Yujin settled herself down on her seat in the middle of the noisy classroom. She would have preferred staying at the fire exit staircase where only few students would hangout or even to stay at the library since the librarian on duty was strict so it would not be as crowded as usual. However, it was only a few minutes before their first class would start. Due to boredom, she just repeatedly tied her wavy black hair in a failed ponytail until she got tired of it after four tries and just settled on the last try as if it was any better than the first three tries—in fact, it was no different.

She was idle for a moment before she let her eyes wander around the classroom. Most of her classmates were already around, chattering as if they owned the classroom yet no one complained, not even the nerds in front of the class minded—they probably did but they had no courage to speak out. Indeed, if delinquents were being brewed in middle school, the finished products were served during high school. That was why Yujin kept quiet as well. She was not a fool nor was she a female protagonist in some drama who seek for the attention of dangerous people.

That was also why she had to pretend to be calm or people might use her weaknesses against her—no matter what the situation was, it was not promising.

She leaned back on her chair, boredom was eating her. The biggest regret she had was the fact that she did not choose the seat beside the windows so she had nothing better to do than to stare at others.

The door at the back then opened, revealing three newcomers—all were fairly tall men (Fine. That was a bit of understatement in Yujin’s case), all were good looking, all were intelligent, and all were definitely famous. Yujin just had to turn to them.

The first one who entered was a guy who was smiling so brightly—Lee Seokmin. Among the three, he was the loudest and friendliest. The second guy gave Seokmin a slight push before entering, he was Xu Minghao, a Chinese. He was just around Seokmin’s height, probably at 180 cm or shorter—Yujin did not care. Minghao, despite looking so harmless, was a bit too courageous that he could be scary and was good in physically exhausting activities. The last one who entered was Kim Mingyu, that guy who was definitely taller than more than half of the population in their school.

Adding to the fact that they were not some ice princes, Yujin did not need to wonder why they were quite known and why they had lots of friends. But that was not the case—they were a little too perfect that it irked the female. She was pretty sure that something was off with them because no one was supposed to be that perfect. Of course, she knew that no matter what was wrong with them, it had nothing to do with her and it should remain that way. Not wanting to care anymore, she turned away—she would rather waste her time somewhere else than to get involved in someone else’s business.

“New victim was found last night, no?” Yujin’s ears perked up when she heard her seatmate, Haneul, spoke with another classmate who was sitting right behind her—finally, an interesting conversation!

“I know! It’s a man in his 20s this time. I heard that his heart and other vital organs were missing.” The girl behind Yujin—Han Jiho—narrated. “I wonder if the killer is actually a cannibal.”

“Killers, you mean.” Haneul pointed out. “I mean, this is not an isolated case. Same cases occurred in Japan, Hong Kong, and even in Thailand.”

Jiho nodded her head. “Then, must be some kind of cannibalistic group.”

Yujin furrowed her eyebrows, thinking about the case. Drawing her right thumb near her lips, she slightly chewed on her nail. “This case is so strange.” She muttered to herself but was accidentally overheard by the two chattering girls.

“Exactly what I’m saying!” Haneul exclaimed, casually turning her attention to Yujin as if they were close. “Yujin, don’t you think that it might have something to do with something supernatural?”

Yujin shrugged her shoulders. She was not a believer of supernatural things but she could not actually say that she did not believe in them either. “Probably just a group of psychotic cannibals.” She replied.

Haneul made a face—probably due to the fact that Yujin’s answer was not what she wanted to hear—before turning to Jiho to continue blabbing about supernatural creatures and whatnot.

Yujin did not pay that much attention to the two girls again and rather, tried to find something else to do by fumbling with her phone. After all, as much as it was scary, she knew that she could do nothing about the series of killings—whether those people were insane or just some cannibals by nature, Yujin knew that she was a student who had nothing to do with it.

"Have any friends yet?” Yujin fought the urge to roll her eyes when their homeroom teacher asked her. Because Yujin was on her cleaning duties (along with two others who flee right after the last bell rang), only her and the older woman remained inside the classroom—with Yujin trying to clean and the older woman pretending to supervise in order to escape from a meeting of some sort inside of the faculty room. “It’s just that I and your other teachers noticed that you do not join your classmates so we worry that there might be a problem. You are in second grade in high school already and would be graduating next Academic Year.” The teacher explained.

“I’m fine being alone.” Yujin replied, trying to not sound rude. She turned to the teacher and smiled in order to reassure the latter. “It’s not as lonely as you think.” She pointed out. She knew what her teacher was thinking—probably thought that Yujin had an anxiety of some sort or worse, they might have thought that Yujin was depressed. “Worry not, I won’t jump from the rooftop.” Yujin muttered under her breath but was not enough for her teacher to hear.

“What?” The teacher asked.

Yujin shook her head in response. “No, it’s nothing, Miss Song.” She replied, carefully placing the broom and dustpan on a corner where they normally placed it.

“Are you going home now?” The teacher—Miss Song as Yujin addressed her—asked. “Go home right away. There is a series of killings going on around our city. I heard that everyone and anyone is targeted so go home early, all right?”

“Yes.” Yujin replied in order to avoid any further discussions. In reality though, she was planning on heading to the library first. “Goodbye.” After politely bidding their teacher goodbye, she trudged down the seemingly abandoned hallway.

She noticed that since a month ago, the students would either rush home or go somewhere else in a group—too scared of the killings that were occurring around them. It was not that Yujin was not scared—how could she not be when she was a real coward no matter how you look at it? But she found no sense in rushing home or hanging out with friends with the serial murder as an excuse.

As she walked closer to the library, she knew that she was getting farther and farther from the exit. This might be the reason why the hairs on her nape stood up. Then, she shivered. The atmosphere felt so odd that it was making her shiver involuntarily. She gulped, completely freaked out—the calm facade that she had shown everyone else was almost ready to disappear. As quickly as she could, she ran to the library.

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