“What’s with all this fuss?” Kim Wonpil asks, more to himself, as he makes his way to his room. It was already past their first class, but why wasn’t everyone in their respective rooms?

Someone lightly taps his shoulder, and he turns around to see a tall, blonde male student, looking at him with a dim expression. “Someone died on school grounds.” Wonpil simply raises his eyebrows in curiosity. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the guy replied, as if reading his thoughts. “I heard you asking what the fuss is all about. Just wanted to answer you since no one seemed to be answering you.” 

Wonpil simply nods. “T-thanks for that info.” Just as he was about to leave, the taller one suddenly grabs his shoulder. “If I were you, I wouldn’t head to your room.” 

“Why?”

He simply shakes his head. “It’s a classmate of yours.”
Wonpil just blankly stares at him. “Why do you know? Who are you?”
The guy smiles and scratches the back of his head. “My name’s Jae. Um,” he looks down, with a very frightened expression, and closing his eyes, he spoke again,  “I was the one who reported the scene.”

 

Wonpil blankly observed Jae as he was interrogated by the police and wore a very shocked expression. 
He leans in closer to hear what they were talking about.
“... I arrived in school early, hoping I could finish my homework before my first class in an empty room, but as I entered, I saw her lying in a pool of blood. I didn’t know what to do.” Jae suddenly falls down, his eyes shut tightly, and started fiddling with his hands. “I screamed. Then...the teachers arrived.” The policemen who were interrogating him called over the school doctor and took him to the nurse’s office.

Wonpil was about to head to the nurse’s office as well when he heard someone speak behind him. 
“This is the first time I’ve seen Jae so scared and not composed. He must’ve been so shocked.” He turned around to see Brian, his classmate, leaning against a wall. He then looks at Wonpil, and sends him a smile. “Y’know, you being late is a good thing.” Wonpil looks at Brian. “I’d probably end up as shocked and as terrified as Jae would. But, who died?”
Brian looks at him curiously. “You’ve been with Jae and he didn’t tell you?” He shakes his head, and the other boy leans close to whisper.

“It’s Ahn Jieun. Y’know. Ahn Lovely.”
Wonpil’s eyes widened at the name. “What?”
Brian simply nods, and sighs. “The police are ruling out foul play because according to witnesses and from the family themselves, she’s been suffering from depression for 3 years now.”

Wonpil shakes his head. “But why on school grounds?” And then he looked at Brian incredulously. “And why are you so composed?”

Brian simply huffs. “If we knew, an investigation wouldn’t take place. And also, look at my eyes.” He points, and Wonpil finally realized his eyes were red, indicating he must’ve cried.

“We’ve been dating for almost over a year now.” He quietly says, and hangs his head, trying to hide his face.
The hallways were dimly lit, and if he hadn’t pointed it out, Wonpil wouldn’t have seen it.
“Hey.” He tries to pat Brian’s back, but he doesn’t respond. “I really didn’t know. I’m sorry for prodding too much.” 

Brian simply dismisses it and laughs while waving his hand into the air, the other wiping his eyes. “It’s okay, man. You were too busy studying anyway to hang out with the rest of the guys.”

He rolls his eyes and smiles. “Tell that to Yoon Dowoon. That kid’s a freaking genius.”
An awkward silence falls upon them, as they sat down in the hallways, students quietly whispering amongst themselves.
He suddenly looks at Brian with concern. “You sure you okay?”
Brian nods, and beams. “Classes are cancelled while the police are investigating. Those who had already been questioned are free to go. Besides, you were late so it’s fine. Wanna eat somewhere?”
Wonpil nods, and they leave.

 

A few months later...
“Jae, you’ve met Wonpil.” Brian says, as he continued to grill meat, and Jae beams. “I have! Although, you guys are in a different class. Kinda sad all of you are in one class and then there’s me.” He laughs, and Wonpil awkwardly bows, and Jae smiles as he bows to him as well. “Then there’s Park Sungiin, our class president,” Sungjin does a little nod and a wave to Jae as well, and then Brian sneakily eats a piece of meat before finishing the introductions. “And this guy,” he motions to Dowoon, the seemingly cool kid in all black, “he’s Dowoon. He and you might get along well, since he plays online games as well.” Dowoon coolly acknowledges Jae’s presence with a little salute, and proceeds to use his phone.
They were at a barbecue place, just hours after their grades and awards have been given out. Brian suggested to go celebrate their awards that day, with Dowoon’s and Wonpil’s awards, being first and second in their whole school respectively, being the most prominent.

“You were probably just finding an excuse to go to this place, huh, Brian?” Wonpil says as he quietly chews on the piece of meat Brian placed on his plate. He beams at Wonpil and nods, as he couldn’t speak with his mouth full. 
“In all honesty, this place is pretty good. How’d you find it, Brian?” Sungjin asks, and the mentioned brought out his phone. “I’ve been here with my family, and someone special on aa date here.”

Silence falls on them, and no one dared to speak up after that mention.

Brian then eyes all of them curiously. “What’s with the sudden silence? Why are you guys so serious?” He laughs casually, and waves his hand in the air as if to dismiss it. “We’re here to have a good time, okay? Don’t mind me.”

Jae quietly says something, and a deafening silence settles upon them.

“I heard a bunch of my classmates say they saw her roaming the school hallways last night.”

This time, Dowoon speaks up. “But why would they say that? Do they not have manners?” 
Wonpil notices Brian’s fist ball up in his lap, the chopsticks laid on the table forgotten.

“They also managed to talk to her as well. They said she doesn’t know she’s dead.” Jae continues, watching Brian’s expression. “I’m sorry for saying this, but I thought I’d let you know what kind of rumor they’re spreading.”

Sungjin chimes in, trying to calm him down. “Whatever they said isn’t real. She’s probably in the afterlife.”
Brian finishes the whole plate of grilled meat and his 3 bowls of rice, and looks at them. 
Not with a furious expression, but a very desperate one.

“Maybe... if she’s there... I could talk to her... one last time?”

Wonpil’s eyes widened and was about to say something, but Brian stops him. 
“Let me try this at least once. Then let’s just make those spreading rumors look like fools.”
Dowoon sighs. “This is what happens when you were raised to believe ghosts are real.”

 

8:48 pm

The school was locked early due to known reasons, but having Yoon Dowoon and his amazing lockpicking abilities there, it was pretty easy to be able to get in without being detected. 
When they finally got into school grounds, they headed to the main building, where it holds the classrooms of the seniors and laboratories, having 3 floors in total.

Brian turns to Jae. “Where’d they say they saw her?” 
They were walking in the hallways, their footsteps echoing, and Jae comes to a halt.
Jae shines the flashlight on the stairs. “They said it was up there.”

Wonpil turns to the both of them in disbelief. “The hallway where our rooms are located?” 
The five slowly made their way to the third floor of the school, with Brian and Jae looking both ways, checking for any sign of any presence at all.

Wonpil accidentally steps on a nut, and everyone freezes in their footsteps. He whispers an apology and they continue on.

“I don’t understand what we’re doing again.” Sungjin suddenly speaks, and they all jump back in surprise. This time, Sungjin whispers an apology.
They all mutter curses in surprise, and Dowoon simply says, “Oh, this is frightening.”

As they reached the third floor, they hear footsteps from the left side, and another set of footsteps from the right side of the building.

From behind them, the sound of someone tripping and falling over echoes.

“Kim Wonpil, I swear to God, watch where you—” Brian angrily mutters when he sees Wonpil, Dowoon, and Sungjin all in one line beside him.
“It wasn’t me.” Wonpil quietly says, fear laced in his words.

They all turned around to see...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Jae, at the bottom of the stairs, blood slowly oozing out of him, pooling, as he lay there.
The four quietly gasped in shock, still not able to comprehend what happened.

“I swore I saw Jae right behind me.” Brian mutters as he tried to approach Jae.

Just then, running footsteps followed by screams resonated throughout the building.
“That’s on the left wing, where the laboratories are located.” Dowoon says, and heads towards it, with Sungjin following closely, not wanting anything to happen to him. 

“You coming?” Sungjin says, looking at the two frozen in their tracks. They nodded, and decided not to approach Jae.
Wonpil whispers a little prayer, and Brian simply nods his head, and they both leave.

-----------

More foot steps.
Rushing. Closer.

She was beyond terrified. 
The door to the Chemistry lab opened, and barely inaudible footsteps came closer. She was hiding inside the chemical cabinet located right under the sink, and she clamped shut, trying not to scream.
Then, she felt it.

The footsteps halted right in front of the cabinet she was hiding in, and as the doors were opened, she let out the loudest scream she could.

“Shush! They’ll hear us!” The person opening the cabinet quickly clamped and hid inside the cabinet as well. Her eyes widened at the sight of him.
“Kevin?” She couldn’t hide her surprise and was smiling from ear to ear.
“Hey Jimin, please, keep quiet. You called and I immediately went here, knowing this is where you’d hide.” Kevin motions at her to shush. She looks at him curiously. “I don’t remember calling.” 

He chuckles, but quiets down. “You pressed my number and accidentally called it, and I heard you running and praying and mumbling to yourself. You did text me you were heading to school to retrieve your notes for tomorrow’s quiz.” 
She sighs in relief. “Whatever. I’m glad you’re here.”
They both sat there and tried to check their phones, but Kevin suddenly turns Jimin’s phone off.
She looks at him. “What was that for?”
Kevin wore a worried expression. “This is how I found you. Your phone was on and I could see the light from outside. Hopefully, the person who’s trying to chase you doesn’t find us.”
She nods, and they both sit there, trying to calm their very anxious heartbeats.

 

From across the hallway, the four boys headed towards the laboratories, and as they rounded the corner, they saw a male student quietly entering the Chem lab, which was located at the far end of the left wing of the building.
Dowoon points. “Oh?”
“Isn’t that Kevin?” Sungjin finishes, eyeing the laboratory as well.
Brian motions them to follow. 

Wonpil, who was observing all of them, was standing there, trying to process everything that just happened. “Aren’t you guys scared? Don’t you want to leave—” 
Sungjin clamps his mouth. “Brian won’t stop until he finds answers. And as his friends, we shouldn’t bail out on him. Besides, we all owe him something, so let’s help him out on this one.”
He leans closer to Wonpil to whisper. “Even if this night ends up as a complete failure.”
Wonpil looks at Dowoon, who seemed to be listening to them, and gave a nod to Wonpil.
They all look at Brian, who was carefully trudging ahead. And then they sigh.

 

“Shush. I hear footsteps.” Kevin cuts Jimin from her thoughts, and as they focused on the sounds, she gasps.
“There’s a lot of them...” She whispers to Kevin.
“Are they the ones chasing you?” He asks, and she shakes her head. “It was just one tall guy in a black mask and hoodie.”
He rolls his eyes. “Typical highschool stalker.”
They laugh but immediately, they quiet down.

The door swings open, and Brian carefully asks, “Hello? Anyone in here? Kevin Woo?”

Kevin suddenly looks at Jimin. “That’s Brian.” He carefully opens the cabinet door and reveals himself, and Jimin carefully gets out as well.

Brian and Sungjin exhale in relief when they saw Jimin and Kevin, safe. “We heard screaming. You okay?” 
They nodded, and Jimin explained her situation. “I still need to grab my notebooks from the classroom.”

Wonpil then interjects. “Can’t you just leave the notebooks than sacrifice your whole being, because of the possibility that a stalker will do harm to you? Like, leave the notebooks. Study later. Your first priority is to get the hell out of this terrifying campus grounds.” He sighs dejectedly.

Dowoon laughs, looking at Wonpil. “Total mood.”
Jimin stares at Wonpil with a deadpanned expression. “I’d rather die than not be on the honors’ list. I’m not like you and Dowoon who are effortlessly smart. Dowoon, especially. Sleeps in class but knows the whole lesson.”
This time, Sungjin quietly mutters, “Total mood.”

Brian and Kevin make eye contact before speaking.
“For now, let’s head to the classrooms and get your notebooks, then we’ll leave.” Kevin says, but Brian cuts in. “We’re... not leaving until I talk to someone.” He says, barely audible.

Jimin immediately understands who, and nods at Brian. “If you’re gonna do it, so will I.”
“What?” Wonpil asks in shock.
“After all, I used to be her friend. Besides, what harm is there in trying? We might look like fools doing it but at least we tried.” She says, and then looks up at Brian. “Let’s get my notebooks first.”

“But wait,” Kevin stops in his tracks and started to count everyone quietly, “Where’s Jae?”
The four boys fell silent.

“He... fell on the stairs... and... died?” Wonpil looks at them, trying to get confirmation that a bloody and broken-necked Jae meant dead Jae.
“We don’t know what happened as well.” Dowoon says, and explains further. “We simply heard a sound of someone falling over, and there he was, at the bottom, lying in his own blood.”

Jimin tilts her head to the side. “That sounds familiar. They said Jieun tried to get up on a chair and a table to hang herself but broke her neck instead. She fell to her death.” 
Silence enveloped the six as they walked towards the rooms at the opposite end, heading to the right wing of the main building. 
Arriving in front of the door to their room, Sungjin bravely twists the doorknob as fast as he could. The deafening and eerie silence welcomes them, the rooms as dark as the night. They switch the lights on, and as soon as the lights appeared, Jimin ran to her seat and grabbed the books under her table, and returned to where the five boys were standing.

They were about to leave when they heard knocking from one of the lockers, and without warning, Dowoon strides towards the lockers and opened it.
In there laid a piece of paper, with the words “KNOCK AND SAY THE NAME” scribbled in black ink. Looking at the others, he grabs the paper and shuts the locker door when the door wouldn’t close shut, as if something was in the way.
He turns to look at the door and sees a hand grab his wrist.

Before he could even scream, another hand snatches his wrist away. Dowoon looks at the hand to see a very worried Wonpil, holding his wrist tightly, while the other hand shuts the locker door close.
“Don’t put yourself where danger would obviously be.” He sighs, and drags a frozen-in-shock Dowoon to where the others are, who were in shock as well.
Sungjin eyes the paper ball in Dowoon’s hands and as soon as he read it, starts knocking on the walls.

Brian eyes him. “What are you doing?” 
Sungjin replies as he continued knocking, without looking at Brian. “There’s this well known ghost story where you knock on the walls and if it sounds hollow, that’s where the ghost is. Then you can ask them questions.” 
Wonpil makes a whining sound, almost about to cry. “Can’t we do it downstairs? There’s more walls to knock on to downstairs.”
“You just want a fast escape when things go wrong.” Brian says. 
“Not my fault I’m a scaredy cat.” Wonpil points out, and they all proceed to head down the stairs.

“What’s this pool of blood doing here?” Kevin asks, pointing at the blood pool at the bottom of the stairs.
Brian gulps. “That’s where...”
“...Jae fell.” Sungjin finishes, but points out something weirder. “Someone must’ve dragged him away. There are bloody footprints.” 
They carefully went down, and tried to look where the footprints lead to. 
“It’s gone.” Jimin says, as the bloody footprints disappeared when they reached the courtyard.
The courtyard had a metal fencing surrounding it, to prevent tennis balls from going too far and escaping. It was enclosed within the school quadrangle, with the classrooms and buildings surrounding the court. That way, the courtyard was seen from any floor.
However, at night, it looked like a prison.
Knocking sounds started to echo in the whole campus, and everyone looked around to find the source.
“It’s coming from...” Jimin looked up, and someone was waving at her.

“The third floor?” Kevin says, and looks up as well.
Jimin’s scream pierces the air as she saw the hooded guy dash towards the stairs, and approached the group.
Brian and Sungjin turn to where Kevin and Jimin were looking at, and in an instant, screams echoed throughout the school. Brian looks around, and everyone had started running, disappearing into the school hallways, avoiding this attacker. 
He tries to spot an open room to hide in, and luckily enough a room is open.

As the running footsteps grew closer, he hid behind the door and squeezed himself between the door and a cabinet on the side, and tried to clamp his mouth to make sure his ragged breathing is as quiet as possible.
In the distance, he could hear Jimin and Kevin running as fast as they could, and as their footsteps grew distant, the silence soon falls.

And an unfamiliar set of footsteps approached the very room he was hiding in.

 

“Kevin, we left everyone!” Jimin, who was being dragged by Kevin out of the campus, suddenly halts and tries to tug him back, but Kevin was stronger than her.
“We can’t die in there trying to save everyone. And I wouldn’t risk anything just to be some hero. Let’s be honest, Wonpil did a great thing by suggesting to go down so we can all escape easily. Now, let’s go.” He tugs at her wrist, and she simply follows, looking back at the campus every now and then, hoping all of them managed to get out somehow.
“At least promise me we’ll head to the police as soon as we can and get that creepy guy out of school grounds.” She says to him, and he nods.

 

“Where’s Brian?” Dowoon asks, and Sungjin simply shrugs. “Wonpil is missing too. We need to get him, then Brian. Brian’s on the first floor, so if we find Wonpil up here, we can simply grab him and get out.” Sungjin quietly explains to Dowoon, and he nods. 
The two were on the other stairs, crouching, whispering to each other. 
“Do you know where Brian is?” Dowoon asks, and Sungjin motions to the far end of the building, near a corner. “That room. I saw him hide in there.”
“Shush.” Dowoon shushes him as he points out the odd looking hooded man. The moonlight shines on him, and before Sungjin and Dowoon realizes it, they both get knocked out by a hard hit to the back of their heads.

“I’m so sorry. I tried to get you out before he noticed.” Wonpil whispers to the two boys, who were knocked out cold. “Please forgive me. I was forced to.” 
He drops the metal pipe, and checks to see if they had any injuries. Thankfully, they’re just out cold and not dead.
Wonpil sighs, and sits on the stairs while watching the hooded man enter.

 

 

“Isn’t she lovely~ Isn’t she beautiful~”

Brian, who was looking through the gap between the door and the doorpost, tried not to gasp.
The hooded man was right there.
He was singing, and as he knocked on the door Brian was hiding in, the door suddenly falls down.

And Brian came face to face with Jae, who held the knife on Brian’s throat.
“I found you.”

His eyes widened in shock, and tried to move, but the knife pressed on his neck, and blood trickled down. 
“Hi, Younghyun.” He smiles, the angelic smile he always does in school, but this time, that same smile sent shivers all over Brian’s body.

“You thought I was dead. It’s such a shame you didn’t come closer when I fell down, or else I would’ve killed you right then and there.” His smile grows into a more menacing one, and Brian could feel his breath on his neck, and the blood trickling down from his neck from the wound the knife made as well.

“What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?” Brian quietly asks, staring into Jae’s eyes. 
“Why?” He asks, as if it was the stupidest question known to man.

“Because you dated her. The person I cherished the most. And, she was supposed to die anyway, the night she was supposed to expose herself as my kind.” Jae straightens his back, his red eyes glowing. 

Brian felt a gush of wind, and felt himself bleeding from head to toe. 
“The moment she dated another person and rejected me was the day I swore I will eat you.” Jae hisses, and removes the knife on Brian’s neck, letting him fall down.

“What am I, you’re asking? How should I know what you humans call me. But, a little hint,” Jae winks, “we eat humans.”
Brian could feel his energy draining, his eyes starting to lose focus. He couldn’t move his body, and yet the blood kept pooling.
“Goodnight.” Jae says, quietly into his ears.

 

“Hello? Can you recognize me?” 
“Hey.” A man gently waved in front of Sungjin. He tried to focus on the person in front of him, and as his vision cleared, the sound of sirens of ambulances and police cars greeted him. 
He sat on a stretcher, and as his memory came back, he jumped out of the stretcher only to fall down.
“Hey, hey. Whoa. Slow down there, kid. Where are you going?” The medic in front of him held him up, and he looked around before asking. “Where’s—have you seen Brian Kang? Kim Wonpil? Yoon Dowoon?” The medic pointed the ambulance that was about to leave. “Kim and Yoon are in there, and the Kang kid is... in the hospital.” 
“So, what happened in there? Your friends reported a stalker incident, but this doesn’t seem like a normal stalker incident.” The medic looks at Sungjin questioningly, but he only shook his head. 
“I don’t remember much, either.”

In the distance, a tall kid is being treated as well. He had bandages all over him, and he kept looking at Sungjin. 
“Is he your friend too?” The police officer asked while a medic was treating the kid.
Jae looks at the officer and nods. “Yes, but I don’t think he remembers me.”

 

Several months later...

"Hey, you coming? Brian's waiting in the hospital." Sungjin asks the two. 

Jae and Wonpil share a glance before nodding.