “I picked it up from Jimin the time when we found his dead body,” he answered, and quickly defended his actions. “I wanted to keep it in case if we could stop the killer from killing anyone.”   “By killing someone else?” Yerin interjected, and he was convinced he did wrong.   “It’s not just someone else,” Hyun Mi spoke, emphasizing a lot of dislike on her last two words. “He killed a killer who wanted to take revenge.”   “Uuhm, aren’t you on the same boat for wanting to kill Seong Yeon for that exact same reason though?” Sohee questioned her logic out loud.   “I am,” Hyun Mi said as she slowly raised her hands mid air in surrender, a vague crooked grin playing on the edge of her lips. “But I wasn’t the one who killed her.”   Hee-Jin did not like what she was seeing. She did not like her cousin behaving like this. It seemed as if part of her sanity had left along with Woo Hyun’s soul. And this was not good if they were planning to survive the rest of the plane flight. But before she could say anything, she was interrupted.   “I didn’t kill her because I wanted to. I was trying to protect Hyerim!” Chan Yeol started raising his voice, panicked and frustrated at all their accusations. They did not have to say it out verbally, but he noted the way everyone was staring at him with those judgemental gazes.   “I could’ve protected myself.” Hyerim dusted her clothes off leisurely. “You did not have to kill her.”   The confession left Chan Yeol at a loss for words. His heroic act was entirely and completely unnecessary and overlooked. What had he done?   “So what now? What do we do?” Baek Hyun asked, a little confused at the unfolding situation. “If Seong Yeon was the killer, would we all be safe now?”   “We’ll just have to wait for the plane to land and eventually rise up as the survivors,” Min Seok nodded along to the theory.   At this point, Kyung Soo was already doing his job to carry Seong Yeon’s body to the below zero degrees room. The plane had to land soon, and the corpses could finally rest in peace, he believed.   “Seong Yeon is not the killer! You killed the wrong person!” Mira insisted after Kyung Soo and the dead body were out of sight. She looked up after her mourning; her mascara smudging everywhere on her cheeks. She glared at them all so grimly. “The killing is not going to stop now.”   “Did you aid Seong Yeon in killing Woo Hyun?” Hyun Mi suddenly asked, her tone flat and almost emotionless. Her eyes were completely hollow and overshadowed by nothingness.   “I- I didn’t even know she was going to hurt him.” Mira spoke the truth. “I would’ve stopped her if I could, but I didn’t know.”   “What a shame,” Hyun Mi muttered under her breath, inviting all sorts of looks and confusions from the others. No one knew what she exactly meant by those words, not even her own cousin.   “I think you should rest,” Hee-Jin said, grabbing her cousin’s arm, and she did not resist. She carefully led her cousin back to her seat.   Once Hyun Mi sat down, she turned her head to the empty seat next to her that once belonged to Woo Hyun, and began to cry uncontrollably. His absence was once again hitting her and the fluctuating mood scared Hee-Jin.   “This was not supposed to happen…” Were the words Hee-Jin could pick up in between the excessive crying and incomprehensible mumbling.   “This is going against everything…”   Hee-Jin knelt down to be at her level, slowly placing her arms around her cousin’s petite frame. It felt just like the old times when they were still children. Occasionally she would cheer her elder cousin up when Hyun Mi had done something wrong, or lost something valuable. They’d laugh after a while and things would be fine again.   But today, she wasn’t sure they’d be able to laugh even after time passed, nor was she able to guarantee everything was going to be fine.   “I never would’ve gone to Barcelona if I had known this would happen,” Hyun Mi spoke, her hands grabbing unto Hee-Jin’s sleeve. “We never should’ve accepted it.”   “We didn’t know this was going to happen.” Hee-Jin’s tone was calm; rather, an applausable attempt at being calm. Someone had to remain the rational one among the two, and it was her.   “I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Hyun Mi continued. An idea suddenly popped into her head, and her pupils dilated in size at the discovery. She stood up abruptly from her seat, nearly knocking Hee-Jin over from the fast movement. She was about to walk away, when she was suddenly stopped by Baek Hyun who blocked the entrance.   “Where do you think you’re going?” He asked rather sternly.   “To end it,” Hyun Mi answered him. “I’m going to end everything.”   It did not take Baek Hyun much guessing to understand the meaning behind her words. She tried to pass through the small space between him and the chair, but he grabbed hold of her wrist to stop her from moving and doing anything stupid.   “I’m not going to let you do that,” he said, as he met her eyes. There was barely any surprise or awe from her; she was not touched nor laughing at his words the way she normally would. It bothered him.   “What makes you think I’ll listen to you?” Hyun Mi questioned him, eyes shifting to his hold against her wrist before she looked him in the eyes.   “You probably won’t,” Baek Hyun admitted, slowly letting go of her wrist. “But I need you to live so that I can live. I don’t want you to die.”   For a short while, she frowned, but then there was the reaction he loved so much. She smiled. It was more of a smirk actually, but nevertheless she still smiled at the things he said. Relief washed over him and he didn’t realize he was already smiling along.   “Poor Baek Hyun…” Was all she uttered, lightly his cheek once with a vague smile before lowering herself to her seat again.   The guy had no idea what she was talking about, but figured she had gone off to say a lot of random nonsense after her fiancé passed away. But all he cared about was whether the girl was going to laugh for him the same way she did before.   Hee-Jin slowly raised herself from the floor, giving those two a weird look. Something strange was going on. So she quickly trailed after Baek Hyun, unnoticed by her cousin who was already spacing out elsewhere in her thoughts.   “Baek Hyun, do you perhaps know Hyun Mi?” She questioned the guy.   “She is a well-known motivational speaker. Who doesn’t know her?” He replied, and he had a good point. With their fame, everyone probably knew everyone on the plane. So she had to rephrase her words.   “I meant, on a more personal level,” Hee-Jin tried to dig up some information. She fiddled her fingers together when she asked the next question. “Did you use to date?”   “Oh no, not at all. She doesn’t even remember me.” Baek Hyun let out a nervous laugh.   Hee-Jin furrowed her eyebrows. She was close to her cousin, yes, but there were still several personal things they never got to tell each other. Was Baek Hyun’s existence in her life one of the things she was hiding?   “Oh, we used to attend the same high school, Ex’Act High!” Baek Hyun answered her initial question with a grin.   “Ex’Act High?” Hee-Jin repeated, enunciating it slowly.   “We were in the drama club together. She was an amazing actress,” Baek Hyun nodded proudly.   Hee-Jin scrunched her eyebrows, finding his answer extremely strange and uncomfortable.   Hyun Mi never attended Ex’Act High.     “Yerin, don’t do this to me,” Chan Yeol pleaded, staring at Yerin’s backside. She had moved from one place to another in order to avoid him, and he would continuously trail after her with his injured foot, hoping she’d be sympathetic enough to stop.   “I am not doing anything. You brought this upon yourself.” Yerin turned to him with a quick glance before she got ready to move to her next location. But he grabbed her arm. She stopped.   “I already lost Jong In and Chi Yeon. The last thing I want is losing you,” Chan Yeol spoke, desperation in his tone.   The words melted Yerin, but she kept showing her back to him. She did not want him to know how much those stupid words managed to affect her.   “You said you trusted I wasn’t the killer. I’m not,” he insisted, still not letting go of her hands. “You would have done the same thing if you were in my position.”   “No.” She slowly turned to him, releasing her arms from his grip. “If it were me, I wouldn’t carry a gun to begin with.”   “And then what? Let Hyerim get killed?” Chan Yeol now started raising his voice.   “There are other ways to protect her,” Yerin insisted.   “Why didn’t you?” Chan Yeol asked, silencing the girl. “You had as much time as I did to react to the situation, but you did nothing.”   Yerin was quiet, unable to move an inch as Chan Yeol moved closer to her. She could feel his breath against her face as he whispered loudly into her ears.   “So don’t guilt-trip me on this one. The fact you say you could’ve done something but ended up doing nothing makes you no less a killer than I am. You would’ve let it happen, and you know it.”   She was frozen in her track, hearing the sound of her own heavy breathings take over as he leaned away from her to return to his own seat.   One thing she hated about Park Chan Yeol was the fact he always knew how to make her agree with him against her free will. She could’ve done something, but she didn’t. She allowed the killing to happen. She was worse than Chan Yeol who at least tried to protect Hyerim.   “You win,” she said, her glare hard against him. “We are all slowly turning into monsters.”   She had no idea what happened next; first she saw Chan Yeol moving to her, then she felt his breath closely in front of her face, and the next thing she knew, their breaths were mingling together as he took her lips with his. She put in no power of resistance and started intertwining her arms behind his neck.   “It’s the only way to stay alive,” Chan Yeol huffed in between the kisses.   “Kill to protect the ones we love?” Yerin asked as she snatched for breath, but was soon met by his lips again and a groan for an answer.   There was a loud cough from the side, quickly stopping the two from their intimate lip on lip action.   “You know the lavatory door is literally just two steps away…” Sohee trailed off, winking her head to the place. “Why don’t you two finish your unfinished business in there?”   Yerin awkwardly cleared and let go of the guy, forgetting for a second she was at a public area. She studied the expression on Sohee’s face, seemingly a little too bright after everything that had happened.   “How do you stay so… Cheerful?” Yerin asked, not sure she was even using the right word for the question. Chan Yeol was staring along in confusion.   “Cheerful?” The girl clicked her tongue and folded her arms. “I just find everything so interesting to see.”   “What is?” Chan Yeol asked.   “The way the killer is finishing all the victims,” Sohee answered leisurely.   “You’re saying as if you already know who the killer is,” Chan Yeol squinted his eyes at her.   “Maybe I do, maybe I always did,” Sohee answered vaguely with a smile creeping on her face.   “And you’re not going to share this information with us?” Yerin waited for any other elaboration that never came.   “Let’s just hope you survive long enough for me to reveal the truth.”   “Wait, are you saying we’re all getting killed?” Chan Yeol asked a little too loud, quickly being hushed by the others. “I thought the killing would stop after Seong Yeon died.”   “But she couldn’t be the killer; she would never hurt Sung Yeol,” Sohee argued, and realization hit the other two.   “Based on that claim, are you saying the killer is someone who hasn’t lost anyone close to them?” Yerin asked, looking around the airplane for the remaining survivors, realizing only two people weren’t ever emotionally attached to the victims of the plane. She slowly pointed at herself and Sohee. “But that would mean the two of us.”   “Interesting, ain’t it?” Sohee smiled. “But you’re still wrong. Don’t forget the theory that a death could be faked.”   With that, she pushed herself away from the wall and went back to her seat, leaving the other two in confusion.   Everyone had changed. Compared to the time when Yerin first saw them in the boarding room, had memorized their profile from the news portals, to actually getting to interact with them, to their current state of survival, no one remained the same.   “Hey Chan Yeol,” she then called out to the guy besides him, and he only replied with that dumb look on his face. Her eyes trailed to his leg that was still bleeding after the damage inflicted by Seong Yeon.   “We should get your wounds treated,” she said.   “I didn’t think you’d care about me anymore,” Chan Yeol grinned, and she rolled her eyes.   “This isn’t about me caring about you or not, it’s about treating a victim’s wound properly,” Yerin told him convincingly, supporting him with an arm as she started his treatment.   She sat him down at a seat at the back since the space were unoccupied by this time. She then retrieved a first aid kit from Kyung Soo. As she knelt down in front of him and rolled his pants up, her eyes noticed the handgun behind his socks.   “You still carry that around?” She asked, her tone less than pleased.   “We might still need it someday,” Chan Yeol answered, trying his best to convince her this was the right thing through his smile. “To protect you.”   “The killer won’t come for me,” Yerin said and shifted her gaze back to Chan Yeol. “I hope.”     Ho Seok was back in Chi Yeon’s previous seat: eyes monitoring the flight route heading to some unknown destination. How long did they have to remain there? Can’t the plane just land after they had finished off the killer? What was it still waiting for?   “Excuse me,” he called when he saw Hyerim pass by, still carrying out her work as if nothing had happened. She didn’t seem all too panicked for someone who was in a close life or death situation.   “Hm?” The girl responded, holding a tray filled with a pile of hot wet towels.   “How long will it take until the plane lands?” Ho Seok asked.   “I am not sure. I have tried contacting the pilots, but they never picked up the call. We assume they are too busy contacting the grounds,” Hyerim answered.   Ho Seok pressed his lips together and clicked his tongue. “Isn’t there any other way to contact them? Like can’t we barge in the door?” He asked.   The question made Hyerim scoff at him. “The door is designed in such a way that even the killer won’t be able to infiltrate inside. A gunshot wouldn’t even be able to pass through it. There is no way we can barge it down.” She shook her head at his naive thoughts. He must’ve been watching too many Hollywood action movies where everything was always in favor for the good guys.   “So we can’t reach the pilots at all?” Ho Seok pouted at this point, saddened there was no way out.   The girl felt a little bit sorry for him, mixed with the slight annoyance of him constantly asking her those questions. “Well, there is actually another alternative which is not guaranteed to work.”   She set the tray on the empty chair besides him, shocking him as she leaned over to grab the remote control from its place. The guy was just nervously watching her from such a close proximity, but she didn’t care. Though she might’ve seemed so chill with Sung Gyu, she still liked him to some extent.   “W-what are you doing?” Ho Seok stuttered, watching as Hyerim pressed some buttons to go to a certain window.   “This plane is built with a chatroom option that allows you to communicate with anyone on the plane. It allows you to chat with the pilots too if they happen to be online, which is most unlikely,” Hyerim explained, pressing several buttons to enter into the chatroom.   The were met by a grey screen filled with text from a previous chat.   [You are signed in as: beyoochiyeon]   beyoochiyeon has joined the chat Robin_Hood: They think you’re Suho or Min Seok. Some even thought you were Dong Woo or Jong Dae. joan.d.arc: But those people are already dead. Robin_Hood: Others think they faked their death or something. And now all the dead people become suspects joan.d.arc: Stupid. We got them right where we want them. Just convince them I am one of those dead people. Zombies are coming! Robin_Hood: Zombie revolution!! joan.d.arc: Wait, I think someone has infiltrated our chat! Robin_Hood: Someone by the username of beyoochiyeon beyoochiyeon has left the chat
beyoochiyeon has joined the chat   Ho Seok and Hyerim were frozen with their eyes glued to the monitor in front. They then exchanged a look with each other, not knowing what to make out of this discovery, but knowing things suddenly made a lot of sense.   “This must be the reason for Chi Yeon’s sudden paranoia,” Ho Seok remarked. “The killers knew she had seen their chat and therefore made her a high target on their kill list.”   “We need to tell the others about it,” Hyerim concluded.   “Wait, what if the killer is actually still among us?” Ho Seok asked, earning a slight gasp from Hyerim. “What if Seong Yeon was framed?”   “Based on this chat, there were probably two killers,” Hyerim analyzed. She placed the towel tray on the floor, and took a seat in its place. “Who do you trust enough to show this finding to?”   There was no hesitation when Ho Seok got up from his seat, nudging the girl seated in front of him.   “What?” Sohee asked, slapping his arm away that was poking her head.   “I need you,” he answered, motioning her to come closer.   Sohee had a weirded out expression, but decided to do as he requested. She saw the guy moving the armrest up, motioning her to sit in the middle, cramped with three people on a two people seat, her conveniently seated at the gap between the two chairs.   “What do you want?” She asked.   “Read.” Ho Seok tapped his finger on the screen. He watched his friend read everything word by word, and fell open in slowmotion.   “Is this why Chi Yeon was so scared?” Sohee questioned with big eyes, looking back and forth between Ho Seok and Hyerim.   “That’s what I’m thinking,” Ho Seok said. “But the question is, who are Robin Hood and Joan D’Arc?”   “Isn’t is just some random username?” Hyerim asked, but got a loud hum of disagreement from Sohee.   “It must have some indication to their identity. It’s either someone they feel represents them at a deep emotional level, someone they want to be, or someone they want to avoid becoming,” Sohee analyzed.   “Robin Hood is known for robbing the rich to give to the poor,” Ho Seok soon spoke. “Doesn’t that sound like Jong Dae?”   “No, based on Woo Hyun’s words, Jong Dae robbed from both the poor and rich to benefit himself and Jihye,” Sohee corrected him. “That is, if Woo Hyun was even speaking the truth.”   “I don’t think he was lying. Which made Jong Dae worse than Robin Hood who was stealing for a good cause,” Hyerim said.   Something about what she said made Sohee stop in her track, giving the girl a stern glare. “Stealing for a good cause… Do something bad for a good cause. Could it mean they kill people for a good cause?”   “No!” Ho Seok immediately yelled, anger starting to rise. “Killing is never the answer. You can’t ever kill for a good cause.”   Sohee gave him an apologetic look, momentarily forgetting how sensitive the topic was for him. She was so caught up in the momentum she had forgotten about his emotional needs. Sohee patted her friend on his shoulder as she began to look at the next username. “Do these two people even know each other’s identity? Or are they blindly working together?”   “Maybe they actually know each other but pretend they don’t,” Ho Seok suggested, looking around the plane.   “Like Hyun Mi and Baek Hyun?” Hyerim suddenly mentioned the exact two names Ho Seok had in his mind.   “Well, they do seem close for strangers who just met. Cons