“That’s it for today, class dismissed.” The teacher, Mrs. Song, says as she organizes the papers the students handed her earlier. Sitting down, she smiles at the students greeting her on their way out. She had ten minutes before her next class, she thinks a light snack would help her ease the throbbing head of hers. She goes out of the classroom, nearly closing the door when a student, calls her name loudly, and she’s left no choice to entertain the kid’s question before going out. 

-

“Mrs. Song is the junior teacher for History.” Seulgi explains as they walk towards the room, though they were taking their time. After all, they still had a five minutes to kill. Coincidentally, both of them had the exact schedule every Tuesday, so Seulgi took the chance to introduce Wendy to the teachers they’d meet every day. They were early, having their first period done ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time. All of their supposed to be classmates in the said subject were still ten minutes away, so they’d have the room for their own, well, unless Mrs. Song was already there. On their way, a tall student, his hands hidden in his pockets, head hung low bumps into Wendy, but only nods his head and walks faster to disappear from them. Both of them looks at each other before shrugging, right before Seulgi opens the door. 

All that was heard echoing in the hallways were Wendy’s loud scream and Seulgi’s call for help. 

-

“Seulgi? What happened?” Irene asks agitatedly, her eyes filled with worry and anxiety pooling within in her. She received a call from Seulgi when she was working her way down to the gymnasium for her second period, with the junior’s voice a bit loud and scared, so she twisted her heel and run the flight of the stairs towards the third floor. There she spots Seulgi stuck on her position, eyes widened and left hand holding the her own phone, with Wendy somehow sobbing. Their eyes were glued inside the room, with whatever that was inside. So she takes brave steps, only to be presented with a bloody body sprawled against the teacher’s table. She quickly opens her phone, dialing a known number that has been saved on the device for certain emergencies, such as this one. 

-

“Taeyeon unnie!” Irene screams as soon as she sees the older walking along other officers. Classes were cancelled for the time being, so the students were lingering around the area, eyes and ears eager to see and hear gossip on what happened to the History teacher. 

“Have you informed the staff about this, Irene?” Taeyeon immediately asks before reaching the room. The stench of the body fills the room, and the other student council officers stand by the door, not letting other students come in of the room. Yeri, an officer, was assigned to make Wendy and Seulgi calm and collected, so she gets bottled water for the both of them. Before she can even take a step on the staircase, her wary eyes spot a tall man who enters the corner of the building hastily, leaving Yeri contemplating between acting like nothing happened and following the student. She follows the former, running the flight of stairs. 

“Here, unnie.” Yeri says as she hands the two juniors the drinks, hoping it would help them calm down. She looks at the crowded hallway filled with students clamped together like sardines. They were in the other room, Algebra. Wendy was still a bit frightened, but was getting her composure back. Seulgi was eager to talk to the investigator, Kim Taeyeon, to say what she had observed when she woke up from her daze, five minutes after getting inside the Algebra room. Gulping down the water, she stands up, but Yeri holds her hand, stopping her to go anywhere. 

Seulgi looks at her quizzically, she wants to help. The tall man that bumped into Wendy earlier was suspicious. He looked like he went into the room before they arrived. “Unnie,” Yeri says, softly as she pulls Seulgi down back to her seat. “Only the President is allowed in there right now.” Yeri explains, and Seulgi opens to say something, but Wendy speaks before Seulgi, “We saw a suspicious man before we arrived at the room.” 

“You did?” Irene questions, standing by the door, along with another figure behind her. Seulgi nods, her hands lingering at the bottle cap, her eyes wandering in the room. Irene walks toward them, worried and concerned for the juniors. 

“Can you describe him? Any noteworthy look from him?” The figure behind Irene inquire them with an authoritative voice, but somehow familiar to Seulgi and Yeri. Their eyes focus on the investigator, who was wearing a red and black flannel and black pants. Her hair was tied together in a messy bun, her features child-like yet screams strictness. She had a clipboard in her left hand and a pen on the other. 

“Taeyeon unnie?” Yeri squints to see if it really was her cousin or not, and the investigator only nods before returning her attention back to what Wendy said. “I’ll catch up with you later, Yerim. So pray tell what you saw before you discovered the body.” She asks the two again, her curiosity rising up. 

“We saw a tall student, his hands in his pockets, looking suspicious. I think he came out of the room before we arrived. He had his head hanging low, but he was wearing a black jacket and some worn out jeans. My head would probably be around his ear, since he had his eyes staring down the floor the whole time he was walking.” Seulgi explained what she can remember, and Taeyeon writes it down. Wendy looks at her with wonder. Wendy didn’t remember what the male student wore, only how he smelled. (Wendy has a strong sense of smell, and he smelled like cigarettes mixed with fabric conditioner.) And since he bumped into her, she had a whiff of how he smelled, hence her sudden words.

“He smokes, I think.”  She says, earning looks from the other four. Taeyeon eyes her weirdly, but she explains. “he bumped into me before he hastily walked away, and I have really strong sense of smell, so I got a whiff of how he smells.” 

“Okay, that’s good. Maybe not really remarkable, but it can help.” Taeyeon says, her tongue clicking against the roof of . She bows before leaving the room, going back to the crime scene. Irene glances at the two juniors, before her words filled with tender concern and worry, 

“Are the both of you okay now?” Seulgi nods along Wendy’s small ‘We are.’, and Irene sighs a small breathe of relief. This was her first case of death, and of a teacher at the fact. But she could think about that later, right now, she has worry about Seulgi and